A White Christmas

I got my White Christmas!!! It was so cool that I did, a total, out of the blue surprise. All the weathermen said no chance, and they were wrong... it was beautiful, huge flakes! anyway, it was a wonderful day! we started out just the five of us (abi was in Tucson) and we opened gifts from each other, the we went to have brunch at aunt lindas house, where we say the snow!!:) then we came home, visited, listened to music, watched movies and cooked, just my family. we ate a great dinner and then the Klobas family came over for games and good conversation. it was soooo fun to have little kiddos in the house to buy toys and clothes for, we had fun. it was such a great day, I am so blessed. I really missed my sister though!

Done!!! Finished!!!

YAYYYYYY! Finals are over, I am done, done, done for the semester. I can't believe I am already so far into college, its crazy! this week has been long, but I will be comfortable in my own home in days!!! :) I so excited to get to celebrate christmas now with my family and not worry about homework! anyway, this is just a note to say how excited I am now!:) 58 hours!!! (but of course I'm not counting)

Erik and Cheryl's little blessing...

There's a new little girl in the klobas' and our lives... Ava Leigh Aparna! Yay! God has answered our months of thinking, and praying and He has sent the klobas' a baby girl, Ava. She is from India, which is a shock to everyone, including Erik and Cheryl, because their plan was always Ethiopia, well God had a different plan all along and we are thankful he revealed it! I am so excited to see her in a few months and until then to share in the excitement and prayers for little Ava Leigh. and I know that this baby will have an amazing life with her mommy, daddy, big sister and big brother. visit the Klobas' site to get all the details!. http://klobasfamily.blogspot.com/

A life-changing thanksgiving

Boy, this was a thanksgiving to top all. there were tears, so much laughter and so many hugs and kisses. Aimee jo, andrew and anaiah are leaving in two weeks and we had such a tearful goodbye. all 21 of us were crying and it was like we couldn't let go. We got tons of great pictures that we will cherish forever. I also included a picture of our thankfulness tree. amanda made us a wonderful gift. she put branches in a vase and cut out leaves, we all wrote what we were thankful for and close-pined them to the trees. not surprisingly, we almost all wrote words like; "family", "anaiah", "faith", "togetherness"... they all meant so much to each and every one of us. we had soooo much food, of course!!!:) We had famous pies, rolls, pumpkin bars, oh and TONS of potatoes. we shared in communion, sang "Praise God from whom all blessings flow" and ate together. it was so perfect, abi even got to come. I have so much sadness in my heart to see part of my family and my life go far away physically, but I know we will be together soon!

Family nite!

Tonight was a wonderful reunion with the neilson, well part of the neilson family. Shelly kinda surprised a lot of people by showing up this week. Being her wonderful motherly self, she cooked all our favorites. Get this, she made potato soup (Jordan’s fav), spinach lasagna (abi and my favorite), veggie soup, biscuits, bread (jakes and Jordan’s favorite), and for dessert she made 2 strawberry frozen pies, apple crisp and we had ice cream... she SPOILED us!!! Her, Sage and Paul were all there as well as Jacob, abi, Jordan, Scott, Caitlin and of course me. It was a wonderful night and I can't even believe how much I miss them already!!!!

Its the great pumpkin Charlie Brown

Abi and I went with some girls from my dorm to a pumpkin patch and these are our fun pictures. we had a wonderful Halloween party at abigail and nates house. we had so much food and fun, scary movies. Abi and Nate have done an amazing job of being mommy and daddy for lots of ACU kids:) I love helping abi host and cook... we love entertaining... we so take after our parents and grandparents:) tonight was a tad different, as much as I WANTED to entertain, I had the flu... I know, your saying great timing kels, well yes, I always seem to be sick on holidays. Happy Halloween everybody!!!!

beautiful girl...

My little cousin... shes growing up soooo fast. shes so beautiful and I miss her even without ever meeting her. I get to see her sweet face in just 29 days!!! :) I love that she is such a little farm girl... shes such an Evans! :) here are some new pictures.

Choir retreat 2007

I had a wonderful, much needed retreat this weekend in Brady for choir. It was lots of fun!

OUCH!!!!!

