Last part of our Christmas Trip

Here are the last couple of pictures of our trip home to Spokane for Christmas. Our families only live about five miles away from each other on the south side of town, so we definantly were juggled between both houses.

Below you will find...Momma Ashby

Papa Hawkins, sporting the shirt that Liz made for him.

Papa Ashby and our nephew Grant, putting toys together on Christmas morning.

Emily and Lucy on Christmas. What a darling duo!

Isaac, Emily, and Lucy. I put this one up because Lucy is smiling so big!

The dark, cold looking hillside outside the Hawkins house.

The Christmas tree in the sitting room at the Hawkins house.

Brad and I before church at the Ashby's.

Needless to say we are so greateful to be back in warm PHOENIX! It was however, good to see family. We invite everyone down here for Christmas next year! Can't wait til 2009!

We forgot to bring the Sunshine with us.

We were told the Spokane airport was not taking any flights before we left Phoenix, but Southwest reader boards said everything was ontime, so we boarded for our first leg to Reno. After getting stranded in Reno and being told we could not fly into Spokane until Monday night, we decided to take a flight to Seattle the next morning to join Peter who was also stranded for an indefinite amount of time. Papa Hawkins rose to the occasion and drove over to Seattle to rescue us from a holiday spent in the airport. All in all, we only lost a day of our trip. Here are some pictures of our trip so far.

This is us at the Atlantis Hotel in Reno. We got the distressed passenger rate of $25 for a room. The sheets were as rough as the toilet paper.

The Drive from Seattle went smoothly. This is while crossing Snoqualmie Pass through the Cascade Mountains.

Sledding at Manito Park at Dusk. Spokane got 24 inches of snow in 24 hours the day before. Hence, the airport fiasco.

Brrrrr. . . More to come

Being a Law Widow...

So Brad, the love of my life, has five finals this semester. Granted this is Brad's second year in law school, so this is not my first finals with him, but I believe it to be true when they say...

• The first year of law school they scare you to death,
• The second year of law school they work you to death,
• And the third year of law school they bore you to death.

I realized, today especially how much he has been gone. I was able to sleep in, do an hour workout, go grocery shopping, make chocolate covered pretzels as well as the cookies in the picture shown below and do homework, laundry, and clean the house.

Tonight we went to a party our friends had put together, we were only able to be there for about an hour and a half, as we needed to get home so Brad could study some more. ha-haha. So here I am blogging away as he is studying.

Brad has a final on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday...we fly home for Christmas on Thursday...FREEDOM!!

THANKSGIVING!

For Thanksgiving Emily, Nate and Elle came over from California to visit. We had an absolute blast! We ended up going to Cafe Rio about three times to feed Emily and Nate's craving. We also went shopping and laughed a lot.We enjoyed a relly good turkey on Thanksgiving. A thank you!We also went to the Mesa Temple Christmas Lights. It was a wonderful Thanksgiving and a good time to remember what we are grateful for. I am going through Elle withdrawals! I think her and I had the most fun.

Believe it or not we did not plan on matching!

Brad and I have loved the Mesa Temple. We enjoy going to the Christmas lights as well as the spring time Easter pageant.

An example of how neat the Christmas lights are, here are the three wise men on the front lawn of the temple grounds! I love CHRISTMAS!

Ben Folds Concert

Tuesday night we went to see Ben Folds at the Gammage Theatre in Tempe. It was part of Homecoming week at ASU. They featured songs from their new album Way to Normal as well as a few fake songs they had posted on their website for fans prior to the release of the album. After they played their set of mostly newer music, they came out and played a bunch of their older songs including “Rockin the Suburbs”, “Still Fighting it”, “Annie Waits”, “Philosophy”, and “Underground”. The concert was really entertaining. We were both extremely engaged by the ‘piano-pounding pandemonium’. Four Thumbs up for Ben Folds (Two from each of us)!

Happy Halloween!

For Halloween this year we went to our ward party as well as Brad's sister's ward party. Her three sons went as Indiana Jones (Michael), The Flash (Derek) and Spiderman (Tyler). It was so fun to be with them.

We also had a young couples party for our ward. You were supposed to bring a decorated cake and dress up in your favorite era. This was my attempt at making a pumpkin looking cake.

For Halloween evening we went with the Crandalls to the Biltmore Mall, where they play old fashion movies on a projector screen in a courtyard. It was a lot of fun! Happy Halloween!

Sweets...

LUCY

ELLE

It has been brought to my attention by a few people, that they would like a newer post on our blog! I can understand that an 80's version of Brad and I is not the most attractive thing to look at. We have not taken any pictures in a while, so I thought I would highlight the newest additions to our families. Elle was born about two years ago and she is expecting a baby brother in March! This is an older picture of her, but one of my favorites. Lucy Rose was born this past June to Isaac and Emily. What a cutie! And Leah Martin was born yesterday...awaiting pictures. She will be the third daughter of Steve and Tricia Martin, Brad's sister. Look at the little cuties!

Brad continues to work hard being the President of the Corporate and Business Law Society at school. He is glad to be half way through Law school at Christmas. The only person happier then him, is ME!

I have continued to work on my Masters in Education/ Curriculum and Instruction. I am still set to be done at the end of March 2009! BLESSED DAY! It will be such a SWEET moment to be done.

So besides working and school for the both of us, we just enjoy the beautiful SWEET weather that has recently come upon us! HAPPY HALLOWEEN!