Too long!

I know it has been too long. As many of you may already know, Nate has put in a application for the criminal department and he has put it in for Farmington. Which would put us a lot closer to family. We do not know where it will go but rumor has it that Nate is a wanted man! He also a month ago received an award "challenge coin." Rumor also has it he will be getting another one from the DWI department. He has the most DWI arrests in this district! He is a hard worker and we are proud of him! The kids and I played in the snow today! It was a good snow storm! The best I have seen here in tucumcari! The whole town shut down! Schools, businesses, UPS, USPS, the gym, even all of the city buildings. Haha! It was only a few inches! But. It has been fun to do nothing and go nowhere! Nate's job never gets a snow day! :( for those of you who don't already know, our 4th kiddo was born 8 months ago on the 4th of July! His name is Corbin D. He was welcomed with lots of love and kisses from his older 3 siblings. He has been raised tough! He is very patient with his brother and sister! He has been dropped several times! He loves to climb all over our sectional couch and has rolled off it a few times! He whines for a second and gets back up! He is a climber and gets himself stuck in all sorts of places! He was an early crawler and that always means trouble! Owen started kindergarten this year and is top of his class and doing well! Everyone loves him and he has lots of friends! Everywhere we go kids are calling his name and saying hi! Dakota also started preschool this year and has really come out of her shell! She is talkative and a big tease! Her teacher is great and has really helped Dakota open up. She has many friends too. Austin is dieing to start school! Every once in a while we go help I. Dakota's class and Austin feels so big! He also loves the time that me and him get to spend together while the others go to school! He helps me clean, cook and we play! Daddy turned 29 in October and mommy 27. Owen is turning 6 in march and Austin 3 in April. The. Corbin will have his first birthday in July! We have had a great year! Dakota turned 4 in December! Life is busy! Owen played soccer and Austin and Dakota loved to practice with him. Dakota will get to do it this year!  Pictures to come soon! Mommy is getting her butt back in shape with a personal trainer, who sometimes kicks her butt and makes her want to cry! :) but she is getting there! We will post pictures real soon!

Sweet note from the Curry's

I recieved a sweet note from our landlords aka adopted grandparents. I thought it was so sweet I wanted to share it. Bill is an artist this is one of his pictures. They used to own a gallery but shortly after thier only daughter died of a brain hemmorrhage and left her 2 kids and husband behind, then Nita worked at the gallery to keep that off her mind, well one day she wasn't thier and her worker was. a guy came in with a gun and shot the worker. After that she had a breakdown and shut it down. He is very talented. So this little background of them is to help explain the note. She has surgery last week and she really has no kids to take care of her. She has a son here in town, but he isn't to swell at helping. he tries, but his wife is a bit controlling so he is not much help. Nita is concerned she will have no one to take care of her. so when she got home from surgery I bropught her a bouquet and dinner. i did not expect anything in return and this what I got in the mail. This card with a note!

One of the highlights of our summer is planting and caring for a Owen really loves it and gets excited to watch it grow. He loves to water it!


Owen had just found a worm and turned to tell us with excitement!

Austin found the fallen Grapes and loved them!! Then he figured out that there were lots more on the bush!

Yes, he is not only a trashboy and grap-eater, but also a tornado that makes a big mess and keeps moving on to th next thing to destroy!
Nates new fathers day tent in our living room. We had popcorn and watched a movie. Then had a slumber party! We had to test it out to see if we liked it!! :)







Their new pool!
Austin wasn't a big fan, but Owen and Dakota LoVeD it!!

Nate teaching my sister and I to shoot his big guns while she washere to visit!

My sister and I both decided we are not meant to shoot these and that they are scary!! Believe it or not the little one kicks much harder than the big one. And Notice Nate's smile. He is laughing at how stupid we look and how horribnle we are at shooting!!

Does that not look like a bad tough guy!!
Santa rosa state park swimming pool/Lake.

