ice! i mean... snow!!!

well, we are in the midst of winter. omaha does nearly guarantee a white Christmas, however, it isn't like the lovely snow of utah (it is utah's theme after all- "greatest snow on earth"). this past weekend it was as low as -10 degrees and could get as low as -30 with the wonderful omaha windchill factor. add humidity and we have an awesome mix for miserable cold!

todd finally convinced me to bundle up and go outside to "enjoy the snow." i think the love of my life has forgotten he married a californian. :) we don't have a sled, so todd got a box and, with some imagination... voila!!!


we tried to make a snowman but the snow didn't pack. so todd made a pile with sheets of ice instead. i am so glad that he likes the snow so much. i am confident he will love taking ellie out in it as many times as she likes!

baby showers

i have been very blest in that i have been able to have many sweet people in my life. those here in omaha have been wonderful in sharing the exciting introduction of our little baby girl. i actually had two showers at work. what a lucky girl! the wednesday before thanksgiving was the shower i knew about. but, since the paraprofessionals were not going to be at work that day, they instead surprised me the day before with snacks, a diaper cake and other thoughtful gifts. these ladies are those who give me sanity with my day. they are the ones who make copies, watch over my kiddos during lunch, work the office, and are my technology salvation.

then on wednesday the teachers had a shower for ellie. there was a tasty luncheon first. the staff was very kind and generous, we received the bouncy chair and high chair todd and i registered for, along with other nice gifts.

i really despise this photo of myself, however it is worth it to show you my dear friend anna. anna teaches kindergarten at columbian. she is a fantastic teacher and a wonderful friend. anna is the sweet one who put this shower all together. the decorations were super cute and everything was fun. so, big props to anna!

one of my students and her mom also gave me a shower at their home with some of my class and their parents. it was very nice to see everyone outside of the classroom in a beautiful home. there were fun games, yummy food, and thoughtful gifts. it was a book theme (how appropriate for their 3rd grade teacher!), so we received board books among other things.

i have to admit, the shower with my students was probably the least embarrassing one. it is all fun and games when you go to a shower, stand, watch, and cheer on another. it is a far different tune when you are the one who is the "star" and being surrounded, watched, and embarrassed. however, at least with my students i was able to involve them in the fun. they were more than anxious to play the games, see the gifts, clamor around me and be a part of the fun.

since i am playing catch up in order of photos, the elusive pregnant jeanette is next. this was a month ago, so i was about 31 weeks along. (see, we really did intend to keep up on our blog!)

there are only two outfits that fit for church now: this black jumper and a black skirt. a big thanks to my friend angie for providing both of them. i had spent so much money on maternity work clothes, i really procrastinated getting church things. angie gave me her clothes after giving birth to her sweet little girl and they have saved me!

disc golf

before the winter season set in we were able to get in a last disc golf game. it got dark really fast, so we could only get in a portion of the course, but we knew this would be the last time there for a few months.

A Tribute to Utah's Victory over TCU!!

half marathon

this past weekend we drove to sioux city, iowa. todd ran a half marathon! just for those who, like me, didn't know what a half marathon actually is... it is a 13.1 mile run. crazy, right?

just so happens i married a runner. and, not to brag, but he is a pretty darn good runner. todd "trained" for the last month or so. by "trained" i mean he went running 2 times a week. (i think that sort of training would prepare me for a 1/2 mile marathon.) well, todd did fantastic. he completed the half marathon in 1 hour 37 minutes. that is a 7 minute 27 second mile... for 13.1 miles. wow. that's about all i can say is wow.


we went with a few friends. it is actually thanks to them that todd did it. mitch sold a textbook of todd's and told him some of the money had to go to the application fee- so he couldn't find an excuse not to. we missed mitch, allie, and their boys; but did have a good time with the goates and gordons.

