Okay, as I've said before life is really crazy!!! However, I am learning to thrive on crazy. I get so much more done when there is tons of stuff to do. Hmmmm!! I think something might be really wrong with that but since I'm not sure what it is I'll leave it as said. Lets see, for all of you who don't live here in this wonderful southern state that I live in you may not know that we had SNOW Friday night. Oh my, it was wonderful to see the kids getting excited and playing in the snow. They were able to make a small snowman, snow angels, and snow balls. It was really fun.

David and I went out Friday night in a winter wonderland and we enjoyed a wonderful meal at our favorite restaurant, thanks to a wonderful birthday present from my dear friend Michelle. Thank you Michelle, we ate lots of good food and yes we thought of you! LOL

Saturday, we all woke up to snow and hot chocolate. It was soo fun. However today it was in the 70's ahhhh do we have wacky weather or what! We went to Mom's and got a lot of fire wood for the fireplace. After that was over we came back home and got ready to go out on our annual girls night out. We went to Cains and had dinner and then to the theater to watch New Moon. It was very fun but they ran out of tickets and 3 of our group of 11 didn't get in. That was verrry irritating.

Sunday we went to church. Then came home and I finally got a much needed break and took a nap. I only woke up when our Home Teachers came over. Bro. Carpenter left us with a Christmas Tree that his wife Donna got from her sister for us. We set it up and then went to the church to watch the First Presidency Christmas devotional. Oh how I love to here the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing, especially the Christmas carols. The talks were all inspiring too.

Monday we had our annual Tree decorating party and had homemade pizza and chocolate chip cookies with root beer, eggnog and hot coco.

Tonight we are going to the high school to watch Alecia in her Christmas Concert. I can't wait I just love to see my children perform. I am also getting Alecia ready to leave for Disney on Thursday. I have and awesome family who helped to make it possible for her to take along some spending money. Thanks everyone.

Lots of Love
Teresa

Alford's in the news

A few weeks ago the principal at my children's elementary school asked me if I would be willing to let the local newspaper do an article on our family and I said yes. I was very busy getting my house straight and making dinner. Here is the address to the article written.
http://www.thetowntalk.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009911230316

This if for you Michelle!

Okay so I know that it has been a really loooong time since my last post. My only excuse is no Internet at the house and a veerrrry busy life. So last night we had people over for Family Home Evening. It was really fun. I made a pork roast, rice and gravy, green beans, salad and my super yummy delicious dinner rolls. We also had brownies for dessert but I didn't make those. They were still very good. Hmmmm that sounded a little conceited but I really didn't mean it that way:)
Anyway we had a couple of families over and the missionaries and had a really great time. My house was loud and everyone enjoyed themselves. When it came time for the lesson we sang Book of Mormon Stories with the Ammon verse (look it up if you can and then change "by fighting fearlessly" with by chopping of their arms and you will get the gist of what we sang) It was totally funny. Hmm story behind the story. When Russell, my baby brother was 3 I was 23 and was the Primary chorister. We were learning all the verses to Book of Mormon Stories and Russell new the story of Ammon. So when we got to this part he yelled out as loud as he could "by chopping off their arms" It was quite embarrassing at the time but it stuck and the kids love to sing that song. After our song David told the story of the Paper Cross. I wish I could do it justice on the Internet but you will just have to ask David to show it to you if you haven't seen it before. It was a very special night! WE had 13 children there and they were all quiet while David was telling the bulk of the story. Once he started asking questions they got loud again. I always find it amazing that David has such great knowledge of the gospel. I am truly a blessed woman.

Life!

Life at the Alford house is sometimes crazy. The last couple of weeks have been typical crazy. The kids are all back in school now. Jared and Jessica started full time on Monday. I have some pictures of their first day of school that I will post once I down load them from my camera. Alecia got sick and I listened to a lot of talk about the swine flu. So I kind of freaked out and took her to the doctor to make sure it wasn't the flu. We were blessed and the flu test came back negative so no worry there. The elementary that the little kids go to have had four confirmed cases of the swine flu so I am really praying that they will not get sick.

