Our Big Annoucement!!

The moment that some of you have been waiting for has arrived..... we are having a baby!!!! After two wonderful years of marriage Brandon and I have decided to expand our family. You can all mark April 18th on your calendar!! Although the pictures are not that clear we wanted to share our ultrasound pics...

Our baby at 8 weeks 2 days... our little kidney bean :)

Our baby today! 13 weeks 4 days

He/She is in praying position :) We still can not comprehend that this little person is going to be coming into our lives! We are so excited. Thanks Uncle Steve E. for helping us get the picture above and letting us really see our baby for the first time. So happy you could be with us to experience that!

Now back in the day Brandon and I were able to get an idea of what our child would look like......This may be why it took a little longer for us to start having children :) We were a little scared when we first saw the pic but it started to grow on us after a bit! The picture is a little girl.. she is cute, right? Ha ha. The pictures of Brandon and I are really the scary ones. Guess we'll see if this little Foto Morph machine is accurate in 6 months....

New House!

One of the big changes in our life...... We finally got our own place!! We had quite the experience trying to buy our home. The story is too long and boring to try and write but lets just say it brought about a lot of sleepless nights and many tears from me. But all is well now!! We love our new place!

Yellowstone and Brandon's Birthday

I realize that it has been a few months.... This post is for Aimei and Meradith and anyone else who is sick of seeing "Yee Haw Go Nashville!". Ha ha! Don't worry girls, I will have some more posts to come. Alot has happened in the last few months so it could take a while to get caught up. Here is the month of July, mostly in just pictures....

Our family trip to Yellowstone

Jaxon, me and Ally

Another good scenic pic...

Great couple pic...

One of our favorite pictures from the trip :) Good work Mera! What lead to our 2 hour delay to Old Faithful....

Jacob borrowing some of Jason's old boots. When we were all leaving to head into Yellowstone, he happened to leave the house with no shoes. Yes that is right, he forgot to wear shoes. Luckily, Jason had an extra pair in his car. We all got a good laugh! :)

Sister pose in front of Old Faithful....

Waiting for Old Faithful.... Enjoying another geyser...

Me, Mother and Sister

On Brandon's Birthday we all hit the river for a nice boat ride....

Embley family.... Jacob appears to be having the time of his life :)

Brandon and his back flips.... He loves to show off :)

Steve trying to keep up.... Brandon still showing off :)

Good times....

Birthday Boy!!!!

Enjoying all his presents...

Our quick stop in Idaho Falls on the way home... We had such a good time with everyone!!! Thanks Mom and Dad for planning such a fun vacation. We can't wait till next years! :)

Yee Haw! Go Nashville!!

Right after Brandon graduated we headed out to Nashville with Sheila, Brent and Ian! They were so kind to take us with them :) We had so much fun all together! Here are some pictures from our adventurous vacation.

You have to try on a Cowboy hat when you are in Nashville.....

Brandon even got the chance to arm wrestle Elvis.....The winner got a kiss from me!! :)Nashville's beautiful sunset.... On Mother's Day we got the chance to go to the famous "Pancake Pantry" for breakfast with Brent's family. The food was delicious! I had the famous sweet potato pancakes with their cinnamon syrup. So good! The line was out the door for this place!!! State Capitol Brandon, Ian and I wondered the city one afternoon and got the chance to see the capitol and a nice memorial park This was Brandon's favorite quote.... He thought about it for a while looking off into the distance like that. We then jammed out with Elvis for a bit....nice guy. Here is Sheila and Brent enjoying our nice boat ride around the famous garden atrium And of course we went to the Grand Ole Opry House!!! Brandon and I got the chance to do a jam out session. He played the key board and I sang. We were a big hit. They are asking us to come back soon. Tickets will be expensive I'm sure of it. I was made for the stage....

The last thing on our agenda was to make it to the Loveless Cafe. We heard they had amazing homemade buscuits and jam. All the rumors were true!!! We loved the buscuits and the service was the best! Our server did some magic tricks for us and then the manager of the resturant gave us thier $25 cookbook for free! They were so good to us. If I ever make it back to Nashville, I will be going back!
Our happy family...

Brandon Graduated!!!!

It is a little delayed but.... Brandon graduated!!! I am so proud of him. He has worked so hard balancing school, work and me :) Now he can just focus on work and me for a little bit!

He really looks like a graduate in this picture :)....

Here is the crew that came out to support him... Thank you so much!

Catching Up Again....

I know.... it has been awhile since our last post. I'm sorry to the few of you that check our blog regularly, I wish I could promise that things will be better in the future but I am sorry to say it probably won't. But here we go in catching up on the last few months... Enjoy!

Draper Temple Open House with Sheila, Brent and Ian

We had the great opportunity to go through the Draper Temple open house with Brandon's mom, step-dad and brother. It was beautiful! I'm so glad we were able to experience it together.

