Rasmussen Family

Time goes by way too fast!

2011-12-20T12:34:00.007-06:00

I have been so busy lately that I absolutely forgot all about my blog I just remembered it a few days ago so now I have the big task of updating it! SO I think I'll put some pictures up of what we've been doing and if anyone even looks at this anymore hopefully you'll enjoy it!

Jonah has become quite the cowboy! He rides our pony, Joy, every chance he gets! here he is on Joy with Joy's baby (Zion) following behind them!

here we are at our new favorite beach it was so fun! we even saw two seals swimming in the shallow waves!

I took the kids to a little zoo where we live

here we are camping on Labor Day weekend the kids had fun and got filthy! but it was such a good trip! Our new dog Amber had fun too! She got cold so Ryker gave her his hat and jacket :)

Kami enjoyed our little hike, it was so pretty!

Jonah's school went on a field trip and learned about insects, part of the day was spent catching water bugs and identifying them the kids loved it! Even Ryker and Evva joined in the fun!

Halloween brought much excitement as we prepared the kids costumes. Jonah was so excited to be Harry Potter, Ryker changed his mind at the last minute and wore Jonah's old Batman costume but he was happy so that's all that matters, Evva's costume I bought last year, she wasn't very excited when I said she was going to be a witch but then she saw the black and orange tutu and thought it was like a princess so she was a princess witch :) Kami was a little kitty cuddling with Papa!

Mostly we have been busy renovating and moving. We now have 5 acres of land, one horse, two ponies, a dog, a cat, a dirt hole to dig in, Grandpa and Grandma Rasmussen, aunts and uncles, and a ton of cousins to play with... the kids are in heaven! of course we still have a lot to do before our house is finished but it is nice to have it be our own!

Ryker turned 4 on November 15th, we frosted sugar cookies and had a Lightning McQueen cake and enjoyed the day with family, we are so blessed to have our family so close both on my side and Michaels!

During Thanksgiving we had our annual Rasmussen Reunion with lots of fun activities on the farm such as a tug of war, three legged race, sheep riding, horse drawn carriage rides, and more!

And here is just a cute picture of my little baby Kamorah she is getting so big and I love her brown hair and blue eyes!

Kamorah Kay and summer vacation

2011-07-23T21:55:00.008-05:00

Kamorah was born on Monday May 23rd at 9:16AM she weighed 7 lbs and was 20 inches long, the exact weight and length Ryker was :) my labor and delivery was so fast by the time I got to the hospital and got checked I was fully dilated and they put me in a room, hooked up my IV and said "okay you can push" so I pushed and a few seconds later I had a beautiful baby girl with no pain meds at all and no tearing either I guess that's what happens when it's your fourth baby but I think she was definitely my easiest delivery! Kamorah is such a beautiful baby we're so grateful for her to join our family!

Coming home in her pretty dress!

meeting her Nana and brothers and sister for the first time!

SUMMER VACATION
For our vacation we drove to Canada and visited Michael's relatives who live there, this was the first time I had met many of them and had so much fun! We also went to Yellowstone, Zion National Park, Yuba Lake state park, The Nephi Stampede, and visited with friends along the way we wish our vacation could have lasted longer we were enjoying ourselves way too much!

Waterton park in Canada
Looking at the waterfall

Evva by the lake

On the top of Bear's Hump hike

We stayed with Michael's grandma while in Canada and had a great time with her!

The Cardston Temple

seeing the sites in Yellowstone or as Ryker calls it Jellystone (thanks to Yogi Bear, we looked for him while we were there but never saw him):)
The Yellowstone river and Yellowstone's Grand Canyon

waiting for Old Faithful

looking at the buffalo

Hiking at Zion National Park, it was so beautiful!

Michael and I on the jet ski taking Ryker and Evva for a ride on Yuba Lake in Utah

Kamorah's funny face

on the Carousal at the Nephi Stampede

Camping!

2011-05-13T12:39:00.002-05:00

two weeks ago we went camping at the coast to try out our new camping trailer for the first time, we had so much fun! we played in the sand and Jonah played in the waves but it was too cold fro the rest of us as Evva found out when she fell and a wave got her soaked, poor little girl, we spent the rest of the time at the beach on the warm sand running up and down the dunes and Ryker found a cache of sand dollars someone tried to hide in the sand, he was so excited and we ended up taking almost all of them home there must have been about 80 of them green, purple, and white!

Of course during all our adventures my camera was safely stowed away in the truck and no pictures were taken but at the campsite I did manage to take some videos of the kids playing on the playground.

Easter

2011-05-13T11:44:00.004-05:00

Easter Sunday was a beautiful day, the kids each got a toy from the Easter bunny before church and tons of candy from primary and of course Momo (AKA:Grandma)! We didn't dye eggs this year but we had fun hunting for plastic eggs and eating the goodies inside! I think I was sort of a fun sucker being prego and tired this year but we did make some Easter story cookies with the kids and they enjoyed that! After church while the kids were still dressed and cute, before all the candy and chocolate, we took some fun pictures of them!

