Not a lot of  pictures in this post.

There should be though.

There should be a picture of Ryan’s first day as a Sunbeam.  (Currently stuck on my camera.)

A picture of Ryan’s SECOND time going to the dentist and FIRST time doing it all by himself!  Proud mama moment!  He was so good.  When they came out and called his name he hopped up with a smile on his face and followed our sweet hygienist back.  Dr. Stanley said afterwards that he was amazing!  And that he has a few cavities.    At least now Ryan is more dedicated to letting us help him brush and floss his teeth!  (He does a really good job usually, but those back ones are hard to get at!)

A picture of my new hair!  Oh wait…I have one of those!

LOVING my new bangs!  Oh, and Ryan, not a bad photographer! 

A picture of Clint and I going out with his team from work for a nice dinner at Cafe Boa in Tempe.  His company met their revenue goal of $26 million for 2011, and Clint’s boss wanted to take us all out to celebrate.  It was a nice night with good company and great food.  (Although my dinner choice wasn’t the best…think seaweed pasta with squid in swamp sauce.  What WAS I thinking??!!)

Oh, and our vacuum died, and we bought a refurbished Dyson, which I am THRILLED about!  Its my new favorite toy!    Our carpets actually feel softer.  Crazy!

And since we never posted a family Christmas picture, and Clint insists…here is our little family from a few weeks ago.

Once a week.

Once a week I will write a post about our family.  Then, at the end of the year I will make a book as a sort of family journal.

I have thought about this before, but this time its for real.  If its on the blog you KNOW its happening!  (Well, the odds are greater anyway.)

The holidays were nice.  Not much to report on.  We have had the stomach flu (Thanksgiving), strep throat (Christmas/Anniversary) and have now moved onto some icky colds, so it made it hard to do much while Clint was off work, but we were able to enjoy family non-the-less and the spirit of the season was the same.

Some Christmas highlights:

• Almost nightly trips to see the Loop of Lights in our neighborhood.  The crowing event being the house at the end that plays to music on the radio and has nightly visits from Santa, the Grinch, Frosty, and some elves.
• Christmas book advent.  One Christmas book every night from Dec 1st through Christmas Eve. We found some new favorites this year!
• A Polar Express Party for the kids and their friends.

With the approach of the new year, I have been thinking a lot about just life in general.  Not necessarily setting “resolutions” per se, but just pondering what I want for my life and for my family and if there are things I should be doing to help me achieve all I desire for myself, my marriage, and my sweet children.  Inspired by Stephanie Nielsen of NieNie Dialogues, I decided that I wanted to have a family theme for the year to help us all work towards our goals together.  Eventually I want to make it more fun – do a big, fun, sit down dinner together, decorate, have gifts for the children, etc. but for our first year we kept it small.  We did all do dinner together, and I even made dessert, and then we just introduced our theme as part of Family Home Evening.

Acts 26:18

“To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from

the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins,

and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.”

Motto:

LIVE IN THE LIGHT!

We did a lesson with a flashlight and turned off all the lights.  We talked to the kids about light and dark and what things we do that are either light or dark.  (They are 3 and 1, so it was super brief!)  Ryan even chose “Jesus Wants Me For a Sunbeam” as our opening song, which fit in perfectly with the theme!  Especially the part about “shin[ing] for Him each day.”

And on that note…

Ryan is officially a Sunbeam!  I found out later that he cried most of Sharing Time, but he told me that he liked it and had fun, so I think we will be good.  The best part was when we got home and Clint and I were asking him what he did and how he liked it and he told me, very concerned, “But I didn’t open my scriptures!”  He got a new Bible, plus a scripture case to carry his Bible and Book of Mormon as a gift from mom and dad for graduating from Nursery and going to Sunbeams.  And by golly, he wanted to use it! 

So far, three days in, its shaping up to be a great year! 

