This girl knows how to pose

Meet my niece, Rachel.

She was sweet enough to be my model for a few pictures.

So cute!

Sisters

I'm glad I have sisters. I love them.

Happy birthday Em! I love ya, even though you are a brat sometimes.

And speaking of sisters, this one is coming home soon.

Can't wait to see her, even though she is a brat sometimes, too.

Maui

One week ago, we were here.
Doing a lot of nothing at all.
Unless of course, you count

eating fresh pineapple on the beach

watching sunsets

lounging by the pool

swimming in the ocean

reading good books

getting a sunburn

But don't tell anyone that we both had our

and

Still Here

It has been a while! Sorry.

We are still here!

Updates:

Ty is still traveling a lot for work. I miss him so much when he is gone but I am kind of used to it now. Since I work from home, I need to start traveling with him. It would be fun. We did it once for Denver, good times.

I was called to be the 1st counselor in the primary presidency. I have been really excited about it, but it is challenging! My presidency is super cool, so that helps a lot. The kids are so cute. Ty is a Sunbeams teacher, and he is so good at it. The kids adore him.

We have had fun biking and swimming this summer. The Legacy Parkway trail is awesome! We are off to Maui in a few days to celebrate our 4th anniversary. We love Maui. We went on our honeymoon there, then went back a couple of years ago. This will be my 3rd time, but it will be Ty's 5th or 6th. Yes, it is that fun! We can't seem to quite cut the ties to work, so we'll both be sorta working...checking email every once and a while and doing what we need to do. Sad. But it will be so fun!

Melissa gets home in 6 weeks! Can't believe it, we are all so excited to see her. Our nephew Dallin gets baptized in a few weeks and we will be going to St. George to be there. We are excited for him! A few weeks after that, we'll be back in St. George for a Rasmussen Family vacation with Missy.

I'll post Maui pictures soon!

Nuestros Invitados (Our Guests) - Cesar and Paulina

It has been so much fun to have guests from Chile in our home. Tyler made a lot of good friends on his mission and we have had the pleasure of being the hosts for a couple of them these past several days. Cesar and Paulina are from Angol, Chile where Tyler was serving in his second to last area. They arrived in Salt Lake City on March 21 and will be heading back to Chile on April 7 after they attend General Conference. It will be sad to see them go.

Stress

I have a new position at my company. From it, I also have new stress and when I am stressed, I get sick. When I'm sick, I like to be taken care of. I like someone to make me a bed on the couch, bring me drinks and food and give me the remote. When I lived at home, my parents would do that for me (thanks mom and dad!) but now that I'm married, Ty does it for me. He lets me watch whatever I want, including Anne of Green Gables, Pride & Prejudice, Becoming Jane, Monarch of the Glen and anything on KBYU or KUED. Basically all the shows that he would never choose to sit through.
It is nice to be taken care of, not so nice to be sick!

a new place to call home

our townhouse is in bountiful.
plenty of room to kick back.
new stuff from ikea.
a big kitchen to cook in too.
hopefully we won't move again
for a long, long time.

I'm Back

i'm back.
guess what?
we have the internet at home.
know what that means?
many more posts to come.
hopefully...

Ok, stop snowing now

...or just when I have to drive in it. What a commute this morning!
Has anybody else had the yucky bug that is going around? I've had mine since last week and now I think it is morphing into an ear infection. Yah, it has been about 20 years since my last ear infection!

Well, our ward leaders finally caught us at tithing settlement. We are speaking on Dec. 28. So now I'll be worried about my talk all through Christmas! Oh well, it is inevitable when you move so darn much! I should be getting used to speaking in church by now!

I got to take pictures of the Aguilars for their Christmas card. Oh my garsh, those kids are so cute! I could take pictures of them all day. I've got a bunch at home, but I need to upload them so I can post them here. You'll all die, they are such cute kids. Haha. Squeeze attack!

Is anybody else having a hard time with all these Christmas treats floating around? Me, my sis, my mom and my grandma made Christmas candy on Saturday and I couldn't stay away from the peanut butter cups. I gobbled those right up!

I tried to exercise last night. Not a good idea when you are sick. I was wheezing and my throat hurt so bad, I could barely swallow. Go away yucky bug!

Snow & Blessings

It's snowing...finally!

Audrey's blessing was Sunday

Beautiful baby girl

Took lots of pictures of Rachel & Audrey

Poor things could hardly sleep because of the camera flash

Got up too early on Saturday for the ward party

I could hardly stay awake that night

Couldn't even finish Elf at Keith & Cami's...I must be getting old!

