The Highly Anticipated Part Two!

After Christmas we rented a car and drove down to Phoenix to visit Garrett's mom and most of his brothers and sisters. The drive took awhile longer than we had expected because of the construction on the Hoover Dam. But even though it was a pain on the way back, I insisted on going that way home because I have never driven over the Dam. Luckily the way back was much faster and the view was pretty amazing.

When we arrived, the whole gang was there to meet us and the kids were really excited to see their cousins and aunts and uncles. Then Grandma spoiled them rotten with huge Christmas bags full of toys.

Rylynn was so excited to see Grandma!

We were loving the AZ weather! The kids got to go swimming and play outside everyday! They had so much fun at Grandma's house. Some of the highlights were seeing cousins Braden and Logan, going to the temple square lights, and climbing on the lemon and orange trees (not to mention eating said fruit).

Rylynn and Logan loved playing sleeping beauty together. Rylynn made him be prince Philip the whole time. He was such a good sport.

Braden and Rylynn climbing in the orange tree so of course Carter had to try it too.

They all loved climbing all over and playing with uncle Brandon who they don't get to see very often. He was great with them!


Did I mention the weather was nice? It was great especially because Rylynn begs me to wear her summer clothes and swimming suit everyday in Cleveland and for once I didn't have to have the battle!


Swimming in Grandma's pool! I only swim when it is 80 degrees or above outside since I am always cold, so I just watched. Daddy is always the fun one!


We all went to see the Christmas lights at the Mesa Temple. I had never seen them before and I was blown away by how elaborate they were. They rivaled Temple Square in Salt Lake. The kids loved looking at all the different nativity scenes.


The main creche scene was so beautiful. They had a recording of Pres. Hinckley testifying of the birth of Christ and it was very sweet to hear his voice again.

Rylynn in front of the manger scene with Grandma and Auntie (Andrea).

In front of one of the fountains. Logan was not feeling in the picture taking mood.

One New Year's Eve we threw Carter a little birthday party. We didn't do anything too fancy this year, but he didn't seem to mind. I have to admit I think this New Year's Eve birthday is going to be a little hard to pull off each year since I am always so worn out after all the Christmas craziness finally ends. But I promised myself when he was born on that day that I would not let his birthdays stink just because it is during Christmastime, so here is the big number 2!

Carter loved his baseball cake! I made his favorite, banana cake with cream cheese frosting. He is obsessed with bananas after all!

Serioulsy, all this kid needs to be happy is a couple of balloons and some cake.

Garrett got some cute Cars blowers for the party. Carter couldn't really figure out how to use them, but he liked them anyway.

After our AZ trip, Garrett and I dropped the kids off at my parents house and headed back down to Las Vegas for a little getaway for a couple of days in my parents condo. The place was beautiful and it was a little removed from the strip so we didn't have to be totally overwhelmed by all the craziness. We went to a lot of movies, slept in every morning, ate out at amazing restaurants, and hung out on the strip a couple of times. We also got to do a session at the Las Vegas temple which is beautiful! It was especially cool for us because it reminded us so much of the Portland temple where we were temple workers the first year we were married.

You can't tell from the picture, but this is Garrett and I at Mystere by Cirque de Soleil. Garrett's step-mom Terry got us some tickets to the show and it was amazing! We had so much fun.

After about four days, my parents drove the kids down and we all hung out for a couple of days before we flew home. The kids had a lot of fun. We found out about some great things for the kids to see that were free! One of them was this huge fish tank inside of a casino that has all sorts of sharks, cool fish, and sting rays, plus the highlight, a Mermaid! Rylynn was so thrilled! She couldn't get enough of this lady. I have to say I was thinking that would be the coolest job. You get to be a mermaid and swim with awesome fish and make kids smile all day.

Then we went to the Lion habitat and the MGM grand. The kids loved watching the Lions play.

Then we headed over to the Bellagio (my favorite) to watch the fountain show, see the italian glass ceilings, and the gardens. Unfortunately they were in the process of changing the gardens from the Christmas theme to an Asian gardens theme. But Carter was just fine looking at the "big neigh" aka big horse!


Garrett and I watched the fountains three times while we were there. I can't ever get enough of them. They are so beautiful!

They loved the little fountain as much as the huge ones outside. Here is the sparkly "Big Neigh" and the amazing hand blown italian glass flowers on the ceiling.

