Happy New Year's Eve 2010.

How can this be? Where exactly did

2010 go? I must have blinked as

it flew by. Just the same, I realize

that our family is blessed beyond

measure and are so grateful

for our many, many blessings . . .

most of which we do not even

begin to deserve.

That said, 2010 was a wonderful

year for our family as we were

able to relocate to Reno and

begin anew here with many

exciting adventures in the near future.

We are so excited to begin construction

on our new home, continue working

hard in home school, continue the

PhD journey, attend to business

as the Lord sees fit.

We are praying that you and

your family have a wonderful

2011 and that this new year brings

you all of your hopes, dreams, and

desires.

Happy New Year!

Home Again, Home Again . . . Jiggity Jig.

Yeehaw! I will be back in the Biggest Little

City in the World tonight at about

midnight. I certainly cannot wait!

We have big weekend plans including

flix, church, and family fun.

I cannot wait to usher in the new

year with my favorite people.

Cost of PhD weekend . . . expensive.

Going home . . . priceless.

Day 3 . . . Brain Drain.

Over the course of the past few days, I have

met some incredibly nice people that

I am excited to keep in touch with. It will

be nice to have others that are going

through a similar journey to talk with

during the PhD experience.

This is where it all takes place . . . goodness.

I feel like Dorothy in "The Wizard of Oz":

There is no place like home.

I cannot wait to click my heals tomorrow

and head home to my little crew.

This shindig ends tomorrow at

noon . . . I will be heading back

home to snowy Reno, Nevada.

I.cannot.wait.

Residency Experience . . . Day 2.

Goodness! I do not like the single

life Sam I am. I feel like I am missing

a big part of myself without my little

family. Thank the Lord for texting,

cell phones, and emails. We have kept

in constant communication.

The wake up call came at 6:15a.m. Florida

time (3:15a.m. Reno time) after a sleepless

night in my hotel room. I definitely do.not.

like to sleep without my husband and

the occasional child.

I spent the ENTIRE day in classes with

a brief break for lunch and a fifteen

minute bathroom break. Tomorrow

proves to be more of the same.

I am chalking this up to experience

and another notch in the pole

of this doctoral journey.

Counting.the.minutes.until.

I.am.back.with.my.cute.family.

And So It Begins . . .

After riding on trains, planes, and automobiles, I

FINALLY made it to Jacksonville, Florida at 3:00a.m.

this morning. It took 14 hours to arrive here from

Reno with all of the crazy uncharacteristic weather

on the East coast.

I am here and I am loving every single moment!

God is so great to me! I have already met several

women who have so much in common with me

and we have become fast friends. This is proving

to be a wonderful educational experience and

one that will instill even more determination

to achieve my goal of PhD.

Reflecting on the journey thus far, I am so

grateful to my family and I realize without

their love and support I would not have

made it to this point. I am so thankful

for my little cheerleading section.

You.are.amazing!

Up, Up, and Away!

As hard as it is to imagine, I am on my

way to Jacksonville, Florida for one of

my three doctoral residencies.

I cannot believe that we have managed

to have a wonderful CHRISTmas with

our fabulous family, unwrap presents,

attend church services, go to movies,

go shopping, drive around and look at CHRISTmas

lights, cook three HUGE meals . . . all in the past

two days.

However, duty calls and I am on my way

to cram my brain with yet more important

information related to school administration

and organizational leadership. I cannot imagine

leaving my little crew for several days, but

I know that they will have tons of fun

with their new CHRISTmas presents and

be ready to celebrate the New Year in style

when I get home late Thursday night.

We already have plans for weekend movies

and spending our other CHRISTmas gift

certificates!!

Jacksonville . . . ready or not, here I come!

Happy, Happy Birthday Tim!

Happy, Happy BIRTHDAY to one

of my most favorite people.

Happy 24th Birthday to my

special Tim.

We are so blessed and thankful

for our firstborn son.

Here are only a few of the

reasons that Tim is so special:

*Tim loves his family and puts

them first.

*He is funny.

*Tim has an amazing laugh

that makes everyone smile.

*Tim is a perfectionist.

