Greetings from the Garretts

So I finally decided to start a blog to keep people updated on the happenings of the Garrett family. Since we will be leaving for Queretaro, Mexico in two weeks for the entire summer, I thought this would be a great way to keep track of our adventure and to share it with others! We are totally excited, and just found out who our host family will be yesterday. As this is the first official post of the blog, I thought I would also include some various facts about our family:

1. Nate and Emily were married March 23, 2007 in the Portland, Oregon LDS temple
2. Madelynn Janett Garrett was born January 3, 2009 at Legacy Good Samaritan Hospital in Portland, Oregon.
3. Emily has a B.S. in Communication Disorders from the University of Oregon and an M.S. in Speech Pathology from California State University, Northridge and is currently working as a Speech Pathologist part-time in the Springfield, Oregon School District with middle, high school, and post-high school students.
4. Nate is working on his B.A. in Spanish at the University of Oregon. He will graduate Spring of 2011.
5. Madelynn is obsessed with Elmo. However, with as highly verbal as she is, she still insists on calling Elmo "Pah". We are wondering if she sees a relationship between Elmo and Grandpa, as she also calls Grandpa "Pah". Maybe it's the big, googly eyes and the high-pitched voice.....
6. Our family is spending the entire summer of 2010 in Queretaro, Mexico for Nate to a study abroad program there. Us girls will spend the summer just bumming around Mexico and hoping to become somewhat fluent in Spanish.
7. Nate served a church mission in Albania from 2004-2006. And, for those of you who may be wondering, they speak Albanian in that country. So Spanish will be Nate's third language, and probably a bit more applicable than Albanian.
8. We LOVE music. We have a few guitars, though Nate is significantly more skilled on guitar than Emily, and Emily also plays the viola, piano, and organ, and has tried her hand at the penny whistle, much to the dismay of our former cats. Madelynn loves to play on the piano, sing, and dance, and likes to play around with the penny whistle. She has finally figured out how to blow into it to get it to make noise.
9. We love traveling, and fortunately, Madelynn so far is great to travel with. She's so far been to 4 states, and will have her first trip out of the country soon. The majority of our "traveling" since having Madelynn has been many, many trips between Eugene and Portland, but we've also taken her to the coast, Boise, and California for Emily's graduation last year and DISNEYLAND! I'm sure when she's older, she will be horribly upset that we took her there when she was too young to remember and insist that we owe her another vacation there, which at that point will cost a fortune because we will likely have a much bigger family by then.
10. Madelynn is about 17 months old, and still has no teeth. But she makes up for it by having a TON of hair, just like her mommy.
11. Nate's middle name is Earl. Yeah. Totally awesome! Madelynn's middle name is Janett, after Emily's paternal grandmother who passed away the same day that Madelynn was conceived. Emily's middle name is Merrell, which is her maiden name.
12. We really like gyros. Riyadh's in Portland is our favorite place to get them.
13. Even though Nate lived in Albania for two years, which is located right above Greece, he never had hummus until he married Emily. Fortunately, he realized the awesomeness of it and is now a fan. Hummus was also one of the first "real" foods that Madelynn tasted, and she is also a big fan.
14. We tend to order pizza once a week on either Friday or Saturday. It used to be connected to when the Trailblazers played, but since moving to Eugene and only having basic cable, we had to find other things to watch on pizza night. Like Elmo. (See #5)
15. Nate is 6'4 and the youngest of 5 boys. He is also the second shortest one. Three of his brothers are 6'7, and the other is 6'2.
16. Emily has a tendency to pass out when having blood taken. Even a little finger prick can set it off, as she found out last week.
17. Madelynn loves to color. She also likes to put crayons in her mouth.
18. Madelynn has chocolate and ice cream radar.