$6.99 Well Spent

I've never really been a short hair person. It seems like in the past when I've gone shorter, I haven't been that happy with it, and I feel like I look like I'm 12. That changed when I cut my hair this past fall. It was a shorter cut, and I really liked it. I decided Saturday I was ready to go short again. My hair was getting too long. So I headed to Great Clips with a coupon for a $6.99 haircut. I wasn't sure how it would turn out, I'd never been there before, and I didn't have any specifics on what I really wanted. It's shorter than I've ever gone before, but I really like it. And I've gotten a lot of compliments on the cut, so that makes it even better! It was definitely $6.99 (plus a tip) well spent!

Silly Sleeper

A Little Chat

I did a little video editing for the first time. It's not professional, but I had fun. Glad I finally to work on blogger. Hope you enjoy my two little boys talking!

JCP Photo Op

I've been meaning to put these up...
Back in November we went for family pictures to JCPenny's Portrait Studio (twice actually). It's our yearly gift to grandparents and great-grandparents. The second time we used our one free wireless viewing of pictures.
This is some of what we ended up with...

Aren't they just so cute.
And the camera just loves them, and they love the camera....

oh wait...
this is a more acurate picture of why we needed two sessions
and what really happened during each!

Oh well, at least we got some good ones! And now it's funny.

This I know to be true.

My cousin died Sunday. He was 17. I didn't know him very well, but my heart and prayers go out to his family.

I just want to take a moment to share a few thoughts that I've had as I've been reflecting how fragile this existence really is. The only way to conquer death was through God's sacrifice of His Only Begotten Son Jesus Christ. Through God's loving grace, we will all one day be able to live again. And not only will we just live again, but we will be able to live again with our families. Through the restoration of the Gospel, God gave the power back to man to be able to be sealed for time and all eternity and not just "until death do you part."

I know that my cousin will be reunited with his family. I know that my family will be together forever. FAMILIES ARE ETERNAL. And though life will bring death, and sometimes in ones too young, the Gospel of Jesus Christ brings knowledge, faith, hope, peace, and love. I am grateful for the grace of my Savior. I'm grateful for the comfort that His Atonement can bring and the knowledge that families are forever. It makes the loss of a loved one just a little easier to bear.

Picture downloaded from lds.org

*For those who are not members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and would like more information on our belief in eternal family or other beliefs, feel free to visit www.mormon.org. Or I'd love to answer any questions you have if I can.

Celebrating Christmas

The holidays were wonderful! Ben had off work from Christmas Eve until January 3rd... it was so nice to have him around. The boys couldn't get enough of their dad. They were both daddy's boys the whole time. We enjoyed staying at home and traveling back and forth to Rexburg to be with extended family.

Christmas Eve was spent at my in-laws with all of Ben's siblings and with Grandpa and Grandma Blackham. We had a little musical get together. Ben even pulled out his violin for the occasion! I love hearing him play, but unfortunately it doesn't happen very often these days. After opening the traditional Christmas jammies, we headed home to prepare for Christmas morning.

Here's the house all ready for the boys the next morning. And I even finished the stockings I started the Christmas season Gavin was born. I still want to put names on them, but other than that they are finally done!

The (sort of) grand entrance...

We were so blessed by so many. Thank you to all of you who sent gifts for the boys and for us. We were all very spoiled this year. We couldn't have asked for anything else. We had a lot of fun opening presents, especially Gavin. Even Xander started to get into it, though after a while he was done and wanted to play with what he already had. Gavin didn't even hardly help anyone else open there presents, at least not until he didn't have any more to open for himself!

I just laugh every time I look at these...

After web-camming with my family and letting Xander take a nap, we headed to Rexburg for the rest of the day. We opened a few more presents. Gavin loved and still very much loves the train set Grandma Ann and Grandpa Kevin got for the boys. By this point, Xander just had fun playing with packing peanuts instead of messing with more presents!

The rest of the holidays were great with the exception of some sick kiddos... again. But we're glad to be back to our regular daily routine... it just helps with the sanity of all involved ;) Thanks again to all those who helped make our holidays great... whether it was gifts, food, games, keeping an eye on my boys, etc.!