at first todd said he never wanted to do that over, but he is already talking about other ones in the future. we saw one guy finish by scooping up his little daughter (about 2 years old) and crossing with her over the finish line. that was motivation for me to really encourage him to do it again. ;) todd talks about us doing it as a family; however, i've never heard of an elliptical half marathon. :)

laundry

it looks as though elizabeth jean is winning the race. the whole "peanut" idea hasn't worked as well as i had hoped. todd loves to call the baby "elizabeth" or "ellie." so i think it will take a lot for this little girl to come out being anything other than elizabeth. :)

i have been sick the last few days. i think the 10-11 hour days at work for the past two weeks has worn me down. i have been feeling so well, i haven't been acting much like i am pregnant. so, my body decided to teach me a lesson. i've been sleeping and catching up on laundry all weekend (10 loads by the way- todd helped, too). point has been taken and i will try to be better at getting the proper rest needed.

since i didn't go into work on friday, my sweet husband surprised me with these red roses in hopes of boosting my spirits. he is definitely a keeper. ;)

it's a girl!

we went to the doctor on wednesday and everything is going well. we found out we are going to be having a girl and are ecstatic! it is so nice knowing that "it" is a she. two names we are thinking of as of now are elizabeth jean (both family names) and sophia marie (the latter is a family name). we are just calling her "peanut" for now.

peanut is also quite the mover. i've been feeling her a lot in the last week. todd is still not able to feel her yet, but it is fun talking about her. todd is so very cute with the whole thing. he talks, reads, and sings to her. he is going to be such a great daddy. also, at church today i noticed he was noticing friends' daughters a lot more than the sons. there was a fun glimmer in his eye. i can just tell how excited he is.

i apologize for the distance in blog postings. school has begun for both of us, thus, life is incredibly full. wonderfully full, yet full. and our camera is on the fritz, so the first day of school photos i took are not accessible. i'll get them up as soon as i get access to them.

nauvoo, st. louis, vacation!!!

we traveled to st. louis for todd's brother's baby blessing this weekend. we decided to make it an extended weekend by going to nauvoo and carthage first. we discovered one day in nauvoo really wasn't enough time to see everything, so it was a bit rushed. we were so glad to be able to spend what time we could there. i can't wait to go back when we have kids. there were a lot of activities to attract children.
we got there in time for the nauvoo pageant thursday evening. it was a really wonderful way to start our visit there. friday we went to the temple. it was my favorite part of the trip. there was a wonderful feeling there and the temple is beautiful inside.
this is looking down the street of old nauvoo. we had limited time, but went in as many of the buildings as we could. it was neat having missionaries to give guided tours, give us some of the history of the location, and bear their testimony to us. this is the mansion house, the second house joseph and emma smith lived in while in nauvoo. their first home is kiddy-corner to this one. we were suppose to go on a tour to get in the other house, but just didn't have time to, so we just snuck in to see it!

as we left nauvoo, we continued to st. louis via carthage. we were in the last tour of the day to see the carthage jail where joseph smith and his brother hyrum were killed. it was a great experience putting all the things we've learned of throughout our lives and seeing the actual places where some of them occurred. there was an incredible spirit in this room, where they were when the mob came. this is the window joseph fell through.
we got to st. louis late friday night. saturday todd's brother and his wife played tour guide taking us to an awesome botanical garden, the famous arch, and a farmers' market (where we discovered after 3pm bargains are in abundance). todd went to blake's school to see where the magic happens and a beautiful cathedral just around the corner from blake's apartment.todd's dad with us leaning against the arch.
todd and i in st. louis. i realized as i downloaded the photos we didn't take any of blake's baby boy, issac. we did get video footage of him, but no photos.

come january...

well, i have spent little bits of free time this morning adding several posts so that we could get to this part. so, if you continue scrolling, you will see a lot of new stuff. we have wanted to post this for the last two weeks, but have been slow going. our apologies!
if you can tell what this photo is, they are booties with the creighton university mascot on them. so, that is our announcement... we are expecting!!! i am 13 weeks along. the baby is due january 31st. we have been waiting to tell everyone until after we heard the heartbeat, which we did two weeks ago.

i've been feeling sick and "icky" (todd said that was my favorite word for a while), so everything appears to be going well. :) just when we thought we were out of the woods, i got really sick a couple of nights ago. so, maybe this will be our first week of being icky-free. todd has been great, helping with the house and not complaining about eating cereal for dinner two nights in a row. we are very excited and also thinking of names (suggestions are willingly to accepted) .

you're my best friend

ooh you make me live
whatever this world can give to me
it's you; you're all i see
ooh you're the best friend that i ever had
i really love you

