ryan, lindsay, & jayden walton

Jayden rolls over!

2011-04-12T11:30:00.000-07:00

So we were at Brittany & Adam's house during General Conference last week, and Jayden was having some tummy time when she rolled over! We all laughed and said it was an accident and it probably won't happen again. Then she did it like 8 times last night! She's only 7 weeks old! Isn't that a little early? I think she just has a really big belly and a really heavy head...but nonetheless, she can still rollover! I finally got her on camera doing this morning...

Jayden's First Giggle!

2011-04-09T11:26:00.000-07:00

I've already posted this video everywhere possible, so it's about time I post it on here. Maybe it's because I'm her mom, and maybe that means I'm a little bit bias, but I think this is the most amazing moment ever!

One morning when Jayden was only 2 weeks old, I was watching her make funny faces and smiles in her sleep after she finished nursing. She's quite animated while she sleeps. The way she smiles and moves her eyes makes you feel like you're dreaming with her! Well, somehow I was lucky enough to catch this giggle on camera. :) enjoy!

The beauty of a routine.

2011-04-03T21:42:00.000-07:00

I've found that there are a lot of things in life that no one can possibly prepare you for. Like getting married. Someone can tell you all about it, but you just don't know till it happens, till you're living the married life. Having a baby is the same way. You have absolutely no idea what you're getting yourself into. There is no way to fully comprehend beforehand how amazing, scary, confusing, and joyful being a parent is.

I love her so much. I wish there was another way to say that; a way that means more. She is everything I've ever cared about. It's like everything I've ever wanted for myself no longer matters and I want her to have it instead.

This is a simple story about how we gained a little confidence in parenting. We are SO blessed that Jayden was born beautiful and healthy, but ya know what? Babies are hard to take care of sometimes!

The past 7 weeks have been the most wonderful, hardest weeks of my life. I know a lot of mom's can't wait to leave the hospital, but I was completely scared to leave. Recovering from a c-section takes quite a toll on your body. Three days after the surgery part of my legs were still numb and I could barely walk. The idea of being completely responsible for my little one while still having to take care of myself seemed like too much. So we waited till the last second, and then took our trip home late one night.

Precious little Jayden had her nights & days mixed up. :) I thought I would at least get a little sleep, but that's not what Jayden had in mind! Her first night home she cried all night, and I stayed up with her from 10pm to 10am. Poor girl. :( Things slowly got better. The next night she was awake from 10pm to 10am again, but she wasn't crying the whole time! The next night I think she slept 3 hours, and so on. Now, all this probably wouldn't be so bad now, but when you're full of all those pregnancy hormones, and you're crying all the time no matter what...you start to feel like you're world is falling apart. It was so hard. Having said that, it was also so amazing to finally have our healthy little girl. We are so blessed!

It only took about 2 weeks for Jayden to learn to sleep at night. She wouldn't go to bed before 2am, but once she was asleep she would sleep as long as I let her! SO wonderful! The only thing our poor little girl had to deal with was gas. She had gas, and she had it bad. She wasn't a good burper, and would suffer the consequences later. She would be in the middle of a peaceful sleep, but wake up with a sudden scream of pain. It was so horrible! To see your little girl suffer like that is unbearable. There is nothing worse than seeing her in pain. She wanted to sleep so bad (and so did I!) but couldn't because of the pain. Once we got a burp out, she would fall fast asleep, just to wake up soon with more gas.

We tried many things to help Jayden get through her days and nights, and finally found an answer. I full heartedly believe that giving your baby a routine helps her know what to expect throughout her day. We started by waking her up and getting ready around the same time everyday. She would eat about every 2 1/2 to 3 hours, and would cycle through a feed, then wake-time, then sleeping routine. I used a lot of ideas and based Jayden's day on what I've read from a book called Babywise. (Keyword: based. I definitely didn't follow it exactly. It's a little extreme, but the basic ideas in the book are genius.)

It took a while to help her establish what time to do things, but after a few weeks our lives were so different. The gas problem almost completely disappeared and she started to go to sleep every night at 9 or 10pm! There's even more. She became the happiest baby I've ever seen! She is never fussy (unless she misses a nap, but that's my fault!). She is SO happy! She wakes up cooing and smiling every time!

One great thing I've learned is how to put your baby to sleep. We wrap her, love her, cuddle for a bit, and put her to bed awake. She easily puts herself to sleep for every nap, and every night. This took a little practice, but it was so worth it! We were able to accomplish this without making her "cry it out". If she cried, we would pat her and rub her, and sometimes pick her up and burp her. It took a good week, but now bed time is wonderful and consistent.

It's gotten to the point where she's just so dang easy to take care of, it just doesn't seem real. I'm SO proud of my little girl. :)

Brianne and Tyson.

2011-03-27T22:27:00.000-07:00

Today does not feel as horrible as I know it will feel later.

In the spring of 2007 Ryan and I were engaged and enjoying a wonderful trip to California with some friends. One day while at Disneyland, I received a weird phone call from a stranger.

"Um hello...? Is this Lindsay Gwynn? yeah um my name is Brianne and I hope this isn't weird but I'm living in your apartment now and I went through your stuff to find your number so I can tell you that Liberty Square says their going to throw all of your stuff away unless you move out. Thought you should know. Bye!"

Wow. I hate that girl. Well I guess not really, but the news she delivered sucked.

