Visitors

We finally got some excitement in March. My brother Jeff, his wife Amy, and their new baby Austin came from Denver to spend a week with us. We had so much fun with them. Everyone was so excited to finally meet Austin, and we couldn't get enough of him. He was one of the cutest and happiest babies I have ever seen. Noah keeps telling me he wants us to have another baby. Unfortunately for him, he is our baby, and that won't be changing!

Lucky for us, Jeff was here on his spring break from school, so he was looking for some down time. He came to the right place! We tried to provide them with a little bit of fun, and give them a taste of what Arkansas has to offer. One thing they wanted was some real southern BBQ, so we took them to our favorite.

Posing with the pig

We made it our "B" night - BBQ and bowling

Mike was trying to show Jeff his moves.

Megan even decided to be seen with us on a Friday night

Look at that form. Jeff looks like a pro. It must be from his bowling league years!

February Happenings

The winter months seem to be a little slow, with fewer activities to take pictures of. Here are a few of the things that happened in February:

Noah lost his second top middle tooth.

He looks so cute with them gone. We are dreading the big permanent teeth filling in the gap.

Valentine's Day!

Noah had his preschool party the Friday before Valentine's. They always have fun food for the kids. They got to pull out the parachute, which the kids always love.

And the kids were excited when the much anticipated "Secret Admirer" left them a treat at our doorstep.

Costa Rica!

Mike was able to go on a week long business trip to Costa Rica. He was there to do some training for employees down in Central America. Even though he wasn't able to do much sight-seeing, it was one of the best experiences he has had in his career. Unfortunately he didn't take many pictures.

Snow Days

Ever since Christmas, we have had an unusually snowy winter. But since this place is not accustomed to an abundance of snow, it takes days to clean up a moderate amount of snow. It is even worse when ice is involved. Thus, the kids have so far missed 7 days of school since the beginning of January. Unfortunately, the days will have to be made up, mostly at the end of the school year. It is starting to feel like summer might not ever come! The kids have enjoyed taking advantage of those days off and going out and playing in the snow. They have forgotten that it was the norm when we lived in Utah.

Daisy loves running around and eating the snow.

While in the midst of shoveling, the kids talked Mike into building them a snow cave.

Mike started running out of place to throw the snow, so he decided to just pile it in the middle of the driveway.

A few days after one of our storms, there were a couple of mornings when we had freezing fog. It looked really cool on the plants.

I discovered this picture on my camera when I was downloading all my pictures. I'm not sure what to say. I think that this is the result of too many days out of school.

Saying Goodbye to Grandpa

This picture is from this past summer when we were on vacation in Utah. My Grandma and Grandpa Crosbie were able to come to my nephew's blessing, and I felt a strong prompting that I needed to get a picture of my kids with them. I'm so grateful that I did because on Tuesday, December 29th my Grandpa passed away.

My family didn't grow up living close to our grandparents. We lived in California, and they all lived in Utah. I remember loving our annual trip to Utah to visit all the relatives. My Grandpa had a huge garden, and would spend much of his day working in it. In the evening he would take us down to the basement and let us pick from his large selection of ice cream flavors. He loved playing card games, so we would usually learn a new game each time we visited. My Grandpa seemed to always have a smile on his face. He was very friendly and social, and could never make it through a trip to the store without seeing several people that he knew.

When Mike and I were engaged, I had the opportunity to live with my Grandma and Grandpa while I waited for Mike to finish at Ricks. It enabled me to be close enough to see Mike once every couple of weeks. I was able to develop a closer relationship with them, and my appreciation for them grew. They took such good care of each other, and truly loved one another. I will always be thankful for that time I spent with them.

A few years after we got married and moved to Salt Lake, my Grandpa suffered a brain aneurysm. He was Life Flighted down to Salt Lake, and I was able to be there at the hospital when he arrived. I spent many days, weeks, and months visiting him and my Grandma in the hospital while he recovered. This too was a time that I will always be thankful that I had with them. They provided me with a great example of love, faith, courage, and endurance.

On New Years day I was able to fly out to Utah so that I could be at my Grandpa's funeral. Everything fell into place so perfectly. My youngest brother and I flew in within 20 minutes of each other, and then my sister and her family picked us up and drove us straight up to Logan. We were able to be there in time to attend his viewing at the mortuary. There we were able to meet up with aunts, uncles, and cousins, some that I haven't seen for more than 4 years. There are 24 grandchildren, and 23 of us were there. The only one that wasn't able to attend is serving a mission. We all went over to my Uncle's house after the viewing for dinner, and were able to visit and reminisce about Grandpa.

My cousin Jim and I spoke at the funeral about our memories of Grandpa. We were able to talk about the memories that were mentioned by all of the grand kids the night before. The funeral was really nice. My Grandpa served in the military, and was given military honors at the cemetery, complete with the rifles being shot 3 times. He was also very proud of his Scottish heritage, and so there was a bagpipe played at the cemetery as well.

We went back to the church after the cemetery for lunch. This is a picture of me, my cousin Jenni, and my sister Nicole. People often think Jenni is our sister too.

My family

My family was nice enough to indulge me in a dinner at Cafe Rio. I went back to Salt Lake the next day, and was able to spend the evening with Mike's parents and his brother and wife. I headed home the next day.

It was such a nice trip and I am so grateful that I was able to go and say goodbye to Grandpa Crosbie one last time. He will truly be missed.

A White Christmas

It felt like Christmas kind of snuck up on us this year. We were doing our shopping right up until the day before, and wrapping the presents the day before too. After having just had our parents here, we were sad at the prospects of spending the holiday alone. We were grateful for the invitation to join a couple of other families for Christmas Eve dinner. We ate soup and snacks, played games, and had a reading of "Twas the Night Before Christmas". Then the kids all opened their gift of new pajamas. If was fun to see the variety of jammies.

They even put their jammies on and played a couple of games together.

We went home and watched a movie about Christ's birth. Then it was

time to get the cookies and milk ready for Santa.

The kids decided to have a slumber party together in Megan's room.

Sammy left a thank you note for Santa on her stocking.

We woke up around 8:00 and discovered a layer of snow outside! Daisy wasn't sure what to think about her first experience with snow.

The kids waited anxiously to find out what Santa had left them.

Santa must have thought they were good because he left the things they were most wishing for:

A new phone for Megan with unlimited texting. We appreciated him for leaving us with the monthly bill on that. Mike calls it the gift that keeps taking.

A new i-Pod for Sammy. Now she won't have to keep stealing Mom's. She wanted yellow because it was a color that no one else has.

Who knew that a toothbrush could bring a boy so much happiness.

It was all about Star Wars for Noah this year, and Santa came through

with Star Wars spaceships and Legos.

I guess Santa thought Daisy was a good girl this year too

because he left her a new bed, toy, and bones.

The rest of the day was spent playing with new toys

Showing love to each other

Taking a Christmas nap

We started opening presents after breakfast. We have developed a tradition these past 4 years that we have lived away from family. Instead of rushing through opening our presents, we each open a couple, then take a break for an hour or two, then come back and open a couple more. This year we were opening the last of the presents at 5:00. We love being able to stretch it out through the whole day.

Go Utes!

Sammy's new earring collection

We finished the day off with our yummy traditional Christmas dinner of ham, cheesy potatoes, orange rolls, green beans, and rainbow jello eaten on the china.