A new home, again!

HOME SWEET HOME

We were able to get into student housing for this semester and have been busy moving the last few weeks. it's really nice to be out of the trailer and have a playground right outside but it's definitely not like TVA! There are cigarette butts on the ground and I still have not seen one of our neighbors and we've lived here for a week! Every time I go out to play with my kids I'm the only one out there and people I do see when I go for walks are not that friendly. oh-well I'm glad we can save some money and have all our utilities included in rent, that means we can crank up the heat or at least have it on constantly since they have it set to only go up to 75 which we still think is a little cold, pathetic right, I know we're wusses when it comes to cold weather! anyway here are some pictures of our new place.

Our carpet already has stains on it!

This is our living room complete with university couches that are not comfortable! Remind anyone of the old TVA couches?

This is the other hal fof our living room it's a little crowded but it will do and it will be better when we finish unpacking all the boxes!

Here is our Kitchen with only 2 drawers, and they're little too! I stil;l haven't figured out a good place to keep my hot pads and bibs! at least there's no cockroaches!

Christmas- Finally!

Here are some pictures of our family's Christmas festivities:

The first picture is at Clay and Amy's house for Christmas lunch/dinner on Christmas day. We had way too much food!

On Christmas eve we made ginger bread (graham cracker) houses Jonah made a train with lots of help from Dad!

later on Christmas eve the kids put on the Nativity show Jonah was a wise man, so cute!

Here is Ryker on Christmas morning

Here are the boys Christmas morning, after opening some presents, I almost forgot to take pictures!

This picture was at our old ward's (in San Antonio) christmas Party we were in town to go to the temple and dropped in to see Santa. Obviously Ryker was not interested at all! and Jonah was trying to convince Santa that he needed a real motorcycle that went really fast! I really thought Ryker would be fine but hey, I'm just his mom what do I know?

update!

I lost our camera and haven't been able to find it for the last two weeks so no pictures of Christmas unfortunately. We did take some video but don't have the right cord to connect our camera to the computer. Luckily we spent Christmas eve and most of Christmas day with my in-laws and my sister-in-law took pictures for us but she's now out of town and hasn't sent me any. I guess I'll have to post Christmas pics a little later!


I have an exciting announcement.... Jonah and Ryker are going to be big brothers! I'm so excited to have baby 3! I'm due June 11th and can't wait. I'm hoping it is a girl but another boy would be fun for the rest of the family. Michael has Jonah rooting for a boy luckily Ryker's too little to understand or he'd probably be turned to the "boy" side too! Whatever it is I'm just excited to add to our family Children are such blessings and they're just so darn cute!

I hope you all have had a great Christmas and have a Happy New Year!

SNOW!!!!!!!

It's snowing today! I'm so excited I've never seen snow fall before I've only seen it already on the ground so I'm having lots of fun just watching it fall! It's not sticking to the ground but it's blowing through the air and looks so pretty! I hope it snows enough for us to actually play in it and I hope it snows for Christmas too! yay for snow---and heaters it's cold outside!

Jonah has discovered that he loves playing in the snow!

Ryker enjoyed from inside with me and got to sample a some snow. He liked to eat it even though his fingers were freezing!

These are pictures looking out from our front door the first was yesterday evening and the last is from this morning I was surprised that the snow was still here everyone thought it would have melted. The schools even got delayed 2 hours which was great so we could sleep in a little!

Thanksgiving

my family enjoying a bon fire

For Thanksgiving my Mom, Dad, Brother- Jason, and my Nana- mom's mom- came to visit us. It was so much fun to see them and Ryker absolutely loved all the attention! Jonah did too but Ryker was so happy all the time it was so cute!! we were so busy going and doing everything and anything! We went to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico and that was a lot of fun. Then we did pretty much all you can do in Alpine and a nearby city Fort Davis and we even went across the border to Ojinaga Mexico I was kind of nervous with the kids but it was a lot of fun and almost everything was so cheap! we bought Ryker a pair of cowboy boots for only $14 they probably would have been about $50 or more here! My brother brought his Nintendo Wii and Jonah got hooked on it, he was so good at bowling and baseball it was amazing! We might have to splurge and buy one someday soon I really like it too!! it was so hard to have my family here and then when they had to go they just aren't here anymore but we sure had fun with them!

