Baby on the Way!

We are excited to announce our first baby is on the way!! We couldn't be happier about this. The baby should be born at the end on July next year. Unfortunately, I have been really sick with 24/7 nausea, vomiting, and being extremely tired. I have lost weight since I haven't been able to eat much and my doctor said I am dehydrated and that is what is causing me to feel dizzy and lightheaded. I've had to take time off of work and am trying hard to get myself rehydrated and trying lots of tricks to help the nausea. I had my first doctor appointment yesterday and we got to see our little baby on the ultrasound. It was exciting, we saw the little heart beating away and could make out the head and arms. (It wasn't great quality, and the picture they gave us looks like a blob with no identifiable parts, but we love our little blob!) We hope all of you have a very Merry Christmas!!

Quarter Century and Random Updates

Happy Birthday Zach! Today was Zach's 25th birthday!! We're getting old! He really is the best husband ever. We had a fun filled day planned but unfortunately I was in bed sick all day so we weren't able to do anything. He even had to get his own meals. I felt so bad, but hopefully we'll be able to do the birthday funtivities later this week. 

Last week we went to see The Forgotten Carols. It was both Zach and my first time seeing it and we really loved it. Yes, the acting was cheesey but the music is amazing! And it was a great outing to help get us in the Christmas mood. 

Also, we had these pictures from way back at the beginning of November from Robert's birthday party. We didn't have the camera out for the real candles so this picture is a re-do. We love you Robert!

Park City Anniversary

Last month was our anniversary. We went to Park city for a couple of days and had a great time shopping at the outlets, walking around main street, and hanging out in our slightly ghetto hotel room. 

We brought our frozen wedding cake along and let's just say it tasted like it had spent a year in the freezer in the garage. (Oh that's right, it had.)

One Year Anniversary!! Whoot-woo!

Wow! We can't believe it's been a year since we were married. It's definitely been an amazing year with lots of change, stress, but mostly full of great times and happy memories. I've been thinking about everything that we've gone through this year. We started out in a tini-tiny duplex that was freezing all the time and smelled like cigarette smoke from our crazy neighbor. Since our first place we have moved three times! Zach has had two different jobs this year, we have taken a bunch of fun trips and have loved having so much time together. We are heading out tomorrow to Park City for a couple days to celebrate. Yay!! 

We saved the top of our wedding cake and will be celebrating with a piece of it tomorrow... Zach is a little scared to eat it. It will probably taste stale and like freezer-burn but we have to have at least a bite, right?

I'm glad I finally have an excuse to post some of our wedding pictures :)

This is our first dance. We put on smiles, but Zach was whispering in my ear "Your friends are being SO loud!" Ha, it was still fun.

New Template

The last time I was at my family's house I got on the computer and saw that our background didn't show up on their computer. It was supposed to be a red background with a baby blue swirly tree. I'm so sad that some of you weren't able to see it so I decided to just do a new one. Please let me know if you can't see it.

Vandals, Voting, and VVVery Cute Pumpkins!

So the other day Zach and I went on a little hike/jog through the canyon that's just next to the state capitol. We parked across the street and got a good workout while enjoying the fall colors. We got back to the car and the drivers window of our car was shattered and our GPS was stolen. How rude!! We couldn't believe it. We had parked on a busy street in the middle of the day! Luckily whoever did it did a smash and grab job. If they had taken time to look they would have found my purse, Zach's wallet, both our cell phones and an ipod. We were so glad that it was only the GPS we lost and not everything else. We had to buy a new window and are now back to using our brains to get around instead of our GPS. But we have definitely learned our lesson- we'll never leave things in the car again!
Today we went and voted. We had to stand in line for an hour (which we thought wouldn't happen since we were voting early) but our civic duty is done. Afterward we bought pumpkins and carved them. Below is a display of our amazing carving talents :)

Tag - I'm it?

I've never been "tagged" before, but I'll play, so here we go! This is a tag about my wonderful husband.

1- Where did you meet? We met our freshman year at Snow College. Zach was roommates with my good friend Joe G. from high school. I went over there a lot to hang out with Joe and was intrigued by the tall, handsome, quiet guy hanging around!

2- How long did you date before you got married? Well, we dated for a few months before Zach left on his mission, then stayed in touch for four years and then dated 9 months on our second round of dating before we got married.

3- How long have you been married? One year on November 10th!!!!

4- What does he do that surprises you? Hmmm. I am surprised at how much he does for me. I thought it might start wearing off the longer we have been married, but we have almost been married a year and he is still sooooo generous and helpful and kind! He still opens doors for me EVERY time, he gives me a back rub or plays with my hair just about every night, he cleans and cooks just as much as I do, and he is always doing small little favors for me. I have the best husband ever!

