Moving.

We have sucessfully moved out of our house. We ended up being there almost exactly a year. What a blessing it was to find buyers so fast!!

Moving day was incredible. About a dozen guys from our ward showed up to help. I left to go drop my kids off at my friend Mandy's house so that moving would go a little faster. By the time I got back the truck was loaded and my cute little house was empty. The ward then went with Noah to the storage unit and unloaded the truck. We loved our ward in Roxborough and the many friendships that we made there. We are so sad to leave.

Noah's family came a little later and helped load up the furniture that was going to Noah's parents house. And did one last good will run. By 3:30 the house was empty, and clean, and we pulled out of the garage for the last time.

Leaving our house was a really hard decision for us. We loved the house, the yard, the beautiful area, the church. At the same time we are so excited for Noah to be able to go to school full time. We are also so blessed that Noah's job with the City and County of Denver is being so understanding and flexible with his schedule so that he can work full time also.

Noah's parents have also been so wonderful in welcoming us into their home, again. They have made countless sacrifices to make us comfortable and keep us close to our kids.

Ruby is to young to understand what is happening, but Levi has been a trooper for the whole thing. At first he thought that he was getting another room at Gram;s house and that Ruby was getting another room. Then he thought that he and Ruby were sharing a room, but that he was keeping his room at his house. Then on moving day he understood, and just kept saying that Levi's house was really sad. Ironically I am grateful that we bought our van a couple of months ago. It was hard for Levi to say goodbye to the cruiser, and it was hard for him to say goodbye to the house. It has been a good lesson for him about changes coming in our lives.

Heavenly Father's hand has been watching over us these past few months while we have made these big decisions. Our testimonies have been strengthened and our little family has grown closer together.

A lot has happened to the beals clan in the last month. We are a bit crazy as usual. So here is the update.

In preparation for Noah starting school we put our house on the market the last week of October. In this crazy market, our beautitul house sold in 2 weeks. So we have been making preparations for the move back into Noah's parents house this weekend. Closing is on Monday,, and we just feel so blessed that we were able to sell our house so quickly.

In case you have been living in a hole, there is a movie called Twilight that came out earlier this month. The sister-in-laws and Ashley and I went out at midnight to see it. Ashley and Meghan and I even made matching shirts. I have to say that I really enjoyed the movie. The only thing I was disappointed in was the sparkling. I am excited for the next movie, which should have a much larger budget.

In November we had a short visit from my mom and my oldest (and wisest) sister Janette and my nephew Max. Aside from a bloody nose and some throw up we had a delightful weekend. On Sunday we made an early Thanksgiving dinner, which was so nice for me. Ashley was also with us for the weekend before she went home to suprise her mom for Thanksgiving.

Levi and Ruby loved having baby max here. Ruby is into calling almost everything with a face baby. This was the first time that they had met him. He is so cut and happy!

Noah is pretty serious about caring his first turkey. Actually he is just posing for the picture. What would Thanksgiving be without olives on someones fingers. Levi loves olives. I always get nervous when we eats a lot of them because of an unpleasant experience that happend with Levi, olives, and a Mexican retaurant.Our Thanksgiving feast. Yummy Yummy!

On Sunday night we played a mad game of Monopoly, accomplishing something not many people who play Monopoly do....we played until the very end. Janette ended with all the porperty and money. This picture in to prove her victory for years to come!

Thanksgiving day for us was fun. Levi was so excited to Santa during the Macy's parade. He also got excited for a few of the balloons. We had dinner around 2 and then had a fun day playing games with the family.

Well that is the highlights. We are packing for the next few days an moving on Saturday. We love you all and hope that you are having a very Happy Christmas.

Our little Teddy Graham

I have been meaning to put this on our blog for a long time and finally got around to scanning it in. when I had this ultrasound I was 9 weeks. The Nurse Practitioner doing the ultrasound said, "I got a great picture of your little Teddy Graham. And she did, and it looks exactly like a teddy graham or a gummy bear. So there he/she is. We should have our 20 week ultra sound a few days before Christmas and will have more pictures then.