I've also been doing a few crafty things lately, I made a nursing cover and gave it to my sister-in-law who just had a baby and last weekend I made one for myself, it was much easier than I thought!

I bought a bunch of ribbons and made bows for Evva then decided I needed a cute place to keep them all and made a little bow holder but I need to add another length of ribbon for more bows since they don't all fit.

2011-05-11T19:18:00.000-05:00

Here is a brief update on what's been going on lately...
Easter Sunday was very nice and the kids were so cute, we enjoyed the day with our family and ate too much yummy food!

I've been feeling a little crafty so I made a nursing cover and gave it to my sister-in-law who just had a baby it turned out really cute and was pretty easy so I made one for myself last weekend but didn't take a picture of it.

I also made a bunch of little bows for Evva and a bow holder to put them on I think I may have to add another ribbon for more bows to attach to because I didn't get all the ones she has on it, I guess it will be a work in progress :)

a couple of weeks ago we took a weekend trip to the coast to go camping in our travel trailer and try it out for the first time, it was so much fun!! We played at the beach, rode bikes, flew a kite and and played around but I, being me, left my camera behind during all the fun stuff so all I have are some videos I took of the kids playing at the little playground by our campsite, but hey it's better than nothing!

kids!

2011-03-09T12:44:00.003-06:00

Evva has been getting into everything lately, the pantry, the cat food, my makeup, her own diapers, the list goes on... I think I'm slacking a little on watching her all the time and I forget to make sure our bedroom door is closed so she stays out of A. my makeup and B. the toilet (we've gone through more toilet paper in the last 2 months than we do in like 6 months thanks to Evva flushing it all). Anyway the other day while I was cleaning up the kitchen and lost track of time, I realized it'd been a while since I'd seen or heard Evva so I went looking for her and found her in my bedroom like this

She had lipstick all over her, the cupboards, the wall and some of our clothes in the laundry basket I was pretty upset with her since she know she shouldn't be in there but I managed to take a picture of her since I also have pictures of Jonah and Ryker with my makeup all over them.

Jonah with Mascara

Ryker with lipstick

The funny thing is I think they're all at about the same age when they did this! and can you tell they're related? they're like little clones of each other!

What's up?

2011-02-14T12:40:00.003-06:00

Here is a little bit of what we've been up to lately...

Ryker started going to Sunbeams at church and got his very own Book of Mormon to take with him to Primary just like Jonah. He loves it so much! He even sleeps with it and asks me to read it to him all the time, I like that he does even if I only read a couple of verses it's nice for me to take the time to read the scriptures and give myself a spiritual lift in my day!

Here is Evva riding her pony Michael and I made for Christmas 2009 she loves horses and cows, she's so funny!

Here's the kids watching the fire, they were mesmerized by it for a good 10 minutes!

Jonah's school had a Cultural Day and each class learned about other countries then learned a song about that country and performed it for the parents Jonah learned "Itsy-Bitsy Spider" in Spanish and a song about a bunny in Korean. Jonah also won an Improvement award in reading and language arts and math!

Michael built a bed for our mattress, we have never had an actual bed, usually just mattresses on the floor or if I was lucky we had a bed frame to get the mattress a foot off the floor but now we have a nice bed complete with headboard and footboard and Michael built it himself after I told him how to make it look, of course!

This weekend we went out for a Family day, we went to CALM the California Living Museum it's like a mini-zoo here in Bakersfield the kids all had a fun time and it was nice to do something we could all enjoy, and the weather was great about 70, very nice for February!

Christmas 2010 and New Year's

2011-01-10T13:34:00.004-06:00

This Christmas I was HORRIBLE with taking pictures! we took a short video of the kids opening some presents and when we went to my parents house for another round of gifts I didn't even bring my camera, so no pictures there either oops! WE had a very fun if picture-less Christmas anyway! It was so much fun to be with family for all the Holiday festivities Between my side and Michael's side of the family we busy running from house to house and only coming home to sleep and change our clothes but we really had a wonderful Christmas and could enjoy the love of Christ and our family!

NEW YEAR'S 2011

Last year on new year's day we went to Santa Monica and rode bikes on the bike trail by the beach, we had so much fun we decided to make it a tradition so this year we went to San Luis Obispo and rode bikes on their trail to the beach. Again it was so much fun! The kids all love to go for a bike ride and it feels good to be outside all day! We stopped by a river to throw rocks and continued our ride to the beach where we saw tons of beautiful orange and purple starfish! We truly enjoyed ourselves and were glad to share the day together with my parents and brother as well!

Evva was so funny on this boardwalk! She was scared of walking on it because she could see through the slats, poor little girl she really thought she would fall right through them!

P.S. if you were wondering, yes that is duck tape on Evva's gloves and boots, Michael didn't want her to lose them while we were on our bike's so this was his solution. "you might be a redneck if..."

