Lydia likes cake

aka: Lydia turns 1!!!

craziness. just craziness. (not saying that Lydia is a crazy, wild child, although she does have her moments, but that it cannot be possible that a whole year has come and gone! Where did that dark haired baby go???)

The Kapps

I was asked to play the piano for a Women's Conference held down here on Saturday. The speakers were Sister Ardeth Kapp and her husband. 

They were great!!! It was such a good conference. I'm so glad I was asked to play, otherwise, I doubt I would have gone. :/

blurry, but you get the idea...

From Brother Kapp: "Life is supposed to be a challenge. We were sent here, essentially, to get the tar kicked out of us. If you're lacking some trials in your life, maybe you should go home and pray for some." har har har.

What do we need to do during challenges? Keep a heart of cheer.

We choose our own heart. 

From Sister Kapp, things that have me thinking:

What is the earnest desire of your heart?

Do you know your heart?

Do you listen to your heart?

Do you realize who you are?

We need to Ponder about, Pray for, and Prune our hearts.

These two were a bunch of jokesters, but this one from Sister Kapp had me giggling for a while:

During a conversation with a younger woman about finding a worthy and righteous man, and wondering how Sister Kapp found a man like that [Brother Kapp]? 

Sister Kapp's response: I didn't find him like that!?

J. double E. to the P

What does that spell?

JEEP

 I don't feel like typing this all out again, so here is a copy and paste from an email that was going around in my family that explains things [an email asking who was going to be able to make it to which family reunions this summer]:

We're not sure yet if we'll be able to make it for any summer activinies. Depends on if we'll be in Alaska working or not. If we're in Alaska, then it's a no go for both reunions. But if we're in Reno then we can do both and whatever dates are chosen for the gas reunion we will make work.  :)
Isn't life so fun and exciting???
Speaking of fun and exciting: David just finished pulling in our latest purchase: a 2003 jeep grand Cherokee. He's been looking around on Craigslist lately because his car is doomed to go kaput any day.  The owner of the jeep didn't know what was wrong with it and they just wanted to sell it for what they thought it was worth. David and Lonney went to look at it, and a plugged Cadillac catalytic converter (? You'll have talk to David for the details) is the problem. This should be a relatively inexpensive fix. So the vehicle is actually worth much much more than what the owners thought. David was able to buy it for half of what its worth. I don't know to feel elated or guilty that we got a JEEP for Soo little. So we now have a stinkin nice jeep, that goes about 10mph. Yeehaw!!! This will be David's little side project after work and school this semester. We're crossing our fingers that the purple dodge will last a little bit longer (it has multiple problems and we're just shocked that it still runs) until David has the jeep ready to go.
There, now everyone is caught up with our latest news and excitement. :) call if you would like more details.

 "I don't know if you can tell, 'cause I'm trying really hard to contain myself...but I am so excited!!!!" David's words.
This is our first car bought together as Husband and Wife. So it was kinda exciting and a real big deal, thus needing much documentation.

And did you catch that little tease in the email that we have yet to release to blogland? Until now!

'Tis true: We will either be in Alaska or Reno come May. 

More info and details to come at a later time.

January Wrap-Up numbre due

We did a quick little trip to Panaca. We got to see two of Preston's basketball games.

He's a little baller.

And we also got to spend quite a bit of time with the Tibbitts clan! 

It seems that whenever we are in town, David's best friend- Talen, is not. And this makes the two of them sad. This particular weekend, Talen's younger brother got married, so he and his wife were home for that. We got to hang out at the reception and then we played games, went on an impromptu hike, and grabbed some pizza for dinner on Saturday. It was great! If you know the Tibbitts, then you know that it was a lot of FUN.

January Wrap-Up numbre uno

Seeing as how I spent most of January catching up on December, I neglected to get much from January up here. So, here we go!

The Circus!!!!!

I got a few buy one adult and get a child in free passes for one of the Circus companies that roll through town. We had never been to a circus before, and we were really excited. Plus, we got to take along some of our favorite little boys. We all had fun!

 One, large, talented elephante:

 This crazy guy! He was making me sweat!

 The little ones loved anything to do with motorcycles, and lucky for them, there were a few acts with some sort of dirt bike or motorcycle.

 We splurged on spider-man face painting...and...

 And an elephant ride!!!

 Too much fun!

I have a few videos from the day...I'll have to upload them later...
And doesn't the back of that Subaru look good loaded down with kiddos? ;)

GAS family photo shoot 2012

What with 4 more people added to the family since our photo shoot last year, we were in need of an update. 