So we went back to Provo, got everything cleared up with Liberty Square, and began Spring semester at BYU. Ryan and I both took jobs as Pizza Hut delivery drivers (they were the only people that would hire us for the 1 month we could work before the wedding!) and we were completely overwhelmed with spending every second with each other. It was a wonderful and busy time in our lives, but the Lord saw fit to bless us with one more thing.

My roommates were addicting. Some of the weirdest, funniest, most caring people I've ever met. There was this psycho mexican named Brianne who dated a lot, and this crazy pale white girl named Whitnee who cooked a lot and constantly watched basketball. They were almost opposites of each other, but exactly the same. We were all instantly close, and hanging out with friends soon turned into Ryan and a bunch of girls.

Brianne, Whitnee, Ryan, and Lindsay

Beth, Katie, Lindsay, Ryan, Brianne, and Whitnee

Luckily Brianne soon married Tyson and we were all complete! (that sounds weird...but I don't know how else to say it.)

Brianne and Tyson

Camping

At the Tillamook Factory near the Oregon Coast

Brianne and Tyson have meant so much to us for the past 4 years. It's SO hard to find a couple that you feel so beyond comfortable with! We can talk about everything, and we know everyone's flaws but we deeply care about one another. They are incredible friends, and incredible people. They are our best friends.

Today was the first day of real life. We aren't in college anymore, we're moving this summer to Dallas, and our friends are gone. Brianne and Tyson moved away to California. We won't live next to them anymore, and we won't have the wonderful countless nights of doing nothing. We have to grow up now. boooo.

But I do want to say that we are SO grateful to be blessed with such amazing friends! We love you Brianne, Tyson, and Braylen!

funny hair & funny faces :)

2011-03-22T22:20:00.001-07:00

So Jayden's favorite part everyday is waking up and getting dressed! Unlike a lot of babies, she thoroughly enjoys her diaper change and changing her clothes. She's always full of smiles and energy and just seems so excited to be awake! Her hair always sticks up all over the place from sleeping, and she just looks so dang cute. She kicks, hums, makes funny faces, and loves spending this time with mommy.

So one morning we had a wonderful surprise. Jayden finally lost her umbilical cord and we can stop taking those dang sponge baths that she's not a fan of!

So excited to take a real bath! :)

Welcoming Jayden :)

2011-03-11T17:28:00.001-08:00

I’m pretty sure that we are the luckiest people in the world.

February 18^th, 2001:

Ryan and I received a much anticipated phone call at 6:35 am to be at the American Fork Hospital at 8 am. It was exactly 1 week past my due date and I was going to be induced.

Right before we left to the hospital!

WARNING. This is a summary of labor and delivery. If you don't want to know, then don't read it. :)

Around 8:30 I already had tons of monitors and cords hanging all over me. My nurse Pamela hooked me up to some pitocin in order to induce contractions. She then left the room with a “let me know when you want the epidural.” I told her it would be a while. Wrong.

Labor started immediately with way more force and pain than I thought. In 10 minutes I was going through the kind of pain that I thought was more like the end of labor! At 9 am my contractions were insanely intense and about 2 minutes apart. I also enjoyed the wonderful labor side effect of uncontrollable shaking. You know when it’s cold and your jaw shivers? It was like that all over my body. I’d feel it in my thighs first, and then my body would go crazy while Ryan and the nurse held me down.

Yay for epidurals! But seriously. It completely changed the entire birthing experience. At first I could only think about the pain, and after the epidural I was able to sincerely enjoy the experience of welcoming our daughter into this world.

Post-epidural :)

So they checked me after the epidural and I had progressed from 2 1/2 cm to 3 1/2 cm in an hour. And then everything passed by very quickly...around noon I was already at 8 cm (I'm so grateful I didn't have to feel that!). At some points they had to take me off the pitocin because Jayden wasn't a big fan of the contractions. Her heart beat would drop quite a bit every time I contracted, so we played a game of taking me on and off pitocin. Despite the slight delay, I progressed very, very quickly. The nurses were pretty astonished that my labor had progressed so much, and before we knew it, I was pushing! I remember telling my nurse, "Wow! This is great! I wouldn't even mind being in labor a little longer..." gah! Just had to go and jinx myself!

My doctor let me know before hand that he wasn't sure the baby's head would fit through my hips. I didn't really believe him. I mean, I'm not really a small person, ya know? And her head actually wasn't that big...so how could she not fit? So I pushed, and pushed. and pushed. There were points were I made a lot of progress, and we thought it was going to happen. My doctor kept coming back and offering a cesarean section, but still giving me the option to push. The idea of a c-section was just not an option for me. I was not going to accept that.

At 4 hours of pushing I was starting to loose faith. My body ached, oh it ached so badly. Epidurals can only do so much. I was going to have to give up on a vaginal delivery because my body just couldn't do it anymore. It was utterly depressing. I completely broke down and asked for my mom. After bawling, I finally gave in. I remember at this moment one of the nurses was trying to make me feel better and she said, "at least your not a woman in Africa. Women and their babies die in the bush because they don't have an option to have a c-section." Really nurse? Do you really want to talk about babies and women dying right now when I feel this way? Dumb.

