The Joy School Christmas Play

The play
Mary and baby Jesus
The joy school kids with their siblings for a full cast
The shepherd

Mary and the Angel



We had a great night at our house with yummy food and great friends! Joy school has been such a wonderful thing in my life! I am still friends with the kids I did joy school with and I hope the same for my own kids. This program teaches values as well as kindergarten readiness. I feel so blessed to have been able to do this with both of my kids. They Love it and wish we had it every day! Jenna helped me teach a few times and she thought that was great! The kids were so cute tonight! They did the play and my friend Loni had these amazing costumes! She made them at an Enrichment night-I'm thinking this is a fabulous idea! They were so cute and they even sang 3 songs! I was so proud of all of them! I will have to put the song footage up later though. I hope Everyone has a blessed wonderful Christmas. Watching our children do this play puts me in the right spirit and reminds me of what a precious gift we have. Merry Christmas Dear Ones!

Baby Julie is 6!

The Little Mermaid!
Jenna and Julie at the rec center- we LOVE swim parties!

I was there when this little angel,My 1st niece Julianne, came into the world! What an amazing experience to actually get to watch a baby come into this world! It's one of the best things I've ever gotten to do. It's a totally different experience when you don't feel the pain! Julie has been a spunky little thing from the beginning! She has so much personality! She is such a happy little girl and she was such a happy baby. Jenna called her Baby Julie, and she has been her favorite playmate! We have had so much fun with these 2 in 6 years dressing them up and taking pictures and playing little tea parties! We all love Julie and we're so glad she is part of our family!

Happy Birthday Mom!

This was supposed to be a picture of the girls but Samuel had to jump in! My Sister Nicole came to have a christmas visit!
We LOVE this woman!
My Mom! There are so many wonderful things I could say to describe this wonderful woman to whom I was so blessed to come and be her daughter! I don't know anyone more amazing than her. As I have grown up she has become my closest friend and confidant. She is such a blessing to me and to everyone that knows her. As Much as I despise this cold dreary Cleveland I love being close to my parents. We have so much fun together and I love learning from her experience. Having a mom and then being a mom is the greatest gift we could get from our Father in Heaven! Our Family would be lost without our rock-WE love you mom!

Annual mills creek party

Tonight was our annual neighborhood party. We have been going to this party since my brother jake who is now 20 was 6! It's in the club house and everything is decorated and there is a ton of food! The two establishments right by us are marco's pizza and convienent food mart, so they always order from there. Everyone brings an appetizer or dessert to share. There has always been a puppet show- except for this year-they changed it to a magic show. I guess the puppet lady retired since she was the same one for the past 13 years! We ride a trolly called lolly and go all around the neighborhoods looking at the christmas lights and sings christmas carols! And of course for the fianally SANTA! The kids were the first in line! They had such a good time! This has been such a fun activity that we have been doing for so long! It is so strange that our family has been somewhere for that amount of time. Anyway-so as we were going to get our tickets for lolly they were all full! So my crying kids were so disappointed. But wait- "Lets make our own lolly the trolly" And so we did! We followed the trolly path and sang carols and made our own little new tradition! We also worked very hard putting up our own lights in preparation to this event so we could show our own christmas spirit! May everyone enjoy this special season that we are in now. Cherish the peace that can be found in turning our hearts to our Savior and in the precious time spent with your families! I'm so grateful to have his gospel in my life. I especially love this time of year because I can openly share my love for my Savior with the rest of the world! I guess if I were a better missionary I could do that at any time of year. It just makes it a little easier for me this way. Try not to be so busy that you miss the little things! I have learned yet another lesson.

The dinner

The Pie! Samuel was waiting Patiently all day for pumpkin and apple pie with reddi whip cream! It was well worth the wait!
The Big Spread!
One of the Best cooks!
The turkey carvers
The Table

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Zoo- our annual venture! The Weather has been good but it has also been very cold! It was 18 degrees one year- and still we are at the zoo! Samuel got croup that year-we are crazy! This bongo exhibit was in the African part of the zoo inside the medical center. I had never been been in there-as many times as I have gone to the zoo. We were looking for warm places to go since my grandpa joined us this year! Ken and Jenna love the bongo's!
My Grandpa is 89 and he did the zoo with us-Anyone can do it!


Jenna made this cute puppet! The feathers are her hands! I thought it was so cute!

My Brother Ken

This is one of my amazing brothers. Ken came home for the week, and we are so happy to see him! Ken has always been a huge blessing in my life! He always seems to come home when I need him most. He helps me with everything I need. Whether it be cleaning, taking care of my kids or kicking my booty in a great workout! He is a constant in my life and I'm so thankful for him! I can't believe that a good woman hasn't found him yet. But I suppose that is because he needs time to become a world class Nero- surgeon! Ken you are just one of my MANY Thanksgiving blessings!

Kirtland

school of the prophets
The main street - the Newell k. Whitney store
Having fun in this year's first snow!

So most of you know that I'm am not Cleveland's #1 fan. Having said that, I feel extremely blessed to live in the place where the saints came and lived and built their 1st temple. The sister missionaries are teaching this wonderful woman named Kelly. After one Sunday at church- she had to Kirtland. So of course the day we are planing to go the world starts falling in on me. I knew I just had to go. So we found a way to make it work. And of course we had the most amazing day. Being able to walk where the saints have walked is always a humbling experience for me, but today it was even more so. The sun came out- which doesn't happen often here, and we we're able to show Kelly this amazing place. She just moved here from Penn. and thought it was not just a coincidence that she too came to the OHIO- to learn our Father's law. There is a room in the Whitney store called the school of the prophets, where many revelations were received. We were able to feel that special spirit that is in Kirtland. I've been there many times, and I love going there. I often wonder if people who are not members of our church would feel the same things that we do as we walk and witness the sacrifices that were made in order for us to have what we do today. I know Kelly did today. I hope that she can remember those feelings as she continues to investigate our church.

