[Insert best witch cackle here]

Halloween is my favorite holiday (besides Christmas, of course, that is a given) and I love all of the Halloween happenings. Of all of the great Halloween events going on during the month of October, I'd have to say Garnder Village is one of my favorite things to do! My mom, sister Amy, and I go every year. All over, they have fun displays of animated witches. Some of my favorites include a witch flying on a bike and some traffic directors, a "witchy poo" in the outhouse, and a witch in training that landed her broomstick into a tree. This year was especially fun for Emma, who liked to spot all of the witches, and says most of them are "nice witches". Last year, she was pretty scared by them, as she didn't understand what Halloween was all about. Besides enjoying the displays, we love the quaint shops in the Village. They have some cute stuff! My favorite store is the Christmas store. Many of the employees are dressed up as witches, so that also adds to the atmosphere. Some of the Halloween stuff Emma saw she said was "Spooky!" We always go to lunch at the Bakery there, which is always delicious, and then to Afton's Candy for some fudge or goodies at the end of our visit. Here are some pictures of our little outing. "Witching" you and yours some very happy hauntings!

Election Time

Just about two weeks, and we'll have a new president. Let me tell you I'm really looking forward to it. Not that I'm excited over who our president will be, but I can't wait for all of this campaigning to be over. The mudslinging, the debates, the empty promises...I'm just so sick of it, and it seems like its been going on forever. And I'm not really super-impressed with either Barack Obama or John McCain (and of course Ralph Nader doesn't really count). I'm really hoping McCain pulls through for the Republican party, though.


As far as local & state officials go, I think there are some great candidates. I was reading through the Utah Voter Information guide the other day to decide who/what I would vote for, as I'm planning on going in to vote early. I've especially been impressed with our current Governor Jon M. Huntsman. (Dave would rub in that I didn't vote for him in our last election, but I really like him. Why doesn't he run for President?) Anyways, I wanted to post this for Adam, I thought he would enjoy it. This is "Super Dell" Schanze's personal statement he provided for the voter guide. He is running for Governor. I could not believe it!

"SUPERDELL is your only choice because YOU didn't file. Huntsman took away your freedoms and taxed you more than any other Utah governor. Springmeyer has admitted he doesn't care about the Constitution. The definition of the word insane is voting for the same people while expecting change. There is no question that Dell Schanze is different.There are only three people on the ballot and SUPERDELL is the only one that is NOT Socialist. If you are unsure, then fill your heart with love, completely open your mind and pray to God earnestly. You can't afford to get this wrong and will be held accountable for your choice."


Are you kidding me? This guy is absolutely crazy! I knew politicians are bad but this is overboard.

Obviously, I'm not a political analyst, but whoever you decide our best candidates would be, do get out and VOTE!

"Take a Picture of It!"

Emma can be kind of a ham sometimes, and let's just say she's not camera shy! Lately, she'll do something silly that she thinks is cute or funny and then tells us "take a picture of it!". She loves to put food in her mouth (like the large globe grapes she stuffed in each of her cheeks to make them look puffy) or just play with it (she gets a kick out of milk moustaches now and loves chocolate pudding), or do "tricks", or anything else she can think of. Maybe we've trained her that way, as I like to take lots of pictures. It is a good reminder though, as we sometimes forget to catch some of these moments on camera. Emma also really likes to take pictures herself, so we have plenty of pictures on our camera of the floor, daddy feet, and other things. She is becoming quite the photographer however, and can aim better now. A couple of weeks ago, when we were over at Katie & Brandon Bill's house, Emma had a little excursion with Katie's camera she found on the table. Katie and I were bringing some stuff in from the car, right outside of her door, and we left Emma in on the lovesac right inside of the door. Emma came out the door, camera in her hands hand, when she said "Smile!" and proceeded to take some pictures of Katie and I. I started running towards her to get the camera, because it was a new one, and I didn't want it to get broken. She took a few, and our faces in the pics are quite bewildered and funny, as it really caught us off-guard. We got a kick out of those pictures, but luckilly, Katie deleted them right after we had a good laugh. Here are some of our favorite "take a picture of it" pictures!

Wrapping up summer!

It is true this is the last weekend of the summer. Bummer. I'm a big fan of summer and we've had a great time this year. But the fall comes and life keeps on moving. We like fall too, but there is something special about summer.

Here are a few pictures of some things we've been doing lately that I haven't gotten up yet... so here's an update:

Our last camping trip was our ward camp out, held in Porter. We really like camping, and this was a good way to end it. The first night, we set up camp, played games, had the worst sloppy joes I've ever had in my life, and a fireside by the bishopric. Saturday, we had breakfast (gratefully, it wasn't left over sloppy joes), and a speaker who is from the pioneer historical society, and then we went to hike part of the Mormon trail. Unfortunately, the trail was pretty steep and rocky, and we thought that might not be the best idea to do that with Emma in the backpack, so we decided to go shopping at the outlet malls in Park City instead. Yep, we wimped out on that one. Emma had a great time playing with her little nursery buds, Maverick Stratford and Ariana Canro.