We had such a great time with everyone and we are so grateful for our wonderful families for all the help with the kids, the amazing food, the fun activities, letting us stay at their houses, and the great gifts! We love you all!

Our Trip...Finally

This Christmas was so much fun! We were gone for almost a month so it is hard to separate all the exciting events, but here is a little bit of an overview. We first arrived on the 16th and I got to see my little sister for the first time in a year and half! She had been on a mission in Estonia for our church and got home on the 12th. It was so much fun to see her. The kids had such a great time getting to know their aunt Abby again and Carter became an instant fan! He basically followed her around for the next three weeks non-stop.


A couple of days after we got there Garrett and I went down to Las Vegas for a little overnight trip to visit his Dad, and step-mom Terry. His older sister and brother were able to come too and we all had a great time. Garrett's dad and stepmom got us the "Rainman Suite" to stay in. I've never seen the movie but apparently this is the room Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise stay at during the Rainman.


The next day we headed home so I could go with my mom, sister, Grandma, and a family friend to the Forgotten Carols. I have always wanted to see the play and it was great! The next couple of days were a bit dramatic because of the weather. It snowed three days straight in St. George, which is unheard of. My sister and her two kids were trapped in Portland and finally made it on Christmas Eve night. Ben and Molly had weather problems too and didn't make it until Christmas night at 11pm, so we decided to just celebrate Christmas on the 26th.

We all had so much fun being all together as a family for the first time since Abby left on her mission, so we didn't care about pushing off the festivities. We had our traditional Christmas breakfast which was amazing and then spent the morning opening presents.

Rylynn is proudly displaying our gifts from Estonia that Aunt Abby brought us home from her mission. I got some wool gloves and Carter and Daddy got wool socks. Rylynn got a little hat with bunny ears.

The kids table. AKA the messy table!

All wearing our Christmas jammies that we got on Christmas Eve.

The kids oohing and ahhing over the presents under the tree

Rylynn's Christmas mostly consisted of fancy nancy dress ups and princess.

Carter's highlights were balls and binkies!

Nana got a big surprise from Papa this year, a beautiful Ruby ring!

We were so excited to meet baby Skyler this Christmas and to celebrate Reagan and Skylar's first Christmases together. What cute nieces and nephews I have!

That night we had our Prime Rib christmas dinner and then the kids enacted the family nativity pageant. It was pretty entertaining this year considering we started about an hour and a half after the kids bedtime.

Aria helping make the Christmas dinner. The pomegranates got a little out of control.


Fun with Aunt Abby!

Rylynn got to be Mary this year which she was thrilled about! Carter kind of shifted parts throughout the performance.

The pink baby Jesus:)

Rylynn and Aria had so much fun together this year!

The day after Christmas we all had to get up really early to take a family picture by the red rocks of St. George. The only problem is that it was still freezing there and we had to take the picture where the sun was not shining so the kids were all freezing and not happy. I'm pretty sure my kids are crying in every picture, but oh well.

This picture just makes me laugh. Garrett got Carter ready while I was getting ready and the dress code was a white shirt and jeans, so Garrett decided to write this little note just to make sure that Carter's white shirt didn't get stained while he was waiting. He mostly put this sign on for Papa since he was notorious for giving the kids candy when we weren't looking.

We were worried he might end up looking like this!

After the picture we spent the afternoon playing all sorts of Christmas games that my parents were in charge of for their ward Christmas party. We had a christmas cupcake walk, which was a real favorite. We also had a bean bag toss on a santa board and an archery game through christmas wreaths. As always Carter is holding Aunt Abby's hand.

Carter was sleeping in a travel crib in the closet of our room, but one night we checked on the kids to find this. He is such a little snuggler!

We had such a great time with everyone! Part two will be our trip to AZ to visit Garrett's family, celebrating Carter's birthday, and a little getaway for me and Garrett, so stay tuned!

We're Back

Sorry for the major blogging hiatus, we were out of town for a month and whenever I am on vacation I forget about blogging. I will post all the exciting Christmas and trip pictures soon!

For now, I have a two little funny stories about Rylynn to journal about. Yesterday, when I was putting on makeup Rylynn and Carter were taking a bath. Rylynn kept asking me where each item of makeup was supposed to go on my face. I started explaining that I put on makeup on the parts that I want to cover up because they aren't very pretty. Her response was, " Oh mama, I think your face is beautiful!" It's always nice to have a little fan club to make you feel good:)

The next funny story happened today. While I was getting Rylynn some paint and a water cup and paint brushes so that she could paint on her easel she said, "Mom I do not want a mosque!" I told her I didn't understand what she meant by that. She said it a couple more times and I said Rylynn I don't know what that is. Then she said, "you know Mommy, the thing that you put on to protect your clothes from paint!" Then I was like oh a smock! She is so funny.

