Christmas Part 1

Ryan's parents came to Utah this year, so we had a gift exchange with my family a little early. We were all very spoiled. I was especially surprised and grateful that my Dad made this beautiful chest for Sadie. Even though he has been going through cancer treatments, he managed to make it for her. It just melted my heart.

Sadie also got this beautiful quilt that my mom made for her.

Boston also got a darling dinosaur quilt made by my mom.

I've been wanting a food processor for a few years, especially when trying to can food from our garden. I am so excited to use this baby!

Boston was totally disinterested in opening presents. This was the best shot I could get of him.

Sadie got these cute pjs and slippers from Grandma and Grandpa too. What a haul!! We are so grateful!

Tis the season...

Sadie can't resist any moment to use Dad as a jungle gym. He was trying to get the tree set up in the stand properly.

Boston has loved rearranging our ornaments daily.

Sadie was such a good helper putting all the ornaments at her level.

We finally used a chair to help get some other spots of the tree.

We made nativity scenes with our good friends Sophie, Christopher, and Michelle Tobey.

I think they turned out really cute. If you can't tell, the tiny fruit snack on top is a star. The shepherd, Mary and Joseph are keebler cookies, gram cracker stable, marshmallow/black licorice sheep, oats as hay, and fruit roll ups for swaddling clothes.

This was devoured about 2 minutes after I took the picture. I had fun doing it, I hope the kids did too.

Happy 2nd Birthday Boston!

I didn't get a single happy picture on his birthday. He is such a silly boy.

Right before church.

Luckily we had a party a different day that he seemed to be happier.This little boy always has something in his hands. Usually it is cars, so I made a cake for cars. He didn't appreciate the cake as much as he did the cars.

He wandered around while opening presents.

I think the following progression of pictures is funny. He was scared of the cake? the singing? I'm not sure...

Time flies so quickly, I can't believe he is two years old.

First Snow of the Season

Checking out the first snow of the season on November 9th.

It was quite cold, so the kids were in and out helping Dad make the snowman. I didn't realize Sadie wasn't in any of the pictures even though she helped the most. I also wanted to remember Ryan's status update about it: "Yesterday was the first real snow for us here in Utah County. To celebrate, Sadie and I constructed our first snow man for the season; we found it destroyed less than two hours later. I think Sadie got over it quicker than I did."

WAHOOO!!!!

So I have a friend that I only keep in touch with via blogging. I feel like I know what's going on in her life because she regularly updates. So I was blown away when there was a random post about her delivering a baby. WHAT??? She hadn't posted a single picture of herself during her pregnancy nor mentioned it in any way. It was really funny to me that I felt like I was 'in touch' with her life. So for any of you out there that don't keep in touch with me any other way than blogging, this is my announcement that I am PREGNANT!!!

This picture was taken at 26 weeks. I haven't posted sooner because I was pretty sick for the first 20 weeks. The mornings are still yucky, but it is way more manageable than the all-day sickness. I am due January 20th. We aren't going to find out the gender until delivery... so we are super stoked with anticipation. I am interested to see what sex you guys think the baby will be, so leave a comment! :)

Halloween Fun

This was the best picture I could get from my little bumblebees.

For the generation that actually knows who we are dressed up as, we got lots of compliments. But pretty much everyone else thought we just kinda looked funny. I did, however, win a little trophy for best costume at a Halloween party we went to the Saturday before Halloween. ***We are Wayne and Garth from Wayne's World***

Carving Pumpkins

Sadie drew this as a pattern for Ryan to make into a jack-o-lantern.

He did such a good job replicating it!

We visited my parents who have a cute Halloween village. Boston was seriously entranced with it. He would stand there and stare at it for a long time. Eventually he would try to steal the cars and "drive" them around the floor.

It was a pretty dang fun holiday this year!!

Tough Mudder

Ryan has been working really hard to train for the Tough Mudder and it finally came in October. It is basically a half marathon with 25 military obstacles to really test endurance and strength. He wanted a tough look and I think he achieved it!

The bishop didn't get to see his haircut though. ;)

Ryan's good friend, Dustin, came in from Idaho Falls so they could go together.

Ryan also convinced his sisters to join in the craziness. Stefanie even flew in from California. She proved herself to be one tough-mother!! Unfortunately Ashley was unable to participate because of an injury. :(

The starting line...

I don't know how they did it, but it looked like pure torture to me! Glad you had fun babe!!

October Crafts

We weren't able to do the co-op preschool for Sadie like we did last year. At first Sadie and I were pretty bummed about it, but I've tried to make up for it by doing a preschool with just her and me. We are doing a reading program together that is going really well. Obviously we have to do some fun crafts together too!

Sadie had a blast painting on of the pumpkins from our garden.

We also made a skeleton from milk jugs. It took quite a while to cut out all the pieces. I was hoping Sadie could help more, but it was kind of tricky.

I was burned out from all the cutting, so Ryan graciously assembled it all together.

I love the way it turned out!

Lastly, we did a pinata for a playgroup Halloween party.

Sadie was a great helper!

The final product! The kids had a blast bashing it up, but I didn't get any pictures during.