Afton Elle

Well, it's been a while since I last posted and much has changed. Our beautiful baby girl was born on May 21st at 6:50pm. She weighed 7 pounds 4 ounces and was 20.5 inches long. My delivery went well (even though I had no drugs) and she came out perfectly healthy. She's now a little over two months old and she is such blessing in our lives. We love to stare at her and inspect every little part. She's just started smiling a lot more and we are loving it! She has two dimples on her right cheek. We're not sure where they came from, but they are adorable! Many of you have met her this summer and we are so grateful for all of our visitors. For those of you who haven't met her, we can't wait for you to come down!

On another note, I have some VERY exciting news that just came to fruition today (this is hot off the press!). My granny has purchased a three bedroom, two and a half bathroom townhome. It is two stories, has a two car garage and also has a large bonus room. You're probably wondering why this is exciting for us.......we're going to be living in it! It's MORE than enough space and leaves us plenty of room to grow. We are so excited and very humbled at the same time. So....it's looking like we'll be moving in about a month!

Sam and I are doing really well. It's be so neat to have him home during this special season of our life. It is so sweet to watch him with Afton, especially when he doesn't know I'm looking. Sam is looking for jobs. He's in "interview season," so we're praying for the right job to come along. I've been working two days a week this summer on some projects for next year. We decided several months ago that I'll be working part time so I'll be done at noon each day. My work also gave me a promotion. I'll teach two sections of English and I'll be doing some administrative work as well. I'll be responsible for curriculum and instruction and working with our teachers. I'm really excited and a little nervous. I'm definitely not a pro at that stuff, but I'm willing to learn along the way.

We miss and love all of you!

Sam & Kyle

Maternity Leave

Not much to report here....just hanging out waiting. :) I thought a few pictures might be fun though. The big group picture is from Mother's Day. Sam and I drove up to Disneyland to meet Eric & Stacey and the kids and Regina and Josh. We had a yummy lunch at Rainforest Cafe and then Sam and I drove home down the 1 (or is it the 101)? It was so fun to see everyone, especially knowing that we'll be seeing them again soon!

The other picture Sam took of me last Wednesday at the mall near us in La Jolla. It's a belly shot so you can see how big I am. :)

Hope all is well with each of you!

Love,

Kyle

Maternity Pictures

Let's see....since I last wrote I had a couple of showers in Fresno the weekend of March 12th & 13th. The Friday night one was another literal shower, but the rain wasn't terribly heavy. My two wonderful friends, Christina and Lacey, threw it for me and it was perfect! The next day was my family shower hosted by six of my family members. It, too, was wonderful. I am truly blessed to have such wonderful friends and family!

About two weekends ago Sam and I did our maternity pictures. The caveat with that is that his friend Nick, who is not a photographer, did them. That being said, I think they're awesome! We met Nick at La Jolla Cove beach and 30 minutes later, we were done! Love it!

As for an update on us, we are actively looking for our next place to live since our lease is up May 9th. We can stay here but we want to go more north to make my drive time shorter to work. Work is another thing we're working on. My boss has offered for me to work anywhere between 50-100% so now it's up to Sam and me to decide what we want to do. What else......in terms of big stuff, I think that's it. I'm home today because I ended up getting what Sam had last week (cough, sore throat, etc.). It' s nothing major but I thought a day of rest would be good.

Hope all is well with each of you!

San Diego Shower....Literally

This past Sunday I had a baby shower in San Diego. Now normally the weather is beautiful, complete with blue skies and sun. Not the case last weekend. It rained a ton but even so, my shower was wonderful. It was held at the clubhouse in a community called Fairbanks Ranch and outside the windows (in the picture that has the fireplace) there is big beautiful lake. Two of my friends, Autumn and Teresa (white sweater), hosted it for me. It was simple and classic...just the way I like it. Teresa made fabulous desserts and Autumn brought her chocolate fountain. Yum! My favorite was the pound cake. :) It was a great afternoon and I'm so thankful for all of the amazing friends I have in San Diego.

PS. My college roommate Jessica flew down from Sacramento. She is above in black.

Week 27 (and a half)

Here I am at about 27 and a half weeks along. For those of you who don't speak in weeks (I thought it was really weird before being pregnant), it means I'm just now 7 months. Sam took this today as the two of us and Granny were waiting to eat breakfast at a little place in an area of San Diego called Normal Heights. The food was really good....I hope we go back soon. :)

Nothing terribly exciting to report on the pregnancy. All is going well and I am VERY thankful. As you can see, I'm getting (much) bigger but I still feel really good. Sam and I regularly do a 1.5 mile walk in the canyon behind where we live. Half of the walk is uphill so I definitely get a good workout!

Other than that, we are still keeping very busy. At this point I have about 2 and a half months left before I go out on maternity leave. My kids are really wonderful so being with them is a breeze. Sam is plugging away at Azusa. He's doing really well and hasn't gotten anything less than an "A" on anything so far. Even though he's not working, he manages to keep himself very busy. He and a friend are working on a really great project that I won't go into detail about, but it's pretty exciting. I too am plugging away at school. This semester I have a school law class and it's really informative. I will be able to finish this semester because it ends at the end of April so it still gives me several weeks to rest before my due date.

