christmas time

We had such a great Christmas this year! Ryan had to work half day of Christmas Eve, and I had school half day as well, so we left for Ogden at about 3. When we got there, we stopped to see my sisters new house she just closed on, it's so cute! Afterwards, we headed up to my parents house and had our annual Christmas Eve party there.

We had so much food! My mom made a delicious ham, and we had so many other things, like cheese balls, dips, veggie trays...and my favorite of all...my grandma's delicious homemade wassil! yummy! We had the ball of fun, a tradition my grandparents have done since before I was born. They wrap up individual presents and write our names on the outside of them, and then tape it to a huge strip of butcher paper and then roll it up into a ball, then we all sit in a circle and Grandpa sits in the middle and slowly unrolls the ball and hands out the gifts.

It's such a fun tradition and I look forward to it every year! Then we played the left-right game, which involves envelopes being passed left and right as my grandma reads a story that she writes every year about the family, then like any other left-right game, someone has money in one of the envelopes! After everyone left, my sisters and parents and us played games and then we finally made it to bed around 1:00.

The next morning, we woke up and had breakfast with my parents, turned on ELF and Ryan and I opened our gifts to each other:

We both surprised each other with new jackets, it's funny cause both of us had picked them out and fallen in love with them, but both of them were WAY too big (online shopping with only size L and XL left) so neither of expected to get either jacket. But we both thought we'd be clever and buy the jacket, and have it shipped to my mom's house to have her alter it before Christmas, haha! so we both got the jackets we wanted and in the size we wanted thanks to the help from my mom!

We both spoiled each other so much more than we should have, we mostly got clothes for each other along with a couple other little things. However, our parents really spoiled us! We got a 6 man tent, a camping bench with cooler and umbrella, a sewing machine, a 10 time punch pass to Logan River Golf, boots, more and more clothes....the list is forever long, but we are oh so grateful!

This is what Ryan likes to call our "booty" from each other (I don't know when he started speaking pirate!)

After we left my parents house around 1:00, we headed up the the Doyle house and had Christmas with them. Grandma and Grandpa Doyle were there all day and it was fun to see them and talk with them again. Norm and Kim made a DELICIOUS turkey dinner, complete with all the dressing, cranberry sauce and much, much more! We opened presents after dinner with everyone and then watched some movies and had yummy pies :)

As you can tell, Christmas was really just so much fun this year, we had such an amazing time with all our friends and family. It's truly what the season is about, just being with loved ones and celebrating the birth of Christ our Savior!

Hope you all had a merry one too!

Sound Choice Christmas 2009

Last Thursday, we went to my dad's Christmas Concert with the group he sings with, Sound Choice. I remember going to these concerts ever since I was a little girl, I hadn't been to one for a couple years, and being there on Thursday was so much fun and brought back so many memories! They did a great job! Here they are singing "Santa Claus is Coming to Town"

(it's a little blurry, my filming skills are a lotta bit rusty.)

And the whole fam, minus Annie and Jack...we missed you!

Mormons on the Tonight Show!

This was on the Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien the other night, and I thought it was so funny! enjoy!

December

Hello again! Our computers hard drive crashed, and I haven't been able to post for awhile. For the most part, not much has been going on. Just getting ready for Christmas, and working. Ryan finished up the fall semester with a bunch of finals and did a PHENOMENAL job! I'm so grateful that he is such a smarty! He always does so well in his classes, and I'm so proud of him...only 3 more semesters to go, and then we'll be off to Physical Therapy school :)

Anyway, we're excited that we can just enjoy the holidays together now, we can't wait for next week to come! We have our trees all set up and love looking at all the twinkling lights!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!

the Cooley's

this last week our friends the Cooley's came from DC to stay with us and visit their family for the holiday! It was so much fun to get to see them and be able to spend so much time with them! The first night they were here, we all headed up to the USU vs Boise State football game, USU got creamed, but it at least we all had fun together...freezing and cuddling up!


We also went to see New Moon together, ate at Angies, Chilis, Ruby Tuesday, Texas Roadhouse....we ate a LOT and had fun the whole time! Tanner had his 24th birthday on Tuesday, and to celebrate we went to the USU vs Idaho State basketball game, and then Ruby Tuesday's afterward, here is the crew...



They left on Friday after we all got together for one last lunch together, :( we will miss them, but hopefully see them soon! (If anyone wants to start donating to a "Ryan and Anna want to go to DC this summer" fund...we'd much appreciate it!)

the pardoned turkey.