More Imagination

Levi's little imagination has just exploded in the last few weeks! Besides his imaginary friends we have had all of his favorite trains following our car when we drive places. He will even tell us which ones are there. Usually it is Thomas, Gordon, James, and Skarloney(?).

Yesterday we drove Noah to work at the book store, and all of a sudden Levi said, "Mom look out for the Giant!." Then today on the way to church we had the trains following us, and Levi insisted that Noah swerve to avoid the Corn Dog, and then the Hamburger in the middle of the road. He is so hilarious and gives us a good laugh on the long roads that lead away from our little neighborhood.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

We had an absolutely fabulous halloween this year!!! Halloween is always an exciting time of year for us, because that is when we got engaged. Noah hid my ring inside the pumpkin that I was carving. So we love carving pumpkins. This year, I thought that Levi would be into the whole ordeal, and he loved it, but he thought that the pumpkin guts were really gross!! Here is a picture of the 4 of us on pumkin carving night at Noah's parents house. A side note about Ruby's outfit. She hates wearing socks. She pulls them off. Then when I notice and say, "Ruby where are your socks" she laughs at me, and then I tickle her feet. So this day I put her in tights and she tried to pull them off all day long!!

At the beginning of September I started asking Levi what he wanted to be for Halloween. I really wanted him to be a pirate...but this year, he knew what was going on and had an opinion. He wanted to be Mario. Which turned out to be a relatively easy costume to make, and he looked so adorable!

Ruby, on the otherhand was a victim of the hand-me-downs. We had so much going on the past few months that I just never got around to making her the elephant costume that Levi wanted her to have. So the night of my niece Bella's dress up Halloween party, I dug through the baby clothes and found Eyeore. She looked pretty cute, and brother loved it!

Here is Levi sitting with our pumpkins before he went trick-or-treating. We were lucky this year to have daddy home for Halloween. It has been a few years since he didn't have to worry about school or working that night. So he and Levi waited rather anxiously to see other trick or treaters on our road. Noah took both the kids around the block, and then Levi said that he was done. Ashley and two of her friends also came, she had a killer costume. We love having her around!

Noah is always creative with his pumpkins. The year we got engaged he carved an engagement ring, last year I think that it was Harry Potter, and this year he decided to carve our fetus in his pumkin.

And finally, Levi and I made Halloween decorations one day, exactly like his cousin Hannah's he was so excited, and was sad when mommy had to take them down.

VISITORS!

A few weekends ago we had visitors again, which we love. Uncle Steven, Aunt Marie, Aunt Leslie, and Marie'a Boyfriend Matt all came to stay over their fall break from school. We had a good time going to Red Rocks, Chuck E. Cheese, and the zoo. They were also a big help when I got a call from the Real Estate photographer saying he wanted to take pictures of our house.

There are some great pictures that demonstrate the personalities of our children also. Enjoy!I like these two pictures of Ruby because you can see her little teeth. She has her 4 front teeth, and then two molars on the top. So she is eating almost anything!The first night that everyone was here Ashley came over. Matt made us dinner (what a treat for me) and Leslie and Ashley made Ruby and I a birthday cake since they missed our birthdays only by a few weeks.

This is the crew at Red Rocks. For those of you who haven't made it there with us yet, it is an incredible ampitheater that is built into the rocks. The Beatles, Rolling Stones, and the Fray have all performed there. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir is on the schedule for next summer!

After Red Rocks we had about a half an hour before we needed to meet Noah for dinner. So we made a quick stop at the temple. I love these two pictures because they show my kids personalities. The one above is typical Ruby. She loves her mommy to hold her and give her kisses (definately a girl). Below is Levi, who had run away from his mom to put his hands into the fountain at the temple (which was promptly stopped after the picture) and then placing his handprints on the cement (he is all boy!). I love them both so much!

