So Far Away

We have done so much I don't think I could update it all! I feel so far away from everyone and everything, we don't have internet where we live so I can't get on-line very often and never long enough for me to blog anything! Michael is taking his CA Real Estate test this Tuesday and is taking a crash course today and tomorrow here in San Diego so we're in a hotel with internet access so I'm taking this chance to do a little update, but unfortunately I don't have pictures on our laptop to add to this post.

So this is what has been happening...

Michael is working for Marriott doing time-share sales, and will be making A LOT more commission once he gets his Real Estate license. He was having a bit of a hard time at first but I think he is enjoying his job now.

I have finally been reading the Harry Potter series and am on book 7 and enjoying the read. I got called to be a Relief Society teacher and am a little intimidated since our ward is full of elderly women who I'm sure know way more than I do and are in completely different circumstances than I am but I do my best to relate to them.

Jonah is in Kindergarten and plays soccer with AYSO, he loves soccer and scored 3 goals during his first game! he is getting more independent every day and I need to stop thinking of him as a little boy and more as a older kid.

Ryker is turning 2 tomorrow and is still a handful but is also very funny and sweet! he is talking more but not making sentences or putting words together yet. like a typical 2 year old his favorite word is "NO" He loves holding Evva and giving her kisses and likes to be my helper. He also loves to play with Jonah and our little doggy, Sammy.

Evva is so much fun! She rolled over for the first time on Conference Sunday and has been rolling ever since. She is very good at rolling to things she wants. She is still a very happy baby and likes kisses, tickles, blowing rasberries , and watching her brothers play, no one can get her to laugh as loud as her big brother Jonah! We had her blessing in Bakersfieldwith my and Michael's families in August. In October we got her ears pierced and I think it looks so cute! Now we can definitely tell she is a girl even though she is still mostly bald. She is growing so fast and is catching up in weight to our little Ryker they can wear the same size diapers, Ryker is so skinny and petite, and Evva is a little chunk, she loves to eat!

well that's a general update hopefully we can figure something out for internet where we live or maybe move soon so I can keep updated better!

Moving

We have been so busy this month!! we were in Dallas for a week (which I'll post about later) then Michael and I have been busy finishing his last 2 classes for his MBA, I include myself in that because I've been doing his on-line class myself, and Michael has been trying to get a job lined up for when he graduates. Well Michael applied for a job with Marriott in Palm Desert California and had two interviews, yesterday he called to check in with them and got in touch with the Project Developer who is higher than who he interviewed with, and he graduated from BYU-Provo so he wanted to talk to Michael personally since he graduated from BYU-H and the next thing we knew Michael was offered a job there! We have to be there by August 13th and Michael's commencement is on August 8th so we'll be moving pretty quickly hopefully we'll be able to find a house or something over there soon! I just wanted to keep everyone updated and if I don't blog for a while that's why! we are so excited and feel that this is a right move for us.

Happy 4th of July!

This year we went to Fort Davis (another little town about 25 minutes from Alpine) for a parade and "Bank Robbery" show with lots of loud gun fire! the city had tons of vendors so we had fun walking around and looking at everything and enjoying funnel cake! I had my camera out but forgot about it and only took one picture while we were there. Michael had to work in the afternoon but I took the kids to the park in Alpine where there were more vendors and fun things to do like jump in the bounce house, fish in the ducky pond, and face painting. Later in the evening Michael joined us and we watched the fireworks display at the park then went to my brother-in-law's house to shoot off more fireworks and play with sparklers. we had so much fun but I wish Michael didn't have to work, I was running around like crazy trying to keep Jonah and Ryker where I could see them and still let them have fun. I had several people come up to me and tell me they had been watching me and that they thought I was doing a good job, I felt really frazzled by the time Michael joined us, but at least it looked like I was doing a good job wrangling my boys, I am so thankful for the sling, at least Evva was happy the whole time and couldn't get away from me!! All in all it was a very fun fourth of July! I love living in our country and having the freedoms we do!

Evva's Birth Story

we finally found the cord we needed so we could load our videos onto our computer so here is the first video we have ever uploaded, the birth of our little girl Evva. Michael put this together, I think it turned out really great so I thought I would share it.
p.s. don't worry there are no gross scenes!

Evva Sofia Rasmussen

Oh man I can't believe it has already been one week! well On June 10th I went in to be induced and was dilated 4 cm I had antibiotics in for a few hours before they started me on pitocin and I had progressed by myself to 5 cm. a few hours after having the pitocin I was 6 cm and another hour or so later I was still at 6 cm, the contractions were getting kind of hard and since I hadn't changed for the past few hours I asked for pain killers in my IV thinking it would probably be a while for me to get to 10 cm, WRONG!! within 15 minutes of getting the pain killers I felt like I needed to push, the nurse checked me and I was fully dilated, I wish I didn't have the pain killers so I could say I did it all natural, oh well, so two contractions and a few pushes later little Evva was born at 4:01 pm. She was 6 lbs 10oz. and 181/4 inches long. She is healthy and very happy. I felt great after the delivery and have recovered very quickly! we got home from the hospital Thursday the 11th and on friday we all went our for dinner then Michael and I got a babysitter for the boys and took Evva with us to see a movie. I went to church on sunday and everyone was amazed to see me there minus the belly, plus a baby. Evva is a wonderful little baby, she sleeps so well at night and only wakes up about 2-3 times each night to eat then goes right back to sleep. Jonah and Ryker love her and Ryker always comes to give her kisses. I was really worried about Ryker but he is doing very well. I only have tweo pictures loaded on my computer right now but I'll post more later.

