Jude is 6 weeks old!

squirrel boy--clothes don't fit
3 generation--bruce, danny and jude
proud papa
caldwell family after jude was born

very pregnant, hours before we went to the hospital. this is our little hallway where jude stays.

under bili lights, jude was juandice

A Happy Family

Jude Conlan Caldwell was born November 29th at 2:20 pm. He is 7 lbs 8 oz 19 inches and so so cute. I know parents are biased but I really think he is cute you all have to tell me what you think. I think I prefer lies if you think he's not.

what's new with us?

everal people have been asking us several things. The first being to see pictures of the newest member of our family, Capo, our dog.

We have really enjoyed Capo and love having her in our lives. I don't know why the font is blue and underlined and I can't get it to stop.

Other recent event's people have asked about are the results of the Payson Scottish Games. Erin and I both competed with the band, Me on the pipes and her on the Bass drum. We had two competitions the first we took 4th place and the second we took 3rd. Erin played for the first and did amazing, and did I mention she looks really cute in her Scottish gear!

The march Medley, we took 4th in this competition, Erin is on the Bass.



and this is the time medley where we placed 3rd. Danny is playing but not Erin. we had a blast! (this is erin now) grandma neville came down from layton to see us play along with christian and sarah (my bro and soon to be sis in law). Danny's family was also there, dannys bro and sis i law and sister and neice and nephew and bruce and kathy. it was really fun having the support from family and really fun showing off my new hobbie to grandma! (thanks so much for coming down to see us grandma and all by yourself! i was impressed!)

http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/south/payson/article_0bc3a949-7b85-50a8-8310-121f64acd536.html?mode=story
here is a new's article featuring our band and our pipe major is the interviewee in the video clip.

afterwards we had a celebration for danny's birthday at danny's parents house. it was just danny's family plus christian and sarah. it was a lot of fun. i spoiled him with too many gifts. i attempted to make the truffle cake (lava cake) but it became our sauce for the ice cream bc i didn't cook it long enough. my power went out in my house right before i was going to make it! i mixed teh whole cake by hand (from scratch) and then ran over to danny's parents house and cooked the cake. i was a little stressed. it still tasted good and plates were emptied with people asking for seconds which is always a good sign.

danny has his old job back for the state! it's been a real blessing. why they laid him off for the past 3 1/2 months is a mystery, but we feel blessed that he has his full time job with state benefits back, plus a job where he feels respected by staff and kids.

i passed my state boards which means i'm officially a registered nurse! i've had so much help these past 2 years and i can't believe that i did it! i seriously thought i could never achieve this goal and i'm so proud that i did it. i couldn't have done it by myself and i'm so blessed to have had the support! it's nice to have the $7 increase of pay, plus the ability to have more responsibilities/and more availabiltiy to do more things in my job parameters.

on a quick side note, we are having a baby boy! we found out at 16 weeks which is earlier than we anticipated! we've been budgeting and getting some stuff for the baby. i'll have another ultrasound in a few weeks to confirm the gender and make sure he's growing ok. we are getting excited. my stomach has poped out but i still feel like i'm a blob of fat! i'm feeling good and again feel blessed.

well that's us these past few weeks! we'll keep you all posted in teh future!

lot has happened in the last little while so I thought I would update all of our followers on our life. A few weeks ago The greatly anticipated day of Erin's graduation arrived! Life has been a little stressful with Erin finishing nursing school, working full time, being pregnant and us remodeling the house. As a result the graduation was a big sigh of relief. I am so proud of her.
It was a fun week. Erin's Family was in town from Delaware and stayed at our house. It was good to see everyone as we don't get to see everyone very often.
After the graduation we had a big graduation BBQ with all of the family. It was a little overwhelming to have 40 people over and our house suddenly felt very small. Luckily Erin's Amazing family helped us get ready by cleaning and putting the final touches on our recent remodel of our front room. Thanks guys! The party was great fun even though the weather didn't work out and Erin's dad got all his hair burned off by an unfortuante grill accident.

Having our front room done is huge relief! It is so nice to have a place to relax other than the bedroom and to have a place to study rather than the kitchen table. Erin and I love just sitting in our front room. Its been a process that took about 6 months but it is very satisfying now that its done.

