Home, Home on the Ranch!

We went to the ranch for Christmas and the kids LOVED it.. by loved it i mean Ezra didn't want to leave b/c he could run wild there and Rylie liked the attention. We decided to take them down to the coral and see horses for the first time. OK so i was a nervous wreck, i was certain the horse wanted to bite my fingers off or Ezra's. He had no fear of course and loved them.. we fed them hay and carrots. Rylie was impartial. Devin really loved it too. seriously though after only being there for 10 minutes my allergies were driving me insane!!!

Christmas 2009

We had such a wonderful Christmas. It started off by spending Christmas Eve with my friend Shea and her family. We had awesome food, white elephant, talent shows, read from Luke, singing Christmas songs, and really just great company. For the white elephant Devin insisted we give a live fish, and we did... I'm not sure the person who got it was too thrilled.
Christmas Morning we got up our usual time of 7am and Santa had the living room stet up with all the toys and gifts. Ezra was so excited to see his toys, Rylie i think just wanted to play with whatever Ezra was. The kids were pretty spoiled this year. Ezra got 2 different buzz toys and p.j.s to match, stacking blocks, puzzles, cars and trucks.. all the fun boy stuff. Rylie got some stuffed animals, books, a grocery cart, and a leap frog farm animal toy. Santa brought both of them a tent with a fun tunnel. Devin got work clothes, a rubix cube, Star Trek, and a homemade date night book/coupon book thing I made for him. I got some really nice clothes and some money to shop some more! We also got a super nice mattress topper, i love my bed again :)
After we opened presents we went to Tucson to spend time with my Dad and Terri. We had a nice time and had an awesome dinner! Then we decided to go and visit GG and Papa down at the ranch. I am making a whole different collage of that b/c we went down to the coral and petted the horses, good times!
All in all we had a great Christmas, a great 2009 and look forward to 2010 with hope and with a determination to make it as great as 2009.

*the hat Rylie is wearing with the pink flower Devin crochet and made a matching scarf for me.. super cute.

put a smile on your face

Please laugh with me and enjoy the video!

Parade of lights

Last night we went to the Light parade here in town. Ezra really enjoyed it.

And you know Rylie had a smile on her face, she always does when she is is being held :)pretty sure the wagon has been the best investment for the kids thus far.

We then did what every good parent would do.. we took the kids to wendys to dunk french fries into frostys.

winters in Arizona

Yesterday was pretty much the best weather all year! And this is why I love Arizona. Kids and I decided to pack up and go for a picnic. We had so much fun and were out for 2 hours! The best part was when we got home they crashed, they both took like 3 hour naps :) I think we need to do the park more often.

Its begining to look a lot like Christmas

I Love Christmas! Don't be jealous of our little Christmas tree. Actually I love our little tree, its the perfect size for our little family. And one day when we are bigger we will have the fun family crazy tree, and one day when the kids are out of the house I will have my Martha Stewart tree.. but until now, i will enjoy our little 3 foot tree. :)

vaseline and a 2 year old

dear blogspot,

today i want to go back to bed and stay there!

Turkey Day in New Mexico

We had a great Thanksgiving. We went to New Mexico and included in our dinner party was Tori and kids! Colin and Chloe are the funniest little kids I know. George was also there to play with and hang out with. Tannis and George are pretty funny together. Dinner was fabulous of course, and of course I ate too much and wanted to sleep afterwards. (and i did, thanks mom)

That night Tannis, George, Devin and I all went to go see New Moon. Loved it! I thought it was 100 times better than the first movie. I can also see if you haven't read the book how the movies would be super lame though. But I personally love me some sparkling vampires :)

Friday we took family pictures with mom's camera. Good times. The rest of the time we really just hung out and played games. Sunday it started snowing so we left earlier then intended.

All in all it was a great weekend.

Thanks family for the memories!

Things I am thankful for:

The Savior

My Family

A husband that works hard and plays hard

Healthy Kids

my country

my scriptures

a good hair day

root booster

my health

a clean house

laughing so hard it hurts

modern technology

Glee-it makes me happy

music

pictures

missionary work

Elder Hine

Honduras

memories

cafe rio

the smell of rain

hot chocolate

These are a few of my favorite things....there really are many many more... I am so blessed and I am so grateful to know that I have a loving Heavenly Father who knows me and my needs.

Devin's Birthday

I'm not really sure how this one didn't make the other bunch of collages. This was Devin's birthday weekend. We stayed at the Ritz Carlton in downtown Phoenix, dressed up all nice (2 different waitresses complimented us on how good we looked) and just had a really nice weekend. My mom came down and stayed with the kids and his parents helped pay for the room.. We had a great time!

Updates

did we mention that we love these two and just can't get enough of them!

In this collage we have pictures of us having a picnic in our back yard, a play group with all 6 kids being within weeks of each other, Ezra dipping french fries and chicken nuggets into a frosty (thanks GG and Papa), and of course our favorite aunti Tanni has to be int he collage too!


This one is dedicated to Ezra. He is hilarious! Ezra's favorite things to do these days are climbing, running, singing, water, playing with Rylie, and he loves the outdoors and jumping. He has started talking a lot more, its fun to hear what comes out of his mouth and how he says things. He will also give you rocks..its very cute.

This is our pretty pretty princessa Rylie! She is a ham! Ok so here she took pictures in a dress that i bought that was way to big for her so i returned it, but it was sooo pretty, she is wearing her tutu i made her, the chocolate face picture is just classic, and her just being cute. She is becoming a lot more mobile and pulling herself up on a lot of things. She also loves to eat, she is a great eater. Her favorite thing to do is chase Ezra around.

