Nauvoo Here We Come!

So after we had all of that wonderful snow here in Louisiana, Brandon really wanted to take a trip somewhere where we could be in it for a few days. Last February we went with the YSA's to Nauvoo where there was tons of it! So, we've decided to go to Nauvoo with our BFF couple, Mike & Adi, for a New Year's trip! Last time we went, we really had a lot of fun.

We plan to visit the historic Nauvoo, take a trip to the gorgeous LDS Temple, and hopefully build an igloo (if there's enough snow)! Anyway, we leave tonight! I'm sure we'll have lots of pictures when we return!

Blaze

I love my pup. He loves to cuddle and he almost always sleeps on his back like a little person. He is just too cute! He's the best present I ever got! Thanks Babe for the cutest pup ever!

Oh, Christmas Tree...

For Family Home Evening, we decorated our Christmas tree! Yay! It's a bit late due to our hectic school schedules, but it's finally up.

Blaze didn't like it at first and barked at it for 10 minutes straight. But as you can see below, he has come to love our Christmas tree! :) He even posed for a picture!

Mother Dear

Happy Birthday, Mom!!!

"Happy Birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday my favoritest mother in the whole woooooorld! Happy Birthday to you!" :)

I just wanted to let you know how much I love you! You are a wonderful mother and I've very grateful to be your daughter! Don't know what I'd do without you, girl!!! Hope it's a wonderful day for you!

Winter Wonderland

Ok. So it snowed. In southern Louisiana. And it snowed a lot! Enough said. :) This is what I saw when I opened the front door this morning!

It was a bit more than an inch of snow, as you can see.

YAY!!!

Brandon, Snow [the yellow lab], and Pete.

Max playing in the snow. He soon realized that it was extremely cold and wet and headed back inside.

Sweet pea and iPod found refuge under the tree. I don't think they were too fond of the snow.

Boys will be boys...

Monday I came home early from work to study for my MNT final. I was inside studying my little heart out when I heard Brandon scream from the front door, "Babe! Come see what we caught!" He was supposed to be outside with Mike fixing the chicken coop so that no more chicken hawks could get in. Apparently they had finished that project and went to look for snakes out by the goat fence, and guess what...they found one! :) They were quite proud.

I love my country boy! :)

Thanksgiving Pictures

This Thanksgiving we decided that everyone would come out to our house. We live out in the country which was good for all the kids to play outside. We had 4-wheelers to ride, guns and paintball guns to shoot, animals to play with and a big tree that came down during Gustav to climb on. We had so much fun, as you will see. :)















Momma and two of her grandbabies, Kaliey "KK" and Eli "Lil' Joel"















Brandon & Boogie playing some baseball. Boogie may look small, but he sure has an arm on him!















Daniel and Max















Mom sneakin' into the pic! Gotta watch out for her! ;)















Me & Brandon!















Brandon & Daniel on the Racing 4-wheeler. This thing will get up to 80 mph! And Brandon wasn't holding back even though he had our nephews on it!!! Lil' sucker!















Mavanie and Boogie kickin' it on the 4-Wheeler!
She got really good at driving it and rode all the kids on it. Thanks Maver!














Max apparently wasn't having as much fun and wanted to go inside.















Me & Wendy taking a ride! I took her back into the pastures. We hit a few bumps here and there and she almost slid right off once, but overall we had lots of fun! :)















Left to Right: Jenna Bluth, Kaitlyn Richardson, Madalyn Cummings, and Bryn Bluth
Our "girly girls" climbing on the tree.















Daniel learning how to ride the 4-wheeler by himself! Yikes!















Davin got really good at riding. Momma had to yell at him to slow down a few times. But he had a blast!















Dallin showing off some of his paintballin' skills. I do have to say, he's a good shot!















Wendy showing Dallin how it's really done :)















Byron and Madalyn taking a ride!















I know. Shocker, right!?
Dad actually ended up having lots of fun shooting his new AR-15.















Joel showing Pops how the "big boys" roll
Just so you know, they were shooting at a target, not little animals. :)















Dallin taking his sis for a spin!















Mavers and Madalyn getting back from riding in the woods.















Brandon loaded up all the boys and took 'em for a ride. They had a blast! Brandon was the official tour guide for the entire day. He had lots of fun.















Madalyn, Brandon, and Boogie.

KK was playing Marilyn Monroe :) (She was standing over one of the vents in the floor.) Too cute!

