Happy 3 YeaRs to US!

tuesday was our three year anniversary. time flies when you're havin' fun and i am so glad that i have nate to 'flyin' with me. Tuesday i was home by myself most the day and i had time to really think about us and our little life together and what this next year is bringing us~ scary but soooo exciting at the same time! i was remember some of the thoughts i had on my wedding day- the things i was excited/nervous/ thrilled/ scared/ etc... to experience with Nate! i am glad i have had him at my side through all of this :) and for what is coming! i know emersyn is going to love her daddy as much (if that is possible) as i do!
We have always spent our anniversary somewhere super fun, we alternate who plans it. the first year (our honeymoon) nate planned a cruise to western caribbean, our first year anniversary (paige planned) was in Puerto Vallarta with Bart and Annette, and our second year was in San Francisco- nate did a great job planning that surprise. So this year was a little harder to plan a getaway with school and baby emersyn coming. so i've planned a trip to Niagara Falls for this weekend :) i think it will be a fun little getaway. we are going with two other couples (Jared & Miranda and Chris & Ashley). the boys are 1L's with Nate at Case and both graduated from BYU. tuesday i decided to cook dinner. i made some yummy steaks, well costco made them- i cooked them :) when nate walked in from school we jumped in the car and headed to a park on Lake Eerie and ate dinner there. it was fun! i love spending time with him :) we are both really, really excited to see the falls :)

21 weeks! we had ej's 'big ultrasound' appointment on friday. We went in and had an AMAZING ultrasound where they check for any birth defects, measure the length of the bones, check facial features, check all her organs... It was out of this world! we saw all the chambers of her tiny little heart, and all her little organs (we'll some of them they saw and we couldn't really make them out) and her cute little face! everything looked great and she is in 45th percentile, 10 1/2 inches long, and weighs a WHOLE pound now:)! they took 3D pictures- which we didn't know they were going to take- so it was a GREAT surprise and they were incredible! to see her sweet face, nose, hands, and tiny toes in 3D was the sweetest thing EVER! they tried to get a 3D pic of her toes for me but they were moving a million miles a minute. one thing has been consistent at every ultrasound~ her moving! every ultrasound tech/ Dr has been surprised at how much she'e moving and mentioned how once she gets a little bigger how i will definitely feel her- A LOT!! here is a side profile pic of her--->
my family thinks from this picture she is looking like my baby pictures so i am excited to see if this is true when she comes out. my mom and dad think she already has my nose :)

... the best of times and the worst of times!!!

SO~ WHAT A CRAZY LAST FEW DAYS!!! on sunday Andrea came to visit me! Nate and Andrea had it ALL planned out and i had NO CLUE anything was going on :) andrea and her family went to boston for a vacation and while her family flew home... she flew to me!! nate surprised me on sunday as we went for a 'drive to his Grandma's grave' (which happens to be by the airport). nate missed the exit and decided to get off on the next exit which was the airport! then he decided to turn around by driving through the terminal?! it was THE BEST surprise in the world.... i cried! we took andrea to little italy for lunch and then back to our house. it was a beautiful day! we all took a much needed sunday naps while watching t.v.! apparently hurricane ike(what was left of it) hit here the same time as another storm coming from the west and it made for a huge MESS!! we had some extremely high winds/rain/etc... we started cooking dinner and the POWER went out~ so andrea held the flashlight while i cooked on the stove then the 3 of us enjoyed a candle-lit dinner. we thought for sure the power would come on before we went to bed.... NOT SO MUCH! the next morning NO POWER!so we had to get ice and put most our food in coolers. along with no power---> no sunshine. andrea and i were planning on going to Amish country but due to all the power outages and rain we decided to head to the mall and go shopping. after the mall we ate lunch at The Cheesecake Factory- YUMMY! we headed home only to find out that nate's uncle had extra tickets to the Indians game~ in their SUITE with YUMMY food, drinks, and desserts!! we had a BLAST!! we returned home at ten thirty that night and still NO POWER! tuesday morning same story so we headed downtown and went to the rock and roll hall of fame and the pier. we ate lunch, walked around and then i the time had come..... i had to take her back to the airport! and i cried again!! i had SO MUCH fun with her. it wasn't exactly a perfect trip with the crazy storm and power outage but it was perfect timing for ME!!! i needed her here SO MUCH and she saved me from going crazy while the power was out! she brought a suitcase that was half full of clothes for Emersyn from her and my mom :) thanks again andrea~ i LOVE you and can't wait for you to come again while the power is on!!!

