Desert Life

Here in the desert we eat cactus for breakfast. I'm actually not kidding and it's YUMMY!!   Our friends just gave us a jar of prickly pear jam made from a cactus such as this!

It is a little poky going down---but other then that-it is the best jam you ever will have!!

All summer we lived in a subdivision called the Legends. We spent almost every evening in this pool. During the day the heat was too intense to go out much, but once we had dinner and the sun set--we spent hours here.

This is Halloween Day.  Our lease ended then.  The kids wanted to spend a last few minutes at the pool.

 Jace is trying to catch a few raindrops on his tongue.  Not sure if he had any luck.  I will miss the hot tub!

This is our little rental house--it was mostly a garage!  But we had good memories there.

Monday, October 13th found us in Phoenix attending the LDS temple open house.

It was such a beautiful and uplifting experience.  The artwork of Christ inside this temple was breath taking.  It created such a spirit of reverence and beauty that Ryan and I have decided that the rest of the artwork we buy for our future home will be religious work.

LDS temples are known for their beautiful grounds.  This one left nothing to be desired. It was October and it seemed like August.  It was 92 degrees and sunny and gorgeous!

The fountains= baby magnet. 

Here's my princess enjoying the cold water.

She kept bringing me these purple blossoms to put in her hair.

Darling!

Kjersti thought the rocks were fabulous.

At the Visitors Center they had this famous statue of Christ.  They wanted all the children who visited to touch Him.

Here you see a bad picture but a wonderful memory!

October 31st brought with it Halloween!  Here is my fairy princess

and my soldier!

He's keeping his sister in line!

Our ward Halloween party was nothing short of AMAZING!!

How many Shetland ponies do you find giving rides on the lawn of your church building?

Or barrel train rides in the parking lot?  Not to brag, but we also had TWO haunted houses and

a gymnasium full of games and prizes.

And awesome prizes at that!

Here the kids are at our new house all ready to go trick-or -treating.

Here is our cute little rabbit!  She was sweating up a storm in this outfit!

We are used to freezing cold Halloween's but this one...

found me wearing flip-flops and shorts.  It was 82 degrees!  Oh, yeah!

This is just a random picture of a cool block tower Ryan and Jace made last week.  They

knocked it down with our soccer ball.

While I was packing us up to go to St. George for a few days for Thanksgiving, the kids were outside doing this.

Building a dam in the rocks.

Kjersti LOVED it!

But it was chilly!

But it didn't stop her!

Here is the view from my back door!!!!!!!!!!!  GORGEOUS!!!!!!!!!

We have been known to climb over this fence and go hiking on the trails behind our house.  We really want a dune buggy.

One day, not too long ago, Jace came and found me as I was getting ready to put Kjersti down for a nap and told me there were weird animals on the hill behind our house. The kids of course were investigating on their ladder. 

They weren't weird animals but the wild burros!  Gracie grabbed her oatmeal and set out to catch one for a pet.

Aren't they cute?!  We found out from our neighbors that you can actually adopt one from the BLM.  But no, we won't be getting one anytime soon.

For now we will just enjoy them from afar.  I'm a mean Mom--I know!!

Well, this is it for a glimpse of our life here.  We are healthy and happy and just plugging away at things.  Ryan is hard at work building a practice and I spend all my time teaching home-school and doing laundry--lots of laundry. 

The End.

Kjersti Jill turns 1

My little angel baby turned 1!!  Here she is in her blessing dress.  I had her photos taken professionally in September.  This top one is my absolute favorite.  I LOVE her pouty face.

Ryan killed himself trying to get her to smile for the photographer, he could barely get her to crack.

Oh, she is sweet. 

On her special day, we had a little party for her.  Jace and Gracie helped me decorate and pick out her presents.

We hung this pink balloon from the chandelier.  How she wanted it!! Ryan finally held her high enough to reach it--and she never let go.  I finally cut it down.

Love her look as she is seeing a candle for the first time!!!

She didn't know what to do with it--but she had two older siblings that wasted no time teaching her how to blow it out.

The cupcake mashing came next.

YUMMY!

We scrubbed her down and let Robin and Rue give her the presents they picked out.

They also invented a game for her.  They filled a black garbage bag with pink balloons and dumped them on her.  Oh BOY was she THRILLED! Crawling and shrieking, then more crawling and shrieking. She chased all those balloons.  I thought we had captured it on camera, but I can't find the pictures.............oh well.  She had a terrific day.  Happy first birthday to my precious, chubby baby.

Christopher Robin turns eight!

Aunt Makenzi lives in Las Vegas, and celebrated with us!!

It happened. Christopher Robin did in fact turn eight years old on Monday, October 20th.  Ryan and I were really excited about his birthday.  Jace was born our first semester of dental school, and now all these years later he finally had his first birthday with us out of school! It was so nice not having to celebrate around Ryan's rigorous school schedule.  We discussed all our options for his birthday and decided we would make this a big celebration.  I think it was more for us than him.  He would have been thrilled with whatever we decided to do. We decided on Las Vegas.

Bullhead City is about a 90 minute drive from Las Vegas.  After church on Sunday, October 19th, we threw suitcases in the car and headed up the road. That evening we met up with family  (Cameron and Makenzi--Ryan's sister) and went to the Bellagio and watched the water show.  It was beautiful!!

Kjersti LOVED the glasses Aunt Makenzi gave Jace!

The next morning, on Jace's birthday, we had two surprises for the kids.  The first was tickets to The Adventure Dome at Circus Circus and the other was tickets to see the Titanic exhibit at the Luxor!!

Here we are at the Adventure Dome. The kids are admiring their darling new cousin-AND cousin once removed -Piper!

Isn't she darling?! Her Daddy Cameron happens to be my nephew, and her Mom-Kenzi happens to be Ryan's sister.  How did that happen you ask?--a blind date that Ryan and I set them up on 10 years ago!  It was love at first sight BTW~!

The adventure dome was everything we hoped it would be, and on a Monday in October, we had the place almost to ourselves. Gracie is a thrill seeker and loved the rides.

Jace is a little more cautious, and wasn't as crazy about some of them.  He did not like this train! It was very jerky.

Here you can see the gleam in Gracie's eyes and the apprehension in Jaces!!  Oh, they are so different and so wonderful!

I didn't think he would do it, but Jace braved the big roller coaster with Ryan.  Here he is getting off. He was proud of himself for going, but he was also a bit traumatized.  Actually, Ryan was traumatized as well.  Ryan said when they got off--that was INTENSE!  They only went once.

Here's my little Kjersti Jill riding the Merry-go-round!

The present opening part of the festivities took place in our room at the "castle hotel"  -also know as the Excalibur. Gracie has seen this casino from the highway on the way to St George on numerous occasions. At night it is all lit up, shining white with red and blue spires.  What little girl could resist such a place?  Staying there was a dream come true for her! 

Ryan and I decorated our room the night before while our kids were in dreamland.

What did Jace want for his birthday this year?

This big gun that shoots lots of exploding ammo.  --What EVERY mother of an 8 year old needs!

I got Gracie this pack of glitter glue--just so she could have something. She was ecstatic and the glue is all gone now.

This is Jace's FAVORITE picture of Kjersti.

Photography wasn't allowed at the Titanic exhibit. So I can't show you that--unfortunately.  But Jace has been obsessed with the Titanic for about 2 years now.  He loved the exhibit, but was even more thrilled when this model of the Titanic  appeared on our doorstep from his favorite Grandparents.

I can't believe that our "Buddy Boy"--as Ryan affectionately calls him, is 8 years old.  He is an amazing kid.  He has a witty sense of humor and a very sensitive and tender heart.  He is a very caring big brother to his younger sisters. We couldn't have been blessed with a more perfect son for our family.


Happy Birthday Jace.  We are so glad you are ours!