We are definitely entering a crazy time, not just because of the baby, but because we are both in school, I'm working full time, Sam is working on a project, we're moving at the end of April, we don't know if I'll work full time or part time next year, etc. That being said, we definitely appreciate your prayers for everything to work out as the Lord intends. Sam and I were talking about this a few days ago and it seems that since we've been in San Diego, which is almost two years now, we have lived with the unknown constantly. If we let it, it can be stressful, but instead we choose to trust that the Lord has it figured out for us and we are along for the ride. And what a ride it is!

We hope all is well with each of you and hope to see you soon!

Love,

Kyle (and Sam)

21 weeks

At the beach this past Saturday...right before getting pooped on by a seagull. :)

Pictures from Christmas

Christmas 2009

Well, we're back from a 10 day stint in Fresno and it was really wonderful. This was the first year in many that Sam and I did not feel pulled in a million directions. Christmas was spread out over several days and it made things so much nicer. We enjoyed lots of great time with family and friends, but as we've noticed in previous visits, we never manage to connect with everyone that we'd like to. Iguess that's the nature of the beast. For all of you who we did get to see, thanks for taking time out of your schedule; it means a lot to us!

On another note, we went to our second ultrasound appointment today and everything with the baby looks great! We did not cheat and find out the gender of our baby so all of us will still be surprised to see who's in there. :)

I plan on putting some recent pictures on the site so stay tuned. In the meantime, have a wonderful (and safe) new year!

A Lot Has Changed

Wow! I definitely didn't realize that the last post was in March...oops! I guess we have some catching up to do! Read below to see what we've been doing the past year.

January-We moved out of Granny's and into our own place. There are pictures on this site of what our apartment looks like. Eleven months later, we still love it. :)

February-Karl and Lacey came to visit us for a long weekend.

March-We celebrated our 2 year anniversary. :) Sam accepted a job offer at Ashford University. Pat and Jane came to visit us.

April-Sam took a private flight with a friend of ours and he actually got to fly.

May-Karl and Lacey back for another visit. I accepted a long-term sub job at the private Christian school where I currently work. (www.horizonprep.org)

June-I went to Atlanta for a work-related conference.

July-We went to Big Bear for the first time with some friends at stayed at their family's cabin. I went up to Berkeley for another conference.

August-Sam turns 29! We saw Wicked with some friends---great show!

September-Back to school...three times over! I started my fifth year teaching. This year I am teaching 7th and 8th grade English and science. Sam is not working for Ashford any longer but did go back to school to get his BA. He is in an accelerated program at Azusa Pacific and will graduate next December with a degree in Organizational Leadership. I also went back to school and am currently working on my masters in Educational Leadership with and administrative credential. I'm going to USD. We also went up to Hume Lake with my school (work) and both of us served as "camp counselors" for a week! My dad and Tori also came for a visit. Oopps...can't forget that this is the month we found out I am preganant. :)

October-nothing exciting

November-We went to Fresno so I could co-host a shower for my wonderful friend Lacey who is due Christmas eve. We also told our family that we are having a baby. We had a nice quiet Thanksgiving with Granny although it wasn't small. She invited 13 people!

Upcoming for December-I turn 29! We also have our first ultrasound on my birthday (the 3rd) so we are really looking forward to that. We'll be leaving for Fresno the morning of the 19th and we plan on being in town for a while.

**So about the baby <3
As I mentioned, we found out in September but decided to wait to tell everyone until I was three months. It worked out great because we had our first doctor's appointment right before we went to Fresno in early November. At that appointment we got to hear our baby's heart beat; it was very surreal for both of us. Our next appointment is in two days and we'll do an ultrasound. I'll be 16 weeks on Saturday and I'm not sure if that is far enough along to determine the gender BUT we're not finding out anyway. As for our due date, we're looking at mid-late May. We don't know for sure because we have done the ultrasound but regardless, that will be a great time for us to have the baby. I should be able to stay off of work for the remainder of the year so I'm thrilled. Our goal is to post pictures regularly (we're shooting for each week) so you can watch the belly grow, if you want. :) The Christmas card picture is 14 weeks. I think we missed the 15 week picture but we'll try to do one this weekend. Oh, I also get asked quite a bit how I'm feeling. I am very blessed because I did not get morning sickness whatsoever. I feel great now as well and I'm thankful for that every day! My clothes don't fit so well but I bought a bunch of Belly Bands (or whatever they're called) and they allow me to still wear my pants even though they don't zip. I think it's the greatest invention!

Well, love to you all and we are so excited to spend some time in Fresno soon!

