Days 15-24

Ok, so I got really behind... however I do have enough to list for the next 10 days that I am thankful for:

Day 15- My nephew Nolan
Day 16- My nephew Owen
Day 17- My niece Taylor
Day 18- My niece McKenzie
Day 19- My niece Olivia
Day 20- My niece Mazie
Day 21- My Mom
Day 22- My Mother-in Law
Day 23- My new Step Mom
Day 24- My dad's the only reason they share a day is because I ran out of days! :-) They are both great, so is the rest of my family listed... I am also thankful for all my siblings, but then if I were to give them each a day I'd be running into Christmas and maybe new years!

Hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving, and now on to my favorite celebration, CHRISTMAS! Happy birthday Jesus!!

Days 11-14

Yep, still at it.

Day 11- I am thankful for forgiveness, unconditional, life changing forgiveness. The kind that God gives by separating our past mistakes as far as the east is from the west.

Day 12- I am thankful for the ability to run. It is one of my favorite things to do. I usually have to run by myself (unless I am coaching XC) because everyone else I know is either too far away to run with me, or they don't really like to do it. Something about moving, getting the blood flowing, and just enjoying the fresh air... and the calorie burn doesn't suck either.

Day 13- The promise of a new heaven and new earth. God wins, and His children get to be with Him forever. I am thankful that one day sin will be gone and there will be no pain, no sadness, no darkness.

Day 14- I am thankful that Mondays only come once a week. Monday's seem to be the loneliest day of the week for me. After spending quality time with my family all weekend (usually), it's one of the only days of the week that I usually clean most of the day (laundry, vacuum, sweep, dust etc). So I don't really get out. However, if I prioritize my time right, I get lots of time with Kellen, and with Jesus... so I still win. :-) 

Days 7-10

I knew this would happen, I am totally behind. I haven't been on the computer as much.

Day 7- I am thankful for grocery stores so that I can feed my family.
Day 8- I am thankful for air planes so family can come and visit.
Day 9- I am thankful for the amazing women in my Bible study that love me just the way I am, but inspire me to be more like Christ.
Day 10- I am thankful for my jogger so Kellen and I can run all over the place and stop and play at the park.

Simple but each one seemed to have something to do with the day... here's to being thankful!

Days 5 & 6

Two entries again today... seems to be my trend.

Today I am thankful for Sandals Church and Flip Flops.

I have attended Sandals church for almost 12 years. First as a college student, then a married woman, and now as a mom. We've met in 5 different locations (VCC, CBU, CBU parking lot, MBC, and now our own building). The church Pastors and body have challenged me to know Christ and His Word, daily. And I am so thankful that God has given me a church like Sandals to attend and serve.

Flip Flops is the children's ministry, where I currently serve, and my son is loved and nurtured for two services each Sunday. He loves going to visit with friends, and play with their toys. He's still too young to appreciate the Bible study aspect. I am thankful that Sandals has such a fantastic children's ministry (and not just Flip Flops, but that is where I witness it the most).

I am thankful for both Sandals church and the ministries within them that bring myself and my family closer to Christ.

Days 3 and 4

So yesterday I was sorta not home at all to write about what I am thankful for... so I am playing catch up again. Which is kind of cool, because I am thankful for so many things that I can write about more than one on the same day!

Numbers Three & Four

I am thankful for my boys... since there are two of them they count for Thursday and Friday.

My amazing husband is first of all... HAWTTTTT!!!!!! But he is selfless, kind, funny, loving and truly the spiritual leader of our home.

Kellen our little man, mini Colin, is fun, cute, and, well.. my big boy! I am amazed that God would give us such a treasure to love, care for and train up in Him.
I am so blessed by my boys, they are whitty, charming, and they are just the best thing a girl could ask for!

Thank you Jesus for my Family.

A month of Thanks...

Aright. I have decided to challenge myself to write on here each day until thanksgiving for at least one thing that I am thankful for. I am already a day late! I thought about doing this on Saturday and it never materialized until I saw a friends Facebook comment this morning. I challenge you to take time each day to think about, pray about and just plain realize what you need to be thankful for! So, here goes (I have 2 today to catch up!) I don't think these will be in any particular order.

