Today, after we had several inches of snow fall & since I was feeling much better after being sick all week, I took Ryan & we went outside to try his skis for the first time. He has "skated" through the house with them on several times, but never on the snow before.

I must admit, I was a bit nervous, since he is my cautious child & often doesn't like to try new things. Much to my surprise, he is a natural. I had him walk on our grass & down our driveway. He did a great job, so we moved to a bit steeper driveway next door, (thanks Amanda!). He did great down that, so we moved to another driveway across the street from us that has an even steeper driveway. He went down like a pro.! I will post pictures later...but watch out skiers here come Ryan!

Since today is Thanksgiving, I felt it would be only appropriate to end the day's festivities with a list of things I am thankful for & there is lots!

I am so thankful for my sweet sweet husband. He is such a good example of patience & Christ like love & charity. I am so blessed that I am married to him for all eternity & that the Lord felt I deserved someone so wonderful & special. He is so supportive of all I do & loves me no matter what!

My boys...what else do I need to say?! They are such a blessing in my life & always brighten the room. Both have such unique qualities, but are a bundle of joy.

Other things I am thankful for:
* Matt's job
* Being a stay at home mom
* My Freedom
* My parents
* Matt's parents
* My home
* Feeling so loved by my family
* The great ward we are in
* My calling as primary music leader
* Music & the important role it plays in my life
* The church
* My testimony

Above all, I am grateful for my Savior, Jesus Christ & ALL that He has done for & given to me. Without the knowledge & beliefs I have of my Savior, I wouldn't be the person I am or strive to be a better wife, mom & person. Everything in my life is a gift & a blessing from Him, & knowing that I can turn to Him when it feels like no-one else is there is one of the greatest blessings.

There is so much to be thankful for not only today & throughout the season, but all year round. I am lucky to be so greatly blessed.

Sometime in August my nephew came over for the day, while his mom worked & his sister was at school. We were having a conversation into which Ryan joined in. I can't remember the conversation for the life of me, but Ryan & Dylan's (my nephew) part went something like this:

Me: "Dylan, you're full of it"

Dylan: "No I'm not!"

Ryan: "You're full of it"

Dylan: "of what?"

Ryan: "Coconuts...Dylan you're full of coconuts!"

Of course we all broke out laughing & then Ryan adds... "Dylan you're full of yourself!!!"

I guess it doesn't seem as funny now...but at the time it was really funny!
Thanks for the good laugh Ryan!

Aren't Sundays supposed to be relaxing days?

Today was one of the busiest & stressful Sundays. We had our primary program today. A lot of you are probably thinking, "we did ours forever ago." Our program was supposed to be UEA weekend, but was changed when we realized that a lot of people were going out of town!

I will not complain in the slightest that it was pushed back a month. We sure needed it! Our ward was split at the end of June & a new primary presidency & music leader (me) were put in during the month of July. This was the first program that any of us have been involved in...and oh, what a feat it was!

Despite having a so-so practice yesterday, the kids did an AWESOME job today. I had a lot of compliments at the end of the program. Even a few members of the stake primary said how good it was! I am sooo proud of all our primary kids, yes all 128 of them! I didn't realize how big our primary really was until I took a moment & looked on the stand and saw 128 pairs of eyes staring back at me. I was awe inspiring.

Ryan did an awesome job with his part & sang his little heart out, (at least for most of the
songs).

Most of Ryan's extended family came to see his first program ever! All his Grandpas & Grandmas, Great Grandma Kelley, most of his aunts, uncles & cousins. After church everyone came to the house for a wonderful lunch & social hour!

Although it was crazy & stressful, it was a ton of fun too!
I am the luckiest person to be able to do music with the precious primary kids!

We had an eventful Halloween this year. It all started a few weeks before Halloween when I took the boys to my mom's ward for their trunk-or-treat! They got a lot of candy at that event. Plus we were able to test out the costumes!

The weekend before Halloween, my brother & his wife took the boys trick-or-treating in the downtown part of where they live! They had a blast!



Since Halloween was on a Friday this year, Ryan was able to wear his costume to pre-school & they had a big party. This is a picture of him & one of his best friends, as well as a few other kids at pre-school.

Ryan decorated these deliciously creepy treats at pre-school.

For those of you who are Disney illiterate, Ryan was Woody from the "Toy Story" movies. He LOVED the hat & boots. For weeks before Halloween he would wear those two things around the house & every where we went. As a result of that, Nathan had to try on the hat!


Here is a cute picture of the boys with Benjamin as "Squirt" from "Finding Nemo". I couldn't resist the cute picture moment.

After everyone was finished collecting a year's supply of candy, my family hung out and visited for a while. My brother-in-law decided to put on his daughter's wig from her Cleopatra costume. This was the result!


Thanks goes out to all their cousins who came & celebrated Halloween in the miserable rain!

Nathan had a great birthday a few weeks ago. The day of his actual birthday he opened some presents from mom, dad & Ryan. His favorite thing...Mickey Mouse!!! He has only had the stuffed Mickey for 3 weeks, but he takes it everywhere & has the dirt to show for it!

Ignore the scary picture of mom...we had just gotten up!