*Tim has great self-confidence.

*He is an amazing son, grandson,

and brother.

*Tim does not judge others.

*Tim is a wonderful musician.

*He is devoted to his career.

*He loves the Lord.

*Tim always makes me smile.

We are so thankful for this man

and so grateful that he is in our

lives. He is an awesome young

man and a most important member

of our family.

We would NOT know what to do

without our Tim.

Happy, Happy Birthday, Tim.

We.heart.you.

Merry, Merry CHIRSTmas!!!

CHRISTmas at our house does not

get any better than this!!!

We had the bestest CHRISTmas

ever . . .

. . . and we are so thankful for great

people like these in our lives!!

SANTA!

. . . and his little elf.

My fave, fave, favorite QUILT fabric.

An apron ALL for me!!!!

. . . and the current time is . . .

Our favorite Grandy came all the

way from Las Vegas just to spend

time with us . . . that made our

CHRISTmas all the more merry!!

. . . a special gift for our resident photog!

Legos are always a big part of any

celebration involving my Luke.

Number four loving his CHRISTmas!!

Dr. Cool Jay.

Zach ripping open another . . .

We are so thankful for our wonderful

family and our many, many blessings.

We have been blessed beyond measure.

The birth of our Savior is one of the

most special times we have to

celebrate together as a family.

We pray that you and your family

had wonderful, wonderful time

celebrating Jesus also.

Merry, Merry BLOGmas!

My family certainly knows how to

spoil a girl!! I still CANNOT believe

it and am still crying happy, happy

tears from opening my BLOG IN TWO
BEAUTIFUL, BEAUTIFUL BOOKS!

I cannot believe that my family was

so very thoughtful and had my

blog published into two very,

very special books.

Like the many, many memories

created with my awesome family,

I will treasure these precious

books FOREVER.

Merry, Merry CHRISTmas!

We Believe in Santa Claus.

Here are some of the reasons

we believe in Santa Claus:

*Santa is a joyous individual . . . people

are attracted to joyous individuals as

filings are attracted to a magnet.

*Santa is interested in making others happy!

He increases the happy moments in the

life of everyone he meets.

*He loves his work; he gets fun out

of his job.

*He is childlike, simple, humble,

sincere, and forgiving.

*Santa is a giver. His philosophy

is to give himself away in service.

*He is a friend to everyone.

*Santa Claus smiles.

New Home Plans!

Perhaps one of the bestest early CHRISTmas

gifts our family has received was . . .

the plans to our new home in Somersett!

We are so excited!!! The plans will be

reviewed by the Somersett ARC committee,

a structural engineer will perform

calculations on them, and then we will be

able to submit them to the city of Reno.

February sounds like a great month

to start building a new home to me!!

CHRISTmas Blessing.

The boys and I were most

definitely blessed today as

we spent the day at the

Salvation Army Thrift Store

handing out toys and

CHRISTmas presents to

those less fortunate then

ourselves.

Thus, we have spent the

entire day feeling pretty

blessed and thankful.

This is the best way

to celebrate Jesus.

Advent Activities . . .

Today our Advent Calendar activity

was to go to the mall, look at Santa,

and get a Cinnabon.

We were only too excited to do just that.

Actually, Luke signed up to wrap

CHRISTmas gifts for his Boy

Scout troop at the mall, so it

all worked out perfectly.

We ate our Cinnabons, rolled around

on the floor, and then drove to see

these amazing lights.

From the pictures that my little

photog Luke took, it looks as though

we drove by at lightening speed,

but we did not. The homes were

beautifully decorated.

The whole street was set to music

and the owners of the homes were

handing out hot cocoa.

The air certainly was CHRISTmasy

as Reno has been hit with a

Pineapple Express storm.

We may need to visit this gorgeous

cul-de-sac again to take some

more pictures . . .

We are having fun preparing for the

CHRISTmas season and the official

countdown has begun. Luke is so excited!

The bigger guys are trying to act as

though they can wait until the

BIG DAY, but they are getting pretty

excited as well.

We pray that you and your

family are having a wonderful

time celebrating Jesus also!