Mission Update

Indiana Thompson is happy and having lots of opportunities to teach in the land of Goshen.  It sounds like he is being well taken care of by members and non members alike.  Yay for the midwest!  He has sent us just a few pictures, we love seeing him in action in Indiana!

Also a couple of belated pics from the MTC:

Our Favorite One Year Old

My how time flies, this little pudding is already one year old!!

Tutu cute!

We partied "Olivia" style.  Karlee had decorated with Olivia pictures and lots of red and black.  We ate Livi's favorite, pizza, with breadsticks and salad.  Yum!  She had lots of presents to open, and she had the best reactions to everything.  She loved opening her presents, ripping the paper and pulling out the tissue, she just smiled and showed everything off.  She especially loved her new clothes!  She would hold them up and show us, and love on them, it was so adorable.  The whole rest of the night, her favorite thing was her new clothes!

And then the piece de resistance, the cake smash!  Oh my goodness, this was the best thing ever!  She was so much fun with her little cake.  She lathered her hands and arms and face with the icing, and she patted it, and flung icing around everywhere.  She ate it and grabbed it, and loved it!  Even after accidentally rubbing frosting in her eyes, she just kept on going.  Oh baby, you are cute!  Her reactions all night were just priceless.

Happy birthday, sweet girl!  We love you so much!!  Thanks, Olivia and Karlton for a super fun party!!

Health Days Pageant

Once again, I helped with the Health Days Pageant.  We had a terrific bunch of impressive girls this year, and I so enjoy getting to know them.  I decorated the stage with some fun trees that a neighbor had made for her daughter's wedding.  After the wedding, I brought them home and put them in our front yard.  By the time I needed them for the pageant, they were completely frozen to the ground!  I didn't know what in the world to do, so I called Wes, panicked, and he just said "hit them with a hammer."  And they came right out!  That Wes, he's a miracle and a blessing to me.  I think they turned out pretty cute, and the pageant went really well.  We even had the current Miss Cache Valley there as one of our judges!

Congratulations everyone!  You all were excellent and you all shine so bright!  Winners were Mandy Coulam, Laci Lundberg, Annie Worthen, Kadia Nelson, and Hallie Archibald.  Miss Congeniality was Cassidy Joss.

Crazy Ski Day

My ski friends and I had the craziest ski day this week!

It was drizzly and rainy when we got there and the snow was slushy and slow and just weird.  We thought we could hear thunder at one point.  Our next ride up the lift, right after we got on, there was a huge bolt of lightning and clap of thunder right over our heads!!  We were a little panicked being on the lift, but what could we do? We had to ride to the top.  When we got off, the liftee told us to head down to the lodge and not linger on the hill, that they were shutting down the lifts due to lightning.  Evidently, this is only the 2nd time in 30 years that they've had to close down for lightning.  We went into the lodge to have lunch and all of a sudden we looked outside and it was a severe snowstorm!  We could hardly see the trees outside.  You can tell in the picture how much it was snowing.  We decided to head home, and when Michelle H. and I went out to get our skis, they were gone!  I guess a gust of wind must have knocked them off the rack, and we had to dig around in the snow to find them.  That's how much snow dropped in an hour while we were eating.  Crazy!  It was a little hairy on the road down the mountain.  We saw one slide off into the river and evidently there were 8 accidents or slide offs that afternoon!  Even though we had some extreme weather, it was so fun to be with my ski ladies.  While I was skiing, Wes was visiting Chad at the Gulf in Texas.

He had meetings in Texas, and decided to head down to Chad's for a couple of days before he came home.  I was thinking while I was at Beaver how interesting it was that while I was in a lightning/snowstorm, Colton and Karlee were just having rain in the valley, Wes was having sunshine at the ocean, Kori was having a perfect Hawaii day like always, and Clint was in the humid Indiana snow.  Funny how spread out we all were and having completely different experiences!

Winter Recap

The snow just keeps piling up and we are loving it!  It feels like how winter used to be.  It has been staying cold enough to keep the snow too.  Our snowbanks are pretty high.

Guess who made me this M in the snow?  It wasn't Wes, it was Cider!  Isn't that so cute?

Livi and I are having fun playing inside.

We had this gorgeous sunset the other night and I tried to take some artistic pictures.

And this kitty has been totally hogging the entire heater vent!