The most wonderful time of the year.

After our unbearable long month of being separated, Nick and I were finally reunited in Utah. It felt so good to be together again. 

There had been some major growth while I was away...

19 weeks vs 23weeks

I was barely showing when I had left Nick and had turned into big mama by the time I saw him again. >>Baby boy hit a pretty big growth spurt that month.<< Nick couldn't believe his eyes. I would catch him just staring at my baby belly in disbelief. Haha. It's fine, he's used to it by now.

We had a wonderful Christmas in Utah. We got to spend lots of time with Nick's family and even got to spend a couple of days with my extended family.

We had 2 weddings in 3 days in the Pinegar family. It was such a treat to see everyone and celebrate the marriages of two of my cousins. I just ♥ love... and weddings. There is something so special about being in the temple with so much family. Just a sweet feeling that can never be explained.

My sweet cousin, Spencer, married the beautiful McKenna 

The Petersons ♥

and then, 2 days later... 

my gorgeous cousin, Allison, married her sweetheart- Tom! They are two perfect additions to the family. :)

The Busicos ♥

Nelson family (minus Derek, Linds and the boys) at the gorgeous Salt Lake Temple

After all the wedding festivities it was time to head up to Ogden and have some Anderson family time and celebrate Christmas!!

Celebrating Kirsten's birthday! 

Nick & Luke with their good friend Carl

sweetest Grandma & Grandpa Forster

Lots of snuggling, watching movies, and playing games

CHRISTMAS!! So many great gifts... Angie was reeeally excited about the Phillip Phillips CD we gave her. ;)

And the very best part....

Finding out Meg is pregnant!! We are so so happy for them and this baby boy is SO excited to have an Anderson cousin so close in age! :)

Angie.Jim.Kirsten.Lucas.Chris.Meg.Baby Anderson.Nick.Paige.Baby Anderson-- We missed Gretchen & Maddie so much!!

We love being with Nick's family and cherish the time that we get to spend together, since we are spread out over the country. Can't wait until next time!
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The day after Christmas Nick and I flew down to Vegas to spend time with my family and soak up some sunshine for a week, before heading back to Spokane for school. 

It felt good to be home. We had too much fun..

Visiting the Bellagio gardens:

Obsessing over our adorable nieces & nephews:

Taking family pictures:

And celebrating New Year's Eve with the Pittsenbargers:

Ping Pong tournament.

Enjoying the fireworks from the amazing few at Destiny's parent's house.

We were so grateful to be able to spend a long, fun holiday vacation with our families. It was just what we needed and the only way we would want to spend our Christmas break.

So much to be thankful for.

Thanksgiving. It's such a great holiday.

This year was extra special because SISTER NELSON CAME HOME! Home for good. Finally.

I didn't think that I would be able to be there for her homecoming and Thanksgiving but Nick and I decided that some time apart wouldn't kill us. Nick really needed to focus on studying for finals and I really didn't want to feel left out of the Nelson party going down in Las Vegas.

So I surprised Brooke and was at the airport waiting when she got home. It was so fun. 

So so happy to have my sis home.

 The next day was Thanksgiving! Tons of family and friends came into town for the feast and to listen to Brooke's homecoming talk on Sunday. As you can imagine, we had a blast.

beautiful Thanksgiving decor

Homemade place cards... courtesy of Emma, Nina, & Kate

Can you tell which one is the food baby and which one is the real baby? 

 The rest of my time in Las Vegas was spent going to the temple with my huge, fun Pinegar family..

some of my cute cousins after to doing baptisms for the dead.

Soaking up the sun & taking daily walks with the dog...

Kissing these faces to death...

Stone.Enzo.Violet.Lily.Miles.Nixon.

Going to Rex & Nina's band and orchestra concerts...

Watching the CHEESIEST Hallmark Christmas movies with Brooke...

And missing this guy so much I could barely handle it...

Side note: I don't know why we thought spending 3 1/2 weeks apart would be a good idea. Sure, the study time paid off for Nick's grades and I loved the quality time with my family and friends, but I just don't think I could do it again. 

Like I said in the beginning, it was such a great Thanksgiving holiday.{{ I have so much to be thankful for.}} 

super late Halloween post. whoops.

I was kind of sad this year when I realized that we didn't really have a reason to dress up for Halloween. Just unacceptable. So I created a reason to dress up! I got together with my friends Callie & Destiny and we decided to throw a Halloween party. We checked Pinterest then headed to the dollar store  & Walmart ( I hate I'm learning to love grad school budgets)  for party supplies. Then we invited all of our law school/ ward friends and, if I do say so myself, we put together a pretty fun party. It was a success!

       

**Our homemade photo booth was a hit...**

Our fun party guests!

The Hostess's

>>We are so lucky to have such a great group of fun/festive friends up here. Life would be so dull without them.<<

So here's the whole story..

**This is going to be a long post. I'll try to keep it short but for journaling purposes, I want to remember all the details.**

My family and I met Nick up in Spokane on Monday August 6th and I was so relieved to finally be there. The car ride up was really long and I felt so embarrassed because I made it even longer by asking my dad to stop every hour and a half because I had to pee so bad. I was clueless. Then we got up here and I was so anxious to hit the stores and start furniture shopping! So, Tuesday & Wednesday were nonstop shopping and setting up furniture. I started feeling so weird but was still clueless. I was feeling very energetic and then suddenly I would get so tired and HAD to sit down or I would pass out... and not to mention (sorry for the T.M.I.) but my boobs were insanely sore. I started getting the hints now. 

