Green Eggs and Ham

On March 2, we celebrated Dr. Seuss Day by eating green eggs and ham (pigs in a blanket) and reading all the Dr. Seuss books we own. One of Rylan's favorite foods is scrambled eggs, so he thought green eggs were especially awesome! This will definitely be a yearly tradition from now on.

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

My Valentines

We celebrated Valentine's Day with a heart shaped pizza and homemade cards from Rylan. I was lucky enough to spend the day with three special valentines...Bryon, Rylan, and Ayla!

I love these two boys!

And, my sweet baby girl too!

Can't imagine life without my valentines!

Palm Springs

In February, Bryon went on a business trip to Palm Springs. Lucky for me, he bought me a plane ticket so I could join him. Even though Bryon went there for business, we still had quite a bit of free time together. It was our first overnight getaway since Ayla was born. It was so nice getting out of town to someplace warm. It was hard returning to winter weather after sunbathing by the pool for a few days.

Mount St. Helen's
The views from our plane were so amazing that I just had to take a few pictures.

Mt. Rainier

Bryon's company put us up in a beautiful resort. There were pools, a golf course, restaurants, a spa, and shopping shuttles right there on the grounds. I definitely took advantage of the shopping shuttle and escaped to El Paseo (The Rodeo Drive of Palm Springs) for a few hours.

I loved the views from our room; palm trees and mountains in the background. What a beautiful combination!

This is the cute little villa that we stayed in.

While Bryon was at his conference, I spent a lot of time swimming, sunbathing, and reading by the pool. It was so relaxing!

I also did a lot of walking around the resort. There were so many beautiful things to see...flowers, fountains, and water features.

Bryon went golfing with several c0-workers and their buyers.

While Bryon was golfing, I went on "The Living Desert Tour". I saw many exotic animals including zebras, camels, elephants, giraffes, tigers, etc.

The vegetation I saw on the tour was amazing too! I saw Yucca plants, Joshua Trees, and a living oasis.

Bryon's company surely wined and dined us. They treated us to many fabulous meals, all the drinks we wanted, and even some fun entertainment (Marilyn Monroe and Frank Sinatra joined us for dinner one evening and even sang to us).

What a fun trip! We are looking forward to next year's conference (Bryon already promised he'd bring me again)!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Rylan loves helping Mommy in the kitchen, especially when it comes to baking goodies. So, Rylan was especially exited to help me make birthday cupcakes for Daddy. At first Rylan insisted on making a Doodleberry cake (only Wow, Wow Wubbzy fans would understand). But, when I told him that we couldn't buy Doodleberries at the store he decided that German chocolate cupcakes would suffice.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

P.S. I have since found a fun Doodleberry Cake recipe online that is good served with Grapity Grape juice. I guess Ry might get his wish after all!

Watch Me Go!

Here are a few more sledding videos of Rylan. This time, you get to see him in action on the steep hills near our house. What a brave little guy! He even enjoys a good crash at the end!

Celebrating Christmas

Rylan was so excited when he awoke on Christmas morning. He raced downstairs to see if Santa had brought him what he asked for; a race car. And sure enough, he did!

Rylan must have been a good boy this year!

Santa was good to Ayla too! She loves her new CD player!

Just look at the loot Santa left in Rylan's stocking! Ry sure looks like a happy boy!

Santa has a great sense of style! Or maybe it was Mrs. Claus who picked out this hat for Ayla.

The kids loved opening their presents from Mommy and Daddy too!

A new cash register for Rylan.

Apparently Ayla's stacking cups taste pretty good.

Any more presents under there?

We spent Christmas evening at my parents' house. All my siblings were there and Rylan and Ayla's cousins too. We had a wonderful time!

Mimi and Papa gave Rylan a Pillow Pet. Every time he saw a commercial for these on TV he would say "I want one of those!" so he was ecstatic when he got one for Christmas!

Ayla and Kiyana got matching bibs and bears for Christmas.

Ayla loves her Auntie Lisa and Uncle Jeff!

My siblings-I feel so lucky to have them! Love you all!

The day after Christmas we headed to Seattle to celebrate with Bryon's family. As usual, Bryon's mom spoiled us with her delicious meals.

Cousin Anderson helped Ayla open up her new kitchen.

After about a 15 minute photo shoot and 15 pictures taken, this is probably the best photo we could get of the three cousins together. We could not get all three to smile at the same time. Ayla, as usual, was Miss Smiley the entire time. But, Rylan and Anderson took their turns pouting and crying. What is it about boys and pictures?

Auntie Gina and Rylan-They sure had fun together!

Merry Christmas to all!

Preparing for Christmas

Preparing for Christmas was so fun this year. Rylan was so into it and understood so much more about this special holiday than he ever has before. We had so much fun decorating, listening to Christmas music, reading Christmas books, watching Christmas movies, and baking...the list goes on. We even got to go visit Santa so Ry could tell him he wanted a race car for Christmas.

We went to an event that The Davenport Hotel and Mobius Kids puts on every year called Breakfast With Santa. It begins with a delicious breakfast, then pictures with Santa, and ends with craft projects and science experiments for the kids. Rylan wasn't so sure about sitting on Santa's lap...he wanted to sit on my lap while I sat on Santa's. But Ayla, as usual, was as calm as can be. Rylan had a blast and made several super cute Christmas decorations and ornaments.

Breakfast was delicious and the tables were set so beautifully! Rylan couldn't get enough of the yummy muffins.

Ayla sat at the table with us and enjoyed her Baby Mum Mum for breakfast.

So much to do to get ready for Christmas. And, we sure had fun doing it!
Christmas sweaters....check.


Tree dedorated...check. Any idea who hung this beautiful ornament on the tree? Let me give you a clue; it is the same person who hung all the ornaments on the bottom two feet of the tree and left the top four feet bare.


All four stockings hung by the chimney with care...check.

Pictures in front of the tree....check.


Frequent chats with Fisbee, the elf, to inform him of our Christmas wish list...check.
(Want your own elf? Want to start a fun, new tradition? Get the book The Elf on the Shelf. A must have Christmas book!)

Dog tears into Christmas present under the tree...check. (Of course, she managed to find the one and only gift with chocolate inside.)

Counting down til Christmas!