Merry Christmas!

We finally found some time to take a family picture last Friday, which also happened to be the first day in David's 2 years of life that he had NO nap. He was pretty much in a daze by the time we finally took pictures that evening . Laura on the other hand, was having a great time laughing at her cousin Robyn.

Busy Weekend!

Happy Birthday David!

David turned 2 on Sunday, but we had his party on Saturday. I can't believe my baby is 2!

He got right to work on the cake and ice cream

Friday night was our ward Chirstmas party and of course Santa was there. I asked Laura what she asked Santa for and she said a bear and a house. I knew about the bear because apparently mommy and daddy picked out a cheap-o bear last year that is now falling apart. However, I wasn't sure what she meant about the house. So I said, you mean a dollhouse and she said ,no, a new house. I'm thinking this is like on Miracle on 34th Street where Susan asks Santa for a real house. And then she says, a house like Austins. You see Austin is Laura's friend in our ward and at there house they have this awsome slide that starts half way down the staircase and goes down into the basement. Maybe one day. I hope this year she'll be happy with and art easel and Barbie Island Princess!

Mike was busy chasing David when it was our turn with Santa, so we got him by the Christmas tree instead.

This is Carrie, she was my roommate at BYU. We also went on a 2 week church history tour together. She came down to visit for the weekend from Washington. It was so good to see her again. We had so much fun together and lots of fun memories.

Sunday night was dinner at my parents with Rosie and Dave and their families. Afterwards the grandkids helped grandma and grandpa decorate their tree.

Here's my brother Dave and his baby Isabelle

Las Vegas trip #1

In the last couple of months, we have been to Las Vegas twice to visit my sister Rhonda. Her husband Joe is in dental school and she just had her 3rd baby a couple months ago. They named him Owen and he is so darn cute. Her other 2 kids, Danny and Daisy are the same ages as Laura and David, so the cousins were very excited to see eachother again. Joe had a break from school while we were there, so we actually got to hang out with Rhonda AND Joe. We all had a lot of fun, it was a good trip. Vegas trip #2 will be coming soon.

Laura and her new cousin Owen.

Me and my new little nephew.

My guys!

Laura and Danny

Daisy and David

The first night that we were there, Rhonda and Joe were so nice to watch our kids so we could go out. Mike made reservations at the Mesa Grill inside Cesars Palace which is one of Bobby Flay's restaurants for all you Food Network fans out there.

Here we are at dinner.

I had to get a picture of Mike and his steak, he was so excited.

The Bellagio! The water show was great, I think we stayed and watched it a couple of times.

I kept thinking of Ocean's Eleven.

Inside the Bellagio.

Here we have the ceiling.

The rose garden was so pretty.

Then, we went to the Venitian and Mike suprised me with a gondolla ride. This clearly is not us, they just passed by on the other side.

Here we are.

I don't remember where this fountain was, but I wanted to stay right there for a while because it felt about 10 degrees cooler sitting by that water.

Halloween

So David has this obsession with the cactus in our neighbors yard and is always running over to it and trying to touch it. Then he'll say harp, harp (his way of saying sharp, sharp!) So when we went outside to take a few pictures before trick or treating, David immediately booked it over to the cactus with his little shell bouncing on his back, yelling cactuth, cactuth! It was so funny.
Laura was Belle
David was a turtle (kind of ironic for him).

The kids had fun watching Mike carve our pumpkin.

The Pumpkin Patch

David decided it would be easier to find his way out of the maze this way.

I made David sit in the stroller to decorate his pumpkin, because he kept running after the tractor as it would drive by.

San Francisco Peaks

David wasn't very happy that we wouldn't let him run around when we got to the top.

Riding the ski lift at snow bowl.

Flagstaff in July

After Greer (I think it was in July), we went up to Flagstaff to vistit Mike's brother Brent and his family. We went to Walnut Canyon and saw all the Indian ruins. We went on this hike where we got to walk around all the cave dwellings, it was really neat. We also went and rode the ski lift at snow bowl. It was a little scary taking David on the ride. He was pretty good just sitting there the first half of the ride, but the closer we got to the top the more he kept squirming around! I was very relieved when we were back on the ground.

More of our fun in Greer

Our Summer

I thought since I'm getting started with a blog that I would go back and share some of what we did this summer. In June we went and stayed in a cabin in Greer. I love being up in the White Mountains, it's so beautiful. Mike went fishing with the kids, we saw lots of deer right outside our cabin window, we went looking for elk and actually found some! We went up to Big Lake too. We just had a great time!