It's a new year

Now that it is a new year I need to make sure I mention the things I haven't said yet about last year. Just a couple fun things (I will talk about Christmas later).

Back in September I got the flu pretty bad and could hardly do anything. Amazingly that was the same day as our much anticipated family pictures with my side of the family. It is so hard to get all of us together so when I got sick I knew I had to go anyway. Everyone was very helpful and it was a fun experience. I think the pictures turned out great too!! See!! Another fun thing was a salad that Rick and I made. If you are thinking that is no big deal... you don't understand. It is the Jerk Chicken Salad from Z'tejas. We had it a few weeks ago and LOVED it. I found the recipe online and we set out to make it. First off, we didn't have all the ingredients. We didn't even have 2/3 of the ingredients. It took so many spices and odds and ends, some of which I had never heard of. But after a couple trips to the store and an afternoon and mixing, cutting, and stirring... we had this! DELICIOUS!My companion from my mission came into town. She is from mainland China. She heard of the Gospel in Singapore one summer when she went there to work then decided to serve a mission. It was a challenge but she made it to Australia and I was her companion for 6 months! 1/3 of our entire missions. We grew to love and respect each other and love each other as sisters do. I always joked with her that she needed to learn how to drive. She is 28 and has never driven so I took her to a parking lot and gave her driving 101. She did pretty well. I got nervous a couple times, but she loved it! I was glad to share that moment with her.Rick and I got her a Christmas present. We took her shopping and got her a cute outfit! She looked so cute. And don't forget... I did her hair. She never does much with her hair. She never used a curling iron, straightener, nothing... so I love getting to dress her up when I see her. She is so cute. This is her sitting on my parents couch. They were so happy to meet her finally. She told them her conversion story and we all loved listening to her sweet testimony.Levi loved her too. She fed him vegetables, sang Chinese songs to him, and played with him as much as she could while she was with us. Another small little thing was a frame I found at D.I. I wanted to do a project I saw on a blog so I sent off to my sisters house to use some paint. Before I did anything though my nieces and I got some silly pictures!This is the finished product. It hold all our pictures and hangs above our desk. Do you like it?
Well that is all for now. I need to talk about Christmas and New Years, but that will be another time.