Happy Valentine's Day!

My fun surprise!

We had a good Valentine's Day. I have been sick all week with a bad sinus infection and was finally feeling well enough to go to dinner with my sweet husband. This is the first year since we've been married that we've ever gone out to dinner on the actual day. Usually I fix a nice dinner and we stay home. Since I've been sick, Jon decided we could go out to dinner instead. We went to Red Lobster at about 4:50 and we waited for just over two hours to be seated. We didn't stay at the restaurant the entire time we were waiting. We went and did a little shopping while we waited. When we came back we still had to stand for an hour, we should have shopped a little longer. We had a wonderful dinner and then headed home for a relaxing evening. Jon surprised me with a beautiful necklace. I had shown it to him over a month ago, but I wasn't really serious about it, I just thought it was pretty. It was very exciting! Because I had been sick, I didn't have the chance to buy Jon anything, so he is having fun deciding what he wants that will equal the value of the necklace. We hope all of you had a fun Valentine's Day with your sweetheart!

Adoption

I just wanted to let you all know that we have officially begun the adoption process. Jon and I have prayed and fasted about what we should do and we both feel strongly that we should adopt right now. We haven't turned away the idea of IVF, but for now we are going to do adoption. We just sent in our application this week, so we haven't received a reply from anyone yet, but we will keep you all updated as things begin to happen. I don't think anything will happen for a while since we have to have three interviews, a background check and they need to contact our references. It will probably be a long process, but we are excited that we've now begun the process. Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers on our behalf, they mean so much to us.

-22 Degrees

I've been keeping an eye on the weather in other parts of the country (Bozeman and Woods Cross) and I've been quite jealous of the warmer early spring weather. We are currently enjoying subzero temperatures and I HATE it. Spring and fall in Mankato are absolutely beautiful, and the weather is perfect, but I am really struggling with the winter. I have never been a fan of the cold or snow, but I have learned that if it's warm enough to snow, its not too cold. This subzero stuff is awful. I don't know how people live here for many, many years. I'm hoping that I won't have to, because I won't survive. I've had the privilege of going to school this semester and I have classes twice a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Of course, the two coldest days this week were Tuesday and Thursday. I froze as we (Jon and I) walked to school. My legs literally were numb in less than five minutes. The temperature Tuesday was -15. Today was even better I checked the temperature five minutes before we left and it was a sunny warm -22 degrees outside. We bundled up and headed up to school. Today I actually ran part of the way to school, because I was afraid that my numb legs would actually stop working, or atleast make it that much longer to get to school, because I couldn't feel them and they were literally slowing down with each step. I figured the best way to keep them from stopping was to run and hopefully they would warm up a little. Lucky for us, all of the buildings on campus except for the library are all connected via hallways. It makes getting around campus much nicer, it's getting to campus that isn't fun. I just had to vent and let all of you know how warm it is here in Mankato. If anyone wants to send me a plane ticket to visit you in your warm part of the country, I won't object. Alyssa, please bare with my complaining, because I'm sure it's even colder for you in Alaska. How do you do it?

We're back!

It was Danny's birthday and he turned six.

We got to sing Happy Birthday and have birthday cake with him.

The Bowden kids.

The Zetterquists.

It was fun to see baby Keith for the first time.


I apologize for all of the posts at once, but I didn't have time while we were in Utah. We had such a great time with our families. As usual, it was hard for me to say good-bye. I miss my family so much when we are away. I love being in Minnesota, although I'm not loving it right now, because it's just too cold here in the winter. We have wonderful friends and I am so grateful for them, they are what make living here worth it, but I hate living so far from family. We played lots and lots of games and ate lots of food and just enjoyed being with our families. We got to see friends from Montana, the Bowdens and the Zetterquists and we also got to see the McMillans who are friends from Minnesota. It is good to be back and we are busy trying to get everything ready and finished in time for school next week. Jon starts back on Monday and I start working again on Monday with classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It's going to be a busy semester for us, but we are looking forward to it. I'm glad we'll be busy, because I'm hoping time will just fly by, and before I know it, Spring will be here and it won't be so cold anymore. Wish me luck getting through this winter. I was crazy enough to sign up for classes this semester and now I have to walk from my house to campus in the negative temperatures with negative wind chill. What was I thinking?

New Years Eve

Fireworks at midnight.

The happy bunch who stayed up until midnight.

New Years Eve was a busy day. We headed down to see Brock and Jody, friends of ours from Minnesota who moved back to Utah last summer. We miss having them here in Minnesota with us, and we had to stop and visit, even if it was only for two hours. They were sweet and took us to lunch at Bajio. Thanks for the yummy lunch, games and fun visit. We miss you lots! After our visit with friends, we met Jon's family at the theatre. We saw Bedtime Stories and it was really funny. Good clean movie and great humor. We spent the evening with Jon's family in Provo. We ate lots of yummy food, played games and enjoyed being with family. Most of the kids got to stay up until midnight and boy were they excited. I think they enjoyed being able to yell and scream outside at midnight more than anything. They also got to bang pots and pans to ring in the New Year. The mall put on a firework show, so those brave enough to stand in the cold got to see a great firework show. We wish all of you a Happy New Year. We hope this year brings you much happiness and success.

Trip to the ER

The happy patient.

It was weird to have him be the patient, because

I'm usually the patient. We didn't know how to react since the roles

were reversed.

Two days after Christmas, we had a fun filled trip to the ER. We had been at my aunt and uncle's house to say good-bye to Bryant and Amee, which we didn't really get the chance to say good-bye. Bryant and Amee, it was so fun to see you and your cute kids. Sorry we didn't get to say good-bye. Jon had told me the night before that his chest was hurting, but I didn't think too much of it, because he'd been shoveling snow that day and I thought it was probably a sore muscle. This night, he told me that the pain was getting worse, it had spread to his left arm and he was having to take deep breaths. Aunt Sherri gave him some Aspirin and then he laid down to rest. I was too scared and didn't want to take my chances, so my Dad took Jon and I to the ER. The nurse immediately did an EKG, which showed that Jon's heart was just fine. After several labs, a chest x-ray and two hours of sitting in the ER, we were told that Jon had pleuracy, which is an inflammation in the outer lining of the lung. Jon had had a cold earlier and the doctor said it was probably caused from the cold. What a huge relief! It gave us quite a scare! Now more than ever, I am so grateful for my wonderful husband and I am so glad he is with me.

Christmas Day Pictures