Duck Duck Goose

We taught Macie a new game and she was being so funny that I had to get out the camera.

Snow Day

One of the things I really like about living in a warm place is the fact that it doesn't snow in the winter. This is no longer true! I woke up one morning and was surprised to see huge snowflakes falling to the ground. By the afternoon we ventured out to play. Macie enjoyed eating the snow and throwing snowballs. She and Josh played until dark with the neighbor kids. The snowfall lasted well into the evening but melted almost all away the next day. I don't remember ever seeing this much snow in Vegas.

My sister Lisa came over to play.

A little strange to see Josh checking the pool chemicals while it was snowing.

View from our back door.

Josh and Macie went down to the green belt where there was more snow to play in.

It was fun for a day but I'm glad it's gone. I got so sick of the snow when we lived in Utah. No thanks!

Mmmm, Cookies!

We invited Macie's cousins over one morning to make some Christmas sugar cookies. My mom gave all of us cute cookie cutters, and we decided to put them to good use.

Macie and Bella enjoyed rolling out the dough and cutting the shapes.


"Fredding" the frosting.

Sadie was sent out of the kitchen because all she wanted to do was eat the dough.

I love this picture of Gus with frosting all over his face and hands. I don't blame him, they were delicious!

Baby Blessing

In December Josh gave Ty a beautiful blessing at church. We were lucky to have so many family members and friends attend. Baby blessings are so special. I'm so grateful for a wonderful husband who honors the priesthood and shares it with his family.

Since we had so many people there, the blessing circle was quite large. I think there are only 3 men missing from this picture. We had a luncheon at our house afterwards and I belive we were just shy of 60 people. Am I crazy or what? I felt like a crazy lady, but everyone was fed and we had a great time visiting.

Ty with his grandparents.

My cute little bug. He is such a smiley guy these days.

Thank you to everyone who came to support Ty on his blessing day. We love you all!

Thanksgiving

This year we spent Thanksgiving with my parents in Genoa. We missed Lisa because Paris had to work, but everyone else made it and the house was packed (16 people!). It was pretty much non-stop craziness and fun the whole weekend. My mom worked so hard to make a fabulous dinner complete with all of our traditional favorites. Josh looks forward to the 12-layer jello all year long! Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the tables or food, but I did get tons of pictures of the other things we did while we were there.

Josh and Ty playing Rock Band II.

Macie with her Uncle Alex.

Me and my Ty guy in downtown Genoa.

There's a yummy little bakery there and we stopped in for a treat. We let Macie pick out her own and, of course, it was a cupcake piled high with icing. She's like me though, a couple of bites and that was about it...not too big of a sweet tooth.

Macie, Sadie and Papi outside the little shops downtown.

My mom has a bin full of all our old dance costumes. My sister brought Bella and Macie out dressed up with pom-poms yelling "CHEERLEADERS!" It was sooo cute.

Not only did they dance for us, but we turned on the music and broke out into a dance party.

Oh yes, everyone danced until bedtime.

We went to Lake Tahoe one morning and rented bikes. They have great trails you can take that go around the lake. If you look closely in the picture behind my mom and Ty you can see our train of bikes and trailers lined up. We had 10 bikes and 3 trailers all together.

We stopped at 2 beaches, and the second one had a little picnic area where we unloaded for lunch. It was pretty cold but the kids did well.

Here's a shot of Josh pulling Ty around. He got the most exercise because when Ty was asleep he had to keep moving! You can see the gorgeous lake in the background. It is so beautiful up there.

Macie and Sadie girl were trailer buddies. They look so excited!

If you know my dad, you are aware that he is still acts like a little boy. He really wanted to get the potato gun out and shoot it over the golf course. He dumped the liquid from the emergency glow sticks onto the potatoes so we could see them fly through the air. It actually was pretty cool. In the picture my brother Ben is igniting the gun so Alex can shoot it off.

We love going to Genoa to visit because it's so breathtaking up there and we always have a blast. Even though it was freezing cold weather, we had a great holiday and are so thankful and blessed to have spent it with family.

Happy Anniversary!

We celebrated our 5 year anniversary on November 22nd. What better way to celebrate than going to see Twilight? Well, there are tons of better ways to celebrate, but Josh was willing to go see the movie and we had a great time. We also went to dinner at Vintner Grill, a great restaurant that we've been wanting to try. I loved the atmosphere and the food was absolutely superb. It was well worth the price. Josh is obsessed with the pretzel bread. He still talks about it and wants to go buy some to take home.

Since Ty is so young, dinner and a movie is all we could manage away from the kids. Thanks to Chad and Alli for watching them and letting us go out CHILD FREE. And thanks to Josh for being a wonderful husband and father. In reflecting back over the last 5 years it seems like so much has happened as we've changed and grown as a couple. Now we have 2 gorgeous kids and couldn't be happier. I can't wait to find out where life will take us in the future.

If Looks Could Kill

The stare...

The yawn...

The pouty lip...

Visitor

Josh's brother and his wife Alli went on a quick cruise and left their little one behind. Vance stayed with my in-laws for a couple days and spent his last night with us. While he was only with us for 24 hours, I did learn a valuable lesson: three kids is way harder than two! Honestly it really wasn't bad at all because Vance is such an easy 9 month old. I was very impressed. What got tricky was supervising Macie, watching Vance and feeding Ty all at the same time. But look at that face, who could resist spending time with such a cute boy?

Meow

Yes, this is way past-due, but I wanted to update my blog so we're going back to Halloween. For some reason I took on the task of making sugar cookies...not just any sugar cookies, but the best ever. Three recipies later these little guys were on a plate to be delivered. Decorating cookies was one of the few activities we did for the holiday. We also carved pumpkins and attended a few trunk-or-treats.

Macie certainly was the cutest little kitty I have ever seen. I love this picture because it showcases her cute little tail coming out from underneath the tutu.

Wow, what a scary witch and ferocious cat!

We went trick-or-treating in the neighborhood of some friends in our ward. They hosted a great party and then the kids set out for candy. I mostly stayed inside with Ty, aka Halloween Boy.

Macie had a great time. She was so excited for weeks leading up to it. I was impressed with her ability to comprehend the whole idea of Halloween. She did have a strange desire to touch people's costumes and ask them what they were supposed to be. Josh said she swatted an M&M girl while she passed her on the sidewalk. Oh, my Macie.

The end of the night ended with both kids in the stroller and a good night sleep.

Happy Birthday Josh

Josh turned 27 on Saturday. Yay! His request was to go out to dinner with just me and no kids. Usually he likes celebrating with friends, but I think life has been so busy for us both with the new baby and dental school that we don't seem to have any time to ourselves. We went out to one of his favorites, The Cheesecake Factory. I tried their crab cakes for the first time and they were fantastic; I definitely recommend them!

Here's a cute shot of Josh with Macie and Ty at our ward trunk-or-treat. He is such a great dad and wonderful husband. I am so lucky!