This is Our Life

Today we got invited to go out to our Bishops house. They don't live that far out of town, but you wouldn't think that judging by the picture shown. The picture was taken on the road that led to their house. It is super cold outside! I guess it's gotten warmer the past couple of days, but it's still cold for my liking:) Tomorrow we're going to the Church to clean it as a ward, and then afterwards we're going tobogganing(sledding).

Well tonight was great! I'm very thankful to the members of our ward for making tonight special and fun. First off we went to a little party at one of the members in our ward. One thing about Grande Prairie(the city we live in) there are a lot of people that live here that aren't from here, so they don't have family around for the Holidays. We started off having some treats that everyone brought, then everyones children dressed up and acted out the nativity story. Then all of the adults played some games, which was great. We sung some Christmas carols afterwards and then left. We then brought all of the gifts we bought for our secret santa family. I really hope that they'll all enjoy what we bought them. It was fun to see Richard deliver the box full of gifts onto their doorstep, and then run back to our car. We had to duck to get out of sight...lol it was fun. We then got to talk to Richards siblings and their spouses and Richards mom on her web cam. I have

I love this picture...for more reasons than one. But the main reason is because this picture of Mary looks like my mom when she was younger. On my Mission, I had a small wallet size photo of the above picture and I carried it around. I know it sounds silly, but it made me feel closer to her. Well, in an earlier post I told you all about how we're going to pick a family and buy gifts for them. Well, we picked the family..and be bought gifts...lol. But seriously what a wonderful thing for us to do...it has made us feel so full of the spirit of Christmas. I'm sure everyone has at one point in their life been the beneficiary of service. The wonderful thing about serving someone is knowing how much they will appreciate what you're doing for them. You don't have to spend money to serve, that's the beauty of it. I strongly encourage everyone to "pay it forward". It's the best way to celebrate the season. We've decided to make this a holiday t

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So today Richard and I went to the Church to participate in the "Reflections of Christ". The photographs are taken by Mark Mabry who has such a special gift. The pictures are so inspiring. Last Sunday as we watched the making of the photos- I couldn't help but imagine the Savior. I haven't been able to stop thinking about how thankful I am to know that He lives, that He loves us and I'm so thankful for the sacrifices that He's made for me. I am so thankful to have someone that knows my pain, knows my trials and knows who I am. As I watched the making of the photos I couldn't help but have a desire to know him better. That is one of my goals this new year to, to become closer to my Savior and to get to know him better. My spirits have been uplifted and I have been spiritually fed.

So, we had our work Christmas Party tonight. There's just the two of us and Joanne that works with us, so we thought it would be fun to invite her and her boyfriend over. So...tonight we had Joanne and Larry over for dinner and to play some games. It may not sound so exciting to some, but we had a lot of fun. We played Wii Sports and it was great, also had some yummy treats and a yummy dinner...not in that order:) I took a little video clip of Richard and Larry playing boxing on the Wii...two words....SO FUNNY!!! Here's the video I hope it's clear enough to notice. We had lots of fun, and great laughs. I'll upload some pics. from my camera tomorrow once I find the cord.

Here's a picture of Richard...poor guy! It's snowing crazy here! Ok, it's not Richard in that picture, BUT...that's kind of what it looks like here. We're supposed to get 5-10 centimeters within the next 24 hours which may not seem like a lot, BUT...it's supposed to snow from now until Sunday...then stop on Monday and snow again Tuesday, Wednesday Thursday and Friday! HOLY MOTHER OF PEAR! So, we've got our work cut out for us.

So, this year besides trying to be smart with money, we're trying to focus more on the true meaning of Christmas. I absolutely love the above picture, because I think it tells us that we need to remember how and why Christmas even exists. We're only buying presents this year for our parents, because things get just too expensive. But we're really trying to focus on the giving part of Christmas, rather than the receiving, so we've decided to spend the money that we would spend on Christmas presents for each other, on a family that's in need. I'm actually really excited about doing this, I think it'll really help us get into the Christmas spirit, and it'll feel so great knowing that we are serving a family in need.

So tonight Richard and I took some pics, most of which turned out kinda icky but there are a few decent ones:) We took the pictures to put in our Christmas cards that we'll send to everyone.

WOW...not much more is really needing to be said, but of course I can't stop just there:) So, for starters we got awesome seats! We could see what was going on behind the stage and everything. The show started off with ??? I don't remember the groups name but I wasn't too impressed. She had a good voice, but it wasn't my taste. That started at 7:00pm. The opening act lasted for 30 minutes...and then we had to wait another 30 minutes for BSB to come out. WOW...so awesome. They started off great, singing " Larger Than Life "...and then going into some new songs off the new album. They played a great variety of their songs, which I really appreciated. I mean, I love all of their songs and so it was nice to hear a bunch of the older ones too. We were told not to bring any cameras into the stadium, that's why I had my phone with me. BUT...people were snapping pics. left and right so I should have just brought it, but ah well. I'm glad that I ha

Here's me after the concert. Richard is taping me. It's kinda hard to see.

