One year later....

We are alive, thriving, and happier than ever. I'm not going to go on and on about how bad I feel that I haven't blogged in a year (ouch) and every little thing that has happened in that time. Nope. I'm moving forward (well, with a quick review of the past). I mean I DID have a baby and all. But then I'll move forward with the blog, hopefully doing better with my frequency of posts.

So here is a year in review.

Last summer:
Last June we found out we were having a baby BOY! Doran and I were thrilled at the thought of having a son! My sister moved to Provo which was awesome! Having family around is always awesome because they are instant best friends. I worked for the summer at BYU Broadcasting (As I had for the past 4 years of my life.) Doran worked at Wymount Apartments and was an EFY health counselor. We were both extremely busy, which helped the pregnancy go by faster. Doran's brother Devin got married at the end of August, so we all headed up to Vancouver, Washington/Portland, Oregon for the wedding. It was so fun, and the perfect last vacation before our son arrived.

November 9, 2011
(Full birth story to come in a different post) So in short, our beautiful baby boy was born! Gavin Curtis Sorencsen He was 8 pounds 7 oz. 20 inches long. Handsome. So unbelievably handsome. The delivery went better than planned and Gavin was so healthy and strong.

Since then:
I got my gall bladder out one month after Gavin was born. Rough times. It was way harder recovering from that than from giving birth (seriously). We spent Thanksgiving with Doran's family up in Salt Lake City. It was fun to show him off and let him meet Grandma and Grandpa Sorensen for the first time. We spent Christmas in Smithfield with my family. It was also really fun and helped give us a break from being new parents. Doran really dove into his school work winter semester, which resulted in good grades and a happy husband. Gavin and I grew and learned together, creating a beautiful and forever friendship and relationship. Doran is also a WONDERFUL father. He always makes Gavin laugh and smile. Gavin wiggles and freaks out uncontrollably every time Doran walks through the door. We really are on big happy family.

And that brings us to now. Which I will write a different post about. I'll leave you with some pictures, then call it good since my little one just woke up from his nap.

Thank you all for reading. It means you still care about the details of my life. Hope all is well with you!

(This is of Gavin at 4 months. Too cute :) )

How Do I Say This....

I'm pregnant!

Oh, that wasn't too hard. Doran and I are expecting our first little baby November 21st, 2011. That makes me 14 weeks pregnant tomorrow! We are both so excited and so grateful for this little bundle of joy. We find out whether it is a boy or girl in 4 weeks! That is so exciting! We are sooo excited to be able to call it a he or she. Calling it a fruit every week (This week it is a lemon) is getting pretty old. Haha. We found out on St. Patrick's Day, when we were only 4 weeks pregnant! Seeing a positive sign on the test after seeing so many negatives for a couple of months is a good feeling. Look forward to a lot of updates about this wonderful news! GENDER IN 4 WEEKS! Make your predictions people! Doran thinks it is a boy. I really don't know though. Thanks for being patient with my no posts for 2 months. I've been pretty sick. But now I'm feeling good and jumping back into the blogging world. Talk to you soon!!

Graduation Day!!

I graduated from BYU on April 22, 2011 with a degree in Sociology! I loved college so much and loved all of the experiences I had there. I can't say enough good things about my college experience! It was amazing!

On that day my mom and dad, Michael, Sarah, Lucy, Heather, Ryan, Blake, Carter, Matthew, and my Grandma all came down! Also my in-laws and my sister in-law Carissa and her three boys, Eli, Garret, and Logan, also came down. We had a great BBQ out behind our apartments. It was a beautiful day! I didn't graduate until 5:00 that night, and we were the last college to walk, so I had to sit there forever before walking. We went to The Cheesecake Factory that night for dinner and didn't get seated until about 10:30! Sorry family. It was amazing thought. I went to the Cheesecake Factory the night I graduated from high school too. I love the symbolism in that!

Graduation was awesome! I wasn't expecting it to be as big of a deal as it turned out to be, but I love that it turned into a party and I am grateful for everything I have been able to accomplish in the past 4 years!

I have a picture with the BYU Broadcasting sign because that is where I have worked for the past 4 years! It pretty much put me through college.

And so did my parents. :)

Once Upon a Time...

Doran loves to read. He's pretty much obsessed with it. He probably goes through a book a week. It takes me about 2 months. I just never find the time. However, I have been reading more and would like to read a bunch of classics this summer that I've never read before. So I took the big step and got a library card for the Provo Library. I usually have Doran just check out my books for me, but hopefully I'll go more now that I have my own card. Here's to reading!

PS: I could have chosen between the adult library card with a picture of the library on it. Nope. I chose the frog. Without even thinking twice about it.

Be Like Unto a Child.....

One thing I love about my marriage is that we are not afraid to have fun and act like children. One night in April, Doran wanted to build a fort. FUNNEST. THING. EVER! We basically covered our whole living room with blankets and pillows, using a broom pole to hold up the middle. Doran is really good at forts. It also made me grateful for our wedding gifts because we got tons of blankets! I love forts.

I am ashamed.....

Name that movie! Jacques from Finding Nemo (The little shrimp like red man in the tank). Good times....

Anyways, I really am ashamed! It has been far too long since I've blogged. I'm currently at work so I have no pictures to post, but later today I WILL post like tons of updates on our lives. There is some exciting stuff to post. So look forward to:

1. Forts
2. Graduation
3. Library Cards
4. Exciting News

I love you, whoever you are who reads this. I promise I won't disappoint this afternoon. I just feel like I need pictures to make a real post. Sorry. Until later!