Dumpster diving

So we now have a dumpster diving baby. Austin loves to get in the garbage and dig out stuff, sometimes to play with others to eat. Somedays he pulls out some hidden treasures! Today he found some yogurt still in the cup, you can guess what he did with it. Sometimes he pulls out old broken toys that I was trying to sneak throw away, or annoying toys. Sometimes it is left over candy. Well today his treasure didn't treat him well. He pulled out a can and sliced his finger on it. Poor Boy. I tried to out pressure on his finger to stop bleeding but it didn't want to. I tried to put a bandaid on as tightly as possible without cutting off circulation, but he pulled it off. oh, my little trashboy. He gets into everything, climbs on everything and learns everything the 1st time he sees it. You can imagine how that is with 2 older siblings who, to put it nicely, can be hooligans. I just got called to be in charge of the Christmas program for our Branch. That will be interesting and a new adventure. The movie theater here is for sale so we are trying to buy it for $60,000. We are trying to get a fat down payment on it and doing the math can have it paid off in 5 years. Nate's over time just got cut off so that puts a damper on plans, but we have prayed about it and have confirmation after confirmation that it is good for us to do. So we will see for sure if money works out or not. We know some may call us crazy and sometimes God's Plan looks crazy from the outside, but you still have to faith to follow and not be chicken. You never know until you try and the worst that happens is you fail and by darn get back up and try again. So we love to hear encouragement, but never discouragement. We get enough of that from the world and ourselves. We love you and can't wait to see you all in August!

ENCHILASAGNA

So a lady in our branch made this yummy, well it is called chicken lasagna but, I think it is a mix so I Call it enchilasagna. It takes a little bit of work to make, but the efforts are so worth it!!

ENCHILASAGNA

8 TBS Butter
8 TBS Flour
4 C milk
1 TBS + 1 tsp Garlic salt, divided
3 tsp parsley flakes, divided
salt, pepper, and red flakesor powder to taste
1.5 lbs boneless skinless chicken breast cut into cubes
1 (4.5 oz) can chopped green chiles, not drained
3 TBS dry onion flakes
2 TBS fresh garlic minced (I used 1 TBS garlic powder)
1 tsp onion powder
12-15 lasagna noodles (your preference)
Grated Swiss cheese
Grated Monterey jac Cheese(these are the flavor key)


Preheat Oven to 350. In a 5 qt. saucepan melt butter over medium heat. Add flour blending well. Slowly add milk stirring constantly untill all is added and mixtureis smooth. add 1Tbs garlic salt, 2 tsp. parsley flakes, salt and pepper and red pepper to taste. Simmer the sauce over low heat, stirring occasionally, while cooking chicken as follows.

Put 1 TBS water in a large skillet and add to pan the chicken (I used Tofu), chiles, onion flakes, garlic, onion powder, 1 tsp parsley flakes, 1 tsp. garlic salt. Cook over medium heat until chicken is white throughout, stirring occasionally, Add cooked chicken to pan of sauce and cook over very low heat for about 15 minutes.
Meanwhile cook lasagna noodles according to package directions; drain well

Mix together 4 cups of cheese in a bowl.

Coat bottom of lasagna pan with a little sauce so lasagna doesn'tstick to pan. Add a layer of 3 lasagna noodles to pan and top with about 1/8 of cheese, then 1/4 of the sauce, then another layer of cheese. Continue layering until all ingredients areused, ending with sauce, then cheese.

Cover pan then bake for 1 hour(I did 375 for 40 minutes). uncover pan and let sit for 15 minutes before cutting portions and serving.

This is so good and the tofu Is good for you and tastes really good in this if you wanted to adventure out and try it. If not chicken is great!!!! It is so worth the work. Out kids love it and Nate loves it!! I also doubled the recipe and made one in a disposable pan and froze it!

Tongue Twisted

So today I was telling Owen and his friends how to crack the coconut on the trampoline. I started to say, " You count to 3 and then y..." my tongue twisted as I tried to make an effort to think of the right word and the only word I could get out was "Ya'll." The language is getting to me. OH NO!!! Just for your interest, some other phrases or words they use here are, yes ma'am, no ma'am, Yes sir no sir and so on. Also, Instead of saying I am going to do this really quick or get this quickly, they say I am going to do this right quick. The first person i heard say it was mt neighbor, I thought it was just a funny phrase she used, then I heard most everyone use it as time went on. Some words they use are not so favorable. I don't here swearing too often, but I always here people take the Lords name in vain. that is hard to hear! I will keep updating you on the different language that is used here. One thing I really liked is how all of the kids say yes ma'am and sir and the adults too. It was hard to here at first just cause I felt old and that their normal short yes or no was prolonged. I am lazy when It comes to speech. If I can shorten I will!! lol

TUUUCCCUUUMMCCCAAARRRIII!

