Christmas Card

Hello Family and Friends,
We are grateful for all the cards and treats from you all. Hope you have a great holiday season. Here is a recap of our year and also our christmas letter, so if we sent you one then skip the post, if not leave us your address so we can send you one next year!
This summer our family moved to Indiana for 5 weeks to help our office and to be with Starla. It was exciting to see her and to get to know the great person she is (dan's sister). She decided to sell this summer and did very well. We all lived in a 2 bed 1 bath apartment where it was nice and cozy. We also went to Virginia for a week and helped out with our office in DC. We worked very hard, the kids met some new friends at day care while Kyla and I helped train and sell with the reps. Although it was a challenge, we enjoyed seeing the country together.
In July, we took a trip to California to celebrate Grandpa Cody's birthday. It was great seeing all our extended family that we love so much.
In October, we took a weekend trip to Queen Creek, AZ. We visited with Kyla's family there and had a wonderful time, golfing, shopping, swimming, and hanging out.
Ashton is two and a half years old and is active and fun. Lately she has been saying prayers like: "Dear Heavenly Father," and then something only He can understand, and ends it with a Baptist emphasis "AMEN"! She has been attending music, speech, and preschool classes. Dan keeps telling her that she also needs to get a job and start earning some money. He says he is cutting off her food and clothing allowance next year, so she has six months to figure things out. This could explain the prayers.
Adrienne is 8 months and is very large and cheerful. She gets a fair share of lumps from her older sister who thinks it is fun to drag her around the house. She has very little hair, much like her papa, and big blue eyes. She's been sleeping in our bed and will be move into her own place by the end of the year. She is daddy's biggest fan and gets all of his jokes.
Kyla is a wonderful wife. Back in May while Dan was on a business trip our little anxious baby decided she was coming two weeks early no matter what. Fortunately, Suzanne-kyla's sister in law- and friend Shelly, decided to randomly drop by the house while Kyla was in labor. They took her to the hospital where Adrienne Lyn was born (7lbs 11oz, 19 in long), all natural, two hours later. Kyla has been regularly helping Ashton at school and has been actively involved with her Relief Society sisters. Every Friday she coordinates a play group. Kyla also works out at least 3 times a week. She is extremely busy with all that comes from being a mom and part time property manager.
As for Dan, although Kyla does not want any recognition for this, she helped him get registered for school at Utah State University. He finished 17 of his 20 credits he has left for his bachelor's degree in Business. He took 17 credits and nearly passed a third of the classes. Actually he did pretty well, all A's and B+'s. He said it was refreshing going back to school. He is a fabulous dad, the girls love seeing him and love to rough house with him. Dan is also a great husband, always helping.
We love all of you and hope you have a Merry Christmas and a great New Year.
Love,
Dan, Kyla, Ashton, and Adrienne

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving this year was so great. For the second time in our six year history we stayed in Utah for Turkey day. The week before Thanksgiving Kristy, Loni, and Ellis came down from Seattle to visit us. The first day they were here we piled in the minivan and drove to Park City. On the way down we had stop in Ogden to get the tires changed. We didn't get to Park City until almost dark and then Dan had to go to a play for one of his classes. Our babysitter fell through so Dan and Loni went in while Kristy and I stayed in the lobby with the kids. That pretty much sums up the rest of the week, Dan and Loni doing fun things while Kristy and I watched the babies. With my two wild children, it just made everything a little bit harder.

Despite the difficulties of parenthood, it was so fun to see Kristy and Loni. I am glad that Dan and Lon are such good friends that Kristy and I became close so quickly when we were all single.

One day we went down to Salt Lake and went to Gardener Village to walk around the shops and look at their elf displays. We got some really cute pictures of Ellis, Adrienne, and Ashton.

Ellis is so gorgeous and a really good girl. She started crawling in our living room and she sat up too! It was awesome to she her grow up literally before our eyes.

For Thanksgiving Day, Dan and I went over to Sariah and Neum's house in Wellsville. Everyone from Washington caravaned down the night before. Marcus drove all the way from Delaware and Starla flew in from Indiana. We ate a ton of yummy food then went and played basketball and soccer at our church in Logan. It was so fun to see all of Dan's sisters. They are really fun to talk to.

Belated Halloween

A few days before Halloween we invited our friends Bryan, Shelly, and Mitchell and dan's sister Sariah, Neum, and their kids over for pumpkin carving. They turned out really good! I am known to cut myself anytime I am holding a knife, so I cleaned the insides and Dan carved. We made a pretty good team.

Also, one day that week, Tom and Suzanne came up with Samantha, Seth, and Trey and the kids played in the leaves.

This year Ashton was an angel for halloween. She was so excited about going trick-or-treating, we worked all week on saying "trick or treat". We went to the store to pick out her angel wings which she loved putting on, walking around, and making sure everyone noticed her pretty wings. While we were at the store, Dan thought it would be funny to put on a mask and scare her. I allowed it because I've never seen Ashton scared and I honestly thought she would laugh when she saw Papa with a mask on. Sadly, she didn't think it was funny, she was terrified and was so scared she couldn't even talk. So when Halloween came around she did not want to put on her costume. I had to bribe her with candy. So I finally got her dressed and was about to take a picture of her when our doorbell rang. It was our friends shelly and her son mitchell dressed as werewolves. Ashton of course freaked out and started crying, so the only picture I could get was one with a big wad of gum in her mouth after she had just calmed down.

With some coaxing from Dan and I, she decided that going to get candy at the neighbors would still be fun. Dan came to a couple doors with us, then went home to pass out candy. Ash and I worked the rest of the neighborhood and got a lot of yummy candy. Ashton loved the attention from our neighbors and of course all that candy!! All in all it turned out to be pretty fun.

Mystery of the changed background

So today I came to update the blog and there was a new background! I called Dan to see if he had changed it for me and he said no. I can barely get him to read the blog nonetheless get him to change it. So it is a mystery on how the background was changed from a snow landscape to Santa Clause.