Happy 3rd Birthday Luke!

In January Luke turned 3! We decided to give Luke his 1st official Birthday Party. He was so excited for his Tractor party! We had a fun filled morning with friends, food and of course…tractors! Thank you to all those who made Luke's 3rd Birthday a special-fun filled day!

All the Tractor Grub

Main course for kiddos- tractor Wheels and Cheese

No Tractor party is complete without a Tractor Cake

Each Kiddo got a picture in the Tractor cut out

We played "Pin the Wheel on the Tractor

Present time

Make a Wish Luke!

Tractor Party Favors and Hats

Fall 2013

My goodness-how time fly's! Lets play catch up…AGAIN, someday I'll get batter at this whole blogging thing. Fall 2013 was a busy one for us, full of fun and trips to see family.

Luke loves the goonies of the pumpkins

Family time at the football game

We were able to enjoy our first ever Cowboy's Football game, the Cowboy's had a great start to their season, but like most seasons they dropped the ball and ended with a pretty sad season. Luke loved the game! He was so excited to hear the cannon go off every time the Cowboys made a touch down.

The best part of Fall 2013 was seeing Luke get so excited about Halloween. He loved carving pumpkins and picked out his own costume of "Mike Wazowski" from Monsters Inc. This was the first Halloween that Luke went out for "trick-or treating." I didn't really think about what Wyoming "trick or treating" entailed.  The night of halloween it was  -4 degrees! Thankfully Luke was ok with only doing the houses on our block- otherwise we'd freeze! Next year Luke's costume will be something slightly more warm-maybe he can go as the Abominable Snowman.

My stud-muffin ready for his interview

In November, Kevin's hard work for the last several years finally started to pay off. For those who don't know, Kevin has been working extremely hard while still working, being a father and a husband towards the goal of becoming a Pharmacist. The road to becoming a Pharmacist is not a n easy one. Like most Doctorate programs in the medical field,  the pre-pharm program includes a lot of  "fun" math and science classes, Kevin has also had to take the PCATs (Pharmacy College Admissions Test). Kevin decided that this year he would only apply to The University of Wyoming-School of Pharmacy, which is in the top 50 Pharmacy Schools in the nation as well as they only accept about 80 students a year into the program. We were super excited to find out that UW had invited Kevin to interview for one of those 80 spots- to only apply to one school and get an interview with them is a massive achievement that I'm very proud of Kevin for. As for Kevin being accepted into the Pharmacy Program- we recently heard that he is on the waiting list as he finishes his last semester of pre-pharmacy classes.

After the stress of Kevin's interview, we drove to Denver so that we could catch a flight to Sacramento, California so that we could spend Thanksgiving with my family. This was Luke's first time flying-he LOVED it!

Muhlenkamp clan ready for the Thanksgiving Feast

Sadly, my family isn't able to get together very often due to all of our various schedules. Thanksgiving 2013 was a special time for the Muhlenkamp clan, it was the first time that ALL the cousins would meet- and the first time that Kevin and I would meet our 4 new nieces and nephews that my sister Crystal and her husband Brad had adopted. 

My parents decided to rent a time share in Lake

Tahoe where we can all enjoy everyone's company.  It was a great long weekend spent with family- we were able to get an updated family photo, which even Luke's "MooMoo" made his photo debut.
While in Lake Tahoe, I was feeling kind of "off", as I thought about things-Kevin and I went to the local grocery store and got a pregnancy test- IT WAS POSITIVE! This was extremely exciting and kind of scary news for us, exactly 1 year prior I was admitted for emergency surgery for an Ectopic Pregnancy. While in Tahoe I called the doctors in Wyoming to get in ASAP to make sure everything was going well this time around. We now had one more thing to be Thankful for that Thanksgiving!
After getting back from California- we had a couple weeks back to reality of school and work before making another trip for Christmas. We decided to go to Arizona and spend Christmas with Kevin's family. Before we left for Arizona, we made sure our "little peanut" was doing well- thankfully, everything was going 100 % better this
pregnancy.
We had yet another wonderful time with more family over Christmas! Since being in Wyoming, this was our first time back to Arizona. It was a little warm for us over the 10 days we were in Phoenix- the Wyoming-ans aren't used to 70 degree Decembers.
While in Phoenix, Kevin and I decided to take a day to go to the Camelback Inn in Scottsdale where we had our wedding reception and spent our first night of our honeymoon. It was  so nice to go somewhere that was meaningful to us and enjoy a wonderful lunch.
On another day we took Kevin's mom to see the construction site of the Phoenix Arizona Temple. It was neat to see how the Phoenix Temple was smack in the middle of a residential neighborhood.
Christmas was a great time spent with Kevin's family. My mom even sent us our traditional matching PJs so we wouldn't feel left out. Luke had a great time playing with his cousins and his Nana.
We had a wonderful end to 2013- full of family, blessings, and new memories!

