Family Pictures 2013

Back in September while Bonnie and Scott were in town, we had Bonnie take some family pictures for us.  I love how they turned out and love our little family.  I had the top one as our Christmas card photo for this year, so I didn't want to post it before anyone received their cards from us. 

Utah vs. BYU

On Saturday night I went with my mom to the Utah vs BYU game.  This was such a fun game and the energy in the arena was intense.  The crowds at the games the past few years have been a sparse.  I loved that the Utes beat BYU and in fact we creamed them, 81 - 64!  The Utes have a great record so far this year at 9 - 1. Go UTES!!

Our First Real Christmas Tree

It's only taken 7 years for us to get a real Christmas tree, but we finally did it!  Ever since we have been married, we have gone somewhere for Christmas.  When Ryan was in school, we always came to Utah for Christmas and last year we were in Durango, CO.  So it never made sense to have a tree.  This year, we are staying here and Nolan is old enough to start remembering things so we wanted to get a tree.  We went on Saturday after playing in the snow to Robinson's tree lot on 7th east and 27th south.  They had a ton of trees to choose from but we found the perfect one for us.  I have never been to a tree lot before, so this was a lot of fun.  I had a fun time decorating it and Nolan loves the lights on the tree and taking the ornaments off.  :) 

Snow Fun!

Saturday morning we went up Emigration Canyon to play in the snow.  Nolan wasn't so sure of it in the beginning, but by the end we could hardly get him in the car. 

A Few Nolan Moments

A few things that Nolan has done lately, that I don't want us to forget.

*We made it through our second sacrament meeting the whole way through!  I'm not sure how we did it, and i'm sure the fact that it ended 15 minutes early helped.  We made a big deal about it and I hope we can do this again in the near future

*Nolan loves Toy Story 3 right now - 

*He laughs at the funniest things and will say, "Mom, that bear was kinda silly."

*I hope this doesn't stick around, but he says to us, "Do you understand, mom?"  

*Loves spinning in circles and getting dizzy

*Asks to be carried and when I pick him up, he says, "I'm to big."  I tell him he is and that he should be walking.

*Loves to turn on the lights in the house.

*Loves to see Christmas lights and asks where did they go if we haven't seen any for a while

*Can point out bulldozers, dump trucks and everything construction site related.  He sees a bulldozer crane or concrete truck and wants to see it and asks where it is going.  Ryan got him a book, Goodnight, goodnight construction site and Nolan wants to read it at least once a day.  

*He loves to snuggle up with his blankets and stuffed animals.

*Loves chocolate milk and that is the first thing he asks for in the mornings

*He has about 7 cars and carries them around everywhere - bathtub, bed, car, i'm talking everywhere.  If one is missing he knows it and says, "Mom, where is my yellow car." It cracks us up every time.  

*Asks a lot of questions as of late, "Mom, why is the moon in the sky?" "What is this when?" "What doing?"

*Opens the fridge and gets whatever he wants from it.  One day I looked up and saw Nolan carrying a carton of eggs around, saying he wanted some eggs. 

*Has started to copy what we say in our nighttime prayers.  This is really sweet.  He also copies what we say to him as we are leaving his room, love you and sweet dreams.

*Wants to go to a Ute game every day - when we drive past the stadium he says I want to go that way.  Last night we were watching the basketball game on TV and Nolan kept jumping up and down saying, "Go Utes!" 

*Jumps from the coffee table to the couch and thinks it is the funnest thing ever.

*Likes bath time and brushing his teeth

*Asks where his friends are - Where is Luke?, Where is Dwight?, Where is Adali?, Where is my dad?, Where is my mom?, where is Collie?, Where is my Maria (Larkin)?, Where is Jett? etc.  He will go through this on a daily basis.  Sometimes i'll turn the question around to him and ask him where Luke is and he will say, "At his parents house." or "She is at her Raleigh home."

*Likes going to school each day

*Eats graham crackers in the car on the way to school and on the way home

*Has to eat applesauce daily

*Sleeping through the night, now if only we could get him to sleep past 5:30 am or 6:00 am.  

