Pleased to announce...

We've got another little one coming!

Nate's pretty excited about it.

(Actually he has no clue, but he loves other people's babies, so hopefully he'll love this one too)

The expected due date is April 7 or April 8, they keep telling me different days...

But that's kind of fun since it's so close to my birthday.  So that makes us 12 1/2 weeks along.  Yay for almost being done with the first trimester!

Some people have called us crazy for having Nate during the first year of law school and now we're on to number two. Crazy it may seem, but a blessing it is! We are grateful for children and the power they have to teach us and help us to become better people.  And we can't wait for Nate to be a big brother!

Nate is a cute little monster

Nate is approaching his 11 months old mark and it blows me away!  This kid is so much fun.  He keeps me very very busy.  Question: How the heck does anyone with children have a clean house?  I am yet to discover how to keep it clean because Nate is so into everything.  He loves emptying things and ripping things apart and carrying them to the other side of the room.  The moment I start to pick something up, he thinks I'm playing with him and he comes over and takes it all apart again.  Silly boy.  One day I'll figure it out!  His latest skills include: climbing (up and down), growling, chasing/running away, dancing, and throwing food.  Lovely, no? He's a little monster, but such a cute one :)  Here are some photos to update you all:

Snuggling is still one of his skills :)  I thought he was asleep and tried to get up.  He just reached up, grabbed my neck and yanked me down.  "You ain't going nowhere momma!" 

He loves jumping on the bed.  It's more like rolling and diving from corner to corner, but he LOVES the bed.

Watching some football of course

Climbing up to the big kid chair and chilling

He loves this bumbo seat and will just go sit in the corner for a minute.  Looks like he put himself in timeout :)

LOVES the keyboard

This was at our friends' house and he was in heaven.

Here's the result of his excellent climbing skills.  I have to keep the chairs away from the table or else he goes straight there and if I haven't put things away yet....trouble.

Here's a little video showing how easy it is for him.  Don't watch the end though...He bonks his chin and I feel bad that I was filming it instead of saving him!

Go cougars

This was at his friend's birthday party. He absolutely loved it.  He is really good at climbing up slides and then lays on his tummy to go down.  He'd go up and down all day long if I let him.

We went to a farm the other day and he couldn't contain his excitement.  It took every bit of my strength to keep that child from jumping in with the cows.  

Trying on Daddy's shoes

I no longer feel guilty!  Nate has been sleeping in a pack 'n play his whole life, which could possibly result in back problems some day because that thing is ridiculous. But...I found this beauty for $85 on craigslist.  It came with the mattress, bumper, and soft mattress cover.  It can convert into a toddler bed later as well.  Cool.  And the coolest part of all is it actually fit in our closet!  I didn't think it would fit and it did!

Well there you have it, our wild child is growing up fast!

We LOVE company!

We were so lucky to have TWO people stay with us recently. And we loved it! First was our good friend Amy McVey.  She's awesome.  I've always loved that girl. She was visiting for a little vacation and stayed with us for a couple of nights.  Nate couldn't get enough of her or her suitcase and was sad when she didn't come back. My favorite part of her visit would have to be when we met up with Ginny and Caitlyn at Bobby's Burger Palace.  Now if you don't know Ginny or Caitlyn or Amy...you are missing out.  These girls rock. Ginny and Caitlyn were my roommates right before Steve and I got married and now we all live here.  Amy lived downstairs from us and was roommates with Mel, Steve's sister.  So, we were all buddies :)  Wanna see a picture of these lovely people?  Okay.

Our second visitor was the following week and it was Andrew, Steve's mission buddy.  They actually didn't serve together for very long at all, but they know all the same people and have translated for General Conference together.  Andrew is a way cool guy.  He was here interviewing with Georgetown for medical school.  The best part of his visit was this:

We went to Steve's favorite place, the Indonesian restaurant.  These two were like giddy little boys as they ordered and ate their favorite Indonesian dishes.  It was fun seeing them get all excited and tell stories from their missions. This food is growing on me :)  I liked it the first time I tried it, I liked it better the second time, and now I love it.  I should trey and make it some day.

We enjoyed having these people stay with us.  SO....anyone who lives far and wants to come visit, I'll write an entire blog post about how much I love you if you come and stay with us :) We love it.

Imagine a beautiful day, like this:

*I may be exaggerating slightly... It was a little cloudy, but the story is better with this image in mind :)

Steve needs to get some work done and Nate is getting restless and just wants to play on Steve's computer.  So I decide to take Nate on a walk to the library to drop off our library books and library movies (one of which is Pride and Prejudice.  Thanks Steve for watching it with me :)). 

So we load up the stroller and head out.  After walking maybe 100 yards it starts to sprinkle.  I think to myself, "Shoot, I really need to return these books.  The library isn't too far, I'll just walk quickly and it'll be a refreshing cool walk." 

I get about 100 more yards towards the library and it starts to rain a little harder.  So foolishly I say to myself, "I'll REALLY hurry and if it gets bad, I'll just call Steve to pick me up at the library."  

About 5 seconds later, the wind comes.  Absolutely NO warning for this wind.  It wasn't just a breeze.  A big political sign and tree branches flew by me.  That's when I realized I needed to book it home to save my library books and more importantly my child.

Within 10 seconds of that wind the rain DUMPED from the sky.  It looked a bit like this:

I tried to find a picture of a mom pushing a stroller in the rain and I couldn't find one.  That might be because most mothers are smart enough to check the weather before taking their children on walks.  So you'll just have to imagine the rest of this story.

So...imagine me in shorts and sandals, pushing Nate in a stroller in this huge wind/rain storm that all started in about 15 seconds without warning. I'm trying to keep Nate under the canopy thing of the stroller and save the library books and tuck my phone in somewhere safe and sprint home all at the same time.  Nate was freaking out, I think he seriously thought he was drowning.  The stroller canopy wasn't keeping him dry AT ALL, so I ended up taking him out and he grabbed onto me tighter than I thought a baby good hold on.  I was laughing because I knew I looked ridiculous and I'm sure my neighbors that happened to look out their window at the perfect moment had a good laugh too.  

It was quite the adventure.  The moral of the story: do not underestimate what sprinkling can become within seconds.

And just so you know I think my library books are okay.

Steve's Call back interveiws

Steve has been interviewing like a crazy man for internships for next summer.  This internship is super important because it will most likely become our first job.  That first job has the potential to be our home for a huge important chunk of our lives, possibly the rest of our lives.  So, this is a big deal!  So far he's had 5 call back interviews!  These aren't offers yet, but they're an important step in that direction.  I don't remember the names of all the firms, so I'll just talk about the locations :)

We could end up in:

Washington DC!

I know that's not much of a surprise.  We live there now and it seems to be the place to be for a lawyer.  Steve has 3 call back interviews with firms here in the DC area.  We actually love love love it here.  So this is a definite possibility. The distance from family is THE only thing we don't like. We're glad we have Dave and Nikki!

Charlotte, NC

We've never been there, but isn't that picture nice?  It looks pretty.  The thing I like about this firm is they are flying ME there too for the interview.  I won't be part of the interview, but I will get to go to dinner the evening before.  Steve's cousin Clayton and his wife Amber live there.  They LOVE it.  It'll be fun to see them when we go next week.  Wahoo, free vacation!

Irvine, California

Steve is actually on an airplane, right now as I'm typing this, coming home from his interview today with Jones Day in California.  It's super close to his Aunt Peggy, who I totally adore. I've never really wanted to end up in California.  But I think I might actually like it.  It's closer to home. It's by the beach :) And not all Californians wear short shorts, v-necks, and have long bleached wavy hair. I think Nate will turn out great even in California :)  I'm not making fun of CA, I'm making fun of myself for ever believing that everyone from CA was a crazy beach bum. 

Arizona

Steve worked at a firm called Booth Udall this last summer in Tempe and absolutely loved it! He loved the people he worked with and everything about the firm. Although he hasn't received an "official offer" from them.  They've told him he can work there again.  So, this is a huge possibility.  I think we want to end up there, whether that's in 2 years or 10 years, we'll see.

  We'll see what the Lord has in store for us.  We are being prayerful and want to go where the Lord wants us to go.  These may not be our only options either.  Steve is still waiting on 10 more firms to either call him back or reject him. 

It's kind of scary being in big kid world and having to make big kid decisions about our life!