our little a and b

              all of this is true except for the boy and girl part.  we don't know quit yet, but anyway, yeah...we are totally having twins!!  let me answer some questions that EVERYONE asks us (which is fine):

1.  i'm 10 weeks along
2.  yes, we were using fertility treatments.  clomid to be exact.
3.  yes, twins run in my family.
4.  no, i haven't been sick at all, just really really ridiculously tired.
5.  yes we do have some names that we love, but until we know what we are having we won't nail those down.
 6.  we have known for 6 weeks now.
7.  yes, we are sooooo excited!

       anyway, that's all i can think of right now but please feel free to ask. 

we found out about the twins in kind of a funky way.  on my mom's birthday, november 19th, we thought i was having a miscarriage and rushed to the ER.  we were really sad, as you can imagine, and as i was getting an ultra sound we thought that we would be making sure that the baby wasn't there.  well, the tech looked at us and said "do twins run in your family" and we looked at her like "really, your going to be that insensitive and tell me that we lost twins".  as i had tears in my eyes i said that i did and she said " because you're having twins and they are doing just fine".  holy crap.
       as you can imagine we went from crushed to elated in about 2 seconds.  it was crazy. 

      so there you go.  our lives are drastically changing forever and we wouldn't want it any other way.

       best reaction of the news?  some of our really awesome friends who we talked to on the phone and his exact response was
                       "excuse my language but that's f***ing awesome"
       hilarious.

  

home

      that is where we are.  we got back late wednesday night from our long drive home with a detour through pheonix to see my sister and through vegas where i had to hit up a trade show to do some buying for work.  we came home to a welcome poster on our door (shout out to the wells.  holla!) and a beautifully clean house (you're the best syd!).  we are so happy to be home but we are already missing it out there in arkansas.   here is our list of things we miss

1.  southern hospitality
2.  weekends off together
3.  our weekly housekeeper
4.  weekend trips
5.  our arkansas friends
6.  simplicity
7.  seriously everyone is so nice there
8.  sharing the gospel (cheesy i know, but it was fun sharing it in a relaxed question answer kind of way)
9.  hammontree's grilled cheese (best restaurant ever)
10.  not having to work (alex)
11.  reading a ton
12.  being together, just us and no one else.  it reminded us of san diego when we were first married.
13.  the ozarks
14.  beaver lake
15.  canoeing the buffalo river

      we love utard, but we will always have a special place in our hearts for arkansas.

laura udall and rachel ridd

yes i am talking to you two.
if you don't know who they are, these are two girls that i LOVE from high school and jr. high.
they think they are really cool because they are moving to sao paulo brazil.
yes, maybe you guys will experience an incredible culture
maybe you will eat fine brazilian cuisine
maybe you will lay on the their beautiful beaches
but don't think you're cool because of this:

because...

BOOM

WE GOT OUR OWN!  right here in beautiful arkansas.
this is called Christ of the Ozarks.  i want you to take a look at this beautiful craftsmanship.

and here is todd.  we love todd.

he didn't know how he should pose for the picture so he chose this.  i like it todd.

in the next picture, please notice that no one is touching

it was hotter than hell.
so my point is, laura and rach, you don't have to go far to be in a culturally rich and exotic area.  just come to arkansas.  love you guys.

oh yeah, by the way.  we even have the golden gate bridge.  click here to see that majesty of it all.

who's jealous now?

twilight zone

we had quite the weekend.
     it was the last weekend here in bentonville and it has been bittersweet.  we are super excited to go home but we have made some really great friends here. 
        seeing that it was the last weekend, everyone wanted to go out to dickson street to celebrate.  dickson street is the street in fayettville that has all of the clubs and bars and tj and i thought "let's go and dance and hang out with everyone, but we'll bring our own car because we are wieners when it comes to nights like these and we will probably be tired by 11:00".  so we did.

 here we are with todd and graham.  we love todd and graham. 
         this is the beginning of the night when we are optimistic, footloose and fancy free.
        
         and yes i dyed my hair dark again.  this is a really bad photo and you actually can't tell but my hair is red.  i've always wanted to be a fiery red head.  (my sisters are going to have a melt down because you're not beautiful unless you're blond right?  love you guys!)

here is a list of the rest of the night.
1.  bored.  the bar had no music and so tj and i were sitting around picking our nose while everyone started getting tipsy
2.  new bar.  this is a piano bar.  watch a bar fight go down (my first one) and see a bouncer headlock a guy, take him outside and pretty much curb the guy and he throws his head into the curb.  we get there too late and the piano players are finished.  we are bugged and go get our cover charge back.
3.  new club.  awesome music.  great dancing.  todd is throwin back shots "for alex and tj".  right todd, right.
4.  you know you're wasted when you start trying to dance with your mormon co worker's mormon wife.  it was hilarious.  more than anything it was just funny to people watch and to be happy that we are so not in that scene.  yeah sure, it was fun to dance and watch everyone but i have never been more happy that i don't drink.
5.  tj and i leave.  we go to village inn at 2:30 (i was pretty impressed with our old, married selves)  and see this guy:      

ronnie brewer.
tj was soooo excited but too scared to say anything to him.  so we got in our car like two creepers, watched him pick up a couple of pies, get back in his escalade with his entourage and leave.  tj was really bummed he didn't say anything, so as we were riding home i pretended to be ronnie and have a conversation with him.  i think it worked out great!