Here's Evva while we were waiting for our lunch, she is a very silly girl and is always making faces!

After bike riding all day and finally getting home we had to let the kids play with sparklers to celebrate the new year! We had such a fun day!

Gingerbread Traditions

2010-12-23T18:34:00.004-06:00

For the last few years it has been our family tradition to make gingerbread houses with the kids on Christmas Eve but we just couldn't wait this year and we knew we would be too busy with the all the family we have in town to share the holidays with so we made gingerbread houses for Family Home Evening instead. The kids all had a great time and loved all the sweets we kept throwing at them to add to their houses (or mouths which ever it go to first!) I love my family and spending time together!

Ryker LOVED the sprinkles!

Evva LOVED the frosting!

And Jonah LOVED it all!

My favorite picture, He is such a goofy little boy!

Evva showing off her Gingerbread house before D-Day (devouring day in this case)

Chrsitmas time!!

2010-12-13T11:33:00.006-06:00

The first weekend in December we had our ward Christmas party.
Me and Nana

Jonah is getting to be such a big kid but went to see Santa anyway.

Ryker was so excited to see Santa and tell him what he wanted for Christmas but then had a hard time when he realized he wasn't going to get it right away, I am still telling him he has to wait for Christmas for Santa to bring his presents!

Evva wasn't to sure about what to do but I was surprised she didn't cry she just sat next to Santa and was happy she got a candy cane!

On Saturday the 11th our ward held a family temple day, where they have volunteers who will babysit at the temple apartments for couples with young children while they do a session. I think this is a great idea! Michael and I were able to enjoy the temple knowing our kids were safe and not too far away. The L.A. temple is 2 hours from our home so instead of feeling like we should rush like normal we were able to take the day slow and enjoy it with our children and walk around with them at the visitor's center and the temple grounds lit up with Christmas lights, it was so fun and beautiful!

This picture is a little blurry but I still like it!

Why Wall Paper?

2010-12-07T11:18:00.004-06:00

Why would anyone ever put wall paper in their house? Well, the wall paper that was in the master bedroom was driving me crazy so I decided I wanted it gone! I was so glad that although it took some time it really wasn't that hard I was a little scared that it wouldn't want to come off! After some work and time Michael and I finally got it all off and I started painting, that was the fun part! Now we have a room where we can feel relaxed and it's weird but we feel cleaner too it's like the wall paper sent out these gross dirty vibes, but it's all gone now!

Thanksgiving: part 2

2010-11-30T11:18:00.003-06:00

Pictures!!

Having fun at the family carnival playing balloon darts, buck hunt and other fun games!

Michael's Dad AKA Where's Waldo?

Evva was like a living doll for the little girls, they always tried to hold her and carry her around, here she is with Hannah and Harlie

Jonah surprised me by willingly riding the sheep after watching his cousin get thrown from it! GO Jonah!!

Going...

Going...

Gone! Besides getting dirty, no one was hurt!

Here's Ryker racing with his Uncle Cody and some cousins, he had so much fun with his cousins or as he calls them his best friends like Buzz and Woody, so cute!

Thanksgiving

2010-11-29T10:46:00.003-06:00

We have been super busy this last week! Michael's family held a family reunion over the Thanksgiving weekend and we had tons of fun! Unfortunately our camera was not with us so sorry but no pictures, until I get some from the rest of the family! There were about 60 people total! we could barely all fir in the house! But the kids didn't care and they all had a blast playing with all their cousins. The day after Thanksgiving (after I went shopping) we had a family carnival and rodeo, there were three legged races, goat tying, sheep riding, cotton-candy eating, cake walks, ping-pong tosses, and lots of other fun things to do at each family's "booth"

The kids and I made Indian feathered hats, poor Ryker was asleep when I took these pictures but he made one too!

Jonah loves taking pictures so he took this one of me and Evva

From Tuesday to Saturday we were only home long enough to sleep then were we back at the Rasmussen Ranch and now our house is a disaster, and instead of cleaning on Sat. Michael and I took off the rest of the wallpaper in the master bedroom, and in the process created an even bigger mess but I'm glad I don't have to look at the ugly flowered walls anymore!

Keeping Busy!

2010-09-16T17:15:00.005-05:00

Here are some fun pictures of what we've been up to lately...

We moved into a small trailer while Michael was in training for GEICO (we are happy to be in a house now)

Jonah turned 6! I can't believe it's been that long, he is so big!!

Evva turned 1! And started walking.

Michael and I celebrated our 7 year anniversary, wow!

The kids and I went on a long vacation with my parents up the California coast, through Oregon, and into Washington It was beautiful! And of course being so close I had to make a trip into Forks, It was way more Twilight-ish than I had suspected but lots of fun!

We moved into a nice house with a big yard, we love it!

Jonah started 1st grade !

And Ryker is working on potty training, finally!

