Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Christmas

We spent Christmas week with Dan's family. We arrived Monday night. The girls did really well on the flight but after we landed in SLC we were stuck on the plane for about half an hour. The flight over was only 45 minutes so it was a bummer. Ryleigh had had enough by then and was complaining pretty badly. We made it though and were very excited to see Dan's family. We had dinner with my parents Tuesday night. It was very nice to see my dad. The girls hadn't seen him for a while. Wednesday night consisted of the tradition of soup and scones for dinner, the reenactment of the nativity, and making gingerbread houses. Kenna was Mary and she was "pregnant" for some of it. It was so funny! Kenna and I made a triangular gingerbread house. It was the only shape that would fit on the plate. It was very easy to construct and we were done the fastest. Dan's sister's gingerbread house collapsed a couple of times. Christmas morning was crazy with Kenna running around passing around presents. I think she ended up with the most stuff. She is spoiled by everyone. Ryleigh loved these little rubber duckies in her stocking. She also loved the stuffed animals. Thanks to all for gave us gifts. After presents, we spent a relaxing Christmas day doing a puzzle and playing games. Christmas dinner was delicious! Ryleigh got one last Christmas present Thursday afternoon... Her first tooth! She had had a runny nose for a couple of days. I didn't think anything of it, but Dan discovered her tooth that afternoon. Friday, our flight was supposed to leave at 3:40pm. It was delayed four hours, but we checked it early so didn't leave Dan's parent's house until 5:00pm. We left at 7:30pm and made it home. Thanks again to Michael for picking us up last second. We really appreciate it.



Monday night football

We spent a Monday night a couple weeks ago having our own football party. Dan and I wore his old football jersies and Dan bought some cool green nerf footballs and pompoms. He even made a poster of Desean Jackson so we could throw footballs to him. Kenna loved it and we had a blast at halftime trying to get the footballs into the hole. We are not diehard Phili fans but they were playing that night. Ryleigh loved chasing after the footballs.




Monday, December 15, 2008

Santa

Kenna asked Santa for a pony (a toy one). Ryleigh just asked for the candy cane.



Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Christmas

Ryleigh and McKenna had fun helping decorate the Christmas tree. Ryleigh has already broken one ornament. It was her favorite one too. A ceramic boat. There was bound to be a fatality. She hasn't really been all that interested in the ornaments on the tree so I think we are safe for this year.

Ryleigh likes her veggies. Yummy broccoli!

She likes pretzels too. The best thing is that it takes her about 5 minutes to eat one. So I can actually get something else done instead of constantly giving her little Gerber stars.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Studio portraits... NOT CHEAP!

To quote my brother... How is it that you go to the studio expecting to pay only a small amount, because you have coupon, and you leave having spent way more than you expected? Anyway, these turned out great. Ryleigh didn't want to smile all that much in the family shots, but gave it her best when she was alone. Don't worry, I have plenty of prints to share, seeing as I spent a small fortune.


Who can resist these two beautiful faces?







Dan-made cabinets

Dan's recent home project has been building some built-in cabinets on both sides of the fireplace. To save money, he is doing one side at a time. One side is about 7 feet wide and 10 feet tall. Initially, we had two 3 feet tall bookshelves in the space. Pretty wimpy. So here is the step by step walk through of how he did it. It took about 3 full Saturdays over the span of a month and a half. He did a great job and didn't even make that big of a mess. He is awesome!
Pulling the carpet back
Fitting in premade, not painted, oak cabinetsAdding spacers in between each cabinet
The bottom half is done!

Squeezing in the shelving (made from scratch by Dan).
He did manage to gouge out some of the wall in the process.

Painted a "coffee" color from Ralph Lauren paint.
The shelves are removable and adjustable.


The finished look with Christmas decor.
Isn't it beautiful?