Our Top 10 for 2010

-Nathan & Amanda's 2010 TOP TEN LIST-



10. Amanda had the opportunity to spend a week serving at Royal Family Kids Camp

9. Being able to live about an hour from both of our parents (not to close and not too far)

8. Amanda upgrading to a new Camry after driving her '92 Camry for 7 years

7. Nathan shot his first antelope & his first wall-hanger buck



6. Finding a great group of new friends we meet with weekly for fellowship

5. Celebrating our first year of marriage in Estes Park, Colorado


4. Road Trip out to NC & VA for Thanksgiving


3. God provided Nathan his engineering job at Orthman Manufacturing

2. God also provided Amanda her job at Collage Center

1. Finding out on Christmas Day that we will become PARENTS in September 2011!!!!!!!


THE STORY:
Well, it was Christmas morning and we were all at Dad & Mom's house (Holden & Rachel & the boys as well as Eric & Carley). Dad had gotten a fire call that morning so we didn't open presents until late. After opening presents, Holden and Rachel were getting ready to drive to Holden's family in Hastings.

So while everyone else was having a late breakfast, I went upstairs to take a shower in order to get ready to go to Nathan's extended family Christmas for lunch.

Since it was the last day that I would see Rachel, I decided to take the pregnancy test I had with me just in case it was positive (I had a strong feeling it would be). So I took it and proceeded to take THE shortest shower ever because I was so anxious to see the result. As soon as I saw the word PREGNANT, my heart started racing.

I went downstairs to get Nathan and brought him up to show him the test. We hugged and I was very emotional (as was he)! After he went downstairs, I called Rachel upstairs and she and I hugged and cried. We've never been able to celebrate in person over a pregnancy since she has been out of state both times....so it was very special.

I then went downstairs where everyone was still sitting a the dining room table. I picked up Riah and asked him if he was excited to come back from Christmas next year. He said YES! Then I said, "I'm excited for you to come back to because that means that you will get to meet your new cousin!"

Mom looked SHOCKED and was like, "Whaaaaa what did you just say?" Everyone was very excited and I started crying all over again. It was a very special moment. Since we were celebrating Christmas with Nathan's extended family, we decided to wait to tell his parents until later that week. They were equally excited for us!

We had an ultrasound on Thursday, January 13th and everything looks great! We even got to see a fast little heartbeat!!! Our due date is estimated as September 9, 2011! We appreciate your prayers as we prepare for parenthood! I will do my best to keep you all updated on the pregnancy progress here on our blog! We will be finding out whether we are having a boy or a girl which is very exciting!

There's an antelope head in our deep freeze...

Big news this month??? Nathan shot his first ANTELOPE! Hence the title for this blog....Nathan was able to go hunting with a high school classmate and good friend in the western part of Nebraska last weekend! They had an awesome, manly weekend of stalking out antelope! So, I came home to my hubby cutting up the meat in our kitchen on Sunday night and it don't go over very well. (I don't do well with raw meat). So then, what does Nathan ask me? "Do you want to see the head?" I gave him a quizzical look. He walked over to our deep freeze and motioned for me to come look inside. Sure enough. The entire antelope HEAD was wrapped in two garbage bags. If you're wondering, I didn't look at it very long and haven't looked in our deep freeze again. It won't be there long. Nathan will take it home this weekend and prepare it for a skull mount (that will NOT hang on our living room wall). I have to say though, I am really proud of Nathan and I am not against eating the yummy jerky and steaks :) He is such a good hunter and I love that he gets to do something he enjoys and provide for us!





September was a fun and busy month for us! Labor Day weekend I was able to drive down to Kansas City with my best friend Chelsea and pick up my best friend Dani at the airport on the way. She flew in from California and it was so great to see her! Chelsea and I visited Dani in CA in March so it was so great to have a fun girls weekend getaway! We hung out and did some fun shopping! Since Dani and I had lived with a family during our discipleship school in KC in 2007, we were able to meet up with our host family and catch up! I got lucky because the first host family I lived with was also in KC for the holiday weekend so I got to see them as well :)





I got to use my pink PSE bow at the Annual Bow Shoot this year! Nathan and I even wore our matching camo shirts....





Maybe I will get something with my bow.....after lots of practice!




Nathan & I really enjoy working with our youth group each week! They are an awesome group of teens and we pray that God uses us in a mighty way to help them grow spiritually!



We are counting down the days until our Thanksgiving roadtrip out to North Carolina and Viriginia! We are leaving the weekend before Thanksgiving to visit Nathan's aunt and uncle in North Carolina for a few days before going to Holden & Rachel's for most of Thanksgiving week! It will be the first time we meet little Cliff Hudson so we are VERY excited! It's HUSKER season so we are also looking forward to traveling to Lincoln for a football game at the end of October!