Christmas Morning

Christmas morning we woke up to SNOW!!!  And lots of it.   We hadn't had any in the Valley yet, and we were hurting pretty bad at Sundance for skiing.  So it was a Christmas miracle!!  

Santa Came!!

The kids...well, okay, Haley got up at 7:00 Christmas morning and pretty much paced around our room until we got up.  We woke everyone else up (which is sooooo hard for me to do when we had such a late night the night before...but you know, gotta do what you got to do!)  

The girls were thrilled!

Favorite gifts have to be the Zoomers that Haley and Morgan received from Santa.

Piper and Rory were thrilled to get princess dolls  from Grandma and Grandpa.

I gave Ryan a skateboard (he's been wanting one to use for quick trips to the market or taking the girls to school...also it's pretty nostalgic for him...he can reminisce about his old skater days).

And my big give was a Fitbit.

I get a D- for picture taking.  Not sure what happened...shame on me.

But the day was good fun!

I'll try to hunt down some more photos!

Merry Christmas!

So, a few weeks ago I had this dream.  

I was probably stressed about everything that needed to be done this month, and with starting work again my time is little more limited.  

So yeah, the dream.  I dreamed that we needed to get our Christmas cards done and to save time I had everyone get together to take a quick selfie with our phone.  I slapped it into a Christmas card and wrote, Have your "selfie" a Merry Christmas! 

I woke up loving that idea and got to work...

Behold, our Christmas photo for 2014.

Hey, it's December people!  It's all about survival at this point!!

And I might add that this was the easiest photo we have EVER taken as a family...it was meant to be!

And I do hope you have your "selfie" a Merry Christmas!!

From our family to yours!

Saying Goodbye

Last week Ryan drove to St. George for work...for those out of the know, it's about four hours south from us.  It was just a day trip, he left at the crack of dawn and was going to be home by nine that same night.  (I find it fascinating that he can do 7-8 hours of driving round trip, meet his dealers/work and usually squeeze in a bike ride in there at some point, all in one day.)  

Anyway, unfortunately he broke down in Cedar City on the way home (Cedar is still about 3 hours away from home).  He got it towed to a place, but everything was closed or closing, so he had to stay the night there.  He found out in the morning that the timing belt (this would be our second one) snapped and ran havoc to the engine, untimely killing it.  The guy quoted Ryan $9800 to replace the engine!  That just wasn't going to happen for a car with over 200,000 miles!  Even if he towed it back home (which would run us 500 dollars) and get another quote, we wouldn't have gotten anything better than $5000. 

So, in the end, Ryan decided to say his goodbyes and hand it off to the wrecking yard there in Cedar (who ended up giving us more than we expected for it, so that's nice!)  Although, I have no doubt that they will fix it and our beloved wagon will end up being sold and driven again...it's too nice of a car!

A couple shop kids from a bike shop here in town took a little road trip and picked Ryan up for me, (how nice is that?)   Operation Saving Private Ryan!   The logistics with my kids made it difficult for me to go, so I'm very grateful for them!  

Ryan snapped a couple of photos before saying goodbye.  Oh how we loved that car!!  So many memories!

 This one kills me...just heartbreaking seeing it get towed away.  It so crazy how we can get so attached to cars!

So that all happened on Friday and by Tuesday Ryan made the purchase for his new rep mobile.  He can't really waste any time since our livelihood pretty much relies on Ryan driving...the life of a rep!

Volkswagen seem to be our thing...

It's a 2012 Jetta Wagon...we pick it up today!  

Rory's Birthday

Last week we celebrated Rory's 3rd birthday!

We got the biggest chocolate cake  from Costco.  And even though we had 12 people there, we didn't put a dent in that thing!  And with Ryan out of town the rest of that week, you can guess who ate the rest of it.  So good....so good.

Rory is crazy for princess dresses and wears them on a daily basis.  She also has several wardrobe changes throughout the day...one minute she's Snow White, the next she's Elsa...and she'll alternate between them about every 15 minutes.

She partied hard and then crashed.

Side note:  After she fell asleep like that I scooped her up and just laid her down dress and all in her crib.  However, I forgot that there is a button on that dress that when pushed the dress lights up and the song "Let it Go"  plays.  So yeah, guess who was hearing "Let it Go" all night with every movement Rory made...yeah...us.  I finally caved and wrestled it off her around 3 in the morning.  Luckily, she wasn't phased, and slept through it like a charm.  So, note to others...don't put your kid in bed with a light up, singing dress...it won't end well for you.

Thanksgiving 2014

 Road trip!

Are you sick of our road trip family selfies yet?

Last week we loaded up the burban (does anyone else call their suburban a burban?)...anyway...we loaded up and headed to Sedona for Thanksgiving.  Ryan was going over the years and discovered that he has spent Thanksgiving with his mom 36 out of his 37 years.  The one year he missed is when I was nine months pregnant with Rory and we opted to stay close to home.  Kids...I tell ya....they mess everything up.  But yeah...that's a pretty good track record!  

 Emergency potty stop at Jacob Lake, AZ.

Our kids are too hydrated...it seemed like we were stopping every hour.  We weren't, but that's what it feels like.

We spent the couple days before Thanksgiving by going to the park, feeding the ducks at Talaqapaque (that's probably spelled wrong, but I don't feel like looking it up), hiking at Red Rock Crossing and a bit of mountain biking at Bell Rock.  

 Morgan in piggie heaven.

Have I mentioned that she wants a pig for Christmas...as in a breathing, real life pig?

Yeah...that won't be happening...sorry Morgan.

 More pigs.

 And because Morgan is posing by pigs, Piper has to get in on it too.

 Thursday morning...prepping for Thanksgiving!

The weather was amazing the whole time we were there luckily.  In fact, it was even warm enough to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner outside!

 We were even able to take Haley out for a bit of mountain biking...although, she was on a cyclocross bike.  It was a bit tough for her, but she gave it her best and said she had fun (I'm not really convinced that she did).  I think she'll like it more if she had a mountain bike.  We'll try to get on that for next year!

All in all, a very successful trip!  

Now I'm in full Christmas mode!  Bring it!

Happy Birthday!!

Happy Birthday Rory!!

Today you are 3!!

We love you!