why i havent posted for awhile....

so here goes....since may i have been having a lot of pelvic pain. the pain will come and be almost like a small contraction in which you cant move for a minute but then your fine. i really didnt think anything of it until a few weeks ago when i was on the treadmill at the gym. i got off and went to do my ab workout when i laid down, i couldnt get back up, i was just curled up in a ball in extreme pain. really weird considering i do this same workout 3 times a week and have been for a long time so it shouldnt bother me. it took everything out of me just to get my kids and get home. i told josh and he asked for me to please get it checked out. so i scheduled the appointment with the obgyn. after my appointment he said that something didnt feel quite right and sent me to have a pelvic ultrasound. now i am thinking "oh i am fine, nothing is wrong, i just have pain every once in awhile." well after the ultrasound the radiologiest comes in to tell me that i have a cyst on or near my left ovary. i am shocked! the doctor calls me later to tell me that they are running cancer markers on my blood work but that he doesnt think it is cancer, and that because of the size of the cyst i could lose my ovary. we made it through last weekend to an appointment on monday with the doctor. he gives us a couple choices, scope it right away or give it a week have another ultrasound and see if it goes down. if it goes down we will continue to watch it if not, we go in and see what we are dealing with right away. we chose the second option. now we are praying that this 6 cm cyst goes away and i dont have to have anything done. this coming wednesday i will have another ultrasound with the results. if there is no change i will go in to have it scoped and probably removed on friday of next week. right now we are anxious and at times scared of what this will mean for our family in having more children. i am just so grateful for the priesthood and the blessings that we can receive from our Father in Heaven to give us comfort and strength. i am so grateful for my family and their loving support. so thats our story...i will for sure keep everyone updated as soon as i find out. i know a lot of you are praying for me already...thank you for your prayers and phone calls of comfort.

third year

july brought the start of another year of medical school for josh. we cant believe we have made it to third year already....time just seems to be flying by. we have learned so much about ourselves, life, love, and so much more while in medical school. josh has also learned a lot of medical stuff but besides all of that we are so grateful to be here in virginia. we have grown closer as a family and closer in the gospel as we have struggled to make it through these tough years. we have been so blessed with amazing friends to help us get through the tough times and make us smile. we couldnt have made it this far without the help of both of our parents so thank you. we are humbled and so grateful for your love and kindness. josh is in the middle of his pediatric rotation and he loves working with the kids. after this rotation is obgyn and then surgery. the first push of third year will be long but after christmas it should calm down a bit. most of all i am so grateful for a husband that works so hard for our family. i know right now we are sacrificing a lot but that it will pay off in the end. as one of my dear friends told me "right now is not the time for josh to be home, that time will come. right now he needs to get the education so he can be home a lot in the future." thank you honey and congratulations to you for all you have accomplished thus far. i love you.

josh turns 27

happy birthday to daddy. we celebrated josh's birthday on the 11th, waking him up to lots of hugs, kisses, and presents right away! we couldnt wait. we meaning brody and mommy. we were so excited to give daddy the presents we picked out for him. brody asked me a few weeks before josh's birthday if he could get daddy a tool for his birthday? i said of course. well tools are pretty expensive but mommy figured out what daddy needed was some gardening tools so he doesnt use his hammer anymore. well those are exactly what brody was thrilled to give his daddy. brooklyn gave daddy a golf glove and mommy gave daddy some shoes and a new driver. daddy is really into golf again, whenever he has time thats what he loves to do to relax. we celebrated daddys birthday with mommy cooking him his favorite breakfast. we got ready and headed out the door to buy some more presents and eat lunch. mommy had it all planned out but didnt know that this place is closed on Saturday! lame! oh well we went to another one of daddy's favorite places for lunch/dinner. after which we came home and relaxed and had a pretty low key rest of the day. thats what daddy wanted and thats what he got. josh had a fun day celebrating. we love you honey! thank you for being amazing as always! (did you notice the shaved chocolate...mommy did that all by herself! i got a tip to use a vegetable pealer to shave the chocolate and it makes it curly).

"little mountain"

Monticello: Italian meaning little mountain

burial site on the ground with all the Jefferson's and is still used today for descendants.

the vegetable garden/ plantation (it was huge!!!)

they would catch fish in a local river and put them in this pond alive until they were ready to be served for dinner

an original tree stump that Thomas Jefferson planted this tree himself. They had to cut the tree down last year after a storm.

after camping we headed a short distance to visit monticello. it was absolutely beautiful and he was such a great architect/designer/inventor. his home was exquisite on the inside and the grounds were even more amazing. i would love to live there. thomas jefferson loved his monticello and i can see why now. i love visiting all the historic sites while we are on the east coast especially the homes of the presidents. i am deeply grateful for our founding fathers sacrifice and dedication.

