MERRY CHRISTMAS

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! We enjoyed our relaxing low stress Christmas festivities. Kevin had to work a half day on Christmas Eve but as soon as he got home we headed over to Carrabba's for lunch, extremely good Italian food! Thank you Ryan & Shannon! After sufficiently stuffing ourselves we did a little last minute shopping and then headed home. We had a surprise visit/invite from the Denney's that night and headed over to their home to enjoy some more good food and good company. It was fun to get to know them a little better and sit around and chat. We didn't stay too late, just long enough for Reagan and Sheri to make Santa's cookies and then we headed home to open our one gift and read some stories. Kevin's family has a tradition to get new pajamas and that is the one gift we get to open on Christmas Eve. As you can tell Reagan was excited to get her's this year, stinkin' Dora pajamas, but she loves them. Reagan was also very excited to set out Santa's cookies and get everything ready for him to come, surprisingly she went to bed at a decent time and actually went to bed. Christmas morning was pretty eventful but that's a later post. We enjoyed watching Reagan open all of her presents and seeing her excitement at the presents Santa had brought her. All in all the day was full of playing with toys, Kevin watching the movies he got, Better Off Dead, classic in his opinion! That night we had dessert with the Ravstens and again great company............ So the moral of this very long account of Christmas is we enjoyed spending time with one another and with good friends. We are grateful for the birth and life of our Savior and this time we've had to reflect on those things.

Happy New Year!

THANKSGIVING WEEKEND

It's a little late but... Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!!! We are truly grateful for the wonderful weekend we had together as a family. For starters we decided we didn't want to have the traditional Thanksgiving and cook all day and clean up all night so we cheated and headed over to Mimi's Cafe. So one would think, "oh there won't be that many people going to a restaurant for Thanksgiving dinner." um the place was completely packed!!! In fact people made reservations for that night, CRAZY!!! We were shocked, but we saw why after. They had a very delicious turkey dinner, with all the fixings! I of course opted out of the turkey dinner and had my favorite salad, as you can see from the above picture, me happy I didn't have to cook! It was great, we missed spending time with family but enjoyed the low stress Thanksgiving. We haven't had the best experiences with Thanksgiving, but this year renewed our love of the holiday. This weekend was also a very productive weekend, if you can't tell I'm all about the productivity, I seem to mention it a lot, but anyway...we found our cute Christmas tree at a farm in Louisville. We thought Reagan would have a blast picking it out but she was more obsessed with the lazy black dog at the farm then helping us, oh well it probably went a lot faster without her input. After getting the tree home successfully we got out all the Christmas decorations, all five of them, and I'm not kidding and decorated the house and the tree. Reagan was especially "helpful" with decorating the tree, but she had fun, while she drove me nuts!!! Also part of the productivity was taking family pictures, let me tell you that was a load of fun with Reagan and Kevin who just love to be cooperative. But we finally got a decent one, decent in the sense that Kevin and I look good, mostly the decent one is the one that I look the least fat! Reagan isn't smiling but her "smile" these days is very fake. So I'm trying to finish because Reagan is being a little distracting, but we had an enjoyable weekend and are grateful for many things in our life. Oh I also forgot to mention that it snowed about four inches here the other night, Reagan was so excited to play in the snow and go sledding, the sledding didn't happen but she enjoyed playing until Kevin literally dragged her in the house.
Happy Thanksgiving to All!!!

BYU vs. AIR FORCE

(I know I'm not very creative with my pictures, it's the easiest way to see a lot of pictures)

Being the true Cougar fans that we are we headed down to CO Springs for the game. I am in love with this area! We started our trip down there on Friday, right after Reagan's tap class. We stopped off at the Outlets at Castle Rock, it was extremely cold I think the high that day was in the upper 30s, YIKES!! So needless to say and to Kevin's enjoyment we weren't there very long. But I did find a new pair of boots, yeah for me! We were going to do some sight seeing down in CO Springs but because of our late departure and the cold we decided to just head over to our hotel. That night we went to the fireside held by the BYU players and the head coach Bronco Mendenhall. I was in shock, and because my love for the Cougars is not as great as some people, cough, cough, KEVIN, how many people go to those firesides. It was like a stake conference, in fact there were probably more people then a stake conference, sadly! They had some of the players speak and my favorite part was Brett Denney, who his parents are in our ward, played his violin. Okay this is a 6'4" 200 something pound guy playing this little violin, it was great! Reagan was so excited to see Sister Denney after the fireside was over, she just loves Sheri and it was a cute moment. It was fun to see some of the football players in a different and spiritual environment. The next day we headed over VERY early to the stadium, Kevin was a freak about being early that day. But we also had planned to attend the tailgate party put on by the Cougar Club. We were like the first twenty people there, I know, I wasn't kidding about being early. But we're glad we got there early we saw Kevin's distant cousin who is the Assistant Director for the Cougar Club, we haven't seen him in awhile it was nice to catch up. But the highlight of the tailgate was Reagan being so excited about Cosmo! When it was her turn to take a picture with him she walked right up to him and gave him a hug, she is absolutely in LOVE with him, in fact I got a picture of them hugging but it looked more like they were kissing, I told you Reagan loves Cosmo! Reags also enjoyed seeing some of the cheerleaders and of course had to get a picture with them. Okay so eventually we headed over to the game and had a blast seeing all the stuff that Air Force does for every game. We enjoyed the different squads come onto the field about 40 of them, para shooters, and of course a fly over by three fighter jets, HOLY COW THAT WAS LOUD, but fun nonetheless. All in all it was a great weekend, the Cougars won and we got to get away for a quick fun weekend!!

