Snow pictures

When my sister, who lives in Denver, CO, saw these pictures, the first thing she said was "It's been a long time since I've seen a dirty snowman." My thought was, "It's been a long time since there has been enough snow in Ridgecrest to make a snowman."
Here are the pictures of the snow in Ridgecrest.

There is a large mountain range behind the houses that has disappeared (remember, I said snow in Ridgecrest is a BIG deal).

Joey and my little bro working on the snowman. Ok, so he was working on the snowman while she was watching everything else, but still...

Lots of luv for the snowman.

Notice the eyes are red heart buttons, the carrot nose, the grape twizzler mouth, and pencil arms. (When Jordan told my dad that we were putting red eyes on her snowman, my dad said "He's going to have evil eyes?" I promptly corrected him "No dad, they are red hearts. He's just so full of love being here in Ridgecrest."

Joey and her snowman.

Joey hiding from a snowball that was probably being thrown by me.

Snow!!

So I'm sorry it's been a while since I blogged. I've actually been waiting for some pictures from my little brother, and still haven't gotten them, but decided to blog anyway.
Not a whole lot has been going on here. Most of last week we hardly ventured out of the house, as it rained just about everyday from Monday through Saturday. We didn't even see the sun until Saturday (Ridgecrest is usually sunny 355ish days a year), so that was a big deal. An even bigger deal was the rain. With all the amounts predicted, it could have been disaterous for this little desert town. However, it dind't come in big gushes, just constant rain, and nothing flooded... too bad.
The biggest event came on Thursday though. Around 1:30pm I looked out the window at the rain, and there was white stuff mixed in. It was snowing!!! It hasn't snowed and stuck here in 6 years. Ty was kinda bummed that he had to go back to work, though, at the time we didn't think it would stick. The kids and I went to my parents house and Jordan and I went out and played in the snow. The snowflakes were huge! I told Ty that they were like little snowballs falling on your head. Seriously, there were some almost as big as my palm. Anyway, with the little snow that stuck, Jordan and I made a snowman (those are the pictures I'm waiting for). We also had a little snowball fight... until Jordan got too frozen.
Anyway, it was fun and something we don't get to experience often here.


And now, for some random pictures:

This was Jordan today. She was taking her baby, Cataly, for a "horsey ride."

Liam enjoying his bouncer.

Liam, about 2 minutes after the other picture was taken.

Just call him Tank

Liam had his two month appointment yesterday! My, the time has flown by! I can't believe it! He weighs 13 pounds 9 ounces and is 24 inches long. That puts him in almost the 90th percentile for height and weight. His head, however, is only in the 40th percentile (or close to). Ty has decided to just call him Tank now. When the doctor came in, Liam was standing on my lap with just his diaper on and his arms out. The doctor laughed and said he looked like a sumo wrestler. Other than that, it was a good appointment and we have a healthy (and hearty) baby.
Earlier in the week, we borrowed a Bumbo from a friend. It is the best thing ever. If you are having a kid, and don't have one, I recommend getting one or borrowing one! I so wish they had been around when Jordan was little. It's a foam seat that helps babies sit. I put Liam in it up on the counter while I'm cooking and then he can just sit and watch me, which he loves. Well, one of Liam's first time in it, I asked Jordan to entertain him for a few minutes while I finished something (I don't remember what I was doing... Laundry maybe??) and I came back to find Liam like this:

It looks like Jordan was entertaining herself.

Friends, friends, and more friends

Jordan has had a mostly fun week. I say mostly because she did spend just over 24 hrs with the stomach flu (again). But, it started on Saturday the 9th. We had to take some stuff over to a lady in the ward who has been a friend of my family for practically ever. While we were there Jordan started playing with her grandson (who is only a year younger than Jordan) who was going to be in town a week. The two had a blast out in the desert just throwing rocks and dirt clauds. We got called again Monday because "J" (the grandson) had been asking to play with Jordan. Tuesday we already had a play date set up with one of Joey's friends, so "J" came too. Wednesday and Thursday Joey was sick. :( Saturday "J" came over to our house and he and Jordan played together for several hours. They had a blast, but I feel bad for him because Jordan tried making him play dress up, she made him play dolls, and she made him play "doctor baby" (which is where they play doctor for her babies). Poor kid. But they got along fine and seemed to have fun, which is all that matters.

Yesterday we got volunteered to watch a little girl in our ward for the day. Thankfully this little girl didn't mind playing Jordan's games. They would play doctor on her animals, then decide the animals were dead and threw them in the "trash." They also ran around playing dungeon. Which was kinda like tag, but when you got tagged, you were thrown in the dungeon. I have no idea where they came up with that.

Then, since it was a holiday, Ty and I decided to invite our friends over for pizza and games. So at one point, there were 7 adults and 10 kids in our house. It was crazy, but fun.

Sleep!!!

I am so excited I just have to post this. Liam slept almost 9 hours last night!!! He went to bed before 10 and woke up after 6. I was just so excited. If he hadn't woken me up with his crying, I'd likely have thought something was wrong with him.
In other randomness from our family, Jordan after church on Sunday decided to make herself super-pretty and do her own hair. Don't you love how it turned out? Just about every pretty clip we own was put in her hair.