Well we are good here. We are adjusting to Nate's weird work schedule. He gets this Thursday and friday off. I am excited. We thought about going to the zoo in Amarillo. Or they have a quarter-horse museum. We don't know yet. Or just relax and do nothing. Maybe polay a little Mario Kart!! Nate seems to like his job and the people he is meeting. I am making him be social. 3 nights a week me and some ladies go walking. Carolyn and Suzy. THey are really nice. Suzy is a few years younger than my parents and Carolyn is older. All our neighbors are older with grown kids and grandkids. We do have one neighbor, suzy, whose youngest is 7 and oldest 15. Owen and Daniel, 7 year old, play together alot! They have fun. This neighborhood we are in is one of the nicest in town. We don't typically have to worry about cars speeding by or cars at all for that matter. It is not a busy area. And it is old people, they drive slow! lol Today we went to our neighbors softball game. Her name is Tori, she is Suzy's daughter who is 10. Dakota loves her and follows her around and Tori is really good to take care of her. Tori comes over and helps me sometimes. She cleaned my Kitchen the other day. :) The 15 year old, Eliano, loves Austin and Austin loves him. He helps me out alot too. All of Suzy's kids say "yes ma'am" and "No ma'am". They are good kids, but it took me some getting used to to hear ma'am. Now Owen and Dakota are saying it. The people here are really nice. Suzy has lived here her whole life so she has an in and introduces me to everyone. She is awesome. Did I mention her husband is a Leuitenant? So nate works with him. He loves Archery and hunting!! Nate and him seem to get along well. Carolyn is really sweet and very easy to talk to. She is one of those friendly loves everyone type. She never says bad things about people. Everyone is really good to help me with the kids. Now if I can find another mom my age I could say my circle of friends could be complete. Although I can never have too many, but the ones I have are great! My neighbor had a baby Tarantula in her yard and I called the exterminator cuz I wasn't going to have those roaming around!! I haven't seen any since. We have an area for a garden. We have bought seeds and now have to plant. We have grape vines in the backyard and from what I understand they are, DELICIOUS!! The kids seem to like it here. Owen misses his friends in Rio Rancho and UTAH, but has one here that helps. Dakota is talking alot. Some of her favorite phrases are: "Austin crying" Austin awake" "Do it self" Mommy go get diaper. Lol she cracks me up and is so strong-minded. She is so big and independent. She is a nurturer, a lover and definately a girl! Austin is walking all over the place while holding onto furniture. He is like a storm and he will be clean for days then one day he hits and destroys everything along his way and is on to the next thing before you can finish cleaning up the first. He is getting 4 or 5 teeth all out once. they are just starting to poke througha little bit.. I still can not officially say he has his 1st tooth. He is talking a few words and will try to imitate yuo. It is soooo cute. Owen is telling all sorts of tales. He even tried spreading rumors about me and they spread fast here. He told our neighbor today that I went to the doctor and that I had a baby in my belly. Ummm.. NO it is NOT true! Today he told me as we watched the many birds we get in our back yard that, " He saw a big daddy bird the other day and the baby and mommy too." Me: Oh yeah. that is cool. O: THe baby was looking for his mommy and daddy. Me: oh. where were they> O: He found his mommy but not his daddy. Me: oh. really? Where was his daddy. O: Work Me: hmm. What do birds do for work? O: they bite people. Me: Oh that hurts. THat is sad. O: No, they bite bad people. Me: ooohh! Then a few minutes later after watching the birds some more he came back and said, "they eat worms for work too." I thought this was a very interesting observation of his considering our situation. We just moved to a new place and Nate has started a new job where he fights bad people. Just thought it was interesting. Well that is all for tonight. I am tired! Peace Out

Duty Station

Hey you all, Has any one heard of Tucumcari New Mexico? I hadn't either until now. I will soon be living there with my little family. It is along the Interstate 40 near the Texas boarder, about 3hrs away from Rio Rancho. It's a small town of about 5,900+ people. There is a lake near the city and lots of ranches. Maybe I will buy me a couple horses, cows, and maybe even some ducks. Owen wants a duck and a rabbit. That is one good thing about small towns. You can have that kind of stuff. There is a small branch out their. Not sure if they have a church or what, but at least there is a branch. Not even sure if they have a Wal-mart or if we have to travel for an hour to go shopping, that will be interesting. :) I think we will head out that way in a couple weeks to check out the town and try to find a place to live. Cost of living is cheap there. So that will be nice. I am a little nervous but excited. Hey if any one does come to visit, we can atleast go to the lake :()
Dad Hall, sorry the more I try to make some money the further away from Nephi I get. Thank you for all your support. That goes for everyone. Thank you so much for your support. I don't ever call or write, but I hope you all know your greatly appreciated. Thank you for sacrificing so much so my family could come with me to New Mexico, and so they could come up and visit you all. That was awesome. Sorry I couldn't make it. I wish I could have come with them. We are tring to come back in August. Thank you again for all your help, and support.