So they completely took me off the epidural in order to transport me to the operating room. Oh my. The contractions hit full force, and they wheeled me away tears and all. I remember hoping that I wouldn't see any of my family while they were transporting me because I was such a mess! They struggled to give me the spinal, and I remember begging them to hurry. My body eventually went very, very numb. I started to worry because my arms and chest started to go numb. I told them I couldn't breathe, and they said that was a normal feeling. They strapped my arms down, and I felt like a constrained mental patient. The whole time I just had to keep focusing on the fact that we're about to have a baby...be happy, we're about to have a baby...

We heard the beautiful sound of Jayden's cry very quickly! Ryan left my side and it felt like FOREVER till he came back! I yelled for him to get back over here! He ran over to me with the biggest smile I've ever seen saying, "Lindsay she's beautiful! She really is!" They brought her over to me, but all I could really see were her beautiful full lips. Then before I knew it, she and Ryan were gone and I was left on the table to be sewn up. My doctor asked me how I was doing and all I could think of was, "I feel like you're taking FOREVER!" All the nurses laughed and he reminded me that he could hurry, but he is sewing my body back together. But seriously, it never occurred to me after watching so many episodes of "A Baby Story" that it took so long to finish up the c-section. geez! All I wanted was to see my baby!

It took forever, but we were finally brought together as a family. :) What a wonderful, wonderful day!

Jayden Natalee Walton

8 lbs. 10 oz. 20 inches February 18th 7:43pm

Still very swollen!

Bringing her home!

HUGE baby.

2011-02-13T19:44:00.001-08:00

Yeah yeah yeah.....so we haven't had a baby yet. Today I walked into sacrament meeting and immediately saw tons of women starring at me with large eyes and then turing to their husbands with a "I can't believe she hasn't had the baby yet!" Yes. Thank you everyone for the reminder. I don't really want to talk about it, but we can go over a few things. Today is Sunday February 13th, and Jayden was originally due on February 3rd, later changed to February 11th (two days ago).

We had a sonogram on Thursday and the doc told us that she's healthy and great, and already 8 lbs. 12 oz.! Just what we thought. HUGE baby. And she's only getting bigger...We are set to be induced this Friday, February 18th. Gah. I better not make it! This little girl is going CRAZY inside of me like she's dying to get out. So just get out! geez.

Here's a little look at the ultrasound. We had a wonderful technician who surprised us with a 3D sonogram! The only problem is that she's already so far down in my pelvis and her face is so close to the uterus wall that there isn't much fluid in front of her face (the fluid is what makes her face visible on the 3D sonogram). So she looks pretty funny (you can't see her eyes or nose very well), and may be making a funny face, but she has beautiful full lips and cute chubby cheeks! :)

Pregnancy is a wonderful, weird, but very uncomfortable thing but now it's just out of hand. It's really hard to describe how I feel right now. It just feels unnatural to be this large and weak. Walking is hard. Sleeping is hard. Breathing is almost impossible. I hope most women in the world don't have to go through this over-due thing. Yeah 37, 38, & 39 weeks were hard, but the way I feel now is unexplainable. It's beyond exhausting.

Still...we can't wait to meet our little girl :)

Dallas, here we come! (again)

2011-01-26T15:42:00.001-08:00

It's funny how life works.

About 2 years ago, Ryan and I made the decision that he should apply for accounting jobs in Portland, Oregon and Denver, Colorado. Our families lived there, it only made sense that that's obviously where we are suppose to be.

He got so close. SO close to getting so many great jobs. For what seemed like no reason, he kept getting rejected. We heard the same thing over and over. "We strongly recommend you for the job, and would love to hire you, but we can't." It became hard, especially for Ryan, to keep our heads up and keep looking. We decided to change our preferred location to San Jose, California. It was a much larger market and we heard there were actually positions available there.

We practically gave up on finding an internship for last summer. It was already May and there was no way he could find one now. Little did we know that the Lord had something else in store for us. We were blessed that he had the opportunity to work for Peisner Johnson & Co. in Dallas, Texas. It was a wonderful summer, full of many blessings! Including the announcement of an addition to our family :)

In September we came back to Utah for Ryan's final year in his masters program. We went back to work looking for more job opportunities. Ryan was chosen exclusively out of BYU to fly to San Jose by 3 different companies. We were very confident, but no luck. Then came an opportunity in LA! It was a great offer, but a smaller company and not the perfect situation.

We went through months and months of prayer and questions. We kept praying that whatever is best for us and our family would happen. It started to become hard to believe that rejection after rejection was what was best.Then out of nowhere, a major opportunity arose. It was a possible job with KPMG, one the of the "Big 4" accounting firms. This job was in Dallas! Yeah, Dallas again!

So obviously we're suppose to be in Dallas. It's not our number one choice, but it seems to be the Lord's. Ryan's internship with PJ&Co helped prepare him for accepting KPMG's offer, and prepared us for living in that crazy hot state. Who ever thought I'd be going home?

So we move to Dallas with our little girl (who will be 4 months) in June this summer! We're excited to know what it's like to make "real" money and begin our little family! :)

Braylen Tyson Frodsham!

2010-10-25T18:16:00.000-07:00

How ridiculous is birth? I mean common, you create a human being in your abdomen. Earlier in my pregnancy my friend Phil use to say to me, "Lindsay, you created a couple fingers today". It's just so unreal! And there are tons of people who are capable of this.

The only thing that makes this miracle even more real, is when the precious baby is born. Our best friends, Brianne and Tyson Frodsham have been expecting a little boy since earlier this year. She was due 4 months before me, which pretty much means I get all the excellent advice I need!

