A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Christmas is always such a busy time of year. I always try to do and make more than I should, and just when I'm about burnt out, Christmas finally comes, and all the work to make it wonderful is worth it. I love Christmas. I love it for the special feeling of joy and love; I lovnte it for the excitement of buying and making presents; I love it for the music that feels my home with the Christmas spirit; I love it for Santa Clause; I love it for Christmas goodies; I love it for family, but most important, I love it for the Savior and his birth, his life, and his atonement.

We had a wonderful Christmas this year; it was so great to be a family again this year. We were very blessed this season with much abundance. I have much to be grateful for. This year brought for me some special thoughts of the Savior that I had never really thought a lot of. I thought about for the first time how exciting that night of his birth really was for all the world and even us in heaven, how it was like a huge celebration throughout all the earth and all the heavens, because the biggest event finally took place; the Savior came, the one who would show us how to live and love and teach us the gospel plan, and most importantly, create the bridge for us back to our Heavenly Father and create for us the way to repent and create for us mercy, love, and true understanding from him, Jesus Christ. What a wonderful thing Christmas is! I have also thought about his 2nd coming. He came once, and he will come again, and more than ever, I think about that day, when peace will finally be upon this earth.

I hope every everyone had a Merry Christmas and I wish you all a Happy New Year! May every one's year bring us all a little closer to Christ!

Grateful

It is so nice to be a family again. We have so many things to be grateful for and feel richly blessed this holiday season. We are really enjoying our house, the base, our church ward, the people we are meeting, and living by Wal-mart. Thanksgiving was great. Tyler's Mom and Dad spent four days with us here. It was great! We didn't have to travel anywhere for Thanksgiving for the first time, and the weather was beautiful here. I am so grateful for so many things.

A Family Again

We are finally a family again, and after 1 week of hard work, we are all unpacked! Tyler started work today; he has a great boss and works with great people. We are living on base in a 3 bedroom house and are loving it. We have a fenced in yard and a playground right behind our house. Cheyenne city is just right outside of base with lots of shopping, most importantly... Walmart. Milly is loving all the toys she hasn't seen for two years and her new bedroom. Thanks to my Mom and all her hard work sewing, Taysen and Milly's room is the cutest room in the house.

It feels like Christmas...

Tyler flies in this evening...
Last night it snowed 4 inches...
This morning, I played Jon Schmidt Christmas songs on the piano...

It feels like Christmas Eve...I'm so excited!

Tyler returns home tomorrow from his year tour in South Korea. This will complete the 18 months total that we have been apart. As I look back on all that we've been through, all that I've been through, I know the Savior has carried me much of the way. I am truly grateful, though, for all that I've learned in the last 2 years. I am a much different person than I was 2 years. One of my favorite songs is "He moves mountains in me" by Jenny Phillips. It says, "He can move mountains, he can part the sea, but sometimes he changes me..." It is an awesome song that rings true for me in many ways.

Some of the events that have occur ed in the last two years for us:

-Tyler signed on with the Air Force

-We moved from Rexburg to Star Valley in with my parents

-I got a bad virus in my leg that resulted with 3 weeks in the hospital and a skin graft from my knee down on my right leg.

-Tyler went to Basic Training

-Tyler went to Tech. School

-Milly and I flew on an airplane to visit Tyler at Basic Training in Texas

-Milly and I flew on an airplane to visit Tyler at Tech. School in Missouri

-I got pregnant

-Tyler went to South Korea for a year

- I potty trained Milly

-we sold our van

-we sold our Buick

-we bought a Chevy Malibu max on eBay motors

-I flew to Korea to visit Tyler

- I had a baby boy

...and learned a lot!

Taysen is 4 Months Old

Taysen will be 4 months old tomorrow! It is so amazing how fast they grow. Taysen is such a joy in our family. He is very happy and loves to be talked to and loves to laugh and make lots of noise. Taysen is getting his first tooth already and has started eating rice cereal. I am so grateful for my sweet baby boy!

Our summer in Star Valley is coming to an end, and Tyler will be home October 1st! We are so excited! It has been a long 18 months. We will be moving to Cheyenne, Wyoming and will finally be a family again. It is amazing what the Lord has both taught us and blessed us with through our challenges in the last year and a half. We are definitely different people, stronger and more full of substance. These latter days require us to be fighters, and the Lord has surely given Tyler and I opportunities to learn a little bit about being fighters and about enduring. I am grateful for the Lord's hand in my life. I would be a much weaker person right now if it were not for him. On a lighter note, we have had a lot of fun this summer. We've visited my brother in Utah 3 times, went camping for 3 days, went boating, went swimming, went hiking, and Milly just had a birthday, and is now 3 years old! Wow! Taysen is 3 months old and is such a sweet baby. He has started to giggle and loves to smile and carry on a conversation with anybody that will look at him. He is going to be very friendly like his sister.