Strength of the Gospel

Well, so much has happened lately, and we have had so many amazing experiences happen in our lives. I can't wait to post pictures and talk about my beautiful little sister's bridal shower and amazing wedding. She was such a gorgeous bride. I am finishing up student teaching, and the baby is coming in less than 2 months!! We even bought a crib!

But, before I can post all those things, something completely tragic happened last night, and it has really made me think about a lot of things. I just found out today that last night, a family in my ward got in a car accident. The mom and four of her daughters were driving in the van to go visit a brother in Rexburg. It was the first time that the 15 year old was driving on the interstate, as she had just gotten her license. They were in a terrible car accident, and one of the daughters, Courtni, was killed at the scene. I just can't even begin to imagine the pain they must be in as a family. The mom is still in a coma, last I heard, and two of the daughters were in intensive care. I am, however, so completely in shock that Courtni passed away.

I had the wonderful pleasure of teaching Courtni in primary for about 6 months. Then, she turned 12 and moved to the young women's, and starting in January, I was called to be the Young Women's sports coordinator. I got to talk to Courtni all the time. She was a dancer, and we swapped stories alot about dance competitions and hours of practices. Also, we recently finished up young women's basketball. Courtni was always my first young woman to show up, and was so excited to play and be there. I teased her about her shot, and she really did get better as the weeks went on. It was so fun to see her grow every week. I really had a great relationship with Courtni, and she was such a smart, cheerful girl. I wanted to take her a thank-you-for-playing-basketball gift or treat, and I never did it... now it's too late. It is really unbelievable how fast things can change.

I just can't wrap my mind around the fact that she is no longer on this earth. I really can't even begin to imagine what the family must be going through. I have been so stressed lately, with so much going on with school, baby, wedding, work, and everything. Then, once I heard this news, I really had to stop and think. It caught me totally off guard, and made me think about the gospel perspective. It really put things in perspective for me. It made me even more eternally grateful to have the gospel in our lives. Only a testimony of the Savior and the plan of salvation could get someone through an experience like this. I am so so happy that we have the strength of the gospel to help us through tragic times. I know so many prayers are with the Henretti family right now. I still just can't believe that she died. She is such a young, innocent girl, with her whole life ahead of her. Josh keeps reminding me that the Lord is in charge, and that she must have been needed on the other side. Still, my heart breaks for the loss of her life, but I really am grateful for the gospel. If it wasn't for my testimony of the plan of salvation, I wouldn't be able to cope with this or anything like this that happens in our lives. i can't imagine what the family must feel, but I just pray that their friends and family will be uplifted and strengthend through this time. Send your prayers their way.

Anyway, I know that our Savior loves each of his children so much, and I know that Courtni is being watched over and loved on the other side. A similar situation happened about 6 years ago, when a young girl I coached on the Lowell Scott Dance Team died at a young women's activity. The picture above really helped me get through that, and I know when I look at it, that our Savior is with Courtni right now too. I just couldn't let this pass me by without saying how thankful I am for my testimony, and the support I have from the Gospel. I am so sorry for this family and their tragedy. I hope everyone takes a minute to stop and appreciate the family and friends that have, and tell them they love them everyday. Things change so fast... I know families are eternal, and as we are getting ready to start our little family, I know that testimony will keep us strong and together, no matter what...

WAY BACK TO CHRISTMAS....

There are so many things I want to blog about...

- thoughts about baby

- wrapping up 2009

- looking forward to a CRAZY 2010

- student teaching

- birthdays

BUT... here we are, stuck back at Christmas!! 

It really was a great holiday!! We had Christmas Eve Dinner with my family and the Petersons! And then we headed over to the Davis' for Christmas Eve night and Christmas morning. It was a blast to get to be with everyone! here are just some random pictures to give you a taste of how much fun it was :) Alot of my pictures got deleted, but I just have to post what I have or else I will never get started.... 

Karalee and kayla... i just love my sisters. 