Home work at our house is really stressful. Krystal is in 4th grade and here in Louisiana that means a major testing year. She will do okay but they give way to much homework for our little ones. She has homework in every subject almost every night.

I am getting back into the swing of thing and will start volunteering at the school library tomorrow. I am also helping out with the PTC pizza day at the Jr high and pizza day and quarter day at the elementary. I am Jared's class room mom and I am volunteering as a band mom for Brandon. Alecia and Katie are in choir at their schools so if i am needed there then I will be helping too. Katie wants to be on the pep squad and we are trying to figure out if it will be possible. David want's me to start coming into the office twice a week to help out with the books. This is all on top of trying to keep up with all the other aspects of being a stay at home mom. HMM maybe I am asking for trouble. LOL

Anyway we are all doing well and I am looking forward to all the upcoming events.

Hot Springs: Bath House

Okay so I haven't finished blogging about our family vacation yet. I told my friend Michelle the story of the Bath House and she said that I just had to put it on my blog. Sooooo Here it is.
My sisters Sandy and Theresa wanted to go to a spa and have a great day. My mom was going so I decided that I would go too, so I could be with the girls. I had looked at the flyer and it looked a little out of my comfort zone but not so bad because the girl in the picture was covered with a sheet even though she was in a tub. So I think alright I can do this it's going to be fun. Yeah riiiight. Let me tell you about the great fun we had. First we go in and it is a really old nice looking building and they have one of those elevators that have to have an attendant. It was kind of cool. Then she takes us into a the changing room which is upstairs and their are no men on this floor (this is very important as you will soon see). They tell us to go into a changing stall and take all of our clothes off and put the clothes in the locker. Alright I'm taking a bath so I know that requires no clothes so off comes the clothes and then I start looking for a robe or a sheet or something. Nope not going to happen. The attendant comes to the door (loosely used it was a curtain and told me to turn facing away from her and she opens the curtain and wraps me in the sheet. Oh MY Gosh I am thinking you have to be kidding me I can wrap myself in the sheet but okay cause once I get my sheet I'm going to keep it. So like I said I'm wrapped in a sheet and so are my mom and sisters and we wait to be called back. They call me and I get to go first. Alright so I go into another little cubicle area where there is a bath and another attendant is there. She tells me to step up on a stool and then she takes my sheet. MY SHEET!!!!! You know the one that I thought was going to stay with me. Nope UHUH this was not happening. I get into the tub with my legs up and my arms covering as much as possible thinking what in the HECK have I gotten myself into. The attendant tells me to lay back and relax and she notices how verrry uncomfortable I am and tells me to just think of myself as her baby for the next hour!!!! Oh boy this is getting weird. She takes a wash cloth and washes my legs and my back and if she went anywhere else I was ready to jump out and say nope not happening I need my sheet, but she didn't and then she left and i was left in 15 minutes of pure heaven. The water was from the Hot Springs and it was nice and warm. I was laying back drinking some warm water from the springs kind of odd but hey I was paying for this experience so I figured I could drink the water. I'm getting really comfortable and then She comes in again and tells me to stand up and she wrapped me in the sheet again. I'm really dying here. I am waaay more modest than that. She takes me to the next station which is a sits bath. Alright let me explain. It kind of looks like a closet without a door. It has a sink in it and she tells me to sit in the sink. So she takes my sheet again and hands me a towel. She tells me to sit down and I loose my balance a little and kind of plop into the sink!!! I'm supposed to cover up with the towel grant it my butt is in the sink and my feet are hanging over the side so my top is the most important thing to cover but there is no Door!!!! I am sitting there with my butt in a sink watching people pass by and wondering what in the world I was thinking!!! The water did feel good it was nice and hot and it was wonderful on my back but hey can we have a little privacy! So she leaves again and brings me back some more water, this time it was cold, to drink. I sit there watching people pass and praying that no one is looking at me. The world became a very small place and revolved around me for a short time!!! She came back and tells me to stand up now remember that there is no DOOR and I am NAKED but I stand and she covers me with the sheet again only to walk a couple of feet over to another closet looking thing that has a bench. This time it's a steam bath. She took my sheet again and i am exposed to the world again!!!! So, I sit and she lowers the lid around my head, My head is sticking out, and then closes the door at my feet and I start to sweat. Boy did I sweat it was rolling down in rivers and I sit there watching people pass again. (at least this time I had some walls around my nudity!!!) She comes back again and wraps me back up in the sheet. So I was exposed yet again in a room where people were walking by. All I can think is "is this ever going to end!!! She takes me to this bed and I sit on it until she comes back. She asks me what hurts and I really didn't have any thing that was hurting so she wrapped my legs and back and shoulders with hot towels. MMMMMM now we're talking I'm covered and it feels really good. She leaves me there to relax and enjoy the experience for a while and then she comes back and asks if I'm ready. I'm not so she leaves me a while longer. She comes back and I figure I'd waited long enough so I say okay. This really had to be the last thing. What else could they do?!?! Okay they could do one more thing. Yikes She takes me to another room and there is a shower with lots of little sprayers in a half circle. She takes my sheet again and tells me to go in and rinse off. I do and she left for a minute and comes back. She gets a towel and starts DRYING ME OFF. She has got to be nuts. No wait a minute I'm the one who is nuts. I'm paying for this humiliation!!!!! She finally holds up the sheet and tells me to finish drying thank goodness. and wraps me back up in the sheet and thank heavens there was no were else to go but back into the dressing rooms to get dressed. So for many of you who know me you will realize that this was waaaay out of my comfort zone. But I must say that I am glad that I went with them however if I were to ever do it again, I will stick with a facial and forget about anything that requires me to get undressed!!!! Okay so I hope that you are all rolling of the floor laughing because I know it's hilarious. Glad I could brighten your day. :)

