Bandit's Graduation

Bandit successfully completed all the requirements necessary to graduate from "PETsMART Puppy Training Program".

Today was his graduation, little hat and all!

Now, if we can only get that potty training thing down, that would be great! wheww.

If nothing else, Bandit has grown to love PETsMART and all the toys and treats that he gets when we visit the store.

Cousin Kirk and Family

My cousin Kirk and his family were in Searcy during the holiday season.

Andrea and I drove up to my Uncle's house for a while to visit with them.

My cousin has been working for the Army as a tank mechanic and he will be deploying to Iraq again in the near future.

The picture is of my Dad's parents and my uncle Kirk and his family.

Hall Christmas Lunch

Andrea's parents, sisters, brother-in-laws, and their children came to visit us at our house this Christmas. It was a full house, but we enjoyed each other's company. Due to the weather, we stayed in probably more than we would have otherwise, but it was good. Here we are at our dinner table eating Christmas lunch. Hmm hmm good!

Snowy Christmas

Well, it was a snowy Christmas this year. I was able to capture the start of the snow in this picture of our house. This is the day Andrea's family arrived at our house for Christmas. With all the ice and snow, lets just say it took everyone a loooong time to get to our house.

Garven Woodland Gardens

Andrea and I went to Hot Springs, AR to visit the "Garvan Woodland Gardens". During the holiday season they have an extroidinary display of lights along the garden path. We were really impressed at the attention to detail and the vast amount of lights woven through the plant-life. If you haven't visited "Garven Woodland Gardens" I highly recommend a visit.

Christmas Tree

Yes, Andrea and I have already put up our Christmas tree for the season.

We decided to get an artificial tree this year.

This tree is one of those pre-lite hinged types that makes it very nice to setup.

The part that takes the most time is putting up the ornaments. We actually have soo many ornaments that we didn't put all of them up this year.

Holiday of Lights

My parents, Andrea, Bandit, and I went to the Searcy Holiday of Lights at Berry Hill Park. The event is a yearly tradition that involves building reconstructions of town buildings and covering them with Christmas Lights. It seems that there is at least one new item every year the lights are displayed.

Thanksgiving Lunch

Today we had Thanksgiving Lunch at my parent's house in Searcy, AR. My Father's parents and his oldest brother and family all came together for Thanksgiving day. We had a wide variety of items to choose from for lunch and we walked away full and pleased.

Ozarks Hiking Trip

BJ Arnold, Brandon Siegel, and I hiked a 5 mile trail last weekend in the Ozarks from Blanchard Springs to Gunner Pool. It was a nice relaxful getaway from the normal fast pace of life. Some of the highlights of our trip were me loosing my jacket and both of my boot soles almost completely falling off. Fortunately, by that time our hike was almost done.

Our New Puppy

Here is a picture of our new Shih Tzu puppy named Bandit. He was born on August 15, 2004. Click here to calculate his current age.

The Purpose Driven Life

Our church has been going through the Purpose Driven Life study for the past several weeks. As we are reading the book, we also meeting in small groups throughout the week.

Andrea and I have been hosting one of those groups in our home. We are enjoying the study, having people over at our house, and getting to know our small group members on a deeper level.

FreeiPods.com - Get a FREE iPod!

Check out this site that is giving away free iPods!

I have a friend, Casey Picker, who signed up and has already got his free iPod. See pictures of his free iPod here.

If you would like to get a free iPod too, all you have to do is join, complete an online offer, and refer 5 friends to do the same. That's it!

Here is my referral link. To help me get my iPod, click this exact link to join, or copy and paste it into a browser:

http://www.freeiPods.com/?r=10369770

Dirty Dozen Results

I finally placed in the Dirty Dozen this year at the Acxiom Wellness Center. The Dirty Dozen is a weight lifting competition that is ranked by the highest percentage of 1 bench press lift divided by your body weight. Last year I barely missed the Dirty Dozen by getting 13th place. This year, however, I stepped it up and earned 4th place!