Read the 2nd post first.

I forgot to tell you how the lady who helped me off the plane commented how I was a brave mom. I told her I was just crazy. She smiled and said, "maybe a little bit of both." That made me feel good that somebody noticed my efforts. I would do it all again! dakota on the way down to the ground aka landing. puked with all of the turbulence, but not bad an was mostly liquid adn I caught half of it in the puke bag. Because we were not supposed to get up while landing, I pushed the attendant button to get a towel or something afraid that we would be rushed off the plane before I could clean her up. The attendant, seeming annoyed, got right up to my face and said, "Is this an emergency?" I said "no, but she puked everywhere." she then nicely said, "Oh." and walked away to get towels. I guess you are not supposed to push that button while landing unless it is an emergency. Oh well. It has been atleast 8 years since I had been on a plane. Excuse me for not knowing. lol :)

LOOOONG TIIIME!

Thier first flight!! YEA! It felt good to let Owen have his wish come true. He akways said he wanted to go on a plane and Train. In december he got to go on the rail runner and now a plane. I always told him "someday you can," And someday came alot sooner than I thought!

Dakota's new hair cut. It needed something and this was perfect!

"Do as I'm doing, follow, follow me..."

Keagan and vanessa, Owen and dakota made me in vanessa's words, "prettier than yourself." lol If this is prettier, Man! i must be some piece of art!

Kid size playhouse at the Gateway Discover.

The mounds of snow that NM doesn't get!

My little caretaker. It came in her blood.