August 10th: The First Day of School

After a lot of time, money and effort the kids were all ready to go to school. I think they looked really cute on their first day. When they came home Bethany already had homework. We have had a lot of homework for the past couple of days and they are off to a great start. Alecia goes to seminary in the morning and I was awake but not quite I didn't think to get a picture of her. She loves her classes this year. She is taking all honors classes. She has English, Geometry, Spanish, Advanced Choir, Civics/Free Enterprise, PE, and Biology. She is very excited.

The 3 Mousekateers Katie, Krystal, & Bethany
Krystal, She really likes her "Oriental Hair Style". I just put up half and make it a bun. She loves it.Bethany, She is such a Ham!
The Two Amigo's Brandon and Katie.

They are both going to the Jr. High this year and are walking together. They are really two pea's in a pod. Aren't they cute!

Katie just loves this outfit. I think she is starting to look too grown up! Yikes Brandon doesn't care what he wears as long as it covers him up.LOL

Up Date.

So, life has been really hectic lately. I am trying to get all my kids ready to start school by Monday! I have been taking my kids to dentist and eye appointments almost every other day. All but Jared have cavaties that have to be taken care of and Jessica needs glasses. That is going to be tough! How in the world do you keep glasses in good working condition for a 5 year old. Katie, who is 11 can't keep hers together. Katie has also decided that she doesn't like glasses and wants to wear contacts. Is she nuts! However she will not wear them and gets huge headaches. I called her on it and what does she say, "Moooom, (exasperated sigh) I'd rather be beautiful than wear glasses>" Oh my she's only 11! Yikes. More later

A whole new Me!

