Thanksgiving

We all trekked up to Utah to spend time together. Thanks to my sister Vanessa for letting us break her house in. (Let's not mention the lost TV remote in the plan). We were lucky enough to have my Grandma Barrus join us along with my Aunt Ann and Aunt Kathy and her family. The kids had a blast play with cousins and being with family we don't see very often!!!

Adelynn and Nolan inside the Joseph Smith building on Temple square. It was soooo busy but so pretty!

Nolan

Deep Fried Turkey YUMMMY!

Kendra and Adelynn

Cousins (Ben, Mia, Adelynn, and Kendra)

THE NAVY

So we did it. As of November 25th, Dwayne joined the United States Navy. His report date is July 28th, so he is technically not official, but he is official. This next year brings lots of change for us which will be good. God Bless America!!!

House for Rent

Ok so this is kinda weird, but I wanted to throw it out there. We need someone to rent out our townhouse. With Dwayne leaving for bootcamp sometime in the next 8 months we need it rented out ASAP. It is available January 1st. If you know of anyone looking to rent right now in Flagstaff please pass on my information to them. My email is dc2001@gmail.com. I will update later on the newest news going on in our family.

More funeral pictures

Here are some more from the funeral and some pictures of family. They aren't very clear. I don't know what was going on with the camera. As I was looking through my photos I realized I didn't take very many. I need to be better at that.

Most of my cousins


Karissa and Kymani

Most of my cousins with my Grandma

My family minus my brother Greg's family. He was able to come but without his family. We missed them but look foward to seeing them in a couple weeks.

Adelynn's 4th birthday and Grandpa Barrus' funeral

So I need to post about Adelynn and my Grandpa. Adelynn turned 4 on September 30th. She is very luck to share a birthday with my Grandfather. He passed away the day before he was going to turn 84. We we able to go to Idaho for the funeral. It was a great time to see cousins I had not seen in almost 10 years. A very bittersweet time. My grandfather was such a wonderful man. Until I was in 5th grade we were lucky to live right down the street from my grandparents. We spent the summers and falls working in the garden, planting, weeding, picking, snapping, shucking, and all of the fun things that come along with gardens. I also had the opportunity to spring clean my grandmothers house with my cousin Tasha and mow my grandparents lawn twice a week during the summer. I enjoyed all the time and all the benefits of helping with the garden and helping my grandparents. I am so grateful for that opportunity to learn how to work at such a young age. So here are some pictures of my cute little 4 year old's birthday and my grandfathers funeral. A time to celebrate life and the blessings of knowing that there is life after death.

Here she is my big 4 year old. I can't believe how times flies.

Dwayne and Nolan eating ice cream and cake. YUM!

And the presents. Barbies, Cinderella, a tutu, a barbie car and clothes I think.

My Grandfather's casket

Halloween

So here are some Halloween pictures. I forgot we celebrate Halloween 4 times. We were able to go to 2 parties in Phoenix the weekend before. Needless to say, Adelynn and Nolan had a blast this Halloween and loved the time they got to spend with their cousins.

Adelynn and Lincoln

Here is a picture of Nolan and another little boy that had the same costume

Adelynn getting reading to throw

Nolan loved the little duck pond. I think he went back to it 5 times or so.

My cute little kids.

CHANGE

Well, yes its been a while. Life has been so crazy I thought it was time I updated. Well as with my other pregnancies/babies being born our life has taken a huge turn in the direction we were going. Dwayne was laid off from his job a couple weeks ago. Luckily we have been looking for other jobs so now the look is now more intense. I really hope my theory about something major happening everytime I am pregnant does not continue. In the past Dwayne has talked about joining the military. Well we think that now is the time. We still have to do some fasting and make a visit to the temple to make sure this is the right direction for our family, but it feels good as of now. Things will be hard while he is gone and there is even a possibility he may miss the birth of our 3rd bundle of joy. When I tell people this they think it is crazy but when I think about everything that many other people and families have gone through to make this the free country that it is, I feel at peace. I think about our ancestors and the sacrifices they made and this is minimal. He will have the opportunity to serve this wonderful country that we both love very much and he will also have the opportunity to continue his education and get some further training which is much needed in these crazy economic times in order to keep up with what he wants to do. If we make this decision he will be sworn in next week and leave sometime between now and the middle of January pending the availability of his job he is placed in. If we do not make the decision to do this he will be even more seriously job searching anywhere in Arizona and we are even open to Utah. So if you hear of anything please let me know.

The kids had a wonderful Halloween. Adelynn was Cinderlla and Nolan was a dragon. We had a blast at the festival at my work (Flagstaff Athletic Club) as well as at the trunk or treat at church. I will post pictures as soon as I find the camera.

Pregnancy is going great. We ended up deciding not to find out what we were having. We found out with both Adelynn and Nolan and decided why not wait with this one. It adds a little more excitment to the whole thing.

We are looking forward to Thanksgiving and seeing my family in Utah. Now that Dwayne is unemployed we are able to be there just as long as I get the time off. As we go into this wonderful holiday season (my favorite time of year!!!!) I have been reflecting on all of the blessings I have in my life. I feel so grateful to live in the United States of America and enjoy all of the freedom's and rights we have. I also feel grateful to belong to such a wonderful family. I am grateful for the way my parents raised me and the work ethic, generosity, sacrifice, and all of the other values that they instilled in myself and all of my brothers and sisters. I truely am blessed to be married to my best friend and have Adelynn and Nolan (although being a parent isn't easy) in my life. To be a parent and raising kids in these crazy times is a very humbling experience. I am also thankful for the people I can always count on in my life and will help out at a moments notice.

Well I think I've gone on long enough. Hopefully I'll have pictures up soon.