Yay, 2 in 1 day. I hope my luck holds!

Emily with her grandparents. In the first one my dad's eating, but wait so is Emmy! -We love grandparents, they're so yummy, I mean fun.





We love to play games, so we had some friends and family come over one night. It was so nice. Emily and my friends baby, Skylar were having fun with each other. Emily is 3 months younger but just as big (gotta love those rolls!) Skylar was showing off her way cool moves, she was so close to crawling. I think Emily was envious, but to lazy to figure it out herself. lol, that's fine with me. I'm fine with her not crawling for a very long time! They were both trying to eat the other girls skirt. It was so funny, but I didn’t get a pic of it, darn it! After they left Ryan and my brother in law played each other in DDR. It was so much fun. Mindy, my sister in law and I played too. But, I took a quick picture of the boys dancing.



I also got to on a girls day out shopping with Ryan’s Mom and two sisters. That was so much fun. We even got to check out IKEA. So much fun. Oh, the ways I could spend money! In fact I spent most of the days shopping. I had this huge craving for crazy amounts of shopping while I was there. Probably because there’s no where to shop here. I am so deprived! Okay, not really but I do miss shopping. The main reason we went down was to see Andrew before he left for a two year mission for our church. He had a combined birthday party and farewell on that Sunday. It was fun to see everyone come and support my brother. I'm so proud of him. He is the first of my siblings to serve. It's exciting and a little hard to send him off for two years, but I know he will be a wonderful missionary.

Finally!

I know you've been going crazy waiting for the update I promised, so here it is! Well part of it. I had more, but I'm still having problems with my internet. I can't tell you how shocked I was to be able to get this much. Hopefully I'll be able to post more soon. I'm working on it I promise!

While we were there my parents gave Kaitlyn her 2 year birthday present early. She LOVED it. This is her just after opening it, and playing with her sister and aunts.






It turned into a mini photo session, just cause everyone was having so much fun.

Bee and TEXAS!!!

The same day that Ryan got hit at work, Kaitlyn had a rough day too! We met Ryan at an outside event for some lunch. We had just gotten our food and sat down when Kaitlyn was stung just under the eye by a bee! Not kidding. Poor girl. Luckily Ryan’s work was near by so we went there to eat and check out Kaitlyn’s eye. On that day two of my babies were hurt. This is a picture of Kaitlyn’s eye.



I couldn’t get her to sit still enough for a really good shot of it. I felt so bad for her. And of coarse it was by the eye so I couldn’t put anything on it for her.

Here’s a happier picture. Kaitlyn loves to play inside the dirty clothes hamper.



TEXAS!!!!!

We drove down to Texas to visit my brother before he left on a mission for our church. It was so nice to be in Texas and to see family. EVERYONE in both our families live in Texas. It’s hard to be so far away sometimes. We left Tuesday September 25 in the late afternoon and drove all day and night to get to Texas. We were just climbing out of the car in my parents drive way when my brother Jace walked out side on his way to SEMINARY!! That tells you how early it was (just before 6 am). Jace was very surprised to see us, in fact I was worried he wouldn’t even notice, since he was half asleep. But, he woke up enough to give us big hugs before he left. We walked inside and no one was awake yet. LOL, oh well. I went in my parents room and my mom and grandmi got up and were like you’re here? It was fun. I got to wake up the whole house. I got the girls (Jessica and Tiara) up, and went and said good morning to Kurtis who went right back to sleep. Gotta love teenage boys! We stayed until Monday morning and it was so great to see everyone. Katrina even came up from Austin and got to see Emily for the first time. (Yes, it was our first time back to Texas since CHRISTMAS!!! I was definitely glad to be there) We got some cute pictures with all the cousins. These are my two favorite.




-So my internet sucks and I can't put up any more photos right now. More to come soon.

Ryan

So, if you read the previous post, you heard all about Ryan's adventure at work. When he came home that evening he said, I got hit today. I couldn't figure out what he was talking about. It didn't even cross my mind that something like that would happen. Who goes up and just hits another person anyway? Well Wednesday morning last week they went to court for a restraining order. Ryan came home for lunch and was very stressed out. This guy was horrible! This time he was actually sober, but he was not acting normal. The girls that work there told me he used to be decent when sober, but he's just scary now. Luckily the judge signed for the restaining order and he's not allowed to come in to the office any more or contact anyone. I thought moving into a small town would be safer, and for the most part it is. I guess Ryan's just going to meet and work with some pretty scarry people! Silly me thought a Lawyer was a safe job. Oh well. Hopefully this is the olny situation. His bosses said nothing like this has ever happend before, but it happened on his 2nd day as an atterney. Anyway, on a lighter note, here are some fun quizzes I took.

You Could Be a Vampire... If You Had To

Like most people, the thought of being a vampire has crossed your mind. But you're not sure if you'd do it, even if you could. Living forever doesn't sound half bad, if you could live forever with the people you love the most. But do vampires even love? And would the vampire version of you even be you? It's all too much to contemplate. Luckily, the chances of you ever becoming a vampire are astronomically low. What you would like best about being a vampire: Living forever What you would like least about being a vampire: Blood stained teeth

Could You Be a Vampire?

You Belong in Rome

You're a big city soul with a small town heart Which is why you're attracted to the romance of Rome Strolling down picture perfect streets, cappuccino in hand And gorgeous Italian people - could life get any better?

What City Do You Belong In?

