Boda......

Tonight we were invited to a wedding. Sonia was a student in Gerald's class last year. The invitations said that the wedding would start at 5:00. We showed up and there wasn't anyone in the parking lot. Gerald and I looked at each other and laughed, I know I was second guessing if I had read the invitation wrong. A car pulled up next to us and Gerald started a converstation with them, we hadn't read the invitation wrong because they were under the impression that that was when the wedding was going to take place.
The bride and groom did show up, but apparently the wedding was not supposed to start until 6:00. It was a good thing because when we got to the church both Gerald and I had forgotten to grab the present. I had an hour to come home and drive back (sigh).
The best part was while we were waiting for dinner, Mya was dancing with a little boy her age and Keegan was set up with a little girl that was his age. (oh the things that we get out kids to do) We had a really great time meeting new people, listening to music and eating good food.

TRADITIONS....TRADITIONS....

We have started the tradition of having the missionaries over for dinner on Christmas Eve. It brings an amazing spirit into our home. We ate ham, mashed potatoes, green salad, jello salad, corn bread, and stuffing. After dinner we watched Mr Krueger's Christmas and ate an amazing hummingbird cake and drank hot chocolate. I think that I was more excited about Christmas Eve then Christmas morning.

This morning we opened presents. The kids were super excited about what they got. Christmas is so easy when they are young. I don't even want to think about what they are going to be like when they are teenagers. Keegan opened a train that my sister sent them and he didn't want to open any presents after that. Mya got the pony that she was asking for (my little pony was a life saver sent from my mom). When she opened it she kept saying, "I told Santa... and he brung it to me." (We've definatly got to work on her english skills). We had a relaxing afternoon with naps.

I have been talking to all of my family up in Idaho and they are getting pelted with snow. My mom said that she is snowed in. I felt so lucky to be able to go out this afternoon and play outside because it was in the seventy's out there. Keegan got a tee ball set and Gerald was teaching him how to hit the ball properly. Mya was riding around on her bike with her my little pony in tow.

I feel so blessed this Christmas!!!!

You have to play in it.......

This morning I woke up and the snow was still on the ground. When Mya woke up I opened her window and she was so excited. I took all of her patients to sit and eat breakfast before we went outside to play in it. She doesn't even have a coat because it doesn't get that cold down here. Keegan had one because someone had passed it down to him. I was the only one with gloves so I put them on the kids so they could throw snowballs. As you can see, it has been awhile since any of us have seen any snow.

SNOW!!!!

For all you Idaho and Utah residents, this is a very bloggable thing. I think that it has been about 2 years since I have seen snow. I had to go outside and take some pictures and then I can back inside to enjoy it from the window and called everyone to tell them what was going on. You have to enjoy it because it is going to be gone by tomorrow and you don't know when it is going to happen again. I need to go and get some hot chocolate so that I can really have an "Idaho" moment, but I will not go out on the roads with all the Houstonians that don't know how to drive in the snow.

Over the River and Through the Woods.....

To Odomville we went for Thanksgiving.
If you can believe it, Odemville is more remote then Firth, Idaho. Brianne and Marcus invited us to spend Thanksgiving with them this year. It was lots of fun. There was lots of good food, a four wheeler to ride, and dominoes to play.
I am so thankful for Gerald and the kids. I am thankful for good friends. I am thankful to be here in Houston and enjoy yet another mild winter. I am very grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel sustains me through whatever I am facing.
I LOVE THIS TIME OF YEAR!!!
Happy Thanksgiving.

The story of Mya's hair goes on and on.........

For all of you that know me, I have a hard time with Mya's hair. I don't have the patients or the time for what is required for her hair. I am always looking for things that would make it more managable. On Sunday last week, one of the members told Gerald and I that she could do hair. We met her last night and she put a texturizer in her hair that made her hair about half the size that it was. Then she conditioned, oiled, and cut it. It took about a half an hour to blow dry it and then she flat ironed it and curled it. The final step was corn rows in the front and finish it off with bows. It took us about 5 hours last night!!!! I thought that it was time to do something completly different when she started crying a couple of weeks ago, I was putting her hair up into the "regular" ponytail on top and she told me that ponytails are ugly. A couple of days after that we were in walmart and she picked out some new hair ties that she said were more "princess-like." She told me last night that she likes her new hair and how long it is. I am glad that I can't see into the future, because I can't even imagine what she is going to be like as a teenager if she is already finicky about her hair as a four year old ;0

THE PICTURES........