Brianne was due October 8th. As the date approached, not much changed for Brianne. She didn't experience many contractions. So then passed October 8th, then 9th, 10th....luckily Mrs. Frodsham was induced on the morning of Monday, October 11th. And beautiful little Braylen was born later that night!

Braylen Tyson Frodsham

Born October 11th, 2010

8lbs 6oz , 21 inches

New mama!

Doesn't she look amazing for 12 hours of labor?

Father and Son :)

1 Week old and first time in his stroller!

He is just SO adorable! And he just seems to be getting cuter and cuter. Because he takes after Brianne, his favorite activity is definitely sleeping. In fact, we've seen him quite often, and only 1 time did he grace us with consciousness. Nonetheless, he is amazing and we love him dearly! We can't wait for him to meet our little girl :)

cupcakes and dalmations!

2010-10-17T16:11:00.000-07:00

More cake makin'! woohoo! So I finally have a good excuse to bake. Ryan and I have been called to the activities committee in our ward, which immediately came with a task for our church "Halloween Ball". Our calling was to make 150 cupcakes! How fun is that?

The funny part is that this is Ryan's calling too. :) Luckily we were teamed with a wonderful couple, Kimmy and Garret Williams. They are pretty amazing! We stationed Ryan and Garrett on frosting the base of the cupcakes, and they surprised us with amazing skills.

The "Halloween Ball" was themed Alice in Wonderland. We decided to go with a variety of chocolate and vanilla fondant cupcakes.

So we thought that it would only be appropriate to accompany our cupcakes with some killer costumes! Since Ryan and I have known each other, we've never really never gone all out for Halloween. So it's about time we did.

Now this is where we all see how much Ryan really does love me. hahaha....he's so wonderful....

Hahaha we had so much fun! I look creepy and quite nasty in that picture...but that's Cruella Deville, right? I made Ryan's costume and my costume was quite simple to put together. I love love love Ryan in this costume! haha it reminds me of his Halloween costume when he was 7...

He won't admit it, but I know he loves it!

Our precious baby girl!

2010-09-25T20:08:00.000-07:00

Ryan and I were incredibly anxious, probably to the point of obsession, about our sonogram appointment. Oh my freak. We went insane! And it all started about a week or two before. We would wake up in the morning and immediately exclaim "9 days!" AHHHH! It was so exhilarating!

So the day came. We were so anxious and worried on so many levels! We'd been praying so hard for the overall health of our little one. And then there was the thrill finding out the gender! Geez. If there is this much anxiety BEFORE the kids born...I can't even imagine what February will bring...

Probably the weirdest part of a sonogram is watching the sonographer measure and inspect the brain, heart, spine, etc. This person, who you have never met, is the first person to find out details that will influence the rest of your life. Ryan's first question was, "Is the baby's head huge?" (we both have ginormous heads!) So to make long story short, our little booger is wonderfully, completely healthy! (And doesn't have an abnormally large head) We are so blessed!

So first I thought it was a girl...then I got worried I'd be wrong and tried to image it as a boy. Boys kinda freak me out. Ryan and I both have 4 little sisters, and I feel like girls is all I know!

So...

It's a girl! :)

And she was being so difficult! The little stinker would turn away every time we tried to see her! We never got a good look at her profile, and when we would try to look for her gender, she would snap those legs up so fast!

From head (left) to bottom (right). You can see her spine at the top.

The best picture we could get of her profile. Her knees are curled up to her stomach.

It's a girl! (According to those 3 white vaginal lines) Apparently the lack of a penis isn't the only thing that proves gender!

Cute little legs!

Two little feet!

The sonogram.

So I just uploaded the entire sonogram. I doubt any of you will watch it all, but I guess you're welcome to! Besides, it's hard to get a good look at her. She was being so difficult!

School, Furniture, and Cakes

2010-09-21T12:11:00.000-07:00

School and work have started for Ryan and I, and we are simply busy, busy, busy.

Ryan is finishing his last year in the MACC (Masters of Accountancy) at BYU and is busily doing homework all day and all night. He is in the middle of the interview and recruiting process for various accounting firms (in fact, he has 4 interviews just today!). It's a lot of smiling, and sucking up, and it gets tiring and old real fast. Even though he hardly gets a break, I haven't heard him complain once! He just comes home from the same tiring routine, and usually heads straight to the sink to help me with some dishes. I am so lucky :)

Since Texas, I have continued working as a freelance editor for BYU (through the LDS Motion Picture Studio) and have surprisingly enjoyed going back to full-time work. I keep reminding myself that I should enjoy this while I can! I know the day will come when I'm holding a crying and frustrated baby, and might wish that I was working instead. Until then, while I'm at work, all I want is to be holding that baby. Funny how that works, huh?

Well I've kept very busy, and picking up new hobbies on the way. I'm proud to say that I have adopted the wonderful talents of my mom, and have started refinishing some furniture in our home. What was once a dinky coffee table found on the side of the road (courtesy of my wonderful mother-in-law), is now a cute, antique-y masterpiece. :) haha

This is what it looked like at first (minus some of the sanding)

After I finish sanding the top

The finished product! Stained top, antiqued base, and new knobs.

And I plan on doing our dining table in the same style (maybe this weekend?).