Tuesday, November 1st, 2011-

I am thankful for my eyes, and that they work. Think about it, especially if you have had the use of them your entire life, we totally don't realize how paralyzed we would be without them! I could not see any of my loved ones, I would have to depend on everyone to take care of me. I could not clean, cook, or drive... some of the typical house wife/mom duties (that I love). It would be difficult to read, and RUN- oh! I would have to walk more instead of run, and probably have a dog help me! SO with that being said I am oh so thankful that Jesus let me have eyes to see.

Wednesday, November 2nd, 2011-

I am thankful for running water... I was kind of crazy busy the last few days and didn't wash my hair from like Saturday night till Tuesday. I know- it's gross, and I will make time to wash it in the future. I was still able to shave, wash my face, brush my teeth, etc because I had running water (and clean too). I don't know the statistic on this one, but I wonder how many people in this world do NOT have running water. :-/ That is why I am running a 1/2 marathon in January, to help provide water for those that do not have it. (Check out my page if you want to know more: Clean water for Sarah Atoo)

So what are you thankful for today?

Toby Mac Style

"For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" Mark 8:36

OK, so my son really likes to sing. He will sing any song he remembers from anything. Most of the time it is a Veggie Tale song from one of his videos... he's been stuck on the Star of Christmas for the last few weeks.

However, occasionally he will bust out a song he hears on the radio. We pretty much always listen to Air 1. (www.air1.com) and sometimes we will be hanging out at the house (or still in the car) and he will start singing one of the songs.

Last night, as he was taking his bath, he usually chills for 20-30 minutes playing with is sponge toys, and he started to sing. I ran to get the camera because the song he was singing is not one that we have on CD, he just heard it on the radio. It melted my heart... maybe it will melt yours too. He's almost 3 by the way.

The words he is singing are, "I don't want to gain the whole world and lose my soul." Praise the Lord, I hope he truly understands the words as he grows up. What an amazing responsibility a parent has to teach their children how to live for Christ.

Kellen's Gift

Kellen has a really cool new toy. We were on our way to church and we had not picked up the mail in a few days so we decided to get it on our way out. Inside was a gift from Great Grandma & Grandpa McDonough. It is a sing along worship book. There are 10 children's Bible songs that have the words written down on the page and the option for music to play while you sing along with a little microphone!

At first Kellen wasn't sure what to do with it, but thankfully he didn't give up. A few days later he grabbed it before bed time and started pushing the buttons on his own. I held the book and sang with him (sorry, I'm a horrible singer, but I'll do anything if it means spending quality time with my kiddo and teaching him more about Jesus). So, now we have worship before bed time, and that particular night he read his Bible too. I would like to get him, "The Jesus Bible," soon. In the mean time, he won't really let us read to him yet, he did when he was little. Right now he likes to look at all the pages, and point out Jesus and he really likes John the Baptist too, I think it is because John the Baptist is so big and burly, (I mean come on, what kid doesn't think it's cool to wear camels hair as a jacket??) It was such a fun night. We were in his bed room for at least a half hour singing, and "reading." I pray he will never get tired of singing and learning about Jesus and what He did for us. So our new night time routine seems to be Worship, Bible Study, and prayer. :-) What a great way to end the day. Here is a short video, and some photos.

 

Singing along together...

 

Getting ready to pick the next song...

You Cannot Escape... The Shopping Cart Monster!!!

So my husband is a pretty funny guy and he is always entertaining our little man. They LOVE to play together and Daddy is so creative that you never know what he is going to come up with next. Including this video below. Kellen has a small shopping cart that he likes to push around the house. When Colin put it on his head the other day he became, "The Shopping Cart Monster." As soon as the cart comes off his head, he goes back to normal. Hope you enjoy the video!

Suprise Date!

