More to talk about than I thought.

It has been a while since posting. Mostly because I've posted enough pictures on all of the blogs I'm connected to that I have ran out of space to put any more pictures on my blog unless I want to go about it in a little bit of a longer process. So I apologize for not posting any pictures.

Our family:

We are enjoying our new home very much. One thing I've noticed is that people are extremely friendly here. While I'm out and about during the days, I'm regularly finding myself pleased with how sweet and friendly people I come across are. I think this may be the friendliest area I've lived in before. One may not expect that from a city that is regularly at the top of the list for violent crimes, but I'm really enjoying it.

Jon received a new calling in the nursery. I think Koen will very much appreciate having his dad's presence in there. Koen did great in nursery our first week here, and since then has decided he thinks it's more fun to act excited about going until it is time. Jon is looking forward to being able to participate in treat time. No, I'm not kidding. :)

I received a calling in the primary as a CTR 5 teacher (one out of the three CTR 5 classes in our ward) as well as an Activity Days leader. Jon was gone last Sunday and Koen screamed harder than before when we tried going to nursery, so Koen ended up coming to primary with me. He did great during sharing time... our class time wasn't quite as successful. It was hard to keep my class' attention with Koen. So I look forward to having Jon be able to easily help out with Koen when needed. I get to serve with two other women in my Activity Days calling and look very forward to working with them and the girls.

Jon has been in Washington DC all of this week for work. He returns home Friday night! YAY! Koen and I have missed him a lot; we like being with him. He officially became an employee of the NGA (no longer an intern) on Monday and we can now participate in much better health insurance, get dental insurance, and put money into retirement and saving accounts! So Dentist, here we come! Future house, we're getting closer to you too! Jon is really enjoying his job. I wish that as Jon's wife, I could know more about what he does each day, but I am grateful for how well Jon has done at still having things to talk to me about after each work day.

I became a Pampered Chef consultant in January. I have several goals that I'm wanting to help more easily achieve through Pampered Chef. Though it may not seem like the two relate, I think Pampered Chef is going to help me further my business skills with my photography business. I also love cooking and especially baking, which is a very good match with Pampered Chef. So I very much don't mind the opportunity to consistently earn some more amazing kitchen tools.

Koen NO LONGER uses a pacifier AT ALL! He sleeps pretty darn well at night and has been going to bed extremely well without coming out of his room until the morning. This pleases us so. :) We got Koen off of the pacifier by coating it with a load of cumin and baking soda before giving it to him one night. Koen got quite the funny and confused face with a look of disgustment when he put it into his mouth. I had to turn my head to try to hide my laughing and had to work so hard to act confused at why something was wrong with it too. Jon piped in saying that pacifiers become yucky when you become too old for them. So we got Koen to throw it away in the garbage. Every once in a while he still mentions his pacifier and explains to me that it is yucky. I did pull the pacifier out of the garbage, washed the two we had, and then packed them up for when baby #2 arrives; and so that we couldn't give in and give them back to Koen during a weak moment.

Koen loves to exercise with me and I love having him as my workout partner. He's entertaining as he does the "bicycle," jumping jacks, wall squats and everything else with me. It makes me so happy that he wants to exercise with me. He loves it when we chase each other around our apartment, especially with toy guns in our hand so that we can shoot at each other. I love it when he kisses me alive. Do you want to know of a good at home exercise? Wall squats with a child on your lap... what a killer!

I just read the book, "The Five Love Languages". I'm not very good at reading very much and I'm especially not a fast reader by any means because my mind usually wanders off. But I read this book in just a couple days. It's not a big book at all, but that's probably the fastest I've read a non-children's book before. haha I extremely enjoyed it and love what it teaches. I was aware of the book before and knew what the five languages were, but had never actually it. It was helpful reading the whole thing rather than just taking the quiz at the end and having a small understanding of what the book explains. Anyway, I was very pleased and it made me want to be a better communicator to my husband and child.

Ok, it is extremely past my bedtime and Koen doesn't sleep in for me when I stay up late. I think he's actually tended to get up earlier when I stay up later; it's probably God's way of telling me, "GO TO BED EARLY!" But when my hubby isn't home with me, I have an especially hard time going to sleep at a normal time. It's a good thing he'll be back soon!

ABC's

I had seen this idea on Pinterest quite some time ago and loved it. So I made all these letters out of leftover cardboard from our move. Koen's room looks even more fun now. I'm pretty proud of how it turned out, and all at zero cost! :D

And it all settles down from here

Since I last blogged, MUCH has happened.

1. Jon completed his undergrad!!! YAY! I, as well as all of his family, is extremely proud and happy for him! In May, we will be going back to Salt Lake to celebrate Jon's graduation from the University of Utah with a major in geography. And guess what! Jon did it with HONORS! He is one super smart cookie!