I told Nick how I was felling and that's when I finally admitted that all these "weird things" I was feeling were actually pregnancy symptoms. I really didn't want to get my hopes up but on Thursday morning -August 9th- Nick suggested that I take a pregnancy test. My parents were leaving that day and if I was pregnant it would be SO fun to tell them the good news in person. So I went into the bathroom and took the test. Within 3 seconds 2 very bold lines appeared on the test.

I just stared in shock. Then I ran out the door to my pacing husband and started screaming/crying/shaking all at once and held out the positive test. He couldn't believe his eyes either. I don't think either of us has ever been happier in our lives. After a year of trying and months of disappointment we FINALLY have a baby growing in my tummy!!

After lots of hugging, kissing, crying (on my part), screaming (me, again), and shaking (yup, just me) we  said a prayer of gratitude for this amazing blessing. Then, it was time to get down to business... my family was leaving in an hour and we had to think of a fun way to tell them! So, I searched my boxes for some cute paper or something. No luck. All I could find was a black sharpie, white & pink post-its and some colorful construction paper. It would have to do. I came up with a plan. I made a dinky "I'm pregnant" sign out of my lame scraps and we put the sign at the bottom of a bag full of treats for my family's long road trip home. 

I was so nervous/excited as we were walking into their hotel room and couldn't wait one second longer for them to open the little gift we had brought them. I'm so glad Nick caught the reaction on camera...

Oh I love this...It makes me cry every time I watch it.

We could barely contain our excitement. -don't mind the dinky sign-

>>So we sent them on their way with lots of hugs and tears and the best news possible. It was a great way to end our time with them and officially begin our new life in Washington.<<

Next, we had to figure out how we were going to tell the rest of our family. A little more tricky since we couldn't tell any of them in person but thank heavens for skype/facetime! We figured that they would want to see our new place so we skyped each family and took them on a little tour of our apartment--with a little surprise in the guest bedroom. :) Here is what they saw...

Entry 

Kitchen

Living Room

Living Room

Master Bathroom

Master Bedroom

Guest Bathroom

And last but not least...

The reactions were hilarious. It took some people a while to understand what we were trying to say and others got it right away. Either way, there were always tears, screams and lots of congratulating. It was SO fun!

The last big announcement was for Chase & Destiny. They had known all about our struggles with trying to get pregnant, so I knew it would be impossible to try to keep it a secret from them. We had to wait a whole week (torture!) until they moved back up to Spokane and we could tell them the big news. I wanted to blurt out "I'M PREGNANT" right when I saw Destiny but Nick was at school and made me promise that I wouldn't tell them until he was home. Longest day ever. We helped them unload their car, move the furniture out of their storage unit, then move the furniture up to their new apartment. It was killing me! Not to mention, I felt awkward trying to think of excuses as to why I wasn't helping to lift anything and why I was so tired. Finally we had a minute to sit down and I brought out my present "for baby P"...

Their reaction was priceless. Destiny immediately started crying and Chase just kept saying "No shot!" and there was lots of hugging. They couldn't believe it. It was SO fun.

As you can imagine, our first two weeks up here in Spokane were a total whirlwind of emotions. Moving to a new place, being away from all our family, meeting new people, starting law school, and finding out we are having a baby...our lives completely changed in just a matter of days. We love it and could not be any happier with our current situation. We are so blessed.

.little pumpkin.

Our little pumpkin is coming April 15th, 2013.

We are beyond excited and already so in love with this little lime sized babe that we can barely even handle it. 

More to come on Baby A later... but just know that the Andersons --all 3 of us :)-- are on cloud nine up here in Spokane and we are not planning on coming down any time soon.

We made it!

I never thought the day would come. 

But, after months of waiting, weeks of packing, and days of traveling, we have finally made it to our new home (for the next 3 years) Spokane, Washington! 

Somewhere in Montana

The drive was long but absolutely beautiful! We drove through Utah, Idaho, Montana, and back through Idaho to finally get to Washington. I suggest that everyone make that drive at least once (and come visit us!)...we live in a gorgeous country.

A HUGE thanks goes out to Nick's brother, Lucas, and to my parents and Rex & Nina for helping us with this big move and driving us all the way up here. We really couldn't have done it with out them. Not to mention, it was so fun getting to spend some extra time with family before we had to say a pretty hard goodbye. 

Fun car ride. :) I love my hilarious brother and sister. 

Luke was already gone by the time I got up here :( but we had such a fun time shopping for furniture with my family and showing them the school and our new city!

Nick's new home away from home... Gonzaga Law School

Rex made a new friend.. and vandalized school property. The school Mascot- Spike.

Beautiful Cathedral on campus.

Saying goodbye to the family was hard and a bit tearful but now that we are settled in and have made some new friends things are great! The best part about living here? Being neighbors with these fun people...

Chase & Destiny Pittsenbarger. We are literally two doors away from each other...

Some would say that's a little too close for comfort but we disagree. Sunday dinners, white trash tv (Repo Games, Here Comes Honey Boo Boo),  joint grocery shopping trips, and car pools.. we love it. We didn't really plan it that way but we are so glad that's how it worked out.We have also made friends with our neighbors right below us- Jarren & Callie Sandberg- and we can see becoming friends with a lot of fun couples from the ward and the Law School. 

Nick started his official first day of Law School on Monday. And being the annoying wife I am, I just HAD to snap some pictures...

       

Look how cute. :) So far, he is really liking his classes. He has a lot of homework already but he says its really different than his undergrad because he is actually interested in what he's learning. I'm so proud of him.

{{We are loving our beautiful new home and are excited for all these new adventures ahead of us.}}

 p.s. Seriously, look how gorgeous Spokane is.... 

...everyone should come and visit. :)