so we are in bed by 3:00
we wake up by 10:00 and get ready to go to church where everything is familiar, peaceful and normal.
we get there around 11:15 and grab a seat.  we look around.  no one looks familiar.  the bishopric is totally different. 
we start going over with one another that we are sure that church had always started at 11:00, right?  we were pretty sure that we were in the correct building.  as we feel everyone's eyes burning a hole in the back of our heads ready to welcome us to the ward we ditch out.  we walk around the building and i look inside the relief society room to see that i don't recognize anyone in there either.

tj and i get back in the car and just look at each other and laugh.  what had just happened?
tj gets on our ward website and it looks like the time has changed to one.  of course it had.  why not.  why should we assume that arkansas does ANYTHING normal.  right when we think we are old pros at this whole arkansas thing.  i guess everyone just assumed that we knew this info and we probably didn't hear the announcements. 
so that is our last weekend here.  kinda crazy and out of our norm.  we start the long drive home friday and we are really excited.  and of course, tj did a great job on his final presentation, but are you surprised?  

i don't think we're in kansas (city) anymore

       for this weekend's little getaway we went to kansas city and since it sits right on the border of missouri and kansas we were in both states.  now, if you know anything about tj and i you know that we LOVE museums.  when we go to cities the first thing we do is look up what museums are there and what was significant in that cities history.  our children are going to hate us.
        first on the list was the lds independence visitor center.  not my favorite but i do love the history around that area and there is a great lesson to be learned about following the prophet.  then on to this

      the community of christ temple, formally known as the reorganized church.  i love theology and it is very interesting to learn about other religions, especially the ones that broke off of our church.  everyone was super nice there.

               this is inside the big spiral.  pretty cool.
now off to the truman presidential library (oh how we love our presidential libraries)

this is us with the man of the hour.

another oval office photo

i have a goal to get a photo in every president's oval office.  nerd alert!
      we then went to liberty jail which was great.  one of my favorite times in church history.  after that we went downtown to have some dinner and walk around an amazing shopping district.  the next day we went to the national world war one museum.

one of the most beautiful museums i have ever been too.  tj and i were talking about how we were never super clear about the events that lead up to the war.  i learned more in the 12 minute introductory video than any of my history classes combined but let's start at the beginning.  i'm all about the experience of the museum.  i want to feel like i'm experiencing the events with all of my senses.  having said that here are the front doors.

each door weighs a good 50 pounds.  they are so heavy.  they get you ready for the weight of this war and how heavy the whole experience was.  it feels like you are entering an underground bunker.  when you walk in there is no color.  it feels very cold and emotionless.  there is a glass bridge that takes you into the gallery and things don't normally take my breath away but when i walked across, it was incredible.

  this photo does not do it justice.  it is a field of 9000 bright orange poppies and each poppy represents 1000 deaths.  there was a 17 day bloody battle on a field called flanders field where hundreds of men died.  after the battle the only thing that remained were thousands of poppies blowing in the wind.  the color was such a contrast to the rest of the museum.  anyway it was an incredible experience that i think everyone who visits kansas city should have.

  the skyline
we then hit up the farmers market.  one of the best i've ever been to.

we could honestly live in kansas city.  it was awesome.

american history

i'm really bad at this whole blogging thing.  that being said, let's talk about what we did almost three weeks ago over the fourth.  we went on an all american tour around little rock and memphis.

highlights:

we went to bill clinton's presidential library.

since hurricane alex was going strong we thought it would be appropriate to try out the hurricane machine at the library.

it was crazy in there

stopped by the re-creation of his oval office.

these pictures are good to have.  other than this blog entry, i choose not to tell people that it isn't the real oval office.

it was actually a really cool building.

not really, he's in love with obama.

do you remember this from your history books?

maybe this will help.

this is central high in little rock.  the first school that integrated black students into an all white school.  it was the most beautiful school i have ever seen.  tj and i were talking about how it's strange that this really wasn't that long ago.  it happened in our parents generation.  it was an eye opening experience.


then we went to memphis.  an awesome city.

 this is beale street.  it's kinda like memphis' bourbon street.  it was so awesome!  they block the street off and it's just tons of jazz clubs and street performers.  they had cops on horses there too.  i hung out with them for a little bit.

now ladies and gentlemen, the king

welcome to graceland.  i told tj that he had to do an elvis inspired pose for every photo taken there.  it was awesome, not in an mtv cribs kinda way but in like a great aunt pearl kind of way.  here are some highlights.

his tv room.  it was my favorite.

the jungle room

the hall of his gold and platinum records.  tj was running out of posing ideas.

elvis sang unchained melody in this room the day he died.  how did they know that?

why the jumpsuits elvis, why?

i just thought this would be appropriate.  halloween 2008.

and then we went to sun studio.  elvis, johnny cash and tons of other great artists recorded there.

now here are the prize photos.

elvis and johnny cash used that microphone.  i almost died.

we finished the trip here.

this is where martin luther king jr was shot.  they have now turned it into the civil rights museum and it was incredible.  one of the best museums i have ever been too.

sorry about all of the photos, but i think they are more fun than a long drawn out blog with none.  it was so fun.  i love the south!

monster truck rally and rodeo

    i forgot my camera at the rodeo, but the pictures could be interchangeable.  we went to the monster truck rally about three weeks ago and here are some picture from the event.

   taking in the awesomeness.

for all of you 80's lovin folk, yes, big foot was there.  don't you remember big foot was the draw to all of the rally's back in the day?  he did not upset.

look at this little guy.  it was super loud there and obviously his dad knew this because he made sure to bring the gun range ear protection.  they sell them as a twofer her in arkansas.



now for the fashion at the rally.  here are our favorite.

drum roll please...

truly a national treasure.

this was my favorite car.

 

our prom photo in front of the undertaker.  he was the winner of the night.

anyway, good times had by all.

happy independence day!