EASTER!!!!!

Happy Easter!!

My two babies!! They grow up way too fast!

My "3" children!!

Carter and Rylee with their baskets Easter morning!

Me and Rylee with our good friends Lori and Sean Thomas!

Carter finding eggs. He thought you were supposed to open them and eat the candy as soon as you find them. It took quite awhile to find all 12 of his eggs!

Both the kids at our ward Easter Egg hunt (Carter is stealing eggs out of Rylee's basket!)

We had a great Easter weekend! Saturday we went to our ward's Easter Egg Hunt. Then on Sunday the kids (including Ryan of course cause he's still a kid at heart!) woke up to find their Easter baskets. Carter's favorite thing is a little plastic bat and ball he got. Rylee of course didn't really care and Ryan got chips and IBC rootbeer. We had our friends Mike and Lori and Ryan's sister Erika and her soon-to-be husband Mark over for dinner. We had tons of yummy food! Hope all of you had as good of an Easter as we did!!

Spring Break in St. George!

Rylee as cute as ever!

Rylee in her cute swimming suit!

Ryan working hard even on vacation!

Rylee asleep on grandma's couch!

Pretty much the only picture Carter would
hold still for.

Thought you all might enjoy the latest pictures from our trip to St. George. We had TONS of fun. We swam, went to a movie, and even hiked in Zions. However, we are HORRIBLE at remembering to take pictures, so I am waiting for Courtney to email me the ones from Zions and then I will post those too!

TAG!!

I've been seeing these "tag" things on other people's blogs and thought it would be fun to do one, so here's how it goes. You list 5 little known facts about you (things you hate, things you like, something you've done, etc.) and then at the end you "tag" three other people who will then do the same thing on their blogs. You can include pictures if want!! So here it goes...

1. I am a closet perfectionist when it comes to having a clean house. This may shock those of you who have been to my house because it is far from being perfect. Just know that 99.9% of my day I spend in mental agony because my house doesn't look perfect. :) Along with this is my sense of being overwhelmed which is usally why my house isn't clean. I am not overwhelmed with motherhood, just the task of cleaning my entire house in one day and having it stay clean for more than a couple of hours overwhelms me so instead of attempting this, I just stew over it all day, then about once a week ( or after we visit either my mom or Ryan's mom- their houses are ALWAYS clean) I FREAK out and have a "breakdown" (which Ryan usually gets the brunt of) and I clean really good. Most of the time my efforts are "ruined" shortly after by my adorable 2 year old, but hey at least I tried!!!

2. If I could have 24 hours all to myself (and I mean all 24 hours) doing whatever I want to do, I wouldn't travel to some exotic place or even go shopping. I would clean my house (see #1), read a good book while I take a bubble bath, order Pizza Factory Chicken Alfredo pizza with a breadtwist, and rent a chick flick!! Maybe one day....

3. Most of you know how much I "appreciate" the art of eating. However, I am surprisingly picky. I firmly believe that fruit was NOT meant to be part of any dessert (the only exception I can think of is Cheesecake)! Fruit should NOT be mixed with ice cream (no kidding I go to Bear Lake and I refuse to order a Raspberry shake), cake, or anything else. Fruit is meant to be fruit. REAL desserts are things such as brownie sundaes, chocolate cake, chocolate ice cream, etc. NOT FRUIT!!!!!! On another note I HATE whipped cream!! Oh and chocolate chip cookie dough IS better than the actual cookies!

4. I have a very strange personal "bubble." I love to hug and kiss my kids and my husband, and an occasional hug with an extended family member is ok, but I am not big on hugging random people or even friends hello, etc. This may make me sound like a "snob" but I am just not a touchy feely sort of person. Don't be offended by this, I just like my "personal space" :)

5. If I could do ANY job in the whole wide world (besides being a mom of course) I would be a bank teller! Not a manager, supervisor, loan officer, or anything else just a simple bank teller. I had that job for about 1 1/2 years and I LOVED it. There is something so satisfying about how accurate you have to be. I loved balancing my cash at the end of the day and finding myself to be completely balanced down to the penny (there were times when that didn't happen)! I loved opening up my drawer and seeing all of the money facing the same direction and I LOVE to count change back to people. Ryan calls me a math nerd! I also love using a ten key calculator. It is so exciting to me!