Colin and I have been attending a class called "Dynamic Marriage" at church the last few weeks. It has really helped our communication of emotional needs within our marriage and we have really enjoyed it. Early in the week Colin set up a date day for us and left me clues about what the date entailed. Yesterday he (after arranging earlier in the week with his mom) dropped Kellen off to hang out with Grandma for the afternoon and he took me to an Angels Baseball game! We like watching baseball (live) together and it was really fun! He even bought me my first Angel's T-shirt! I've always just worn a red one to the game.

The day was beautiful! It was a little warm... that is why we are a sweaty! Irvin Santana pitched a great game and I got to learn the names of some of the new players. We had not watched/been to a game together since Kellen was born. The Angels won, and then we celebrated with free Baskin Robin's ice cream (free coupon from donating blood at church last weekend.)

The night completed with pizza, wine and good company over at Grandma's house. It was a great day!

Every Day I'm Shufflin'

So my husband really enjoyed the beat to this song called, Party Rock. Kellen sings and dances and begs to watch the dancing Robot daily. It got in his bones! Here is the video:

CLICK HERE TO WATCH 
It would not let me put it in the blog. Watch this one, and then watch Kellen's version below...

8 years ago...

Eight years ago today, I married my best friend. It has been the best decision of my life. We have had our shares of highs and lows and God has kept us together. We have made some pretty incredible memories together in this time. And we've shared our fears, desires, secrets, goals, dreams and so much more. Now, we have a beautiful boy that reflects our two personalities with a little quirkiness of his own and it has gone by so fast! You may be asking yourself, "Wow how do you guys do it?" Here are a few things we've learned along the way (in no particular order.)
1. The couple that pumps together stays together. That's right people, working out together has kept us accountable to each other and God to take care of our bodies.
2. Compromise and selflessness. Neither one of us are perfect, but we learn from our mistakes and press on. When we serve each other we both win! We look out for each other's needs and then our own needs end up getting met. We've got each other's backs. :-)
3. Core Sin. At church we have learned what our main "issue" is. Meaning, how we usually get caught in sin or temptation to sin. We have learned to help each other through these sins and FORGIVE each other. (yeah, the Bible tells us to love unconditionally and forgive so we do that and it saves a lot of unnecessary issues.)
4. Communication. We are not perfect at this, but we've both learned (sometimes the hard way) to talk to each other, ESPECIALLY before confirming attendance to events, activities and spending money. This has saved us MANY arguments.
5. Financial Peace. We attended (and graduated) from Financial Peace University with Dave Ramsey. We learned (after many mistakes) how to take care of our finances God's way and have a completely different outlook on the way we spend the money God has provided us. REALLY wishing we would have learned about this course before we got married or at least when we were newly weds. None the less, we will be saving ourselves years of financial issues because of taking this class. We are not debt free yet, but we are getting there.
6. Stuff is just stuff. Less is more. And the more you have, the more issues seem to arise. We seem to be much happier after removing some of the clutter of things in our life. And we regularly give away and clean out stuff we don't need. It's amazing how much stress extra stuff can cause (cars, clothes, things in the back of the closet that you never use/read/etc). Not to mention how much time is wasted cleaning these things.
7. Take one for the team. Yeah, you can interpret this however you like, but sacrifice isn't always bad. Ha ha!
So, there you go. There is plenty more, but these popped up in my head in the last 5 minutes. Here are some photos of life together over the last 8 years. And here's to many more memories to come!

Dating Days:
My first trip to Santa Barbara to say goodbye. We had been on several dates over Christmas break 1999, our freshman year of college. Shelley, Colin's mom drove Colin, Tymon and I to Santa Barbara to see the campus and hang out. I stayed the night with Shelley in a hotel. This photo is at Westmont a few minutes before we headed back to Lake Elsinore. Westmont freshman must live on campus, and they can't have a car on campus, no room.

 This was my first Easter brunch with Colin, the Bardsley's and the Maietta's in April of 2000. Man, look at my hair (eeeee.)

 This was a trip that Colin and I took to Disneyland, pretty sure it was also in 2000. We didn't go back until like 2006 or 2007.

