Over Christmas Break

What an amazing Christmas Break we had --- It started with Jessica and Tate's arrival in Cincinnati.  I drove up there on Thursday evening so I could get them in the early morning - they took a red eye here.  We slept in, then Tate had a phone interview at noon.  While he was on the interview call, Jessica and I drove to find a McDonald's for breakfast.  YUM!

From the hotel, I took the kids to the Newport Aquarium - we had a blast - there is a separate post for this.

Unfortunately it took Devon a few days to get here.  He was due in Friday evening at 10 pm, but his flight was canceled out of Denver so he was stuck there for the night.  Then his only option was to fly into Indianapolis Saturday at midnight.  We had to put him up in a hotel there too, because the weather was so bad that night.  I drove up early Sunday morning to get Devon and then we drove back and immediately went to church so we could take the sacrament.  I'm so grateful to have a child that completely and utterly understands and appreciates the atoning gift of our Savior so much that he wanted nothing more than to get to church to partake of the sacrament.  While there, Devon was also able to see Steven Saxey (he spoke in church for returning home from his mission).

The whole break was filled with wonderful, funny, precious moments with Jessica, Tate, Devon, Robert and Mark and I.

Monday we took the whole family to see Rogue One - the next Star Wars movie - we all LOVED it!!!

On Tuesday evening Betsy brought Chinese food home for everyone to enjoy before we had a special family outing.  Betsy and Mark treated the family to go see "A Christmas Carrol" by Charles Dickens at Actors theater.  Tickets were $80 each, but they were so worth it.  We were third row back, slightly to the right of center stage!!!  Every dressed up the the evening - it was magical!!!

Wednesday, Tate and Jessica celebrated an early Christmas with us because they had to leave around 5:00 to catch their flight to spend the rest of Christmas break with Tate's family, but as we were on the road (not far) for Cincinnati, Tate received a message that their flight had been canceled.  Oh my Gosh!!!  No way.  And to make it worse - Frontier Airlines had no flights until Friday.  CRAZY!!! We felt bad for them because they are going to miss so fun times with Tate's family, but it was out gain!  We got to have two more days with them.

Since Jessica and Tate were with us an extra day, we took the family to Longhorn Stakehouse on Thursday night.  It is Betsy's favorite restaurant because it has the most delicious Ribeye stake.  Our dinner was delayed and delayed.  We had a fun time waiting for the food, but it was poor service.  The manager and waiter felt so bad, they gave us everything at 1/2 price.  What a great deal for us.  The whole meal only came to $45 dollars.

Friday, we drove Tate and Jessica up to Cincinnati and said our goodbye.  We sure love them and will miss them.  They are the cutest couple!  So full of love and appreciation for each other.

We did all our traditional Christmas activities - baking and decorating cookies and ginger bread houses!!!  We also had our traditional shepherd's dinner by candle light on the family room floor and watched the Polar Express (well 1/2 of it because Devon didn't want to be up after midnight so that Santa could come).  LOVE HIM!!!

Christmas was awesome!!!  Everyone had a wonderful time opening their presents and being filled with the love that everyone has for each other!  It's a special time.  We really miss Marissa which made it all the sweeter to get to SKYPE with her Christmas afternoon!!  She looks great and sounds fantastic.  Devon and Robert had a great time talking with her, so did Mark and I.  It was so hard to say goodbye but we eventually had to let her go.

After Christmas Devon, and Robert had fun playing games with each other - it was so wonderful to have the family home for a while.  Devon had to leave Saturday for BYU, so he could get settled in, get his books and  to leave with time incase he wad delayed again...

New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve started out fun.  We played some basketball up at the stake center.
Then we cleaned up and went to Red Robin for dinner - Devon loves hamburgers.
But then when we got home, everyone went their separate ways.  Even when someone suggested playing games or something, the boys didn't want to.

We had the most boring New Year's Eve.

Robert and Mark didn't want to go out, Robert didn't want to have anyone over!  BORING!!!

We played some games, watched a movie and then watched the ball drop in Time Square!

Week 30 - Merry Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!

 This week was just pure joy!! I wish I could just repeat it over and over again! We had a surprise mission conference this week. It was a Christmas themed one and President Allred's grandkids preformed the nativity! It was so cute! I got to see all my peeps from my old zone in Logan... I've missed them, so it was good to see everyone.

 I went on exchanges this week with Sister Anderson, since Sister Sharp’s STL came with her. It was a fun day! Her area is a lot sketchier than mine so it was an interesting day, haha. Like we knocked one door and this girl opened the door wearing just her underwear... Yeah that was a fun conversation, haha! It was a good day and it's always cool to see what other areas are like.

 Okay now for the good part! Christmas Eve night we drove for an hour to Logan and went to Sister Kelly's house! We had Christmas Eve dinner which was turkey, mash potatoes, etc.! Yummy stuff. We then played games with her family... It was so much fun! It hadn't really felt like Christmas to me till Christmas Eve night with the Kelly family because we were all together as a big family! Elder Gardner, Humphrey, Smith, and Davis were there too so it was a party! Sister Kelly got us PJs to wear that night and got us all our favorite candy! She is seriously the best and so charitable and kind! I miss her!