Adventures in Braces

Before After
So on Thursday, after spending a beautiful morning outside, we went to the orthodontist! Jenna was so good! A real fighter-just like her mom! She thinks that they are pretty cute-especially since she got to pick her favorite color purple for the bands! She has a bracket in the back of her mouth so she has to get used to talking with that . She makes a lot of slurping noises! She is also not thrilled about the head gear she gets to wear at night. And all the food she can no longer eat-just for 10 months. All in all it is an adjustment and she is coping well. I'm so proud of her and her strength. It has been a great teaching opportunity about how the Lord puts adversity in our life- but when the trial is over we have grown and have been made into a better, stronger person.

a warm fall day

This is him throwing the leaves and oh boy it was hilarious!
We have been spoiled with such a beautiful week! I was teaching joy school today- and our lesson was about our bodies and all the wonderful things we can do with them. Also how we use our senses for everything. It is so neat teaching this because I appreciate these things even more when I'm explaining it to a bunch of 4 yr. olds. Well When we were done with our walk I suggested we rake leaves and they were all for it! Samuel would rake the leaves in his pile but then through them in the air with his rake! It was such a great day-I wish we could have more like these!

knowledge

Recently I have been blessed with the opportunity to gain knowledge! I feel so blessed that I have gotten here. For years I have been too busy- well taking care of the children sometimes would wear me so thin that any time I would try to read anything ,let alone my scriptures, I would fall asleep! I think my mind was in survival mode, and that is all I could handle! Well, I think now I've had an enlightenment. I can understand things that I never did before! I love getting older-I can see things I never could before! I'm sure I'll love 40 and even 50 although the number itself looks a little daunting. I'll always young in your heart though! So, today I had the opportunity to go to institute! I was and am so excited. I never was able to go to any institute before. A woman in our stake is the teacher, and has been teaching for many years! She is a wealth of knowledge! So this year we are going to be studying Jesus The Christ along with the Old Testament! I am anxiously awaiting each class! My hope is to apply all that I learn and gain a better understanding of my savior and his life, and how I can continue to be more like him. I'm grateful to have this opportunity and I wish all my friends could come to these classes!

Trick or Treating!

More Halloween fun! We went to grandma's and they were all tired out after an hour. It's so fun and such a blessing to live near my parents.

This is my son the jedi! Along with 2 very beautiful princess from our joyschool halloween party! My son lives and breathes Star Wars! Jay loves this, I know, but really there are so many wonderful songs to sing! He has been calling himself a jedi since may because we went to Disneyland and he had jedi training. So therefor-he is! He was really intense this summer with the Imperial march. He knows every charracter and their song. It's crazy I know- I warn all the little boys mothers that their sons will start singing these songs! I'm so sorry. My only defense was that the primary program was in September so we were really practicing those songs. I'm so proud to say he memorized them all and his favorites are "Called to Serve " and "We Thank Thee o God For a Prophet". He sang these songs with such fire and might. He waved his arms as if he were directing the songs himself! So if we have to endure the star wars at least I know I can slip some other songs in there.

This is my soccer rock star! This was before Halloween. This was one of many great moves this year! What a difference from last year where the most important thing was talking and laughing to the girl on the other team! This year Jenna and her team mate j worked the field! It was really fun watching her! Samuel is her number one cheerleader, screaming down the field,and oh is it loud-GO JENNA GO! GET ON THE BALL! Along with grandma and papa and dad. Also occasional Uncle Ken visits! I never thought I would be a soccer mom- but I always let her pick what she loves doing! She amazes me daily!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
These fun treats are want samuel and I made this morning! Aren't they sooo cuute!

This is Amazing! These apples came from the 2 apple trees in our backyard! It's unbelievable to me because for the past 8 years these trees have been yucky crab apple trees. No one has ever done anything to them and they have always been bad. Well this year we noticed an influx of apples. There were so many apples I had many friends come and pick them. My friend Loni and I apple cored and peeled and canned. We felt very pioneer-ish! Anyway-they were still a little tart but I thought they were as good as they were going to get. Or so I thought. I haven't been back there for several weeks now. We had picked so many but there are still a lot left. So this is what I found! The biggest, juiciest, crispiest most intense color of red apples! I don't know how this happened-I guess it's a lesson in patience. Good things come to those who wait- but if you endure even longer it will be so much better than you even imagined. Maybe this is my life lesson!

SO every year the time comes to find the perfect pumpkin! This is very important ! We have found this great big pumpkin field that we go to every year! It's about 40 min away, so we enjoy the fall colors while we get there. It's great because there aren't any crowds and sooo many choices ! Samuel was searching for BIG pumpkin as he says-and when he found it he laughed so loud and said it was Sooo cuuute! Jenna walked for awhile until she was satisfied. But in the end we found our favorite ones! I love this tradition! And for another bonus the outlet malls and amish country are close so we got to enjoy some yummy food and found some great deals!

These pictures were so fun to take! They are the kind I want to take, if I ever get my photography thing going. It is for now a dream!