Announcement

Welcome to Elena

Elena finally said, "I want to be able to post!" She's been invited the whole time, but had not yet shown interest, and so now she's signed up. I anxiously await her first post.

And here is an adorable picture of Kara before going to church today.

Happy Birthday, Elena

Today is Elena's birthday. I won't say how old she is, but I'll give you a math hint. It's the result of a number raised (exponent) to itself.

Give her a call and wish her a Happy Birthday. I unfortunately will be working (on call all night).

At the hospital

We're at the hospital!

It's a planned induction, since Elena is past her due date. Our nurse is LDS her name is Martha (aka Sister Hall), but she's not in our ward.

You'll notice a whole bunch of posts being put in over today and the last few days. I've been trying to get caught up.

Valentine's Day

Elena and Laurel planned a special Valentine's Day dinner for us all. We had a nicely set table with the china. Elena and Laurel we had a wonderful meal... and three desserts! On the Saturday our stake had a Valentine's dinner dance (live band and then DJ) so we used some of the mad ballroom skillz we picked up dating and in ballroom classes when we were engaged (even if Elena is pregnant).

Preggy pictures

People have requested pregancy pictures, and these are the one's I emailed out a while ago (when they were taken). Enjoy, I'll have some more recent ones soon.

Houston Staycation (Night and day 2)

For our night, we saved money and rather than go to a hotel, Laurel was great and finished the decorations that Elena and her had planned for our room. They left to see a movie or something and Elena and I chilled with our sparkling cider, and I ate some peeps. MMmmmmm.... peeps.

The next day, we tried to go the temple, but Elena's recommend had expired. So we walked on the grounds and saw 2 families from our ward there, the Johnstons and the Baums. Yeah, the Baughs and the Baums in one ward, some people have gotten it confused. In fact, they put Kevin and Laurel as living at the Baum's house.

Anyways, we had a good time, Elena got some shopping done at the distribution center and the LDS store there nearby, and we had a nice time.

Our Houston Staycation

With Elena being pregnant (and some poor planning on my part, but regarding vacationing) we did not get off on our vacation to Disneyworld we had hoped to take. We needed some time away, so we're having a staycation.

Our first day we went to the Houston Arboretum... we saw millions of tadopoles, a few turtles, and pretty scenery. All of this surrounded by 5 million people or so.

1st Annual Child Women Getaway

What are they getting away from anyways? And with "equal-rights", do the men have the opportunity of a getaway? (I have a few great ideas...).

Anyways, Elena's mom flew her and Katie down for a girl's weekend together. It is now a planned tradition for all the married girls to get together. Laurel was already down here so it made it easier. I took a day off of work (but ended up working moonlighting for the evening) and we had lunch and did some shopping. Then everyone (except me) got together at the hotel pool in the wind and had some fun.

That evening the men and kids (grandkids had to be included in the weekend's activities at some point) were then excused for the girls to have their fun. They went to the big mall (The Galleria) and looked at expensive shoes and stuff. They then went to dinner and a play (which they almost missed, and barely got into).

Elena asked why I was blogging about something that happened so long ago, and I just want to catch up. I'll be sure to blog when the baby is born and put lots of stuff up.

6th Wedding Anniversary

Elena and I celebrated our 6th anniversary yesterday.

Our main activity was going to see the Nutcracker, it's become a tradition (we haven't made it every year though). I took Elena to see it together on our 2nd date. I enjoy the music very much. It was fun to see the thoughts of a child choreographed and to remember the excitement that comes. Another fun thing to see were all the parents taking their children to see it (maybe because we went to a matinee). I recommend it to everyone.

We then went up to Evan and Angie's because Elena loves doing her sister's hair, and Evan's Christmas party was that night. I played with the kids a bit while they did that, and we went out to dinner afterwards.

We don't have a mall near us, so we shopped around their mall a bit. We went to a nice italian place called, Brio's. It was quite lovely. I had the filet (Elena says she loves me because I'm predictable). She was craving ravioli.

Elena then got some clothes from Gap, too bad she can only wear them for a little bit, and then she'll have a while till she can wear them again.

Elena's new job

Elena was on the hunt for a new job since moving here to Houston. She wasn't quite sure what she wanted to do, except that she still wanted to work in a health related job. She really enjoyed her previous jobs in Salt Lake and Tucson. Here she decided to apply at 24 hour fitness as a personal trainer.

She did have a impressive workout schedule prior to her job, running Monday, Wednesday and Saturday, and lifting weights Tuesday and Thursday with some of our friends from the ward.

She enjoys it most of the time, and I get to go see her at work (I really like the perk of having a gym membership).

Ok, Brady, here's an update.

We were calling some old friends, and Brady told Elena I wasn't very good at updating this blog, so I am now obligated to update it.

Last month was pretty hectic for me. I was on the Critical Cardiac Unit, meaning about anybody complaining of chest pain that could possibly be a heart attack was admitted to our service. Part of the hard part of it is that there is no "cap". A summary, on a regular month on internal medicine, overnight call I can only admit a maximum of 5 patients, those 5 patients are my "cap". Well with no cap, on CCU call, I admitted 11 patients one night, and other people have admitted more. Not that all of my nights were that bad, but I didn't get much sleep. The good thing, is that with being on call every 4th night, they let you off every 4th day, because of the work hour restrictions.

Elena is doing well, and enjoying her kitty, we just got back from our walk by the dried up river. Here are some pictures.

Yeah, I'm terrible at this blogging thing.

First off, I've only told Elena about this blog so far, and I didn't even remember to give her the website.

Secondly, It's been a month and a half since I wrote.

Time to do better.

Had a great trip to Utah for Christmas
(got an iPod for Christmas, and a Wii with Christmas and birthday money soon after)

Elena got her cat, we named her Belle, since she likes playing with bells.

That's the quick update. I'll work on improving the blog and adding some pictures.