The day every young boy looks forward to...

Being almost as tall.  No, even TALLER than his father.

Merry Christmas 2012 Happy New Year 2013

So, I have had a fabulous year!  At 38 years, I finally got married.  James and I feel very fortunate to have found each other.  It was fun to plan festivities for the wedding, but it’s been even better transitioning into married life.  We were married June 16 in the Mount Timpanogos temple in Utah.  We were happy to have so much family with us.  We honeymooned in Prince Edward Island, Canada and enjoyed “Anne of Green Gables country”, with its red dirt, potato fields, seafood, lupins, and of course lighthouses.  June 30 we had a wedding reception in Virginia.  James’ five children were there, other family, and many friends.  We were happy to celebrate as planned, despite the widespread power outages caused by the Deracho.

James moved to Alexandria in April, and was called right away to be a counselor in the Elders Quorum.  James is diligent in his assignment, and has impressed me with how quickly he has gotten to know the names of people we go to church with.  He spends a fair bit of time coordinating home teaching assignments and helping out as needed.  I am still building scheduler, and also the Relief Society Fellowshipping Committee Chair.  We have fun trying to welcome the new sisters who move in, and have started spotlighting a variety of sisters to get to know them better.  I also filled in temporarily with the weekly Sunday bulletin.   I am so grateful to have the priesthood in my home, and appreciate the strength of James’ testimony.  Attending the temple regularly together has also been a big blessing for us. 

We spend time with the children every other Saturday.  Joseph turned 13 this year.  He is growing quickly and is as tall as his father.  Jonas (11) is active in scouting and recently received his arrow of light.  Hyrum (7) got glasses this year and quite enjoys sports.  Jenna (6) loves playing house and is very generous in sharing her affection and appreciation of others.  Joy will be 4 soon, and is full of energy and very independent.  It’s been a pleasure for me to get to know them and have them be part of our lives.
James and I love spending time with friends and family, playing board games, attending plays and musicals, and traveling.  This year we saw lighthouses in North Carolina, Cape Code, and Prince Edward Island.

We are grateful for your friendship, and wish you a very Merry Christmas. 

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

We stayed here for Christmas.  Although we didn't take much time off work, it was still a great time.  Christmas Eve we enjoyed fondue, music, and Christmas stories with a few friends.  Christmas day we played lots of games.  Many were new and we learned for the first time....

 

Service and the Savior

We had fun with the kids in Fredericksburg.  First we joined with others to rake leaves for a widow with a large yard.  It made a huge pile, and the kids had fun playing.  Hyrum asked if he could bury me.  I first suggested that he wait until I was 89, but eventually gave in and let them bury me in the leaf pile.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We then made some chocolate truffles and talked about the gifts that Jesus Christ has given us.  I have been blessed with a testimony that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world.  I think often of how I felt when I was in Israel at the young age of 10 years old.  I had the opportunity to walk where Jesus walked and gain a confirmation for myself that He is the Son of God.  I am glad for that testimony that is confirmed over and over.  I am so grateful for James and the blessing he is in my life.  Each child is a miracle, and it is a blessing to see the joy and excitement of youth.  I hope that I can continue to learn how to share the love of our Savior and encourage faith in the lives of precious children.





Early December

Some of the fun adventures this last month include:

Musicals!
We saw "My Fair Lady" with some friends at the Arena Stage.  It was very well done.  Great performance and music.... even if the end of the story leaves some to be desired.  Remember, the Rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain!  A local children's theater did "Oklahoma" at a school near our house.  We actually walked over to the performance.  The leads were really good, and we were impressed.  Some of the age and height differences were entertaining though.  The peddler man was a 6th grader, with Ado Annie being played by a high school senior.

Technology
It's been nonstop technology adventures this month.  I cleaned up an old computer we were preparing for a friend, and uninstalled programs, deleted old files, and defragmented the disk.  James and I got smart phones on Black Friday.  Overall we love them, but it has been a new adventure figuring out how we want everything set up.  I got a larger external hard drive to make back-ups for my computer.  The screen on my laptop had been flickering and gave out the end of November.  A kind friend had mercy on us and helped me recover some of the recent files I lost when the screen actually did go out.  Using his monitor I again went through the process of trying to clean up another computer in case it would be use to someone.  In my naivety I thought that the Windows 8 that came with my new computer wouldn't be that different than the previous operating systems.  Urgh.  It's a love/hate relationship.  I have decided that my frustration and slowness to embrace new technology means that I am old.  I may never actually figure all these things out. 

Dinner with friends
Fortunately we still have friends with birthdays and otherwise want to get together, so I've been able to enjoy Indian, Thai, Italian.

Baby Showers, Concerts, and getting ready for Christmas..

Arkansas Thanksgiving

 It was so fun to spend time with my brother and his family.  The three girls graced us with a Thanksgiving show.  It's so fun to see their creativity in their performances and thoughtful gifts.  We found out what name they are thinking of for baby boy expected in January.  It was Thanksgiving, so of course the food was fabulous.  We enjoyed playing games, and it was just good to hang out with family!

Great Smoky Mountains

Gatlinburg is a pretty fun little town.  We walked around in the evening after enjoying barbeque for dinner.  The picture in the bottom right is James standing next to a "Save a horse, ride a cowboy" display.  Very funny! 

In the morning we decided to visit the aquarium and enjoy the fish.   There was some pretty cool stuff.  We particularly enjoyed the shark tank.

In the afternoon we took a drive through the Great Smoky mountains.  We hiked to Clingmans Dome, which is 6643 Ft, and the highest location in Tennessee.  We also hiked to three different waterfalls.

Another highlight of the day was a quick trip into Alabama.  I can now say that I have been to 48 states!  (Plus Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico.)

Roadtrip

James and I took the entire week of Thanksgiving off of work.  We drove to Arkansas to visit my brother and their family for the holiday.

On the way, we took a few stops.  We spent the Monday morning in Fredericksburg with a preliminary court appointment.  Our next court date will be Feb 22 to try to get more time with the children.  While still in Virginia, we stopped at "Foamhedge".  Yes, it's a replica of Stonehedge, but made with foam, instead of stone!  

Another Wedding

Can you tell that Russ and Kaela met swing dancing?  They had swing dance lessons and a live swing band at their wedding reception.  I think Kaela was saying "so good!" as she was eating her rice krispie wedding cake.  It's so wonderful to be able to celebrate good friends getting married.

Mr. and Mrs. Loo

I'm so happy for Debbie and Tom.  We are so glad that we were able to be with them as they started their together family!  I've known both the bride and the groom for most of my time here in DC, and they both have been looking forward for this day for a long time!