Its CHRISTMAS! at the Hiney-gardners

More Photos

I went to see my sister Jennifer today and her new baby. This is me and my niece Mariah. She's three months old now. Spunky as ever and LOVES! to eat.

This is my sister Jennifer, Mariah's mommy. I think she looks really pretty in this picuture. She was getting ready to go to work. (That's her work uniform she was wearing.) And would you believe as long as her hair still is she just got eleven inches taken off.

This is Jennifer and her son Mark. He's eleven and did not want to kiss his mom on the cheek OR take this picture.

Me and my sister.

Jennifer and her son Brady giving her a kiss on the cheek. So sweet. All of her boys are so lovable. I could just eat them up. I'd take them home with me and keep them if I could.

Jennifer and Chance.

And Chance, hamming it up for the camera.

Chance with his new baby sister. The boys really love her.

Jennifer with her whole family. From left to right it is Mark, Brady, ( who lifted his shirt because he HAD to have a picture of his belt) Chance, Jennifer, Mariah, and Jennfer's husband Steve.

Brady holding and feeding his sister.

And of course me Jennifer and Mariah. This is one of my favorites. If you look closely, you can see the tatoo she has of my mom on her left arm. She has been gone for two years now.

Aahh! Sweet slumber. Sweet Mariah.

This is kind of out of place but I wanted to show you a picture of Madi being a cheerful giver. She is in the process of making something there for a friend who is going through a rough time right now. Way to go Madi. I love you and I am so proud of you. Your learning.

Well, that's it. That was our Thanksgiving. Now I am just hoping and praying for the twenty third of December off and I'll be off the rest of the year. I already have the house decorated, the tree up, presents wrapped, and I think all of our Christmas shopping done. Maybe if I can get my act together I'll post some pictures of all that.

Blessings to all.

Some of my favorite Thanksgiving moments

Lisa and Madi came over. Here's Madi making something. I don't know what. We also had the opportunity to write down a new Bible verse for her to memorize. She has been really in to being there for her friends and making things for them and I wanted her to know that there was a spiritual principle behind that, that God loves a cheerful giver. So we found that scripture verse in the Bible, she wrote it down, and now she is trying to memorize it.

Dayne and Kristi came over, too. This is one of my favorite Thanksgiving photos. Mommy and Miss Lydia. Kristi looked so pretty that night. I know she is getting ready for it to be over. She keeps rubbing her hands over her belly and with a smile on her face will say, "Running out of room." I told her that I think expectant women are the most beautiful thing in the world. They are the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. I gave her the croceted baby blanket I made her, too, while she was here. I was really nervous about giving it to her. I HOPE it doesn't fall apart. Can't wait to see you Miss Lydia! We love you and look forward to your arrival.

And then here's Danae. Love that you were able to come home for Thanksgiving, Danae. Hope you are able to find out whatever is going on with your nose. Hope your new diet helps. We love you and miss you.

You, too, Devon and Miss Emily. We love you and miss you. We think about you guys being out there sleeping in the cold. Be careful. We will miss you for Christmas? but hope to see you soon.

Well, that's it. I'll probably post some pictures of my sister and her kids on my next post. I just love that baby niece of mine, Mariah. She's three months old now.

Can I just say MOORE!

As in Beth Moore! That's who I went to see this weekend. It was phenomenal. Praise and worship was just... sigh... and Isn't Beth beautiful?

I bought this.

And this to bring home with me. I wanted the pink and brown tote but by the the time I got up there they were all sold out. And can I just say this t - shirt says it all. I am living proof.

I bought a t - shirt and tote bag to bring home with me but believe me when I say I came away with much more than that. The tote and the 'T" were just an added bonus. She spoke on Jesus cousin John the Baptist (you know the one. The guy who ate wild locusts and honey and dressed really weird, trying to start a new trend maybe?) and helped me to see him in ways I had never seen him before. She cracked me up when she said, "If you really want to get an idea of what John the Baptist may have looked like I have two words for you, 'David. Crowder.'"

But seriously.

I came to realize that even though John the Baptist was Jesus cousin, and even though Jesus could have stopped it all and delivered him from prison, (He was delivering and healing everybody else) He didn't, and John the Baptist still lost his head, literally, while he was in prison and it was delivered to Herodias on a platter. Sometimes we wonder why God allows certain things, why some people die of cancer when others don't, why some people are healed and others arent. John's purpose in life was fulfilled. God never would have allowed him to be beheaded if it wasn't. John was supposed to prepare the way for Jesus. He did that. Jesus was the Messiah, not him, and John never would have wanted to be Him.