HALLOWEEN

Halloween Festivities brought to you by Grandma Mary! Sorry I've been such a slacker about getting this up, we've had quite the exciting past couple of days since Halloween. We had so much fun this Halloween! It's much more exciting when Reagan actually knows what is going on and she has friends to share in the excitement. Reagan's friend Kedzie's grandmother was in town visiting and wanted to spoil all the kids. So the start of our crazy Halloween festivities began with a outing to Chuck E Cheese. Reagan had never been there before but had so much fun running around playing as many games that she could. Later that afternoon after much needed naps for all the kids and I think even Erin and Emily, we all headed over to the Ravsten's. Reagan was invited to a Halloween "Tea" Party and of course in their Halloween costumes. Reagan thoroughly enjoyed the "tea" party with Grandma Mary and her little friends. So thank you Grandma Mary we are so grateful to you for letting us join in the Halloween Festivities!
If you couldn't guess Reagan was Belle for Halloween and she even had her own little Beast! She was a dedicated Belle she even went trick-or-treating in her high heels! Crazy girl! We tagged along with the Holland family and went trick-or-treating in their neighborhood, our favorite memory was the adult size Pooh Bear drinking a beer, oh what memories! After our fun with the Hollands we came back over to our very quiet neighborhood, no beer drinking pooh bears. But Reagan and let's be honest Kevin made a killing with all the candy they got in our neighborhood, since we were one of about three trick-or-treaters in our area. So sad but hopefully next year we'll get more. So after a very full night of trick-or-treating and about 20 pounds of candy later, okay not really, we were all exhausted. We hope everyone had a fun Halloween!

FLU SHOTS, PUMPKINS & FUN

This past Saturday was quite the productive day. All of us are officially safe from the flu, well at least we hope so. Kaiser had a free flu shot clinic and it was so nice to get all our shots at once. Reagan had the pleasure of getting the nasal flu spray, kind of weird but it was nice to not have to have a screaming child! After our very quick trip to Kaiser we headed over to Rock Creek Farms, just down the street from the Kaiser medical offices. We had been to this pumpkin farm when I was pregnant with Reags but not as fun without a kid. We waited in a little bit of a line just to get into the place and drove right up to a smaller patch of pumpkins. Reagan wanted to take home every single pumpkin she saw, which would have cost us a fortune, but thankfully she was easily swayed! We picked out two large pumpkins and drove over to a different part of the farm that had some farm animals and other fun free stuff. Reagan got to pet some small horses, not exactly sure the technical term for them but they were super cute and perfect Reagan size! And for some reason Reagan was in the mood to smile like a spaz, she looks way posed! All in all it was a very productive day and at the same time had some good ol' fall fun!

REAGAN'S SELF PORTRAIT

So sadly Reagan isn't really one for drawing or drawing people. I thought this was worth putting up on our blog since this is her first official picture of herself. And yes her picture is a little creepy!! And no it's not cold outside she just has a thing for these fleece monkey pajamas, she makes me hot just looking at her.

HAPPY FALL Y'ALL

I'm hitting a block...I can't think of anything witty to say...okay to be honest I'm not really that witty to begin with. But I wanted to post this picture of our cute little tree. I love how the leaves change with the beginning of fall. This is my favorite time of year, the beginning of all the fun holidays, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. So Happy Fall to everyone and we hope you enjoy this time of year as much as we do!

I'VE BEEN TAGGED

So thanks to Shannon I thought I would do one of these...since I usually just delete these type of tags...but here goes

What was I doing 10 years ago?

1. In the middle of my Senior year of High School.

2. Very involved in two choirs at school.

3. Commuting from Chino Hills to Whittier five days a week...for those who don't know the distance...about 30 something miles but in CA tack on at least an hour for traffic.

4. Dating someone seriously.

5. Enjoying my life without responsibility!


What are 5 things on my To-Do list today?

