Brandon's Convention In Florida

Brandon had a wonderful time in Tampa, Florida at his convention. His wife sure is glad that he's home, though. Here are a few pictures that he took there.



Brandon really liked the key-note speaker at the Medi convention. His emphasis was on how to better use the left side of the brain by tapping into the right. He painted a picture of John Lennon in the time it took to play one of his songs. Later in the presentation, he told the audience that they were going to play "fear factor". He threw out a little football which landed in the seat next to Brandon. The guy that got it quickly put it into Brandon's lap so he wouldn't have to be the "fear factor" volunteer. When the speaker got out to Brandon he told him that he could delegate, if he chose to, and give the ball to someone else. Brandon chose to do it himself and the fear factor turned out to be him receiving the John Lennon painting for doing nothing. The speaker said only 5% of his volunteers don't use their delegation privilege. Good work, love. The painting is huge and is being shipped out to us next week. Brandon is set on putting it somewhere in our house, but I'm pretty sure the only place it's going to fit is on our ceiling.

This is Brandon and Erin during the simulator competition. They didn't win the competition like everyone expected they would, but Brandon was glad about it because he said he learned a lot more by not winning than he would if they had. Good sport.

I Miss Brandon

Brandon is in Florida this week to present at a National Nursing Simulator Convention. He has been there for two days and has already had some pretty cool experiences. He had his first presentation today and said that it went really well...of course it did, who are we kidding. He has another one tomorrow and was also signed up in a nursing competition, which he will also do tomorrow. He is judged on how well he provides care to his patient (which is actually a very real-to-life simulator) who will have some sort of trauma happen to him/her/it. I'm sure he will do amazing.

My sweet mother came up to Provo last night to stay with me while Brandon is gone. We had a fun day today...went to the Temple, the fabric store, Tucanos for lunch, Costco, the library, and then I finally got some work done and mom went and did some ProArgi9 testing. It's been a fun day...even though I miss my husband a lot.

Tonight my mom gave me this article of sorts entitled "True and Lasting Love". It rang very true to me and I wanted to write a little bit of it here.

"Few things are more beautiful that a couple in love.... We may consider them lucky, but they will tell you that it's not luck that keeps them in love. It's choosing to stay in love, all along the way. They have come to know that love is a behavior, a series of actions and choices - not just an elusive feeling that might someday escape them."

And then from Shakespeare:
Love is not love,
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove;
O no! It is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests, and is never shaken.

I just loved those thoughts. All of those adorable aged couples still holding hands are not the product of a happenstance fairytale romance that just fell from the sky. They have chosen to love and worked at it throughout their whole lives. It is absolutely admirable to me and I want to be in their club. I want to hold Brandon's comforting hands for forever and love it as much as I do today. I miss you Honey!

Do All Husbands Do This?

My dear husband finds great joy in hiding from me. If you've seen how small our apartment is, you will understand why this fascination of his is so funny. ...just not too many places to hide. I sure get a kick out of some of his attempts though. ;)

Growing A Baby

I am now approaching six months of pregnancy and am looking the part. It is amazing how quickly he has popped out in the last month and a half. He is also moving constantly and I never get tired of it (I know that might change). I love being pregnant!

It's a boy!

We had our ultrasound on January 3rd, 2011. It was quite clear that the little jumper inside of me is definitely a little boy. :) Although all we had was a huge list of girl names picked out, we were both extremely happy to learn that we would be having a baby boy. Brandon took me to In-n-Out on our way home because he said our little boy wanted a hamburger. :)

New Year's in Idaho

We got to spend a week with Brandon's parents in Idaho after Christmas. We had soooo much fun with them. I made my very first baby quilt, under Fayann's very needed direction. It turned out very cute.
We also went up to a cabin for New Year's Eve and spent the night there. It was a very memorable trip, partly because at times I thought we were all going to freeze to death, and also because after the survival portion of our trip we had an amazing time. We rang in the new year playing dominos in the light of our head lamps (the generator wouldn't start) huddled under a blanket hut that the boys made to trap the heat. It was a New Year's I will never forget!One of my favorite parts of our trip was the rainy night that we got a call from Brandon's grandma telling us that her basement was flooding. Without a second of hesitation Brandon, Lamar and Harry ran and got all their flood gear. I thought it was hilarious. They made it seem like they were going off to war. As Brandon was going out the door, he turned around, grabbed my face and kissed me and said triumphantly, "I've got to go save the world". So glad boys like that stuff. :)

Christmas In Provo

We shared our first married Christmas together in our cozy little apartment. It was so much fun. You would think that with just the two of us, already adults, we would have a nice relaxing Christmas morning and sleep in a little. Such might be the case for other childless couples, but not with this little Lewis Fam. I'm pretty sure Brandon loves Christmas more than most little kids do, so naturally he woke me up at 4:30 am to start our Christmas day. :) As is tradition in my family, we had to have a glass of freshly juiced oranges. Since Brandon didn't want me to see anything yet, I waited for him to bring me my orange juice. When I walked out into our living room, I immediately began to cry. Hanging from our entertainment center was the very tree swing that Brandon and I fell in love on and where he proposed to me (the first time) :). It is my favorite swing in the world. Brandon wanted us to keep the swing for all of our future homes and for our kids so he went back to Millrace condos, where I used to live, and cut it down. He made another swing and hung it in it's place. I couldn't have asked for a sweeter gift. I love it.

He also updated a book I gave him two Christmases ago with all of our emails, letters, notes, some journal entries, and a bunch of ticket stubs and receipts from things we have done together. Wow....what a journey we have been on together. It's such a treasure.

We had a fun morning together playing games and watching my favorite movie "Ramona and Beezus", which I also got for Christmas. And then we spent the rest of the day at Brandon's brother Cory's house with his wife, Jamie. It was a wonderful day!

Brandon Finished His Finals!!!

What better way to spend the first free morning after finals than to take pictures of ourselves and make stupid videos? Unproductive? Absolutely, but we sure had fun. I love our time together no matter what we're doing.

The Last 5 Month's Overview

I figured since I didn't start this at the beginning of our marriage, I'd better do a little catching up. So here is a little journey through the last 5 1/2 months:



Although when we arrived at the front desk at the Temple Brandon realized that he left our marriage license at the house at the same time that I also realized that I forgot to bring my Temple Recommend, we were thankfully still able to be sealed in the St. George Temple on the morning of June 26th, 2010. It was a very happy event and a little emotional as well.



We had a very nice luncheon put on by Brandon's wonderful family. I forgot yet another important item, our wedding video, which was part of the program, but we all had a wonderful time despite my oversight.



Our reception was absolutely beautiful. We had it in Mat and Jamie Holt's beautiful back yard and everything looked amazing. My incredibly talented sisters did the flowers and decorating, and my sister Amber made our cake. I loved it all!!! We had the cutest entertainment (by the Rodgers family), and everyone seemed to be very comfortable and happy to be there. I honestly couldn't have hoped for a more perfect reception.

Our First Family Blog!

I am finally starting a blog for our cute little family and I am so excited about it! We are hoping this will motivate us to take more pictures since we are both HORRIBLE about doing so. We have a very simple, but happy life and want do better about sharing it with our wonderful family and friends (most of whom live too far from us...or we from them). So here goes nothing.....

Brandon is doing amazing in the Nursing Program at BYU. He graduates with his bachelor's in Nursing next December and is also working on campus running the nursing simulator labs. He is just finishing his Labor and Delivery/Pediatrics semester, which has been so great being that I am 15 weeks pregnant. :) It's so fun to listen to my husband tell me what's happening inside of me and with our precious little one. You would think that I would know more, since it is my body this is all happening in...but no, not the case. I sure do love that man!

I graduated from BYU almost a year and a half ago and am now working from home. I have a little art business called Sketched In Time, ( http://sketchedintime.blogspot.com ) teach voice lessons, and help Brandon with a word processing job from SuperValu. After working full time at Vista Charter School, before we got married, being home all day drove me crazy in the beginning. I am growing to love it and consider it such a blessing to be home (especially during my first trimester of pregnancy!!!! Yuck!) I love being home when Brandon gets home each day.

Pregnancy is going well. I feel soooo much better than I did a few weeks ago. I am hungry all of the time, which is a wonderful change from being repulsed at even the thought of food. Our little one is almost 5 inches long now and can hear. Brandon and I read "The Mansion" for FHE and I positioned my belly as close to Brandon's voice as I could so she/he could listen to his deep, comforting voice that I love so much. It's so fun to be pregnant.

Overall, life is very good. We have a very small, but very cozy apartment and love it. We have amazing families and friends. We love spending time together and are so grateful to be married to our best friend.