Extended Family News!

Just wanted to tell anyone who doesn't already know that T.J. and Hanna (my brother and sister-in-law) are going to have a baby in August and we are SOOOO excited for them and for our kids to have cousins on my side of the family. Also...Casey (my brother) is engaged and will be getting married on May 31st to Nichole Gardner in the St. George Temple. AND Erika (Ryan's sister) is engaged and will be getting married May 27th to Mark Hirschi in the Jordan River Temple. Oh and I almost forgot, Jenni and Todd (Ryan's sister and brother-in-law) could have their little baby girl soon. She is due April 5th, but Jen had her first about 5 weeks early so we are all anxious to hear what the doctor says this week! As much as we can't wait to see her, we want her to be healthy so we hope she can "hang in there" for a few more weeks! We love all of our siblings so much and are so excited for them!!

Before and After!!

So, we have been doing our Biggest Loser Challenge with my cousin Emily, her husband Bryson, & our friends Mike & Lori (there may be other people doing it that I don't know Emily has been the mastermind behind it all and I am so glad she asked us to join in)! Anyway...Ryan has lost 9 pounds and I have lost 10. That is a big accomplishment for us because we LOVE to eat junk food together and watch TV after the kids have gone to bed so needless to say we have packed on the pounds since we got married almost five years ago. It doesn't really seem that noticeable until you look at pictures of us at Christmas and then look at the other ones from a couple weeks ago! It's mostly our faces that you'll notice a difference but it was a real eye-opener for me! I didn't realize how HUGE I looked!! I would like to lose 7 or so more pounds so hopefully that will happen by the time our Biggest Loser Challenge is over (April 1st)!! We are getting our tails kicked but at least we look and feel better!!! I'll post official "after" photos on April 1st!!

Digital Scrapbooking & My Cute Kids!

So those of you who know me best know that I LOVE to scrapbook. Ryan's mom introduced me to digital scrapbooking and now I LOVE that even more. It's so great because I can do one page at a time and I don't have to get all of my stuff out and make a huge mess which is usually made even bigger by my adorable 2 year old!!! If you want to check out the software I use go to www.digitalscrapbookingmemories.com. I promise you'll love their stuff!!
On a different note...this page is my most recent and my very FAVORITE that I have made! This is the moment that Carter and Rylee first met and I have to say that NOTHING has been the same since this exact moment!! It has been an adjustment fitting a new little one into me and Carter's "schedule" but I am proud to say (almost 6 months later) that I finally feel like it has been successful and our family is complete (well for now don't worry grandmas, there will be more!)!! Carter and Rylee keep me going but I am so grateful to have two beautiful, healthy, ACTIVE kids!!

Winter Update

I haven't posted for a long time so I thought I would just give you all an update on all of us!! Carter (as you can see) acts more like a two year old more and more everyday. We are finding that 2 is a challenging but fun age. He learns new phrases daily and we are finding we REALLY have to watch what we say!! He is gradually starting to show some interest in Rylee. He even has his own nickname for her. He likes to call her "Rys." He loves to build towers with his blocks and has recently started saying prayers with our help. We are "looking forward to" our next step-POTTY-TRAINING!! If anyone has any suggestions, let me know cause I have NO IDEA what I am doing!!
Rylee has grown up so much just since Christmas. She has discovered her hands and her feet and most of the time she has one or the other in her mouth. I just keep waiting for that first tooth to appear! She still WILL NOT take a bottle or a binki so I have yet to leave her for more than a few hours. She rolls over both ways all the time and I an expecting that she will crawl early just like Carter did!! She is very much a people person. She loves to be around anyone that will give her attention and she will smile at just about anyone.
As for Ryan and I. We are pretty much the same. We have been doing a Biggest Loser Challenge with some of our friends/cousins/etc. It has been challenging but fun to work together. We watch The Biggest Loser every Tuesday night for inspiration (we are usually eating the whole time we watch!) Ryan is just 3 short months away from graduation!! I am so proud of him. He has worked so hard to get to this point and I hope he will find a job that rewards him for his hard work. That's about all (and probably way more than you wanted to know)! We are looking forward to summer when we can go to St. George and Bear Lake and maybe even some other vacations!! Hope all is well with all of you!!