Today, I will be enjoying an UNpardoned turkey, and I will thoroughly enjoy it.

My favorite part is at 6:15...so funny :)

happy thank you day to all!

Happy Thanksgiving!

• I am so grateful for so many things this year, most of all of course family. I never ever cease to choke up when I think of how blessed I am to belong to two amazing families, both full of such great examples. They are examples to me in so many ways, through each of their testimonies of the Gospel, their strong marriages, love of each other, their excitement for life...the list goes on and on.
• I also am so grateful for my friends, for how much they care about me, and that I can just be myself around them and they appreciate that from me.
• I'm grateful for a job that I love and they Ryan has a job that he loves as well (and a brand new promotion!) I look forward to going to work, and I don't think I could be more grateful for that!
• I'm so thankful for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I'm grateful that I was raised in a strong LDS family and that the truthfulness of it was testified to me at a very young age thanks to amazing parents and grandparents who have always held high standards for me. I'm grateful for the Relief Society, I so look forward to going to church each Sunday and feel the Spirit there.
• I'm grateful for a warm and "homey" home that also holds the Spirit so strong, and for Ryan's priesthood presence in it.
• I'm grateful for education. That I am going to Cosmetology School and Ryan is attending USU. I'm thankful for his brains that he has and the immaculate grades that he gets! Also, that he is already looking into different Physical Therapy Schools and planning for our future.
• I'm grateful for my clients at school. This may sound like a strange thing to be grateful for, since they aren't really my clients, but really the schools. But they tell the most amazing stories to me about their lives and really care about what I tell them. They make me realize how blessed I am to have parents who are alive and going on 31 years of marriage, for siblings who are alive and still in contact with me as my friends, for family that lives so so close to me, I could go on and on....Julius, Mary, Ruby, and Marilyn, I love you all!
• Right now I'm especially thankful for holidays, and that happiness that they bring! I love to be around loved ones and celebrate together!
• MOST OF ALL, I'm so grateful for Ryan. I love him so much. There isn't one other person in this whole world that I want to be with besides him. He is so great to me, and treats me so great. He puts up with all my weird ways, and loves me for them. He is so great and being a calming presence for me. When I start to panic, or get stressed, he is always there to help me step back and see the big picture and realize what is important. I'm so happy that I get to be with him forEVER. I love knowing that I am sealed to him forever. I love going back to the temple with him and being together. I'm so happy that he is an example to so many, and so responsible. He is really great at handling so much responsibility and never complaining about a thing. He takes care of all of our things and does the 'man' jobs around the house so well. I just love him and could go on and on about him!

ps. listen to this beauty.

...follow the yellow brick road...

tonight we had a Relief Society activity that was so much fun! We didn't know exactly what we would be doing when we got there, this was the invite:


When you walked into the church, there was literally a 'yellow brick road going around the church. and when you went into the gym you walking into Kansas. We had a yummy home cooked meal, by Auntie Em :) (pulled pork sandwiches, BBQ chips, salad and lemonade)


After dinner, we all followed Dorothy around the yellow brick road and went to 3 classes taught by none other than the Scarecrow, Lion, and Tinman!


The Scarecrow spoke about how when we do our visiting teaching, we need to have a brain, and know what we are doing, and why we are doing it. Not just for ourselves, but because it is our calling as women of the church to serve our Father in Heaven and fulfull the calling he has given us to support one another.

Next stop on the yellow brick road was the Lion. He (She) spoke about having courage to go visiting teaching. That no excuse is a good excuse, we all need to have the courage to meet some one new in the ward, and make a new friend! She even wrote an adorable poem to go with it:

"What makes you pick up the phone and call? Courage
What makes you go visiting teaching at all? Courage
What makes you go meet someone you don't know?
What makes a friend from a foe? Courage
What makes you take the time to visit? Courage
What makes you no give up when it doesn't work you planned-dist? Courage
What makes you listen to the still small whisper?
That will end up helping a sister?
All this combined will make you a great visiting teacher!
COURAGE!"

