Miss you in a heartbeat.

Please forgive me of my cheesy title (and thank Def Leopard for putting it so eloquently) but for us it really hit home for a week.
Ryan went to San Francisco for a work trip on Tuesday March 3rd. Now, since we've been married Ryan and I have only been apart for two nights (not consecutive). So Audrey and I were both quite disoriented. By Friday night we were needing something really great to take our minds off things. I planned a "girls night in" for us.

We got in our pajamas and watched Aladdin and had lots of pillows and blankets.





















Plus, what's movie night without ICE CREAM!
It was good bonding time for us. But we missed daddy a lot.

That Saturday morning I flew out to San Francisco to join Ryan. I stayed there with him Saturday, Sunday and half of Monday. Now, Audrey is two years old and she's never been overnight somewhere without mom or dad. We were really worried about how well she'd do. She spent Saturday night with Ryan's parents and Sunday night with my parents. They both said she was fine! She actually handled the whole weekend well. What a relief!

This is a picture of the city that Ryan took before I got there. He was on a bus tour with Deann from work. Meanwhile, it was snowing in Utah!

Saturday afternoon we spent a lot of time down on the pier just walking around. I don't love their constantly windy weather but it is a really beautiful city.

One touristy thing we had never done in all the times we'd been to this city was a tour of Alcatraz. We took a boat to the island and did a two hour audio tour, walked with our group around outside for a bit and watched a short film. I think we had the whole experience. It was much more interesting than I expected. The island itself has quite a history besides just the prison.

Overall, it's okay to take a break from each other once in a while but we just love being together so much more!

New Friends

Are we crazy?

Ryan got this idea about two weeks ago that we should get a pet. Something that would be really easy because we don't have tons of time. We are not ready for a cat or dog because we don't yet have grass or a fence...so maybe a hampster. After some research on the internet we decided a gerbil instead. TWO gerbils! We haven't officially named them yet so if anyone has any ideas to share, please feel free. They are both females. This one in the picture has white patches on her face, paws, and tail. The other one is completely dark grey.

Audrey loves them! She goes back and forth calling them "kitty" and "mouse."

I had lots of concerns before we made the trip to the pet store. I didn't think I wanted one more thing to clean or to take a ton of care or attention. Ryan kept telling me that he would do it all. He has been really great with them. I haven't even dared to hold them yet. (Audrey isn't allowed to touch them.) It's been worth it so far; look how happy she is!

Audrey is 2 years old!

Neither my parents nor Ryan's parents had a lot of kids by Utah standards (four and three respectively) and we're all still relatively young so the grandkids are really just beginning, but when we got them all together for Audrey's birthday we had 19 people! Four parents, five brothers and sisters, three brother or sister in-laws, one future sister in-law, three little ones, plus the three of us. (We're sorry one brother in-law couldn't make it; we missed you Sam.) So it was mostly craziness, but I loved it all the same. Audrey is a lucky girl to have so many people want to be there for her.

For those of you reading this who don't know, Audrey loves the show The Little Einsteins. It's about four little kids who go on missions with and inside their friend who is a red rocket. So I talked the good people at the Albertson's bakery into attempting a rocket cake for her birthday. Here's the finished product.

It looks just like him!

Apparently, Audrey doesn't really love to be the center of attention. Last year she cried while everyone waited for her to dig in to her cake and this year while we sang to her we got this...

What a weirdo!

Audrey actually helped me open her presents and got pretty excited with each one.

My mom made her this fabulous apron. I think she looks adorable in it. (Now we can really put her to work in the kitchen!)

Audrey really loved this car from her grandma Jackie and Grandpa Craig. She was so anxious for her dad and grandpas to put it together she wasn't even going to wait for them!

Now if you all will allow me a little indulgence, I'd like to reflect some on the last year.

Over the last year Audrey broke her leg on a slide, had to have an MRI when she fell on her head, and was consistently off the chart for head circumference compared to other kids her age in medical news. She went on three flights to Texas, Pennsylvania, and Florida. She learned tons of new words, meanwhile making up a language all her own.

She gives the best hugs and kisses, knows how to say "please" in a way so that you CAN NOT say no.

Is full (and I do mean full) of energy, never tires of the same games or toys or books, makes her mom and dad laugh, crazy, tired, and happy.

I'll finish off with a picture of Audrey with one of her favorite things in the world...a pile of grated cheese! We love you baby girl!

We're home!!!

When Ryan and I first started talking about buying a house we joked about just buying one over the phone or over the internet. When were we going to find the time to go looking together? Well, my mom and mother-in-law and I went looking one day and just stopped in a model home. A couple of hours later I called Ryan and told him about this one model that we loved and that seemed affordable for us. I never dreamed we would be able to build. From that point on, we never looked back.

We built our first home in Spanish Fork. We closed three days before Christmas and moved in the weekend after Christmas. If I didn't work in retail it wouldn't have been so bad. But I don't get too many days off in December. It was absolutely crazy. Thank you to all our family who helped. We COULD NOT have done it without you.

This is the family room and part of the living room.

