Warning....Be Prepared to Laugh Out Loud!!

Need I say more! I came across this video and laughed right out loud! If you haven't already seen the real BEYONCE video you should check it out, his moves are right on!

It SNOWED Last Night!!

I am so excited! I have lived in Mesa/Chandler my whole life so this is new to me. The wind woke me up last night because it was so loud and strong! I thought our roof was going to blow off! I have a serious problem going back to sleep once I'm awake and I am up for an hour or two. We'll talk about that another day. Anyway, at 2:30a.m. I noticed it was snow not just wind and I was so excited! I woke Ryan up and we watched it for awhile. That is my yard, that is so cool! Whoohoo!

Our House...

Just Kidding! I wish that was our house! That is actually our backyard view of our new neighbors.

This is our house....almost as good!

We are so grateful for this house that we have been blessed with. Our neighbors that live behind us have graciously allowed us to rent from them. This opportunity has allowed Ryan to attend nursing school and only work a little bit, therefore able to focus most of his time and energy on school!

This is that fabulous ditch that Ryan backed the car into! The picture doesn't do it justice. Below are a few of my favorites! If you want to see more....come on over! We welcome visitors...

....told you so! This is my new doormat that is so amazing! I still laugh every time I see it!

Yes....wood paneling throughout the house! The best part is the camouflage door! Do you see the door handle? Gotta love it!

And lastly, the master bath mural....a gold tree! Guarantee you haven't seen anything like it! She's a beauty.


Kitchen...obviously


Family room


Our bedroom

Ryan's office/guest room /more wood paneling

And that's the tour of most of our house. The girls room was a total mess and I didn't feel like cleaning it, so there you have it. This is for those of you losers who won't make it here to visit us!

Grandparents / Great-Grandparents!!

Right before Christmas Grandpa Kottraba was in a nursing home for a little bit. He was really close to our house so the girls and I got to go visit a few times. The girls just loved to talk to all the ol' folks. This picture was right before Christmas when my family went caroling. Grandma and Grandpa Kottraba were very happy to see us! I am glad that the girls have been able to get to know their Great-Grandparents!

They look a little stoned but still dang cute. Before we moved we stayed with my Mom at her house. The girls absolutely love Grandma and Grandpa T. In fact, we probably wore them out while we were there. The girls constantly wanted to go in their room to see them. I am so glad that they moved in with my Mom because we have had the chance to see them a lot more! I have always been very close to my grandparents but have grown to love them even more now. The sweetest thing was when Kenna climbed up on Grandpa's lap and he rocked her for about 20 minutes. She did not move a muscle. So sweet! I love my grandparents sooooo much and am so grateful for all the time we get to spend with them! We sure do miss you guys! Thanks for all you have done for us and for all of the fun memories! We love you!!

Some Pics!!

These are some of the pictures from our family photo shoot. Thank you Heather Torriente for taking these awesome pictures for us! Your the best!

Don't I have the cutest little family ever?! Ooo, I just want to squeeze them!

Just Ryan being Ryan! Thanks babe, I appreciate it!

Oh, the love of his life! How sweet!

Sometimes I wish I were a soccer ball!!

We Made It!!

We survived the move and are getting settled in!! Thank you so much to everyone that had a hand in helping us!! You know who you are and we are so very appreciative for your help.

We have only had a few incidents so far......

1.) While moving we could see that all of our stuff was not going to fit in the u-haul. Sorry babe, I was right once again. I tried to tell Ryan that we needed the biggest u-haul they had but he thought he was mister pack-man and could fit it all. Well, once this happened my brother so kindly went and got his expedition and borrowed a trailer for us. He offered to drive down and back to help us out. We thought that was very generous but not necessary. Ryan said, "I'll drive the trailer and Jenyce can drive the u-haul !" What? Me... drive that ginormous thing? You have got to be kidding. I don't like to impose on anyone so I agreed. I think I did a fabulous job and actually, it wasn't that bad after all! That partly had to do with the fact that now Ryan got to drive with the kids and I was kid free! I got to listen to my very own music and sip on my soda without any interruptions!

2.) Our refrigerator didn't fit in the space provided so we had to buy a new one. That is especially sad when you don't have a job anymore!

