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Sunday, December 12, 2010

We're having a.......!!!!

Wow, so many updates...where to start?! Ok, so I'll start with what most of you are reading this for...Eric and I found out last week that we are going to have a baby girl! Both of us saw ourselves having a boy first, but by the time we went in for the ultrasound we knew it would be a girl and there was no disappointments, especially as we got to see our baby in the ultrasound. The nurse said everything looked great and that she is right on schedule. The only thing was that we couldn't really get a good picture of her face because she was being shy and was in a corner with her hands over her face. They couldn't get her to move after trying for about 5 minutes lol. I guess she is going to be shy like her momma. :) After finding out it was a girl...I went on a little shopping spree and bought the cutest material for a baby crib quilt I'm going to make over the holidays and stuff for another project I'm doing for the babies room. I got the idea from littlebirdiesecrets.blogspot.com I had been wanting to do something like this for a while but didn't know where I could find old window frames is Utah. I came across this ad on KSL for a woman in Lindon who's husband tears down houses and saves all the old window frames for her so she sells them from $1-10! For anyone who's looked into the price for these, that is a steal. I bought a 6-pane window frame for $5 and decorative knobs at Hobby Lobby for 50% off! Pictures of the final product to come!

Now for the other updates...Eric and I spent Thanksgiving in Vernal with his family. Neither of us had classes that Monday or Tuesday so we got the whole week off which was much needed...especially for Eric. I fell in love with Eric's family the first time I met them so I really enjoy going to visit them. We always have such a fun time and I always feel like I've had a relaxed and nice vacation when we go there. Some things that we did when we were in Vernal for the week were help set up the Christmas lights, went to "Tangled" and "Harry Potter", baked and ate a ton of yummy food, I went shopping with Eric's grandma which was fun to have a girls outing, we celebrated Will's (Eric's little brother) 6th birthday at Farr's ice-cream, cut down Christmas trees, and visited with everyone. All in all it was a great trip and I was grateful that Eric and I finally got to spend so time together since he's been so busy with school. Below are some pictures of our trip.Will and his much wanted Woody doll that he played with the rest of the time we were there.

Eric cutting down our Christmas tree which Eric's grandma graciously found for us since every tree we found ended up not being able to work. She picked a great one! It looks perfect in our living room.
After coming back from Thanksgiving, we finished up the last 2 weeks of school and are starting finals this week. One more semester almost down! Then we are going home to Ely for the Christmas break which I'm very excited for and hope it doesn't go by to quickly!

As for life in general, we couldn't be happier! I feel so very blessed for everything that I have and for all that the Lord blesses me with each day. I've really enjoyed this Christmas season and to focused on the Savior. I've been in a New Testament class this semester, covering the 4 gospels and have enjoyed studying Christ's life and mission on this Earth. We finished the class last week with Christ's atonement and it's really helped me have the spirit with me this Christmas season and remember what it's truly about.

We hope everyone has a great rest of the Christmas season. We are so very grateful for everyone in our lives who has helped us, befriended us, and loves and supports us. Merry Christmas!

Sunday, October 24, 2010

A Family for Three Please

Alright, so I figure that it's finally time to get the word officially out there (unless my mother already got to you) and since I'm not going to be able to hide it for much longer anyway...I'm pregnant! Yes, it's true, we will soon be a family of three instead of two!

I'm almost 15 weeks along and for the most part have been feeling pretty good. If I'm luck I'm only sick one day out of the week; however, it's always seeming to land on the day when I have most of my classes and work. The doctor even told me at my last appointment that I passed with an A+...now if only school could be as easy as doctor appointments since I always pass with flying colors. My due date is April 20th which is right in the middle of finals weeks so it will be interesting to see how that works out...I'll just be praying that I don't go into labor during a final! As for the baby itself, Eric is really hoping for a boy and as much as I've thought about which one I would like first, I've come to the conclusion that I would love a boy or a girl...and don't worry because I already made sure that we couldn't have both at once...aka no twins! We find out the gender the first week in December so start placing your guesses!


