Pictures Galore!

Temple Visitors Center Christmas Tree's

Winchester Stake's Christmas Tree

The visitors center has a room full of beautiful pictures depicting Christ's life. Here are a few that caught my attention.


Again, to me I felt like I was there with Him.

Can't you just imagine sitting on beach in this scene?

Max in front of the Christus.

Tonight was the first public night at the Visitors Center for the Festival of Lights. It was snowing there and it just made it that more fun. Mark was helping to direct traffic for the evening while Max and I viewed the lights and festivities.

There is a nativity scene with a live Mary & Joseph. Max of course wanted to climb up on the camel but he settled for getting his picture taken next to it!

Brother & Sister Bryant from our ward (also our Home Teacher) played Mary & Joseph on the first shift tonight at the temple.

Beautiful Temple and Lights.

This fall I have participated in several home craft shows or craft shows at elementary schools. I decided to make plates to sell this year. These are a few of my favorites. They sold great today when I had a dozen peanut butter truffles sitting on top.

A friend gave me a delicious recipe for peanut butter truffles. I think they will become a tradition for the holidays at our house! Yummm. In fact, one lady is paying me to make 2 dozen of them for her this coming week.

Our house is officially on the market. Here are some pictures of our home since we have painted. If anyone wants a little investment in Winchester, VA ... just let me know. We have a deal going on the house .... AND I'll even include a dozen or two truffles with an offer!!

Our living room. We have decided to keep some of our pictures and statues of Christ up in our home even though it is on the market. At night I light up the greenery on top of the piano and the Christus statue looks amazing. Max loves to see his Jesus statue.

Our little library room.

Max in front of our sometimes decorated / sometimes not decorated tree. Today we only had one ornament casualty. I think I've lost count for the season. Bless his little heart!

We are fasting and praying for a new job here in Winchester although we will go wherever the job will come to us. And, I know many of you are also keeping us in your prayers which we are very grateful for. It is amazing how many things you can find to be grateful for during this time of year despite the challenges that hang over us. I am grateful for our family, friends, healthy kids and husband, the heat, the snow, indoor plumbing, the gospel, our testimonies, the power of faith and of course our freedoms. We hope you and your families will find the same blessings in your lives as well.

Updating

It's been a while since I have last posted. Lots of things are happening in our life right now. New jobs are hopefully on the horizon along with putting our house on the market. Lots of painting, cleaning and staging have been going on along with trying to keep our Christmas ornaments actually on the tree! Max has been diligently taking not only the ornaments off the tree but, he likes to take the little metal "thingy" that holds the ornament hook on off the ornaments. The night we were putting the tree up ... he had taken at least 25 of them off various ornaments. Oh boy! His other favorite thing is to move the window candles and relocate them - so far we have had one casualty. Thankfully they are only a dollar or two to replace. Bless his little heart.
Tomorrow night we'll have pictures of lots of things but here is a recent photo of the little man!

Our Backyard Visitors

Just recently I was getting ready to make dinner and looked out in to our back yard. There sat three deer just grazing away on the grass and whatever else the woodchucks and squirels had left behind. They were so close - just over the fence line in our neighbors yard who owns 5.5 acres behind us. I got Max to the window so that he could see them and he finally got focused in on them and loved watching for them. He could hardly wait for Mark to get home to show him. When Mark got home, it was dark outside but they grabbed a flash light and headed out to "scare" the deer! Max was loving it! I had been teaching him that we did not want to make too much noise or open the doors because it might scare them away. Mark says, lets grab the flashlight and go scare them! I guess that's the difference between mom & dad.

Trip to Las Vegas / St. George

Grandma & Grandpa Bridges with cousins Michael and Glenn

Max loving the playground and slides!

Grandpa Tippets takes Max swimming and has been teaching him to float!

The big big slide at the indoor pool in St.George. Max & Grandpa at the top!

Max loves to go swimming! He is our little fish!

We had a great quick trip to Las Vegas and St. George a few weeks ago. Grandma & Grandpa Tippets watched Max while I had some work in Las Vegas. After I was done working I took the shuttle up and had a few days to spend there. We were so glad to visit Grandpa & Grandma Bridges too! Cousins Michael and Glenn are staying with the Bridges too so we were able to David and Lara as well.

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow ...

Tonight we had our first snow storm of the season. We were actually across the street talking to some of our neighbors and their kids and Max had a great time watching the snow come down. Nice big fluffy flakes! Their kids immediately hoped that school would be cancelled - no need to do the rest of their homework - while Max could not wait to get outside. We carefully walked down the driveway and crossed over thankfully not falling or slipping! Of course the snow has stopped now but, the trees and grass look beautiful with their first dusting! Let it snow, Let it snow .... Let it Snow!

Halloween Update

Well, here is are the three amigo's! Dallin is the skeleton, Max the Dinosaur/Dragon and Josh the Superhero - I love his painted on mask!! These three little boys play so well together and really have a good time together. Dallin is about 5 months ahead of Josh and Max but they really are all just good buddies ! It has been fun to watch them grow together and learn lifes lessons together. This picture was taken at our ward's trunk or treat in Stephens City and it was probably 40 degree's out that night. The wind was blowing so cold - needless to say I think they all slept good that night.

Can you tell that Max really did not like the "hat" portion of his costume? On Halloween night I think he kept it on for the 6 houses we went to but, after that, he quickly asked for it off while handing out treats to our neighbors.

Watch Out for the Bear!

We are back from our little trip to Las Vegas and Utah. Mom and Dad gave us an early Christmas present of a new digital camera! I was so grateful and it was soo fun to have a camera again. I'll have to update the pictures soon.

In the meanwhile, I'll tell you to WATCH OUT for the BLACK BEARS on Weather Mountain! Last week at 6:40 am on the way to the airport we were crossing Weather Mountain and as I was watching the road for deer, fox, etc. my heart skipped a couple of beats as a Black Bear was crossing the road!!! I could hardly believe what I was seeing. I have never seen a bear upclose in person or from a car for that fact! Luckily, the bear was crossing the highway and kept moving without stopping to wave at any of us in our cars.

So there you have it! Shenandoah Valley comes complete with picturesque views and black bears!