just a reminder...

The past few weeks it seems like all the lessons are on prayer, whether it be individual, family, or even where and when. One thing I found on someones blog that I really enjoyed reading and something that is SO true is this quote here.

For you married couples, if for some reason there seems to be too much contention on your relationship, try putting God first by kneeling together each night and praying. President Monson promised that as we heed that council “I can then assure you that any misunderstanding that develops during the day will vanish as you pray. You simply can’t pray together and retain any but the best of feeling toward one another.”We could go on and on, but the point is that God can and wants to bless us, but those blessings only come contingent upon eternal laws. The simple way to think about it is: “When we put God first in our lives, all other things fall into their proper place or drop out of our lives.”

what a privilege it is to have the opportunity to pray...

happy 1st sweet ryah jane.

Dear miss ryah jane.
Your daddy and I love you so very much, we are so glad you have come into our home. You make life so fun and entertaining. Each time I'm with you I feel the love my savior has for me. You bring the spirit into our home each and every day .
It was so scary when I was in labor with you. We couldn't get your heart beating, and the nurses were frantic. We have been truly been blessed to have you in our lives Ryah...even just for the one year you have been here.
Everyone loves you so much and everyone always says what a cute little baby you are.
I will be pushing you in a grocery cart and you will be saying hi to everyone. HI, HI, HI... And the people just stop and smile at you and say hi back, that's when you get all smiley, sweet and bashful. Other words you can say are bye, ball, mama, dada, hot, light, baba,dog ruff ruff, you can skuak like a chicken and for food you say ffff fff fff... You can't walk yet, but you are getting close. You walk around when no one is looking, but when you get an audiance you get shy. You've takin your first steps and are quiet good at standing up and taking a few steps before you get over excited and fall down. But we are in no hurry for you to walk... Your elephant crawl is quiet amuzing and most people get a kick out of it.
Your favorite things to do are crawl up and down the stairs.
And when someone lays down, you love to crawl back and forth over their tummy like a jungle gym.
You love to dance! Greatest entertainment..
You also love to play peek-a-boo. You don't quiet hit your eyes,but i guess one and on your ear and one hand on your forhead will do...
You are a very healthy eater...you actually love fruits, vegetables and whole wheat bread. (we'll see how long that lasts).
Water is your forte, you can play in water all day and be happy.
And you are definatly an outdoors baby, everytime the door opens you make a mad dash to get outside.
For your first birthday we hotdogs and cupcakes.
we went swimming.
we opened presents.
mom and dad spent extra time with you.
sang songs and danced.
played with camryn...

it was a fun day little miss...
We love you so much and hope you had a happy 1st birthday!
love always.
mom and dad

We are home...

In the past six days, Joe and I have had quiet the adventure. We had been thinking for a while that we wanted to drive up the coast to Oregon and see Bekah (joes sister).
and we did.
a 20 hour drive seemed to turn in to a 25 hour drive.
We took the coast line, which was soo beautiful as you can see, but it took us like 8 hours to do 250 miles.
The roads slowly unraveled as we drove through the loops and whirls.
Ryah did really well, she laughed and giggled and watched monsters Inc., slept, ate played pick-a-boo.. she is awesome.
after driving about 11 hours we stopped.
The first night we planned to camp, but of course our brand new air up mattress had a hole in it.
so we got a motel 6. small but somewhere to sleep.
The second day we crossed over the Golden Gate bridge, drove the most beautiful coast line, went through the red wood forest, stoped to have a picnic and played with Ryah,tried to catch blue jay birds, stopped at some more parks, ate and slept. Poor Joe drove almost the whole time, he did amazing. I love him so much.
after a long day and night of driving the second day we finnally arrived at Bekah's house at 3 in the morning.
We slept in...
and while we were there...
we played
went for a bike ride,
ate delicious food cooked by Bekah.
Played a game called Dominion a lot of times.(we loved it)
went to the creek to catch salamanders with Brynley.
played with sweet aveyns chubby cheeks.
visited Uncle Randy, Aunt Christy, DJ, and Lindsay.
went to thee Tillamook Cheese factory..ate ice cream and cheese:)
saw where the gooneys was filmed.
ate real indian food that Bekah cooked for her indian neighbors. (SOOO GOOD)
went to the library
Rode the Max to visit down town Oregon which also happend to be gay rights festival day.
We got lucky there...
Ate at a really cute dough nut shop called COCO's
watched Ryah learn how to climb up and down the stairs.
visited the Oregon temple which was so beautiful!
Ate at the cheesecake factory
And enjoyed every single car/trolly ride.
it was beautiful there and the weather was perfect.
We were sad to be leaving.
Luckily Bekah, Bryn and Avey decided to come with us.
We loved having there company with us in the car.
It was a little crazy and hectic, but we made it.
The drive home we went up through washington, back down through oregon, through Idaho, through Utah, and after 16 hours of driving we stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Denhalter in Parawon.
That was so nice. They are the sweetest people you will ever meet. They are so good and thoughtful. We were also sad to leave there.
The last 9 hour stretch felt so fast compared to the day before. But we made it home and it feels so nice to be home.
Lots of laundry, but I don't care.
Ryah is happy to be home and walking around.
Climbing the stairs and napping in her own bed.
Joe and I were really impressed with how all the little ones did on the trip.

Bekah was kind of hard to deal with though...She is really mean and yells alot.
hahahaha Jk.
Bekah was so easy to travel with. we were glad to have you Bek!
anyway here are some pictures we took. Our battery died after the first day there, so These are all the pictures i have. Uncle Randy is sending us some soon too.
Thank you Rays for the fun stay at your house! We love you!!
and Thank you babe for the fun drive and talking me into it.
I am so glad we did it, and you made it so so so fun!
I love you so much!


nice pic by joe.

Red wood forest, these trees were HUGE!
Joe looks little compared to this.
Deer across the street from the Ocean. Of course we had to stop...for you know who
Ryah and joe happy to be out of the car on a beautiful pic nic.
Ryah finding stairs to climb up and down.

This little black tail deer was litterally this clost to us. (Laura do thise little antlers look familiar? A little bigger then the ones you got:))
This is the coast line we drove for 8 hours! sooo pretty
Golden gate bridge.

a thousand opinions and no time to explain

it never hurts to ask.
it's better/funner to be nice then mean.
some people really are just selfish.
your body is made of tissues...(joe).
clean is healthy.
driving reckless saves zero time.
people driving drunk makes me angry.
if church is boring it's because of you.
quit blaming everyone else.
time with my husband is oh so very nice.
bigger usually is better. (depending on what your talking about)
giving compliments helps me feel better.
little man syndrome does exist.
rain is romantic
so are chocolate covered strawberries.
dancing relieves stress and makes you feel happy.
doctors are good.
so are nurses.
some people are just dishonest and that makes me sad.
being honest will get you more places.
Ryah has 7 teeth.
the less cloths the more comfortable.
gravity plays a crazy tole on your body after children.
getting married was so fun.
being married is even better.
it makes me giggle hearing the crazy man across the way.
i love driving my new car, and i still have a silly love for my old one.
most people are really really nice.
thrift stores and garage sales make shopping nice.
Joe is the most handsome man I've ever laid eyes on.
music lifts the soul.
reading stimulates the brain.
love is a good thing. let it in.