More Jingle Bells

Jingle Bells

We were decorating the Christmas tree, when Ryan recorded this footage. Trust me I didn't know it was on video. I thought he was just taking pictures. Please forgive my horrible singing. Notice how Ryan chimes in towards the end to cover up his poor wife's voice. He's always concerned that the kids are tone deaf like me. It must be difficult for him to be married to someone who lacks in the musical talent dept.

What Does a Pirate say?

Ryan was able to get Jacob to share his thoughts on pirates. Jacob knows exactly what pirates say.

Deck The Halls

After working 10 hours today it was nice to come home and spend some fun time with "The Fam".


Ryan was so nice and brought up all the boxes of Christmas decorations. The kids were so excited to deck the halls. They are so much fun. They both were so careful decorating the tree. We sang songs and had a great time. Ryan got the camera out and captured some great moments. By golly I think I have that man trained pretty darn good. I didn't even have to ask him to take pictures. He put up the tree and left the rest to us.

Where was our camera?

Eric, Melissa and our buddy Jesse came and stayed with us. I thought we'd taken pictures when they were here. I guess not. Luckily melissa had some on her blog that I was able to borrow. (Thanks Melissa)

We had the best time. We had dinner Friday night, played games and watched a movie. Saturday morning we had a wonderful breakfast and played more games. It's always good times when they come over. The kids love spending time together and play so well with each other. I love playing games so much and so I am always in heaven when we have these guys over. They love playing games as much as I do.

Numbers: number 3

Numbers: number 3

Things happen in 3's. So this weekend was full of suprises. At our house it seems bad things happen in threes. Ryan's insulin pump broke saturday morning, my washing machine that is only 2 years old broke....then we went to put up our Christmas lights and they were broken. Wow! All though it will be expensive to fix these things...I'm grateful we can move on now that 3 things have broke. I was upset at first with Christmas right around the corner. Good thing Ryan worked Over time, Right?

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

We decided to do something different for Thanksgiving this year! My brother's weren't able to be here for the holiday. My Dad & mom took Ryan, the kids and I out to eat. We went to the Sandpiper in Idaho Falls. When people ask where we went for Thanksgiving I wasn't sure I wanted to say. I was afraid they would make fun of me. Is it unamerican to not cook on this wonderful holiday? Oh well the food was so yummy, we even had leftovers. No dishes...And we didn't have to worry about a thing. If you ask me I could make this a tradition. We probally won't however. It worked great for us for this year.

Counting My Blessings!

On this Thank

sgiving day I'd like to share what our family is thankful for. As we all sat at the table enjoying our beautiful meal I asked everyone to share what they were thankful for.

Papa Bill "Thankful for his family"

Grandma Bette "Ryan, Lori & grandkids"

Marli "Jesus"

Lori "Live in the greatest country in the world...USA, Freedom. Soldiers, health, homes, jobs and family"

Jacob "His room and his bed"

Ryan "Wife and Papa bill and Grandma Bette"

The food, fun, and folks!

Here are some pictures of the food we enjoyed. Everyone had the traditional Thanksgiving feast. Well that's everyone with the exception of my sweetheart(Ryan). He enjoyed ordering rack of lamb. He'd never had it before and thought it would be fun to try. It was excellent. Then there are some pictures of the folks. What a fun day!



Jacob and Marli loved the whip cream on top of the pie the best. After Jake ate all his whip cream he asked the waitess for some more. She brought him a whole bunch. He smiled at her and said " Your the best woman I ever had." The waitress loved it. She smiled and gave him a squeeze. It was really cute.

Pirate Jake

Grandma Bette got Jacob this pirate get up today.

He has been wearing it everywhere.

An outing with Dad

Ryan took Marli
on a little outing today! It was really special to both of them. Ryan said they held hands everywhere they went.

Bundled up for some FUN

The kids got

all bundled up and had some fun out in the front of our house.

They played out there for over an hour before we could get them to admit they were getting cold. They did have boots, hats and gloves on. I was cold after 10 minutes.

Let It Snow

We were pleasantly surprised to the winter wonderland outside.

Ryan was working overtime today. I talked the kids into watching the movie E.T. with me. I made a huge bowl of popcorn and we all cuddled up downstairs in the basement. I have to say I bought the movie E.T. several years ago and no one would ever watch it with me. I love this movie. It's a classic from my childhood. Ryan always thought it was dumb. So when Jake and Marli said they'd watch it with me I was ecstatic. We were enjoying the movie when 20 minutes into it Ryan got home from work. He sat down with us and watched the rest of it. When The movie was over about 10:30 we went upstairs to put the kids to bed. Ryan hollered at us to come look out the front door. These pictures are what we saw. How beautiful. The kids were so excited. They ran outside with no shoes on. I grabbed the camera and their slippers. What a perfect moment.



The kids both nailed their dad with snow. Jacob and Marli both can throw awesome. Ry and I laughed so hard at the two of them. No gloves on and we couldn't get them to come back in. They had a blast. It was so cool to be the only ones in the neighborhood enjoying the fresh falling snow. We all thought it was a miracle. When we said our prayers we gave thanks for this time we had as a family.

All dressed up

We got dressed up and Ryan took us to dinner.

The kids looked cute and so I took some pictures of them before we ran out the door.


Marli has this thing she does with me... she puts out her pinky finger and says "Mom pinky" And we pinky swear. It makes her giggle. I think she's seen me try to get her brother to pinky swear he'll always love me. So she does it in her own cute little way.