I know it has been a long time since I last posted. But I try. We just came back from visiting Utah and the kids got to fly on a plane for the first time. Owen really loved it and we were right by the left wing, so we got to see all of it's action. The hardest part was rounding up all of the kids and trying to get them to keep up with me so we made the flight on time, but we had time to spare. We flew on southwest. It was pretty good, but I was a little dissappointed at it's employees. I thought they would be a little more helpful and friendly! Oh well I guess that is what you get for $70 tickets. :) But we did manage to have good people around us who were willing to help and not get paid for it. I didn't know when we went through security I would have to strip coats and shoes off of the kids and myself. So I was in a hurry and started to do it despite how exhausted I already was (and sweaty) from carrying Austin, the carry on bags and trying to round up dakota the whole way. she kind of gets off into wonderland. A kind lady behind us must have noticed and started to help me with the kids shoes adn coats. Bless her! Once we got onto the fligth the kids were great and they thought their lap trays were great. Dakota was certain it was a foot rest! lol :) We sat down got settled in and put our seatbelts on. I explained to Owen and Dakota what was going to happen and that it might feel bumpy. He enjoyed the ride and kept asking if we were in the sky as the plane was trying to get on the runway. He thought it was cool to be in the clouds. Dakota thought she was pretty special to get a drink and pretzels and put them on her tray. Owen also enjoyed choosing what juice he wanted. Austin seemed to not be disturbed by it all. He wnet about his busy self and me trying to entertain him. People seemed to watch me, I porbably would too. It wasn't long after we ate our snack and drinks that they said "Welcome to Albuquerque." It definateley did not seem like an hour and a half. It was quick! It felt quicker than sacrament, but was the same. Maybe it was just more entertaining so time flew by. :) As the plane landed I grabbed our bags and tried to squezze the kids and I through the small small small isle to the front exit. One lad was kind of standing in her seat ans a bit in the small isle waiting for the next stop and my wide load came through. i warned ahead of time to excuse me and my whide load, very nicely. She didn't seem to think that it mattered. So as I tried to carefully walk past one of the bags bumped her and she said something with an annoyed tone. I didn't hear her, I chose to ignore her rudeness. I think she may have been one of those people who look at the mom in the store with the crying child in absolute disgust. Oh well! I was trying! But to make up for her I was trying to rush the kids off the plane and out of the hallway thing as fast as little feet would distractedly walk! The attendants seemed annoyed and rushed, so one sweet elderly woman took dakota's hand and sweetly hurried her along with me until we got to the bag claim. Their are always those people in the world who are willing to be A Good Samaritan! Thank Goodness. My prayers for help were answered throught those amazing helpers who are willing to listen to the good spirit and help their fellow sisters and brothers!! Nate was originally supposed to pick us up from the airport but a few days before they told him he wasn't going to get those days off any more. So I called 3 or 4 people before our amazing R.S. President here in the ward said she would come pick us up. She carried most of the bags at bag clain and took Owen and dakota to the car and buckled them and came to pick me up on the curb along with Austin who fell asleep the minute I put him in his car seat. He was so exhausted! The kids not long after. We have the most amazing R.S. Pres. I have ever known. I hope God blesses her as big as He can!! She deserves it!! We also have good neighbors who watched the house for us and checked the mail while we were gone! AMAZING!! thanks to my wonderful hubby I had a clean house to come home to. WOW! I am so blessed with good family, kids, friends and leaders who are willing to help at the drop of a hat. Utah was fun. we stayed in Nephi for a week and then Cedar city for a week which is where we moved from. Through out those weeks I spent good time with my sisters, Grandma Cari, Grandma and Grandpa Hall, Jen, Stacie, Jake, Caleb, Alyssa, Grandma and Grandpa Searle, Angelica, Elena and Amaya, Mick, Matt and the kids that they entail. lol I am to Lazy to type it all. All in all we had a great time doing the many things we did with the many people we saw, such as Gateway Discover, Jump on it( a place with a lot alot alot of trampolines to jump on), Shopping in St. george at the mall and buying me New Clothes! The kids went 4-wheeling with grandpa and saw the horses and got to ride. I got to visit the Velveeta Twins, who are the most amazing 84 year olds I know! We also went swimming at the New rec center in Cedar city, The kids loved this and are like fish! Dakota especially! I got to play swim tag with Jaden and Gabe. We also got to hang out with Julien, Maze Layla and Ethan at their house. And Angelica and I made bread while the kids played. It was fun filled and I hope I didn't miss anything. Oh yeah the amazing College videos that my sisters made of them doing dumb abd obnoxiously hilarious things and gags and cooking shows and commercials. lol ;) And experience the gravity forces of Alien Hills and the children who pushed us. lol Or the the witches force, I haven't really ever got out of the car and asked how we were being pushed up the hill with the car in neutral and turned off. To chicken to find out. lol good times Playing Tetris on the Wii with Suzy and her hubby. Good Friendsm family and always good times! Thank you all! We love you! And thank you for your support through these times of testing and strength building! Thank you!!!!

Fun Pics

Dakota L.O.V.E.S. dressing up in my clothes. She also has an obsession with socks!!

This is my 3rd Generation of necklaces! P.s. If you want to know what to get me for christmas. Paper, washers, hemp, beads, and Diamond Glaze!

Hey all,

Hey everyone, how you doing? Just thought I would write and wish everyone a Merry Christmas. I don't think I will get another day off until Christmas Eve. Life is going pretty well for us in New Mexico. We (at the academy) are earning something they told us the other day. Officer Parks says we will really like what we are earning. Lets just say we earn everything except our food. That is given to us. We just got coats, boy the P.T. in the morning has been way hard. Now it is way hard again. I think they will lighten up a little soon. I will try to let you know what we are "earning". If you want to see some pics, most of them are us doing mail call, but go to www.nmsp.com and from there go to site map, and than recruit training pictures. They are kind of fun.

Oh! Christmas Tree!

We finally got a Christmas tree and decorated it with Nate. I wanted to do it today because we won't get to see him until Christmas again.