Okay well maybe not a whole new me just a new and improved version. I have decided that it is time to quit allowing my life to pass me by without doing something about the things that bother me the most. So, I started last night reading scriptures (well I read the Ensign) and saying my personal prayers. I read in the Ensign about how to teach our children to pray more meaningfully and decided it was time for me to do the same. I also started flylady today. For those of you who don't know what this is go to www.flylady.com and you will see. It is a free sight and she sends you e-mails each day about a different task to do and you work on a different habit each month. It awesome and it works if you stay with it. I did this for 3 months a while back and then threw a temper tantrum because I felt like I wasn't getting any support. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot! I also have decided that it is way past time that I can play with my kids again so I have started a new way of eating mainly being that I won't eat anything sweet in private. I will only eat sweet things one day a week and it will be with family or friends. I am also walking as you can see in my previous post. So I know this is a lot of new things at once but I have prayed about it and know that the Lord will help me in my endeavors to better myself. Sooo wish me luck.

Exercise

I've been walking each morning with a dear friend. Its been fun and I hope that I will be able to post some pictures that I like soon. Anyway other than that I have just been getting the kids ready for school.

Tiny Town

David found this fun little shop in Down Town Hot Springs. It is called Tiny Town and it is a whole bunch of train sets put together. The owner said that his father hand made all the houses and scenery. He made the things from stuff he had around the house. He carved little people and even motorized them. It was really neat to see. They had bears that danced, deer that migrated, people eating at a picnic, rocking in a chair, putting up laundry, or even dancing in a barn. They also had it interactive where the kids were able to push a button and make the trains go or make some of the motorized stuff work.

Alecia, Krystal and Bethany enjoying the show!Jessica was really excited to see that she could make things go!

David and the kids looking at some of the scenes.

Next Stop a Pottery Shop

David wanted to go see a pottery shop where we could watch them making the pottery. We got there late and were not able to see what he wanted to but we did get on opportunity to look at some stuff that was already made. I thought it was beautiful and would have bought some if I didn't think I would just wind up sweeping up the pieces off my new tile floor!Krystal with a bowl that she liked.

Alecia with a vase that she liked, Brandon is in the background looking at more stuff.

The kids in front of a water fall fountain in the shop.

Katie standing in front of the tallest vase in the world made on a turn table by hand.

Rock Shop!

The first place we went as a family was a rock shop. There were a lot of pretty rocks!This display is of fossils!

Alecia really was in heaven. She spent quite a bit a that little rock shop!! Brandon was impressed too! Katie and Krystal posed for a picture.

Krystal was soo cute!

Bethany is looking at a Mammoth tusk. I had taken a picture of just the tusk a Momma told Bethany to get in the picture she was right it is a lot better!

Cousins together aren't they cute.
Momma

Theresa looking at some rocks!

Reighn with his rock tick!

Ryan and Lauren were there too. It was so nice getting to know Lauren. I'm glad she was able to come.

Summer Vacation 2009

We had the great opportunity last weekend to go on vacation with my family. We had a mini family reunion in Arkansas. The Heaton Family have a tradition in Idaho to go to the mountains and get together for a family reunion each 4th of July but we live quite a ways away and it makes it hard for us to attend. Ryan wanted us to all go there this year but it was just too hard to figure out so we decided to something similar here. It was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed getting to spend time with my mom, sister and brothers and their families. One of the best things was that David was able to go with us. In the next few post I will write about some of the things that we did.

Finances!!!

Okay, so I am tired of having the money that David works so hard for just slip through our fingers like sand. So I went on lds.org and found the financial workshop that is online and David and I went through about half of it last night. I thought it was very well put together and gave us a lot of things to think about. We started going over our finances and will come up with a plan of action soon. I know that the Lord will help us as we strive to follow his commandments. I thought that I would share the site so that my friends and family can use it too. http://providentliving.org/media/training/peaceheart/main.html

Katie's good deed.

