Our Little Girl!

Ryan: 11 months

My 2 Loves!

Ryan's Favorite Place

At the Superstition Springs Mall they have a play place that kids can play in. They recently put an additional play area in the mall for babies and toddlers. We took Ryan there for the first time last week and she LOVES it!

Ryan loves playing and watching the other kids. She also likes to do what they do. Billy took her to play last Friday night while I was at an activity day Movie Night and he said that Ryan saw a boy climb through the window to get inside the little house (in the picture). Ryan now will not crawl through the door; she has to go through the window to get inside. She loves the slides! Silly girl! We sure love her!

A Fun Family Outing

Billy and I used to go hiking a lot before we had Ryan. We had the opportunity to go hiking again this past Saturday with my brother-in-law Justin, my nephew Dylan, and a few other people. We went to a trail near Canyon Lake, just about 30-45 min. away from our home. It was pretty chilly, but we had a lot of fun.

Justin and Dylan.

I Love My Bath!

Ryan always gets very messy at dinner. She is transitioning from letting us feed her to wanting to feed herself. She will literally refuse to eat unless we let her feed herself. She also wants our food, not baby food. I'll be saving money now because I won't be buying baby food anymore...it's the food mommy and daddy eat. As a result she usually has food all over her face and body (we now strip her down to her diaper). Because of this, a bath or shower has become a daily part of the bedtime routine. She loves the water and playing with her little rubber duckies.

Crazy hair!

Another year older...

I have been trying to update our blog and with the holidays I got pretty behind. My dad celebrated another birthday on January 1st. I've been trying to use our blog as a journal (some-what) and so wanted to tell my dad how much I appreciate all he does. Both my mom and my dad adore kids and love having grandkids. My dad is supportive and tries to not miss anything. He flew to AZ for Halloween, came out for 2 days for Billy's graduation, and took time off at Christmas. He knows the importance of family and I'm grateful for all he does. He has certainly had to take on additional roles this past year and Billy, Ryan, and I are truly grateful for all he does. Happy Birthday Dad! We love you!

I remember making these in Primary!

L-R: Cali 2, Ryan 4 mo., Mom, Dylan 4, Ashton 10 mo., Dad, Pyper 2

A Kid's Favorite Toy

We got Ryan a new car seat a couple weeks ago and she loved playing in the box. Billy always said that our kids were never going to have a lot of toys; all they needed was a box and they'd be happy. Well....he still believes that kids don't need A LOT of toys, but now thinks that Ryan can have SOME toys....:) She had fun playing in the box w/ her other toys. I think I distinctly remember being in line at Kohls during Christmas and Billy coming up to me with Ryan holding a play set of keys stating that she wanted this little toy. Oh how he adores her!

Ryan also started walking the first week of January (1/1/10). She is taking steps, but is still really wobbly. She loves to hold our hand and walk with us to different places around the house. She's so much fun!

Ryan will be 11 months next week.

The Trip Home: Saturday 10/16 and Sunday 10/17

Ryan getting some snugs from her Aunt Wendy on Friday night. We had so much fun visiting Rick and Wendy. They took us all over Okinawa and showed us all the cool places to go. We miss them and can't wait for them to come back to the States in August. Japanese food was pretty good, although we weren't too keen on the airplane food and some of the fruit. They have vending machines all over the place and the drinks are pretty interesting. We tried a chocolate drink that had chunks of custard in it. They also had a fruit punch drink that had chunks of jello in it....an interesting surprise when you took the first gulp. We also got donuts one night at a place called Mister Donut, the only thing is that you don't know what kind of donut you are getting until you bite into it. They have some of the typical sugar donuts and then some that have curry and potatoes in it. Rick is teaching early morning seminary right now so Billy went with him to teach every morning; this also included a stop every morning to get eclairs. Billy believes they are the best eclairs ever.....I would have to agree. They were pretty tasty.
The trip home. We left Okinawa on Saturday at about 1:00 pm. We made it to Los Angeles on Saturday at about 11:30 am. While it was nice gaining a whole day coming back, the jet lag was terrible. We were all messed up on our sleep patterns. It took us about 1 week to get back on track. We made it back on Saturday, spent the day with my dad, went to dinner at Buca de Beppo, and flew back to Pheonix on Sunday evening. A big shout-out to our good friends Brooke and Kyle for taking and picking us up at the airport...you guys are great! We had a great time on our 1st family vacation with memories we'll never forget! While we won't be doing extravagant vacations like this very often, we really enjoyed going on vacation as a family to a new place. We are going to try to do a family vacation every year! Our next stop....hopefully Nauvoo or Washington D.C. and Palmyra...we'll have to see!

