Coming Soon

Nick and I have baby on our mind. We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our baby girl. Official due date is fall Solstice September 21st. Which is ironic cause Nick and I got married on Summer solstice June 21st. Anyways the last eight months have been exciting with a whole bunch of new sensations and emotions most all good. I can't complain. My pregnancy has been great and I have been able to remain active and healthy which means baby is happy and healthy and we have had a lot of fun with it. The other great thing is how much love and support we have received. Our friends and family have out poured gifts and words of encouragement and parties on us probably more than we deserve. I am glad that we have been able to share this experience with so many people and people that we love and cherish. So any day now keep your fingers crossed and send me good thoughts.

Nicks accident

Monday Arpil 20th Nick tore his peck major tendon right off the bone. He went in for surgery April 28th where they cut a verticle cut on his bicep so that the Dr. could go in and find the tendon which had been balled up in his chest then the Dr. drilled anchors into his bone to reatatch the tendon. This picture was taken soon after injured it so the bruising and swelling had gotten a lot worse as the week progressed. He is now recovering and feeling better watching movies and studying for finals which his last one is this wednesday. He took a week off work but is going back this upcoming week. He will be in a sling for 6 weeks then physical therapy for six weeks and wont be back in full for about 6-12 monthes.

Christmas Tradition

So Hilary, McKay, Nicholas and I have started a little tradition. For the last three years every Christmas Morning (early) all four of us head up Millcreek Canyon (my favorite canyon) for a little snow shoeing adventure. We brought Koda in hopes that she would frolic in the snow and use up all her energy (mission accomplished). We laugh and share stories and talk about whatever is going on in our lives. I have to say that my in-laws are great and so much fun to hang out with. I love spending time with them especially doing an activty that I love.



So here is a story for you..... We are two miles up the canyon and we come around a bend in the road. Lo and behold there is a baby moose not even 100 yards away (which are actually really big animals) blocking our path up the canyon. All four of us stop dead in our tracks just observing this moose to see if he was going to let us continue on our way. I told Nick to get out the camera and take a picture while he was fumbling with the camera to take the picture the moose started charging at us. So we took off in the opposite direction hoping that to every two of his steps only one of our steps was going to get us out of harms way. Hilary had a brilliant plan of running up the slope of the hill and hiding behind a tree. Brave Nick is calmly coxing and cheer leading Hilary to continue running while he puts himself between the moose and Hilary . It was very cavalier actually! The moose stops charging us probably thinking if that doesn't scare them to go home............ I don't think that we learned our lesson because we stopped running when the moose stopped chasing us to get another look at how amazing the wilderness and all mother natures creatures are and once again the game of cat and mouse began. This time we ran so fast increasing our distance between us and the moose by a few hundred yards. As a group we decided (or the moose decided for us) that it was time to head back down the canyon .

This is all four of us bundled up on the way up the canyon. Its not light out yet and the sky looked amazing it was a real deep blue color coming over the east mountains. AMAZING!

On the way down the canyon we saw a pine tree that some of the local frequenters of Millcreek canyon had decorated. We didn't see the tree on the way up because it was still dark out. We stopped and took some pics. I have loved doing this every year especially because it is something that Nick and I have been able to do with some of Nicks family. Thanks Mckay and Hilary for being so much fun and being with us on this very special holiday. We love you.

Later that day we went to my moms house and then back up to the Ballstaedts for Pauls famous Omelets. This Holiday has been so relaxing and low key. Merry Christmas and Much Love from The Ballstaedts

I LOVE TREES

Family Pictures

My niece Chrissy took our family pictures She is great. http://www.misschrissysphotos.blogspot.com/