Tis the Season

We are totally in the Christmas season at our house! As of midnight on Thanksgiving, I am allowed to start the Christmas decorating and playing the music and getting all our shopping done. In fact, with 2 family birthdays throughout December, parties, Mikayl's functions and all the craziness of the season, I don't think I'm crazy for getting all of my shopping and wrapping done by Thanksgiving weekend! I like to enjoy December rather than stress through it. So, you'll see all of our presents unde the tree already.







We had a great time decorating our new home. When Mikayl was over we decorated our family tree in the back living room and she decorated her own littel "Charlie Brown tree in her room (its ours from last year in our tiny condo!). My mom came over to spend the night and we decorated our "fancy" tree for the nighborhood to see out the front window. I love lighting all the candles, drinking egg nog, and listening to Christmas songs all month.






One of my favorite things is watching my friends kids. I love it! I've been able to pick up my littel friend Amaiya and watch her after preschool a few days this week. Amaiya LOVES to play with our dog Oreo & Mikayl's Littlest Pet Shops for hours! She is such an easy kid to watch. We have have lots of fun together.

Halloween '08

Hawaii Last Day :(

Best Hawaii Day Ever! Luau

Hawaii Day 3: Atlantis Submarine

Hawaii: Hiking, Snorkeling, Sunset Cruise

Hawaii Pearl Harbor

Hawaii Trip

We are in Oahu, Hawaii with our friends the Keller's. You may remember Carla from my wedding pics, she was one of my brides maids. Her husband John is in the army, stationed here in Hawaii for the next 2ish yrs. We decided to take advantage of free room and board and Army discounts on activities. WOW what a difference. We are able to do sooo much. We have already been to 2 beaches. Day 1 was Waikiki, in Honolulu and the other is Bellows, an Air Force beach where we cooked out. Beautiful soft sand and beach surrounded by mtns. Day 2 we went to Pearl Harbor (we are heading back again today to see what we couldn't) and then we took an Atlantis Submarine 120 ft under the ocean about a mile off shore to see wreckage under water. There was an airplane and a ship with tons of different fish. No sharks though. Poor Mikayl kept wacking her head on the glass portal. Actually we all did it a few times, but Mikayl did it the most. Today we are heading back to Pearl Harbor, going snorkelling, and hiking up a mtn called Diamond Head. I already told Carla I will come back for another visit during John's really long trip away form home next year. OK, I will add more pics tonight.

Hawaii Day 1

Jones Wedding Pics

Fall Family Pics

Stevenson Wedding

Game Night

My Man's New Gig

Jefferson has been so excited as he's been asked to join a little church band that meets Thursday & Friday nights for a Celbrate Recovery bible study that celebrates recovery form addictions. It's been great for Jefferson to broaden his love of singing and venture into a love of playing guitar. He plays everyday now and has been improving so quickly. It's been a really fun new hobby for him.

Pumpkin Carving

Meet Oreo!

Meet OREO!

So, I was driving to work on Saturday in Sandy and saw a sign on the lawn for "Yorkie Shih tzu puppies". I quickly turned my car around and thought "can't hurt to look!" After months of talking about getting a dog, especially because Mikayl just adores dogs and Jefferson is like a dog whisperer, we decided not to get a one until we had a back yard with a fence and grass. Mikayl mentioned it again just last week even and I told her the same thing. Well, when I saw the 3 little black balls of fur, I fell in love and could not resist calling Jefferson and sending him pics over the phone. Then all of these families showed up with little kids wanting to just see them and hold them, but not buy them. I continued to hold one puppy and after Jefferson gave me a little hard time on the phone (apparently it was fake because he knew he was going to say yes) he said to get him. The 2 other puppies were bought within that 45 min time also! I took the puppy up the street to meet Jefferson on his route and he was like a proud papa. Baby talk started immediately and he was in love too.

The only hangup was that I knew Mikayl wouldn'[t get to meet him until Wed after school and that was just killing me! I wanted to run over and show her the puppy but we decided it would be better to train him a little at home first and make it a big surprise. We love surprising her! We also decided to wait and let her name him so for 5 days he was puppy, pupster, little big dog (he thinks he's huge!), little briches, and squirt.