There are moments in a parents life when they know that they are doing something right. Tonight I was so proud of my little Katie girl. We were at Wal-mart getting her a dress because she is growing so dang fast that her old one was too short. As we were leaving Katie noticed a man drop a dollar bill and picked it up and ran to give it to him. He wouldn't have noticed it missing and I'm sure many wouldn't have made the effort and just kept it but not my sweetie. I'm so proud of her. Yeah I think I may be doing this right. LOL

Remember a great man!

Father's Day is really a great day. I love to think of all the things that make it awesome. Family traditions help us to keep close to the past as we go forward into the future. We have a wonderful tradition of making breakfast in bed. I remember doing this for my Daddy and now my darling children do it for theirs. We will be having pancakes with raspberries and blackberries in the morning. David will love it.
It is also a sad day for me because I can't go give my Daddy a hug. I can't tell him Happy Father's day anymore and I can't sit on his lap and tell him I love him. However, I can also remember the things that I can do.... I can think of him and remember him for the awesome person he was. He loved his children very much and only wanted what was best for them. He was by no means perfect but he was perfect to me. He loved me so much. He taught me the gospel, how to be the best person i can be. He wanted his kids to be better than he. In fact, he never really felt worthy of the Love of our Savior and yet he was truly a man of God. I wish that I could sit on his lap and twist his tie tack again, I wish that my children had an opportunity to know him more than they did and I wish that he was standing in front of me right now so that I could tell him that he is my hero, and then wrap my arms around him in a hug that will never end. I am thankful that I know that we will be together again. He is watching over his children and grandchildren and rooting us on. I miss you Daddy.
I thought about writing some of my memories of Daddy and wanted to put down my fondest but how in the world do I do that they were all wonderful. Daddy made me a wonderful kitchen set to play with when I was little, he taught me to love music we used to sit together for hours singing and listening to music he was my biggest fan. He taught me to love family. We did so much together we worked together and played together. He took us camping and swimming. He loved to watch us experience new things. He taught me to love learning, I remember when I was learning to write I didn't have the best penmanship. He had me write poems every night to help me get better. He taught me to love God. I love you Daddy.

Just hanging out

Goodness, it has been a little quiet without Brandon and Alecia this week. Notice I only say a little. Well the other 5 crazies are here and they make quite a bit of noise, however I can still feel that my two oldest are gone. (Could it be that they are my best helpers LOL) Well anyway I miss them and can't wait for my babies to come home.

Happy Anniversary to Me!!!

Wow!!! David and I have been married for 16 years today!!!! I am having a hard time believing that we have been together that long. Time sure flies when your having fun. It seems like only yesterday that we were driving to Salt Lake to be married. Ahhh the fun of traveling with your family. Anyway the story of our wedding will be another post but for now I want everyone to know that I have the most awesome husband in the whole world!!! I love you bunches David.

Camp!!!

Well it is almost here the time of year that the kids look forward to. Next week Brandon will be going to Scout camp and Alecia will be going to YW camp. I will not be going this year and am a little sad that I won't. I have gone for the past 3 years and this will be Alecia's first year to go without me. I am sure that she will have fun but I am going to miss going. Hopefully I will get to go next year when Katie goes for the first time.

