Abigail and her Doll

Each year for Christmas we pick names and make a "gift from the heart" for a family member.  This year Ryan had Abigail and wanted to make her and her doll matching clothes.  He did a great job making Abigail's skirt, I had to help quite a bit more on the dolls dress.  Abigail loves them and always makes sure her doll has her dress on when she wears her skirt.

If you look close you will notice they even have matching bows.

Boy Do I Love This Man!

It is not very often I write about the most incredible man in my life, but with the month of February, and love in the air, I have just been thinking about how wonderful my life has been since I met my husband.  A few years ago when Ice Age 2 came out Jeff took the kids to it.  Tyson came home and said, "Mom, you and Dad are like the woolly mammoths in that movie, Dad's loads of fun and you are no fun at all, he completes you."  I don't know if Tyson has the dynamics right, I would say I am the fun one, but Jeff definitely completes me.

He will do anything to help me or our family.

Just yesterday I had to take Tyson to a UIL competition.  I was planning on just dropping him off, but I ended up having to stay and wait for him.  I was dreading coming home and getting the house picked up before I had to run another child somewhere.  When I got home Jeff had cleaned up the entire house!  I hadn't even asked. I am thankful for the many blessings in my life, and one of my greatest is my husband Jeff.

Ryan's Recovery

Ryan had to get his tonsils out last Thursday.  He has had strep throat 5 times in six months; he actually had it four times in three months.  I took him to the Surgi-center at 7:00 a.m. on Thursday.  It doesn't sound that early, but when you have to take into consideration travel time and getting everybody's lunches made and kids dressed before hand, it was early!  Jeff had to go out of town that day, but his flight left late enough that he could take the kids to school before he left!  Ryan got to go in his pajamas and he was very excited about that.  They gave him some Valium before they took him back which was a very good thing for him.  He was extremely loopy by the time they came to take him he just waved goodbye and went with them.  While we were waiting he kept talking very loud, and he even made up a story of nonsense words which is really not like Ryan.  He came out of the operation well.  When he was waking up I got to sit in a recliner and hold him.  Ryan is not one to cuddle, so I really enjoyed holding him for an hour before he was awake enough to realize what was going on.  By the time he was ready to go home he had kicked me out of the chair all together so he could sit by himself.

Ryan recovered well.  He had a few moments of unhappiness, but for the most part he was "tough" through it all.  He is still suppose to eat soft foods until Thursday, but his appetite is back.  I haven't weighed him, but it seems like he lost a bit of weight last week from lack of eating.

Here is a picture of Ryan with his stuffed squirrel that they gave him at the surgi-center.  He insisted on sleeping with it every night the first week.

Here is a picture of Ryan and Abigail "resting" together.  Through this all I still didn't ever get Ryan to take a nap other than the first day.

Christmas Program

Ryan and Abigail were both in a Christmas program at their school.  Ryan's class acted out the nativity.  They chose Ryan to be the Angel Gabriel.  He was not excited about this since he thought angels were only girls.  Ryan ended up with strep the Tuesday before the program.  While he was at the doctors office he told the doctor he was hoping he could get better by Thursday so he wouldn't miss his Christmas program.  She asked him about the program and he told her he had to be an angel and was not happy about it.  She asked him what he wanted to be and he said a shepherd or wise man.  Trying to help she suggested he could be a wise man angel.  Ryan looked at her and said, "This is a true story we are doing not a made up one!"  The doctor just laughed.  We love Ryan and all of the things he says.  Our old home teacher asked me if we were writing a book of his comments, I said no, but I really should write more of them down because I do forget a lot.

Ryan was better by Thursday and him and Abigail both performed wonderfully in their programs.  Ryan was a great Angel, and Abigail was the most animated while singing "Away in a Manger".  Here are a few pictures of them. 

He makes a wonderful Angel, but I agree with Ryan they could have made him look a little more masculine!

Abigail getting ready to perform

Ryan with the rest of his class

Road Trip

The weekend before Christmas we took a road trip to watch the BYU bowl game in Albuquerque, NM.  We decided instead of just going to the game we would go a day early and take the kids skiing.  We chose a small ski resort up by Las Vegas, NM.  It is called Sipapu.  It was snowing on our way up and it took a while to get to our cabin, but the next day was beautiful.  We all had a wonderful time learning how to ski.  Jeff and I don't really ski well, but we were able to help the kids and by the end of the day they were doing pretty well.  Tyson decided to snow board.  He was a little more frustrated, but he did good.  Abigail and Ryan had a lot of fun riding the magic carpet up to the top of a very flat bunny slope and skiing down.  I didn't get pictures because I left my camera in the car since I had to help Ryan and Abigail.

The next day we went to the BYU bowl game.  We were worried about the weather, but it ended up being a nice day there too.  Abigail threw-up during the first half on me so Abigail and I missed the rest of the game, but the rest enjoyed it.  We were happy that BYU won so easily!  Here are a few pictures of it.

Tyson, Justin, and Emily

Ryan

Christmas 2010

We had a wonderful Christmas this year.  Everyone got what they asked for, and we enjoyed giving to other people.  Here are a few pictures from our Christmas

Ryan

Justin

Tyson, I forgot to flip the picture

Emily, same problem.

Abigail

The whole family

Family Photos

This time of year I always think we should get a new family photo taken, but no one else really feels the same way, and so for the past four years we have not had a family photo.  The biggest problem with this is the fact that we have had another child added to our family since the last family picture.  Although no one really wanted to participate, everyone did their job and they turned out pretty good considering the fact that we have five kids.

Here are a few of them.

The Kids

The Boys

Tyson, Justin, and Emily

The Kids

Ryan and Abigail

Emily

Abigail

Ryan

Justin

Justin

Ryan

Abigail and Emily

The Girls

Emily

The whole Family

The Boys

Tyson

Tyson