Following Red Rocks and dinner we had an adventure at Chuck E. Cheese. Marie wanted to take Levi to play games...and he loves Chuck E. Cheese. So we were having a nice time and were down to our last few tokens. Levi decided that he wanted to play ski ball. Last time we were at Chuck E. Cheese Noah taught him how to walk up the ramp and place the ball in the hole that he wanted. So he played ski ball the way his daddy taught him. All of a sudden there were sirens going off. Levi had gotten some magical, high score, and won the jackpot of 250 tickets. Above is Uncle Steve nicely organizing the tickets.

Here is Levi using the ticket counter. He had 349 tickets in all. And of course all he wanted at the ticket counter was a 10 ticker sucker.

The next day was free day at the zoo. It was so fun, and so crowded. I think that my favorite part was the hippos. There was one that was up out of the water and yawned so that we could see its huge mouth. We also got to see it walk back into the water. Too bad I had no camera for them. Ruby LOVED the zoo. She pointed at all the animals and would woof like a dog at them. It was pretty cute! Of course a trip to the zoo wouldn't be complete without dippin' dots.

This is the morning that they had to leave. As you can see in the picture, Ruby is a big morning person. She waked up almost every morning with a smile on her face, and Levi has a hard time waking up.Thanks for coming guys! We had a blast!

Levi's Imaginary "GUYS"

Levi has some imaginary friends. He calls them "The Guys!"

When we lived with Noah's parents the guys were always on the ceiling. We would be eating dinner and he would tell us that the guys were up there. Well when we bought our house the guys must have stayed at grams house.

They used to make apperances every so often at our house, but for the past week or so, they have been a big part of Levi's imaginary play time. Last week when we were out running some errands, we walked in a store and Levi said, "Come on guys, get in the cart." The guys accompanied us on all of our errands that day. Levi was very careful to tell them to buckle their seat belts each time that we got in the car.

Today the guys joined us for lunch. They sat at the counter and ate grapes, because they do not like noodles with peas.

CONGRATULATIONS MEGHAN AND GABE!!

Noah's only sister was married on October 11th!! It was a beautiful and perfect day! The church was beautiful, Meghan looked absoluteley gorgeous. They wrote a little something to say to each other and it was some of the sweetest things that I have ever heard. We are so happy for the two of them and can't wait to go to Nauvoo in a year. Thanks guys for letting us be part of your special day.

It was an especially fun weekend for us because we had some family friends from Utah stay with us. Bill, Bethy, Gage, and Emma came in on Thursday night and stayed until Monday. It was fun to watch Levi and Gage play. Bethy even helped me get rollers into Ruby's hair.

Another memorable time from the wedding was the dancing. I love dancing with Noah. There was a nice swing dancing tempo song on, and somehow neither one of were supervising our children, so I thought we could dance. I followed Noah out onto the dancefloor when suddenly he starts crazy dancing like I have never seen him crazy dance before. I can't describe it, but it was crazy enough that somewhere in the middle of his dance solo his tie was thrown off. Thanks honey for making me laught...extra hard! Needless to say when he started busting a move, I retreated from the dancefloor and laughed with everyone else from the sidelines.

This is Meghan and Ruby at the reception. You can see the beautiful canopy that was draped to cover the cultural hall ceiling. Everything was gorgeous!Meghan with her 5 brothers: Tim, Chris, Josh, Noah, and Nathaniel. Noah and his big brother Chris. Chris still lives in Chicago Heights where Noah grew up, so we don't get to see them very often. Aren't they cute? Levi was a ring bearer at the wedding. He did such a great job. I was a little nervous, because he was kind of a pill during rehersal, but he did absolutely perfect for the big event. His cousin, Isabella was a flower girl and they walked down the isle together. Doesn't he look dashing in his tuxedo? Ruby also got a new dres for the big event!

This is Levi with his cousin Olivia, who lives in Chicago. She is about a year younger than Levi, but they had a blast playing together for the weekend. This is a picture of the two of them sitting at Gram piano and drinking their pop.