I've also had the fun opportunity to help host Brianne's Baby Shower! She is due on October 8th, and we are SO excited for her and Tyson! I got to make the cake for her shower, and loved every second of it! Her little baby boy's room is jungle animal themed, so I ran with that idea. It was a chocolate cake with a chocolate ganache and fresh strawberry filling, buttercream frosting, and topped with marshmallow fondant. It is also decorated using only fondant to carve the elephant, giraffe, and lion, as well as the sign, leaves, and bow. The only photos I have are from my phone, so those will have to do.

The cute Mama to be! :)

The finished cake

The giraffe while a work-in-progress.

So there is a mini-update on what we've been up to. Even though we are so busy, there seems to only be one thing we can't stop thinking about. :) and Thursday we find out more about our little peanut!

Goodbye nausea!

2010-08-07T10:39:00.000-07:00

All of a sudden, blogging seems super important. I feel like I need to document everything, and go crazy, and all because of this little booger inside of me.

Well anyways, all I have to say is goodbye first trimester! I'm technically not done with you until this Friday, but I can already feel the nausea and awkward symptoms wearing away. I have by no means had a horrible pregnancy so far, but it has definitely been eventful.

To enlighten you...

crazy nausea
acne (it's like I'm 13 again...)
heartburn
fatigue
excess saliva
INTENSE irritability (ryan and my mom can attest to this one)
aching back/body
food aversions
film and food cravings

You're probably thinking, wow, I can't believe she just shared those embarrassing things with the world. Well, the truth is that I spared you of at least 6 more horrible, horrible things. Also, Ryan just walked in and yelled, "Don't put those on there! It's my blog too!" So I deleted 3 more. Let's just say I have all the symptoms possible, or at least I feel like I do.

So, goodbye first trimester! It was wonderful to have you, but frankly I'm happy to say goodbye to most of these symptoms.

Babies!

2010-08-04T10:17:00.000-07:00

Yay! We can finally tell the world that we are good and pregnant! It is sincerely hard to keep such an exciting and precious secret to yourself! And as you all know, I'm terrible at keeping my own secrets and would sporadically tell you if I bumped into you. And my mother is terrible. I called her the moment we found out and told her not to tell anyone...and just hours later received congratulation text messages from her friends.

I'm sorry if some people have hurt feelings that I didn't tell you before. Unfortunately, Ryan and I experienced a miscarriage in March, so we were very hesitant in telling anyone until my 12 week appointment. Now the good news is that we heard and saw a perfectly healthy baby, and our chances of loosing our little one now go down to 1-2%.

I was terribly nervous at our appointment on Thursday! After our past experiences, Ryan and I just desperately wanted to hear that everything was going to be alright. We were also blessed to have both of our mothers at the appointment so they could hear their first grandchild's heartbeat.

So at the appointment Dr. Watabe started using the doppler on my stomach, and he kept making these funny faces. Well except they weren't so funny, they just made me really nervous. Seconds turned into minutes....and he still hadn't found the heartbeat. I nervously told him that I just ate lunch, and maybe noises from my stomach were interfering? (now that sounds so stupid... :) ) Well, he didn't find it so he pressed a button on his belt. A nurse came in, he mumbled something to her, and I'm laying there freaking out. She brings in a sonogram machine and a second later we were blessed at being able to see our little peanut!

What a wonderful surprise! We never expected to have a sonogram at this appointment. Dr. Watabe easily found the heartbeat, and he was kind enough to explain some of the baby's positions to us. He also said that I wasn't 13 weeks like we had thought, and that I was actually 11 weeks, 6 days. He moved the due date to February 11th.

Here is a video of the heartbeat :) You can tell how nervous I was!

Here are some of the sonogram pictures...

This one is my favorite! The circle on the left is the baby's head, the area on the right is the body, and you can see the baby's forearm reaching toward his/her head with their little fingers, like their waving :)

This picture is similar to the one above. It just shows the baby's full length, from head (left) to rump (right).

The blob on the right is the baby's body. You can see a leg sticking out of it to the left, and a little foot at the end.

The long white part towards the bottom in an arm. The circular blob above and to the right is the body, and across from that is another hand.

Our dear, sweet Natalee

2010-07-23T17:04:00.000-07:00

It's hard to use words when describing something that tears at your emotions and makes life a blur. While sitting here, I haven't found anything profound to say, except for that we miss you. We really, really miss you.

"My son, peace by unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment;

And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes.

Thy friends do stand by thee and they shall hail thee again with warm hearts and friendly hands."

Doctrine and Covenants 121:7-9

Texas!

2010-07-07T15:26:00.000-07:00

Well, the time for excuses are over. I'm not in school...and barely working...so I have to make something of my life. Maybe someday blogging will move from the bottom of my priority list. Let's start at the beginning of the summer...

Texas.

So here we are. Ryan just finished the first year of his Accounting Masters at BYU. Without boasting too much, I can say that Ryan in incredibly smart, always in the top of his class, and will make a great CPA some day. Despite everything he has going for him, he had a really hard time finding an accounting internship for the 2010 summer. The MAC (Masters of Accountancy) program at BYU is currently rated #1 in the country, so they naturally told all of the students that they wouldn't have a problem getting a job with the "Big 4" over the summer. They couldn't have been more wrong. We know very few people who were lucky enough to score an internship with any company, let alone the "Big 4".

