January has come and gone....

But it sure doesn't feel like it! The weather has been very mild, with no snow. Come on, it's January!! But we had a great month. Probly the best month we have had in quite a while for a number of reasons.

#1: My brother and his family were sealed for time and all eternity in the Salt Lake Temple on their 5 year anniversary which was Jan. 5th. I am so proud of my big brother and all the hard work he has done to get his family here. Love you guys!

Reason #2: We tagged along with Chad on a business trip to Utah and me and the kids played while Chad was in class all day. We did get to steal him away and do a few fun things. Staying in a hotel room with all 4 of us had its challenges, but i would do it again. We had so much fun playing and shopping! We went to a huge aquarium in Sandy.....

And to Jump on It with TONS of trampolines and bounce houses...

And to the mall where they had a neat play area for the kids....

And to Planet Play, which is like an arcade for smaller kids....

Carter was in heaven and I think he was in shock about how many fun places he was getting to go to. The trip also included Jim's Jungle, lots of eating out, swimming, a memorial service for Chad's grandma who passed away, and lots of cousin time with the Dudschus family.

Reason #3: Scotty McCreery, The Band Perry, and BRAD PAISLEY! Yes we took a quick trip to Boise to see this concert with some great friends the Sorensons. We had so much fun with them and the concert was amazing. It was Chad's first concert. We were a little late and missed Scotty McCreery (Chad was heart broken....he really likes him) but i was so glad when he came back on stage at the end. GREAT night.

(Scotty)

(Brad) Ok, so I lied....a little at the begining of this post....we got a tiny amount of snow and we ran outside to play in it before it was gone. Carter and Chad had a snow ball fight.

Mollie didn't love the snow and just wanted to play on the slide.

Chad pulled the kids in the sled.

And we built a snow man with the best packing snow I have ever seen! Carter sang "Once there was a Snowman" every day for weeks as we watched it melt away.

I give January 5 Stars. It was a wonderful month!

Good Bye 2011 We will miss you

Tonight I feel kind of lost....last year at this time i had LOTS of plans and goals set to ring in 2011. I was motivated to make change in my life. I knew we were going to add and addition to our family soon, I knew i was going to work my butt off in the gym, I knew I wanted to get better at wake boarding, reading my scriptures, and pleny of other things. But when I sat down tonight to think about what 2012 will bring....it looked kind of bleak. I wanted 2011 to be my best year yet and I really believe that it was! So i have big shoes to fill for 2012. I still plan to work out at the gym, no babies are in our near future, Im sure ill be able to pick up where i left off with my wakeboarding skills (if you can call them that!), scripture reading has become a habit....where do i go from here?

I have a looonnng way to go before I'm perfect (hee hee) but I do have a few "inner self" things i want to work on. So maybe "myself" will be my project for this year. Who knows?! I have learned alot about myself in these last two weeks as a primary president and I think there is an amazing person in there....i just need to develop and uncover her!

Here's to a GREAT 2012! Happy New Year!

CHRISTmas 2011

I won't lie, the first weeks of December were quite hairy. I was fighting a horrible cold, dealing with the challenges of a new primary president, writing a talk for sacrament meeting on christmas day, making treat plates, and sending christmas cards. The Christmas spirit almost passed me by. But the Thursday before everything was done and ready and I was ready to enjoy my Christmas!

We started out our celebrations to see the lights in the south hills....always a good time, and Carter was happy to see Santa and get a candy cane.

We were SO happy that Grandma & Grandpa Hymas came to spend Christmas with us! We always love having them. New Christmas Jammies!

And of course Christmas morning was magical. It is so fun to watch the faces of suprised little kids, especially when they are your own!

G&G Hymas even had a few suprises!

Man was this kid happy!

