december

wow, i've really neglected the blog these past few months.  other things i neglected from october to december include cooking, cleaning, exercising, and christmas shopping (rich did an amazing job taking over on the gifts this year which you can see here), just to name a few.  i did feel good that i was able to help with our ward christmas party, but realized i probably cried about it more than helped.  oops.  but it's definitely all worth it for the cute little bean we get to meet at the beginning of july!!  i'm feeling so much better now at 16 weeks, so i'll try to get back to blogging and other important duties like making sure rich doesn't try to live off of cheetos. ;)

here are some pics for a quick update of what i did do in december (besides go to work, lay around and eat goldfish crackers). 

went climbing with the pros, jess and nick.  the one climb i did was the only exercise i did in 3 months.  jess was a climbing machine and left me in the dust.  she had baby cedar just a week and a half after this picture was taken!  amazing sister!  also pictured below, i got my christmas wish- a really tall tree that took up way too much space in our living room. 

my big brother maffoo came to vegas for a day before we took off to idaho for christmas. yay!

our weekend in idaho/utah was spent with our adorable nieces and nephews, visiting the nativity display at the museum that my mom is in charge of every year, video chatting with jape in london (google added a nice touch allowing us all to be reindeer on christmas), and the neeley christmas eve progressive dinner and program in logan (one of my favorite traditions)

then it was back to vegas for more festivities and to meet the newest member of the family, maisy!! 

weston doesn't look too excited about the huge gift he just helped nana and pop open.

playing with crazy uncle rich (although andrew looks like the crazy one in this picture)

precious maisy

we also had a very entertaining new years eve party...

the best christmas present came a few days after christmas.  welcome to the world cedar!

okay, that's the update.  it was a really really great month.

pretty

backstage pic of nyc ballet rehearsing the nutcracker.  i miss my dancing days.    

volcano time

carson working on his duck calls

i spy a volcano

chris is really strong

we were able to spend all day friday outside thanks to the beautiful weather.  we saw mount st. helens, took a little hike through the woods, and played at a park in kelso, washington.  this was brooke's third time to mount st. helens and the first time there were no clouds covering it, so i guess we were pretty lucky to get such an amazing view.  it was a great day of hiking and playing to work off that delicious thanksgiving dinner!

thanksgiving

we had an awesome thanksgiving break in washington at chris (rich's brother) and lindy's home.  thanks so much chris and lindy for letting us take over your place for the weekend!  i have tons of great pictures thanks to some gorgeous weather, a fun day trip to seattle and really adorable nephews.  i'll start with a photo shoot of our nephew hunter... 

precious boy

"happy thanksgiving!!!"

hunter and rich concentrating hard
more pics to come...

check out rich's latest bike project on his new blog!  www.orangegarage.blogspot.com  he goes into more detail than i usually describe on this blog, so it may be interesting for those who use more technical terms than just "doodlebug".  :)  the video at the end is my favorite.  our neighbors have become the biggest fans of rich's projects and can also be found hanging out in our orange garage about as often as rich is there.  enjoy!

halloween a little late

i really love the x-men movies so when our nephew had a superhero birthday party earlier this year, there was no question who we would be! we maybe recycled our costumes for halloween a few weeks ago. it did still take some preparation- rich had to grow a beard and i had to find red hair. my halloween costumes from now on will be based around this red wig. ;) happy late halloween!

exploring time

we checked out the wetlands in vegas yesterday. yep, there are wetlands in vegas! we basically had the whole place to ourselves which was pretty awesome. it was beautiful! thank you google earth app for helping us to not get too lost... it was quite the maze of trails!

our very own delicate arch
i don't know why but i really wanted to hug this giant beaver. so sunny

conference time

i keep starting a post about everything i learned at the two conferences i attended for work during the past few weeks, but it's jumbled with random thoughts and has turned into a lengthy essay that i'm not ready to publish on the world wide web. :) maybe i'll start a health blog or something. anyway, i learned so much and was extremely motivated and excited for everything that i can apply to my work and personal life. i was also excited to meet and chat with some very influential people in the wellness world. the most rewarding and educational day was a workshop put on by the ceo of wellcoaches (where i did my wellness coach certification)! with general conference thrown in on the weekend, it was a pretty amazing two weeks! so while i try to sort through my notes and thoughts these next few weeks i'll leave you with what i do best on this blog- random pictures. :)

with joy bauer, nutritionist for the Today Show

billy blanks, inventor of tae bo,
told us he's stays motivated by reading his bible everyday. cool!
he's really nice too.
4 way video chat between general conference sessions.
if you haven't tried google plus "hangout", you should. it's pretty awesome!

my flight to SLC for the utah worksite health promotion conference.
oh boy i really like clouds.

my new friends that I was able to hang out with after work in utah.
bianca and greg's precious twins- hazel and penelope (hazel is the one waving).
i'm in love.

my other new friend- hugh jerry christensen.
this is kate and becca's bird with all his cool toys.

k, that's all. love you, bye.

garden time

my sister jess is the head gardener at the youth garden project,
so i was really excited to have her help me plant our first
little garden last weekend!

we planted rosemary, basil, cilantro, spinach, lettuce, and broccoli..yum!
oh and snapdragons too!

jess is a really strong little pregnant lady and broke the shovel..hehe!
that girl knows how to dig!

walking around plant world always makes me happy- so beautiful!

i really miss the fall in utah, idaho and nyc, but planting a garden in october made up for it! thanks sista!

neighbor time

we found some friends that like playing with our toys as much as we do (yes, that little truck is ours)! i especially like having someone around to race down the street!

happy saturday! :)