Updates

oh my goodness.
it has been a while.
updates:
audrey and rachel are cute as can be.
me & ty spent a fun week in san diego with ty's fam. beach, sea world, lots of fun.
we spent thanksgiving with both families, lots of food and fun.
we watched christmas vacation (a classic) with my parents. popcorn, doughnuts and hot chocolate.
u of u is undefeated.
i think i've already gained weight this holiday season. boo.
we saw twilight. boo.
keith and cami fed us lots of sweets on saturday.
ty thought he was in a sugar-induced coma.
we are helping to plan our ward christmas party for this saturday.
lots to do!
ty is traveling...a lot. i miss him.
life is good.
we have lots to be thankful for!

christmas is coming

counting down the minutes...

...until

Jord and Chelo

have

their first baby!

Rachel Rasmussen,

we're waiting!

Movie Time

Yeah, we're a little behind on movies. I think the last movie we saw when it was in "regular" theaters was "The Dark Knight". We usually wait until movies come out in the dollar theater, then we go see them!

We saw "Get Smart" on Saturday. It was so funny! It must be Steve Carell. He is funny in whatever he's in. Anne Hathaway was good too!

The Two Trees

Long ago in a garden there lived a man. He took care of the garden and tended to all of the beautiful flowering plants; he was the gardener. Every morning and evening he would walk through the garden and admire the little plants that grew along the path. There were daisies and lilies here and posies and petunias there. The soft dirt path wound around the garden and through the center where it passed a small grassy hill. Each day the gardener would walk the garden path and sit upon the hill to admire the plants in this wonderful and beautiful land as the warm sun passed overhead.

The gardener was settling himself into the grassy hill to admire the flowers one day; he began to feel that something was missing. Days went by and the feeling did not leave, he sat himself upon the soft green hill and the feeling returned. One day the thought occurred to him, finally he knew what to do. He reached into his gardener’s pouch and pulled out two tiny seeds. On one side of the hill he planted one seed and on the other side he planted the other. Each day he would return to the hill, water the seeds and sit as usual.

After a while the gardener noticed a single green leaf began to emerge from the dirt, first on one spot and then on the other. Before long the trees were tall enough to nearly reach his waist. That is when it began to happen, the trees began to bend. The gardener tended and fertilized and watered but the trees still bent. This troubled the gardener for he loved the trees so he began to think. He thought and thought; he tried sticks and wire to prop the trees up but they still grew toward the ground. Finally he settled on the only solution. The gardener reached for his trowel from his gardener’s bag and began to dig, he dug up the first tree and then the other and began to dig at the top of the grassy hill.

The gardener placed the two trees side by side and rested their tiny, withering branches upon each other’s branch. The trees continued to grow, but now, whenever they began to grow downward the branch of the neighbor tree began to grow around and support the tender stalk.
Seasons came and went; all the while the gardener cared for the trees and the other plants in the garden. But, above all the other beautiful flowers and shrubbery in the garden, he loved the two trees he placed in the center. They were his pride and joy; he could not speak of the garden without speaking of the trees. When the sun got too hot over head as he walked the garden, they gave him shade. When the birds would fly by, singing their lovely songs, they gave them a place to perch near the gardener so he could enjoy their melody.

The two trees no longer needed help to continue growing toward the sky, but you could not separate them now. They had become one tree together, sharing roots and branches; sharing water and the sun. The nutrients they gathered from the soil fed them both equally and fully. The two shoots that became two little trees had now become one tall tree; they loved each other and together as one they loved the gardener.

Busy Busy Bee

Life is busy these days, but we are loving (almost) every minute of it : )

Ty was out of town Tuesday night but when he got home last night, he brought a chick flick, just for me. It was called "Made of Honor" with Patrick Dempsey. Cute show. It was fun just to hang out for a bit and relax.

Some Nice Little Thoughts

Miss Priss

I miss Melissa.

Just look at that face!

So cute!

Weekend Update

It was a good weekend.

It was Keith's bday on Friday, the big 3-0. Tyler is always so kindly reminding me that my big bday is coming up in 3 short years. I then remind him that his is in 4 years. He's going to give me crap for being a year older than him for THE REST OF MY LIFE. Oh well!

Anyway, Cami put on a great party (she is quite the party planner, it seems to me!) at their beautiful place. They have a nice big room - kitchen, dining room and living room, and it fits a lot of people. It was really fun. And I met a really cool girl- Amanda. I made a friend!

Saturday we got to see Mitch, Des and their adorable girls Jacey and Kylee. Jacey is the cutest, funniest little girl ever, and we haven't seen Kylee since she was a newborn but man, she is so CUTE! And chubby, which is just what I love. I wish they lived closer so we could see them more often, I just love them!

Kylee & Jacey

And yesterday was a nice, laid-back day. We hung out at my parents for a little while and had a good meal and grabbed a few tomatoes from my dad's garden. Yummy.


Maybe things will settle down this week, I feel like we've been so busy for the last month!

On another note, Ty's sister Wendy makes the BEST chocolate chip cookies. I've been trying to stay away from them all weekend. Not too good for the waistline!

Next weekend it's off to the Bowlers' in Enterprise for some 4-wheeling, gun-shooting fun!

I'm Craving...

And