Its a...

GIRL!!!
At the appointment today they did the ultrasound and told us we are having a little girl! We are both really excited. Our little girl is modest, as the ultrasound tec told us. We had to shake my stomach FOREVER to get her to uncross her legs enough to see what she was. I guess that is a good sign, she's already a good girl! lol. But aside from the girl news she looks totally healthy.

Old Pictures

One of my goals in life is to keep a scrapbook. So yesterday I decided it has been awhile since I looked at my book and done anything. I realized I had some work to do! But, for some reason I didn't feel like getting everything out and starting work, so I just looked back at all my old pictures. I always get so happy when I look at the good times. Looking back made me remember some of the many blessings I've been given. I pretty much have had the best life anyone could ask for!

Just for laughs, I'll post one picture from Jon and I's early dating.

He really looks like his dad in this one... maybe this is a glimpse into his future!

Ive been given homework!

So today I went to the beautiful doctor to have a checkup. I have lost over 10 lbs! Isn't life just unfair, before I tried getting pregnant I worked out really hard to try and be in better shape, but didn't lose a pound, but now (which MUCH too much throwing up to thank) I'm droping weight with no problem! But the doctor wasn't impressed. I was very dehydrated (thanks to a wonderfully uncomfortable night last night), and she said she doesnt want to see me dropping this much weight. So, for homework, before my next appointment she wants to see me gain at least 5 lbs. Part of me wants to laugh, when have I ever had to TRY to gain weight?! That answer is never!!! She even gave me permission to eat anything and everything I wanted. Lol--- as the fat kid in me starts to sing and daydream about icecream and cake...

So if anyone has any tips on how to gain weight while still throwing up let me know! Id love any help I can get!!

Oh and in 3 weeks we are going to find out what we are having!!! I cant wait!! Jon and I both really want a boy, so logically we are prolly going to have a girl! what do you think??

Drum Roll Please..........

So a post or so ago I promised some exciting news...... so are you ready??!!

WE ARE PREGNANT!!!

Yes, the time has officially come to tell everyone that we are expecting our first. I am due Dec 19th, which sounds like forever away.... but hopefully time will fly! I am finally finished with my first trimester (sadly not done with morning sickness, I guess Im just not that lucky!), and my belly is starting to stick out some, or at least more than normal! It was so strange getting the first ultrasound and realizing that something really is growing in there! We are both very excited and feel very blessed to have a kid on the way. On the days that Im not sick I am even more excited!

I hope that news was exciting enough! I thought it was! It has been SO HARD to not tell everyone since day one. At least Im better than my mom, who tells my entire branch the first week after we found out... she claims it was an accident. I will keep you updated at things progress!

Lucky Day

ok so i know i promised good news but that will have to wait another day. yesterday our trusty old truck breathed its last weeze. Jon was in an accident, (thankfully everyone was ok) and it is 100% dead. the truck that took us to all of our dates is dead. I feel the need to mourn, not only because it has been a part of Jon and I's life from the first time I met him, but it was so cheap to own! Now we have to buy a new truck, happy father's day Jon... yay. Our good luck with cars continues.

Wait for it...

So at the moment I am at my mom's house in Ohio, and will be here for 2 weeks. While here, lots of fun things are happening, so anticipate pictures to come later (maybe much later as my husband STOLE my digital camera for work...and i am using a disposable one!!) and i will tell lots of fun and interesting stories when I get back to TN. Just know that in 2 week the post will be so big and so exciting that all my fans will be thrilled! (and by fans I mean my friends who actually are kind enough to read about my semi-boring life!!) So until then, start getting excited! lol. Yea I know I'm weird...

A fun memorial day!

So this past weekend Jon's parents stoped by for a night then we headed to Myrtle Beach the next morning. It was a blast to spend time with some of Jon's family. Thanks so much to Lorainne and Brian for inviting us to share their vacation spot. This post is going to be pretty boring, because for some reason I didn't take a single picture the entire weekend! (Im just lame like that I guess!) But basically we hung out with family at the beach and in the condo. It was nice to kick back and enjoy the beach! I actually got a sun burn! so instead of being a sick pale color, im a pretty red. It is always nice to spend time relaxing with family. Now i cant wait for next week when I get to go to ohio to be with my family! This summer is going to be so fun!

Nothing really happening......

So life in the Walter home has been fairly uneventful. Last weekend I went to South Carolina to baby sit my niece Brooke. It really gave me some good practice for my future! I better sleep ALL that I can now, cause moms sure dont get to sleep much! It was fun to spend time with family again! I have decided living in Knoxville is perfect, we are like 4 hours from everywhere!

Other than that.... we are pretty boring. Jon is working hard, and I'm hardly working. lol.

The only really interesting thing that has happened lately, this morning Chance and I took a walk at the park with our good friend Bri and Buttercup. Chance decided to show off for his girlfriend (buttercup) and got REALLY dirty. It has been raining here all weekend, but we needed out of the house, so we braved the park! When I got home Chance went STRAIGHT into the tub. He was so tired from showing off that as I was drying him off he fell asleep! So he slept on the floor like this while I cleaned up and took a shower! it was great!

All Girls Weekend! (except Chance)

So while Jon went with his brothers Scott and Kenneth for a weekend of camping and fishing, I decided to head to South Carolina to be with my sisters-in-law and their beautiful kids! So we had fun just hanging out! Here are some pictures from the park.

Ashlyn enjoyed running around and trying to make new friends!

Jade is all smiles!


Brooke's first park experience was a hit!

Heather and happy Jade

Brooke and Susan on the slide for the first time

Chance was feeling surrounded by girls, so I decided to help him fit in! He was so good with the girls! I had to make sure he didn't jump on them at first, but he quickly understood that they were too little, and he followed Ashlyn everywhere!

