Our new kitchen addition....

Our new kitchen addition.

Front View

Back View

Ryan & I really needed an island for our kitchen as counter space was limited and the big empty gap in the middle of the kitchen was somewhat of an eye sore. Well, after Ryan and I returned from Hemet to celebrate Christmas with his family my parents had surprised us with this beautiful kitchen island. The island used to belong to our neighbors and after my parents bought it from them, my Dad fixed it up and put a new piece of black granite on for the counter top. It could not have turned out better. We absolutely love it. Thanks Mom and Dad!!!

It's Official!

Here is Ryan with Amber and her friend Kirstin at Clearlake on our little weekend getaway with the Hickman family. We had a great time with them and absolutely love their family.

Bryce with Amber & Kirstin


Ryan & I at Clearlake...

My Belly.. well sort of:) This is an old shot.

It's OFFICIAL....

So, a few things in my life have definately become OFFICIAL.

1.) I am OFFICIALLY the worst blogger ever! I am so bad about keeping my blog updated with the latest in the our lives.

2.) We are (and have been for some time) OFFICIALLY EXPECTING!

3.) Today I am OFFICIALLY four and a half months along, and therefore OFFICIALLY half way through my pregnancy:)

4.) I will OFFICIALLY be graduating on May 28th and OFFICIALLY be done with school (for now anyway) as long as SJSU doesn't decide to thow anymore hoops at me before then.

5.) Oh, and how bad is this.. I OFFICIALLY have not taken any side profile pics of my protruding belly that is holding our precious child since my 3 month mark in the picture above (which was hardly even a little bump... My Mom and Dad put it perfectly when they told me that I didn't look pregnant yet.. just like I had had something to eat). Now, I am OFFICIALLY showing though:)

6.) Okay.. I am OFFICIALLY done being OFFICIAL for the moment.

Ashlyn looking beautiful as always. Love this girl!

Erin and I at the back of the sail boat feeding the birds. It was crazy, we started out only feeding one and then before we knew it there were tons of birds following the boat.

Ryan and I Sailing with Nate's Dad & friends in San Deigo.

Point Loma with The Big D, L, A, R and Kaylee :)

Can't forget Christmas Break!

Ryan and I with Nate and Erin at Point Loma.. San Deigo.. just before we went sailing. Beautiful spot, we miss Nate and Erin tons and wish they were closer. California is TOO Big! It takes forever to get to the other end.

Ryan and I went with TJ and Becca to Joshua Tree national part and did some Rock climbing. I definately felt the paranoid me comming out, but TJ, Becca, and Ryan have no fear! We had an absolute blast with them all day.

Me Squeazing between some rocks to make my way around the rock mountain....

Ryan's family on Chistmas Eve at the Duffins! The food, company, and messages of Christ were all wonderful that evening. We absolutley had a blast spending time with Ryan's family in Hemet. I can hardly believe how big Ashlyn and Landon are getting. Ashlyn is way taller than me now, and Landon is better at thowing the football than Ryan and Matt. It was also a lot of fun to see Matt, Marisa, and their little Brielle. We have not seen them since our wedding and this was the first time ever we were able to see Brielle in person. She is absolutley adoreable! We're very excited for their little one on the Way. Marisa is due in the Summer with another!

We all had tons of fun playing games every night, including the PJ olympics on Christmas Eve. We went bowling, to the temple, sailing, hiking (which was again scary in some spots), playing football, and etc. It has been nice to see Ryan's family so often. Ryan and I calculated that we have spent 4 weeks, so about a month, with them all since August '09. Not bad...

Catching up With the Holidays....

THis is everyone getting their revenge on the tree the next day..

Keep In mind.. this is Ashlyn after the doctor already reset her nose..

The hospital bed Ryan was on was a Stryker bed... Stryker was the company her worked for in San Jose. We thought that was pretty funny.

Ryan.. doing much better.

Just before the tree came down on everyone.

Thanksgiving Adventures.....

So, Ryan's family came out for Thanksgiving, which was an absolute blast. They were our first house guests and everyone was super helpful and a ton of fun. Thank goodness Kimara was around to help out a ton with the Big Thanksgiving Dinner.. if she wasn't there to help me the Turkey we cooked would have been a disaster! We all had a blast, and then headed over to my family's house for Dessert and games. The Parkinsons were not afraid to let their true colors show and they were right in the middle of the game PIT. It was halarious to watch everyone shouting.. 2, 2 , 2.. 3,3,3,... and so on. Funniest thing about it was that Alyssa's husband Luke and his brother were by far the quietest ones playing the game and they both just kept winning over and over again.

The Day after Thanksgiving was an adventure in and of itself. We were all at the Elk Grove Park and thought it would be fun to get some family pictures in the trees there. Well, Dallin found a cool Palm tree on the island in the middle of the pond at the park and everyone decided to climb onto it for a sweet picture. How often can you climb a palm tree right? Well, aparently the weight ended up being more than the tree could handle and down it came on everyone. Dallin was the only one on the tree to walk away without injury. So, a call to 911 and 2 ambulences later.... Ashlyn had broken her nose (really bad) and the tree had landed on her face, Landon had staples in his knee, and Ryan who thought that he was going to die because he thought he had broken his Femor bone bc the weight of the tree and the weight of Dallin had come down on him (probabaly 400lbs plus...) he turned out to be okay and there was no break in the bone but he was sure hobbling around for a good while and his neck has been tweeked from the 9ft fall since. I've never seen Ryan in so much pain. He actually stopped breathing for a little while because of the pain and shock from it all. My parents met us at the hospital and gave everyone a blessing. They were super helpful and had us over that evening to feed and take care of everyone. Here are the pics. The one picture of them on the tree I took right before it fell and you can actually see the tree leaving Dallins hands already headed for the ground. Thankfully everyone is doing much better now.