Linzie Gwen Christensen

My beautiful niece Linzie was born!!! She is so adorable and is now way bigger than when this picture was taken. Congrats Jared and Kristee!

Valentines Day Brandon treated me well on Valentines! He got me a dozen red roses and two new purses. We were able to set our camera up and take this picture of the two of us..... Brandon is lucky enough to have some long arms so he could hug the chair and me at the same time :) Pretty awkward.

Kalai Concert My friend Crystal and I decided to surprise our husbands for Valentines Day with a concert from our favorite singer, Kalai. It was amazing!! We couldn't have put it together with out all the help from family and friends. Thank you all for making it happen!

Here we are with our new friend Kalai....

Sledding with the Embley's Tradition has it that we go sledding once every winter with the Embley's. So here we are making it happen. We had a lot of fun!

Here is Rachel, Ally, Katie and Sarah all going down on one tube...

Jacob discovered that their dog, Nash, was more like a horse and could pull him down the hill...

Yes, we made this snowman....

Heidi didn't want to let go....

Snowboarding with Steve S. Brandon and Steve got a chance to go snowboarding together this year! I won't go with Brandon so other people need to. :) Steve was really tearing it up....

Happy Birthday Sheila!

We celebrated Brandon's Mom's 50th Birthday this year!!! We all went out to Asian Star to celebrate. It was a great time!!

Us with the birthday girl....

St. George with the PortwoodsWe finally were able to get a way for a weekend and go to St. George! We were so happy that the Portwoods were able to join us. We had such a good time together! The weather was amazing!

We did the adventurous "Crack". Here is Crystalyn and I preparing to go through...Rob took some deep breaths and made it through...We also did a little biking.... I look like I am having a great time, right? Now how do I look????....Embarrassing as it is... I did not last long on the bike. I'm not quite sure what happened?? Maybe it was the heat, or the fact that we had just eaten or maybe the huge mountain we rode up was just too much for me. But what ever it was, I thought I was going to pass out. I made Brandon stop and I found this little place to sit for a while. He kept telling me to get up, I think he was embarrassed cause cars were slowing down to watch. ha ha!!!

Brandon is quite the master on the bike....

It took some convincing to get Brandon off the bike. He was having the time of his life popping those wheelies.... Lets pretend I took the picture late when he was coming down and not right when he got up :)

Kenzie's First Haircut
I was lucky enough to give my niece, Kenzie, her first haircut!! She was so cute when I was cutting her hair. Look at this face....

Taylor Andrews Hair Show And finally.... my first hair show!!! Above are all the model's in our group. We did the hair, costume and make up for each model. Inspired by the artist Georgio O'Keeffe. Below is the model that I worked on....

Doesn't she look amazing????

View of her outfit....

I was so happy that all of our ideas came together!!! Our model, Emily, looked great! She was a great sport and wore her hair like that for 14 hours for us!! She did mention that she had a slight headache.

Charelle, Me, Emily and Ally

Here is the group of us that put Emily together!

Park City Adventures

This is the first year in a long time that I have not had a season pass to one of the many resorts that surround us in this great state. Snowboarding/skiing has always been a huge part of my life, and always will, but this year it needed to be put aside as other responsibilities took it's place. However, when opportunities present themselves, you can always find me on the slopes. This month I had the opportunity of riding Park City Mountain Resort with my brother Robby and his girlfriend Amy...It was a blast!

Yes, I did survive a full day on the mountain with these two Artichokes (both attending Scottsdale Community College, home of the Artichokes)!

On January 10th a unique opportunity came my way. My little bother ran into an old family friend of ours who's son was currently working at the Utah Olympic Park in Park City. One thing led to another and the next thing I knew I was on one of 4 Olympic Bobsled tracks in North America.

This is the consent form that I signed releasing the park of all liability even if I were to suffer an injury due to their own negligence. Becky got quite nervous after this...

This is Becky being scared for my life.

Robby and I prepared to experience what was going to be one of the greatest thrills of our lifetime.

After getting situated in the sled at the top of the course I told the others that I wanted to get the best time of all the sleds in our group (5 sleds). The employees pushing us away accepted that request and pushed with all their might launching us onto the track. The first hundred feet or so the sled steadily increased speed. The first two turns were great as I was tucked in the bobsled position embracing my neck with my shoulders and grasping onto my handles. As time continued I soon found myself grasping the handles harder and harder. Turns came so quickly that my knees were thrust from side to side of the sled. The force was so powerful that every turn caused my head to be thrown down into my lap. After ten turns or so I remember wishing that the finish line was the next thing in our path. Four more turns later the driver pulled on the brake and we made it safely to the bottom...and yes, we were the fastest sled that night with 52.35 seconds. I will never forget this experience as we reached speeds of up to 80 mph. My neck mas sore for several days (from trying to resist the force) and my knees were banged up a little, but this ride was definitely worth it!