Whistler

Eric and I went on a ski trip, just the two of us. It was blissful. Not that we don't enjoy being with our children, it's just a good thing to be able to take off once in a while and just focus on each other. Combine that with skiing and you have one heck of a trip! :) We fell in love with Whistler... the drive there was spectacular and the town delightful but it's the skiing that really knocked our socks off. Wow! The snow was incredible and the terrain was amazing. I couldn't stop taking pictures! The huge trees were enchanting with their heavy mantles of snow - especially the ones that had the moss dripping off underneath! The views were breathtaking. It felt incredible to be up in the mountains again. Blackcomb and Whistler are enormous ski resorts - just a massive amount of terrain. Often we would find ourselves completely alone on a run, which was a pretty cool feeling. It snowed lightly the first day and at one point in the day, at the very top of the mountain, the light was so flat you could hardly tell where you were going. That coupled with some mist and you literally felt like you were in the middle of nowhere... alone... with white under, over, and around you - everything looking the same with no definitive edges. It was eerie but pretty cool! In the evenings we would go hot tubbing, go to dinner, hit a movie, whatever we felt like! It was awesome! What a great trip! Meeting Eric for lunch one day (I wimped out skiing... I could barely walk!) We sat outside and ate at the base of the mountain!The views on the drive there. There was a time when you are driving next to the ocean and huge wooded islands are rising up out of the water close to the coast... wow. Thank you so much, Cheryl and Don, for flying out to watch our babies so we could do this trip! Knowing that Gabe and Nyah were with people that love them made our trip that much more relaxing and fun.

Nyah's first birthday!

I cannot believe my little girl is a year old! It feels like yesterday that we were bringing home this sweet little newborn. I was so excited to welcome her into our family, to finally meet and get to know her. This past year has been wonderful as we have witnessed her precious personality unfold. I love how affectionate she is. Her frequent, soft little hugs and kisses melt my heart. I love how spunky and dramatic she is too - she makes me laugh every day! Happy Birthday Nyah Leigh! We have always called Nyah our little bug so I made her a butterfly cake! I also had fun creating a banner for her that has 12 pendants, one for each month of her first year. On each pendant is a picture of her at that age. I love seeing how much she has changed this year! Once I print a birthday picture to finish the banner, I will take pictures of it and post it here! (Thanks for the great idea Brianne!) She likes it!! :) Grandma and Grandpa R. were here for Nyah's b-day - it was so fun to have family here to share this special day! Time for presents! Gabe was so cute with his little sister - he was so excited for her and loved showing her how her new presents worked! Can you see Nyah's tongue sticking out?! I love that face - she is so funny! I love this one too because it captures her with her dainty little pointer finger pushing on the car horn. Haha! She loves to use that finger to push things. Often when she is nursing, her hand will grope around my face until she finds my nose... out comes the pointer finger and starts pushing away!

We all just adore our little Nyah-noodle (another silly nickname)! Happy birthday baby!!

dinner by candlelight

Finally, a guy in the house that appreciates ambiance!! :) Let me explain... Gabe was rummaging through my cupboards while I was making dinner the other day. He came up with some Thanksgiving candlestick holders and red candles which he enthusiastically assembled and placed on the dinner table. All by himself, I might add. (I have to admit at this point that it was really hard for me not to try and persuade him to use different holders, or at least matching candles, but I restrained myself and went with the flow!!) He made sure we lit them and then all during dinner exclaimed how pretty they were and pointed them out to Daddy several times! I thought that last part was extremely funny as Eric has absolutely no notion of ambiance. And ironically we had just had the conversation a few days earlier where I told him how my mom loved to set a beautiful table and how we would usually eat with lit candles at dinner time all growing up. (Having said that, I have to laugh at how funny my dinner table looks that night. The least of which is Gabe's choice of candles... um, nice bottles of olive oil and balsamic vinegar in the foreground -haha!) Anyway, it was too precious of a moment for me not to record. Gabe is such a cute little boy! I love my little buddy!!

street sledding

I'm not sure I should be calling it "sledding". After all it was only a couple inches of snow over a nice icy street. (Well, nice as long as you're not driving on it!) Eric and Gabe had a perfect spot to finally get some use out of our Utah sleds!
It's so rare that it snows here that we appreciate it so much more! Gabe is delighted when it snows - it's so fun to see his happy excitement - and I have to admit I feel the same way! Boy, do I miss big old nasty Utah blizzards. Seriously, those were so fun to watch out your window and feel warm and toasty in your snug little house. :)

Valentine's

I'm getting these up a bit late but better late than never, I say. We had a fun Valentine's Day this year with pink heart-pancakes for breakfast and a heart shaped pizza for dinner! Of course we all left valentines on the porch for each other too. Gabe had a blast doing it! It was so fun to see his excitement when he would open the door and find one and when he would do his own little doorbell ditching! :) We also got two amazingly fun valentine's packages!! One from each set of grandparents. Gabe was delighted! I love this family of mine so much... it's wonderful having a day dedicated to expressing how much we cherish each other.