The Cutest

Can I just say that our little Liberty is the cutest? Beth, you would love to get your hands on her. She is a lot like Glade at this age. Sweet, happy, and fun. There is a lady in our new ward that always steals her during Primary (Beth and Denise, sorry to say you've been replaced! :) )

We're still waiting for her to take off crawling. She is getting happier to be on her tummy though.


Her first experience with a graham cracker. They are well acquainted now, although I'm not sure which gets more her, or her high chair tray.

My Big Day

I was a little apprehensive about being without Ryan on my birthday. I decided to invite some friends over for dinner to help make it more fun. I was really glad I did, since the evening was great.

Glade, Kim, and I made this cake for my birthday. It turned out pretty well, although I wasn't crazy about the frosting. I think my favorite has been Pumpkin Praline Torte



Kimberly likes to wrap presents and she found some things to wrap for me, including this teddy bear that my mom made for me when I was a baby. What a sweetie! She is also proving that she can take decent pictures.



My mom made me the cutest bag! I didn't get a picture of it though.

Here are the kids enjoying their favorite part of the birthday. Those singing cards are really fun!

Visitors

Do you remember the visitors we had a few weeks ago? Well, they were back. This time by daylight so we could see them well.

Mama checking things out.



It's all right, let's go. I thought it was interesting that the calf was darker than the mom. I don't know if you can really see it that well in the picture.

So Long, Farewell, Alvederzein, Goodbye

Unlike "The Sound of Music," this wasn't that fun of a Goodbye. On the first day of the New Year, we took our favorite guy to the airport and kissed him goodbye for 6 months.

Daddy getting a little snuggle time in with Libby.


Dad and Kim with the polar bear. She HAD to have a picture by this.


Glade was not in the mood for picture taking. He was too busy playing in the dinosaur park. (They have a little sandbox in the airport with dinosaurs in it.) I'm sure his two-year-old mind couldn't wrap itself around the fact that Dad wouldn't be around for a while. In fact, he just asked me the other day where Dad was. It wasn't the first time I heard the question, and I'm sure it won't be the last.

Ryan is serving in Afghanistan for 6 months on a Spanish/Italian base in the western part of the country. After the initial trial of losing him, we have learned that the sun still rises and sets.


And some days are better than others.


At least the sun is returning to the frozen North.

I have been doing pretty well at coping without Ryan. His frequent calls and e-mails help with this. We all love and miss him so much.

I am looking forward to spending some time with family to help the separation go by more quickly. It will be good for everyone to meet Libby.

Not Your Everyday Park

Our last family activity with Dad was a trip to the Ice Park. They have an event every year called Christmas in Ice. We decided to go the week after Christmas. Why? I don't know since it was freezing! We should have gone Christmas week when it was only 10 below instead! It was still fun though.

That SC is for Scott Calvin, I mean Santa Claus. We missed his visit since we went after Christmas. The kids thought it was cool though.


Kim and my favorite ice sculpture. The tree looked so realistic.


We took other pictures, but it is sometimes hard to see them. Here's the website for the event where you can look at most of the pieces. I thought it was awesome!


They had some things that were fun for the kids too. There were about 5 or 6 ice slides of varying sized that you could ride down on sleds.


They also had spinners made of ice. (This clip is super short, but you get the idea.)


Even though it was cold, it was a really fun outing. We stopped by McDonald's for hot chocolate afterward and everyone enjoyed that too.