Upside of a bad Economy.... $1.97 gallon gas

I remember not to long ago when I was driving by the gas station and thinking...."I am sure that I will not see gas under $3.00 again." CNN has been reporting that our money isn't worth much and that is one of the reasons that gas prices have been declining so rapidly the last little while. One of the reasons I am grateful that our money isn't worth much anymore... when I drove by the gas station yesterday it was under $2.00 a gallon!!!! I can now fill up our SUV in under $30.00. Oh Happy Days Are Here Again. What is your gas prices? Crosby is 1.97 a gallon for unleaded.

Halloween Festivities

What would a holiday be without a ward function? We had our ward Halloween party on Saturday. My camera is still malfunctioning, but a good friend allowed me to take some pictures of the kids. Mya has chosen to be a Cinderella this year. Are any of you suprised? If you can't tell from the pictures Keegan is a dog. They have been really excited about Halloween and dressing up. Today we went to the library and had singing and storytime. The library planned cupcakes and cookies and punch and other goodies after storytime. Then they allowed the kids to go into the library and do some trick-or-treating.

It's Been Awhile......

I looked at the blog and couldn't believe that it was two weeks since my last post! I was getting emails from people asking how I was and what I had been doing because it had been awhile since they had heard from me.
Preschool has been a fun experience. After the Strega Nona play we took another field trip up to the airport. We were learning about the letter "A" and our monthly theme is transportation so it worked out perfect. (It was a busy day on Friday when I usually have the kids so....FIELD TRIP). Brianne and Gayla are awesome to work with. They are so flexable and so willing to help!!! We went to a park afterwords and had apples to keep with the "A" theme. We played on the playground equipment and we also had some organized games for them to play as well. The kids were exhausted and didn't even put up a fight when it came to nap time that day.
It has become a rutine to go over to the library every tuesday morning. The kids love to hear stories, sing songs, dance, and they usually have a craft for them to do. Afterword they get to go and pick out movies and books. Tuesdays are very relaxing afternoons because they just want to watch their movies and read their books.
I did host bunco at my house this last Friday. I thought everyone knew what Hawaiin haystacks were. More then half the people there were skeptical about if it would taste good. I think that they were pleasantly suprised.
Semenary is going well. Today one of the boys was blindfolded and the other was gagged so that we could heal the blind and deaf. It has been a great experience to study the New Testiment and the life of Christ while he was here on the earth. I have learned so much this year!
Sorry about not having any pictures. I am having issues with my camera. Hopefully I can get it figured out soon.

Strega Nona

We went on an adventure on Monday. We took all the kids to the Miller Outdoor Theater to watch the play Strega Nona. Most of the kids didn't understand what a play even was. They kept asking what it was that we were going to play. We tried to explain that it was like a movie with real people. It was definatly a culture experience for all of our little preschoolers.
Here is all of us sitting and waiting for it all to begin. Strega Nona was one of my favorite stories from when I was a kid and I was super excited when I saw that it was going to be at the Miller Outdoor Theater.

The story begins with Strega Nona who is seeking help from someone in both outdoor and indoor chores. The first to respond to her advertisement is tall, clumsy Big Anthony.
Strega Nona assigns Big Anthony to various chores around her house, but she also warns him not to touch her magic pasta pot, an enchanted pot that produces pasta at the command of a spell. In the middle of one of his chores, Anthony spies on Strega Nona conjuring pasta from the pasta pot. He also watches as she commands the pot to stop producing pasta. Anthony does not observe Strega Nona blow three kisses after commanding the pasta pot to stop producing pasta.
When Strega Nona spends a day to visit her friend Strega Amelia, Big Anthony uses the opportunity to spread the news of the pasta pot and serve everyone pasta. However, because he did not know how to properly stop the pasta pot from producing pasta, the pasta continued to flow, flooding the town with pasta.
Fortunately, Strega Nona returns from her visit and commands the pasta pot to stop producing pasta, blowing three kisses after issuing her command. Big Anthony ends up having to eat all of the pasta that flooded the town as punishment for disobeying Strega Nona.

Life after Ike is Frustrating!!!!

I went down to Adam and Jessica's house down in Northshore to watch the boys for the day. I ended up spending a half an hour waiting at a light here in Crosby and then at 90 and beltway 8 it was backed up and I ended up waiting at that light for 45 minutes. The lights are not working and people have to use them as a four way stop. (After almost two weeks of treating stoplights like this I have even found myself using the lights that do work as stop signs.) UGH!!!! A trip that should only take 20 minutes tops, took me an hour and fifteen minutes.


