Snow Day!!

Well, we Vegas-dwellers got quite the surprise on December 17th this year: SNOW in VEGAS!! And not just a dusting, there was about 4 inches on the strip and in my own backyard!
I was in the office working and looked out the window and saw that it had started to stick a little. Thinking it would probably melt soon, I took a quick picture and then kept working.

A few hours later, I happened to look out the window and my jaw dropped!! It was STILL snowing!! This was crazy! so I took another picture.

I kept working and the temperature felt like it kept dropping. After another hour or so I looked out the window again to find a curious and astonishing winter wonderland!!

By the time Bill came home from work, the tree outside our house was almost broken in half because of the weight of all the snow! So we took the opportunity to trim it a little while we could reach the top ;]





Vegas hadn't seen snow like this since the 30's!! It's COLD!

"Jealous" Music Video Finally Completed!!

So that is my friend DJon :]
And our song "Jealous"
The Track Kingz produced the beat/music
DJon wrote the rap and we wrote the hook together
And hey, I don't look pregnant yet, but little
do many people know, but I am!! :] My little girl's
first music video! awe! ;]

The Word is Out! The Baby GIRL is IN!

It's true. Bill and I are having a baby!! I am due March 5th.
We were really shocked and excited, we really weren't expecting to be expecting. We'd thought about starting to try, but then I got cold feet cause I wanted to know the time was right and I felt like if I MADE it happen I wouldn't know if it was really God's will or just mine. So we stopped "trying" and a few months later I started to feel kinda funny. I had thought I was supposed to start and had that "here it comes" feeling a couple of times, yet nothing happened. I was beginning to wonder and one Sunday night (June 29, 2008) I was talking to Sara on the phone. She was about 2 or 3 months pregnant with her second so as I explained how I had been feeling lately, she quickly recognized the signs! She urged me to go get a pregnancy test right now!! Well, Bill was in the room for our whole conversation :] and by the time I got off the phone he had such a priceless look of his face. Total surprise, curiosity, excitement, and disbelief. "Is there something you wanna tell me?" he asked. :] ha ha. So I explained it all. He thought I was crazy, and really I wasn't even that late yet so I, too, thought I was a little crazy. But we were both so curious now and Sara had sounded so sure! And since she was pregnant right now it really would be cool to be pregnant too and have our kids so close together I thought. So finally, even though it was a Sunday night, we decided the urgency and need to just know dominated and we broke the Sabbath and went to Walmart and picked up two different brands of tests, just in case ;]
WELL!!


Bill was SO SHOCKED when, after the 3 long minutes it takes to process, that it indicated we were indeed PREGNANT!! It was just such a surprise! We were stunned and totally excited. Bill was still just so shocked and taken off guard, his first words to me after seeing the strip was "quick! Drink more water! Take the other test to double check!" So I did and it too said the same thing. "We're having a BABY, baby!!"




Can you see the shock and excitement in our faces? :]

So after much searching, we found a good doctor and had our fist appointment. We heard the heartbeat!! and got to see our little blueberry-sized being! It was so incredible! Her little heartbeat was so fast and wow, she was alive! This adorable little creature living inside me!



Then on October 20, 2008, we had our special ultra sound!! She was so posy in there! The ultrasound tech was laughing and was so impressed cause every time she would tell us something like, "ok, now I'll move this to take a look at the liver (or heart, or spine, whatever)" it's like the baby could hear her and would turn herself in just the right position! It was pretty impressive. Smart baby ;] I just think she is the most adorable thing on the face of this planet and she still just looks like a little alien baby! ;] it is so much fun!!


Isn't she cute?? :]


And while we were watching her in there, she put her little fist up and raised one finger...not that finger ;] but she flashed us a #1 sign! She's #1 and she knows it! And I guess she just wanted to let us know she knows ;]

So there you have it. I have been trying forever to get this posted! :]
We are having a little girl...so that luckily eliminated 50% of the name possibilities, and because I am so horribly indecisive, that really helps to not have to pick out a boys AND girls name just in case. But still, as far as names go we have NO idea.
I CAN FEEL HER KICKING!!! OH I LOVE IT!!
it is so funny though, she kicks all the time! she is an active little tike, but Bill has only felt it like two times! I am convinced that she can sense Bill or when she hears his voice it soothes her and she stops cause so many times she'll be kicking like crazy but as soon as I put Bill's hand on my tummy she fall totally still and silent! It's like clockwork!

