Some Current Pictures of our girls

Bella

Maddie

The ultimate Valentine!

Scott did it again. It never ceases to amaze me how romantic he is! It is the best! Every holiday/birthday/special occasion he spoils me (and I love it)! Yesterday was no exception. I won't go into all the details but lets just say our night included lots of roses, love songs, candles, delicious food, a relaxing bath for me(with 2 new magazines, my robe, and PJs all set out), a sweet sweet love letter, pride and prejudice, a book I've been wanting, and lots of kisses :) I'm the luckiest girl in the world. He truly treats me like a queen. Wow, I love that guy!

(Okay, so I actually had to go back to our pictures from last August to find a picture of Scott and me alone. We only take pictures of the babies these days, so this is out of date and I actually think I look really scary in it! Oh well!)

Love is in the air!

Happy Valentine's Day from the Rynearson's!

We love you!

Baby love!

I walked in from the other room behind the girls and said,"Where's my babies?" They both turned simultaneously to see where I was, and they were in the exact same position. I had to grab the camera for this one!!

Aren't these coats fabulous? They are so cute in them... they can barely fit into their carseats with all that fur!

My family

We have recently realized that our babies are becoming little girls! They are getting so big and doing new things every day. It is such a fun stage right now. I love watching them learn new things and be constantly checking out everything around them. We have a Dr. apointment today, and they have to get their shots! That is never fun, but I'm excited to see how long and heavy they've gotten. I truly can't get enough of them! Isn't that a handsome Dad they've got too?

Cabin Fever?

Have you ever had big time cabin fever? This week I've been feeling a little stir crazy. I love my life and my family, but sometimes you just need some new scenery. I mean, honestly, how many times can I walk the Walmart aisles in a week? We have no mall and very few stores to wander around in. It is so cold that I hate to take the girls out anyway, because that double stroller is a workout to set up! I was ready to drive to Columbia today, but it was supposed to snow, so I didn't. Anyway, I just wondered if anyone else gets this way!
The next place we live must have the following essentials: 1. A close airport to fly home 2. Somewhere to get a really yummy salad (rumbi's, zuppas, or cafe rio preferably) 3. Some fun shopping (Not that I can spend the money, just for getting out and looking).
Scott has been studying so hard for a test this week (bless him), so he has been busy. The girls probably get a little bored of playing with mom all day, but tomorrow is Sunday (hooray) so that means I get a husband for the whole day!

Does this sound like a complainer? I didn't mean to...

10 things you may not know about my darling husband Scott

He's at school... hope he doesn't mind! He'd probably tell you different things, but here are some fun facts I've learned about him.

1. He is an amazing athlete at EVERY sport! He is especially good at raquetball these days!
2. He wrote the story of how we met, dated and got married, and also the story of our girls' birth. We are talking pages and pages of all the details!
3. He wants to serve lots of missions one day. (For the church and medical missions)
4. He loves to cook with me in the kitchen and is great about doing dishes and stuff around the house.
5. He has a lot of patience with me. He is always the one to apologize first in an argument. (Even though it is rarely his fault!)
6. He is clean, clean, clean! I love it! He even taught me how to fold our laundry very neatly!
7. He is a believer in "men's responsibilities" (He takes out the trash, carries the groceries in, always drives, he is in charge of family prayers/scriptures, kills all the bugs or spiders etc.)
8. He has an incredible memory! He is amazing with directions, sports trivia, and of course the insane amounts of stuff he remembers for med school.
9. He spoils me with diamonds, chick flicks, concerts, flowers, eating out, basically anything!
10. I've seen him become an incredible father the past six months. He loves our girls so much and always wants to play with them. He gives them a million kisses a day, and he loves it when they cuddle up with him and fall asleep.

10 things you may not know about me

Lots of my friends have done this and inspired me... it is fun to learn new facts about everyone!

1. I love to travel and have plans to go all over the world someday.
2. I love to organize and plan. (I have a weekly cleaning schedule, monthly meal calendar, categorized to do lists, and I rearrange my closet about every other week!)
3. Someday I want to have a vacation home at the beach.
4. I love to read, and once I get into a good book I hardly get anything else done.
5. I have the biggest sweet tooth ever! I want to eat treats all day long!
6. I anxiously await my monthly magazines and catalogues... Martha Stewart Living, Pottery Barn Kids, the Ensign...
7. I love nursing my babies! (Although I am ready to give up those night time feedings!)
8. I drink a ton of milk! We go through gallons and gallons a week!
9. I miss my dancing days, and sometimes I relive them in the kitchen when Scott's gone.
10. Someday I want to have an amazing craft room with supplies for sewing, scrapbooking, decorating, baking, gardening, floral design, etc.

