We're Still Here!

Hi all. So, clearly blogging has not been high on my priority list lately (or for the last year and 2 months), but my goal is to start doing a much better job. I really don't have an excuse now since I am on summer vacation with little to no responsibility at the moment (which is really rather enjoyable).

So...lots of changes have occurred for the Bruner's over the last year or so. We found out in March that we are expecting! We found out last month that it is a BOY! We were both very excited about this news (I have to say both so Cal doesn't look bad when I make people think he would have been unhappy with a girl!). Anyway...we were really hoping for a boy for lots of reasons.
1. All his cousins born this year are boys and he won't have cousins on Cal's side of the family.
2. Cal really wants a start on his "litter" of boys to dominate the sports field.
3. If this kid is born with my hair, I don't want another head of hair to do. At least with a boy, I'll just keep it short! ;)

We are of course kidding, we would have loved a girl just the same and know that our little one will be just perfect come November. I am a little over 21 weeks along. The beginning of this pregnancy was terrible. I was nauseous and vomiting constantly, and lost about 10 pounds by the time I hit the second trimester. Thankfully, that has improved a lot. I still have some nausea but have been able to keep my food down most of the time!

Because of our expecting arrival, we moved from our apartment, but unfortunately didn't find a house before our lease ran out. So...our stuff went into storage and into the Johnson house we moved! We have a nice size bedroom and were able to bring our own bedroom furniture (I'm not sure I could have survived without my bed!). Josh, Abrah, and the boys have made us feel so welcome and I have enjoyed my summer vacation with two of my favorite boys in the world. It's been fun to see Myles grow a little each day and Riley is always entertaining (minus those first few mornings where he would crawl in my bed to snuggle super early..doesn't he know I'm on VACATION?!).

We had been house shopping for the first few weeks we were here and were really discouraged with the selection of choices that we had. I was getting really frustrated when a cute little gem popped up just before the 4th of July. We saw the house and less than a week later had accepted the seller's counter offer and are now in the process of finalizing all the details. We are excited to have a permanent residence for awhile (we were becoming pro's at moving) and can't wait to get into the house and make it our own. However, I'm not sure what Riley will do when his Aunt and Uncle (who he now thinks are his brother and sister with another brother on the way) move out. Luckily, it's just down the road and Riley knows he can visit anytime he wants.

So...that's a brief update of the last year of our lives. I promise I'll do a better job of keeping up for all you readers out there (if I still have any after 1 year+ of no posting). I know Jenny and Chels have been on my case to blog again...

And here are some pictures....

06.30.11 (20 weeks)


Baby Boy Bruner

Caleb really enjoyed the ultrasound because Baby B would NOT take his hand down from his face. Caleb made the remark that it's like he doesn't want to be bothered while sleeping or something. I have no idea which parent he would inherit that trait from! I think Cal is a little afraid he has two of me on his hands :)

Happy Birthday, Rease!

Happy Birthday to my favorite 1 year old girl!

We love you!

and We love you too, Riley.

Enjoy!

Hey bloggers!

Just wanted to tell you about something AWESOME I found this week. The 2010 Passion Conference CD Awakening debuted this week.

I had heard bits of some of the songs on it before so I downloaded it on Itunes Tuesday as soon as I could. I must tell you....It has not shut off since I purchased it!!!

Click here to listen!

Have a great day!

Dave Ramsey

So many of you know that Caleb and I are big advocates of Dave Ramsey's budgeting and financial plan. For those of you who don't know, he is a financial guru who bases his ideas on Biblical principals. He is big on NO DEBT! We seriously started our Dave Ramsey plan in July of last year; however, with the ridiculous amount of weddings (we love you Carr's, Baber's, Davis', Hohenberger's, Blyth's, VanDeman's, Beck's & Truesdell's) we had last year, most of our extra money went towards expenses for those & not to paying down debt. Now that wedding season (which apparently lasted from May 2009-December 2009) has passed, we have been able to put a significant amount of money towards paying off debt (when we started our debt was some furniture we purchased when we got married, a loan for my car, and my student loans). I am happy to say that as of Monday, February 8th the only debt we have left is my student loans. That means that since July when we started Dave Ramsey, we have paid off about $4500 in furniture & $10,000 on my car! I think that's quite a feet for two twenty-four year olds with a pretty limited income!

