My Very Own Nurse!

 Jared is officially a registered nurse! He passed his NCLEX last week. Way to go babe! I'm so proud of YOU!

This is the hospital he works at. He loves working in a rural health care setting. He gets to do a little bit of everything, including the ER and ambulance.

A very long post

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. We sure did! And we have so many things to be grateful for! It was so nice to be home for the holiday and spend time with the fam. We spent a lot of time sledding and eating mom's delicious food. Thanks Mom! Jax the wild man is in the sled above with Papa driving the 4 wheeler.

The big canal was full of snow, and its way steeper than it looks!

I love this picture because it gives you a little better idea on how steep it is. Jake is holding Bridger. Bridger is one year old. He had no fear at all!

Me, Jax, Jake, and Mom. The snow was pretty hard so we could slide down on our rear ends.

Me and Jax. It got a little crazy without a sled.

Jared building a snow cave for Jax.

On your marks, get set, go! Me, Rachel, Dad, and Mom.

Ok so now on to the pictures of the house we are renting. Its an old house but it has been very well taken care of, and the inside has been remodeled and upgraded. Here's Jared on the deck that's on the side of the house.

The back of the house and the 2 car garage. We love the big yard. There is even a garden.

The front of the house.

The very large dining room. We are all unpacked but you will notice I still have some decorating to do.

The living room. Or as I like to call it, the brown room. The carpet, blinds, couches, walls, bookshelf, and tv stand are all brown or wood. Oh, well.

The kitchen

This is the room on the main floor. Its our exercise room/ office. It is also dedicated to BYU and the Yankees. (Notice our diplomas and fan gear)

There is also a bathroom on the main floor and a basement. Looks like I forgot to take pictures of upstairs. Upstairs is a very large master bedroom and bath, and one other bedroom.

Oh and Rachel, Mom, Jared, and I are the Black Friday warriors. We conquered big time!

And Jared and Jake shot a coyote. Somehow that coyote made it back to White Sulphur Springs with us. Hmmm.

A New Chapter in Our Lives

There's been a lot of changes. We are happily moved in to our new home in White Sulphur Springs , Montana. Jared starts hissweet nursing job in one week. We are so excited to be back in Big Sky Country and be near our families. I have a lot of unpacking to do but am so thankful for all of the help we received. This winter wonderland has me excited for Christmas and skiing. More later

Continue in Patience

This is my favorite talk from President Uchtdorf. It is so applicable to my life. "The work of patience boils down to this: keep the commandments; trust in God our Heavenly Father; serve Him with meekness and Christlike love. Exercise faith and hope in the Savior, and never give up."

A Visit to Jare's Mission

About a month ago we took a trip down to Jared's old stomping grounds. He served in the San Antonio mission from August 2002-August 2004. This was his first time back to visit. He had a great time reminiscing and showing me around. It was so fun picturing Jared walking the dusty country roads with a backpack full of Book of Mormons. I dug up a few pictures from his mission below. He looks like he is 14 years old in the first picture!!

The picture above is with his mom and grandpa when he returned home.
Jared mostly served outside of the city of San Antonio but we did do quite a bit of sightseeing in the city. We went to the Alamo of course and where I learned a lot and have a new respect for the men that gave their lives there. The picture below is a plaque that talks about Lt. Col. William Barret Travis drawing a line in the dirt with his sword and stated to his men, "Those prepared to give their lives in freedom's cause, come over to me!" Jared's first day in the mission his mission president took him to the Alamo and said something like this: "Whoever is willing to commit to serving the Lord for 24 months, cross the line." Jared crossed that line and I am so grateful that he worked with all his might to share the gospel with the people of San Antonio, and that he continues to be a missionary today.



After visiting the Alamo, we went to the Riverwalk. The river runs through the downtown area and there are shops and restaurants lining the water's edge. We also took the boat tour.


You might recognize the stage below from Miss Congeniality :)
We also went to the Schlitterbaun for some water fun. It is the largest water park in the world. I didn't take any pictures but we had a blast. They have water slides there that actually go uphill like a roller coaster because of water jets. It was really fun but we didn't realize how powerful they were until the end of the ride when we came up short a credit card and driver's license. Jared had kept them in a zip up pocket on his shorts. Whoops! Thankfully they were found in the filters and returned to us a week later.
We ate a ton of great food while we were there. We recommend Bill Miller's BBQ, the Longhorn Cafe, and Chuy's. I had the best mushroom swiss burger I've ever ate at the Longhorn Cafe (I've been craving mushrooms ever since) and Chuy's is Jared's favorite Tex Mex joint. All of my insides were on fire after eating there.
This is the Compeano's family Jared baptized on his mission. It was so fun meeting them, they simply adore Jared. It is so wonderful how much the gospel can change lives for the better.

Meet "Flat Maddi"

We had a visitor last week! A life-sized Flat Maddi! Maddi is our niece and her 2nd grade class read the story of Flat Stanley. If you've never heard of him he is super flat and his mom mails him to visit different places in the US to learn new things. We were pretty tickled to have "Flat Maddi" come learn about Fort Worth. As you can see we took her to the Fort Worth Stockyards where she got to ride a horse and watch a cattle drive. (The cowboy pictured above shocked us when we asked if he would take his picture with her. He was really excited because he knew exactly what it was and had taken lots of pictures with Flat Stanleys. It was so sweet of him to humor us.) We hope she had a good time, we sent her back to Boise yesterday.
The historic stockyards was a place where cattle were gathered and then driven up the "Old Chisolm Trail" to the railroads. Its a really fun place to visit as they do a mock cattle drive twice a day and they also have a rodeo and wild west show every weekend.

This is Big Jake. Yes, he is saddled. And yes, Jared decided he wanted to ride him. I couldn't stop laughing. Definitely the highlight of the trip.






Oh, and we finally did get to try those fried pickles. I wasn't a fan...too salty.

the coolest thing i've ever done

Have you ever pet a zebra? Or had a giraffe's long, black tongue lick your hand? We have :)
We went to the Fossil Rim Wildlife Center in Glenrose, TX. It's a wildlife preserve with thousands of acres and lots of exotic animals. It really was the coolest thing I've ever done. You drive around in your car and the animals come up to your window for food.
They also had cheetahs and rhinos in pens.


A giraffe's nose is sooo soft!




This zebra was my buddy and followed the car for quite a ways.


I was a little worried the deer antlers were going to scratch the car.
Wildebeast. Ugly creatures. The one video of the ostrich is pretty funny. He was not shy at all and he would get right in my face. I was scared he was going to peck my eyes out!