finally pictures of our place....

so here are some pics of our place~ they are kinda generic. there are really fun things that i didn't get on here yet. i'll add those later....EnJoY!

20 weeks- halfway there!

20 WeEkS! i can barely believe it. it blows my mind to think that we are half way through this pregnancy thing and well on our way to being parents~scary! it has gone by SO fast which i think can be attributed to the whole curve ball- 'moving to Ohio thing' ! i had my Drs appointment today, it was my first appointment with my new Dr out here and i LOVED IT! He is amazing and i am so excited for him to take care of us for the next few months. He said that i have gained a total of 4 pounds and Emersyn couldn't be any healthier than she is:) which is always GREAT to hear. her spine, heart, amniotic fluid, all of that was great! So my official due date is January 25th.our due date gets moved almost everytime we see a Dr and it is always EARLIER- which is GREAT!!!!! however, we cannot 'pick-up' anymore days as we will be flying home for Christmas December 19-January 5. so we are getting a little close to be flying!! he was confident (as much as one can be) that is how far along i am and where she is measuring. i had a hard time sleeping last night because i was so excited to see her again. i cannot wait until i get to see her on a two weeks basis, and then one week basis, and then well, an EvErYdAy (and NIGHT) basis! but for now, we'll stick to the once a month plan! that completely made my day and WEEK! tomorrow i am going to lunch with Nate's Aunt Jani who lives about 10 mins from us- i am excited for that, she is fun! she sounds identical to Suzy (nate's mom) on the phone~ it cracks me up :)hope you all enjoy the bellyshot~ i am going to try and do weekly bellyshots from here on out!

the roar by the shore....

i have always seen these air shows advertised on TV and never thought much about going. Nate LOVE, LOVE, LOVES airplanes, jets, etc... we went pass downtown to find a beach on lake erie and saw the show going. it was SOO COOL! nate absolutely loved it. so we decided to find parking and walk to it. we ended up staying for like four hours. The Blue Angels were amazing. nate almost decided against law school about a year and a half ago to pursue a career on flying- good thing he isn't hating law school right now or else he may start reconsidering :) it was a fun day!

this looks a little questionable....

<--- the pier we watched the show from!

i think Nate wished he was watching it with Shawn or his dad though- they would've known what in the world he was talking about with all the different names and numbers of the planes. i was wishing my nephews were there- they would've LOVED IT!

new laptop!

So we sent our laptop into HP and they fixed everything for free- which was a HUGE relief!!! however, we didn't know how long they would have it and Nate needed one for school so we 'bit the bullet' and bought him a new one for school!! it is a small one, it only weighs 2 lbs!!! which is great for nate as he rides his bike to school everyday now. the funny part is the new laptop came friday afternoon and ours came back on tuesday. so with the long holiday weekend.... nate didn't even have one full day of class with his new laptop before ours came back! however, i am really excited about this purchase because i was totally bummed that he was going to need the laptop everyday and i would be at home without! so now we both have one and if one crashes then we have a back-up for him to take to school! i want to talk about my family for just a minute! they have been such a HUGE support to Nate and i while we've been here. my parents have sent multiple packages to us and Emersyn. Kailey& Shawn sent Emersyn a cute outfit. letters have been coming in, i have been running to the mail box everyday to see what is there! i have gotten some cards (Andrea) from home that make me cry but i love them and appreciate them! Nate has been on the phone a lot with his brother Zach who graduated from law school this spring getting some pointers. it is so hard being away. this past weekend was really hard as my family was going through some sad times-let me tell you i felt every inch of the 1700 miles! it was a surreal feeling and it was terrible but they all called to fill me in and keep me apart of it. Our little nephew Dallin turned 3 on monday- the first birthday we were gone for! again, it was hard but Lindsie did a great job posting pictures! Nate's mom had hip surgery last week and is recovering from that. SOOO many things we wish we could be there to help with!
we are so thankful for our familes and COULD NOT do this with out them! saturday we ventured to the westside market here- super yummy veggies, breads, meats, etc... and on labor day we went to the air show thst was going on downtown and to a BBQ at our friends Crystal and Tyler's house. i will post pictures soon!

