Merry Christmas

I love this clip. I love this little girl, she really understands the real meaning of Christmas!

We Can Explain

Yes we confess...we have neglected our blog BIG TIME lately!! Sorry, sometimes life gets in the way. Things have been very busy around here. Daniel is finishing another busy semester at school. Yes, we are t-minus one year from graduation.....hooray!!! In the meantime, I am working on my reading endorsement which requires me to be back in school too. Luckily this weekend we were able to get away for a quick overnight trip to Phoenix to attend PWC's Christmas Party. The dinner was at Rustler's Rooste in Tempe. The view was amazing, the food was great and people were very kind and welcoming. It was a very nice break!!

Anyhow if you notice a lack of posts, or you start to think we dropped off the face of the earth, rest assured that in fact we are just busy and someday we will have time to return to blogging.

Grateful

We can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Daniel will graduate in a year with two degrees. One in Accounting and the other in Management Information Systems.

HOORAY!!!

We officially accepted an internship offer with PriceWaterhouseCoopers (aka PwC). The internship will not begin for a while yet but we are very grateful for this blessing.

Continue in Patience

I love this and wanted to share!!! Enjoy!

Elder Larimore

You may or may not know my brother....but he is one of my heroes!! I love this kid!

He will be leaving the Missionary Training Center this week to serve a mission in Kiev, Ukraine speaking Russian. Justin has a love of the Savior and desire to do his work! We are so excited for him and the opportunities that await him as he serves as a representative of Jesus Christ.

Click the picture below to view his blog....you will quickly see why I think this kid is AMAZING!!!

A Great Day!!

Today was a fantastic first day of school!! I have an amazing group of kiddos. As an extra cherry on top, I received my test results today from the teaching test I took in July. I passed and officially have an Early Childhood Education Endorsement. This is a special endorsement that specifically certifies me to teach Birth-Age 8. So if I ever decided to teach kinder or preschool I am official!!! HORRAY!!!

Here are some pictures of my classroom before the first day!

We are His Hands

Our hands are an amazing gift!! We are able to serve our fellow brothers and sisters with them. I taught a lesson on service in YW today and shared this video with the girls. Just thought I would share it with you :) Enjoy!

Great Memories

Some pictures from our trip over the 4th of July!

3 Resons Why I Love My wife

This is my first time attempting to blog and may be the last but I wanted to take the time and find a creative way to tell my wife that I love her and why!!



1. She is completely selfless

Christi is always looking for ways to help someone. I can't count how many of her hours she has spent helping her family, friends, co-workers and church members. She sometimes stays up super late at night, well after I am asleep, trying to help relieve stress her loved ones have.

2. She always gives 110%

I am amazed at my wife's work ethic. No doubt she gets it from her parents (Christmas is right around the corner Jeri !!). She is not satisfied with mediocre performance. She spends countless hours trying to get the best out of what ever she is doing.

3. She has an amazing testimony and devotion to the Lord

Christi is a great example to me of devotion to the Lord. She puts in tons of time to help the Lord's work move forward. It is not uncommon to see her at the computer desk looking at LDS.org for talks, messages or music to help strengthen the testimonies of the people that she has stewardship over. I love coming home from church and seeing her immersed in the service of the Lord. She truly is a great example to me

These are only a few reasons why I love Christi. Of course there are countless more. I am extremely grateful that she has chosen me to be her eternal companion.
I LOVE YOU CHRISTI !!!!!!!

W.M. Pictures

The White Mountians is one of our favorite places to visit in the summer! Since we have our new camera you can imagine the amount of pictures we came back with...haha! I think everyone was ready to shoot us. Oh well...here are some of the picutres from the weekend.

A Teacher's Summer

Most people think that teachers have it easy....2 months off, right? That is what I use to think too. That is until I started teaching!!! Then I realized the summer is filled with classes, organizing, planning, and then more organizing!! And when all is said and done there is never enough time to complete all the items on the to do list!

This summer I am taking classes, studying for the Early Childhood Certification test, and trying to organize my classroom all at the same time.

After helping my little sister organize her 1st grade classroom library I knew I had to re-organize mine. So this week I worked on my classroom library! I organized all of the student books by genre. I still need to make tags for each basket but that is the easy part!! Now once school starts the challenge is teaching students how to put the book back in the right basket.

So much better...wish I had a before picture!!

