My First Blanket

I think my Mom about fell over when I told her I wanted to sew a blanket for our baby. After a unhappy experience sewing a 4-H project, I haven't touched a sewing machine. But I actually had fun with this. It's a safari rag quilt. You'll have to zoom up so you can see the cute animals. I'm really happy with how it turned out! I'll have to sew a girl blanket too so I'll be prepared either way. P.S. Thanks for your help Linsy!

Baby Bump!

I officially have a baby bump! I'm five months along tomorrow. I can't believe we're more than half way there. We've decided to not find out whether it's a boy or girl, we'll let it be a surprise. But sometimes I get really impatient to know! I feel it kicking all the time now. The other night just after Brian and I got in bed, our baby decided to do some karate moves --for forty-five minutes! He just kept wiggling. Brian said it must be a girl because I wiggle around for forty-five minutes every night before I fall into a sound sleep too. But we'll see. I'll probably start growing pretty fast now. Right now I'm still in my jeans, but without any extra room. Sometimes I use a ponytail or tummy sash to give myself a few more inches. I'm definitely more comfortable just wearing Brian's pajama pants when when I'm just around the house. He thinks it's pretty funny that while I have at least twice as many clothes as him, I've started wearing his clothes. It's so nice not being so sick anymore too. It finally let up around 17 weeks. Yea! So life is great.

Crash Catch Up!

Wow, I've been a slacker at blogging, so here's a catch up.

On our (long) drive back to Utah from Philadelphia we were able to stop and see Melissa and take her and her companion out to lunch on her mission in Marietta, OH. On our way out of town she pointed out one of the local mounds built by the Hopewell or "Mound builder" indians. It was especially cool because we'd just listened to a DVD about how the events of the Book of Mormon could have taken place in the great lakes region and he postulates that the Mound Builders were Nephites. But it was fun to see Melissa! Both Brian and I were excited to head home for Utah, but Brian was especially ready for the summer to be over. He told me he never even wanted to look at an alarm system again! Our summer went well, and at least I had a lot of fun too, but we're ready for this next phase. Especially the part about not having to move in a couple of months. We've moved every four months since we were married!

Brian is taking lots of science classes this semsester at SUU. He's doing well in all of his classes and really enjoys them. Our friend Taylor came up to visit us one weekend and he talked Brian into running a 5K with him. Brian hasn't run at all since we were in Africa, and he just up and ran cold turkey without training at all! I took pictures and cheered for them. The next day I laughed a lot at Brian's expense because he was so sore he was walking like an old man!

Seth has been after Brian to take him on a "boy's only" camping trip for a long time now. But I didn't want to be left behind so I talked them into letting Sarah and I come along too. We had a great time building a big fire, cooking and eating tin foil dinners, roasting marshmallows, and telling scary stories. It was a fun night out.
Silly Boys!

I went up to Idaho with Mom and the four youngest to Idaho Falls to visit Grandpa and Grandma Gunderson. I haven't seen them since Linsy's wedding so I'm glad we were able to go. We made rhubarb blueberry jam, went and visited Sheridan at BYU-Idaho, made bread, and just visited, played and had a great time. We went up when Grandma and Grandpa had a few days off from working at the temple visitor's center. It's another mission for them and is a lot of work, but they do an awesome job. I love my Grandparents a ton! On our drive back home we stopped in SLC at the Hogle zoo. Dallin especially loved all the animals. It's really been fun to live close to family again. We've either been working like crazy while we were close by, or thousands of miles away from them ever since we got married. Even the 7 hour drive to Arizona doesn't seem so bad to us after the 36 hour drive to PA!

See the jaguar in the background? He's drinking at the top of the waterfall.

Two Trips to NYC!

Guess what I got to do in August? I went to NYC! Twice! First I went with Jenilyn and Carson. We went to the manhattan Temple. It was so interesting. So different from all the other temples I've been to because it doesn't have beautiful lawns, expansive temple grounds filled with flowers and green. You walk right from the NY street and sidewalk -- noisy, smelly, busy, tons of people, honking, cars, etc.-- to the beauty and peace of the temple. After that we went to dinner at a fun Italian restaraunt and took the NJ Transit Train back home. We thought of Hermana Montana when we saw this hotel sign. She was somewhere in NYC at the same time. It would have been fun if we'd bumped into her at the temple. Instead we just thought 'bout her.

