A wee plug

WANT ONE OF THESE?

No, you can't have my cute wee baby, but you can have one of these gorgeous outfits for your kids or order a customized t-shirt for yourself. Check out my cousin's blog if you're interested at http://joynevada.blogspot.com.

Happy Birthday Rabbie

(Robert Burns)

Today I am homesick. I was so homesick that I busted out my massive Scottish flag and actually thought about hanging it up in my house somewhere...I know...ridiculous...I put it away.

It's been exactly a year since I was last home and even thinking about it brings tears to my eyes. I am such a wuss.

January 25th is Robert Burns birthday and all over Scotland people are enjoying haggis, neeps, and tatties for their dinner tonight. Since I am pretty sure I will not be able to find any haggis (I know my boys will be SOOOO dissapointed..ha) I will be making some regular old uninteresting meal.

This past weekend most of my family back home attended our stakes "Burn's Supper". Here's a wee summary of what typically happens: General welcome, followed with the Selkirk Grace. After the grace, comes the piping (my Grandpa usually does this) and cutting of the haggis, where Burns' famous Address To a Haggis is read and the haggis is cut open. People usually then begin eating just after the haggis is presented.

My Granny frequently recites the Burns' poem "Tam O' Shanter which is over ten minutes long! My new years resolution this year is to try and memorize it. We'll see how that works out for me.

So, whether you're Scottish or not, Enjoy your Burns Night!

My other half

Ryan has a blog (you know...my husband). I love it. When we first started getting to know one another I was impressed with his vast knowledge of random trivia. I liked that he knew A LOT about a lot of different stuff. I studied Art Education at BYU. I always hoped to marry someone that would want to come to an art show with me or be willing and able to discuss a piece of art work. I believe Ryan was a great choice for me. He knows what he likes and why! None of this "just because" nonsense. On our second date I invited him to come to an art exhibit with me. It was perfect and he intrigued me.

It's not just that he has an appreciation for art that I love, but the amazing desire he has to continue learning. So, often I find myself frustrated because I can't remember the name of a specific piece of art, or I can't remember which movement one came from, etc. Sometimes I feel like my days all blend together and I'm in a bit of a rut. Ryan renews my desire for knowledge. Now, believe me...we do have conversations face to face..indeed we have many. But his blog exposes his great mind a little more and I feel pretty special that he picked me.

Christmas 2009

This year Christmas was lovely for the most part . It really does make a huge difference having your own children to enjoy it with. It was fab watching Jack get so excited on Christmas morning. He was up first at about 8am and I took him up stairs to look over the presents for just a few moments. He was desperate to get crackin' on the presents, but we waited until Pete and Ryan were awake.

Both of the boys got pretty spoiled. I had done quite a bit of shopping on Black Friday. I totally stayed within our budget, but the kids got more for their buck I guess, due to the sales.

Jack was in charge of giving each person a gift to open when it was their turn. And he took that opportunity to help you along with the opening process as well. He was very sweet.

After the gifts I cooked a deliciously unhealthy breakfast. It was all going great until about noon, when Jack suddenly had a fever. If you know Jack you know that nothing slows that kid down. Well, I picked him up and within about a minute he was asleep in my arms. He slept for about 2 hours, woke up with a raging fever, wouldn't eat anything and then went back to bed for another 5 hours. It was so sad that he was unwell on Christmas, but he did get to enjoy the morning at least. Pete was fine thankfully and had great fun playing with wrapping paper for most of the day.

At about 2pm Ryan's family came up to our house. We exchanged some more gifts and then had dinner at about 5pm. Having never made the Christmas dinner before, I felt a little bit of pressure with all the family there, but it all went off without a hitch. I decided on a ham which was a nice change. Ryan's aunt Julie told me she thought it would all go great so long as I wasn't cooking a haggis! Ha. Maybe I should have. I did have a lovely Scottish table cloth and some christmas crackers from home on the table.

Here are a couple of cute pictures of my wee pete to start off with. I love this wee guy so much. He just started on some 1st foods, cut his 3rd tooth, is sitting up great, and is beginning to edge forward a little bit. I am hoping that he does not start walking at 8 months like Jack did. I love the sitting phase, he is so happy and content with just a couple of small toys and he loves to watch Jack running circles around him.

My wee chunky cutie

Jack taking a quick look at the presents on Christmas morning

Jack with his stocking stuffers

Pete's first gift

Jack in his Thomas hideaway tent

Mummy and Jack

Jack with his Thomas carnival track

Jack wasn't too happy about this picture getting taken

Pete with his 'Rex'

After his first nap...poor wee guy was still so unwell

I felt way less homesick this year than I previously have at Christmas time. I don't know if it's because we were in our own house this year or what. But it is so nice having our own home to start some family traditions in.

December 18th 2004

Ryan and I were married in the Orlando Florida Temple 5 years ago today.

My wee brother Neal

My grandpa Clark on the pipes

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY RYAN! IT'S BEEN A WONDERFUL 5 YEARS!

Getting in the Christmas spirit

On Saturday we had Ryan's work Christmas Party at the Lake Oswego Country club. It's very fancy. We enjoyed a delicious brunch, caught up with Ryan's old buddies from the Utah office, and even had a visit from Santa. Jack was petrified of Santa. He cried when he arrived and wouldn't go any where near him. Consequently, we don't have any pics of him with Father Christmas. Pete, on the other hand, was brilliant! He grabbed hold of his beard and grinned from ear to ear. It was so funny. We'll see how he acts next year.

Jack decorated a christmas cookie after the brunch, but only ate the MM's and then tossed it. What a surprise. Both boys got a present from Santa and now Jack is getting even more excited for Christmas day. I'm pretty excited too. It's so much more fun with wee children.
Here are Ryan and Jack decorating the Christmas Tree last week for Family Home Evening.

We took this one ourselves with the timer, so it ain't great. But we want to wish you all a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving has been a happily adopted holiday for me. What's not to like really? I mean I always loved Christmas dinner and Thanksgiving is basically the same. I love that Ryan gets a couple of days off work to spend time some extra time with us and then, of course, it's a nice opportunity to think about the things we are grateful for.
We headed down to Salem to be with Ryan's family for the day and greatly enjoyed the yummy feast of really good food, followed by games and conversation. Ryan and the boys stayed the night down there, while I headed home. I had plans with my friends to go out shopping on Black Friday. It was so hard to get up at 3:30am when it was the first time in a while I had gotten a really good uninterrupted (by Pete) sleep. But it was worth while. I got all of my Christmas shopping done for Jack and Pete and just had a blast hanging out with the girls.

Pete has started sitting up really good now by himself and also had his first taste of rice cereal which he wasn't a big fan of at first.

Not impressed with the rice cereal at all!


Jack has discovered a new love: making art! It makes me proud. He still loves playing with his beloved cars, but for now he is spending a great deal of his day drawing, colouring, and painting.


The boys have been getting along so much better lately. Well, let me rephrase that. Jack has been getting along much better with his brother lately ( although on second glance at this picture here it looks like Jack is ready to take a punch at Pete..Haha). They roll around on the floor together and Pete is highly entertained by pretty much everything Jack does. I love having two boys. It makes me so happy to see them interacting and I can't wait till Pete is old enough to really play with Jack.

We went with some friends on Saturday and cut down our own Christmas tree. It was really fun and I hope that it will become a new family tradition...at least while we are living in Oregon. I mean seriously you can't live here and not get a nice real tree, ours is lovely and it was only $10! I am really looking forward to spending our first Christmas in our new home this year.