Denver Colorado Temple

I finally got these pictures off of my phone so I can share them on here.  This is from our day trip in January to the temple just South of Denver so that Joseph and I could take turns going in and being able to be in the temple.

taking a little nap on the way 

We walked around the grounds while Daddy was in the Temple then they went to the park while mommy went in.

Arya would not hold still for a picture....very distracted I guess :)

The weather was perfect too.  It was freezing and 65 mph winds in Cheyenne and then we go 2 hours south and it was up in the high 50's and Sunny.  It was BEAUTIFUL!

It was a really good long day :)

Abraham Lincoln

It is Abraham Lincolns 205th Birthday today and I celebrated it by writing a blog post on him Here.  I am so grateful for the Good Men our country has seen and he is one of them.  I hope I can teach my kids the truths from our founding fathers so that they grow up with a knowledge of the Good men that can lead our country.

Creating Arcadia is up and running

I finally have my website up and running  you can go to it here.... Creating Arcadia  I am really excited about starting up something to share with the world.
  I was on lds.org yesterday and it even highlighted about creating your own blog and help to share your thoughts and beliefs that way to others.  That is my hope with my blog is to share my life of why I am who I am with who ever cares to listen to my blog posts.
I have been wanting to do something like this for a while and decided to make a go at it now.
Dirt Roads Photography now has a good home on my website too.  I have a Travel Europe section I am working on and  children's portrait section too so far.  I will be adding a little something every week to the blog or the gallery.  I am looking forward to it and wanted to share it with you all.

Bragging Rights!

So I just have to say I am pretty proud of myself.  Though first I will say I am grateful for the promptings of the spirit to search for certain things on the internet so that I could have the help I need to fix the problem I had.  So with that said, our dryer stopped heating and wouldn't turn off.  Joseph started school that week and was busy studying so I decided to take it on myself.
 So I figured it was the heating element since it wasn't hot so I looked it up on the internet ( that is where I had help with where I needed to go and through the spirit ) and found this site with how you can fix the problem.  (By the way the link has videos on how to fix almost all appliances)  So I watched the video.  Seemed simple enough.  So I un-plugged the dryer disconnected the hose and wanted to take off the back plate but I didn't have the sockets I needed and Joseph said just use a wrench so I did so and it came off pretty simply and I was able to disconnect everything correctly.  Once I disconnected the heating element I saw it was indeed broken so we ordered another part on line...
We waited all weekend with out doing laundry and Monday it came, I installed it and put everything back together and it WORKED!  I was so proud of myself that I was able to do something like that on my own.  This might sound very small but it made me feel good and I just had to share....  There I shared it.  :)

Changes

This week has been fairly un-eventful except that we brought our horse from 20 minutes away to about 2.  We moved her on base and she is just down the road from us now.  We went and picked up two large bales of hay in Colorado that fill up our trailer.  It will be a change in our routine but a nice one.  I really like being so much closer to her and it feels good to know that we are taking care of her and not having someone else do it when they really weren't.  It is nice seeing the change in Joseph too.  I think he really enjoys having that responsibility and does it well.  WE have met a few people who board out there as well and are really nice.  Their seems to be a 'family' feel out there.  It will be nice getting to know a few of them.

 We finished as a family the Last Battle of the final book in the Chronicals of Narnia.  It is one of my favorites.  I love how CS Lewis pretty much wraps up his symbolism between Christ and Aslan.  It is amazing.  I love his books.  The boys didn't ever want me to stop reading when I would finish a chapter.  We would discuss and talk about the chapters and how they relate to our own lives or our own world.  They enjoyed it too.

Joseph is getting close to his Graduation for his ALS(leadership training).  It will be on the 12th and it is adults only, a big dinner and formal.  It will be fun getting all dressed up with Joseph in his Formal Air Force attire and 'go out'.

It has been down in the single digits and teens lately and we actually got enough snow that didn't melt away the following day.  The boys spend the evening playing out in it and having a blast.  This afternoon while we were taking care of the horse they made a big 'Cat and Mouse' game in the snow out in the arena and played in it with one of the other boarder's daughters.  They love that game and I am glad I passed on a childhood game I grew up with onto them.

Arya is so sweet and polite.  It could be the middle of the night and she is half awake but if you change her diaper or do something kind for her she says 'Thank you' by humming two syllables and doing the sign in sign language for it.  It melts my heart to know that my 16 month old appreciate's me.

We had home teachers come to our house last Sunday and it felt nice to have someone come to our home, visit us and give us a spiritual message.  I am really starting to understand the power in that and hope I can be a good visiting teacher and show others that I care about them.

I have been working more on my website and had it almost done when I started the blog portion of it and didn't like how Webs.com has it set up so I am exploring some other hosts that I can create with and that will fit my needs and wants.  It will be fun when it is all done.  So now I am switching over to Weebly.com and see how that goes.  That is the nice thing is I can try them out for free, see how I like them and go from there.  
I designed a home that I actually like for under 1000 sq feet.  We are trying to design something that we can get up and running with a very tight budget and not get a loan.  So I will finish that out this week and get a quote on it and see where we are and what are plans will be from there.  Joseph is looking into the National guard and to join it soon and be done with Active Duty and move back to Idaho for summer.  So that has been fun trying to figure out how we would be able to do that.  If anyone knows of some jobs up in Valley county area, fill us in.  We might be interested.

