Gingerbread house??

Those of you who know me best know that I don't have many artistic talents.  I'm not creative at all but I tried to make a graham cracker version of a gingerbread house with the kids this week.  We affectionately call it our "Graham Cracker Shack."  The kids had fun and it's still standing.  It's a masterpiece in my opinion but I'm a little biased!!

5 Favorite Things

I was tagged by Lori to list my 5 favorite things. It's so hard to only pick 5 but here I go...
1. My family (all inclusive including extended and in-laws)
2. Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
3. A Really Good Book
4. Vacations!!!!!!!
5. Spending time with friends!!

I tag Courtney, Erika, and Jenni

Husband Tag!!

Answer the questions about your sweetheart…

*What is your husband’s name: Ryan David

*How long have you been married? 5 1/2 years (wow! he must be an awesome guy!)

*How long did you date? 5 years (counting the 2 years he was on his mission when I guess we weren't technically dating)

*How old is he? 27

*Who eats more sweets? both of us like them, but I LOVE them!

*Who said I love you first? I don't remember

*Who is taller? We are the same!

*Who can sing best? Ryan by far!

*Who is smarter? Ryan is again by far!!!

*Who does laundry? me!!

*Who pays bills? he makes the money, i write the checks

*Who sleeps on the right side? Ryan

*Who mows the lawn? We don't have a lawn, but if we did I'm sure it would be Ry

*Who cooks dinner? me most of the time, but Ryan is a better cook!

*Who drives? Ryan

*Who is first to admit they are wrong? ME! Because I'm usually the one who is wrong!

*Who kissed who first? Ryan I think it's been 10 years ago now!

*Who asked who out first? Ryan ask me out first.

*Who wears the pants? Ryan thinks I do, but I think he does, so you be the judge :)

LOVE YOU SO SO MUCH RY!!!!!

It's Official!

Our condo is officially for sale!! This is both a good and a bad thing. We love love our friends here, but it's time for us to move on and we are excited and hopeful that it will happen sooner rather than later. So if you know anyone looking for a cute condo, it's been a great place to live and we've done A LOT of stuff to it to up date it and in my humble? opinion it looks pretty good. It's especially a great place for young couples just starting their family or who are not quite to that point yet. Here are the pictures we've posted on KSL.com.

Caught up!!

I'm so excited because I'm FINALLY caught up on Carter's scrapbook. Notice that it is only Carter's I'm caught up on, but I am trying to focus on the positive. I haven't started Rylee's yet, but oh well we'll get there. In honor of my accomplishment, I'm posting a few of the pages I have done recently.

Family Pictures

My fabulous friend Tori (torithompsonphotography.blogspot.com) took family pictures for us and I think they turned out great!! Thanks Tori!!! (This is just a small sample of all the wonderful pictures she took. Our internet is SLOW so I don't have the patience to post much more than this at one time!)

Carter Bday Pictures and Ryan's New Job!

As promised, here are some pictures from Carter's 3rd Birthday. I still can't believe he's 3!!!

Also, I keep forgetting to post about Ryan's new job!!! He started working for the Church (of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) last Monday. He's a Project Coordinator in the Audio/Visual Department. So now we have a decision to make about moving. The reason we moved to Utah County in the first place was for Ryan to go to school, but now he's graduated and we would like to be closer to family. Half of my family live in St. George so that isn't an option, but the other half and most of Ryan's family live in Davis County. So here is our dilemma... we LOVE our ward and friends here and we would miss them A LOT. But, we spend $30+ on gas each time we drive to visit family and if we move we wouldn't be paying an HOA fee (yea!) and grocery stores, malls, Wal-Mart wouldn't be 15, 20, 30 minutes away thus saving even more $ on gas!! But, condos just aren't selling right now so we're not sure if it's even worth it to try. I want your input, vote on my poll and/or comment and tell me what you would do.

Quirky Tag!

My sister-in-law tagged me. I'm supposed to come up with 6 "quirky" things about me, list them, and then tag other people. I've done something similar to this before so I'll try to think of new things!

1. I can't stand to be disorganized!!!!!! You would never know this to be at my house but trust me, I daily talk myself out of a serious nervous break down. My home/stuff isn't nearly as organized as I would like it to be. Ryan always tells me that if it bugs me so much to organize it while the kids are napping-has anyone EVER organized an entire house in under two hours??? If so, I'll pay you to come do my house "while the kids nap."

2. I love, love, love to shop but ONLY if I have money to shop with and not feel guilty about later. If I don't have money I DESPISE shopping. I don't like to just look what's the point???

3. I have this problem growing my hair out, I always get to the same length and I have to cut it, it's almost an obsession. Once my hair is just below shoulder length, cutting my hair is all I can think about until I actually do it. I just don't know how and don't have time for long hair (those of you who have ever tried to do your hair with a one year clinging to your leg and screaming know what I mean about not having time). An interesting side note about this is that my hair is exactly that length right now so any guesses on how long it will be before I cut it?

4. I absolutely have to have a "break" everyday. I require that my children take a nap so that I can just "be" for a little while in a quiet house.

5. I can't stand to be in my house if my bed isn't made. Our bedroom is in the back of our house away from view, but if I know that the bed isn't made it bothers me until it is done.

6. I don't like exercise, but I always feel better when I do it. Lately I've been running in the mornings. Everyday I wake up and whine about not wanting to do it and I hate it while I'm doing it, but I LOVE the way I feel when I'm done. I feel like I can face the day of craziness that usually is ahead of me. Hopefully it will start paying off and I'll lose some weight!!!

I tag...ANYONE who feels up to it!

Carter is 3!!!!!!!