Jenilyn, Carson and Me having dinner at Carmine's.

I went back to NY the next week with Heather. This time both of us were pregnant and sick. Sometimes the smells were pretty awful, but we pulled through and had the BEST day. We went to Ground Zero, saw the statue of liberty, Times Square, and ate dinner at this amazing pizza place. But the very best part, the reason we went: We went to see the Broadway Play "A Tale of Two Cities" on opening night! We had orchestra seats three rows from the front. The play was incredible! Going to see a play on broadway has been one of my dreams, and I was on cloud 9 of happiness for a couple of days after that. The only thing that would have made it better would have been to have Brian with me. Another time. Even though he couldn't go he did everything he could to make it happen for me. Thanks Brian! You're the best. Now I can't wait until the cast recording comes out!

Together in Philadelphia

Johnson's Come to Visit

We've been lucky this summer with family and friends coming to visit. Mom and Dad Johnson and Rick and Kristi came out to see us at the end of June. In fact, their timing was perfect. It was right after we found out I was pregnant, and I was tired a lot, but I hadn't gotten sick yet. Thank goodness! We spent most of our days in Philadelphia and saw lots there. We also went to the ocean, the Hershey Factory, and the Amish Village. Brian even got to come with us Sunday afternoon to Philadelphia, which was so fun! We also got in a few games of Settlers of Catan, and an evening of charades while they were here. We laughed so hard at charades, you should have seen Sue's salt and pepper wobbler shakers. She had us rolling!

In Hershey, PA. We took the chocolate factory tour, and I even asked an employee what the correct way to pronounce "Reese's" is. I started doing a little jig and made him tell everybody else cause he said it the same way as me -- Reesee's. For some reason that wasn't good enough and somebody had to ask an older, more official employee who told us the correct way to pronounce it is "Rees-is." Oh well, it was too good to be true!
Just outside of the Liberty Bell. The building behind us to our left was the very first congress building. The best part of this day was that Brian came with us. Whoo-hoo!

I love this picture!

Inside Independence Hall. How cool is that? By the way, notice Kristi's cute haircut. This is the first and only time I've ever had longer hair than her. She cut off like 13 inches.
Okay, explanation: The Amish Town is called Intercourse for some crazy reason. And I'll probably chicken out and take this picture off in a couple of days anyway. But it was just too funny. How would you answer if you lived there and someone asked where you were from? Awkward.
At the ocean. The waves were a lot of fun, they were huge. After jumping in them and being twisted around like a rag doll for about an hour I was beat. So I just slept while Kristi and Rick made the alligator. I felt like a bit of a party pooper but oh well.

Girl's + Tyson Week

Mom, Shay, Bre, and Tyson flew out to visit us for a week here in Pennsylvania. We had so much fun and went all over the place. The Hershey Factory, The Susquehanna River, Palmyra NY, Boston MA, Plymouth Rock, Philadelphia, the Amish villages and the ocean. We've been far away from our family for a long time, so even though we were in the car a lot, it was fun to be together. (They came May 25th - June 4th).

Kira, Shay, Tyson and Bre at the Susquehanna River. Mom had us sing a song at each church history sight. We kind of gave her a hard time about it, but singing together was fun. We sang "The Priesthood is Restored" here.

This is in the upstairs room of the Smith home. We went to the Sacred Grove right after this. Mom and I had gone around 6am that morning too and it was so peaceful. We sang "O How Lovely Was the Morning" here.

We went on a duck ride! This truck turns into a boat when it hits the water. We went for a tour around Philadelphia on it, then into the river. We were all given quackers and we were a really noisy bunch. Jenilyn came with us too!


I love this picture of Tyson. He's looking at Jellyfish in the ocean over the side of the Mayflower II.
Shay, Bre and Tyson waiting in line to go see Independence Hall. We only had to wait 15 minutes, and we didn't even have tickets!

