Vanola Wittwer- Sweet Grandma

My sweet 95 year old Grandmother passed away last week....

Although we are all saddened that she is not here with us anymore, it is a comfort to know that she is back with her loving Husband after 11 years of being alone.  
Grandma you will be missed tremendously, but your example of LOVE, KINDNESS, and UNSELFISHNESS Spirit will live on forever. I hope to be just like you one day!  Thanks for everything your have done for me!

The pink rose I placed on my Grandmother's casket. 

I was so blessed to be able to fly back to Utah and attend the funeral and spend time with my family. The funeral and burial were beautiful. I loved being able to reflect upon my Grandma's beautiful life. My Grandmother's greatest love was to have family around her. She left an amazing posterity and I am so honored to be a part of it. {6 children, 28 Grandchildren, 61 Great-grandchildren -with 4 more on the way}. 

This is the last picture I have of me with my Grandma.  (At our wedding back in May of 2009)

The buMp.

Less than two months til our little guy is here. Am I ready?!  Slightly freaking out just thinking about it. Trying to enjoy all our "free-quiet-sleep time."  I am still feeling pretty good.  Some of the comforts of pre-pregnancy life are slowly disappearing.... and my biggest complaint would be the leg cramps I've started getting the last few weeks when I wake up in the morning... PAINFUL.  Other than that Life is great and I really do love being pregnant most of the time!

Winter Time Wonder.

As most of you know... I very much dislike the cold.  Last year I think I vented enough about how much I despised the cold and Iowa winters.... and although this years temperatures have probably been equally as cold, I guess I have learned to accept the cold-- and because of my attitude change- this winter has been much, much better.

{it may also be because of my clothing/winter gear preparation is better-- or because I am pregnant and my body temperature is supposedly a few degrees more-- or maybe it's the fact we have a garage when last year we didn't-- or because we spent a month in Utah ind Dec-Jan}...

 Whatever it is, this year I can say that the winter here has been totally bearable and I don't have anything bad to say about it.  Now don't get me wrong, I am more than ready for the temperatures to be consistently above freezing--- and def. ready for Spring to be here.... but for now I am going to keep up with a better attitude about the cold.  With that said, here is a little bit of what we have been up to in the last month.

-Visit theTemple in Nauvoo.  It was beautiful.... I also thought it was amazing to see the Mississippi pretty much frozen over.  I love Nauvoo and def. had a great experience at the temple on this occasion.

The Mississippi River- frozen! 

-Lots of Wrestling. We have attended the home Iowa Wrestling Duals.... and Adam seems to HAVE to watch anything that is related to Wrestling on TV. Here in Iowa they televise a lot of wrestling {high school duals, re-runs to old Iowa wrestling matches, or really any college team duals}.  The things you sacrifice to make your husband happy.

-We had a HUGE storm (12-15 inches) a few weeks ago.  It really looked like a Winter Wonderland. On the day after the storm I am pretty sure I didn't even step outside my apartment door- it was a glorious Snow day. I didn't any great pictures.... but here are a few taken a few days later of the mounds of snow... snow was literally piled everywhere.

I can't believe that my 2nd winter in Iowa is getting nearer to the end!