All in all, Eric and I couldn't be more excited to start this new chapter in our lives and even though our lives are super crazy already, we are up for the challenge. I'm trying hard to get through school so I'll have more time to be home with the baby, but for the first years it's going to busy. Eric and I both are planning to graduate next April and then Eric will only have one year to get his masters if he gets into the program this year, then it's off to real world for us and it's crazy to think by then we'll have a two year old!

I feel so very blessed for my life and everything that has been given to me, especially Eric. He has been so extremely patience and helpful these last couple of months even though he barely gets anytime for himself with school and everything else he has going. He's going to make a great daddy!

On a general note, I'm gearing up the for the holidays and am excited to spend them with family and friends! Sara and I even put on a Dinner Halloween Party last weekend, which I think was quite successful. We made these delicious little smokies and spinach and artichoke dip for the appetizers and had soup and rolls for the main meal. The we broke up into groups and did a Halloween scavenger hunt afterward. For the holiday weekend we are going home to Ely for Halloween to party some more! There's nothing more fun for the holidays like getting together with a bunch of fun friends and family to eat good food and play games!


Happy Nevada Day this weekend...and Halloween! :)

Monday, September 27, 2010

Catching Up!

I think I'm always going to be one of those people who's always playing catch up...on everything. Anyway, life is going great...it's crazy but great. I was hoping that my next post would have been to tell you all about my trip to Maine for Open Lighthouse Day with Sara and my mom; however, we were not able to make it which was very disappointing to all of us since we've all been wanting to go there for a long to. We were going to flight standby for free since Sara's husband works for Jet Blue, but that day all of the seats on the plane filled up and then Sara got sick with the stomach flu. We were still determined to have a fun, girls weekend and that is exactly what we did! We spent the weekend shopping, watching movies, doing crafts and eating. We even went to Red Lobster to get our little taste of Maine. Lol. In the process I even bought a sewing machine with the much grateful help of my mom. I've been wanting one for a while now for all my crafty needs :). I have big plans for that machine, so stay tuned! While we had a girl's weekend, Eric and Collin went to Vernal to go fishing. Eric had a good time and enjoyed doing something other than homework and school I'm sure. All in all it was a fun weekend. It was so nice to have my mom there that weekend and have someone to do things with since Eric has been so busy with school lately. Thanks mom! As a side note, we have already started planning our trip to Maine for next year which we decided to save up and buy tickets so nothing will stop us.
The weekend before that Grandpa and Grandma Bohn came up with my aunt Margaret along with my parents and Seth to go to the temple and do my uncle Bart's temple work who was mental handicapped and pasted away almost two years ago. The spirit was so strong in the temple and I felt Bart's presents there as we were all there remembering him and doing his work. I can't wait to meet him in the eternities and really get to know who he actually is. I have always cherished the memories of watching my grandparents care for Bart and the love they had for him. They are true examples of service to others and have true charity.
This last weekend Eric and I went camping with some good friends that we love doing things with. We've been wanting to go camping for some time now but never found a chance during the summer so we were excited to finally get some time to do it. It was a little chilly, but even for me who wears long sleeves and pants to work during the summer found it to be bearable. We came home on Saturday for the BYU vs. UNR game and to my deepest disappointment we lost! Winning I guess was a little more on the prideful side since UNR is the big school to go to for those in Ely. It was still fun to go to the game and enjoy the atmosphere of game day among the cougar fans. Because of the game I missed the General Relief Society Broadcast, but was able to watch it online afterwards. It was such a good meeting! Even listening to it later, I felt the spirit so strong and felt so blessing have the gospel in my life and for a beloved Prophet who leads and guides our church in such a tender and loving way. President Monson's talk was so good about not judging others. I loved the quote, "If you judge people, you have no time to love them." Such a powerful talk and something I'm sure I could work on.
Now for my "life in general" moment, Eric and I are about a month into the fall semester. Eric has been very busy with school and homework. I can't help but being so very grateful for him though. Even after his long days at school and work and having a lot of homework he still finds time to cook me dinner on some nights and help me around the house, and even surprise me with a date night to dinner and a movie when I'm not looking forward to another night of being alone. I feel so blessed to have found am amazing husband who is working so hard to support his family and be the best husband EVER! My semester is pretty easy and chill so far, which is nice because it's been really hard for me to get back into the groove of school.
Anyway that's life for now. Sorry I don't have any pictures of anything that has happened. I really need to get better a that!

