Christmas!

Christmas Eve is one of my favorite days of the year. I think it's kind of a bigger deal in my family than it is in most because of the whole Norwegian thing. We eat pinnekjot a traditional Norwegian dish that nobody but the immediate family likes, so we also have ham for all the boys. In Norway Santa comes on Christmas Eve and they open all of their presents so we do a thing where he comes and brings a few presents for the kids to open but also comes later when they are asleep with the rest. Unfortunately, we have kind of a crappy Santa suit that doesn't fit my Dad so Curtis does it. This year I overheard Brianna telling her little sister Sabrina that Santa would probably be really tan. It's a work in progress. The little kids all gather round in awe, but they are also a little afraid. The babies are a lot afraid, actually. We also do a pageant of the story of the baby Jesus with the little kids playing the parts. This year we had two Mary's because Afton and Brielle couldn't agree on who got to do it so they decided to compromise. They both got to play her in different scenes.

                                           Joseph and Mary traveling to Bethlehem.

                                            The angel announcing the birth to the shepherds

                                           The baby Jesus in the manger didn't turn out so well
                                          because all the other babies decided they wanted the
                                          manger for themselves.

                                           The entire cast!

We slept over at  Rachael and Nick's new house (I'll get some pictures of it up soon.) and had Christmas morning with them. Rachael had all the presents hidden in their closet so we set them all out after the kids had gone to bed so there would be a huge pile in the morning like Santa had come. Then we got up at about seven thirty cause Nick got to come home a half hour early and opened presents. They have a tradition in Nick's family that they are carrying on, where it starts from the oldest to the youngest but when it is your turn you go to the tree and choose a present for someone else to open. We thought it was a good way to focus on other people while opening presents.

Rachael's House Updates: Not Really

As some of you know, see I'm still pretending there is someone who actually reads our blog, my parents and my sister are both building houses at the same time. Rachael's is going to be all the way done in about two weeks so I thought it was probably high time that I posted these "progress pics" on my blog before the house is totally done and I need to take some finished house pics. My brother in law Nick worked in construction before he was a cop and so he's done most of the work himself as well as adding some cool details which luckily didn't cost anything because he just used the leftover scrap from the framing to frame them in! It really gives the house some class, I think.

                                                    My nephew Carson (little Nick)
                                                       I just think he's cute

Front of the house
It's crazy how when the outside stuff gets on all of a sudden it looks like a house.

                                                                        Sitting Room
                                                            Ceiling boxes and an arch in
                                                                   corner for a picture.

                                          The dining room area
                                             Step-Up Ceiling
.

Rachael's fireplace/entertainment center area
Nick actually built it into the wall along with some decorative arches so all they have to do is have the cabinet guys put the doors on and they have their entertainment center all built in!

The My Sister's are Awesome Post!

Last weekend my sister's did the dirty dash. They originally were just going to do the 5k but Deborah said she got to the mark and thought you know I'm not that tired so they did the whole 10k in style!

This is the before picture

The Dash!

And finally the fruits of their labors!

Go Cougars!!

Just a little something to get all you BYU fans geared up for football season!

Idaho Adventures!

We went to Idaho a couple of weeks ago to visit Wil's brother Tyler and his wife Aimee, plus of course Talli and Danny. They showed us a great time! Ryan got some battle wounds on his arm and legs from mountain biking, went on a regular bike ride, and to the beach/river. Danny has gotten huge and I think that Talli is the most polite two year old that I have ever met. They are both adorable and we had tons of fun visiting with Tyler and Aimee!

Battle Wounds

                                                   

Post battle wounds stupidity

Danny's way to entranced with Dad doing jumps to look at the camera.

Talli's all ready to go

We forgot our camera so that's just a little taste of our adventures in Idaho!

Policeawesomenessridealong

So Saturday night I did something that I've wanted to do since I was like 8 years old.


I went on a ride-along with my Brother-in-law Nick.


It. Was. Awesome.


We saw some drunk people who were WAY over the .08 legal limit (they both blew about a .21), and a third drunk guy who was passed out on the railroad tracks underneath a highway overpass at the end of a Union Pacific train yard. Nobody has any idea how he got there, except maybe to have driven off the highway overpass and down the 60 or 65 degree embankment to the tracks. I didn't get to see exactly where he was but we drove down a weird access road to try to get there and it was pretty close to where he was and we could almost see him and it was CRAZY! Dispatch had to call Union Pacific and get all the trains stopped and everything. He ended up being a 22 yo. Mexican from really close to my mission (Michoacan, where I served in a city for about 5 mos), and Nick translated for the cops at the station when they were reading rights and asking him about the night and taking the Breathalyzer. It was fun cause I got to listen to him speak and got to kind of relive parts of my mission. 


West Valley had a shootout during the night that they borrowed three cops from Murray for. I didn't get to go on that one (which was a bummer cause it would have been like a 100+ mph run down the belt route and arresting a ton of people, but we were at the jail booking a DUI at the time.


I got to see a Salt Lake City drug unit car (it was an unmarked, super undercover, very nice black charger) at the jail. Apparently they refused the inmate because his blood pressure was too high from the drugs he was on.


I also got to hear lots of cool police chatter about the fights and DUIs and everything that were going on.


The coolest thing I got to see were the roadside DUI tests. They were so funny. People were stumbling all over and forgetting instructions and their eyes would NOT follow the stupid pen! They were jumpin all over. One lady was supposed to do the "9-step walk and turn" and she took 11 steps one way and 12 the other and would have kept going probably but she ran into her car. It was great. Both cars, ironically, were brand new, and the owners still had the 30-day tags on.


Anyway, if you want to hear more detailed stories you can ask me next time we talk.

Colorado Trip!

Summer is a great time for us to visit family because we actually have some time and a little extra money to do it with! So on that note we wanted to make sure we visited both of Ryan's brothers this summer and last week we took our first trip of the summer to Colorado to visit Jim and Ang! It was great to see them and the kids, who are as cute as ever. I think Cleo's hair has grown about five inches since I last saw her, it is so pretty. We had tons of fun but pictures speak louder than words so without further ado...

Ryan feeling wide awake after downing his energy drink. We left at three in the morning so that we could make the airshow in Wyoming. Ryan drove while I slept in my little makeshift bed in the back.

 He took some pictures of the sunrise.

Me while Ryan was enjoying the sunrise

We went on a river float/rafting trip down the Colorado river with Jim, Ang, and the kids. It was mostly floating but we did catch some fun, level three rapids!

While we were there Ang did a Duathalon which means that you bike, run, then bike again. We were sad cause we didn't quite make it in time to see her cross the finish line, so I made her take a picture afterward. Yay, Ang!

 Our adorable nieces on our last morning there Mira and AnnaBelle on top, and Cleo on the bottom.

This was Toliver's favorite thing to do during most of the trip.