 We both love the beach. This was at Oceanside beach in 2001 or 2002. The boys covered all but my head in the sand. And then I was real tan when they were done (ha ha!) Good times.

 This was our last night of dating... Christmas Eve 2002. We were engaged the next morning.

 This photo is one of our engagement photos at Westmont in Santa Barbara. It is amazing to see how far camera's and photography have come since we got married. Digital was not really heard of (or used commonly) I had a regular (and crappy might I add) camera. Photos took forever to develop and you didn't get to look at them right after they were taken. Regardless of the clarity, we've changed so much since then.

Here is a slide show of some of our wedding photos. Chris Bence Photography, pretty sure he doesn't take pictures of weddings any more.

Our New Bald Buddy

Since Kellen was born he has had a head full of hair. It grows fast and for whatever reason he HATES getting his hair cut now. No matter how much we bribe, pray and try to calm him down with snacks, a movie, letting him shave daddy first, he just isn't having it. His head gets so hot when he plays and with the warm weather approaching (I think, today was confusing with the rain) I don't want him to get over heated.

SO... we shaved his head. His first summer he had a mow hawk, and he looked rad. He's a boy, he can rock any hair cut and if we don't like it, it grows out in less than a month. Here are some before and after photos... and a video of my fitness partner. :-)

Here he is resting with Daddy... and Mater.

I think this one is at Grandma's house... a back view, while blowing bubbles!

And now, with no hair. Yep, it's gone (for a little while). It seems to have made him more hyper and mischievous. I don't think I will do that again. I think next time I will make Colin take him to a barber shop and see if that works.

No matter how crazy the little guy gets, he is still the most amazing little thing to look at when he sleeps. I am so thankful that God has blessed us with such an amazing little boy.

Time to get rid of OBESITY!!!

Ok, so I am now officially a Team Beach Body Coach. I am taking the fitness challenge. I consider myself to be pretty fit, however my diet has not always been the best... when I signed up to be a coach, I signed up for Shakeology. The above video describes what shakeology is all about. I am taking the Shakeology challenge. I am wating for my shipment to arrive in the mail and I am SUPER excited! Once it arrives, I will be taking some "beginning" photos and measurements and posting regular updates to watch myself get healthier!! I am going to be a product of the product and lead by example! I hope you will follow me on my journey and be challeneged to take control of your health!!

Blessings!!

Mindie Gilliland
Independent Beach Body Coach
http://www.teambeachbody.com/timetosoar
http://myshakeology.com/timetosoar

Best Buy Follow Up

OK, so I received a letter from the corporate office in the mail yesterday. Here is what it said:

"Dear Mindie,

Thank you for contacting the Best Buy corporate office with your letter. First and foremost, I want to sincerely apologize on the Best Buy's behalf for the experience you had getting this computer repaired at the store in Murrieta. Yours i never the experience we want our customers to have and I would certainly feel frustrated too if I were in your shoes. Clearly, there are several coaching issues that this letter has brought up that will need to be addressed with our Geed Squad at this store.

With that said, I do want to thank you for taking the time to bring these issues to our attention. Although we don't like hearing negative feedback about our stores, we do need to hear it to ensure that we are dealing with the issue appropriately and there aren't other customers who have a similar experience.

I will be documenting your complaint and sending it off to the store's management team as well as the district management team for review. Please do not hesitate to contact us directly at 888-BEST BUY (237-8289) with any additional questions or concerns.

Best Wishes,

Seth V.
Best Buy Consumer Relations"

It was nice to know that they are at least going to attempt to fix the issue. Will I ever shop there again, no. But that wasn't the point, the point was to make them aware of the issue so that other customers that choose to still shop there will not have the experience that I had. So, there you go.

Mission accomplished.

BOYCOTTING BEST BUY

DO YOU SHOP AT BEST BUY??? READ BELOW TO SEE WHY I AM BOYCOTTING THEIR STORE. THIS IS THE LETTER I SENT TO THEIR CORPORATE OFFICE.

