Merry Christmas!

Amanda and I celebrated our year anniversary this year in San Diego. As luck had it, we left a 100-degree Wildomar to spend a week in cloudy and misty 60-degree San Diego, but we made the best of the weather. Mostly we enjoyed our time at Sea World and bumming around Downtown. We both ate the best steak of our lives while we were there and now I know the secret to a great steak: all the inner juices should be replaced with butter.

The biggest news of our family is that Amanda is pregnant! Maybe even more surprising is the fact that we our having a girl, no one more excited than us and perhaps our mothers. We now have several outfits for her and some I still have to figure out how they actually go on the baby. It seemed like overnight our house went from neutral colors to monochromatic: pink in all its 1000 shades. The pink is definitely the sight to see and it makes me wonder how it can be so dominant when we boys (Charlie and I) still outnumber Amanda two to one.

Countless people have asked us the name of our baby. Tranquilo. We still don’t have a name for the baby yet so baby “no-name” is what my in-laws decided to call her. Our baby should be coming in the next couple of weeks so we hope and pray that everything goes well. More importantly, we hope she has a name by that time but the Internet is giving us nothing.

Charlie turned one this year. He is officially our family’s biggest “winner” (not loser) when it comes to his weight as he gained more than 70 pounds in one year. At least I know his food isn’t going straight through him—contrary to what my backyard lawn tells me. He’s matured some during this past year and just recently he’s been beginning to realize that cats are now his mortal enemies.

Other events this year include taking a trip to Solvang, having 4^th of July on the U.S.S. Midway, and finally ditching our big-box projection TV for a high def flatscreen TV. The Laker games will never be the same…neither will Vampire Diaries (for Amanda).

I hope everyone has a merry Christmas and we love you all!

Ryan and Amanda Stevens

Our little family :)

I was looking through some pictures from last year and Charlie is just so cute in this one.. I couldn't resist. This was thanksgiving day.. Charlie was 2 months old.

Newport ward slideshow

So winter break is over...

I suppose people with "real jobs" scorn me for saying that a three week break is not long enough for me, but you should see the kind of kids I have to teach all day (ok...babysit). As short as the break seemed, it was so much fun--from Santa getting us a ton of presents to trying to visit him in the North Pole--or was that Idaho we went to??

While on vacation, we left Charlie to take care of his younger sister Ellie. Look at how protective he is. Knowing that gnawing on a plastic cup can release harmful carcinogens into the body, Charlie keeps her out of harm's way. Good boy!

This is mine and Amanda's first Christmas together. Look at that beautiful Noble Fir Christmas tree! The tree almost adds some nobility to the cheap Walmart decorations adorning it. Notice that we are also sporting our new pj's.
I got angry and knocked down this tree as we hiked in the Santa Rosa Plateau. Yep, one spinning back kick and a little Amanda karate chop and it was history.

Charlie with his little bone. I thought rawhide was supposed to last longer than 30 seconds. Charlie should have chewed it, right?