Settled

2010-09-10T18:11:00.002-05:00

I am so excited to have the internet again and to be settled in a home for a while, it has been a very long transition from Desert Hot Springs! Michael got a new job with GEICO and had 3 months of training that was in San Diego and Virginia so while he was living in hotels the kids and I were living in Bakersfield "temporarily" but Michael's boss found out we had family here and asked if instead of moving to Sacramento after training we would move to Bakersfield, well we decided to since most of our family is here and we already moved all of our stuff here. SO now we have found a house and have settled in. Jonah started first grade and his school is right across the street, He loves that! Ryker and Evva are so excited to see all their toys that have been packed for the last 3 months and they love all the space in our new house, and so do I we even have a beautiful fenced-in pool and a big grassy yard for the kids to play in, this house is perfect! (too bad we're just renting).

So Far Away

2009-11-14T23:23:00.001-06:00

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

2009-07-31T09:39:00.002-05:00

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!

2009-07-06T14:56:00.003-05:00

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

2009-06-27T19:44:00.003-05:00

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

2009-06-17T21:50:00.003-05:00

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

2009-06-09T14:01:00.002-05:00

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!!

2009-06-05T13:06:00.005-05:00

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

2009-05-24T22:19:00.002-05:00

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

2009-04-27T14:29:00.000-05:00

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!

2009-04-22T12:54:00.002-05:00

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

2009-03-26T21:26:00.003-05:00

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

2009-03-26T20:38:00.008-05:00

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!

PINK ~ PINK~PINK

2009-03-17T21:07:00.003-05:00

For Michael's spring break we decided to drive to California and visit our family who we haven't seen for almost 2 years! One of the things I wanted to do while I was there was make a crib bumper and matching quilt for our baby girl (that we think is a girl) I'm glad I decided to take the material with me to enlist my moms help instead of doing it myself, it was so much easier with my mom there and a fun project to do together! I wanted to have something really pink and girlie since I'm getting tired of all the neutrals and "boy" colors. Even though we're not 100% sure it is a girl I'm saying that it is after three ultrsounds of "I don't see anything to indicate it's a boy but, I'm just not sure" I decided it is a girl, if it was a boy they should have seen something by now right! so here are some pictures of the crib bumper and quilt I made with help from my mom, I think it turned out very cute and can't wait to have a little baby girl to sleep in it! Pictures of the rest of our little vacation will be posted shortly!

The kiddos!

2009-02-19T14:02:00.005-06:00

I thought I would do a post about each of the kids and give a little update for them.

Jonah was going to pre-school but we recently pulled him out since he said he never learned anything and he would frequently ask to stay home. He even lost some knowledge he had such as the ABC's I asked him to recite them for me and he kept getting mixed up and would only get about half way through then start over again so I decided it would be better to continue doing home school. He is however continuing to go to the elementary school once a week for speech and he has improved quite a bit I'm looking forward to his continued progress so eventually we won't have anymore melt downs because Mom and Dad don't understand what he's talking about. He is full of energy still, and loves to be out side. He has a very active imagination and pretends that he can turn into just about everything. His favorite things to pretend to be are a wolf, fox (like Robin Hood), Indian, cowboy (he says when he turns 8 he will quit school and work as a cowboy and live in the desert), a Jedi (from Star Wars), and Prince Phillip from Sleeping Beauty because he kills the dragon. He is so funny and loves to make people laugh. He is a good big brother and tries to get Ryker to be like him.

Ryker is our sweet heart. He loves to cuddle I nick named him "bug" because he is our cuddle bug and because he is our stink bug too! He poops in the tub almost every time we put him in and on the occasion that he doesn't, he makes up for it by pooping as soon as he's out whether we've got a diaper on him or not, but he always tells us by running and pointing at the spot where the poopy is, I hope this means he'll be easy to potty train! He is 15 months old now and still has never said "Mama" but he does say 'Dada', 'juice', 'that', 'done', 'ball', 'baa' (for bath) and sometimes he says 'eat' and 'yes'. He is hooked on his pacifier and the bottle but yesterday I went cold turkey and only gave him sippy cups he doesn't drink as much which means fewer wet diapers but he's handling the adjustment better than I thought he would. I may let him keep his pacifier just a little while longer I didn't want to take both away at the same time. Ryker loves music and likes to dance whenever he hears it. When we're at the store or if I'm practicing the piano, or if a commercial is on TV with music I can always catch him bobbing his head along.

I also wanted to include a little something about our new baby. we have had two ultrasounds during the second trimester and both times we have been told that it looks like a girl but that it's not as clear as the ultrasound technician would like it so he wouldn't tell us that it is definitely a girl but he did say that if it was a boy there should be something else that he's just not seeing so I'm pretty confident that it is a girl. during our last ultrasound on Feb. 9th the baby was breech so that's what made it harder to see the tell tell parts. Since learning that I have actually had dreams where I have to have an emergency c-section because the baby is breech and won't turn. I didn't think I would be so worried about it but I guess subconsciously I am. I also feel like the baby is a girl because I was more sick with this one than with my boys and I feel like I'm carrying so low Jonah and Ryker were up higher like a big ball right out in front of me. but all of the kicks I feel with this one are at my belly-button or lower. I also really really really want a little girl!!! our ultrasound appointments give us the whole thing recorded on a disc but don't give any still pictures or print outs so until I figure out how to make some stills from the disc or shorten the long version to something more reasonable I don't think I'll be putting any pics of the baby before she's born. but I did have Michael take a few of me today since today marks 6 months so you can at least see the baby bump.

