{Oh baby....}

Yes ladies and gents.....we be having a baby! Crazy?! I think it is; but it is also wonderful! We are super excited for this little tyke and I'm already planning the nursery and have my list of names going. My guess is that it is going to be a boy....we shall see.

Number 1 picks:
Boy: Andersen, Darren, Aden, Camden,
Girls: Paycen, Raegen, Emersen (Emmy), Madysen

Notice the "en" theme....kind of what we were going for. Ahhh....this is so exciting!! We are going to be parents! I honestly don't think that is has really hit either of us yet. One thing that has hit me is the nauseous feeling all the time. For awhile I've been living off of saltines, ginger snaps and ginger ale. The other day we were at Wal-Mart and I saw this super cute onesie so we bought it and I clothed my bottle of ginger ale with it. I think he is cute.....hopefully our baby has arms and legs.....and a head.

Other than the baby, we are focusing on moving down to Utah here soon. We have been packing and I swear it's a never ending process. It'll eventually get done.

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{vista house}

A couple of weekends ago Garett took me up to the Vista house up on Mt. Spokane to go camping. Let me preface this weekend fun with a story.

A long, long time ago in a land far away.....haha ok so not very long ago here in Spokane a guy named Garett Johnson proposed to me. Let me recap how that happened. Officially this went down on May 24th.....unofficially, about a week before hand. About mid May we both knew where this relationship was heading and so we talked about the "M" word. For awhile neither of us actually said the "M" word, just things like "Oh I could see you and me like this forever" yadada. Finally, one night we both said the word and the ball started rolling from there. Now that I had a verbal commitment from him I went to work. That Friday I went to a dress shop tried on a handful of dresses and found one I loved! Saturday morning I brought my roommates back to confirm my decision and I bought the dress. After that Garett and I went ring shopping all the rest of the day. I pointed out a couple I liked and basically said surprise me. So now that he knew what rings I liked I was getting antsy, wondering when he was going to pop the question. I kept myself busy with other wedding plans to keep my mind occupied. I managed to get a photographer whilst I waited. We also nailed down a date which gradually kept being moved forward to accommodate everyone....which was perfectly ok with us; we would have gotten married in a week if we could.

This brings my tale to a Tuesday morning about a week later. I called the temple and reserved the date for our sealing....still ringless. Garett later asked me what I wanted to do that night and I said I'm good with whatever. So he told me that his dad, who is a park ranger on Mt. Spokane, said we could go snowmobiling up on the mountain if we wanted to......of course I wanted to! So he picked me up and we went to his house and got all of our snow gear on. Now let me insert here that I was suspicious that something might be in the works; I'm a pretty hard person to surprise. We left his house and followed his dad up to the shed. His dad hopped on one snowmobile and Garett and I got on the other. At this point I was beginning to doubt that anything was going to happen; I didn't think he would propose with his dad there too. So we rode up the mountain and got to the top. Garett asked if I wanted to drive so we drove back to the bottom leaving his dad at the top and I drove us up to the top again. We found his dad and Garett asked him if he could show me the Vista House (this really old, cool stone house on the very top of the mountain). His dad gave us the key and said that he was going to start heading home. We went up to the house and I was so mesmerized by the view that I didn't even notice the house. Finally, I looked at the house and noticed a fire buring inside.....huge red flag went up in my noggin and I froze. I looked at Garett and asked him what was going on to which he helpfully responded with "What is going on???" So we went inside and there was a path of rose petals and candles leading to the fire. There was a blanket in front of the fire and large amounts of food (me knows me well haha) and dozens of roses. As I was processing all of this he got down on one knee and asked the question I've been dying to hear him ask! He pulled out the most beautiful ring and slid it on my finger! Officially official!

So that's the story. Now for the weekend update....Garett told me that we could go camping up at the Vista House Sunday night! So we packed up all of our camping gear that we got from the wedding, a dutch oven and food. We took a bag of Costco pot stickers for dinner and potatoes, bacon and eggs for breakfast. Delicious! We drove up Sunday night around 6:30 and it was pretty dang cold! Garett started a fire and I set up the beds. My boss gave us these self inflating sleep pads that are 2.5 inches thick and super comfy. We zipped our sleeping bags together and it was really warm. So warm that around one in the morning I had to go to the bathroom and suck my head out of the sleeping bag I didn't want to get out. But there's no sleeping when you have to pee. I debated with myself for about ten minutes and finally looked over to see that Garett was awake too so I told him that I had to go to the bathroom. Bracing ourselves for the frigid cold air we ran to the car and drove down to the outhouse. Needless to say I slept much better after that.

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{while you were out}

This past weekend Garett's parents went out of town for work and left us home alone. That is dangerous....haha! No we decided to pretend we were on the home makeover show "While You Were Out" and spruce up the house a bit! We spent a lot of time in Home Depot, Lowe's, Ross and on Craigslist. We replaced the seventies globe lights and eyeball track lighting with lighting from this millennium : ) 

Garett hung one of them and I hung the other two whilst he was sleeping so I could impress him with my electrician skills. It took me about 45 minutes to hang them because I had to clean up spider webs and dead spiders! I just swirled them around a screwdriver and washed them down the sink : ) We also tackled the family room and made the back part an office for his mom (I'll add a picture of the office space when I take one).

Then we took down the track lighting over the dining table and hung a chandelier. We got it at Home Depot for $50....it was originally $150! I love a good bargain! Garett can attest to this; I never pay full price for anything. Why not make your money go further? That is my philosophy. Anyway, from the picture you can tell that it is hung by a binder clip. Why, you ask? Well, we bought an anchor and when we got home we realized that the hook screw's thread was too big to fit in the anchor. Garett's parents were due to home in a couple hours and we wanted the chandelier up so they could see it so we got creative. Garett came up to me holding the binder clip and said we should use that....I thought he was joking. As you can see he wasn't : ) So he drilled the anchor screw through it and clipped the light chain to it. Perfect. We will get a hook eventually. Jerry (Garett's dad) says he likes the binder clip. Haha! 

