MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Christmas break, I am! Shopping, watching movies, making candy houses with kids, holiday parties, and hanging out.
I woke up this morning and have noticed a growing belly and its not larry's :)

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE
we love you all.

2009 Facebook Christmas Card

I did not really have time to whip up a beautiful witty Christmas card this year so you all get this, a sweet facebook note, try to feel the love.

2009 for the Harris family was oh so full of excitement. We moved to Springfield Virginia in May for an Internship Larry has in Washington D.C. We went everywhere and saw everything, Even the Obama girls! My parents came for a week with John and David and we went to Niagara Falls, The Hill Camora Pageant and other church sites, We wouldn't have made it there without them.

We moved back to Utah in August, Larry drove across country in 36 hours with his intern-buddy back and I flew :) Larry then started studying AGAIN for the LSAT after taking a small summer break off of studying it and we started school again in August. Larry took the LSAT in September and did fabulous and then starting filling out application after application. He is done now with them all and just received his first acceptance letter, I know many more will be piling in! We are counting down the days till graduation in April!! Larry is the best husband working hard to finish school and provide for our growing family. He makes sure I have everything I need and is so patient and loving with me.

As for me I started nursing school, and have a very hate love relationship with it. It feels like I should be graduated from college but that is just how it goes with the nursing profession (ask anyone) I love working with the babies and giving shots is pretty fun. I am still working at the WSU Bookstore and found out right before Halloween I was pregnant. We are due July 2nd with an unknown gender at the moment :) I'm happily 14 weeks just about and am starting to feel better. I lucked out and have not vomited once! We are so excited and feel so blessed Heavenly Father would send us a sweet perfect baby, I can't wait!!

We are so grateful for this time of year to be able to be with family and friends and have the gospel in our lives. I am grateful that we are able to celebrate the birth of Christ and to share his message of peace and love this time of year. I am grateful to be sealed for time and all eternity to Larry and to my family and that Christ is the center in our lives.

Wishing everyone a safe, healthy, and happy Christmas!
Love Larry, Ann Marie and Baby.

Random events:
Moved 3 times
Celebrated 2 years of being married
One dead car :(
Bought One very old new car
3 more semesters done
1 semester left

Tis The Season..

This morning while being squished up against the wall in bed because we are not use to sleeping in a full size bed, we have a queen....

I was thinking this will be me and larry's 4th Christmas together.

Time flies, we meet each other right around this time 3 years ago and now we are sharing it together for a 4th and next year we will have a squishy little baby.

I'm celebrating this Christmas season:

The new life that is growing inside me, what a blessing we have received
My husband and all his hard work
My parents for trying to be supportive the best way the can
My grandpa Draper, this baby will be his 25th great-grand child
Having great healthy and a so far easy pregnancy
My brothers especially John serving faithfully in Japan
A car, it has issues but at least we have it!
Grants, scholarships, loans-we couldn't get through school without them
Good books, like Harry Potter
Yummy food
The birth of our Savior and the message he brought
Temples and the sealing power
my husband again :) We really do love each other

more to come later I'm making chex mix and the off to the Martin family sunday dinner.

Happenings of Late

Here is whats up with us lately...

Fall semester ended and AnnMarie got a sweet nursing scholarship :)

Went to the Doctor on Tuesday and the baby is not giving up what it is down south...not yet I tried to shake it around to move the legs... did not work.

We are in EDH and loving every warm moment of it.

I have been feeling really good but very sick today.

Larry got accepted into his first law school so far via e-mail, so fancy, its in New Hampshire.

We have been playing with are cute little Martin family clan every day, they make me laugh.

Larry is a hot stud husband who is letting me do nothing on vacation and he loves sleeping in.

We get to talk to John who is serving a mission in Japan on christmas, very exciting!

Pretty much that is all that is happening with us right now, boring for most people but perfect for us :) Hope everyone is going well!

HOME!

I am going home in exactly 7 days!! I know that Utah is where I live, and that me and Larry are building our home together here but El Dorado Hills has always been my home for 20 years and I look forward to going back almost everyday all year round. I love where I grew up and was blessed to have tons of friends and have the gospel strong in our community. I love the hills and the Target down the street, and the one in Folsom I worked in, and I love the restaurants and my parents house, and the smell, and the familiar roads with names and not dumb grid system numbers.

