Riley Surprise

Here is a short video of us surprising Riley. He didn't think Carly was coming home from Africa for another day when all of a sudden she pops out from the other room.

Florida Trip

We took a trip down to Florida to kick off the new year and to celebrate Carly coming back home. Check out this 7 minute clip for a run-down of the trip and for Ryan's 1st crack at making a movie. If you ask me he did a darn good job!

I'm Pregnant!

on jan. 2nd (2008) we found out that i'm pregnant! Since we had some problems getting insurance for ryan (because of a pre-exisiting condition) this journey has been long and hard. its been NO secret i've wanted to be mom for a very long time. however, for whatever reason it wasn't in the Lord's plan for our lives just yet. But, our prayers were answered when we got a new amazing health insurance agent and he fought for us -- so on nov. 1st we got insured!
We were able to start trying for kids a month and a half after that. so on december 20th we did! I had this vision for awhile that i would find out we're pregnant on vacation in FL with my family, but i took a pregnancy test the day before we left and it was negative. i was bummed, but had this urging feeling to bring another pregnancy test along with us on the trip. so i did. and jan 2nd carly and i were getting ready for the days putting on makeup and doing our hair...i had just peed on the pregnancy test and had it on the counter and carly had just went into the next room to turn on some' getting ready' for the day music. i happened to look over and see TWO lines! I yelled "CARLY, GET IN HERE!!!!" she ran in and asked how many lines she saw (she said two) i grabbed the stick and ran screaming i'm pregnant into the next room where everyone was sitting. it was sooo cute, ryan had this excited but completely scared look on his face!

We are so excited. We are so blessed. We are so thankful. today i'm starting my sixth week, and just praying we have a safe/healthy baby and pregnancy.

i've been married to my prince charming for 4 1/2 years now. alot longer than i thought we'd be before we had kids. but, i wouldn't change it for the world. we got to build an awesome foundation for our marriage, we got to see other people raising their kids and see what we like or don't like, we've gotten to deepen our relationship with God--having to rely on HIS timing for our family to start...not ours. I always laugh at the movie Bruce Almighty when the main character and God are talking and the main character was talking about his plans for his life and how building an ark was not in his plans... and God was like "your plans?" and just starts laughing. so true.

Some random facts about our baby:
We're calling the baby "squirt" instead of "it"
We're not finding out the sex
We're going to keep the names a surprise
Tenative due date: Sept. 14th
i'm tired ALOT can't make it past 8:45 the last couple of weeks
i'm sure we'll have some more updates to come. thanks for reading!

updates some, not all

i got some of our blog updated, much more to come!

my uncle paul, the new head football coach @ ISU!

Mid december Iowa State announced my uncle Paul, ( my mom's youngest brother) is the new ISU football coach! needless to say the family is VERY excited about this!!
here is a picture of my mom's siblings (minus paul)




















my grandpa rhoads....so proud!!

football coach!

here is a picture of ryan & I sitting in the head football coach's chair!
all of our family @ the press conf.

















with the athletic director of ISU!

picking up carly from the airport

here we are at the des moines airport picking my up sister. She has been living on a tropical island South east of Africa. She came home just in time for Christmas. We were glad to have her home for a month and catch up!

my birthday & riley's birthday!

here is a couple of pictures from celebrating december birthdays! I had a great 27th birthday. my husband planned the entire day, starting out with a nice home cooked breakfast at my parents house, followed by getting a new cell phone, a couples massage, lunch at great plains, shopping! not to mention my sister came home from an African island the next day. it was a great weekend! riley turned 14 this year as well!!

my little brothers basketball games

here are a couple of pictures of my little brothers basketball game. i might be a little biased, but he is a good little player! i can't wait to see him grow & get even better in the years to come. on a complete side note, he is officially taller than all his sisters now!

the "hole" girls go to a dance!

here is a picture of the two girls who live in our basement going to a dance. the one of the right is my sister, haley & the other girl is annie. say cheeeeese!

thanksgiving!

game night!

had riley & haley over to have sibiling game night. we ended up playing monopoly and Riley won. this was a month before carly came home.

my new apron

i got a new apron and thought i'd try it out with a new recipe. its a chicken soup we got from the Mason's----it is AMAZING!!! if you want a GREAT soup, try this out:
Cheesy Chicken Corn Soup chicken:
4-6 boneless, skinless breasts
1/4 cup chopped onion (optional)
1/4 cup chopped celery (optional)
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can cream corn
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup shredded american cheese

cook chicken. cut up chicken to bit size pieces. place chicken in crockpot or stovetop. add the rest of the ingredents. stir around until everything has mixed. cook on low for 1-2 hours. (or you can cook it on your stovetop until the vegetables have cooked)

he's on it!

this past fall our area was flooded with little red lady bugs. ryan took it on as his responsibility to get every single one of them. if he thought he heard one, or saw one he got that little dust buster out quicker than anything! :-)

hallow-thanks-mas!

Ryan's grandparents spend winters in Arizona so we celebrate all the fall/winter holidays early. Here are a couple of pictures from that evening.

me with grandpa kenny


grandma J got us matching sweatshirts from the shop she works at in the wintertime. all the aunts with our sweatshirts.

updates to come

for the last month we've been slacking on posting.  Expect a post from/about:

Carly's return home!

Christmas X 4

My uncle as the new head coach of ISU football

Orlando Trip

thanksgiving-thankfulness letter to ourselves

online Christmas letter

my goal is to have this updated by sunday...so we'll see! :-)