Christmas was wonderful

Charles and I woke up at 8am on Christmas morning. The one present that I had hoped to receive was answered in a unique way by a loving Father in Heaven. After the last few months of trials we have received blessings many times in the last month. On the 17th of December, we had a knock on our door. When we opened the door we found sacks with food and presents just for us. We were richly blessed by some angels in our ward. The presents we were asked not to open until Christmas morning. There was one gift that was for me which had an explanation on it that puzzled me when I first opened it. It was chosen just for me but the person who picked it out did not know why it was to be given to me, however, they were led by the spirit as they bought it. The gift helped me to remember that He really does answer prayers and He does love us. (The top two pictures show the secret santa gifts that were left at our doorstep.) We have no idea who gave them to us but we are very grateful for those who thought of us.

We opened lots of gifts together and had fun seeing the piles of wrapping paper when we were done. There were DVD's, clothes, socks, candy, and things that were needed. We watched the Walt Disney World Parade on TV and just hung out together. During the evening we enjoyed the company of friends in our ward who had invited us over for dinner. It was a wonderful dinner and we had fun playing Phase 10, which I was stuck on phase 7 for 8 hands. I just couldn't seem to get 2 sets of 4. It was a great time anyway, even if I could not get past that phase until someone won the game. (The 2 pictures on the side show all of the gifts that we received from friends and family.)
We had a white Christmas, since it has been snowing so much lately. It even snowed on Christmas Day and we walked over to our friends apartment in about 6 inches of snow. We hope that your Christmas was as wonderful as ours was. This picture of Charles is one of my favorites. The Afghan was made by his mom and he was so excited to finally have it.

Lots of Snow

I suspect that there are lots of our friends and family that may have more snow than we do in Rexburg but there is a lot. It seems like it will not stop snowing. We have huge piles everywhere as the plows have pushed the snow together to clear roads and parking lots. When I said there was a lot of snow I was not kidding. The pictures that are with this post show how much snow we really have in Rexburg.

My car even was burried in snow. We had to move some of the snow that was near my car just to move it. Then once we moved my car we found a plow to clear the parking space where I park my car.
It has been crazy just to drive around Rexburg. All the snow you see in these pictures came from storms just in the last few weeks.

We are getting things all packed up and we have decided that we do not want to move in the winter again. Hopefully that will be true and we will never have to move when there is tons of snow on the ground.

Unexpected move...

Crazy as it sounds we are going to be moving to start out a new year. Because of the trials over the last few months we have been offered to live with Charles' grandma in Priest River, Idaho and we have decided that it was the best thing for us to do. So for awhile we will be living in Northern Idaho until we have our finances more stable. We will be living near his family so they will be able to know me a little better than they do now. It should be an adventure.
Since I have been living in Eastern Idaho for 5 years, most of that time spent in Rexburg, it is not very easy to leave a place that I have grown to love so much. A lot has happened during the last 5 years as I have lived here: found a great man to marry, graduated with a bachelor's degree, made many friends, and have had many memories that will not be forgotten. Now it is time for another adventure to begin.

This blog needs to be more hightech

I have spent a little itme looking at other's blogs and realized that ours is too plain. So in light of this I need some help from each of you. I need to learn how to use a new layout becuase I just want to do something different for each month of the year. So if you have any sugestions please let me know either through here or through email.
I would like to add more pictures throughout the whole page and change the background.
thanks for your help.

Trials do make us stronger

Trials really do make us stronger- Right???
Well I have learned that sometimes when it rains it pours. In October Charles became sick- His skin turned yellow and he didn't have any energy. He was diagnosed with jaundice with an unknown cause. There were many tests run including a CT scan, ultrasound, and lots of blood tests. After a few weeks the doctor told us that he had Mono. He had to drop all of his classes even though he was doing so well. During the time he was sick he had no energy and could not work or go to school. Now he is doing a lot better.
It seems that sometimes trials come in sets. This is the case for us. Around Thanksgiving I began having a lot of back pain on the right side and the right side in the front was in pain too. I went to 2 different doctors and neither one told me that it was anything besides a missed period and I was not pregnant. Finally I went to the ER and learned that I could not work for 4 days until I could see another doctor. There were many tests that I went through, CT scan, w-rays and finally an ultrasound. the ER doctor was concerned that I may have a kidney stone. I did not and so I was given some medication. On December 3 I went in to see the specialist and learned that I had a 9cm by 6 cm mass close to my right ovary. He told me I needed to have surgery.
On the 9th I had surgery to remove the mass. Apparently it was caused by endometriosis and that is probably the reason why we have not been able to have a child yet.
To top it all of Charles' last grandpa passed away this week and he went with his sister up to Priest River, Id for the funeral.
After all of thses trials I hope that the Lord will provide us with blessings. He is always so good to us. I hope that others who are in the middle of trials will keep moving forward and look for the good during the really hard times.

Weekend with family

We spent most of the weekend in Blackfoot, Idaho. Charles' parents and grandma came down from Priest River Idaho to spend Thanksgiving with 3 of their kids. We spent Thanksgiving day at his sister Ginny's home for dinner and games. Of course we had all the traditional foods to eat- turkey, potatoes and gravy, stuffing, yams, pies and lots of rolls. (The above pictures show the table setting for dinner and the boys playing games. Tommy and Kenneth are playing chess. Dad, Charles, and Nate are watching to see who wins. Tommy won of course.)We had a lot of fun together as a family. Friday was a long day of shopping in the morning and getting a free snowglobe from JcPenny. It was fun to see all the crazy people who have been waiting for the doors to open to the stores. On Saturday we went to see the Pharoh's exhibit at the Idaho Museum in Idaho Falls. It was a unique exhibit. We had hoped to go bowling as a family, but there were to many who were in pain to go. That is the reason why we went to the museum. We drove down to Blackfoot for more time as a family. We played a game- Apples to Apples- which was a lot of fun, and had thanksgiving leftovers.

Happy Holidays 2008

We wish everyone a happy holiday season!!!
We decieded to take time and create a blog to share with all of our friends and family. We want to keep everyone posted from time to time on what we are up to.
Charles and I are in Rexburg Idaho so that Charles can attend BYU-Idaho. We are ready for Christmas and are enjoying the Christmas movies that we love to watch. So here goes the creation of our family blog.