It's beginning to look a lot like....

A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!! Why you ask? Because of the generosity of my Grandpa Cherry and the help of family, we are going to be coming home to Cali for the holiday season! I don't even have the words to express how excited I am. WE'RE COMING HOME!!!!!

Primary Program

Today was our Primary's Sacrament Program where they sang all the songs they've learned this year in Primary. We had our nursery children come up and sing the first verse of "I Am A Child Of God" with our younger primary children. I can't even begin to express to you the love and tenderness that was in my heart as I listened to these pure, innocent children singing "lead me, guide me, walk beside, help me find the way..." As frightened as I get about the future and what's in store for us in these last days, I am comforted by the Lord's love and guidance of His children. I was so touched by A's testimony today after the program finished. I'm so grateful to be serving along side her and feel honored to be serving with M and J too. What amazing women! And can I even tell you how excited I am that it's over? I feel so relieved! But mostly I feel gratitude to know truly who I am...I am a daughter of my Heavenly Father and He loves me and I love Him. I have a Savior who gave His life so I might eternal salvation. What a gift!

Halloween

I am out of steam...here was our Halloween experience. Drew was a duck. Nate picked out his own costume...he was a "num a num" aka M&M.

Iowa Day 4

The last day was spent at Church with my family, where the other highlight(s) of the trip occurred for me...John's testimony, sitting next to my sister in Relief Society, and having my children run between pews from one family member to another. Then when we got home we celebrated Nathan and Grandpa Cherry (Dad)'s birthdays before Mike and his family and our family had to drive back home. It was so fun to see all the cousins playing together...I miss my family already!

Iowa Day 3

On Saturday morning, we all gathered for breakfast at the Cracker Barrel. Eddie and Drew My happy boy! As long as food is involved, this is what you get...

Our first exposure to grits... And clearly we weren't impressed. But that didn't stop the "Stomach of Steel" from enjoying some good southern comfort. The rest of the day was spent at Nauvoo with the family. Next to the actual graduation, this was the highlight for me. We got to participate in the town's Halloween parade, eat at some sidewalk vendors, watch a hilarious play put on by the couple missionaries, walk down the famous Parley Street, throw rocks into the Mississippi River and enjoy the Spirit and beauty of the Nauvoo temple. It was a heavenly day spent with my family. I will cherish that day forever.

Iowa Day 2

The second day of our trip was John's graduation day...Enjoy the slide show!

Our trip to Iowa Day One

So we had the great blessing of attending my brother John's graduation from Palmer Chiropractic School. It was kind of a journey as we drove to Iowa and back in 5 days. So the journey began with a long 15 hour car ride.




We left Wednesday afternoon and arrived bright and early Thursday morning...Just in time to help pack the U-Haul.



John and Christy and their family are moving back to Ca for work and Chris' father, Dean, was going to drive the U-Haul back for them but he needed to get back for work on Monday and so left after the graduation Friday.

During the loading of the U-Haul there was another exciting event taking place, Christy was loading her own precious cargo.


Lewis Jennings Cherry was born Tuesday, October 21, 2008 around 9:00 pm. He was 8 lbs 7 oz and 20.5 inches long...by far her smallest baby yet. In fact, 2 pushes and 5 minutes later he was out and resting on her tummy. I got to tag along with John to pick her up from the hospital on Thursday and bring her home to the chaos of a half packed/mostly empty home.

When we got back, my boys couldn't get enough of "new baby". Drew was head over heals in love with the baby...a little too much lovin' on Drew's part. He hasn't quite learned how to be soft.

My birthday...Man I'm getting old. ;)

Not really...I know I'm still a youngin'. So for my birthday this year I gave myself a present. I signed up to run a 5K for the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. I even got Eddie to sign up for it too and thanks to M and J for lending us their double jogging stroller. We got there and it was packed! My favorite part of the whole experience was just before the race as the national anthem was sung. It was so beautiful and it hit me why it was that I wanted to run the race in the first place. My mother's mother, my Grammy, had breast cancer and eventually lost the fight on October 24, 2003. Because of this, and also because this was the type of person my mother, she was always a huge supporter of breast cancer research and proudly wore her pink ribbon. She had a pink ribbon pen, her personal checks were pink with pink ribbons, she had pins and earrings and you name it...So really this race, which so perfectly fell on my birthday, was really in their honor. And what a perfect way to celebrate my birthday, by celebrating the lives of those that gave me mine.


Here are my boys right before the race.


And here we are at the end of a very long "cattle herding" experience...It was so horrible I can't even write about it. There were over 30,000 people there walking, cause there certaintly weren't any running like we were trying to.

The day definetly got better when Eddie took me out that night to see "The Merchant of Venice" in an outdoor theater. It was heavenly to spend some one on one time with the love of my life. We had a great time and recommend it to anyone in the North Dallas area.






Isn't it so fun when you get to remember why it is you fell in love in the first place? Eddie, I love you and thank you for making my birthday wonderful! I'll canoodle with you anyday!

Pinkalicious

For one of our Mothers Group's outing we went and saw a play based on the book "Pinkalicous", by Victoria and Elizabeth Kann, and it was Nathan's first experience with the arts. And I use the term "arts" loosely here. It was however a total blast to be there with the other mommies and with my boys. It has made a lasting impression on Nate however who frequently asks me, "remember when we saw Pinkalicious?" (We're into the "remember" game around our house) And just today Nate made a joke when eating his blue lolipop..."I'm done eating my sucker, I don't want to be bluealicious."


Me and the boys.


The crew.

BYU Vs. TCU

So we orginally got tickets to see the BYU vs. TCU game out of excitement to see BYU in action but instead we had to suffer through what you now know was the worst possible game.


Here we are when we first arrived (side note: we're still smiling even after an hour or so of bumper to bumper traffic to get to the game...poor, poor fools...you could have saved yourself time and heartache by watching at home!)


And of course by the end we were no longer smiling.


Probably for me the highlight was the half time show when they had breast cancer survivors come out into the field and line up in the shape of the pink ribbon.


Then they released pink balloons and I know this might sound cheesy, but for those that know me, you know I love me some CHEESE but I seriously had tears in my eyes as I thought about my Grammy and mother and all the people the balloons represented. It was plain beautiful! It also brought to mind, or rather helped me understand and appreciate the love that NieNie has for releasing balloons and what it symbalizes for her.


And here is the crew that sat through the horrendous game...Eddie, Tracy, Megan, Matt

Pumpkin Patch

Okay so in an attempt to catch up on my life, these next blog postings will be almost all pictures with very little journaling. We went to the pumpkin patch with some of the mom's in my ward and great times were had by all...minus the time when the huge, scary bees kept trying to eat Nathan's lunch and I had to pretend I wasn't scared so he wouldn't freak out and would instead think of them like "flies" and shoo them away. ;)



The boys on a hayride!

So there are a ton of pictures and it's just easier in a slide format, so here you go: