We have had a lot of fun these past couple of weeks with the many things going on in Anchorage. We went to the Iditarod "kick off" start a couple weeks ago (if you're like me and didn't know what the iditarod is...it is the dog sled race from anchorage to gnome alaska which is 1049 miles long. Pretty impressive). We were really surprised that they don't use huskies for their dogs. I guess that huskies don't have as good of endurance as these other dogs do? Something like that i guess. Eric LOVED this. He was having so much fun. Unfortunately i was ready to go before he was and he being the wonderful guy he is left without complaining. He's a keeper :)

We went out one night in hopes of seeing the northern lights but came home unsuccessful. We were bummed to hear that we missed them by like 20 minutes! Eric made a deal with me that if we saw the northern lights he would take me out for ice cream. I agreed, thinking we would see them FOR SURE. I was, of course, bummed for more than one reason when we didn't see the northern lights. Those of you that know me know that i LOVE my ice cream.

Last friday eric came home with tickets for the Alaska Aces hockey game. They are a semi-pro team and are pretty good. We had a fun time (pictures are on erics phone...)

And for the most exciting news.....

Baby Girl is doing great. The Dr says she is growing and is right on track. Everything looks and sounds great! We are so excited.

On sunday night we set up her little swing...we both get soo excited when we see it all set up. Only 2 more months!

And for the pictures...

I am now 31 weeks which means...we're in the single digit weekly countdown :)

These pictures don't do it justice...i AM growing i promise!

We love this little girl so much and are SO excited for her to come!

three...

THREE is a very exciting number for us today.

That would be because in THREE months we will have been married for THREE years and we will be a family of THREE!!!

We are SOO very excited!

THREE months and counting....

More Alaskan Adventures

Hi everyone J As promised, here are a few more Alaskan adventures and some updates from us. By the way, this is Eric. Yeah, weird right? I don’t usually get into the whole blog thing, but Holly told me that Tanner McD does it. If Tanner can do it, I think I can get away with it too.

Holly is 27 weeks along and is FINALLY starting to show. She’d never say it, but I think she thinks it’s fun to finally look pregnant. We are both really excited – May 17^th!

It’s hard to believe that we’ve only lived here a month and a half. We feel like we’ve been able to see and do a lot already…

Met some important people…

Took in the exotic wildlife (yes, that is a painted wall. Cool, eh?)...

Sat on an ice throne...

Took a ride on the real 'polar' express...

Swam some laps at the local pool…

And seen more snow than we have ever seen in our entire lives!

...and shoveled our fair share of it :)

Since we first arrived here in Anchorage, we have kept an “Alaskan Bucket List” (things we want to definitely do while we are up here) and that list just keeps growing. Here is where we’re at thus far.

See the Northern Lights

Snowshoeing

Cross Country Skiing

Shoot a Moose

Shoot a Grizzly Bear

Catch every type of Salmon

Day cruise

Go through the 3 mile tunnel

Whale watching

Walk on a glacier

Take pictures of:

- Moose (bull, cow, and baby)

- Black Bear

- Grizzly Bear

- Lynx

- Bald Eagle

- Humpback Whale

- Killer Whale

- Caribou

- Wolves

Backcountry snowboard

Teach our little girl how to ski

So far we’ve only checked one off the list. This past week we went on a moose hunt here in Anchorage (just with the camera) and we got lucky! Take a look.

Moose # 1

Moose # 2

These first two we saw near a place called Kincaid Park which is only 10-15 minutes away from our house. We thought we got pretty lucky – moose hunt successful. We got home and were eating lunch in the kitchen of our townhome when believe it or not, a moose showed up RIGHT in our backyard. Here is the proof.

Moose #3, just right off of our back porch. I think this one counts as a baby…she was pretty young.

Pretty cool. This past week we took a picture of this next one….the door on the left is our neighbor’s front door.

Anyways…in other news, Holly took her Nursing Boards this past weekend! She has been studying quite a bit. She’s hoping like crazy that she passed – I am sure she did. That could be her last test EVER! From what we hear, Nurses are pretty high in demand up here so it might actually work out for Holly to get some experience in the field for a couple of months before the baby comes. We’ll see.

