Christmas Eve I took the kidos out for a drive and went up to Kennesaw Mtn. battlefield. We had fun walking the trails and taking pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

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Idea stolen from Aunt Randi

My Aunt Randi, who is a funny lady - love her
had on her site her very own bucket list. I thought it was neat to see what she wrote. So I thought I would write down some of my own. Although it's sad to say, but I have never been a dreamer (not good at making goals) that way. I thought of a couple and I have taken on some of my husband's wishes as well.

In no particular order:

Take a Nauvoo tour - husbands
Learn to do carpentry work. ie: build an island for my kitchen or a desk.
Do an Alaskan cruise - husbands
Be able to move all my family out to Georgia- the weather is so much nicer
Learn to play piano
See a space shuttle launch- husbands
Have family get together in one big huge cabin or condo on beach.
Go to amusement park
Go on shopping spree and not worry about money

The Talent Show! A Friend of ours put it on YouTube. Thanks so much KGS

Ward Christmas Party

The kids were waiting in line to see Santa! I couldn't get them to s tand still.

Mason thought this snowman was soooo cool.

Chris figured out how to write on the pictures. Ahh that guy makes me laugh. Cute kids huh

Happy Birthday Mason!!!

Mason turned two Dec. 8th. If Tatum had come a few hours later they could have shared the same birthday! (sister's baby came day before) Congratulations Julie and Brent. We are thinking of you. Wish I could hold that tiny little girl of yours.

Here's Mason singing Happy Birthday along with us.

He was thinking hard on how to get that open.

And only a week later the toy is already lost, oh well it was a loud toy and he enjoyed it while it lasted. Hopefully it'll show up again.

Thanksgiving Day

This is the only picture I got on our trip to Tennessee. We remembered to bring the camera, but forgot to charge it. Oh well. I thought I would post our one picture so you can all see my growing belly and that darn pointy nose of mine and my sweet little boy who gets shyer by the minute. Shyer is probably not a word huh. I shouldn't post this late at night, I say stupid stuff.

Macey's New Haircut!

Macey is a funny one, that girl. With two older brothers she can be quite the tomboy and other times she's as girly as can be, but not when it comes to bows and piggytails. She can't stand them and as soon as we get home from any store or outing she rips them out, so hard in fact that she was breaking her hair off in clumps and took scissors to it one time out of frustration to get the darn thing out. Chris and I were getting tired of her hair always in her face and looking like a rats nest. I got her out of the shower the other morning and I had had enough of her whining about doing her hair. I didn't even wait to set up an appointment somewhere, I just sat her down and started cutting. She was all for it, Chris and I had mentioned it to her a couple of times and she was actually excited to do it.

I'll have to take a picture again when it's all dolled up. This is just after I cut it. I tried to do an A line cut. Chris was a little shocked when he came home, I don't think he was expecting me to chop that much off. eeek, I hope I can make it look cute.

New favorite song

Go to our playlist and click on Just Dance, by Lady GaGa. This is our families latest favorite! We love to blast this on Saturday mornings and dance around the room.

What do you mean Cade failed his eye exam?

Cade came home with a letter saying he failed his eye exam for both eyes. Over the following week we continuously would have Cade stand back and tell us "how many fingers am I holding up?", "What letter is this?" and so on. I couldn't believe we never noticed before, but sure enough he couldn't tell how many fingers we had up. He is doing pretty well with them, he was a little nervous the first day back to school. He had his hoody pulled down so low you could hardly see his face.

It was really cute the day we picked up his glasses, the whole drive home he was pointing things out, reading signs and saying "mom when I take my glasses off that ___ is kind of blurry, but when I put them on it's not blurry!"

You look good Cado Potato. We love you

Jeffrey R. Holland's visit

Recently, we had Elder Holland come visit our stake. It was a very personal and neat experience with an apostle of the Lord. As a kid, I remember going to the Sun Dome, I think it was called in Arizona to listen to one of the apostles, but they were so far away you couldn't even see them. I haven't had the chance to go to conference in Utah either so this was exciting!

Chris is always more daring than I am though. He thought to take the children and wait out in the foyer so that when Elder Holland walked out of the offices to enter the chapel he would have to walk right by them. Chris, had to give C.J. a nudge forward, but Chris & all the kids got to shake his hand. Chris was holding Mason in his arms and E. Holland squeezed Mason's cheeks and said that those were "Holland" cheeks. How neat is that! He was very personable and funny and short in stature.

I'm not going to do this justice with what he said that is, but I'll try and give a few key remarks that touched Chris and I.

He talked to the youth and mentioned how hard and trying these times are. He said it used to be that the rate of young men falling away from the Church was always higher, now that is not the case. The rate of young women is equal or if not more. He spoke shortly on tithing and asked the youth to compare that to their lives as well. If we are to live around a hundred years and were to devote 10% of our life to Jesus and basically hold to the rod with all your might, that it be the years of 12-22 or 14-24.

I loved how he bore his testimony of Hinckley and the long life he spent serving the Lord and then he finished with his own. It was so powerful to hear his personal testimony and witness of the Gospel. What touched me was the amount of time they spend away from home and that he would never do this if it was all just a "ruse, a fairytale". He said he would only spend this much time away from wife, family and grandchildren for the Lord and because he KNOWS this is Jesus' true church. He exclaimed several times he doesn't just believe or strongly think that our Savior lives, but HE KNOWS. " There is not anything else that I could experience or hear or see that would make me believe more than what I already know". I couldn't help to think as I was sitting there Oh Yeah, this man has actually seen our Savior. The other treasured event in this visit was the Apostolic blessing that Elder Holland pronounced unto everyone within in the sound of his voice. He blessed us that any righteous desire of our hearts that we stand in need of, can be ours! The spirit was so strong when those words were stated. After the meeting, E. Holland just stayed and shook hands, and visited with our members. Chris, stayed to help put away chairs and said he did not leave for over an hour after the meeting. What a neat treasured experience we had and will always remember as a family.

I found out later, there was over 1200 people in attendence at the building.