Carrie Underwood

Last night I got to go to an AMAZING concert with my girlfriends Carissa and Ali. For an early birthday present, my mom paid for me to go to a Carrie Underwood concert!! We had so much fun. We ended up having amazing seats. We were on the second row up from the floor. Carrie was amazing live! I fell in love with her on American Idol and I have loved her ever since, so it was really fun for me to see her in concert. Josh Turner opened for her and I didn't know him before last night, but I really like him too. This was my first country music concert and I have to admit that I LOVED IT!






My video and camera were not as good as Carissa's so if you want to see the really good ones go to her blog (the poyfairs). But this is the best video I could get.




Isn't she awesome?! We drove all the way to Dayton for the concert, but the drive flew by since there were three girls with plenty to talk about:) We loaded up on caffeine on the way home so we wouldn't fall asleep, and we made it home safe at 2:30am! Thanks for coming with me girls, I had a blast!

Happy Easter

We had a wonderful Easter this year. On Saturday Rylynn and I had lots of fun dying the easter eggs. This was the first year she really got to do it herself and she did a great job! Carter was sleeping during this activity thank goodness, so it wasn't too messy. He can join us next year.

Rylynn and Carter looked so cute in their fancy Easter clothes if I do say so myself.


I made Rylynn a new flower bow to match her pretty dress that Nana gave her.
She was very excited to wear all her new Easter clothes. Carter didn't seem to notice. He did, however, perk right up when we gave him his Easter basket and he saw the candy inside. He has turned into a little candy monster! They ate way too much, right before dinner of course. Then we had our friends from downstairs come to dinner. We had our traditional leg of lamb roast, mashed potatoes and gravy, really yummy green beans that Carissa brought, pear and blue cheese salad, and homemade rolls. Needless to say we were all stuffed! Then we had our annual egg rolling contest. Carissa won last year so we were determined to represent this year. However in the end, the final match was Adam vs. Rachel, and again the Poyfairs were victorious. We did have a children's division this year which was fun to watch! Rylynn and Olivia faced off and Rylynn was the winner. At least one of the Halls represented! (I tried to post the video, but it isn't working!) After the contest it was time for Eclair cake made by Carissa, which was amazing! The kids had a blast eating tons of sugar and playing. Rylynn got a princess dress for Easter from Nana and Carter got some cars. They both loved their presents and played with them for hours.

We missed our families but we had a great weekend thinking about our Savior and the gift of life that He gives to each of us through His atonement and resurrection. We are so grateful for His endless love for each of us.

Hope you all had a great Easter too!

A new member of the family...

No I am not pregnant! I am referring to our extended family. My brother Ben and his wife Molly are having a baby! We are very excited for them. So I was talking to Rylynn about this new member of our family and I asked her if she thought the baby was going to be a boy or a girl. She said, "it is a baby girl Mama." So I said oh well what do you think her name is going to be? She then told me three very unusual and interesting names which I really think Ben and Molly should consider. Drum roll please, the suggestions from the three year old are Skats, Casscass, and Cats! All great choices if you ask me. Somehow these names remind me somewhat of the names Rylynn used to call Ben while she was learning how to say his name. It became a game to her and she would say the most ridiculous names instead of saying Ben like we wanted her to. Anyway, we are excited for them!

In other news, Carter just got his first haircut of his life. I was so sad the day I cut it because I missed his long whispy hair, but after Garrett told me that at Myrtle Beach a lady came up to him and said, "Oh she is beautiful!" I decided it was time to cut it and make him look like a boy. So here are some pictures of our little boy!


Also, I wanted to post this cute little decoration in Rylynn's room. My friend has a vinyl cutting machine so she makes cute signs all the time. For Rylynn's birthday she called me and asked what sign I would want for a present for Rylynn. I told her to write "Dear Rylynn all flowers remind me of you" from the primary song. I sing this song to Rylynn and her bedding has flowers on it so I thought it would be cute. I love how it turned out and Rylynn loves having pink flowers and butterflies on her wall to protect her from the monsters at night:) Every time she sees the sign she points out that it says Rylynn on it. What a fun present!