The boys have had it pretty chill lately.  With me having other things on my mind we haven't been as disciplined in our daily tasks as we could be so hopefully this week we can get back on task.  That is the challenge with home school.  So I will meet that challenge but gratefully for I love having my kids close by.  One of my favorite things in our day is nap time and not for the obvious reasons but because when Arya is ready I will say "Arya is going to bed.  Tell her good night" and Bridger and Gideon will come up to her and wrap their arms around her and tell her they love her and give her kisses and the look on this little girls face is, "I am so special and loved."  She seriously Beams as she walks up to her room to bed.  I Love it!

I wonder how long that will last.  It is Priceless!

Hope you all are having a good week and Happy February, Happy Ground hog day and Best of Wishes to your and your loved ones :)

January

I am a little behind in pictures but I will tell you what we have been up to this month to catch this blog up.  First off I have been really tired this month with my pregnancy.  I think it is finally catching up to me.  I don't feel very productive but we are getting by.  And this baby boy is growing.  I feel like I have doubled in size this month.  I feel him kicking me all the time and it makes me excited to see him in 3 1/2 months.  That is my favorite part about being pregnant is feeling them nudge me all the time.

We are beginning some new plans.  Joseph has been told for the last couple of months that they are trying to get rid of 130 airman from his squadron because they are down sizing.  They will wave the time you have left and allow you to leave the military.  Our contract is up in just over 2 years and we might be able to join in on the band wagon and get out sooner than that.  We have been considering the Air national guard too.  So here in the next couple of months we will have more information on what in the world we are doing :)  We would love to start our lives in the direction we want it to go.  Start a little homestead and starting living our dream.  I really liked President Uchtdorfs talk in the ensign this month about the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago but the second best time is NOW.  So stop waiting around and start doing what you were meant to do.

So we will keep tabs on what is going on in our lives in that department.

I have been working on a new website of mine and an idea I have had for a while and it seems like now is a good time to start it.  So I have been working on that and will send you all the link to it when I get it up and running.  The boys and I are starting the very last book in the Chronicals of Narnia...my favorite! 'The last Battle'  So I look forward to being able to read that to them.  

We have been getting snow off and on and the other day it was probably 5 degrees outside right at sunrise and I went out and cleared snow from the drive way and it was the powdery snow that sparkles A LOT.  It reminded me of the wonderful times spent up in Donnelly enjoying the sparkling fairies of frost and snow glistening everywhere.  It was beautiful.

We were able to go to the Denver temple a couple of weekends ago and that was really nice.  It was a beautiful day and NOT WINDY like it always is here in Cheyenne.  We took off as a family at about 9am and Joseph went to a session while the kids and I walked around the grounds and because of how busy it was I wasn't able to get into a session till 3pm and it was spanish speaking...I really enjoy going when there is another language being spoken.  It was fun...so that got our family home around 8:30pm that night but it was worth it and beautiful.  We also felt that it was time to move back to Idaho and to start some new things there so we are keeping our fingers crossed on how in the world we will make it work. 

Life is good and I just feel this draw towards my Heavenly Father lately like he is incharge and I just need to do what he has asked of me and he will help and guide me through my life.

Gideon is getting taller.  He likes his new Sunday school class and how they are preparing for baptism.  He got a whole binder with handouts geared towards it.  He loves to spread out the Friends (a church magazine geared to his age) and read through them.

Bridger is getting bigger too.  He loves to wrestle with his brother and when it snows enough enjoys to sled in it.  He likes to play with Arya and have her beet him up :)  He enjoys flash cards with math and likes creating his story that I am writing down for him for now.  He also likes to design his ranch someday with a water slide and all :)

Arya is so funny.  She knows her animal noises and likes to scream to communicate...we are working on that one.  She waves her hand when she is stinky like Peee Yuuuwwww! It is really funny.  She is very entertaining and adorable.

Here are a few pics from this month......

Arya finding someone's leftover breakfast they forgot to clear from the table....she enjoyed her morning snack.

Arya hanging out in one of her favorite spots again :)

Daddy has been busy with school this month (Leadership training school)...10 credits into one month :) and he gets to where his blues every week.

These are my cute kiddos being who they are.  Finding some nice cozies and piling on top of each other to get comfy

Another comfy spot Arya likes to look at her books at :)

Were having a.....

This free picture slideshow made with Smilebox

Were having a Boy!!!!!!

 First off Happy New Year!!  This is me and my boys toasting to 2014 at 10pm...It was New years in New York :)

This was cute, they were all cuddled up to watch a movie with Arya...which she watches about 5 minutes of and then she's done.  It is cute while it lasts though...

We are so excited to have another child join our family!!

These boys are excited to have another boy join the crew..

Were having a baby?!

Is it a boy or a girl?

A boy......

Well that should be fun!  Yea!

Baby belly at 21 weeks

 I haven't gained any weight up to now.  I lost weight for the first trimester and now it is meeting up with my weight when I got pregnant.  That is different for me so here is to getting bigger with baby over the next 4 1/2 months :)  We are so excited to have a little boy.  He is doing really well and looks right on track for a mid to end of May birth.