Attn: Customer Service

Best Buy Corporate Customer Care
P.O. Box 9312
Minneapolis, MN 55440
1-888-BEST BUY (1-888-237-8289)
Friday, March 11, 2011
To Whom It May Concern:
My name is Mindie Gilliland and I have been purchasing my electronics from Best Buy for as long as I can remember. Through the years we have purchased several computers, DVD’s, CD’s, and an entire home theatre system. We purchased a Sony Computer in April of 2009. We also purchased the warranty for this computer to cover all repairs. Since our purchase we have taken advantage of the warranty and saved over $700 in repairs. We are very thankful for the warranty.
Recently we had to have the hard drive and optical lense replaced because it fell off our kitchen table. We brought it to our local best buy, which is in Murrieta. We live on the northern side of Lake Elsinore so it takes about 30 minutes to get there. I am pleased with the repair; however the amount of time it took to repair the computer, the poor customer service and communication has made me decide to no longer purchase any items from Best Buy ever again. Let me explain why:

• February 14th 2011, my husband and I dropped off the computer for repair at the Murrieta Best Buy with the Geek Squad. We explained the issues, the man (Harvey) that we spoke with assured us it should be a quick fix and we would get the computer back quickly.

• February 16th 2011, I received a phone call to notify me that the computer needed replacement parts that they did not have and they needed to ship the computer “out” for the repairs. They needed my approval in order to do this. (oddly, they never needed my approval to ship the computer for the other 2 repairs that we have had in the past) Regardless, they needed me to call them back to tell them to ship it out. I called back that afternoon, and the phone rang for about 3 minutes and then an operator lady asked for my name and number and told me the Geek Squad would return my call shortly. I told her if she could just let them know that it was fine to ship out the computer for repairs that that was all they needed to know. The conversation ended with her telling me they would call back.

• February 21st 2011- A WEEK LATER I still did not receive a call back from the Geek Squad so I called again to see if they had received my message and sent out my computer. I got the same operator and she asked for the same thing, my name and number and they would call me back. I explained to her that we already did that once almost a week ago and she put me on hold. A minute later I was speaking to another male Geek Squad clerk and explained the phone call I received on the 16th and the message I left and the fact that no one returned my call and he pulled up my information. He told me that they had not sent out my computer because they did not have my permission, (which meant that my computer had sat there for almost a week and nobody even thought to try calling me again to get it taken care of) The man on the phone didn’t even apologize for the delay. He said it would be shipped out to for repairs the next day.

• February 28th 2011, I received a phone call from a woman at the Chino repair shop where my computer was shipped. She asked me if I could explain what was wrong with my computer because NO PAPERWORK WAS SENT WITH IT FROM THE MURRIETA STORE!!!!!! Not only did it take a WEEK to go less than 50 miles, she had NO COMMUNICATION with the Murrieta store to take care of my computer. I explained to her that the hard drive needed to be repaired and the optical lense for the DVD drive wasn’t working. She assured me that they would be taken care of and that I would receive a phone call when it was shipped back to the store.

• March 7th 2011, I received a phone call from Harvey that my computer had been fixed and that it was at the Murrieta store and that they needed my recovery discs to complete the repair. He assured me it would only take a few hours after I dropped off the discs. My son was napping when he called, and we were unable to get to the store that day. We headed to the store the next morning.

• March 8th 2011, I waited in line for 25 minutes behind only 2 customers. There was only one service clerk working. One of the customers was having similar issues with customer service that I was having (her issue took a month and they gave her back her item broken and missing parts) finally another man came out to help. He was shorter, with dark hair and a mustache. I do not recall his name. The other employee was a tall Caucasian man with no facial hair. I gave the shorter man my paperwork, and he looked at the computer for a few minutes, and then I began to explain the entire situation to him because he seemed to not know what I needed. After explaining the whole thing, he asked me if I had my power cord for my computer. Nobody told me to bring any cords with me when they called me so I did not have it. He then told me that the computer would probably not be ready until tomorrow because he would need to find a power source and he couldn’t guarantee it would be ready that day.