Spring Break '08

Garrett and I have always wanted to get a glimpse of the South, and since we are living pretty close right now, we decided to take a road trip through the Carolinas and Georgia for spring break. We planned on leaving last monday, but when we woke up to a blizzard on Saturday, we decided to bump up the trip and get out of the snow! We hurried and packed while our neighbor plowed our driveway so we could get out. Then we hopped in the car and started our adventure. The first day we stayed with our good friends Bram and Anna and their kids in Maryland.

These are the crazy kids. Rylynn and Luke were friends in Provo and it was so much fun for them to see each other again. It did get a little crazy with five kids running around all day long, but the parents had a lot of fun bonding once they went to bed:)

Garrett and Bram caught up on their competitive little tykes tournament!

Anna and I just talked, made fun of our husbands while they played their little tykes tournament, and even squeezed in some shopping at Anna's awesome outlet mall!

Then we headed to Duck Beach and Kill Devil Hill's in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The beach was beautiful, but a little bit cold (low 60's). We ate delicious fish and chips and then headed on to Myrtle Beach South Carolina.


Rylynn decided to move back a ways to play in the sand after a wave came up and soaked her unexpectedly. She was a little distraught at first, but she got over it pretty quickly and then she and Carter had tons of fun building sand castles.

This is the beautiful sunset that we saw as we drove to South Carolina that night.

Myrtle Beach was definitely the highlight of the trip for Rylynn. She and Carter loved playing in the sand and She even ventured out into the ocean. As you can see in this video, she liked to play a game where you run to the water and then as a wave comes, you run away screaming! It was hilarious and she did it for about an hour straight.

Carter loved all the birds at Myrtle Beach and playing in the sand.


After a long day at Myrtle Beach we headed down to Charleston, SC to visit some friends of Garrett's from law school. We went out for some real southern BBQ that night and loved it! Garrett ordered collard greens and fried okra for his sides. We didn't love the greens, but the Okra was great. The next morning we got a great tour from Garrett's friend of downtown Charleston. It was awesome. She knew everything about the city since she has lived their her whole life. I felt like I was in London. It felt very European. The iron work was so ornate and the gardens were beautiful.


This fountain is a palmetto statue which we learned is their state tree because in the revolutionary war, they would stop the cannon balls from destroying the city.

I loved all the detail in the iron work all throughout the city.

This is the Citadel which is a military base. It was beautiful and it looked out right over the ocean. The old citadel which is now a hotel in downtown Charleston is where the first shots were fired in the civil war.

After Charleston we drove down to Savannah Georgia. First we went to Tybee island beach because every time we got in the car Rylynn would say, "let's go to another beach!" The beach in GA had tons of seagulls which Carter loved! He got so close to them I was worried they were going to peck him.



After the beach we went downtown Savannah and drove around the historic district. The parks were so beautiful and the kids loved all the fountains. It also reminded me of England because the houses were all right next to each other and old looking and each neighborhood had it's own park in the middle of it. We walked along the river and had dinner at a little Greek restaurant on the river walk.



Spring was in full bloom in GA. I loved all the flowers!

I loved all the spanish moss hanging from the trees! I never got sick of it. It was like driving under a huge canopy that covered the whole city.

This was a cool cobble stone street right next to the river. Garrett loved it so we needed a picture of the boys!

This is the famous Paula Dean's restaurant "the Lady and Sons". This was pretty much the thing I was looking most forward to experiencing in Savannah. We showed up at 5:30 for the dinner buffet which started at 5:00p. When we went to check in they informed us that we could be seated at 8:45p! Obviously that wasn't going to work for our kids, so we asked about putting our name in for the lunch buffet the next day which started at 11:00am. She told us they don't do that and we could start calling at 9:00am the next day. I really wanted to stay and go to the lunch buffet but the hotels in Savannah were a lot more expensive than other places and the kids were getting restless, so in the end, we had to suck it up and leave Savannah without eating at the Lady and Sons. I was sad, but Garrett had already had to cut out the 2 1/2 detour to Augusta to take a picture in front of Augusta National Golf club where the Masters is played, so we both had to make sacrifices to keep the kids happy. We both promised each other that we would take another trip together and see Augusta and eat at the Lady and Sons so we have that to look forward to in the future. All in all, it was an awesome trip! We had so much fun as a family and we loved being in seventy degree weather while our house was back in Cleveland buried in two feet of snow!

