Happy Birthday Ally!

Ally turned 3 years old on November 22, but we were up to Kaiden's wedding so we didn't have her party until Monday night. It's kind of nice to have her birthday around Thanksgiving because there is always family around. This year Nate and Adalia were able to come and help us celebrate.

Ally is such a good little girl. Up until just recently she has just been a delight to be around, always so happy and easy going. In just the past few months she has started showing some attitude and throwing fits and disobeying. But she's still a good kid. She loves to color and draw and make crafty things. She loves to play outside, riding on her bike or jumping on the trampoline. She absolutely loves to play with Grandpa Craig. She loves to dance with him and have him swing her around. He doesn't get any rest when she is around. But I think he likes it too. Ally loves to play with Ethan and be his friend even though they don't always get along. She also adores her baby brother Ryan and wants to hold him all the time. Ally has her daddy wrapped around her little finger and can talk him into almost anything. She calls herself his "little princess". She also calls him her little princess. I am so happy to have Ally as my sweet little daughter, she has brought so much joy and happiness to my life. I love you Ally Keziah!

Opening presents.
Ashlynn, Ally, Paige, Ledger, and Eden at the party.

Ally and her Barbie cake.

Ally Keziah is 3 years old!

Below is a slideshow of some cute pictures of Ally's first 3 years.

My Ally-Gal

Kaiden and Macie

Javan's cousin-brother Kaiden got married last weekend to the cutest girl, her name is Macie. We are excited to have her as part of the family. Her and Kaiden are so cute together.

They were married in the Jordan River Temple. It was a beautiful day, but still very cold and I didn't very many good pictures. Here's Kaiden lovingly helping Macie with her shawl-thingy.

Three little hooligans: Jane, Harper, and Ethan. They were very happy to see each other and excited to play. Not as excited to get pictures taken.

Our family at the Jordan River Temple. (This is one of those days that when you left the house you were feeling pretty good about your appearance, until you saw yourself in a picture. I have got to do something about that hair.)That night we went to the reception at a place called Cactus and Tropicals. It is a plant store. It was really neat though. Apart from the reception there were lots of really neat plants, all the parents were nervous that the kids were going to get into something that we would then have to pay for. They all did well though. We didn't have to worry about the babies. They behaved very nicely.
Kaiden and Macie. I hope you like this picture. I waited quite sometime through the throngs of people to get this lovely shot.

Javan and Ally enjoying themselves at the reception.

This is the cake. It was quite different, but pretty cool. It took us awhile before we figured out it was the cake.

Unfortunately Kaiden got violently ill the night of the wedding and was throwing up all night. They went to the hospital and he got a shot of something and was able to enjoy the honeymoon. Macie never contracted the illness, thank heavens.

This is from the reception in Blanding. Again, not very many pictures. But here are a few of the kids. Ethan, Clay, Ella, Tessa, and Isabella. With Pratt in the background.

After this Ethan and Clay took my camera and got lots of choice, unfocused shots. Here's probably the best one. Kaiden and Macie, "Is this thing almost over?"Congratulations Kaiden and Macie. We love you!

Jabber Jabber

Ryan is really starting to smile and talk a lot. But every time I get out the camera to get some footage of it he gets distracted by the light on the camera and just wants to look at it and not at me. This little video is kind of the tail end of the cooing before he gets mad. He is growing too fast.



My little froggy after his bath.

Ally is such a big helper. Ryan weighs 14 lbs, she can't even lift him, but she tries as you can see here. He is a good sport and takes the abuse for a little while. Poor kid.

First Snowfall

We had our first snowfall on Wednesday. The kids were so excited to wake up and see all the snow on the ground. They immediately wanted to get dressed and go play outside. I, on the other hand was not as excited to go clean off the car, and scrape windows so I could go to work. The drive over to Monticello would confirm my dislike of winter. As I left Blanding the roads were just kind of slushy but as a few miles past it turned into a thick sheet of ice, very slippery ice. Which caused me to drive about 30 mph the whole way over. This woulndn't have been a big deal on any other day but I had asked my first patient to come in at 8:30 instead of 8:00 which she wasn't happy about because she need to leave town after her appointment. I usually start work at 9:00, it's just too hard for me to get there by 8:00. So due to the slow driving conditions I didn't get to work until after 8:30. My patient handled it though after I gave a really sad story about having a 2 month old baby, trying to get the kids all up and ready for school, and to the babysitter, and then my oil light coming on in the car and having to go home and trade cars and then drive on an icy road just to get there in time to clean her stinkin' teeth. I'm kidding. It all turned out fine, (that's all true though). Anyway, Hooray for winter? No!