• March 10th 2011, I happened to be in Murrieta and thought I would check on the status of the computer. I had not received a phone call yet, but was hoping this whole thing would be done so I could have a computer again. A woman was working the Geek Squad area that day. A very friendly, medium length hair, middle aged woman helped me. When she looked up my information on the computer, no one had updated the computer and it had no notification that my computer had even arrived back from Chino! She had another young woman help her insert the information into the computer (because they cannot release the computer until the information is correct), and then I finally got my computer back. I apologize that I do not recall any of the other Geek Squad member’s names. Only one person actually told me their name.
Each time we have had to take our computer to the Geek Squad it has taken several weeks to complete the repair. This time, was that last. You have lost me as a customer. And unless you teach your Geek Squad helpers how to answer their phones, communicate with one another, care about customer needs in a timely manner, and smile, you are going to lose a lot of business.
A friend of mine just purchased her Apple computer from the Apple Store in Victoria Gardens instead of going to Best Buy because of my suggestion; which lost your company at least $500.00 in business. I have several other friends that have also decided to purchase their electronics elsewhere because of similar issues. I am posting my complaint on my face book, my blog and emailing it to all of my friends and family and urging them to save themselves the head ache and NOT to shop at your stores. If you wish to contact me with any questions please do not hesitate. You’d be the first to call back.

Scripture Memory Through Song...

We are diligently trying to teach Kellen about the Word of God through scripture memory. I decided to combine something I love (the Bible) and something he loves (singing) to make that possible. There is a really great Bible CD called, "We Sing Bible Songs," that has a sequel called, "We Sing More Bible Songs." On this CD before most songs there is a scripture reference that goes with the song. I picked a song that Kellen kind of already enjoys to sing to help him learn a Bible verse.

The scripture is Psalm 136:1, "Give thanks to the Lord for He is good, his love endures forever." The lyrics in the song that he is singing in this video are:

"Give thanks to the Lord,
Give thanks to the Lord,
For He Loves you, He loves me too,
Give thanks to the Lord our God."

Here he is singing it (once I told him I wasn't taking a picture... cheese!)

Enjoy! =0)

Janurary and stuff...

After all the craziness of 2010, I am starting to see the blessings in disguise. God has been preparing my heart for some amazing things in 2011. Including an Elizabeth George Bible study, church membership class, and much more. Everything from losing our home to learning new budgets in Financial Peace University (and all the other stuff in between) taught us a lot about trusting God in the big and small and has brought me closer to Christ and deeper into his Word daily. I am finding pure joy in my time with God every morning, and sharing it throughout my day with my son and husband has made me blessed. I have also found a new love for scripture memory! "Behold, I make all things new..." (Rev. 21:5) has been a reminder for January and 2011 that each day can be new and better (in Him). As you check out our pictures, I hope that God brings you blessings and joy this year.

We had to move in November, and we now live in a nice little house at the top of a hill overlooking Lake Elsinore. I wasn't real excited when we first had to move, but it is starting to become home. Here is a picture of our back yard view on a foggy morning. (Where the clouds are is usually where you can see the water, but it's hiding).

January was a speedy month. We took our first trip to the Wild Animal Park, (Safari Zoo) and we went to visit Nana, Papa and Uncle Bobby. We also cheered on daddy at some of his soccer matches. Here are some photos to wrap up the month. (Even though February has already begun.)

So, Grandpa decided Kellen needed a Nerf gun for Christmas. (oh geeze) and it didn't take him long to figure out how to shoot us with it!! Thankfully we are already starting to loose the bullets in the house (ha ha). Here are a few pictures of Colin and Kellen "playing."

Uncle Tymon and Aunt Brittani bought Kellen his very own Cars couch bed for his  birthday, he LOVES it and watches his new Veggie Tales movies in it all the time. He constantly "rolls" around and tries to get comfy (or silly) here are some fun pics. The blanket was made by Nana and matches perfectly, when they are not being used they are folded up together and sit nicely next to the other couches.

Also, you may notice that Kellen got a some hairs cut... mommy cut his hair (badly) but at least it isn't in his eyes anymore. It is already growing out and it is CRAZY. He likes to wear my shoes, good choice...comfy slippers.