Sunday, August 29, 2010

In the mood for crafts!

Eric can testify to the fact, as can many of my friends, that about every couple of months I get in a really crafty mood. Since work has been a little slow lately I have been looking around the web for some cheap and easy crafts and I came upon this really fun craft blog called Little Birdie Secrets. They have tons of crafts projects ideas on their blog that are super cute and really easy too!
Eric's little brother, Will is starting Kindergarten in a week and I wanted to give a little "Good luck at School" package. On that craft blog I found a cute idea for making clipboard chalkboards for kids to draw on. Not only is it cute but it's perfect for kids when traveling or maybe even at church to entertain them. Anyway, I made two and each clipboard cost less than about $4-5 to make. You just need a clipboard, some chalkboard spray paint, scrapbook paper, mod podge and foam brush, and some ribbon. Walla...the results!

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Touring Deutschland

Two weeks and about 12,586 miles later Eric and I have been to Germany and back...and all in one piece! :) We were so very fortunate to be able to tour all over Germany with Eric's grandparents these last 2 weeks, meet some really amazing people, eats delicious food and of course chocolate, and see the most beautiful views; which, will always be an unforgettable experience for both of us.
Day 1
Day 1 was traveling day. We got up that morning and headed to the airport in Salt Lake to find our plane had been delayed for about an hour. Just as a side note, not only had I never left the country before, but I had never flown on an airplane so today was a big day for me and I was a little nervous just because I wasn't sure what to expect. Turns out, everyone set me up for nothing all that terrifying...meaning I made in all the way to Germany on two different planes without hyperventilating. Lol. We had a layover in Chicago just long enough to board our other plane and flew 8 1/2 hours over night to Frankfurt, Germany where we arrived to start a new day.
Day 2
Because the time difference in Germany of about 8 hours from Utah, we pretty much skipped our night so jet lag was a killer. However, regardless of how tired we were, after checking into our hotel and taking just a little nap (which actually made us more tired) we went and did a session at the temple in Frankfurt. We were really grateful that the temple was in walking distance of our hotel. For the first time we were the one's with the headphones, but the experience was just as rewarding.
After having some trouble renting the temple clothes and trying to figure out what the menu said at the restaurant we ate at before going to the temple I felt completely dependent on Eric to communicate to people what I wanted or needed. I hardly let Eric leave my side the rest of the trip!
That night we had dinner at the hotel with everyone on the tour. It was so interesting to see all the different people that were on the tour. We were expecting a lot of people from America, but we were the minority. We had people from Australia, Wells, United Kingdom, Africa and New Zealand. Eric and I were also some of the youngest there after an 8 year old boy and 15 year old girl. We didn't mind one bit though since we seemed to get along with everyone there.
Day 3
This day was the start of the tour of Germany. We started the day going on the Rhine Cruise from Oberwesel to Boppard. The countryside and little towns we passed were beautiful views and everything was so green! Something that you don't seen in Utah or the desert of Nevada. It was a really chilly day so we sat inside the boat for most of the cruise and I went out for a couple of minutes here and there to take some pictures.
Next we headed to Cologne and saw one of the most impressive Gothic cathedrals we've ever seen. The building of it was started in 1248 and wasn't completed until 1880 (632 years!). We could believe how something like that could be build back then with so much detail. I've always loved the Salt Lake temple, but compared to this cathedral it seemed extremely small. We climbed over 600 steps up the tower of the cathedral to see this view and even though I was really sore the next day it was very worth it!
On the way to the hotel we stopped at the original 4711 store (a perfume store) where when you walked in there was a fountain that you could wash your hands in cologne. Let's just say the tour bus smelt very strongly of cologne after that!
Day 4
We had an early start by traveling to Hamelin. Hamelin is known for it's legend of the Pied Piper concerning the departure or death of a many of the town's children in the Middle Ages. For those of you who have not heard the story, the town of Hamelin was suffering from a rat infestation. The Pied Piper promised the townsmen that he could get rid of the rats and the townsmen promised they would pay him if he did. The Pied Piper played a musical pipe to lure the rats into the nearby river where they all drowned. The town did not pay him despite his success and so in his anger while all the inhabitants were in church he played his pipe that attracted the children of Hamelin and led them away from the town where they were never seen or heard of again.