The above two pictures were taken the day after we moved in.
These two were a bit of the mess during the whole process of taking paint and wall paper off not just the walls but the ceiling as well.
Here is the finished product. It's very satisfying to have see the work we've done.

In other news Erin and I went to the Salt Lake Scottish Festival this last weekend. I competed and Erin was an amazing support and photo and video documentor. It was a fun but the weather was terrible. I competed in our first competition but just before the second it rained so hard and got my reeds so wet that it made my bagpipes untunable so I had to stand by for the second.

This is a video of the horrible storm that hit and ruined my pipes for the competition. It was pretty funny watching everyone run around frantically.



This is the competion that I was able to participate in. We didn't place but I feel we did very well.

WE ARE HAVING A BABY!

as you can see with the little floating creature to the left, we are having a baby! we are super super excited and feel so blessed to be able to have a little baby soon. we hope all will go well with the pregnancy. we had our first appointment a few days ago! we had an ultrasound and saw the baby's heart actually beat and see the baby move! it looks like the baby is growing well. i'm was right on for my due date, December 4th. i'm super excited to have actually seen the baby. i'm having extreme fear that the baby isn't well. weird i think, having dreams that the baby miscarriage and what not. this is part of the reason it has taken me so long to write a blog about it. danny is exstatic! we found out when i was about 3 weeks pregnant, almost 4 weeks. he quickly called his family and a few days letter wrote a letter to the family. we have gotten books and already have names planned out. now we just have to get a room ready!

as for me and how i'm feeling. i've been somewhat nauseated throughout the day. i think it's bc i'm not eating as much as i need. when i'm not feeling well, i dont want to eat, and then it just gets worse and worse and worse. i did throw up in my car the other day on my way to school. made it into a taco time bag (this is why you don't clean your car). i'm super super exhausted too. i'm so tired. part of the reason is the fact that i'm in my last 5 weeks of nursing school. right now, i'm doing my preceptor, which is my internship for nursing school. i'm following an ICU nurse (who is great) at payson hospital (5 min away). she works nights, which means i following her during her night shifts. it's slow during the night and super slow in payson ICU (we are getting more intermediate care patients and med/surg patients as appose to ICU sick patients.) i feel bad to say this, but i wish i could take care of some critically sick patients. i'll take care of patients that were really sick, but when i take care of them they are better. really what this means is that they don't have all their tubes and bells and whistles hooked up to them, which is what i really want to learn about (ventilators, swan lines, ART lines, CVP pressures lines, pericardial drains, etc.) oh well. beggers can't be choosers. i'm hopeful that in my next 5 shifts, that i will get some action.

along with working nights for free at payson hospital, i am working full time at timpanogos hospital on the med/surg floor. i can tell that the ICU experience, and hearing my preceptor's voice of why she does certain things, has made me a better nurse. it's cool to see. i still have a long way to go in regards to being an amazing nurse. i have patients tell me that i'm great (i dont even ask them to say that)! but i still struggle with the overall pictures sometimes. i haven't killed anyone yet lol, but i'm just still new.

i graduate on june 6th which i'm so so so so so excited for. it's at the provo tabernacle at 2pm for all that want to come. then it's the big RN state test. you can fast and pray for me if you want! i'm sure i'll do ok...but i'm scarrred! i'm lucky bc i have a job all lined up for me!

danny is super amazing. he's making dinner for me right now! he's been so sweet with me and picking up my slack. i feel really bad, bc i'm not really fun right now. danny is a trooper and continues to help me go for walks and gets me to do things. he's been stealler at working in the yard! he's got a little garden going and has mowed the lawn and planted grass seeds. he's working so hard! our inside is so close to being able to paint/stain the floors. the great outside wheather has pulled danny's focus outside, which is looking really good. he's working hard at his job that he has at a residential treatment place for boys in orem called telos. they focus on doing triatholons, so pretty much danny goes to work to work out! he's getting the work out bug and i'm jealous bc i need that bug!


well it's time to study for school tomorrow. just wanted to give an update. thats us

Free Music

I just needed to put in a plug for an old friend. I went to high school with this guy, I guess he has moved to California and his music career has really started to take off. His stuff is really good and you can download 3 of his songs for free! If you like it you can become his fan on Facebook. Let your friends know, as I'm sure he would appreciate any advertising. The site for the free music is http://pianojake.com give it a try its free!

