Merry Christmas!

We're off to Cheyenne. Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!

Froman

I came home last night from work to this cute guy that Ryan made for me. Now after last nights storm we are the proud owners of a froman.  

New Addition

Our newest nephew Eamon Clark Smith was born early this morning! He weighed 7 lbs 4 ounces and was 19 inches long. We just got home from meeting him for the first time! He's adorable and perfectly healthy. Here's a picture that Andrew sent us earlier. Congratulations Andrew and Analyn!

Done

After nearly a year of remodeling our master bedroom, we have finally finished. Though we do still have to paint our new doors, we're going to wait till spring when it's warmer outside. We completely striped the old room of all trim and baseboards, carpet and wallpaper. We put up crown molding, all new trim and doors as well as a new ceiling fan. We installed a new window together and had fun with texturing and painting the walls. Our carpet was put in yesterday and it was a wonderful thing to come home to from work. Now all we need to do is pick out blinds for the window, install our new closet hardware and decorate! We're not exactly sure what color we want to do for the bedding yet. Any suggestions? It was such a long process, but we both learned so much by doing it ourselves. We would have been done a long time ago, but it kinda kept getting put off with all the other projects we did throughout the year. At least we're done in time for the holidays. It's such a relief it's all over and now I get to run my toes through some really cozy carpet!

 Here's some before and after pics

 Here's some pics during the remodel

 And we're not the only ones who enjoy the new room 

It Snowed Today!

Thanksgiving

Phil, Nicole and the kids came back after only being back home in Cali a little over a week. We spent the last few days up at the cabin and had a tasty dinner there last night with everyone including our cousins the Carrasco's. We played lots of games and watched a few movies together. Tori and I played Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella all day, she was in heaven. My favorite part of dinner had to be Grandpa
Clyde's candied yams, as always! Aunt Mill's orange rolls were delicious too! I love Thanksgiving!

I love photographing Tori and Henry

Ember was feed way too much turkey, she zonked out

Genius

Look at this genius. We moved his dog house closer to our house thinking that he would use it then. But instead he likes to lay on top now. Even last night when it was pouring rain he still couldn't figure it out. What a dummy. 

Good Times

Phil, Nicole and the kids left back home today to Palo Alto, but lucky for us they will be back in less than 10 days for Thanksgiving! We spent the night at the cabin last night, it was so nice! We played "Ticket to Ride" for the first time and it was actually a lot of fun. Ryan shockingly really liked it which is a huge deal because he has always been an anti-game playing kind a guy. He even wanted to play it again! We're gona have to buy that one. Anyways, we had fun hanging out with everyone. This morning we woke up to Grandma's yummy home-cooked pancakes and buttermilk syrup. It was a wonderful reminder that the holidays are finally here. I love the cozy feeling this time of year brings.

Here's some pictures from last night. Somehow we all got a little crazy and found ourselves carried away trying on some of my great grandma's old hats and wigs. We were laughing pretty hard. My fav is Henry! 

Happy Birthday

We went out to lunch at Zupas for Nicole's B-day. I haven't been there in a long time, probably since nursing school. It was fun talking to everyone and playing with the kids.  Hopefully we'll be able to spend some more time with them tomorrow.

Family

We've been so lucky to have seen so much family in the last little bit. Ryan's cousin Cody stopped by on his way to Cali on Halloween night and stayed with us. It was finally the first time that I met him. Ryan's brother Sean stopped by on his way to Durango, Colorado where he will be starting his new job. Hopefully we will be seeing more of him. As you saw in our last post, Ryan's grandparent's stopped by over the weekend. Now my brother Phil and his family have come to town and will be here for the next week. We had a very nice dinner at my aunt Mill's house in Highland. Henry has grown so much and Tori is getting so mature! She started pre-school since the last time we saw her a few months ago and she has learned so much.

We had an appointment as a family with the social worker yesterday to meet and talk about my mom and her conditions. My mom had some testing with the neuroopthamologist after to confirm her diagnosis of PSP. She will meet with her neurologist in a few weeks to discuss the test results. It was very good to have our whole family together to talk and all get on the same page. Matt was able to conference over the phone from China. Even though it was like 3 in the morning for him, we were happy he was able to be there with us. We talked a lot about her condition and expectations for the future. We are so blessed to have such a wonderful family. Everyone has been so amazing.

I've finally finished all my shifts at work for the week, so now I will be able to spend more time with the fam. Tomorrow is Nicole's Birthday as well as a baby shower for Analyn. I'm excited to make some good memories. Hopefully I'll have some good pics to come too.

Lucky Dog

Yesterday Grandma and Grandpa Dunlop came to town on their way to their winter house in Arizona. They spent the night at our house. They came bearing gifts for us and Recon!  We went out to a nice dinner at Magelbys last night. It's always nice to see them! Thanks G&G for Stoping in and we hope you enjoy the nice weather! 

Recon in Heaven

Thank you Phil and Nicole for your giftcard to Petsmart, Recon has been in heaven. 

Miss You

I just wanted to make a post for my parents. They have been in China and Bali the last little while visiting my brother Matt and his wife Mitra. My dad sent us some pics today and I had to post some of them. We miss you tons and hope you're having fun! Thanks for the pictures!

Happy Birthday

Yesterday was my bday. We went out to dinner the night before with my sister Anna and her boyfriend Mike at La Jolla Groves. Then yesterday we went to Salt Lake to go shopping and then later that night we went to a going away party for Dr. Lee, the intensivist in our ICU. He will be missed very much. Anyways, it was a pretty good day over all. Today, the 17th, is always a weird day.  It's the day in between mine and Ryan's bday, where I'm a year older than him and he thinks its funny to call me an old fart. We went to a nice dinner at the Taylor's house tonight. Since my parents are in Hong Kong visiting my bro and his wife, they invited us up to celebrate our bdays along with all the other October bdays in their huge family. We had lots of fun and tons of laughs. We love the Taylor's so much, they've always been like my second family. Plus it's always nice to hang out with my BFF Pearl. 

So tomorrow's Ryan's bday, he has to work and go to school, but we'll hopefully have fun when he gets home! 

Look how big James is getting! 

House

Ryan spent all day yesterday staining our new front door. He did such a good job! I'm really excited about it. Here's some before and after pics.

We put new numbers, a tree, a new door and new steeping stones in the front

We also installed a new light and a railing for the basement apartment. We still need to get two new windows for this side of the house.

We are hoping save up this winter and put a new roof on in the spring and then paint the house in the summer. It's coming along.