Twas the night before Christmas

WOW, I can't believe I haven't posted a blog since Easter of this year. Time sure does fly when you're working (thank goodness for work!), going to school, becoming a firefighter, and oh yeah, raise a two and three year old. For those that follow the blog, if you do not receive a Christmas card from us within the next week or so, please e-mail me your address so we can get one out. It is the greatest picture of the boys on top of the mountain. Yes, they went on there first gondola ride! It's not really the top of the mountain, but close enough for those two rambunctious boys. I'm too scared to take Alex on the lift to the top, he'll be the kids who decides to jump off the chair lift just to see what the experience is like. Then Payton would follow because little brother can't do something to show him up. The gondola is nice and safe, doors open and shut only when its the right time to step out. They were smiling ear to ear for all 7 minutes 47 seconds (the time has been debated in many articles in our small newspaper, no, they don't have much to report on in mountain country).

The snow has finally arrived, not a lot, but at least enough to cover the poop outside. Yes, I just said that, sorry Mom. But spending the past three years changing diapers and picking up after dogs, my life was beginning to be all about poop. We have successfully potty trained Payton, but we did decide to purchase a new puppy. We welcomed Coco, a cute little labradoodle, to the Ratliff household back in October. Since I can't seem to produce Daddy's little girl, I have to make sure Mary is not outnumbered too badly by having little girls with four legs! :)

Being an AZ native, I never had to spend many days in the cold, so last week was a little chilly, even for the Idahoans. Woke up to -7 for three days in a row and saw highs of +8. WOOHOO! Those days I miss the weather, but now that its sunny again and the slopes have fresh snow, the mountain is a calling. Enough about us mountain Rats for now. I will try to post again before next July, but don't hold your breath. Enjoy the video and pics!

Easter Sunday

We had a beautiful Easter in Idaho this past weekend. Mary's brothers John and David came up to visit. Payton and Alex were so excited to hang out with them. Here are some pictures of their day. We also threw one in there of our little adventure we had last week with Alex. Yes, Alex was the first one of the two with stitches.

Alex's First Birthday

Alex loved his first bite of cake

Mommy and Daddy are so proud

Can I have some more?

Alex loved his new Tonka

Gaga and Papa ate to much!

Debbie and Andrew (our great friends and Nurse)

This Tonka is as Big as me!

I am so glad Alex had a birthday so I could have some cake!

Alex turned one!!! Alright his real birthday is November 15th but I will be in Phoenix for my cousins wedding. So, we celebrated yesterday. He doesn't know the difference and will never remember but I think his dad will remind him when he gets older. We had a great dinner, presents, AND my homemade, hand decorated cake. I cooked the cake in a mold and frosted it with the assistance of my wonderful friend Sheryl. We chose the dump truck because that is the gift he received from him mom and dad. Payton has a big Tonka dump truck so Alex needed his own too. Alex enjoyed the lasagna, cake, and even fruit punch. However, he kept waking up with indigestion so I had to give him some gas relief medicine. We are so proud of our little boy and couldn't imagine having two cuter more wonderful children. We are so blessed!

Halloween

Well, this year Mark was adamant about me making the Halloween costumes for Payton and Alex. Therefore, I made my best effort and made one for Mark and I as well. In case it is difficult to tell, we are spiders. We went down to main street where there were a ton of kids walking up and down visiting the businesses where they received candy. Due to the whole family having a cold, we only hit a few houses once we went back to my mom's house for pizza. When we returned home we felt guilty about not being home to hand out candy. So, Mark turned our light on in case we had any stragglers between 8:00-9:00. We didn't purchase any candy but we figured we would give out a couple pieces of Payton's candy. We had two groups and they ended up taking all of Payton's candy except for 5 pieces. Good thing for us, we don't have to worry about cavities!

Alex Takes A Step

Here's my boy, he's walking!

Visit with PAPA

We had a wonderful visit from my dad for a whole week. We hung out for the most part but also made a drive up to Redfish Lake.