Young Women Yurt trip

I haven't posted anything for a while so I decided to finally update you all. I am in the Young Women presidency for my ward. I absolutely love this calling and the girls are so much fun. In February we had the chance to go on a yurt trip. We had so much fun just hanging out, snowshoeing and ice fishing. I think everyone had a great time getting to know each other better. We also had the chance to snowshoe around warm lake and also ice fish. No one caught any fish, but the people next to us caught a bunch :( Maybe next time.

Snow shoeing at Warm Lake

The group of us!

Just hanging out playing games

OH BABY!!! A shower for my friend

Last weekend I drove to Utah with my mom to help throw a baby shower. It was not just any baby shower.....it was my friend, Denae's first baby shower. We have been friends since birth and always wanted to be pregnant together and have our kids grow up together. Well one of us is pregnant and due in March.....nope not me!!!! I AM MORE THAN EXCITED FOR HER!!!! I can't wait to meet this sweet little boy and give him a big kiss. I decorated and had so much fun making it look lovely. I must say the cupcake platter turned out adorable! The remainder of the afternoon/evening was spent shopping with my mom at.......IKEA!!!! Thanks to my sweet mom who drove with me to Utah and helped me enjoy Ikea for five hours! Let's just say my feet were throbbing from walking around the store. I think Ryan wasn't too happy about my time spent shopping and buying too much home decor. Gotta love IKEA. :)

Denae and her sister in law Whitney are both due in March! Aren't their bumps just too cute?!!

Cupcakes YUM!!!!

The house all decorated and ready! I must say they both received some great gifts

Freezing Florida? and Bahamas!

Where do I begin!!! Okay so I had a second knee surgery Dec. 30th. Everything went well! Thankfully :)I started my road to recovery five days later hoping to just lay out on the beach and soak up some sun. Let's just say it wasn't quite warm enough to even put on a bathing suit or even think about taking off my hoodie. Florida was experiencing an unusual cold front. The coldest weather they've had since 1989! Freezing temperatures at night, which is no big deal if you live in Idaho, but all the locals were bundled up like it was below zero! So after the first few days of sunny, but windy cold weather we were hoping to escape the cold front in Florida by heading further south. Bahamas here we come.......time to relax on a cruise and eat way too much! So we managed to eat a ton, but again our two stops one of which was canceled due to rain and rough water! Seriously is this a joke....nope it is not :) We managed to stop in Nassau, Bahamas and enjoy walking around the Atlantis resort. The beaches were beautiful and the sand was soft and white. Seriously all I wanted to do was lay out. Again it was too cold! I guess it was a blessing because I had no desire to get in the water. That was the only thing my doctor did not want me to do. Ryan wasn't going to let the cool weather turn him away from enjoying the ocean. The water felt like bath water compared to the air temperature. After our three night cruise we stayed one more day and night in South Beach, Miami. This was the one and only day I got in my bathing suit and laid poolside for five hours!!!!! Finally! One day of nice, sunny, warm weather. To end the trip we made all of our flights and the last leg of our journey ended with a two year old barfing in the row in front of us! Yikes! I have a new appreciation for mothers who travel with children :) Oh and guess what the temperature was the weekend after we were gone 85 degrees!!!!!!! What do you do?!!!! Ryan and I had fun together though. We love to travel and always enjoy spending all day and night together. Someday we will make another trip to Florida and it will be warm and beautiful!!! Oh and the knee is feeling great and I am thinking positive. This ACL replacement just has to work and it will :)

Ryan body surfing in the warm water. He didn't want to get out because the air temperature was freezing!

Atlantis resort in Nassau, Bahamas

The mannequins were all enhanced!!!! Check out those triple D's

Ryan posing outside our cruise ship

Formal night on the ship

Everglades boat ride and alligators

Everglades air boat ride! Beautiful but sooooo cold! Ryan was wearing shorts and had goose bumps

White sandy beaches! So lovely :)

South Beach, Miami

A little bit of Christmas Cheer!