So that's all you never needed or wanted to know about me. I tag Mom Lloyd, Emily, and Jenni!!

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!!

Christmas in Sunny St. George!!

Hey All!!! Hope you had a wonderful Christmas! We had SO MUCH FUN! We spent the 22nd-26th at Gma. Kim's and Gpa. Danny's house. It was a little chilly but the sky was blue the whole time. The kids (especially Carter) had a blast playing with Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt McKenzie, Aunt Courtney, and Uncle Casey. We were so sad that Uncle TJ, Aunt Hanna, and Uncle Josh couldn't be there. That would've been the only thing that would've made it even better. We went to movies, played games, and Ryan & I even got to go on a lunch date!! My mom and dad are so good to us! We ate and ate and ate mom's yummy food until we thought we were going to burst! And they gave us great gifts and were so much fun to hang out with. Santa gave Carter a train set that he has hardly stopped playing with and Rylee got some cute clothes. They both got so much from grandmas and grandpas it's impossible to list. Most importantly it was great to be with family and celebrate the true meaning of Christmas together. My parents have always been so good at remembering Christ!!

Ryan

I know I said in my last post that Carter was the love of my life, but what I really meant is that he is extra special to me and that we have a special bond that I've never had with anyone else. RYAN is the love of my life. We have spent many years (ok only 9 but that's long for people our age:) together laughing. He can make me laugh when I am SO mad at him. He is a great husband and dad and best friend and I am so grateful that we were married in the temple. Love ya Ry!!

Carter David

A Little Bit About Carter

At the risk of sounding extra cheesy, Carter is, simply put, the love of my life. Not that I love him any more than Ryan or Rylee, just in a very different way. He made me realize how much I LOVE being a mom. We seem to have a special bond. I guess there's just something about the first baby! Who knows!! Anyways...Carter is CRAZY in a good way. He is so curious about EVERYTHING and he LOVES to push buttons. Anything with buttons quickly becomes his favorite toy. Even if it's just the vending machine at the hospital!! He has a way of knowing exactly how far he can push me before I go over the edge. He always stops being naughty at the exact moment before I am about to lose it. He is very sensitive to how I am feeling. He is so loving towards me. If I am crying he gets really concerned and gives me a famous Carter hug. He has an AMAZING sense of humor too!! He laughs at the silliest things (especially me)!! He is also very extreme with his emotions & I love that!! He either loves something or he hates it, there is no in between.
He LOVES:
Buzz Lightyear
Toy Story Movies
Mommy
Daddy
Rylee
Grandmas & Grandpas
Aunts & Uncles
Cousin Chase & Cousin Baby girl Egginton
Going to both grandma's houses
Visiting the cabin in Bear Lake

He HATES:
Being "stuck" in a car seat
Bandaids
Small, confined spaces
going to the doctor
His face washed
going to bed
being ignored

Some of his hilarous phrases include:
"is it funny mommy?"
"To Infinity and Beyond"
"Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue"

He is the funniest, sweetest little boy ever. I feel SO blessed that he is mine!!

Rylee Danny

Just A Little Bit About Rylee

Rylee is just 2 months old, but she already has a personality!! She is very much a DRAMA QUEEN!!!!! She knows what she wants and she wants it NOW. As much as I hate to admit it, she probably gets that from her mom. She also seems to have quite a sense of humor. Sometimes when I am trying to get her to smile I do the silliest things and she looks at me with this smirk on her face and I just know she is thinking "Mom if you only knew what a DORK you are!!" She also seems to have a secret alliance with her big brother. When he starts having a fit, she ALWAYS joins in!! She LOVES to be held and just barely started sleeping longer than 3 hours at a time at night. She has already become our little princess.