Happy New Year!

                      Happy New Year  2012 to all my followers and blogging friends.

My what a busy and unexpected surprising end to the year 2011. I was married on October 15th, 2011 to my white knight! God blessed me with a Godly man who tryuy loves me, provides for me and protects me every minute of his life.

This is our wedding ceremony. We wrote our own vows and were married in Chantilly VA.

I had my 2nd doctoral residency in the beginning of October and am progressing forward to the dissertation phase.

I now live in VA. We are having the time of our life setting up our new condo and building our lives through Christ. We attend McLean Bible Church in Tysons corners and it is a powerful church with
so many blessings for us. This year we will becoming stewards in Christ to couples' ministries.

                      I have 3 new step-daughters  (25,13, & 11) and each is another blessing to my life.

                               Autumn (11) was my junior attendant and Soleil (13) a camera genius!

Faith lives in CA and I was fortunate enough to meet her in Dallas a week or so after our wedding for Dad Hefty's 90th birthday! That's dad and mom and Mark's brother  on his 90th birthday celebration with the flag balloon we gave dad for his birthday!

                                     Faith  (25) is an accomplished pianist and I just adore her!
                                   She lives in CA and flew into  Dallas too for the party!

            I also got to see my daughter Jenni  (27) was able to come up to Dallas from Waco for the party too for dad. It was great too see Jenni too!

Night of Deployment July 2010

Joey's friend in Afghanistan...

Joey my proud marine son returned home from Afghanistan. yeah! Booh just before Christmas we learned he is headed back to Hell (Afghanistan )mid January 2012... please lift my son and all who serve up in your prayers and God please return him home safely once more... I hope to travel to NC again in the next week or so to say Godspeed and give him love...

            May the prayers we send return all safely home to their loved ones....

I have had so many beautiful memories and places visited since geting married. We spent the Sunday before Christmas at Mt. Vernon and toured the grounds having a lovely simple meal

at the Mt. Vernon Inn enjoying peanut and chestnut soup, cornbread and George Washibgton's drink of choice a cherry bounce! I will tell you it warmed the soul and spirits.

    Christmas came early at the Hefty home as we honeymooned Christmas week in FL...

              Gorgeous view of the swimming area at The Omni where we stayed the week.

                        When it was cold the outdoor fire was lit, real cozy and romantic!

 Beautiful water fountain in the patio terrace area just before the swimming pool, lazy river rafting and outdoor cafe Croc's.

The terrace just outside the main dining room, just lovely!

Below the long shot of the swimming area with the private cabanas, ooh la lah!

 Above the Christmas Caroler's in the Americas exhibit at Epcot, below the fife and drum corp entertained with a lively march and invited the children to follow in the ranks.

                                               A beautiful view of the Epcot waterfront...

 Pierre Noel,  France, Father Christmas in Epcot told the most beautiful Christmas story.

A view of Epcot; that's Mark  taking his shot...

 God Bless MOM she lights up the room with her smile and I love her so dearly.

 Dad and mom taking a breather from opening their gifts to each other and from us....

 This is Miss Kitty at my parents' home getting into the groove of presents!

 Now Mr. & Mrs Clause (my mom and dad) have these adorable guests in their home in FL. Some head of hair on me too, Christmas morning at dad and mom's before church.

 Mark was thrououghly enjoying the acts and scenery at Al Capone's dinner theatre!

The main acts at Al Capone's were really cute!

                                                           Al Capone's dinner theatre!

 The Blues Brotehrs entertained at Universal Studios oh my they were awesome!

                               Norte Dame performing central square at Universal Studios.

                              Norte Dame perfect ranks in this marching band at Universal!

Our last night in the hotel the women from the Morsels Starbucks cafe had these awaiting us in our room. It was supposed to say WEDDING BUT THE THOUGHT WAS THERE AND THE CHOCOLATE STRAWBERRIES DIVINE!

SO much more I could post here but  I will end with a bit of pink!!!!

This beautiful tea set is available at the Mt. Vernon gift shop, very pink! It's on my wish list!

May your New Year be Blessed and filled with PINK!

Be sure to blog over to BEV at How Sweet The Sound and join the New Year filled with my PINK blogging friends!

 Please leave a comment when you are done they fill my days with joy!

 Hope to be back soon and stopping by your blogs....

                       In the meantime here is a very PINK hug for  the New Year!

From our home to yours, Happy New Years!