Christmas 2010

Yes, it's only the day after Christmas and I am already blogging! Miracles do still happen! It was a quiet, but lovely Christmas and everyone was happy.

This is at Ryan's school, after his choir program. I took a couple of videos, but they didn't turn out very well. He did a good job though.

We managed to get a couple of great pictures of Grandma Medellin smiling! Good photography Tanae. That fast camera is paying off! We were so glad to have Grandma stay with us for a couple of days.

On Christmas Eve, we had a lovely dinner, then played the White Elephant game and opened the presents that Tina brought over. Sorry, we didn't end up with any pictures of Tina on Christmas Eve.

Christmas Morning was a big hit! Ryan woke up about 4a.m. but had instructions not to call me till 7:30. I finally took pitty on him and got up at 7:15. The happy smile below is seeing that we had in fact received a Wii from Santa.

I had a friend of mine paint a canvas of the Star Wars Death Star for Ryan's wall. He loves it, however he spotted a snow rover in space, oops my bad.

Sierra got a guitar, so she can take lessons and learn to accompany herself.

Tanae is ready for the snow in Rexburg!

I am a sleepy mess, but happy with my fun gifts!

Even Jenny got to celebrate Christmas and was very excited to immediately go out and bury them!

We are so thankful for the many blessings we have this Christmas Season, especially for the spirit of service and love the birth of our Savior brings at this time of year. I'm very thankful for all of my family, I love and appreciate you more than you will ever know!

November's a little late

The second week of Nov. was a beautiful 70 degrees. Ryan and I dejunked his room so I could paint it. He'd been wanting to have a lemonade stand, so I told him if he sold the old toys he'd outgrown he could keep the money. That got him excited and by 1:00 on Saturday he had things sorted and ready to sell. He went down the street and set up his stand where I could see him through the window while I was painting. The poor kid sat there for 3 hours without a sale. I walked over and bought a soda from him and asked if he wanted to give up? He said he'd try another hour. Soon, he made a couple of sales, then some neighborhood friends came by. Ryan offered this cute little guy a dollar if he'd hold up the sign and dance around as cars went by! In that last hour he made $30.00. Donald Trump may have some competition!

Yea, we finally got the Thanksgiving pictures up so we'll be able to move on to Christmas. No one actually got pictures of the Thanksgiving feast, but these were some pretty good leftovers!

We had a snowy, but fun Thanksgiving. It was great to have Nick & Janine's family, Tiff & Cody's family, Grandma, Tina, Tanae, & Paul (Janine's brother) join us.

Tea can't believe mommy let her have a turkey cupcake:)

Joel deciding whether he likes Uncle Ryan.

The kids painted some great pictures.

The best part of vacation for Tanae and Sierra is always a nap!

Tea knows she loves uncle Ryan.

Danica modeling her new hat.

Reid always gives great hugs!!

Joel is so squeezeable!

The kids were so happy to play with their cousins!

Thanks for all the fun guys. Sorry the roads were such a mess this year. We really missed everyone who couldn't make it!

Halloween 2010

I thought I had been taking a lot of pictures lately, but when we looked for pictures to update our blog, I mostly had preschool pictures. I'll try to do better.

I luckily had a few of our Halloween pictures. Sierra and Ryan carved some cute Ghost and Spider pumpkins. We had a fun Trunk or Treat and dinner at our Park on Saturday. Then Ryan and a friend went around the neighborhoods for a couple of hours. It's the first time in over 35 years that I didn't have to take a child out Trick or Treating, WOW! I have to say, I really enjoyed staying home and giving candy to all the cute kids in their costumes.

Summer Catch-up and Ryan's Birthday

Cavan and Chloe stayed with us for a week this summer. We had a fun, busy time. Here they were with Uncle Ryan before church. So cute!

Aunt Tanae reading to Gage, Reid, and Danica. She and I drove to Utah for Ethan Mitchell's Mission Farewell.

The twins got to spend a couple of days with us this summer too. They are loving their new birthday big wheels!

Tina bought a new, used jeep this summer. Ryan thinks it's the coolest thing and loves it when she takes him for a ride.

My garden this year consisted of a few peppers in pots, a zuccini, tomatoe, and pumpkin, also in pots. I usually have pretty good luck at harvest time, but this year things have been pretty slow growing. I had high hopes for zuccini for yummy bread, but Jenny decided to chase a squirrel and ran right through my pots and pulled all the vines along with her. She has her head down because she knows she's in trouble!

Janel came for the weekend in August. We went to visit Grandpa Youd at the farm. He had a fire a couple of weeks before and was showing us the cleanup.

NEVER stick your finger in the bowl when you're using a stick blender! Sierra was making a smoothie and got a little careless. She actually did turn the button off before she tried to break up the ice jam, but her hand accidentally hit the button and caught her finger, jamming it in the blade! It was so scary, the blade was cutting into her finger and the pressure so tight that I couldn't get it off her. We unhooked the cord part and Ryan and I rushed her to the Emergency room. Two painful shots to numb her finger, 3 stitches, and almost 2 hours later we were finally back home. Sierra still tends to baby that finger because it feels stiff. She gets really mad when I call her The Claw!! (yes, we were able to save the stick blender) The Hospital said Sierra's accident was a first there.

We went swimming at Indian Hot Springs for Ryan's Birthday. Does it look familiar, we used to take all you kids there alot when you were little. Remember the pond with all the Lilly Pads and minnows.

Ryan is twelve years old!! He made his own Star Wars Lego scene for the top of his chocolate sour cream cake. Tanae has most of his Birthday pictures on her new camera, so we'll add some of them later.

Nick, the shirt you brought Ryan back from your mission finally fits!

He had a great Birthday and got to go pick out a new Mongoose Bike.

Tanae was here most of the summer. Always fun to have her here, but I'm excited to have her stuff out of my bathroom! Poor Spud, (her car's name) is loaded to the top. I can't believe she is already a Junior this year! She just started Sept. 9th, but is excited about school and her new roomates. She's also working part time at the college library and loving it.

Ryan leaving to catch the bus for his first day of JR. High. He isn't too thrilled so far, but we're trying to have a positive attitude.