Graduation Surprise!

Video of BJ's reaction to the PARTY!


Christie planned a huge surprise party for my graduation which we had the day after Christmas. It was so awesome! I'm not big on getting all the attention, but felt so blessed by Christie's time and dedication she put into planning it. Some of the most important people were there and it was a lot of fun. The party actually was also for my twin brother JC, but he ended up getting really sick, so was not able to attend, unfortunately. Besides that, it was a huge success and it was good to catch up with some old friends and visit with family. The two biggest highlights for me were

1. Seeing how happy Christie was
2. Having my Mom come for a surprise visit from Oklahoma!

How much fun we had eating and visiting. Thank you to Christie, this has to be the most amazing wife ever!

This is a video of BJ's reaction to his surprise visitor!

2008 Christmas Memories

Just as many of you, our holidays were extra busy, and a lot of fun. Our families made it wonderful, and being together made it another magical season! Rather than writing all about it, here are just a very few of the memories we made this Christmas!

Playing with the kids (or being one of the kids!) at one of our family Christmas parties

Petting the camel at the live nativity at the park.

Sleeping under the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve! Santa was extra quiet delivering our presents!

Opening presents Christmas morning!

School & Soup

Ok first things first....I got through my first semester of the nursing program!!!! I took my last final today and I am so excited I can't even tell you!! I honestly have never studied so hard before in my life...but I really think (ok I hope) it will get easier because I feel like I learned HOW to STUDY for these classes this semester and in turn learned a lot! Shout out to all the girls in the program....couldn't have done it without you. (you think this speach is crazy...wait till I finish the program :D)

Now on to the soup recipe. So I really wanted to make a vegetable soup...I tried a couple weeks ago...it was good but I wanted to perfect it. So I got online to look for some recipes. I found this website:

http://www.bigoven.com/108450-make-it-easy-make-it-light-recipe.html

and decided to give that soup a try. Well, while I was writting down the ingredients and instructions, I saw that I could enter to win $100 if I took a picture of my finished soup...so I did! Ok so the exciting news is not that I won- well I haven't heard yet :D. The exciting news is that the editors approved my photo and added it to the recipe. I am famous!!! Ok my soup is FAMOUS! It is on that website posted above. How exciting! lol BJ was like, who has time to enter these contests...I said, "Nursing students on their two week break!!"

1 Year!!!!

We've been married for a year! Wahoo - what an awesome year it's been. December 13th was the day of our anniversary and to celebrate we went to the Forgotten Carols and spent Friday to Saturday night at the Anniversary Inn in the Jungle Safari room. Here are some pictures of our fun room.


We feel extremely blessed to be together and for all the support from all those around us. We've learned a lot in just a year. Oh, and time flies when you're having fun.