I love sitting on the couch and watching movies with my family and seeing friends families that I look forward to seeing each year, and the SHOPPING. Sorry Utah you just can't beat my beautiful mostly sunny California. I can't wait!!!

Happily Married

So yesterday for some reason I was thinking about all the divorced couples I know. I don't know why I was thinking about it but sometimes my brain just has a mind of its own. Anyways I was thinking how sad that I know couples that have been married the same amount of time I have an then somehow the marriage just ends and is over. It made me realized how grateful I am for my eternal marriage and even though sometimes Its hard and I am a pain in the butt especially now being pregnant and all chalked up on hormones I still want to always be married to Larry and am glad we are making it work. That is all I wanted to say, Have a great day everyone.

Baby on board.

HARRIS BABY # 1 IS ON IT'S WAY!

Thanksgiving 2009

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!

Hope everyone has a great thanksgiving being with family and friends and eating good yummy food and remembering everything we are thankful for.

Almost the weekend!

I love this picture of Larry. I have been thinking a lot about our summer living in DC and how crazy it was and all the things we have done and all the things we are looking forward to in our lives. I feel blessed and I hope everything works out for us in some way or another.


Hope everyone has a great weekend, its only Thursday but i think mentally I'm starting mine today :)

Oh Grey's..

I LOVE GREY'S ANATOMY...okay I said it, I know watching TV is probably a waste of time but for me it is one hour where I dont have to think about life, and I love it. It is also pretty cool that I know what they are always talking about, Im so smart, hahah.

Reasons why I want to stay in Utah...
1. It is close to California
2. It has an In-& Out
3. It is beautiful in the fall
4. There is temples everywhere
5. Young families trying to get through school
6. 24 hour Wal-Mart
7. In state tuition$$
8. Great hospitals
9. I love that my entire block is in my ward basically
10. Moving to Salt Lake would be so easy!
11. Finishing nursing school
12. Salt Lake is a fun city
13. Family close by
14. Fun crafty stores
15. Church distribution stores everywhere
16. BYU football
17. Modest dresses can be found and bought in malls!!

There are many reasons why I love Utah, yes i LOVE California, but its expensive and full of democrats but I do love El Dorado Hills but despite the freezing cold by polar snow weather of Utah, this crazy state has been a good fit for Larry and me, and I am still holding, praying, and digging my nails in that we get the opportunity to stay here for law school...only time will tell but lets hope the law school gods smile down on us and grant me my wish :)

side note: I did hate the state passionately when we moved here but it has grown on me, maybe its just change and moving for the 9million time but who knows.

Jazzy Jazz

Any one else excited for Jazz season to begin? So I'm not like a basketball pro all knowing girl, but I do like watching it with Larry, he might hate me watching it with him, but hey its some quality time. Hurray for the season to begin! Also, big announcements in the future, look out!

Being A Nursing Student:

I am making this quick because that is how my life is right now...eating quick, kissing quick, showering quick...nonstop. I am studying, working, doing things at a fast pace and then when the day ends 16 hours later I sit down and just melt from tiredness. Larry thinks is so funny how I am at school all day with my nursing friends and then I get home and am on the phone with them studying...talking about professors, tests, answers, how our clinical went...who died, threw up, gave shots...its probably hilarious to those who only hear the one sided conversation. I am currently working in Bountiful and Layton and two different hospitals and long term facilities. I love what I am learning but am on the fence about actually doing the work...I don't know if I have the patients, stomach, or compassion to do this fulltime, time will tell I guess. Thats whats new with me...school, school, and some more of that :)

Larry is pretty much the same filling out applications, doing mock trial and moot court and studying. its been a hard semester full of long papers, and the stress of figuring out law school. We are tired and when we get time to spend together its usually walking around the lame mall in Ogden or eating cafe rio :) Overall things are good...we can't complain too much. We are saving for a new car and preparing for some big changes maybe! Gotta go I have a billion things on my to do list!

