Home Sweet Home!

We went to Utah a couple of weeks ago and found a place to live while we were there. We looked at LOTS of places - It was so exhausting and quite stressful. There are some really gross places to live in Cache Valley- People will rent out anything! We found this cute townhome and are pretty excited about it. It was also one of the cheapest things that we looked at, which is so great! We are really excited about the cute community it is in. It is a little bigger than what we have now. It seems like it will be great for our little family.

Our unit

Our Neighborhood is so cute! There is this little walkway all the way around. We also have a little front yard.

The Kitchen

Dining RoomMaster Bedroom
Living Room
Master Bathroom - We LOVE this one! It has 2 walk-in closets in the bathroom (a hers and a theirs...Ha ha!) It also has the toilet in its own seperate room which is a great feature!
One of the other bedrooms - There are 3 total bedrooms (all upstairs) and 2 1/2 bathrooms in our new place. I am really excited about having one more bedroom!
A GARAGE!!! This was a major selling point for us! I hate having to carry groceries in from the car all the way across the parking lot! I am also glad not to have to scrape the ice and snow off my windows since it snows a lot in Cache Valley (it just snowed there on Thursday I'm told...) I hated doing that when we lived there before! The extra storage will also be really nice for us!

This is the little community park. I am really excited about having this too! It will be so nice. We weren't able to have a backyard like we wanted, but this is the next best thing! Logan and Rylee both loved playing here while we were looking at places.

Dental School Gala

Last weekend, we went to Darren's Dental School Gala at Lake Las Vegas. Lake Las Vegas is a gorgeous resort about a half hour from our house. It was a really fancy dinner and then a slide show and dancing. It was fun to get dressed up and spend a night out (We NEVER get a date night!!!) Darren's mom was in town and able to babysit for us, which was so nice. We had a great night with our friends and celebrating the end of 4 years of Dental School. Darren also got an award for "Clinician of the Year" for his Team. I thought that was pretty neat! It was fun for me to meet some of Darren's professors and hear all the nice things that they had to say about him and to meet some of the other dental students.

Lake Las Vegas

Darren and I all dressed up - When does this ever happen?

Darren and his Team

Darren with one of his favorite professors, Dr Richards

We have had a great bunch of friends throughout dental school that we are really going to miss. We have done a lot over the last 4 years and had a lot of fun with them. They are all off in different directions so I hope that we will all be able to stay in touch. They are one of the few things that we will miss about Dental School!

The Boys - Keith, Nate, Darren, Devin and Joe

The Girls - Jami, Me, Erica and Jeanie

Me and Darren at dinner

Cody and Erica Johnson - Headed to Iowa for a Pedo Residency

Devin and Jeanie Johnson - Headed to Michigan for an Ortho Residency

Jami and Joe Wilson - Headed to Colorodo for an Ortho Residency

Tristan and Keith Packer - Headed to Colorado for an Ortho Residency

Our good friends, Jon and Annie Scott weren't able to go. We really missed having them there! We have spent lots of time hanging out with them since they live closest to us. They are headed to Bosie to start a practice.

At the end of the evening, there was dancing, but nobody was really out there. There was LOTS of drinking going on, but the only ones who ended up on the dancefloor were the crazy mormons! We had lots of fun though! Jami, Jeanie and Me

The Boys were not so impressed....Darren, Joe and Devin

Some Random Pics...

These are a few photos from our last trip to Utah a couple of weeks ago. We had a good time, even though we were quite stressed out trying to finish up all of our plans and finalize our move. We were able to see lots of family and a few friends and had a really good time. We stayed in a hotel in Logan, which was kind of fun and we got to go swimming. The kids loved that! My friend Summer watched the kids while we met with the dentist and they had lots of fun playing in her backyard with her little girl Sky and swinging in the hammock. We also had a fun little birthday party for my Dad's 50th birthday. We gave him a little book of the 50 things that we love about him - He LOVED it! It even made him cry! He also went and bought himself a Mustang Convertible - He LOVES it! It is so funny to see him cruise around in it. He took me for a ride and was like a little kid - He was telling me how much pedal he had left and how fast he could get to 80 mph! Logan loved being around all of his family and is so excited to spend more time with them. He really loved playing with his cousin Raegan. The kids were so great in the car and did great, except for one little Rylee meltdown. She was getting fussy so I told her that I would give her a cracker. Well, then I couldn't get find the crackers because Darren had put them in the trunk. I tried to offer her a cookie and a bunch of other treats, but she just kept throwing them all back at me. Then she would sign "Cracker" and then "Please" over and over and she was getting so frustrated at me that she was telling me what she wanted and I couldn't help her. She finally settled on some fruit snacks and calmed down, but she is quite the stubborn little girl! It is a little funny to me now, but not when she was screaming! We also stopped at a fun little park on the way home in St George with lots of cool water features and the kids loved it. Logan was SOAKED!!! It was a little weird on the way home thinking is probably the last time we would be returning to this house!

