Helper in the Kitchen

It looks like I passed on my love for cooking to my daughter....she loves to be in the kitchen helping. She knows where everything is...spices, oven mitts, mixing spoons, cups, etc. Yesterday she helped me make cookies. Yes, whatever is out usually gets mixed together, it takes me twice as long to add ingredients, and stirring usually results in foods everywhere, but the smile on Ryan's face makes me love every minute of it!
Can you tell Ryan loves the camera. She recently learned to say, "cheese!"

A Big Weekend...

We usually stay home for Thanksgiving, but this year we flew to CA to spend Thanksgiving with my family. We also came for a special event, the marriage of my Dad and Donna. My dad met a wonderful woman named Donna and they were married the Friday after Thanksgiving (11/26). They got married at a place called Cannons Seafood and Grill in Dana Point. It was a beautiful wedding with an amazing view of the ocean. Donna has 2 children both around my age and it was fun having everyone together. We are happy to have them part of our family. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of the happy couple, but I didn't manage to get pictures of mine and Mindy's families!

My sister Mindy with her cute family. Pyper and Ashton got the flu the night before...they were darling at Grandpa's wedding, but didn't feel too good.

More Halloween

Since Halloween fell on a Sunday this year we decided we wouldn't go trick-or-treating, but would let Ryan go to the neighbor's homes on both sides of our house. We knew they would love to see Ryan in her costume. Apparently you only have to go to a few houses to get a bucket full of candy. At one of our neighbor's house they told her to take as much candy as she wanted....she kept putting candy in her basket that I had to stop her. :)

We learned that Ryan LOVES suckers.

Halloween 2010

I sitting at my computer right now while Ryan is taking a nap. I just uploaded a ton of pictures from my camera and there is A LOT of updating I need to do to our blog. I'm really late at posting these, but here are pictures of Ryan at Halloween. She was a fairy and loved getting candy. She was so cute in her costume. We went to our ward trunk-or-treat and she didn't quite know what we were doing. After she got candy from 1 person she was on board. She went to each person and said "treat" and "thank you".

Helping Daddy pass out candy. We participated in the chili cook-off and pumpkin contest. Billy carved this pumpkin that's supposed to be our bishop.

I love those big eyes!

5 Years!

2005: Yosemite National Park

2006: Brea, CA

2007: Our Home, Mesa, AZ

5th Anniversary!

2008: Grand Canyon

2009: Okinawa, Japan

2010: Our Home: Mesa, AZ
(I love how Ryan got in the picture)

On Thursday, October 21st, Billy and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary! As I looked at pictures of us over the past 5 years it was fun to think about all the memories we have. Our anniversary landed on a Thursday so we decided to celebrate on Friday. Everything kinda changed when our friend that was going to watch Ryan called that morning to tell me she had the flu. We celebrated our anniversary as a family instead. :) We went to Buca di Beppo for dinner where we ordered food that was way too spicy for either of us to enjoy (I even asked the waitress if it was too spicy for Ryan and she said that the sausage was spicy, but the sauce was a marinara sauce and would be fine for Ryan...obviously she hadn't tried it before). Since our dinner didn't turn out very good we had to end with a tasty treat. We shared a slice of pumpkin cheesecake at The Cheesecake Factory and it was divine. Even though the dinner didn't turned out so great we still had a fun night together and loved having Ryan with us!
I'm so grateful for a wonderful husband who takes good care of our family. I'm so grateful we are sealed in the Temple and that Ryan is sealed to us. We're happy and we look forward to the years ahead! I love you Billy!

Melissa & Callen's Big Day: 10/9/10

My sister Melissa got married over Fall Break so we decided to make a little vacation out of the trip. I flew to CA on Thurs. night so that I could be there with my sister when she went through the Temple for the first time. I was also able to help with the flowers and other things that needed to be done for the wedding. Melissa and Callen were married in the San Diego Temple on Sat. morning. We drove down to San Diego Fri. night and met Billy and Ryan there who drove from AZ. The ceremony was wonderful and it was a beautiful day. I know my mom was able to be with us and share in this great day!


My dad got all the girls matching dresses. They were so cute. Pyper loved Ryan and was so sweet to her.
After the wedding we ventured up to Brea where Melissa and Callen had their reception. Billy's parents made the trek down from Lancaster to help watch Ryan and the other kids. A big thank you to them for making the drive and taking the time to help so that Billy and I could both be in the Temple....although for an opportunity to see their granddaughter; I don't think they had a problem coming at all!

Daddy Date/Mommy Date

Ryan and Billy had a daddy-daughter date when I was at a Stake Activity Day about a month ago. I came home to them playing in the water. Ryan adores her dad. When Billy gets home from work it's pretty much, hi dad and bye-bye mommy (literally...when she and Billy are doing something she waves to me and says bye-bye).

Ryan desperate to get wet in the 105+ weather every day during the summer. We don't have a pool so we improvise. :) Let's just say she LOVES to help wash the car because she knows she gets to get wet!

Ryan and I got to have our mommy-daughter date too. Ryan loves to paint her toenails so we made our way over to Ulta where her and I picked out 5 new colors. She was so excited. I love my girl!

Shots are Never Fun

Ryan got her flu shot about a month ago. She did so well and didn't even cry. Afterwards her and I got Jamba Juice....pretty much her favorite thing ever!

Same Place, Different Time

I had to post these pictures because the picture below reminded me of the picture above. Last month we went on a little nature hike near the Superstition Mtns. We went on this same hike when Ryan was 6 months old. Of course we had to take a picture in the same spot. It was nice to be outside as a family.

Ryan is 19 months in this picture. Notice, Billy is wearing the same shirt and same hat...not planned...apparently Billy needs to expand his wardrobe.

Fun with Cousins

Ryan LOVES playing with her cousins. She'll run to the door if I tell her they are coming over. If I tell her we're going to their house, then she instantly goes looking for her shoes, my shoes, and Billy's shoes so that we're all ready to go.

Dylan and Cali are very sweet to Ryan and always let her play with them.

Me and my cutie. I realized that I'm usually the one taking the pictures, so of course I had to start documenting my time with my baby. Ryan is 19 months now. She is getting so big and starting to say a lot of words. She can say: daddy, mommy, more, keys, shoes, socks, outside, come, get, you, please, bye, hi, baby, where, oh no, uh oh, it, go, mama, dada, and a few more I'm sure I'm forgetting at the moment. We sure love her!

"Foo Foo Dress"