Our Winter Wonderland

After our awesome trip to St.George last weekend, I thought it would be fun to show everyone what our world is looking like these days. It has been quite cold - in the single digits - for allot of the past month. It is beautiful and we love it, but come this time of year, we are eagerly awaiting Spring. Its been kind of hard for me with a baby, I just don't get out as much as I would like to :). I did invest in a treadmill or what I like to call the "dreadmill" so I can at least get a little exercise in! Eric and Chance are still braving the canyon each morning. The roads are pretty well groomed and haven't been to bad most of the time. Come spring when this beautiful mountain valley turns luscious green, we remember why we stick around!

Joyah's 1ST Taste Of Food

Joyah has been such a great nurser and I have loved that time with her. I was a failure with Chance and Aleah in the nursing department, so this time round has been quite nice. We are in no hurry to start her on solids, but just for kicks and giggles, decided to share a little cream of wheat with her. The pictures can tell you what she thought of it.................. I think she'll be a milk only baby for a little while longer and that's just fine with me!

Save A Place For Us Grandpa We Love You

Jesse Bott Reay
Corinne
1920 - 2009
Jesse Bott Reay, 88, passed away on Monday, January 19, 2009 at the VA Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah. He was born in Brigham City, Utah on December 31, 1920 a son on Anthony C. and Sarah Bott Reay.
Jesse married Nola Elizabeth Wheeler on April 4, 1944 in the Logan LDS Temple. She passed away on February 16, 1998. He served a mission to Oregon and Washington. He was a member of the Corinne 1st Ward.
Surviving are his children: Karla (Bill) Smoot, Ardell (Sue) Reay, Jolene (Brad, deceased) Hobbs, Alan (Elaine) Reay, all of Corinne; Merla (Steve) Naylor, Bountiful; Verlyn (Camille) Reay, Banida, ID; Carolyn (Ray, deceased) Sparrow, Tremonton; Michele (John) Loch, Magna; LaDee (Von) Gregersen, Banida, ID; LaDean (Ken) Forsgren, Garland; 46 grandchildren, 101 great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild.

A Game Of I Spy..... And That's All I'm Gonna Say!

Hip Hip Horray! A Day Off 4 Eric!

Eric has been working way to hard for way to many days! Even with the bad economy, Eric has had more work than he can handle! He lost one of his drivers at work and has had a hard time filling the position. So Eric has been working for 14 days straight! Well... Today he was able to take a day off! We got Chance on the shuttle for Jackson at 6:30 this morning, Got Aleah on the school bus at 7. Then we climbed back in bed and snuggled with Joyah! Usually this is my special morning routine with Joyah, and but I shared the fun with Eric! (Still can't believe we have a little one to snuggle again!!!!!!) It was so nice to have him home after 6:00 A.M.! We enjoyed the morning with Joyah and then Eric made us a yummy lunch. It was so fun having "Adult" company! We drove into Afton later in the day and picked up Aleah from school. I hadn't been over to look at the Call Air Museum so Eric took Aleah, Joyah and I. It was fun watching the videos about his Grandpa Call and looking at the cool plains. We were sad when the old museum was closed so it was great to tour through the new one. They did a great job with all of it I was impressed!

We took a drive up the Grays River Road. It was cold today and all the trees were covered with beautiful white ice! It was incredible!

Well, back to work Eric goes in the morning, but I was grateful for a day that I didn't have to share!

Aleah's Bus Adventure!

Friday afternoon, I waited and waited for Aleah to walk in the door from her bus ride home. Well, the time came and went and no Aleah. I tried calling her but got no answer. So I figured no news was good news and that the buses must be running behind. Well FINALLY in comes Aleah about 40 minutes late! She said "We had some excitement on the bus today!" I ask "Whats going on?" She said "The bus went off the road! and was tipped onto two wheels!" She said they were riding along up into the ranch, and all the sudden the bus slipped and they all slid over to one side" She said " The bus driver yelled and told us to all try and get to the other side of the bus so it wouldn't tip anymore!" She said "We all got over to the other side and waited there until another bus came and got in front of us and hooked a tow strap to us, well after they had broken 3 straps trying to get the bus back on the road, they had all the kids climb out the emergency door and load up onto another bus!"

Well, no one was hurt and she made it home safe and sound. I guess it was a sub. bus driver. She must have felt awful! Anyway Aleah has had fun talking about her adventure for the last few days!

On Saturday she had me stop and we got a picture of her in the ruts where the bus was tipped.

WHAT A STORY!

