house pics, finally... and a few more

Here are some photos of our house I took back in October with the intention of posting them.



family room with new couch! and sleeping husband (it was Saturday afternoon)









These next ones were taken by Heather, my talented sister in law, on Thanksgiving. Thanks again for taking them! I love the last one! Hope you all enjoy them. Christmas pictures are coming soon...






Sorry if some of the pics are stacked! Just click on them to see them bigger.

Thank you for all your sweet comments! I never really had terrible morning sickness, just nauseous when I'm hungry and brushing my teeth, but I'm feeling better everyday. Thank goodness for Ginger! We hope you all had a great Christmas and have a safe and happy new year. I'll post some pics soon!

our big little announcement...

We are expecting a baby! Due around July 6th. We are both very excited and happy to get ready for this new little member of our family.

cards, Christmas lights, and our 1st turkey

Fist off, one of our adorable nephews had a birthday at the end of November. Happy birthday McKay! And another was just having fun with a bag while his sister had tissue paper over her head. This picture is just too cute!

We spent Thanksgiving visiting with both sides of our family and some friends. I forgot to bring my camera to anything, but we had a great time. We feel so blessed to live close to everyone we love! This time of the year just makes me all the more grateful for that. We love you all very much!

We cooked a turkey this year! Actually it was cooked in a pit. We just bought it and got it ready. Ryan worked hard helping out. The young men in our ward held a fundraiser by wrapping turkey's in tin foil and putting them in a BBQ pit in the ground all night. The meat literally fell off of the bones as Ryan was taking it apart. Westwood ward,the fantastic one I grew up in, had a similar turkey pit fundraiser for years and years thanks to the Clement family. Nothing beat the flavor of those birds! My brother Jason would be there until midnight some years helping to prep the turkeys. I remember helping fold the foil just so. Mmmm, the delicious memories! I am so glad that Ryan was willing to get the bird ready and de-bone it! Thank you again babe!

Making full sized greeting cards isn't something I've been doing for a long time, and I'm not into it enough to make tons of them, but it is very relaxing. I like making cards a lot more than scrapbook pages! Thanks to one of my fun new ward members we had an afternoon of card making. In fact the last time I made a scrapbook page was about 8 years ago. Cards take way less time, and I enjoy giving them. Anyway, here are a few of my creations:


On Saturday night we ventured with most of the Stewart family to the Mesa Temple to walk and look at the beautiful lights. I end up going to stroll around and listen to the wonderful live music about 5 times each year for some reason or another, but I never get tired of it. I don't think I ever could. I didn't seem to be too camera happy that night, but here are a couple of pictures. Kimble thought it was so fun to play peek-a-boo with Ryan. I'm glad you got a picture of it Kristi! Thanks to Heather and Parker for taking our picture too! We wish you all a very merry start to this Christmas season!

October: Cute, Creepy and more Cannons

We started out the month with a bang, literally. The dad of one of our friends some how acquired a cannon form one of his friends. The Beaty's invited us, and a lot of other curious friends and neighbors, to enjoy the booms. It was pretty cool to be that close, and it was funny to watch all the boys go running up the hill after each can of beans was fired to check out the damage. Yes, they shot cans of pork and beans. We did a little target shooting as well. We also greatly enjoyed watching General Conference in our new home. The talks just seem to get better every time. Ryan put together this beautiful puzzle of the Sacred Grove during the Sunday sessions. I helped a little, but he had it all done by Monday evening. I think it helped him stay awake. It helped me. We celebrated my mom's birthday, then my dad's, then Ryan's dad's, then Elizabeth's, and then Ryan's birthday. He turned 28 on the 28th this year. His favorite gift was probably this fishing pole and game for the Wii. His face just lit up when he opened it. He loves everything he received from everyone, especially the Home Depot gift cards. (I like those too!)October was definitely a good month for those in our family who like cake and ice cream. I'm pretty sure that's all of us. I helped Bethany and Benjamin make a candy dish with a spider on it for a birthday present to their mom. It turned out cute, and they had a great time making it. Ryan's mom had an very extended family reunion at Falcon Field Park.
I had a fun time meeting all the relatives there that Ryan doesn't even know. We also had all of Ryan's siblings and their spouses over for a barbecue. It's become a new tradition for the Stewart siblings to get together once a month for dinner. Everyone seemed to have a great time, especially when the Wii got turned on. For Halloween Ryan made a delicious pot of chili for our ward Trunk or Treat and Chili Cook Off. He didn't win the contest, but it all disappeared. He dressed as a SWAT team member. Some people even asked if that was really his job. I guess we are still pretty new in the ward, and he did look kind of official. I dressed in camouflage and went as a medic. Although I don't have a calling yet, I did give a lesson in Relief Society a few weeks ago. It was a bit intimidating, but everything went well. Some of my wonderful crafty friends are making it a tradition to have a seasonal craft day once a month. Here's what I made this time. Thank you Kelsey for cutting out the letters!

more from September...

Here's a bit more of what our September entailed. It seems like we were able to go to the temple almost every week, which was fantastic. We helped with some sealings on the Stewart side and were able to attend on our 2nd anniversary, which was a wonderful experience. Ryan was able to become a certified muzzle loading instructor through the NRA. He's been able to help out some Cub Scouts at the Heard Pueblo range several times in the last couple of months. He was called to be the Teacher's quorum advisor in our new ward, so he will be able to help out with the Varsity Scouts too and is looking forward to that. I still don't have a calling. We got the photo of the temple framed! When we get it up on the wall I'll post another picture. It looks great!

september celebrations!!!

Here's the picture of the hairy little creature we spotted on our Labor Day evening hike. I thought I had posted it last time, but apparently there were just too many pictures for me to keep track of. I hope that's not the case this time. I also neglected to remember all the Stewart family birthdays in August. My b-day month is also Karl, Dallin, Steph and Lara's. We had a great time celebrating with everyone. I've never seen a 6 year old get more legos than Dallin did. He sure loves to build with them. Benjamin's birthday was the only one in September. He turned 6 too and really wanted a dinosaur cake. My mom and I made one from a dragon cake recipe. Ok, I just baked the cake and my mom did the rest. It turned out pretty good. He's making sure there are enough candles. His favorite gift was an Indiana Jones potato head from "tators of the lost arc".
For our 2nd anniversary we headed up to Sedona for a few days. Thank you to mom and dad Stewart for letting us use your time share! It was still a little warm in the day, but really nice at night. We were able to go to a Civil War battle reenactment in Dead Horse Ranch State Park on the 26th. Where, you ask? I had certianly never heard of it. It's just a mile or so outside of Cottonwood. I found it searching the web for things to do near Sedona. The community was putting on something called Verde River Days that weekend so we got in free. It was really awesome to watch. I loved the history aspect of the reenactment and Ryan, well, he was interested in the period firearms. Go figure.
The cannons were so loud even Ryan had to cover his ears.The rest of our trip was spent just walking around Sedona, attending the friendly ward up there, and playing the Wii. It was really great to just get away together and relax.
On our anniversary Ryan gave me a beautiful large print of a photograph that my grandma Quist took of the snowy Mesa temple, which I love! He knows I had been wanting to have that be the temple picture in our family room. Every time he does something thoughtful like that (he usually does some little, sweet thoughtful thing for me everyday) I'm reminded of how perfectly Ryan is the man for me!


Since I can't figure out how to do a slide show, which I know I should be able to do, here are some pictures of our trip.