Somebody had a birthday

Thanks to everyone who made my birthday so much fun!  I had a great day with lots of fun things to do.  I did have to go to work, but they got me a cake and card and sang happy birthday to me.  Monday I am taking my birthday day off, which actually gives Ben and I time to do stuff if he doesn't have anything else to do.  Anyway, after work I came home and opened presents.  Ben did a great job shopping and also found some amazing bargains!  We went to see the snow sculpting competition at the fairgrounds that is part of the St. Paul Winter Carnival.  It was lots of fun and I'll tell you more about that later.  Then we went to dinner at a southern restaurant in St. Paul.  It was good and we got tons of food!  After dinner we came home, watched a movie and ate some key lime pie (which was my birthday cake since Ben didn't have time to make a cake).  It was a wonderfully happy day and Ican't wait for all the excitement that being 26 will bring!

 

 

It's my birthday this week (Friday to be exact)!  Yesterday they sang "Happy, Happy Birthday" to me in singing time.  It was fun, but I overheard a conversation about whether or not I would get a birthday coupon for a candy bar from the Bishop, and if I did how I would probably give it to one boy in particular because Ben hometeaches his family.  Well, I got no coupon, but I wouldn't have shared it anyway.  He can wait for his own birthday to get a candy bar.

Arizona

Seeing as it has been winter here, we escaped to Arizona for 6 days of warmth and sun and to visit Ben's family.  They are now all in Phoenix (except Joseph on his mission and Abram at the National Guard training in Missouri) so it makes it especially easy to see everyone.  We also spent part of a day in Tucson with Ben's old friend, Mary Anne.

 

Sophie finally decided to be my friend :)

Asher

Lowe's awesome DJ skills.

 Lunchtime with Caleb and Jacob

Spending time at Mike and Lori's

As an extra special perk of now having family in Arizona, I got to visit with Sister Hartman (Melissa now days).  We had a great time catching up on things and reminiscing about the 4 months we spent together in Destin.  I was able to talk Ben into stopping at Chick-Fil-A (yum, my favorite!).

Yes, I'm wearing some cropped pants:)

We had such a great time (minus the awful colds we are suffering with now) that it almost makes me want to move to Arizona!

Now that the holidays are over...

Warning: There are no pictures because I'm at work and writing this. 

We had a great Christmas!  We drove over on Christmas Eve and had a nice drive through a wintery wonderland.  The trees and snow-covered fields were beautiful and the roads weren't that bad.  Once we got to Mom and Dad's we enjoyed rearranging the presents, helping with dinner, and playing some Wii.  Christmas Eve dinner was fantastic, as was the family home evening by Janet (there was no special violin solo).

Christmas morning sure was an early one when Macey woke everyone up nice and early (3 AM for some, 5 for others).  We had fun with presents and spending time with each other the rest of the day.  We had fun talking with family.  I even got to say hi to Ben's brother Joseph who is in the Phillipines on his mission and has been gone the whole time we dated and have been married.

Sunday we enjoyed the Wausau Ward and the opportunity to help out with the Community Supper that my parent's ward helps with 4 times a year.  Ben made a new friend named Brian while we were there.  But, the best part of the evening was going to Ben and Shannon's and listening to Macey practice the new word she learned: pie.

In between Christmas and New Years, I had to work, so the fun stopped.  Ben also got the awesome stomach sickness I had back in the beginning of December, which put him out of commision for a few days.  He hardly ate anything.  Not Ben-like.

New Year's Eve was spent with the Clark's much like last year's New Year's Eve.  We ate too much and played some fun games.  Ben was happy to finally find someone who could give him a run for his money in Ster Trek Scene-It.  We braved the weather and the drunks and made it home by about 2:15 that morning and then woke up "too early" to get things done around the house.

We are leaving to visit the Arizona family members this week.  Since Epiphany is the day we are leaving I guess you could still consider it the holidays.  Ben and I are both looking forward to the sunshine and warm weather and spending time with Ben's family.  Ben is really excited to be able to play Heroscape, since I don't really like to play, but I warned him I might head of with the girls and hit the mall.

Since we'll be soaking up lots of sun while we fulfill our Wellness challenge goal, we'll make sure to document it so everyone can know for sure we really did our 30 minutes of cardiovascular work.  And, maybe we'll even get started on our tans....

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year to all our friends and family! 

We hope you have a very joyous and prosperous year!