Red Alert

Heart Disease is the #1 killer of women in America and this Friday, February 6th we can all show our supporting by wearing red.

Go HERE and find out more about a great cause and a great campaign, and what you can do to help fight such a terrible disease.

In 7th Heaven

Yep... most people know that today is Groundhog's Day but it is also our anniversary. As of today we have been married for 7 years! Yes.. we got married on Groundhog's Day and were fully aware of it, but we also got married on 02/02/02, figuring we wouldn't forget it.

Time sure flies when you are living a full live and able to spend time with the one that you love. We have had our fair share of ups and downs during the past 7 years but I am so glad to have been able to spend this time with Dan and be able to go through everything with him.

A short list of things that make marriage great..... 7 things in fact!

1. Waking up next to your best friend every morning.
2. Always having someone on your side.
3. Knowing that there is someone who is going through it with you.
4. Never having to say goodbye at the end of a date.
5. Laughing at each other.
6. Learning new things together.
7. Knowing we will be together for all eternity... and he has to deal with it!

.... I was surprised this morning by those beautiful flowers from Dan and tonight we are heading off to see the movie "New in Town" and out to eat as well. Ah.. the simple things in life.

The Six-burgh Steelers!

WE DID IT!!!!

You notice that Ben is giving me the eye in this picture!

Getting ramped up for the game....

So... after a long season, of UPS and DOWNS, tons of injuries and nail-biting games we finally came out on top, after a too close for comfort Super Bowl Game. But what a game and what a season. (I do love that I act like I had any part in any of it. But I so feel like I did!)

We spent most Sunday afternoons over at our friends' Brian and Cindy's house (who are from Pennsylvania actually) enjoying the games, so of course we had to go there to watch our team WIN the Super Bowl. We had a great time and they had lots of fun in the final moments while I nearly had a heart attack no knowing if we were going to be able to pull it out or not!

Dan enjoying some of the cookies that I made in honor of the big game.

#92 - Harrison. Dan's Favorite player

Cindy and I with our Terrible Towel

Our friend Dan and Cindy cheering on the "D-Fence"

All of us watching the commercials during half-time with our "cool" 3-D glasses on

What a great season... I can't until next season for more football and to watch my Steelers play. I am hoping they come to this side of the country this year so that I might be able to actually see a game in person.... (fingers crossed)!

Fight it out...

Tonight was a first for me (actually both of us). We were invited to watch the UFC fight between GSP and BJ Penn by some friends so we decided we would come. Neither of us usually watch UFC but we thought we would go and see what all of the fuss was about.

We had a good time. We enjoyed everyone's company, the food and just hanging out, and it was fun to actually watch the fights. But....oh, so brutal. The poor guys are literally just beating each other senseless. Not my sport of choice that is for sure. Fun to watch every once in a while like this but nothing I could stand watching on a daily basis for sure. You just feel so bad for these guys, but then I remembered that they choose to do this... WHAT?!

Baby Boom

Nursery closet; complete with new built-in shelving

New Alphabet bedding thanks to Amazon.com!

We have slowly been collecting and getting ready for this baby that is sure to come (we just don't know when). We didn't want to have a nursery full stocked and just sitting and starting at us but we feel like the time is right to start getting it a little more ready, plus it is fun to do. So the room is now empty and we are slowly working on it. I had picked out this bedding a while ago and I am worried they will discontinue it so that is why we decided to go ahead and pick it up. I love it and it is neutral so it should work either way. The closet was a great task for Dan and turned out even better than I imagined. We have tons of storage space.

Now we just have to decide on the furniture which is harder than I thought. We like one set, but not the price. We like another but not the color. We like one crib but not the dresser... why does this have to be so hard. I guess it is a good thing we have some time.

Change is sure underway

Only days after becoming President, we are seeing the changes that President Obama is making from the White House. Yes he seems to have brought HOPE to the US which is definitely needed during this time but HOPE is not enough. We need other things, like jobs, money, and many other things that HOPE just doesn't have.

The one thing that he has done already is this:

Obama will give federal funding back to family-planning organizations!

The interesting turn is that Obama chose to side step the presidential tradition of making an order related to abortion on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. As the 36th anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling to legalize abortion was both celebrated and protested today, there is not yet word on the exact timing of Obama's order, just that it will come and will purposely follow the anniversary.

