Hannah's Freshman Year at Utah State, May 2013

Here are some of the highlights of Hannah's Freshman year!
Some of the girls from Richards Hall.

Hannah's friend from USU, Kiah, invited her to go home with her for the couple of days off that they had in October.  She had a blast in Blackfoot, Idaho.

Fall in Logan Canyon with roommates

The Howl

Beauties of 314 Richards Hall

Sledding at Old Main Hill

Hannah got to go on a fun road trip with her Opera group.  They were on their trip on her birthday, 02/16/2013

Heading to the Festival of Color in Spanish Fork with Charlotte and other BYU students.

Pretty colorful!

Hannah's last night in Utah before heading home at the end of the school year!  Hard to believe it went by so fast!  She survived Freshman year and we survived the empty nest!

Hannah's Mission Call! March 1, 2013

Hannah decided that she wanted to go on a mission right away instead of waiting to get her Utah residency and going in the Fall.  She was excited about the prospect of going back in October when the Prophet announced the lowering of the age for sister missionaries to 19.  She called us one Saturday morning in early February to tell us she wanted to go and within about two weeks she got her call....  It was a whirlwind of doctor and dentist appointments and interviews with the Bishop and Stake President.  She got her papers turn in to Salt Lake City in record time!  It just all fell into place so perfectly!

She received her call on Tuesday, February 26, and held onto it until she could go down to Salt Lake and be with some of her brothers and their families to open it!  She had remarkable will power to not peek!  Since we had a couple of days notice, Mike and I hopped in the car on Thursday and drove over and surprised her by being there when she got to Tyler's house to open her call!  It was all very exciting!

Kimiko made this cute sign and we all put our guesses on it.  Glen, Kendi and their kids, Tyler, Jaimee, and their kids, and Todd, Kimiko and Jax were there as well as Mike and I.  It was so fun to see her so excited to find out where she will be serving for 18 months!

I was feeling very anxious about her call and prayed to know if I could know where she was going and I had some pretty amazing impressions that she'd be serving somewhere in Brazil!  I had guessed NYC or Italy, but felt in my heart she'd be going to Brazil.  I had told Tyler about it and so he backed me up when I said that was where I knew she'd be going!  It was quite incredible to say the least when she opened her call and it said Joao Pessoa, BRAZIL!  She was so happy and Mike was so excited, too! I'm grateful I had that experience because it confirms to me that the Lord issued the call and it's where she is supposed to be going!  She leaves July 30 for Sao Paolo, Brazil where she will be in the MTC there for two months before reporting to her mission in northeast Brazil.

Saturday morning we drove to Provo and had breakfast at Kneader's with Charlotte.  It was a lot of fun getting to chat with her.  She and Hannah are the same age and get along really well.  We headed back home on Sunday after Sacrament Meeting!  It was an awesome, amazing trip!

San Antonio, Kira's First Birthday, February 17, 2013

I went back to San Antonio, solo this time, for Kirana's first birthday.  All first birthday's are important, but this one seemed culturally important to Mega and so I made the trip down for it.  It was a lot of fun being there.  Ryan had the day off on Friday, so he, Ali, Sadie and I went to the famous San Antonio Fair and Rodeo.  

These two are a hoot together.  Sadie just adores Mia!  She's also a big fan of Justin.  She likes to go over to Justin's house.  

It was a lot of fun helping Mega decorate for the party.

The birthday girl and her proud daddy!

Pretty in pink!  The little girl on the left is my friend Kym Hall's granddaughter.  They drove down from Austin for the occasion.

Kym, Scarlett, and I

Hanging out at Ryan and Ali's

 

We went back to the Fair and Rodeo (just the adults this time) with Ali's folks, Don and Sue Lindberg, and Justin and Mega for the Rodeo and then the Dierks Bentley concert.  It was so much fun! It turned out to be a great trip.  Love going to San Antonio!

Some Random Pictures of Eric and Charlotte, BYU Fall Semester, 2012

Hannah and a friend came down from Logan and met Eric and Charlotte and some of their friends in Salt Lake for a fun night at Temple Square.

Burritos at 1 a.m.

Missions and House Guests!

We had the opportunity of having the full-time Elders live with us for 3 1/2 months starting in January.  It was a wonderful experience and we highly recommend it!  They brought a wonderful spirit into our home and our neighborhood.  They weren't a bit of trouble and they were clean and extremely polite and helpful!  We hope to get the opportunity to house them again soon!
These ties belong to Eric.  He was called to go back to Jacksonville, Florida on January 21, 2013, to complete his mission!  He and we are thrilled!

Elder McElroy and Elder Craft were our first set of missionaries.  They all loved the pets!

They were here with us for a week before Eric shipped out.  Then a short time later, Elder McElroy was transferred to Greeley.  Lots of changes in a short time, but it's all good!

Our niece, Marissa's husband, Doug, and his two children, Tori and Gabe, (who live with their mom in Broomfield) came to stay for a couple of nights.  It was pretty special having them here for Eric's last weekend before going back.  

4:00 a.m. and Eric is ready to go to the airport!  We are so proud of him!

 

Here's our cute, shiny, happy boy back in the mission field!
Check out Eric's blog for pictures and letters from his mission!

After Elder McElroy left, we got Elder Jackson.  Then Elder Craft was transferred to Cheyenne and we got Elder Lane.  Here they are all set to shovel the neighbors driveways!

Elder Lane and Elder Jackson.  Elder Jackson's parents serve in the Redlands Temple with our good friend, Linda Christiansen.  It's a small world indeed!

Elder Jackson got transferred to Ft. Collins to the University Ward and we got Elder Gibelyou.

We had Elder Lane and Elder Gibelyou until Hannah returned from USU.  They moved to the Stones' house from here.  We were sad to see them go as we had really grown to love these young men!