5- What is your favorite feature about him? I love how tall he is and also his giant soft lips! :)

6- What is your favorite quality about him? Zach is one of the most generous people I have ever met. He likes to help anyone and everyone as much as he can. He is a genuinely nice person. Even when people have treated him badly, he never does anything unkind in return. Also, he is always happy and in a good mood. Occasionally he will apologize for being grouchy, but his 'grouchiness' is better than most people's good moods!

7- Does he have a nickname for you? We aren't big into nicknames, but I guess 'Honey' or 'toots' when he's being funny (I don't know how you would really spell that - not 'toot' but short for tootsie. Does that make sense? Ha! He'll know what I mean!)

8- What is his favorite color? ... I'm gonna say blue... ?

9- What is his favorite food? Chocolate. He is waaaay more of a chocolate lover than I am!

10- What is his favorite sport? Basketball

11- Who said I love you first? He did :) It took me about a month or two to say it back. I knew I loved him sooner than that, but he was in California and I didn't want to say it over the phone. I should have though because I had put so much pressure on myself to say it the next time that I saw him, that after I said it I had a little bit of a panic attack. Oh wasn't that a romantic moment honey? :)

12- When and where was your first kiss? Funny story. It was our freshman year at Snow. We had gone to the Manti cemetery with a bunch of our friends to walk around and scare ourselves. We were walking around alone and all of our friends were waiting for us in the car. Whenever I asked if he was ready to go, Zach kept saying not yet, and that he wanted to walk around longer. I knew he was just trying to summon the courage to kiss me, so after a long time of walking around I just kissed him! HOWEVER, Zach is much taller than me, so I think I ended up kissing his chin more than anything else! Oh, another romantic moment! ;)

13- Do you have kids? Not yet, but we are excited to have one someday!

14- What is a hidden talent that he has? Zach is an amazing dancer! Smooth moves! :)

15- How old is he? He will be 25 in December.

16- What's his favorite type of music? He likes a lot of different kinds. He likes a lot of chill music like Jack Johnson, and Jason Mraz, we're big into Missy Higgins right now but some of his favorite bands are Angels and Airwaves, Bayside, Taking Back Sunday, Cute is What we Aim For, Cartel... hmmm, there are lots. Zach is HUGE into music and likes to stay up on all the music news and new stuff coming out.

17- What do you admire most about him? His kindness, generosity and patience.

18- What is his favorite past time? Zach loves to stay up on all the news. Entertainment, movies, music, technology, world news, everything. So he spends a lot of time reading stuff on the internet.

19- Will he read this? Of course! I love you Zach!





Ok so I guess I'm supposed to keep this thing going, so I tag Marie, Anna Moon, and Natalie because I would love to hear your stories!

Cold Cougars

On Saturday we went to the BYU game. It just so happened to be on the coldest day of the year! We were freezing! But thankfully we didn't get rained or snowed on. Zach's family has season tickets every year and they are great seats. It was so fun and BYU won (of course!).

Memory Park

For those of you who have never been to memory park, you need to go! Zach and I started going there when we lived in the avenues, just a few blocks away. Now we live about 10 minutes away, and went back for the first time since we moved. It's a beautiful park that is in memory to all the soldiers who died in combat. So there are lots of memorials, but also streams, bridges, benches, and a trail that goes up into the canyon. We highly recommend it.

Zach just recently got a new full time job at O'Currence as a sales rep. We are excited for him to start. He also has been doing school full time online and has been doing awesome with straight A's. What a great husband I have!

The Best Time of the Year

We decided to take a drive up one of the canyons in Bountiful today to look at all the changing leaves. It was such a beautiful canyon and the colors were amazing! We're bummed because they don't look nearly as vibrant in these pictures. We found a hiking trail and hiked up to see some awesome views! Fall is my favorite season. I love everything about it! The weather, the leaves, halloween, corn mazes, football games, I just LOVE it!

(Zach would like to add a disclaimer. He does actually own other shirts, but it just so happens that he is wearing the same one every time we take pictures!)

This IS the place!

We're finally back in Utah! Yay! We have been home almost a month now. We're living in North Salt Lake in an apartment. Zach is going to Weber State full time and I have started back at LDS hospital full time. It's been so good to be back. We've had a lot of fun playing with family and friends. We've definitely stayed busy. We helped Zach's mom rip out her kitchen, went to the state fair with our friends the Watts, went to a demolition derby with our other good friends the Swanns, we have gone to birthday parties and weddings, we went to the zoo with Marie and her family, we've gone on hikes, been to the movies, and have been enjoying having MUCH more time together. 

On our way home from Napa we stopped to have dinner at my Uncle Stan's house. It was so fun because their whole family was there. We were able to see my cousin Natalie & Mo's new baby Zukiswa. She is beautiful! Here are a few pics with her. (Thanks again Anna for the pictures!)