Craziness and fun...That's how we role.

Im not sure where to begin- life in the Bias household has been crazy and fun this summer-uh, correction...life in the Bias house has been crazy since the beginning of the year! So here's a small recap of what we've been up to...
One of the biggest changes that's added some craziness to our life is that I went back to work as a Dental Assistant at the end of March. As many of you know I stopped working in the Dental field after going back to work shortly after Luke was born to pursue an opportunity to work from home  for my dads company while being able to care for Luke. I was blessed to be a stay-at-home/working mom for 2 years-but sadly all good things end at some point. Sadly, in March my dad was given the news that General Motors (for those who don't know I was ordering parts for GM car dealerships throughout the country) was not allowing their dealerships order all their parts thru another party anymore.  After discussing our options- Kevin and I decided it was best for me to dust off my resume and not have all our eggs in one basket with my dads company anymore.
We were extremely blessed that I was offered a job the same week that we learned of the massive down sizing of our income. I've been assisting at Laramie Dental Arts since March as well as still doing what I can for my dads company after I get home-to say its been crazy with Kevin in school, having one car, and Luke needing to go to daycare is understatement-but luckily I have an amazing husband who has been amazing with picking up the slack of taking care of the household duties while I'm at work all day. I do enjoy the office I work at- I never thought a dental office in our tiny town would be so busy- and no we aren't the only office in town- just the best one : )

Like I said our summer has been crazy but fun! The fun began with a little get-away to my parents place in Dubois, Wy (about 5ish hrs away).  We had a fun long weekend that included meeting the newest Muhlenkamp members- Tank and Knight, my parents new horses as well as taking a day trip to Jackson Hole. Luke loved feeding the horses carrots in the morning, helping daddy cook breakfast, seeing all the wildlife near Jackson Hole, getting ice cream and getting new boots! It was wonderful weekend for us to spend time together and get away from work and school.

Johnny 5 and Luke playing in the backyard

We've also had a lot of visitors to Laramie this summer which is always fun! For Fathers Day weekend we had a house full- my parents, our niece and nephew (John and Melissa's kiddos), my cousin Janelle and my Uncle David. Luke had fun playing with his cousins- sadly because of living situations Luke has only met his cousins on the Muhlenkamp side once when he was 6 months old- so him and Johnny 5 who are only 3 months apart had a blast running and playing! We had a family BBQ and I made my Dad and Kevin special Father's Day cakes- it was a fun filled family weekend, always nice to see family!

We've enjoyed the wonderful summer weather here in Laramie- I guess coming from Arizona, any summer weather is enjoyable thats under 110 degrees! We've started a tradition of having Kevin's Mom from Arizona come out to celebrate the 4th of July in state where its not too hot to enjoy the fireworks. We had a lot of fun with Debbie the week of 4th of July. She flew into Denver so we spent the day at the Denver Zoo. I loved how family friendly the Denver Zoo was- they had a little play area with a waiting pool for the kiddos to cool off in and a little sand-digging area as well as Luke's favorite aspect- a little  "Choo Choo" that went around a part of the Zoo. Luke had fun seeing all the animals up close and personal.

Mint Chocolate Chip-YUMM!

Kevin decided to start a new tradition of making Homemade Ice Cream to take to watch fireworks. We watch fireworks in Cheyenne at the Frontier Park- it gets pretty crowded so we have to go and get "our spot" pretty early. We started our 4th with Kevin making both Chocolate and Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream and packing it up in a cooler with Dry-Ice to keep it cold. I spent most of the morning of the 4th sleeping a sinus infection away-boo! We made the 45min trip to Cheyenne for an early dinner and to claim "our spot." While we waited for the fireworks we walked and explored the park and ate Kevin's yummy Ice Cream. Luke really enjoyed the fireworks and loved sitting on Nana's lap to watch them!
We always love the time we get to spend with Debbie-sadly we don't get to see Kevin's side of the family all too often now that we're in Wyoming so its nice to see them when we do!