Reading Area from different angles

One item checked off the list....a lot more to go!!! :)

Better Late than Never

It has been beyond crazy around here for the past few months. The end of the school year, summer school, our nephew's b-day, our new nephew was born, and my brother left on his mission. Can you blame me for blowing off the blog?

I know....I should have been better, but I guess it is better late than never.

In all the craziness we were able to celebrate our anniversary.

We have officially been married 2 years!

We celebrated our anniversary by doing some shopping,or should I say browsing, at La Encatanda.

Followed by lunch at one of my favorite places.

My wonderful amazing husband coordinated a combine anniversary/birthday present. So if you see me with a camera attached to my face....you know why. I have to figure out how this thing works .

Well hopefully with some luck and a little bit of practice I will be able to post some pictures that aren't like the one below (Mom, I know you love these). The famous squeeze together and hold the camera out to get a picture!

Anyhow, I love you to pieces Daniel! Thanks for an amazing anniversary and the best 2 years ever!!!

Elder Larimore

If you would like to follow my brother on his mission to Ukraine the blog address is www.elderlarimore.blogspot.com

Justin's Mission

I can't believe my little brother is leaving on a mission this week! We love you Justin and we are so proud of you!!

Gila Valley

"The temple will be an ever-present reminder that God intended the family to be eternal."

--Ezra Taft Benson

Yesterday we had the opportunity to go the Gila Valley Temple Open House with the Youth from our ward. As we stood in the House of the Lord and took in the beauty of the temple it was very clear that the temple is a sacred place where families are united for Eternity. The beauty of the chandeliers was hard to miss. As on sister shared in sacrament today, if each crystal of the chandelier was dismantled and we only saw one piece it would seem somewhat insignificant. However, when all the crystals are combine the beauty is absolutely breathtaking. Similarly, I believe we are placed in families to be formed together and united. Individually our power and ability is limited. However, when we work as one and combine together our power is limitless.
I am forever grateful for the Eternal Blessings of the temples. I know that families can be united forever.

He Lives

A timely reminder that our Savior lives. I am so thankful for Jesus Christ and his example. I am forever grateful for His sacrifice.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Belated Birthday Daniel! The big 2-8!!! I can't believe we are only 2 years away from 30! It seems like just yesterday we were starting college and look at us now! AHHH!!!

We celebrated Daniel's birthday with family and had a wonderful day.

Daniel is an amazing Husband and I can't imagine life without him. He always puts forth 110% effort and never complains. He starts his mornings around 4:30am and usually goes to bed around Midnight. I can't even begin to express my gratitude and love for him and all that he does for us. He is one of the most dedicated and hard working people I know. He makes me laugh on a daily basis and makes life fun! I know that everyone thinks this about their spouse....but I have the most amazing husband ever!! Happy Birthday Daniel!

Another One

We love having a niece and nephew! My nephew is one of the funniest kids I know. My niece is one of the best 2 year old dancers I have ever seen. Life is so much fun being an aunt and uncle with these two around!
We are overjoyed to have a new nephew arriving in June! It will be a new adventure. My sister says he is a very active baby. It will be fun to watch his little personality develop. I am sure he will fit right in with these two kiddos!

Valentine's Day

I love my Husband! He is so thoughtful and goes above and beyond. Friday I was working in my classroom after the kiddos left. All of the sudden over the entire school P.A. they announced "Mrs. Stone please report to the front office immediately." I didn't know what to think since I have NEVER been called over the PA in the three years I have worked there. I figured one of my students didn't get picked up or something of that nature. I dropped everything and ran to the office. When I arrived I was pleasantly surprised with a delivery. I found these:




I love my husband! He is the most thoughtful person and he never seizes to surprise me! I love my eternal companion and can't imagine life without him! Thank you for the beautiful flowers Daniel! I love you!

Mission Call

Justin received his mission call this week. We are so excited for him!!! I remember looking at the envelope sitting on the table and thinking....I hope he gets to go somewhere at least a few states away from here. I don't think I, nor anyone else, expected the call he received. I remember gasping when he read the call and then cheering once it finally sunk in a few sentences later. We are so thrilled and excited for the experiences Justin will have serving our Heavenly Father in his work. We are very proud of him!!

Justin Larimore

has been called as a missionary for

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

in the

Kyiv, Ukraine Mission

Ukrainian Speaking

Reporting to the Provo MTC on

June 16th, 2010

In 1998 a temple was announced to be built in the Ukraine. In 2007 they broke ground and they are anticipating the dedication of the temple in the Late 2010. Just in time for Justin's arrival from the MTC.