I however, am not so lucky. While she was taking her test, I swung by the office and picked up my study materials for the CPA Exam.

While we’re on the accounting subject, here is where I work. Pretty nice eh? You have got to love the grey cubicle. At least it’s got a name tag, right?

All in all, life is pretty good right now. People are outgoing and pretty laid back. We thought we would miss those Idaho sunsets, but this one is p-retty darn good. I did see a bag of potatoes at Walmart the other day that brought back a little nostalgia, but we're enjoying living up here.

22

We are at 22 weeks. Here is a post to update everyone on our pregnancy. Of course i had to include the pictures. Here is what i have captured of the pregnancy so far:

11 weeks (above)

16 weeks (above)

18 weeks (above) It's a GIRL!

21 weeks (above) getting bigger

22 weeks (above) you can see the bump growing!

As you can tell i am definitely in the "are you pregnant or just getting chubby" stage. But it is so fun to see her grow! Is it hard to see the numbers on the scale go up-yes, but is it so worth it when i remember why they are going up-DEFINITELY! We love her so much already. She moves around quite a bit lately and its so much fun to feel her. Eric has been lucky enough to feel her a few times too.

I have been very lucky with this pregnancy so far. At week 6 i felt nauseated at times-mainly due to smells. Smells are a lot stronger now and it made me nauseated for that week and a half and then i went back to feeling good again. I learned that if i didn't eat anything i would feel sick. Luckily there is a quick fix to that problem-eat! The unfortunate part was that nothing ever sounded good. I think that drove Eric nuts because we both knew i was hungry but every time he suggested something i would turn it down. He learned to just put something in front of me and i would eat it. :) I was so lucky to not be really sick during that time because i was finishing up the nursing program. I can't imagine trying to study and go to clinical shifts feeling sick all the time. That just would have been the worst. I was definitely blessed! Also during the beginning weeks i was amazed at how exhausted i would feel. I would come home from school and just have to take a nap before making dinner. Or i would be at school studying for a test and i would have to take a nap because i just couldn't keep my eyes open. That slowly went away, but there are still moments when i get exhausted. I just have to remember that my body is working hard to help this little girl grow and sometimes, it needs a rest. I'm still feeling really good and doing really well.

As to cravings and things like that i haven't had any...yet. Well, nothing that i don't usually crave-you know, ice cream, peanut m&ms, warm chocolate chip cookies etc... Nope, Eric hasn't had to go on any late night runs to grab me something i have been craving-not yet at least. There was a time when fast food sounded awful all the time. I wanted nothing to do with the greasy hamburgers or fries. Mandarin oranges have been one of my favorites and lately just regular oranges are so heavenly to me. But i have no crazy weird craving stories for you.

We found out that we were having a girl on Dec 16. That was such a fun appointment. I had been looking forward to it for so long. Eric guessed that it was a girl all along, but i just couldn't decide. Part of me would decide that it was a girl and then i would have these dreams that we would go to the doctor and he would tell us it was a boy and i was devastated because i had bought everything for a girl. After a few of those dreams i just decided that i would stop thinking about it so much and just look forward to finding out what it was. We were both SO happy when they told us "It's a girl."

As far as names go, we don't have one picked out for sure. We have a few names that we really like, some more than others, but we will just have to wait and see. I'll keep you updated on that.

So far, pregnancy has been great. I get so excited thinking about names, colors, making bows etc etc and then get nervous when i realize that this is for real. It is such an exciting time in life!

where to start...

I don't even know where to begin. It has been a long time and so much has happened that i am at a loss of where to start. I guess i can begin with the end of schooling: GRADUATION!! We both graduated together on December 16. We were so lucky that the timing of our schooling worked out that way. Our families came up and helped us pack up our things that day and then came to support us on our graduation night. Eric had no desire to walk, but since we were both graduating i figured it would be cool to walk together. So, i signed him up to walk with the nursing students :) Instead of being with the accounting/business students Eric agreed to walk with me. That was fun. It was a great night and we were given great messages-Elder Cook came and spoke-it was a great talk!