Beautiful Napa

So far Zach and I have loved living in Napa. We are surrounded by gorgeous vineyards and beautiful flowers and vegetation. The vineyards are everywhere! Even small ones are squeezed in between stores on main street and in peoples side yards. We've enjoyed driving around and looking at them. All the wineries have big beautiful buildings that are fun to look at too. The weather here is amazing! It's usually in the 80's during the day and very cool at night. It is definitely something we will miss but not as much as we miss Utah! We are very excited to come home in a couple weeks. 

                                        

Last week we went to Discovery Kingdom. Is it a Six Flags theme park combined with a marine park. Unfortunately we forgot our camera so we didn't get any pics but we had a blast! We watched the dolphin and killer whale shows, saw sharks, walruses, sea lions and seals close up and also got to ride a few killer roller coasters. It was a fun day!

Never trust the internet.

Zach and I were really craving a good beach day so we looked up the beaches near Napa hoping to find a good one. We found one that said it had a great beach, perfect for swimming and playing on the beach. We were so excited so we plugged the address into our GPS and headed off ready for a great day of lounging on the sand and swimming in the ocean. But after driving an hour to get there, that's not exactly what we got. First of all, it wasn't really the ocean, it was a bay and was more of a swamp than a beach. The small area of shore that was there was completely made of rocks. Not to mention it was pretty cold weather. We tried to make the most of it and had a picnic and skipped rocks and then headed home. Our beach day didn't turn out too great, but at least it was an adventure and we got out of the apartment!

The beautiful "ocean"

The awesome "beach"

My sad face.

Zach had fun playing on the rocks

We're moving to Cali

So we've had a sudden change in plans come up. Zach's office has decided to combine with the office in Vallejo California. We just found out Thursday and we have to be there on Sunday! So we're in a furry of fixing cars, and cleaning and packing to get ready for the move. Zach will be working in Vallejo but we will actually be living in Napa. We'll only be there for a month but we're both really excited for a change. We'll be really close to San Francisco and it looks like there is a lot more to do there than in Reno. It should be fun. So if you happen to be in Napa, give us a call!!

Holy Smoke!

With all the fires going on just across the border from us we have had major smoke invade Reno! It went on for weeks! It was horrible. It smelled, it made us congested, and both Zach and I had random nose bleeds! (Not healthy!) Luckily the past week or so has been much better and we've enjoyed breathing clean air again. These pictures are the view from our balcony. The first is on a smoky day, the second, on a clear day (obviously!). Both were taken in the middle of the day. Crazy huh?

Wee-nee Roast at Grandpa's!

One of my favorite things in the world is to stay at my Grandpa Zenk's house. It is the most relaxing place in the world! My family came out to visit him and luckily he lives only a couple hours away from Reno in California. We had a great couple of days there swimming, eating lots of yummy food, napping on the covered porch, watching all the wildlife walking through the backyard, and of course the traditional wee-nee roast with Uncle Stan's family. Good times!

Roasting hot dogs! They always taste better this way. (And I had been swimming all day, that's why I look so cute. ha.)

The fam! Cousin Michael, brother Robert, Dad, Mom, sis Jess, hubby Zach, cousin Dwynne, and sis Melinda

I just wanted to get a shot of the covered porch and pool where we spend most of our awesome, relaxing days! 

I LOVE GRANDPA'S HOUSE!

Somehow I never got grandpa in one of my shots during our visit but I wanted to put a picture of him on here because he is such a wonderful person and Grandpa and we love him so much!!

Our Fourth of July

Zach had to work from 9am to 5pm on the fourth of July. So when he got home we raced over to Lake Tahoe. We got there early enough to get a good spot on the beach with a great view of the fireworks. It was pretty crowded with people but we still had a lot of fun. We had a picnic on the beach and played cards while we waited for the show. It was really fun and we are already excited to spend the 4th in Utah next year with our family and friends!

A San Francisco Treat

For those of you who don't know, we are living in Reno, NV for the summer. We are here for Zach's job. He's a manager for APX alarms. Zach works 6 days a week, ALL day long so we don't have too many opportunities to do fun things. But for my birthday we both took two days off and went to San Francisco. We had a blast! We went to the Japanese Tea Gardens, Golden Gate park, and spent a lot of time at Pier 39 and Fisherman's wharf. There are a lot of street entertainers there and lucky Zach got chosen to help with one of the shows. He hated it! Ha! We went to the aquarium at Pier 39 and it was much better than we thought it would be. We even got to touch sting rays and baby sharks! We took the tour of Alcatraz and it was amazing! We also went to the PEZ museum. Zach is a HUGE PEZ collector and he was like a giddy little boy in that museum! It was a great trip!