The last stop on our adventure to Oz, was the Tinman. He (again She though) talked about how we need to have a heart, and sincerly care for our sisters that we teach. It was amazing the example that she used. She asked if any sisters had been having a bad day today, one girl raised her hand, and the Tinman asked her to come forward. She asked her "how are you?" and really listened to her answer as she explained, and then turned to us, and got choked up, and said, "Everyone, I am so excited to introduce you to MY sister. She is amazing." It's so true, how excited do we get to talk to our own immediate families, but when we ask how anyone else is, do we really listen to their answer? It was a very powerful message. She taught that we are all sisters, and family, and come from one Father, and we need to be actively engaged in each others interests and be truly careful towards one another.

After we finished up in the Tinman's class, we headed into Oz! While we were in all of our special classes, the presidency had transformed Kansas into Oz, complete with a rainbow of cupcakes and balloons! It was such a great night, and was topped off with a special message from Bishop Price!



I feel so blessed to be in my ward, I love all the girls so much and have so much fun anytime I am at church!


Here is a picture of all the cute characters! We had the bad witch and the good witch (Glenda) who followed us to each class on the yellow brick road giving us words of discouragement ("don't go there" "you don't have time" "it's just 'assign a friend' not real friends") and then encouraging words from Glenda ("don't listen to her!" "you'll receive countless blessings!" etc.) They were all so cute! And all did an AMAZING job playing their roles!

weekend with the girls :)

This past weekend I went up to Park City with Ryan's mom and sisters. I must say, I have been very blessed to marry into a family that i adore as much as my own! We all had such a great time together!

We started the weekend off with the long drive to Park City, I must say though, that the drive went pretty quick considering we were talking the whole way up so it passed the time nicely :)

Kristin, Lauren, and me (the backseat gang)


Julie (the DD), and Kim

Once we got into Park City, we hit up Main Street first. We were all surprised at how cold the weather was so we went into a lot of little shops just to warm up. We found ourselves in one shop in particular that we were happy we found, it was called "Mountain Body" (website here). What intrigued us into the store was the sign advertising a cosmetic deli...never heard of one? well neither had we! In case you were wondering, this is what one looks like:

It has a bunch of different kinds of masks for face, and hair, etc. They are all made from herbs and organic things and you buy it in little tupperwares and pay by the weight. Well we all decided that since we were having a girls weekend, we HAD to do facials! So Kim got a tupperware of the "Mother Earth" mask. :) The sweet employee working there, also treated us to a hand treatment, it included a bunch of creams, scrubs, and lotions, and when we were all done, our hands were so smooth! We were all blown away, I don't think my hands have ever been that soft!


Here we are applying the hand treatment


And all of us before we left our new favorite store

For dinner that night, Julie had a coupon for $25 a meal at Red Banjo Pizza, so we headed up there. It was really funny cause we had a spend a certain amount to be able to use the coupon, so we ordered 3 appetizers, each a dinner salad, and a huge pizza...all between 5 girls, and we ate it all! I didn't think we'd ever be able to eat all the food we had, but somehow we did! It ended up being a great deal, for all that food it was only about $6 a person (great deal for Main Street dinner in Park City 'eh)


After dinner, we headed back to the hotel to check in. We stayed at the New Park Hotel and Resort. We had a 2 bedroom suite, and none of us really knew what to expect...well lets just say we were NOT let down! We had one room with a queen size bed, leather couch, fireplace, huge bathroom, and mini kitchen, AND THEN another door joining into the 2nd part of the suite, which was even more impressive! It had a huge HALLWAY, washer and dryer, bedroom with a king size bed, an even bigger bathroom, with double sinks, jaccuzi tub, and then a living room with a full kitchen (big fridge, stove top, sink and dishwasher included), another leather couch, and fireplace, there were a total of 3 flat screens in the whole place AND a private deck with a hot tub on it! SHEESH! We sure felt like queens! First we decided to hop into the hot tub out on the deck, we didn't realize that it was smaller than normal hot tubs, and by the time we were all in, it was definatly overflowing!




haha, we were all hugging our knees and we we figured it was a better fit for maybe 3 people tops. So we headed down to the main hotel hot tub, sadly it was broken, so we just went back up and started our masks.



These masks were so dang funny to us! We were all laughing so hard at each other wearing them, and we couldn't believe how much they tightened up our faces, so we couldn't even smile normal while laughing, which made us laugh even harder! It was a memory I'll never ever forget! Once we took them off, we played a couple card games, and ate a ton more treats (spinich articoke dip, apples dipped in carmel, chocolates from Rocky Mountain Chocolates, popcorn, cream sodas....the list goes on and on!)

The next morning, we took our time getting ready and eating some more (muffins, pears, apples, bananas, juice...we didn't go hungry on this trip!) and then we were off to the outlets to start our shopping adventure. We got there at about 11:30, and by 2:30 we'd only been into 5 of the stores, and already were stopping for lunch. We went to a place called Souperman, and had some yummy homemade soups, they make them really healthy by not adding any salt or flour to any of the soups.



Once we were done with lunch we headed back to the outlets, the only photo we got while shopping was in Motherhood Maternity, we were doing some shopping for Kristin, and while they were looking around, Lauren and I were sitting on some chairs and I decided to try on a belly that they have in the dressing rooms,

...so this is what I'll look like when I'm pregnant I guess! Haha I felt so silly wearing it, and we all got a good laugh!

Well, we finally got around to almost all of the stores, we probably only missed the last 10-15 shops. We got kicked out of the last one. Literally. We were in the dressing room and the lady from the store came back to remind us twice that they were closing, and when we left, they had to unlock the doors for us!


As you can tell, we DEFINITELY had too much fun shopping, we were there for about 8 hours and this is what we came out with...the trunk was seriously overflowing!

We're going to make this fun little trip a yearly tradition, and we just might have to stay an extra night so we can make it to all the stores next year! We had so much fun, and I really can't wait for next year!

hair.

I might as well give up on the idea that my hair will look the same when i graduate beauty school as when i started it in June. Today, for the first time I put dark (dark!) brown, in my hair. it wasn't too much, but still fun. We parted out a star on the crown of my head, and outlined it with the dark brown, and then did my normal blonde in the middle of the star, and around it. It turned out great, it's fun the see the brown peeking through more in some spots than others, I love it!

new best friend.

We got a new car this weekend and i LOVE it! It's a 2006 Jeep Liberty, it was such a great deal, and we just couldn't pass it up, so we got it. We actually got it from my friend at school, so we know the previous owner and how it's been treated, so we feel like it's going to be great for us for a long long time. It's so much to drive, I just love it!

birthday, halloween and Jack!

so as i promised, here are a couple pictures from Ryan's 24th birthday. We had so much fun that night, I was actually at school all day, and he had a double header baseball game in Kaysville, so they party didn't start until later that night. We met Ryan's sisters and mom and dad at Texas Roadhouse and had a delicious dinner! It's so much fun to get together with everyone, I love his family! We even made Ryan sit on the saddle and gave him our "LOUDEST AND ROWDIEST TEXAS YEE-HAWW!" haha, he was so embarassed, but a good sport anyway! Afterwards, we came back to our place and opened presents and blew out candles, we were all too full to eat the cake! Later in the week, my parents came up and took us out to dinner and Beehive Grill and spoiled him with some more presents! I think he had a great birthday, and now we're counting down the days until he is a quarter of a century...the big 2.5. is up next year!



For Halloween this year, I had to go to school all day, and then straight to work all night...so it was a 16 hour day of working! Luckily I have fun friends at both work and school, so the day was still so much fun! We were all dressed up as fun characters, I went as Luigi this year...such an easy costume! I just got overalls at the DI, I already had the green shirt, and I painted the hat green and the wooden buttons yellow and then glued them on :) Easy as pie, and all night at work I kept getting the Mario theme song hummed at me as I walked by, haha! (I told you we have fun!)



At last but not least...We met Jack last night! He got home from the hospital on Saturday, after being there fore 2 weeks. He is so adorable, and oh so tiny! He weighs 5 lb. 12 oz.! When my brother handed him to me, I felt like I was only holding a bundle of blanket, I couldn't even tell there was a baby in there! He was just finishing up eating some dinner and was trying to get to sleep, so I had to hand him back to Clark to fall asleep. Its so fun to see him as a daddy, he is so funny with him and you can just tell how much they love him, and how happy they are to have him home!

for sale

yep. we're trying to sell the corolla-coaster. If you know of anyone looking to buy a good reliable starter car, send them our way! we're listing it for $2300, for more details, go here


10/28 update: SOLD IT! (that was quick :)

welcome baby!

Jack Dean Broadbent

October 18 2009 8:33 pm


We are so excited to meet or new little nephew! He was a month early, so he will be in the NICU for a couple weeks, but the doctors said everything looks fine, they just want to take extra precaution since he was an early baby!


look at those long little legs!


he's so tall already, even for being early!


after the post, i got some more pictures, and I couldn't help but add them...(and he's already breathing on his own now! :) I'm such a proud aunt!)