I am a new Woman!

Do you like my new hair???

COSMO!!!!!

Yet again, our family has expanded! It is so interesting how some chickens and a dog change the dynamic of our family. It brings a lot of happiness, and some more trials but I think it will help our family grow. Actually I know that it will help our family grow, because we have already learned some things with our new family members. We are so grateful for Cosmo and our girls (the chickens). Here are some fun pictures!

Blessings

Holy cow we have been so so so so blessed these last few weeks....

#1 The Pig

Okay so has anyone else noticed how much meat has gone up in price??? Well trying to feed the army inside of my husband, I have. Anyways, in talking with some close friends (so close I consider them family) they told us about a connection they had in getting a pig. They asked if we wanted to go in on the pig with them, and they would cut it all up and we could help them package the meat. We paid $100.00 for a half of a pig and have lots of meat to share with others, so let me know when you want to come for dinner!

#2 The Miracle Freezer

So we were going to have all this meat, BUT WAIT!!! Where are we going to put it, don't worry Heavenly Father always seems to take care of us. The day before our Friends were coming back with the meat, I got on KSL, and no I did not get a free baby, but I got a free FREEZER! It was truly a miracle. The lady had it for sale for $50.00 which is still a really good deal for the freezer that we got. Well after texting her through out the day she told me she was just going to give it away for free. Ben's brother Eli was nice enough to let Ben borrow his truck so that Ben could bring it home. And who says miracles don't happen anymore???

#3 The Fast

Ben and I have almost been married THREE YEARS, I can not believe it. Anyways we thought by now we would have three children. But Heavenly Father has a different plan then we have for ourselves. So, we have been really feeling like we have a lot of love to give some children and have been trying to figure out what we should do about it. Well we have been thinking about a few options (Foster Care, LDS Adoption) and we decided to fast about what we should do. To make a long story short, we both received a confirmation that we needed to get the ball rolling with Faster Care!! We started our classes back up this month, and should me licenced by the end of the month! I can not wait to help some family's. We do not know if the opportunity to adopt will come up, but we are just excited to share our testimonies of Heavenly Fathers love for everyone of his children.

#4 The Preschool

My preschool is growing like crazy! I recived two new calls this week, and my classes are a lot more organized now that I can put a lot more time into my lesson plans now that I do not work anymore. I love to see the kids learn and grow. I am so grateful for the spirit and the daily inspiration I receive as I teach these children. I am also learning a lot of patience

#5 The Computer

So a few months ago my computer broke. It was a sad day for me, because I LOVE my computer and have a lot of valuable things saved on my computer. Well right away I called Uncle Lonnie to see what I needed to do to fix it. Well he told us that we might as well buy a new computer, because it was going to cost like $200.00 to fix. Well I did not like what he told me, so I called my dad and asked him hoping he would have a better awnser for me. Well he did not, he told me the same thing happened to his computer and that he just had to get another one. Well that was not an option, according to our budget so dad hooked us up with an OLD OLD computer, I am pretty sure it was like the first one ever made. It is GIGANTIC and SO SO SLOW....... anyways so I have been trying to use it, but to be 100% honest I have left the slow computer in the computer room and used Ben's computer well he is at work, it is so much faster!!

So Ben being the amazing man he is, decided that he could fix my computer. If any of you know Ben you know if he decides to do something, consider it done. So we found the $100 part that we needed for $10 on eBay, and it came today and it WORKS! Ben is amazing, supermen, He-man. And what a blessing, I missed all of our pictures on my computer as well as the general function (it is so much better then Ben's computer).

(one of the pictures I really missed, San Diego Elmo 3D)

Anyways to say the least WE ARE BLESSED! We are so lucky to know Heavenly Father and his plan for us. I know that everyone has small blessings or miracle that happen everyday, so I think you should share them! Lets give one another a little more hope a little more reason to live and try harder. So what are you waiting for??? What is a blessing you have noticed in the last day, week or month?

Share Your Testimony!

Share Your Testimony! Holy Cow the Church is TRUE! So this summer, I may not be doing all the things that I wanted to get done... But I have had so many opportunities to be with the Sister Missionaries! um.. they are amazing! The Sisters that I have been able to serve with the last couple of weeks are Sister Milburn and Sister Harwood

It was Sister Harwoods birthday last Thursday. I had all of Raie's kids so it was pretty crazy and fun, Dallin helped me make a cake.. Well It was almost nine and the sisters were passing by the house so I made them stop, so the microwave cake did not cook long enough, and so this is what she got! It was perfect! The 23 candles were going everywhere.