Looking Back: Part 3- The Year of Engagement

Okay so we were now engaged but I had to tell my Daddy! Yikes! I was such a Daddy's girl and I had no idea how he was going to take this so I have to admit that I was shaking in my shoes. I know that I had told him about David and I had told him about my experience so he was expecting eventually but I knew that he was not expecting it this soon. So I call him up and ask if it was okay to bring David home with me. The catch was that we would have to bring him back to Shreveport because he didn't have a car yet. So Daddy said yes and I brought David home to meet the family. Oh boy, was that an experience. Daddy was very nice and he asked if we would please give him a year and of course I said yes(being the total Daddy's girl that I am). David on the other hand would have preferred a shorter engagement period but hey he had to wait. Don't they say that "good things come to those who wait". So we were engaged for the next year. It was a time of learning and growth and much patience from both of us. David seemed to have doubts quite a lot. But to be fair to him I didn't let him take me out on real dates very often. I was very engrossed in school and didn't do anything except for on weekends and Daddy had told me that he wanted me home on weekend because all he had was one year left. Needless to say I kind of felt stuck in between the two men that I loved the most but since I was 19 and still felt that it was very important to give Daddy what he wanted ....... I went home almost every weekend. I brought David with me a lot but this still was not the kind of dating he was expecting. Now .... that does not mean we didn't spend a lot of time together, before any of you start thinking my wonderfull Daddy was weird let me tell you that he paid for David's first year of college at NSU (It was a loan that we paid back when we took over the payments of my student loan). He did this so that David and I could be together more. He thought that we were dating during the week. We did get together a lot and ate almost every meal together I felt like it was awesome and loved every minute of it!!!! However I think David would have enjoyed more real dates that consisted of going out adn not just going on walks around campus and talking alot. It was wonderful and we grew a lot. There was a small group of LDS students at NSU and we had a lot of wonderful moments. David was our resident priesthood holder and gave many blessings and pep talks throughout that year. It was Awesome and what didn't kill David made him stronger LOL... to be cont.

Ryan's Home!!!!!

Well after two long years we now have my very dear little brother home from his mission!!!! It was a day that was well worth the wait but we are all glad that the waiting is over. We are all so proud of his achievements and we know that he was where the Lord wanted him at the time. For those of you who do not know which I really don't think it could be many, my little brother was on his mission in Michigan. Poor thing he was verrry cold in the winter. Yikes Any way here are some of the pictures that I took. I took a whole lot more but these are the ones that I wanted to share. As you can see Momma was so excited that Ryan was finally going to be back. She could seem to stop smiling and she just glowed!

Momma wanted to have a huge group there to greet Ryan when he got off the plane and she asked David to make a banner. Of course David said two was better than one and made two. Momma also got some balloons and filled them with helium. Oh what fun. We were almost all there. Momma and Russell, Ray and Chelle and their kids Tori and Wesley (Trey was in VA and Riley had to work), Me and David and all of ours, Ron and Theresa with Reighn and Becky, Sandy (Jake was off shore), We also had a lot of awesome friends there, Sis Laughlin, Dawn TeSam and her girls, Kimberly, Natalie and Rachal, Shannan, Jonathan, and Jessica and Daniel Curiel, Brother and Sister Pinegar and their adopted daughter Tiffany, and the Funderburks. It was awesome to have sooooo many people there to welcome Ryan home but I think we did overwhelm him a little.

Momma was there with a big hug when he first got off the plane!!

And of course it lasted a while since she hadn't been able to hug him for two years!!!

Ryan and Momma

The whole family minus four! We missed you Jake, Trey, Stephanie, and Riley!

After we left the airport we all went to Ryan's Family Steak House and ate dinner. We took up one of the whole back party area's. We ran the poor waitress off her feet. It was a lot of fun and wonderful to be able to sit and be together. All of my siblings were there Ahhhhh It is a great feeling. I love you Ryan and am glad that you are back. ( the picture above is of Ryan and Jonathan Laughlin his life long friend)

Looking Back- Part 2 Getting Engaged!

