North Carolina (a picture post)

I loved meeting my cute new nephew Max. I held and kissed him as much as possible.

So many fun parks.

Jake, the cutest toothless toddler ever.

Traci showed us all around North Carolina. I was impressed how well she was able to make it around the whole area with ease.

Delicious icecream at the Mayville Farms (I think).

James and I put on a Mexican spread one of the nights. It was DELICIOUS!

James practicing the baby pack. I thought it was adorable and can't wait to strap Lucy to him in the near future. He was a natural.

Max was so content wherever we went.

Jake found a friend at Duke park. He was obedient to all of her demands.

James and Russ both thought this would be a good idea... Needless to say, I laughed my head off watching both of them try to get out.

The Staheli gang in front of Duke chapel.

I love this kid.

Jake loved to watch as James played Plants and Zombies. Actually he didn't care who was playing it, he just liked watching it.

New Year's Eve we had a Rockin' party that included a bubble dance party, candy bar bingo, Despicable Me, and we also raced the clock to see how fast we could put together this 300 piece puzzle. Traci, Russ and Scott made it to midnight. James and I hit the sac early because we had to get up early the next morning for our flight home. We really did have such a great time and Traci and Russ treated us so well, it was hard to leave. We really had such a great time and enjoyed seeing the sights of North Carolina. Thanks so much to the whole Staheli Family for a rockin' Awesome good TIME!

First Week of Christmas Vacation

Just an update on our Christmas break. I had a full two weeks off for Christmas break, which was wonderful. James just had to work on Monday and Tuesday, so I decided to get a few extra hours in on Monday as well. We planned to head down to St. George Tuesday afternoon. We knew we would be flying on Christmas day, so we decided to have Christmas early together, for Family home evening. It was so much fun. James planned a really great program for the two of us. We read Christmas stories, sang hymns, and watched my families version of the Nativity from our old home videos. It was wonderful to take some time and really focus on our Savior Jesus Christ. After, we opened presents and made a delicious breakfast for dinner feast. James mostly got practical stuff from me and all I asked for was the grater addition to my Bosch, which I got and was thrilled. We did fill each other's stockings with a few other surprises and it was a lot of fun.

Tuesday was our first encounter with the weather. It snowed all morning long. I knew that we had plans to leave for St. George that day, I spent the day watching the news, studying the weather and looking up driving conditions on I-15. It finally stopped snowing, just a little after noon, and I knew if we just waited a couple of hours we would be fine. So we packed up and headed down the road. The roads were absolutely clear which was the first traveling miracle of this Christmas vacation.

The next day we had dentist appointments and went to lunch with Mason. James comes out again with a perfect record, no cavities. After having two cavities filled, just over Halloween, I still had another small cavity that Mason said could wait. Ugh.. Hopefully our children have their father's teeth.

Later that night we made Mexican food for my family and decorated Ginger bread houses. I got the three little pigs award, because my house was made of bricks (Big Red Gum). James was the judge this year and he was obviously showed no biases towards my house, because he picked JoEllen and Maycee as the overall winners.

Christmas Eve is always a lot fun at Grandma Sullivan's. We even got out the chimes this year, which was fun. The kids love James and tackled him as often as he was around.

Christmas day we were off to North Carolina. We left for Vegas airport at 8:00 am and planned to be there later that night, about 8:00 pm. Needless to say it took a little longer than we expected. We arrived in Cincinnati only to find that our connecting flight to North Carolina was canceled. Delta could get us to North Carolina Sunday night from the Louisville airport, so we got to spend the night with Spencer and the kids in Louisville. It was a lot of fun to see them and we were so grateful he was so willing to come get us and feed us. We had a lot of fun with them. Sunday after Sacrament meeting, Spence took us back to the airport, only to pick us up 4 hours later, when our flight was once again canceled. We decided to forget about flying and decided just to rent a car and take matters into our own hands. We left Louisville Monday morning and arrived in Durham North Carolina Monday at 6:00 pm just a couple of days later than we planned but we were so happy to make it.

Christmas Time is Here!

I thought we might just make this mostly a picture post of some of our Christmas pictures that we've taken. I know when some people look at blogs that that's all they look at anyways.

This is probably my favorite picture right here.

We bought this nativity at the Deseret Book.

Lauri made this bow for the wreath. She's pretty darn good isn't she?

Even though we don't have a tree, we do have the presents.

Carl Bloch Exhibit

For family home evening last night James and I visited the BYU Museum of Art to see the Carl Bloch exhibit. If you think you don't know who he is, you would be surprised how many of his works you have actually seen. The church uses so many of them in Ensigns, book covers and many other published works. Some of my most favorite portrals of our Savior, I found out last night were his works.

The exhibit itself is a work of art in itself. Many of the pieces that they have there are the actual altar pieces from different churches and cathedrals in Sweden and Denmark. They are huge and absolutely beautiful. I feel like this is one of those opportunities that is only available once in a lifetime and I would encourage anyone that is within a decent traveling distance that you should see this exhibit. It is free but you do need to get tickets to see it. You can do that at http://moa.byu.edu/ . You can also learn more about this exhibit.

Both James and I felt Carl Bloch share his testimony with us through his works. As well as the care that was putting the exhibit together was a testimony from all those involved.

For posterity's sake...

There you go. I'm gettin' huge and uncomfortable.

Reality is setting in...

I've been pretty sick this last week, all starting Monday with the stomach flu and a quick visit to the Hospital. I thought I was feeling better, but my body has not figured out how to be regular again. I guess this is what I get for having a fairly easy pregnancy. I really have started to wonder if this is what most pregnant women experience everyday. Either way I am grateful it hasn't been so tough.

James picked up the movie "Being Dad" at the library that he and I watched together last night. It's actually really great and I'd recommend it to all my expecting friends and their husbands. However, reality really started to kick in, and I am starting to freak out just a little bit. It's one thing to grow the baby, it's a whole other thing to get the baby out. Lots of women give birth everyday, but it's all still "the unknown" to me, so it's a little scary.

HOPE

I love that when the sun shines through a window, it can warm up a room or car even when it is cold outside. Last winter, when I wasn't pregnant, I would often lay down on my stomach right where the sun would hit the carpet and fall asleep. I would usually wake up sweating, and honestly, I don't think I've ever had a better nap.

Today when I woke up I opened the window blinds and let the sun shine brightly in my room. I don't really know why, but this really charged me up. This experience reminded me of hope. No matter how cold it is outside, or how dim the day or challenge can seem that we have ahead of us, we can find hope in our Savior, Jesus Christ. He is the source of all hope. When life seems impossible or the challenges too tough to overcome, it is through Christ that we can find the energy we need to make it through anything that life throws at us.

It is during this Christmas season that we celebrate Him who provides all hope to everyone on this earth. What a blessing it is to have a knowledge of his life and the blessings that He can bring to our life if we learn to live like he did.