Halloween was fun this year!  It was the first time we actually took our kids out to trick or treat in the neighborhood.  BIG HIT!    Even Jane, at 17 months old, knew exactly what to do!  Listening to her try and say “trick or treat” and “thank you” was the best!  That and her fascination with the decorations…especially the ones that moved or made sounds.    The only part of Halloween I will be glad to be done with is all the candy!  Our trunk or treat was on the 22nd, so we have been munching on candy for weeks now!  It needs to be GONE!

Other than Halloween, we have some pics of the kids playing outside.  October, as in other places, means cooler weather, which for us means below 100, but still water play weather.  (Swimming is too cold, but playing in the hose or sprinklers is still a definite possibility right now as we are still in the mid to high 90′s most days.)  The first picture is of the kids playing the mud and the second of a “robot” Ryan made one day.  “Hey, I know what I can do today!”  He told me…sounding very Phineas and Ferb-ish.  “I will build a robot!”  And he proceeded to take everything he could find outside and make his robot.  Everything in the picture is an important part – cup, sandal and all!

Some of my girlfriends out here do this boutique every year.  It’s just up the street from me and super fun!  I like going and crossing a few things off of my Christmas list!  Go check out their website to see a few of the vendors this year!  Pecan Creek Boutique!

Oh, my good friend, Kendra, is selling her nursing covers, burp cloths, receiving blankets and other baby related items this year.  I have been doing the photography for her stuff and I have to say it looks awesome!  (Her stuff is really nice!)  Eventually her site, www.prettynprecious.com will be up and running, but for now you can check her out at the Boutique!

This is a catch-up post.

We have been busy.

Family News:

• Clint was called to teach Early Morning Seminary for our stake, and I was released as our Ward Primary President and called to lead the music in Relief Society.  Changes!    Its a good thing and a new thing and we are both happy! (I have time to blog again!  And do a host of other things I have been missing!)
• I discovered Pinterest – my new addiction!

Ryan News:

• He loves to build things on his own with Legos.  Like towers and houses and cars and planes.  Its fun!
• He is 100% potty trained!  Yay!  We still have the occasional lazy accident, but that is a whole other story!
• He is getting better at knowing his letters and numbers and we are starting to work more on those things.
• We signed him up for a gymnastics class starting in September.  Exciting!
• Back in July sometime we were at a friends house swimming when I looked over and saw him under the water.  I never heard him or saw him go under and we were blessed that I looked over when I did and my friend, Pilar, was able to get to him in time.  Nothing so scary!  He now wears a life vest while swimming! (In addition to all the normal precautions!)

Jane News:

• She is walking like a pro and even has gotten it down so good she can run from me now!  Laughing of course all the time!
• She is still as feisty as ever but is also getting more cuddly and happy.  Its fun to hear her playing with Ryan and both of them laughing at each other.  Nothing better!
• The other night she got my curling iron cord and pulled it on top of her, burning her arm in two places.  SO SAD!  I felt awful, but she did really well with it and it healing well.  The pic of her arm below was taken about 4 or 5 days after it happened.

Now that I have some more free time and brain space, I am hoping to start doing some things with my love of literature and writing again.  I am wanting to try starting a book club, I am going to be teaching my friend’s girls (who are home-schooled) poetry a few times a month, and I am looking forward to writing more myself.  While I loved my calling and the children and the women I worked with, and will miss many things about my calling, I am so grateful to be done and happy to take a back seat for a while and support Clint in his new calling.  He is basically is either working or planning lessons all day, but it is where he is supposed to be right now and I know it will bless our lives and his life greatly.

And now, PICTURES!

HOT car! Poor kiddos!

Canning Tomatoes!

Finger Paint Fun

Cute boy with homemade cape

Ryan's robot

Trouble. Jane looked the same!

Boo Boo Face - We get to see it a lot.

Cassi - Maternity Shoot

Double Double! Twin Boys!

Happy girl swimming

cool sunglasses

fun at the grocery store!

hair cut - my good friend Kendra is GREAT and Ryan does really well...even if he doesn't enjoy it!

how Ryan "cleans" his room!

owie!

modeling

my beautiful girl

I had fun making this logo for a friend. She’s going to be opening up an Etsy shop soon to sell her jewelry.