For his birthday we went miniature golfing & to dinner at Red Robin. He had a lot of fun. A few days later we had a family/friends party. Seeing as Mickey Mouse is the best thing there ever was, Nathan had to have Mickey Mouse birthday cakes.

Ryan wanted to help decorate the cakes and he did a GREAT job!

Nathan opened lots of goodies on his special day...

He loved blowing out his candles & he did it on his own.

Matt even captured a great picture of Nathan & Benjamin sitting together.

Thanks to all who made his birthday a great one!

Our ward had a harvest party at the beginning of October. There was lots of yummy soups, a talent show & then little activities for the children to do.
Nathan was only interested in the "fishing pond" where he got a bouncy ball. Ryan on the other had not only loved the "fishing" pond, but liked the face painting too. Here are some attempts at trying to capture the treasures they found.

Just to clarify they each got a bouncy ball and the painting on Ryan's face is a pumpkin...just what he wanted!

Since we had such a warm October, I let the boys go outside and get creative with some butcher paper, food coloring mixed with water & spray bottles.

They had a blast spraying the paper, rocks holding the paper down, & of course the driveway!
Here is one of Ryan & one of Nathan's creations.

What am I going to do with 6 sheets of sprayed butcher paper?...use it as wrapping paper for presents for either the boys or for the family come Christmas or birthdays!

Our little Nathan is 2 today! He is such a great boy! We love his smile & silly hair!

He is back on the weight charts at 10% & as we all know he is TALL 75%! He is growing so fast!

We love you!!!~Mom, Dad, & Ryan

Lately, I have been trying to be better about doing little crafts with the kids. So far we have done lots of painting. But the kids LOVE to paint, especially Nathan.

This is a day we did "blob" paintings. My intention was to have the kids paint on one side of the paper & then fold the other side against to make a mirror image. It worked very well with Ryan, but Nathan had too much fun painting on both sides of the paper & then Ryan wanted to "help" fold Nathan's over.

As the boys were painting, Nathan looks over at me & says "G". I look at his paper & this is what I see:

A few minutes later he does the same thing, except he says, "S"...

He is not quite 2 years old & knows his ABC's and numbers! He even drew a "G" & "S.

Before & after folding Ryan's paper in half.

During & after the folding of Nathan's paper.

The boys wanted to keep painting after finishing their blob pictures, so I pulled out some food coloring mixed with water & a few straws.

I helped them get the colored water onto their papers & then the boys blew through the straws to make all kinds of fun patterns. As you can see Ryan had fun blowing in his straw while Nathan decided it was more fun to chew on it!

I'm a little late posting the events of September...oops! One Friday in early September I more than doubled my family (at least for a few hours!).
I've been taking a neighbor girl to & from pre-school on Mondays & Fridays. After pre-school she comes over to have lunch & play until her mom gets home from work. Her & Ryan play so well together, it is no trouble having her here...in fact most days it doesn't even seem like there is another 4 year old running around my house.

On this particular day, I was also watching another friend's kids while she did some errands. Instead of trying to figure out how to handle 5 kids all under the age of 5, I decided it would be easier & more fun for the kids to go down the street to a park. We packed up a picnic & off to the park we went. This is a picture of all the kids actually sitting & eating their lunch!!!!

OK, so maybe I didn't figure things out on my own, but I got them figured out. I spent a lot of this morning over at Nicole's house as we tried to figure out what was going on. We finally figured out what it was!!!!

We were saving my pages in photoshop at the maximum resolution or whatever it was, a 12. We figured out we need to save at High or an 8 and that did the trick.

So here is the original page I came up with although I like the one Nicole did really fast as a test page. So sometime next week or so, I may switch back to that one!!!!

Thanks Nicole...your the best!!!!!

Here it is 12am (way past my bedtime!), & I am messing with this silly blog. I have Photoshop Elements & don't have a clue how to use it...so Thursday my friend, Andrea and her kids, came for a visit. She taught me how to use Elements. She also gave me a "great" website for making and posting my own layout for my blog.

Well guess what?! I have spent that past 3 hours trying to get the dumb thing to work. I erased all my old formats etc. to try this formula out...& it didn't work! So then of course I had to try and go back and fix it, so it was the same as before. I decided I was just going to make a new background by using the template I had before and replacing it with simple scrapbook paper that I have downloaded.

Needless to say I am very very very frustrated (did I mention how frustrated I am?).

I am going to call another friend tomorrow, (so Nicole, if you don't answer your phone, I'll understand) to come help me & see if I can figure it out!

If anyone has any ideas how to do it please let me know!!!! AAAAAAAK

Wednesday, August 27th Ryan had his first day of Preschool. He was very excited to go to "school" and be a big boy! He gets to go to school MWF for 2.5 hours a day.

Ryan picked out his own outfit for the first day of school!

Nathan didn't want to be left out of the first day festivities!

Here is Ryan at Preschool!

While Ryan loves school, Nathan does not like have Ryan gone for a few hours a day! Even though Nathan & I go for a walk & come home and play, he is always asking for Ryan. He is always really excited to get Ryan from Preschool. Hopefully he'll get used to it and enjoy the "alone" time with mom!