A Sad Separation

This past Thursday was a sad day for me. I went into the District offices and signed my separation papers :(. First Joyah and I went over to the High School and visited with my friends there, then we went over to the Middle School and spent some time there. The hardest part was of course Colter Elem! We went at lunch time so we were able to see all the kids! That made me smile! It was sooooo great to get all the hugs and see the happy faces of the kids! They were all so excited to meet Joyah! I really am going to miss those little nuggets! One of the teachers said "You can tell Joyah's not your first! Your letting the kids love the heck out of her!" Inside I was freaking out a little about germs, but I had my handy dandy bottle of hand sanitizer that saved the day! It was so great to visit with all my co-workers and catch up on every one's lives. I truly am going to miss my days at Colter! Last of all Joyah and I headed over to the district office to sign all the paperwork. I got a little choked up, but just for a minute. I looked a Joyah and knew it was all SOOOO worth it! I am looking forward to this new chapter in my life .

Erics B~Day!

Yesterday was a pretty regular day in allot of ways; It snowed about one and a half feet of new snow, Eric had to cover one of his drivers shifts and worked later than usual, the kids had school and Kee and Joyah had lots of errands to run. But we all knew the day was special, Why? Because it was Eric's B~Day!!!!!!!!!
We won't say how old, but he waved goodbye to his 30's years ago! We will say how stinkin young he looks! I must say, I did a extremely good job in picking my sweetheart!
Happy B~Day Eric!
We made a cake for him, his favorite oatmeal cake with yummy brown sugar and pecan frosting DELICIOUS!!!! We made his requested meal of Clam Chowder with Sourdough bread and fish. It was the perfect meal for our snow covered day! Aleah, Joyah and I waited patiently for Eric and Chance to get home from Jackson, which was MUCH to late!!! We all enjoyed dinner together and then sang Happy Birthday before enjoying our cake and Death By Chocolate Ice Cream!
We are so lucky to have Eric in our lives! He is a amazing husband and my best friend! And Chance, Aleah and Joyah are very lucky to have him for a Dad! Eric keeps our family laughing pretty much ALL THE TIME! Our favorite saying is "Eric's not funny!" just because he knows how funny he is especially when he's not even trying! Eric is such a hard worker! He takes very good care of his family and has made it possible for me to stay home with Joyah for a few years and for that I am so grateful. Eric is so much fun with the kids! He is always eager to hear about their lives and works hard at staying involved in what they are doing. Any one could ask Eric on any given day small details about his Children's lives and he would know the answers ie: Teachers in school, projects they are working on, friends names, grades, whatever!He loves to be silly with the kids and their friends! In fact Eric's first birthday call was from Aleah's best friend Lauren! One of the funnest things for me about Eric is his Romantic side! All my girlfriends are always so jealous of Eric! Eric just has the knack for being romantic! He is ALWAYS doing sweet little things for me and he's so creative! Our relationship is strong and in many ways stays brand new because of His effort to keep the fires burning! I told Eric I get to where I don't want to tell my girlfriends about the fun things he does cuz it makes them go home mad at their husbands! LOL!
So all that being said! HAPPY B~DAY ERIC!
YOU ARE ONE OF A KIND AND THE MOST AMAZING MAN I KNOW!!! You are constantly working at being a better man and in our eyes you are the BEST! Your family loves you!

A Joyah Photo I Couldn't Not Share!