Anniversary #2

Yesterday, also known as St. Patrick's Day :) , was our two year wedding anniversary. Our actual celebration took place on Saturday night; we went to dinner in Coronado and saw a play there as well. It was a beautiful night and it was great to do something different. We exchanged our gifts that night too and Sam spoiled me with everything that I had "mentioned" to him. My gift to him was one hour in a private plane (with a pilot). He'll be doing that this Sunday at 11:00am so keep him in your prayers. :) He'll fly all over the county and I'd imagine that he'll see some cool views of downtown and the beaches. The pilot told me that he'll even get to fly the plane! Scary! Once, again, I promise I'll post pictures soon.

Another fun piece of news is that Sam started his new job on Monday. So far so good...he's enjoying it. Currently the office is located about 15-20 minutes north of where we are but he found out yesterday that they are moving everyone to another location by January for sure. That's good news for us because the other location is maybe 5 minutes from where we live and no freeways are involved.

I was offered an opportunity to finish out the school year at an awesome private school but unfortunately it looks like I'm going to have to pass. School's out in June and I'd have no job if I took it. It's a bummer but I'm still hopeful for next year.

I think that's it for us for now. We'll keep you posted!

Happy spring! :)

Update

Hi all! So I realize that it's been about a month since we've posted...sorry! I'm going to do a quick update and I'll post pictures soon. Let's see...

-middle of January....we went rollerblading along the beach...it was a beautiful day...tons of fun
-first week of February...Karl and Lacey came to visit us. It poured for some of the time but it didn't ruin their trip one bit. We had a really good time checking out things around town, overeating and just hanging out.
-February 10th...Sam gets into a minor car accident. You can ask him for the story but to sum it up, he got rear-ended. The car was in the shop until yesterday and looks like new again. By the way, Sam was fine. :)
-Valentine's Day...well, this year we actually got to do something because I did not fall and break my teeth! Our bible study hosts, Paul and Elaine, had a party at their house. It was beautiful! We ate and played games. Sam and I won one of the games.
-Sam's friend Todd was in town for a day so we took him to Taco Wednesday. If you're ever down here on a Wednesday, we'll take you. We go to a restaurant right on the beach and have lobster tacos for $1.50. They're soooooo good...we go about every other week.
-This past Tuesday....Chris Tomlin concert at our church. We went with our friends Nick and Autumn and it was awesome!
-Wednesday....BIG NEWS....Sam accepted a job at Ashford University. He will be an enrollment advisor and he starts March 16th. We are BEYOND excited!!! The real blessing is that they will pay for him to finish his BA and they'll pay for 80% of my masters. We'll keep you posted on how his training goes, etc.
-Tonight...I'm hosting recipe club at our place. I started to do this in Fresno and decided it would be fun to do it here. Basically, the person who hosts makes the main dish and everyone else brings something different. Then, you exchange recipes and eat! Sam will be hanging out with the guys at one of the guy's house. Should be fun...

We have some pictures to post so I'll try to do that sooner rather than later.

Have a great weekend! (did I mention I have to work Saturdays???)

Our New Home

Top: Kitchen that looks into the living room

Middle: Living room that leads out to balcony

Bottom: Our room (it was hard to find a good angle)

We also have another room but it is a bit of a disaster right now. Any boxes that we didn't know what to do with ended up in there. We have been working on it though because Karl and Lacey are coming in February and we need a place for them to sleep!

Well, it was a long 7 months trying to figure out when to move, where to move to, buy, rent, etc. but we finally just bit the bullet and did it. Our new home is so cute; I love it! The area is nice and quiet. It sits back off any main roads so you have to be purposefully driving there. We have a little gym, business center, pool/spa, bbq, running trails and we're really close to the freeways and shopping.

Today is exactly one week since we've been here and we love it! We're definitely ready for visitors so come see us!

BIG NEWS!!

No, we're not having a baby but we are moving out! The time has finally come and we're really excited. We got back to San Diego on the 30th and have been looking every day except for the 1st. It seemed that every apartment/condo/townhouse that we looked at had some really great things and some not so great things. None of them really impressed us until today. Not everything is perfect with this property but it's as close as we're going to get.

We are moving about 5-7 minutes from granny which will be great so we can see her often. It's also very convenient for Sam to get to work (he doesn't even have to get on the freeway) and it's a good location for me. We are on the second floor and it's a two bedroom two bathroom. It's really cute inside and I love the kitchen! The biggest news is that we are moving this Friday! We weren't quite prepared for that but oh well! Now our challenge is trying to rally up some of our new friends to help us.

Once we get in and it looks halfway decent I'll post some pictures. Wish us luck!

Happy New Year!

Happy '09! We hope that you had a safe and fun time last night and that this year will bring you health, wealth and happiness!

Sam and I just got back on Tuesday (from Fresno) and I have a couple of pictures to share. Hopefully I'll post those within a few days along with what we've been up to.

Many thanks....

I just wanted to write a quick note about how blessed I feel to have such wonderful family and friends. Today I turned 28 and was flooded will calls, emails and cards and it was such a great feeling to know that Sam and I are not forgotten even though we're not in Fresno. So thanks so much....you made my day!

Earliest phone call.....Alf at 6:39am
Birthday singers.......Mom, Pat, and my friend Amy Chambers' 3 year old neice, Katy

Love to all!

Kyle