"you're my best friend" (the lyrics above) by queen is todd and my song. unfortunately, we weren't able to be together for our first wedding anniversary. but, we are kind of celebrating over a span of time. when i returned from oregon, todd and i celebrated our anniversary by finally having omaha steaks. while the restaurant wasn't what we had expected, the steak was great. we are also going to nauvoo in a couple weeks for our first time. we are very excited.

it has been a wonderful year being together; especially after we have had to spend so much time apart before getting married. it is amazing how much we have grown closer and more in love- sappy, i know. i really have married my best friend, todd is incredible. i look forward to the many years to come!!!

melanson family reunion

the week of july 4th, i (jeanette) was in oregon at the melanson family reunion. it was a lot of fun seeing all the family, spending time with parents, siblings, and lots of nieces and nephews. todd was stuck in omaha, working. so, we spent our first anniversary apart... sad. :(

jessica, quinton, and connor enjoying ice cream.
the view outside our cabins was amazing.

it was nice being able to be in the outdoors without frying. we spent the first half of the week at a beautiful campsite. we were in cabins. i think i have discovered a new way of camping! :) that is thomas, posing for the camera.

dad melanson with quin. he spent a lot of time holding and reading with the grandchildren.
t.j. with some of the cousins (annalise, milo and luke)

some of the boy cousins gathered in bob's family cabin to watch national treasurer in preparation of watching the sequel later at bob's house in his awesome new game/media room.

the later part of the week we returned to town and had family olympics (tug-o-war between the kids and dads above), movie night, boy cousin sleepover, fourth of july barbeque and family fireworks. it was a great week!!!

omaha storms

while we have experienced a tornado and crazy storms, i think the scariest has been the one on june 27th. it was the friday evening before i flew out to oregon. todd and i were running errands and were in bed, bath & beyond. we got the beyond part that day.

we could see the gray sky in the west as we drove around. several minutes later, the tornado sirens began going off. we decided to go into bb&b as to look for some gifts. employees were listening to the weather radio and said the storms weren't being reported. we started shopping. about 20 minutes later, the workers began gathering all the people in the store and took us to the back area.

when entering the store, you go through two sets of glass doors, with a little entry having display items between the two sets. while we were in the back, we could see out to the glass entrance doors. pretty soon we could see the sky turning as dark as night. the streetlights turned on and the wind began to pick up. the wind broke through the first set of doors; we could see the display items blowing all around the little area and hail pouring in.

turns out the winds were up to 100 mph and the hail was nickel-sized. our little village green townhouse complex seemed to be hit the worst we saw all around omaha and council bluffs. driving in, it looked like a war zone. the roads were covered with leaves, sticks, and branches. the hail looked like little piles of snow.

trees were down everywhere. there was one that was inches from the front of our friend's home. another friend had a porch swing blow into their window. the electricity was out at our home for just a day or two, but for others in omaha it was several days. we were so grateful that we had no damage to our home or vehicles. it sure has been a adventure living in omaha this past year!!!

summer fun

well, there is a bit to get caught up on, so i'll enter them in separately- pretending that i was up to date the entire time! ;)

we have been wanting a croquet set for some fun in the sun, so todd received the game for father's day. he actually got it a couple of days early so we could play with our friends matt and melissa. however, i didn't take into account the hot, humid, and mosquito-filled summer we'd be experiencing. so, we haven't had a ton of opportunity for breaking in the mallets.

The Newmans @ the College World Series

Here is a video of the fireworks show at Rosenblatt Stadium, the night before the game. Rosenblatt Stadium is where Omaha hosts the College World Series. Rosenblatt Stadium is probably a mile and a half away from where we live. Anyway this video was taken just down the street from where we live. Jeanette did a great job videotaping the finale.



This is a photo of us attending Game #2 of the opening round of the College World Series. Jeanette and I waited for almost 2 hours under the hot sun, trying to get into the game. That's what you get for taking free general admissions tickets from Creighton University. Game #2 featured Georgia vs. Miami. Miami led for most of the game, but then in the ninth inning, Georgia came back to win 7-4. We didn't stay for the whole game, mainly because neither Jeanette nor myself are huge baseball fans. Plus, we were sitting in the bleachers with some crazy, annoying Georgia fans who kept encouraging our section of the stadium to start the "wave". The game was pretty fun, but it was also quite hot.


