Brown's Park

Two weekends ago we went for a drive to Brown's Park so we could take some pictures and Justin could show me where he likes to duck hunt. We had such a nice drive. The kids loved to see all the wild life and just get out of the house. It has been so cold we haven't been out much. We saw so many deer. We also saw some elk, ducks, and a bald eagle. It is a beautiful drive. We stopped right below the dam so Ty could see "his river," even though the whole thing is his river. That is his favorite spot. It was soooo cold we didn't stay long. Here are some of the amazing photos we got though. Justin took lots of them. He is great. At one point he got out to see how close he could get to these three bucks and I thought for sure one of them was going to ram him!!! He was safe though!

I love Christmas!!!

We have been so excited for Christmas this year at our house. I have had our decorations up for about 2 weeks now! We don't have our tree up yet, but I have already helped put two other ones up!!! My sister, Mom, and I went and helped my grandma get her tree up this year. I don't think she would have got it up otherwise. And that, my dear friends, is not acceptable at Christmas time!!! I also helped decorate a tree for The Trees for Charty event they do every year here. All the proceeds go to our Christmas party for the National Guard, so I hope it does well. We decorated the tree in red, white, and blue and had a vinyl sign on it that said, "God Bless America." It turned out really cute! So Ty has asked me everyday this week if we are getting the tree out, so next time I am blogging, our tree will be up. This time of year is so wonderful to remember our Savior and the sacrifice he made for us. I feel so blessed. I have an amazing family. We are all healthy, other than the occasional cold and whatnot. I could go on and on, but I won't because I get a little boring anyways. I just wanted to say I really do love Christmas...and it has nothing to do with presents!

Halloween!

I know Halloween is over, but I wanted to post the pictures. The kids had a lot of fun all dressed up. Ty couldn't decide what he wanted to be. He really wanted to be Bumblebee the Transformer. I couldn't spend 25 bucks on the costume though. That seemed like so much!!! So Grandma Pam bought him a green skeleton costume, and Aunt Mandy got him Optimus Prime. He was going to be Optimus until about 5 minutes before we left. So I hurried and changed him, but I just found out I didn't take any pictures of him in his skeleton costume!!! I told him he could choose though. He really liked the skeleton because it had gloves and a mask and he felt really scary! Maycee was happy to be Tinkerbell. I made her a green tutu. And she had fairy dust. I think I payed too much attention to detail for a 2 year old, but it was fun. Maycee didn't really like some of the costumes. Some were a little scary for her. But overall we had a great night. Ty is already thinking what he will be next year!!!

Justin's trip to Germany

For Justin's AT (annual training) this year, he went to Germany. They were stationed in Hohenfels. He got to visit the Nuswanstein Castle, which is the castle that Walt Disney modeled the original Disney castle after. It was also right next to Swan Lake! He was in Germany for a total of just over 3 weeks. He also visited another town-I can't remember the name of it. He got some cool pictures of the cathedral there. He also got to eat German ice cream, which is supposedly the best ice cream on earth. I was so jealous!!! I think he had fun, but we're all glad he is home. So is he!

Fun at the park

On the 29th of Aug, the kids and I went to the park with Grandma Neece. It was Grandpa'swork party, but he had to work, so we just went. They had all sorts of huge blow-up toys and games. We had a blast! I sure got my workout though! Maycee wanted to go on the big blow-up obstical course-I can't spell-, and she wasn't big enough to go alone; you guessed it. I had to take her. And the huge slide at the end was her favorite part, so we went over and over and over!!! It was a nice distraction since our daddy is gone to Germany. He left the day before, so we're really missing him!

New Family Picture

So when Sarah and Josh and the kids were here, Sarah was soooo kind to do our family pics again. I don't know if we'd have any pics if she didn't do them for us! The ones she sent us turned out fabulous...I have no other words for them. She is such a great photographer. She seems to catch our personalities in the photo...How does she do it!??? And Ty's cast is hardly noticable.

Oh, I love my Hunny!!!

Blessed

As I sat in church today, I had the overwhelming feeling of how truly blessed I am. Have you ever noticed sometimes at church there is an underlying theme in all the testimonies and lessons; as if everyone knew just what to say to tie everything together? That is how it felt today, and I thought, "Everyone is talking just to me!" Apparently I needed to hear what the Lord had to say, and I wasn't listening to the still small voice, so he had the bulk of our ward tell me! That underlying theme today was trials and how to overcome. In the last two weeks I have felt like the world could crash around me at any moment. I've had some personal trials I've had to deal with, and at times I felt hopeless. But today as I sat in church, I couldn't help but start counting my blessings and all those hard things seemed to just melt into the back of my mind, as if they weren't even there. It felt like the Lord took all those hard things and tossed them aside and reminded me of the things I really need to focus on. In Relief Society our teacher had a couple of wonderful quotes. I can't even remember who they are by, but they made me really think about a couple of things. The first quote was something along the lines of fear and faith cannot coexist in the heart at the same time. How true is this, especially in the world today. If we go along and worry and fear about all the things that come our way, there is no room for faith, which means there is no room for the Lord. The second quote was something like we as women need to have courage to realize our imperfection as we strive for perfection. WOW! That really hit home. I know for me, I am so hard on myself if everything and everyone are not just pefect. We need to forget about the things that don't go right and keep striving for that perfection. I just feel at peace today as I realize how abundantly blessed I really am.