Dr. Appointments and hospitals

I went in for a Dr. appointment today and found out that I'm 3 centimeters dilated, my Dr. wants to induce me tomorrow morning if nothing happens tonight, since during my appointment he also stripped my membranes hoping to induce labor but nothing so far. I also had to go to the hospital for fetal monitoring because I told my Dr. that I didn't feel the baby move very much yesterday but her heartbeat is strong and steady and she has been moving today so everything should be just fine. So, the big news is, tomorrow I'll be a new mommy again and have a little girl for the first time!! We are very excited to see our little Evva Sofia!!

Camping, playing, and Jonah's Birthday!!

The past few weeks have been full of fun! We went to the Monahans Sandhills State Park, about 2 hours from where we are in Alpine; we brought our tent and gear and bikes. we had fun but didn't stay as long as we originally planned since it rained most of the night and drizzled all morning while we ate breakfast and packed up our stuff. Fortunately we were able to play on the sand dunes the day we got there, we couldn't really slide down them like we thought using our storage bin lids but the boys had fun rolling and running down the hills anyway. We had a lot of fun riding our bikes around too! Ryker loves the seat his daddy built for him on my bike!







Since our camping trip was cut short we drove another 35 minutes to Odessa and stopped at the Odessa Meteor Crater, there wasn't really anything to look at and the museum part was closed so we walked around the crater edge that isn't very deep anymore after years of erosion and rainfall, but it was something to do.

One fun thing they had was a pile of dust-like powder called meteor flour. Michael had fun painting the boys' faces with it. Jonah thought he looked like an Indian warrior.





Last week it rained and hailed! we had fun watching it! after it stopped, Ryker liked to point at the piles of hail on the ground and say "Mmmm, yum, yum" needless to say he ate quite a bit of ice!
Another one of Ryker's shenanigans! It was a little too quiet one afternoon and when I went to see why this is what I found! No it's not a bloody nose it's my lipstick! Isn't he handsome? or should I say pretty?



Last but not least, wednesday June 3rd was Jonah's birthday! He is now 5 years old! He is getting so big!!

This is Ryker watching Jonah open his presents, does he look jealous or what! Poor kid, lucky for him we got him a little toy too!

For Jonah's birthday this year we didn't plan a party since we weren't sure when this little girl of ours would be making her debut but she is being very patient and might wait til her actual due date (only 6 more days!) unlike her impatient brothers! Anyway Jonah wanted to go bowling for his birthday so that's what we did, it was fun and they even had a little ramp that Ryker could use to roll his ball down so he could "bowl" too! Michael won and Ryker actually got second place! Unfortunatley I beat Jonah but we told him he beat me so he wouldn't be so upset about losing to his baby brother on his borthday, he hates to lose! All in all he had a good birthday and is very glad that he is 5 and can go to kindergarten this fall.

Improving Talents

I never thought that I had much talent in anything but I have periodically taken (and slacked off on) piano lessons. Michael has always been very supportive in my desire to play the piano even if I feel like it's a hopeless cause, he has bought me pianos and keyboards through out the years and found people willing to give me lessons but although I enjoy playing little tunes I have never learned anything very useful, until recently. My sister-in-law Amy who lives a few minutes away from us is an excellent pianist and teaches all her kids how to play Michael asked if she would teach me too and I have been taking lessons from her once a week since last October or so, well she has taught me so much and helped me actually practice because I have to report to her every week, but I have been learning how to play some hymns and on Sunday May 17th I played the piano during our branch sacrament meeting, I played all of the prelude music, the three hymns for the meeting, and a rest hymn. I was scared to death and shaking hysterically, my stomach was in knots all morning before church and during the first half of sacrament! I did make mistakes but luckily I was able to keep going and they weren't disastrous. I am very grateful for Amy in helping me to learn a useful skill and encouraging me even when I don't believe I'm ready for such a task as to play for sacrament meeting. I'm very glad to say that I have done it and I'm also very glad to say that its over now! I am still working on learning how to play new hymns since I only know how to play 5 right now but it's fun to work on a challenge and witness the results.

Playing Catch-up

I have been awful at keeping my blog up-to-date so here's a bunch of stuff that we have been up to (except all the things we've done that I forgot to bring along my camera).

EASTER!! On Easter morning the boys woke up and Ryker quickly found the goodies on the table! He is my little piggy, he's constantly eating! He loved the jelly beans in the eggs and his noddle nest they were in. Jonah liked his chocolate bunny and hunting for eggs. He had a blast coloring eggs too!