A new home, again!

2009-01-22T14:33:00.003-06:00

HOME SWEET HOME

We were able to get into student housing for this semester and have been busy moving the last few weeks. it's really nice to be out of the trailer and have a playground right outside but it's definitely not like TVA! There are cigarette butts on the ground and I still have not seen one of our neighbors and we've lived here for a week! Every time I go out to play with my kids I'm the only one out there and people I do see when I go for walks are not that friendly. oh-well I'm glad we can save some money and have all our utilities included in rent, that means we can crank up the heat or at least have it on constantly since they have it set to only go up to 75 which we still think is a little cold, pathetic right, I know we're wusses when it comes to cold weather! anyway here are some pictures of our new place.

Our carpet already has stains on it!

This is our living room complete with university couches that are not comfortable! Remind anyone of the old TVA couches?

This is the other hal fof our living room it's a little crowded but it will do and it will be better when we finish unpacking all the boxes!

Here is our Kitchen with only 2 drawers, and they're little too! I stil;l haven't figured out a good place to keep my hot pads and bibs! at least there's no cockroaches!

Christmas- Finally!

2009-01-22T14:12:00.004-06:00

Here are some pictures of our family's Christmas festivities:

The first picture is at Clay and Amy's house for Christmas lunch/dinner on Christmas day. We had way too much food!

On Christmas eve we made ginger bread (graham cracker) houses Jonah made a train with lots of help from Dad!

later on Christmas eve the kids put on the Nativity show Jonah was a wise man, so cute!

Here is Ryker on Christmas morning

Here are the boys Christmas morning, after opening some presents, I almost forgot to take pictures!

This picture was at our old ward's (in San Antonio) christmas Party we were in town to go to the temple and dropped in to see Santa. Obviously Ryker was not interested at all! and Jonah was trying to convince Santa that he needed a real motorcycle that went really fast! I really thought Ryker would be fine but hey, I'm just his mom what do I know?

update!

2008-12-30T18:48:00.002-06:00

I lost our camera and haven't been able to find it for the last two weeks so no pictures of Christmas unfortunately. We did take some video but don't have the right cord to connect our camera to the computer. Luckily we spent Christmas eve and most of Christmas day with my in-laws and my sister-in-law took pictures for us but she's now out of town and hasn't sent me any. I guess I'll have to post Christmas pics a little later!

I have an exciting announcement.... Jonah and Ryker are going to be big brothers! I'm so excited to have baby 3! I'm due June 11th and can't wait. I'm hoping it is a girl but another boy would be fun for the rest of the family. Michael has Jonah rooting for a boy luckily Ryker's too little to understand or he'd probably be turned to the "boy" side too! Whatever it is I'm just excited to add to our family Children are such blessings and they're just so darn cute!

I hope you all have had a great Christmas and have a Happy New Year!

SNOW!!!!!!!

2008-12-09T15:47:00.004-06:00

It's snowing today! I'm so excited I've never seen snow fall before I've only seen it already on the ground so I'm having lots of fun just watching it fall! It's not sticking to the ground but it's blowing through the air and looks so pretty! I hope it snows enough for us to actually play in it and I hope it snows for Christmas too! yay for snow---and heaters it's cold outside!

Jonah has discovered that he loves playing in the snow!

Ryker enjoyed from inside with me and got to sample a some snow. He liked to eat it even though his fingers were freezing!

These are pictures looking out from our front door the first was yesterday evening and the last is from this morning I was surprised that the snow was still here everyone thought it would have melted. The schools even got delayed 2 hours which was great so we could sleep in a little!

Thanksgiving

2008-12-09T15:25:00.004-06:00

my family enjoying a bon fire

For Thanksgiving my Mom, Dad, Brother- Jason, and my Nana- mom's mom- came to visit us. It was so much fun to see them and Ryker absolutely loved all the attention! Jonah did too but Ryker was so happy all the time it was so cute!! we were so busy going and doing everything and anything! We went to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico and that was a lot of fun. Then we did pretty much all you can do in Alpine and a nearby city Fort Davis and we even went across the border to Ojinaga Mexico I was kind of nervous with the kids but it was a lot of fun and almost everything was so cheap! we bought Ryker a pair of cowboy boots for only $14 they probably would have been about $50 or more here! My brother brought his Nintendo Wii and Jonah got hooked on it, he was so good at bowling and baseball it was amazing! We might have to splurge and buy one someday soon I really like it too!! it was so hard to have my family here and then when they had to go they just aren't here anymore but we sure had fun with them!

