Fort Worth Happenings...

We went to the Fort Worth Stock Show with a bunch of friends this past week and it was the PERFECT day to go. The weather was beautiful. Austin experienced his first "Petting Zoo". Although the only thing he would touch were the goats.

A few weeks back we went to the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo parade. Apparently, it is the longest non-motorized parade in the U.S. and I fully believe it! TONS and TONS of horses. I wonder where they put all the trailors. It was cold but at least there was no rain.

Pretty awesome! Think of doing this for an entire parade!

This guy is in our ward. He dresses up as a confederate soldier and does reenactments. Reminds me of Sweet Home Alabama. We are in the South you know!

So many cute miniatures as well! Wouldn't it be so fun to have one pull you in a carriage?

Home-made Chicken Pot Pie!

One day Tyler was changing Austin's diaper and accidentally ripped the part that attaches the back of the diaper to the front. We were too ghetto to get a new diaper since there was no way to attach it now. Instead we used our handy dandy duct tape! And it lasted all through the night. THANK YOU DUCT TAPE!

I love looking at the recipes on one of my old co-workers blog called One Lovely Life. (You can look at it on my blog list). However, only every once in a while do I get the motivation to actually try a new one. I was really really really wanting some chicken pot pie so I used her recipe and it's all from scratch! I was very proud of my crust. This is coming from someone who's never even made a pie crust! It took longer to make than I thought it would and we almost ended up being late to church. But it was worth it!

Right before putting it in the oven

Just coming out! It was delicious!

We had leftover filling and made these two small cute ones!

More Christmas Pics!

We played the Wii, Just Dance, game the night that Jane's sister Beth and her family came and had a GREAT time. It's pretty much the funniest thing you'll ever see.

Amanda was pretty rockin'!

Tyler concentrating real hard

Story time with Uncle Chris!

Austin loved helping in the kitchen

Austin started giving hugs during Christmas and it was the cutest thing! He even did them at random. For example, in this picture we had just finished eating dinner and Austin tugs on Grandpa's shirt and pulls him back towards him. Random hug!

Amanda got these glasses from one of her friends to bring in the New Year!

More time with Chris. He officially started drinking ONLY bottles on this trip.

A DELICIOUS MEAL! Jane did a great job cooking for us and this is one of her specialties. A spanish dish called Paella (pie-ee-yuh)

Giving Amanda hugs. And his stuffed animals at the same time.

Here's some pictures of Austin playing "Pat-a-Cake" and "This little Piggy" with Grandma Jane. He looks so little in these pictures! I love'em. He will play pat a cake with his feet by himself now. It's so cute!

Baskets of Joy!

Austin had an obession of baskets while we were at Tyler's parent's house. He'd push that laundry basket all over the kitchen.

Going on a basket ride with dad.

This one was awesome since it had a handle he could hold on to while he was riding around. Good thing dad didn't mind pushing him!

After a while he was getting braver so he tried standing up. What a daredevil!

Then all of a sudden my back was turned and I look back to find this! JK. I stuffed him in there cuz I thought it would make a cute picture!

Christmas!

Austin's first and only picture with Santa Clause!

Here's some pictures from Christmas. Tyler's parent's got him the Fisher Price Farm set and it was a HIT!

Although he was more excited about the box at first so we stuffed him inside. One of my friend's pointed out the "Bonus-Extra Accessories" sign was meant for Austin.

Here he is loving the boxes!

and FINALLY he decides to try it out.

It was an awesome Christmas.

NAUVOO

I was lucky enough to take a trip out to Nauvoo with Tyler's family right after Christmas. It was so beautiful there with the snow, and we learned a lot about the early Saints of our church and what they sacrificed. They built this beautiful city and then were forced to leave, in the middle of WINTER! It was freezing there! And this was not the first time they had to leave their homes. Many people up and left more than one home from persecution. Nauvoo is very well organized with tour guides at every site to tell you cool stories about the people who lived there and what their life was like. The best thing was knowing you were standing where some of our early church leaders stood.