But, Javan is working hard to get the garage addition done before it snows too much. I told him as soon as it snow I am parking inside of it. This is a view from the back.


And the front.

The Show

It's beginning. As kids, Amber and I and our friends would make up plays and dances and then make our parents buy tickets to attend them. We thought it was the greatest. I'm sure our parents did too. While we were in Hawaii, Madi, Taylor, and Cole taught my kids how to do shows. So Ethan and Ally put on their first "show" the other night for us, with the ukeleles they got in Hawaii. (Ally dressed herself, just so you know.)

A little live footage of "the show".

2 Months Old

Ryan is 2 months old. My how time flies. His is growing so fast. He weighs 13 lbs 9 oz, and is 22 1/2 inches long. He is a good baby and puts up with a lot from Ethan and Ally. He is still waking up every couple of hours during the night to eat. I wish he did a little better in this area but I still love him to pieces. He is really smiling a lot and making lots of cooing and gurgling noises.



Bath time. I have graduated him from the little baby bath to the big bath.


He doesn't care much but Ethan and Ally think it's great. Wow! Ally really needed a bath.


Ethan and Ryan napping.

Cook Out

It was such a nice day last Saturday that we decided to go on a cookout. We went out to Spring Creek Ranch to cook hobo dinners with my mom and dad. We picked a good day because the next day was absolutely freezing. I think we can officially say goodbye to warm weather and hello to winter. (Sad sobs!)

Ally and Ryan waiting for dinner to cook. (Ally has some left over princess angel Halloween hair.)


Ryan loved the cookout, he was really happy and cooing a lot. I was trying to get some pictures but it was getting dark and my camera has a hard time in that lighting, also the fire in the background was making it hard on the camera too. Anyway, this is a good shot of his smile. He is so cute.


I loved the cookout too!


Javan and Ryan tending the fire and the hobo dinners.


Grandma and Ryan.


Ethan and Grandpa loading up the 4-wheeler. Sorry this picture is pretty dark.

Tagged in 4's

In this tag you find your 4th picture in your 4th folder and write a brief description.

This is Ethan and Ally taking a nap. They fight and can't get along most of the day but they love to cuddle and be close when they are sleeping. I guess I can be happy that they like each other at some point during the day.


I tag anyone that is reading this.

Lucky 7

Wow, this tag was hard for me.

7 things I can do:
1. I can craft (sew, crochet, scrapbook, and more) And I love it.
2. I can hunt and shoot a gun. I even have a concealed weapons permit.
3. I can spend money with the best of them.
4. I can use power tools. I love to help Javan and my dad with projects.
5. I can make cute kids.
6. I can eat a lot! I eat more than Javan most of the time.
7. I can pack lots of things into small spaces. (See #1 below)

7 things I can't do:
1. I can't bear to throw anything away. That's right, I'm a pack rat.
2. I can't roller skate. My sister and friends have tried to teach me, I can't do it.
3. I can't resist a good bargain or the clearance rack.
4. I can't keep my house clean.
5. I can't stand seafood.
6. I can't wait to be debt-free (this may never happen - see #3 above)
7. I can't go anywhere without my camera.

7 things that attracted me to Javan:
1. He's freakin' hot!
2. Cute butt.
3. Successful and hard working.
4. Patient.
5. Exciting.
6. Good kisser. (I guess I didn't find that out until after.)
7. He loves me back despite everything.

7 things that I say most often:
1. No
2. Not right now.
3. Don't smash your brother.
4. Do you have any teeth that are hurting or bothering you?
5. Really?
6. Love you
7. Thank you

7 favorite foods:
1. Ham and cream potatoes
2. Training Table club
3. Cafe Rio pork salad
4. Jamba Juice/Orange Julius
5. Potatoes of all kinds
6. Candy
7. Chocolate cake doughnut with chocolate icing

7 celebrity admirations
1-7. I don't know.

7 people I tag:
1. Shalisa
2. Kelli
3. Mindi
4. Beth
5-7. Anyone else

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween everyone! For as much as I dislike Halloween we had a pretty good time this year. On Monday we carved pumpkins for family home evening. I think there were a lot of people that had this same idea because the pumpkins that were left at the store were pretty picked over. All of them had soft spots, some were leaking nasty pumpin fluids out, and some were already a pile of mush at the bottom of the box. But we made the best of what we had. Both Ethan and Ally we super excited to carve their own, with sharp knives. Ally had a hard time following the lines we had drawn so she enjoyed just kindof stabbing her pumpkin with a sharp knife. Since Javan gave Ethan his own real leatherman earlier this year he has become quite proficient with a sharp knife (besides the one accident, you might recall).

