The play!!!!!

It really was the best Christmas pageant ever!!!

Josh is the tallest man on the back row, front and center. He played the Dad.

I am 2nd to last on the back row, in the red sweater. Wow, I am really short. LOL

Emily is in the front row, pretty in pink and 7th from the left. She played Beverly, one of the Sunday school kids and a member of the angel choir.

Julian is 2nd to last in the front row...He played Claude Herdman- the Herdman's were the "bad kids" who had never been to church and never even heard about the story of Jesus' birth.

My sister-in-law Robyn was in the play too!

She's 2nd from left in the back row.

And my niece was in it- Ella is 3rd from left in the front row.

It's a really sweet story.

We had so much fun doing this play. It was a lot of work and took up a lot of time, but we had a blast and loved every minute of it.

I ended up getting a decent part because a few people dropped out of the show when they realized how much time it would take.

Josh had to take 3 vacation days from work for performances.

2 of our shows were cancelled because of the snow day. :(

But we still did 6 performances. I am hoping someone got some shots of us on stage.

No fire place?

When we came in from the snow, I found Julian warming himself by the fire. LOL
That DVD also plays Christmas music in the background!
It's perfect "tree decorating" music...
OH!
I need to take a picture of our tree!

Here's Annie looking out at the snow.

Guitar Hero

Julian was so happy about his birthday present!!!


He took a few breaks from playing in the snow to play the guitar.
We also braved the elements and went out to a Chinese Buffet.
That was his birthday request: Chinese food and Guitar Hero.
The snow was an unexpected bonus.



Of course Josh had to get in on that action.

It took like 5 tries to get this shot!


And what was Emily doing? PLaying on the computer.
Don't ya love that big bow?
I got it for 50 cents at a craft fair!

Snow in Louisiana

I have so much to blog about.
I guess I will start with the SNOW DAY!!!
Yes, it snowed here in Louisiana.
It was a historical day. We have NEVER seen this much snow down here!!! (at least not in my life time)



On December 11th Julian woke us up at about 6am, opened our blinds and said "It's snowing!"
What's really cool is that was his BIRTHDAY!
He said it was the best birthday EVER.



Julian made a snow angel!!!


The house with snow...and look! Our new carport. Yeah!

Down here, when it snows everything shuts down!
The schools were closed, a lot of businesses closed, on the news they told people to STAY HOME, don't try to drive....we aren't used to snow.

It was deep. Isn't Annie so pretty?


I have about a hundred pictures of the snow, by the way. LOL
Joshua and I had so much fun playing in the snow too. We felt like a couple of kids!




Snowman time!!!!


He had golf club arms and golf ball eyes. LOL

Thanksgiving was wonderful

Last Saturday we left for MS and stayed all week.
What a beautiful place.


It was the best Thanksgiving of my life so far!


The bunkhouse got a total renovation, thanks to my bro-in-law Randy. He did such an awesome job!!!! Going to the camp is a whole new experience now.


My parents are the best:

Sweethearts.

Hayden and Emily playing zoo:


My JuJuBee:

I love him so much.
While we were out at the camp, we had a day date together - just the 2 of us. He's a lot of fun to hang out with.
I can't believe he'll be turning 12 in less than 2 weeks. That's a very significant birthday!!! We are so proud of him.

Care Bear!!!

She's so precious.

There are TONS of thrift shops, flea markets, and salvage centers near the camp, so we love to shop when we go out there! Here's Robyn with a sign we found-it was so appropriate. LOL

PLUS: Carrie, Robyn, and I went to the city for a Girl's Day Out...We went to the Olive Garden for lunch and then saw the movie Twilight!!! I loved it. It was sweet.
Also, we hit the mall. I wish I had taken more pictures.

Speaking of the mall: I bought a hair straightener.

You know those people with the little kiosks (sp?) at the mall...(usually from Israel) who try to stop you and straighten your hair???
Yeah, they got me.
But I LOVE that thing!!!

Josh had to work M-W, but he came up Wednesday night and stayed the rest of the weekend. We went on a mini-date Saturday afternoon. It was so nice.


My sis-in-law Conneen and my big brother Kevin:

They are so cool!

We played lots of games. Whacky 6, Phase 10, Dominoes, Scene It (my favorite)

We also watched a lot of awesome movies. Cheesy LDS spoof-type movies: Church Ball, Suits on the Loose...I still want to see Sons of Provo. Can't wait.
We also watched a serious movie- the Emma Smith story. I cried all the way through.

The women of the family:

Conneen, Christy, Me, Mom, Keli, Carrie, and Robyn

Me and Keli


Cori and Christy


Annie loves the camp too!

She was able to run free all day. I had to give her a lot of baths though, so she could sleep in the bunk with me at night. LOL

long time no blog

I got a new rug for my living room.

What do ya think? I decided my house had too many dark colors. This is my first step in brightening up the place.

I painted another picture!!!

This canvas is HUGE...and I used oils this time. A week later and the paint's still wet. I don't know where I'm going to hang this one yet. I'm also not sure if I'm completely done with it. I might want to touch up some spots.

what's hangin'?

So this was Emily's room BEFORE....



But a couple months ago she informed me that she wanted to do a "make over" on her room. She said she wants to decorate it with HER style....
Well, at first I was worried about this.
After all, she thinks purple stockings and silver shoes look FABULOUS::::::



But you know what? Why not?
So we are in the process of making her room how SHE wants it...She wants it painted some wild and crazy colors too. Probably leopard print...but we'll see about that.
Here are a few of the changes.



Yeah, lots of chaos and color. She loves it.



So what I want to do is try to find a few really large cool posters she'd like and get them framed. So instead of having a million small posters she'd have 1-2 big ones on each wall???
But there I go again, trying to take over.

She painted this picture herself. I want to get a frame for it.


She wanted this net/hammock thing for her stuffed animals, but I think Josh hung it up wrong. I'm thinking of getting a bunch of those colorful crates that you can stack on top of each other...like shelves. She could put her stuffed animals on display in those too.


Yes, these are wall stickers on her bed and wall:::

Hey, why not?

So what do you think?