Happy birthday, Reagan

Reagan turned 5 on December 11th. How is that possible??!! Anyway, we opened presents in the morning, then had a party with her friends, then had dinner with Grandma and Grandpa that night. It was great fun, but it wore her out completely!

This is how excited she was the day before her birthday.

 Her new outfit from Grandma Rusch. So cute!

 We found tiaras for everyone at the party! Because everyone needs a tiara!

Things I want to remember about Reagan turning 5:

• She LOVES her brother and is the best little sister ever. After dinner was over, she said, "Hey, Davis, do you want to play Barbies?" And of course, he did. Living with your best friend is pretty great!
• She is very creative, and loves to draw, cut, color, and tape anything. She could, and does, spend hours doing it almost every day.
• She is a great self-entertainer. We are home together most of the day, and she really entertains herself while I do my work and my mom stuff.
• She loves Barbies and princesses. Anything princess. Princess Barbies are the best.
• She is very independent (always has been) and is pretty sure that she's just as old as Davis. She is working really hard on learning how to read, and I'm sure that she will pick it up in just a few minutes.

We love our Reagan girl, girlfriend, and sweet girl!

Happy birthday, Daddy!

Chris's birthday was on December 8th. This year, we decided that Hamilton was our gift for our birthdays, so that made the actual birthday pretty easy!

Davis got a drone for his birthday. It was obvious that Chris needed one too. So, he got the same drone, which is great fun!

To Chicago!

For Thanksgiving this year, we all had an entire week off! We decided that it would be fun to go to Chicago and visit my brother, and we found cheap plane tickets, so we went! It was so much fun!

 The girls helping in the kitchen. Hannah had so much fun with Reagan, and of course, Reagan thought it was fabulous to have a shadow with her!

 We went to an awesome museum with cousins, which was the best.

 At the Consevatory

 Eating at Velois, which was really fun.

We went to Hamilton! It was INCREDIBLE and AMAZING and every other fabulous adjective you can think of!

The Thanksgiving crew!

Happy birthday, Davis

It was Davis's birthday on November 20th! He is 7 years old! How did that happen??!!

Because life is crazy, we had his birthday sandwiched in between a trip to Phoenix for Mom and Dad and a trip to Chicago as a family. Both trips were lots of fun, but that's a different post. Anyway, we had a birthday party with family on the evening of his birthday, and a birthday party with friends on Friday.

Things I want to remember about Davis when he turned 7:

• He is the NICEST kid ever. He is a great friend, and a fabulous big brother. He honestly has always been nice.
• He is such a good reader! It is amazing the words this kid can read! And he loves it!
• He loves LEGOs and superheroes. Superhero LEGOs are the very best in the entire world.
• He has a bunk bed in his room, and loves sleeping on the top bunk. It's awesome.
• Clothes and food are usually just something that need to happen in order to exist. They are not a priority at all.

We love 7 year old Davis! He is getting baptized NEXT YEAR! Wow!

We're Moving!!

We bought a new house a few miles away! Here is the link to it. We're super excited to move! (Except for the actual moving part!) There are a lot of things that we were looking for in this house that it has!

• A bigger garage for two cars
• A master suite with a master bathroom
• More usable square footage
• Two floors that can actually be used
• Air Conditioning

Anyway, those are the things that we wanted in a house, and, when it all came down to it, with the equity from our house now, we were able to keep our mortgage pretty close to what our mortgage is now, which is awesome! We thought we had a house that was really close to my parents, and our offer was accepted. But then the seller decided that they didn't want to sell to us. So, we were on the market again! There are so many things that we will miss from our neighborhood, though!

• Great friends!
• Fabulous memories, such as:
• Having it be the first home that we have owned together
• Watching Davis play as a little baby in the home
• Bringing Reagan to this home when she was born 
• Watching her grow up here
• Starting a garden from scratch. We are super bummed to not be able to harvest this year!
• Our fall-out shelter. We admit, this is pretty cool. Even though we have a storage room in the new place, we will miss it!

In our new home, we will have:

• More room
• The ability to entertain lots of family and friends at the same time
• Everything that we wanted from our list
• Even closer proximity to my parents--we are in the same stake!
  
  
  
   
  See! Both homes sold! Yippee!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  This is mostly after getting everything packed. I assure you that the process was not all that much fun!
  
  
  

10 years of marriage

Wow! 10 years of marriage! We have lived in three houses . . .

 Provo

Orem

and Idaho Falls.
In two different states! We have taken numerous vacations together . . .

Celebrated a job change . . .

And mourned a job loss. . .

Lots of holidays and birthdays . . .

Some sicknesses and surgeries . . .

Two kids . . . who love each other a lot!

And many more IVF attempts at having children . . .

Lots of eating with family and friends . . .

Lots of races . . .

Amazing adventures . . .

 And sad experiences too . . .

It's been a wild and crazy ride, but there's no one I'd rather do it with! I love you, babe!

Guys, marriage is HARD! But it's definitely worth it!