Anyway, Here's Ethan and Ally carving their pumpkins.

Family photo after all the pumpkins were done.

Happy Halloween!

Ethan dressed up as a Jedi Knight. He wanted to be something that carried a sword, and it had to be a straight sword, so we had decided on a pirate. But then he saw this Jedi costume and had to have it. We already had the light saber so that was a bonus. But then he didn't want to carry the light saber he needed something to hold it. So I whipped up a really awesome light saber holster, for one really awesome Jedi.


Ally dressed up as an Angel Princess. (She wanted to be a princess, and I accidently ordered an angel costume, hence the angel princess, everyone wins!) She was so cute. The costume was a little long so I thought I would just put a few little gathers down at the bottom so shorten it up a bit. This turned out to be quite a detriment to Ally. The fabric was stretchy, so everytime she took off running she would catch her foot inside the dress and fall flat on her face. The first few times it was inside the house so it wasn't a big deal. But then she face planted on the concrete at Mike and Shan's and the rest of the night was spent in either mine or Javan's arms.

Ryan dressed up as a turtle. This is the cutest thing I have ever seen. I loved it. I wish he could wear it every day so everyone could see him. He was a really good sport, in fact he was so cozy and warm inside the turtle he was sound asleep most of the night.

We had a pretty long day. After playing all morning we went to Pratt's football game in the afternoon. (It was the quarterfinals, we beat the Richfield Wildcats 33-0. Go Broncos!) Then we came home and got ready for trick-or-treating. After visiting the homes of family and friends Ethan and Ally were both pretty tired and wanted to go home. So we did, but then they wanted to go to "just one more house", so I took them to the neighbors, then "just one more house" so we went on to the next house, then "just one more". It continued this was all the way around the block, until their buckets were full and too heavy to carry themselves. I'll call that a successful halloween.

Big Helper

I guess this might gross some of you out. Last night we were cutting up my deer and Ethan said he wanted to help, so Javan let him. Javan gave him some gloves and a knife and taught Ethan how to cut the yucky parts off the meat. He did really good. First thing this morning he wanted to know if the jerky was done.

Check out the size of that knife.

Concentrating really hard to do a good job.

Ethan and Ryan

I got this outfit out for Ryan to wear to church yesterday and I remembered that Ethan had his pictures taken in that outfit too, so I dug out the picture. Ethan wore this when he was about 3 months old, Ryan is 7 weeks. We have had a hard time deciding who Ryan looks like but I think he and Ethan do have some similarities. They're both chubby, Ryan just achieved his chubbiness quicker.


Ethan at 3 months
Ryan at 7 weeks

Hanksville

Javan and Aaron and about 30 other guys from Blanding went to Hanksville on Saturday to ride their motorcycles. This was Javan's dream come true. He had the best time. He has been talking nonstop about their day since he got home. I'm glad he had a fun trip.

This is Aaron taking a jump.

The guys and all their gear.

For Nicole and Heather

My good friends Nicole and Heather embarked on a serious adventure last Friday. They rode their bikes all the way from Blanding to Lake Powell. It's 90 miles. Way to go girls! They are so adventurous. They invited me to come along but I wasn't quite up for the challenge, so they enlisted me to bring them lunch about halfway through the ride. Ethan and Ally were pretty confused about why they were riding their bikes and why we weren't going all the way to Lake Powell. It was fun anyway.

Here's a few pictures.

Yeah Nicole!

Go Heather!

After this fun trip I was thinking about a few other fun adventures we have had together.

We rafted down the Colorado River. There was Me, Nicole, Heather, Tamia, and Shawn (Nicole's brother). We had no idea what we were doing and ended up flipping the raft on some rapids and about drowning. We all survived and gathered up all of our belongings except for a couple pops I think.

All through high school we said we were going to hike over the mountain. And it wasn't until the year after we graduated that we actually did it. There was me, Nicole, Heather, and Cyndi. It was a 30 mile trip. We hiked 20 miles the first day, then camped and finished the last ten miles the next day. It was so much fun. This was right when Javan and I started dating, he came out and camped with us that night. I had blisters all over my feet because my shoes were a little snug and he helped me bandage them up. How sweet, can you imagine how stinky they were after hiking 20 miles.

Thanks Nic and Heat for the good times. What should we do next?