Later that night, Ty was holding Liam, and got him laughing so hard. Here is a super cute picture of his smile.

Here is just a cute picture of our stud all dressed up handsomly for church.

Liam would rather stand than anything. He totally wants to be up with the world. Se we pulled out our Jumperoo that we had with Jordan and put him in it this past week. Here is his first stint in the Jummperoo.

Lastly, we finally got rid of the gingerbread house, and realized that we hadn't yet taken pictures of it. So here is Jordan with the gingerbread house she built with Nana and Bop-Bop Staheli.

Liam

So as I mentioned in my long post, Liam has reflux. We noticed it about 3 weeks ago, and he finally got into the dr a week ago. It wasn't until new years eve that he finally started his meds for it. He is such a different kid. For the first few days I was worried something was wrong with him cuz he wasn't screaming. Now, we are enjoying his more mellow personality. Oh yeah, he is a tank! When we went to the dr's she actually told us to feed him a little less (for a few reasons). At 6 weeks old, he weighed 12 pounds 4 ounces. He has mastered holding his head up. I'm pretty sure he learned that quickly so he could survive Jordan.
Anyway, here are some cute pictures. I've tried to catch his big goofy grin, but this is the best I've done so far.

Christmas

I know, it's a little late, but still.
Let's start with a conversation we had with Joey on Christmas eve.
Ty: "Joey, do you know why we celebrate Christmas?"
Joey: "It's Jesus' birthday."
Me: "Is Christmas about Santa?"
Joey: "No, that'd just be silly."
How did we get such a smart girl? Anyway... when we woke up Christmas morning, Santa sure had found us! Jordan had a blast opening presents! She opened all of hers and Liams, and several of both Ty and I's presents. To me, that is the best part of it all. A few things we got... Joey got a gyrowheel from Santa. It's a special training wheel for her bicycle to help her learn how to pedal without training wheels. Ty got a gun. I got a new camera. Liam got a "safe place" (more commonly known as a play mat... Joey's just not allowed to touch him when he's on it... hence, safe place). Anywho, after opening presents, it was such a beautiful day, we all went outside and played. Later that evening, we went to my parents and exchanged presents with them and some friends of ours. We also all had a nice Christmas dinner together. All in all, it was a fairly quiet, uneventful Christmas, but really nice.

A look back at '09

With the new year starting, I tried to look back and see the changes that happened in our lives in '09. Read if you want, don't if you don't want (it is long).

Ty- His biggest change was becoming Finance Director. He was doing most of the work anyway, so he's liking the name to go along with it. Though, he has learned that it also carries a lot of headaches. For the most part he enjoys his job. Also, being department head, he gets extra administrative leave (this is to make up for all the overtime he has to put in and doesn't get paid for). When you add that to his vacation and the administrative leave he already had, he could take 9 weeks off a year (plus sick time). He likes knowing he could do that, even though he knows he'll never get the chance to. Ty was also released from the Elders Quorum Presidency this year. We were so glad. There were just a lot of things that happened and made it a struggle for him. When he was released, he was glad that he no longer had to go to the 7:30am Sunday morning missionary meeting. A couple months after he was released he was called as a ward missionary, so he still has to go to those meetings. Bummer for him. Ty got himself a motorcyle last year as well. He loves it here because he still rides it to work everyday, even though it's the middle of winter. Yes, it's a little cold in the mornings, but not terrible. And it hardly ever rains, so he doesn't have to worry about that either.
Kristi-I started the year by changing jobs. Well, sort of. I started working at a surgery center here and quit at the clinic I was at. It was actually an easy desicion to make. I was also released from Primary. That was so exciting as I had been in it most of the whole time we have been married. I was called a few weeks later to the Ward activities committee. It's been a fun calling. Also, and most changing for me, I had a baby. It sure has changed everything for me.
Jordan-She started preschool last year. She loves it! She wants to know why she can't go every day. She has saved everything they've done in school so far. She also turned 4, which to her means she's officially a big girl. Jordan lost 2 teeth, bringing her total of lost teeth to 3. Thankfully the new teeth are already coming in. But with losing the teeth as early as she did, we decided it was time to go to the dentist to make sure nothing is wrong. The did xrays and everything looks good. It even showed that the knocked out tooth should be coming in before much longer. Jordan was way excited to hear that!
Liam-Well, he was born! He is our little tank. At 6 weeks old, he was alreayd 12 pounds 4 ounces. Ty keeps saying that Liam is going to be an offensive line. I guess they are the biggest players on a football team. Liam has pretty bad reflux though, and was, thankfully, put on medication for it. He is a totally different baby. Now I have to get used to a happy baby. We sure have loved having him in the family.
As a family we went to Disneyland twice. Once was with Nana and Bop-Bop Staheli and Aunt Riki. We had great fun! The second time we were able to make it down, we bough year passes, so this year we will be going more often. Benjy and Ashely also came down and we went to a Dodgers game together! We will totally have to do that again! Even if they can't come down, Ty and I plan on going down to more games this year. We spent 2 weeks in Utah this August. It was so nice to see family and relax.

Overall, '09 seemed to be a good year for us. We are hoping that '10 is just as great, or even greater!