Joseph Caleb Denney!

Well, needless to say, the biggest development since our last blog is the addition of Joseph to our family! Hopefully by now, most of you have seen Joseph, or at least seen pictures. If not, we have plenty that we'll try and put the best of on here. Well, now for a quick recap of what has happened since last time.
We are more or less settled here in Ventura. Julie was able to take it easy at the end of her pregnancy, which was a nice change from being a working student. She was also able to spend a lot of that time with her sister Stacie who lives very close by. Though the weather here is extremely mild (heavenly, really) Julie got a maternity bathing suit so she could give floating a try, as her doctor said it would feel really good and remove pressure from the pregnancy. Here is a picture of Julie the night that she went into the hospital. It is really hard to believe that Joseph used to be in there. He is getting big so fast.
For those of you who want the exact details and numbers, Joseph was born on July 24th at 4:27 p.m. He weighed 9 pounds even and was 22 inches long. He has blue eyes, and his hair was brown, and is now showing a little bit of orange, depending on the sunlight. We can't wait to see how he changes. At first glance, everyone said he looked like Aaron, but upon examining both of our newborn pictures, he actually looked like Julie. But he is changing everyday, and we can't wait to see how he changes and what his personality is like.
As for Joseph's progress, at his last doctor's appointment (which was when he was 3 weeks old) he weighed an even 10 pounds and was 22 3/4 inches long. By now, who knows how much weight he has gained. He has just recently started to flash little smiles at us. We don't have a picture of it yet, but once we do, you will all see it. I'm sure it will just make every single one of you melt, because it is absolutely adorable. Unfortunately, right now his most alert and social time is around 4 in the morning. We're working on that. He sleeps pretty well though, with his first shift lasting up to 7 hours. However, his next shift after that is kind of non-existent right now. We're working on that too. He's starting to be more active and alert, which makes Julie's days more fun. Hopefully as he learns to enjoy being awake during the day, he'll learn to enjoy being asleep at night!
As for other things that have been going on, here is a picture of Aaron with his nephew Riley. On the fourth of July we went to visit Riley's dad Jim at the fire station. We were able to watch the fireworks from there. It was a lot of fun, and Riley enjoyed being around Aaron. This other picture is Aaron infront of the Newport Beach Temple. We were able to go there for a session when Julie's sister Stacie attended the temple for the first time. It was a wonderful time, with wonderful weather and a beautiful temple. Luckily, Joseph was calm during the temple session so Julie wasn't too uncomfortable. Though the temple staff were more than willing to accomodate her if necessary.
This picture is of Aaron beginning the "Sydney Happened" 5K run/walk. He did quite well considering he hasn't been running regularly. It was a really special way to get together and honor Sydney's memory, and donate money to the MMA Research Foundation.
And latest in our news was Joseph's blessing this last weekend. Dick and Diane were able to fly in from Montana and spend the weekend with us, which was wonderful. Almost all of Julie's family was able to drive in for the blessing as well. The day before, everyone went to the beach. It was a great time, thought Joseph won't remember it because he slept the whole time swaddled up in his car seat. On Sunday, Joseph was most well behaved during his blessing and didn't even cry. Julie was very pleased! Then afterwards everyone was able to go to a park for a nice picnic. It was a bit breezy, but overall a beautiful day and it seemed like most had a great time just being together as family. We definitely all missed those of you who weren't able to be there!
Well, hopefully this update has caught everyone up to date on the many things going on with the extension of the Denney family. Hopefully we will be able to keep you all informed on a more regular basis from now on, with tons of pictures of Joseph so you can see as much of his growth as possible. We love you all. Thank you for all of your love and support during the last few months!

Lots to catch up on...

We just recently got an internet connection at our new apartment, so we can keep in touch better again. Since the last posting, Aaron has become an official BYU graduate! He has even received the diploma to prove it. Here is a picture of the proud parents and the happy graduate. We were very blessed to have Aaron's parents, two grandmothers, two brothers, one sister in law, three nieces, and one future sister in law all come to the graduation. Not to mention Julie's parents, sister and brand new nephew. It was a great time to visit with everyone and spend some quality time. The photo of the event was undoubtedly Aaron's niece McKenna, wearing her grandpa's glasses. It was a favorite of everyone there. After all of the festivities, Julie's family helped Aaron and Julie make the long drive with a U-Haul all the way to Ventura, CA.

We are now living in Ventura, CA. After living with Julie's sister Stacie, her husband Jim and their son Riley for about two weeks, we were finally able to find our own place. It was quite the process, but we made it. We are getting comfortable in our apartment and to our new routines. Aaron is able to make a pretty short drive to work everyday, about twenty minutes. At first, he was traveling quite a bit, and not enjoying it either. But now he works from the office and has been training with a nice guy named Justin, whose wife just had a baby boy two weeks ago. Julie is still adjusting to not working or having classes to go to. She definitely enjoys being able to sleep as much as she can for now. As everyone loves to remind her, those days will be long gone once Joseph is born. She does have a small part-time job. She babysits (and Aaron helps) her nephew Riley, who lives only ten minutes away. This is a picture of Riley at his first trip to the pool that is in Julie's apartments. He really enjoyed it. He didn't get really worked up, but he was very relaxed and soaked up the entire thing. It was really fun.