Luke and I getting ready to sees Allan Jackson

Luke enjoying the parade

Every year Cheyenne, Wyoming celebrates "Frontier Days" with a massive rodeo, carnival, country music, and a parade. This is our second year meeting up with my parents to see one of the concerts. This year we saw a country music icon- Allan Jackson. We really enjoyed the concert he put on- it was just him and his music non of the crazy laser beams or whatnot. Before the concert we had fun walking around and seeing all the venders and what they were selling. Luke learned a new saying this year "Yee-Haw," every time he saw a cowboy we heard "Yee-Haw"- this still happens today, in fact we were sitting in church last week and a kid in front of us was looking at a cowboy book and as loud as he could Luke yells " Yee-Haw!" We also met my parents for the parade. We were really impressed with the parade, they had all the Rodeo Queens from around the country, the UW football players and cheerleaders, a bunch of vintage cars, and TONS of vintage tractors. It was a lot of fun! We love these type of events in our little Wyoming towns- so Americana! We spent the rest of the day enjoying the Train Museum, walking the shops and enjoying the BEST BBQ from a little hole-in the-wall restaurant.
Throughout all the fun and craziness of summer Kevin has been spending countless hours upon hours studying for the PCAT's- Pharmacy College Admission Test . He finally took it in July and what a relief it was to be done with it! Once we get his results back his application for the University of Wyoming School of Pharmacy will be admitted- we are excited to finally reach this point- Kevin has worked super hard to at this milestone in his scholastic career and I couldn't be more proud of him! We wont know if he's accepted to the Pharmacy School til around January '14- we're keeping our fingers crossed!
As our summer has started coming to an end as Kevin returns to classes on August 26th, we've been taking advantage of  the 70 degree weather and our study-free weekends by spending some time at the local splash pad and parks. We're sad to see our summer dwindle but ready to start planning next summers adventures :)

Happy 2013!

We hope everyone had a fabulous and safe New Years! We had a wonderful 2012 full of new chapters and experiences, we're excited to see what 2013 will bring!

Enjoying our traditional Chinese Food New Years Eve Dinner!

Weekend Get-Away

As a Christmas present my parents gave Kevin and I a weekend in Denver, while they stayed and watched Luke. Neither of us had ever been to Denver so it was fun to explore the big city. Denver is only a 2.5 hour drive, it was a beautiful drive surrounded by the Rockies.
While in Denver, at first  we didn't know what do with ourselves being "kid free"- but we managed to figure it out. We had some yummy food at one of our favorite restaurants that we've missed since living in the country- The Cheese cake Factory-hmmm just typing it is making me hungry for their avocado egg rolls! We also did some shopping, saw the movie Les Mis and checked out the Downtown Denver Aquarium!
We had a fabulous weekend re-connecting and being just the two of us, as most of you may know we keep pretty busy with Luke, school and work. However, it was nice to come home and see our little monster!

Kevin checking out the Aquarium 

A "Butt-Flap" Christmas

We hosted Christmas with my parents here at our house this year. We were excited to be somewhere where you could look out the window and it actually look like Christmas. We got a nice snow storm the week of Christmas-so we had our first "white Christmas."
As a tradition in my family my mom and I made a homemade Tamale dinner Christmas Eve and opened our matching Christmas Pjs. My parents went "all out" and got us ALL, yes even the men in the family, onesie Pjs from Yellowstone-with butt flaps-yes, you read correctly BUTT FLAPS!
It was hysterical to see us four adults come out one by one modeling our onesies! Luke won the prize for looking the cutest of course!
Christmas morning we woke up and had Kevin's yummy homemade Cinnamon Rolls and hot chocolate as we opened presents. I was spoiled AGAIN this year by Kevin-he remembered a beautiful painting of the LDS Salt Lake City temple that I fell in love with when were dating. I attempted to equally spoil him with some wood working tools he wanted.
The best part of Christmas morning by far was watching Luke light up with each gift he got- he for sure  got spoiled and loved it! Luke's favorite toy is anything with wheels- and he got plenty of new cars other wheeled objects of every sort!

All of us showing off our PJs

Luke is loving his new cars!

Testing out his new race track!

My beautiful picture!

Loving all his fun gifts

Kevin's wood working stuff

"Oh Christmas Tree..."

This year we decided to try something new- get an actual Christmas Tree. The past couple years we did the fake tree thing. I grew up always smelling a fresh tree in our house- I was ready to give Luke that experience. As December 1st approached we didn't see any Christmas Tree Lots here in Laramie. I finally decided to ask around where people got their trees. I was surprised to find out that most people here go into the forest and cut their own trees down. Once again-another "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacattion" scene popped into my head- Ummm we're city folk, we don't know the first thing about cutting down a tree and I wasn't about to have a squirrel running around my living room.
We got lucky and finally found a "city slicker" friendly-Christmas Tree Lot! However we went on a nice Wyoming Windy day to pick one up and had it fall off our car on the way home-oh how the locals got a good laugh at the crazy people with Arizona plates trying to reattach the tree to our roof.
We finally got our tree home and began decorating-Luke was a great supervisor!

Luke and daddy putting on the lights

All decorated!