I went over to the grocery store and was suprised that there was not much of a selection with the fridge and freezer foods. I talked to a neighbor who is an employee and she said that they have had to clean them out before they could put the food in them. This is what the meat section looked like in our local Walmart.......



I took the Callahan boys to the park when I was down in Northshore on Monday. There was a huge tree that was knocked down by the wind. We went over and took some pictures next to it.


Look at the lightpost that went right between the limbs.
Good Times.....Good Times........

Hurricane Ike...

I have had lots of emails and calls about concern from everyone from everywhere. We are fine and safe. We evacuated to Vidor Texas just above Beaumont during the storm. We spent the next couple of days with friends there. We came back to the house on Sunday after the hurricane. The house was fine but we have been camping out the last week because we were without power. It hasn't been bad because we had a cold front come in and bring cooler weather. That was such a blessing because it gets hot here in Texas in september. I was beginning to wonder what a microwave and television were like though. It's good to have power back again.

Here are the power guys from missouri working outside our house to get the power restored in our neighborhood.

Here is a park that we have played at a couple of times. My mom was asking for me to take some pictures of the damage of the storm. I will post some more in time.

A Minute to Myself.....

Things have been kind of hectic around here. I really should be cleaning the house, but I think that I am just going to take a minute to relax and enjoy it. Mya and Keegan Callahan are over at Brianne's house for preschool. I took the ever easy to watch Calli from Brianne so that she could teach and we came back home. Keegan and Calli are playing with toys and watching blue's clues upstairs.
This last week I started teaching early morning semenary. It has been an awesome experience for me. I started the week off with one student. By the end of the day I had an inactive boy from down the street stop by and ask when semenary was and what he needed to bring. He has been there eveyday and on most days he beats the other student to my house (granted he only lives two doors down, but you can tell he is excited to learn more about the scriptures.) They said that they didn't like the idea of just reciting the scriptures to memorize the scripture mastery (can you blame them) so I have had to delve back into my semenary memories and come up with ideas to help them learn the scripture mastery's. It has been great to learn more about the New Testiment. I know that the teacher definatly learns more then the student and I am greatful for the oppertunity to study it more in depth.

Gustav

I understand that government officials want us to be prepared in case the worst really does happen, but living down by the gulf it has kind of been a frustrating experience. The storm of the century was really a catagory 2 hurricane, that is still a powerful storm, but did minimal damage. I am grateful for the gospel that teaches us to be prepared. The gospel really does give us more knowledge. People hit the stores last minute and you can't find water and other supplies on the shelves. It kind of got me thinking about the ten virgins in the scriptures. Those that were running to the get supplies and missed the bridegroom. We don't have a lot of supplies, but I feel like we would be okay if something were to happen and I know that Heavenly Father is always watching over us and our family.

The Happy Couple

The reason we were in Idaho.......

I don't know why Kyle was always on Tamara's right side in all these pictures.
The happy couple a few days before the wedding

Outside the temple

At the luncheon after the wedding

Glad to be Home

We're Back!!!
Vacations are great, but the whole time that I was gone all I could think of was all the things that needed to get done here in Houston. Mostly this post is to get caught up on pictures from Idaho.

Look at the long sleeves on our children. We got laughed at a couple of times on our trip to Idaho. What we think is cold is apparently laughable in Idaho.

Mya was so excited about the rock pets that she made. She insisted on the beads in her hair. I think that we have created a monster with the beads in her own hair.

We went to the Rexburg and they had a big back to school party for everyone that was starting school the next day. They had free train rides and we waited patiently for a half an hour eating ice cream because Keegan was so excited about it.

Mya had to get ready for the wedding. Grandma had baught her some nail polish and lip gloss for her purse that came with the dress. The night before the wedding she asked Chad to help her with her nails. What a good Uncle!

Idaho.....

I am sitting here on my parents slow dial up internet connection. It has been great to visit Idaho for the last couple of days. We spent the whole day traveling on Thursday that I spent the whole day on Friday recovering from it. We did go to the park and out to lunch on Friday. My parents are temple workers and their assignment is on Fridays from 4-10 in the evening. While they were gone I went out to my grandparents house out in Blackfoot and spent the night visiting with them and catching up on everything that is happening in the family.
On Saturday my brother's fiance, Tamera, recieved her endownments. We went through the session with her. I hadn't seen my youngest brother, Chad (not the one that is getting married) for three years because he was on a mission when we left to go to Texas a year ago. We saw each other for the first time in the chapel of the temple waiting for the session to start. It was kind of a neat experience. We came home and had dinner with Kyle (the brother that is getting married) and his Tamera and then we stayed up until midnight playing Cranium. If anyone is wondering... Yes! of course the girls won. It has been fun and I am looking foward to this next week of vacation. I have tried to upload some pictures but this computer is really really slow... so you are going to have to just deal with my ramblings.