Hard Night

Well last night was a rough night and it makes it even more rough when you know you have to do it alone, with no breaks. Owen woke up at 10 and would not go back to sleep regardless of my every efforts. He thought of every excuse to get up over and over again. time out didn't work, talking didn't work, rubbing his back didn't work. After 2 hours I quit and let him in bed with me. Even then he would not sleep. He complained of his stomach hurting. So i tried to be patient, but wasn't very so. He tossed and turned and would or could not relax until finally 2 am. So from 2 to 6:30 I slept good. Then kota woke me up. Amazingly I was able to make it through the day totally functionable, but I can't do it another night. I have been trying to get Austin to sleep better. Since we have moved he has been waking every 3 to 4 hours to eat and sometimes more. We have a pretty spacious closet and so I moved him out of Owens room and into their so that he won't wake them up if i let him cry for 20 minutes. So far he has been doing good. It stays warm in their and the close muffle some of the noise. Last night he woke up 2 times and I thought he wanted to eat. It had been 5-6 hours, which is improvement, but he didn't eat. He ended up going through the whole night without eating. when I wnet in to get him he was sitting up. I don't know how he did it and haven't seen him do it since. He is getting his body of the ground and can scoot and move around while sitting up. He talks and squeals alot and will grab my face and pull it to his and slobber on me. I would like to think that it is his way of kissing me and saying I love you. He has such a sweet little laugh. He makes all smile! Dakota is cute but mischevious!! She will go up to Owen and take the toy he is playing with and then run and hide. He of course screams and goes after it, sometimes she will throw it back at him before he reaches her. It is kind of humorous. She is alwai\ys taking care of Austin. You can bet if he lets out a little cry she is their before me. She will hand him toys and whisper words to him and then will give him his binky. Sometimes it makes him more upset, but her efforts are sweet and cute. Her Birthday is coming up and I bought her a princess table with chairs. I think she will love it. I am trying to do a theme for each kid for Xmas. Owens is Toy story. He loves Buzz and woody, but mostly Buzz. Dakota's is Princess along with Play Kitchen. Austin, I don't know. I thing I will just by him some yummies to eat. I am excited for Christmas this year, but a little bit sad, cause i haven't figured out what I want to do for a Xmas tree. A few have our neighbors have some pretty lights out and Owen keeps saying he wants some and every time we go to the store he gets excited to see the Xmas tree. It is just so hard to do with out nate here to help. Oh well. we will see what happens. Owen si trying to be such a big boy and help me out. I am blessed!!

4 DAYS OF HEAVEN!

AWW! That was amazing. And it did go too fast! Our friends Matt and Mick ended up still being able to come. That was great! We had soo much fun and the kids loved being with each other. Our friends headed out early this morning and Nate left a few hours ago. Sad!! This month will be the longest stretch of not seeing him. So once I make it past this, all will be well! We have made it through one month!! Yea! The kids had so much fun with their dad. Owen played hard and is exhausted. Owen and Julien played like old times like they were never apart. Maze and Dakota are still in love and they don't know it but are arranged to marry each other 20 years from now. They followed eachother around and did what the other was doing. It was so cute. Mick, Matt, Nate and I had a really good time just relaxing and preparing dinners. The kids played and we caught up. It was sad to watch them go knowing we won't see them for a really long time. We love them and they are like family to us. We are praying really hard for them to move here. I think our chances are good. :) I am way excited for the visitors we have in the next couple of months. Holly is coming in a couple of weeks. My dad is planning on comming sometime at the beginning of the year. We would love to book more visitors. :) We have truly been blessed here. We are sacrificing a short time of our earthly experience which will bring us big blessings for a lifetime. The Lord wanted us hear, we followed with some doubts, but really trying to believe that Heavenly father knew what he was doing, and He did.

Home for 24 hours, sure feels good. Only have three days of work next week. I have a gut feeling they will not be easy, hehehehe, Week three went by well. The law class I took was interesting and fun. Hard to sit in a class for eight hours every day, but nice to see a paycheck. Push ups are getting better. Yesterday instead of a run, we ran half mile to a school and did a fart lick run around the track for a mile and half, than on the football field we did other things that hurt, wheel barrel, crab crawl, bear crawl, low crawl aka the crawl you see army guys do on their bellies, fire man carry (that one hurt the next day, I sure feel that in the back), It was kinda fun though. Duty Sargent this week, we had room inspections a couple of times. One time I was standing at attention, he comes and looks at me a couple of times. Walks past me and comes back. He said "Searle, have you lost waight?" I replied, Sir yes sir. He said How much? I said, Sir this recruit does not know" it was kinda of interesting. I knew my pants were getting bigger, but the Duty Sargent only comes for one week at a time. I must dropped some last week. Must have been his 35 minute raindeer games one night :)
I actually like it though. When the pain starts, I think of me fighting a bad guy. that helps. Some times I have a face in my head of the guy I'm beating, that is fun too :)
Thanks for the letters, I do read them often more than once. When I get a chance. I have sent everyone a letter now. I hope to do that every couple weeks. Hard to sit and right a good letter. So sorry, but I hope you enjoy what you do get from me. Your prayers are being answered. the Lord is sure good to me and my little family. thank you so much for the prayers. That means a lot to me.

