Number 32

I don't know why the number 32 is significant but, for the last two years, ever since I started this blog I have had 32 posts every year. So here it is, this is number 32! I worked hard to get my blog to 32 today but I did it. I hope it doesn't seem that I am rambling but I tried to write about things that others and myself are interested in! Happy New Year! See ya in 2011!

Year in Review

Since it is the last day of the year, I thought I would look back on the great year that I had. It truly has been a great year and I am so thankful for all that I have gotten to do and for all the wonderful people in my life!
January- The new year started out great. I was still on my mission but was very near the end. I defiantly wanted to work hard until the very end and I believe I did. January was filled with teaching the gospel and serving the Lord's children!

One of my many good-bye cakes

This is the bishop of my last ward. Him and his wife are really good role models to me!

Another family from my ward. I loved visiting this family. The last week their little boy learned my name!

February- Scott and I came home from our missions just a little over two weeks of each other. It was hard to say goodbye to Florida and the ones I loved there, but I knew it had to end sometime. I will never forget all that I learned while on my mission. February brought lots of family time as many came to visit.

Scott and I after our missions

March-Birthday Time. I spent my birthday with one of my really good friends, Heather. It was so much fun to be with her and her little boy!
April- Todd and Deedra came to visit. It was the first time Scott and I had seen Todd since our missions. While Scott and I were on our missions, Todd was deployed to Quatar with the Army. It was fun to see them. We took family pictures while they were here!

June- I started school and continued to work. At the end of the month, I went with one of my neighbor families to Lake Powell. I had so much fun riding down with them and their kids. Also, my sweet Grandmother passed away. It has been hard without her but I am glad she doesn't have to endure another winter.

This is mom with all of her brothers and sister and their spouses after Grandmas

July- Todd and Deedra were here at the first of the month for Grandma's funeral. It was fun to have them here for the Fourth of July. I am so proud of Todd and am thankful for his sacrifice for my freedom!

August- I ran into a lady from my mission on campus. I was so excited to see her. I also moved out to Provo and started school.A lady from my mission

October- I love the holidays, whatever they are. My dad's birthday is on Halloween so we had a really fun party. It would have been funner for me but I hit my head on the kitchen table the night before and was in pain the day of the party.
November- We had a really fun Thanksgiving. It was smaller this year than it has been in the past but the food was great and the company was even better!
December- It has been a really good month to end the year. Though it has been hard and sometimes lonely, I am grateful for it. I am grateful for my trials that I have had this year. I have learned a lot. I am looking forward to the new year so I can learn and grow more.
I am also grateful for all of my family, friends and loved ones that are in my life. I know that I couldn't have made it through the year without you!

Last Christmas

I know this is kind of late but I was looking at some old pictures and realized that I had never posted about Christmas last year. Of course that is because I was on my mission, but that doesn't mean that I can't do it now. Last Christmas I was in Valrico, Florida. For those of you who don't know where that is, it is just outside of Tampa. Valrico will always hold a special place in my heart. I loved it there and the people there I consider as my own family.
To kick off the holiday season our stake put on a beautiful Festival of Nativities. The whole event was thought up by a wonderful lady in our ward. Since she was the main person behind the scenes we got to help out a lot. Many people borrowed their nativity sets to be displayed for everyone to come look at them. Nativities from all over the world were displayed. Besides the nativities there was live entertainment, cookies and punch, a children's room full of games and dress-up manger clothes, and even a live nativity. It was such a good event that I wanted to go back this year. The spirit was so strong and it was gorgeous. What a great way to remember the reason for the season!

This set is made out of Pine Needles

This set is from Hawaii

I loved this cute snowmen set

This is made out of Plant Holders

This one is from the Artic
This is the live nativity and the people that are playing the different parts are from the Valrico ward. Most of them are from a family that we loved to visit. The baby in the manger was so peaceful as she lay where the Savior would have.

As a missionary we loved to share the gospel at this time of the year. We would often go caroling or watch "Joy to the World." We loved visiting all the families in our ward and asking for their help. Many families invited us over for Family Home Evening and we would share our message. After our message we would help them put up their Christmas tree or do some other type of festivity. One night we went and helped the Hayes family. I really loved this family. The mother is from Germany and had a wonderful accent. They have five children and each one of them were such neat and great kids.
We also helped a great lady name Sister Broughton with her tree and Christmas village. Sister Broughton had broken her hip earlier in the year and needed help with just a few things. We loved visiting her. She is from England and would always have tea for us. She was a very elegant lady. Her house was beautiful but very comfortable. I felt as though she was a dear sweet aunt to me.

We also did a Family Home Evening with the Gleasons. The Gleason were an awesome family that I just adored. Sister Gleason, or super mom, is a single mother with three children. We taught the youngest two children and they got baptized. Sister Gleason and her oldest son have been members for many years but the youngest two hadn't been baptized. We always had so much fun with their family. I feel like they are my brothers and sister. We built a gingerbread house with them and talked about having a firm foundation to build on.

The whole gang after the house was built

Chris working hard on the house

Michael and his gingerbread man

Katie and her tree

Sister Gleason and her cookie that is sad. I can't remember why her cookie was sad but I remember laughing a lot about it! I love this women so much!