A Unique & Special Christmas

We had a Unique and Special Christmas for 2008. We decided not to do Santa and gifts for Christmas. Instead, we drew each others names; We took the name each of us drew and home made a 25$ gift for that person ~ and that was it. After Christmas, we gave the kids a small budget and they were able to hit the after Christmas sales and buy a few things for themselves that they needed or wanted. It turned out to be one of our best Christmas' yet!
Eric drew Chance........ He made him this great bulletin board with magnet, cork and such. Chance hung it on his wall and loves it!
KeeLee drew Aleah...... She made her a full length mirror with padding and ribbon around it so she can post photos etc. Aleah thought that was great!
Chance drew KeeLee...... He made her a book full of photos of the two of them and a story about all the things that his mom is to him. KeeLee said it was just what she needed and cried!
Aleah drew Eric....... She made him a western pillow with little wooden buttons sewn on it. Eric loves it and can be found snuggling up with it quite often!
We had a little get together Christmas Eve and just talked about what Christmas was all about, read a story and just made a pack to really show love for one another on Christmas day. Christmas morning we exchanged our gifts one at a time, it was so nice! Eric made a great breakfast for us all and then we spent the day playing games, sharing stories, laughing and just having fun. Aleah set a great Christmas table for dinner and we had prime rib and all the fixings. This Christmas will always stay close to my heart! We really did enjoy just being together! And of course Joyah was our most special gift of all!
The Saturday after Christmas we made a trip to Utah. We had family photos with the Naylor clan..... EVERY SINGLE family member made it!...... 42 PEOPLE! What a accomplishment that was (Thanks to Stacey!) The kids exchanged small gifts and then we just spent the weekend sharing and enjoying one an other's company. It had been quite a while since we were all together so it was wonderful to have the chance to reconnect with everyone! We have two more little babies due here in a few months and we cant wait to meet them!
Bart and Stacey have a neighbor with a really cool barn complete with oxen, a manger and the works! Stacey made arrangements for us to take all the grand kids and reenact the Christmas Story it was so neat! Joyah got to be the Baby Jesus! Maycee was Mary and she laid little Jesus ever so gently in the manger while Shay read the story. It was the sweetest thing! Stacey thanks for making our get together so special! Saturday night all the guys took off to the race track and had hours of fun. The girls stayed home and visited and laughed. The guys got home way late, which must mean they had fun! They all stunk like gasoline and were comparing their wins and losses I forget who won but who cares right! We feel so blessed to be part of such a great family! Chance told Eric and I "I love the Naylors! The kids act like kids and the parents act like parents! And everyone has so much fun, It feels good" That observation made Eric and I smile!
Eric was able to spend Sunday afternoon and evening with the Schreibers in Sandy. He took Chance and Aleah with him. Eric said they had good food, watched utube videos and played guitar hero. The kids said they had a nice time.
All in All we had a wonderful Christmas Holiday! Only bad thing was our Camera crapped the bed so pictures are slim pickins! So sad ;(

Lauren's Scrooge Play

There are lots of things we miss about living right in Jackson, but only one thing we HATE about moving......... WE MISS LAUREN!

Lauren has always been a big part of Aleah's and our lives and moving away from her has been really hard on Aleah and hard on us as a family as well!

This weekend we were able to watch Lauren in the Scrooge play at the Center For The Arts. She was a Street Urchin and she did a FANTASTIC job! Afterwords, we went out for dinner and then took Lauren home with us. Aleah and Lauren spent a good part of the evening out in the hot tub, we were getting quite a kick out of them............ It was only about 5degrees outside and the girls would jump out of the hot tub, run off the deck, lay in the snow and make snow angles, roll around and then get back in the hot tub! They did this over and over again! Of course screaming like girls the entire time! Crazy NUTS!

All About Jeans ~ Or is it Genes??

BLUE JEANS............................................

REAY GENES..................................................
NEED WE SAY MORE???????????????????????

P.S

Mom called and said "Is it the Reay jean cuz she's chubby or a Reay jean cuz she likes to eat?" I said HELLO MOM! LOOK AT HER FINGER......GEEEE TRY TO BE FUNNY AND LOOK WHERE IT GETS YA! Love U Mom!

Aleah's Great Christmas Program

We were quite the Lucky Duck's last night....... Aleah had her Christmas Choir Performance and it was FABULOUS! Ill tell you what, Aleahs new school knows how to put on a show! They all did such a great job! Each Christmas song that they sang had a little show that went along with it. They had a Santa, Frosty the Snowman, Suzie Snowflake, and Rudolph. Each of the kids had a Christmas inspired costume, Aleah was a Elf. We were so impressed! After the program Aleah took us on a tour of her new school and showed us all her classrooms.
For the holidays, each home room decorates their class door and then they vote to decide who's door is the best. The winner receives some kind of award. Aleah is adjusting quite well to all the changes she's had to go through as of lately and has already made lots of new friends. We sure are lucky to have her! After the concert was over we drove into Afton and shared a plate of nachos at the yummy Mexican restaurant there. They have the whole town done up so nice for Christmas it was fun looking at all the street lights and decorations. All in all it was a great evening. Thanks Aleah! We love YOU!

Ready For Snow!

Joyah received the cutest little gift today and just in time for our 1ST BIG snow fall! Our dear friends Troy and Melinda have a awesome daughter Samantha who makes the cutest scarfs and hats. She made 2 sets for Joyah! The story goes like this....................................................
Sam made the first little matching hat and scarf and mailed it to Joyah. Well Jackson's crazy mail system didnt recognize our address and sent the gift back to Portland. By the time it made it back to Portland, Sam figured Joyah had probably grown out of it so she went about making a larger hat and scarf. They sent both figuring the little set could fit one of Joyah's doll's. Guess what Samantha????? They both fit! What a GREAT gift! We LOVE them! Joyah looks like a little piece of Salt Water Taffy! SOOOOOO CUTE! We will keep them forever! There was also the cutest little snugly Jammie's, we love them! Thanks LeFevre's ! We love you guys!