No Excuse

I really should have made some posts lately. I could use the excuse that I had to put Mya's hair in baraids and that took me two days to do it. I could also use the excuse that I am getting ready to go back to Idaho for awhile for my brother's wedding. But really I have just been engulfed in the new book by Stephanie Meyer called "Breaking Dawn."

I read the first 400 pages in about four hours the first day that I got it. Gerald has been teasing me because it isn't exactly his idea of a good book. Every spare minute that I have has been finishing it.
We did manage to walk over to the duck pond over in Newport and the kids were able to feed the ducks. Keegan was happy to do it, but Mya broke down in tears because they were getting too close to her. My favorite was the family of ducks.

HOLA TROPICAL STORM EDOUARD

Tropical Storm Edouard came in off of the Gulf of Mexico today. Thanks to the news there was a rush on stores for water and batteries. Why is it that most people wait until the last minute to be prepared? Most of Houston was closed because they thought that it was going to become a category 1 hurricane and everyone was asked to stay off the roads. Even though it turned out to be a milder tropical storm Gerald was able to stay home from the bank today. It has been raining all day, but I haven't noticed the wind. The good part is that it has cooled off our 100 degree weather down to the mid 70's. So... we have yet to experience a hurricane since moving to Houston a year ago. Don't get me wrong, this is a good thing!!!

Little Princess and Cars

Our children's true love comes out when they are allowed to pick their own things. Gerald took the kids shopping and they came back with some new house shoes. I laugh at Keegan's each time that I see them. I am suprised that he doesn't trip in them. I was not suprised with Mya's choice, pink and princess. I am sure that she didn't see anything else in the store.

Gerald and I were able to get a babysitter to watch the kids on Thursday this last week. We went and saw The Dark Knight at the theater. It was a good movie that kept my attention.

Update......

All of you regular readers of my blog know that I am working on developing my talents. I have been practicing the piano and can play all of the songs in the simplified hymn book. YEA!!! I have really felt like this is something that Heavenly Father wants me to know how to do. I got a call from the missionaries and they asked me if I could play the piano at the baptism last night. I told them that if I could pick the songs that I was comfortable with, I could do it. When I walked into the baptism I was suprised with how many people were there. The mission president and his wife and another senior couple, (all from Soda Springs Idaho). Both sets of missionaries that serve our ward. The bishop was there and the two that were baptized had good family support as well. It was a little nervous at first, but calmed down after I started playing the prelude music. ( I think the prelude music is more for the pianist then it is for the congregations. ) It turned out nice and the spirit was strong.
After today, I know that Heavenly Father really wants me to know how to play. We were getting the kids situated on the bench and suprisingly we were about five minutes early. The bishop came up to me and asked me how comfortable I was feeling. I was thinking to myself, what a strange question to ask. Maybe he wants me to do something like pray in the meeting or bare my testimony. Was I suprised when he said that our regular piano player was called out. I looked around and saw that all the regular piano players were not there. He asked if I could play the piano in sacrament meeting. My heart sank. I felt really underqualified for this one. I asked if we could sing "choose the right." I was able to do a decent job on it. I was so relieved to see my great friend Gayla walk through the door late and volunteered to watch her three children while she played the remainder of the meeting.
Heavenly Father loves each of us, he needs all of us to help build the kingdom here on the earth. I am so thankful for the oppertunites that I have been given and look forward to seeing what else he wants me to do.

BUSY SATURDAY!!!

Saturday, our bishopric made us pancakes, bacon, and sausage for breakfast. It was tasty!!!




After breakfast was over we had our pioneer primary party. We played "button, button" and sack races and three-legged races. I think that the kids just like running around in the gym. I loved to see all the kids dressed up, Dalton was my favorite in his overalls and pokemon bandanna.
We went over to Adam and Jessicca's after the primary party to let Keegan take a nap and to hang out while we were waiting for Gerald to get off of work. Jessicca got a phone call that someone wanted to come over and look at the house (because they are tying to sell it so they can move out closer to us). Jessicca and I frantically straightend up the house and got the kids all loaded up into the car and went and picked up her neice to watch the kids later that night. We came back to the house and got ready and went back to the church for a baptism. After the baptism I went with Jessicca to see the movie mamma mia. It was a big girls out and lots of fun!!