Gracie's Giraffe

One   day   I    went    to   the   zoo!    and     I   love   the   zoo    so  so  so  so  so  so  so  so  so  so  so   much!   and   my    family     is     so  so  so  so  so so  so  so   special   and   I    love   them   to.

Alice's Sentences

I  love  my    family.  I   do   not  have  a  pet.  I     go    to    the  Chruch   of   Jesus  Christ   of     latter   day     Saints.   I    have     8     grate    friends!    I    love    Holidays     especially     Christmas.    I    have   a      baby     sister    her    name   is   Naomi.

Rocky The Communist in Training

A picture says a thousand words!

Jefferson Memorial during The Cherry Blossom Festival

First Flight
Dancin' Girls

First swim
Father and Son's camp out in NoVA
Rocket Man!
Air and Space
Mickey Blue Eyes
Farmer Wedig!
Alice lost her first tooth!
Grace is the fashion expert!
A cool bush at the temple that the kids climbed around in
The kids loved the golden door at the temple.
Such a beautiful temple
There was a beautiful butterfly that you can't really see behind Grace. They loved to watch it. It was the most beautiful butterfly I have ever seen.

One of my life long goals was to see the DC Temple. Next, The Palmyra Temple!
We went to the farm with Michael (the boy who kissed Alice!)

Cyrus and Alice
4th of July
Grace and our favorite friend Katie.
Yesha, the baby whisperer!
Gettysburg
King Cyrus and King David
Lincoln at Gettysburg
My mom, Gary and the boys came to visit! This man had never heard of the Brady bunch. It was after his time:)
Grandpa G livin in the S T G

Beautiful Ox that Dad helped create.
Jerry's the best babysitter we know!
Planting flowers with Grandpa

Hershey Park! Mmmm! Smells so good!

Haven't updated for a while eh?

I know, I know it's terrible. I have so many picts that I need to post and everything. It's just crazy. Life's crazy when you live in California:) Wahoo!! Well, we drove for 6 days while I was 6 1/2 months pregnant. Stopped off at Disneyland. (Grace got freaked out at the very beginning on the Peter Pan ride and was freaked out the rest of the day) Thank you Walt Disney for scaring my kids. At least we don't have to go there for a long time:) Then we arrived at our new house with High expectations. It was a little disappointing. We won't talk too much about that subject. We are happy now and the weather is great. The ward is awesome!! They threw me a big baby shower and got us everything we needed and they hardly knew me. Then after Cyrus was born, they fed us for like 2 1/2 weeks and babysat my kids off and on. They are amazing! Yes, so Cyrus was born in October and he is the sweetest baby ever. He smiles like crazy. I love him! Don't worry I will post pictures in like a year or so:) We drove to Northern Utah for Christmas and blessed the baby at my mom's house. It was awesome! We saw people from almost every phase of our lives and it was really neat. I'm sorry if we missed you:) Anyway, we got to go up to my mom's cabin in Garden City after that and it was really fun but not enough snow to go snowmobiling. I was glad there wasn't any snow though because it made our drive a whole lot better. Now we are just pluggin away, trying to keep up with our kids messes. They sure know how to make them. Ryan and I were sitting here complaining about how old we feel and look. I said, "we just need some sleep" When our kids get a little older and we are finally getting some sleep, then we won't feel so old hopefully:) And that is what we've been up to:)

North Carolina Memories

Here is the sexiest fireman I know!! We got invited to a birthday party today that started at the fire station. Ryan said he would go if they let him wear a real fireman's hat. This is as good as it gets for him. Haha! We had said in the RSVP that Ryan wanted to wear a hat and all of our friends had some funny comments about that. Gotta love Monica and Natalie! Hahah!
Rock was sensitive to the bright sun and got a little outta place. Fun picture though.
Ian, Amelia, Grace, Alice, Rockwell, (?, sorry can't remember) and Alyssa (his sister)
Steve and Rocio's beautiful family that we became friends with through the missionaries. They were finally baptized last night right after their marriage ceremony. It was a long awaited occasion and we're are so excited and happy for them. Rocio is due just a month before me so we have had lots of fun being pregnant at the same time. Awesome people! We will miss them!
Another friend we made through the missionaries. Brian is a great guy with lots of faith. He has a fun story about how he was converted to the church. BTW, he is available if anyone knows anyone:) Sorry, Ryan was being silly in the picture because this was the 2nd picture we took. In the first one my arm looked fat. Hahaa!
But anyway, because of Ryan's calling as ward mission leader we have been able to be a part of so many baptisms of new members and see their testimonies and faith grow as they learn more about the church. It's been a really fun experience. We always have people over to our house for dinner along with the missionaries to teach the discussions. I love it, because I get to learn more as we go too. I deffinitly had to learn more about cooking! I think I'm doing pretty good now too, if I do say so myself:) Ryan's glad about that aspect of it. No more stroganauff everyday!! haahaa!
This is the kids getting ready for the 4th of July. They call these their "Team Shirts." I'm glad they think they are on a team. I don't know where that came from but that's good.

Rocky is potty training so this is him in his new "big boy" underwear. He's real proud of himself
This is the kids with their very own horse. This is their favorite game to play. It makes mom a little nervous though. Dad likes to buck.
We had face painting at a recent church activity. It was a "Pig Pickin" party and I'm proud to say it was my idea. I really wanted to try a true southern picnic while we were here in the south. Sister Rogers did a great job and it was a great missionary opportunity. About 4-500 people showed up and about half were non-members. Everyone got free sunglasses and played games and had a great time. It was awesome.
We've been hitting the pool about every other day since it opened in the middle of May. The kids have gotten really brave with the water. We bought them some Disney goggles at the Disney Store for only $4. They have been putting them to good use. Ryan has been working with them and helping them learn how to swim. They went from being totally scared of the water to being able to hold their breath under water for about 8 seconds. It has really helped with bath time. They aren't scared of water being poured over their heads anymore.



It seems we are getting down to the wire now with having to pack up our stuff. I've been packing a few boxes a day for a while and I think I have 1/2 of the house packed but I think I'm going to have to hit it hard this week. It's crazy how fast time flies. We will really miss everyone in North Carolina. We have made some really awesome friends here and we will be sad to leave them. This ward is the best we've ever been in. Everyone has been asking what they can do to help us. The Relief Society sisters have offered to babysit and they are bringing us dinner for 3-4 days in a row, and they are going to come help me clean the house after everything is out. With all that help, I bet we get it done in less than three hours. The Elders Quorum is coming the day before to load all of our stuff in a truck so we are totally set. I can't tell you how grateful I am for all of the help and sacrifice that is being made on our behalf. If anyone ever gets the chance to live in Cary, NC, take it, because the people are really awesome!! I really am sad to leave. We've moved so much that I thought I was past having these kinds of feelings but it will be hard. We've had a great experience here.