Birthday Wishes to A Special Someone Far, Far Away

Happy Birthday, you old man!  I wish we could be with you to celebrate this day together, but alas, it is not to be.  So here is a small, feeble gesture of celebrating some of the life you have lived up to this point...you have so much to be proud of!

Baby Jed:

 

Marine Corps days:

Missionary service for two years in Mexico:

Self-designated "Dress-up Days" at work in the Alzheimer's Unit where I first met you (it's easy to see why I fell for this guy, right?):

Martial Arts Tournaments:

Swearing in as a new police officer:

Starting a new family of your own:

Proudly still serving your country today:

Happy Birthday, Jed!  We love you very much!  Keep your head down and come home safe to us.

Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving Day was filled was lots of family, food and fun.  Since we had such a large number showing up, we reserved our church building for Thanksgiving dinner.   

This year we celebrated the day with my dad's side of the family.

Among our group were my grandparents, several aunts, uncles, and cousins.

 It's been fun seeing our families grow year after year.

Rigdon didn't wait for the prayer, he was pretty hungry and dug right in.

 Aubrey.

My cousins' kids - I am finding it hard to keep up with all of their names since I don't get to see them very often.

Aubrey playing Ring-Around-The-Rosies with the little ones.

Connor and Rigdon.

There is a gym in the church building where we played some basketball...

...and a few games of "Lightning."

Don't let my Sister-in-law, Lisa's pregnant body fool you...she was whooping up on everyone.

Ah, my favorite part...DODGEBALL!  My Uncle Kevin's setting up the game.

Waiting for the word "go!"

And the madness begins!

We played several games for about an hour.  Wow, by the time we were done I was feeling like I had just gotten done with one serious workout.  (I guess that means I need to do a tad bit more in that department.)

Little Rigdon enjoyed the games too.  Surprisingly, he only got hit once while wandering back and forth between the teams.

Lots of spectators enjoying the game too.

I am so thankful (among many other things) for family and friends.  Life would feel like such a barren wasteland without those relationships in my life.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving too!

I had to quickly add this in too....I am so grateful for my wonderful neighbors and ward members!  They have fixed my back door, installed my mailbox (a new requirement by the city post office), shoveled our driveway, cleared snow off of my vehicle, stopped by to see if there is anything they can do.  I know that if there is ever anything I need, there is always someone there to offer.  It is a huge relief to have many caring people watching over my famly while Jed is gone.  Thank you to all of you!

Thanks so much, Shannon!  I owe you big time for this!  Can you imagine me out there trying to install a mailbox into the sidewalk by myself? 

White Out

What a day ~ total white-out blizzard, every road closed, freezing winds, schools/businesses shut down, a brief power outage (2nd one this week) and us all nestled in our warm, toasty house, sipping hot chocolate.  Aahh, this is great!  :)

I did kick the boys outside later this evening to do some shoveling once we had our first break from the falling snow.  You have to hurry quick these days when it comes to daylight, it's completely dark by 5:30 PM.

It was freezing out there, but the boys still managed to have some fun, like shoveling snow into each other's face instead of shoveling the driveway.

Yep, that's trouble right there:

Just when the boys thought they were done, I sent them to the backyard to shovel a path to our dog's kennel.  Might as well let that big boy out...he knows what's coming:

He's off!

Who doesn't like to go romping through freshly fallen snow....dogs included?

Watch out, 95 pounds of German Shepherd coming by!

Nice try, buddy, but you're not coming into the house.

It's hard to say no to those rich, beautiful, brown eyes.

One last task ~ shovel off the back steps before you can come in.  The boys were freezing by this point so they wasted no time in getting done:

Mom, is this good enough?

Ronin flashing his toothless smile since he can now come inside.  (Yep, I pulled that sucker out about a week ago.  I am getting better at pulling teeth since Jed's been gone so much, he's the one that usually does it.  Oh, and the toothfairy actually remembered to stop by on the 1st night!)

The forecast for the next two days:  Day highs: 7 degrees (yep, single digits are already here.)  Nighttime: -15 degrees.  Gotta include the windchill factor for Thanksgiving night (what it will really feel like outside): -30 degrees.  Wind speeds in the higher thirties with more blowing snow and drifts coming through.  I am not thrilled, guess winter is really here to stay.  I'm thinking a trip to California, Arizona, or Florida sounds really good about now.  Penni, Jodi, you guys up for any visitors?

What Would We Do Without It?

Jed made it to his final "sandbox" this week.  Which meant we could start skyping!  What a lifesaver technology is, without it we wouldn't be able to do this:

The kids were so excited to "see" Jed - it's been over two months since they've laid their eyes on him.  It totally made their day!

We tried skyping when Jed was in Kuwait but the quality of the picture and the speed weren't too great.  Now that he is in Iraq, the connection is much better.

Jed answering all sorts of questions and showing Ronin his weapon:

I think from their faces you can tell skyping is a big hit in our household:

I think Jed was pretty happy too - he couldn't stop smiling either.  I loved just watching his face, he was so joyful at getting to talk to his kiddos (and me of course):

We even got to have some of our first family prayers with Jed, it's so nice to be able to do that again.  Our morning is his night, so it works out pretty well with catching up with each other...for now anyway.  He tells us good morning and we respond with a hearty goodnight.

I am soooo grateful for technology - whatever would we do without it?  We are so fortunate to have these kinds of things in this day and age.