OH BOY, FREE COKE ZERO!!!!!! So, as we were leaving the game early, we went to the main gate of the stadium, and there were a couple of vendors passing out free cans of Coke Zero, as a promotion gimmick. We just want to say thanks to Coca-Cola, its subsidiaries and affiliates ;)

baby, oh baby

marie gave birth to isaac joseph newman monday afternoon (june 9th). we are so excited to have such a cute addition to the family. now we have two nephews named ike! both mom and baby are doing well. todd and i are hoping to travel to st. louis in august for his blessing. congratulations blake and marie!!!

watch out, dorothy!!!

i thought we lived in nebraska, but i'm beginning to believe we are actually in kansas now, toto. :)

this past week , we have had severe weather warnings and tornado watches nearly every evening. we lucked out earlier this week when one that my pal al roker ("today" show shout out) was warning us of made an unexpected turn south that missed omaha. the young women from our ward had girls' camp this week. they spent every night in their tornado shelters (3 train cars) until finally they were evacuated to a church building thursday.

then, this morning at about 2:30 in the morning, tornado sirens rang loud and true. while our neighbors all moved to their basements for shelter, i slept soundly in bed. yes, it is true... i didn't wake up to the wind of the storm or the tornado siren! todd woke up and turned on the news, saw that it had already passed, watched an incredible lightning storm, then went back to sleep.

according to the local news reports, the tornado was rated as an ef-2, meaning that the storm contained winds of 111-135 mph. i tried to download some photos of where it actually hit (about 10 miles away from us), but to no success. the photo above is one i stole from my friend's blog that she stole from someone else. if you'd like to see some photos, the site is: http://www.ketv.com/slideshow/16541673/detail.html?taf=oma

i haven't been handling the last tornado watches with much poise... i've been glued to the news tracking their paths. i think todd didn't want to scare me once he realized the threat wasn't there. it does make me nervous, however, knowing that i can sleep through the siren. i told todd he isn't allowed to leave me during tornado season!

The blog keeps on rollin'

Well, little by little our blog is improving. We'd like to thank our avid fans and readers who continue to watch for exciting new material on the 'Newmania' blog. Here is a wacky pic that we took on the Photo Booth program of Jeanette's school laptop.

P.S. We tip our hats off to the Celtics and wish them the best.

Pardon our dust...

We apologize for any inconvenience! We are currently tweaking our blog, fine-tuning, etc. So, keep checking back for regular updates!!! Stay tuned!

Almost an attorney...

Well, this morning I had an exciting opportunity at my internship. First, a little background information: I have a letter signed by the dean of my law school that allows me to "practice law" under the direction of a supervising attorney. This is called "senior certification". All third year law students can attain "senior certification" by getting a signed letter from the dean of their law school. Anyway, now to the point: This morning, I interviewed some clients, asking them questions about whether or not they are paying child support, looking for jobs, currently have a job, etc. And I did this ALL BY MYSELF (look who's a big boy now!!!) Next, I negotiated with a prosecutor, with a supervising attorney. Then, I participated in a hearing with the district court referee (basically a judge). During the hearing, the only persons present were myself, my client, the judge, and the prosecutor. I must say that actually DOING STUFF is 10x more exciting than watching others do it. Needless to say, it was a very beneficial experience and I really enjoyed it.

Jeanette started her summer teaching job. It was fine.
Tomorrow I start my "job" as a law clerk at my law firm downtown. I am really, really excited!!!!

I would like to say thanks to our devoted readers and fans ;)

P.S. The photo above is one of Jeanette's favorites...

Todd
(GO UTES)

first timers!

well, we aren't committing to anything here, but wanted to get a blogspot out there in the cyber space. let's be honest... we were jealous of the family blogs and wanted to be cool, too. ;) ours won't be nearly as fancy...

todd and i spent today at the henry doorly zoo. it was todd's first time there. we saw everything and were there for 5 hours. our favorite area was the aquarium. it had a penguin exhibit, which was very entertaining, and the awesome shark tank. we were able to walk in a tunnel that gave the feeling of being on the ocean floor. it was a lot of fun. we were able to test out the video camera we received for Christmas.