SO MUCH NEWS!!!

Two months past due on an update and tons and tons of news to tell. First bit of news, my little bro got his mission call. He is going to the Atlanta Georgia North mission and will be reporting to the MTC on January 27th. This is big news for him because he has been trying to go for the past year, but because of health problems hasn't been able to get out there. We are very happy for him and feel this is a great adventure for him to start.

Second bit of news, we had a great time in Utah for Christmas ( pictures are coming). We loved seeing our family!!! While we were there our nephew Preston was baptized, niece Joslyn was blessed, brother Matt took out his endowments, and oh, we announced WE ARE HAVING A BABY!! More to tell later.

Last bit of news, I got a job. I am now officially a nanny. I nanny for a two year old little cutie and work 2 full days a week and one half day. It's been a lot of fun, and I really like the family and my schedule.

That's it for our news, pictures and more to tell are coming soon.

A Visit From The Little Bro....

Well guess my last post worked. I just knew as soon as I posted pictures of our cozy little place, someone would come a knockin...Yes I did it! My little brother Matt came to visit us this past week. He is getting ready to go on his mission (papers are in, waiting for the call) and he decided to come see Texas before he left on his journey. We were so happy to have him come. We had fun while he was here and visited some fun places. Thanks Matt for coming! Here are some pics of our adventures.

Our Yummy Food.

The night he came in, we went to downtown Fort Worth and ate at a place called UNO. It was Italian food and it was really good. We found the place after searching throughout the city for something to eat. We were glad we chose this place.

Downtown Fort Worth was lit up with lights for both Christmas and because they light the buildings at night, it was really pretty so we took a stroll around the town.

After the stroll through town, Andy had a little something up his sleeve and took us to the Stockyards, to a place called Billy Bob's. Billy Bob's is a huge place full of events, One thing going on that night was Josh Gracin had a concert and we had seats close to the stage. It was a lot of fun, Matt hadn't been to a concert in years so it was quite the fun experience for him.

Later in the week we went to the Fort Worth Zoo. There we saw this bright thing chomping on a little something. I'm not sure if you can see, but he is holding something in his hand. When we looked at him closer we saw that he was chomping on none other then his (or someone elses) poop. We watched, laughing and being disgusted. Just as he finished and we were about to leave, we see him doing something with his mouth, he then spits out a nicely rounded blob of poop into his hand and began to eat it again.....GAG ME!!!!! That did the trick, we, and the rest of the crowd left dry heaving because of what we had just seen. GROSS! And people like to say we were once these bright creatures....I beg to differ.

Here are just a few of the many animals we saw. The White Tigers were my favorite. I think they are just beautiful. We had a lot of fun at the zoo and the weather was really nice.

We went to a lot of other places that aren't pictured like malls, movie theaters and places to eat, but best of all was the COWBOYS STADIUM.....

We wanted to go on a tour of the stadium, but when we looked up prices and times we found out they would be closed before Andy got off work. So we decided to just go over there and look around at the stadium from the outside. Well when we got there, the place looked opened and there were a lot of people going inside with name tags on. We decided to go in and check it out. We were able to shop around their shop that was inside and then we went to go around on the otherside of the stadium. I stayed in the car while Andy and Matt went to get closer to see if they could look in the doors. When they approached the doorway, the security guards opened the doors for them, thinking they were apart of the rest of the people. So they walked right in and got to look around. Matt was too scared the whole time, so they didn't stay in there long, but he got to see the field at least. They could have seen more, but Matt, just couldn't stay calm. Ha Ha. He loved it though.

And that does it for our adventures. It was a lot of fun and we enjoyed having him out here. Sorry this is such a long post.

Our Little Place We Like To Call Home....

Well I guess it was about time we showed it to everyone. It's small, but fits us perfectly. Our apartments are called Amli and they are located in Fort Worth Texas. They are hidden back away from the road and are located on a golf course. They have a clubhouse with a workout facility, internet cafe and conference room and then a nice pool. But those things aren't pictured. Haven't stepped foot in the pool yet. The weather has been nice, but not warm enough to swim. We've used the workout facility a lot already and it's been nice. So there you have it.

The View From the Entryway. Huge isn't it. ;)

The
View From the Left of the Entryway

The Kitchen

The Living Room and Couch

The Bedroom

The Bathroom

And Last But Not Least, The Beautiful Sunset View From Our Deck

That sums up the complete tour of our little place we like to call home. Hope you all want to come and visit us now. :) See you soon at my front door. :)

The Stockyards...Yee Haw

The Stockyards are located in Fort Worth Texas just right near us. We had some friends tell us about them and decided to go this weekend. They were a lot of fun! They were very western and we heard a lot of strong cowboy accents. Definitely worth visiting.


Here are some fun things we saw....

Andy dressed as a jail bird....

Beka riding horses...giddy up horsey....

Cows dressed as women...

Boots used as vases...

Cowboys made of iron....

Long horns named Big Jake....

Trains driving through the village....

Love Shack's and Saloon's...

And last but not least, we even saw John Wayne!

That sums up our adventures at the stockyards, but stay tuned for pictures of our apartment are coming soon.....

Texas State Fair

Here are some photos from a good ole day at the Texas State Fair.

It was a cloudy cold day in Texas, but we found some food to warm us up.

1. That's a lot of bacon!!!

2. Eating Belgian Waffles with our friends from left Emily and Peter Andrew, Steven and McKenna Dutcher, and Beka!!!

3. How bout one of these?

Found some games and trains

And the pig races

All and all, it was a good day at the Texas State Fair

Well it's hard to say goodbye and let go......

Since I've been here in Texas, I have had some time to think. I don't have a job yet and Andy is gone a lot. One thing I have been thinking is how hard it is to say goodbye and let go of the past. I am excited about our new adventures here in Texas and I know it will be a great experience. But that doesn't make it easy to say goodbye to those you love and just hope that things will be great for them. This is a time to have faith and trust in the Lord that we are where we are supposed to be. I just want to say thank you to all of those who have been there to support us throughout our lives and our marriage. We love you!!

Here are some of those special ones we miss.....

.

Not pictured are baby Joslyn and Brad (sorry no pics of them) and also all of our wonderful friends. Thank You so much!!

We Made it!!!

Well what can I say, I guess it took us moving all the way to Texas for us to start a blog. I don't have a clue what I am doing and am the most computer illiterate person out there, but I am learning.

We had a few nice greetings on the way here...
#1.






Nothing like driving in the dark mountains while the snow is falling and ice is on the streets. That was a pleasant surprise.

#2.





A family of these friendly critters walked across the street just as we approached Amarillo Texas. It was a warm welcome. :) I called Andy just after seeing them and said " Did you just see those HUGE spiders crossing the road!?" He said " Those were spiders!? I thought they were crabs!!!" Yep they were that big.

#3.











I'm sure most people have never heard of this place, but it is famous for it's challenge. It is called The Big Texan challenge. They challenge you to eat 72 oz steak (4 1/2 lbs), baked potato, salad and a roll.


If you can eat all of that in one hour then you will get it for free! It's nuts. A few people have accomplished this and one man ate two. YIKES!! This restaurant was a lot of fun. We didn't eat there, but there was lots to do there. Maybe by looking at the pics you'll have a desire to come visit us just to see this place. :)

Well as you can see from all of these pictures, everything really is bigger in Texas. Who woulda known?