Holy Cow, It's been forever since our last post!

Facebook has taken over our lives and caused us to neglect our updates on here. Ha ha. Well, we have been back in Juneau now for a few months. Things are going well! Brandon is back in school and is focusing on getting his pre-reqs done for the Nursing Program here at the University of Alaska Southeast, which is also where Emily works. We are glad to be out of Texas and back in the cooler climate. We will try to be better about posting more about our lives here in the near future. For now, here are a couple of pictures to suffice until then.

And then there were four. (The dog counts)

Well, we're out of the freezer and into the frying pan! The Howells are now making their residence in sunny El Paso Texas. And by sunny we mean hot. Emily is adjusting (especially now that a baby isn't turning up the heat in her tummy) and Brandon is just glad it isn't Georgia humid. As for the REAL news, Madison Elizabeth Howell is here and loving it. Her favorite activities include eating and sleeping. She lets Daddy sing to her (Brandon may from this point on be referred to as 'Daddy' as well as Emily being 'Mommy') and loves to cuddle with Mommy. We thought there may be a slight adjustment period being new parents and all, but Maddi fits right in. It is almost as if she was already here the whole time. So far everything has gone...chaotically perfect. No serious injuries, no car jackings and best of all, no Dementors. Our family is still getting a healthy dose of everything Office and we plan to keep it that way. We got our new furniture coming in and our new home is almost all set up. Brandon isn't necessarily 'looking forward' to going back to work, but he is very grateful the ARMY now has paternity leave and he got to spend an extra few days with his favorite girls. He is also coping very well with his estrogen-dominant home. Penny has been doing pretty well herself. A few accidents but that is to be expected with all the hullaballoo skidamarinkidinkydink she put up with. We don't question her growing up to be a great family dog and a wonderful friend for the kids. (Kids? Plural?) Well yes, now that all is said and done, we can say for sure that it's gonna happen. We are very happy to be happy and are eagerly looking forward to our next few years as Texicans.

A new update...finally!

Sorry for taking so long to finally put up an update for what's going on with Brandon and I. Brandon requested that I get on here and do so sometime...so, here goes: Brandon has now officially finished the Basic Combat Training portion of his training. He has been at Fort Benning in Georgia for a whole 10 weeks! I just got back from visiting him this last weekend. We spent almost 3 days together and it was absolutely wonderful! Georgia was really warm, but mostly overcast skies and random thunderstorms rang throughout the trip while I was there. I am currently staying in Logan, Utah with my family while Brandon finishes up his training. He now has only 4 more weeks to complete his AIT, which is just his job training. But, since he is Infantry he will be in the same location, with the same Drill Sergeants, pretty much doing the same kind of stuff he has already been doing. His gradutaion will be June 25th-26th in Georgia. I am going to meet up with him there, where we will be leaving from to return to Alaska and move our belongings to our next duty station. We're still not sure where that will be, but we have heard some rumors that we may be going to Texas. Also, at this point Brandon may be getting deployed within the next 6 months. We won't know for sure until he gets his orders. It was kind of an expected thing to find out, since as you may all know the military is still deploying like crazy and Infantry is a highly needed job over in the Middle East. Things are still going well with my pregnancy:) It was fun for Brandon to finally get to feel the baby kick. We are having a girl and we both can't wait to meet her. I also got our family a new puppy. Her name is Penny and she is a Jack Russell Terrier. I put up some pictures for everyone to see. I hope you enjoy!

Gone to training...

Brandon has joined the Army! He will be active duty for four years unless he decides he likes it and wants to stay in longer. It is something Brandon said he has always kind of wanted to do, but never realistically thought about it. The topic randomly came up one day and after talking we decided to look into it. Everything happened rather quickly. When he joined, he decided to go into infantry as his job choice. I told him I would support him in whatever he wanted to do and he has been happy about his decision.

Brandon left for his Basic and Job training today. I balled my eyes out seeing him off at the airport. It was probably one the hardest things for us to do so far in our life together. As I drove home, thinking about what it will be like while he is away, I thought of all the wonderful things Brandon has already done for me since we have been together. He is a wonderful husband and I miss him more than anything already.

He will be gone for a little over four months. I won't get to see him until his graduation at the end of all of his training (which will be about at the end of june):( And it will be so crazy for us when we do see each other: I will have a tummy twice the size it is now I'm sure, and Brandon will be so handsome in his uniform and his military haircut:)

He won't be able to talk to anyone until he is finished, but if you'd like he can receive letters and I am sure he wouldn't object:) Let me know if you want to write him because I will let you know his address as soon as he gives it to me.

As for me, I will still be here in Juneau until the semester is over. After school gets out, I am going to be staying with my family in Northern Utah until Brandon finishes. We will return to Juneau in July to collect our belongings and move to our next duty station. We have no idea where we will end up going, but either way Brandon and I are excited to experience new places together and with our new baby.

Things are still going well with the baby. I am 16 weeks right now. I will find out on April 7th whether it is a boy or girl. I can't wait, I am soo excited! I can't wait for Brandon to find out either.

BaBy'S hEaRtBeAt!

http://www.mediafire.com/?zj2ifeuitjk

Follow link, but then you have to download the file to actually listen to it. The baby starts at about 6 seconds, sounds like a little washer machine or something :D

Beating Hearts Baby

Brandon here. So, it was quite a thing to find out we were having a baby. Then, January 5th I got to see the little thing. (Quite little, 9mm, nothing more than a little dot) However, I got a suprise that day when that little dot starting flickering! I'd say it's heart was beating at around....12,346 bpm which is very fast, but it's supposed to be so I didn't freak out. Now today being Febuary the Third in the year of our Lord two-thousand and nine, I thought I was going to get to see it again. I was wrong. But....BUT I got another suprise instead. I got to hear it. Well, we got to hear it. Something foreign and fantastic around every corner it seems these days. Hopefully I can figure out how to get the recording off Emily's phone so you guys can hear it as well. Every day I get closer to meeting it I get more excited. (I get to stop calling it 'it' in around 9 weeks when we find out what it's gonna be) I must say, it really is such a feeling to know there is a little Angel growing inside the safe warm harbor that is my Wife's tummy. I've got two Angel's in my life now and I don't feel the least bit pretentious in saying that I am one very, Very lucky man.

Married with a Baby on the way...

Well, since Brandon hasn't posted anything about the good news yet I guess I will:) Brandon and I are now married! We were married here in Juneau, Alaska on January 9th, 2009. Which is kind of funny because it is also the same day as my dad's birthday. It was a simple service performed by our new Bishop and it was done at the church here. A few people from our ward and friends were also able to come. It didn't last very long, but it was definitely a memorable time. We will be sending out some pictures soon, but we need some address info from people... I'll have to see whose we have and whose we still need. And on top of everything, we are also expecting...as in: we have a little one on the way:) We are both extremely excited about it, minus the nausea and morning sickness. I am exactly 8 weeks pregnant and am going on my ninth week. I will have to post our last sonogram picture, although it isn't that great becasue you can't see anything in it. At the appointment we were able to see the blinking on the screeen of the baby's heartbeat. It was definitely an overwhelmingly wonderful experience for the both of us. Our next appointment is in a couple of weeks. I am also really happy to be able to share this experience with my sister, who just had a little boy. His name is Benjamin and it has been really great to be able to hear all the dirty details of pregnancy and all the stuff you never think about or read about with her. The baby is due August 24th, which is five days after my birthday, who knows maybe I will get the greatest gift of all!:) ha ha. Well, I guess that's all I have for now. We will be sending you all something in the mail soon and we will continue to update you on any more exciting news we have. Thank you for your love and support. We love you all!