After church, which was cut short due to a wild fire that started across the street from the church and filled the building with smoke! We had a delicious ham dinner with Michael's brother Clay and his family then we colored eggs and let the kids hunt for them! Ryker was way excited about the one egg he found!
Michael is always drawing on Jonah, or whoever is nearby when he has a pen. Here is what Jonah and Ryker will look when they grow facial hair! Pretty cute!


We have also been busy working on our garden. Since we live in an apartment we have our garden at Clay and Amy's house. Michael had the idea to "go green" and use old tires from the community as planters for our garden. It is looking good so far and I'm excited to have fresh herbs and veggies!

Clay and Amy have a horse so after working on the garden Michael took Ryker for a ride, which he loved then Jonah got to ride the horse all by himself like a true cowboy!


Jonah even knows the lingo, he kept saying "Giddy up horsy" and "yeehaw" He did a good job steering the horse and making him stop so I could get a picture of him!


And finally here is a picture of me at 81/2 months pregnant. Okay mom, now you can see that my stomach is getting bigger!

oops!

I added a new post from our vacation that was quite a while ago but it got posted below my last post because I started it before and couldn't get the pictures loaded and stopped. So I finally got it to work and posted it but didn't change the date to have it show as the newest post, so check below for the whole vacation adventure!

Battling the Binkie

Ryker has been hooked on the pacifier from birth and Michael an dI have been trying to decide when an dhow to get him off of his dependence on it. While we were in California we had lunch with some old friends, Brad and Reiko Lamb, Brad was telling Michael that if you screw the pacifier to teh wall at the kids' height they can still suck in it whenever they want but they have to keep their nose to the wall, which will eventually make the kid realize it's not worth suckin gon at all. SO on tuesday we took Ryker's paci and screwed it to the wall, he thought it was so funny and just laughed at it, he does go to it and suck on it every now and then but I still give him a pacifier to sleep with, I'm not ready to listen to him crying himself to sleep! anyway here are some funny pictures of the paci on the wall.

California Vacation

I know it has taken me forever to post this but I was having problems with uploading the pictures for some reason but here is what we did last month on vacation! Our trip from the pictures I took, which sadly aren't that many! we must have been having too much fun to think about pictures! or too busy running from my parents house to Michael's parents, it's good and bad to have both our parents living in the same place, it's nice to only have to plan one vacation and see almost all of our family but it's hard because we have to split up our time. I think we should take vacations that are twice as long!! We had a lot of fun with everyone and wish we could have been there longer to enjoy it more!! Our vacation started by driving to the Grand Canyon and stopping along the way, here are the boys playing in a Tepee at one place we stopped, and then we stopped at Walnut Canyon in Arizona and hiked along the canyon wall where Indians had once lived, we could hike to the little caves they lived in that were stained black from fires so long ago. The whole time I was thinking about how many kids could have easily died from falling off the edge of the canyon, scary thought!




When we got to the Grand Canyon we got dinner and went to bed, in the morning we got up to drive to the Grand Canyon to see the sun rise, but when we went outside, we were surprised to see that it was snowing! We went to the Grand Canyon look-out anyway but couldn't see much of anything so we went back to the hotel packed up and ate breakfast, but went to the lookout before leaving for California. The sun had broken through the clouds and we could see the whole canyon, it was beautiful! We were cold but enjoyed looking at the beauty of the earth and its diversity.



When we finally got to Bakersfield California, we were able to relax and let the kids run around. They did really good in the car and we had a lot of fun talking and playing together. Jonah and Ryker really wanted to go swimming at Grandma's house and they both got in, even though the water was freezing! Jonah jumped in twice but Ryker kept going back for more after each time Michael dunked him in. These boys were the first ones in the pool (voluntarily) this year. I say voluntarily because while were there my sisters came over to my mom's house so we could all go shopping together and my sister, Christa's, oldest boy Peyton (3) fell into the pool (un-voluntarily) and my mom jumped in to help him out.





Jonah wanted to go fishing so Michael took Jonah and his nephew England. They came home with these good sized catfish, we were all very impressed until Jonah said he knew a secret: The fish were from the store. They couldn't come home empty handed!!



Michael's parents live on a Ranch and have lots of horses, chickens, peacocks, and such. Michael's dad made a wagon from the back of an old truck, I think, so he hitched up some horses and we all went for a buggy ride around their property. Jonah had so much fun playing out on the farm, there is so much to do there and so many of his cousins live out there too! Ryker loved to walk around the yard playing on the toys and the teeter-totter and his favorite part about the farm were the chickens!






Playing at the park with my sister's kids and some old friends from Bakersfield. Jonah looks so grown up to me in these pictures! He was one of the biggest kids there!




Before leaving we had the opportunity to visit with my granny, despite her age and restricted movement abilities she is almost constantly crocheting something! While we were there she showed me all the quilts and things she's working on. I hope I can still be productive when I'm her age!