Tons of puzzle time!! They actually completed a 2000 piece puzzle, which i thought was pretty impressive...

The Whole crew... mom still buys us matching jammies. Thanks mom. :)

We got to make an AWESOME GINGERBREAD VILLAGE!!! The buildings were as follows...

- Ally and Karalee: The hospital (naturally, since they are both studying in the health care field)

- Krystin: The perfect little house

- Heather and Josh: The school... complete with slide and playground

- Michaela and Austin: The Eiffel tower (apparently we were making a french village)

- Mom: A beautiful garden full of candy flowers

- Dad: An impressive train station

We loved making the village... I, for one, was definitely NOT that good at it, but Josh kept us going strong.

At the Davis' we loved playing Mario for the wii with four players, and had an awesome christmas morning. I will never get over how much I love being close to our families and getting to see everyone for the holidays! It's just so crazy to me that next Christmas, we will have a little baby around!! :) can't wait!!

Anyway, since then, we have had TONS of birthdays, an awesome New Years, I turned TWENTY FIVE! (I was not too happy about this for some reason), looked back at a great 2009, and can't wait for our already crazy 2010. Maybe I will get to blog about all these things soon.

We are 24 weeks pregnant now!! It's so amazing, and we love getting ready for our little baby! Stay tuned for updates... we are having another ultrasound on Wednesday, and we can't wait. 

Back to November...

I'm not ready to post about Christmas yet, but it was amazing! :) I felt like I needed to go back to November and catch up on an awesome Thanksgiving! This year, we ate Thanksgiving dinner at the Bateman house, and once again, the dinner was incredible!! I wish I had any of the cooking skills my mom and sisters had. Well, some sisters anyway... haha just kidding girls. (But really, Krystin is unbeatable). Here are some pictures from the holiday weekend, out of order, as usual...

We got to go to the BSU game Saturday night in the POURING RAIN! We were literally soaked through by the end of the 1st quarter, but we love the Broncos enough so it was worth it.

Here is Josh and I, loving the smurf turf.

Little Krys was all bundled up...

Cute little Ally and Kar... hanging out at Mom and Dad's.

The family sitting down for dinner....

Cutest Mom, organizing and cooking queen... in her new cute apron!

We enjoyed some SERIOUS Beatles RockBand sessions.... just singing as loud as we could. It was awesome...

Josh making fun of my pose... i always put my hand on my hip.

The RockBand Crew

Kay Kay helping me peel potatos

The girls in aprons, helping cook.


The food was amazing, and the people were even better!! We are so lucky to have BOTH families so close and to see them so often.

The rest of November went by fast!! I was really struggling to get through the semester, but i FINALLY finished about a week before Christmas, so that was a huge relief. After pulling possibly the LAST all nighter of my 19 year school career, I finished everything, and am getting ready to student teach full time next semester, and then to graduate AGAIN in May! I can't wait... Josh is still working a lot, and is probably starting school again next semester. So we are keeping very busy.

We loved decorating our apartment with our christmas stuff!! I will post pictures with our christmas post. But Josh did the BEST SURPRISE for me. I mentioned to him that I wish we could have a REAL christmas tree, and that I didnt like fake. So when I came home from a long long day of work and school, he had a REAL TREE, all set up in the stand, making our apartment smell so good! What a great surprise! THANK YOU JOSHY!! Best christmas ever...

More christmas pictures to come...

THE SECRET IS OUT...

Yep! You guessed it! Little Baby Davis will be here before you know it! :)

and we couldn't be happier! :)

Loving the Fall....

Our day at the PUMPKIN PATCH!!

Well, October is here and its AMAZING!! I love the fall, I love the trees, and the smells, and wearing scarves, and everything else!! Amy had a great idea to go to the Pumpkin Patch, and it was so fun!! Every single one of these pictures are backwards, so you get to see our entire day in reverse!! The pumpkin Patch was so fun, and they had mini-donuts, which I was really excited about!! You just hop on these huge hay tractor beds, and there are 15 acres of pumpkin fields! So you just get to jump off the tractor, pick out your pumpkin, and then get a ride back to the barn! We loved it and got some huge pumpkins!!