Love you all,

THANKSGIVING!!

So we just heard about the huge storm in Utah. It is holding our friends back from coming for thanksgiving. We are sad!! Oh well! I am still going to do dinner, we will just have alot of leftovers. :( Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. Anyways, Last night I made Homemade chicken nuggets they were yummy. I can't go back to frozen. They were so yummy and EASY!!!!! So if anybody wants a recipe I will let you know a good one. My sister is coming December 10th-14th. I am way excited. It will be fun to have company!! Owen busted me the other night. I put the kids to bed and to relax I put a movie on that I got in the mail from Netflix. Well, I thought Owen was asleep. NOPE! He was already fighting going to bed anyways, so when he came out after awhile for the third or fourth time. I quit!! So he sat and watched the movie with me. The next night was a pain too. I didn't get him to bed until 9 with the help of a few drops of melatonin. He has not done this for a really long time. i don't know what the deal is. The first night he wasn't in bed until 11. Then last night after I got Owen to bad. I layed down and slept for an hour before Austin woke up. Yeah, he didn't go to bed until 1:20. I made him cry for 20 0r so minutes and that wasn't working so I went and got him and attempted to rock him, but he had that twinkle in his eyes and a smile on his face. After that I couldn't be mad or frustrated, it was so cute!! So I snuggled and kissed him for a minute, then put him on the floor with some toys as I laid in the recliner snuggled up to a blanket. He played for almost 40 minutes or something. It is all a blur. Then he went to sleep until 6, ate then slept until 8. What a turkey!! Dakota sleeps through it all. Bless her. Atleast I got one child that sleeps like me. Well, I hope all is well in Utah and that everyone drives safe. I am excited to get to spend 4 days with Nate, but I have a feeling it will go by too fast. Owen lieks to play school and most of the tiem I am Miss Carol! HAHa! He talks about her class and her all of the time and still tells me what he learned in her class. It is cute and sad all at the same time. I need to find him a teacher as good as her. Several times a day I will go to grab my dish towel off the counter and find that it is missing. Later I will find one of Dakota's babies wrapped in it on the floor somewhere. I have learned to just let her keep one and I get a new one. SHe is so funny and has the mother and caregiver gene encrypted into her DNA! Austin has been teething and is very grouchy sometimes. He will cry if I am not holding him or right next to him. I wish they could get all of thier teeth at once and be done, but that would make life to easy! :) When he is happy, he is such a doll. I do have to say that his grouchy is not as bad as some though. He is a heartthrob!! Well we are good and are making it. We love you all!

Love Nellie and the kids!

THANKSGIVING

Nate will be home Wednesday Night thru Sunday. So if anyone wants to call him, that would be the time to do it. We love you all!

