Waves of Change

So it seems that changes come all at once. We're five and a half weeks away from holding our sweet Claire (which will change our lives forever) and on top of that, we just found out that Christian's been accepted to dental school!!!! He was accepted to Temple University in Philadelphia and Midwestern which is in a suburb of Chicago - Downer's Grove. We are so blessed, I can't even describe how joyful and excited I feel about our future. There are lots of blessings we've seen from our extra year in Provo, and I know Heavenly Father always knows what will be best for us.

So, we need to make our decision by the first week in January! Pressure! They require a $1,000 deposit so changing our minds later would cost us big time. His first choice is Midwestern in Arizona, but we haven't heard from them since his interview, although he felt it went well. Univ. of Southern Nevada's new South Jordan, Utah campus may interview him as well this month - they're way behind the rest of the schools. If we were to hear from any of them before our deadline, options may change. In the meantime we'll have to seriously pray and weigh the pros and cons of Temple and Chicago. For any of you who've had to choose between job offers or graduate school options in different parts of the country, what helped you make your decision?

On to other news, we got back last week from our trip to California for Thanksgiving. It was so fun as always to spend time with the Bennions - and nice we could squeeze in one last trip before my pregnancy winds to a close.

Christmas tree at Pier 39 in San Francisco

Christian and his mom :)

34 weeks.

Now on to Christmas! We've got the house decorated (and bought our first big Christmas tree) and are ready for this beautiful, special time of the year.

Philalicious

Philadelphia was delicious and amazingly fun!!! This was probably the best trip we've been on together. We got to see family but we also got plenty of time to explore the city and do whatever we wanted to do! Thank goodness for our GPS - it navigated us to all of the following awesome places:

First up we traveled to Amish country in Lancaster, PA. So beautiful! Enjoy the scenery:

Us sneaking pictures of carriages going down the road. It is actually considered sinful for Amish to pose for a picture - a graven image.

Next we went to Valley Forge:

The home Washington and Martha lived in during that cold winter

Beautiful valley forge - filled with colorful trees, deer, and lots of open space

Old headstones falling and sinking into the ground.

Laurel Hill Cemetery

Rocky Statue at the Museum of Art

Looking out at the city from the steps of the museum

The triumphant Rocky pose

Standing in line at the famous Geno's Philly Cheesesteaks. They were so yummy. Especially ordering them "whiz with" = cheese whiz with onions

Elfreth's Alley -

The oldest homes in the US where people still live!

31 weeks - beginning my eighth month

Nephew Jonah loved us. This is him laughing at Christian

The boys standing underneath a statue of a man with a familiar name :)

Some other highlights: breakfast and lunch at Reading Terminal Market downtown. AMAZING blueberry pancakes at the Dutch Eating Place :) Also, I got to stroll the museum of art while Christian was at his interview. Four and a half hours and there was still lots I didn't get to see. So much amazing history. It's making my reading of John Adams a lot more meaningful.

After two trips to Philadelphia in a year, I'm really growing to love the east coast! Going to dental school out there would be quite an adventure but at least we have some of mine and Christian's family a couple hours away. His interview went well but only time will tell if it's meant to be.

The Countdown

When you were pregnant did you find yourself paying a lot more attention to babies at church, friends' babies' pictures on facebook, random babies in public, etc? I can't wait to hold our little Claire in my arms!!! Only a little over two months to go! (69 days to be exact). I know Nov. and Dec. will fly by (they're crazy busy) but I can't help being impatient. Just can't dwell on it too much.

The things that will be keeping us busy? Back to Philadelphia!! I used to complain to my parents all the time how I was so deprived because I hadn't been outside of the western US, but college and work has brought numerous opportunities to travel. Christian has a dental school interview in Philadelphia at Temple so we're going on a babymoon to the east coast. While we're there we'll get to see Christian's twin bro and wife Ida and their beautiful baby Jonah. When I went last spring I was there for work and didn't have much time to enjoy the city (and when I did I was by myself :( Now we'll get to party it up! Can't wait.

A week later we leave for Monterey, CA for Thanksgiving! It was our turn to go out there for Christmas, but that's not happenin' at 38 weeks pregnant! I can't wait to enjoy the beautiful coastal weather out there again.

Oh, and work just doesn't stop. Whew - before I know it I'll be saying "where did time go?" Until then, 69 days and counting.

Jonah and dad John

A Spooky Birthday

On Halloween Eve 1986, Stephanie Raleigh entered the world. Twenty-four years later here I am - now Stephanie Bennion and pregnant with my own little goblin. Well, she'll be more of a snowman since she's due in January. So Saturday was my birthday but the combined Halloween/birthday celebrations began on Friday with work. Since the summer we've been talking about how fun it would be to decorate our office 80's Prom-style for Halloween. It actually happened and with the theme "Almost Paradise" (the Footloose love song for you youngsters) we won third place in the office decorating contest!

I decided to be a pregnant cheerleader. Standing in the picture area at our office-turned high school prom.

Me, 80's yearbook-ified. Do it yourself at: http://www.yearbookyourself.com/

Our PIO (aka media guy) as the school bully giving nerd-boss Eric a noogie

The awkward refreshment table. No one asked us to dance.

The whole crew.

My cubicle decorated for my b-day

Each cubicle/office got designated as a classroom at "Health Promotion High School"

At our friend's Halloween party. Back row L to R: The old couple, Dog the Bounty Hunter and his wife, Mr. Pirate, and couple from the 1960s

Trevor and Katelyn made me a birthday cake!! Way too nice of them.

One of my favorite (if not favoritest) costume of the night - Christian's sis Sarah and bf Christian as the most authentic old couple I've ever seen (they stayed in character almost the whole night - no joke).

The brother-sister rivalry went to the very end in the finals where they competed for donut-eating champion

And just for good measure, check out Christian yearbook-ified below:

Festivities continued on Saturday - my birthday! Christian surprised me by taking me out to breakfast and then to pick out some maternity shirts. We later met up with my fam at the Trafalga's in Lehi for some mini-golf/laser-tag fun:

And one of my favorite presents: a bee costume for Claire!!! (oh by the way, that will most likely be her name) I can't wait for next Halloween. I've been drooling over all the cute baby costumes this year. She will be beyond bee-autiful :)