Winter Wonderland

Christmas 2009

C's first Christmas

Noah's favorite part

Three little munchkins

Surprise

It was a treat having the missionaries

Setting up for the Nativity

It was a good Christmas

Happy feelings...

Yay, Ryan is done with finals (he's been done for about a week now) and we can't get enough of him! It has been the best having him home all to ourselves, worry free of studying. I am so proud of him, that he's got another semester down. I'm lucky to have someone who works hard at everything he puts his mind to and that he tries to give it his whole hundred percent!
I love the feeling in my heart this time of year and the gratitude I feel for countless blessings, especially the blessing of family. This is the first Christmas away from family, and we miss them more than ever, but I'm thankful for our little immediate family and for the new traditions we will begin this year! I hope everyone is having a very Merry Christmas!!!
Happy Birthday, Misty!

Cheesin' it up

Collin turned 10 months on the 5th and decided to really start showing his little personality, it's too fun. Every time I go to take a picture the camera makes a little sound and flashes that red light right before and he loves it! So this is the face I always get now in the picture...

kAnSas CitY

Last Saturday we took the day to go down to Kansas City and meet up with my brother, Matt, and nephew, Hunter, who just turned 13! It was just me and the boys, poor Ryan had to stay home and study all day for finals, so we thought we would try to lessen the distractions. We had a great time seeing some of the city and enjoying the BEST BBQ!! Now, I've pretty much only had Joe Morley's (in Utah) or Texas Roadhouse, but this food was amazing. When I told my friend (who, by the way, doesn't even like meat) that we were going to KC, she raved about the barbecue and told me it was the one thing I had to do there. To say the least, none of us were disappointed! We were so glad to be able to see family, we miss you already! :)

We stopped and had some yummy ice cream at the plaza.

The beautiful Christmas lights on the plaza

Pic with firefighter uncle Matt (Those beanies are the best, Misty!:))

Gingerbread Display

Out here in Omaha we are really lucky to be close to some wonderful church history sights. Last night we were able to go to the Kanesville Tabernacle to see their annual gingerbread house display. I had heard cool things about it from people in our ward, but didn't realize until we got there how AMAZING these gingerbread houses are! I love all the detail and think it's so neat that families and wards take so much time putting these together, they are incredible.

The boys by the Winter Quarters Temple display(poor Jax fell asleep & missed it)

Me and Mr. Noah

This one was my favorite- it was called "Coming home for Christmas"

This was so cute, the fruit baskets are made with little runt candies

HaPpy ThAnKsGiviNG

Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday! I am grateful for so many blessings and that we can be here in Omaha. Miss and love you familia!!!

Went to the midnight showing and loved it!

Big Day

Saturday was a big day full of lots of fun events. First that morning I helped give a baby shower for our friend, Heather, who is due with a baby boy in February. My friend, Mos, hosted it at her home and we had a great time celebrating with friends. Afterwards, I came home and finished getting things ready for Noah's batman birthday party. We had nineteen cute little kiddos stuffed into our place, and had a really fun time partying! Noah received great gifts from friends and family and had an awesome birthday weekend!

Once again, Ryan made another awesome birthday cake!

Decorating sugar cookies

Noah & friends

Playing pin the bat on batman

Breaking open the awesome batman pinata that Ryan made

Opening gifts

At the baby shower
(Becca, Me, Heather, Andrea, Ali)

Us dental wives who all moved out here from Utah together, they are awesome gals
(Me, Heather, Erica, Melanie, Teddy, Ali, Tresa[addi], & Mos)

My favorite thing about the kitchen is this island Ryan built for me- I'm long overdue posting pics

It came in real handy when we decorated cookies for the party! I have one talented hubby!!

9 months

Wow! Nine months ago I had just had this little guy and now he's a whopping 25 lbs. He is still the most loving, cuddly, happy baby that he's always been, and I still wish he would just freeze for a while and stay this age, it's so fun. My favorite thing he does lately, is every single time I pick him up he molds right to me, hugging me and patting me on the back. It's a really cute thing that Ryan and I get a kick out of.

Halloween night was a blast for us this year here in Omaha. The weather was decent and the parties were hoppin'. We started off the night trick-or-treating and then going over to our friends home for a party. We ate delicious food and got lots of yummy treats. I even won first prize for my "rock star girl" costume, but I know it was really because I was with the hunkiest guy with the best mullet in town! :)

Mr. C dressed as Tigger

Me, the hub & transformer, Bumblebee

Jax man as the lion

Trick-or-treating with friends

Our friends, Matt & Melanie, the hosts

Our scrumptious Halloween sugar cookies

HapPy HaLLoWeEn!

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Fall Fun continued...

October has flown by and I'm a little behind on updating what's been going on. We have had a fun month with lots to do and are definitely looking forward to Halloween! Ryan had Fall Break for a week at the first of the month, which was great so we could celebrate our 5 YEAR anniversary! That day we went to Vala's, a renowned pumpkin patch here in Omaha. The boys had the best time; there were endless, fun things to do. We also went to another pumpkin patch that was on a farm and the boys loved that too! We can't wait for Halloween, especially all that candy! :)

Pumpkin painting family night

The fam

Feeding Ruby the cow

FaLL fUn

Walking through the pumpkin patch

The "not so spooky" Haunted House for the youngsters

Charting Noah's growth

Noah & Jaxon's artistic Halloween crafts

Grandpa Oral

Our last picture with gpa


The Birch Boys

It kind of feels like the end of an era now that grandpa Oral has passed away. How great, though, that he is now with his sweetheart. I'm so glad that we had the opportunity to live with him for a while and spend some time these past couple years getting to know him even better; especially that my boys got to meet and know him. He was such an incredible man and you can get a glimpse of his life here. We love and miss you, grandpa, and look forward to when we will see you again!

Trip to Utah-Shan's wedding

Well, unfortunately our trip to Utah didn't quite turn out like we thought. We ended up having some kind of flu bug (except for me, which was weird, since I was cleaning up after it) that luckily only lasted for about 12 hours. I came early with the boys and was able to go through the temple for Shannon's endowment, which I am so happy that I was able to be there! But on Thursday when Ryan arrived, Noah & Collin got sick (Jax & Ryan already had it before we came). We missed the wedding on Friday, however, Ryan was able to attend the ceremony. From what we know, it was a beautiful wedding and we are so happy for Shannon & Dallin. (I forgot my cord, so I'll try to post some pics soon) We are also happy that we saw Ryan's family and that the boys got to see all their cousins, even though we feel so bad we had a bunch of sickies.
Also, on Saturday, we found out that both my grandpa and uncle passed away. On a positive note, I'm glad that we were already here in Utah so we can attend the funerals. So we are extending our stay and missing daddy very much! :)

poor buddy

This past week Collin has been sick and I was going crazy thinking that he had come down with RSV or something alike, even though it is only September and he hasn't had a fever. But come to find out, his pediatrician ruled out everything except for asthma. I'm glad it is nothing serious, but he has to have nebulizer treatments with this little dino mask they sent us home with. He's such a good little guy and just goes with the flow. It is hard for me, just like any other mom, to see my chickens when they're feelin' blue. I wish I could just snap my fingers and make it go away! :)