Christmas!!

Well, lets just say, yeah it is over! We had quite the eventful day today. I won't bore you with all the details, but lets just say we had a lot of mishaps with presents this year. Needless to say, the kids were very understanding with promises of "we will fix this mess tomorrow." So the day after Christmas was spent returning, exchanging and making up for all the mistakes. Next year we are not having Christmas at our house, we will celebrate by going on a family vacation... Disney World, cruise, the beach, we will see!


Aside from all of the "present" stress, the day was nice. We did have a great breakfast (hurray for monkey bread) and a yummy dinner. The kids did have a few things from Santa to keep them busy and we did spend the day with each other! The weather was nice and warm, but we did manage to model our new BYU apparel!




We did find time to reflect and give thanks for all that we do have, and remember the real reason for celebrating Christmas, our Savior. We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was pretty much a regular day for us. Jared saw patients all day. (Who wants to have a root canal on Christmas Eve?) I went to the gym in the morning and then spent the day doing laundry and cleaning the house. Joshua helped me make cookies for Santa. Unfortunately all our friends here in Louisiana are locals, and have lots of extended family around, or they traveled to be with family, so we were on our own for dinner. We decided to have a fun dinner, we fixed appetizers: chicken wings, brushetta, quiche, and shrimp. It was really yummy! After dinner, the boys opened a few gifts: their Christmas jammies and family ornament (thanks Grandma Swenson) and our annual Christmas book. After we were all dressed for bed, we curled up on the couch and read our new book "The Miracle of the Wooden Shoes" (highly recommended!) and then watched Polar Express. It was a nice and relaxing evening with the family!

Nachidoches, Louisiana

This weekend we took the family and headed to Nachidoches (don't even try to say it right, you won't!) with our friends the Otis's. This city puts on a great Christmas light display, fireworks included. We had a great time and will add this to our annual Christmas to do list while here in Louisiana. It was perfect weather!

The fireworks were awesome and we had a great view from the street. The boys were in heaven.

When you get these three together it is TROUBLE! They have a great time, and sometimes a little too much fun!

We even had snow in Louisiana....aka "bubble machine".

We had a great time, as you can see.

What a GREAT Thursday!

We had a great day today. My friend called me and told me that the space shuttle was sitting on the runway on base, if we wanted to go and see it. (Thanks Kaye!) This was a no brainer for me. If you really know my boys, especially Nathan, this would be the coolest thing ever. We jumped into the car and raced to the base, and this is what we saw.............

Pretty cool, huh! It was in route to Florida, and made a rest stop at the Air Force Base.

It was also the Stockwell Elementary Christmas Program. All the 4th and 5th graders got to perform. It was called, "North Pole Radio Hour", and it was incredible. They had it at a local Baptist Church and the ambiance was awesome. Nathan sang in the choir. He did a great job. Now, don't pass out, but I am going to brag about living here in the south for a minute. At the start of the performance they said a prayer and then at the end they sang a song about our Savior. It was great to see everyone enjoying the true Christmas spirit!

Freezer Jam

Raspberry Peach Strawberry

What a productful day I had! I made three different batches of jam. No, there was not a good sale on fruit in Louisiana. My grandma taught me a great thing about making jam. When the fruit is on sale, buy it and mix it with lemon juice and freeze it in big jars. That way when you are out of jam, you pull it out of the freezer and have fruit to make it with. My family LOVES this jam.

Our favorites:

Jared: Raspberry

Hillary: Peach

Nathan: Raspberry

Joshua: Strawberry

Now I just need to make some homemade bread to go with it! Maybe tomorrow.

What a week!

DISCLAIMER: Sorry my pictures won't enlarge! I am really frustrated! What am I doing wrong. Why won't my pictures get bigger when you click on them? HELP!!!

We have had a fun and very busy week! Jared's parents drove out to spend Thanksgiving with us. His sister, Melissa and her family came down from Arkansas too! We have loved having family here. Here is a quick overview of our activities:

We took Grandma and Grandpa to the science station. They had as much fun as the boys and even tried their luck with laying on a bed of nails. We also saw the Imax movie.




We went and saw all the airplanes on base. The boys were in heaven!


We took them to the best shopping place in Shreveport, The Louisiana Boardwalk and to see the alligators.



We had so much fun playing with cousins. I even got Jared, Grandpa and Uncle Weldon to put up the Christmas lights (thanks guys!)



We had a great Thanksgiving dinner with tons of yummy food! Actually we ate tons of yummy food all week (sweet rolls, carmel popcorn, pie, peanut butter rice krispie treats, Thanks Grandma!)



Now we must get back to our regular life...school, homework, early to bed, early to rise, and DIET!!!!!