Okay so I left off with giving my Daddy a heart attack. HeHeHe Anyway, David and I started calling each other and talked for long periods of time. It was great fun. Our first Date was May 29, 1992 I remember the exact date because it was his birthday. I drove 2 hours to see him and went to a dance at his stake. It was great fun, after the dance we walked to McDonald's for dinner. When it was time to go we didn't want to leave and it took us a while to say goodbye. I had got into my car and started searching for my keys. David was standing outside and laughing at me it took me a while to realize why he was laughing the darn keys were still in the door where I had stuck them to unlock the car. LOL Well before I left David stuck his head in through the window and gave me a quick kiss (aww how sweet our first kiss).
We continued to talk to one another on the phone and had a wonderful time getting to know one another. The next time we got to see each other was at the YSA conference held at Northwestern. It was a very important time in our little life. We spent sooo much time together talking and laughing and just plain enjoying one anther's company. Ahhh the memories. Anyway, we went to one of the dances and of course we danced together. While we were dancing David decided to ask me some questions Yeah it was like an are you good enough to be my wife interview Hehehe. So what were the questions? First he asked me what I felt about kissing!!!!! Okay this sounded like one of those "you can't win" questions and I really didn't want to tell him that I had always felt that the first really majorly awesome kiss should be across the alter at the temple (especially since I had already messed up a little on that goal) so I threw the question back at him and said what do you think about it. I was amazed when he said the same thing. Yeah the Lord knew who to put together. It was great. So we continue to dance and then he asks me this question, are you ready for this, boy did this take guts. Okay already here's the question. He asked me if I had ever thought that he might not be The One and I said no. It was automatic because by then I really knew that he was the one that I was going to marry. I didn't know when or how I just knew it was going to happen. He asked me how I knew that and I told him that I would tell him in a couple of months. There was nooooo way that I was going to tell him about my awesome spiritual experience while standing in the middle of a whole bunch of people dancing and I felt we needed to have some more time to get to know each other better before I told him. So we left it at that. I had a great time and we went out to a table and had a mini scripture study with each other man was I smitten. He was just what I wanted, spiritual and handsome. Cool So we stayed up really late and were tired the next day. We missed getting to ride the boat that was scheduled for that day but still had a great time. We walked back to campus and while we were walking and were really close to our spot David told me about his experience the day we had met. Now It is not quite as romantic as mine. He wasn't praying, driving or anything. He was washing his hands after using the restroom and looking in the mirror and thought "I just met my wife." Yeah that's kind of odd but hey you can't question the spirit. So after he told me his experience I felt the spirit very strongly, you know the feeling of love and comfort and I felt like I just had to tell him about my experience. So I did and I think I really blew his mind because now he really knew what we were feeling was heading in a direction that was new territory. So we go to the rest of our meetings and then we go back to our table to pray and read scriptures, sooo cool I really loved that about him. Anyway while we were there David sat for a very long time quietly and then he asked me if I knew what most people would do at this point (he was really into those leading questions, but Hey I knew how to handle them I just sent them right back to him LOL) He said that most people would get engaged! Oh my! Well then he asked me to pray with him. David always has has a hard time making decisions so I begin to pray with him and he asked me to keep on praying when the verbal prayer was over so that is just what I did. While I was praying David asked me what I was doing. Okay so he asked me to pray and not to stop so that is what I did and then he wants to know what I'm doing come on. So I just said I'm still praying. Aww it was soooooo sweet. David pulls me up to where he was and then he looks into my eyes. I can't tell you what that was like but I'm going to try. It was like looking into a window and seeing all the happy things that would happen between us. It was like Christmas morning It was awesome! Then finally David looks me deep in the eyes and asks me to marry him! Yay I was so excited and yet scarred and all sorts of feelings all rolled into one and I said yes!! After knowing each other for only three weeks we were engaged. Oh boy how am I going to tell Daddy this!!!! To be continued

