Hello! It's been a while since I've done an update. Life in Iowa is still treating us well! Nate has successfully finished one month of PA school, hurray! 23 more months to go. :) We were prepared for life to get very busy for him and for me not to see him very much. He has a very busy schedule, and I am lucky if I see him for more than an hour or two each day. But because he has been so diligent in his studies, he has done AWESOME on all of his tests and he is learning so much. What can I say, Nate is GREAT. I am so lucky to have such a hard working yet loving husband, and I am very grateful for all that he does.

As for me, I have stayed busy being a nanny for a sweet baby boy. He is 4 months and I don't think he could be any cuter. He is a great baby who only cries when he is hungry or tired. I'm getting a lot of practice in for the future, except for the sleep deprived nights I hear all about from this little guy's momma...I don't think I'm quite prepared for that part yet. That's the nice thing about being a nanny, you get to hand them over at night. :)

I just celebrated my birthday, I am now 24! My birthday was on a Sunday so Nate and I celebrated mostly on Saturday. We went and saw The Fault in Our Stars, which was really depressing but really good. I cried of course, and as I looked over at Nate I saw him holding back tears as well. He will deny this though haha. We then went out to dinner to a Mongolian grill buffet. It was really good! Here is a picture of me pretending like I am eating with chopsticks, even though I have no idea how people actually eat with these.

And here is Nate really using the chopsticks to eat, and he is eating ever so gracefully.

After that we did a little shopping. On Sunday, my actual birthday, Nate was sweet and made me breakfast. We then went to church and taught a Primary class. We had a relaxing day and Nate cooked some hamburgers while I baked a cake. We realized that we did not need to make a whole cake for the two of us. That was a bad idea! But it was good.

We've also been able to help the missionaries here in Des Moines. They asked us to pick up one of their investigators, who is a 10 year old boy. We took him to church a few times, and this past Saturday he got baptized. Nate and I spoke at his baptism, and then on Sunday Nate confirmed him a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was an awesome experience! It has been great to help the missionaries every once in a while. It has strengthened my testimony and has made me realize that I don't have to do great things to do missionary work. Even small things make a difference.

Anyway, life is good for us and we have been so blessed!

Growing Up

Nate starts the PA program on Monday, which means our "vacation" is up. We've had about three weeks to do pretty much whatever we wanted, when we wanted, and we were able to do it all with each other. Now that he is starting, he will be in his classes from 8-5. And that is just class alone, you still have to add in the hours of homework and studying. So pretty much, we aren't going to see each other very much. Luckily I will be working long hour days as a nanny so I will keep busy too...just not as busy.

We were talking about how this is the last time when he will have a break, meaning that after he is done with school he will always be working, minus time off, vacations, etc. I guess it's time to grow up! We are excited to finally be moving on with life and become closer to what he wants to do. 

Nate had orientation this past week and met all of his classmates. Des Moines University is awesome for a lot of reasons, but one really good reason is because they gave Nate a brand new laptop! Pretty cool. He got his badge to get into the school...doesn't he look professional? (Notice the beard - his way of rebelling against BYU-I)

I am a nanny for a 3 month old little baby boy, who is just the cutest thing ever! I've been trying to improve my quilting skills so I decided to practice by making this little guy a little quilt. I haven't finished quite yet, I still have to put the binding on around the edges. But other than that it is done. Definitely beginner status, but I was pretty proud of myself! 

Like I said, this isn't all the way completed so don't judge too harshly! 

Here are a few other random pictures we've taken. Didn't I mention I'm horrible at taking pictures? We've done a lot more exciting things like sailing on this fun little lake and doing fun things with friends. But of course I don't have any pictures to prove it...oh well. 

 Bought this shirt in honor of my Dad who loves Pink Floyd...and not to mention it was on sale. 

Nate with another catfish during one of our many fishing outings. (I actually reeled this one in...he was a fighter) 

Well anyway, that is it for now. Hopefully I will find time and motivation to update the blog often. Until then, wish us (mostly Nate) luck!

When we first got to Des Moines we had about three weeks before Nate started school, so we have had some time to do some fun things and explore a bit.

We have a really awesome capitol building! We decided to walk around inside and see what it was like inside since the outside is so cool looking with the gold domed roof. Inside was very cool and very pretty.

We have also done a lot of fishing since we got here. So far we have caught catfish (which are really scary looking) and we caught one blue gill.

Des Moines is a big city compared to Gridley and Rexburg where we come from. So it is fun to explore all the different things to do here, and to have an actual mall we can go to that is not too far away. And not just one, but three! We went to our very first horse race last night and we almost wished we would have bet because we were right almost every time about which horse would win each race! Nate starts school soon, so we are enjoying all this before things get crazy and chaotic and we won't have very much time to spend with one another. So far, life in Iowa is great! :) 

I always told myself I would never have my own blog because I didn't know what I would really write about. I'm not one to take 100 pictures wherever we go, and I really am not very good at documenting things that are going on in our lives. But, I figured that we just made a major life decision by moving to Iowa and we will be doing a lot of new and exciting things. Well that is what we are hoping for anyway! Nate and I both love Des Moines so far. It is absolutely beautiful right now, it is so green with so many trees! Our journey to get here took a little over 20 hours total, and I'll admit it was not the funnest. We ended up renting a Budget truck and decided to tow our car on a trailer behind it. Here is a picture right as we left Idaho. 

That day we drove a little bit in Idaho and all the way across Wyoming. Let me tell you, I've made a lot of boring drives through Nevada, but I would take that any day over driving through Wyoming. The only exciting part about this part of the drive was passing this herd of sheep on the side of the road. 

Our hotel that we were staying in that night was in Ogallala, Nebraska and right before we reached Nebraska a HUGE lightning storm hit us. There was lightning for over two hours and hail the size of marbles. It was really scary, especially driving in that big truck. We were afraid our car would have dents in it, but luckily it was just fine. I wish I could have gotten better pictures of the lightning, but this was all I got. I was more focused on the fact that we were trying to stay alive! 

The next day was another day full of driving. We drove the rest of the way through Nebraska which was full of corn fields. When we finally made it to Iowa, we noticed that it started to get prettier and that there were a lot of rolling hills. When we made it to Des Moines, we were so excited! Not only because we were done driving, but because it was so pretty. We loved all the green hills and all the trees. 

We got to our apartment and started to unload all of our stuff. Nate has a friend that he went to high school with that lives in the complex next to us, and he was so nice and got about 5 other people to help us move all of our stuff into our apartment. What we thought was going to take a long time ended up being quick and painless. That is the nice thing about being Mormon, you have an instant support group wherever you go. We were so grateful for that, and we are so glad to be starting this new chapter in our lives in Des Moines!