After The Storm

We survived the storm unscathed! We were one of the
lucky & fortunate ones to have not lost our electricity
as did 300,000 other homes did here in NW Arkansas
& Oklahoma. It is said that, that is the most lost
in recorded history for these parts. Kentucky got hit
pretty hard with the storm too, so Pres. Obama declared
his first federal emergencies for Arkansas & Kentucky
due to the massive power outages.
It's crazy how this is our first year or month for that matter
in AR. & we get initiated in w/ some of their worst
weather in history. But it's been neat to experience it
from the safety & warmth of our home.

So, when the sun came out Wednesday late morning,
we headed out to check out the snow & later that
afternoon went for a beautiful, picturesque drive.

And here's what we found!

ICE, ICE, BABY!

Our 1st extreme ice storm! We are told this

is as bad as it gets! And actually, they are

saying that this will be a storm to remember

& be talked about for a long time. No

one goes anywhere. It started yesterday, around

noonish, and we'd been warned by the news

to get ready for it, so we went off to the store

to stock up on supplies. Jace (everyone else

for that matter) got off work early. He got to stay

home today, and probably tomorrow too.

It first started out w/ freezing rain, which ices

everything over, then it turned to sleet,

& its now snowing. It has not stopped at

all, all day today! It's nuts!

Since power lines get so

heavy with ice, they could snap & therefore,

lose our electricity! So far, its just flickered a few

times today & we hope to make it safely through

the night. But if not, we are prepared!

Thanks to my wonderful boy scout!

Enjoy the pics!

The Dog Lover!

Last Sunday, we stopped by the Gosneys to say hi & pick

up a few things and Cole got to meet their dogs Auggie

(sp?) & Penny. Cole had a total blast playing with &

harassing the poor dogs. Even from the get go, Cole

wasn't afraid of the big dog; so we've still yet to discover

a scared bone in this kids body. It was so cute and

the funniest thing to see! It's so great that they are such

kid friendly dogs. And it was so funny to see Auggie

(the huge one) try to get away from Cole. He even

got to ride him for a few moments like a little pony.

WE ARE DEF. NOT IN ARIZONA ANYMORE!!

I am sooo excited! I was like a 5 yr. old on Christmas morning!
We woke up this morning to huge snowflakes falling
out side our windows and it was such a pretty sight to see!
Our 1st snow of the winter here in Arkansas, and Cole's 1st real snow in his life, and my 1st experience living in snow!
It doesn't snow often here so it was fun to experience it only
being here less than 2 weeks!
But man! Oh man! -is it ever cold!
Try about 10 degrees!




I couldn't help my self! I went on a photo spree to see what I could find
since I love photography. So here are my findings from a complete
rookie with a simple camera of our new surroundings right
here in our own backyard (so to speak). Until that day comes when
we get one of those great photography cameras, my trusty 'lil camera
will do for now. I had so much fun driving around our area only about 4 miles out while Cole was chillaxin in the back watching Baby Einstein.

Here in Arkansas the weather changes so fast! With cold fronts
in and out from one day to the next. Yesterday it was 35 deg. and today
only 10 deg. And some days its still up to 50 deg.
No, we're def. not in AZ., but We're certainly loving how
beautiful it is here, even in the dead of winter.

My Going Away Party . . .


Let me just start off by saying that yes, I know, I've got a ton of things to update on since we are now here in NW Arkansas as of January 5th.

But the weekend before I left, my mom & older
sister Bre put together a little
"girls night party" for me. And it was a blast!
It was so much fun getting
to see all my girlfriends, my mom, some of their moms,
my cousin, aunt, sister-in-law, and sisters all in
one place.
We enjoyed great food, laughs, taking pictures,
looking at old dance pictures, and playing a funny animal noise game.

So here's our "photo shoot" . . .


The whole gang!



Me & my Sista's!
Oldest to youngest from right to left:
Breanna, Karis, Breck, & Kelsey

One of my best friends Julie. We've known ea.other
our whole lives - we share the exact same B-day only
1 year apart, same middle name (Ann), our moms have
been best Bud's before we were even born, and up until
last week, we lived only 2 & 1/2 mi. away from ea. other
for the past couple of years.
I'm gonna miss ya girlie!


Here's another great friend of mine, Heather!
We've known ea. other since elementary school but
became really good friends in high school.
We always had fun together, I'm just sad to say that
we didn't see ea. other near as often as we should have
the last few years.Getting married sure changes things.
But you get to take part of the blame Heather, since you
made me go to singles ward w/ you and that's were I
met my hubbie! J/k! I love ya girl!


Here's my closest cousin Tyra. She lived just
a couple of miles up the road from us too.
We've become greater friends as we've gotten older,
got married w/ in 2 mo. of ea. other and have lil
boys only 6 mo. apart. We'd get the boys together
sometimes and she'd color my hair as we enjoyed
talking about life.


And here's the old dance gang! No way!
My how we've all grown up!
Little Kelly( on the left end)
was just 8 years old when we all first started
together & now she's 19 and oh man does that make me start
to feel old! ( And I do have to say, that
she is truly one of the most amazing dancers I've known
in my life! We've even been able to dance together
later on in the Christian Dance Co. & she's choreographed
a couple of dances for my studio) Geeze!
That means its been over 1o years since I've known these girls.
We had such fun times
for a couple of years together at our old dance
studio "Dance One"! :)
From Left to Right we've got : Kelly, Brittany, Kelsey,
Breck, Julie, Karis, Brittany, & Ashley

Thank you all for coming to say "good-bye"!
I'm gonna miss you all a lot!!

Maybe you could translate for us . . .

Cole talks ALOT . . . we just can't understand his language. Does anyone have a baby language translator handy? Thank goodness at least he understands us so well!

Its Official !

For those of you who haven't heard yet,
yes, the rumor is true!

We are Moving to N.W. Arkansas


Jace has taken a job offer with Wal-Mart Cooperate head quarter in Bentonville, AR.
Working on the Leadership Training and Development Team.
Some dear friends of ours had been hinting at Jace for about 2 yrs that he's got a great job waiting for him out there in Arkansas and with us needing to find stable income, Jace relented, applied, and here we are today!

This has all been very fast for us, but know this is exactly want the Lord wants us to do.
It was official about 2 & 1/2 wks ago.
We are leaving the Sunshine state on January 2nd.
We have already been to AR. and back to find our house. And we were able to
in 2 days from a 5 day trip.

I was pleasantly surprised at how beautiful it is there! I love that it has lots of wide open spaces 7 very green with still yet all the needed amenities pretty close by! They've got pretty much everything we have here in AZ. as far as restaurants, fast food, and shopping goes.
And we were glad to find out the the church is a good size and strong there. We will have a brand new church building done in prob. April only 3 minutes away from us - yeah!

So here are some pics of our new house in Centerton, Arkansas! We are really excited! A little bit bigger house with more land for less mula! It's a new build so we get to pick out all the paints, window coverings, ect. and no HOA - whoa-hoo!
So everything is very "white" now, but enjoy! We will def. be posting pics when we get going on projects with the house!