SANTA CLAUS CAME TO OUR HOUSE!!!

After the barn there was no wait for Santa. He magically appeared through the front door of our house. We took lots of pictures but I'm only blogging the family pictures. This is Tia with her husband Jared and their 2 kids Porter and Selah. (Alex, Kayla and Sean in the right corner)

Rebecca and Kelly (kids let to right) Monika, Keayen, Natalyah and Boston. (Sean and Keelee in the right corner)

Wendy, Mattie, Santa, Kailyn and Matt.

Erik and Alex, Santa, Kristina and Kayla

Shona, Santa and Ted.

Chelsea holding Tiana and Sean holding Keelee.

All the kids got look alike Jammys from Santa.

Barn and the Nativity

One of my favorite parts of the Christmas Festivities is going to the hay barn and telling the story o the baby Jesus. You see in this picture our family gathering for that story. The cradle is placed in the middle with a baby doll and a blanket for effect as someone tells the story.

Kelly (black coat) was the story teller this year. Keayen (in the red coat) sang a cute song about the infant Jesus.

It was very cold and everyone huddled in blankets.

I had Tiana inside my coat because she was cold!!

Porter & Selah also sang a song about the nativity. The whole family ended by singing "Silent Night." When we got back to the house, Santa was already there!!!

GAMES

This is Jared. Tia's husband. We've had fun getting to know him. This picture was taken as he walked in the door for Christmas Eve.

Playing games and eating good food is a big part of our Christmas fun. (Matt getting a snack!)

A few of the gang sitting around the table and playing games. (left to right...Erik, Kelly, Rebecca and Wendy)

Thanksgiving and December fun.

Tally getting ready for a ride down the hill. Here comes dad to help!!

Becca having a hard time getting started down the hill!!

Matt and Maddie taking a ride!!

Chelsea and Tiana getting ready to go!

Christmas Eve Day we went to Allen's hill and had some fun in the snow.

Riding the inner tubes was a favorite!!

Keelee and Madison playing in the snow. I think they are eating It more than anything.

Keayen with his spiderman mask on a Snowboard!! His first time on the snowboard and he did great!!!

Ted & Kelly on the snowmobiles. Matt on a sled coming now a hill.

Keayen just lost his snowboard.

Wow!!! We've been home 2 1/2 months and a lot has been going on. We drove to Bozeman and spent time with Matt and Wendy eating gourmet food cooked by Wendy. SHe is an awesome cook and we love eating her food!!!

From there we drove the rest of the way to Minnesota for Thanksgiving. Kristina is a great hostess and we had a lot of fun. We had Thanksgiving dinner with Erik's brother Jack and his family.

We also went to a Christmas light parade in downtown St. Paul. We ate some wonderful Sushi....played a lot of games.....and did some relaxing!!! Kristina and I got up in the middle of the night the Friday after Thanksgiving. Yep!!! That's "Black Friday" and we did get some good shopping deals!!
We were gone about a week. Then Kristina and the kids went home with us. (or we went home with them!!!) Matt & Wendy put our car on Craig's List and it sold the day after we left. (Thanks Erik) We planned on riding home with Kristina and Erik would bring our car later. (Her car was bigger for the ride home with the kids.) After selling our car, Erik had to fly home. I think he liked that however....it took less time.

With Kristina around Christmas seemed to be all month long!!! She's a lot of fun and keeps things going!!

Kayla's Sealing/ Matt's Wedding

The first week home from our mission was filled with family and events!! Kristina and Erik took their little family to the Idaho Falls temple to have baby Kayla sealed to them. What a wonderful day that was. Kayla was a beautiful little princess and it was a treasured day.

Kayla's sealing was on Friday. Matt and Wendy missed it because they went back to Montana and were sick all week. We thought it was going to be a marriage between "MR Strept and MRS. Strept." They were both so sick.. We were pleasantly surprised when we pulled up to Wendy's place on Saturday afternoon and they were both feeling much better. It was a lovely wedding and we are so happy to have Wendy in the family. Good choice Matt!!! And what a treat to have 2 new grandchildren.

If you want to see more pictures you'll have to be my friend on facebook. I'm posting most of my pictures there from now on...It's hard to keep up with the blog. I'll try to do some....

Thanks to my wonderful family for supporting us in our decision to serve a mission.

