A Little Update!!

I have a few minutes so thought I would update with a few things we have done lately! Drove to New Mexico right before Thanksgiving to see the BYU game and the Montoyas. Always have a great time with the Montoyas. Here are a few of the cousins that went to the Botanical Gardens.
The work on our house is slowly but surely continuing. I was hoping the basement would be finished by Christmas - but that is not going to happen so now I am hoping for January... Here are the girls being put to work hauling lumber for Ryan.

Grandma Doris Day! We always have fun on this day making our candy trains and gingerbread houses to celebrate our mom's birthday. This year we did it a little early so that the Wilcox's could be with us! We had a great time as always! All four of us girls (me and my sister's) have a daughter close to Ashlyn's age and they love being together!

The group making the trains and houses. Notice no boys - they are all to the left watching the BYU vs. Utah football game.

We took Grandma Reeder to Ogden to see the Christmas lights. It was a cold night but we had a great time seeing the lights, going to dinner, and getting a little bit of shopping done.

Hope everyone is have a fun and busy December!

Happy Halloween!!

Hope you are having as much fun as we are!!!

Where have we been??? I know - I get way behind on this thing. I did finish the shower curtain and love it - but the bathroom is still under construction so I haven't hung it up yet. I have been working on a few other projects as well lately - Made two full size patchwork quilts for the girls bedroom, halloween costumes (dorthy, cheerleader, and a fairy), new pajamas for the girls (they turned out very cute), and now I am sewing with pink pleather - a little scary I know but a saw a darling superhero cape that I am trying out for some Christmas presents!! I'll take some pictures and show soon...maybe...

Our nephew Kade moved in with us to go to school and work. He is a great kid and Ryan has enjoyed having another male around the house - but I have to admit I have a new appreciation for his 5 sisters!!! A few of which occasionally read this so my hat goes off to you girls, I love you even more!!!

Our house is slowly but surely moving forward. We currently have 1 bathroom for the 6 of us so our neighbors occasionally have a little girl doing the potty dance on their front porch so thankfully they are very nice!!

The first day of school. (I do drive to the same school every morning, but there is something better about the school bus I guess) It has been very sweet watching Morgan take care of Ashlyn at school and making sure she is okay. I love having both of the girls there and can't wait until next year when all three will be with me. Ashlyn is in all day kindergarten so it makes it a lot easier for me, Morgan still loves school and Ashlyn loves it as well.
Backpacking to White Pine Lake at Tony Grove. I have to admit that this was my first experience on peeing in the woods. I was very strategic about it and dehydrated myself so I only had to go once in the 24 hour period! It was a beautiful hike, it was about 8 miles and our girls did awesome. Ashlyn and Morgan walked the entire way, and we only had to carry Maddie when she would fall (she was listening to the Ipod and singing and kept falling because she wasn't paying attention to where she was walking.) Kade and the Smith's came with us and we had a great time!

Our one finished room in the house and I love it - I haven't put anything on the walls (waiting for the rest of the basement to get finished) and we need to get the headboard finished! I am thinking that this will end up being Maddie Sue's room because the other bedroom has to have two girls in the room and nobody wants to share with Maddie.

Ashlyn and Maddie did Future Rockettes over at the high school with the drill team. This is just before there performance. Cute girls that I learned quickly love to perform - I don' t know why that surprised me!!

Spent a long weekend in San Diego and had a great time, Ryan was working on some cabinets for my aunt and uncle so the girls and I spent the day on the beach. A great day!!

I truly believe that this is really where I belong on any given week day - sitting on the beach, reading, watching my kids play in the water and getting just enough sun - loved it. I just haven't quite figured out how to transplant my life to the coast....
Had Morgan's birthday in San Diego - she had her first store bought birthday cake - that was quite the ordeal for me. I have always called it "the curse of my mother" (a good thing of course) She always made our amazing birthday cakes and halloween costumes - I'm am almost positive that if she was here she would tell me that is way easier to buy both (especially with working full time) but she is not here and I am always striving to be half the mother she was!!

Sea World - we love this place - thanks Aunt Karen and Uncle Dee for letting us crash at your home and have a wonderful weekend!!

Oops - forgot to flip the picture - but went camping last weekend up Logan Canyon - I have to admit I whined a little before we went because I hate to be cold and who camps in the middle of October - but it was beautiful and we had a great time!! (You were right Ryan!)

Another sideways picture - The next house project on the list - my basement cabinets. I absolutely love them and am so excited to have red cabinets. How fun is that!! At first I wasn't sure I wanted red because what if I got tired of it in a few years and Ryan reminded me that we own a cabinet shop and we could change them whenever - I'm thinking I'm going to go with a little blue upstairs - I love color!!!

That in a very quick nutshell is what we have been up to. Keeping busy (sometimes probably too busy), having fun with each other, and surviving the remodel!! Hope everyone out there is doing just as well!!!

The Project for Today

I'm going to attempt a shower curtain and curtains for the girls bathroom! I'll show you when it is finished (as long as it looks good!)

Let There Be Light....

Our BIG basement windows are in and I love them!!! It makes the basement rooms so much brighter and safer for my kids! (Now the yard needs a little help...tractors and grass are never a good combination)

The view from the outside
The view from inside

Next... this is where my kids are sleeping now. (Notice the nice new basement windows!) It drives me crazy for it to not be cute but all things will come in time- right??? The girls each have thier own bed, one of each size (queen, full, and twin), a couple of wall ovens to the left for our new kitchen that we bought on an awesome closeout, a 14 foot river raft on the right, and a few other miscellanous items.

** Maddie asked me this morning if she can have Ashlyn's bed when she gets older because she wants to a queen!

Always Makes Me A Little Nervous When....