So summer started and we gave up too much hope of having a relevant internship. One day I was talking to a great friend, Marlee Johnson, and was expressing our difficulty in finding an internship. Marlee freaked out. Her husband Paul has been working for Peisner Johnson & Company L.L.P., who was actually co-owned by great family friend, Andy Johnson. It didn't take long for everything to fall into place and before you knew it, Ryan and I were down in Dallas, Texas.

We have been incredibly blessed that Ryan has this opportunity to work for a great company and a great friend! The Johnson family has always taken care of me growing up, and this is no exception. How wonderful it is to have friends who are so much like family! We feel so, so blessed. And it doesn't stop there....

I got a facebook message from another friend, Debbie Ayres. I'd known her family since I was 5, and they had moved to Midlothian, TX in the past few years. She'd heard that we would be in Texas for the summer, and offered for us to live with her and Jim. Can you even believe that? They were offering for us to stay with them, for a whole summer, for free. AND they know us, so they knew what they were getting into. With Ryan's grad tuition and our desire to start a family soon, this was a huge answer to our prayers! I'm tellin ya, there is something special about southern hospitality. People just know how to take care of each other.

And here we are, right where I grew up! I never in my right mind thought that Ryan and I would end up here for any period of time. Every time I step into the Texas humidity, I just keep on having to remind myself that we're blessed to be here!

Hello School. You are a monster.

2009-09-30T11:38:00.001-07:00

It has been so long! Well just a quick update... Ryan and I are in school right now and going crazy. I'm pretty sure we're not married right now because I never see him. The only positive side of that is that when we do see each other it's like we're dating; butterflies in the stomach included. :)

Ryan just finished his first interviews for his future accounting internship next summer. He interviewed with the big four (Ernst & Young, PWC, KPMG, and Deloitte) as well as Grant Thornton. On Friday we find out if he gets to fly out to Denver or Portland for his second interviews with the companies. We're really excited! The location of his internship will highly influence where we live after he graduates.

Speaking of graduation... I graduate in December! THIS December! 2009! Exciting, right? Well, except for the fact that I'll have no idea what to do with my life after that. Hopefully I'll find some amazing full-time editing job. So if you know of any...

So there is a little update on us.

Best Friends.

2009-08-09T21:14:00.001-07:00

Ok. This is way over due. Sure, there are a ton of things happening in our lives right now, but right now we must pause and serve the recognition that is deserved.

This is an official shout out to Brianne, Tyson, Whitnee, Kimmy, Beth, Katie, Cameron and all you other people that we spend ALL our time with. (I say "all you other" like there are others...ha...). Going through our blog right now I realized how ridiculous and and unrealistic it is to not fully mention them yet. Ya'll are pretty much our lives. And we love you.

Also, we need to take more pictures. After years of friendship, I have like 2 pictures to even prove I know you.

South Africa!

2009-07-30T23:41:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone, this is Ryan, and today I will tell you the wonderful story of our trip to South Africa. Lindsay was too lazy to write about South Africa, so that is my job. Anyways, as my lovely wife explained, we had a splendid trip to Spain (that rhymes). We were sad to leave Spain but uberexcited to go to Africa!

We flew from Madrid to Amsterdam, where we had a stop for a few hours and of course had to get some chocolate. From Amsterdam we flew to Johannesburg. It was an amazing 11 hour flight with tons of Dutch people. Lindsay's first taste of Africa was awesome. First off, Lindsay's ankles magically grew somewhere between Amsterdam and Johannesburg. Actually it was because of the long plane ride. But it was sad because as we walked through the airport she could feel the gallons of blood in her feet :(

And then to make it worse we arrived at night and had a 9 hour layover. We thought about going to a hotel. There were some guys who tried to get us to come in their car to take us to a B&B. We decided to do that instead of sleep in the airport, but then we felt kinda weird about it and also remembered we were in Africa at night, so we said no and found some awesome metal benches to lay on. Basically that sucked but we survived and got on our flight to Durban.

We finally got to the Durban airport, which is the smallest either of us have been in. There is basically a couple of airplanes and a big sign on how close they are to the 2010 World Cup (which is in less than a year and they are nowhere close to finishing any of the stadiums). We got our rental car (VW Golf!) and headed off. The car was pretty crappy, but at least it had A/C and didn't break down. It was interesting to drive on the left side of the road again. We immediately got lost downtown somehow. It was pretty scary because there was construction for the World Cup going on and people were running all around our car. We eventually got out of downtown thanks to my man intuition.

For our first day we got settled and visited one of my areas. Basically we just drove through it because it is pretty dangerous. We even found a great place for Lindsay to get surgery on her ankles by some very trustworthy witch doctors!

Okay, Lindsay's ankles actually just healed by themselves. It took a couple days though. Anyways, we didn't get very many pictures. The two above are from kwaNyuswa, one of my areas. Also on our first day we checked into our first place we stayed at. The place was called Netcoral. It was in Bluff, which is very close to Durban and also near one of my areas! As soon as we got to our room we relaxed for a bit and saw some dolphins swim by. Oh, and the view wasn't that bad either.

It was really nice to be able to walk straight down to the beach. The water was warm and there was hardly any people on the beach. It was nice to relax on a nice warm beach over 10,000 miles away from school or work. We were in Netcoral for 4 nights. The first night we fell asleep at 7:00 and went to bed each night by 10:00. Not something we were used to. Lindsay was sick for part of that time so we didn't do too much crazy stuff, but still got to go swimming every day. It was just really relaxing. We also went to a cool tropical bird park. Lindsay made friends with a little bird while we were there and she talked to it. I even got a flamingo feather there as you can see in the video below.