While in Utah we went to Chucky Cheese, Ezra LOVED it. He seriously loves to play. Then on Veteran's day we went to an amusement park for toddlers in Phoenix and again he loved it. He wasn't even afraid to go on rides by himself.

just a side note- i do not have any halloween pictures, so yes i'm going to dress my kids up in their costumes again and post picturs soon.

Vance Family Reunion

Back in July we had the chance to go to Salt Lake and be part of the Vance Family Reunion. We had such a great time and honestly fell in love with Utah. I forgot how pretty it was. Most importantly we got to spend time with Grandma Vance who had been fighting cancer. We love Grandma Vance so much and what an amazing women she was and an example she will always be for me. She passed away Oct. 11, 2009.

The first time I met grandma was actually when we got married. I had talked to her on the phone before our wedding and always knew that she was a woman of faith. She loved and emulated the gospel in her life. She was such a great journal keeper and was adamit about family history. One of my favorite things about Grandma was her thoughtfulness. About once a month we would get a package in the mail from her and it honestly made our day. It usually wasn't much but just a note telling us she loved us and was thinking of us and an old book that reminded her of us for whatever reason. She gave Ezra the book Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson and Rylie was blessed in her mom's blessing dress. The legacy of grandma will always live on in our family. She taught us so much and loved the Savior so much, you couldn't help but be touched by knowing her. She really did make you want to be the best you.

Family pics

Hey Hey, Look who's back!!! No seriously though, my sister came to visit us and we have had a great time with her! And while she was here we decided to do a little photo session with the kids. Can i just say I love my mom's camera and picasa.. it works wonders. so enjoy the pictures. these are Rylie's 8 month shots and Ezra's 25 month old pics.

Rylie 6 and 7 month pictures

you would think with how much I'm on this silly computer i would've blogged about Rylie turning 6 months.. oh no, she is now 7 months and a week now!

These are a few of my favorite pictures of her from the last month or so. She truly is just a joy in our lives. One of the happiest babies. If you even but look at her she will be flashing you her big smile. And that big smile melts my heart! I love her!!

She has 2 bottom teeth now and is sitting quite well by herself these days. Yesterday she even started the first stages of crawling by rocking back and forth on her knees and hands. She LOVES Ezra. Seriously she could watch him all day and just giggle and play with him.

the birthday

Ok so for Ezra's birthday we kept it real low key. We went into Phoenix a couple times last week and kinda celebrated there by doing splash pads, museums and bounceU. For his actual birthday we just hung out really, we got some cheap pizza from little caesers (his favorite) opened presents (thanks everyone for the gifts!) and then dug into the cupcakes. I made jello cupcakes with the best frosting ever, they were a hit!

Here are some things that makes Ezra so special to us:

His big cheesy smile

He is a very determined little boy

very happy

loves animals

Loves Rylie in his own special way :)

when he gives you a big wet kiss

he is known as the little escapee in nursery

i love how he pats my back when he gives me hugs

his favorite number is 3 (the only one he knows)

he is a climber

you can tell he is just taking everything in around him all the time

loves the water

loves to play and wrestle around

loves to sing, loves music

still loves dirt and mud

loves to watch movies.. like really loves to watch them

I'm so thankful to be his mom! At times I feel like I'm going to go insane because he is such a busy boy but i wouldn't have him any other way:)

Ezra is 2!

Can you believe my little guy is 2? I know I can't! Ezra is my favorite little boy, I really just love him to pieces! At night before i go to bed, i can think of Ezra and he just makes me laugh because of the funny things he does during the day. So i was going to make a smaller collage of just a few pics of him the last 2 years but I couldn't pick a few. So I hope that some of these pictures put a smile on your face like they do for me.

This is a collage of a bunch of pictures we took off our cell phone. there are some really cute pictures on it and i wanted to be able to blog the. did you guys know you can make a book out of your blog? you can! that is why i am putting up every little thing! some of these pictures are older, like when Ezra was Rylie's age.

enjoy :)

an afternoon to myself!

I decided I needed an afternoon to myself. So Wednesday I headed to the temple, ate at Cafe Rio and got a pedicure. It was a great day, a much needed me day. I love how I edited the picture of the Temple. I am making a goal to make it to the Temple at least 2x a month, that shouldn't be too hard, right? Well for me it kinda is, but I realized while i was there that I really need to make it a priority. I thought of the people I taught in Honduras and how they don't have a temple and the sacrifice some of them make to travel to Guatemala just to go. some of them only get to go once in a life time some only once every 5 years. I live 40 minutes away from a temple and don't go nearly as often as I should! Let us all take advantage of the temple and the blessings it brings to us by going.

Ezra's day

OK, so last week we decided to have an Ezra day b/c he is turning 2 in a couple days and we wanted to celebrate while we could. We first went to BouncU and had a blast! I highly recommend it to anyone! Then we went to the Mesa children's museum. It was fun, however I think it was a little over his head. And for the price I don't know if it was worth it. Now in 2 years, totally worth it! We then went to the Tempe splash pads.. i actually think this was the most fun of all the activities we did, and it was free! Rylie enjoyed it too. We ended the day by going to IHOP b/c kids ate free and we wanted to try the Hawaiian pancakes, they get our approval! Ezra was pooped by the time the day was over. It was a great day, and made us realize we need to have more days like this and its not that expensive.

big boy bed

After Ezra learned to climb out of his crib we decided it was time for a "big boy" bed. I found this bed on craigslist for $40! It looks great in his room. he is actually doing really well at night in it, naps are a different story. the picture of him sleeping with the stuffed animals and toys are a day that he just did not want to take a nap in his bed. i basically put him in his room for quiet time after an hour i went to check on him and found him sleeping in his toys. overall its been a pretty easy transition.

(the pictures are so blurry b/c they were taken with our phone too, we lost our camera!)