An update from Aaron's family: on June 16th, Aaron's little brother Tim was married to his new bride Anna in the Billings Montana Temple. Though we were not able to attend, we are so excited and happy for them. They are currently on their honeymoon, at Disneyland we believe. Maybe we'll be able to see them since they're in the neighborhood, before they go up to Kalispell for their open house.

And, we can't forget, an update on Julie and Joseph. For those who don't know, his full name is now Joseph Caleb Denney. We had an ultrasound right after we moved here. His estimated fetal weight was just over 4 pounds, which was quite a bit larger than he should have been at the time. So we are looking forward to another ultrasound in about a week so Julie's new doctor, Dr. Gustafson can get a better idea of Joseph's expected size and maybe even if he might come early, or if he might need to come early. But, Julie is measuring just normal and is still quite comfortable. She has just recently experienced the swelling feet and ankles. But as long as it doesn't cause pain, she doesn't mind it so much. On June 10th, Julie had her baby shower. Unfortunately, we don't have any pictures of it. It was really fun, and we were able to get a lot of the things we will need for Joseph, including a stroller and car seat. We are also going to pick up his crib this coming weekend. We have been attending a childbirth preparation class the last five weeks. We have a class tonight, and our last one next week. It has been a great class, and if you ask Aaron, he will tell you he has definitely learned a lot. Though much of it was like a review for Julie, much of it was also good to hear from a nurse, and good to hear with Aaron at the same time, so he can know where she gets all of her information and that it's not just wives tales. We have just begun preparing our hospital bag, making a list of what we think we will need, as well as preparing our mental birth plan. Once Julie's doctor gets back from vacation in two weeks, they plan on discussing that with him.

We have been slacking at taking an updated picture of Julie and Joseph, but we do have one that is from a small get together of Julie's high school friends. For those who remember Jonathan Tigeri, this is him in the picture. Guaranteed, Julie's belly is already bigger than it was in this picture. Now that we're connected to everyone through the internet again, we'll try and be more diligent about taking some pictures of the belly growth before the belly is gone.

Well, hopefully this has been a sufficient update. We really miss all those who are far from us, and enjoy being closer to those we are closer to. We keep you all in our thoughts and prayers. Hopefully we haven't missed out on any big updates since our last post. It has been a while, and you know what they say. Pregnancy can do weird things to your memory.

The Latest and Greatest

It hasn't been too long since our last blog, but more even more has happened. Most of it is news that you are aware of, but we'll share it all anyways. Our biggest news has been the decision to move to California, coupled with Aaron's new job in Ventura, CA with Precision Environmental. It's a small company that is owned by a member of the church. We hope that it will work out to give us a place to be for a few years as we get our financial foundation worked out. We put a new link on the right hand side for his company's website.
In other news, we have chosen a name for our little boy. It is Joseph. We still don't have a middle name worked out, but we're content having a first name for now, and feel like it will suit him well.
The school semester is winding down very fast. We have two more days of classes, two "reading days" with no classes or finals, and then our final exams. We are excited to finish up, though we will be sad to leave as it has been a great experience here at BYU. Aaron's university commencement is on Thursday, April 27. His college graduation is on Friday, April 28. We are very excited to see all those who are able to come and celebrate with us. We plan to have a great time.
As said before, Aaron had a soccer game and Julie worked really hard to get a good picture of him. It's really hard to get a good picture of soccer players! But she eventually got one good one! Sadly, they did not win that game, but Aaron did get a t-shirt that has "Dennesty" on the back. His old roommate was nice enough to pitch in so he could get a team shirt, and remembered that name from when they were roommates.
Though Julie does not quite feel it does her growing belly justice, here is another picture of her, a bit more updated. She is now 26 weeks along. Her due date is still July 24th and Joseph is as active as ever. Though it isn't always very fun for Julie, it is comforting to feel him so often and for Aaron to be able to feel him more and more.
Julie has made a few more creations in her classes she can share with everyone. Her floral design class proved to be great fun and she enjoyed being able to brighten up the apartment with her floral and cake creations. This first picture is an Easter basket of sorts. It's really a hodge podge of flowers, but it was fun to make and a fun addition to the "kitchen table garden." Her last assignment for Floral design was to create something out of silk flowers. So Julie chose to make something that would go well in her bedroom. The flowers aren't an exact match, but it looks great. Aaron isn't very picky about colors matching anyway, so he enjoys it too. Julie also had one more cake that she made, however it didn't quite turn out the way she wanted it to. She had planned how she would decorate it, but her fondant icing just wasn't being very nice that day and her and her teacher had a horrible time with it. Kneeding hard and dry fondant frosting for about half an hour can take away anyone's creative juices. So needless to say, Julie ended up just throwing the cake together and calling it done. It wasn't anything special. The picture looks alright, though the frosting is purple, not blue. But it was far from the picture Julie had in her mind.
We will surely have new pictures in a few weeks from graduation, and moving. However, it might be a while before we get things back and running with the move and all that is involved with it. We hope you are all doing well. You are all in our prayers. We are extremely excited to see all of those who are coming for graduation and thank you for making the trip. We love you all and wish you all the best.

