Benny is Baptized!

 Benny was baptized on Sunday, December 18th. We held the baptism at 5:00pm and had everyone over for a Sunday dinner of baked potato bar afterwards. It was such a bright, beautiful, perfect Sabbath Day! Benny picked the program and Ivy gave the talk on baptism and Jackson gave the talk on the Holy Ghost. They both did great! Ivy sang a musical number... Samuel Tells of Baby Jesus and it was beautiful. The font has a slow leak so the water level was a little on the low side but Daniel was able to get it done and it was a wonderful day! We are so lucky for the many friends and family that came to love and support us! My heart was super full!

 Benny was out of town for his birthday so we missed the birthday boy picture with Uncle Jordan. Don't worry, we snapped one at dinner.

Boys Hunting Trip to Texas and a Birthday Boy!

 Daniel took both the boys to Texas for a deer hunt in December. They had an absolute blast and saw a lot of deer but didn't shoot anything (except a couple of wild boar hogs). They all had a great time, though. It happened to fall on Benny's birthday so I missed being with my baby boo bear on his big day (hard for me, not so hard for him). They treated him right! Birthday signs and banners, a birthday hat, special dinner and cake for the kiddo... he was shown a lot of love!! And was as happy as could be! Ivy unfortunately got sick with strep throat while the boys were gone so our girls weekend consisted of staying home and watching movies, doing puzzles and getting lots of sleep. We did venture out to the Minute Clinic to get her some meds and after a couple doses of an antibiotic she started feeling much better. Wasn't the weekend we planned but we still enjoyed each other and the rest. 

I enjoyed my daily picture from the blind!

Daniel sent me this and said Benny felt right at home... in his undies. The cooks and staff got a kick out of him. 

 Boys fished a local pond one afternoon. 

The Birthday Boy!!!

Me and my sickie... 

Frozen hot chocolate on the way home from the doctor.

Dinner at IHOP once she was feeling better. 

Now this was funny... I picked the boys up super late Sunday night... after midnight. It took awhile to get their luggage so by the time we got home and the boys to bed it was well after 1:00 in the morning. Well... school the next day came very early!! We woke Benny up at his usual, 7:15, and he was a struggle bus all morning. He almost fell back asleep on the drive to school! Poor thing was exhausted! When I picked him up after school he came straight in the house, laid down across the ottoman by Rosco and promptly fell fast asleep. This was at 3:30. Dinner time rolled around about 6:30 and he was still fast asleep so we decided we'd move him up to his room... if he woke up he could have dinner and if he kept sleeping then he'd at least be in his bed. Well,  he kept sleeping! And he slept all the way through the next morning when we woke him for school at 7:15 again. This time he was feeling much better!!

Buccaneer's Game!

 Monday, December 5th we surprised the kids with tickets to the Tampa Bay Buc's game! They were all so very excited! Especially Ivy... this was a bucket list item for her. We put on all the Tampa gear we own, pulled the kids from school a little early and headed out to Tampa! 5 Guys stop on the way for dinner and we arrived at the stadium about 1 hour before kick-off. Good thing because it took us an entire hour to park and walk in!! But we were seated just in time! Game started off strong with the Buc's scoring right out of the gate but after they fell behind in the 1st quarter it wasn't quite as exciting. We enjoyed the game, though, the crowd, the snacks, all of it!!! Knowing how bad the traffic was on the way in, we decided to skip out with about 7 min left in the game, Buc's down by 2 touchdowns so didn't think much about it. Well, wouldn't you know, they came back in the last 5 minutes to win the game?! Ivy was devatsted we missed it! And to be honest, I was really disappointed too. Something was telling me to just stay, when would we ever be back at another game, but the boys were all ready to go and so we left. Darn it. But we had a really fun time! And we will do it again!

Bobby Lane Fishing Tournament

Jackson was able to fish in the Bobby Lane Youth Tournament at the beginning of December. Saylor's uncle, Kyle, sponsored them and he had a great time. Kyle and Merry Jane took their really nice camper down to Camp Mack and the boys stayed 2 nights with them. They prefished Friday and the tournament was Saturday. Jackson was sure they were going to win (I mean, they are really good fishermen). Unfortunately only 3 of the fish they caught qualified and the limit was 5. So they weighed in at just under 5 pounds and the winning team had over 16. Jackson was really disappointed about that but they had a great time and are ready for the next one!