The Best Surprise Finally Revealed!

Okay, so I'll get around to finishing my Christmas post, but I just can't wait to post this good news any longer...we are expecting!!!! Yippee! I've been wanting to post this since we found out, but wanted to wait until we were far enough along before we started telling people. We are due August 7th, and I'm nine weeks along this week. Everything so far is going great, no sickness (maybe just a little, but then I eat and I'm fine), and of course a bit more tired than usual. We are so excited to go hear the heartbeat next week at the doctor. It was lots of fun telling family in person over Christmas. We gave some people bags of mini M&M's with a sign that said "Mini Manwaring is on the Way!". Then for my parents and Grams we got mini snacks to eat during the movie "A Christmas Carol" that we all watched together on Christmas Eve, ie. baby carrots, mini chicken sandwiches, mini snickers, baby waffles, etc. That didn't exactly get the point across, so we also gave them a card saying "Merry Christmas Grandparents" and one to Grams for the great-grandma after the movie. Then they got it, and everyone knows now. We are pretty excited for this new adventure in life:) Can't wait to see you baby!

What a babe looks like at 9 weeks

Merry Christmas!

Christmas this year we spent in Colorado with Kendra's side of the family. It was lots of fun staying with Grams at her place, playing games with the family, and most of all being together for Christmas. Here are some things we did:

The tradition of reading "Twas the Night Before Christmas"

Opened up presents and watched Patrick Stewart's "A Christmas Carol"

Played Imaginiff with the whole family, quite funny imagining my grandma as a bird:)

Nathan and I went to the Denver Temple, where we were married on May 6, 2006. It was quite cold and windy that day

Went downtown Denver with Trevor and Kirstin, and Meghan and Brandon Gardner, it was really cold that night!

On the way there we stopped for the night in Cheyenne at our long time friend's the Freeman's, but going we were caught in the biggest blizzard both of us has ever been in. The road disappeared, there were no cars besides us, and once we got out of it we saw that they had closed the highway going the other direction to stop cars from driving through it. Good thing we started out when we did or we would have been stuck in the middle of Wyoming because of closed highways! Thanks again to the Freeman's for letting us see you and stay the night! This picture doesn't do the storm justice, it was trippy staring at the blowing snow for so long!

Blizzard from inside the car, we had to stop and get new wiper blades because ours were not doing the job! Then the wiper fluid froze!!

Ward Christmas Party

So for the BYU 103rd Ward Christmas Party Nathan volunteered to cater the dinner! Yeah, wow, but with the help from Mom Manwaring getting some supplies and the recipes needed, we were able to do it, and it was a success. We made 3 large pans of green bean casserole, 4 pans of funneral potatoes, 7 spiral cut hams with glaze, salad, rolls, and the dessert was a "bring your favorite holiday dessert". It was work, the day of was intense, but it ended up tasting great. Thank you to everyone who helped bake it the day of, and thank you to Kirstin and Trevor for helping to put the ingrediants together and serving. If anyone needs a caterer, Nathan and I are now avaliable, we can do it!

Making the potatoes

Greenbean ingrediants, have you ever seen Campbell's soups cans that big?

Some of the finished product

Vail Skiing

For a birthday weekend/early Christmas gift Nathan and I got the opportunity to go to Vail, CO for skiing and relaxing! I had wanted to give a weekend away gift for Christmas for Nathan, and was exploring Park City, when a long time family friend emailed me and asked if we would be interested in using her timeshare condo in Vail. Of course we couldn't take off the entire week, but we were able to do the weekend. Then, to not pay and arm and two legs to ski, I contacted another cousin who works for Vail Resorts to see if we could get some sort of discount. Both of those worked out, and to top it all off, we asked some of our best friends and cousins, Tom and Kristie, to go with us. The end result= the best time ever skiing and a fabulous weekend! Kristie picked up skiing so quickly, and I felt like it was my best time going personally, Nathan loves it, and Tom is one of the best skiers I know, so everyone had fun, and no one got hurt! It was so great to go with awesome friends and everyone enjoyed getting into the holiday spirit. Thank you Tom and Kristie for going, you made the trip awesome and we love you guys tons!

Nathan, Kendra, Kristie, and Tom at the top of the mountain

Kendra's newly found favorite were the moguls. The snow was the best too!

Taking a walk in a winter wonderland

Tom and Kristie enjoying the winter and view

Kendra's Birthday

For my birthday this year we went to Nathan's work party. The food was good, and we had a fun white elephant exchange. Nathan got to play his boss at ping pong, and luckily didn't win every time :) When we got home Kirstin had made me parfait's for my birthday cake. It was a great time had by all. THanks for all the birthday wishes!

Nathan and Rick at the EQC Christmas Party

Nathan, Kendra, Kirstin, and Trevor with the yummy parfaits!

Thanksgiving 08 in AZ

This Thanksgiving we went to the Manwaring's in Gilbert, and did some really fun things that included: a Manwaring Turkey Bowel flag football game, good food, family pictures, fun games, a family talent show, Mesa Temple Lights, going to the temple as a family, making gingerbread houses, and getting to be together. Thanks a bunch to Mom and Dad Manwaring, it was great!

All the kids sent Kathy and Alan on a scavenger hunt around the house for our Christmas present to them.

Flag football, it was awesome, and the best part was no one got hurt!!