2. Jon was accepted into Penn State for graduate school! Jon will start working towards his masters in the spring. We are extremely blessed to be able to have Jon further his education even more, especially because his employer is paying for all of his graduate schooling.

3. I had a birthday. Yes, it's true. It seems to come every year! I turned 24 and it was spent mostly in the car, driving towards Missouri. I will remember this birthday as the one we started our new phase of life with. It was made special with phone calls from family and special birthday wishes. :)

4. We moved to St. Louis, Missouri. We made the trip in two days. We live in an apartment good for our family. We have a brick wall that I very much love having! This week, I plan to be using it as a photo backdrop with Koen. :) We are neighbors to a railroad track that is quite active with trains throughout the day and night. (Amazingly, we can all usually sleep through the loud, blaring horn at night.) Koen LOVES seeing a train pass by often, this and the not too high rent makes it bearable. ;) Our ward has many, many, many more children than our last. Koen should be able to easily find many new friends. :) We are liking our ward and believe we'll enjoy it here.

5. Jon started work at the NGA (a part of the Dept. of Defense.) Jon's first day at work was four days after we moved into our new place. He is enjoying it and has said it seems a little weird that he's now started his "career." He works 9 hours each day so that he can have every other Friday off and is starting a Fitness Program they have that allows him to workout in their gym one hour, three days a week, and still be paid for that time. I am so happy that Jon really enjoys where he is and feels that he will enjoy it for a very long time. I feel so blessed that he has a job that provides security for our family and should allow Jon to still be able to spend a lot of time with his family. We are blessed and so appreciative of this job.

6. We celebrated our Savior's birthday! This was the warmest Christmas I've ever had. Koen would say, "Merry Christmas Tree!" to us and simply loved the whole day. We tried to teach Koen about it being Jesus' birthday and how special Jesus is. When we asked whose birthday it was, he knew it was Jesus'. But I think he found the Christmas tree more exciting and definitely loved opening those presents. I really enjoyed going to church that Sunday and hearing the beautiful music that was prepared. I really love Christmas time and I really loved taking some moments to remind myself what Christmas is for and why we celebrate it. I loved thinking about the incredible time when Jesus was born and how greatly his birth has affected my life, as well as the entire world's.

7. We celebrated 5 years of marriage! It doesn't seem like 5 years ago. I still feel like we're newly married and we are definitely still learning so much about married life! But in the last five years, we have come so far together and things are wonderful. I am grateful to have Jon by my side and to have the kind of husband that I do. He is an amazing person. We celebrated as a family by going to a new restaurant together and getting dessert at Cold Stone. It was yummy and fun.

8. We casually celebrated the end of one year and the start of a new. We spent our New Years Eve spending gift card money to get some new movies. Watched our new Tarzan movie with Koen as we ate lunch. Did a little football bowl game watching while I worked on a project I'm doing for Koen's bedroom. Jon and I ate junky food as we watched True Grit. We were both a little, or a lot, sleepy while watching the movie. I tried finding a countdown online (we don't have tv to watch it on). I found one thinking we had 16 seconds to spare (Oh what great timing! We were cutting it close!). And then I found out... we missed it and were 16 seconds into 2012. This is actually somewhat similar to last year when we spent the New Year at my parents and missed it by I think 9 seconds. ... Maybe next year we'll make it! haha :) We of coursed still kissed and then went straight to bed. No more partying for us two tired people, especially with 9:00 church in the morning!

Koen likes to put this plastic "crown" on his head and it makes me smile every time. Its really from the inside of a toy construction hat. Koen also likes to wear our shoes.

Our last 2011 picture together.

A quick shot of my favorite boys at the zoo.

Things should slow down for now. At least we're not expecting anything exciting to be going on super soon.

Happy New Year to all of you!

Terrific Twos

It has happened!!! Koen is two years old and we are the parents of a two year old! I very much echo all parents who say, "the time goes by so fast!"

I no longer have a little baby boy (said with a small pout) but a terrific two year old! Koen brings more joy into each day than I could have ever imagined.

Koen loved his birthday! We had been talking about it with him quite a while before it came, to help it be super exciting for him. He knew before hand that his cake would be in the shape of a train and he seemed to be most excited for his "train cake."

When Koen woke up on his birthday, I sang 'Happy Birthday' to him as we got him ready for the day. He got a huge smile and was loving it. Afterwards he said, "More. More song." I love how much he loved it. Koen really loved all of the birthday calls he got! He would have liked to talk on the phone all day, even though he really didn't say much when he actually got on the phone. But to those who did call... Koen had a huge smile the entire time and thought it was so fun!

We went to Costco for his birthday lunch. Koen loves Costco and especially loves getting to have a little bit of soda. I think finishing our soda made his day alone. We later searched out trains to watch and then drove through a nearby cemetery to see the deer that are often there.