I also wanted to get some pictures and decoration up on the bare walls so I made a picture collage on the entry way wall and hung up some stuff I got from Ross. Can I just say that I LOVE Ross?! Everything I own comes from that glorious store!

Above I mentioned that I spent a lot of time on Craigslist. That was true. For this little home makeover project Garett and I probably put in around 5 hours; between looking through all the ads for coffee tables, TV stands, lighting fixtures, couches and actually going to look at quite a few of them. Nearly everything we went and saw didn't work out. Except the TV table you see below.  I paid $25 for it and we bought new knobs for $20. So a grand total of $45 dollars went into this. After we bought it we were at a furniture store looking at couches for his parents when we saw the exact same table on the show floor. We were curious what this table new cost so we walked over to it to check it out. My jaw dropped....it cost $295! I just paid $25 for the same exact thing! Moral of the story? Craigslist is worth the time and frustration, haha! I also found a matching coffee table for $40 that is beautiful as well. We are going to put the extra new knobs on it as well so they will really look like a set (I'll put a picture as soon as I take one of it).  

 

It was a fun weekend overall. Garett's parents were definitely surprised and loved the changes! Garett and I are planning on refinishing their table, which is currently stained with a reddish brown stain. We want to sand it down and restain it a dark dark brown so it matches the living room furniture and the new lighting we put in. So stayed posted for those pictures : )

Just a quick update on our life....Garett goes into Costco today to fill out some additional paperwork. He has had two interviews there so far so fingers crossed that today he finds out if he got the job or not! He would start October 18th. That would be awesome! I have started playing indoor soccer again.....my first game was last night. We won but I am horribly out of shape. My lungs aren't cooperating with me. So we have decided to start a training program. It's the one I did for college soccer so this should be interesting haha. We will have to tweak it so we don't die the first training session. I am super excited to get into some sort of fitness regiment again. We love to be active and we are for the most part, but we just have a hard time finding time....or a better way to put that is that we have way too easy of a time finding other things to do besides exercising : ) We are going to start this program next week so I will keep you posted on our progress.

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{two months in}

It's been a little over two month since we've tied the eternal knot! Wow time flies.... Anyway, we are back from Utah. It was a great two weeks! I celebrated my birthday with my family which was awesome. The whole first week was crazy getting ready for the wedding and family coming in. The Thursday before the wedding a family friend, RaLynn Parry, and I threw Lexi a bridal shower. It turned out great and Lexi blushed a bit! Haha. Then the big day.....well the day before the big day was pretty busy too! We cleaned, decorated, and Garett and I spent the whole day wrapping outside railing and stairs in white lights and tulle....Christmas lights are of the devil.....no joke. We would plug in the strand to make sure it worked and then we would wrap it around and then it wouldn't work...so we would have to wiggle all the lights until they worked. That is why it took all day. But it was worth it because it looked awesome! The wedding day was hectic but awesome! Going to the temple with most of my family was amazing! The hectic part was after teh temple and luncheon; getting ready for the reception. It was crazy but it's the kind of crazy I love. I love decorating, catering, that sort of thing so it was fun to help out that way.

After we returned the house to it's original splendor is when our vacation really began. We went hiking in the Zions Canyon and ate way too much wedding cake. It was also my dad's birthday so we went out to breakfast and that night we turned the wedding cake into a birthday cake and celebrated some more! According to the numbers on the cake he was only turning 20....haha 20x2+some more years ; ) Love you padre!

Now we are back in Spokane and starting to settle into a normal routine and into Garett's parents' basement. I like making spaces feel like home and making them as cozy and homey as possible so that has been my project lately. Garett starts school this week and has a job interview at Costco too! Yay I love Costco! I have started coaching a bunch of hooligans....um 10 year olds haha....with the Spokane Shadow Soccer Academy. It's entertaining and tiring! That's life for the Johnsons at the moment...definitely blessed!

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{packing....how I loathe thee}

The day of moving is drawing closer and closer and the packing is no where near done. Each day we say we are going to do some but so far not much has gotten done. So today will be the day we vowed; we will tackle the garage today and the closet. There was recently a fire in an apartment complex in the area and our friend Laura knows a family that lost everything so that is motivating us to go through all of our stuff and donate anything we have multiple of or don't really need. That'll lighten our load down to Utah here in a few months too : )

Other than that we are just gearing up for Lexi's wedding here in a couple of weeks. I'm planning her bridal shower as her maid of honor....or matron of honor, whichever it is. So far so good. We are doing a "Breakfast at Tiffany's" theme which should be fun.

That's all I have for now! Stay tuned : )

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{the first post....hopefully not the last}

I decided to start blogging....we shall see how long this lasts. I really enjoy reading other people's blog just so I can keep up with everything....nothing worse than being completely clueless about a marriage or a new baby when talking to a friend or a family member!

Just to recap life as of late....

Garett Johnson is my hubby. We dated a total of 3 months before we were engaged and were recently married in the Spokane Temple on July 15th. Crazy! Oh and married life is awesome!

Plans for the immediate future....well we shall be making our pilgramage to Utah the end of this year. I can't believe I will be a Utard...heehee....no offense to any Utahns ; ) We are moving down for school and work. It'll be nice to be closer to mi familia in St. George!

Our last four months in Spokane we will be living with Garett's parents. Good thing his family is awesome!

I think that is enough for the first post....don't want to overdo it or burn myself out ; )

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