I used to try to hold off until December 1st to listen to Christmas music. That was while I was still working and I'd hear Christmas music all day long. Well now, I don't get to hear it enough! I asked Kevin to buy me Josh Groban's holiday cd, and he did..and we both LOVE it! We've listened to it over and over and I just can't get enough. I just think that Josh (am I allowed to just call him "Josh") has such an incredible voice. Any song that he sings is fabulous. The one thing about the cd that was disappointing...he doesn't sing "O Holy Night". Hmmm, I wonder why that was. I absolutely love it when he sings it, and not many people can sing it so well. (I also like Celine Dion's version and Michael Crawford's...flawless) So if any one is looking for a good Christmas cd...this is it! I'm also a big fan of the classic Christmas songs and that's what he does. When I heard "O Come All Ye Faithful", I thought, yep, that's my "favorite" Christmas song. So, not that I'm worthy of reviewing cd's, I just thought I'd share a little of my Christmas spirit.

I also have to give a shout out to my book club girls. I love them all! The great thing about joining "clubs" is that I get to hang out with people I may not necessarily hang out with normally. We met last night to discuss "A Girl Named Zippy" and I had such a great time. 3 hours later we were all laughing and chatting and we didn't want to leave. We have arranged a girls night out that I'm very much looking forward to. Next book on our list: "Cry, the Beloved Country".

Now, I think I'll go listen to my much loved Josh Groban cd while I put up my Christmas decorations :)

Best Friends

Our good friends Ben and Heather were in town for Thanksgiving. Ben and Kevin were friends growing up and throughout High School. And well, they are still friends! Ben and Heather got married just one month after Kevin and I got married. Heather and I were instant friends. Don't you just love when your husband's friends marry girls you get along with? Well, it was quite a surprise when, while living in Belgium, Heather emailed us and said "Guess what? I'm pregnant!" I was thrilled because guess what...I was pregnant, too! I just loved being able to talk pregnancy with her and have our little tummies grow together. To make a long story short, Kyle (Heather's little boy) waited for Rylan. Kyle came late, and Rylan came early...but they both came on the same day! So whether they want to or not, we are forcing these little dudes to be best friends...I mean, how can they not?

It was great to see them for the holiday. They now live out in California, so sadly we don't get to see them often. Kyle seems so much taller than Rylan now, and Ry seems so much rounder than Kyle! But either way, it's fun to see them grow and play together when they get the chance. I'm hoping that one of these days we'll be able to convince Ben and Heather to come back to the cold days of Utah and leave the warm sunny days of California behind!

Backset Girls

Another AWESOME night at volleyball last night. I tell you, my team in on fire! Yes, we are called the "Backset Girls" which is really just to intimidate the other teams because we really haven't mastered our backsets. In fact, they are few and far between, but at least we have the best name in the league!
We play once a week (Wednesday nights) and we have two games that night. Yesterday was only our second week, so we've played 4 games total...and we've won them all! And the great thing is, 3 of the 4 games have been so much FUN! In years past, the leagues have been all messed up. First time players in the same league with retired college players...not fun games. But somehow they managed to get things in order and the leagues are more evenly matched...and i love it! Of course, I'm hoping we keep this winning streak going, because the competitive side of me always has more fun with the big WIN.
I play on a team with my sister Tamera. I talk on the phone with all my family way too much, but volleyball season is insane. Tami and I seem to call each other several times a day: "That play where Michelle slammed the ball was phenomenal" or "Amanda's serves were right on all night"...it's like we just re-live each moment and we have to call the other person to remind them what a great time we had and what amazing skills our team has! And it's not just the day after, either...it's all week, until our next game where we have more great moments to talk about. And I can only talk to Kevin about it so much before he starts to tune me out, leaving me in replay mode with excitement, just talking to myself...outloud. So I'm here to share my love for volleyball with all of you, because you should know what gets me excited, and you should know that for the months of November thru February, volleyball consumes my life. So forgive my bragging and future entries about the sport that I oh so dearly love. I am sad to report however, that because of Thanksgiving we do not have our games next week. So until December 5th (can you believe it's almost December...wowzers!) I will be relishing in the moments from last night and hope they can sustain me until we get back on the court. GO BACKSET GIRLS!

