PLEASE excuse the pasty gross whiteness and no makeup... but here it is 25 weeks and boy do I feel HUGE!

Congrats to my sister Rachel and her husband Cory. On Friday night they welcomed this sweet little girl into the world. She was 6 pounds and 10 oz. She has yet to receive a name though. Hopefully in a few weekends we will get a chance to head down to Utah and meet her!

The highlight of my day had to be being out a recess duty and running into a group of 2nd grade girls playing, "pregnant teachers."

The baby is growing! Please excuse this picture because it was taken at the end of a LONG day. In two weeks we get to find out if this little one is a boy or a girl! Any guesses?

Christmas Vacation. I know it's a little late but things have been VERY busy around here as I have jumped into student teaching and Nathan finishes his last semester at school.

This year we headed to Vegas for the first part of our break in hopes for some warm and sunny weather. Unfortunately it was in the 40's and rained the whole time we were there. We did however get to stop by and visit the Hoover Dam. I have been a few times but this was a first for Nathan and he was actually pretty impressed.

A few days later we were able to attend the wedding of my little brother Lewis and his new wife Crystal. This happened to be the real reason we were in Vegas. All of my immediate family, except James, who is on a mission in Mexico were able to attend the wedding and it was a lot of fun to get to hang out with everyone for a few days. It does however get pretty chaotic and loud when everyone is around.

After the wedding we headed down to Oklahoma to spend Christmas with my family. Two days later we headed to Missouri and stayed a few days with Nathans grandparents. We had so much fun with them and were sad when we had to leave.

After that it was back to Oklahoma for a few days and then back to Rexburg. It was a fun holiday but one we won't repeat for a loooooong time... or ever. Being in the car for 60 hours in 2 weeks can be a bit tiring.

This year for Thanksgiving we headed to Chicago to get together with Nathan's family. Here are a few pictures to sum up our trip!

Would you expect anything less from Nathan?

We waited in line to go up to the top of Sears tower,

we made a stop at " the bean",

we attended a minor league hockey game,

and lastly of course we played with the BABY! We just love her and it was so fun to FINALLY get to see her.
It was a fun and much needed break from both Rexburg and School!

This portfolio is 5 years in the making and tomorrow could be the biggest day of my college career! Tomorrow I get to present this portfolio to a committee made up of teachers and community members. This portfolio will come along with a 15 minute speech of what I have learned and a question/answer period where the committee can ask me anything they think I should have learned in the last five years. Scary.... I think so! Wish me luck!

As most of you already know for the past few months we have been blessed by the Lord to have this wonderful little girl living with us. Everything we have done has been in the best interest of Emily and we have strived to give her everything she needs and the right tools to carry on successfully in life. We are so proud of Emily and the progress she has made in the last few months. We are so proud of the friends she is making at school, her social interactions, and her ability to follow the rules and make good choices without being micromanaged. Unfortunantly the parenting decisions that we, the therapist, and the school have been making regarding Emily is not what the family that gave her to us wanted. Because of this Emily was taken from our home this morning by the police and her parents. We don't know where she is headed or what her future plans are because there has been no communication about this from the family to us but we love her and hope for the best in every aspect of her life, and we leave this situation knowing that we did exactly as our Heavenly Father wanted and we gave not only our best but literally everything we had. We hope that all future decisions that are made are in Emily's best interest and that she continues to progress as the wonderful daughter of God she is.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! I love love love holidays, and that is exactly why we in my favorite part of the year. There is a holiday to celebrate every month. October was of course Halloween and Nathan and I couldn't resist dressing up as skeletons (don't judge our home made costumes). We tried and begged and pleaded with Emily to be a skeleton with us but all she could do was say, "I don't want to be that because It is scary." I am sure if I was 7 I would much rather be a Unicorn than a skeleton to0. Maybe next year.

Happy Halloween! Saturday afternoon we drove out to a pumpkin patch in Idaho Falls. Picking pumpkins and carving them was one of my favorite things to do as a child so I was really excited to go. It took Nathan and Emily a little bit of time to get into the "pumpking picking" spirit but after they did it was so much fun. Sunday afternoon we carved them with our good friends the Haderlies. I forgot how hard it actually is to carve pumpkins but overall I think they look pretty good.