Rainy Wednesday

This evening it was so rainy. Doran and I love the rain so we took our usual walk around the block, this time with a umbrella. What I never realized, however, is that we weren't just taking a walk on normal streets, we were walking on the MOST INFESTED STREETS IN THE WORLD. My family and I recently watched a show called "Infested" on Animal Planet. This show is about these horror stories of people who have been infested by animals and bugs. My coward self may be exaggerating when I say that I think we are infested with WORMS. I understand that worms come out in the rain, but I have never seen so many worms before! I think it is because I usually see them the morning after all shriveled up and dead. These were alive, squirmy worms everywhere! After screaming for half of the walk and refusing to take a step unless the flashlight was shined right in front of me, I started actually enjoying watching the squirmy guys. I didn't pick any up, but I had fun watching Doran play around.

(ignore our crazy faces)

This semester has been great for me! I thought my senior year would be a lot more crazy. Doran is pretty busy though. He is loving being a part of BYU EMS (Emergency Medical Services) the most. I graduate in 5 weeks from Friday! I can't wait to be done with school and move on to bigger and better things. I'm job searching and just enjoying my last semester. Overall life is great. Until next time! :)

I know.. I know...

It's been forever. Don't worry! We are still alive and doing great! Christmas was wonderful! We got to spend Christmas with Doran's family in Weiser, Idaho. If you don't know where that is, don't feel bad, because the people living there barely know it exists. It is about an hour west of Boise. It was very beautiful up there, surrounded by lots of snow! It was great to get our of Provo and spend some time with family. My favorite tradition of theirs is that they go and see a lot of movies on Christmas Eve. so we got to go see Narnia, Tron, and Tangled (a few days later) while we were up there. We had to drive over into Oregon to see the movies, but that was okay. It was a wonderful vacation and so fun to get to know my new family better.
I also got to see my parents on the way up and on the way back. Although I did not get to spend Christmas with them, it was great to see them during the wonderful holiday season.
This past week was our first week back to school. For me, it is my last first week back to school. I'm done in April!! I couldn't be more excited. It is kind crazy to think that I'll be a college graduate in just a couple of months. I have loved school though. I love BYU and I love sociology. I feel so blessed for everything I have been able to accomplish and have the opportunity of doing in the past 4 years.
Yesterday, Doran and I accomplished some projects that I have wanted to get done for a while. I had an old bedspread that I loved and wanted to turn into a headboard, so we did. And we needed to frame a mirror for our bedroom, so we did. Both projects were pretty simple, cheap, and fast (we accomplished both in one day!) I'm pretty proud of the work we did.

Here are the steps we did:


plywood with some supports in the back.

1" Foam so it is soft to lean against. :)



Then covered it in fabric!

And the finished product!! (Sorry the bedspread is kind of messed up)


And here is the mirror. I didn't take pictures of it in the process. Sorry.






So for the next 4 months, this is what we will look like. . .


On our computers doing lots and lots of studying. I will try to post new and exciting things though. We just don't do a lot. But my sister and mom are coming this weekend and my sister is spending the night, so we may have some fun "girl night" picks. Yay! Have a great day!

Fall Festivities

I love autumn in Utah. Being from Vegas, I'm not use to the beautiful colors on all the trees. Palm trees don't change color, and that is what was all around me growing up. The brilliant colors of orange, red, yellow, green, and everywhere in between is remarkable! I love it!


Below are pictures of the redish-pink bushed outside our bedroom window. They use to be green but they turned red and produce a red glare into our bedroom. It's awesome.





Last week Doran and I carved pumkins. It was so much fun! I love doing fun things with Doran. His pumpkin turned out so much better than mine, but they were both cute. His is a wolf, and mine is an owl with "Hoot! Hoot!" next to is so people can tell its an owl. haha.











Oh, how I love life. Marriage is awesome. Every day is amazing and exciting and everything I could ever ask for. I love my husband and I love the fun, busy lives we have. I wouldn't change anything. :) Thanks for visiting! I hope everyone has a wonderful Halloween!

Canadian Thanksgiving

Monday, October 11th was Canadian Thanksgiving. Since Doran served his mission in Canada, I wanted to do something to celebrate this holiday and to have a chance for him to tell me even more about his mission. We had turkey and mashed potatoes, and i attempted to make pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. However, I made them wrong, which is really hard to do, so they turned into pumpkin chocolate chip cupcakes. I think they turned out great, and so did Doran considering he couldn't stop eating them. We delievered a lot to neighbors since it made so many!


I love him :)

Our fancy turkey dinner.....

And our fancy potatoes.





They seriously look so cute! I even decorated them like I was a professional cupcake maker. They are so adorable.





Here are a few pictures of Doran's mission. He served in the Toronto, Canada East mission. I am so proud of him for all of his service and for the great example his is to me. We decided to make Canadian Thanksgiving a tradition in the future so Doran can sit and talk to our kids about his mission and set a good example for them. I love my husband and had a great time listening to him talk about all of his memories. :) Happy Thanksgiving!

As of Late....

We're still slowly settling into our new apartment! This is the most recent project I've done that I'm pretty proud of. I bought a bunch of old frames at the DI and painted them fun colors. It was a really cheap and easy project.





Also, my new niece was born on September 20, 2010. My brother and his wife Sarah had their first baby, a little girl. Her name is Lucy and she is the prettiest darn thing ever. I have visited her the past 3 weekends and I have loved every minute of it. Isn't she beautiful?