I would like to introduce the newest member of the Barraclough Family.....

MAX!!!!! (Maximus)

Erik found him when he was in downtown Nashville and couldn't leave him on the street. He is a great dog and we've become quite attached. He is a brindle Pit Bull and is quite strong. When Erik found him he was really skinny.

But he's been feeding him good and taking care of him and now Max is really healthy and happy! :) Okay he doesn't look very happy in the pic but he is! haha. We also got him a house.

V comes home!

I flew home to visit Erik the second weekend in October. We did a lot of things during the weekend and had an amazing time being together again! I arrived at 7:30am on Thursday, Erik had to go back to work, but my friend Lael and I went out with the realtor to look for houses. We saw a ton that day but still made it home before hubby! :) Our home teachers came to visit us that night and we went out to eat together.

The next day hubby had to work a half day, so I went running with Lael in the pouring rain in the morning! It was actually really fun!!! Then later that day hubby and I went to look at the best houses I had found and he picked his favorite (more about that to come!). That night we stayed in at home watching a movie and ordering pizza and just enjoying being together.

On Saturday we slept in, we also went to the Clarksville raceway. Its a dirt/mud racetrack in town. It was really... dare I say... redneck, but oh so fun!! :) We had a blast. Green green green!!!!!!! Goooooooooo!!!!

On Sunday we went to church, enjoyed a nice lunch together and took Max for a walk (more on Max to come!). Then I got on the flight to come back to AZ. :(

Summer 2009

I know this is combining a lot of things into one post, but I really want to get caught up so I can start posting about things happening now in our lives without getting things out of order. So... here is the summer in a nutshell!

Erik reported to his first duty station- Fort Campbell, KY on May 5, 2009. Yes, just a couple days after our wedding. He drove across the country in his new truck that we bought while he was in basic.

He loaded his motorcycle in the back and took everything he could with him. When he got to Fort Campbell, he had to go through inprocessing and found a place for us to rent.

I finished my semester two weeks later and packed up all our stuff and furniture into a Uhaul and drove it across the country with my mom! (Thanks for helping us!) I then spent the next few weeks unpacking since Erik's unit went to New York for 3 weeks.

When he got home we finally got to live together as a married couple and it was great! We had a lot of fun times BBQing and meeting new people over the summer.

Unfortunately, the end of the summer came WAY too fast and I had to leave to go back to AZ for school. :(

Our Wedding (In pictures)

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2496947&id=10049937&l=73848f7331

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2496956&id=10049937&l=3531b7fb51

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2496964&id=10049937&l=277ed740b1

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2496975&id=10049937&l=c873865c6d

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2496984&id=10049937&l=e760c209ee

Our wedding day!!!!

Today's the day we've been looking forward to since we started dating 4 years ago! We are getting married!!!!!!

Here's how the day went! :)

4:30am- V wake up, shower (not that I slept much anyways!)

5:00am- Julie starts creating my awesome hairdo (thanks!!)

6:00am- My make-up is getting done. Erik woke up and came out to look at me. He laughed (I guess it looks weird when someone is airbrushing your makeup on haha) at me.

7:00am- Rushing to try to get everything ready to go to the temple. And I thought I had it all already the night before..... aparently not! :) Thank you so much Kristin for helping me to stay calm and helping me get packed.

8:15am- This is when we were supposed to leave.... haha

8:30am- This is when we actually left.....

Then we were sealed for all eternity in the Mesa Arizona LDS Temple!!!!! :)

10:30am- After the sealing we took a ton of pictures outside the temple.

12:00pm- We had a luncheon at my dad's house in Mesa for family and the bridal party. It was perfect! :) Not too hot outside, awesome food, and great friends. Thank you all!!!

Erik and I relaxed a little bit during the afternoon and then went over to our reception area to help set up.

The reception that evening was amazing!! I want to thank the Biggs family for letting us use their amazingly huge backyard! So many people helped to make this the best day of our lives!!

We danced, we giggled, we watched our video of us growing up and falling in love, we ate pasta and cake and we had a lot of fun with all our friends and family!!!

Pictures will be posted in the next posting!!! Theres a ton. haha.

Best day of our lives!!!!!!

Going to Fort Benning #2 for Graduation!

Erik graduated from Army infantry basic training!!! :)

Erik's family and I all went down to Fort Benning, GA for the weekend.

His dad pinned his blue Infantryman's cord onto his Class A's during the graduation ceremony.

The next morning they had another ceremony that included a bunch of different company's graduating. We were freezing in the stands in the shade and the guys were staring right into the sun while standing on the field. But it was a really cool ceremony with smoke and demonstrations and the guys walking right in front of us at the end!! See if you can spot Erik in the pic below. :)

After this ceremony, Erik was soooo excited to be leaving Fort Benning. We stopped and ate lunch and then his family dropped us off at the airport. We flew back to Arizona and are super excited to get married in a week!!!!

Going to Fort Benning!

So.... I haven't seen Erik since Christmas and it's now March, but I'm heading out to Fort Benning, Georgia for his weekend off! :)

On my way I flew to St. Louis and stayed with my friend Hannah. We had adventures of the freezing cold zoo, Walmart and driving from St. Louis all the way down to Columbus, GA.

We spend the weekend with our boys and loved it. It rained almost the whole time but nothing could take away from our joy.

It got interesting when I got to the airport to fly back to AZ tho. My reservation did not exist and I was forced to purchase a 450 ticket to get home that day! Of course I had a test that day too. And I was sad because I would not see Erik again for 5 weeks. It was not a good day. But I made it back to AZ and in time for the test. Whew!