Our House

For those of you who have yet to come and see us.... here are some pics of our house. It is very much the same floor plan as Lewis and Florrie's (with just a few things different). Our entryway

Our front room (my office)

The great room

Dining area

My kitchen

View from kitchen (and I am not allowed to hang anything on the walls yet)

Our bedroom, I wish you could see the vaulted ceilings (they're fun)

Our bathroom and closet

Well we really love our house and we totally are enjoying it and we are so grateful to have it. Everyone is invited to come and see us anytime.

Last Saturday we spent the day with our friends, the Leiters and the Battys. We met them at the trax station and rode trax to Salt Lake. Rylan thought it was the greatest thing ever.

Mitchell & Heather
Dee & Rylan
Then we went to the Chipmunks movie at the Gateway. The kids loved it. It was pretty cute.
Rylan & Ashley....We ate at the eatery and let the kids play for a little bit. Both the Leiters and Battys have 4 kids, I was grateful that I only have 2!

I didn't even think to take my stroller, so Corey was nice enough to push Rylan along with Ashley and Cayden.

Hayden, Cody, McKenna, Tylee, Ry, Ashley & Cayden

Then we went to Temple Square. We haven't been in years so it was neat to take our kids. However, Dee was sick and so we had to cut our trip short, plus my batteries were dead in my camera so I didn't even get any pictures. Then we had the experience from H.E. double hockey sticks on trax on the way home. It's a long story, but at one point the driver closed the door on us and took 4 of our kids without any adults on the wrong train. Then the next train picked up 3 adults and 6 kids and yet again left 3 adults (one of whom was Dee-who was throwing up). We finally ended up together again. But my kids were a little traumatized. Now when Ry plays trains, he says that we better hurry so the train doesn't leave us!

I am so glad that our friends invited us to go, we had a great time.

I have an announcement to make.....

No, I am not pregnant (just gaining weight). Rylan has not sucked his thumb for 5 days! Not even at bedtime, not in the car when he is tired, not when I am holding him and he is holding my ear (now however, he has to hold both ears-one for each hand, to keep his thumb busy). I don't want to jinx it by telling him that he is doing great, I don't want to remind him how much he likes to suck his thumb. So for now I will just tell myself how proud I am of him.

Runolph

Runolph

click on Rylan to watch the video.

Christmas Fun

On Saturday we had my little family Christmas party at Brook & Melissa's house in Lehi. We first went and watched Ryder's soccer game, he was awesome! Then we ate dinner and had the kids do the nativity story. They did a very good job this year.

Jordyn, Ryder & Hayden
After our nativity story.

Then we drove to Heber in a blizzard (seriously, it was). We barely made it there in time to ride the Polar Express. The kids really had a great time. We got hot cocoa, read the book "Polar Express", sang songs, Mrs. Clause came and talked to each of the kids, the elves danced with the kids...and then...we made it to the real north pole and picked up Santa. He got on the train and gave each of the kids a bell. Hayden could not believe that our train could leave from Heber and go all the way to the north pole, ya gotta love magic!
Jordyn, Brook & Melissa
Watching for Santa out the window
Getting their bell from Santa My cute little family. This was the only time they sat by us on the train, they sat by my parents the whole time.

Afterwards we ate at the Dairy Keen in Heber (ya know the one with the train). I could not get Rylan to eat, he couldn't take his eyes off the train. He thought it was the best place ever. I think we may have to take him there to eat on his birthday.

Mal & Rylan

Simplify

This year for Christmas, Dee's family has decided to simplify things. We decided not to do gifts for the siblings or for the grandkids. We already have so much and are so blessed, we didn't feel like it was necessary to receive another gift that we most likely don't need. So the adults went out to dinner instead-without any kids-which was the greatest gift ever! We went to Tepanyaki (when Hayden found out that's where we were going, he was mad at us-even though we had picked them up some McDonald's-he would much rather have gone with us---I can't say that I blame him!)

We had a great night, it was very relaxing and we could actually all enjoy being together. I think we should do it again real soon!

Dave, Aubree, Todd & Emilie

Mom & Dad

Florrie, Lewis, me & Dee

I tried to take a picture of the onion volcano for my kids, but it didn't work so well, with my flash the flame didn't show up. Oh well.

Oh, to be a kid again...

Hayden came home from school yesterday and said "Mom, today was a dream come true". He said that everthing they did at school had to do with dinosaurs; they played games about dinosaurs, did dinosaur arts and crafts, read dinosaur books (he said that he had to tell the teacher how to say all of the dinosaur names), and other fun stuff. I was so happy for him, that he had such a great day. I wish I was that easy to please.

So, I hope that all of you have a great day, and may all your dreams come true!

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas!

Happy December! I love this time of year. And what better way to start December than with snow! :)

We decorated our tree today, listened to Christmas music, played in the snow and had some hot chocolate...it was great!

Rylan found the pipe from our snowman kit and walked around with it in his mouth all day. We had to have a little talk about smoking after that.

Yay-we got to decorate our new house.

I wish I had lashes like those!

Most people don't get too excited about shoveling their driveway, but I was thrilled today to have Dee shovel our very own driveway at our very own house! He didn't even mind it too much, but I'm sure the newness of that wears off too.

Cannonball!

Snow angels

This is the outside of our house, so if you're driving around and you recognize it, stop on by.