Six Months

We can't believe our girls our six months old! Yesterday was their half birthday, so I took this picture. I remember thinking when they were first born that six months seemed like an eternity away. Now it is here, the time really has flown by. I love these babies more than I could have even imagined. Our life has been so blessed and happy to have two beautiful, sweet, and healthy girls. One day I will get a picture of them both smiling. It is tough because they just stare at the camera like, "What is that?" Scott thinks Bella's hat is like an old school football helmet, but I love it!

Be grateful

One of my new year's resolutions is to really focus on implementing President Hinckley's "Be's" into my life. Both my sister and my mom gave me something for Christmas to put up in our house that has them on it, so I decided that there was a good reason. Anyway, I'm studying and reading about one each month. This first month I have been thinking about being grateful. It truly is amazing how much happier you can be if you always focus on the things you are grateful for.

For example, this week I made a yummy bbq chicken salad for dinner. It was in one big bowl and we sat down to eat. Right then Maddie grabbed onto the bowl and pulled it over into Scott's lap and the floor. My first thought was, "Oh great, all that work for nothing," but then I looked at my sweet daughter who didn't know any better and realized there is no way I could be mad at her. There was still some salad in the bowl to eat, so I thought, "Just be grateful that the entire thing isn't gone!" This probably seems really silly, but I have to say that after tiring days and nights sometimes making dinner is a big accomplishment. Anyway, there is no reason to worry about such trivial little things.

Thinking about being grateful has helped me this month. We came back from a wonderful visit with family and friends and I was worried because it is hard to adjust back to being alone taking care of the girls after we've had so much help and company. Their sleeping was way off, and of course we all had the stomach flu. Anyway, everyday I've thought of things to be thankful for and the adjustment has been sooo much easier than I expected. Here are a few things that I've been so grateful for this month:
1. The girls are starting to sleep much better in the day! I can just lay them both down and they will fall asleep by themselves! It got so exhausting to rock them to sleep every day, but it is getting so much easier. We are now working on the nights... still a little rough sometimes, but not bad!
2. Online shopping! I have had so much fun waiting for my packages to arrive in the mail each day. I got some high chairs for the girls, a new book, and some other things. I'm so grateful for the internet because there are limited shopping options in this town.
3. I am so happy that we have met so many great LDS families around here to hang out with! I love all the other wives and it is so fun to spend time together. It makes the days go by faster and we do a lot of fun things. Every tuesday night is project night and we get together and work on something and chat. Wednesay nights I go to activity days for my church calling and it is really fun. It is a perfect calling for me right now! Thursday night is movie night which always ends up being just the girls talking and eating treats, but that is what we like! Last month we all got together and brought our wedding pictures and videos and watched everyone's. It was so funny! There are always activities going on through the school's spouse association (playgroup, cooking club, book club, socials) and enrichment activities too. We could be doing something every single day if we wanted! It sure is nice to have wonderful people around us when we are far away from our family!

Anyway, we have so much to be grateful for. It is truly amazing! In President Hinckley's book Way to Be he tells one of my favorite stories about gratitude. I'll just paraphrase it. There were two little boys walking by a field and they saw a man working a ways off, but his shoes were laying in the road. ONe little boy suggested they hide the shoes, and see what the man did when he couldn't find them. The other little boy thought it would be better to put a silver dollar in each shoe and see what he did when he found them. The man came and slipped his first foot into the shoe and found a silver dollar. He looked around perplexed but didn't see anyone. Then he slipped his other foot into the other shoe and found the second silver dollar. Right then he was overcome with thankfulness and he fell on his knees and cried and thanked Heavenly Father for whoever had done that. He spoke about his family who was sick and starving and prayed that the Lord would bless the anonymous giver.

I love that so much. We always have to remember where all blessings come from and show Him we are thankful!

More food fun

Bella likes to do it by herself already. What a mess!

We think this picture is hilarious. She is like a little gangster saying, "What up?"

Maddie digging in!

"No more cereal... I won't open my mouth!"

We have just started giving the girls rice cereal! It is so cute! We ordered them these little high chairs and they are loving it. It takes them a minute to decide if they like the cereal...

but once they start eating, they love it!

Tummy Time

We are trying to get the girls to play on their tummies more, so that they will learn to crawl eventually! They both roll over both ways now.

I know we are biased but we think our babies have the most beautiful big blue eyes! This is Madelyn.
Here's Isabella!

Best Friends!