Still Kickin'

Don't worry the Harris Family is still alive! Its been an eventful couple of week. We have a new nephew! Baby Oliver arrived in style Congrats to Heather and Rob. Also I started giving out Shots, its kinda a power high sticking people with needles. I finished mid-terms and made it out alive. Larry got sick and has been filling out endless law school applications (He gets his score tomorrow) Also David came to visit for the weekend, we went to a corn maze and saw movies and ate lots of food, it was fun.

On a Sad Note, our Audi died a couple of weeks ago, it has been sad and it weirdly feels like a death in the family. Me and Larry bought that car together before we got married and its sad but don't worry we got a new car, well not new VERY old but it runs great and is a great little car and we are grateful it came our way and welcome it into the family! It is a stick though so I have to deal with that and it will be scary in the snow as I drive to Bountiful for clinicals in the snow at 4:00 am haha good times, its always something right?

Here are some pictures of our corn maze fun...

The Smell of Winter

In Utah there is a smell of fall..its crisp air and hay and I dunno what else but its wonderful and its great to step outside, take a deep breath and breath in the fall Utah air...ahh I love it. There is also a smell of Winter...a year ago I would say its the smell of death as the threat of endless snow is on its way...now though not so much. While I don't love the snow its great for about a month and then I am done but its a nice cold smell filled with the anticipation of the coming first snow fall.

Until that day comes look at the tree outside my house. This is in the backyard facing the school on the other side. it hasn't hit me fully that we will be moving and that this could be our last year in Utah...its mixed emotions of excitement and sadness, its hard to explain I guess if you haven't experienced the anticipation and constant change in your life. Anyways look at those colors...its amazing and so wonderful about Utah. I figured I better get a snap shot before winter comes and destroys the colors of fall.

General Conferance 2009

Oh how I love October! I love that the month starts with general conference and ends with Halloween! How did everyone like the 179th semi-annual general conference? I for one loved conference and felt spiritually uplifted from the messages that were given and felt the spirit of the gospel come into my house this weekend. Conference strengthen my testimony that Thomas S. Monson is a modern day prophet and that he loves us and this gospel.
Just look how cute he is...Let the message of love, service, family, and eternal progression warm our hearts not only for the up coming season but always, and let us recommit ourselves to be better in whatever we are doing right now, and to remember that family and the gospel needs to be the center of our lives no matter how crazy things get in your life! I am going to try to be better and I am grateful conference always kicks me in the butt and makes me want to do better!

Books Books Everywhere!

I have been working at the WSU bookstore for about a year and a half and I love working there. It is perfect for me and it works great with my schedule. They were nice enough to keep my spot for me while we lived in D.C and are working with me through nursing school and clinicals. The great thing about the bookstore is that I get a scholarship and get to rent my books for the semester for free and I get a discount on Larbear's books. Look at all those nursing books! The crazy thing is I actually will be reading them cover to cover basically...and I carry them everywhere so thats a nice workout for me walking to and from school and the nursing building is at the top of a hill..oh joy! Gotta love college.

Fall Has Arived!

Fall is officially here, I have packed up the shorts and pulled out sweaters, boots, tights, and my halloween decorations. My favotire thing about utah is fall. I love the smells and the colors..it is an excitng time in my life. So I updated the blog to make it look fallish, hope you enjoy, its to bad I can not make it pumpkin smelling.

Target Love

when im homesick i go to target..
when im depressed i go to target and look at baby clothes...
i love target it reminds me of home and i can walk around for hours just looking at stuff its lovley, it always makes my day just a little bit better.

Manic Monday

SO...nursing school is pretty intense, I mean REALLY intense. I do not do anything except work and studying and eat and complain My amazing Larry puts up with it and today I came home after being gone for 8 hours and soon facing going to the Hospital and taking a test, the house was spotless and dinner was on its way.

Seriously lucked out...
Not to mention he will be taking the LSAT in count them: 12 DAYS!!! He is also filling out law school applications left while getting good grades. I can not wait for this semester to be over and done with only 11 weeks left!

