11 YEARS DOWN- AN ETERNITY 2 GO

I just wanted to take a moment to say "Happy Anniversary!" to my sweetheart. on the 24th of this month we celebrated 11 years and I am so grateful to him an d all he has done for our family. I still remember meeting him for the first time on our missions in California. He said he knew from the first moment he meet me that we were going to be married and well....all I remember is that he had a very bad haircut!!! (His companion had cut his hair and let's just say it was really, really bad.....) So here we are today....living in a beautiful state with a beautiful daughter, a great job, family support near and far, good friendships, AND we have best friends in each other. Yes it is cheesy but true. So here's to another year! Happy Anniversary to me!

We are Lovin the Leaves!

B4 the snow fell, Leilani and I took the kids over to Grandma and Grandpa's house for a little service activity. Their back yard is surrounded by large, very old Cottonwoods and needless to say they leave a mess in the fall. So we packed up the kids and went to rake some leaves. I admit that we had to bribe them a little bit. I promised Taryn she could jump on the trampoline after we finished raking and that was all the motivation she needed.
We had a great time as you can see from the photos. Of course, we had to jump in the leaves and throw them around a little bit. That was a given! Grandma even came out and rolled around in the leaves a bit too. The funny thing is that she lost her keys in the enormous piles of leaves that we threw out behind the house. Luckily, grandpa went out to look for them and there they were, right beside the tree trunk! Boy was she lucky......grandpa would have given her a hard time about that one...he-he
The nice moment of the evening came when it was time to go. Grandpa (my dad) said that the neighbor had come over earlier and expressed to dad how amazed he was that we (his 2 daughters) would come over and help him like that. He wanted to know how he got us to do it! When Dad told him that he didn't even ask us and that we just showed up with little helpers in tow, the man was shocked! He told Dad he was very lucky and blessed...and he said, "You just don't see that anymore."
That was pretty cool. I guess it has always been important to me to be aware of others around me and see what they might stand in need of. My prayer is that my little girl will learn the value of that trait and you know what...I think she does.

(side note: In case you are wondering where Jeremy was...fishin...no, he was at work.)

It's a wild wild world!

This is Felicia's blog, but I'm taking over today, I've been home all week with one heck of a major sinus infection. The Dr. gave me some great decongestants but I can't work and take my medicine at the same time (medication and aircraft safety don't mix too well). On top of being sick, I have a serious case of cabin fever! It's too cold outside to go for a walk (high of 21 degrees in today's forecast), daytime TV is pathetic, and one can only do so much cleaning before the smell of Lysol, comet and Windex makes you ill.

So after perusing our gallery of photos from this last month I found a few of my favorite wildlife photos that were taken recently.

Earlier this month Felicia was at a chiropractic convention at Alyeska Resort. Taryn and I went with her and had some great daddy daughter time of which most was spent in the swimming pool. But we were able to get out and enjoy some of the sites of Alaska. We had a great time visiting the Alaska Wildlife and Conservation Center where we found the Grizzly and Moose. I have to say this is one of the largest Moose I have ever seen. While we see wildlife all of the time up here, it is usually while we are driving from one place to the next or while I am out fishing and I am more concerned about keeping adequate distance between the bears and me than a great photo op.

Taryn loves looking for animals! She really has an appreciation of God's creations, some of which I have fostered by taking her fishing with me, but mostly I think she is just fascinated with the world around her. She recently went on her own safari to see what wild and ferocious creatures she could find and capture with the camera. After traveling for some time on her own ( a couple of hours) she returned safely from her odyssey and had to show us all the pictures she took.

Of the many silly and interesting photos she took, I think this one was my favorite. I told Taryn that Buster the bunny has been on many of his own safari's and as such had many great and wild stories to tell. I explained the great humanitarian efforts he inspired to make one sick little boy very happy.

Taryn loves buster and often keeps him close to watch over her at night, unless he is keeping her awake by talking to much with her other animals.
To those of you that remember this old rabbit, you would be happy to know that Buster is well and still full of fluff!

-Jeremy

Another Cake Creation!

This cake is my latest creation. I did this for a lady from Jeremy's work. I took the design off of a plate that she was using for the party. I think it turned out pretty nice. I love to do cakes but I always seem to shoot myself in the foot when I volunteer for such detailed designs. Oh well......the little boy loved the cake!