I love Christmas eve and Christmas! I love spending it with family! Ryan and i got so really cool gifts which include: fancy toothbrushes, camera, pajamas, salad shooter, a big box with shampoo and conditioner, razors and such. I gave Ryan new church shoes and pants(he looks really sharp!) and Ryan gave me a very pretty bedspread for our bed with really cool pillows. I love Christmas!

A couple of days ago we were able to go to Missouri with my family. We visited a community of Christ temple. It was pretty interesting. We also went across the street to visit the LDS Visitors Center. We also went to the Liberty Jail site in Liberty, Missouri. Most of my family have never been there before so it was a very touching experience and my testimony grew so much for Joseph Smith. He was such a amazing man and did so much for the church.

Well sorry we have not written for a while. Ryan is supposed to update it since he has more time but he never does and says that i need to. So here we are, our last post was in JULY!!! But anyways, things have been going great. After the last post, we moved back to Albuquerque for Ryan to continue with school. He really enjoys school and his classmates are fun. I got my old job back and am loving it. I love everyone i work with! We were able to spend time in Utah for thanksgiving with Ryan's family. It was fun to see all his extended family members up in Bountiful, Utah with his grandpa. All the little kids are getting bigger and a couple of new babies have been born recently. Recently Ryan finished his third to last semester of school and we drove to Kansas to be with my family for Christmas. Hopefully we will be able to spend a couple weeks here, sadly it is up to my boss in Albuquerque. So hopefully we got everyone caught up on what is going on in our lives and my new year goal is to be better at writing more often. Merry Christmas to all of our friends and family elsewhere and have a great new year! Love ya!

Rico, CO Livin

Here we are half way thru the summer and we have not updated our blog once. Yet we have had plenty to blog about, just have not done the bloggin part. Our biggest adventure of the summer ended a few week ago. For almost the entire month of June we lived in a small trailer in Rico, CO. Anderson Engineering sent us to work on the reclamation work for the month, which included watering, seeding, and fertilizing. We had a great time working and camping high up in the Rocky Mountains. Then on the weekends we were able to go on several day trips to Mesa Verde and Telluride. Mesa Verde was really cool, yet scared me to death when i had to climb up these huge ladders. Telluride was amazing, we went hiking and took the gondola to the top of the mountain. Yet by the end of the third week we had grown tired of living in the trailer and was thankful we had one more week until we were able to head home.

Washington DC

We have just returned from Washington DC! We had a blast spending the last 4 days out there seeing the sites and visiting all the free museums. About a month ago Ryan was invited by the American Society of Landscape Architects to represent the landscape architecture students in New Mexico. This is quite the honor considering he is only a first year student. So for the first two days he was in meetings and was able to visit the congressmen from NM. Then the next two days were ours to roam the city. Check out our video of short clips and pictures. Also check out the funny picture of us feeding a squirrel.

What a great day

Well to start off Valentines day week was a busy one. I surprised Ryan with a different surprise each day of the past week. I gave him a little gift each day, and then for his big gift i had his bike tuned and fixed. He does not like only having one working gear on his bike, so now he has 21 to chose from.
Yesterday Ryan mysteriously packed his red back pack and asked if I could be ready to go at one. I had no idea what he was up to, but we left. We ended up driving around the back side of the sandia mountains and to a spot where you could see all of Albuquerque from 10,000 ft. up in the air. Thankfully his red packback had my warm coat, snacks, and tennis shoes in it. We ended up taking a short hike to the kiwanas cabin. It was cool hike, Ryan liked all the Spanish moss hanging from the trees. The Cabin was a Civilian Conservation Corps project and was built in 1936. For being 10,000ft up in the air it was not that cold or not very much snow. After we drove back down and ate dinner at casa de benavidez which means House of lies according to Corey. The food was very delish and really good soppapias. Here are some pictures of our adventure.

So here is what i have been up too at school...
My last project was to design a 33 home development that was a sustaniable community. This was my final project for studio one. I presented this to a panel of professional/Judges, and overall they really liked it.





The project before this one was to design a new urban public park in downtown albuquerque.




One more project is a japanese garden design.

Goodbye to 08'

Our Christmas Tree
We had a great time Spending Christmas in Utah. It was so nice to be home and see family and friends. I love the nativity and spice rack Steve and Jeanne gave us. Then the camping gear will be so much fun my parents gave us. Since Ryan is the 11 year old scout leader he will keep it well used.




2008 has been an eventful year for us, to keep things simple this is what has happened. Married in July and moved to Albuquerque a month later. 2009 is here and looking forward to the adventures.