Puppy Love

While we were in Chicago right before we came home, Jonny hap another little surprise for me. We have wanted a puppy for a while, but was waiting for the right time. We were looking for one before we went on our trip, and well we came back with another little girl in the family. :) This is Harley, she is a " miniature aussi" Australian Shepherd, mixed with Jack Russel terrier. She is 9 weeks in this picture, and will stay a pretty small dog. She is very small and weighs around a pound or so. She is so sweet, and loves to sleep and cuddle with you. We already love her, because Australian Shepherds are the number one dogs to train, she has learned so fast and so much, just in a week she is already potty trained and can sit, lay down and come. We are excited to have this new little addition the the family.

1 Year Closer To Eternity

 Jonny wanted to make our first anniversary a special one, so he surprised me with going to Chicago. It was beautiful with all the lights with it being right after Christmas. Our hotel was right on the miracle mile with all the lights and our window was looking right off it. Our room was great it was like a little apartment with stairs and everything, very classy and very nice. ( Jonny did a great job :) )


After we checked into our place, we decided to go walk around a little bit, there were beautiful lights and HUGE decorated trees, and really cool sculptures everywhere. We walked around a bit just enjoying the views.

On our anniversary night we decided we just had to try out this world famous, Chicago Deep Dish Pizza... We found the best pizza place in town and went for it, after a long wait we were seated even right next to the window looking out at the lights. I mentioned to the lady that it was our 1 year anniversary and latter after our amazing, delicious, Deep Dish we got a even better Free dessert. It turned out to be a great night spent, with my Prince Charming.

The next morning we woke up early and drove to the big monument the Cloud, aka " The Bean" in Millennium Park. I have always seen the "bean" on movies and shows and always thought it would be cool to see. Turns out, it is a lot bigger than I thought it was going to be :) it was soooo cool and really pretty with it reflecting off the city. Its so SHINY, I would have loved to see it at sunset or sunrise. I think its a definite thing you need to see if you are in Chicago area.

I am so grateful to have such an amazing husband who works so hard and who loves me with all of his heart. I don't know what I would ever do without my best friend by my side. He is the most amazing husband, friend, and companion anyone could ever ask for. Our first year was a very busy and amazing one, I am so excited to spent the rest of Eternity with my Prince Charming Jonny. He is everything and more I wished for in a husband when I was a young girl. I knew that when I met and married Jonny that Dreams do come true. :) 

Where The Wild Things Are

The day before our anniversary we decided to go to Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, it was free and it was one of the best zoo's that we have ever been to !!! It was cold outside, but most of the animals where inside, so that was nice to be warm.

We saw all kinds of really cool things happen. Above in the bottom right picture that is me in a log, with a black bear in hibernation on the other side of it :) ( how cool is that.) We also got to witness a jaguar 'rawer' at us, and attack the fence. A baby hippo jump into water, swimming and playing, the lion and tiger up close , just on the other side of a glass. while we were in the monkey section we watched the two big, male gorillas fight over dominance. ( it was pretty funny, to see the alpha get annoyed with the other little boys testing him.) We saw Huge birds of pry fly, a baby rhino, and big sea lions racing in the water. I would say that, this visit was the most active I had ever seen any of the animals. It was so much fun, just to walk around and see the animals when the zoo was not so crowded with people. Believe me, some people were there and I just happened to witness some very funny things being said. These were a couple of the ones I can remember....

grown woman ( no kids ) : " What animal is this?'  ummmm that would be a tiger..... 

Grown Man: " Is that an otter or beaver?" really ..... 

Little kid: "Dad look the gorillas layed eggs."  Dad: " Sweetheart gorillas dont lay eggs" kid:"oh....." 

 We had lots of laughs and loved seeing the well taken care of animals at the Lincoln Park Zoo. I guess going to the zoo is just one of our things we do, Jonny and I have been to a lot of zoo's together this year .Maybe one day, we will make it a real AFRICAN SAFARI.

 

Christmas Cheer

This was our first official Christmas together, we were suppose to fly out to California but plans changed and we ended up having our own little Christmas here in Nauvoo, Illinois. Our Christmas was full of Cheer and fun :). We woke up made cinnamon rolls ( very yummy)  and then sat around our cute little tree and opened our gifts one by one. Christmas gifts are great, but I think the most important gift was being together and knowing that we how much we love each other.