Baby Quail

So about a month ago, we had some baby quail hatch! They are absolutely adorable. One is a Pharaoh quail and the other one is a button quail. Seriously, when the button quail was born, it was no bigger that a quarter! Anyway, in this picture, Colin (one of Brandon's many cousins) is holding them. They were the only ones that hatched out of about 40 eggs so they stay together like 2 peas in a pod. :) We love 'em!

Button Quail

Pharaoh Quail

Picture of our Anniversary

Here is a picture of our 1 year anniversary. I know it's really late, but we haven't been able to locate our cable to download pictures off our camera for a while. :) Anyway, since our anniversary fell on a Monday, we went to dinner and a movie.
We ate at Ralph and Kacoo's and had some of the best steak ever! Seriously. It was great! Then went and saw Eagle Eye. It was a very fun date just being able to hang out and remember the promises that we made to eachother exactly one year ago!

Bath Time!

As you can see Max is not too thrilled about his bath time. Usually he whines and just hangs his head over the side. :) It's pretty dang cute!

A New Pup!

I arrived home one day last week after work. The sun had almost completely disappeared from the sky. I hurried into the house because it was cold and dark, but only to find my depressed husband laying on the couch in the dark! It was the saddest thing I've ever seen! Seriously. Brandon is always upbeat and positive, but the recent loss of his 2 labs really had him down.

I just couldn't see him upset like that anymore, so I told him that maybe we could get another pup to help the hurt go away. He wasn't too thrilled about it at first, but soon was excited to go look at a 6 week old German Shepard. (He had them when he was growing up) Anyway, needless to say, we bought him! His name is Max.

Stupid Chicken Hawk!

Reader's Discretion is Advised!

So this past Saturday, I went to Helen's bridal shower, which was lots of fun and Brandon went and worked with his Paw Paw. He and his Paw Paw still weren't back by the time I got done with the shower so I decided to take a nap. :) Yay!

All of a sudden, I here the front door swing open and Brandon comes flying into the house. He runs into the bedroom (scaring me half to death) and grabs his 22 rifle. He doesn't say a word to me and just runs back outside... Well, of course I was very curious as to what he was doing so I jumped out of bed and ran to the front door. When I got outside, I saw him walking out of the chicken pen with a dead red-tail hawk...

Come to find out, Brandon got home from working with his Paw Paw and decided to go check on our chickens. He heard them squawking a bit. Nothing more than usual though. However, when he got around the fence, he saw a huge hawk jumping up and down on one of our chickens, trying to kill it with it's talons. Brandon went into "protection mode" and ran into the pen with nothing other than his fists! Luckily as he went in, he saw a 2 x 4 and grabbed it. He went into the chicken coop and knocked the hawk out cold... or so he thought! He ran inside, grabbed his gun, and when he got back outside, the stupid hawk was at it again! Brandon couldn't believe it! He went inside the coop again and waited for the hawk to turn around and look him in his eye (he said). The hawk reared back with his talons sticking out toward Brandon and Brandon shot him in the noggin. Like, 7 times. He was furious. Unfortunately, we lost our biggest and best laying chicken before Brandon got home. Some of the other chickens were hurt in the fight, but fortunately they are all doing great.

I feel kinda bad for the chicken hawk. He was a beautiful bird only doing what was natural for him. But we have to protect our little farm animals. Thank heavens for a manly-man like Brandon!

Missing...

Wednesday, November 19th our two beautiful lab puppies went missing.

Brandon went to Wal-Mart for about 20 minutes and when he got back to the house, they were gone. We have no idea what has happened to them. We miss our Buddy and Molly and hope they find their way home one day!

I love my Hunny!

Today is our 1 year Anniversary!!!

On this day one year ago, I woke up at Ms. Kim's house with my mother, sister Maver, and BFF Angelique. We went and got our hair done and headed to the Baton Rouge LDS temple. It was there that I was sealed for all eternity to my most favorite person in the world!

I just want Brandon to know how much I love him! I'm so glad that I married him exactly one year ago today. He is my best friend and my sweetheart. He is a wonderful husband and will one day be an amazing father! I am very grateful to my Heavenly Father for putting me in his path.

Anyway, to celebrate, we woke up this morning and exchanged gifts! Brandon tried to convince me to give gifts last night, but I compromised and we gave them this morning at 6:30 am! I got him headers for his hemi truck (which he has been wanting for a while now)
and he got me DIAMOND EARRINGS!!! I don't have a picture yet but I'm sure we'll take pictures tonight... They are soooo beautiful and I absolutely love them!

I have the best hubby ever!

Happy Anniversary, Brandon!