Emma and I visited the Ogden Eccles Dinosaur Park several weeks ago with friends Katrina & Kyler Mortensen and Emily & Gretchen Haurand. We had a great time! Emma loved the dinos, well, most of them! She had a blast playing with her little friends, digging for dino bones, looking at the large-scale dinosaur statues they have, playing at the playground there, and all of the other things they have to offer...except for the giant mechanical dinosaurs that move and roar. Things that make noise like that don't always go over well with her.

Something we've discovered and enjoyed this summer is the South Ogden Nature Park (we call it the Splash Park). The last time we went this summer, was with a bunch of Emma's buddies. Aiden Mead, Tavin Miller, Cole Duckworth, and Maverick came for a while, too. Yep, she likes those boys! We had a fun time. Emma absolutely loves that place. I had a hard time getting her out of there!

We went to the Utah State Fair a week ago. The first date Dave & I went to was to the state fair, so we make it a point to go every year. This year, we saw Veggies Tales Live, which was pretty sweet. Nothing like a giant Bob the Tomato with bling light-up teeth singing silly songs! Walked around and saw the exhibits and booths. We visited the farm animals. Emma was in her stroller, holding a blanket, and sucking her thumb, as she likes to do, when we got too close to the goat fence and a goat decided her blanket looked pretty good. The goat grabbed it with its teeth and started chewing on it. We had to fight back for it. We saw a show featuring endangered tigers from around the world. That was pretty neat. They were big, smart animals. We were impressed. Of course, we had to try the hyped-up fried peanut butter & jelly sandwich that was so much advertised on the Fair commercials and ads this year. Surprisingly, it was pretty good. I was quite skeptical, but really enjoyed it! Being deep fried and makes any food taste really yummy, and powdered sugar and chocolate sauce doesn't hurt either, right?

Emma's Birthday! New & Improved with Pictures!

Happy Birthday to Two-Year-Old Emma!

When Emma and I were talking about birthdays a few weeks ago, I asked her how old she’d be turning when she had her birthday that was coming up. She looked at me for a second, and then said (very confidently and with serious look on her face) “Twenty-seven.” I had to laugh, I don’t know where she came up with that number! I thought we’d only learned numbers through 10. Since then, she’s figured out that with the event of her birthday, she’d turn “two”!

Emma was very excited about the whole birthday thing. In preparation, she learned the entire “Happy Birthday” song, and would sing it to herself quite a bit. She wanted a kitty party, so we based her party and birthday off that theme. She was excited to help make invitations. She helped pick out the stickers and paper, and helped cut and glue everything. She also helped figure out some of the festivities for her party.

Her actual birthday is August 31, but since that fell on a Sunday, we chose to celebrate it on Friday. We had a family party at the North Canyon Park in Bountiful with the Ryerse’s and Stoddards all there. Everything was decorated with purple and kitties. Emma and Tayla started the party out by doing a wooden kitty craft, while the rest of the guests chatted. They also played and ran around the park, they really liked the sand by the volleyball courts. We had a dinner of pizza, salad, watermelon, and pop. Emma helped plan the menu as well, she loves pizza and we had lots of root beer on hand, as that is her favorite! All-American kid, I guess.

Tayla and Emma then played “Pin the Tail on the Kitty”, which we made together. They thought it was pretty funny. Emma got dizzy a few times and really missed, running into things, and Tayla thought it would be okay to lift up her blindfold to see where she was going. But they got the point of the game and had a fun time.

We had cake and ice-cream next. I made a kitty face for the cake, and Emma really liked it! She sang the birthday song to herself with everyone else, and knew exactly when it was time to blow out the candles. It took her a few tries to get them out, but she did it and clapped when they both went out. Emma really liked the cake, and the ice-cream , which was pretty runny by the time we ate it that it was more like ice-cream soup. She had it all over her face, classic!

Present time was next. Emma really got into the present thing this year. Last year, she was less impressed by it. She loved pulling the bows off, ripping the paper and pulling things out of the bags. She got really spoiled! The present opening stopped when she uncovered her mini Kawasaki 4-Wheeler, given by Aunt Amy and Uncle Kolby and Aunt Meghan and Uncle Adam (thanks guys!). She (and Tayla) loved it! They rode it and laughed and had the best time on that thing. You use your legs to push it along, and there are buttons on it that make fun sounds. It was great! That was pretty much the rest of the party, as that was all Emma wanted to do. We had to pry her away from it to have her open the rest of her presents and thank everyone and give hugs goodbye.