BUSY WEEK

Well it has been a busy week for me. Mostly by choice. First off, Thank you Grandma, Trav, Lori, Stacie and Jen for your letters. I appreciate them. Grandma I am glad you are enjoying the rest home. It is sad about the ones who don't have family. I would always drag Nate with me on Mothers Day with flowers to visit those ones and other holidays. He hated it, but it was good. He is glad now. Some of them do have family, they just don't visit. That bugs me more than anything. Then, you have those ones who are very spoiled, rightfully so, who have family take them to lunch often or visit often. Those ones seem to be the happiest! Don't worry as I said before we won't let you go to one of those!!! Grandpa, you are random, but I love it!! It is fun to read your letters. Trav and Lori, your boys are great. They have such fun and adventurous personalities. Stacie, thank you for your sweet letter of encouragement. Jen, I like your idea, wish you were here to do with us!!! Well our weekend with Nate was great, an adjustment, but good. The kids loved seeing him and played hard!! Austin wasn't so sure at first when Nate was hugging me, I am HIS mommy!! But a few hours and he was talking and smiling at Nate. It was cute. It was hard to watch him go, especially when he started crying. It scared me. But he has been back for almost a week and doing good. He got to call me Tuesday night and tonight. It all depends on the duty sargent. Talking was good. I am glad I got to hear his voice. I guess their have been some lazy recruits this week who have got them punished alot. It annoyed Nate!! It would me. One day they had to do 15v minutes of exercises every hour because of some guys. He gets to come home saturday night around 6 and leave around 6 sunday. Then goes back for 3 days and comes back for Thanksgiving. matt and Mickelayne are coming for Thanksgiving with Julien, Maze and Layla. We are way excited about that. My sister is thinking about coming in december. So that will ne nice. I have made friends here in just a month, and It took me 1 year atleast to make them in Cedar city. It is nice. Mick is still my all time bestest friend. I miss her and all of you! But things are good. Monday we went to a Natalies house to play and ended up eating dinner over their. The kids had so much fun they didn't want to leave. Then Tuesday we went over to Sarahs house. Then wnet shopping after dinner for Thanksgiving dinner. then wednesday we had play group at Chick fil a. Today we had alot of friends come over so the kids could all play and the moms could do a craft. It something some of us just started. we have enjoyed it. Then tommorow we are thinking about going to the "westside play group." NO it is not a gangster playgroup. lol A girl who went to high school with my sisters and also is good friends with them just moved to Albuquerque a year ago. Sje told me about this playgroup. We are goign to get together sometime and do dinner. But I am also thinking to stay home and relax and play with the kids would be nice too. We will see what the kids want to do. Well we are good and have been blessed greatly by friends family and neighbors. We are well taken care of. Austin is all over the place, rolling and scooting. He grabs my head and slobbers on my cheek and coo's. I think that is his way of saying I love you. I like it, well other thatn the spit! :) Dakota is saying alot and loves to sit with the girls while we are doing are crafts. She will even join in the converation with a yeah and a nod. She is so cute. The other kids play, but she is on my lap trying to be part of it. It is sooo cute. Owen is Owen. He still loves his guns, horses and picking on dakota. He helps me so much and does things for me. He has grown up alot. He tries real hard to open my doors now that nate is gone. He even tries to help by putting Dakota in time out. :) They are obsessed with balloons right now, so at the Dollar store theu had a package of the 3 BIG punch balloons. So they have been playing with those alot. Owen and Dakota love to chase each other around and they just laugh and laugh. Well I am tired so I am going to let that be it. We love you all and have a nice big house. Very roomy for visitors!! I am not hinting, I am just saying... :)

Love Danielle

Jail aka Police Academy

Hey all, Sorry I haven't wrote to any one. Mom and Dad, I sent you all a letter yesterday I think. I will try to call sometime this weekend. We will see how it goes. Life in the acadmey is a lot like jail. They tell you everything to do when and how. It is good though. I have been doing great in my classes and on the tests. I don't get yelled all that much. I think they studied our psych evals, or I'm lucky. I do get teased alot by the other recruits and also the Officers. It is a lot of fun. I have come real close to the Book of Mormon and hymns. That is the way I made it through the first couple of days. When they were screaming at us, I was singing in my head "I need thee ever hour". The Lord is sure good to me and my family. I got to call home twice, once on Friday and Sunday. The call was for only 10 minutes, but that was the best ten minutes ever. After I knew my family was safe and doing great. I got more energy and doing so much better on the reindeer games, the reindeer games are games the offericers like to make us do when we get in trouble. example, push ups, mountain climbers, squate thrusts, running, stairs, lunges, ex they are not fun games. Not ones you would be enthusiastic to join in and play hehehe. But I am getting stonger and the games are easier. We have to do 100 push ups and 100 sit ups everyday. That is how we pay to do our laundry. If we get mail it is one thing per cent on the letter. So lets say I get one letter with one stamp, That is 44 cents. I have to do either 44 crunches, 44 push ups, 44 mountain climbers, ect. On Monday I received 10 letters, Lets just say the other recruits call me the mail man. It is fun. I did all 440 and read all 10 letters. I am not complaining, I need the letters and I look forward to it. Either way I have to do exercises might as well do it for a good reason. The academy is a lot easier that I thought it would be. We are finally up to 5 miles on our run. We did a 4 mile fart lick run the other day. It wasn't bad at all. The food for the most part is good. Their has been a few meals, I wasn't sure what I was eating. If you take the food you have to eat it all or you get to do a bunch of games.
Well enough for now. I will try to send a letter once a week. I sent Mom and Dad one so they should get it soon. Take care you all, love you all a lot, Please keeep praying, I feel the prayers and the Lord is sure answering them. Please if nothing else say more prayers. Thank you so much you all are the best family I could dream of. Thanks for the love and support. Love you all,

Nate