This is the kitchen before the fridge was delivered.

This is the master bathroom.

And saving the best for last...

This is our fabulous closet. When they walked us through the models and all the closets were walk-in, I was sold.

Christmas! One month later...

It has taken me forever to update and I'm sorry. To be honest, nothing much happened in the month of November and in December we were so busy! Also, before you look at these pictures I have to add a disclaimer- we got a new camera for Christmas and we were either on the wrong settings or it needs to be returned because the color is OFF!

We spent Christmas Eve night at my parents' house (which we haven't done since Audrey was born) because we heard there was going to be a HUGE storm. Audrey had a hard time focusing on actually opening presents, but she still had a great time.

This was one of Audrey's favorite presents. Uncle Devin bought it for her. It is a Mickey book and when you turn the pages, it reads to you. It also sings and there are buttons that make noise. What more could she ask for?
I have to draw attention to Audrey's hair in all the pictures. I decided to grow out her bangs because they are pretty curly and won't sit straight on her forehead. It's been rough. Plus, who wants to sit still and have their hair done when there are presents to open!

Since we weren't home at all on Christmas and the two days after Christmas were moving days, (more on that later) we didn't give Audrey her presents from us until New Year's Day. Here she is with her kitchen that morning.

Our little pumpkin fairy.

We can't resist posting some halloween pictures.

I wasn't very creative this year so Audrey has a dress with wings and a witch's hat; but since it's orange and black I told people she was a pumpkin fairy.

Which makes these pictures even more fitting.

The Magic of Disney

There's something about that little mouse in red shorts, big yellow shoes and big white gloves.
In spite of the commercialism and 21st century changes, the magic of Disney lives on.
Ryan's work took us on a Disney cruise to the Bahamas! We spent Wednesday night in Orlando and set sail Thursday. We had enough time still on Thursday to walk around and try to understand the enormity of the cruise ship. We ate lunch at a buffet while waiting for our room to be ready and our luggage to arrive. One thing I will always remember: Everywhere we went the staff would say "Hello Princess" when they saw Audrey. I thought it was really sweet. It must be a job requirement because no one missed her. When we went to dinner that night, our table was set up with a high chair at the end and a cup with a lid that said 'Princess Audrey'. We had the same three servers every night including a head server, server, and assistant server. They were from India, the Phillipines, and Italy. A very small percentage of the staff were from the United States. They were all so great. That night we went to a Broadway type show called 'The Golden Mickeys.' Audrey was glued to the stage as they did tributes to some Disney classics.
On Friday morning Ryan had meetings so Audrey and I went exploring. They had a nursery for toddlers and babies if I wanted someone to watch her but I wasn't going to do that. So I took her to the playroom for kids older than her and they said she could play there as long as I stayed with her. She LOVED it!
Besides the props and playground they had tables for coloring, computers for games and learning, books for reading, dress-ups for pretending, toys for playing, and music and hoo-la-hoops for dancing. We were meeting Ryan in our room at noon so I had to drag her out.
Our first island was Nassau. We could have chosen from any number of activities to do here and we chose this resort/casino/hotel called Atlantis. It was beautiful.


Our ticket to Atlantis included a section of beach that was so beautiful, I could have only imagined it before seeing it with my eyes. This was Audrey's first time in the ocean. The water temperature was perfect. She had the best time with the waves. The only way we could get her out was to promise her that we would go swimming in a pool. We spent awhile in the pool before having to drag her out to go to an aquarium.
That night Audrey made it through one song of 'Toy Story, the Musical' before she was asleep so we left early and went to bed. Saturday morning while Ryan was in meetings Audrey and I went to the Goofy pool on one of the top decks. The first pool was less than an inch of water with little spouts that would randomly shoot water into an unsuspecting toddlers' face.
There were also two pools (Mickey's ears) that went to Audrey's waist. The third pool (Mickey's face) went to her chin. I think she liked the ears the best.

Our second island stop was the Disney owned and operated Castaway Cay.
This is what it looked like from the deck of our room.
There weren't any waves in this part of the ocean and it was pretty crowded in the water so we bought some sand toys and got really dirty. That night we wanted to watch the ship sail off for the last time so while we were waiting on the top deck Audrey and Ryan played basketball.
We also finally got a picture of the three of us together.

That night was the BYU vs. New Mexico game so while Ryan watched the score update periodically on ESPN, Audrey and I went to the last show called 'Dreams.' It was another tribute to Disney classics and how the main characters were able to make their dreams come true.
This post is already extremely long but I'd like to share three things I learned from the cruise.
1. I'll be a little kid my whole life.
-I got just as excited as Audrey when the characters came on the stage to sing the songs I've had memorized since I was little. I was also just as excited to finally swim in a warm ocean.
2. All little girls are princesses.
-Even if they prefer big wheels to baby dolls, run around like a crazy person for no good reason, and throw humiliating fits in public (all Audrey). They also melt your heart with a smile, giggle at the silliest things, and look absolutely beautiful no matter what they're wearing or doing.
3. It is a small world after all.
-And the simplest things bring us together.