October!

I am the worst blog writer ever. If I am this bad right now, I can't imagine how bad I will be once baby arrives hahahah. Lots has happened lately! It is now already October!!
-We are loving the changing weather and snuggling up under our down comforter at night.
-Our favorite show (Parenthood) is finally back on!
-I get to start making yummy soups and chilis again! I am going to buy pumpkins at Winco today (only 18 cents a lb.) and roast it to make into a pumpkin soup mmmm and of course I have to roast the seeds :)
-We get to go watch our niece, nephew, and sister play soccer and volleyball games!
-We went to a corn maze last night with the Parisens- it was really fun, but we could only find 4 out of 5 punches hahah no prize for us.
-I am now 4 months pregnant and I have a baby bump! We are going to find out the gender in a little less than 2 weeks eeeek!
-We are raising 2 baby chicks for our mothering hen, Pauline.  She is sooo good with them and it is adorable.  They sleep under her butt to stay warm and she protects them from Henrietta.  We are hoping they are both hens so we will get lots and lots of eggs, but they might be roosters...
-We are leading our own small group this season and so far it is going alright... we are going through Experiencing God again, so it is a little boring, but we have great group members. We served at the Oregon Food Bank this week and it was really fun and we are having a harvest party in place of group in a few weeks where we will get to carve pumpkins, etc. so we are really enjoying the people!
-Work is slowing down for the season- you are still working a bit this month, but with the rain you got all of last weekend off! I had the quarterly report this week, but other than this week, it has been a breeze lately!
-We went away to Tillamook for a little rainy weekend getaway. There were 100mph winds and we lost power for a few hours in an unfamiliar house with no candles or flashlights hahah ;)
-Today is Cece's 1st birthday!! She chose to cuddle with me this morning instead of sitting on the heater <3
-We have lots of projects (building Cece a fence, re-doing the floors in the nursery, finishing the sprinklers, oil changes, registering for baby products, etc.) to get done by end of winter, but are also finding time to just enjoy this slow season of life!

I love you soo much and am excited for you to get home from work this morning (you started at 5:45) so we can have a cup of coffee together. You are the most amazing man I know- you are hard working, always making me laugh, so sweet to me, you enjoy life to the fullest, you love me for me, and you love the Lord! I am so blessed to have you as my husband <3

Our perfect little growing family!

As I write this, you are at work. It is really warm outside, but has been cool in the mornings. I just finished cleaning our bedroom and guest room and starting the laundry and dishwasher  It is ~3pm on a Tuesday afternoon and you are closing at the golf course tonight. Last night, Sammy spent the night and we had a lot of fun. We made homemade pizzas, played croquet and "Munchkin" and you guys stayed up to play a bit of Nintendo.  I went to bed around 9:45 pm... why so early you ask? Because I am pregnant and tired! That's right, we are expecting a baby! We are soo excited. I am almost 10 weeks, so just 2.5 months along, but we have already known for 5 weeks! I have a little, noticeable bump on my belly and it is kind of fun to look at.  My jeans are already uncomfortable, so I will have to look at maternity clothing soon. We *think* we have our names picked out, but we will see how that goes. You wanted a daddy book, so you got one for your birthday, but have only read one chapter so far LOL. I know you will be a great daddy and I am sure you will get a little more excited about the reading and stuff as we get closer to meeting our little one. We call our baby, "Little Bean" or "Baby Bean" right now and you kiss my belly just about every morning as you leave for work :) We have told all our immediate family and a few close friends, but have not announced it on Facebook yet. We have our first real appointment this week (Thursday) and are really hoping to get an ultrasound, so we can figure out exactly how far along we are and when our little bean is due. Right now, we are pretty sure we got pregnant on our very first try and think the due date is March 12, 2014. And I really want to hear the heartbeat! We have the most beautiful little family! I am so happy to be enjoying this time with just you and getting in lots of quality time and some adventures and lots of dates in before we become parents! It is going to be a fun journey and I am so happy I get to travel it with you! I love you lots and lots <3

almost our 1 year anniversary!

Jesus- it is almost our 1 year anniversary! I cannot believe how fast this past year went. I am so excited to celebrate with you in a couple days. We are going to McMennamins Grand Lodge and staying with the "frisbee golf package". It sounds like a lot of fun and includes two keepsake frisbees, $50 toward dinner, $20 toward breakfast, two 22 ales, and a stay overnight. You are so excited to enjoy the soaking pool ;)

Right now, we are both working lots. You are working some crazy hours (40-50 per week) and lots of early mornings (4-7am?!!?), but you are learning to adjust and keeping a pretty good attitude about it. You take naps most days to keep you going. I am working for your family in the office and enjoying it so far. I get to work with Mari and all 3 kiddos, so that is pretty fun.

We are still loving our little Cece. She is still super hyper and needs a walk or a trip to the dog park every day. She loves going with me to your mom's house when I work and she runs around with Figaro for hours. My parents just (yesterday) got a new bull dog puppy. She is only 9 weeks old, so we are a little nervous to introduce Cece to her. They are calling her Weezie, but her name is Louise ;) We also have 2 chickens. They are very funny! Just this morning, the gold one- Pauline- had flown the coop, so I had to lock the black one- Henrietta- in the coop and she made noises like she was dying and then chase the other one back inside. They are pretty messy- I am not enjoying having to clean the coop, but that is the only bad part. I love looking out the window at them and seeing them peck and hearing their noises. they started laying eggs about a week ago, but some of the eggs are still too tiny to eat, but we are excited to have farm fresh eggs soon!

We have a beautiful little garden. Most of our plants actually grew and they are looking huge. The peas are too big- I have to go buy some system to hold them up today. I am so excited to eat home grown veggies and cook up delicious meals with them! 

I am competing in the women's state gymnastics games on July 13th and I am kind of excited for it. I have my vault ready to go and my bars routine is decent. I have a basic beam routine figured out, but need to add some dancing and I have nothing figured out on my floor routine (except that it will be to "Mambo #5"). I hope you can get that day off work and come watch because I am not allowing anyone else to watch me!

We took the StrengthFinders2.0 yesterday. We had both taken it before, 5 years ago, so it was awesome to see a few changes. Your top 5: adaptability, maximizer, positivity, includer, ideation. Ideation was the only new one for you and we are not sure that we see it in you yet, but I am sure we will start to soon! My top 5: discipline, focus, deliberative, futuristic, significance. Both discipline and futuristic are new for me, so i am excited to see them in myself. 

We are about to start trying to get pregnant! We are planning to start on our anniversary celebration.  We are both excited and nervous for this next step. I wanted to have kids right away, and you wanted to wait, so we compromised and agreed on one year, and it is already here! Who knows how soon it will happen- it could be months or even years before the Lord decides to bless us with a baby, but we are hoping it will happen soon! 

I am so excited to see where we are now- I love you more today than I ever have before. I have learned so much about how to be your wife and how to love you.  I feel like we understand each other so much more now than we did one year ago. I think we are finally settled into marriage- I remember every "monthiversary" we hit, we would both say it still didn't feel like we were really married...but now it does! You are my FAMILY and I just love it! I feel like our life together is the most beautiful and wonderful thing about who I am and the biggest blessing that God has given me yet! I love you with all that I am, Jesus Gonzalez, and I am SO thankful to be your wife! Thank you for loving me and being my life partner. Thank you for all that you do to make me feel delighted in and cherished. Thank you for being my comfort and strength and keeping me excited about life and about our future. Jesus, as we grow together, I pray that we will fall deeper and deeper in love and look up every year and say WOW and just be overwhelmed by the blessing that our marriage is. 

Love,

Natalie

You & Me

Jesus,

I love our little family.  

I love cuddling with our puppy in bed.

I love dinners for two.

I love our weekly date nights.

I love drinking decaf coffee with you at night.

I love brushing our teeth side by side.

I love working on our garden.

I love getting lots and lots of time with just you.

I love going on walks together.

I love planning for our future together.

I love so many things about our beautiful life together.

I know I talk a lot about having kids and our future, 

but I want you to know that I feel so lucky

to be here with you right now.

and to get to enjoy life with just you!

a few highlights ;)

Hello handsome ;) 

-We are half way through our small group season.  We have been reading "Experiencing God" and it is really interesting- great new perspectives!  You and I are both working on our love relationships with the Lord- we are taking time each week to memorize Bible verses and are making church more of a priority.  We are excited about how we are growing! 

-Tomorrow is our last day of puppy training!  Our Cece is 5 months old today and she is so much fun.  She is so lazy in the mornings.  She hates her big, red sweater.  She only listens to us when we have food.  She has just started playing with the Frisbee!!! She is super sweet and we just love her as an addition to our little family! 

-We have a couple slow weeks where the farm doesn't have much going on!  You have been working hard on prep work on the farm and I have been helping your mom with office work.  It looks like I might be starting a second internship at Intel soon and you will be starting the PGA program as a second assistant professional at Forest Hills shortly (did I mention how proud I am of you?!!!?!) and life will get busy busy busy this summer, so we are enjoying a few light and easy weeks with lots of time together and i LOVE it!!!

-I am learning how to coupon (saving 40-70% all the time) and it is difficult, but really fun.  it is such a challenge and super thrilling so i am just loving it.  we are being super thrify in all areas of our lives right now and have actually saved up ~$1,500 over the past few months despite hardly working.  we rock!  we are working hard on saving so that we can have enough saved up in just a couple years to put a down payment on a house.  we have been spending lots of time looking at floor plans and dreaming about what our house might look like and our future in it.  it is so much fun! i love dreaming about our future.  we even talked about how we hopefully have ~63 more years on this land...we want to stay here until we are 85!!

-We have an awesome obstacle race coming up in ~6 weeks (The Dirty Dozen 5k).  We are starting to train- walking, running, "blogilates", even some Denise Austin hahahah i love us.  I bought us some fun bright yellow shirts that I will be decorating to wear on race day! 

Life is so sweet with you right now, I just wanted to document a few highlights!  I am loving being your wife more and more everyday.  You truly are the best partner for me and my very best friend.  You are such a hard worker, have so much integrity, and such a big, loving heart!  And did I mention how good looking you are? ;) I am head over heels for you, Jesus Gonzalez. 

Thank you!

I am so thankful for you, Jesus.  You are working so hard and I am very proud of you.  You have been getting up early to read your Bible and go to the gym... amazing!  You have been working hard on getting our businesses up and running.  You have been keeping up with things around our house.  You have been doing a great job of making time for everything and everyone.  You have really come so far in such a short amount of time.  I hope you understand how proud I am of you!  I hope I make it clear to you that I am in awe of you.  I hope you know that I feel so lucky to be your wife.  I thank God for you!  You are the biggest joy in my life and my very best friend- such a tremendous blessing to me.  I am so lucky I get to go through the ups and downs of life with you.  I am so lucky I get to be the mother to your children.  I am so lucky I get to grow old by your side.  I am so lucky I am the #1 in your life.  You are an amazing man.  You are kind, compassionate, encouraging, humble... I really admire you, Jesus.  Thank you for all you do for me and for our family!  I love you!