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!

Easter 2016

Easter was super early this year, which means, living in Idaho, it was COLD! Our Easter bunny came on Saturday and put plastic eggs in our house to find!

Reagan liked hitting the eggs together. I remember when Davis was this age, he was not sure what candy in the egg was for. Different story for Reagan! I guess that is what happens when you have an older brother to help you out . . .

Davis got some plastic dinosaurs

And a "telescope." At least that's what he calls it.

Reagan got a little book about animals that she loves!

We got together with our friends in the ward for an Easter egg hunt/picnic on Saturday:

 Here are two of my favorite people!

 The kids played duck-duck-goose before the Easter egg hunt started

 Davis hunting for eggs.

 It was SO COLD and Reagan was not impressed! I actually had to drive kids back to our house twice to get blankets and thaw them out!

 Here is Davis with his buddy Damian. After they ate, they sat in the sun and tried to get warm.

On Easter Sunday, we had dinner with my parents, who had just gotten back from visiting Carter and Whitney in Chicago on Saturday night.

Here is Grandma with Davis and Reagan. Grandma had knee surgery 3 weeks before the dinner, and she was still on crutches at the time.
And here is our picture in our Easter outfits:

Yay for holidays! Yay for family! Yay for Easter!

Even more importantly than the bunny and the dinner, I am so grateful for the resurrection of Jesus Christ and for his atonement for us. It has hit me even more clearly this year of what a monumental event it was for Jesus to atone for our sins, and what Easter really means to me. Lately, I have seen a lot of tragedy in this world, of people dying young and with little children, and even of little children dying. It is such a wonderful assurance to know that, because of Jesus Christ, we will all be able to be resurrected again and live with our families for eternity. That is the best news ever.

Halloween

We had a fun Halloween this year! It was an improvement on last year, because we actually got the kids to dress up!
Here is Davis in his dinosaur costume, making the ROAR!

Here is Reagan in her ghost costume. She was . . . less impressed:

We went to the ward party:

But the best part of the Halloween holiday was that we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house and Davis helped hand out candy! Awesome! Here are my ghouls!

Christmas!

We had a great Christmas!  We have never done Christmas at our own house, and it was very fun.  After we opened our gifts (toddler speed), we went and spent the rest of the day at my parents' house!

 The best Christmas gift

 Davis got a bike from Santa

 He loves this toy!  So fun!

 Family Christmas jammies--with a squirmy toddler!

 Coloring with his new crayons

 Loving the bike

Got a new hat--just like Grandpa Rusch's!

Thanksgiving

We have sooooo much to be grateful for, and we were able to celebrate that during Thanksgiving at my family's cabin in Island Park.  We love Island Park.  Anyway, we were able to go up there with my parents and our very dear friends, the Kennards.  Here are a few pictures from our adventure, in no particular order!

Our yummy meal.

Snowmobiling in Island Park!

 Davis doing his two favorite things at the cabin--watching TV and riding his "bike"

 Davis with one of his favorite people during this vacation--Araksya's mother

 Reading with our boy.

What a cute kid!
Things we are grateful for:

• A great family who loves each other
• Comfortable circumstances in which we live
• A free country
• Living close to so much family
• A husband who has a great job to provide for his family
• Being able to stay home and take care of the kids
• An education
• The comforts of life--Araksya taught us, once again, how well we have it!
• The gospel
• The Savior
• Temples
• And the list goes on and on and on . . .

Christmastime

Wow!  It has been a long time since I have blogged . . .

For Christmas, we went to Idaho to hang out with my family.  My brother, Carter, got married on December 15th in Salt Lake, and had his reception in Idaho Falls that night.  So, we joined in the fun!  We were able to get a picture taken of our whole family (doesn't happen too often!) and we also got this picture of just the grandkids . . .

Davis also had his picture with his cousin, Eli, who is about two months older.  At their age, it is amazing what a difference two months makes!

Someday, they will be best cousin friends and go to EFY together!
My birthday is on the 16th, and Max's is on the 17th, so we spend time together as a family for our birthdays . . .

Chris went back to Orem to work for a few days, and Davis and I stayed with Mom and Dad.  Davis had his one month anniversary!

Chris came back, and we went to the cabin for a few days.  The cabin was a perfect place to be for my "newborn coma."

 Then, of course, there was the annual cutting down of the Christmas tree event (which I was not part of)

 

 And the Christmas jammies unwrapping . . .

And Christmas Day!

Much fun was had by all!  We are so grateful that we were able to spend the holiday with family!