On a lighter note. I stopped off at the grocery store after church today to get me and Hiney someting to eat for lunch and had to laugh at the advertisement for chicken tenders. I don't know if anybody else is going to find this funny or not, but this is what it said.

Now can I just ask? And this is just the way my brain works sometimes. What exactly does this mean? Does this mean that the chicken tenders aren't very good, they are just okay? Wiggle, wiggle, two fingers on both sides of your head.

Or, does this mean, "Man! Those chicken tenders are good! They are Thumbs. Up. O.K.A.Y." I mean, there aren't any exclamation points after it.

Or, and I just thought of this one, could it mean that after you stand there for awhile thinking about it you finally make you decision and say,"Okay. I want some chicken tenders." And you point your finger at them.

I mean, there are so many different ways you can look at this. (It's the writer in me coming up with all these different scenarios:) The lady behind the couunter laughed when I brought this up to her and said, "Several people have asked us that today." She went on to explain that was the name brand of the chicken tenders they send them. She agreed with me when I said that was just too funny and then laughed when I said I was going to come back with my camera and take a picture of it to post on my blog. I don't think she thought I would really do it. I know the lady who was actually there when i went back later didn't think I would. I got the strangest look from her.

I think that officially makes me a weird dork who has nothing else to post on her blog except chicken tender advertisements;)

Oh. And just so you know. I miss you Devon and Miss Emily. Glad you made it back to Utah safely. Love you guys. Take care and God bless.

Later.

Look what I'm making.

For a certain little girl that I know of who is on her way. Shh! Don't tell anybody. It's a surprise.

LOOK WHO'S HERE!

Mariah Ann. Coming in weighing at seven pounds, fifteen ounces and measuring 19 and 3/4 inches long, I say that 20 inches long, don't you? What do you all think? She is a beauty. And I
am so proud of her and her mama, my sister Jennifer. I love you both.

Uncle Will and Aunt Judy with Mariah and Mommy.

Aunt Judy, Mommy, and Mariah.

I love you both.

Moving

It has been a LOONG!!! time since I posted but just wanted to let everybody know, we are still in the process of moving. I keep telling myself that it will be worth it once we get everything moved and settled in. But still, I can't help but feeling little twinges of despair whenever I look at my new house and see things that need to be put away or hung up and they are still laying on the bed. I just keep telling myself it will all be worth it. As I type this Hiney and I are sitting in the living room of our new house just chillin, desperately in need of a break. We have been hard at it, sorting, packing, throwing things away. It's a little depressing throwing some of the last parts of Sandy away. We even found a picture of her casket. When we read through some of the letters she had written I had to laugh as we once again caught a glance of the person Sandy was, the sense of humor she had, how much she loved her kids, how much Will loved her. I told him I was a little jealous, he's never written me a letter. Will looked at me and said, "Jude, I never emailed Sandy, I never text her, never talked to her on a cell phone." Kind of puts things into perspective, doesn't it. I'm glad he loved her the way he did. I could hear that in the letters he wrote to her while he was in the army. But anyway, that's my post. Thank you Lord Jesus for your many blessings and for our new house. May You bless all who come into it and bless our lives together in it. I pray that we are always as in love and committed to each other and to You years from now as we are now.

We bought a new house!

Yeah! Here's a view of the front of the house. See that porch swing on the front porch? I love it. and it stays. Along with some other stuff the previous owner left to us. You can see a little bit of the shop to the left. Hiney's new favorite hangout. Where I am sure he is going to be spending lots of time. That' s what he says anyway:)

A closer view of the shop from the back.

And a picture of the backyard. Hiney is still trying to figure out where he is going to put up the fence for the dog and I am still trying to figure out where I am going to find the time to weed all those flowers lining the side of the house and inside the patio. And those shutters. They are eventually going to be a dark green. Hiney wants them to be a really dark green. Me, I'm partial to hunter green. At any rate, they are going to be green.

And another picture of the shop just because I can't tell what picture I am clicking on and keep clicking on the same picture and posting it again.

Ditto for this picture.

And this one.

And this one.

I'll get this figured out. Really. I will. Really.