So before I say anything else, let me just explain why there aren't pictures of his actual birthday with this post. (The pictures above are a scrapbook page of pictures from this summer) It all comes down to two words LAZY and IMPATIENT. We took pictures, but in order for me to post them I would have to turn on our slow computer (I am on the laptop) and upload them from our camera and then save them to a jump drive, then upload them to my laptop and then post them. I will post them soon I just have limited "down" time right now!!

ANYWAYS...CARTER TURNED 3!!!! I can hardly believe it. It seemed like just a short time ago we found out we were going to have him join our little family and now he's so grown up. He has been my easy-going child. The first night we were home from the hospital he slept 7 hours straight!!! It was amazing! I am so grateful for his fun and loving personality. He is such a blessing to us. For his birthday we went to Ryan's mom and dad's cabin in Bear Lake (Carter's favorite place) and we had a Cars cake and some ice cream. He was so excited to be with family and to open all of his presents. Happy Birthday Carter WE LOVE YOU!!!

A Wedding and a Trip to St. George!

My little sister got married on September 6th in the St. George Temple. She married Allen Lloyd, which means we have the same last name! No relation as far as we know though!! She had a really pretty reception and Carter did his best to entertain all by running around, dancing, and playing in the curtains. We also got to see extended family that we don't see very often and we got to spend a few days at my mom and dad's house and swim in their pool. AND I got to hold my cute little niece Olivia for the first time, but for some dumb reason we have no pictures of that!!


My brother TJ, his wife Hanna, and Olivia
(thanks Hanna I stole this picture off your blog)

All of my siblings with the happy couple.
Me, McKenzie, Courtney, Allen, Josh, Casey, TJ (thanks Nichole I stole this off your blog)

Me with my cute sisters Courtney and McKenzie

Ryan and our hyperactive, yet adorable son Carter

The bride and groom outside the temple

My brother Casey and his wife Nichole (they were just married in May)

Carter drinking punch cause that's exactly what he needed-MORE SUGAR!

My mom, my aunt Pat, my dad, and our good family friend Diane outside the temple

Rylee before she messed up her hair and acquired a fruit punch mustache!

This picture pretty much sums Rylee up. McKenzie was so cute and nice to play with both the kids.

My sister-in-law Hanna on her birthday by the pool. You can't tell, but she just had an adorable baby on July 31st!

Carter "swimming" in the pool!

Having fun in the sun!!

Rylee and her great grandpa Tom (my grandpa)!

Rylee's Big Day!!

So it finally happened RYLEE TURNED ONE (on August 30th)!!! What a year it has been! She has added a whole new dynamic to our household. We are so grateful for her and I don't know what we ever did without her as part of our family!!! Her and Carter are becoming good friends and he is such a good big brother! I wanted to have some kind of a big celebration for purely selfish reasons...two kids is HARD and I wanted to celebrate mine (and Ryan's) survival of the last year. The four of us went to the mall and out to lunch and then we had our friends the Wilson's and the Thomas' over for cake and ice cream. Unfortunately my family all live too far away to come and Ryan's family were at their cabin, so I thought I'd post some pictures so they can feel like they were there!

The birthday girl along with the big brother who kept asking when Rylee's birthday was going to be over so it can be his birthday!

Her cake and presents!

Blowing out the candles with a little help!

All messy! The funny this is, she didn't really eat any of the cake, she just spread it all over herself and was satisfied!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RYLEE WE LOVE YOU!!

Happy (late) Anniversary!!

Our 5th anniversary was officially on June 7th, but thanks to our breastmilk addicted daughter we were unable to go anywhere overnight to celebrate. Since Rylee has finally overcome her addiction, we headed off to VEGAS for a little vacation! We were originally planning on staying at the Meridan Hotel and Suites, but when we got there, they informed us that their hotel has been closed (weird huh?)! Anyways...they had kindly? reserved us a room at the Platinum Hotel. It was a really nice place located about 2 blocks away from "The Strip." We had a BLAST! It was so nice to just be able to do whatever we wanted. We went shopping, out to dinner, swimming, it was PERFECT! My personal favorite was Felinis. It's an Italian place in the Stratosphere Hotel where Ryan took me to eat one night. It was AMAZING food and the atmosphere was awesome too. They had murals painted on the walls to look like you were actually in Italy and the rooms were all candle-lit. It was so awesome!! We could've stayed at least one more night, but we needed to rescue Grandma & Grandpa Lloyd & Uncle Cameron from our little munchkins. (Thanks to them and Aunt Erika & Uncle Mark for watching our kids!)

This is the kitchen in our room. Way nicer than mine at home!
This is our room. It was so nice with a full kitchen and living room.

Ryan getting on the monorail. We bought day passes so we could travel up and down the strip easily.

Self-potrait! I think we're in the Paris Hotel.

This little walkway is in the Paris Hotel and it's designed to look like you are actually in Paris. The ceiling is even painted like a blue sky.

Ryan at the Conservatory in the Bellagio Hotel.

We're up on a bridge that connects the Bellagio to Bally's Hotel. It was the best view of all the lights.

Goofy Ryan eating Cocoa Krispies for breakfast.

In front of the MGM Grand.

New York, New York!!

Probably one of the coolest things ever-the M&M Store! You could get any color of M&Ms imaginable for the bargain? price of $11.99 per pound. (Ya we didn't buy any)

The Coke Store. I only wish Coke came in cans this big!!!

That was our trip in a nutshell!!!! I can't believe it's already been 5 years. It's been so crazy!!! We've had good times and not so good times, but we still make each other laugh and that's all that matters. Love ya Ry!!