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!

Riah's Birthday!

Rachel & Holden with Riah and his CAKE!

Rachel said he had the cake downed in like a minute!

Mom said Riah's birthday was tons of fun and he loved eating his cake! We wish we could have been there! I called Mom the morning of his birthday to tell him over the phone and this is how the convo went:

Mom: He got a puppy for his birthday this morning!

Me: A PUPPY! What kind?!?

Mom: Oh, you know, a brown fluffy one.

Me: (light bulb) OH! It wasn't a REAL puppy.....

Yeah, it was funny. But anyways, he love animals and now he can do the perfect coyote howl! I can't wait to see it on video since all he could do was breath on the phone and try to eat it when I was talking to him. Mom and Holden's mom are babysitting Riah so that Holden and Rachel can have a little getaway to celebrate Holden's birthday which was August 13th (the day after Riah's).

Nate heads to his last baseball event of the summer this weekend. The town team he is playing for back at home made it to the state tournament! I unfortunately have to work all weekend so he will be going alone. He is excited although his shoulder has been bothering him a bit lately so hopefully it will hold up! Here is a picture of us with Nathan in his uniform for the Cairo Camels (clever, huh?) at a game a few weeks after the wedding!

Starting a new blog...

Well, some how our previous blog was deleted....it may have been due to the inactivity leading up to and after the wedding. So we decided to start a new one so we can keep our family and friends updated! We are happily married now and loving every minute of it! Classes start in a few weeks so we are trying to stretch out our last few weeks of summer as long as we can! Nathan's best man gets married in two weeks so we will be traveling out to western Nebraska for that! We recently purchased a TENT so we have a camping weekend planned with some friends on August 29-30th in Auburn, Nebraska at Indian Cave Park! We are mostly settled into the apartment and I will soon post some pictures so you can see it!

It is our nephew Azariah's FIRST birthday today! My mom is down in Alabama visiting this week! He is growing so fast! I will have pictures of his birthday party up as soon as I get some from my mom! I can't believe how fast time flies!