Oahu, Hawaii Vacation (May, 2007)

Hawaii Temple







Hotel lobby








Luau

Cody and Eliza at the Luau


Hanauma Bay

Hanauma Bay




Spent the day at the Marriott Ko'Olina

Luau

Pearl Harbor

Sawyer's 3rd and Ryder's 1st Birthday Party (April 24, 2007)

Ryder's allergic reaction (April, 2007)

The smile indicates that he has no idea what his face looks like.

Poor little guy.

We found out that Ryder is allergic to penicillin. We gave him an anti-biotic to get him over the cold (sinus infection) that he's had the past few weeks and his body started to break out into a huge rash. At first, we thought it was chicken pox, but it just kept getting worse. We forgot to take pictures the first day, but this is what it looked like after a day or so.

Easter (April 2007)

Saying Goodbye to our First House (March, 2007)

After about 3 and a half years, it was time to say goodbye to our townhouse. This is the first house we ever bought, and we love it to death. Both Sawyer and Ryder were born while we lived in this house, and we have a lot of wonderful memories here. The only problem is that there is not a lot of storage space and we are starting to outgrow the house. We closed on a bigger house on February 28th, 2008 and have been doing major remodeling on it for the past month (a lot of very late nights). We still have a ton to do. We found renters for our townhouse, so we will be landlords for the first time starting in May, 2008. Wish us luck! Below are a few pictures of our house...While we lived here, Eliza did a ton of work on the house, pretty much remodeling it room by room:


The front of the house. We only had to replace the side mirror on our minivan one time, despite parking it in our miniature one-car garage.


The back of the house has a pretty nice deck. We wish we would have used it more.


We put in all new appliances in the kitchen when we moved in.


The dining room with the black accent wall. We replaced the flooring and painted all the walls. Eliza still can't decide if she the black or not.


The family/living room.


Eliza completely remodeled this powder room. She put up white, textured wallpaper and painted it, replaced the old fixtures with new oil-rubbed bronze new ones, and had a new vinyl floor installed.


This basement was unfinished when we moved in. Eliza converted it into a "Winnie-the-Poo" themed playroom for the kids. Cody's brother, Kyle, and his wife, Whitney, got to know this room pretty well when they stayed with us before they could move into their house in Beaver Falls, PA
.

The master bedroom.


Sawyer and Ryder's room. Sorry about the Care Bears, Ryder, but Sawyer was born first.


The office/guest room. We can't believe we crammed all that stuff in this tiny room.

More Winter in Pittsburgh (January, 2007)

Here are some more cute pictures of the kids:


Sawyer is ready to go to church.


Ryder-bug is crawling all over the place.


Ryder loves to take bubble baths.

The Dead of Winter (January, 2007)

We are officially in the dead of winter. If anyone has been to Pittsburgh in the winter, they know that it is freezing cold and we usually go at least 30 days without seeing the sun (usually the entire month of February). Snow doesn't really accumulate, so we mostly try to stay indoors. It's always a challenge for Eliza to keep the kids occupied and happy when they can't be outdoors. Being indoors allows for a lot of opportunities to take good pictures though:


Ryder loves to share Sawyer's sippy cup with her.


Sawyer loves her Leap Pad. She likes to play the games in her princess book.


Sawyer is also into painting.


Here, Ryder gives you his best "male modeling" pose. We call this look "Ryder-licious."


Sawyer thinks Ryder shouldn't be pretending to be a male model.

Christmas in Utah (December, 2006)

Justin, Brittany, and Creed Mellen


Lisa, Eliza, Toni, and Loni at Temple Square



Sawyer and Aunt Loni

Snow angel!

Soaking it up in the kitchen


Snowman time!

New dress-ups from Grandpa and Grandma

Playing in the snow