Merry CHRISTmas To You All
We Love You!
Click on the Following Link
http://www.joytoeveryone.com/

Our Three Jewels

Okay, so the move is over, we are kind of moved in (LOL)
And the craziness is dying down. I have had a few
moments to catch my breath which has been nice.
On the way out the door for church this morning,
I looked at my awesome little family and my heart
overflowed! So in our half unpacked house, with our
only reminder Christmas is around the corner - our
tree, I made the kids stay still for just a sec. and
snapped this picture. This is what its all about
and at this moment, I feel like the luckiest woman alive! This is the good stuff FOR SURE!

A Great Night Of Songs

Chance had his choir performance this evening. It was a little crazy getting there, we seem to be so spread apart these days. Eric wrapped up work around 5:00 PM, drove all the way back to Star Valley Ranch and picked up Aleah, Joyah and myself. Then turned around and drove clear back to Jackson for the concert. Chance stayed in Jackson after school and caught a movie. Normally we would have just taken two cars, but the roads were so bad we wanted to be together. As usual, Chance and his choir group put on a great performance for us. Joyah was cute, she loved every number, but when each song was over and everyone would clap, her eyes would open wide and she would stick her bottom lip out and start to cry! But as soon as the next song would start, she would stop, stare at the stage and start to coo! Chance had a great solo song..... He sang one of my favorite, which if you ever call me, you know well.... Van Morrison's Brown Eyed Girl! I LOVED it! He sounded AWESOME!
They also sung Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen, that was great as well. Then of course a slug of Christmas songs which always sound great! I don't know if we told anyone, but a few weeks ago Chance and a few others were ask to perform in a state wide Concert in Cheyenne. We weren't able to go but Chance said it was a really neat experience.
Its been fun watching Chance grow into such a great Man. We like to think we had something to do with it, but kinda feel like we were just blessed with a amazing kid from the get go.
We made it home safe and sound about 10:00 PM. We get to do it all over again on Wed. night for Chances encore drama performance Fun! Fun! Fun! We Love ya Chance, you re worth every mile!

A VERY Important Day!!!

Today is a VERY important day! Why?? Because its my Dad's Birthday! I'm not sure how I ended up so lucky, but I really do have the most AWESOME Dad in the Whole Entire World! Not only is he the smartest man I know; He is also the kindest, hardest working and most honest man I know. I am posting this picture in particular because it is the perfect example of the kind of father he is. All who know me well know the awesome story of my 1ST marathon and know that the only reason I finished that crazy 26.2 mile run was because I am a NAYLOR! Thanks Dad for being such a great example to me. You have taught me how to work hard, follow through, never give up and to believe in myself. You have also taught me how to love myself. My whole life I can never remember a time that I didn't feel so blessed to have the Dad I have. Happy B~Day Dad!!

Our Biannual Spring Creek Get Away

We love the local specials in Jackson each year and have been looking forward to our Spring Creek get away since Eric booked it a month ago! We usually try to get away in November but couldn't find a weekend in November that would work, so we booked it for December this time. The beautiful view is always snow white even in November so not having ANY even in December was kind of weird! It was plenty cold though! Eric got a fire started as soon as we got in the cabin. We love the rustic little cabins with their great views. Snow or not, the views are beautiful! We were laughing about our little visitor (Joyah) this time round! This time last year we would have NEVER dreamt such a thing LOL!! Aleah spent the night at Rich and Sherrie's place. She watched Joyah while we went to dinner and got to hang out with Bryce for the night. She stayed the night there Saturday as well to babysit Bryce so that Rich and Sherrie could go out to Sherrie's work Christmas party. Chance was away at State drama most of the week and into the weekend. Saturday we spent the day in Jackson with Joyah and Aleah. Saturday afternoon Chance called us soooo excited, We could hardly understand him on the phone..... He won GRAND CHAMPION at State drama! No Jackson students have ever won this level so it was pretty exciting news not only for Chance but his whole drama team and school! We get to go watch his encore performance on Tues so we will post some photos then. Because Chance got in so late Saturday He stayed in Jackson at Rich and Sherrie's with Aleah. They were excited to do this because they could go to church in our old Jackson ward and visit friends. It was nice to be back home as a family Sunday night.

How 2 Change A Battery 101

We got a kick out of our predicament last night...... We have always had ladders, but when we moved into town a few years ago, we honestly had no place to put them so we gave them away to friends. Now we are in our own place we NEED them back. Hello friends, you know who you are!!! When we got home from Utah Sunday night, the smoke alarm in the hallway was beeping. It wouldn't stop!!! It was driving Eric CRAZY! Well, we couldn't get to the thing with a chair or anything else we had around so Eric called upon his little helper Aleah! Between the two of them they got the job done! I just had fun watching them!