Here's a picture of the dining room table we bought for the new house. I would have posted a picture of the whole table but at the furniture store it was in they had a lot of stuff sitting in the middle of the table and I didn't want to get all that in there, but I did want to post a picture, to give you a good idea of what the wood looked like and just how pretty of a shine it had on it, so I took a picture of the edge instead. It really is pretty. If you look to the right and to the lower left hand corner of the photo, you can see a little bit of the matching chairs that go with it. They are really pretty, too. As a matter off act, they are what sold me on the table. It was a choice between this table and one other and this one won out all because of the chairs. That's what did it for me.

There's a story behind this picture.

About twenty years, a covered wagon just like this rolled in to our town. Hiney took a video of that carriage and cracked a joke about "this being a member of their family coming into town." Fast forward twenty years, and we saw this carriage going down the highway and Hiney had me take a picture of it cracking another joke saying, "And this is them leaving." When I was asking him questions about that carriage that passed through town twenty years ago for this post he stressed to me that it wasn't the same carriage, they just looked a lot alike. I have seen the video of that first carriage and believe me, this carriage looks a lot like the first one. They really do look very similar. I still think the whole thing is funny and the carriage looks so quaint. Maybe that's why we love it so much. Because of the quaintness.

And don't you just love the message this horse drawn covered wagon brings with it. It really is that simple and true, isn't it? Just ask Him. Why do we make it so difficult? Hiney was videotaping the whole thing and the driver waved at him as he slowly drove by. Do you see the dog laying in the doorway? For some reason we both thought that was really cute.

A picture of Madi's birthday present from me and Papa. A Wii gun. To be honest with you, I think Lisa likes this more than Madi, but tell her I said so. It's so hard to believe she's ten now. Where did the time go? But she's a beautiful girl, and I love her. It has been an honor and a privilege getting to watch her grow up. My prayer for you is that you always love Jesus and grow up to be a beautiful girl both inside and out. Seek Him with everything you are. I love you.

And here she is receiving her trophy for winning third place in the softball tournament. It was a good game and I am very proud of her and all her treammates for the good job they did and for a great season. I see so much improvement in them.

Madi with her whole team and coaches after receiving their third place trophies. Good job girls.

And I thought I would post some pictures of the new sofa and two recliners we bought. This picture is only showing the one rocker recliner, but we actually bought two matching ones to go with the sofa. We thought about buying the loveseat, but then realized we weren't sure about the layout of our new living room, (Hiney was having a hard time visualizing, O kaaay? work with me here,) and so we decided that we would probably be better off buying two Ashley rocker recliners rather than a loveseat, that way we can separate them and place them in different places if we need to rather than together. At any rate, it made sense to us. Or Hiney. I mean us. Yeah, that's what I mean. When I was showing Lisa the pictures I took of the sofa and chair she said, "I just want a place I can lay full out on the couch and everybody else will still have a place to sit."

I looked at Hiney and said, "We should have bought the loveseat."

And here is a picture of the sofa. I want to say I think it is made of microfiber? At any rate, it is REALLY soft! I love it. So I guess that's it for now. It's been a long time since I posted. I go back to the doctor July 15 th for another post carpal tunnel surgery checkup and we close on the new house earlier than expected. Closing was originally set for July 9th but the previous owner called and said he was wondering if we had entertained the idea of closing earlier, that he thought he was going to be done moving out sooner than that and we agreed, so the new closing date is set for Tuesday, June 30th. We meet with the title closing company at nine o' clock. Yeah! Thank you Lord Jesus. You have been so good to us.

Wedding Pictures

First. The RING!

The grooms two sisters and niece. If you look really close, there is a shot of the cake in the back to the left. Beautiful cake. I absolutely loved it.

Me, the groom and the grooms dad. Emily made all the flowers we were were wearing by the way. And her bouquet.

The bride and her mom

The bride and groom. I love the way Emily's dress is blowing in the breeze in this picture. It was so cold and and windy that day. It was miserable weather for the girls wearing summer dresses, (the guys loved it by the way, seeing as how they were all dressed up in their tuxes. They were glad it was cold and windy:) but the wind made for some really pretty pictures. Emily's mom made her dress by the way. I thought she did a great job. I'll try to add more pictures of the wedding later, but here's what I have so far. For some reason, it's only letting me upload five pictures?

More Dresses

Here are some more dresses. Sorry the pictures are positioned the way they are. I didn't know they were going to do that when I posted them.

This dress right here is BY FAR my most favorite. There is just something about it.