Here Jonah and Ryker are playing in the leaves at Kokernot Park in Alpine on Thanksgiving Day
Me with my two boys in Mexico

On the morning my family left me, Nana, and my mom

Happy Birthday Ryker!

( I know Jonah's eyes are closed in this picture but the only other one we got of our family that day had Ryker's eyes closed and it was kind of far away so I figured this was was better even though it's not the best we could have done)


Ryker, on your first birthday I want to celebrate the great blessing you have been to our family. You have brought a tremendous amount of happiness into each of our lives because of how sweet and fun loving you are. You help us realize the unparalleled love of our Heavenly Father and remind us to be loving and trusting as a little child. Already you are learning so much and I hope for you to seek after anything virtuous, lovely, of good report, or praiseworthy. You are a true delight and can always make those around you smile I hope you will grow into a smart and talented young man who will be an example of righteousness to all you meet, I hope you and your brother will enjoy one another and become friends as you grow up together. I always want you to know that I love you and I know that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ know you and love you too. Happy Happy Birthday!!



Ryker's Birthday was on Saturday November 15th, we went to the local park (yes there's only one park in our small town) and had Uncle Clay, Aunt Amy, and their kids Devaney, Logan, Hyrum, Hannah, Isaac, and Roe come for cupcakes and to play with us. It was a pretty nice day but VERY cold the high was only 50. but we all had fun anyway. Unfortunately after we were done partying Ryker was acting a little grumpy and when I picked him up he was burning up with a fever he's had it for the past 3 days. Last night his temp was 102.3 but today he hasn't felt very hot so I think he's finally getting over it, poor baby! Since his birthday he has suddenly started doing new things like clapping, I've been trying to get him to clap his hands since he was like 8 months old and finally on his birthday as I was getting breakfast ready he was sitting in his highchair and just started clapping without any prompt! He's also finally trying to say words he's so cute he'll point at something or hold something up and look at me like "what is this" and when I say whatever it is he babbles trying to make the correct sounds, its about time!! He even tried saying "my birthday" and when I figure out how to upload videos I'll post the video of him saying it. All in all we had a fun First Birthday for Ryker!

We couldn't get the candle to light we tried for about 10 minutes but to no avail so we skipped it and just started singing anyway, so we could eat the yummy cupcakes!



I know I'm making a weird face but Ryker was so cute trying to eat his candle instead of the cupcake!


I don't think Ryker liked the cupcakes he only ate one or two bites of it. He was more interested in getting down and wandering around the park.

Be Grateful

I have just been thinking about how much I have to be grateful for. I have been working on a lesson about gratitude I am giving for enrichment and through all my research I feel extremely thankful and indebted to my Heavenly Father for my richness of blessings. I wish I could better express myself but I don't seem to always have the words I want. I am truly grateful for Jesus Christ his atonement, giving his life for our eternal lives is the greatest gift someone can give for another. Heavenly Father has given me all that I have and I cannot begin to repay Him. All I can do is offer up my thanks and obedience to Him. As Thanksgiving and Christmas come closer I hope all of us can remember what Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have given and done for us and that we can resolve to focus on the things that really matter in this life that we may help and serve one another and give our thanks to God and praise Him. I was reading in the Book of Mormon 3 Nephi 17 where Christ gathers the little children and blesses them and prays for all the people gathered together and how great his prayer to the Father was on their behalf, it made me feel His love for me I know that He is praying of each of us to come unto Him, He is there all we need to do is let him in. I am thankful for my family, for loving parents who taught me the gospel while I was youngn for a loving wonderful husband for my beautiful boys who share their love with me each day I am grateful for the fulness of the gospel and for the blessings I can recieve from it. I pray that we can remember to follow President Hinckley's counsel to be grateful this holiday season and through out the year.