SnOw tRiP

At the end of February, the kids and I had the chance to go up to Flagstaff with Papa & Lainey Fish to play in the snow for a few days. Ryan had to stay and work, but we called him everyday and took lots of pictures. My sis-in-law Shorty and her girls joined in the fun too. We had such a fun time making snowmen, sledding, eating snow, and just hanging out with you guys! Thanks for having us! You're the best!

Okay, how cute is Katelyn's snow bib here. It makes her look so chubby!
Really she's not at all! :)

Ken & Mo visit AZ

In February, Ken and Mo came to visit AZ. We had a fun time hanging out with
them and their kiddos!
Miss you guys!

This last pic is just a random one of the kids and Ryan taken around that time. Ryan set up the hammock in the living room and the kids had a blast playing on it!

Jan. Snow Trip

We decided to take a day and go to the snow in January. We had to go all the way to Strawberry before there was any real snow, but the kids and Bella had "snow" much fun! Ryan was cursing the Durango when we got stuck in some ice. He was a champ and got us out of there with a crowbar to chip away the ice and a chain dog leash we found for traction. "I miss black truck!" he kept saying, over and over. I miss it too! We never got stuck anywhere with that thing.

Bella is getting so big! She'll be a year old at the end of April.

The kids loved to eat the snow. Ryan told them "Make sure you don't eat yellow
snow, just white snow!" :)

My little snow angels!

Brrr! It's cold, Mom!

More eating snow

Cole is so happy to be in the snow!

I love this pic of Katelyn showing me her snowball. :)

Sledding down the hill!

Right by where we parked there was this huge pile of snow (probably from the snowplow) and someone had made a little snow cave. Cole just had to try it out!

Katelyn crashed out on the way home with her June doll (from Little Einsteins).

All in all, a very fun trip!

Ryan's 31st b-day!

I know, I know, I have been such a slacker when it comes to blogging for the past couple months! It's tax season, so Ryan is super busy and gone a lot, so I've been pulling double duty with the kids, etc.

Anyways, I'll try to be better from now on. Here are some updates for ya!

Ryan's 31st birthday was in January! We had some family over for cake and ice cream and fun. Happy Birthday Ryan - we love you!

The kids got skates for Christmas and we were trying to teach them how to use them one day. We also had our nieces over with their skates/rollerblades to play, so Ryan pulled out his old rollerblades from way back when.

My OW! Katelyn says this a lot! :)
She is very tall for her age and falls down a lot even when she's not trying to skate.

Ryan helping Cole, Sydney helping Katelyn.

Brooke, Katelyn, and Cole

Ryan with the kids. As you can see the whole neighborhood was out that day!

Christmas (a little late, I know)

I can't believe it's been a month since I posted last! Crazy. Well, here's a little catch up on Christmas, etc. We had my family over Christmas Eve for a yummy dinner and to tell the Christmas story from the Bible, play games, and make gingerbread houses. The kids had a lot of fun together!

I think the adults liked "helping" with the gingerbread houses. It brought back good memories of when we used to do the same thing as kids (not to mention we got to sample the candy!). Here's my brother Joel helping his daughters with theirs.

Hailey liked to eat the yummy frosting.

Cole & JoLynn proudly displaying their creations!

Katelyn had aunt Lisa helping her - as you can see by the pile of wrappers in front of her, she really likes chocolate!

Katelyn (with her dirty chocolate covered face) loved holding baby Shae! Shae doesn't look too sure about it though. :)

Ryan's parents stayed with us Christmas Eve and then opened their presents with us Christmas morning. Ryan's brother Trevor stayed with us too! Poor guy had to sleep in Cole's room. I guess Cole was up coughing half the night. He's such a good uncle - he rubbed some Vicks on his chest and helped him get back to sleep. Ryan & I had no idea! Cole woke up about 4am but Trevor and him had a talk and decided it was too risky to go downstairs because it was still dark and Santa might not have come to our house yet. Thanks Trevor for letting us get a little extra sleep!

Cole got a digger for his sandbox. He loves it!

Katelyn got a Princess kitchen and loves to pretend cooking with it. So cute!

Well, there are more pictures of Christmas, but they're on the new camera Ryan got me! Yep, I love it! I've taken a ton of pics, but haven't figured out (or should I say, I haven't had Ryan show me how) to upload them to the computer so I can post them/print them. So once I can talk him into showing me how (or I break down and read the manual myself - haha, yeah right) you'll have to be patient.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year! We love you all!

I have an amazing hubbie!

So once upon a time (6 years ago), Ryan and Lucinda got a new t.v. Since they were too cheap to get a new entertainment center, Ryan re-configured our current one - if you've been to our house, I'm sure you've seen it (if you haven't, it's in the background of this picture).

So then, finally, 6 long years later, Ryan decided to make a new entertainment center himself. Again, because we (and I mean Ryan) are too cheap to buy one when Ryan can make one himself that is custom-made. I seriously don't know how he knows how to do all this stuff when he's never done it before! He is a man of many talents, that's for sure.

Here he is hard at work!

And the almost-finished product! Santa's going to bring us the rest of the cabinets for Christmas if we're good. :)

I know, I know, I have way too many nativity sets for one person, but I just love to collect them!

Catch Up!

Our ward put on a Polar Express party last weekend and it was so much fun! The kids loved it! Here are some pics from that night:

The kids got to wear their pj's (Ryan wanted to but I told him no). :)


They got a bell necklace to help them remember to Believe!


Pictures with Santa - Cole loved it!



Katelyn, not so much...

And on to...
GINGERBREAD HOUSE-MAKING!!!


I think more candy made it into our kids' tummies than actually made it onto the house!


Ryan is wearing my apron since he says I never wear it (how could I? It's been in a box for almost the whole year!)




It turned out so cute, don't ya think?