We found this starfish at the ocean. We also found tons of big seashells. It was still kind of cool and windy outside, but we still had lots of fun.
Mom and Bre taking Ty out to get his feet wet.

A Baby's Coming

We have the most exciting news! I'm pregnant! Brian and I are so very, very happy. We found out June 23rd. After doing the pregnancy test we tried to wait for the three minutes to look at the results but I saw the "+" sign almost immediately and said, "Look Bri! You're going to be a dad!" We spent the morning smiling, planning, talking about baby names and when the due date will be.

I've gotten really sick and tired these last few weeks. I think we'll save money because I avoid the grocery store as much as possible. Brian spoils me and makes me a smoothie before I get out of bed each morning because we've found I can usually keep it down that way. He's such a good, caring husband, so happy about our baby. He touches and talks to my tummy and tells me how cute I am pregnant (of course I haven't changed much yet).

I keep letting Brian know how our baby is growing. 5 weeks - the size of a grain of rice. 6 weeks - the size of a lentil. 7 weeks- a blueberry. And tomorrow, 8 weeks - the size of a kidney bean. He's growing fast, he's almost doubled in size each week.

So these past few weeks have been really special. I'm carrying a baby. Our little baby, our son or daughter, getting ready to join us. I'm excited for the upcoming weeks and months, all the experiences, excitement and changes that will continue to come. To start liking food again, to feel him kick and move, and to see my belly start to grow. We're so excited to be a mom and dad!

Our First Year

This has been an incredible year! I'll try to do a quick catch up. Brian and I were married in the Mesa, AZ temple April 25th, 2007. It's hard to believe we've already been married over a year. It seems like almost every moment has been filled with one adventure or another. Right after we got married, we went on our honeymoon to Florida, then went to Denver, CO for the summer where Brian worked selling security systems and I worked as the Office Assistant. That fall we were back in Cedar City working and living at Beehive Homes, an assisted living facility. That was an interesting few months. We made great friends, have lots of experiences to laugh at, and saved on housing. Brian graduated from GWC in October. He went to school that semester and we both worked over full time.

In January we flew to Africa. First we went to Tanzania, where we hiked Mt. Kilimanjaro. That was one of the most incredible, definently the most physically exhausting thing either of us have ever done. We were freezing, exhausted, and fighting altitude sickness but we made it to the very top, Uhuru Peak! Then we went to Kenya, where we visited my cousins the Gunderson's and went on a safari. Then we flew to Uganda, the real reason of our trip. We served as volunteers helping to jump start the project "LEU" Leadership Education Uganda working with George Wythe College and HELP International. We loved our time here. We lived with a wonderful Ugandan family, the Mayeku's, and made many good friends. We conducted teacher training classes at local schools, teaching concepts from A Thomas Jefferson Education by DeMille and 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Covey in our classes. We introduced and practiced discussion with our teachers, the importance of asking questions, and encouraging their students to ask questions. We discussed why education is important, that it should continue beyond school, how students learn in different ways and how we can better help them learn. Teaching is very looked down on as a profession in Uganda, and as these teachers realized that they had an important and noble role, their whole outlook on life would change. They had new hope, new purpose, and the way they taught their classes improved so much. We also spent time in a bakery helping with their books, and with members of the branch we met there.

I don’t think we realized how much we would learn and grow from the teachers and other people we worked and spent time with in Uganda. Brian and I are better teachers, and will be better parents because of our time there. We were impressed with the parents we saw who work so hard and make sacrifices so they can pay the school fees for their children, and with the teachers who want to be better, and were willing to try new things in their classes, and in turn taught us. The cold showers and cockroaches I never learned to love, but we quickly came to enjoy and learn from our other experiences, and to love our new friends and adopted family. We loved Uganda!

In April we flew back to the United States. We spent a few days with our families in Phoenix, AZ and Richfield, UT before packing up our little car and driving out to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for the summer. It's been so nice to have our very own home for the first time in eight months! Brian works long hours, but we love our mornings and Sunday's together. We've had fun having family and friends come out to visit us, and touring some of the church and historical sights around.

But our most exciting news comes in the next post . . .