P.S. so it's official, we are going with the name we have always wanted. we just wanted a few weeks to call her (in my belly) by the name to make sure it stuck... and it did! our little girl's name is Emersyn-Jayne Lloyd~ e.j. for short :)
our weekly baby update e-mail said that this week the hair on her head is 'sprouting'! we are just dying to know if it is the dark lloyd hair or if she has her mommy and gramps red! i just hope for curls either way! i think she has a pretty good chance at curly hair- nate and i both have natural curl but who knows! i've been wrong about pretty mcuh everything else with this girl!

belly and life update

SOOO here is the latest 'belly shot'. i think she jumped out (in turn I SHOT OUT) quite a bit last week. shirts are starting to get a little short, pants a little tight, and on one of my belts i am at the last hole! at the Indians game the first 'stranger' commented on my belly and i had a few comments while we were at Amish country- i am glad people can tell it's baby belly now. i just feel really big for only being 17 1/2 weeks- not much you can do about that :) our computer crashed yesterday, yes THE DAY BEFORE NATE started law school. it was kinda a melt down day as we realized that we probably will have to buy a new laptop as ours will be a few weeks out! it is so discouraging as there are SO MANY things to buy to start out here! it gets overwhelming! i was able to get it to turn on today so i am throwing these posts on and then tomorrow or wednesday we are sending it in so i may not be able to blog for awhile- but i will try :) we miss everyone SO MUCH that words cannot even begin to describe. i have never felt so much like i just want to runaway from somewhere as much as i do here! but then i gain composure and realize this is a good thing!?!
BUT back to the baby.... i think i am feeling her move!!! i'm pretty sure of it but then again i have never experienced this before, i am excited to feel her moving more and more to compare it to these feelings i am having now. all the ultrasound people that have seen her have told me how extremely active she is- so i am sure i will be feeling her a lot. maybe after ALL the Olympics we've watched she'll be a gymnast :) i love this little girl!

the amish

AHH, Amish country. This past saturday Nate and i went out to amish country which is like an hour and a half from our place. it was SOO MUCH FUN! we had great weather and had such a fun day together! while nate was at orientation all week i got a little lonely being at the house all by myself. it was SO fun to spend the day together!! we went to a SWEET flea market and ALL the crafts stores of four different little amish towns. they are such nice people with AMAZING talents! and they LOVE their cheese. we went to Heini's and sampled like 30 different cheeses and bought a few. we ate dinner at a restaurant there and it was some incredible "home cookin' food"! the bakeries we another 'hit' with some amazing cookies and breads. it is such beautiful country out there!!! see... now don't you all want to come visit us and we'll take you here!!!

he is 'oriented'.....

After a week long of orientation.... Nate had his induction ceremony on friday. it was held in the Severance Hall which is on campus at Case Western. it is an AMAZING building, super old. the inside is beautiful but the pictures didn't turn out so well. after the ceremony i met some of the guys in his class that he met (and their wife's). there are two of them that graduated from BYU as well so that is fun to have that connection. the school provided a lunch afterwards with some yummy food. nate is now officially 'oriented', a 1L (first year law student), and starting classes on monday! i cannot believe that we are here- IN LAW SCHOOL!! our conversations/thoughts for the last three years have been 'when we go to law school' or 'during law school' and so many of our decisions have been concentrated towards applying for law school.as i watched nate walk into the hall it hit me... we are here! i 'm so proud of him for taking on this HUGE challenge and don't doubt his success for a minute! i know he is very excited/intimidated/etc... but know he will do great! when we tell people that we just moved here they of course ask what brought us here. as we tell them school they ask what grad program he is in. we say law school they ask "at Case? that is very impressive. congratulations". i definitely echo them as well Nate- Congrats and i am continually impressed by your achievements, goals, and intelligence! part of me-ok, ALL of me- cannot believe that we are in cleveland of all places but i know that this is where we are supposed to be. i love nate so much. he is pretty much the only person i would follow out here and STAY out here with. anyone else, i would have ran home about 10 minutes after arriving, not even joking! here's to a good first day of school and a GREAT first year!