Side Note: We got a DVR and it was love at first sight. I can record Project Runway and Greys Anatomy and watch it later it and larry can record every football game ever, which he loves so he can re-watch BYU win over and over again. OH the joys of a student life, I am eagrly looking forward to the next stage in life...that cross our fingers is hapenning soon!

One last thing...if your looking for a good book and you've read Twilight 5 times and Harry Potter 10 times then i got one for you...The Hungar Games and Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins is a great series in the making, read it you'll love it and be come addicted I promise you that!

730 days

we made it!! 2 years down forever to go! That's right we have been married 730 days today and are celebrating our anniversary. We are so lucky to always have our anniversary fall sometime around labor day and this time we get a three day weekend! We watched the BYU football game yesterday and I just want a big shout out to go to the team because you gave Larry the best present ever!

We are going to Park City tomorrow finally after living in Utah for 1 1/2 years so I am exited to get a break from studying and baby making...

Hurray for 2 years, Can't wait to see what this next year brings...we love each other a lot and as the time goes by it become more apparent how crazy in love I am with my husband and how grateful I am to marry my best friend! and Larry says we have finished our mission...so romantic larbear anyways sorry its a lame post but its monumental for us :)

Officialy back in Utah!

We are BACK! we are officially back in O-Town. Larry got back from his lovely 36 hour drive with his intern buddy Jake and we quickly moved from house to house until we got into our NEW house...well basement apartment and we love it! This is our 5th place we have lived in 2 years, we are nuts and move a lot but i think its maybe my favorite place so far. It is RIGHT next to the school and we have a doorbell and a garage and the best part a laundry room! but we don't have washer and dryers yet(those are coming) Anyway we are so happy to be back in UTAH where there is Cafe Rio and awesome Mountains where you never get lost and people are friendly.

Last update: We started school which was overwhelming and excited as well. Larry is officially graduated April 23rd and taking the LSAT on Sept. 26 so he is studying his little butt off to get an amazing score which he will! I started nursing school with mixed emotions its a lot of hard work and hours of studying but I am trying to take it an hour at a time :) my OB rotation starts soon which is fun and excited and gross. Anyways that is whats new with us, life is great and we are blessed!

here is some pictures of our new place :) You will get the 70's vibe :)
Our family room, dinning room, kitchen and the bed room {where the magic happens} we love this little apartment its really perfect for us. Its RIGHT next to the school like I said and just the opposite side as last year and we are renting from a women I work with at the bookstore.

We also have a awesome desk Larry built as well as a laundry room and bathroom but those dont really need to be posted on the blog. Its going to be an awesome stressful year!

my love...

I miss my husband so much, I hate being away from him I feel like I am missing out on special moments together. He is such a hard worker and tries so hard to meet my demanding, emotion and irrational needs. He is studying hard to make a good life for me and my future babies so we can stay home together all day. He is selfless and I do not give him enough credit.

he is my best friend, my eternal companion, and even when i am emotional and stressed and taking out my aggression on him, he sits there patiently waiting for me to calm down and then hugs me, kisses me on the forehead, tells me I am his love, and that everything will be alright. He grounds me, I can not wait for him to be back in Utah and to see the beautiful mountains and to hold my hand.


Being back in Utah has made me happy and feel that I am at home, my home UTAH not California...amazing what time can do. I feel positive about our life right now, which is saying a lot, some of you know my small incidental issues of everyday life and being a struggling poor college student but for now being back home makes me feel like things are exciting and new again. I have chosen to try, TRY, being the key word to live in the moment and make my life happy in the NOW not when Larry is done with school or when my babies come but now sitting on the couch waiting for my love to come home and hug me...he is in Iowa, he is coming home...tomorrow is going to be a good
day.

I Love To See The Temple

My grandpa picked me up at the airport when I got into Utah and I am staying with him until Larry gets back and we find a new place to live but I have started back at my job so I am commuting from Provo to Ogden everyday. While driving back from Provo last week I passed 8 temples between Provo and Ogden, 8 temples!! Over the summer we had only one chance to go to the D.C. temple, not having a car really was such a struggle, and i felt the weight of not being able to attend the temple regularly. I have missed the blessings of attending the temple frequently and the spirit I feel there, and I am feeling so blessed right now to be back living near so many beautiful temples and to get the opportunity to attend them whenever I want..what a blessing it is to me and Larry, It truly strengthens our marriage and gives us the boost we need to endure on! I love to see the temple it always brings a feeling of gratitude and love to be able to enter into our lords holy house.