*Likes jam sandwiches and yogurt

*Likes to give us hugs and says I like you mom/dad.  Sometimes he will say I love you

*Plays with my hair and says awww mom's hair

*Likes to help sweep the floor and help cook meals.  He loves to be in the action.  Sometimes he will take the broom and just start sweeping the floor for no reason

*Will sit and look at books and pretend to read them.  I love this!

*Loves his cousin Corbin and Easton - asks for them almost every day.

*We were at my parent's house on Sunday and Nolan was very quiet.  I went looking for him and found him in a castle they have.  He had somehow taken a whole box of wheat thins from the pantry and put it in the castle and was eating them.  I had to laugh and call Ryan over to see what his son was doing. 

Meet Bernie

This is Bernie.  He is our elf that will come from the North Pole every December.  Nolan enjoys seeing Bernie sitting on the shelf and knows that he needs to be a good boy because Bernie will report back to Santa.  I'm happy Bernie has joined our family.  

Live Nativity

Wednesday night we went to see a live nativity.  It was fantastic!  It is in our old neighborhood, where we lived after we were first married.  When my sister in law told me that it was happening that night, I told Ryan that we had to go.  We brought the Alvey's with us and I think they enjoyed it.  It is such a fun event, and I am thankful for all the people that do so much work to make it happen. Nolan loved seeing all the animals and the fire pits. 

Monday Night Lights

We are trying to do a lot of fun things to help us get in the Christmas spirit. We met up with my family on Monday night this week to go to temple square to see the lights.  I love going to see the lights and I'm glad we could all go.  It was fun being with everyone and i'm glad Collie had the good idea to go.  We went to Hatches Chocolate after for some yummy treats and hot chocolate. 

Sunday Afternoon Drive to the Nature Conservancy

Ryan loves to go explore and we figured Sunday afternoon would be one of the last "good driving weather" days for a while.  After church we went on an adventure to find the nature conservancy in west Layton.  I wasn't sure what to expect, but this place was great!  As we walked around we couldn't get over how silent it was and how far it felt from everything but you could see homes and other buildings off in the distance.  We talked about how different the experience would have been if there were groups of other people there.  You probably wouldn't notice the silence.  We didn't see too many birds, so we plan on going back in the spring.  Nolan loved looking through the cracks in the walkway to see the water and bugs.  At one point he was trying to look under the bridge and Ryan joined him.  Nolan is just like his dad, loves to explore and learn about everything. It was a perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon!

Thanksgiving Weekend Recap

Thanksgiving weekend was great.  Kirsten and her boyfriend Dylan came in town from Portland on Wednesday.  I got off work at 1:00 pm on Wednesday, met up with Kirsten, Jared and Ryan for lunch at the soup kitchen by West High.  Jared and Annie took me and Kirsten to Hunger Games, Catching Fire for my birthday.  Loved that show!  We picked up LC's pizza and went back to our house to eat.  Thanksgiving morning, Ryan went to play flag football with Jared and some of his friends.  We made the mashed potatoes, green beans and pumpkin pie.  Annie and Jared made the turkey, stuffing, butterscotch pie and appetizers.  We ate around 4:00 pm at Jared's place.  I always enjoy Thanksgiving and the time spent with family and remembering things we are thankful for.  The girls convinced the boys that we should watch the Holiday.  It was a great day!

Friday we actually slept in - Nolan came in our room at 7:45 am.  We couldn't believe it!   It was a nice surprise.  We met up with everyone at Liberty park, played around there.  Went to Costa Vida for lunch and then shopping at Nordstrom Rack and Children's Place.  Everyone went their separate ways for the evening.  We invited my parents to come over for some pumpkin pie.  We watched the Oregon and Oregon State game.  Another great day with the family.

Saturday we went to breakfast at Royal Eatery downtown and then to the Utah football game.  We ended up taking Nolan with us to the game since we felt we couldn't ask anyone to watch him.  There were 7 home games this season, and we felt we had already exhausted all of our babysitting resources and it was Thanksgiving weekend so everyone we had already asked couldn't do it.  Nolan was great at the game and both Ryan and I were shocked at how well he did.  There was so much going on I think there was never a dull moment and Nolan likes that.  The Utes won their final game of the season against Colorado.  I'm sad they won't be going to a bowl game this year since their record was 5-7, but hopefully next year.