It was my mom's birthday yesterday and it's Brad's mom's birthday tomorrow. I couldn't be blessed with better mothers in my life... To My Mother: We always had so much fun with you camping at Granite Hot Springs... GREAT memories!!!
Now, our family is even bigger than our most recent family pic but our family is awesome and it's all because of you! I love you mom! To Brad's Mother: Officially the mother in-law!We always have a BLAST when we come to St. George! Thanks for everything you do!The Garrett Family keeps growing too!! Babies Galore!!!
We had fun in Idaho but I think bullet had the most fun. Between chasing my little sisters cats, chasing kids on sleds, getting hit hard by brad on a sled, running up and down the sledding hill, and playing with Trinity and Izzy I would say he had the time of his life. I'm just glad he behaved himself at the Thompson home.
He also won the #1 picture of the trip - I love it! New Years.... Shane, Shea, and Maverick came over to celebrate with us. We had fun playing Balderdash and Blurt. Great Group games!
We had fun building a fort with the kids....
And they had fun knocking it down!We pulled kids and ourselves on the 4-wheeler! - Thanks Jacksons! Bullet never is scared of ANYTHING (no lie). So of course he was chasing the 4-wheeler and getting a little to close - but having the time of his life. Brad was on the sled and ran over him (in the sled)... it must have hit him hard because he wasn't chasing the 4-wheeler near to how he was before the incident... probably a good thing he got hit by the sled and not the 4-wheeler! We built A GIANT Snowman... we had to use 2- 2x4's just to roll the middle ball up! We went sledding at the Sand Dunes... We celebrated by Dad's Birthday!!!! Then our vacation was over and we had a long 19 hour drive back to Stillwater.
We has so much fun spending 2 weeks in St. George! All of Brad's family was there, besides Lou - he is in Singapore on a LDS mission.
White Elephant Gift Christmas EVE party was lots of fun. The limit was $5 but of course Brad's parents went way over. Shauny ended up with movie tickets and restaurant gift cards! I got a rubix cube and brad ended up with "Bod" Spray. Jeanette made yummy homemade soup for Christmas eve dinner.
Brad's little sister, Alex, got a dog! His name is Cooper and he is a basset hound. He is adorable and now the pack of dogs are 3. They were crazy so it was nice to have good weather to stick them outside.
Christmas Morning!!! Brad and I both got our regular Christmas shoes. We both got some puma tennis shoes and I got a pair of black flats. I got brad his Christmas watch - this year he wanted a white one. I found an awesome deal on a fossil one so he was super stoked. Brad got me an awesome jewelery box so my jewelery isn't spread out on my dresser everywhere - I love it! I made brad a book from Shutterfly on his mission. He never got his mission pictures printed so it turned out great.
What did we get Brad's Parents?!?!
An Awesome frame of Andra's 3 boy's mission areas. Brad and I put our heads together and with me on the computer and brad helping me with ideas I think it turned out great. - Thanks to Cassie for the original idea!! - I'm so glad his parents liked it.
After everyone cleaned up after Christmas morning and while dinner was cooking we noticed people out in the golf course just walking on. We were sooo curious if it was closed and a "free" golf day.... well we called the golf course and they were closed so we grabbed our clubs and hit away! Brad and his dad were wishing they would have known sooner so they could have been playing all morning! It was fun to golf for FREE! (We also went golfing with brad's friend, Andy and his wife earlier that week - brad was in heaven!)
While we were in Utah we also put on School of Ball's first Volleyball Camp! www.schoolofball.com It turned out great and now Shauntell is running a league/clinic on thursday nights. School of Ball has great potential and if Brad ends up teaching it hopefully will be a great summer job for him.
We had a great time in St. George but time flew then we were off to Idaho for New Years and my Dads birthday!
We had the best Thanksgiving. We decided to visit Brad's good High School friend, Matt and his wife Kenzie out in Kirksville, Missouri. It was a long drive due to Thanksgiving traffic, construction, and a bad wreck... but we made it and it was totally worth it!
