New Pictures of the Twins

Hey everyone,

Here are the latest ultrasound pictures of the twins. If you look in the upper left hand corner it will either say "A" or "B" that is how you can tell which baby it is. Some of the 3D pictures are really cool. Let us know what you think! She is at 24 weeks and in two weeks she will be in the third trimester so we are hoping that everything keeps going well! With twins they say that premature labor can come at any time so we are being really careful.

Love you all,

Darin and Meredith

We are having twin boys!!!

Hey everybody,

We hope that all is well. We found out on Monday that we are going to have twin boys and we are super excited about them. The due date is June 11th, but twins usually come a couple of weeks early so it should actually be May. Meredith has been doing pretty well so far without any major morning sickness, but she is feeling the effects of stretching. Good luck to all of you and we look forward to hearing updates about what you are doing.

Back in AZ

Hey everyone,

Just wanted give everyone a quick update on us Flakes in Arizona. Life is going well for us. Meredith is still teaching 4th grade math, science, and social studies. Even though she has 33 and 32 students in her two classes she still is doing a great job as a teacher. She is also busy serving as the 1st counselor in the Young Women's presidency and this Wednesday she is doing a "Marriage Night" for the young women where they all get to try on wedding dresses and eat wedding cake. It should be a lot of fun for them.

I am still busy with school. I thought that there might be a lag because I just barely started a couple of weeks ago, but it still is very busy! I have one finance class that is especially busy because we are doing a full-out simulation of a company and making all of the financial decisions for that company. I am learning a lot and I can't believe I will be graduating in a few short months. I also am working as a teacher assistant for an economics course and I am working part-time at the financial aid office. I am still actively looking for a job for after I graduate with Walmart being a possibility.

Well, we hope all is well with all of you. We love you all and hope that life continues to go well!!! The Lord truly has blessed us, and we need to remember him in our good times as well as our bad times. We hope to hear updates about all of you!

Darin and Meredith

Coming to the End!

The summer has flown by and Darin's internship is coming to an end. I flew back to Arizona a week and a half ago so that I could get ready to teach school. Today was the first day of school and it should be a good year. We are looking forward to finally being settled down somewhere, but we know that it will take a little while before we finally can. We had a good summer in Arkansas and were able to see some pretty landscape and escape the Arizona heat. Darin graduates in December and it will be interesting to see what happens after that.

Eureka!

Darin and I had the opportunity to visit a little town called Eureka Springs. It was a quaint little town that was originally established as a resort town. It reminded me of Park City--old and expensive. Even though it wasn't the most economical town it was very cute and quaint with a lot of Southern charm. I enjoyed walking up and down the narrow streets looking at antiques and crafts and Darin enjoyed stalling the car on a steep hill (which was very scary).

We got to see some gorgeous old houses and an old "haunted" hotel. The legend is that the hotel was once a cancer treatment center and people who were dying of cancer were sent there. The doctor who was over the hotel was greedy. After his patients died, he would stash their bodies down in the cellar for a few months so that he could continue collecting the money for their care. They say that the people that died now reside in the building (which was more recently turned back into a hotel) and haunt the guests. Townspeople told us that this hotel has been shown on TV haunting shows and there are annual ghost hunter conventions here. They actually offer ghost tours through Eureka Springs but I didn't want to scare myself unnecessarily.

We had a great time and enjoyed this small town. However, next time we grace Eureka Springs with our presence, we will avoid a near death experience outside of the "haunted hotel" by not stalling our car on that steep hill.

Nauvoo for a Weekend

We decided to be spontaneous and go to Nauvoo for the weekend. We left Friday after I got off work and drove to St. Louis to spend the night, it took us about five hours. The next day we got up and looked around downtown St. Louis for a little bit and then went on to Nauvoo.

It took us about four hours before we got there, but for the last few miles we put down our convertible top and enjoyed the weather and the driving by the Mississippi River. In Nauvoo we went on a horse-drawn cart ride around the restored part of the town. We went to the Land and Records office and learned more about our ancestors that were in Nauvoo. We also went to some of the shops and homes downtown. At night we went to a performance by the BYU dancers. It was a good show. We stayed at the Hotel Nauvoo, a restored pioneer home. It was a fun day.

The next day we started on the long drive home. We went through Carthage to see the Carthage Jail and then drove home. It was a short trip, but we are glad that we were living close enough to Nauvoo to go there for a weekend.

Summer Concert Fun

We had the opportunity to attend a Carrie Underwood - Keith Urban concert on Thursday night. It was a free concert that Wal-Mart put on for all associates that are here in Bentonville, Arkansas for the Shareholder's Meeting that was on Friday. It was free to all associates and to the general public if there were any seats available. The concert was at the football stadium for the University of Arkansas and we got down there pretty good time to go to the concert. We waited out in the blazing sun for a couple of hours and people butted right in front of us. I had to hold Meredith back from saying anything to them because we butted just a little bit too. I didn't want her to make a scene. It was hot and humid. Everyone around us was smoking...how nasty. Once we got in the arena was all ready very packed. We had to sit on the side more than half way up from the field.

Now for the concert - Meredith really liked Carrie Underwood. She thought that her songs were better and she was a better singer. I liked the part of the concert with Keith Urban. He interacted more with the audience and put on a good show. There was a part that he went into the audience and gave away his guitar. It would have been cool to be the person that got the free guitar. It was so fun to ride home in our convertible. Maybe Arkansas isn't going to be so bad!!!