These pictures are from before we left but I thought they were so cute. Maddie gave Bella a good pinch on the arm flab, but Bella got her back with a good tug on Maddie's ear! They are going to have lots of fun together! It is funny because Maddie has recently started doing this screaming thing! She just yells really loud while she is playing with toys and things and it scares poor Bella to death! It always makes her cry, but hopefully she'll get used to it soon, because Maddie seems to only be getting louder

Who needs a white Christmas?

Santa found us! Here we are on Christmas morning at the beach house! Maddie is our early bird so she was eager for her presents. Bella takes a little longer to wake up, but she loved her toys too! We loved having Christmas with my parents and John's family! One of my most favorite traditions is going to the beach house every year! The weather was gorgeous and it was so nice to be outside and take walks with the girls! They were all bundled up to keep that fair skin from burning, but they loved the beach and getting all the attention from grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, and cousins! I love getting to be with my family and some of my greatest memories are at Capistrano beach!
We got to see all of my family during the trip and the boys did some golfing, we all did some reading, played games and ate lots! We rang in the New Year with all the kids singing Alice the camel around a bonfire as well as nursery rhymes, a bear hunt, and some marshmellows. Grandpa, we'll never forget the hokey pokey dance! We played games to keep us up until midnight and had all sorts of noise makers, hats, etc. Dan, Mike, and Scott made the annual 12:01 run into the ocean... the first swim of the new year. They claimed it wasn't that cold... ya right, but it was pretty funny!

The Pier

We always go to San Clemente Pier and this year we went while the boys wer golfing. (Except Mike... he and Chantele and just gotten to the beach) We were a sight walking along as all the cousins wanted to hold hands!
My big sister Michelle and I with the girls! We have loved our little baby carriers. The girls are always happy in them and like to see the world as we walk around!
I have the best mom and sisters in the world! We have so much fun together and I absolutely love chatting and catching up at the beach. I love watching them raise their kids. They all are wonderful examples to me! It was so fun to have Chantele around too! Hopefully we didn't scare her off! All of us went and saw The Holiday while the guys watched the kids! It was a blast to be together!

Visit to St. George!

We started out our Christmas vacation with Scott's family in St. George. Scott's highlights were shadowing an orthopedic surgeon a couple times and of course golfing with his Dad and Ashton. We loved hanging out with his parents and sisters and having everyone play with the girls! We were so glad we could see Lacey and Ashton before we left too! Here we are opening presents . The girls were loving it! Scott's parents gave us the ultimate christmas gift... a new computer! We are so excited because now Scott can take the laptop and I'll still have a computer at home!! We are so thrilled and grateful! We also got webcams so we can see our friends and family while we are away! I'm excited to try it out! We love the Rynearson fam and are so happy we could see them for the holidays!

Maddie and Daddy!

The girls love their Dad so much! We definitely have Daddy's girls. They love to have him play with them, and he loves to give them lots of kisses and tickles! 

Katie Jr.

Everyone used to say the Bella looks a lot like Scott, but I have to say that I have a picture of me when I was little that looks just like this! I wish I could get to it... it is in my scrapbook at my mom's house in Salt Lake, but I can see it in my mind! Mom... don't you think so? 

Missouri is Cold!

I never knew it, but it sure gets cold around here! Last week we had an ice storm. We are very grateful for a 2 car garage. A couple of Scott's friends had to thaw their car doors with a blow dryer. After an hour of work to get it open, it then got stuck and wouldn't shut! We went to Nauvoo for Ward Temple day yesterday and I got thinking about how amazing those early saints were to go west. A lot of the Mississippi was frozen and it looked so cold. I couldn't even imagine crossing it. I can appreciate a little more of what they went through, and I'm inspired by their many sacrifices for the gospel. We love going to the Nauvoo temple!

Well, we have been recovering from being sick at our house. It is the season! I think we are all finally feeling mostly better. It is not so fun to have sick babies! I wanted to post this picture because you can really tell who is who. In a lot of pictures they look really similar and when we were visiting Utah over Thanksgiving it was hard for everyone to tell the girls apart. In this picture you can tell that their head shapes are different and that they each have their own look. Bella is on the left and Maddie is on the right with the big smile. We love our adorable girls!

We are in the Holiday mood around here. We've got up our decorations and our tree. We are so excited to go to St. George next Sunday and then on to California. Hooray for the holidays, family, friends, great music, and yummy treats! 

Jacob's Baptism

This is at Jacob's baptism over Thanksgiving. It was so fun for all of us to be there together! 

Congratulations!

Here is Mike and his cute fiance Chauntele. They make a darling couple and we are so happy that they found each other. We are so excited for their wedding in May!