"How Joshua Became A Pirate"

1st grade had "Character Day" and Joshua was so excited. Each student had to choose a book, dress up as a character, and do a book report on the book. He loves the book "How I Became a Pirate", so mom pulled out the old Halloween costumes and turned him into a pirate! Ahoy Matty!

Soccer Parties

Hurray, soccer is finally over. We really have enjoyed watching the boys play this season, but our schedule has been really overloaded and we are looking forward to some down time, at least until basketball starts. We had end of the season partied at a local Pizza place. The boys had a great time.

Jared always wore his Iowa Hawkeye shirts to games and practices. Jared's assistant coach gave Jared a LSU shirt and said "if you're going to coach in Louisiana, you have to have a LSU shirt!" Guess we are on the road to being converted!

Veteran's Day

What would you do if you had a day off from work?

Sleep in, go shopping, watch TV, go out to lunch?

This is what Jared did......

Got up at 3:00 in the morning and sat in the pouring down rain (bucket loads), in a boat, freezing, all day long.

For what?

One lousy duck!

Now does that really sound like fun?

BOYS!!!!

Don't worry, the boys had FUN while I was gone!

Vacation!

Moving to Louisiana has been a hard adjustment. It's not that I miss Iowa, I just miss my friends. I felt I left so fast, that I didn't get a good chance to say good-bye. Half my friends were in Utah or Washington when we moved, so I really needed to get back to see them. I know, no one ever thought they would here me say I wanted to vacation in Iowa, but I did. Jared worked out his schedule and we were able to make it work. I had a great time. I stayed with my great friends Gary and Gwen. I was so excited to visit the Stringham's, especially the girls and little Clayton (no offense Jenn)! As you can see they were so excited to see me. As Lauren's bus drove up, she noticed me and just went crazy and of course I started to cry. Izzie was excited too and I got a great big hug. Clayton was only a week old when I left, so I was so excited to see him. He has gotten SO big! I have another friend who is going to have a baby this Spring, so maybe I will have to plan another trip.





We had TONS of fun! We went shopping, got pedicures and our eyebrows waxed, stayed up very late (sorry Gwen), played games, and ate, ate, and ate, some more. For those of you who know Iowa, you know there really isn't a ton to do, but we had fun just hanging out and talking. Gwen had a party at her house for a bunch of friends. It was so great to see everyone and eat yummy food.

It was a great trip, but I realized that Louisiana isn't so bad.... 30's in Iowa, 70's in Louisiana. Not a hard choice!

Music Man

This weekend Nathan played in his first piano festival. It was held at a college here in Shreveport. He played "Pirates of the Sea" in front of a judge. He scored a Superior. He was so excited to get to play on a grand piano.

HELP, HELP, HELP, HELP!!!!!!

Tell me why.....

Why do my pictures not get bigger on the screen when you click on them?

I have tried everything I can think of, so all of you computer whizzes, HELP!

Halloween comes to an end!

The kids didn't get to have Halloween parites at school or wear their costumes, but they did get to have "Pumpkin Light Night". Let me explain....

Every class at the school creates a pumpkin display. The room mom (aka: Me) comes up with a theme and creates a huge spectacular production. This is a huge deal here and parents and kids really get into it. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. After hours of brainstorming and decorating it all came to a close, and it turned out okay. They have a Halloween type carnival with food, entertainment, and the displays are all lit up for people to see. I was amazed at some of the ideas and displays people did, so I had to take pictures to show just how crazy it gets.

On Halloween night we did the traditional "Trunk-or-Treat". The weather was wonderful and we had our Chili feast outside. The kids came away with SO much candy that a lot of it miraculously disappeared to the freezer. The mom in this family has NO willpower! Nathan was Harry Potter and Joshua was an army man (same thing as last year, but that was what he wanted). I got a picture before we left and then didn't take another one (what was I thinking)!

Look who made the Honor Roll!

Nathan got straight A's on his report card. We are so proud of him and all of his hard work. He is such a great kid. Jared and I are a little worried, because we both think he is smarter than us! His school held an assembly today for all the kids who made Honor Roll. He got a certificate and coupons for free food at three different restaurants. He was super excited! Way to go Nate!

Corn Maze

We took the kids out to a Corn Maze this past weekend. The weather was SO nice and we had a great time. They got to make homemade ice cream, have rubber ducky races, ride tractors, shoot tennis balls in an air gun, and play in the corn. Of course our highlight was finding our way through the maze. The first one was easy, but the second was a little more difficult. Nathan ended up getting lost by himself for about 30 minutes. Jared climbed up onto a bridge and searched the fields the best he could, but couldn't find him. Finally the lost child emerged with a big grin on his face. What a kid!