Our Pink and Blue Christmas!

I am going to consider this our informal holiday card to y'all. We have had such a wonderful year. I decided to take a smaller contract this year and have been teaching PE & Health. It has been great! I don't work Mondays, I don't have to grade papers, and I get to wear sweats to work. Royal is still loving his job working with the teens and their families, and we are glad that with the unstable economy that he still has a job!

Lucy, who will be turning 2 next month, has been the highlight of our life. She is such a busy little girl and loves to learn. She can pick out letters and numbers in the world, and has even learned how to use words like "share" (although to her own translation.)

The reason why it is our Pink and Blue Christmas is first for Lucy. For Christmas, among other great things she got from family, she got a Barbie trike, princess backpack, princess dishes, princess chair, and even pink clothes with "princess" on them. She exemplifies the girliness of it all. Here she is on the trike's maiden voyage.


The "Blue" part of our Christmas is finding out that our baby due in April will be a boy. We are excited about our new addition, and anticipate his arrival into our family.
We have had so much joy this year, and we hope that you get to experience some for your family in the upcoming year.

Who's missing?

We decided to utilize a beautiful fall day and take some family pictures with the whole family. Okay, so one family member is not "there" and no, I don't mean they are hiding in the trees. We are having baby #2 in the end of April, so I wanted some "just the 3 of us" pictures.

I also am posting this picture of Lucy and I because it really symbolizing my darling little girl. Regardless of my efforts, her hair is wild and out of control, and she is displaying the new wounds above her left eye. With 2 ER visits for concussions this summer and her multiple face and knee scrapes, it will be fun to remember her as she really was when we look at these pics.

A great way to spend my 10,950th day!

A couple weeks ago it was my 30th birthday (hooray!) The day started out nice; we went to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House and had breakfast. Then Royal left for work and I had lunch plans. . or so I thought. Royal came back a couple minutes later with 2 dozen roses and the surprise that he took the day off! We ended up going to the Living Planet Aquarium to see Utah's version of the ocean. Lucy had a blast looking at the "fishes" and petting the manta rays. Later that evening Royal and I took a motorcylce ride and went out to dinner. It was such a great day!

It's fun to be white trash!

Summer is here. You can tell by the fresh cut grass, the flip flops clicking around, and oh yes-- the swimming pool in the back of our truck. When you don't have a pool, you make one. And thanks to Royal, we had a silver lining, in our truck bed that is, and made a little splash zone for Lucy. I was tempted to stereotype and leave just her diaper on, but I was worried about the tan lines. Anywho, the neighborhood kids loved it and we even had a couch offered for those who just wanted to hang out. See, being redneck CAN be fun!

Elvis has returned to the building

Okay, so with working full time and trying to manage it all, I figured I'm doing pretty good with updating two times a year, right? Now that we agree, let me tell you what is going on with us.
1. Lucy's first Christmas. The photo link below shows Lucy in her beginning stages of walking. It is about the cutest thing I have ever seen. We all had a blast watching her.




2. Lucy turned one. She was the hit of the party, as usual, as she taught us just how much fun you can have inside a giant gift bag.












3. Lucy got her second haircut. This time: bangs. Haircut courtesy of her father, Royal.
4. We are doing awesome and life is grand!