I have come to love these two Lady's and will be sad when transfers come! I have had so many opportunities to share the Gospel and to help in this very important work! On little miracle..

*******Ben and I were having some people over for dinner, I felt like I should ask the man that lives next door, we have never been over (embarrassing) so when Ben got home we went over to ask if he would like to come over for dinner. As we apologized for not coming over before, we could not even ask him if he would like to come over for dinner when he asked if he had seen the Sister Missionaries over at our house.. (I was thinking "oh crap he is going to tell us to get of the porch and never come back).. he then insisted on us getting him a Book of Mormon, he said that he had been ready the Bible and really needed a Book of Mormon! I ran one over latter that night with some extra dinner.*******

There is so many opportunities for us to spread the Gospel, what is keeping us from doing it, SATAN, it is him, he is telling us we can't! Everyone WE CAN.

Please pray and ask who you need to help! The Church is True!

Love you all, Stay Strong in the Faith, Faith in Christ. POTCIT Well I better hit the books..

TEXAS: Today was our first full day in Dallas for our 1-Year Wedding Anniversary! It's been great to just take it easy and not worry about anything.

One of the first adventures we tackled was Luis Tussaud's Palace of Wax. It was fun, yet a bit eerie with all those celebrity look-alikes like David Letterman, Tiger Woods, Oprah Winfrey and more. Ben soon found it entertaining to act as though he were one of the sculptures and scared other people, including me! He was insistent on finding out what the large metal dinosaurs in front were made of. Yes, they are all strictly made out of car bumpers! Pretty amazing!



Next, we visited Ripley's Believe It or Not! It was incredible and we saw many things you would never believe, like pictures on a rice grain and the world's smallest painting on a pinhead, as well as on potato chips.

There were other things like a mural made of pieces of toast and vests made of human hair --GROSS! SICK!!! We saw the "Tallest man who ever lived" who was 8' 11''. There were also fun little games and what-not like this. Try it out! What's your answer? It will always be the same!

Well shot. For those of you that we see once in a while, you know that our lives have been very hectic! For those of you that we do not see once in a while OUR LIVES HAVE BEEN HECTIC!!

Ben and I have just finished up our 2ND courses of school, through University Of Phoenix on-line. We both our still enjoying it, although we are going to be paying off student loans for quite some time.. Such is life.

Ben recently started back up at an old job (Skyline Electric) where he has been treated like a king. This job has been a huge blessing in our lives. It has opened up the opportunity for me to work less hours at Home Depot! This makes me very happy! Home Depot has been a blessing in my life, but it is time to move on. April 23rd will be my two year mark, meaning 2 week vacation pay! I hope to hold out this long!

In my free time I am hoping to:

• Spend more time at my house.


• Play my Piano in hopes to become good enough to teach lessons soon.


• Spend more time on my studies.


• Spend more time with my family.


• Spend more time with the Sister Missionaries in our stake.


• Improve my homemaking skills.


• AND MUCH MUCH MORE!

This is but a small list! Life is so short and there is so much to do. I remember after I received my lengthy patriarchal blessing, I thought to myself " how in the world am I going to accomplish all of these things"? I still wonder this at times, but I think of an old Institute teacher that I was talking to about this one time.. he told me "now Ashlie remember, you have eternity"!

I don't know how the plan all works, but I do know that eternity would be pretty boring if we were not continually learning and progressing. But I don't really know, all we can do is do our best everyday.

Anyways I hope with more time of to keep you all updated, I know I sure love reading and seeing how your families are, so long for now.

Do you ever fell like this?

Am I the only one that is feeling like this? I love Christmas time! I really do, but time is just speeding by and half the day I just walk around dizzy wondering what is going on? All my Christmas shopping is done, it was easy this year because Ben and I decided that we are not doing it this year. Party Poops I know, but we decided to give the money that we would use on ourselves and give it to a family that needed it.

Don't worry mom I told Ben we still have to get Pj's for our family tradition! Everyone needs a new pair of p.j's.

Anyways I just want you all to know I think about you all the time.. Ben and I are on our last weeks of classes.. and work is still their (thanks father in heaven). Anyways I will try to make my next post more exciting. Love you all! Marry Christmas.