Awesome

About a month ago Ethan came to visit! This is a shot from the Family Fun Center.

From left to right: Ralph, Greg, Ethan, Shannon and Randy.

This was the day we signed on our house! Pretty exciting! Tony was our mortgage consultant and handled all of the numbers and Teresa was our realtor and is totally responsible for us bidding on our house. It was the first house we actually looked at and we thought it was way too nice and that we couldn't afford it and immediately put it out of our thoughts, even though we were oo-ing and awe-ing the whole time. After we'd been house hunting a week and felt a little flustered, Teresa made us go back to it one more time before we made any offers. At first I didn't want to because I was SO SURE it wasn't for us, but I'm so glad she did because that second visit made it an easy decision. We NEVER would have looked at it a second time, if she didn't push us, and I'm SO GLAD she did because now we're living in the house of our dreams! They were both AWESOME and we felt so lucky to have worked with them.

Pat, Shannon and I drove down to Eugene for Laurel's bridal shower. It was SO MUCH FUN!!! Laurel grew up in my old ward in Eugene, so I knew EVERYBODY. It was the best catching up. Everyone I wanted to talk to was there. It was fun telling them I was pregnant and talking about Greg's new job and the house. I gotta say, my card for Laurel's Bridal Shower was pretty great.

Inside the card-

Randy always throws a big party on April 15th (to celebrate the end of taxes). This year he rented this huge dragon/obstacle course thing. It was great! Every year the whole week has a theme for each day- hat day, shoe day, fiesta day, etc. Someone wrote about it in the newspaper!

Greg racing through.

Greg's youngest brother, Chris, got married to his high school sweetheart two weeks ago, in the Portland Temple. It was a GREAT weekend. We saw all kinds of family and had a lot of fun. It was fast, but great. The girls got away for a little pampering. I had just had my toes done so I got a manicure while everyone else got a pedicure.

From left to right: Laurel, Shannon, Hillary and Pat

I loved how Laurel was getting worked on by two people. It made her look like a movie star.

Breakin' in the house. There have been "firsts" in the house that, to me, make it feel more and more like this is our home. Baking sweets, playing the piano and Greg playing guitar and singing. I hadn't heard him play his harmonica in forever. I LOVE hearing him play. It makes me swoon every time. You think I'd get used to it, but if I haven't yet- I'm not sure I ever will. But that's a good thing.

Greg's had a great first week at work! He is loving it! He's gotten all kinds of goodies: uniforms, riot gear, a new gun, his belt, handcuffs, a bullet proof vest and much, much more.

Making his first arrest.

Notice his sweet bullet proof vest?

After gun certification. I have to say, my man's a pretty good shot. I was impressed.

Greg LOVED his gun certification. He couldn't STOP smiling while he was telling me about it. There was a big area outside with all kinds of targets and he had to go through a course where he's run here, lays on the ground, shoots 3 times with a rifle; runs there, shoots many targets with a hand gun, on his knees, standing up, shoot while walking sideways, shoot while walking backwards, falling on the ground and shooting from a sitting position and shooting UP CLOSE, standing right in front of the target with a face. He said that was weird. He came home with blisters on his fingers and a big square bruise on his palm from slamming the magazine in over and over. He had the best time.

Today he tried on all his riot gear. Thank goodness, there aren't many riots around here.

Notice the gas mask.

I like having my man go to work everyday. With me working in the past, he didn't have to while he was in school, so it's new to have him up every morning, dressed and shaved, ready to go. We got a taste while he worked for NATO, but he wasn't getting paid. The Medford Police Department has been so good to us already. The chief assured Greg that he would be home when I have the baby and whether it's before or after he finishes the academy, they would just work it all out. That's a great comfort. They've been very supportive about all kinds of things. It really feels like a family and I love it! This whole week has just solidified that we made the right decision and I'm glad!

As far as the house goes, we are so happy here! The more time passes, I feel this is the house for us! Simple things that are just the way I like them. The tub is totally big enough for me and Greg to both get in. Greg likes to soak on a daily basis, so now I can just get in and have a long talk. It's better than sitting on the toilet or edge of the tub, which were the only options for "tub talk" before. The bedroom is just peaceful and has really nice lighting in the morning. That's important to me. And the actual light fixture in the room has a REMOTE set up so I can turn the light on and off while I'm still in bed. That's the BEST!!! I LOVE IT!!! It has been my fantasy, since I was a little girl, to be able to just turn off the light without having to get up and walk to the light switch. And now my dream has been fulfilled. I love it. We got a King bed, and LOVE IT!!! When we first slept in it, we couldn't stop laughing because we could get so far from each other. It seriously felt like a journey to get to each other. No more rolling over to snuggle, but crawling a couple feet first. It was so funny. We've been sleeping on a full the last 9 months.

We've have a little neighbor, named Riley, who lives next door. She is four and loves to come over and chat with us. She's always asking if she can take our rocks in the front. She thinks they're pretty. She's pretty cute. I love how friendly all the kids are.

Our ward is AMAZING!!! We love them! We had a really warm welcome and LOTS of people introduced themselves to us. The Relief Society Presidency came and visited me the very next day and a girl named Barbara came and dropped off a BIG BOX of baby clothes that she didn't need, as well as a STROLLER, SWING and adorable play mat. I was blown away. She told me she'd drop off clothes, but I had no idea how much she was really bringing. Then, later that day another woman I saw at church, but never met, came over and gave us home made bread! I couldn't believe it! So friendly! While I was at churh I found out there was an aerobic class three mornings a week in the gym. I went Monday and there were four other women there (one was 4 months pregnant, like me) and they were all friendly and kids were running EVERYWHERE!!!! They had mats and weights there, as well! It was such an intense workout. I had to skip Wednesday because I could still hardly walk from the soreness. Also, our church building is only FOUR MINUTES FROM OUR HOUSE!!! Amazing! And we meet at 1pm, which I know everyone hates, but I LOVE. I like to sleep in and not rush to church. Also, the temple is next to our building so our temple is four minutes away too! Can you believe it! I LOVE IT!!! So my new goal is to attend the temple weekly. Especially once Greg is gone. And that's gonna make it so much easier to attend while I'm breast feeding. I just feel so lucky!

I just love Central Point. I love it more and more each time I go somewhere. It's really small, so there's never any traffic. I love that. And even though it's small, it has a lot that's only a few minutes away- Redbox, McDonald's, gas station, Goodwill. And then everything else is in Medford, which would be 10-15 minutes away. So basically, we're doin' good and everything's wonderful!