Kellen has a favorite stuffed animal that MUST sleep with him and his red blanket every night, his name is "Bunny." I found him sleeping one morning like the picture below and had to snap a shot! So cute!

Unfortunately Kellen is not without his boo boos. He added another one to his poor face in January. He fell in the back yard right on his face. He just didn't get his hands down in time. Thankfully, all is well and healed, but the scabs haunted him for a few days. :-(

To get his mind off his new face injuries we played with bubbles for about an hour one day. Here are some of my favorites. (The one with the light in the background is my ultimate favorite).

My Favorite Pic

Kellen has a love of farts, just like his dad, uncle, and well... any man on the planet. I had to video him playing with the machine that we have. It is dying, or broken. Regardless, each fart sounds pretty darn funny. I posted this on face book a while back, but it was just too funny to not add it to the blog too. His laugh was pretty funny too.

We had a quick visit in San Diego to say good bye to Grandma and Grandpa McDonough. They were heading to their next destination, Yuma, the next day so we went to my dad's house for one last visit. Kellen was a little sleepy (and so was Brian) so they cuddled on the couch.

We went to the Safari Zoo, a first for Kellen to check out all the animals with Aunt Jenn, and cousins Taylor and McKenzie. This was Kellen's face after he saw the elephants. :-) If there is a grandparent (or great grandparent) that wants to hook us up with an annual zoo pass, I think Kellen would accept.

 On the tram... to check out the wild.

 This lion was taking a nap, wish we could have saw the front.

 Feeding the birds... I actually had one on my shoulder too, but the picture is dorky! Kellen LOVED the petting coral, and I am pretty sure he pet every single deer that was in the area. They were so gentle. :-)

 This picture pretty much summed up the end of the day... everyone was tired and ready to go home. It was really warm that day. Kellen slept the entire way home in the car. :-)

That same week we headed to Sparks Nevada to visit Nana, Papa and Uncle Bobby. They just recently moved, so it was our first time visiting their new home. Of course you couldn't tell that they just moved because my mom is pro at getting everything super "homey."

Nolan and Kellen sharing some cheerios for breakfast.

 We stopped by Papa's work and we had to take pictures on the TRACTORS!!! They were pretty stinkin' huge.

Kellen wanted to "drive" as always with anything that has a steering wheel. He is completely content moving it back and forth without actually going anywhere.

 We went to the biggest sporting good store on the planet, Scheels, and in the entry way they have a LARGE fish tank. We were a little alarmed at first when we saw scuba divers inside the tank cleaning the glass! It was pretty cool. Kellen, Nolan and Uncle Bobby went on the Ferris wheel INSIDE the store!

Ready to ride!

 Taking a break to watch a Veggie Tales in Nana and Papa's bed.

Another first for Kellen. SNOW! The picture on the left he isn't so happy with mommy putting so many layers on him, including gloves. However, once he was ready to go and climbing up the hill he was glad he had on so many layers. They played for quite a while!

 This was a common view of the two boys. Falling down or sitting down and then struggling to get back up. The snow was not icy, it was actually nice and powder like. Which made for big footprints and falling down a lot.

I also got a pretty good video of Nolan body skiing down the hill. I didn't get him going belly first which was pretty sweet, but I was able to get him on video.

 They worked up appetites (well, at least Nolan did). Kellen just got sweaty I think. He was glad when I took off the snow gear. It was pretty warm outside.

 He looked so cute with the boots on, especially because they went up so high on his knees, I had to take a picture! By then he warmed up pretty well to my parents dog, Duke... (Chocolate Lab) seriously the best dog. If I ever had a dog, I would want him.

 After a day of fun in the snow he even took a few seconds to pose with mommy (my cutie pie!). We had a nice visit. Since coming home Kellen has said, "I want to go in the spa." Nana and Papa have a spa in their back yard, and they sat in it each day for a little while with Uncle Bobby and papa. It was really relaxing.

January came and went, fast. I'm glad I was able to capture some memories with the camera! Hope you enjoyed the pictures!

Love,

Mindie