valentines day update

ALENTINE'S DAY!
how i hated valentines day while i was single...candy and cookies to make you fat and a real sense of loneliness that you didn't have a date. being married on valentines day is the bestest! specially when you happen to not work and your husband doesnt' work either!

the bad part to all this is that i am my father when it comes to gifts creativity and tasks! sorry dad but it's not a complement! i totally stink at thinking of creative things. i'd rather have danny shop with me for me to get him a gift so then i'll know that he'll like it or i'm so excited that i got a present, that i'll want to give it to him right now. i show my love with hugs and kissess and telling danny that i love him like a hundred times a day...ok maybe not a hundred but diffenetly at least 3 texts throughout the day (that's just text messages, not verbal). the worst part about all this is that danny show's his love with tasks and gifts. he'll clean the house or buy me a book to read, or be super creative. so to sum up our languages of love, i'm touchy and verbally lovey, and danny is gifts and tasks....i'd like tons of loving, and danny'd like visual expresions of love like gifts, cards, or tasks. this means that i stink at showing my love to danny!

i search the internet for ideas of gifts or ask my mom what i should do. something cheap...is my mom's suggustion. so what to do! i was kindof proud of myself! i went to the store on valentines day (while danny was at work) and i bought a music card, wrote sweet words on it, and then made betty crocker sugar cookies with frosting bc i know how much danny loves cookies (not homemade bc i was running out of time). i also got a cheap movie (don't worry danny knows how much i got it for). it was Footloose (filmed in payson, utah, Danny's hometown and my new hometown!)

danny got me 3 roses, representing our 3 valentines together. one yellow, for when we were just starting to date (which he brought me a yellow rose that first valentines day as well,) and then 2 red roses for last year and this year. he also gave me a big chocolate kiss and balloons. he then banged on the door and had me open it to see the surprise while danny was hidding. he also wrote a great love letter which totally means a lot due to the fact that i like hearing how much he likes me!(told ya danny was much more of a thinker inregards to gifts.)

then we made sushi and wontons, which we've done before. i, however, made it with the wrong rice and the rice didnt' stick and the sushi was very messy...but it was good and fun!

then we decided to go to the place that we had gone to the first valentine's we spent together. pudding on rice. it is located in provo and serves rice pudding of all different flavors. i think last time i got 1/2 almaratto and 1/2 rum (i think). so we drove up there (20 min drive) and it was closed! like permamently closed. like it closed down. so so sad. then we decide to go to a place by our old apartment which had italian ice! yum! don't worry, this place was closed down too! darn economy! we ended up going to A&W and got rootbeer floats.

the rest of the night does not need to be written.

on another fun day, we went to jamie and ashley (my bro in law and sis in law) house. they live in spring city (by manti). along with us there was my other bro in law and sis in law-aubrey and nathan, our good friend Rick, and ashley's bro and sis in law- brye and adam and my other sister in law Bailey. we made indian/curry food! it was so fun! i happened to make (by volunteer) a cocunut chicken curry with rice, a veggie cocunut cury with rice, naan bread, and the best ever chocolate cake, plus we brought ice cream. jamie and aubrey made more authentic indian food which was super good...i don't remember the names of them--samosos and then...a ciniman curry rice. long story short i had a blast and it was so fun and i think we need to start making it a tradition. next month possibly mexian/argentine meals. i also was pretty excited for myself that i made this all and didn't get too stressed out!

this is becoming a long post!

along with all that has happened this past week--
-i started school on tues--my last semester!
-danny sanded half of the front room's floor--there is wood dust/sawdust EVERYWHERE--but

The picture looks a little fuzzy because of all the dust! Everything is covered.

the good new's is that we are getting closer to being done!
-i'm starting my intern this semester and i think the nurse i'm following works nights..ek
-danny and i are still in bagpipe band and our next event is for st patricks day--march 14th (a sat)
-my birthday is 12 day's away--i'll be 25
-my graduation is june 6th at teh provo tabernacle
-i have been 5 day's with out caffienee...i decided that i can drink it every once in a while--but the bad headaches had to go when i withdrawaled. my next goal is to not buy soda period! wish me luck

well i'll just end saying that i don't feel bad if you didn't read this all. sorry there is no pic...i'll past the ones for our v-day sushi party. tootles!