Max was so cute all day, and he really liked the jack-o-lanters!

The finished products.... AND i must say, everyone did so good, considering the fact that I personally broke both of the pumpkin knives, and everyone had to use STEAK KNIVES to carve their designs. Sorry guys...

Josh's pumpkin is on the left, and it weighs THIRTY SEVEN pounds!! crazy!! Then mine, she is a girl pumpkin with eyelashes and curls (NOT blood, Kayla...), then Jeff's flame pumpkin, and Amy's cute smiley one!!

Our pumpkins finally done!

Josh had a LOT of digging out to do, with his 37 pound pumpkin.

The Linder Farm Barn

The Boys and their finds...

Little Max and Amy

A pumpkin just his size!!

Josh, the hay ride wasn't that bad, right?!?

The Hay wagon




We have been loving fall, and have been able to do such fun things!

We love our apartment so much, and things are going really well. We basically watch football ALL the time, and Josh can't stop wanting it to snow. I am definitely NOT ready for that yet, but I do love the rain and fall weather.

Kayla went on a walk/jog with me, and we live right next to the greenbelt. The fall colors are just beautiful, and I feel so lucky to live here.

Anyway, things are great. We love our pumpkins!!

MEXICO!!!!

About a month ago, Josh and I got to go on a trip with Josh's family to CANCUN!!! It was incredible! It was a delayed "honeymoon" trip, but the whole family got to go! We stayed at a beautiful resort, the Marriott Casa Magna, and got to see some incredible things!

We waited so long for our end-of-summer trip, and it was well worth the wait! We got to see so many Mayan Ruins and tour some ancient cities. We even got to have an LDS guide at Tulum, and he used a lot of Book of Mormon references and really made the Book of Mormon people come alive for us, so we were so blessed to have that experience!

We got to go to the BEACH every day! (Which was of course MY favorite part of the whole trip!) The waves were seriously insane sometimes, and after I got sick of swallowing salt water we got to lay out by the pool every afternoon! So the whole week was full of pool side treats, boogie boarding, bartering at the markets, eating out, seeing ruins, snorkeling, getting an awesome tan (that has since faded...boo), and spending some amazing time with our family!!

A huge thank you to scott and karen for making that happen for us all.... we loved it so much!!

Here are a few random pictures! I'm not quite sure why the quality is so bad, but just go with it...
I just couldn't get enough pool time...

Josh hates laying out, but he let us stay at the pool for many long hours. Thanks babe!

Getting ready to leave...

Here we are in front of a huge temple at Coba. YES, i really am wearing that hat. My sunburnt cheeks could NOT take one more minute of sun by the end...

This is the view from outside of our hotel room!!

Beach Lovin....


Chichen Itza! This is one of the world wonders!! So so impressive when you walk up to it...


Snorkeling at an outdoor water park... Yes, we saw some baracudas and yes i was freaking out.

Nights in the town

The beautiful Cancun road where we caught the bus

Getting ready to eat dinner one night...

TULUM!! This is where we found the LDS guide. This place was right on the coast, and probably one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.

Tulum again.

Classic...

Loving the waves

The whole crew!! We seriously had a blast...


Well that was basically the highlight of our summer!! We then got back, MOVED to a new apartment which we love so so so much, started observing in an awesome 9th grade classroom, working, going to school, and spending time with friends and fam! We are staying so busy, but loving life.

Here are some things I love about fall so far:
1. 9th graders
2. BSU Football
3. Pretty much any football
4. Wearing boots and scarves soon (if it would stop being 90 degrees...seriously)
5. having jamba juice so close
6. sue is having her baby soon!
7. getting to see utah friends
8. decorating pumpkins at work
9. running outside
10. Kayla won Homecoming Queen! pictures to come soon...

I still need to catch up on so many things, but we just had to give Mexico a shout out first. Love you guys!!