Maeda Point: Friday 10/16

On Friday we went to a beach called Maeda Point. It was another overcast day, but a successful day of snorkeling. This was a first time for both Billy and I and we had tons of fun. There were so many fish and lots of coral to see. It was amazing.


It looks like a nice sandy beach, but it was actually really rocky. You had to wear shoes when you walked around or your feet would start to hurt.

That night we went with Rick and Wendy to an "Iron Chef Ward Party." The rest of the night was spent relaxing at home.

Lakehouse: Thursday 10/15

On Thursday we wanted to go to the beach and go snorkeling, but it rained all day and the beaches were closed. So instead we checked out a lighthouse they had nearby. The lighthouse was closed too, but that didn't stop Billy and Rick from having an "adventure." We decided to try to walk down to the beach (through coral), but after about 5 min., it proved to hard with babies, so while Wendy and I watched the kids, Rick and Billy made their way down to the beach.



Dragon Fruit.
Rick and Will cutting up some dragon fruit. After going to the lighthouse we stopped and grabbed lunch at a place called Moss Burger. It was pretty good. That night Billy and I watched the kids so Rick and Wendy could go out on a date. Will and Evelyn are really cute and a lot of fun.

Drop Slide and Sam's Tepenyaki: Mon. 10/12

After we had lunch at Beach Rock Village we then hit the park for some more fun.

They have huge slides at the park. Believe or not, these are the slides children go down. Billy and Rick had the "great" idea of going down the slide on a sled so they could get more speed. They didn't take into account that since it was raining the slide was extra slippery. Billy got some major air and almost banged his head...I was glad he was safe and that our trip to Japan wasn't spent in the hospital.
I chickened out and didn't go down the first slide, but did go down this one. This slide had rollers on it to help add speed. Billy took Ryan down this slide.
That night we went to Sam's Tepenyaki, a place where they cook the food right in front of you. This was our chef.

They had a huge pot of Navy Bean Soup. It was really good, along with all of the other food. The whole gang. My brother Brandon and his wife Alysha also came to Japan with us. They spent a couple days in Okinawa and then spent the rest of the week touring around other parts of Japan. It was fun doing a little vacation with them. Thanks for coming Brandon and Alysha.
(L-R: Billy, Ryan, Chelsea, Brandon, Alysha, Evelyn, Rick, Will, Wendy).

Okinawa World: Tues. 10/13 and Wed. 10/14

On Wed. we went to Okinawa World. We saw some Okinanawa Dancers put on a show. Afterward we got our picture taken with some of them.
At Okinawa World they had a fruit stand where you could buy all the different fruits that are grown in Okinawa. We bought a variety pack so we could try the different fruits. For the most part, I didn't really like them, but they were still fun to try. They had dragon fruit, papaya, pineapple, watermelon, mango, kiwi, tomatoes (not the tomatoes we think of: they were green),
While at Okinawa World we got to walk through this huge cave and see the stalactites and stalagmites. We were really far underground, but there were still fish in the pools of water.
We were all pretty hungry after spending the day at Okinawa World so we went to Genkis Restaurant for dinner. Since we were in Japan we had to eat sushi one night. Billy and Rick had raw tuna and salmon. Wendy is pregnant so her and I had some cooked beef sushi.
On Tuesday night Wendy took me to Cocoks Toes, a place that does nail art. It was pretty much 1 1/2 hrs of pampering. They massaged our feet and then painted our toenails however we wanted. While you are enjoying the massage they give you a 60-some page book full of different ways to paint your toes....I then had the difficult decision of picking what I wanted. My toes are on the left and Wendy's are on the right. It was a lot of fun. Thanks so much to Rick and Billy for watching the kids for us! You guys are great.