1. Watch Drew and Blake Bruggeman

2. Start taping the laundry room to paint eventually, we were suppose to paint but had another big project we tackled...

3. Seal the driveway and walkway...our house faces North, which is no good for the snow it would never melt without salt or something like it...so anyway to save us a huge concrete bill we thought we would fork out the cash to seal the concrete

4. Relax and read

5. Enjoy listening to the Presidential Debate..okay not really, I'm so sick of the whole thing...for Pete's sake it's been going on for two years now (not the debate that would be horrible), ENOUGH ALREADY!!!

What are my 5 favorite snacks?

1. All time fav...chips and salsa

2. Chocolate of any form...mostly brownies or even just a good ol' Hershey's bar

3. Homemade popcorn

4. Something that kind of goes along with #2...Caramel Apples from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory...LOVE, LOVE, LOVE them!!!

5. I can't really think of a number five...but I'm not picky!


What 5 things would I do if I was a millionaire?

1. Pay off all of our debt...and that's it, okay not really but let's see...

2. Put a large sum in savings

3. Start some type of savings plan for Reagan and future children

4. Shopping spree of course for me and my family

5. And really a million dollars wouldn't go too far especially with the first four things, but if I still had a little bit left over I would put some money in a massage fund...so I could get a massage whenever I wanted!!!


5 Places I have lived:

1. Southern CA (Whittier 1981-1997/Chino Hills 1997-2000)

2. Rexburg, ID (2000-2004)

3. Arizona (on two different occasions)

4. Highland, UT (lived with M&D Valadez 06-08)

5. Westminster & Thornton, CO (AND WE PLAN TO STAY HERE UNTIL WE DIE)


5 Jobs I have had: Sadly I've only had five...

1. The first job I ever had wasn't until I graduated high school...I know I was spoiled...but I got a job as a shipping and receiving secretary. The only cool thing that came from that was learning how to drive a fork lift.

2. I got a job as a hostess at Frontier Pies in Rexburg, ID. Let me tell you that was a load of fun!!

3. I worked as a temp in CA...some of my duties...I first started out doing weird stuff like inventory for Nordstrom's Rack, then I took a big step back and put labels on red bull cans, I worked in a candy factory making weird candy and my final job with the temp agency was working as a secretary which was a job I stayed at for awhile.

4. My last secretary job was with the Child & Family Studies department at college, that was a great job...every once and awhile I had to deal with a bunch of whiners but other than that it was a blast.

5. My fifth and final job that I got paid for was working for Kevin's dad's business...and that's all I have to say about that. But the hardest job I've had is being Reagan's mom, HOLY COW!!!

AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAG ANYONE...IF YOU WANT TO DO THIS KNOCK YOURSELF OUT!!!

GO COUGARS

Shame on me...I forgot to document and blog about the beginning of the BYU Cougar season! Kevin is more than excited to welcome this time of year. So good luck to the Cougars and be assured we will be watching ALL of the games. In fact we'll be traveling back to UT for one of the games and another we will be heading down south to Colorado Springs.
GO COUGARS!

FUTURE OLYMPIAN...

Okay to be honest she's probably the furthest thing from being a future olympian...granted the kid can't even manage to listen to her coach longer than two seconds. But she thoroughly enjoyed herself this week. So you're probably wondering what I'm talking about...Reagan started her first day of gymnastics this past Thursday. She was so excited to go with her new found buddy Kedzie. There are only four kids in her class including her and I can't imagine those coaches having more, I think that would drive me insane. But they seem to be very patient with the fact that they have little to no attention span. So needless to say we are excited for Reagan to do something a little different this year and enjoy getting some of that energy out! Oh and the last picture is of the cutest, most rambunctious little man I know, Mr. Ethan Ravsten! I had to get him in on the excitement of the day!

IT'S ABOUT STINKIN' TIME

We are FINALLY settled into our beautiful new home in Thornton! Everything is unpacked and kinda sorta put away. In my mind there is still much to be done, i.e. decorating and organizing, but for the most part we got a lot accomplished. Mostly because my parents came for a visit and I wanted things organized and unpacked. It is hard to explain in words, mostly because I can't articulate what I want to say, how grateful we are to be in this area in our ward and in this home! The entire situation we know went so well because we have been so greatly blessed. We love our new ward. Everyone has been so welcoming and have done more than expected when it came to watching Reagan while we moved and all those wonderful guys in the elders quorum that came to help us move all our junk in! This area in our minds is hopefully going to be a wonderful area to raise our family in. The elementary school is just in the next neighborhood. And there are three parks within walking distance. And most importantly I LOVE how close SuperTarget is. I told Kevin when we were looking at this area that it was a sign that SuperTarget and some other beloved stores were just down the street, well a little further than that, but you get the point. And the point to all of this rambling...We are extremly grateful to live where we live. We are more importantly grateful to our Heavenly Father for blessing us this entire way! SO for your viewing pleasure...