For the ward's Christmas party we did a talent show. It was really cute but my favorite act was a wonderful sister in the ward reciting "The Grinch." She had dressed up like the Grinch and told the story. The children were so captivated as were the adults. I don't know how to get videos to work on my blog. If I did I would post it but you will just have to use your imagination.
On Christmas Eve we went with the Gleason and saw lights. It was really fun. Floridians really get into the holiday spirit. It seems like every house there is decorated. I can't find the pictures but I remember laughing a lot and hearing lots of oh, ahs!
Finally Christmas came. My companion at the time was Sister Larson. We spent the day with some really good families in our ward. It was fun to watch the children open presents and to see their excitement. We spent most of the day with the Wightmans. We loved going to the Wightmans. We always had fun there. We watched "White Christmas" and had two dinners back to back. Of course we got to call home which was one of my favorite parts. It was fun to talk to my family and hear how they were all doing but it was also great to see how others celebrate Christmas.

Gingerbread Houses

Kirstee asked to do something fun over the Christmas Break and I thought that Gingerbread Houses would be really fun to make. The girls really enjoyed themselves. Even Heidi and CJ joined the fun. Makadee kept adding more and more things to her house because we told her that she could eat whatever was on her house. I love gingerbread house even if they are made out of graham crackers!

Tutus

During this summer I was at Heidi's house. The girls wanted to show me their dance video from last winter because I wasn't home yet from my mission to see it in real life. On the video it shows the girls practicing for their recital. I noticed that Makadee didn't have a tutu and all the other girls did. I asked her about it and some how or another I decided to make her one. But I couldn't just make one for Makadee, I needed to make one for Kirstee as well. I also decided to make one for Heidi's neighbor girl, Sydney. I decided that I would make the tutu's for the girls birthday! The girls were so excited about them. I love little girls and I love playing dress-up!

Day 6

Monday morning was really hard. It was hard to say goodbye to Todd, Deedra, and Hunter. They did so much for us and we had so much fun. But we needed to get back home for work. We left pretty early and drove all day, except for a stop in Albuquerque, New Mexico. One of my cousins lives there and we stopped to see her and her family. Her oldest son, Spencer, is leaving on his mission on the sixth of January. It was fun to eat lunch with them and some of their extended family that came to see Spencer before he leaves. I haven't seen my cousins children for awhile so it was really good to see them. They are so much bigger than I remember. We ate at a restaurant named Twisters. Scott got a huge burrito and the man that took our order said that if he finished it he would get a free desert. Scott only finished half but he still got desert. We are really excited because my cousin is coming this weekend to take Spencer to the MTC so we will get to see them again soon! We made it home in one piece and were surely glad to get out of the car.

Sunday/ Day 5 in Texas

Todd and Deedra love their ward in Texas. They were so excited for us to go with them. Many of us had new clothes to wear for church so we were excited to get to dress up. Hunter got a new blue suit for Christmas and he looked so cute in it.
I really enjoyed church. Deedra is the secretary in the Primary. The rest of the Primary presidency was out of town for the holiday so Deedra was flying solo. Thank goodness she had us to fill in where she needed us. Mom taught a class, Scott helped Hunter with his talk, Todd and Dad set with a class during sharing time and I got to do two of my favorite things; nursery an singing time. I had so much fun and the kids really enjoyed it!
We had my favorite thing to eat for dinner. We had Chicken Cordon Blue. It was delicious. Deedra makes it from scratch and I would do anything for it. What a treat!

Oh What Fun!/ Christmas

Christmas was so fun this year. It was so nice not to have to worry about anything. I have never been so lazy on Christmas day. Our whole family stayed in pajamas all day. We watched movies, played games, ate junk food and real food, and of course, opened presents. The pictures speak for themselves so enjoy!

Day 3/ Christmas Eve

Yesterday was Christmas Eve. I love Christmas Eve. We sit around and tell stories. Almost all of us were in tears by the end of the night. Of course we finished off the night with our favorite book "The Polar Express." We also ended the night with Christmas Pajamas. We went with a plaid theme this year, except for Hunter who got Buzz Lightyear PJ's. He was so excited about them. His face was priceless when he opened them. Too bad my camera was being fuzzy and I couldn't get a good picture!


We also made cookies for Santa during the day. My sister-in-law made peanut brittle and fudge. It was fun to have a cooking day. We had ham and cheesy potatos for dinner. It was so good.

Day 2

This is how close we are to Mexico, you can walk there

Today was a really good day. We went to the local Holocaust museum. It was really neat to see memorabilia from that time in history. At the end they had this really neat wall with quotes and a statue of a tree and children. It was touching to remember this time and to be grateful for what we have.

Mom looking at photographs of victims of the Holocaust

Hunter posing at the gate that says "Work will make you free"The beautiful statue at the end. The one child is holding a butterfly in his hands.

Then we went to the Insight museum. We all had a really good time at this museum. This is a hands-on museum with lots of games to play and fun experiments. We played for awhile and then it was off to the Wyler Tram ride. Mom was a little nervous and no she will probably never do it again, but it was pretty when we got to the top. From the top of the mountain here you can see two countries and three states (Mexica and the United States, New Mexico, Texas and Jaurez.)

Deedra and I on a teeter-toterHunter in a fire truck on the Insight MuseumMom and Scott playing Boc-TinDad and Deedra playing legosScott is so happy he finally figured out a puzzle at the MuseumScott and Hunter waiting for the Tram ride!
It was really cold and windy when we got to the top. We all thought our ears would fall off!
Me at the top looking down on the Lone Star State
The clouds were so pretty!
The big road you see in the picture separates the US from Mexico. They shut down the freeway last week because of gun shots!

After a long day we came home and made dinner. Dad and I went to the store because we couldn't live without ice-cream for one more night! We went to Ft. Bliss to get our groceries. I really like going on base because there is so many very sharp dressed and handsome single men. For dinner we had wontons, fried rice and barbecued chicken; it was delicious. We then did our nightly routine where the boys and girls split to watch movies an play games! Deedra and I watched "A Dad for Christmas." It was so good and well worth staying up to see!