Yesterday, Jefferson picked Mikayl up form school, told her to go upstairs and make her bed first thing before doing anything else. Meanwhile, I hid the puppy under her covers and hid in the room across the hall with the video camera. As they entered her room I brought the video camera to the doorway behind them and she said "what's under my covers?" She saw him and squealed "it's a puppy!!" Oh it was worth the wait! She decided first thing to name him OREO and I laughed because that was one of the first names I thought of too.

To be honest, I needed someone home with me during the day to love and care for. And since we haven't gotten pregnant yet and haven't saved up for adoption yet, this puppy is filling a void and I love every minute. It's been really fun for me, which is funny for those that know me well because I've NEVER been a dog lover. Oreo just melts my heart!

Las Vegas - Deeper Still Conference

We just got back from a great weekend in Las Vegas for the Deeper Still Conference. It was a time of worship music that you can't help but dance to, tummy hurting laughter, and sound biblical teaching that stirs your soul. It was awesome. The 3 women we heard speak were all-time favorite bible study teacher Beth Moore, my new favorite Kay Arthur, and a new young woman named Priscilla Shirer. They were all so hysterical and so good at presenting God's Word in a profound way. Amazing! My mom, Jefferson, Mikayl and I all drove down together in our car instead of taking the bus from the 2 churches we knew were going. Yes, Jefferson went to an all woman conference. You heard correctly. There were actually about 6 other men we saw there that weren't a part of the singing team or camera crew:) He nestled right in and was ready with an answer anytime someone asked him how he liked the conference from a male point of view. He always said, "it was awesome, like a spiritual revival". All of our friends from Southeast and Sandy Ridge hanging out at the hot tub back at the hotel got a kick out of his attendance, and I am so grateful I have a man who desires to hear, learn, and experience God's Word that he'll do even this.

We had some free time after the conference Sat night to go out and play arcades with Mikayl and our friend Kiana, and then grab some dinner from Jefferson's old workplace Johnny Rockets Diner. That was great food and a nice memory for him. Then we had time to swim and hot tub with all our friends at the hotel.

One great thing that I must share with everyone is that Mikayl was so impressive during this conference. She stayed awake for the entire thing at age 10 and she really listened and soaked in what God was speaking to her through those women. She loved the music, clapping and dancing, and she even went down to the floor when the crowd of 5,000 people were asked to if we needed prayer over anything. She told us she wanted to go down and she wanted her Daddy to take her. They walked down together without him knowing why. Later she told me why she went down. She knows that she believes in God but just wanted to make sure He knew that she really did. Then she also said that she realizes that she worries way too much about things that she shouldn't like her family getting hurt or going bankrupt (her mom and stepdad have been having some financial difficulties) and she wanted to give her fears to God and ask for His help. Her Dad and a woman prayed with her and when she returned to her seat she hugged me and started crying. I assumed it was because she was upset, but she said that it was because she didn't realize how much better she would feel after doing that. They were tears of joy & relief!! Only God can do that for us and she allowed Him to. It was the highlight of our weekend. Her dad worries about her worrying so much, and now he knows she will be OK as long as she continues to let God help her. It was so sweet!

Sleepover w/ Megan

Our favorite 11 year old girlfriend Megan (my former student) came over at the beginning of our week vacation for a 2 night sleepover. We can't stand to only have her over for 1 night, so we always ask her mom if we can keep her. She makes all of us laugh so hard. Jefferson ends up tearing up he laughs so hard. She is one of the funniest, goofiest, sweetest girls we've ever met. Mikayl and Megan became friends over a quick breakfast last winter and when they get together we all have a great time. We make movies on our video camera and they have quite the imagination! I'll try to get the video up on a future post. They are called "The Sleepover Adventures".

Sleepover with Megan

Jefferson's Flower Mural

Flower Mural

We had an awesome week of vacation with both Jefferson and Mikayl home. We were very busy with sleepovers, Raging Waters, home projects to work on, family in town, car repairs, whew! In the midst of all of that Jefferson promised a painted mural for mIkayl on one of her bedroom walls. She decided on a Gerber Daisy and after bringing me some last week, he took photos , sketched it out on paper, and then amazed us by painting it freehand in just 2 days. I am so impressed with his artistic talent. He's had lots of experience drawing on paper, but none with painting large scale on a wall. OK, I'm done bragging about my husband's talent. Enjoy the pics of his work of art.

Flowers 4 No Reason