4 Year Anniversary

Four years ago today, Greg and I were married in the Orlando Temple. The time has flown by. I am so grateful for my husband and look forward to my next big adventure with him in the coming year...parenthood. I am grateful for the time we had to grow together in these past years and can't wait for the future with him.

Cumberland Island

Greg and the YM took their annual camping trip to Cumberland Island this year-which is an underdeveloped barrier island off the coast of Georgia. Besides the rain, I think they had a good time. Here are the pictures Greg took.

Greg said the island was beautiful, complete with wild horses and ruins of historic mansions. I would love to go there sometime with him...but no camping please, I can do without the ticks! (Thanks goodness Greg didn't come home with any.)

Snip=Bad Weekend

Sting'em had a very hard weekend after his little surgery on Friday-Greg finally agreed to get him snipped, taking away "his manhood"-only it was scheduled for a weekend when Greg was out of town, so I was the bad guy! How convenient for Greg. I picked poor little Sting'em up Friday afternoon and we spent all evening on the sofa, him not wanting to move anywhere and he certainly didn't want me to go anywhere. The vet gave me a lamp shade thing to put on him to try to keep him from licking his wound. But with his nose and his body being so long, he was still able to reach around to his stitches. The only thing I could think of was to doctor up some kind of little diaper/cover up out of an ace bandage to cover the bottom half of him, so he wouldn't be able to pull out his stitches and undo what the vet had done. So here was Sting'em with a lamp shade on his head with an ace bandage diaper around his rear...sad. My poor little puppy looked so pathetic. He had a rough night, I think I only got 3 hours of sleep because Sting'em could not get comfortable and every time he moved he cried. He recovered quickly though, when Greg returned home on Monday, he was back to normal and Greg joked that I had exaggerated about Sting'em's condition. If he only knew.

Hubby Tag

I was tagged by my sis-in-law America. This is a cute tag. So here we go.
1. What is his name? Gregory Clifford Paxton
2. Who eats more? That's easy, he does. He usually finishes what I don't eat.
3. Who said "I love you" first? Greg, after working up the courage to do so. He was smitten at first sight though. :)
4. Who is taller? Depends on the day and the shoes we're wearing. Barefoot, Greg is barely taller than I am.
5. Who is smarter? Hmmm...on what the topic? Greg is a pretty smart guy.
6. Who is more sensitive? Uh, me.
7. Who does the laundry? I sort and usually wash, Greg will fold though. It's a joint effort.
8. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? When in bed, I sleep on the right. I love my side of the bed. It's so comfy.
9. Who pays the bills? We both do, for now.
10. Who cooks more? I absolutely do. I can't eat hot dogs every night. If Greg gets home before me, sometimes he'll start dinner and then I'll finish.
11. What meals do you cook together? Hmm...joint nights are usually taco nights.
12. Who is more stubborn? I think we both can be. We take turns.
13. Who is the first to admit they are wrong? Again, we take turns.
14. Who has more siblings? Greg does. He has two sisters and one brother. I have one brother and one sister.
15. Who wears the pants in the relationship? We both try to fit-it's kinda a tight squeeze. Just kidding. We do try to keep things pretty even.
16. What do you like to do together? Anything and everything. Just being with each other makes us happy, no matter what we're doing. I like to go to movies and he likes to go to sports games-we try to go to each for each other and usually both have a blast going.
17. Who eats more sweets? I would say I do, but Greg does have a major sweet tooth too-he likes his Snickers Ice Cream bars.
18. His guilty pleasures? Anything on the lake-wakeboarding, wakeskating. SPORTS!! Anyone who knows my husband knows he LOVES sports. Any and every sport! And at night he does turn on the XBox 360 when I head for bed early-always a sports game.
19. How did you meet? Greg and his friend moved from Ohio to Cocoa Beach July of 2003-to live the beach lifestyle, he was a bit of a beach bum when not in class. We met the following week at church and were married July of 2004.
20. Who asked out who first? Greg...it took me awhile to say yes, I was always busy-he kept asking me out Thursday night and I, uh, already would have plans for the weekend. He finally got the hint and called me earlier in the week to snag me up for the weekend before anyone else did. We were pretty inseparable once we started dating.
21. Who kissed who first? Greg did, after seeing the movie Elf-funny movie. It took him awhile to do it that night. I knew he wanted to and was working up the courage to. It was cute. He's cute.
22. Who proposed? Greg did. We went for a walk on the beach around sunset. He had written in the sand, "Stephanie I love you." There were roses lying on the sand. Greg knelt down to hand me the roses and buried underneath the roses was a little box with a beautiful ring in it. (Don't worry, his brother was hiding near by in the sea oats keeping an eye on the ring until we got close enough.) How can you say no to that?
23. His best features? His blue-green eyes and his smile. I love the way he walks too. It's pretty cute.
24. What is his greatest quality? There are so many! I love that he can always make me laugh. Even when I have had a bad day and am determined that I can't be happy that day, he always brings a smile to my face. I love that!