BATTERED AND BRUISED

Ryan posting this one – Flash back to September 21, 2007. I was sworn in on the 19th so it is only my second day as an attorney. It is about 1:30 in the afternoon. I walk up to the front of the office to ask my secretary a question. While up there a man walks into the office and immediately the secretary says “(name withheld), you can’t be in here you need to leave.” She has fear etched on her face. He replies, I want to talk to one of the other attorneys. The attorney wasn’t there. He is wasted drunk, smells it and has an open beer in his hand. Long story short, this guy is a former client of the office, is drunk most hours of the day, and has some vendetta against the attorney for an unknown reason. Therefore, we have a thick file of recorded instances when he has called in and harassed the office on the phone or driven by that attorney’s home in an attempt to harass him and his family. When he learns that the attorney isn’t there he proceeds to make threatening remarks, climb on the counter, and act like an idiot. Three of us in the office tell him 15 to 20 times to leave but he refuses. The police are called and we tell him this but he still doesn’t leave. I keep my eyes on him the whole time but never make an aggressive move towards him. He doesn’t like the fact that I am staring at him, so he says some derogatory remark against attorneys in general and them open hand slaps me hard on the left side of my face. The other attorney in the office makes me step back as he postures for a fight. The other attorney tells him we don’t want any trouble and again tells him to leave. He finally decides to leave for some reason (unfortunately before the police arrive) and swears and threatens us on the way out. The police show up and they get a report on him. The other attorney at the office takes a picture of the mark he left on my face when he hit me for evidentiary purposes. Luckily, the police arrested him that night, but his sorry @%& parents posted the 1500 dollar bail for him and he got out of jail. His parents are the type that do not parent, they bail him out every time he gets in trouble, and guess what, the guy is over 40. Anyway, he will definitely be charged with disorderly conduct and will likely be charged with battery, and I’ll get to testify if it goes to trial. Can you believe it, two days as an attorney and I’m all ready getting physically abused. :o) Other then that work has been great since then.

So a while back we got to go to a football game with a family from our branch. They have 2 boys on the football team. We had a great time. This family is very similar to my family. They have 6 kids the oldest just younger than me and the youngest is a girl that is just older than Tiara. I was a sub in primary before I got my own primary class, and while I subbed I taught the two youngest of the Huge family. They are a lot of fun. Kaitlyn loved playing with Liz their teenage girl and her friend, she kept moving around and telling Liz and her friend were to sit. She is so bossy! I think it’s so great how all the youth in our branch really love the young kids and play with them. We really have a great branch. The only bad thing was it was SUPER hot. Poor Emily was getting too hot, so Ryan had to go and stand under the shade to help cool her down. Also they lost :( Apparently that was the first time they lost to that team in 20 years. That’s gotta suck.

Ryan and the girls at the game



Ryan had to go somewhere one night last month and I had the girls for the evening. Emily was in bed asleep so I decided to make a special date night for just me and Kaitlyn. I set up our tent in the family room and put some blankets and pillows and one of Kaitlyn’s many chairs inside. We popped some popcorn and snuggled in for a movie night together! She had so much fun helping me move the coffee table out and trying to figure out what mommy was doing. Then we got the tent up and she LOVED it! It was a nice evening, a good way for me to have fun and stop counting the minutes until Ryan got home.

Pictures from our living room adventure





Random fun pictures;

Kaitlyn loves sitting in Emily’s bouncy seat. This was before church (I love their matching shoes!)



Mom and Em



Mom and Kaitlyn reading together



Ryan trying to get pants on Kaitlyn



Kaitlyn’s done it. The thing I’ve been dreading but knew had to come sooner or later. She has learned how to move her chair places, climb up, and get into things. This morning she brought me my cell phone and a few other things I had put up so she couldn’t reach. I’m going to have to find a higher hiding spot!



About two weeks ago the town’s playgroup started back up and so the girls and I went. It is so nice to FINALLY have somewhere to go and meet moms and their kids. Kaitlyn has desperately needed some play time with kids. I went once when we first met here, but that was the last one for the summer and they just now started up again. The moms there have been so nice to me. One asked if she could stop by with some vegetables for us! I told her sure, but didn’t really think she would. The next morning she was there with a watermelon, tomatoes, cucumbers, and eggplant! Of coarse this was the one morning my children slept in, so we were all in our pj’s, except for Emily who was in her diaper. I was so glad to have someone come visit me that I didn’t even care. So I invited her in and they stayed and played for a couple of hours. YEAAAAA! It was so wonderful. I wouldn’t have thought to take a picture, but Kaitlyn likes to pose, and then point at the camera until I get it out and take one! So she set up this shot. Unfortunately she couldn’t sit still enough for a good picture, but here’s her and her friend Isabel.

Pikes Peak

Ryan found out about this really cool peak in Iowa, just across the Mississippi from where we go to church (Prairie Du Chen, about 45 mins from us). This is REALLY high up. I’m kinda afraid of hights, so I didn’t like going to the very edge even though there was a rail. Kaitlyn was fearless and absolutely loved it here! There were so many places to run and things to see.
The very edge of the peak- I was as far as I could go with out panicking and I had to hold Kaitlyn back



All of us on the peak, that’s the Mississippi behind us



The pictures don’t do it justice, it was so beautiful!
After we checked out the peak we let her play on the playground and then went down the trail to see the other sights.
It was a great trail we even saw a stick bug crawling around! I actually almost steped on it, until I realized it was a bug! I should have taken a picture, but I was too freaked out. Ryan loved it. After a while I realized it was pretty cool. It’s just pretty freaky when your about to put your foot down and a stick starts walking. This pretty waterfall was as far as we went on the trail. You could keep walking and go under it, but there’s no way with a toddler. If we weren’t there Ryan would have loved to go under the falls, but Kaitlyn is to much of a dare devil and would have wanted to follow.



There was a little trickle of water dripping here so Kaitlyn got to feel it and check it out.



Doesn’t Emily look impressed by the waterfall?



If anyone wants to go camping in Iowa near the Mississippi, give us a call. We'd love to camp there sometime. Maybe our family's would want to come up and visit, do some camping or something. Hint hint, wink wink!