We have decided (now...we are going against Dave on this) to continue making more than the minimum payments on my loans but are going to put a lot of our extra money into savings for two reasons. The first, Cal's car is just about shot so we want to be able to buy him a reliable vehicle in CASH. Secondly, we would really really REALLY like to move out of this apartment when our lease is up into a house so we are saving for a down payment. As much as I would absolutely love for the loan payment to disappear, I think for the point we are at in our life we are doing pretty well.

As you can tell, I love me some Dave Ramsey :) But I want to share that the Lord has truly taught me that he is our ultimate provider through the last 6 months of this budget. There were some weeks when our envelopes were getting pretty empty and I was worried about if we had enough to fill-up our gas tanks until our next envelope "fill-up" or how I would feed my "hollow-legged" husband with the small cash that was left, but we always had food on the table (maybe not as much as Cal would like...after all he is about quantity not quality). I have seen myself depend on my Savior, clinging to his promises to provide for us, and seeking him through prayer more frequently in the last 6 months that the other 23 1/2 years of my life.

So I know many of you think we are absolutely crazy (sometimes I think we are too) and many days I am so ready to throw in the towel on this budget, but I wouldn't trade this experience for anything.

Christmas Miracle

So...I have my own little Christmas miracle to share.


My genius big bro, Ryan, got ALL of my pictures back that Caleb deleted!!! Thanks, Ry!
Pics to come later :)

December

Hi everyone! I had a bunch of pictures to upload today such as my Thanksgiving turkey, my new haircut, Polar Express pictures from school....however, my husband (accidentally) deleted ALL OF THEM! Oh well, I guess we still love you Cal!
So instead of pictures, I will just have to tell you a little of what we've been up to this month.
First, I chopped my hair off! I was so tired of it so I decided to cut probably between 8 and 10 inches of it off recently. It a really cute 'do...the only down side is I pretty much have to straighten it for it to look good. It is not a cute style for curly hair. Straightening isn't so bad because I have been straightening it so much that it's not really curling anymore! I know...none of us knew that would ever happen!
In my last post, I told you that I was in charge of the turkey for the Bruner Thanksgiving. I must pat myself on the back here a bit, because it was pretty delicious! Thanks to mom for helping out! It was so good that I will be cooking another one this week for Christmas! Let's hope I can repeat that performance. Also, not only was it my first time cooking a turkey it was Cal's first time carving one (which he said wasn't too hard because with my awesome cooking skills it just "fell" right off the bone!) I've decided that cooking a turkey isn't too bad, I just wish I had a house big enough to house Thanksgiving. Transporting it is probably the most difficult part! Maybe next year....

I have been really busy with school lately. We had our "Polar Express Day" on Friday. It was a lot of fun & the best part was I got to wear PJ's to school all day! Then we watched the movie in the high school auditorium on the big screen...it was like being at the movies! The kids had a good time and it was well worth all of the preparation. Now I'm off for two weeks which I plan to spend getting healthy! We have both been sick with awful coughs so I am hoping that some time off will get us healthy soon.

So...like I said I don't really have any pictures to upload, but here is one of my new haircut I had on my phone. It's not the best picture of me...but you can see the new look! Merry Christmas, bloggers!

Lately

So...clearly I have been quite the blog slacker lately. We have been so busy lately with weddings, parties, showers, etc. that I cannot find the time to blog. We had our last wedding of the year last weekend. Our best friends Kathryn & Brandon got married. Caleb was a groomsmen & I was the MOH. It was a busy few months leading up to this wedding but it was so much fun to be a part of B & K's big day. Here are some pictures of the weekend...

These two pictures are actually from Kat's Halloween bachelorette party. She was an 80's bride & we were 80's bridesmaids!

In all the madness, I did not get a pic of me & Kat on the day of the wedding but here we are at the rehearsal!

Me & Caleb at the reception.
My toast.
Photo courtesy of Candice Haase (garden rose photography)

AND FINALLY...Mr. & Mrs. Brandon Beck :)

In other news, Caleb is working for Beau Mitchell Construction & joined the Carpenters Union. He's not too thrilled about this but we are grateful for a job. Tomorrow, I will be cooking the turkey for our Bruner Thanksgiving. I will let you know how this goes! Happy Turkey Day to everyone!