The temple was gorgeous! I'm so glad it has been rebuilt so we can see its beauty today.

This is the cabin we stayed in.

Yup! All 9 of us. Chris is taking the picture.

We learned how to make rope! Here is Amanda hard at work. Other activities were bread making and learning how they used their woodstoves inside Brick Walls, and also weaving rugs.

Austin up in the loft. He thought it was pretty cool to be up so high

Up high again!

The night we were there we went to a performance put on by the senior missionary couples who serve at Nauvoo. It was awesome!! It was great to see all these people act and sing, even though I'm sure most have not had any training, which you could tell. But it was great to see some of the old men get into it! Austin was plum tuckered out.

Testing out the rope we made. Austin with Uncle Chandler.

We went on a "massive carriage" ride around the outskirts of Nauvoo and learned lots of fun history stories about the people who used to own land out there. There were a couple steep spots where the horses had to go through ice water and we thought we were going to crash! But all went well!

It was a great 2 days! We didn't get to see everything, so I'd be more than happy to go back again someday. Here is Austin driving us back home, one-handed! He's a natural.

The Beauty of the Mississippi River!

As we were driving through Nauvoo we came to this beautiful spot where we got the perfect view of the frozen Mississippi River. So of course Tyler's brother stops the car and jumps out with his camera and makes the trek out a good ways on to the river to take some pictures.

Then another brother followed

We didn't want to be left out

And yes that crack that was near the edge was the water flowing underneath. Now looking back maybe it wasn't the smartest thing we've ever done taking our only child out onto the ice.

But we had fun! If you bounced up and down the ice underneath would bob up and down. But it felt pretty thick and sturdy. Maybe when I'm older I'll think it was crazy.

Carthage Jail

We spent Christmas and New Years in Illinois at Tyler's parents House and one thing we did was take a trip to Nauvoo and Carthage Jail. This is the cell where Joseph Smith, Hyrum Smith, John Taylor, and Willard Richards were held. It was in the very upstairs of the jail.

The day of the martyrdom the four men had been moved into a room just down the hall that was more comfortable. After the mob shot and killed Joseph and Hyrum, Willard found John Taylor(who was also shot, but only wounded) under the bed and dragged him back to this cell and put him under that straw bed to hide him. He wanted him to live to retell the story someday.

Something else I learned about the jail was it was run by a family that actually lived on the main level of the jail(which was a normal house). I can't remember how many kids they had, maybe 3 or 4 small ones, but they actually invited the prisoners to eat dinner with them down in their living quarters while they had them there. They knew they were not guilty. The day the mob came, the owner of the jail had been called out on an assignment and when the mob entered the jail through a door that should have been locked, they actually fired some shots at the mother and children in the room before going upstairs to kill the prisoners. They were not harmed thank goodness. It just goes to show that this was something that was planned out and did not just happen on a spur of the moment.

This is the window Joseph made a jump for but was shot in the process, crashing through and landing on the ground beneath. A neat tidbit that was brought up by the person giving us the tour said, some believe the reason Joseph went to jump out the window was to save the other men in the room. He knew the mob was after him, so he made the jump to get the mob out of the room and focused on him and leave the other men be. It did indeed work because the mob immediately ran back down the stairs to see Joseph's body outside, and Willard Richard's and John Taylor's lives were spared.

The window was also not as high as I thought it was. I always thought, why would Joseph jump out knowing he wouldn't make it, since I thought the impact of the ground would have killed him. But looking out the window it seems as though I could jump out and be fine. Maybe a sprained ankle or a broken bone would be the worst of my injuries, but I certainly would not die from it.

It was a great experience to be there and it actually felt so peaceful just being in this room. It was a great time for reflection and appreciating all that Joseph Smith has sacrificed in his lifetime. The tour guide did not focus on the horrible things of this day but focused on the great men that were in that very room many years before. Of course they did tell the entire story which can be gruesome, but there were many small miracles that happened in getting this room restored so that we can visit it today. If you ever get the chance to go...You should GO!