After Netcoral we drove up to Hluhluwe which is about two hours north of Durban. The drive was cool because there were tons of little villages on the way. Also, there were tons of pineapple vendors on the road. That is great for us because we love pineapples. They have tons of them in the Hluhluwe area. We stopped on the side of the road and bought a bundle of 9 of them for about four dollars. We could have gotten them for cheaper but didn't mind paying a couple of bucks extra to help out some Zulu lady.

We arrived in Hluhluwe and stayed in a place about 15 minutes from the town called Leopard Walk Lodge. We had to go down a bunch of dirt roads to get there. Lindsay freaked out every night we drove back to the lodge because it rained each night and we almost got stuck a few times, which isn't a great thing to have happen in the middle of Africa with rhinos and other animals anywhere nearby.

When we got to Leopard Walk Lodge we had to then walk for a while to get to the place we would stay in. Everything was worth it in the end. We had an awesome place that was very secluded and in the middle of the wild in Africa!

Our lodge was surrounded on all sides by a sand forest. And we had glass windows surrounding us which was really cool but also kinda scary.

We spent 3 nights at Leopard Walk Lodge. We didn't do anything the first night except eat dinner and wonder if lions would eat us in our sleep. We did get visited by zebras at dinner, which was cool. There were three zebras who frequently visit the guests at the lodge and Lindsay got to pet one! We also had the best Coke ever there, even though we typically both don't like Coke. We got it every night.

The next day we went to Hluhluwe-Imfolozi, which is a huge game park about 20 minutes from the lodge. We spent most of the day there. We drove through it ourselves, starting in the morning. There was a main paved road, and off of that road were tons of little dirt roads. Our little VW Golf couldn't handle a lot of them. The area is very, very pretty.

For the first 3 or 4 hours we drove around and only saw of zebra and gazelles. Sure, they're great and all, but we got tired of them because we had already seen a ton on the way to the lodge.

So we decided to get adventurous and went off the main road on some random path. We got to a small river that went over the road. I wasn't sure if our little VW could handle it, so I got out to check how deep the water was. I threw a few rocks in the water, and all of a sudden I saw a huge crocodile! That was pretty creepy and unexpected so I got back in and finally we decided to give little VW a try to go across the water. She made it!

Unfortunately we didn't see anything animals and went back to the main road. A few minutes later we noticed a car stopped in front of us. Most of the cars driving around are full of old people so we thought they might be taking a break or possibly all fell asleep. We were going to pass them but then noticed an elephant. Finally, after 4 hours! Then for the next ten minutes about 20 elephants crossed the road in front of us! It was amazing! A little scary but so cool. There were baby ones too. We didn't want to leave it was so cool.

Well eventually we left and drove on. About 30 minutes later we saw two more elephants fighting! They were in a water hole. It wasn't some fight-to-the-death type of fight, but definitely a fight. Really cool to see.

We didn't see much more the rest of the day. Just more zebras and stuff, and a dung beetle too. We left around sunset, which was fairly early because it was close to winter there.

The next day we went back to Hluhluwe-Imfolozi. We had booked a guided tour for early that morning. We got going a little late so we had to rush to get there. The tour was in the middle of the park, so we were worried that we would see something cool on the way there and not have time to stop. Sure enough, we saw a bunch of giraffes on the way. We stopped for a minute and then went on.

We got to the tour a little late but they hadn't left. We were in one of those huge covered jeep-looking vehicles that look like should be on a safari. We were with a bunch of old foreigners (mostly Americans), and our tour guide was a local Zulu guy. He could see any animal anywhere. He could see rhinos miles away immediately, but it took us minutes to see them when we stopped. On the tour we saw a lot of rhinos. The first one we saw when one of the old ladies thought she was something for the tenth time so we stopped, and then in the other direction a rhino walked up towards us.

We saw a few more giraffes and some more elephants too! We also saw things like warthogs and baboons. But then our camera died :( It was nice to be able to look for the animals and not have to worry about driving though.

We drove around some more but left pretty early because there were thunderstorms coming. We didn't see any lions or cheetahs either day, which we were kinda bummed about. We heard that there hadn't been any lion sightings because they got a kill a while away and were over there. So because of that we decided to go to a place where they take care and try to breed injured cheetahs and other African cats. We went there when they were feeding them, and even got to go in one of the cheetah's cage. It was pretty cool. Then we went back to the lodge. By then it was raining harder than I can ever remember it raining in my life. We thought we would get stuck on the road, but we made it.

The next day we left Leopard Walk Lodge. It was sad to leave because we had a lot of fun there. On the way back to Durban we stopped by Lake St. Lucia, where we went on a boat cruise. There were a lot of crocodiles and hippos. I was excited to see the hippos especially, but they were pretty boring. They all just laid there but it was still cool to see.

Then that night we arrived in Sea Villa, which was north of Durban. It was a very touristy area. It was also the first area we felt safe in so that was nice. It was a good location because we could actually see Durban, but it was in an area that was pretty secluded and away from town. Just like our first place, it was right on the beach. But the best part of the place was that there were tons of monkeys living around the area. Every morning for breakfast we would watch the monkeys play and fight. I love monkeys.