We ended the day in Hamburg. Eric was excited to be back and that night show us the center streets at night. Something I was not aware of, but learned was that Hamburg has more water canals then Venice does! I thought that was very interesting. The city center was one of the most impressive building we saw in Hamburg and Eric also got to have his first Donner (his favorite food that he talks about all the time). I really liked them as well so I didn't mind eating them again on the trip anytime we had the opportunity. Eric was a little disappointed, however, that he didn't get to see anyone from his mission there or that we didn't get to spend much time there either.
Also, one little last note about this day was that it was our 1 year anniversary! We didn't really do anything special, but just being in Germany with the man I love was enough for me!
Day 5
This day we traveled to Lubeck, which is another city that Eric served in. This was one of my favorite cities that we had been to so far into the tour and enjoyed hearing some of Eric's memories of it. On our free time we walked around the center of the city a little bit and went into some of the shops and had some really good ice cream (the ice cream in Germany is really creamy and flavorful).
That afternoon, we traveled to the capital of Germany, Berlin. We went on a city night cruise along the River Spree that runs through Berlin. We had a nice dinner on the boat and enjoyed some live music (2 men on the accordion and the guitar). Everything was so peaceful going along the river. Lots of people were just relaxing along with sides of the rivers watching the boats go by and enjoying the beautiful evening. I loved how relaxed the Germans are and all the sidewalk cafes that you could go to and just enjoy the outdoors and the calm atmosphere.Our hotel room that we stayed in, in Berlin. Needless to say it was very nice...chandilier included :)
Day 6
We stayed in Berlin for the whole day which was nice because we got to see a lot more of the city. We had a city sightseeing tour with a local guide in the morning which took us all over Berlin and also to the Berlin wall. You would expect this huge, thick wall; however, it was only about 7-8 ft high and about 6 inches thick. Also by the wall they had success stories of how people escaped into West Berlin (the few that made it) and the unsuccessful attempts. It was crazy to think of not being able to see friends and family that were on the other side of the wall for 28 years.
Later we went with another local guide to the historic Potsdam where we toured Cecilienhof Palace and Sanssouci Park, which had a marvel of landscape gardening and architectural wonders. I was a little disappointed that we didn't get to go in and see more of the Palaces that we went to, but what we did see was really interesting.
For dinner we went to Ziko's Grill where there was live music and good authentic German food. One of the workers would go around to each table and play pranks on some of the people, which was hilarious to watch. One was he would act like he was going to put catchup on a customers plate and then aim it at them. They would jump back and scream to later find out that is was just some red string that came out. Haha, it was pretty fun.

Day 7
We traveled southwest to Dresden, the old capital of Saxony where we took another city sightseeing tour with a local guide. What was most impressive abo ut this city was the city square which was filled with huge buildings right next to each other. It had been raining so much there that the rivers were too high for the boats to go under the bridges. After the tour I made the mistake of asking the tour guide if there were any donner shops around where we were. I might as well of just asked where a McDonlds was since a donner is not a native Germany food, but a turkish fast food.
We ended the day in Leipzig, where the great composer Johann Sebastian Bach lived the last years of his lived. To be honest, I can't remember too much of this city. We only had a little bit of free time to tour it or shop and well...I picked shop :).
Day 8
This day took an unfortunate and sad twist when we w ent to Coburg to see the Veste Coburg Castle, built in 1225 where Martin Luther stayed for awhile while he we translating the bible. The path up to the castle was a little steep. A man from our tour was having a hard time walking up it and stopped to take a breather. By the time he almost made it to the top we were all there to watch him fall backwards and hit his head on the cobblestone pavement. Luckily we had a man one our tour who was a policeman that was certified in CPR and with the help of some others they started CPR right away to revive him since he was not breathing. It took about 20 or more minutes for the medical help to come which continued CPR and electric shocks. After about 45 minutes with no results, we watched as they had to tell the man's sweet wife that he was gone. It broke my heart to watch that wife sit down by her husband and hold his cold hand and say good-bye so expectingly. It really brought us all back to reality and as traumatizing experience as it was, more so for that wife then for me , I felt so very grateful to have been sealed in the temple to Eric and know tha t no matter what happens we will be together again. It was also neat to see some many people from the tour reach out the the woman in her time of grief. We canceled what other plans we had for the day and went straight to the hotel. Luckily, the woman's daughter and friend was able to fly in from the UK and got there that night to be with her and deal with trying to get her husband home to be buried. They were in our thoughts and prayers the rest of the tour.

