Howell's Near and Far

Wow, I can't believe it has been so long since I blogged last! Times have been busy and fun. We have celebrated two birthdays. Nana turned 100 on October 26th. I don't know where she gets her energy, but she enjoyed her party more than anyone. It was fun to visit with family and cousins I hadn't seen in a long time. Here's to another healthy year for you Nana! We also had an early birthday party for BreeAnn last Monday. Her birthday isn't until next Friday, but we wanted to party while she was here.

Getting BreeAnn here was a funny story. Jory found out he had a business conference in St George the first part of November and invited me to join him. Because Nana was staying with Mom and Dad for awhile I thought I might need to pay someone to help me out getting Camron to school. The thought then came to me that if I was going to pay someone I might as well put that money towards getting BreeAnn here and she could tend. Well after much ado whether she should leave Bret home studying and taking tests, knowing that he would love to be here visiting almost more than she would, they both decided that it would be okay for her to come. Once that decision was made she asked if she could come the next day. Usually that costs a fortune to buy a last minute ticket but everything went perfectly and we bought the ticket while she began packing. Within 6 hours we were hugging and loving on that cute baby tummy. YEAH!! The next 2 1/2 weeks are somewhat of a blur. We shopped and shopped getting Christmas ready to ship to Jacob. We enjoyed Halloween with Camron and the traditional scones and chili for dinner. We enjoyed time at the temple. Loved having Mykaleen back around a lot to visit and listen to her and BreeAnn reminisce about high school days (I learned a few things I didn't know, Ha ha). Jory and I had a wonderful time in St. George and knew that the kids were enjoying the time without us. Cody came home with "Rock Band" for the boys. They partied until there hands hurt playing. Somehow they missed a little school to enjoy time together which was great. Devan came and visited with us a couple of times also. Because BreeAnn was in town it made for the perfect opportunity to have some baby showers. Thank you, thank you to everyone who showered BreeAnn and baby with love and gifts. She is now back in Mississippi happily shopping and getting all those necessary items she has been wishing to have money to buy. Family love and support is such a huge blessing! It was so wonderful to be with BreeAnn again. She brings such a warm, fun spirit to our home. It was with huge alligator tears that I took her back to the airport on Tuesday. Here's hoping the next 2-3 years of schooling go by FAST! It seems hard to believe that we will be celebrating Thanksgiving next week, then comes Christmas quickly behind and then it will be time for a new baby. BreeAnn is due on January 18th. I can't wait to fly out there! Life is passing quickly. I am so grateful for family, friends, our health, laughter, love, airplanes, skype, good children, a patient husband, mountains, warm sheets, the Book of Mormon, and so much more. The Lord is certainly good to us!