Christmas is my favorite time of year! I love it even if my Doctor tried to ruin it with telling me I have to get knee surgery again. Seriously I am the 1% out of the 99% that have to have an ACL reconstruct due to no fault of mine or the doctors. Really now that is not the way to start out your Christmas holiday. Other than that awful news Christmas was spectacular. The kids were all super excited and could not wait for Santa's arrival. I think Sam asked to open presents nearly 30 times Christmas Eve. It is easy to forget your worries and get lost in the magic of the holidays with kids capturing the purest joy of the season. Hope your holidays were Merry and Bright! Wish me luck on my knee surgery in less than two days! The cutest Christmas elf(Easton) and his momma

Santa made a surprise visit!

Ford with his favorite Uncle :)

A little bit of the Christmas Craziness!

Some of the grand kids! Sam is about to squeeze Kaisley with his toes! :)

Trent and Aiden on our road trip to Salt Lake the weekend before Christmas. We celebrated with the Kemp family for Ryan's mom's 60th birthday.

Sisters and Brian (He loves us)

Happy Turkey Day !

This Thanksgiving was a little smaller than normal we were missing Cindy, Adam, Summmer, Chris, Jenelle, Joe, Russell, Julie, and their kids. It was a great day with yummy food and family. As a tradition before we eat we have to say two things we are grateful for. Grandma Arlie started the tradition years ago and isn't doing well so of course we all started crying when Mary mentioned she was the one who kept the tradition. It is such a special holiday and I have so much to be thankful for. I love Thanksgiving it is the perfect start for the Christmas season. Now on to decorating for Christmas........another post to follow showing my "Buddy the elf" craziness for decorating :)

Isn't this just hilarious! I loved Elly's turkey hat.....gobble gobble

sweet Tesla June

Dad carving the turkey

Amy and mom working their magic in the kitchen :)

Hope you all had a fabulous holiday!

Reconnecting with good friends

So it is a rare occasion that my girlfriends from high school get together. It was so fun to catch up and chat while the kiddos ran around making a mess of Sara's house (thanks Sara for letting us come over). It is always fun to reconnect with good friends and see how much our lives have changes since high school. Now they are all mommies and a few are pregnant! Kori is due this summer with her third baby. Lexi is due with her second boy this spring, and Sara is due with her second this summer. It is just crazy how fast time will pass, but the friends you make along the way make it all worth it. Hopefully we will be able to get together more often.

Lexi, Sara, me, Kori, and Lacey

Jack, Mckenzie, Trace, Hallie,and Jayden

Next time we get together we will be out numbered. Aren't they adorable!?

Halloween Party 2009!

Mary hosted the annual Halloween Party and it was a success! We had so much fun seeing everyone dressed up in their costumes. We started the night out right with chili, clam chowder,bone shaped rolls, rootbeer w/ dry ice, and salads. Oh and tons of candy from the ghost pinata! We ended the night trick-or-treating with the kids and enjoyed watching them earn their treats. I love Halloween and hope you enjoy all of the photos. I had to get all of the costumes documented. Hope everyone had a fabulous Halloween.......Summer,Chris, Kaisley, Jenelle, Joe, Evan, Sam, Julie, Russ,Brian, Riley, Mom, and Dad were all missed. Love ya

The 50's couple! Doesn't Ryan look hot! :) love him

Group shot

Look at all of the candy! The kids were picking through it! Seriously they were choosing which ones they liked. It was hilarious

Ford taking a swing at it!

Cindy the witch, taking her nails to Adams face

He went to the BSU game while she made chili and got all three kids ready for Halloween. Let's just say she wasn't too happy about it :)

Family photo. Izabel is Cinderella, Ford the monster/dinosaur, Easton the pea pod

Ryan the ninja and his geisha Emily

Aiden is the cutest little frog

Sisters ( We miss ya Jenelle and Summer)

Pence family photo

Emily the geisha( she has her wig on here) cute little Easton

The monster/dino has arrived to scare the princesses

Disney Princesses

Layla the bunny and Alice

The stoic pumpkin farmers and their little pumpkin Tesla

Last but not least Alice in Wonderland. Elly you are a doll face :)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!