We had a delicious Thanksgiving dinner with some of their friends. It was nice to not have to prepare anything! I was very Thankful for that this year!
On Saturday we drove about 1 1/2 hours to Carthage Jail and then Nauvoo, Illinois. It was really neat. We went at a great time of the year because we were able to be the only people in each building so it was very personalized.
Carthage Jail was a special place. The spirit was really strong there- it was a calm, sorrowful spirit - it is hard to explain. It just seemed super still and quite, a very reverent place to show our respects to Joseph and Hyrum. It was really neat.
We were able to do a temple session in the Nauvoo Temple - what a beautiful temple! It was absolutely gorgeous and I was amazed at how big it is. It was for sure the best part of the Nauvoo experience. Brad and I were the witness couple and it was a tiny group of less than 20.
This picture is across the street from the main entrance of the Temple. That is the Mississippi in the background. It looks more like a lake!
This picture is neat because this is the point where the saints crossed the Mississippi River headed west and they were forced out of the city they built up, Nauvoo. The Trail of Tears, a path walking towards the Mississippi, was neat. They had quote boards following the whole trail. I took a couple pictures - they are in the slideshow. Again the spirit there was just a calm, quite, peaceful reverence. Amazing.
I was a neat experience to learn more about the MANY sacrifices the Saints before us made. It was a great time of year to visit because I am sure Thankful for Joseph and Hyrum Smith, and the countless number of men, women, and children who sacrificed their lives for the Gospel.
(click on the picture if you can't read the small print) I'm on the Coaches vs. Cancer committee and one of our little guys isn't doing so well. If you are interested in sending Christmas cards to his family please do. They could use every smile possible right now.
If you know any OSU fans who would be interested please pass on this message to them!
We went to the Women and Men games last night at Gallagher-Iba Arena. It was a nice change to be able to watch a game with Brad :). I'm sure he was wishing he was out there playing but the cards haven't been dealt that way so that's how it is. Hey, a FREE Education is more than we can ask for.
The girls were fun to watch. They have some really good players and it just made me realize how out of shape I am. Oh how I wish I could still run a suicide in 30 something seconds. haha Keep DREAMING
The boys looked decent. They had some really GREAT moments but some SICK moment’s too :) typical exhibition game.
The new players that I love so far:
31 Pilgrim - I wish we would have had him last year!!! I can't remember any of our big men ever pulling double doubles! He has a good head, unlike moses. We need that! Someone who goes out there and worries about himself and plays ball, all Marshall is worried about is who is touching him and getting their arms off him
14 Penn - Nice to have a switch up from Byron, he pulled some nice moves and it will be fun to watch him play the awesome big 12 point guards. It will also be nice to see Keaton play a true 2 guard instead of being the back-up point guard.
21 Gully - HE IS a MINY TERRELL!!!! He is only a freshman but I think he has tons of potential. He was really scrappy and I like that.
Those are the guys who stuck out to me but I think our freshman have tons of potential – as well as the team as a whole. This year might be a little shaky because of lack of experience but I have high hopes.
Obi made a pass last night that brightened my day! Hahahahahaha! He chucked it down the floor WAY TOO FAR and it bounced out of bounds. It was a classic OBI pass that I haven't seen for awhile so it was nice.
We got a kick out of Coach Ford. There was one timeout when he was SCREAMING AT BRIGGS (the do-it-all manager kid), “BOARD, BOARD, WHERE IS MY BOARD!!!!” Brad was yelling – Binky, Binky, Give me my Binky!!! Ford can't get anything for himself - pretty hilarious. But, he does a good job having Briggs and Joey being his "go-to guys".
I love this time of year. Only two more home football games to focus on and then it's all BASKETBALL!!!! :)
Now, our family is even bigger than our most recent family pic but our family is awesome and it's all because of you! 
I love you mom!
We always have a BLAST when we come to St. George! Thanks for everything you do!
The Garrett Family keeps growing too!! Babies Galore!!!
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