Olivia has a brand new baby sister, sofia (congrats Chris and Meghan). Levi had seen pictures of baby sofia from when grams and yampa went to Chicago to visit her when she was born. He was SOOOOOOOOOO excited to see her. He talked about her all day long. Ruby was also in love with her. She would stare at her, and want to touch her.

Ruby's 1st Birthday!!

My sweet little Ruby turned 1, and I can hardly believe it!!!

A funny thing happened when Levi and I took her to her Dr. Appointment. I was trying to get the kids ready to go. When Levi asked where we were going I toldhim we had to take Ruby to the doctor. He responded by telling me that she wasn't sick. So I explained that because Ruby had a birthday, we needed to take her in for a check up. Well, when we got to the doctor, Levi walked up to the receiptionist and told her that Ruby was here for the ketchup! It was hillarious. The doctor's appointment went just fine. Ruby is tall and skinny according to the growth charts...once again, go figure!

We had a very fun polka dot birthday for her to celebrate. Thanks to everyone who made the day special for her, and her mommy. We had a contest to see who would wear the most polka dots, and I had dots candy in a vase for everyone to guess how many there were. Here are pics from the party.

Here is the BIRTHDAY GIRL!!! She got a new polka dot out fit. Grams brought some dot stickers just in case anyone forgot their polka dot attire!And the winner is....May May. She wore the mose polka dots to the party, so she got the polka dot princess crown. Grams and Yampa in their polka dots.

Levi doesn't own any polka dots (neither does his dad) so he decked his leg out in polka dot stickers, which were not pleasant for him to take off later.My polka dot decorations. I thought that they were pretty cool.Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday dear Ruby! Happy Birthday to you!Here is the beginning of the cake eating. She was actually pretty dainty for the whole thing. In this picture she is picking the polka dots off the cake and eating them.Then I cut up the cake, so that she would pick it up. She then crossed her little legs to the side and started eating.

Here is the extent of her messiness, and brother getting in on the action. What a little princess!!

As if our lives couldn't get more exciting!!!

Noah took this picture of the kids at his moms last Sunday. Levi loves to put all the balls in the wagon and pull it around the yard. He also loves to give Ruby rides in the wagon!

Isn't she gorgous!!! I just adore my little princess!!! She is so beautiful and full of life, and getting bigger and smarter all the time, and will be one in less than a week. She hates when I put her hair in pigtails, so I have only been doing that on Sundays lately.

This past Thursday I celebrated my 28th birthday...man am I old! However I am not as old as Noah's brother Josh who turned 30 this year, or as my sister Janette who will turn 30 next year (sorry guys!) It was a pretty normal day. Noah's mom came over and took us to Sonic to get a Cream Slush (yummy yummy!) and then Noah and I had dinner at Chilies and went to a movie. Oh I also made myself some yummy hommade salsa from our garden!

Noah took the day off from work yesterday and on Monday so that we could work on our house. We painted the kitchen (well actually Noah painted it and I played with the children. We also got rid of the vertical blinds and put up some curtains, and a new light fixture and it looks beautiful. We are planning to officially have it on the market in the next few weeks. So if anyone has decided that they miss us too much, and want to move to Colorado, we have an excellent house waiting for you to buy!


I hope that everyone in Utah is enjoying watching General Conference on public TV or listening to it on the radio. We don't get KBYU at our house, and our internet was out this morning so, I watched the veggietales instead of listening to conference. I am quite jealous!

So for the really exciting news. Ruby is going to be a big sister, and Levi is going to be a big brother, again! We are pretty excited about it. It seems like when our lives decide to be exciting that they decide to be really exciting. We will be adding o ur new little baby in May right in the middle of Noah's finals! When we told Levi that we were going to get a new baby he said that he wanted to keep Baby Ruby. So sweet.

The day after I told Noah he sent me a beautiful boquet of Chocolate colvered strawberries...which were soo yummy!

This is the cake we took over to Noah's mom when we told her we were having a baby. I got a little sick last weekend and wouldn't take any medicine (No advil when you are pregnant and no Tylonel when you are nursing). We knew that she thought it was insane that I wouldn't take anything, so we decided that it was time to spill the beans!