Baby Animal Days

On our last trip to Utah, we were able to be in Logan for Baby Animal Days! It is this really fun thing at the American West Heritage Center with lots of baby animals for the kids to hold and pet and they had so much fun. They had baby horses, cows, ducks, chicks, goats, lambs, pigs, bunnies, turtles and toads. Logan loved all the animals and ran from one to the other. He loved petting all of the animals. I think his favorite was holding the bunny. Rylee was pretty funny - She was a little wary of the animals. That is the first time that I have seen her scared of anything. She would touch them with one finger and then hurry and pull back and then laugh and laugh and then try it again, but she wouldn't get too close. Logan wasn't afraid of any of the big animals - only the tiny turtles and frogs - Funny kid! We rode a little wagon ride that Logan loved. I wish we would have had more time - Then we could have done the pony rides and seen a few more things. We had so much fun that we have decided this will be one of our family traditions in Cache Valley!

My Other Child!

I was looking through my blog and realized that there a lot of things about Rylee on here and not much about Logan lately with her birthday and everything. So I thought I'd post a few pictures of him and his latest antics! He is always cracking us up! Logan is very excited for our move to Utah and is always asking when we can move to our new house. Sometimes he asks if we are moving to the Aggies because he is very excited to go to Utah State games. Darren told him the other day that when we move to Utah, he will be able to watch the stars come out. Logan is very excited about that and now anytime we talk about our new house he asks if we are going to be able to "watch the stars come out". It is so cute! Logan is also learning all of his letters and is constantly yelling, "Look! A B!" Or "Its an L" It is pretty funny. He is getting pretty good at them!
Logan LOVES when family comes to visit. A few weeks ago, Darren's brother Kevin and his family came to visit and Logan loved it! He had such a great time playing with them. Darren had that week off of school and so we were able to go and play with them a little bit.

Logan and Darren at the Venetian - Logan had so much fun going down there! Everytime we drive near the Strip, we asks if it is "The Banetian!"

Logan and his cousin Haley at the new Palazzo hotel


Logan and Uncle Kevin at the Secret Garden at the Mirage! Logan LOVED this and is still talking about seeing the dolphins, lions and tigers. He thought the dolphins were hilarious!
Logan and Aunt April at the Tigers at the Mirage


Logan LOVES playing with his cousin Haley!!! They are great friends!






This is Logan sleeping in his little tent that his Grandma gave him for Christmas. Logan told Darren one night that he wanted to sleep in it, and Darren told him that he didn't think that was the greatest idea, but then he looked and realized that Logan had already moved all of his stuff into the tent - His pillows, blanket and stuffed animals. So Darren told him he could go ahead and sleep there! I thought it was so funny! He slept there for about a week.



This is Logan at his last day of Art class. We tried this class this session and Logan liked it OK. He had a hard time holding still that long, but it was fun for him to try something new. It focused on shapes, colors and numbers. His favorite part of the class were using the little stamps and putting the crayons away at the end of class. He loved sorting them! Kind of a funny little boy! (He also can't go to sleep if his room has any toys out - He gets out of bed and cleans them up if we put him to bed in a mess! I guess he has a little OCD) Here he is showing off the Ladybug he made that day.

Logan loves going to story time at the Library! This is him showing off his hand stamps at our last story time! There aren't any more before we leave - It was a little sad!

Logan trying out fingerpainting - This is supposed to be a picture of Darren. Do you see a resemblance?

OPRAH!!!

For those of you that do not know, I have a bit of an obsession with Oprah! I don't agree with everything she does, but I do think that she does a lot of good and her show is "my time" everyday and I rarely miss it! So, I was VERY EXCITED to learn that she was going to be here in Las Vegas this weekend, to tape a show with Cher and Tina Turner! I thought this would FINALLY be my chance to see her show! (Darren and I both made a list of things we really wanted to do in our lifetime, and mine included a chance to see Oprah's show!) I was also really excited when I learned that you could win them on the internet. This is why I am up and posting to my blog so early in the morning - I have been getting up at 5:45 am for the past 2 mornings trying to win them! I don't know of too many things that will get me up this early in the morning! Yesterday, I was very disappointed when I lost and I'm pretty sure that the outcome will be the same today since I have REALLY slow internet and there are so many people trying to win. They are giving away 50 sets each day! But, I had to give it a shot - When else will Oprah be this close? I'm pretty sure she will never film a show in Cache Valley! Wish me luck! I'm sure that you will ALL hear about it if I do happen to win! If I don't, I might have to resort to some serious stalker behavior and hope that I get a chance to see her!

Rylee's 1 Year Pictures

You probably all think that I am nuts for all the portraits I have taken, but I am now officially done with Rylee's pictures for the next 6 months! However, I HAD to post her one year photos because they turned out so cute! We went to my favorite photo place and Rylee did great! She LOVES the camera! When the photographer was setting up the shot, she went and posed herself and then said "CHEESE" and gave her cheesiest smile! (It is what we call her Grandpa Boman smile - if you know my dad, you will know why!) She scrunches up her little face and squints her eyes and smiles all big - It is hilarious and you can see it in several of the pictures! She did a great job except for the ones with props! Rylee felt like she needed to climb on and off the things over and over and wouldn't hold still long enough to get any great shots. She is a busy little girl and loves to climb! She got up on top of that block all by herself and then wanted to jump down - She keeps me on my toes! I ended up getting a lot of these pictures because I loved them so much! They turned out very cute!