This is me at about 19 weeks. There is a little bump!

I am a lot bigger now and it is getting really hard to hide it when I am on stage singing with the band! :]



Oh and I got so excited upon hearing I was pregnant, that I painted a mural in our new baby room. Bill thought it would be so awesome to do something classic like Mario Brothers! We painted it before we found out if we were having a girl or boy, but I figured, hey, there is still a princess on the wall, so if it is a girl, I'm sure she'll be fine with it! ;] I painted the background and then printed off the characters on repositionable stickers so that I can move them around to switch up the scene when I feel like it! :]

Quick look at the Wedding 2006

Bill and I recently celebrated our 2 YEAR ANNIVERSARY!! Wow does time fly! And since we have so much fun it flies even faster I am convinced :]

Here is a glimpse into our wedding day, October 7, 2006










































































































Everyone!















The Vreeken side















The Strobehn side




















My girlfriends helped me put the finishing touches on my homemade wedding cake!

The Honeymoon Condensed Version

Well, I know this is all catch up info, so I will try and keep this brief. Our honeymoon story is pretty funny though so ask me more details if you will :]

















Bill's parents sent us to Hawaii, Oahu, for our honeymoon!!

















It was so amazing! So breathtakingly beautiful AND also really fun because we got to use our Japanese! And eat Japanese food too! (the waitress at this restaurant, though, kept eye-flirting with Bill and I didn't like that all that much, but Bill didn't notice cause he was too into me, so that I did like very much!) ;]

















We took in the sites in our week long visit

















The Swap Meet


















Pearl Harbor,

the native wildlife



















Hanauma Bay where we went snorkeling hand in hand! SO awesome!

















We took a helicoper ride all around the island!!
There is where "Lost" and other movies have been filmed
















Looks like you can see King Kong's shadow!

Here is the Dole pineapple plantation from the sky

















Pearl Harbor and the "Black Tears" of the brave men who died in the Arizona
















This is BOB our helicoper pilot
















Driving in Hawaii is crazy! If you get off the highway there isn't always a place right there to get back on! So we got lost quite a few times!





















We planted a pineapple at the Dole plantation. Free labor...
















...but then we ate all the pineapple they used in this pineapple cutting demo so I guess we'll call it even ;]


















We got lost in the pineapple maze.

















We went swimming at this bay who's name I can't spell, and I had never swum in the ocean before so I was very ignorant about waves and their power!
















I got sucked into a rolling wave and washed down the beach, rolling over and under the gripping waves!! sand and water everywhere! I couldn't get out! I didn't know which way was up! The waves kept sucking me under water!! Bill rushed into the fray and pulled me out! He saved my life! My hero!!!

That was also Bill's birthday!
















We went to the Temple with Miyuki and Justin.
















And went to the PCC.




















THEN, on our last morning, the day we were supposed to check out of our hotel, there was an earthquake!!
















The earth must have still been shaking when we took this picture!
The power was out and we didn't know what to do. Our cell phones didn't work either! All we knew what that we were supposed to check out of our hotel room at 11 am! so we locked our key in our room and went to the elevators with all our bags just as they stopped working and all the electricity went out!! We had a picnic in pitch blackness by the elevator doors, hoping that the power would come back on and we didn't have to use the stairs!
















But to no avail. We had to lug all our luggage down 22 flights of stairs with only the light from our cell phones to guide us!! Since no restaurants were open due to lack of electricity, and since no one knew how long it would take, hours or maybe even days, till the electricity came back on, we waiting in a line for 45 minutes just to get basic food supplies from the ABC store!





















We finally found a pay phone and got in touch with our friends the Sonomuras who graciously let us stay with them. We called the airport and found that our flight had been canceled and we wouldn't be able to get out for another week!! The Sonomuras let us stay with them for the next two nights :] They are amazing!





















So with our extra week we stayed with locals and got more of the local experience as opposed to our first week as tourists.

We found an awesome Japanese temple


















We hung out with Metta!! And stayed a night at her family's house
















We swam at local hot spot beaches



















Ate where the locals ate

















Stayed with friends we didn't even know we had
















Until our flight came and we flew back the Vegas, met his parents who'd brought our car to the airport so we could drive directly to Kanab where we made it to my own bridal shower only 40 minutes late!
















And that, my friends, is the CONDENSED version of Bill's and my honeymoon! :]