I wish that every christmas we could attend church. Im not sure if it was because I was speaking and had to sit on the stand or what, but I felt the christmas spirit so strong that day. After church we spent 2 hours on the phone with my brother on his mission. It was so great to hear his testimony and that he is being cared for by others & heavenly father. Christmas was so wonderful! What a special time of year. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

The Nativity

I mentioned 'simple faith' in my last post....

I was totaly impressed with my sweet Joy School group and their Christmas program. It was so sweet. I watched in awe at the reverence they had as they acted out the Saviors birth. AMAZING.

Although there were a few wisemen who were slightly silly and were seeing who could jump the highest to reach the star.....nonetheless, precious!

Choose The Right

My blog has been slacking lately, but there is a perfectly good reason. And it is these dear children of the Twin Falls 2nd ward. They have been taking up a lot of my time this last month! You may ask, why?? Well I was recently put in as the new primary president in my ward. If you dont know what that means, it just means I am in charge of teaching alot of children about Jesus Christ...whew...what an AMAZING responsibility. The theme for 2012 is "Choose The Right."

I had a feeling this calling was coming even though I had only served in the young womens program for 1 year. I will miss my YW so much, but I still get to work with children and i truthfully am SO excited to do it. It has been busy but I have loved getting to meet new people and discover strengths i didnt know i had. Tommorow is the new year and with that comes many changes in primary. I hope we are ready! Meanwhile, I sit in awe about how strong and faithful these children are. And I love their simple faith. Isn't that what the gospel is all about. I love them so much and I look forward to serving them and learning from them.
(This picture was made up to give to the out-going presidency.)

Potty Trained!

PHEW!!! It seriously has been such a long process but I think it's safe to say that this little man is potty trained!!! Thanks to many family and friends who helped along the way! Especially Monroe Whitten (pictured). Whenever he would use the potty at our house, so would Carter!
This was NOT an easy process, but he is fully potty trained night and day! Even if we are in town he will use the potty! I am so proud of him and he loves to hear me say that I am proud of him.
I am so greatful for the potty time app on my phone that would allow him to call someone and report his success (and failures too). He is growing up SO fast and I am SOO excited we only have one kid in diapers now. WAHOOOOO!

Where did November go?

Seriously November FLEW by! I can't believe December is here. Will life ever slow down?! I find myself holding onto each day of december trying to get the most out of the 24 hours i have each day, trying not to waste a moment.

I had the fun opportunity to do a bridal shower for my sweet cousin Natalie. It was so fun to make some cute decorations for it.

And as always, the food was phenomenal.

It was so great watching Natalie & John get hitched in the temple. It was so beautiful and it was great to get a reminder of the temple covenants i have made with my sweetie.

On the 15th, we celebrated Chad's 29th birthday! We were blessed to have both of our parents here and a few siblings. It was a fun day. Only one more year to the big THREE-O

I'm so stoked we both have bikes now. We've wanted to take a bike trip to Sun Valley for forever and it might just happen this summer!

My little stud-of-a-brother competed in his High Schools Mr. MHS contest and I got the privledge of being his escort.

He's a talented dancer so him and some of his football buddies did a dance. It was great!

And in the end, he WON MR.MHS!! I am SO proud of Adam. He is such a strong, good kid. We've always been close ever since I can remember and I hope we always will be!! He definantly deserved this title. Way to go Adam!

And last but not least, THANKSGIVING!! Chad had to work this year (but really i can't complain about triple time pay!) and we had sick kids, so my dear parents loaded up all the food and came to our house to celebrate the big day. It was so nice to be home for the holiday and have my family as guests in our home. We played lots of games, ate and ate and ate and then everyone but me and Adam went black friday shopping. I will NEVER be at wal mart ever again on black friday. One bad experience and I'll never go back! But while they were out i watched a movie and ate pie with my brother and it was a wonderful evening. I hit the town the next morning and still got lots of good deals. This is the only picture i took over thanksgiving, and it is a pretty pathetic one, but we were just too busy having fun to take pictures! Thanks again mom and dad!