Thanks Momma DaNell!

We loved having you here!!

Being the amazing seamstress that she is, she whipped out a bunch of baby room items, and a cute new valance and bed skirt for our room while she was here. Above is a picture of the baby's curtain (glued to a modified set of blinds - love pinterest) and valance. The bed skirt and bumper pads are made out of the same material. Super excited to get the room painted and the crib done so we can put it all together. I think it will look super oober cute.

Also, here is our not hot pink basement with side bathroom... In case you were dying to see it.






Stupid couch

Um.. here is our kitchen and "main room" that is so awkward that we don't know what to do with it. I don't like this level.... nothing works and we don't have the right furniture and the kitchen was so not thought out when it was built. BUT... it does the job, so I'm content. Maybe someday we will figure it out and make it look nice and usable.



I have never taken pictures of upstairs. Its just two bedrooms with a bathroom in the middle. Once we get it all organized with cute little baby stuff, we will take pictures.

Also, we survived the STORM (capitalization for scariness effect) Ok, it wasn't that bad, but it was a little scary. We realized it was going to be bad when the locals (the locals that usually don't worry much about storm warnings) are checking the weather on their phones every 5 minutes. We were in Wichita for a birthing class. They ended it early so everyone could get home before it got bad.... and nobody was getting anything out of it the last hour because they were nervously looking out the window. Anyway, pretty much everything missed us. Closest tornado was in Hesston, about 10 miles away but it didn't do much. And, no hail...no flooding... just lots of crazy lightning and wind. Super thankful for those smart people that watch weather patterns and can warn people, and those people, like our ward member, who stay up all night driving around watching and reporting tornadoes and then fight house fires from lightning. Do these people get enough credit? They are amazing. So normally Kansas gets like 130 tornadoes a year....they got 99 in one night. That means we're done right? :)

Well life is still good in Kansas! We are very blessed!

Some things we have learned in Kansas

Mark and I put together a little list of some things we have learned in Kansas, or just funny things. Maybe we will keep adding to it and it will be a fun little list to look back on and laugh someday.

• Kansas state government is about 10 years behind everyone else.
• Make sure you drive down the correct long driveway when going to dinner at your friendly ward members house, or some farmer might drive up with a shotgun hanging out the window pointed at your face.
• Only open one door at a time or else everything inside your car will blow away.
• They don't cater to pregnant woman with clothing here like they do in Utah, basically there is one option, and it's in Wichita.
• Cops will pull you over for buckling your seat belt in your own housing complex parking lot....because your car was already in gear.
• People ask about your religion by asking the location of your church, because there are so many different churches in the area.
• We live on a hill! Don't get too excited, its the only one in Newton and probably wouldn't pass the hill test in Utah.
• Besides the man with the shotgun, people are really friendly.
• Warsh means wash.
• Mennonite people are amazingly friendly and great cooks, but they absolutely hate our missionaries. Poor guys
• Guns guns guns and more guns. Everybody loves their guns. Every door has a little no guns sign on it.
• People will pawn anything.... It's also fun to be friends with pawn shop owners. :)
• Though AGCO employs so many people in the area, they remain religiously devoted to John Deere. Which is ok because AGCO mostly sells overseas.
• The odds of seeing a tornado... or actually being hit by one are very very very incredibly slim. But the weather does take an obvious turn... and its kinda creepy, super cool but kinda creepy. Can't wait to see more crazy weather.
• Mark apparently looks a lot more like jimmer than we thought. Aside from being called jimmer at church, mark also has the name of Kevin. (because one of our friends couldnt remember his name and kept calling him kevin) The kids just can't seem to let it go and are determined to rename him.
• You dont know flat until you haven really experienced flat...and flat is so much more flat that you could ever imagine it to be.
• Kansas is really pretty in the Spring. :)

Awe.... we could go on forever. Its been quite the adventure. Sometimes it feels just like home, sometimes it feels like we are in a foreign country. We went out for a picnic the other day. I tried to take some pictures of the fields..... a camera just can't quite capture the splendor. It really is amazing. Here are some pictures I got before a bug flew down my shirt.





I'm sorry, someday I will have a nicer camera. As you can tell, its flat.....woah really?! Kansas is flat? Yes its flat, just look at the pictures again. Anywhere that hasn't been farmed is a little hilly, a little.

Well, we went to a nice park/lake/walking trail/camping/swimming hole area. It was awesome! It will definitely help fulfill our outdoor and camping urges... not completely but it will help. Here is a picture of part of the swimming hole.... then Mark had to save some kid swimming from a goose attack, and then we left.

It was the kid and his friends own fault. Stupid teenagers were pestering the birds and the male attacked. When it went for the first kid it was hilarious. He got under the water enough and dodged him til he got to shore, but the other kid couldn't swim very well and was bleeding pretty good. He could touch just barely but was pretty flustered so Mark was a hero and walked out to help scare off the bird and get him out of the water. Yay for heros! Boo for stupid punks. Geese are not something to play with.... Oh ya that's another thing... there are SOOOO many geese out here. It's awesome to see huge flocks overhead or in the fields. I'm talking thousands.

Kansas is really cool. It's really growing on us. Still not home and still really miss our family, but we really like it and have loved our experiences and our friendships out here.

Thanks Glade family for including us in family dinner!!! We loved it! Even though it made the hormonal pregnant lady cry later because she misses you like crazy and hates seeing the little ones grow from a distance, we loved seeing you. We talked it over last night, and I think we have decided to visit home earlier then planned and both of us want to come home in June, my brother comes home from his mission then too! We will know for sure when it gets closer.... pray for a smooth pregnancy that will let me travel.

Glade Reunion

The things we do for great pictures :)

The weekend was full of laughter, beautiful nieces and nephews, games by candlelight, smiling faces, gorgeous views, yummy food, "You don't have to come and confess, we gonna find you"s, golfing, pirate ships, enjoyable walks, and mustaches.

Thanks Glade family for a wonderful weekend!