Family Pictures

I realized this year that we were way overdue for some nice family photos. We hadn't had any nice ones taken since before Travis was born and I figured it was about time (especially because we are going to have tons of wall space to fill in our new house). So I had my friend, Penny, take them and she did an amazing job. Here are a few of my favorites:

There is also a really awesome family shot of everyone, but I am saving it for our Christmas card. So you all will just have to wait for that one!

Homeless No More

So, we are (finally) buying a house. It has been a long and frustrating process, but it finally looks like things are going to work out for us. We are nervous and excited and are set to close on December 17th! Just a week before Christmas -- who ever said we liked to do things the easy way?!

Halloween

So, yeah, I am not the best blogger. In fact, I might be the worst blogger EVER. But, I am trying so that must be worth something, right? Anyway, I am finally updating with some pictures of Halloween. This fall has been super busy for us. Between an extremely crazy house-hunting process, a time-consuming calling, children involved in too many activities, staging, selling & moving out of a house combined with all the normal fall happenings, we certainly haven't lacked for something to do. Although things have been a little crazy, they have generally been pretty good. We are all happy and healthy and who can really ask for anything more? Now, on to the pictures...

This year we went trick-or-treating with a big group of friends and all the kiddos. This is us trying to get them all in a picture. Some of them were more into it than others.

Here are my three kiddos on the big night. Halloween when you are a kid is the best!

This is a picture of Alyssa, Coriel and some of her best gal pals.

Coriel as a trendy witch (she didn't want to be a scary one) and Alyssa as princess Leia (is that how you spell it?)

Princess Leia and Darth Vader. We have been a little Star Wars obsessed in our household lately.

First Day of First Grade

Here are a few pictures from Coriel and Alyssa's first day of first grade. They have a modified school calendar so they start a little earlier than most kids.

Hooray for Spring

OK, I know it has been FOREVER since I last posted something. I kind of have a love/hate relationship with blogging. My feelings for my blog have been more on the hate side of the equation for most of 2009. However, spring has come. The sun is shining, the tulips in front of my house are blooming and I am soaking in the feelings of rebirth & renewal. So, my attitude is starting to shift and I am becoming almost positive in my outlook towards this whole blogging phenomenon. We'll see how long it lasts...

Needless to say, I have a lot of catching up to do. So this post is going to consist of tons of pictures detailing the things we have been up to in the past few months. Enjoy!

Some pics from BYU during our Utah Trip:

A visit to the Sandy Aquarium:

A little egg hunting at Grandma's house:

Bowling Fun:

There are many more pictures, but I am done for tonight. Perhaps I'll post some more tomorrow...

Christmas 2008

Here are some pictures from our Christmas celebrations:

Christmas Eve:

We spent Christmas Eve enjoying the company of both friends and family. We started off the night visiting with friends. Some families that we know from our ward got together and enjoyed some delicious food and conversation. The kids ran around while the adults talked. It was wonderful! Thank you, Amanda, for inviting us! Afterwards, we went over to my Dad's house and met up with my sister, my brother and his wife. We read the story of Jesus's birth together and then let the kids open up one present (it just so happened that each present turned out to be a brand new set of jammies).

Christmas morning:

On Christmas morning we woke up early (but not as early as I was expecting, thankfully) and opened up the presents from Santa and the ones from our family at our house. We then quickly headed over to my Dad's house (as my little niece was impatiently waiting for us) where we opened up the rest of our presents. I was in charge of Christmas breakfast and I decided to bake homemade cinnamon rolls. I was a little nervous about it because I had been playing around with several recipes but hadn't found one that I really liked. Thankfully, the rolls turned out beautifully. I was so proud of myself (my cooking/baking has come a long way in the seven years I have been married). I meant to take a picture, but forgot. Sorry -- you will just have to imagine the best cinnamon rolls you have ever seen or tasted and then you'll be somewhat close to my culinary masterpiece. j/k.

After presents and breakfast we set about playing with our hoards of toys. Santa had been very generous with our family -- He brought us a Wii plus tons of accessories and games. I don't know who enjoyed playing with it more -- my brother, Ryan, or the kids. We had a blast! For dinner, my sister and I teamed up to cook a delicious feast of prime rib, potatoes, salad, rolls, asparagus and a decadent triple chocolate trifle dessert. Everything was spectacular. All in all, it was a wonderful Christmas and I feel like it will be the beginning of a good new start to 2009 for all of us.

This picture was out-of-focus and it wouldn't let me fix the red eyes, but I thought it summed up the frenzy of Christmas morning present-opening very well.

Gotta love both the hair and her insistence on wearing the new gloves she had received in her stocking.

You can't see it very well, but Travis insisted on opening up his presents by smacking them with his beloved hammer. It was hilarious.

Enjoying the "big" present from Santa.

Alyssa opening up a huge pile of presents at my Dad's house.

Coriel and her pile.

My brother, Ryan, and his wife, Dusti at my Dad's house on Christmas morning.

The best seven years of my life

Yesterday Kip and I celebrated our 7th Wedding Anniversary. We didn't do anything too fancy -- we just had a quiet dinner date and then we picked up the kids and took them to the Temple to see the lights. To many this would seem a dull way to celebrate as important an event as an anniversary. To me it was perfect. In a way it very much symbolized the kind of people Kip and I are. We aren't too flashy or outgoing. No one would ever pay money to see a Hollywood depiction of our lives. There isn't a whole lot of drama in our lives. We are just two ordinary, hard-working people who genuinely enjoy spending time with each other and our kids. Some might label our lives boring; I prefer the word steady. I whole-heartedly love my life. I wouldn't want it any other way. Thank you, Kip, for being my handsome, brilliant, patient, loving, kind, considerate, diligent, wise (and the list goes on and on...) leading man in our very un-Hollywood love story.