Day 9
After spending the night in Nuremberg we did a little sight seeing of the city and had some free time. There we went to a toy museum which unfortunately we couldn't take pictures of, but it was interesting to see all the toys from the earlier time periods.
While driving along the Romantic Road we stopped at one of my favorite places of the whole trip, which was the picture-postcard medieval Rothenburg. H ow I came to know it was on the movie "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" which is was the city that didn't have any children in the movie. The town had curving streets with fun little shops along the way and one very popular one which most everyone went to and that was the Christmas shop (very big deal in Germany). They were also famous for their treats called snow ball. It was like fried bread shaped like a ball and covered in chocolate and nuts. They were bigger than me fist, but so very good. We ended the day at our hotel in Munich where we stayed for two nights.

Day 10
The morning started off with a local guide taking a sightseeing tour of the city and ended in the big main square, Marienplatz. They had a square full of food stands and then on the other end lines of shopping.
We left the square in the afternoon and went to Dachau, the first concentration camp built which was turned into a memorial site and museum. That was a very somber site, but very informative. We started off by watching a documentary film on the history of Dachau and then were able to tour around the grounds where tens of thousands of Jews were brought. They had rebuild two barracks so you could see the living conditions of the people that lived there, as well as the gas chambers disguise as showers and cremation chambers. It was horrifying to hear and see what humans could do to other humans; how they stripped these people of their dignity and their lives and families.
That night was the Bavarian evening and dinner and the world famous Hofbrauhuas. The restaurant could hold 700 people and had local specialties fr om the buffet and the famous German beers (in 1 liter glass!). Naturally, since we don't drink we were a little out of place , but we still enjoyed the experience of live Bavarian music and dancing.
Day 11
It finally rained this day. Eric said that it rained a lot in Germany, but so far we hadn't really had any so Eric's grandma was excited to have to rain for a "true" German experience. We drove into the heart of the Bavarian Alps to visit the most famous 19th century neo-romantic cast of the world, King Ludwig II's Neuschwanstein Castle (which wa s also featured in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang). The scenery was absolutely breath taking for all of us! You could go up on this bridge over looking the castle and Eric and I agreed that we had not seen anything so amazing before. The castle had over 200 rooms; however, only 15 were finished which we got the chance to tour.
We have the pleasure of enjoying some more of the green scenery while driving through the Black Forest to get to our hotel. There was had our last dinner together as a tour groups and all were sad it was coming to an end. All the people we met on the tour were so fun to talk too. I found it interesting to see what brought ever yone to Germany and a little about them. We were sad we didn't get to know everyone.
Day 12
Our last day in Germany we traveling to our last touring place which was Heidelberg and yet another one of the cities that was our favorite. While there I also rushed to get that last of the souvenirs that I wanted to get for everyone so sadly we didn't get to do much sightseeing. We ending back in Frankfurt that evening. Eric and I went out on our own and met up with Eric's friend that met on his mission. He took us to an African restaurant that was decorated like a tent in the desert. It has sand floors and you could sit on cushions low to the ground while you ate with your hands. It was definitely something unique and different from anything we'd eating in Germany. Eric enjoyed catching up with his friend and I enjoyed getting to know him. He was really nice and fun to talk to.

Day 13
We had to get up at 4 to get ready and make it to the airport to get ready for our flight at 8:30. We finally made it home to Salt Lake around 3pm, however it had been about 15 hours since leaving Germany....equaling an extremely long day of traveling. It felt so good to get home and be in our own apartment and bed.
I joke that since that was such a fast moving trip and a lot of traveling, I needed a vacation from my vacation so I'm definitely going to try and make good use of doing nothing for the next two weeks before school starts. :)
Overall though, the trip to Germany was amazing and we are so grateful to Eric's grandparents for helping us get there and to be able to do that with them.
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