{Ice Skating in the Park}

At Christmas they have an outdoor rink here in Huntsville. Brady was given some FREE tickets at work so we decided it was time to take Ryker skating for his first time. I know I know I thought we would have taken him sooner too but we have not lived near a rink until now and when we got robbed in Atlanta that first Christmas they stole my skates so I have not been wanting to wear rentals. But I sucked up my pride and wore rental skates. They were awful! They were so dull and the ice was SO HARD I could not get a grip on the ice and felt like I could not skate. It was embarrassing. Oh and it was my first touching ice in 5 years since my dad sold The Peaks. I really miss that place and all of the memories of my childhood that I have from growing up at the rink. And watching the Olympic trials has only brought back all of the memories of how I long to play hockey and skate like I once did. Maybe one day it will fit our schedule again. Ryker did say as we were watching figure skating "mama when I grow up big like daddy I want to skate like that." and then I asked him if he wanted to skate like that or play hockey and he said "oh play hockey" that made me smile! and he then picked up some toys and pretended he was skating and hitting "the black thing" {puck}with his stick. Ryker loves sports just like his daddy. I cant wait to see what he falls in love with. 

 Too bad Grayson did not have as much fun as the rest of us skating. He chose to scream the whole time. Poor teething, non napping baby. 

 Its a new year and we are trying new things with our family.

First time bowling as a family - check!

First time ice skating as a family - check!

I cant wait to see what else 2014 has in store for us...

{New Years Day Bowling}

Hey lookie here I am posting about January in January!!!! I am almost caught up!!!!

Our New Years Eve was pretty lame. I was sick and spent it hugging the toilet and glued to the couch while Brady studied and I was in bed by 10pm. This was a first for us. We normally party big time on New Years... We miss our Delta friends for sure!

 Brady had New Years Day off so we went bowling as a family. We all had a blast and guess who won..... ME!!! I NEVER win at bowling.... I am awful that that was a BIG deal!

 The boys loved pushing the bowling ball and I think they equally loved playing on the arcade games. They are both such little boys. It melts my heart. 

{Christmas Morning :: First Christmas on Our Own}

Merry Christmas!!!

Ryker was sweet enough to wake up {who knows when...} and open his and Grayson's stockings and eat half the candy and only open one actual present before I woke up. Hey I am not complaining it could have been MUCH worse and I enjoyed the extra sleep. He was VERY excited to show me everything Santa had brought him already.

 The smallest, simplest present Gray got was his favorite. He carried this around most of the day. 

 It took us about 2 hours to open presents because we would open one and then play with it for a while and then keep opening. It was nice to drag it out long. It made it more enjoyable.

 T-Rex was loads of fun. Ryker just ran and ran and ran with him all morning. 

Our Christmas was nice and relaxing we just played with presents, Skyped family, ate snack food all day, played some more with new toys and didn't worry about cooking or cleaning up the mess of it all and just enjoyed my sweet family. It was as perfect as one could expect. But will for sure missed being with our families and all of the fun of a BIG family Christmas. We even tried to get Ryker to sing Happy Birthday to Jesus but he did NOT like that idea since Jesus was NOT here {in our house}. We will keep working with him on that one. I am so grateful for the gift of our Savior Jesus Christ being born and all that he has done and still does for my family. Life may be challenging but we are still VERY blessed! 

{Christmas Outfits}

I attempted a few times to get some cute photos of the boys in their Christmas outfits. These are the best I got. With Ryker these days he is either pulling some kind of silly face or crying in photos. Silly kid.

 So happy I got at least one good one of one of my children. 

Since it was just the four of us for Christmas it was a bit tricky to get a family photo but one night we had some friends over for dinner and asked them to snap one for us. Bam! That is as close as it is going to get for a family Christmas photo. 

{Gingerbread House}

A few days before Christmas we were at Sam's Club and Ryker saw the gingerbread house kits and was begging for it. It was on clearance so I thought we would give it another try {last year we attempted and it was a terrible experience and I said that was enough for me}. The kits are the way to go along with hot gluing it the night before and just using the frosting to decorate. We all had fun building this one Sunday morning and Ryker even put more candy on the house than he ate {this shocked me}.

We are still no pros at this gingerbread house building but hey it was a VAST improvement from last year...

{Ward Christmas Breakfast}

The Young Women were in charge of decorating for the Ward Christmas Breakfast. The boys had fun with my girls and running around with their friends. Gray loves playing the piano. 

I think it is safe to say all of our children ate more Hershey kisses than real food. Although one of the Brothers did make Ryker a snowman pancake with chocolate chips. That was pretty fancy. 

 Grayson was NOT a fan of Santa at all and this poor Santa kept telling me to get out of the picture but he would/could not hold onto my squirmy baby and I was scared he was going to drop him. 

 We had to bribe Ryker with a candy cane to sit on Santa's lap this year. I did hear from someone that boys tend to cry more with Santa than girls. I'm not sure if this is true or not but this year my boys were not fond. 

I am glad that we have a good ward here in Alabama and it has been fun getting to know more women in the Relief Society and the girls in Young Women. Oh I don't think I have mentioned my new calling on the blog. I am Girls Camp Director and at the time was Mia Maids Adviser also. 

{Tinsel Trail}

Ryker's best friend here in Huntsville is Phoebe. She goes to preschool with him and his teacher tells me that they love to hold hands when they play and at times she has to remind them to let others play with them. They play so well together and we just love their whole family. We met them one night to go see the Christmas trees on the tinsel trail downtown. 

 A few of our favorite trees were: Sulley - Monsters Inc. 

 Cookie Monster

 Evil Minion 

I was over the moon that Ryker would actually be in a picture for me. We tried and tried to get one of him with Phoebe but he would not have it. 

 Nightmare before Christmas

This Christmas season was fun but VERY different from our normal Utah Christmas but full of great memories. 

{Silly Brothers}

Ryker sure loves to hug Gray but he is not usually as fond of the experience.  One thing for sure is how much fun these two wild ones have together. Gray is a LOT more mellow when Ryker is at school and then the moment we all get home from school these silly brothers go crazy playing chase and having fun together. Grayson has now entered the stage of copying everything Ryker does. This can be good and bad. If you know what I mean.