Good Bye 2010...Hello 2011!!!!

2010 has been a happy and blessed year, I am a little sad to see it go so quickly. Dave and I often feel overwhelmed with how much our Father in Heaven blesses us. We are so grateful for a healthy and happy year and look forward to this new one. We are especially grateful for our amazing family and dear friends. We hope and pray that you and yours will have a joyous and blessed New Year too!
This Christmas was a very merry one sharing it with our sweet little boy. Here are a few of the highlights...

Meeting Santa at the ward Christmas Party...James really couldn't have cared less but it was about an hour past his bedtime so we were just impressed he was still awake.

Here is James with his cousin David. David is 5 1/2 months older than James, but you wouldn't knowing looking at them! We traveled to Utah for the Holidays. The 10 hour drive there was uneventful (wish we could say the same about coming home). James had a great time playing with all his Cousins, Aunts, Uncles and Grandparents...we did too!

Christmas Eve with the Johnston Cousins.
He also loved playing with his Freestone Cousins they gave him LOTS of love and attention, but his spacey mom didn't get ANY pictures!

Christmas Morning.
We didn't think James would be that into opening gifts and playing with toys (He would rather play with my eye lash curler than most any other toy he has). But he was actually quite excited Christmas morning and loved playing with his new things.

Nativity Scene with all the Johnston Cousins and 2nd Cousins.

James was the Donkey for the Nativity Scene...a pretty darn cute one if I do say so myself.
Dave and James at the Grand Canyon so happy to be okay after our VERY scary event and oblivious to the excitement just ahead of us.
Our drive home was absolutely CRAZY!! Our safe arrival home was truly an answer to our MANY prayers!! We left very early (4:30am) on Wednesday morning from Richfield UT. A storm had started just an hour or so before we left. The roads were slick and covered with icey snow and visibility was poor. We had made it just past Panguitch and was coming up on Kanab when Dave took a turn that slid us into a spin pushing us across the highway and into a snowy embankment on the other side of Highway 89. There were many tender mercies to this event. First we were completely unharmed. Second our car (miraculously) was unscathed, not even a scratch. Third we landed perfectly, had we slid off to the right we would have likely rolled due to the slopped terrain, but because we slid across to the left and hit a hill our car was safely stopped. It is truly miraculous that we didn't hit any other cars or the many boulders and trees that were nearby. The final tender mercy in this event was a very kind good Samaritan that stopped just 5 minutes after we spun out. He had a large truck and was able to pull us out in just a few short minutes. James just cooed and played through the whole event. After a very heartfelt prayer of thanks and gratitude we were on our way. We thought we were in the clear until we reached Flagstaff where the roads were just as bad, if not worse. We were stuck behind a large line of cars waiting for other drivers to struggle up the snowy hills, many of which were sliding off the road or unable to make it up. After a nearly 3 hour stand still we were on our way. Our would be 8 hour journey from Richfield took just over 13 hours. But we made it safe and sound, what a blessing!!!!