Monday, November 3, 2014

We have a computer once again

I know, I know! It's been since Valentines day since I have updated! It's been one crazy year... I have a lot of updating to do, so I will get started on that. A lot of my updates will not have pictures, but I will do my best. :)
Water was dumped on our last computer, and it has taken us this long to finally find a replacement. Many posts to come, and hopefully I won't get behind again!
Yay! I'm excited to be back in the blogging world; it's been way too long!

Monday, February 17, 2014

Valentines Day

For Valentines day, the elders quorum was in charge of the ward party. Randy is the first counselor, so I was "in charge" of the party. It turned out really well! We had all the tables set up with fancy dishes, and the husbands served their wives. Then we played a get to know you game, and a minute to win it game, and had dancing afterwards. Everyone had a really good time, and a lot said it was one of the best ward parties they have ever been to! Yay!! I'm so glad it turned out so well!
I made a "photo booth", and had Randy take everyone's pictures as they walked in the door. It really was fun, and I'm not afraid to say that I'm glad it's over! :)  
On the 15th, Randy and I had our own little celebration. Emma decorated the table for us, and made us a candle light dinner. I made chocolate covered strawberries, and we had sparkling cider. It was such a fun little romantic dinner!! Randy bought me beautiful red roses, and we watched a movie with some strawberry haagen dazs. Yummy! It was a great date! I'm so glad that 11 years ago, the man I love asked me to marry him! We've had an amazing journey together!

Carribean cruise/honeymoon

In January, Randy and I went on our first cruise! We considered it our honeymoon as well, because we never went on one. It was all paid for by Clear satellite, the company Randy works for during the summer time. Flights included! It was soooo much fun! It was a Western Carribean cruise. The ports were Grand Cayman, Cozumel, Belize, and Hondorus. The day we were supposed to port at Grand Cayman, the weather was bad, so we weren't able to go there. We were bummed, and I got sea sick from the swaying, so it started out kind of rough. After that, though, everything was amazing! It was such a wonderful experience!! The food was awesome, and there was more than you could ever imagine eating. There were lots of things to do on the ship as well.
This was my first big airplane. It was awesome!
 When we got there, we didn't have a room assigned to us for some reason, so when we registered, we got our room number. We were supposed to have an interior cabin room without windows. When we walked in our room, we were happy to discover that there was a large window, and when we went to check it out, we discovered it was a balcony room!! We weren't going to complain! It was awesome! We spent a lot of time out on the balcony, just staring at the beautiful ocean.


 When we went to Cozumel, we rode a ferry to the main land, and went on an LDS tour to Tulum. The tour was through helamantours.com, and our tour guide was a stake president named Lemuel. He was awesome, and gave us a scriptural tour. It was so beautiful and peaceful there!

 Of course, there were cute little towels folded in the shape of an animal in our room every day. The room service was incredible! They treat you very well all over the ship.


 Did I mention that there was unlimited ice cream too??


 


 A band played for us on the Ferry
 In Belize, we took a tour of the city on a horse and buggy ride. It was a very humbling experience to see the "houses" that some of the people lived in there. We are all so blessed to have a roof over our heads, and such large houses!
 This was a middle class house


We have more pictures of our vacation, but they are on Randy's phone, and we can't figure out how to get them off yet.
In Honduras, we went snorkeling by the coral reef. It was so cool! It was awesome swimming in the ocean, and seeing all the cool things living there. I did learn one hard lesson though. Don't swim into the only area where there are waves. There are waves because the coral is taller. I got into them, and panicked because I "couldn't" get out, and got pushed through the coral. The waves kept shoving me down, and I would come up yelling for help, but had no luck. After having my life flash before my eyes (that really does happen!) I had a voice in my head tell me to "Straighten up! you have kids, and you are going to drown if you don't grab ahold of the coral and sit down!!". So that's what I did. I was so afraid to touch the coral that I almost drowned. Hard lesson learned, for sure! And I have a few scars to remind me if I ever forget!! :) Would I snorkel again? For sure!! It really was awesome!!
After that, we got to hold a monkey on the beach. I loved it! It was so cool!
There were so many other awesome experiences, I can't even begin to type them all, but when I get our other pictures, maybe I can tell a few more things. I can't wait until we can go again!
p.s. Mom and Stetsy took the kids for us so we could go. I cannot even begin to say how thankful I am for them!! They were troopers for sure!! I love you both!! Thanks again!

Christmas at the ranch

It's been a few years since we went down to my parents' for Christmas, so we decided that we would do that this year. It was, as always, a lot of fun! There were lots of kids, lots of presents, and lots of fun chaos. :) I'm sure my parents would feel so lonely if no kids showed up for Christmas. They might enjoy it, but I think it would be really weird for them.
We were truly blessed, and had a wonderful Christmas!









Christmas caroling on horse and buggies

Right before Christmas, we got together with a group of friends to go Christmas caroling. I have a friend who's husband has all these horses and buggies, and he agreed to take us around. It was so fun! There's something about being on a buggy ride that makes Christmas caroling even more fun! I'm glad we were able to go, and people even came out of their houses to hear us sing! Good times!




Brave little one...

Okay, so I am afraid of heights. My legs get weak, my knees start to wobble, and I can't control my body when I get on a ledge, or somewhere too high. I don't know why, it drives me crazy!! Well, I wanted Christmas lights on the house really bad, and Randy was always working, so I decided to do it myself. "I can do it", I thought.... I started on the low side of the roof. I got a ladder, and hung half of the lights. It wasn't that hard. Then it got too high for the ladder. I tried getting on the roof, and my knees started to do that wobbly thing. I was so annoyed with myself!! Then I had a thought... I asked Emma if she is afraid of heights, and she isn't! She said that she would climb up there and finish them for me!! She did so awesome! I, of course, was on the ladder worrying about her the whole time, saying things like "are you okay?" "you are so brave!" "are you sure you're okay?" "you are so brave!" (over and over again). I think my knees even got wobbly having my daughter up there, but she got the job done, no problem! What a brave little girl!!


My little tap dancers

My girls are so blessed to have an aunt that teaches tap dancing! They are getting to be quite the little dancers too. It's such a good feeling when my girls walk out onto the stage to perform. I always almost go into the "ugly cry" because I am so proud of them. It's such a hard feeling to explain, but I'm sure anyone that is a mommy or aunt can relate! It's the best!


SNOW!!

We don't usually get a lot of snow, but this time, it snowed more than we've ever seen it snow in Southern Utah. It was so fun, and it stayed for a long time! We built lots of snowmen, and attempted to build an igloo, but didn't know what we were doing, so it didn't work out. It was still fun spending time together in the snow.
 
 We got it a few layers higher than this, but the kids and I didn't know where to go from there...:)


Hare Family Thanksgiving party

We had such a wonderful Thanksgiving, as always with the Hare family! We always have the big, yummy feast, and then play a game of football, watch movies, play games, and eat and eat and eat...all day. :) We usually like to make ginger bread houses too, but this year, we decided to make nativities instead. They turned out so cute! Everyone was so creative! I loved this idea!
 





 Usually after everything, we go Christmas caroling all over town on a hay ride. It's always lots of fun, and a good way to start off the Christmas season with beautiful music!




Elementary dance festival

Every year there is a dance festival, and each grade dresses up in different costumes and perform different dances. It's always a lot of fun seeing your little child down there, dancing their little heart out. This year's theme was the circus. Good job, girls!! We love you!