LOL...here's another one of me singing along

If I remember correctly...you can hear them singing pretty good in this one. This is another awesome song on their "Unbreakable" CD

I must apologize, because you can hear me singing in this one...it's actually kinda funny I have to laugh at myself. But I guess that's part of being their right?!

So here's a video of the beginning of the concert....They start off by introducing each of the guys as "boxers", so that's why you see them in those outfits, and they're in a big boxing ring. I'm going to upload a bunch of videos that I recorded off of my phone...oops. I know I'm TERRIBLE...but I couldn't resist! P.S. I must apologize in advance for the loud screaming that you hear...that would be me:)

My Early Christmas Present Ok, so I am so excited...totally exhausted, yet really excited. I have about 18 hours until the concert. Well...we were about to go to bed tonight and then looked out our patio window to see that it had snown...a lot! So we decided to go out and shovel everything to make less work for us tomorrow:) So, yes I am off to bed in a few minutes. Ok, but back to BSB! I'm totally thrilled about going to the concert. I'm trying really hard not to think of it, because then the night will just drag by. Well, I'm off to bed. I'll be uploading whatever pics. I can take at the concert! Goodnight:)

Finally....our Apartment Well, here are some pictures from tonight of our apartment. We put up our Christmas tree last Saturday and started to decorate the apartment for Christmas. We put up Christmas lights on our patio window and can I tell you how much I LOVE the Christmas season?! It's so wonderful...so brace yourself I've got lots of pics. Yes, we even have some presents wrapped. Not for us, but they're all for my mom so far:) Our Cozy little living room... Our Kitchen.... Wow, this one is really dark...sorry Our Nativity Scene that I got from the Orrs Well, this is what it looks like outside right now from our patio window Here's a picture of part of our bedroom. It had good light in this picture, so I wanted to show you the color of paint that we used to paint our entire apartment. We absolutely love it!! Here's a picture of Wal-Mart from the window in our apartment building...SO CLOSE I still can't believe now close we are! Well, that's all of

YEAH!!! So here are some pictures of our office here...decorated for Halloween. I know we're past Halloween, but we wanted to show it off a bit:) Here's the door of the office...it was fun So, we called this pirate guy Jack...I know we're dorky!) We loved this guy! He freaked me out a few times, but he's our favorite! Ok, here's our candy jar...yummy!!! More stuff... Well, that's it. It was fun decorating the office. I mean, we don't know anyone here yet in Grande Prairie, so it wouldn't have been much fun decorating our apartment with no one being able to see it. The tenants had fun with it too, we even handed out candy on Halloween night in the office.

Ok, so I know you're thinking that I'm nutso because I still haven't posted any current pictures. That would be because I cannot find my cord that goes from my camera to the computer! So...the pictures are coming, I just can't find the cord. Because we're still unpacking and getting settled I haven't gone through everything, so I'm going to try to tonight...keep your fingers crossed!)

Well, as you can see I haven't posted any pictures! Sorry, I'm really less effective! We've had a super busy week, so busy that I thought I was going to loose it(although Richard will probably say that I already have:). But that's ok, I'm glad the week is/has come to an end, and things will start to slow down again. Tomorrow I'm having a Halloween Primary Party. I know technically Halloween is over, but this was the only time we could have a class party. I'm going to take some pics. and make a nice long post tomorrow night. Now that things are little more orderly around our apartment, I'm not embarrassed to take pictures of it!

Hey! I have nothing exciting to report, but it's been a while sense I've written. I'm going to take some pictures of the apartment tomorrow, as we've unpacked a bunch and have decorated. It looks so awesome, very nice if I do say so myself:) I love having the laminate floors. They're so easy to clean and they're so nice and fancy. I know I'm a dork, but it's great!

WE'RE DONE!!! So finally we finished putting in the laminate floors! Wow, that took forever! But it looks and feels great. I'm excited to start moving our furniture into the apartment and decorating, it's going to look so great. Here's a few more pics. I took from today. Here's our bathroom...not quite put together yet, but I love the shelf, it's going to look great! LOL...our first meal in our new apartment! Richard just finished putting the foam down in the rest of the living room. Wow...we flew threw the living room, it only took us 2 1/2 hours! What can I say, we're pros!) Richard, busy at work! He did a phenomenal job, the floors look so great!!! We're soooooooooo close!!! We sure were ready to be done!! Richard is holding up the last piece of laminate...I know it's really tiny! Ok, so I know it's hard to see, but we're done...we're finally done! It looks really beautiful, and we're really happy with it. I guess I shoul

Ok so really quickly I have to put these pics. of my nieces and nephews on my side of the family on here! I miss them soooooooooooooooooo much!!! I have the cutest nieces and nephews EVER!!! Here's Jackson, Hayley, Easton and Madison Here's Ace and Ryan Man I love them all!