There is a trackhoe in my front yard - (and Ryan is running it). Finished project coming soon...

Keeping Busy...

Freezing Corn - just call me Suzie Homemaker!(Ha) Ryan and I did 20 dozen ears of corn - Ryan loves the corn - and just ignore the huge chunk of butter in the pans.....

Camping at Alta ski resort with the Stokes and hiking up to Cecret Lake. It was a beautiful campground with all the wildflowers (and two huge moose that went right through our campsite) and a great hike. The kids were really fun to hike with and had a great time!

Just had to throw this picture in - Ashlyn all dressed up as a cowgirl - I wonder about some of the things she comes up with. And to top it off she had folded down the waistband of the skirt just to make it a little shorter - she is only 5 - I think we are in trouble...

Moving Day!

We decided awhile ago to move on to our next (and final) home so we listed our house with an real estate agent in April - it sold in June and we closed last week. We had to move a little earlier because Ryan has been out of town. We are excited - but also kind of sad. We really loved our home in Perry and put an amazing amount of time into fixing it up. Here is a before picture of our home - you can see that we added the garage and the roof over the porch - and redid all the exterior siding and the front door (not to mention all the stuff we did inside!!)
Here is what it looked like when we sold it. You can't see it too well - but I loved my front door that Ryan built - it was knotty alder with v-groove panels and six little windows across the top.

And this is where we are now. We love this home and where it is - it is the farmhouse on Ryan's parents farm - the home that Ryan's dad grew up in. We are going to be doing some extensive remodeling and I'll keep you updated on that as we go - for now we have installed a couple new windows in the front and cut some sheetrock in the kitchen (we had to buy a new fridge and it didn't fit....let the remodeling begin...)

Quick Update!!

Here is a quick update of what we have been doing since Easter (the last time I blogged!). They are completely out of order - but we have been having a great summer and keeping very busy!

Here is Ryan on the Snake River, I think he is the second back on the right side of the photo.

Waiting for the Oakley Rodeo to start - this is a great rodeo with fun fireworks afterwards.

The girls waiting at grandma's house for the 4th of July parade in Perry. Ryan was in Denver for the 4th so the girls and I had kind of a quiet day!

Familiy photo under the arches in Jackson Hole. Spent a day in Jackson waiting for everyone else to come up and ride the Snake River this year. The river was great and everyone had fun. Ryan ended up buying his own raft last week - so if you ever want to run the river - he always needs an excuse to go!!!

Tonight we went over to the church and did a slip and slide down the hill. The girls had a blast and my bathtub is now full of grass!

The Stewart cousins at the Oquirrah Mountain Temple open house (minus Brant and Kyler - who went to the car, and Baby Sophie - who was sleeping)

Wilcox Cousins moved back to the good old USA and were able to stay with us for a few weeks before they headed back to Denver. We loved having them here and spending time with them!

Ashlyn and Maddie went to ballet camp - and loved every minute of it!!

Ashlyn graduated from preschool. She loved preschool this last year - what could be better than spending two hours a day with your two cousins and two fabulous teachers!

Morgan finished the second grade and can't wait for third. This is a field trip I was able to go on with her. A few perks of being a teacher - I got paid to go on field trips with my daughter!!

Spring Break 2009

This year for Spring Break the Smith's (Ryan's sister) and us jumped in our cars and took the 11 hour drive to Los Lunas, New Mexico to spend the weekend with the Montoya's(Ryan's sister). We had a great time and the Montoyas as always were great hosts letting us crash their house with 12 additional people... Thanks again - we love visiting your house! Here are few of the highlights of our trip -
Hot tubbing at Peggy's - The swimming pool was only braved for dares of jumping in and right back out, but the hot tub was used frequently throughout the weekend!

The girl's were troupers and slept where ever we left them!

Our first stop was on the way down at Four Corners - Here is Maddie, nothing really there, but still kind of a cool place to see and say you have been!

Here is our family with Grandma at Four Corners!

We drove down to Carlsbad Caverns on Thrusday afternoon and went in the caverns on Friday morning - they were amazing. Ryan was very excited about going down to the caverns - it was amazing. This is the whole group - minus me- at the mouth of the caverns. We walked down 750 feet (about 1.2 miles down into the earth) and then about a mile on the path once we got to the bottom. My girls were all a little nervous going down because it was dark and very steep at times, but did great once we were in a little ways.

Kimber, Grandma and the girls in front of a gigantic stalagmite. The room at the bottom of the caverns was as big as 14 football fields - huge!

Another picture inside the cavern.

After we were back outside eating our lunch in the back of the Smith's van. After we left the caverns we decided to drive down to El Paso, Texas and check out the border. It was kind of fun seeing another city we have never seen - We are always up for an adventure. The cavern trip added about 12 hours of driving to our trip - and I have to say it was well worth the drive!!

Coloring easter eggs at the Montoyas!

All the Reeder grandkids after the Easter egg hunt in Peggy's backyard. I have a picture of all the kids for the past 13 years so they all humored me and posed for the picture. ( I just cleaned out the Easter baskets today and found a boiled egg - a little old and stinky....)

My three beautiful girls in their new Easter dresses - they all got to pick out thier own dresses this year, Morgan was so excited she didn't have to match...

Kelsy, Kade (or stinkerbum as Maddie calls him), Ashly, Morgan, and Maddie in front of the Aquarium.

The girls in a giant carrot at the Botanical Gardens - children's garden, very fun place!

The girls in the giant tile chair at the Albequerque Zoo. I think this is one of the best zoo's we have ever been too - tons of animals and fun things to do - the girls love it there!

Thanks Montoya's for the great weekend and letting us come - we had a great time as always!!!