Merry Christmas!

Oh wait, I mean Happy Halloween! It's easy to get confused when this is what it looks like outside in October.

To be fair, this is not normal. But I didn't find it amusing. The beautiful fall leaves were still on the trees when the snow started coming down. Because of the weight of the leaves and snow, there was a ton of damage and resulting power outages. We lost our two beautiful pear trees in the front yard. We finally got power back this week after using the generator for several days, but not until after both church and Halloween had been cancelled.

That's right, they cancelled Halloween. Mother Nature, you are a big jerk. Luckily we took the kids to Trunk or Treat last week. The kids looked adorable, Christian as an army man and Ashley as a sunflower. I did my best to get a good picture, but gave up after a while thinking that I would have another opportunity on Halloween night.

Christian had a ball playing the games and LOVED going around to all of the trunks to get candy while Ashley just chilled and took it all in. To many of the other trick or treaters' dismay, the gorilla did not make an appearance this year due to a combination of busy scheduling and lack of planning. We promise he will be there next year.

6 Months Old!

Holy cow, where has time gone? Ashley had her half birthday this month. We celebrated by taking her to her doctor checkup to get some immunization shots. It's tough being the second child. Here is a little about her...

• Ashley is now sitting up and eating baby food like its going out of style. She seems to like vegetables better than fruits, especially sweet potatoes.
• sleeps through the night (since she was 2 months old) and follows her nap schedule like clockwork. She will let me know how disappointed she is if I am late for nap time.
• loves the jumparoo just like her brother.
• sleeps in her swing. I am dreading the day she outgrows it and we have to switch her to the crib.
• She is one of the happiest, most easy going babies I have ever seen and is quick to smile at any happy face
• loves to wrestle with Daddy and cuddle with Mama
• still no teeth
• not fond of sitting through Sacrament meeting

Here are the 6 month stats:

16 lbs 2 oz

25.5 in long

50th percentile for height and weight

cuteness off the charts

Weekend Get Away

This weekend I spent my first night away from my children. Phil and Sherrine offered to stay with our kids while Ry and I headed up north for a little vacation. After doing a little research online, I found a place in Berlin, NH that does ATV tours in the White Mountains. It is peak leaf week, so we payed a premium. We drove halfway on Saturday afternoon to Lincoln. Ryan and I agreed that if we ever get our cabin in the woods someday, it will be near Lincoln. It is beautiful! We had a delicious dinner and checked into our hotel on the slopes of Loon Mountain ski resort.
We woke up early the next morning to drive the rest of the way to Berlin, otherwise known as Armpit, NH. It might as well be Canada. Berlin's one redeeming quality is the hundreds of miles of ATV trails high in the mountains which is perfect not only for fun, but for leaf peeping. Too bad it was super cloudy and rained the. whole. time. When it wasn't raining hard, it rained even harder. The clouds totally obscured every overlook we stopped to see. On a positive note, there was no dust on the trails, we pretty much had the mountain all to ourselves, and the mud and water puddles added some extra fun to our ride. I would totally do this again! Ry and I decided that when we get our cabin in Lincoln someday, we are getting ATVs.
This is the only picture we took mainly because we didn't want to stop riding, and also because getting the camera out involved taking off wet gloves, unzipping the waterproof bag, and shielding the camera from the deluge of rain.

We can't thank you enough, Jinga and Pepe, for watching the tots. We had so much fun! I promise that I will read every conference talk that we missed due to our weekend of freedom.

Playing in the Rain

A Few Favorites

To my husband,

Happy 5th anniversary! Yes, time has flown. I looked back at our wedding pictures today and saw how happy we were surrounded by our family and best friends who were there to support and celebrate with us. It was one of the best days of my life, up there with the births of our two awesome kids. I married you because I knew you would be a wonderful husband and father and I have not ever been disappointed. Thank you for all that you do for us. You are the perfect companion for me. You are fun, hardworking, smart, kind, generous, and loving (without being too sappy of course.) We have grown a lot together in the past five years and I look forward to spending forever with you! I love you!

You Scream, I Scream...

for the Ice Cream Man!

When we hear "The Entertainer" playing loud and clear, we know the ice cream man is making his rounds in the neighborhood. Christian does a little jig and makes a b-line for the driveway. Today I grabbed my wallet and my camera to capture the excitement as Christian stood at the end of the driveway waving his dollar bill.



I have GOT to get his little dance on video, it is too funny. Unfortunately this Shrek ice cream bar will probably be dinner for tonight since the truck came by at 6. But I can't resist. Love this face!



And this one too



Goodbye summer. I miss you already.