Temple Square

We decided to head to Temple Square the week before Christmas this year. Before we hit Temple Square, we went to the Gateway to see Santa. BIG mistake. First we walk into the building and the first thing we hear is, "Here are our photo packages to choose from. The cheapest is thirteen dollars." Oh, okay...I check out Santa. He is on his cell phone!! Yup Santa needs to converse with the elves apparently. Brad and Coop stood there waiting for Santa to finish his call and then we slowly walked up to Santa. Santa just stared at us. I kept thinking he would say HO HO HO or something but NOTHING. We told Coop to go sit on his lap and obviously he didn't want to. Finally Santa speaks with the words, "Well, I guess you can try again next year." Thanks for the advise Santa!! We won't come to you again!
We headed to Temple Square afterwards and this was a much better part of the night. It was beautiful like always! Coop really loved it this year and Ryker did great in his stroller. So fun!

We came up to the reflecting pond and Coop got so excited. They had Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus in the middle of the pond. Coop turns to us and says, "MOM!! They are getting baptized!" Funny little guy!





We headed up the street to stay at the Kimball for the night. Thanks to Bill and Carol for giving us a night there! It was wonderful and hopefully we'll make it a tradition!!

New Years Resolutions

I know I have a whole month to cover but before I get to that I had to post this. Tonight for FHE we were talking about New Years resolutions and goals. Brad and I explained to Cooper, as best we could, what resolutions and goals were. I asked Coop for a family goal for next year. He said, "Love each other more." Great...we are off to a good start. After that he was on a roll:

1. Don't touch the lights because you will get burned.
2. Don't throw your jacket in the snow because it will get wet.
3. Don't touch ladybugs.
4. Don't touch worms.
5. Don't touch Christmas trees because they will fall over.
6. Fly in a rocket ship for our family vacation.
7. Fly in a spaceship to get some metroshkas.

Well, one out eight isn't half bad! haha The wisdom of a three year old. Coop was so serious the whole time and Brad and I had to hide the laughter!

Cooper turns Three!

Coop had his birthday while we were in Bear Lake. He was so excited to have his birthday. He keeps telling people he's turning two though. We'll have to work on that.
He opened Grandpa and Grandma Richs present in the morning. He was so excited to have some more tools!


We waited until that night to open presents and have cake and ice cream. He decided he wanted a Big Blue cake. Well, I decided to try working with gum paste and make a Big Blue for the cake. I think it turned out pretty good for my first time. Brad came in when I was done and told me something was wrong with the cake so I had to go back and change it. Can you see what I did wrong?? I guess Brad is picky when it comes to the Aggies.


Cooper got a race track, some clothes and a tool bench. The tool bench is so neat. Brad spent some time re-doing it. It was one he had with his brother when they were little. It was definitely the favorite present. It even had real tools. Coop is obsessed with Brad's tools so it is perfect!



Saturday after getting our Christmas tree my parents, and Michelle and Carson came and joined us for a night at the cabin. They brought their present for Coop up. He opened it and was so excited for his new scooter. He rode it in the cabin and even gave Carson a ride. He loves it!!


Coop is definitely becoming more independent and lets us know. He is full of energy and loves playing with his friends. We love our Coop!

Thanksgiving

Of course I have so many things to be thankful for. Instead of having a post a mile long, I will just tell you about our Thanksgiving. This year we were with the Rich family. We packed it up Wednesday and after staying in Logan for a bit we headed up to Bear Lake. We were joined by three of Brad's siblings and their families along with Bill, Carol and Brad's Aunt Gay. We had such a great time with everyone.


Friday two more families joined us and we headed down to the golf course to watch the annual football game. It was the uncles vs. nephews. The uncles were able to barely pull off a win this year but it was close! We went down to watch and Coop kept running off trying to get to the deer that were on the course.


Friday night the Grinch came to visit all the kids. It was so funny. My brother in law Greg dresses up in this suit and does a great job imitating the Grinch. Coop and Addy were a little too nervous to get too close but they enjoyed their prize once he left.


Addy during Grinch

Addy after Grinch


Saturday while people were leaving we decided it would be perfect to go find a Christmas tree. We met up with my family and were joined by the Rob Rich family. We headed up Fish Haven canyon and found a few practically perfect Christmas trees in a couple of hours. I definately got my workout that day!

Nine Months!

Ryker turned nine months last Monday. He is slowly turning into a little toddler and it makes me happy and sad. I love seeing his little personality take shape. He is such a loving little guy. I just can't believe in three short months he'll be one.