All the girls from left to right: Rachelle, Kendra, Jennifer, Nicole, Kortney, Karissa, Kathy

All the boys, left to right: Alan, Nathan, Jason, Robert, Richard, and Cory

Our talent for the Manwaring and Garr Talent Show, we did a neat athletic trick

The beautiful Temple Lights. This was the last year that Kathy and Alan were in charge of them

Elisa, Kendra, and Nathan at the Temple Lights

Everyone making gingerbread houses

Jazz vs. Suns Game

On Monday Nathan called and he had gotten tickets from his company to that night's Jazz game vs. the Phoenix Suns. Though I had things due that week for school, we could not pass up an opportunity like that. It was awesome, I haven't been to an NBA game since I was very little, and we were able to see in person Shaq and Steve Nash, not to mention AK with his awesome stuffs on Shaq twice in a row, Boozer, Matt Harpring, and Kyle Korver (he is really good looking!) to name some favorites. The game was great, very close which made it exciting, and the best was that the Jazz won. Afterwards we swung by Grandma Hiller's to discuss the highlights. THanK YoU Equation Consulting for the tickets!

Jazz go up for a bucket!

Nathan and Kendra at the game!

Las Vegas

This weekend we took a trip to Las Vegas for the ASCA National Specialty. Kirstin got the chance to show and do networking, so the trip was a success. Uncle Bob and Aunt Diane let us stay with them for the weekend, and we were able to do some fun shopping and see really neat things! It was fun, though as not big gamblers, drinkers, or partyer's, we had to figure out other things to do that also didn't cost an arm and leg! So here's what we did:

Walked along the strip...

Watched the Belagio fountains and walked all inside...

Went to M&M World, a little overstimulating actually:)...

Kirstin got to show at Nationals (she is fourth from the right, back row)...

Got to visit with Uncle Bob and Aunt Diane...

And did some shopping at Ceasar's Palace (wow, is that place neat inside!) !

Body Worlds

For one of my clinicals the whole class went to the Body World's exhibit in Salt Lake City. This is really neat, because they are real bodies that have been preserved in a new and special way so that no formaldehyde is used and it doesn't smell like anatomy lab at all. The different positions also were really neat. There was a whole circulatory system that they had preserved without the rest of the body. I also learned neat things about hearts, including how hard a normal person's heart works in comparison to super athlete Lance Armstrong. The downside though was the price, way expensive, even with the student and group discount that we got going together. Also, though it was neat to see, it was a bit like anatomy lab, except that you couldn't touch it. Oh well, very interesting none the less, and I snuck some pictures:)

Inside of camels, they had more than just humans

A lift, just minus the skin!


Friends from school, from left to right: Enga, Sophia, me, Gabbi, and Shelene

Halloween 2008

Halloween 08 was great! Actually we didn't dress up on the actual day, but we did for our ward chili cookoff/costume contest. We both wore our Chinese PJ's, and we were Kung Fu masters. On Halloween we got to speed it at Grandpa Haworth's farm while our car was getting new tires from the place that we got it in Preston, ID (yep, where the whole movie Napoleon Dynamite is based!). On Halloween I got to go for a horseback ride, and we rode fourwheelers, and gave candy out to the few kids that came by, we had a good dinner with Grandpa and Grandma, and watched "Priates, Dead Man's Chest". It was a good Halloween. The fourwheel ride at night was pretty scary actually. On Saturday we took little Tate Porter to play, and I took him on a horseback ride, jumped on the tramp, and threw the football around. Tate would count how many times they caught it, and associate the number with something, like 8, for eight spider legs. I could listen to Tate talk all day, he is the cutest! On Sunday, Mike and Misty had the blessing for Taylee, and Nathan was able to participate. It was so beautiful, especially after everything the poor little thing has been through so far. Then we had a great dinner at Doug and Debbie's that night. We played games, and listened to some good counsel from Doug about the upcoming times, and had good discussions. Thanks for great weekend one and all!

Tate dressed up like Spiderman for Halloween

Hey look, Tate fits in a box!

Kendra holding baby Taylee

Kendra and Tate on a horseback ride, isn't that sky awesome?

Playing catch

Jumping on the tramp

Mike, Misty, Tate, and Taylee after the blessing (Tate wasn't holding still)

Flag Football

So Nathan joined an intramural team this semester, flag football with the BYU 103rd Ward. It has been fun, though his rib was dislocated again in the first game when someone from the opposing team rammed Nathan's sternum with their shoulder. He is better now, though some of the intercostal cartilage is mushy still. I'm very proud of him, and the tournament starts this week, good luck boys!

Playing football, they won this game in the last few seconds! The team is doing really well.

Tag Peterson, Ryan Williams, and Nathan

Hee Haws Corn Maze

On Friday the 24th, Nathan and I went with friends from our ward, Ryan and Michelle, to Hee Haws Farms Corn Maze. It was really fun, and I liked not doing the haunted part. It was still plenty scary, and it also became a game to see if we could scare Ryan and Michelle, by walking very quietly away. The farm was also neat because it had other things like a few neat slides and a petting zoo, that had a baby cow! Okay, see, here's the deal, every time we go up to Grandpa Haworth's farm, we pass all the baby cows that are in their little dog house things at the dairy just down the street. I have always wanted to stop and pet a baby cow and get a picture doing it, and we never do! So this calf was friendly and I got to pet it a bunch. Michelle touched one too, but she did not like the cow poop that she stepped in:) Afterwards we made cookies and had ice cream at their house. Thanks for a great night guys!

Nathan made a new friend

Ryan and Michelle at a dead end in the maze

The calf and Kendra, just a little sweetheart

Driving a tractor

Cool Pictures!

Last week during my fall break (I actually have one, never did at BYU) my friend from our ward Michelle and I went up to the mountains to take some fall pictures. She is really into photography, and I want to get more into that. Here are some beautiful pictures that we took outside of Heber, UT.

A favorite of mine, with the details of the railroad in front, and the neat barn in the background

That same neat barn, with interesting weeds in front.

A lovely railroad track, meandering through the valley.

Horses through the fence

The barn, snow capped mountains, and beautiful blue sky all in on picture

Michelle took this one of me on the tracks!

Thanks for taking me Michelle!