I miss my cutco knives!!! I was using a rather large butcher knife to cut chicken tonight and I pushed the knife down hard and strait into my left pointer finger... OUCH!!! Its really deep, so when i put on the Band-Aid like 5 or 10 minutes later, it just kept bleeding, so I put a Kleenex around it and then taped it. well i was at abis watching top model and somewhere between looking through abis scrabooking suff, doing laundry and running around her kitchen, i lost the taped kleenex... oooops:) I didn't even realize it until sometime later. Its kinda funny, but abi is going to find it sooner or later:)

Texas Size Bug!!!!!!!

YUCKYYYYYYYYYY! Can you belive the size of this thing!!!???? I found it in my room a few minutes ago, and you should be proud of me that I was brave enough to get you pictures!!!!!! :)
its about 5, maybe 6 inches long and its gross!!!!

Taking Kate and Chase's Engagement Pictures

Kate and Chase are getting married in December:) I was so excited to have the pleasure of taking their engagement pictures. They are so in love and anyone could tell it. These pictures really show their personalities and I love them:)

Random stress

Today is such a weird day. I can probably assume you guys have all had days like mine. I found that most of my work was done, all my major test and projects out of the way for now and everything seemed to be leading to a slow, relaxing day of rest, but for some reason, I felt stressed and anxious about nothing. It was a long stressful day, for no real reason!!!! I guess everything is sort of picking up to where I really just wish life could slow down and pause for a few minutes. I have been pretty healthy; I drink a lot of water, eat as good as I can and I even get to sleep by about 10:30 or 11:00 every night, but I just really want to feel calmer and not so uptight, worrying about every little thing (I for sure get that from My grandma). It was also one of those "why am I in Texas" days, not because its texas, but because I am so far away from home and wanting to be apart of home things for a few days, Like seeing Anaiah:) I guess I say this to ask your prayers for rest, relaxation and comfort. Thanks you guys!!!!

Lectureships at ACU

This week was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!!! It was lectureship week here at ACU. I have never felt more buys in my life, but from Sunday thru Wednesday, I got to be with a lot of Oregon people, I got to sing on the lectureship praise team and I got to listen to some amazing speakers!!! Nancy and Mark Love came of course, and Pete and Zach Wilson were here (I even got to sing with them one night, it was so cool), Ben Ries and Aaron Metcalf were here, Jay and Carrie Hawkins and Bob and sherry (my sisters parents-in-law). They were all here and it was so wonderful to see and spend time with everyone. I miss them soooo much already!!!

Nancy, Katie Beth, Abi and I went out on Monday to celebrate Nancy's Birthday. We had a very nice lunch (more like sweets and Tea:) ), and then we went and bought jewelry. We had such a blast!

Monday, Tuesday AND Wednesday, I was out and did not go back to my room from 8am till 11pm!!!! I had the busiest schedule imaginable, but I loved the classes and keynotes, they were sooooooo Great. Like I said before, I was on the praise team and that was fun. A lot of people thanked us for blessing them and that was sweet, I just felt so blessed to do it this year.

One of the nights we sang, me and my friend Jacob got out of choir and had a long ways to go to get to the coliseum to sing in a matter of minutes, well we didn't even have to step outside and all we could see was a solid sheet of rain pouring off the roof. We had no choice but to run as fast as we could for a few blocks to get to the coliseum. Needless to say, we were soaked and yes, we still sang:) I was able to ring out my shirt, pants AND tights!!!! And there was about a half inch of water in my shoes:) It was sure an experience I will never forget, the whole week was one I'll never forget!

Oh, and I don't know if you can tell, but that picture is of the "road" (more like a river) outside my dorm!!! and thats not a shallow road, its about 2-3 feet deep.

Anaiah

these are some cute pictures I just stole off aimee jo's blog:) I just love them!

Shes here!!! 10 Fingers, 10 Toes...

Our little Anaiah dawn Martin,
9 lbs even... Yes, I said 9 lbs!
19 3/4 inches long
born at 2:23pm
Shes absolutly perfect. Did I mention how beautiful she is?! I talked to mommy, grandpa, and great aunt and everyone is loving on her at the hospital. mommy, daddy and anaiah are doing great, anaiah even ate for a whole hour tonight.
I can't wait to see her in November, but until then I know my family will enjoy seeing her grow. Our prayers were answered for a healthy little girl... 10 fingers and 10 toes:)