Trip Home!!

So...I am way behind. We got back from our trip over a week ago and I am just now getting around to updating our blog. Better late than never, RIGHT?? Anyway, we had an AWESOME trip home to see our families! We drove 1700 miles through 4 different states in 8 days. LOTS of driving, but it was all so worth it. Our first stop was at my parents house to hang with them for a few days. It was so nice so be able to see them. It felt like it had been forever since we had seen them. My mom is so cute and she had the house totally STOCKED with all of the goodies that Tay and I love. We mainly just spent time together with everybody there and that's exactly what we wanted to do. My sisters were both there for a bit and it was a lot of fun. There was, however, a mishap with the carpet while we were there. Yep...you guessed it. My dogs chewed the brand new carpet in the addition to their house. I was SOOOO mortified! Want to know the ironic part? My sister's dog had chewed the exact same spot a couple of weeks ago. Thank goodness we were able to get that fixed before we left! Here's my cute little mom! If you look closely, she was crying because this was actually when we were getting ready to leave. I miss her so much already!

Here's Sadie begging for forgiveness after chewing the carpet. She so knew that she was in trouble and kept buttering my mom up to get her to forgive her.

Here's Shay and Dev. Yes...he really is that tall! 6'8".

So, from my mom's house in Idaho, we headed down to Utah to see the new baby! I was seriously SOOO excited so see her. She is seriously the most beautiful baby! I was such a baby hog the whole time. I pretty much held her hostage the entire time I was there. It's amazing how much you can feel the spirit and reverence that a new baby brings. She brings such a feeling of peace and has such a sweet spirit. LOVE HER!!!

Here's a picture of us girls! Try not to notice the fact that Nicole is a total rockstar and doesn't even look like she has even a tiny little belly. Yes, that is her brand new baby I'm holding here :) She is such a hot mamma!! She was such a good hostess too. She wouldn't quit doing things for us even though she was hurting because she just had her baby. Nicole, I love you!

Here's the studs doing something manly on the computer.

So, Boo has been having a few problems with adjusting to sharing all the attention with Marley, so Tay and I wanted to do something with just her that would be fun. What better place to have fun with a 2 year old than McDonalds?? She was so excited and adorable the whole time. She got chicken nuggets and had to dip them in EVERYTHING she could find. There was some really good music in there and she was totally dancing and shaking her cute little bum.

She really loved her juice, but gave it up pretty fast when she found out we were going to go play on the toys.

Yes, I climbed up in that stupid toy to help her get down the slide. Don't judge me...Taylor did it first! I couldn't believe how brave she was. We went with her the first 2 times and then she totally went all by herself and made friends. I literally had to bribe her with ice cream to get her out of the play area. It was so much fun and then she fell asleep on the 2 minute drive home! She is such a cutie and we love her soo much!

Then, Kent, Kathleen, and the girls came to their house to hang with all of us. I was sooooo excited to see them. Kathleen is really starting to show now and she is so cute pregnant. I can't wait to meet their little girl too. I'm sure she will be just as adorable as their other 2 girls! Kent was trying to show Kathleen just how much he empathized with her pregnancy, so we had a contest to see who had the most pregnant belly. You decide for yourself, but I say Kent wins!!

It was sooo hilarious when Kent did this, but he really had to try to get his belly out that far!

Then, we headed back to Idaho to Tay's parents house. Here's Dane showing off his muscles. Too bad Tay's Muscles are GINORMOUS and nobody quite compares to him!

We had a blast hanging out with everybody. Marsha, Tay and I went to Avatar on Friday. I thought that it sounded dumb, but I really enjoyed it and thought that it was well done! I also elicited the help of all the girls to make the watch bands that you can switch out with beads. It was a lot of fun and I got 4 watch bands!

I couldn't get a good picture of everybody so Travis has to take one for the team on this one. I have NO IDEA what he was doing!

So after 7 fun filled days, it was time to leave. We were so sad to have to say goodbye to everybody, but on Sunday morning we left to go home.

I just thought that I'd throw this picture of Bentley and Sadie in because this is how they sat in the car on the way home. It was soooo cute!

Well, we had such a fun time with our families. We didn't get to do everything that we wanted to because time was so short. We really wanted to see some friends as well, but it was crazy busy. (Sorry Andrew and Shandee....We miss you guys!) Thanks to everybody who took such good care of us. We love you all.

GOODBYE 2009!

I'm always surprised at how fast time flies! I can't believe that I am going to have to start writing 2010. Let me tell you how much of an old lady I am. On New Year's Eve I worked until about 5:30 and came home. We don't know many people here, so we just decided to have a low key night, get some pizza, and watch a movie. So anyways, I came home and, being the old lady that I am, was ready for bed by about 8:00, but Tay insisted that I needed to stay up. So, I dragged my pillow out onto the couch and pretty much passed out long before midnight. Then, at midnight, Tay yelled "HAPPY NEW YEAR" in the living room, my crazy neighbors started firing off definitely illegal fireworks and I got majorly GRUMPY. Anyways, not the best way to start off the new year.
On New Year's Eve, Tay and I were talking to Nicole and Travis on Skype about all of the things that happened in 2009. It's amazing how much can happen to change your life in just one year! This past year, I graduated from PA school and started my first job in Moses Lake, WA. What a ride! Taylor was finally able to go back to school to start working on his degree again. Those have been two of the major changes in our lives, but there were many, many things that happened in both of our families as well. I have to admit that I take a lot of things for granted. I have come to realize since we have moved how much I took our families for granted. I mean, I loved spending time with them, but I never realized how hard it would be to not see them for extended periods of time. I also take my poor husband for granted. He does so much for me and is so sweet. I don't know how he does it. I always say that if I was married to somebody like me, I would have been divorced a long time ago! It is my New Year's resolution to be more grateful and show my gratitude more often.
As we start the new year out, Tay will be starting up his next semester and I will be continuing on in my job. We are pretty boring, but oh well. We don't have anything too excited planned yet, but hopefully, we will be able to take a nice vacation this year sometime.
Here's a total change of subject, but in exactly 1 week, Tay and I are leaving to visit our families! We are soooo excited and can't wait to see everybody! Nicole...seriously, tell the baby to come out already so we will be able to see her!!!