L-and-N: January 2012

Nick and I talked about a few things we needed to improve in our relationship with each other and our Heavenly Father. We both thought about it and decided that the behaviors we wanted to change were to have family prayer in the morning, scripture reading, and walk 30 min. everyday together. So far we have done a good job with all three.

This pass Saturday we went hiking with our friend Daniel in The Smokey Mountain National Park. It is a cool place. This is the second time Nick and I have gone hiking there together.

There was still ice and snow in places

This is the first log bridge and it was kinda scary to cross because it was leaning pretty bad.

My turn to go over it and I was pretty nervous

The view looking down

This bridge was just a log.. the rail was just there to look at because if you put to much weight on it, it wobbled pretty bad.

This is the pretty Oconaluftee River

It's my turn and I can't believe I'm about to go over it!

We had a great hike and we both can't wait to return to the Smokey Mountain National Park!

Sorry it has been a while since my last blog, but I have been really busy. To play catch up Nick finished his semester in school with pretty good grades and I have been doing okay with teaching. I got to the point where I felt like I couldn't handle it anymore and I wanted to change my profession, but that is when my mentor came to the rescue. My mentor is a hard worker and she is WAY awesome!! She gives good advice and helps me figure out what to do about the problems I was facing at the time. With work being stressful I was super excited about Christmas break. We drove down to my dad's the Wednesday before Christmas and stayed there until Christmas morning. Catherine, Ana, and I baked and shopped until we dropped! We had so much fun and I miss them already!

This is a picture of us tasting the Oreo truffles (cake balls) we made! YUM!!!

Crockett had to get in on the fun.. He kept eating our yummy food

For Christmas this year, Leigh and I went in together and got Ana and Catherine cute cookbooks (that I wrote down all the recipes in, and they can add their favorites) and matching aprons. We got Crockett Nerf stuff and we got Dad a new fishing net that was hand crafted. He loved it!

We went to church with Mom and then back to her house to exchange presents. This is what Nick got from Joe and Daniel. Daniel gave it to us and Joe fixed it so it would run. This will be Nick's transportation to and from school!

Joe giving instructions to Nick before he goes for a ride.

Anthony jumped in the Picture.. Cute

Speaking of Anthony, he will join the family sometime this year. YES that's right he proposed to Leigh on the radio and they will be getting married. So happy for them both!

Joe got this scooter from Dad and Judy.. He LOVES IT!

After Mom's we went to Nick's Parents place and exchanged gifts their and then we left for the beach with them the next morning. Tuesday morning I tripped over the dish washer and cut my pinky and bruised my body on the left side, but we didn't have to go to the emergency room thank goodness. Duncan took care of my finger and it is finally starting to look better. I couldn't swim or do any of the fun things though which kinda sucked. I mainly stayed inside and read my book I got for Christmas (The Hunger Games) it is AMAZING! I am now on the second book.