Here Jonah and Ryker are playing in the leaves at Kokernot Park in Alpine on Thanksgiving Day
Me with my two boys in Mexico

On the morning my family left me, Nana, and my mom

Happy Birthday Ryker!

2008-11-18T15:24:00.000-06:00

( I know Jonah's eyes are closed in this picture but the only other one we got of our family that day had Ryker's eyes closed and it was kind of far away so I figured this was was better even though it's not the best we could have done)

Ryker, on your first birthday I want to celebrate the great blessing you have been to our family. You have brought a tremendous amount of happiness into each of our lives because of how sweet and fun loving you are. You help us realize the unparalleled love of our Heavenly Father and remind us to be loving and trusting as a little child. Already you are learning so much and I hope for you to seek after anything virtuous, lovely, of good report, or praiseworthy. You are a true delight and can always make those around you smile I hope you will grow into a smart and talented young man who will be an example of righteousness to all you meet, I hope you and your brother will enjoy one another and become friends as you grow up together. I always want you to know that I love you and I know that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ know you and love you too. Happy Happy Birthday!!

Ryker's Birthday was on Saturday November 15th, we went to the local park (yes there's only one park in our small town) and had Uncle Clay, Aunt Amy, and their kids Devaney, Logan, Hyrum, Hannah, Isaac, and Roe come for cupcakes and to play with us. It was a pretty nice day but VERY cold the high was only 50. but we all had fun anyway. Unfortunately after we were done partying Ryker was acting a little grumpy and when I picked him up he was burning up with a fever he's had it for the past 3 days. Last night his temp was 102.3 but today he hasn't felt very hot so I think he's finally getting over it, poor baby! Since his birthday he has suddenly started doing new things like clapping, I've been trying to get him to clap his hands since he was like 8 months old and finally on his birthday as I was getting breakfast ready he was sitting in his highchair and just started clapping without any prompt! He's also finally trying to say words he's so cute he'll point at something or hold something up and look at me like "what is this" and when I say whatever it is he babbles trying to make the correct sounds, its about time!! He even tried saying "my birthday" and when I figure out how to upload videos I'll post the video of him saying it. All in all we had a fun First Birthday for Ryker!

We couldn't get the candle to light we tried for about 10 minutes but to no avail so we skipped it and just started singing anyway, so we could eat the yummy cupcakes!

I know I'm making a weird face but Ryker was so cute trying to eat his candle instead of the cupcake!

I don't think Ryker liked the cupcakes he only ate one or two bites of it. He was more interested in getting down and wandering around the park.

Be Grateful

2008-11-17T20:34:00.002-06:00

I have just been thinking about how much I have to be grateful for. I have been working on a lesson about gratitude I am giving for enrichment and through all my research I feel extremely thankful and indebted to my Heavenly Father for my richness of blessings. I wish I could better express myself but I don't seem to always have the words I want. I am truly grateful for Jesus Christ his atonement, giving his life for our eternal lives is the greatest gift someone can give for another. Heavenly Father has given me all that I have and I cannot begin to repay Him. All I can do is offer up my thanks and obedience to Him. As Thanksgiving and Christmas come closer I hope all of us can remember what Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have given and done for us and that we can resolve to focus on the things that really matter in this life that we may help and serve one another and give our thanks to God and praise Him. I was reading in the Book of Mormon 3 Nephi 17 where Christ gathers the little children and blesses them and prays for all the people gathered together and how great his prayer to the Father was on their behalf, it made me feel His love for me I know that He is praying of each of us to come unto Him, He is there all we need to do is let him in. I am thankful for my family, for loving parents who taught me the gospel while I was youngn for a loving wonderful husband for my beautiful boys who share their love with me each day I am grateful for the fulness of the gospel and for the blessings I can recieve from it. I pray that we can remember to follow President Hinckley's counsel to be grateful this holiday season and through out the year.

Things you may not know about Ryker

2008-11-11T08:55:00.004-06:00

Now that Ryker is approaching his 1st birthday I thought it would be a good time to let everyone know what he's been up to.

Ryker is definitely our little cuddle bug! He would love to be held most of the day and he sleeps a lot better when we let him sleep with us, which doesn't happen too often, sorry Ryker! The first time he slept through the night was when he was about ten months old and we let him sleep with us. he still wakes up about once a night to eat. He started walking a few weeks ago at about 11 months old. Ryker loves dogs he gets so excited when we see a dog or if he hears a dog barking, he also likes our cat Leo but can't always catch him to give a hug but he tries! He doesn't say very much, the only thing he does say is "dadadada" I'm trying to get him to say other things like "Mama", "Jonah", "more", "milk", and "eat" very useful words to know! Unfortunately he refuses to even try to mimic us and he won't even attempt to sign anything! I think he doesn't because he has found his very own very effective way to communicate: screaming. This can drive me and Michael crazy and after a few of his shrill screams we're ready to give him anything to make him stop! This is how he has earned the nickname of Screech. He is very funny though and he likes to be around other people and smiles at everyone. he loves to eat and laugh and is almost always laughing while eating. He is a huge mooch and will harass anyone with food! He loves to feed himself and has barely tolerated being fed babyfood even now he grabs at the food we try to feed him or if we do manage to actually give him a bite he'll take it out of his mouth and put it back in himself. Ryker loves his big brother and likes to play chase, swords, and cars with him. Right now his favorite toy to play with is any ball. He is very sweet and always gives hugs, sometimes nice baby open-mouth kisses too if we say "give kisses"! I love Ryker so much and love seeing his personality come out. He is so different from Jonah although they do look alike, except Ryker has hair and Jonah didn't until after age 1! Ryker is my very sweet cuddle bug!