Emma’s real birthday was on Sunday. To celebrate, we decorated our house with birthday signs, balloons, confetti, and all that festive stuff. We had a special breakfast, and she got to blow out a candle in her muffin. It was pretty much a normal day. She was excited to go to nursery (as always), and took treats to her class. When we got home, we ate dinner, which was a fancy dinner of grilled cheese sandwiches (it’s what Emma asked for!), carrot sticks and chips. Then we watched Aristocats, which she got for her birthday. We also looked through her baby book and talked about her life and looked at pictures. Then we had ice-cream cones. She seems to love everything about birthdays, and we’re looking forward to fun at her future birthdays!

It is said a lot, but it's true that kids grow fast! I can't believe little Emma is 2! She's getting big so quickly. She's no longer a baby, she's a little girl now! We love her so much and enjoy every day with her. The joy kids bring into life cannot be compared to anything else. It's the best!

I can't download pictures right now for some reason, but I promise to get the birthday pics up soon!

The cutest kitties you've ever seen - any takers?

About a month ago, we made a startling discovery! A cat decided to have kittens under our deck! We had seen this mommy kitty prancing around our condos for several months, and then it was like she dissapeared. Little did we know she was busy having babies - five of them - and they made their home under our deck! Dave thinks it's destiny... but back to the story. Once we figured out they were there, we began feeding the mom cat and taking care of her. She is a calico, Emma chose the name Callie for her. She is a very good cat - very well-tempered, clean and quiet, and loves to be cuddled with (this is starting to sound like a personals ad). She is also very good with kids and doesn't even get upset when Emma tries to pick her up or grabs her tail! She can live outdoors or indoors, and seems to like the combination of both. The five kitties are just as good as the Mom, and they are oh-so-cute! There is an adventurous orange one that likes to play. Two black ones, one long-haired and one short haired. One is also very energetic, and the other one is a little more shy. There is a calico one that looks like the mom. And then there's a black one with white paws that is very small. They are all so cute, and we love them, but just can't keep them. They're now starting to wean and starting to eat kitty food, and we can't afford to keep feeding them all! So, if you or someone you knows wants a kitty, please let us know! We want to find good homes for these sweet kitties. If anyone knows me, knows I'm not the hugest fan of felines, but these cats are changing my mind. They're so fun and good! Up top are some pictures of some of the kitties, not all of them are very good, because the little ones get kind of scared of the camera. But please ask around, we need to find these kitties a place to live before winter comes. Please?! Let us know if you're interested. Thanks!

Happy [Belated] Anniversary!

On August 10, Dave & I celebrated our 3rd Anniversary - hooray! It's been an awesome few years! It was Dave's turn to plan the celebratory activities. Since the actual date was on Sunday, we had the fun on Saturday. We were both a little sick, but didn't let that stop us. We started out at the Clark Planetarium to see the IMAX Movie of "Fly Me To The Moon". One of our first dates was at the Planetarium, so it was fun to go back. The movie was really cute. The other movies I've seen there have been more documentary-style movies. This was kind of like a Pixar one and it was 3D and everything. We then hung out at the Planetarium, where this picture was taken, on the "moon". After the movie, Dave told me it was time to shop. He's not a huge shopper, but said we could go wherever I wanted and take as much time as I wanted and get what I wanted. So we shopped for a while, that was fun. Then we had dinner at Ruby River - delicious (that is the new word Emma learned yesterday)! And then went for a drive. We reminisced a bit about our courtship experiences, our wedding, and the time we've been married. We ended by getting concretes at Nielsen's Frozen custard and went on a drive up to the Bountiful Temple, where we got married. It was a fun night to be together! On Sunday, our actual anniversary, it was pretty much a normal day...we exchanged presents and cards. We did have to speak in church though. Dave had to speak first - ha! So he did the introductions. He started out by saying it's a good day for the Ryerse Family, as it was our 3rd Anniversary. He said it's been the best three years of his life, and he's loved every minute of it. Then he said that it just keeps getting better...but it doesn't just get better, you have to make it better, he said. Then he told me how much he loved me and how kind and forgiving I am to him. He transitioned into his talk than on the topic of forgiveness. It was fun to hear him say that in public, he mostly just tells me these types of things when we're alone. But he's right, it does just keep getting better, but it doesn't just happen. You have to make marriage happy and good. It reminds me of an Ensign article that was featured several months ago about how marriage is like a garden - it needs to be weeded, watered, and tended constantly. That has really stuck with me. I am excited to see where our garden goes and how it grows in the future! My Dave, you are my sunshine! I am grateful for what you bring to my life. It's been a great ride... thanks babe! I love you!