take us out to the ball game- and i'll get my hair done!!

nate anxiously waiting to get into the ballpark.

we were able to get some tickets to the Indians game on tuesday night through the law school for $5 each- we were sold! nate got out of orientation early on tuesday so we took the train downtown and spent the afternoon there. we arrived to the park like an hour and a half before the gates even opened. the most random thing happened.... so we were standing in front of the gates when these two girls walked up to me and asked me if i would like to get my hair done? my first thought was 'does it look that bad today? i showered and actually did it.. it's not even a slicked back bun'. they went on to tell me that they were from a regis salon and were sponsoring the seventh inning stretch and they were doing 'make-overs' (just haircuts) and were trying to finding girls that were at the park early to get started on. i didn't know exactly what i was signing up for but needed a haircut so i said ok. so they took some 'before' pictures and then took us up a suite and starting cutting my hair. of course nate was able to come up to the suite also and watch the game. well then come to find out..... once our hair was done we were put on the big screen and the crowd 'voted' which haircut was the best. it was hilarious- funniest part, i won!!! i was very excited because i got a gift bag full of SWEET hair product (like $100 worth)! but then i started thinking 'was my hair really that bad- sad, i didn't even realize it'! the video is pretty fun- you can't hear it very well but i thought i'd put it on for a laugh! i definitely will never forget my first Indians game! the funniest part of this is i have NEVER, EVER let anyone cut my hair who i don't know or haven't seen their 'work' before! i guess there is a first for everything. it is a great haircut- a little shorter than i thought it would be and i got bangs-not too sure about those yet! so nate got a to sit in a suite for the game while i got my hair done- all for $5 a ticket~ that's a GREAT DEAL if you ask me :)

Nate took some sweet pictures

** and here is the second part to my big screen debut**

OHIO OR BUST.....

the morning drive started about 1 1/2 hours late because our trailer for the Murano was messed up but we got on the road and snapped a few pics along the way....

first we headed through Wyoming-

this was a monument in wyoming (almost to nebraska)...

then we headed into nebraska, that state is ENTIRELY too long-

nebraska had TONS of fields and CORN- that night be stayed in lincoln, NE

next on to iowa

capitol building in des moines coming up on the mississippi river



the bridge over the river

continuing on to illinois


the mississippi river on the illinois side- it STUNK so BAD!
this was a rough night so the picture was very fitting. we even got a flat tire on the truck- we stayed in Valparaiso, IN


nate and the truck

me and the truck-you can see my belly has grown :)FINALLY OHIO- there is such a place.... i was starting to wonder!

what we thought would be a 25 hour drive ended up being much, much longer! the first day as we headed up parleys and some passes through wyoming, we were going 22 MPH and getting about 5 MPG!!! it definately was a rough day. wednesday we actually got the truck up to 73 mph and doubled our MPG to 10-- IT WAS A GREAT DAY! before this trek out to cleveland i had never driven east of evanston. i passed that by several hundred miles! when we got to cleveland we were a little overwhelmed to say the least! we are getting use to things here but definitely prefer the west. i feel a little claustrophobic here but that is dissipating in time.

most of our stuff faired pretty well- a small rip in my new couch :( a broken leg on a table, one picture frame with broken glass, and our Murano kinda got beat up with everything we tried to pack in there! next time we are leaving the car empty. but we are alive and well and the baby is growing. 17 weeks now!!!! hopefully this weekend the house will be put together enough to post some pictures if it!!! there are SOO many boxes a SOO little storage in these houses. our house was built in the 1920's. we are slowly learning some of the fun (and not so fun) quirks about old houses but mainly they are a little difficult- lots of character though!