Happy Halloween 2008!

2008-11-02T15:41:00.004-06:00

For Halloween this year we went to our branch party and trunk or treat on Wednesday. Then to a little parade that was on Saturday, I found out on Sunday that the Mayor officially moved Halloween from Friday to Saturday because the middle school and high school had away football games and would be gone on Friday. We didn't go trick or treating because we were out of town of Friday and I didn't know they were doing trick or treating on Saturday but Jonah got plenty of candy from the branch party and the parade! The boys' costumes were a big hit! Jonah especially likes his he has worn everyday since it arrived last monday! Ryker's costume turned out really cute! Thank you Kelsey for sending me the iron on stuff it worked great!

Technology, friend or foe?

2008-11-02T15:15:00.002-06:00

so I haven't scrapbooked for about a year and after unpacking our desk top with all of our pictures on it I decided to organize a file of the ones I wanted to print off to scrapbook. I was almost done and our computer completely stopped working it just wouldn't turn on! we have since bought a new desk top but all of our pictures and files and everything are still on our broken computer so it looks like it will still be a while until I can scrapbook I'm so frustrated!

Time, Time, Who has the Time?

2008-10-27T20:33:00.002-05:00

I know everyone feels like they have so much to do and not enough time to do it but I really don't think I have time to do what I want to do or maybe I don't manage my time very wisely? it seems like my house always needs to be cleaned and I always have papers to file and put away, not to mention the 2 months worth of things I need to file that are in a huge manila envelope from when we lived with my brother-in-law, and taking care of someone who is always hungry, tired, poopy or just bored and needs to be entertained. Halloween is coming up and I need to make Ryker's costume, still! I've been dying to try to make some bread but I just haven't found the time maybe soon I hope! I don't mean to complain so much but I have just been feeling a little overwhelmed and need to vent so don't read too much into it, you don't really need to read it if you don't want to, I'm just getting everything out! I think I might be just a little sleep deprived, Michael's schedule is very long, he goes to school most morning's and then works late in the day on into the night and doesn't get home most nights until 10:30 or 11 pm and usually I stay awake so I can see him but then I get up with Jonah at 6:30 and get him off to school. So I don't start my days very refreshed and I haven't been sleeping very well anyway I just can't get comfortable! but I'm so excited for Halloween Jonah's costume just arrived today! and then in a few more weeks Ryker will be turning one! I can't believe it! I'm so happy to be a mommy! That's the one thing that I would describe myself as I can't wait to have more but I need to work on managing my time and being organized so I can do more fun mommy things like go to the park! But I'm glad that I can make our home nice and make yummy home cooked meals everyday for my family that always make me feel like I accomplished something, even if all you can see from it is dirty dishes to clean up and toys scattered through the house to put away, I'm very grateful for my family and for the blessings my Heavenly Father has given us. I'm also grateful for our trials (like learning to manage time) and the opportunity to grow from them!

Moved In

2008-10-20T15:47:00.003-05:00

Hooray! we have finally moved in to our own place! It feels so nice to have my own things out and the kids absolutely love having their toys! well we were going to buy a house but that didn't happen and I think it was actually a good thing since we are planning on moving next summer anyway. so we're living in a trailer now and it's not bad. It smelled a little funky at first but we shampooed the carpets and I cleaned EVERYTHING! It took a few days to get the place clean enough to start moving our things in from the storage unit but we finally did and now we only have a handful of things left to unpack! Ryker loves being able to crawl and explore the whole house and Jonah likes having his stuff out, like his costumes and pirate treasure, and swords all he ever wants to do is play, he always asks me "what can we do?" which really means what can we play. Luckily with all his toys I can just say go look in your room for something to do and he's busy for a long time! Moving is so much work! after living in a real house in San Antonio for a year I didn't realize how much stuff we had until we were unpacking and trying to figure out where to put everything in the trailer, but we got most of it put away some things are crowded in but it will do until we move again! It just feels so nice to have a place to call "home".

