Merry Christmas

We had a wonderful dinner Christmas Eve at Tylana and Tyson's home. Here are a few pictures of some of the adorable people in attendance.

The cousins got together for a pose. Tucker and Wyatt were watching to learn how for next year.







The big boys had a wild marshmallow fight. I cannot even imagine where Tylana will find marshmallows this year. What a sport she is for having this go on in her house.


Of course Christmas morning we had to get our traditional picture on the stairs. So exciting to see what Santa brought.

The girls posing with their cute new hats!
Tierani made me this stunningly beautiful quilt.
More fun toys.







Thanks everyone for a wonderful Christmas. Love to you all

Christmas Eve 2009

Christmas Eve brought a pleasant surprise. Kody and Christine invited David and I to their home to meet Elder Pearl. Elder Pearl is from Durbin South Africa. He is the last person Kody baptized on his mission in 2002. It was such an honor to be able to meet him in person. He was called on a Mission to SLC, and Kody was blessed to be able to meet up with him on a few occasions. It has been a wonderful testimony of missionary work. What a blessing for Kody to actually be able to see some of the fruits of his labors already in action. As Elder Pearl was leaving he gave Kody a present to open after he left for Christmas. Inside were some pictures of his family, Kody was also able to baptize his brother while in South Africa, a South African Flag, and his missionary badge. I know Kody will cherish these the rest of his life. I am thankful for such an awesome experience.

Kyson

We celebrated Kyson's 26th Birthday December 23rd. My oh my where has all the time gone.

Where has all the time gone.

I can hardly believe I waited so long to write a post. Life just seems to be running away. I got a new little camera for Christmas so it would be easier for me to take pictures everywhere I go and blog. So for starters, here are some pre Christmas pictures. The bowling gang. It was really fun even though I of course did not win one game... Maybe next year.

This is the first picture I took with my new camera as soon as I opened it.

Happy Halloween

David and I started the day at Stephanie and Brandon's. We went to Columbus Friday night to work in the Temple laundry Saturday morning. It is always so much fun to see Steph and she always has cute things she is working on. After David and I were done working in the Temple, we went to Steph's and B dug up a bulb from their beautiful large pink lilly and gave it to me. Yeah!!! They smell soooo good and I am really excited for next summer. (wish we could skip Jan - March in the frosty OH) Anyways, Brandon and Steph show us the funnest games and they always become our favorite. Our latest craze is Aquire! So much fun. The best description I have heard is "Monopoly on steroids." The best is when I beat David. However, my luck wasn't so good. David came in first and gloated all the way home. (In fact he is still gloating) As we speak he just came in to make sure I let everyone know he won. Brandon is really hard to beat. (Steph and I like to team up and try to help each other, secretly of course)

When we arrived home, we ate mummys (hot dogs wrapped in biscuits) and veggies. Just quick enough for everyone to get off trick or treating. David and Callie even joined in the fun.

Tori enjoyed her last few hours as a 17 year old and now today, she is an adult.

Happy Birthday Tori! We love you.

It's been a while.

Wow it has been 2 months since I last posted anything. How time flies.

These are hydrangeas from our garden. I love hydrangeas. They take me back to my child hood. I had a very wonderful childhood. My family has always been close and therefore, I have always had a best friend. When I was 9 years old, our family moved to New Zealand. There were beautiful bushes of hydrangeas everywhere. My favorite were blue with a hint of purple. My sister and I and used to pick them and pretend they were our bride bouquets. Those were very happy years. When I see hydrangeas they always take me back to that simple, beautiful part of my life.

This past weekend Tori and I went to Lexington Virginia to go to VMI's homecoming. It was absolutely beautiful. We also visited SVU, walked around the quaint campus which we really liked, then we went to the church nearby and attended the first session of conference before heading back to Ohio.

Delightful Day.

We had a delightful day today. It started in Columbus. Our youth had a temple trip. It is always nice to be in the quiet, beautiful, peaceful temple. Anyways, on the ride home from Columbus Micah was VERY bored! So first thing we did was play tic tac toe. That of course was very boring after about 3 games. We are both tooooo good at it. The only other thing I could think of was to start a story. I just happened to have a notebook in the car from our adventures to Utah. So I started a story like this " Once there was a delightful....." Well Micah was supposed to finish the sentence and start another one. This was his."...pig. He went to the restroom and then....."" Well of course if a 9 year old boy is telling a story it is not going to end up being about a princess who lived happily ever after. So I tried to keep it out of the toilet, so to speak. I finished the sentence with..."he washed up. He suddenly felt....", Micah then added, ..."an eyeball crawling on him and it said...". Well the story went on and believe me I had to think quite hard to keep it going. It is facinating to say the least. I am thinking of starting "the PACKed family travel adventures" I am sure it will be entertaining to say the least.
The best part of the day was this afternoon when Evan aka "Evan from heaven" was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Evan is one of the best young men I have ever met. We have been honored to have him in our home to listen to missionary discussions, and to just hang out once in a while. He has a wonderful family. His mom Monna is one of those people you meet and you instantly fall in love with her and want her to be your friend because she is so happy and upbeat and adorable. They are so wonderful.
Elder Wayment and Elder Smith moved into our ward the day Evan started the discussions. They are also wonderful and feel like family. They teach the gospel so well. It is amazing to me that these young boys are so well read with their scriptures and the gospel and everything. I am so happy that our sons have this opportunity, and that Aaron is having this opportunity now. We all love Evan and can't wait to take him to Utah and meet all of our family. Thanks Tori for being an example so that he wanted to know more and so that we all could benefit from this wonderful experience.