The next day, bright and early, we finished the last minute cleaning, said our goodbyes to our families, and said goodbye to Rexburg. There were two other couples that we became pretty good friends that are now in Alaska too. The husbands all got jobs at the same firm! We were able to fit our stuff in the same Uhaul and split the moving costs a little bit. We left for Seattle on December 17. We loaded our car onto a barge that would haul it overseas to Anchorage and then we put all of everyone's stuff on a barge container to haul it up to Anchorage too. After everything was loaded we realized that everything we owned was out in the ocean on its way to Alaska. So crazy! We said our thanks and goodbye to Erics dad and hopped on a train to Portland, Oregon where we stayed with my grandparents for about a week before we caught our flight to Anchorage. We were able to go stay at their beach house for a few days and it was so nice. We were SO lucky with weather-no wind, no rain, clear skies, all you needed was a light jacket! It was such a nice break from the hectic world we were finishing up. Christmas was so good. It was nice to be around family.

On Dec 27 we loaded our stuff on the plane and left the "lower 48" on our way to our new home: ALASKA! I still cannot believe it! We arrived safe and sound and one of the couples (the Murdocks) that moved up here too made it before we did so they picked us up and took us to our new home. Our landlord had a blow up mattress, shower curtain, and some paper products waiting for us when we got here so we wouldn't have to worry about those kinds of things. We got a phone call earlier that day saying our car made it and we could pick it up the next day. Our "stuff" wouldn't arrive for another week. We made do with pb&j's and a few other simple things like that until our stuff arrived. A little over a week later our stuff arrived. That was quite the day. All 3 guys went and unloaded the barge, separated everything into piles for each family, and then loaded it into a uhaul truck where we took everything to each others houses and unloaded things. It was a day long process and Eric was exhausted. But, it was so very nice to know that everything made it up here. It was a little intimidating looking at the high stacks of boxes knowing we had to put it all somewhere, but i was just so happy it was here that the next morning we got right to work and put it away. It took us a couple of days to get it all put away and decorations up, but it looks nice and we are so grateful its all here! We went out for a drive looking for moose one day, were unsuccessful but took some pictures of how beautiful it is here. We are amazed at the snow-there is so much of it. We are told that this year has been an unusual winter and that there usually isnt quite this much snow. They do a really good job of keeping the roads as clear as possible, but lately it has been hard for them to keep up because it just keeps coming down. :) We went into town with the Murdocks and looked at the ice sculptures-they were pretty amazing. It is cold here, but nothing we are not used to from living in Rexburg (ICEBURG) for a few years. The people in our ward also told us that the weather is usually not this cold either-which was very nice to hear. I just make sure to put on my long johns and i am just fine :) We are really liking Alaska. The people here have been so nice. There are some things that we have found are more expensive here, such as gas, eggs, potatoes (sad sad sad) and housing. But altogether its not that big of a difference at all. The one thing that is taking me a while to get used to is waking up at 7 or 8 in the morning and it's pitch black outside. My body could get up and go for the day, but the darkness plays tricks on my mind and makes it feel like it's 4 in the morning. The sun usually is up by about 10:30 everyday and sunset is usually around 3-or 3:30 everyday. It is pretty different, but i am praying i'll get used to it soon. We are doing really well and are all settled in. Eric will start his job as an accountant (auditor) in one week from today! I am getting everything sent in and am studying for my boards exam. Everything has been going well and we are enjoying it here.

Many more alaskan adventures to come....

Our summer is sadly coming to an end (here in about 2 weeks) but it has been such a wonderful summer packed with lots of memories. Here are a few of those memories:

headed to the beach

boogie boarding

yummy burgers

LOVE the beach

universal studios

the little mermaid

our first camping trip together

LOTS of pool time in St. George

LOVIN the sunshine

hope all your summers have been as great as ours!!