Another Rylynn update is that she started primary on Sunday and loved it. She did so well in her class and she came home and sang the song they were working on all day long. I just got a calling in primary so it is really fun to be in there with her.

Carter is all grown up now and officially 2! We had a little party for him on New Year's Eve and he got his presents when we got home. He is talking so much and has a new word almost every day. We are all really happy to be home even though we came home to tons of snow and freezing winter temps. I will update more later.

I love and hate, but mostly love December...

Is it just me or was December the most exciting month of the year as a kid? Seriously every day was a day closer to Christmas, and we had so many traditions leading up to Christmas that it was just a month long celebration. Unfortunately, when you grow up you realize that someone was doing all the work to create that feeling and those experiences and you figure out pretty quickly that if you want the same thing for your kids you have to do all the work. Don't get me wrong, I love the Christmas season and making it wonderful for my kids, it's just that it never stops! From the day after Thanksgiving you have to go into hyper mode to get everything done. This is why I have been the worst blogging slacker ever the last couple weeks. So to make myself feel a little better and focus on the things we have gotten done and not the things we haven't gotten done, here is a little update on what we've been up to.

A couple of weeks ago, Garrett surprised me with an early Christmas present and bought us Sarah Brightman tickets! He got a way good deal if we bought four tickets so we were able to go with the our bishop and his wife to an amazing concert! This is something that Garrett and I have always wanted to do together. When we were dating a lot of her songs were "our songs" so we always said that we would love to go to one of her concerts someday. Ben and Molly watched our babies which was so nice of them!! We had a great time and Sarah was amazing in concert! We kept commenting that we needed to take Rylynn to one of her concerts because the whole thing was like being in a fairy land. Her costumes were so fancy and girly and the set designs were so magical looking. Rylynn would have told us that she wanted every dress that she wore. The funny thing is that the day after the concert Garrett played some of her songs for Rylynn and she loved them! She now asks for certain ones by name.

I know I look really tired in this picture, it's December!!

This guy sang a couple or duets with Sarah and he was such a power house! He was amazing!

Seriously her set designs were more like a musical than a concert, I loved them! Thanks honey for such a fun date!

Next on the list is that we took the kids to the Annual Christmas Lights event at the Farmpark. We went last year and had so much fun. This year unfortunately our camera was acting up so we didn't get that many pictures.

Rylynn loved sitting on Santa's lap and telling him that she wants Fancy Nancy clothes for Christmas. Carter on the other hand was terrified of Santa and just cried and reached for me.

Carter however was thrilled when we got to the barn because he is obsessed with animals right now. They had a horse show the night we went and Carter loves horses right now (he calls them neighs) so he was one happy boy. Then we got to see baby pigs, sheep (baas), chickens, and ducks (quacks). The kids even got to take a pony ride which they both loved but thought it was way too short. So did we actually since it was three bucks per ride and they took three laps around the tiny ring. Oh well, they loved it. Carter also loved the giant train set. He loves trains right now and he could have watched it go around all night if we would have let him.

Next we got to go to Santa's toy shop and make toys with the elves. Rylynn's creation was vastly improved over last years:) She choose a gingerbread house this time and painted the whole thing purple, of course, with glitter all over the roof. Carter made a bus, and with Daddy's help it actually looks like a bus.

We had a great time, the only sad part was that we bought the tickets a month in advance (they sell out quick) and we didn't know that the night we had tickets for was the same night as the ward Christmas party which Ben and Molly were in charge of. We were sad to have missed it and we heard it was amazing!

So aside from that, we do have lots of Christmas decorations up which the kids love! Rylynn usually thanks Heavenly Father for "our pretty Christmas decorations" in her prayers at night! We also have the Christmas card list updated and the Christmas cards printed! I have most of the kids presents purchased and all the family presents purchased although none of them are wrapped. So we are making progress. The reason I am so stressed though is that we are leaving on Tuesday and Garrett's last final is on Monday so he can't help out as much as he or I would like. Oh well, tis the season! One more happy note is that my little sister comes home from her mission tomorrow!!!!! I can't wait to see her and hug her and tackle her again:)