Read the entire article HERE.

I agree with many things that President Obama has said. I like that he gives Americans HOPE. I like change as long as it is for the better. But this I do not like.

Decisions, Decisions...

Confusion and questions basically filled my head this week. We are in a very crazy time and trying to decide what we want to do and how we want to move forward. Here is the story:

I have been helping a friend of mine do odd jobs here and there as he is trying to start up his own business. This is all great since it gives me some time out of the house and some extra money. But is it not very steady and not enough extra money to really count on. Then the other day I get a call from my old boss saying they could really use me to come back and work for them at the doctor's office. The only catch is that it is for sure a full time position. We have been struggling with the decision on what to do. Here we are with two opportunities when some people are struggling to keep their jobs or can't even find one!

Our feelings have not changed that once we are placed with a baby and the adoption goes through we still want for me to be at home and only work for my mom but we feel that right now while I am physically able to go out and work and make some cash that would be helpful (pay for a nursery, and planned trip to England in September, etc.) it would be silly for me not to accept the invitation to go back to work full time right now. It is just hard to wrap my brain around the idea when I have not worked full time out of the house for over 2 years and really wasn't planning on it. But this has just fallen into our laps so maybe there is a reason for it.

So I think I will be giving the doctor a call and as long as he is okay with giving me time off to attend Girls Camp and the wedding in the UK in September then I might be joining the outside working force once again. We will see what happens.

Blogging Slump

I feel like I have been in a slump the last few weeks, ever since Christmas really. I know I have posted a few things, but definitely not my normal for sure. It is not that we aren't doing things because we are, but I just don't feel like they are "blog-worthy" and I don't always have pictures to go with the events and that makes me not want to post either. But tonight I thought I would take a minute and just re-cap about the past few days, or weeks, and fill in the gaps about what has really been going on in our lives.

* My knee recovery is going great actually. I am continuing with physical therapy 3 times a week and am back to 80% according to my last doctor visit which was last week. I can straighten it no problem but still have some pulling sensation with the bending, but it is getting there for sure.

* I actually started a new job last week too. It is not a permanent job or anything substantial but it gets me out of the house a little more and brings in a little bit of "extra" money. I am helping a friend of mine with some data input a few hours a week for right now. It might turn into something different when I am done with this certain project but for right now that is what I am doing and I am fine with that. So far, so good.

* I am busy working and planning with the YW in the ward for an upcoming Valentine's dinner and sweet auction to help us earn some money for Girls Camp. We have been making centerpieces, posters, paddles, etc. and hopefully we will be ready for the dinner that is coming up on Feb. 13th.

* Dan has been working, working, working. He not only has been busy with the new contract at Mandalay Bay but he has been doing some systems at night and also just picked up a new contract with a Toys R Us and a Century Theater as well. He will be busy for a while with those for sure.

* Dan has also been busy with a special project in the house. He just finished building shelves and customizing the closet in the "nursery". I love it and am so excited. It really looks good. We are going to start working on painting and really putting it together now. Just in case... you never know!

* We of course have been busy on Sunday's cheering for our Steelers and it has paid off. They made it all the way to the Super Bowl and we could not be more excited. We can't wait until Feb. 1 when we can watch then win and make it #6 for them. Go Big Ben!

So... like I said, we have not really been doing anything exciting but we have been busy all the same.

You can Bette on that

So.... last night we went and saw Bette Midler at Cesar's Palace. What a show! It is definitely a "Vegas" show, with lights, music, dancing, singing, costumes, and everything else.

I really enjoyed it. I knew every song because really who doesn't know Bette Midler songs? She did a great job on that part for sure. The one thing that I didn't enjoy was her jokes. She is definitely a little more than rough around the edges when it comes to her jokes. I could have done without that for sure. But overall I enjoyed myself and we had GREAT seats. I had my left arm on the stage! Yeah... we were close.

What a Blessing

This weekend we traveled to AZ to be there for the blessing of our nephew, Preston, who is the son of Dan's sister Amy and her husband Steve. We were thankful for the chance that we had to make the trip and to spend some time with the family. Again we had a wonderful weekend.