we are here....

quick post but i will add pictures later... we arrived in ohio on thursday. it was a LONG TRIP out here. i thought leaving was the hardest part but when we arrived- that was HARD! i felt like i was in a different country~ our first five minutes here were lost in the ghettos! serious eye-opener! we looked and looked for a place to live and were SHOCKED at what was on the market. these houses were built in the 1920's and have SO MUCH potential but landlords/tenants don't take the time to take care of anything. what we saw was unreal.....dirt, holes, problems... just place a fresh coat of paint over anything, good as new.... apparently that is what they think! when a house is almost 100 years old you can just paint over problems. we actually did find a place on friday night and started moving in on saturday. now we are buried in boxes but at least they are out of the moving van and we were able to return it on time and avoid paying another $700! we were pretty excited about that! i will post pictures and more later!

i LOVE this place!!!

so the weekend before nate and i moved to ohio, we went to bear lake with my family. I LOVE THIS PLACE!!! i could just hang out on the beach and on the water FOREVER! the water is so beautiful - you just cannot believe it! every year when we are are leaving i get a little teary eyed.... this year was especially hard knowing that the move was waiting for us as soon as we get back! lots of tears the whole way home!

IT'S A.....

(this is look as if you were changing a diaper- feet up in the air- little bum exposed)

we had an ultrasound on monday afternoon before we had the family over to help us oack the moving van AND.... IT'S A GIRL!! pink, pink, pink for us!!!! this came as a HUGE SHOCK to me- as everyone around me can tell you! i had dream after dream of our little boy and i just knew it was a boy, i had that feeling. well apparently my 'mother's intuition' will need some fine tuning and well, hasn't really kicked in because i obviously couldn't be more wrong. in fact, about two weeks ago i had the thought cross my mind 'they could actually tell me this is a girl, hmmm'. and that was like a newsflash to me?!? the ultrasound lady was VERY certain it is a girl, apparently she had no problem showing us time and time and time again :)! the WHOLE drive out to cleveland i kept looking at nate and saying "we're having a girl"-five minutes later- "it's really a girl" -few miles later "can you believe we're having a girl?" i think the more i say it the more it sets in. i is slowing starting to fell natural to call it 'her' now instead if 'it' or 'baby' or even 'him'. i had actually started referring to the baby as 'him'- oops! i've changed my tune :)!!!!!

we are SOOOO excited to welcome this girl as the first addition to our family. i am SO excited for bows and bracelets and all that fluff that comes with little girls!!! we pretty much have decided on a name (like 90%) but will disclose that at a later date when it is a little more certain. so i am 16 1/2 weeks and we counting down for our little girl.

cleveland rOcKs!

so we are hoping this title is true because we are about to venture out there and check it out for ourselves. Nate found out that he was accepted to Case Western Reserve University Law school... WAY TO GO BABE!!! so at very short we are packing up and headed out east- this was an extremely hard decision. i think the hardest part of the move is accepting the fact that my first little baby will be born half way across the country from our families! it was EXTREMELY hard to give work notice that we are leaving. i pretty much cried at the thought of leaving the "White Smiles Family Dentistry" clan!!! i will miss work- i know it sounds weird- but they are one in a million! hopefully our friends here won't forget about us:) we actually have some friends of ours that live out in cleveland. allison and jay (i worked with allison at Dr Petersons in Rigby) are there at podiatry school. crystal and tyler (crystal is my life saver from hygiene school in boise) are there for dental school. they have both been AMAZING and WILLING to check places out for us and be our eyes until we get there.... WHAT LIFE SAVERS!!! i am excited to see these girls again!!!
so pretty much we are scared to death but this is what we have been wanting for a long time... and it will never get easier..... we already miss everybody tons!!!! PLEASE, PLEASE come visit us.....