Pictures from our very fun adventure of painting Reagan's room. We originally started off with a light green, but after much consideration on my part and actually trying it out on the wall we decided to change it to a yellow. And as it turns out the yellow is A LOT brighter than I would have liked but oh well, Reagan likes it.

Here are some other pictures of the house...




The pictures of the backyard are right after Kevin mowed it. I wasn't fast enough to find the camera, granted it took him about 2 minutes to mow it. Our wonderful neighbors across the way lent us their lawn mower.

And last but not least...I love this wall hanging that Kevin's former boss, Dr. Lori Wadsworth, who we love and adore, gave us...a perfect saying to the start of our new adventures...

(oh and if you can't read it, "home is where your story begins")

SNIFF SNIFF

To all who have read the Twilight Series...at 11:45 on Sunday night I sadly and regretfully finished the final book of the Twilight Series. How dorky is this but I felt like I was saying goodbye to a long time companion and friend. And yes it took me over a week to finish the book when it took me about two days to finish the first several. Like my sister said, I was trying to draw this last one out! It has been such a fun experience to be inside the talented mind of Stephenie Meyer for these several years. I am still in awe at how talented this stay at home, mother of three boys who remind her of "chimpanzees on crack", can be. Seriously could you describe three boys any better?!?!?! So thank you to Stephenie Meyer for sharing your wonderful talent with the world. And to all of you who still haven't jumped on the Twilight Series bandwagon, JUMP ON!!! I hope you all have enjoyed this series as much as I have!

SHORT AND SWEET

Okay so things have been quite busy lately...we're officially in our house!!! FINALLY! Ummm, sadly we didn't document the moment with any pictures I know shame on me, but I'm planning on staging a picture next week. On top of the move I've been trying to fit in the very important final book of the the Twilight series!! I only stayed up until midnight last night reading, not bad the first book I stayed up until 3:00 one night! So needless to say I will post some blogs later when things are a little more settled down around here. Love to all!

UT TRIP

WARNING THIS MAY BE LONG...
So most of you know the little Vehar family took a trip to UT to visit some family and friends. We were there for the 4th and Kev and my brother in-law Ryan had quite the time burning away $100 worth of fireworks, no joke! The box of fireworks was about 4 1/2 feet tall! What a waste, but the boys had fun. The kids had fun with the "cool" sparklers! Though the entire time we were worried one of them was going to burn either themselves or their cousin. There were also some very cute moments...on occasion they do like each other. Oh and yes Reagan is wearing her PJs we trashed it up that night! Earlier that morning my twin and I went and had some girl time...well Elissa just couldn't reach her feet anymore and needed a cute manicure before she had Ellie. It was nice to spend some time with her and get a little pampered! Oh and I had to take a last prego picture of her, doesn't she look so cute!?!?! Then three days later...baby Ellie! I'm slightly biased but she is SOOOO cute!! Kevin unfortunately had to go back for work so he wasn't able to see Ellie. Along with the exciting news of Ellie we heard some bad news while we were there. Kevin's 80 year old grandmother feel and broke her hip. She had surgery that Wednesday and was doing okay, as good as someone her age can do with having major surgery! She is the strongest most determined person I know, that's why we all love her so much. So the remainder of our trip we enjoyed our time with Liss and the kids and visiting Grandma Rollins in the hospital. We also got in some quality time with Ahbee and Papa (what the kids call my parents). Reagan went to the movies with them one day, and then we also all went to the museum. She loves hanging out with them and already misses them! All in all it was a exciting yet busy trip and we were grateful we were able to be there for the birth of Ellie and spend time with our wonderful families!!

THE HOUSE

WEEKLY UPDATE...So we're back from UT! It was an eventful yet fun trip. I'll post something later. Of course we went to the house straight from the airport, I had to see all the changes. The lights to the outside are up, and yes they are kind of small, oh well. The carpet is in, YIPEE!! Counter tops are in and the sink with faucet. I'm sure there are some out there thinking, everything is way dark, but hey I think it looks good! And like I mentioned before dark is good, hides the dirt better! Oh and we have our coveted, well not really, Air Conditioning!!! Kevin and I think whoever invented AC should be put on Mt. Rushmore, okay that's probably bad but seriously WE LOVE AC!!! We also have some very sad looking plants in the front but some dork put a huge metal sign on one of them so it looks REALLY sad. Who knows what is going in this week, but everything is happening at a much faster pace now!

The lights on the outside, look hard they're small!

This last picture makes me laugh...She was so excited to see the house and all the changes. She kept telling us she wanted to paint her room, pink AND purple I might add. Anyways, she thought that we were going to paint her room when we were there. But of course we couldn't and she was super ticked. Kevin was in there with her and he told her, "let's pretend to paint!" That made her even more mad. So this is her nasty little reaction to not painting her room.