Have you heard about the Harpers?

So much has happened in the last several years (yes, years!) since I blogged.  I want to take a quick minute to let you know that we are indeed alive and well!  Here's a brief synopsis of what you've missed while we've been gone:

John graduated from BYU with a Bachelor degree in Nutritional Science. I graduated from the University of Utah with a Masters degree in Social Work.  I'm now a real live therapist. And I never have to go back to school again!

We found out we were expecting a baby, I had an emergency appendectomy at 16 weeks, and while at the hospital we learned that the baby would be a boy!

We moved...to Kirksville, Missouri.  Kirksville is a tiny town in the Midwest with a great deal of charm.  We are in the Nauvoo stake for our church and are just up the road from Amish country.  A trip to Walmart (one of the only stores in town) typically means running into a few Amish families out doing their shopping; it's kind of fun.  We have learned that people out here are VERY friendly.  Everyone wants to talk to you and get to know you.  There were even checkers at Wal Mart who remembered my due date and that I was having a baby boy.  On the outskirts of town is a beautiful state park called Thousand Hills.  It's set on a gorgeous lake with the forest in the background. Whenever we take the stroller out there to go for a jog, we always run past a herd of whitetail deer.  It's one of our favorite places to go here.  And we can still go as often as we want, because we don't have snow yet (or cold weather for that matter).  One of the great perks about Missouri is that we actually get a fall! It is beautiful and we are really enjoying it!

John is attending A.T. Still University.  He is currently working on his thesis about periodontal disease.  He loves his program, the faculty, staff, and university.

On August 31, 2012, after a tough time getting here, we welcomed Colt Marvin Harper into the world. We feel so blessed to be his parents and to have his sweet spirit in our home.  He is a very good natured baby and a great sleeper! It really doesn't get any better than this.

I would like to think that this post means a return to blogging on a regular basis for me.  However, that is probably not very likely as I am busy with a new baby, and John and I are also on the fence about blogging in general.  For us, the goal has always been to use our blog to keep family members and close friends abridged of the general happenings in our life.  I think this can be very positive.  But we also know that blogging can sometimes paint an inaccurate and too perfect picture of someone's life, making others feel bad and magnifying the problems in their own lives.  Or sometimes it becomes a tool to promote "keeping up with the Jones."  (If you have a blog, I'm not necessarily implying that this is the case with yours.)  I'm just simply saying that we would never want to be a part of these things and are fairly private people anyway, so our posts will probably be few and far between.  Just a few quick updates about how we are doing generally.  I hope you will still want to read them and hear how we are doing from time to time...which reminds me, please leave a comment if you are reading this at all.  Anyone?

Lastly, to our friends and family members in Utah and Idaho:  we miss you!  I am so grateful for google+, Facetime and other modern technology that helps us stay in touch.  We absolutely love our life in Missouri and know that this is where our family is suppose to be, but we really wish we could have brought all of you with us! So just remember that we are a mere 90 minutes from Nauvoo, the Mark Twain Museum, and more amish country that you can imagine....and we love having visitors!