Changes.

Life is so interesting. In the past few weeks we have been thrown a couple doozys that have caused us to re-evaluate certain things. Life is changing all around us. We knew having a baby would change us forever, but the baby's not here for 5 1/2 more months! Things have just gotten quite interesting lately. I'll elaborate on some of the happenings that I can talk about.
*Disclaimer: this might be a long post- it's more for me to write than for anyone else to read :)

- My dad is moving to Australia the first week of June for his job. He just found out yesterday. My mom said it's a great opportunity. They had talked about this before but it was never certain. He'll be there for at least 3 months with a possibility for an immediate extension up to six months...and it could last up to 2 years. If he stays for two years, Steven, me, and baby will have the opportunity to go visit him next year sometime. The rest of my family will probably visit at the end of the summer. My mom said they might fly my dad here to North Dakota to see the baby when he/she is born. And he should be able to come home for weddings, funerals, and hopefully Christmas. AND if this news isn't enough for me, the ultimate daddy's girl, my mom tells me that if he does get extended to a couple years, and she can find a job there or online classes to teach she might just pick up and move the whole family there for a year or so...because really my emotional well-being right now could handle that. See? life is interesting...
- My sister, Talia turned 20 yesterday. We are 22 months apart and she used to love these 2 months where it looked like we were only a year a part. She is super smart at school and has a full-tuition scholarship based solely on her grades. She is half way done with college now. Oh, and she might be getting married in the very near future. As soon as they both want to admit that's what they're ready for it will happen. But don't tell her I told you ;) She's still in denial...
- My sister, Kayley, got her braces off on Tuesday. She sent us a picture and we were amazed how grown up she looks! Oh and she's almost a senior...when did that happen?
- My brother, Jaden, was one of the leads in his junior high's musical this week. How cute is that? We were very sad to miss it. He might be coming to spend some time with us this summer and we are ecstatic.
- My brother, Dakota, is old enough now where he can kind of be excited about the baby. He would only poke my stomach when we were there for graduation. But, my mom says he will pray for us and for the baby and that he asks questions. He's not too interested until we find out the gender of the baby and has ensured us that if it's a boy, Dakota would be our best option for a name.
- I have recently been catching up with a few roommates from college. If you ever want to see how life changes, start analyzing your old roommates! We were living together 3 years ago and now we are all over the world doing different things. 4 of 5 have been married (3 still are married). 2 have kids. 1 is serving a mission in France and the crazy part is she gets home in September! 2 are married to men in med school. 1 of those is going to Europe for a few weeks this summer. 1 (who shares my same birthday) is having a baby and she is due 1 week before me (wouldn't that be neat if our babies had the same birthdays too?). Out of the six of us, 2 live in Utah, 1 lives in France, 1 in Texas, 1 in Kentucky, and us in North Dakota. Strange to think that only 3 years ago we all lived within 10 yards of each other.

There are about a thousand other things that have happened in the past few weeks that made us just think. I don't remember when I grew up, but I'm kind of feeling like I am now. I thought for sure the baby would do that. But, when you have a sister getting married, a sister that's a senior, and two brothers who aren't just little kids anymore, I guess it starts to happen. Or maybe it's that my life here in ND is so un-changing that I notice changing in other people's lives more. Whatever the reason is, life is always changing and we are enjoying watching how things play out with our families and friends!