20 Months

Rylan is 20 months old today. I started making a list of the words he says, because I don't give him enough credit for how much he is learning. Being around his older cousins I sometimes feel that he isn't learning enough, but when I think about it, my boy is a genius!! So here's the list, that I've added to throughout the day, which makes it likely I've forgotten a word or two:

Up, down, close, off, all gone, shoes, rock, duck, juice, truck, daddy, walk, bath, ball, cracker, toes, uh-oh, bye, banana...
Of course they don't all sound exactly like that, for instance "nana"(banana), "ah gohn" (all gone), "cose" (close), "dews" (shoes, and sometimes juice)...

Body parts he knows: toes, feet, eyes, nose, mouth, ears, belly button (which is of course his favorite). He's still in the phase where he gets Rylan's nose confused with mommy's nose, but at least he knows what a nose is!

Rylan loves, and I mean LOVES to turn the lights off and on. One day I gave in to his whining and put a box under the light switch so he could stand there and turn the lights off and on. Just a few mintues went by until I realized what a horrible waste of electricity that is, so his excitement was cut short. He also loves kicking around the soccer ball. It must be Kevin's influence, but Rylan's got a pretty good kick. His throwing on the other hand...

Rylan's new joy is playing with the dirty laundry. We have one of those laundry organizers where there is a bag for whites, one for lights, and one for darks. Ry likes to climb between the bags and lay underneath on the little mesh "basket". It's much easier on laundry day when the individual bags are empty.

I love this little boy more than he'll ever know. I keep trying to teach him to say "i love you" but I must wait. He just looks at me and smiles. I'll take smile as a loving gesture!

Happy Happy Birthday

Happy birthday to my Pops! The greatest dad on the face of the earth. I am so happy to have my dad living only a 7 minute walk from my house. Even though he may never forgive me for lying to him (I didn't really borrow his truck to pick up a dresser...I was getting his cd player installed for his birthday) I know that he's always there ready to help me out. Just in the last year I have created an endless list of ways my father has helped: cutting and laying sod, loaning me his truck, tiling my kitchen (and hey dad, now I'm ready to do the bathrooms!), solving my slow drain issues, building me my very first garden (which gave me an abundance of delicious vegetables), moving us into our house, playing with Rylan (and even having fun!), giving me head and neck massages, feeding me a truckload of Quiznos sandwiches (and I don't think I'll ever be sick of them!), loaning me your tools for all our home improvement projects, having a blast in Hawaii (I'm ready to go back!), buying Rylan his birthday cake for his 1st birthday because I'm a slacker mom and always brush things off as "not a big deal", ...and the list goes on and on. See, isn't he a great dad?

I hope your birthday is full of joy and hopefully even a game of golf. Hole in one, here we come! Oh, and GO BYU!!!

My Little Octopus

We had a great Halloween! We met up at my parent's house to take Ry trick or treating with his cousins. We only went to a few homes when I decided I better get home to hand out candy myself. Rylan wasn't too into the whole trick or treating thing and would throw his jack o lantern on the door step of each house! We came home where Kevin took him on our street. By the time they came back, I tried to look in Ry's pumpkin to see what I could eat, and he threw a fit, afraid I was going to take it away from him. He was ready to go out for more! We went to our neighbor's house for a Halloween party. The kids did a pinata and it took forever. Rylan got 2 pieces of candy in the end, both of which I threw back into the pile for a more grown up kid to enjoy. We left after the pinata to put Rylan to bed. I read Eclipse the rest of the night while Kevin did computer stuff.

Tuesday night I borrowed my dad's truck. I told him we needed to pick up a dresser for Rylan's room. That was a lie. I'm not a good liar, but it worked. On Yesterday morning I took the truck in to the dealership to have them install a new cd/stereo. His old cd player was eating his cd's and he couldn't eject them. Last year for his birthday (November 5th) Tami, my mom, and I gave him a new cd player. Well, we told him we would get him a new one, and we never did! He just wanted another factory stereo in there and it was pretty pricey. So, this ended up being a belated AND early birthday present from the three of us. (Plus I bought the stereo off of ebay to save more money!) So I returned my dad's truck last night, anxious to see what would happen. We put in a bird symphony cd for him to be surprised by...and he was! My mom called this morning to say that my dad was just laughing with excitement. He got in his truck and thought maybe we put in a bird song cassette. He tried to eject the cassette, but nothing was there. So then he though "oh great, they put in a cd and it's going to be stuck in there". He pushed eject and voila...it ejected!! He finally noticed the knobs were brand new and not worn away. He jumped out of his truck and ran inside laughing, asking my mom what was going on. She told him the story and he was thrilled. That made my day :)

Now I'm off to book club...