We stayed at Sea Villa for our last 3 nights. While there we didn't get to go to the beach that much, but we still did a little. We went to church in Umlazi, which was my first area. And also went to Chatsworth, my Indian area. I wish there was more time to go to all my areas and see more people. Some of them were far away, and we just didn't have enough time in the end.

Lindsay and Mbali

Klenky, Lindsay, and Ryan

Us with Brother Dube and kids from the Umlazi Ward
Sneh, Lindsay, and Ryan
With the Hlela Family
With Linda Pillay and her daughters Pearl, Opal, and Coral
With Clive and Olivia's family (the Reddy's)
With Yogashnee and Sanjay Babbikan's family

So that's about it. We loved each place we stayed in. And it was really nice to visit people, go to the beach, and go on safari. It was sad to leave again because you never know when you're gonna be able to go to South Africa again. It was cool to show Lindsay around and experience things that I couldn't do on my mission.

When we left Durban we flew through Johannesburg again and back through Madrid. Unfortunately our bags somehow got lost in South Africa. Here is the story:

So basically I had a feeling that we would lose our bags when we went through Johannesburg, and I was right. Searching for our bags did take long enough that we weren't ablt to go to the palace in Madrid. That sucked, but we eventually got them both back, about two weeks later. And I guess that's it!

Shae Leah Nickel

2009-07-23T22:45:00.000-07:00

This is the story of me and Shae Leah Nickel.

Born on the 29th of December 1987, Shae was immediately full of raging jealously for my gap-toothed beauty. We grew up together, and my teeth grew further apart. Luckily, Shae was able to compensate by wearing "outfits" until we were 16. Well anyways, years later we went to the temple early in the morning and it was a great day. :)

Shae leaves on her mission to Curitiba, Brazil on Tuesday! That's only 5 days away! I am so proud to call her my friend and I know that she will be the best missionary. Her testimony is contagious. :) Here is a link to her missionary blog if you'd like to see how she's doing!

Happy Anniversary!

2009-07-22T00:29:00.000-07:00

What a happy day. :) Yes, today was our two year wedding anniversary! Unfortunately we weren't able to take the day off, but it was still wonderful. Ok, I HATE those commercials with that Progressive Insurance lesbian. No one is that happy. I'm sorry. She just popped up on screen and ruined my bliss.

But we still had an amazing day. That morning I woke up early to make Ryan breakfast with monkey bread (his favorite). That night Ryan took me to "Gloria's Little Italy" which was pretty good...we like to try new restaurants. They did have excellent dessert! Afterward we hiked Y Mountain, the first time for both of us! It was so much fun! And to answer Whitnee and Brianne's question, yes on Y Mountain. haha I'm so in love. :)

Spain

2009-07-18T18:12:00.000-07:00

So maybe we have had a change of heart over the past few days. This blog has opened our eyes to a whole new world! A world that makes you spend a lot of time on the internet rather then doing the things you're suppose to do.

Due to popular demand, we will start at the beginning of our lives. That being three months ago when we had the chance to go (and for Ryan "return") to Spain and South Africa! But I promise we won't go into to much detail. Not because we don't want to bore you, but because we don't remember it.

So yeah! We left to Spain on April 26, 2009 right after our last finals for Winter semester. I know what you're thinking, Spain and South Africa? What do those have to do with one another? Well first of all we were meeting up with our friends Sean and Amy Salisbury in Spain and also, for some reason it saved us $500 to make the detour. Spain was AMAZING. It's seriously looks exactly how you would expect it to look, and maybe a little better.

After meeting up with our friends we spent the first day walking around Madrid and going to the Reina Sofia museum (which holds Picasso's famous "La Guernica"). Everywhere we went we traveled by metro and that night we took a train to the quaint town of Toledo which has been known for it's gold threaded plates and swords for thousands of years. For breakfast the next day we indulged in the amazing hot chocolate and churros that are all over Spain. Toledo looked like it came straight out of the 1600's (except for the McDonald's...).

The Toledo cathedral is known for it's exceptional interior, but we thought the exterior was breathtaking as well. We don't have much experience with ancient amazing cathedrals, unlike Sean and Amy who were like, seen it once, seen it a million times. :) So Ryan took pictures inside the Cathedral even though he wasn't suppose to. Sometimes the flash would go off and and everyone would freak out. haha Later in the day we went to a shop and watched an old man make swords. His family has been in the business for generations and Sean bought a sword there. You could tell he wasn't lying because he was missing a few fingers!

Back in Madrid we did things like eat a lot of ham. Madrid is FULL of it! They even have a chain restaurant called "The Museum of Ham". We also went to various city parks. At night we went "tapas" bar hopping! Tapas are small portions of meals that cost a few bucks so you can go around the city trying different ones before you're full. It was so much fun!

So the time came for us to head to South Africa but we ran into a problem. We needed to get to the airport at 4am for our flight, but the metro closed at 12! So we ended up getting to the airport 6 hours before our flight and spent the night there. It wouldn't have been so bad if we didn't spend the NEXT night in the Johannesburg Airport. guh. Anyways...more to come about South Africa next time...

the beginning

2009-07-17T13:33:00.000-07:00

um hello! this is the beginning of not very many posts. we will try, but probably not succeed. you see, we are too busy living our wonderful lives rather then writing about them. but of course, we will try. :) we love you all.

ryan&lindsay