Big Bend Balloon Bash

2008-10-03T11:43:00.003-05:00

The One thing I wanted to do here in Alpine was see the Big Bend Balloon Bash it's once a year and has a bunch of hot-air balloons that come from all over. They even give rides! Well since there's not a lot of activities to do here we went, on the day it was canceled because of bad weather. But lucky for us it was going on all weekend. Unfortunately it rained the next day and the balloons didn't take off. That night at the middle school football field they had a fun little ground show that we only caught the finale of but it was still fun to see all the balloons! The following day it was finally nice and sunny out so I took the kids to see the balloons flying but I was late again and missed it :( A clown was still there doing balloon animals and stuff so at least Jonah and Ryker got a fun balloon toy out of it! If we're still here next Labor Day I'll definitely try to see them again and maybe I can get a ride!!

Here's Michael and Jonah in front of one of the Balloons illuminated by the fire inside it.

Ryker loved his balloon! Jonah had a samurai sword but it popped before I got a picture of him with it, that was just our luck this wekend!

I need some creative Genius!

2008-10-02T21:46:00.002-05:00

Ever since last Halloween when Jonah was Spiderman he said that this year he wanted to be Batman and since I was pregnant at the time he wanted the baby to be a superhero too so I thought it would be fun for Ryker to be Robin but I was looking at costumes on line and the cheapest infant Robin costume was $20 which isn't so bad but if I got that and Jonah's which I'm sure will be at least $20 too that's already $40 and I'm not too crazy about spending that for one night of use, although I'm sure Jonah will dress like Batman everyday for about 3 weeks, so that's why I feel a little better about spending money on his costume but for Ryker I was thinking about making it but I'm not sure how to do it so people know that he's supposed to be Robin and not just a baby wearing green and red. So does anyone who's creative have some good suggestions?

RUDE!

2008-09-25T10:59:00.002-05:00

okay so Michael and I were talking about getting a dog and we've been looking at craigslist (for a free one of course!) so we saw an ad for wolfhound puppies and googled the breed: they are huge but cool looking so Michael wanted one and after reading that they are gentle and good with kids I thought it would be fun to have such a big dog. Michael and I both respond to the ad but only I get a response with two phone numbers so I call and the lady agrees to meet me the next day but will call "first thing in the morning" to set a concrete time. That night Michael bought a collar and leash and the next morning I waited for the phone call, but she never called! so I called her, but of course she didn't answer either of the numbers she gave me so I left a message. after a few hours I tried calling again but this time the phone rang and rang but instead of going to to voicemail it just hung up so I think she must of been avoiding my call. What's the deal? Why not just let me know if she doesn't want to give me her dog. AAGGHH!! I know it's not really a big deal but it just really ticks me off that she wouldn't just tell me. Why did she have to be so rude about it all??? anyway I just needed to get out my frustration! if you have time you should google 'Irish wolfhound' they are, maybe a bit ugly, but so huge it's cool!

SCHOOL, SCHMOOL

2008-09-18T20:54:00.000-05:00

So Jonah's 1st day of school was pretty exciting for all of us. He wasn't nervous until we were walking to the school entrance and he asked me if I could stay just for that day until he got "used to it" I only stayed a few minutes but all day I was anxious to talk to him about how his first day was. but when I picked him up all he told me was that it was "bad". "Uh-oh" I thought, "he's never going to want to go to school again!" but it was only bad because he could only play on one playground during recess b/c the other playground was for older kids. So if that's the only "bad" thing about school I think it will be okay! Jonah's still excited about school and even said he's making new friends, Yay! oh Ryker was excited for Jonah too (look at his excitement in the photo!)

Pre-school jitters!

2008-09-17T20:53:00.000-05:00

Wow, I can't believe that Jonah is going to start pre-K!! so Jonah has been wanting to go to school for like 2 years so when we moved here to Alpine I started looking into preschools since he's finally old enough to go and the pre-k class the public school offers was so full that I had to put him on the wait list and I really didn't think he would get in this year but as luck would have it the school called today and asked if Jonah was still interested and if he could start tomorrow! so tonight I had to run around to three different stores trying to find all the school supplies he would need and of course the first two stores I went to were way understocked and didn't have much of what I needed so I had to go to a third store, but I finally got everything and Jonah is so excited!! I think I'm more nervous than he is! He already wants to ride the bus and when I told him I wanted to take him for his first day he almost cried. I hope he likes it and doesn't get burnt out and most of all I hope I've been a good enough mom to have taught him the basic social skills he'll need to interact with the teacher and other students. It is so exciting to have a son starting school It will be so different not having him home all day with me, I don't know what I'll do with just Ryker hopefully I'll be able to get more "me" stuff done!! Good Luck at School Jonah! I'm so proud of you!

Why Blog??

2008-09-11T22:17:00.000-05:00

Okay so I've had many friends and a sister ask me why don't I have a blog. I really was just being lazy but now that Michael's always at school or work and I have nothing to do becasue I don't have my own house yet I figured that blogging would be a good way to keep me busy doing something... and it seems kinda fun, but we'll see how well I keep up with it:) I guess there's alot to learn about having a blog and I'll figure it out as I go!! So this is for everyone who has ever asked "do you have a blog?" I can finally say "YES"