The Best Two Years

This post is about two things. First, it was our anniversary yesterday which marks the end of the best two years of my life (so far). Second, my little brother Dan went into the MTC today to start the best two years of his life. Needless to say, we've had a pretty eventful week for our family and the fun is not over yet. Friday, Kim and Trip are leaving for Malaysia so who knows when we'll see them next. After this week, my family will be dwindling ... there's only Preston and I and my mom left in the house right now and Steve's down the street. That's a big difference from traveling and partying with the whole Doxey gang all summer though. I'll miss them all.


We didn't get to do much to celebrate our anniversary, but we did plan to go to the temple and do some sealings ... we ended up having the family join us for an endowment session instead, but I couldn't think of a better place to be on our anniversary than the very place our eternal marriage started!

Dan all ready to go to the MTC

Typical MTC drop-off picture ... gotta love it

They now have curbside drop-off, so this is the elder that helped Dan carry his stuff into the MTC to start off his mission experience ... they were actually in the same ward at BYU, so it was kind of fun.

Baby Names

Names are tough. There's so many names I like and so many names that I just don't like when Preston likes them. We've been going through a couple of name books alphabetically. I think we're only to "I" or "J." We already have a huge list. Some from the book and some we already liked before the book. If you ask me what my favorite names are, it might be different any second of any day. Today, right now, these would be my top 5. I just want to see what you think .... favorites and least favorites. Have no doubt that once we've been through the whole book of names we'll be posting again :)

Brayden (I had that one picked out before we knew we were having a boy ... I think Brayden Brown is just a cute name)

Zander (Neither of us were sure about it at first, but the more I hear it, the more I like it! Sinple, but original. Plus, it means "warrior" or "protector.")

Conrad (I just found out in conversation last night that this is a name Preston used to want to name a son ... I like it. I'd probably end up calling him Conner, but it's a good strong name.)

Weston (This one is a mix of Preston and his dad Wesley ... but, we wouldn't want him to be called Wes like Dad is and that's a pretty common nickname ... we'll see)

Daxton (Love this name. It's original. I googled "Daxton Brown" and I don't think there's one out there ... not on google anyway. There are Dax Browns, but no Daxtons.)

Sunday is a special day

Yesterday was a great day. We started it out by attending the Oquirrh Mountain temple dedication, which was great. Then we made a banner and left to greet Steve-o at the airport when he arrived home from his mission in Africa. He spent the last week and a half touring Africa with his mom, but was finally coming home.

After that we went home and took a nice sunday nap :) We spent some time reading our current book together, The DaVinci Code, and then went with my family to my little brother's patriarchal blessing appointment. It was pretty good times. I don't have any of the pictures we took after the blessing, but mom did her usual routine of taking pictures all possible combinations of people that were there, so hopefully I'll get to see how they turned out. The highlight, other than the actual blessing, was seeing the patriarch's football signed by Bronco Mendenhall. We should have thought to take a picture of us holding it, but too late now.

We had a nice family dinner and stayed up talking with each other until it was bedtime. But, before we went to bed I had Preston take a picture of me because I have had several requests for belly pictures and just haven't even taken any until now. I never really know what to do/ how to pose when I'm the only one in a picture, but here it is.

PICTURES GALORE

Does anyone else's computer put pictures in backwards? Every time I upload any pics they end up at the beginning instead of the end. I usually remember and just put them in backwards, but this time I forgot, so you get to see everything from the most recent events to the oldest :)

DAN'S OPEN HOUSE- Sunday August 9, 2009

Big Group Picture

Me and Preston

WEDDING RECEPTIONS - Friday August 7, 2009

Stephanie & Jared

David & Caitlyn's wedding

Preston dancing with Grandma ... I hate it when people's heads get in the way right as you snap a picture. Oh well, at least you can still see the cute couple :)

LAKE POWELL - July 26-August 2

Preston's post-Powell look ... very nice honey :D

Full Powell shot right before changing to go home.

CALIFORNIA-Carlsbad, June 28 - July 8

Relaxing on the beach

Family Dinner at the Norte

Me and Preston outside the most beautiful temple in the world!
Dan got his endowments out in San Diego and this is a picture from right after that.

More Beaching!

Good ol' boogie boarding

MY "LITTLE" BROTHER'S MISSION CALL - June 26

Dan holding up the envelope

So much anticipation!!

Reading....

Happy with his call to New York, New York Spanish Speaking

Another Move

So far in our 2 years of married life, we've moved 4 times. It gets kind of old sometimes :) We just left the place that we stayed in the longest (10 months!) which we really loved, but we thought the move would be for the better. We're still not in a permanent place, but we came up to my parent's basement to save some money while we apply for grad schools and wait to see if Preston gets hired with Seminary or not. That would be one of the reasons I haven't kept up on blogging. We've also been on a couple more trips, which I will be posting pictures of soon. We had to unpack really fast so that we could host an open house after Dan's farewell yesterday for some of his friends. Now we have some down time to do things like blogging :)

It's a Boy!

Well, we found out yesterday that our baby is a little Preston :) So, now the fun part comes ... shopping, picking a name, getting huge, etc. We're really excited to know that it's a boy! It's just how it's supposed to be. Great feeling :)

Baby Brown

We decided to wait this pregnancy before we really spread the word that we are expecting, but now it's kinda weird to just tell people ... so, it's taken a while. But, we are indeed expecting! We find out in 3 weeks whether it's a girl or boy, but until then it's just "Baby." If you ask me if I want a girl or boy, my answer changes all the time. I used to be convinced that I wanted a boy first, but then I see all the cute girl clothes and things and I just really want a girl. So, eventually I want both and I'll be happy with either. My instincts tell me it's a girl, but we'll know for sure on July 15th!

The due date is kinda iffy, but it's December 16th (possibly earlier). An interesting fact about December 16th is that's the same day that we had our miscarriage last year. But, this time seams to be going well! YAY! We've been to the doctor 3 times and heard the heartbeat each time. I get more excited with each visit and I can't wait to know if we're having a girl or boy ... then I can actually start buying stuff! :D