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!!!