My first (And most likely last) NASCAR experience

So, as a perk to working construction, Jon's building supplier gave us box seats to Bristol Motor Speedway for a race. Jon and I were interested to see what all the excitement was about! So, as instructed, we showed up to the race at 10am. We paid $40 to park in someone's driveway, and headed to the box. Once there, we realized we were the first people there. The race didnt start till 2 or something later like that ( I forget!) Jon and I played 'I spy' for a very long time to try and entertain ourselves. Finally the race started, but every time there was an accident, they drove slow for like 20 laps!!! I mean we understood why, but seriously we were at the racetrack for 9 hours by the time we left early. In a nutt shell, we werent too impressed. I think that if we had been with a group of friends it would have been more interesting, but the two of us couldnt keep eachother entertained for 9 hours! Here are some pictures of our experience. You can tell when we started to get bored... we took tons of funny pictures of us trying to look excited... I will give you the prettiest one!

ALREADY a test!

So from #2 of my last post, I am trying to improve my attitude. Just to test me, today turned out great! (And it is only half way over!) Here is my 'optimistic' version of today's test.

While driving around Knoxville on a beautifully cold/snowy day, looking at possible houses for Jon and I to purchase, my wonderful, new car started to act differently. Being the car-wiz that I am, I wondered, 'what could that exclamation mark that just showed up on my dash mean?' and kept driving. After hitting a perfectly sized pot hole in the marvelous back roads of the middle of no where, I realized something was really wrong. I pulled into a Baptist church parking lot and got out to see what was wrong. I was blessed with a flat tire! Lucky for me, my husband was over 2 hours away, so he was out of the picture in my adventure. Soon after I managed to get the jack and spare tire out of the trunk (I might add was a wonderful upper body workout) a mail man pulled into the parking look and parked where he could watch me. As I started jacking up the car, he proceeded to watch me. The entire time I was in the church parking lot this man sat there watching. I guess he was my guardian angel... to watch over me. I then started to try and get the hub cap off. A well dressed man then pulled into the parking lot, made eye contact with me and went about his business, but I didnt want him to get his clothes dirty anyway. So I turned back to the hub cap, and called my dad for some tips. As I was starting to get discouraged, a sweet elderly couple came by and the man made QUICK work of my tire. I greatly apprecated him for saving me from my struggle. It was the second person with a flat tire they had helped that day. Very sweet people.
Tire crisis mended, I headed toward a Nissan dealership to have them fix my car, when Chance (who was in the back seat the entire time) started to throw up. 3 rounds of throw up later (thankfully not 4), we pulled into our apartment and I rushed him out. I am so happy that our blanket we keep accross the back seats caught 98% of his mess! Now he is sleeping like a baby. I guess the moral of the story is: never feed your dog a tater tot....

General Conference

So this session of general conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, I decided for the first time that I was going to write down the impressions I felt during EACH talk. I have tried taking notes in the past and usually give up. But I am proud to say I made it through all sessions taking notes. Instead of writing down what the speaker said, I made an effort to write down what I felt I needed to hear. Here is a brief summary of what I have decided the Prophets of the Lord were saying to me:
1) Faith in Christ requires exactness, even in the small things. Therefore, I need to work harder to do the small things the Lord has asked of me (ex: personal scripture study, personal prayers) I felt that a reoccurring theme in all the talks was encouragement to do the small and simple things that we have been taught in primary. Pray, read scriptures, love one another. Along with this, I felt impressed that the Lord has blessed me greatly this past year. When Jon was laid off, it only took a month of stress for the Lord to bless us with a job in TN. I felt impressed to live more worthy of my blessings. It is not enough to be passive in the church, just attending my meetings and reading/praying with my husband are not enough to show my true devotion to the Savior. I want to live my life even closer to Heavenly Father by doing the small things I often forget to do. I have no excuse to neglect my spiritual nourishment.
2) Quinton L Cook stated that we get what we focus on consistently. That simple statement caused me to reflect on what I focus on. I want to strive to improve my attitude. Instead of feeling sorry for myself in this new town where I am slowly making new friends, I must find the good things happening. Instead of sitting around wishing Jon did not work such long hours, I need to focus on the good of his job. After all, in an economy where home building has all but stopped, we have a job! I need to stop letting myself get down. I hope that through focusing on the simple commandments of the Lord I will find this task easier. (I want to note that I dont sit around the house all day crying about how sad my life is, I just have thoughts of complaints) I want to be one of those really optimistic people and get rid of my pessimistic thoughts.
3) Temple attendance is greatly important for me. Sadly, my husband and I have not been to the temple since we left beautiful Rexburg. Oh how I miss having a temple 20 minutes away, or as it became our last semester, 5 minutes away. For those of you who still live so close, please go OFTEN for me. I wish I lived so close now. I would spend time in the temple alone now, since I still dont have a job. I miss the feeling the temple gives you. Jon and I have decided that we need to set a goal to make it to the temple much more often. This once a year attendance is just plain sad. Getting to the temple becomes so much harder to achieve when it is 3 or so hours away, and you actually have a full time job. But I should not complain about 3 hours, there are still saint in the church who travel for days to attend the temple, or those who never make it. I have been so blessed, I just need to make it more of a priority.
4) Finally, I was so touched by Jeffery R Holland's message that we will never be left alone or unaided. At times this past year I have felt so alone that it hurt, but I know that I never really was. My Heavenly Father always sent comfort in one form or another. Our Father lives and Loves us! I know that although I am imperfect, and working to be more deserving, that my Father loves me. I was so blessed by the uplifting messages of this session of General Conference! I hope you were too!