Jenny came over to help us celebrate. Koen loved his cake and the gifts that friends and family gave him.

Here's a look back at Koen and how much our sweet young boy has grown!

Koen's original birth day.

One Year Old

Baby face gone... little man here!

Two years!

3 Weeks

It's official! We are set to leave for our new long-term home of St. Louis, MO in three short weeks! Jon is going to start work with the NGA again on the 19th of December. YAY! We are so happy that he can start working so quickly after school. It is a tremendous blessing and we are so grateful the Lord is giving it to us.

Packing has started and things are being cleaned out. We will put forth our biggest push to pack next week after the Thanksgiving festivities.

We will head out early on the 13th (my birthday), the day after Jon's last final. If weather is kind to us, we will make it to our destination in a few days, allowing us a few more days to unpack and then relax. Our guess in our family, we like to keep December as packed with festivities and events as possible! :)

Hopefully my next post will be more interested in fun photos. This week has and will continue to be full of fun family togetherness and next week is Koen's birthday. So hopefully I'll be able to produce for you all. ;)

Have a super Thanksgiving friends!

Halloween Time & < 6 Wks

Before Halloween greeted us, we got together with some friends who have a girl several months older than Koen. We carved pumpkins and the kids had a blast using the seeds in their little kitchen.

A ton of leaves had fallen off a large tree near our home one morning, so Koen and I had a good time throwing them around and watching more of them fall off the trees as the wind blew. Koen thought it was great and people walking by seemed to enjoy watching him too.

Roene's daughter, Wendy was so sweet and gave Koen a perfect pumpkin she had grown. Koen helped me decorate the pumpkin. He was too nervous to really put his hand deep in the pumpkin while it had a ton of seeds inside, but loved stirring a spoon inside of it and stirring the seeds in a bowl. Koen helped me paint the pumpkin after we gutted it and he thought painting was extremely fun. It was Koen's first painting experience. (We are dressed for potential painting mess, which is why we look like we're ready for bed.)

The white pumpkin is the one that Koen and I did together. It is very much inspired and a lot like one I saw on pinterest.com. The other two pumpkins are what we carved with our friends. Unfortunately, we seemed to pick out some bad pumpkins at the patch because they were rotting and moldy very quickly. My pumpkin actually had a gross dark patch inside of it when I first carved it. But it really doesn't bother me because I think their shriveling look added a nice touch to Halloween. :) Koen loved taking the lids off to look inside.

Here is Koen on Halloween day, dressed as a monkey. This costume could possibly fit him next year and I like that I can use it for any future children, no matter their gender. :) There's a sewn banana on his costume, hidden by his arm, but Koen liked to pretend to eat it. I think it was his favorite part. I took Koen trick or treating to a few families from our ward who live on our street. He was nervous to go to a couple of doors, but quickly felt comfortable taking candy their candy. He loved the dogs he saw at a couple of homes and even ran through one sisters home while we chatted. I had to go in to catch him.

This is actually the Friday before Halloween. We went to a party. Jon is Spartacus and I am Spartacus' wife. We all had a super fun time. Koen got to stay up till midnight and slept very well that night and late into the morning. :) And yes, Koen did very well even though he was up so long.

< (Less than) 6 weeks is the time we have left before Jon graduates with his bachelors degree and we hopefully are moving to Missouri for the next stage of our life. I say hopefully because we are still waiting to hear details as to when Jon will start work with the Department of Defense at the NGA and we are hoping he can start very quickly after graduation. We should hear from them VERY, VERY SOON, since they informed us that we should hear from them in September or October and it is now November. I'm trying to have patience, but naturally we want details and want to be able to get a place to live reserved soon.

Koen turns two in less than a month and I am totally having those "it seems like yesterday when you were only a newborn" thoughts. I very much miss having a little babe, but very much love the stage the Koen is in. He talks so much more and I love hearing how he pronounces certain words, especially with such enthusiasm. He is so much fun! I love playing with him, watching him and listening to him. Koen is such a wonderful boy and a blessing in many lives, especially mine.

Nebo Loop

A couple Saturdays ago we took a drive on the Nebo loop. It was BEAUTIFUL! Both Jon and I asked ourselves why we had never taken that drive before. Had we known the beauty it held this time of year, it would have been a tradition.

VERY EARLY on we were wowed by the colors that filled the hills and mountains.

Imagine seeing this in person, and it kept going on the sides you can not see. To add to the picture perfect scene, there was a white horse in the field to the right, but I'm trying not to overwhelm my post with tons of photos, so instead, you get to see this view.

It was a drive that was full of continual "oohs and awes" around almost every turn. I loved it. We took our drive in the afternoon, I bet if we were to go during sunrise or sunset, it would be even more amazing and grand. For all of you Utahans... I highly suggest this drive in autumn before the leaves fall off!