 

 

White Christmas

 Christmas Day... We put our mattresses by the tree and slept by the tree all night. We woke up and looked out the window and snow was everywhere! I've never had a white Christmas and so this was my first one! I couldn't believe it! All week there was no snow or any signs of it and then of course on Christmas we get a foot of snow! I loved it. We opened all of our packages! It was a fun morning with sister sharp! Oh yeah we even got presents from Santa (thanks to sister Cotrill the lady we live with). We went to 3 different wards for church, one at 9, 11, and 1pm. I love Christmas Sunday!! It was such a spiritual program and it was good to see everyone there!

Members in the area gave Marissa
the 12 days of Christmas

"Look an olde VW van"

Marissa and Sister Spark

White Christmas



 

 

 

Then we got to skype our families!! Best part of the day! I've missed my fam so much! It was so weird to hear my first name for the first time in like 7 months! It was good to hear everyone's voices and see how their Christmas was! I even got to see my best friend Meg who went to my parent’s house to skype with me! I also got to talk to my sister and brother in law who are in Washington... Man I miss them! It was hard to say goodbye because I knew I wouldn't see them till Mother's Day, but I was grateful for the chance even to see them for 40 minutes! I love my family they have given me so much! They raised me in this gospel that I cherish so much and I can't thank them enough for that!

 

Skyping with my family

Skyping with Jessica and Tate at the same time

So Christmas on the mission turned out to be so great. We went to our ward mission leader’s house, brother Crittenden, for Christmas dinner! We played games with his kids and dinner was homemade pizzas which was different but super good! We then had a zone devotional to end off our Christmas. It was a testimony meeting and it was so spiritual. I was just thinking to myself during the meeting of how grateful I am to be here. To be on a mission. To be a missionary. To be a representative of Jesus Christ. I just love the mission so much even in the hard times. I get to become so close to my savior here and my love for the gospel has grown so much! I love this gospel so much. It has brought so much light and hope for me. I memorized the Living Christ the whole month of December and I finished memorizing it on Christmas Eve. I encourage you all to go read it. It purely testifies that Jesus is the living Christ and the sacrifice that he did for us. I love my Savior, he is my redeemer.

 

 I love you all! Thank you for all the gifts! I'm so grateful for all of you and I wish y'all a merry Christmas!

 Sister Lowe

Marissa's District at Christmas

Sister Lowe's District

Mattresses by the tree

White Christmas

Sister Spark and Marissa

XOXO  Christmas Morning

Sister Spark



Christmas Missionary Elves

The HUGE Christmas Bag Marissa got from her Mom and Dad

The Christmas stocking box Mom sent

Sister Kelly also gave her a stocking

Christmas Morning

Being a family of older kids, Christmas Morning comes too soon.  We like to sleep in, but with Christmas being on Sunday, we woke up around 8:00 - saw what Santa brought, opened stockings and then had to get ready for church.

A "son" sandwich on mom

Mark got dark chocolate, pistachios, Swedish fish and treats in his stocking

Robert opening his stocking: he got a wallet, M&Ms, chocolate milk, and boxers

Devon and Dad checking out what's in Devon's stocking: pringles, gummies, kisses, BB8 and cologne

We had a lovely Christmas church service filled with Christmas carols and stories about the birth of Christ.  It was for the Crestwood 2nd, Harmony Branch and LaGrange Ward.  It was nice that we could do this together.

Devon hid in the car to avoid having his photo taken - did not work

The traditional Christmas photo - this year it is just the boys and mom
Devon (21), Mom, Dad and Robert (17)

Great Christmas morning to be in love

After church, we all got into comfortable Christmas pajamas again and opened the rest of our presents.

Devon got a life size Pikachu suit from Santa - it was way over the top and super fun!  

in his Boise State sweatshirt

He also got a mission journal of all his emails to us, along with the photos that he sent us, a lot of Star Wars stuff, and shirts and a few sweaters because it is so cold in Utah, a Boise State sweatshirt and a BYU sweatshirt.

Looking at the mission book

new shirt

fun new tee shirts from Robert

Brotherly love!!!  My favorite photo of the day

Robert got Van shoes from Santa - he loved them because they were not the same as his Sperry's.  He got two soccer scrapbooks from Mom - one from his last season at OSC and one from his Senior year playing soccer at NOHS.  She really made the NOHS one special - including everything that she thought he would want to remember.  She even has the banquet awards in it.  He got a BYU 1/2 zip dri-fit pull-over badger, shirts, sweaters and jeans, and a soccer ball.

Looking at one of his soccer books

Getting his shirt and one of his sweaters

Playing with Dad's new basketball

Mark had a fabulous Christmas getting two pair of much needed pants for work, a BYU basketball from Mom, $50 Amazon book card for his Kindle, BYU clothes.  Robert got him a new razor and Devon got his sunglasses.  Betsy also got his sunglasses so she later exchanged them for a Power Tower (Roman Chair) so he can work out in the basement.

New pants - he doesn't look that excited 

Jasper checking out all the fun

Dad and his new basketball - now he looks happy

Betsy had a wonderful Christmas seeing the joy on everyone's faces as they opened their presents.  She was super surprise when she opened her present from Mark - it was a GoPro Hero 5 camera!!!  Holy Cow.  Those are expensive - and amazing!!!  Mark thought it would be perfect for our upcoming trip to Thailand.  She got adorable boots form Robert and awesome work out clothes from Devon.  She is set.