Missionary and So so so Much More.....

So we sent Andrew off to the MTC last Wednesday. I must say I think that was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do! But it was also a very proud moment for our family! Our family has come a very long way spiritually (for those of you who know us). No one would have ever thought that any one in the Smith family would ever even come close to the MTC. Andrew bless his heart is the biggest sweet heart I know and I already miss him every single day! I constantly want to text him to see how he is doing and I can't!!! The people of Guatemala are getting a very special boy and they better take care of him! Better yet, they better be prepared for him!

Below is a picture of my Mom and Andrew and it is SSOOO Sweet! This was right as we dropped him off at the curb and had literally 5 seconds to say good bye!

Here are the proud parents!! You done good Mom and Dad! Now you just have to wait for 2 years for him to come home! He will be an awesome missionary!

A very sweet picture of Max and Andrew....I think that Andrew will miss these boys more than anyone! The love their uncle "Wandrew". I get all teary eyed thinking about it! They were so sweet and I don't think they even know how long 2 years is.

Everyone minus Brando who came to the MTC with Andrew to send him off. Some sweet sister missionaries took the picture for us so we could all be in it!

Andrew and I, and Max and Dad some how snuck their way into the picture. Oh I am going to miss this boy!

This is the More part, Andrew left on Shane's birthday, so we really had no choice but to throw him a birthday part while we were all up there together. Shane has never experience a Smith birthday family party. I think he liked it!

I baked him a spice cake.....Needless to say, my cake writing skills are starting to fade. But I thought it was pretty good for only one trial run.

And finally, the so Much more. This will be a testament to how many people actually even read my blog (which I don't think is very many), but still, I don't plan to announce on facebook until later but....Shane and I are expecting!!!! Yes we are pregnant!!!! Finally! It has been a very long difficult raoad for us and we have been trying for a while. We finally are confidant enough to announce it to everyone. We have told all of our family and most of our friends. Now everyone in the world can get on my blog and see that WE ARE PREGNANT!!!
My official due date is April 8th, 2012. I am at 13 weeks right now (1 week away from my second trimester). We were able to go to the doctor on Sept 14th and see that all was well with our little Bean (what we are calling it till we know what it is). We are so excited to be parents and we feel like this is long over due!
This is a picture of me at 13 weeks. No forgive me for not looking 100% done up. It was late Sunday night and we remembered. So I re arranged my pony tail and made sure my shirt was clean and away we went with the pic. I am not so much showing and I can no longer suck my fat in. I feel that in the next couple weeks it will be baby. Hopefully the next picture I will look better!
We do have an ultra sound pic but I am going to have to take the time to scan it and upload it...which I will, just not today.

Well that is all of our news for now!
Until next time
-The Armstrong's

Cascade Falls

Shane and I both had the 25th of July off (in celebration of July 24th), this is a unusual event so we decided to make the best of it. We were at home laying on the couch when Shane ask if I wanted to go on a hike. It have been forever since we have been hiking so I was on board. We decided to hit Cascade Falls up by Navajo Lake. This was the first time that I had ever done this hike, needless to say I was impressed. It is a fairly easy hike, there is a well worn trail, but you get going on it and it is like a straight shot down on one side, and on the other it is straight up. It was a beautiful hike. We got to the falls and here is the pic!

Shane and I's famous picture we take of ourselves. It was seriously such a nice day. It was a little warm but there were black clouds rolling in. By the time we got done with the hike it had started to rain and thus cool off a little bit.

Another amazing view!

Luckily, we were able to find some on to take our pic together at this look out. I am grateful for nice people!

This isn't of the hike, but it is proof that we hit up Groovefest this year. We didn't stay for long but it was still way fun. Always love the music! My aunt Chantal and Uncle Brian were down here for the weekend, so we got to meet up with them. We also got the chance to what my cousin Wyatt play baseball and have Emily spend the night.

I must admit that this summer has been pretty amazing! There have been some rough spots, but overall we have had a blast, we got to go on one big vacation, as well as many small spectacular ones. We have downsized to being a two car family!!! We sold the Bigone and my Pontiac and we were able to buy a newer truck. That made it easier for us to be able to go us to the cabin more. We have spent quite a few weekend up there (that to come in a later post). My little brother also got his mission call so we were able to go through the temple with him. He leaves in a week and a half and we will be able to go to his fairwell as well as see him off at the MTC. I think we could both agree that life is good!
Until next time!
~The ArMsTrOnG's~

EEK!

Welcome back to my never changing blog! I am not going to even try and explain why I don't do it any more....but I am blogging now, so beware!
So this Summer we got the wonderful opportunity to go to San Diego (thanks to My Mom and Dad!) Andrew will be leaving on his mission in 2 weeks and so we decided that it was the perfect time to go on vacation as a family once before he leaves. This shot is of the beach as soon as we got out of the car. Don't judge cause we had been in the car for over 8 hours! Luckily it was just Shane and I and so we got plenty of time to relax and talk and enjoy!

This Piece of Pizza was seriously the BIGGEST piece of pizza I have ever seen! It was also the best! It was ssoooo good and I think it was only $2.50 a slice Not bad for a meal! I had Shane put his hand next to it to show the size but it really doesn't do it justice. This is Shane holding a starfish at Sea World. I must say Sea World was a blast! There were so many people there! We probably should have spent more than just a day there but it was fun!

No this is not some dreamy place on the beach we found and decided to take a picture. This is what we woke up to every morning, and the last thing we saw every night before we went to sleep. That's right, this is a view from our balcony from the condo that we stayed in! It was amazing! The best part was that all you had to do was walk down the stairs and walk right out to the beach. We also go tot see Dolphins swimming almost every morning. The condo complex also had a sweet swimming pool and hot tub (which we soaked up every night). Shane and I still have dreams about living there. One day maybe.

Dunno What it is, but every picture that we took in San Diego of us, looks like we are stoned. It is probably because we are so super relaxed we appeared that way. I dunno if my husband has ever gotten so much sleep in his life! This was on our nightly walks on the beach. With the lovely Imperial Pier in the back ground.

Finally Shane and I on the Imperial Pier on our final night, or what we call BONUS NIGHT, now not for the reason you may think. Originally my parents had told us that we had the condo from Saturday night to Thursday night and we had to be out Friday by 11am. Well Thursday afternoon while Shane and I were at the BEAUTIFUL San Diego Temple, My Dad text me and said we can stay another night. Needless to say, they had read the contract wrong and we didn't have to leave until Saturday morning. So we got one more wonderful day of this place! We had a blast with our family and I think that it is a good way to send Andrew on his mission, now if we can keep up this blogging, there is much much more to come from this summer!

Until Next Time
-The ArMsTrOnG's!