Friendly deer? Maybe

In the last 6 weeks I have seen more deer than I would normally see during the winter months. Sometimes we will be driving down the road to come back home, and there will be 6 deer just going along on the road. We have to drive really slow so that we do not hit any of them. In fact I have been told that the deer hit the cars more often than a car actually hits a deer. Here are a few pictures to show you what I mean.

Happy Valentines Day

Today was a great day to be happy for what you have. I chose to do something special for my husband to let him know how mush I care.

I made breakfast for him and brought it to him in bed. It was his most favorite breakfast--French Toast, and I added scrambled eggs and bacon to go with it.

Then I decorated our home with lots of red and hearts. We spent the day together just enjoying each other's company. We didn't have much to give each other since money is tight and family has been helping us tremendously.

That night we went to a dance that was with the Priest River ward (our ward) and Newport ward. It was so much fun to be with lots of people just enjoying time together. There was a lot of food, dancing, and even a pinata.

Hidden blessing

I have been reading blogs of my friends to see what is going on in their lives and have learned so much about little kids- especially boys. Most of my friends have little boys, so I guess when we finally have a boy we will have lots of people to turn to for advice.
There are several friends of ours who happen to be pregnant and we are excited for each of you. On the up side of things, we have come to understand why it has been so hard for us to get pregnant. I learned last month that I have a small growth in my pituitary gland (aka a tumor) that has been messing with my hormones and making it harder for me to get pregnant. There is a medication which will help me to get rid of the tumor and help me have a normal cycle. So I have begun taking the medication and I am hoping that it will ease my headaches too. I know that the Lord will bless us with a child at the right time, regardless of how long we have been desiring to have one.

Here is our new home

Here are pictures of where we are living until we can get back on our own feet again. It snowed when we moved things in and that made it a lot of fun. NOT!!!

These 2 pictures show what the downstairs looks like. We have a nice bedroom, dining area/ computer area, and a TV room. We share the laundry area and the kitchen with Grandma but we are happy to do so.

Moving to Priest River, ID

So we began a new year in a new place, at least it is new to me. Charles actually grew up in Priest River throughout his teenage years. I have been here a few times throughout our marriage so I know a little of the area but no where near like I will now. We are invited by his grandma to come live with her as we get out of debt. We drove up on December 31, 2008 and unloaded the truck on the 1st of January. The trip up here was not my most favorite because of the roads. Around Missoula, Montana we found snow and the roads were not so great. The last mountain pass we went through was dry and we were all very thankful for that. It was a long drive, especially when we drove both cars up on our own and Charles' dad drove the truck up with all of our stuff in it. So for 12 hours we were in our own vehicle hoping for nice roads to drive on.

These pictures show the beauty that we saw on the way up to Priest River. We were very happy to make it by 8pm and then we were off to a New Year's Eve party with his family. We stayed up til the ball dropped at midnight and we even played games for the entire night. We were very tired and grateful to be there safely. We had help to unload the truck the next morning. Then we had to unpack things and decide where to put things to make the downstairs our new home.

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.