So much going on...

It has only been a few weeks, but there is already much more to tell. As you all know by now, we have found out that we are officially having a boy! We are so excited for this little man to join our family and know you are as well. Your excitement has made ours all the greater. Julie took a picture of a profile picture they printed out during the sonogram. It's a bit shaky, but a pretty good profile. If you could see it closer, you would be able to pick out his spine, his heart, and the top of his leg. We are still talking names, but no, we don't have one chosen just yet. But don't worry, you will all be informed once this little boy has a name.

Also in news over the past few weeks was Julie's 22nd birthday. Aaron made Julie a beautiful cake, of which we also have a picture. It was german chocolate, with my favorite buttercream frosting on top. We also went out to eat, as more of a collective birthday dinner (because when Aaron's birthday passed in December, the budget was quite low and we weren't able to really celebrate formally), at the California Pizza Kitchen. It was quite delicious, and we enjoyed the night out. We have a picture outside of the restaurant. You'll notice we are both wearing boutonnieres. Julie made those in her floral design class and was offered extra credit for wearing them out and taking a picture. So Aaron wore a green rose boutonniere and Julie had a purple carnation. It was a great date, and a fun way to celebrate both birthdays.

In other news, Aaron will be leaving for Wisconsin Monday evening (the 20th) for an interview with Epic Systems. He will be returning home to Provo somewhere around midnight on Tuesday. Needless to say, Julie will be a bit lonely without him, but will do her best to keep busy while he is gone. Aaron, though preoccupied with interviews, is extremely excited for his intramural soccer tournament. He has been playing with a team of men and women, one of whom was his old roommate. They began in the highest division, due to a lack of space in the lower ones. Though they did not win any games, their team has had the highest of spirits and wonderful attitude about the game. Aaron has even scored one goal! Within the next week, they will be learning when their first tournament game will be. This should prove to be much more fruitful because their team has been put down into the lower division, so their hard work from their previous games should really pay off now as their talent will be much more evenly matched. We will let you know how the upcoming games go.

Julie has been quite busy with her floral design. She made a "hospital design" which turned out quite well. Though you will notice, the snapdragon at the top is bent, it wasn't her fault, and it wsd supposed to straighten with time like the one on the right did. The other design, her newest (which is still sitting on the kitchen table) is a Japanese design. She had a lot of fun making it and really enjoyed the little details she could add to make it unique. Though it is hard to see all of the details in the picture, you can imagine that it is ten times cooler in real life.

Julie is also doing cake decorating in her Advanced Foods class. With nothing else to celebrate, she decided to make her cake a "It's a boy" cake. If you could see the sides of the cake, you would see written in smaller letters "oh boy!" spread all over the sides. It is very adorable, and also quite yummy!

The semester is winding down quickly. We are preparing for Aaron's graduation. It has been easy to not get too excited about the summer, because the snow and cold weather has kept our minds on our studies. That has been good. "Senioritis" would probably not help too much now, since we still don't know where we will be moving to. But we are excited nonetheless and are looking forward to making a decision for our destination after graduation. As with everything else, we will let you know of any final decisions. We look forward to seeing those of you who are coming for graduation. It will definitely be a wonderful reunion and a great celebration. We love you all and miss you very much. We think of you often and keep you all in our prayers!

Quick Updates!!

We know we just posted, but we already have some updates. One is new, the other was just something we failed to mention. First, though most of you know (especially you on the Burnham side) that Stephanie and Nathan welcomed their sweet boy Brayden into their family on February 6th. Mother and son are both doing very well. He is a sweety. This picture of him is Julie's favorite. The second bit of news is very recent. Julie and Aaron had to make a quick change to their schedules and change their upcoming ultrasound date. It was going to be a week from today. However, Aaron might be in Wisconsin next Tuesday, so the ultrasound was post-poned until next Thursday. So, though we are all very excited to learn more about our new bundle of joy, it will have to wait two more days. We thought you all might like to know. You will all be hearing from us next week, we are sure, to find out the exciting news (assuming our little one isn't camera shy). We love you all and hope you have a great week!