Adventure is out there!!!

We're going on an adventure, the biggest adventure of my life so far! Jon's had a lot of adventures- but I'm going to guess that this is one of the biggest adventures for him as well. We leave tomorrow for JORDAN! Woot Woot! For the next two weeks we will be riding camels, camping with the Bedouins, wading in the Dead Sea, hanging out with amazing Muslim families, doing humanitarian work, seeing the Holy Land, and so much more! Expect a full report when we return.
Thanks again to all those who helped with making baby hats! A full list of those who helped will be posted in a few weeks. But as of today, with a few more hats rolling in we have a grand total of...

1,056!

Amazing! That is seriously a miracle to me and it makes my heart happy to think of how many babies we'll be able to help because of your amazing donations! Thanks for your service!

300 and counting...

I've seen some amazing things in my life, people stepping up and helping those in need, but for some reason, making these hats for the babies in Jordan touches my heart more and more everyday. I am shocked at all the people who are willing to take their time and energy to make baby hats for little ones on the other side of the world. Most of these people had never even heard of the country of Jordan before, and are still figuring out where it is! But they heard of a need, so they stepped up to help. I almost cry every time someone brings me more hats!

THANK YOU!
To everyone who has already sent hats, and those that are working on them right now!
I have a total of 163 hats at my house. There are another 140 at my parents. And more on the way! Thanks to those who have helped!!!!!

Frank Hales
Tami Hart
Mike Mazza, and members of his singles branch in Virginia, and his mom in North Carolina
Melanie Webb
Sue from my ward
Brother Williams
Anna Fechter
Bonnie from work
Megan Henningson and Mountain Springs students
Sharon Nichols

and THANKS to those who continue to work on them!

We are leaving for Jordan in 19 days and we are so excited! We will have at least one full suitcase of baby hats! I promise we will take many pictures and give a full report. So stay tuned!!

Married Christmas!

We survived our first married Christmas and loved it! I think we were able to spend the same amount of time with both families, which can be hard, but I think we were successful this year. We got practical married type gifts and shared gifts and I was so excited! It was perfect! We shared traditions and made some of our own. :) Santa even found us and our stockings which we opened sitting in camp chairs in front of our unfinished fireplace! It was perfect! Yay for Christmas!

Girl's Camp? Really?!?

We love our calling as Sunbeam teachers! We have the cutest little beamers! They are so loving and cute! Jon especially loves this calling, it's perfect for him. He's so cute with the kiddos. And I love that we get to do it together! So, we had our couple calling and I thought we were good... I shouldn't have thought that.... A few weeks ago the Relief Society Pres. called and asked me to help with the stake women's conference which will be fun! I just get to help invite and get our ward there. I was excited about it because I would meet more people in the ward! Well, I guess I wasn't doing enough because I got another call to meet with the bishopbric... at this point I just thought I was in trouble, and I guess in a sense I sure am!! They asked me to be the YM CAMP DIRECTOR!!!!!!!!!!!! I said yes, but almost cried. And Jon was there with me and almost laughed right out loud.
Ok, for those of you who don't know me very well, let me tell you about my camping experience. My first camp out was with my family when I was 2. It was less than ideal, and was starting to rain, so my Dad said if we could go home, he would buy us a dog. We had Buffy, our cute cocker spaniel for 20 years and never camped again.
From then growing up, our camping was done in condos. I like this kind of camping.
But then I was 12, and I had to go to girl's camp. Sounded like fun and all... ish.
Here's how girl's camp went for me:
One year I was sick. And no offense to the girls I grew up with, but we didn't always get along, especially at camp so it wasn't as enjoyable as it was supposed to be.
One year I had to bring my friend from another ward for reinforcements or I wouldn't go.
One year there were 4 of us that were abandonded and forgotten as we were in a paddle boat on the river, they just forgot about us and left to go to dinner. We didn't get dinner that night.
One year I was almost sent home because I was blamed wrongfully for a snipe hunt gone bad.
I decided not to go anymore so the bishop and the stake YW presidency came to my house to convince it would be "fun"... I didn't go.
The more I think about it, the more unpleasant memories come to mind about girl's camp.
Now why... why me... why now. That's what I'm asking. I know God does things for a reason for sure, but I don't know about this one yet. So please pray for me as I try to figure this out!!! And feel free to laugh at me and with me and hope I make it through July!!!!!

FAMILY PICTURES

Yay for family pictures! We went to Wheeler Farm and it was fun as always. I was pretty excited to get a nice picture taken of Jon and I that wasn't from the wedding. Although I love the wedding pics, we needed some change! :) My mom wanted fall colors and i think they turned out really nice! What can I say?! We are a good lookin family!

The Sibling picture of amazingness!! We decided to break away from the normal face smoosh and try some acrobactics! Luckily it worked for a second, and the photographer had good timing. I thought I was going to die if they all fell, but luckily we all survived and got an amazing picture out of it! My favorite things are the faces! Classic.

The complete family as of now. The last family pic we had was before my mission and left out some cute boys: Brycson, Michael, and Jon. We'll see how long this lasts as a complete pic... Do you think we can go 3 years again? (I'm thinking not)

Christmas Time!
I love Christmas and have been waiting months to decorate our new house. Luckily my cute husband humors me mostly shares in the excitement.
He woke up early one morning and I found him playing on the roof, putting up lights on our house! They are SO cute!
Here's the final product! Green, red, and snowflakes!!!!! Very Festive.

Other than lights my favorite thing about Christmas is the Christmas tree! They make me so happy! We inherited this tree from my Aunt Lisa and it's fiber optic! It actually looks really cool. We come from families of much tradition so we are still trying to figure out what traditions we will have as a new family! So for now, here is our simple starter tree! Ornaments from IKEA, bow from Walmart, and...

Our homemade tree topper! We didn't have a star or an angel, but I had this cool coke bottle so it became our topper! I love it, and Jon's a good sport. :) It's perfect until we are able to add more to our holiday decor.

This is my favorite time of year! I love the music, the snow, the spirit of it all! It just makes my heart happy! And I'm SO excited to share Christmas this year with my little family of Jon and I.

My first hat!

So after a few hours of re-teaching myself how to crochet I finally got a beanie done!! It's so cute and little! :) I'm so excited to make beanies like crazy for those little babies in Jordan! It just makes my heart happy.