We flew this time (partly because of my knee surgery and partly because we just didn't want to drive) and landed in Phoenix on Friday night after having our plane delayed here in Las Vegas for over an hour...We then spent Saturday with Mike and Holly, also known as mom and dad, just hanging out. We toured Mesa, going to the church bookstore and the local scrapbook store of course, and then had dinner at the Organ Stop Pizza Co. A great place to eat if you are ever in Mesa! Sunday morning we drove down to Tucson for the blessing. What a precious blessing Steve was able to provide to his new son. We then visited at Steve and Amy's home and had to cut our time short in order to make the drive back up to Phoenix in order to make our flight back home. Our visit was quick but we were glad that we were there for such an important event in Preston's life and also in Amy and Steve's as well. We love them so much.

The Urbancic/Wilker family...Katie and Nathan, Amy, Preston and Steve, Holly and Mike and Dan and Aranne

The new little family.... Amy, Steve and Preston

Wii sure celebrated...

New Year's Eve in Vegas can be a little scary so we decided to play it safe and stay at home. We had my mom and dad over, and also my aunt Laura and uncle Curt who were in town for the holiday weekend too. We got a Wii for Christmas and we really broke it in. We played hours and hours of crazy games and had a great time doing it. The whole family really got into it and had a fun time. In fact, we had such a good time that we got together the next night and did it all over again.

Happy New Year to everyone.... Hope it is a great 2009!

SAYING GOODBYE TO 2008

Well... here we are, the very last day of 2008. I honestly can't believe the year is almost over. It has come and gone SO FAST. This year we were kept very, very busy, especially these last few months. The year didn't go exactly as we had planned (but then things usually don't) but we had a good year and were able to check a lot of things off our list and enjoy some "firsts" and stay busy for sure..... Lets see what kept us busy during 2008.....

January: We had a visit our brother-in-law and spent some time with him. We also were able to take advantage of the cold weather with a trip up to the local mountain and do some snowboarding.


February: We celebrated our 6 year anniversary with a great trip to Brianhead for some snowboarding and snowmobiling. We had visitors once again this month with Grandma and Grandpa Petersen coming into town one weekend and our cousin coming from AZ the next. The last weekend of the month we took a trip to see family in Arizona for our brother-in-law's surprise graduation party.


March: This month found us hosting Dan's dad while he was in town for a work convention. The end of the week we were joined by his mom as well. We were also joined by his brother, sister-in-law and their little one to help us celebrate Easter at our house.


April: Dan was called to serve in the Scout program at church. We headed to the Fair during April. We also had a visit from friends for a weekend too.


May: We were filled with visitors this month. We had visitors from Sweden at the beginning of the month, then we had Dan's brother Nate and his wife Katie for a great weekend, and the end of the month was a weekend with Dan's sister Amy and her husband Steve. In the middle of all of this the weather had turned so we were out on the lake enjoying the jet skis, and I had my dance recital too.


June: We went to California for a charity poker run and had a blast. We also had our annual update for our adoption paperwork this month. We had friends come and visit from California the last weekend of the month and Dan and Marvin went skydiving!


July: We spent the 4th of July in Brianhead with friends. The next weekend we had Dan's parents here for a visit. We had our first nephew born this month. I spent a week in Utah for the Stampin' Up convention with my mom. We also celebrated Dan's birthday... #28.


August: Dan and I attended an adoption conference in Utah. We had my uncle from Canada visit for a bit. We had Dan's sister Amy and her husband Steve back for another great weekend!

September: Marvin and Maria from California came to visit for a weekend of excitement. We flew up to San Francisco to visit Dan's brother Mike and his wife Maile and to be there for the blessing of the new baby Benjamin.

October: We made a trip with friends Brian and Cindy to California to go to Disneyland and Knott's Scary Farm. We also headed down to Arizona to throw a surprise baby shower for Dan's sister Amy.

November: Had friends Marvin and Maria come into town to help celebrate my birthday...#28. Started doctor appointments and planning for knee surgery!!! I was called as Young Women Camp Director.

December: Went to California for our annual family Christmas party. Went to Utah to see family and the lights on Temple Square. Had surgery on my knee. Had a wonderful Christmas.

We had quite the year. We kept busy. We were surrounded by family and friends. We hope that 2009 brings us more of the same and we are able to make more trips and do many more fun things and make lots of new memories.