"we're going on a bear hunt..."

one of our favorite books to read to the kids turned into a fun adventure hiking in the woods near our campground.

first family camping trip

after our trip to florida and my "honey do" list was non existent we took our first ever camping trip. we wanted to escape the heat and hopefully go fishing (didnt happen) so we drove to the shenandoah national park. well it took us longer than expected so we decided to stay at a campground that didnt have fishing (boo hoo) but we really didnt care because oh was it gorgeous! we went hiking and exploring, josh cooked great food and the weather was cold....seriously! at night josh and i cuddled up and were shivering. the kids got so dirty and they loved every minute of it. josh got spooked by a deer that jumped out in front of him, pretty crazy. and me well i loved every second of seeing my family have fun. i have been begging josh for years to buy a tent and finally he gave in and we are so happy to have one now. more camping adventures await us in the near future.

the fourth

for the fourth of july this year we had the missionaries and our good friends the waterfields over for dinner after church. we ate a yummy bbq with josh's ribs, cams homemade bread and other delightful treats. we made these festive cupcakes for desert. after dinner and a lesson from the missionaries we drove down to the beach and watched the fireworks on the beach with the waterfields. it was so crazy down there but we had a fun time and are so glad we went. most of all we are grateful for this wonderful country in which we live. happy late fourth of july.

chocolate hazelnut baklava

josh and i have a new favorite and it includes anything greek. we are becoming masters in the kitchen making our own falafel, couscous and other yummy treats like baklava. we made this yummy treat and ate too much of it. if you want to learn how to make it visit my favorite website called designspongeonline.com and click on recipes. you will see it in there. enjoy!

making jam

it was time again to make freezer jam for our family. so after florida i had a big to do list for josh and this was one of the things on the list to do as a family. we wanted to go pick our own strawberries but by the time we were able to make the jam, all the local farms were out of strawberries. maybe next time we will be more on top of things. first thing we ate with our jam....pb and j's of course! the following week i made peach jam for the first time with a friend and that is to die for good. i will for sure add that to our list of jams we need to make in the coming years.

florida

after josh took step one of the boards we headed to florida the very next day. the flight was so short, compared to flying across the country which we are so used to now. we stayed with our friends, christian and mo, while there. really they made our being able to take our kids to disney all possible for us and affordable. we couldnt have done it with out their hospitality. our itinerary was as follows:

wednesday: arrive in florida and stay up late to catch up
thursday: magic kingdom
friday: take naps, grocery shop and downtown disney for dinner at the rain forest cafe
saturday: fan boat ride and back to downtown disney to see all we missed
sunday: church and celebrate fathers day
monday: play tennis with mo's family (a blast), go swimming and shopping
tuesday: leave for home

it really was such a great trip. any break we get in school we have always gone to see family and this was just so nice to be our family on our first vacation. josh said we may not ever go back and see our families on breaks....he is kidding of course, dont worry family. a big BIG thank you to christian and mo for the millionth time. we miss you and brody still talks about all of you especially alina. your family is beautiful and you guys are the best of friends. love you all and thanks again.

being a true florida tourist

while in florida we went on a fan boat ride to see alligators. it was a lot of fun! both josh and i thought well we will be lucky to see one alligator but oh my goodness we saw a lot! brooklyn hated it as you can tell below. the only time she was happy was when we were going fast. brody loved it. although i think everyone was still warn out from our day at disney.
this aligator is hard to see but his head is just barely sticking up by the bushes in the middle of the picture. this guy was 6 ft long.
brooklyn not so happy
brody loving the wind in his face
arent we cute?
the rasband family
another alligator
one big happy family in silly gear, that we were so grateful for because the fan boat was loud! we really were so surprised that we saw so many alligators and it was fun to be a tourist through and through. can i just say how beautiful it is in florida....gorgeous!

dreams really do come true

our day at the magic kingdom was magical. we got up early and drove, parked, got tickets and walked down main street all by about 9 AM. i was so happy and couldn't wait for the the day held for us. we headed back to fantasy land for our first ride on "Peter Pan's Flight" Brooklyn was scared and really didn't know what to think about everything. Brody was so excited and having the time of his life, after each ride he wanted to go again.
next we headed to "its a small world." and from there i have no clue because we were literally were running from ride to ride all day long. the lines were surprisingly short and anything that wasn't we fast passed and walked right on. The longest line we stood in was probably 30 minutes long.
brody on "its a small world"
a stop after lunch for some sugar to help us keep going and to cool us off. the weather wasn't too hot but it wasn't cool by any means. we were having so much fun to really notice until...
about 3 o'clock we got hit with a lightning storm and rain storm like no other. we were huddled under a shack by "big thunder mountain railroad and we were stuck. we had no ponchos and all the kids were passed out asleep. poor brody was even getting rained on a bit and he was cold. we were doing all we could to keep them warm. well the rain didn't stop for two hours. we made friends with another family and they let us use their ponchos to go to the nearest store to buy a couple to cover the kids strollers. long story short we made it to the store out of the rain and decided we better find a place for dinner soon. the rain finally did stop while we ate dinner and the sun came out to greet us once again. because of the storm so many people left the park...even better for us! more rides here we come...
brody in tomorrowland on "indy speedway"
josh said he was a great driver and really tried hard to stay in the middle. so cute!
mom and dad very sweaty after a long day but we didn't care. we had a blast!
brody before the fireworks show
brody watching the fireworks show
dad and brody watching the "AMAZING" fireworks show. so silly but i even got chocked up watching the fireworks at the end of the day with my family. it was a magical day and i was so grateful for that moment in time. it will forever be burned in my memory.
brody at 10 o'clock at night...way passed bedtime but still ready for fun!

Brooklyn passed out about 9 o'clock and stayed asleep for the rest of the night.

goodbye magic kingdom....until next time!
Disney World Fav's
Josh.........Space Mountain and Splash Mountain
Cam..........Astro Orbiter and same as Josh
Brody...........Peter Pan's Flight, Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, and Everything
Brooklyn.........Cinderella's Golden Carousel, Astro Orbiter and anything Princess