Update

Sorry it has taken so long to update the blog. We have just been very busy. Of course, all the business is from school, work and church. I am starting to get all of my things together for Haiti. I will be leaving March 16 in the morning so I would like everyone's prayers for that. I will be going to the doctor tomorrow to get some Malaria medicine. Good times. Anyway, my parents came down and we all hung out. It was fun. Mom read about this experiment with club soda and raisins. If you put the raisins in a glass of club soda the raisins will rise and fall in the glass for a very long time. Aaron loves to do experiements, he is very inquisitive so he was the one who got to put it together.



Obviously it was very intense. he loved it. Of course we did find out that giant raisins do not work, yet craisins work very well. Go figure. Then we had a friend of Rebekah's over from church. Her name is Samantha. She is a very sweet girl.




Here are some pictures of the kids yesterday, just becasuae I haven't had new pictures on here for a while. Aaron is showing off his new gameboy game, Pokemon. Notice how Alyssa loves to pose!






You can see Rebekah in the next picture with her rat, Mickey. She loves that animal. Jacob wasn't doing anything weird in this picture, which I think is very odd. Also, here is a picture of my handsome husband. He was being a goofball when I was taking a picture. So being the good "Garrison" that I am, I did it until he smiled nicely!! =)

Romance - It's not dead!!

Here is a wonderful picture of my parents. I saw Dad and Mom share a kiss by the tree so I said that I wanted a picture. However, there is such a HUGE delay on my camera that they HAD to stand there kissing for a long time just so I could get the picture. It was so funny! But don't worry, I got it!

Rebekah's Birthday

Hello everyone! Well, today we celebrated Rebekah's birthday. Tomorrow she officially turns 12. I can't believe how time flies. We just stayed around the house today and opened presents. Once again I didn't have any candles so she just blew out one big one. And of course no cake is allowed at this party! Ice cream only! I hope that you all had a wonderful New Year!

Merry Christmas!!

Hello everyone! I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas. Ours was very nice. I had to work a couple of days while my parents were down here, but other than that we were at Leann and Ryan's house most of the time. Saturday there was a huge snow storm (while I was working) and it was blizzard conditions. It was so crazy. However, after all that, we all were together. This is a picture of all the grand kids. Can you believe it? It is a full house with all of us together. I guess that Mom and Dad should be thankful they only had two children!

Here are Richard and I with our coffee. How did we all get along without Starbucks? Gotta love it!! Obviously here are Ryan and Leann. Notice how Richard and I and Ryan and Leann do not have any children in our picture. That was a lot of work to keep them out of the picture.

Here are mom and dad at my house. Of course Wilson needed to be in the picture too as he is part of the family. He was very good staying here with Jasmine while we were off at Leann and Ryan's house. Good Dogs!!

And of course there is the traditional making of the gingerbread house. The kids and I worked on this Christmas day. We literally had it up for an hour and then ate it! It was really good. Apparently if you don't let ginger bread houses sit out for days at a time then they don't break your teeth when you bite into them. Who knew? Happy Holiday's everyone!

A Boy and His Dog

Yesterday Jacob was sitting by Jasmine (our dog who used to be Leann and Ryan's dog) and was starting to discuss with me how things work in the dog world. Jacob said that first the boy dog and the girl dog have to get married. Then the mom dog "has to stay home with her babies and the babies drink milk from the mom." He continued on, "the dad dog.....well....he goes out and goes hunting!" Ha! Have a great day everyone!

New Family Members (Again)

These pictures were from a couple days ago when we acquired new members to the family. The first picture is to show our Christmas tree. It is pitiful, but it was $10 so I am happy about it. I think that it is funny that the kids are almost as tall as it. Anyway, this next picture is Aaron and Jacob with their new fish, frog and shrimp. They love them, though the shrimp are really hard to find.

The girls had been begging for a hamster (Alyssa) and rat (Rebekah) so last week one of Richard's students was moving so they were giving away 2 cages and one hamster. They came with everything so all we had to get is the rat. The girls were so very happy. Rebekah named hers Mickey and Alyssa's is named Peaches.

I babysit Isabelle and Gideon every Tuesday and Wednesday while Leann and Ryan have meetings. So I took these pictures today as I think that these demonstrate the difference between boys and girls. You will notice that Isabelle is smiling nicely. The boys however, Gideon was squinting at me the whole time (because he thought it was funny) and Jacob was roaring at me. Boys! They are hilarious. Have a wonderful day everyone!

Thanksgiving

I hope that you all had a wonderful thanksgiving, I know that we did (even though I am not smiling in my picture, oh well). We had Thanksgiving by ourselves. It was very relaxing and we just made whatever our favorite things were. I even used my christmas goblets (which I usually forget that I have until after the holidays are over, go figure) so I was very proud of myself. We then decorated for Christmas. We listened to Christmas music while doing it, though I must confess that I have been listening to Christmas music for a while now. Actually, Leann and I always were listening to it in October when growing up so really, I am late! Then last night (Friday, the day after Thanksgiving) we got about an inch of snow. It is really pretty. The kids are having a great time playing in it. It is not sticking to the road or anything so that makes it very nice for us drivers. Richard had just got done cleaning out the garage yesterday so we could put our cars in there and then it snowed. I am so glad that he got that done. It is super nice not to have to get snow off the car. This is the first time that we have ever had a garage our whole married life. In North Carolina there were very few people that even had a garage on their house. Mom and Dad have been in Oregon over this Thanksgiving break and they should be back late tonight to their home. I know that they have had a fabulous time. Richard and I went and got our driver's licence changed over so we are officially part of Kansas now. Have a great weekend everyone!