3.) The morning after we arrived my Mom went in to take a shower. After flushing the toilet and stepping into the shower she realized that poop was coming up threw the shower drain! Crap....literally! We had a slight blockage that was soon fixed.

4.) Next, we heard some little feet trickling around in the attic. Must be mice. Ryan proceeded to climb up there and put poison all around to kill them. Oh he killed them alright. We new from the heinous smell of death that permeated are house for a week or more. Glad that is over!

5.)After church on Sunday we were heading to Duncan to visit Ryan's Mom and Dad. We decided to stop at home first to change our clothes....bad idea. Ryan was flustered with the whiny, tired kids screaming in the back, me in his ear about something, and the oncoming truck, that he backed right into the ditch next to our house!! Oh boy, this is trouble. I am sure glad it wasn't me because I knew that was bound to happen at some point. I never thought it was going to be Ryan that did it. Needless to say an hour an a half later Ryan with his manly, handy skills was able to pull the car out of the ditch, with my help of course! What a task! I don't know what he did other than jack the car up really high and tie a chain to the van and had me pull it out with the van. Go-Green-Gadget! I was sweating and extremely nervous but it all worked out in the end. Ryan, your amazing! Way to go! To flustered to take a picture at the time. I will post a picture of the ditch later with house pics.

While this was going on outside I had Abby in-charge inside. Scary, I know! I was afraid of what I was going to see when I went inside. However, I never thought I would see this....

I was too late with the camera for the best part! When I walked in, Abby was rocking Kenna in the chair, singing to her and tickling her back.....so sweet! I couldn't believe what I was seeing. She had rocked her sister to sleep. When Abby saw me she decided she was done. She slid out from behind Kenna and plopped her on the chair.....Kenna still sleeping. I guess we had totally exhausted everyone because she never sleeps anywhere except her bed.

6.) Abby slipped getting into the bathtub and split her chin open and we spent an afternoon at urgent care. Thank goodness we do have an urgent care here!

Happy as a lark! Wouldn't it be nice if every visit to the urgent care looked like this! She must not have realized what was coming next.

Before......

...after

No stitches, just Derma-Bond! Until a few hours later when that came un done.....Super-Glue! I know that is white trash but the urgent care was closed and the E.R. had over an hour wait! Sorry Abby, your Dad won this one! Cross our fingers that #7 isn't a trip back to urgent care for an infection!

I LOVE YOU DADDY!

January 6th .... Dad's 8th year anniversary

I can't believe I have spent 8 years without my sweet daddy! Man I miss him so much, but time sure has flown by. I have graduated from aesthetician and massage therapy programs, gotten married to the most charming, full of life, curious, intelligent guy, lived in a scorpion infested home (if you can even call it a home), brought 2 sweet, angel girls into this world that I know you had a part in and survived a few scary medical complications during and after Kenna's birth, and last but not least picked up and moved my family away, from what I call home, so that Ryan could attend nursing school and pursue his passion.

All along the way I have wished you could be here for all of those big, important, life changing events in my life! I struggled quite a bit after you were gone with my testimony, anger, depression, hurt and lonliness but I knew that was not what you wanted for me. I couldn't understand why Heavenly Father would take my best friend away from me. I didn't know how I was going to go on without having those comforting hugs, daddy/daughter dates, words of encouragement and praise, PPI's, and everything else we had. With the help of the gospel and Heavenly Father and your sweet, amazing wife that stood by me, even when I was being a not-head, and friends and family, I soon realized that was not the path I wanted to take. I didn't want to have that anger in my heart any more. I just thought of how disappointed you probably were with me. I knew that that was one of your biggest fears of leaving me, you didn't want me to hurt.

I am so grateful for the love and support and the strength that I have gained from this experience. I realized that I needed to be grateful that I had such a loving, tender, compassionate father and such a great relationship with him. Even though it was for a short 18 years, some kids don't ever get the chance to have that at all. For that I am grateful! I am also grateful for the close relationship I have gained with Mom and my Heavenly Father!

I now know that I can live without you even though it is sooo hard sometimes and that I miss you tons. I wish you were still here to get to know my Ryan and that my girls could have had another Grandpa! I know you would just love them to pieces! Thank goodness for that wonderful reunion that we get to have in heaven! Thank you for what you have taught me and for being the BEST dad a girl could ask for! I LOVE YOU DADDY!