Looking Back - Part 1 The First Day

Wow! Yesterday David turned 40 and I sit and think where did the time go. So with this thought in mind I think I will go back in time to 1992. It is the year that David and I met. We met at a Young Single Adult Activity at my home stake (for those of you who are not members of the LDS church this is a graphical area of the church) Anyway, I was the YSA leader in my area and David had the same calling in his area so we were destined to meet. If we go back a little farther when I was set apart (blessed) to do this calling I was told that I would meet my future companion through my calling and I believed it with all my heart. So, I met David and I have to say that he was a skinny guy wearing maroon suspenders and me well I was wearing shorts with an open wound up and down my leg (the wound was caused by riding a horse with out the knowledge necessary to get the horse to do what I wanted, it decided to go up a hill and my leg was scraped up a metal fence post) if I covered the wound with anything it would stick and cause me great pain. One of his first thoughts about me was that he sure hoped that whoever married me would realize that the scar wouldn't be there in the here after LOL. I'm happy to say that you can barely see it now and I didn't even have to die to make it go away. Opps I'm rambling a little but this is part of our beginning. David found out that I was the YSA representative and introduced himself to me and then asked me to dance. We danced the whole night and had a really great time. David even sang me his raindrop song and I quoted one of my poems. It was great and I was really excited about meeting someone that was a member of the church that I belong to. When I left I had an hour drive home and I prayed as I was driving, it was a common practice of mine to pray in my car. I had to sit still and it kept my mind occupied while I was alone. As I was praying I decided to ask Heavenly Father for some Divine intervention and get David to ask me out. Hey I didn't date much because I choose not to date outside of my religion so this made a lot of sense. As I was praying I received a very special answer to my prayers and I knew that all would be okay. In fact I went home and woke my Daddy and told him that I had just met the man I was going to marry!! Poor Daddy, what a way to wake up. LoL To be continued

Wonderful Weekend!!

This past weekend we were able to spend some good quality time with Mom and Paul. They invited us to an Appleseed event. (For those of you who dont' know what this is here is a link to their website http://www.appleseedinfo.org/ )It was a wonderful time of learning about our nations history and learning how to shoot rifles. We all really had a great time. We learned about the first three strikes that started the Revolutionary War. One of the things that was said that really stuck in my mind was how the Battle of Lexington was fought in Concord by the men of Atkin(I think this was the name, it was a town close by who came to help when they saw that there was a problem.) I think that Paul really looked the part. Mom said that she had made him a poet shirt. I bet that would have really looked cute! Krystal really loves her Grandpa, isn't she precious. :)

I'm not sure how this was the only picture of Mom that was taken all weekend. However I just love it. It definitely shows of her sparkling personality. Hehehe


I don't think that the girls were impressed with the shower facilities. LOL However it was a way to get clean so that they could start all over on getting dirty.

Alecia had to strike a pose when she noticed me with the camera.

Grandma set up this shelter which turned out to be a wonderful thing as it sure did rain a lot. I however am not complaining since the rain is what made the temperature bearable.

David enjoyed shooting! However he told me that he felt muscles that he hadn't felt in a very long time. LOL
Alecia shot too, but I don't have pictures of her shooting because she was my photographer out on the shooting range. Dangit I bet that would have been cute and I didn't realize it until it was too late to rectify the situation.

Brandon shot all three days and really enjoyed himself. Doesn't he just look sooo cute.

Here is a picture of David and Brandon shootingKatie is our little Annie Oakley. She stayed the whole time and really learned a lot. She struggled the first day but thanks to Grandpa and an instructor name Luis she was able to hit the target on Days 2 and 3. She really learned to follow the instructions well. I think she is very adorable. Krystal decided not to shoot, but she had a lot of fun and she was my big helper. I had her taking the little ones to the restroom(that was nasty it was one of those portable things and they didn't empty it UGGG)Alecia's tent had Bethany and Jessica in it and they decided to be bugs for the weekend. Bethany chose to be a dragonfly and here she is with her antennae. :)She also decided that she wanted to shoot after Jared and Jessica did so here she is with Grandpa learning how to shoot.Jared was the first of the littlest ones to decide to shoot. He just wanted to go do it so Grandpa took him over and helped him. He had a blast!!Jessica had Grandpa help her to shoot also. I just love these pictures. Grandpa was soo patient and helped each one of them!I have no idea what she was thinking here but I just love my little warrior princess! This is a picture of the bullet that Jessica shot into the target!!!!

Finally at the end everyone climbed the hill and held up the flag. It's not the best picture but i just love it! Thank you so much Mom and Paul for inviting us. It was a great time to spend together learning and playing.