Hmmm...who to tag. I tag Ashlea and Missy

Bump in the Night

Everyone is starting to notice my ever growing baby bump. I, myself, have felt that I have had one for awhile now, but that's just me noticing every change. It is very exciting seeing and feeling all the changes and knowing that I am almost halfway there. Crazy! I have been wondering when I would start to feel the little "flutter." There are lots of things going on down there that I take notice of, I might've felt something already, but just couldn't be certain that what I was feeling was our baby. Well, last night while lying in bed, very still in the middle on the night, trying to get comfortable, I felt a bump. Movement! How Exciting! I felt our little baby move for the first time. I thought it best not to wake Greg up seeing how it was 2 AM, he was very excited the next day to hear the news. He is so wonderful and is really enjoying seeing all the changes too. (Sometimes I think he is more excited than I am.) I do think it is a funny thought that our child is so small and not even born and is already keeping me up at night!

Happy Birthday Greg!

Today is Greg's birthday. He is getting to be an old man! (Just kidding, he is only 10 months older than me.) We got to celebrate with his family this past weekend, but we still plan on having a little dinner of our own. I just wanted to say that I am so grateful for Greg. He is an amazing man-everything that I could ever ask for. A little more sports than expected, but still wonderful. He has been such an incredible husband to me for the past almost four years and I really look forward to the rest with him. He is so caring and always keeps me laughing. He has been especially great with me being pregnant-running to get any food I might be craving, rubbing my back when I feel tired, and putting up with all the hormonal mood swings! He is so patient with me. I know that he will be the best father to our children. I love this man and it makes me so happy to think that I have him for eternity. I couldn't ask for more in my life. Happy Birthday Greg!

Ohio for the 4th

This year for the fourth, we were able to go to Ohio for a short visit with Greg's family. We flew out Thursday night after work-thanks so much to Jonathan and Missy for taking us to the airport- arriving around midnight. The flight was horrible, absolutely no leg space for tall people, we were so glad to get off that plane. It was so wonderful to see Greg's family. Alysia (Greg's sister) and her kids-Savannah and the triplets, Will, Paxton, and JD-were visiting from Utah while Mark (Alysia's husband) was on a fising trip in Alaska. Greg's grandpa was also visiting, so everyone was there, except Mark.

The triplets-Will(Greg's lil'twin), Paxton, and sweet Jd

We had a little 4th of July party on Friday evening with the whole family. After our yummy meal we made our way to the Maumee River with the boat to watch the fireworks. (Carol and Bob stayed back with the triplets.) The fireworks were amazing. It was a spectacular sight to see all the boats piled in to celebrate our country. I feel so blessed to live in this country and have the freedom that we have. I am so grateful for that and I love this holiday.Greg and I enjoyed the chilly evening on the Maumee River
Alysia with the girls-Savannah, Vannessa, and Isabella

Kim, Rita, and Jeff waiting for the fireworks to get startedSaturday we had a little celebration for all the birthdays around this time of year. Grandpa Penzien (June birthday), and Savannah (turns six at the end of this month), and of course my favorite person in the world, my wonderful husband (birthday on the 10th). The triplets must have felt a little left out with all the present opening, as they insisted on helping their older sister tear her gifts open. Sunday afternoon we had to fly back home. The flight was much more pleasant-lots of long leg space, but it was sad to leave everyone after such a short trip. We love them all very much and are so grateful for each and everyone of them. Hope to see them soon!

The Birthday Bunch-Grandpa Penzien, Savannah (with her new guitar), and Greg

Saying goodbye to Savannah and the boys-next time we see them, they will have a new cousin!

(And thanks to my family for watching our little Sting'em for the weekend-he hates to fly!)

Baby's First Photo

Today was my 16 week check up. My Dr's office decided to run some tests-due to some slight pain that I have been feeling. Luckily everything came back perfect and our baby's heartbeat sounded great, but they still wanted to do an ultrasound, just to make sure. In the afternoon Greg met up with me for an ultrasound and we got the first glimpse at our beautiful baby. It was the most amazing thing ever. When the tech started, we could only see the top of the baby's head. But then our baby turned and for the rest of the appointment it was like he/she was staring right at us. So here are the images of our baby, looking right at us. Greg was a little freaked out at first because the baby looks like a skeleton, but the tech explained to him that is what babies look like at 16 weeks. The tech was also convinced that we are having a boy-she got a few glimpses of something, even though our baby made it difficult to see-our child is already modest and shy. She was still convinced the it was little boy Paxton. We will double check when we have our 20 week ultrasound.