Happy birthday Rylynn!

I know this post is really long, but I just couldn't resist! My little Rylynn turned three today! I can't believe how grown up she is getting. We had a really fun Pink Princess Party on saturday for Rylynn and Emma Day. Their birthdays are two days apart and they are buddies so we thought it would be fun to have a joint party. Rylynn insisted on the princess party and Emma insisted on the pink party. So we ended up with a pink princess party. Ali and I had so much fun getting all the stuff for our girly party. It was so much fun to do it together. Ali made these adorable invitations, which I would never know how to do! My idea of invitations are the printed ones at target, so these blew me away.




So I was in charge of the cake. I made a pink princess crown cake. I also made some hand dipped prince and princess wands for the goodie bags. They were both a lot of fun to make.




When all the kids got there we had a really cute crowing ceremony which Rylynn loved. Then we read a dancing princess story and danced to princess music. Then the bad guys (Kolby and Garrett) took the princesses downstairs so the princes could rescue them on their horses.



This is Rylynn's friend Emma. What a cutie!

The captive princesses!

Their knights in shining armor

Our mini prince! Carter was loving all the fun at the party too.

After the princesses were all saved we played pin the crown on the princess. Don't look too close I drew the princess myself. I did not inherit my mother's artistic talents:) Then we got to hit the big, pink flower pinata. This proved a little difficult with lots of sweet little princesses. Luckily we had a couple strong princes to smash it up for us. The kids went crazy when the candy came out and they all ran around piling it in their hands. Again the boys had the upper hand here because they had helmets to fill up with candy. The crowns were not so helpful for holding candy.



Most of the kids put the crown right in front of her face. A few of them peeked through the blindfold and placed it right on top. I love watching kids cheat at games! They act like why would I keep this weird thing over my eyes when I could just take it off and win the game? It was hilarious watching them all think the same thing.


Even Carter squeezed in and snagged some candy!

After the pinata we went into the adorably decorated dining room (thanks to Ali) and had cake, princess punch, and opened presents. Needless to say they had plenty of sugar!



This is a random picture I know, but I had to document my pink hands. My pink gel coloring was dripping all over my sink right before we left for the party so I quickly cleaned it up and ended up with pink hands for the party. The girls looked at me a little funny every time I got close to them with my pink hands. Rylynn got some really nice presents from her friends. She had so much fun. On the way home we asked her if she had fun and she said, "Yes, I had so much fun I want another party. I want a purple one and a yellow one too!" It was really cute. I am so glad I had Ali to help me with this party because she did a ton(not to mention she let us trash her house)! Rylynn often says to us, "kids is a lot of work" and on the way home Garrett said, "Rylynn birthday parties is a lot of work!" It was a lot of work, but it was so worth it and so much fun to see Rylynn have a blast. She came home and played with her new toys for hours. She was on quite the sugar high.

Tonight we took Rylynn to Red Robin for her birthday dinner because she wanted fries and a hot dog. She absolutely loved it! She had her first corn dog and when I asked her if she liked it she started jumping on the booth cushion and exclaimed, "I like it, I do!!" It was so funny. We had a huge booth and the restaurant was almost empty so we kind of let her jump all over. Then the servers came over and sang to her and brought her an ice cream sundae. She was clapping along with them as they sang and even Carter joined in. Then her night got even better when Red Robin himself came over to say hi. She loved him! We had to get a picture with him on the way out and he gave her a balloon too.



Then we headed home and opened presents from Nana and Papa. She loved them all and played with them until I made her go to bed. I think she would have stayed up playing with them all night if I would have let her. She also got to hear her cousins, Nana and Papa, and two of her aunts sing happy birthday to her on the phone. She felt very loved tonight! Thank you everyone who called.


We just love our little Rylynn and we are so grateful she has been in our lives for three years now!