Newest members include, in order of official arrival, Lydia, Levi, Jade, and Roslyn

 Ohhh, I love my family!

 The boys. All of them being true to form.

 Now, I would put up a picture of each individual family, but these are the only ones that we have/that took the time to snap a few photos. 

The KKKJ family

 The biggest baby!!!!

tehehehe. ;) Such a pretty thing.

 And us!!! I figured since we were celebrating our 2nd anniversary, that a good, quality picture was in order:

 I love him, I love him, I love him!

and, oh, just in case you wanted it in color to see my RED hair:

Random little update:

school starts tomorrow.

finally!!!! 

And Saturday was my last day at Great Harvest (because school starts tomorrow). Bitter-Sweet.
I picked up tres mas piano students and have a few more pending. Ay yi yi yi!!!! word is getting out. I'm either good or cheap. or both.

The Best 2 Years!

We just finished watching that movie at my parent's a few hours ago, and it reminded me that I have yet to post about our best 2 years.

We celebrated our 2 year anniversary at the beginning of January!!! 

just seeing that in writing is making my jaw drop. again. 2 years?!? 

The time has FLOWN by. 

I could get all mushy. but opting not to at the time being. I'll just give a quick break-down of how we partied. 

Got sweet deals at the Southpoint Hotel and Spa. 

brought my jar of cash earned from tips and piano and used that for everything except the hotel and spa.

       

went to the movies (Sherlock Holmes) and hung out with our favorite chipmunks!

did some bowling. where we each bowled our lowest scores ever!!!!

 Ate at "The Famous" Steak'n'Shake. It was pretty darn good. 

David surprised me with a Kindle Fire!!!! wowza. Was not expecting that! He loves to spoil me. :) 

Spent alll day at the spa on Monday (the 2nd, our anniversary day). It.was.glorious. They have a couples area/retreat so we actually got to hang out with each other instead of being in separate men/women areas the whole time. Fitness room, Sauna, steam room, spa/jacuzzi, lounge, food, MASSAGES. GLORIOUS!!! And then we got all dressed up and had an OK dinner at "Don Vito's". meh. not bad, but nothing to go back to. After din, walked through bass pro and picked up a few things for the man and dreamed about all the fun toys we will one day have. ;)

And then we got home and took these really awful self-timed photos!

                     

We love each other more than we did 2 years ago; something worth celebrating, indeed!

 

Two of my favorite candids:

What was left out from December part 5

The Christmas Morning photo shoot:

What was left out from December part 4

After getting into our comfy new pj's  on christmas eve, we opened a few gifts from the names we drew.

Preston drew us, and was so proud of the sweet little blender he got for us. :) Thanks P!

We had Joseph and Felicia and Amelia. They got a gift card to Carraba's, the DVD pack of the old-school claymation christmas movies (Frosty, Rudolph...), a car game, and the previously mentioned owl beanie for the little one.

On the gift for Amelia (who was sleeping at the time), I wrote: to Amelia, but if we're being honest this is more for Felicia. :)

I think Feesh liked it.

and now for just a bunch of pictures

Do you see that playhouse??? So stinkin' cute. Felicia made the whole thing, every little detail.

a little bit of Just Dance action

1. Preston got a door basketball hoop. It was put to use as soon as he got it out of the box. 2. Our cute stockings. 3. Scott and David got the same jackets. ha!

 Christmas lasted all.day.long.

We opened a few things before church. after church. after dinner. after dessert. Hence the multiple outfit and hair changes.

I loved it!

I finally put all of our engagement photos together and surprised David with that and the book of our wedding photos that we gave to our parents last year.  Also pictured: David's jacket and Giulia's mossy oak shirt!

What was left out from December part 3

Christmas Eve

We spent the morning ice fishing.
Getting MYYY brand.new. ice fishing pole ready to go:

              

it.was.cold.

 

Joseph 3-Giulia-1-David-0

Might I add: I cleaned and gutted my pretty guy all by myself [again!]

So tired on the way home:

Got some alone time with Miss Priss
We watched some Elmo!

Dinner

Opening new PJs!!!

or in our case: new sweats. yay!

D&G had a little photo-shoot. If we sent out christmas cards, this is what would have been used.

Thank you, Felicia, for providing the photos!
Also, take note of my shoes in our christmas eve photo shoot. David made me open a gift before we went to the party at the church that night. In the box lay these pretty satiny things. Have I mentioned that I love that David loves to buy me shoes and that he has excellent taste? I understand if you're jealous.

Last but not least, behold the glory of Christmas!

most of those suckers were for Miss Priss, as it should be. She's so easy and fun to spoil rotten!