Good News

Matthew has asked Maggie to marry him. They have not set a date but are thinking sometime this summer. We have know Maggie since we moved to WA in 1998. Her family were members of our ward. I taught her when she was a Mia Maid. If you were at the family reunion this past summer you would of met her. We really like her and are happy about this. Her Mother and Sandy were roommates at Ricks, many years ago.

I hate my layout. How do you make pretty ones and how do you get music and how do you get slide shows and how do you get anything else that is cool? We got a new computer for Christmas and I want to get back into this but I want it to be nicer. Thanks for any help.


JOY

OK, it is really weird how the last post made the writing go skinny down the side. Oh well, I'll figure it out some day.

Lets see if I can get a picture on here this time

Our Gingerbread house
It snowed! This is a really bad picture. Blurry Nathan and Nolan

I'm back....................

I tried to get some pictures on here. It doesn't seem to be working. I don't have time to mess with it now. I'll try later. I have a lot of pictures. If the ones I tried to put on here show up, they are from when Mom and Dad were here. I will explain later. Love JOY

I BELONG TO THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST

Nathan's baptism was on Sunday the 4th of May. It was a very special day. He has been so excited about getting baptized and so well prepared. We had some of our very best friends attend the service. Nathan's very sweet math tutor, Pat Pegram gave a talk on baptism and the Holy Ghost. He listen so well. She ask for 2 volunteers to come up and put their hands together like an archway. Then she explained how baptism was the first step of going through the gate to return to our Father in heaven. She also showed a large chain and how is was linked together to represent how it takes the whole family to help one another to get there. She mentioned each of our children's names and how proud they were of Nathan for making this choice. What a wonderful talk it was. She really loves Nathan and it shows. Thanks Pat. We then went to witness the baptism. The witnesses were Skipper Vaughn and James McGill. Phil and Nathan did a great job. In Nathan's interview with the Bishop he was told that after the doors of the font were shut he would be able to take a lap around the font. He got a kick out of that and later told me that he didn't do a real good job. Phil said he splashed real loud and was surprised that we didn't hear him. Phil gave Nathan a very sweet blessing with his confimation. I was so proud of both of them. Nathan took the day so seriously. The Bishop had him stand on a chair as he welcomed him into the ward and asked him to look out at the people and to never forget that all these people care for him very much. What a special day we had.Mom, Nathan and DadNathan and DaddySister Pegram and Nathan
Tiffany and our adopted daughter Ashley McDonald

Happy birthday to Nathan

This year we had Nathan's party at the Triad park. We had a great cake from Costco and we had pizza delivered from Papa Johns. There were alot of our close friends there. It was a very nice evening. All the kids were so good and had a great time together. I can't believe that my little boy is 8. He has grown into such a well balanced child. We are so happy to have him in our lives. Have a GR8 year Nathan!!!!!!

Tornado

We had a few tornados come thru here last night. They were hopping around about 2 or 3 miles from our home and about a block from our ward building. I went out a little bit ago and snapped a couple pictures. They aren't the best because there were alot of things going on in the area. One road is closed down. On that street there a lot of commercial businesses. It is said that there has been a lot of damage there. We feel very blessed to have escaped the damage. The church had a couple of trees down in the grove. The Bishop said there was no other damage. He, the Elders and a few ward members have been working all morning in the clean up crew. Our neighbor, Nolan's home was struck by lightening and they lost power and cable for most of the day. They are only 3 houses away from us. We heard the loud bang. It was really loud. Nathan, Tiff and I went into the downstairs bathroom and hung out for awhile. Phil was making fun of us. Not nice!!

GLASSES

Nathan got glasses. He was our youngest one to get them. It has gotten younger with each of them. Melissa-6th grade, Matt-4th grade, Tiffany- middle of 2nd grade, Nathan was actually checked at the end of first grade and needed them but we waited till now due to other issues he was facing at that time.

Every year our ward has an easter egg hunt at this members home. They have a ginormous yard and this beautiful pond. They always have a little spiritual program while the eggs are being hid. This year after the hunt, they had bread to feed to the fish. It was a great day. Last year it was miserably cold. Listening to what Easter is all about.
The hunt is on.
Doesn't he look really excited?
This is my bunny cake. Isn't it cute? It is fun to do all these things that I used to do with our older kids. Thanks for Nathan. He keeps us young.

New Curtains

I have had the hardest time trying to figure out which way I want the curtains in our family room. I tried 3 different ways and have finally decided on my favorite. Please comment on your favorite and then I'll let you know which one I ended up picking. Thanks in advance.

HORTON HEARS A WHO!

This year the 2nd grade music program was Horton hears a who. It was very good. Nathan did well at participating, considering he doesn't like to sing. Cute program.

8 year old Dr. visit

We went to the Dr. today. Nathan is now 4"3 and weighs 55 lbs. The Doc. says," that is a perfect size." He was very happy with Nathan's progress in school, academically and behavioral. As you can see Nathan was very silly at the visit but very good. Overall it was a great visit. No shots even!!! Nathan was HAPPY for that.

A new car for JOY

Our Taurus bit the dust......so Phil got me a new car. It is a 2007 Kia Optima. Ok it's not brand new but to me it is. It is in great shape and only had 9000 miles on it. I love it. Such a smooth comfortable ride. I think that we have decided to get the transmission fixed on the Taurus also, that way Phil will have ac and better gas milage than he does with his very old jeep. Thanks Phil....I love my car.

I got a new camera!!

This is a picture of the little boy that I tend. His name is Hunter. I got a new small camera so that I can keep it with me all the time. We have a really nice Nikon but it is huge and hard to lug around. It makes great pictures but I also wanted something a little more portable. This picture is a little fuzzy so I'll just have to keep practicing.

Tiffany has a new friend. His name is Mike Laws (he is known as Skinny to most). She has been friends with him for a long time. He is a true blue cowboy. He is a little tall......6'9.....note the ice chest. We'll see how this one goes.

LINK

One day I was really busy getting something done and Nathan dissappeared in the craft room. Later he came out with this creation. He did this all by himself. I thought that it was very creative. The arms and legs have brads in them so they can move about. I was so proud of him. Several days later he got sent to his room for a timeout and he destoyed him. After he got himself calmed down he felt so sad that he had lost his little friend. Hopefully some day he will be able to control his temper. He is getting better for the most part." RIP little buddy."

SNOW DAY!!!!!!!!

A while back we had a snow day. Tiff was home from work too. We went over to Nolan's house. His family came out and we had a fun time. The next time it snowed, Nathan said,"I am not going out this time, I got too cold already." He is a crazy kiddo. He never went out to play in the snow again this year. I guess, once a year is enough for this little guy. Tiff, Nathan and Nolan trying to get on the sled.
I'm stuck, it just won't gooooo.
Nathan, Nolan and Nolan's Dad built the snow man. It wasn't very easy with so little snow.
It was a fun time.
Tiffany's snow angel.

Dare devil Nathan

Well Nathan came home from school a few weeks ago and told me that he wanted to skateboard. I pulled out Tiffany's old board from her skateboard days and he proceeded to skate down Nolan's driveway. To my disapproval he tried to push it a little too far. So...while he was at school the next day I went out a spent a small fortune on all the safety equipment to keep him from killing himself. He had so much fun that day after school. He was riding all the way from the top of the driveway. I don't know what went wrong but.......he hasn't done it since. I'm not sure why. It must be all the money I spent. Oh well, maybe he'll take it up again someday.

Our handsome boy

Nathan all ready for church one Sunday. Doesn't he look so much like Tiffany? I always wanted a boy that looked like Tiff. Boy did I get him!?!