This year was also a little funny, we didn't know for sure what we were doing until the day before Christmas eve, so there was no decorations out. Until we found a box in the shed full of Christmas decorations. Now finding this surprise the day or so before Christmas I just could not overlook it so we started decorating. We went to wall-mart and got a 7 foot tree for $10....yep $10 amazing. Its amazing how much cheaper Christmas decorations are the day before hahah :) The BELIEVE sign I made while we were in Houston and am so glad I made it :)

Its our first Christmas officially married together and we were spending it as just the two of us. I HAD TO MAKE AN AMAZING DINNER, my mom taught me very well. I made Ham, stuffing, potatos, green bean casserole, and sweet potato pie .. It was all soooooo Yummy and we didn't even put a dent it the food that night. we had left overs solid for another week at least .. I thought it would be a lot harder, but it went pretty smoothly. Now I know that when the time comes I can make a great feast :)

 What a blessing it is to live in a home that is warm, having family who loves you and a place were one can feel Christs love. I feel like that is the most important gift of Christmas is the love that our Heavenly Father has for us that he gave us his son, and our brother to come down to this Earth for us. I feel like the past few years I have gotten caught up with the "Christmas sprite" of the gifts, food and being with family, but this year I had a little more time to think. I am so grateful for our Christs birth and the sacrifices he made all through out his life, not only for every man and woman on this earth who ever was and will be, but he made that sacrifice for me. Jonny and I are so grateful to be able to have that knowledge and to share that same warm feeling together.

Christmas Tree Hunt

Its almost Christmas and we do not even have a tree, whats up with that. ( Where is the holiday spirit) so Jonny and I decided ( mostly Jonny) that we will go out in the back woods of our home and find ourselves a Christmas tree. I was afraid of ending up with a Charlie Brown tree, but Jonny had bigger dreams in mind. It had just snowed about a foot the night before so we bundled up and went out hiking up the hill, looking for our tree.

Jonny found an old rusted saw in the shed and we were off, everything was just covered in snow and leave less, we were having a hard time finding a tree. We have noticed that our yard is what seems to be an animal highway crossing. When we reached the top of the hill we found tracks everywhere. The day before we heard wild turkeys in the woods.... well they were for sure turkeys and BIG ones to the tracks were as big as Jonnys hand ( and Jonny has big hands) We even could see where they had nested for the night with 20 or so spots that you could see where they had Laid. There was also deer tracks and you could see where they had slept to. Its amazing to be able to see all kinds of animal tracks when it snows. Without the snow we would have never seen any tracks and would not even know how many animals come walking, hopping or strolling through our yard !!!! We have even been talking about getting a Critter Cam to see them, I think it would be pretty cool, because some of the tracks we cant find out what they are and some start and stop out of no where...
Happy to say that we ended up having a great adventure behind out house and trucking through the snow, but sad to say no tree was found... Latter that night we FOUND one at the store and brought it back home :)
Our Imagination got us into yet another fun Adventure !

There's No Business like "Snow" Business!!

Well we are now both in Nauvoo now, after a lot of driving we made it. The only problem we encountered was when we eventually did get home after a very long drive, it had snowed so hard and iced that we could not pull up our driveway..... Me being from North Carolina, I have never snow shoveled anything... yes, it snows in NC and iced but we never needed to. Jonny said that he had done it a few times, but never while growing up ( being in the desert and all). Since we made it home and we now live right on a highway we had no choice but to break out the old, very used, yellow snow shovel ! Our driveway is very steep so we were slipping and sliding the whole time while we shoveled, taking turns of course.( defiantly gave my back a WORKOUT). 

Now while we were shoveling, it was snowing and also late at night. We were able to shovel enough to be able to get one car half way up the driveway and the other just at the base.... The next morning it was to cold for our Honda Civic to even start. So now that we are here I have shoveled the driveway once by myself and Jonny has done it a handful of times while I follow him with a very HEAVY bag of salt, Teamwork is where its at. In the top picture, that is the beautiful Mississippi river frozen over !!!  That picture was taken at the bottom of our driveway, so yeah I would say we are pretty close :).I would be silly to say, that this will be our only time shoveling our driveway for a while. Since then it has snowed many, many times, looks like by the end of Winter I will have a back of STEAL :) you gotta love all the snow and ice.