Here are some of the things he's up to lately:
Loves to eat. He could eat for hours on end if I let him. He gobbles down his baby food and could eat an endless supply of graham crackers. He's pretty good at eating most things we give him.
Loves baths. He could spend forever in the tub playing with toys or his brother. He is always crawling into the bathroom and looking in the tub.
Loves pulling himself up on everything. Once crawling gets him there he pulls right up and cruises along the couch, wall, chairs etc. I'm thinking he'll be walking before I want him to.
Has two cute bottom teeth. I love the gummy, two-toothed smile. I can never get enough!
Has started to give big, open-mouthed, slobbery kisses.
Loves to wake up every morning at seven o'clock. We aren't loving this so much...



Here are his nine month stats:

Length: 29" - 75%
Weight: 21 lbs 2 oz - 50%
Head: 47.1 cm - 90%

We are so happy to have such a loving, happy baby as part of our family!

Oh Cooper....

Yesterday I was shopping in Target with my Coop, Ryker, Michelle and Carson. As we were walking past the bra and underwear section Coop spotted the bras and got pretty excited. This is the conversation I had with Cooper: (Could possibly be TMI...just warning you.)

Cooper: Mom! You wear those. Mom, why do you wear those??

Me: (Trying to just end the conversation...turns out two-year-olds aren't too quiet). Because I just do.

Cooper: No mom..you wear those because if you don't milk will start dripping out your bottles.

Wow. All I could do was smile, tell Coop that's great, and bust up laughing inside. I haven't nursed Ryker for about four months and even then I thought I was pretty modest. They forget all this stuff eventually...right???

Christmas Books

Hey everyone!! I was wondering what your favorite Christmas books are. I always buy a couple around the holidays and right now I'm at a loss for a fun, cute new Christmas book. Leave a comment and let me know...thanks!!

Our Halloween

Our Halloween lasted about a week this year. It was so much fun and just reminds me again how much I love this time of year!

We had the Simmons over on the 28th to carve pumpkins. I think we've started a tradition. We have so much fun together! Our pumpkins turned out great!






Friday the 30th we had the Rich family Halloween party in Logan. Once again, Carol outdid herself. It was so much fun and we had some awesome food.






On Halloween we met up with my family at El Sol. Afterwards we drove home and were ready to Trick or Treat. Brad was pretty antsy to get going when we got the first trick-or-treater at 4:30 but I told him to wait until six. He almost made it :). It is so fun to go Trick-or-Treating in our neighborhood. There are so many kids out. The funny thing is that most parents are out with the kids so a lot of the houses just had bowls of candy on the doorstep. That's how ours was and we even had candy left at the end of the night....I thought it would be gone for sure. That's what I get for buying too many bags...now I have to eat it :). Coop was a "nice" dragon and Ryk was the cutest little chicken. I decided this year that Brad and I need to get some awesome costumes and join the fun. Hopefully next year!!

Crazy Boys

Cooper has been such a handful lately. He plays a little too rough with Ryker. Today I was doing laundry so I had to make my trips up and down stairs. First trip up I came up to this:



Next trip up I saw this:



Poor Ryker!!!

Last night Ryker decided this was comfortable. Crazy little guy!

Wedding Day!

The Wedding day was beautiful. A little chilly, but the colors were just gorgeous!! The sky was cloudy and dark blue and the leaves were at their brightest. It was such a fun day with friends and family!







My sister made this awesome grooms cake for Stephen. It was funny because Stephen had said he wanted a fountain on his wedding cake. We gave him a hard time because that was so early 90s. haha (No offense to anyone that had a fountain...) Anyway, she decided to include one and also include his love for longboarding. It took her about 15 hours from start to finish. You can tell she's been watching some Ace of Cakes! It was awesome Michelle!




Our extended family has a fun tradition of stealing the groom or bride on their wedding day. We made sure Stephen didn't get away without it. After the wedding luncheon they grabbed Stephen and headed off. We heard they were going to take him up to campus and give him the choice of his shoes or shirt. Well, they decided to take him up to the canyon and made him give them his shirt and shoes and dropped him off. Well, he started hitchhiking and the fourth car that passed picked him up and took him right back to the luncheon. Not as embarrassing as they wanted, but a good story.

Stephen & Chelsey's Reception

This last weekend my brother got married. We are so excited for him! We had a great time at the reception. Here are a few pics: