I want to win!

So I have never won anything that significant in my life and I REALLY want to win this contest. I started quite late, so I am trying not to get my hopes up, but you can help me!!! All you have to do is visit this website

http://www.theoriginalscrapbox.com/catalog/index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=102

and vote for #85. There's no registering or anything involved...it honestly takes 2 seconds to do. And you can go back everyday (until April 22nd) and re-vote again! So if you have 2 seconds (which I am sure you do if you are reading blogs...) then go and VOTE!! :) And pass it along...please! A link on your blog...anything really would help. THANKS!

My Sleepy Baby

So Joshua and I went up to my parents the other day and Joshua wouldn't take a nap. He kept messing his pants (which he can't go to sleep with a messy diaper) so my mom and I took him swimming to wear him out. By the time we got back, my dad was home from work and he wanted to play with Grandpa. He was being happy, so I just let him play. We sat down for dinner, and then after dinner I gave him a brownie for a treat. Pretty soon, this is what happened:

Germany and California!

So Justin and I are going to have some big adventures coming up! We are going to spend a month in Germany (during May) for Justin to start learning German. Neither of us know ANY German, so it should be interesting. Luckily people there supposedly know English...

We also got a couple more rejections and a couple more wait-listed schools. The rejections were from Notre Dame and Chicago, the 2 schools we might have picked above UCR, so it looks like UCR is going to be our new home. Okay, so Chicago wasn't a flat out rejection...Justin got accepted to the masters program, but it has ZERO funding, so that's not really an option. Too bad. But I am excited about California! Here is my list of pluses for CA so far

-warmer weather all year long
-subsidized student housing--super cheapo!
-working out OUTSIDE (aka walks with the kiddos) all year long
-Disneyland passes
-playing at the playground all year long
-only an 8-10 hour drive from both sets of grandparents (Joshua's grandparents that is)

P.S. Did I mention that it is currently snowing? mmmm, dreaming of California already...

Anna and the boys!

Well, it looks like we will be adding another boy to our family. I am so excited! Joshua will have a little buddy to play ball with. I know my dad (especially) was hoping for a girl, but...he'll have to wait a while longer. It's actually pretty funny, because we haven't added a girl to our family since I was born in 1982. My parents have gained 2 sons-in-law and 5 grandsons. My boys and Katie's boys will hopefully be good friends though. They are all so close in age. We have added one each year for the last while...
Spencer--2005
Travis--2006
Joshua--2007
Nathaniel--2008
future baby--2009

Kind of fun! Today is my dads birthday, BTW, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY! (or as Joshua calls him...ba ba bee!)

Breaking the Curse and News

So Justin was flown down to CA to visit UCR this weekend and is having a great time. As for Joshua and I...we broke the curse! We drove up to Logan Saturday morning with no car problems. Phew! We had a great time playing with Grandma and Grandpa (both called "ba-ba-bay" by Joshua).

We have heard back from a couple of more schools...here's where the count is right now:
-Accepted at UCR
-Wait-listed at Vanderbilt and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
-Rejected at Yale, Stony Brook, Northwestern and Penn State

Still a few more to hear back from, but so far California is still looking like a good possibility! In the mean time, when I pick Justin up from the airport tonight, we are going to stop by the hospital in Salt Lake and Justin's uncle is going to give us an ultra-sound and we will hopefully find out if I have a little boy or girl inside my tummy! It's like Christmas! :)

Graduate School Update

We are still waiting to hear back from a number of schools, but here is what we have so far....

-wait-listed at Vanderbilt
-rejected from Stony Brook (in New York)
-ACCEPTED at UC Riverside!!!!!!!

So far...California is our #1 option. It's one of the top schools Justin wanted to go to anyway...so we are very happy!

Farm Country

On Saturday afternoon, my dad came down to play with us and we went to "Farm Country" up at Thanksgiving Point. It was awesome! Joshua is learning animals right now, so it was fun to see real ones. He is feeding the goats some straw.

He is riding the fake cow. He is making a "moo" sound, that's why his mouth is shaped the way it is. (There were lots of real cows too, he just couldn't ride them!)

But he could ride the horses! Grandpa made sure he didn't fall off, but Joshua was a pro-horse rider!