Sunday, Homecoming and Sacrament

Sunday the 18th of Oct was our big homecoming day. We spoke in Sacrament meeting in our Victor 2nd ward and many of our friends and family came to hear us. We were greeted again with lots of hugs and love and it felt good. The Krupp family have been very supportive of our mission. We appreciate them coming to the airport and then driving to Victor on Sunday. This is Jeremy and Tara Krupp.

Tia and Jared's mom.

Kelly hanging out!!

Vergie and Delmar

Mariah

Cathy Tea and Kristina

Gaylene, Gay, JaNell, Megan and Patricia

Alex and Erik

Porter Jay

Patricia and James

Monika

Ted, Gaylene and Megan

Cathy and Gay

There were other people but someone forgot to snap the photos!! We were having way too much fun talking!!

Last day as Missionaries

Saturday Oct 17th, 2009 was the last day we were missionaries. we spent it with some of our family. Just looking at them and enjoying being with them. This is Matt with his fiance Wendy. They are getting married 1 week from today. (Oct 24, 2009) We are pleased with Matt's choice. Wendy has 2 darling little girls, Madison and Kailyn.

In the later morning we went with Rebecca to Keayen's "Flag Football game." It was fun to watch him run and try to steal the flag from the pockets of the opposing team. Good job Keayen

Becca and Elder Kasper watching Keayen's game.

Elder Kasper (Grandpa Ted) with Keayen after the game.
After the football game, Tia drove us to Victor and we dropped of our luggage at our home. Then we went directly to the stake presidents office in Driggs to be released from our mission. It felt very sad to take off the badge and officially be released. It brought a tear to my eye as I thought of all our friends in India. We will treasure the time we spent there and always love the dear ones that took us in and cared for us and loved us like we were there family. We love you.... our friends.....our brothers and sisters in India.

OUR WELCOME HOME

From India we flew to Frankfurt Germany and then on to Denver Colorado. We missed our flight out of Denver. The mission booked our tickets to tightly for us to make the plane. We only had 1 hour and we had to pick up our luggage and then go through customs. They did get us on the next flight out and we made it to Idaho Falls airport at 10:30 instead of 8:30. These were some of the happy faces that greeted us.

They were holding signs that said "Welcome Home."

This is us as we came through

the airport doors. We were a little nervous and peaked before stepping through the doors.

We were greeted with warm hugs from friends and family. It was a nice welcome home.

My first meeting with Boston. He let me hold him but not for very long. He wanted his mom back!!

LAST DAY IN INDIA

We spent the morning packing and then went to Vijay's wedding in the afternoon. It was about 1 hour by auto.

Hindu Wedding
Special friends attended the wedding and we loved sharing this day with them.

This is Madhuha with 2 little boys that just wanted their picture taken. We're sure happy that we had a chance to get to know this cute girl. She's from Visak and we really like her.

Praveen and Jason.
They came from Puni to spend the weekend for District conference. We were happy to see Praveen and Sangeetha one more time before we left. Sangeetha's baby is due the end of the year I think...

Anita from 2nd branch. She is a sweetheart. We will miss her and her family.

Sangeetha and Bharti. We'll miss you. Thanks for always making us feel like we were part of you. You are friends we will never forget.

Pramod......eating as usual....

The Sumerajan family are great examples to so many and give so much service. Thank you....

Rajesh we love you and will always hope the best for your future.

Kumar & Kumari....
You are one of the couples that we loved from the start. We loved your pleasant personalities and you just seemed like such a fun couple to be around. Thank you for all that you do....We certainly appreciate your many kindnesses to us and others that you serve.

Sirisha's mom is really going to miss her when she's gone....But for me, knowing Sirisha will be coming made it easier to go home at the end of our mission. Love you Sirisha and tell your mom we will take care of you.

Elder Kasper's guitar students telling us goodbye. Sumanth and Hemanth.
They were good students and Elder enjoyed teaching them.

Words can't express how we feel about Madhu. We share a lot of memories with this young man and will love him always and forever. Madhu if you're reading this....thanks for everything. You were our friend, our family, our tour guide, our City Directory.....If we needed anything you
always managed to find it and take care of it for us. We've never had a better friend!!!

We felt your testimony and your love for your Heavenly Father. We like who you are!!

Just Thanks.....Thanks for everything.