Good Bye For Now East Coast..

As I sit here in the Vegas airport waiting to get back to Utah soil and missing Larry terribly I thought I would post some of my favorite pictures from our summer living in Virgina/D.C. We left in early May and moved out with just our suitcases and slept on air mattress for 3 months :) I was really not happy about the move at first but over time I realized what a blessing it was for us to have this experience together, and it was a huge growing experience for me, who has never been past the rocky mountains. We did SO much and really had some amazing memories.

                

   We loved hanging out around the white house, and all the different monuments at night. We also made a quick trip to Philly and got to celebrate the 4th on the Mall! Our summer really was amazing filled with so many memories of getting lost, riding the metro everywhere, waiting hours for buses, finding cool places to eat, meeting friends, WALKING, visiting historical places and beginning to feel like a local. Shout out to Larry who worked his butt off to get us there and also my parents for helping make the summer come true!

Our Adventures In Up State New York Part 1:

As we were driving up to New York I learned a few things. One its crazy you can drive 2 hours and have driven through 2 states already and two New York is a lot of nothing...beautiful nothing but man its just country for hours. Once we made it up to upstate New York we stayed at a B&B in Palmyra NY and it was so great to sleep in a bed again! It was a fun little place where other LDS families were staying to see the sights and the hill Cumorah pageant as well.

In the morning we made our way over to the Smith Farm to see where Joseph Smith lived and to visit the Sacred Grove. The church has made it a really nice place to visit with a meeting house and then the buildings to tour. There are missionaries there to answer questions and then you can walk around the sacred grove for as long as you want. It was fun to see where the family lived and how small of a space they all fit. The Sacred grove was peaceful and lush and not to hot, which was great. It was fun walking around and trying to feel the spirit of it all. We stopped by the temple for a second just to see it. Its a tiny temple but its beautiful and close to the Smith Farm. We later made our way into the town to see where the first Book Of Mormon was printed and get a tour of that building. The town is still pretty original to everything and there is a corner that has a church on all 4 sides just how Joseph Smith described.

In the late afternoon we made our way down to the pageant. The hill Cumorah has a visitors center as well as a large statue of Moroni at the top of the hill. There were lots of tents set up for food and kids playing on the grass until it became dark. The pageant was in the evening and it was so stinking cool. Seriously Larry and I had our doubts about the pageant but it was amazing. It told the story about the book of Mormon and Christ coming to America. In the events leading up to Christ appearing everything is destroyed and then silence and Christ appears in the sky. Its crazy because someone from the road must think that looks nuts as they drive by, Larry and I got a laugh out of that. I loved it and it really was amazing to be surrounded by thousands of church members out in the grass watching the production. I am so grateful my parents came to visit and we made the decision to come up to New York to see these sights. We would not have made it up here due to lack of funds and transportation. It is something I will never forget and I hope one day I can bring my kids to see everything here.

A Little Place Called Gettysburg.

My family is here! Did I mention that? Well we took a trip of a lifetime in my opinion. Larry took two extra days off so we could have a 5 day weekend. We went up from Virginia to up state New York. On our way we made lots of stops at different places and now I am documenting them on the dates we were actually there so the next few posts are of our trip. We stopped and spent the day at Gettysburg. Really you could spend probably spend more then a day there driving around the battle fields and taking tours. There is a great museum and then you can take car rides out throughout the town and see the different battle sights. There is all these different statues and monuments on the fields and all sorts of different facts. Larry was loving all the Lincoln information and it was weird to think of such a bloody battle on the fields we were walking around on such a sunny beautiful day. If you ever have the chance to go back east I highly recommend you take the time to drive out to Gettysburg to see the amazing battle field and to remember those who fought to save our broken country. Here is the proof we made it!