Temple Lights

tonight has been one of the highlights of my year!

the mesa temple does an incredible job decorating for Christmas.

the singing was wonderful (and they sang tylers favorite Christmas hymn)

the lights were beautiful.

the spirit of the Lord was there.

i really felt like it was a magical place.

i hope that my boys could feel it too.

*the real meaning of Christmas*

i can't wait to go back again.

and you can't beat the 66 degree weather and the flip flops

8 months

ryder bear

blogging with mom

time is going by way to fast.

-he sits up on his own, finally!

-he has finally found his voice and uses it a lot especially at church

-he has two teeth

-he eats three meals of baby food a day

-he usually likes everything i feed him (besides his bottle, he doesn't really care for it right now)

-he also eats biter crackers, graham crackers, cheerios and loves to drink water from a sippy cup

-he rolls like crazy, but doesn't crawl (which is fine with me then he can't bother the Christmas tree to much

-he is still pretty mellow

-he loves anything that lights up computers, tv's etc

-he loves baby einstein movies

-he loves tubby time

-he only sleeps through the night every once in a while...

hopefully soon he will figure it out!

-he takes 2-3 naps a day

-he goes to sleep on his own

-he still sucks his middle two fingers on his right hand

-his hair is still very blond

-he does huge smiles for dad and brother

i think we'll keep him!

love you cute boy!

Santa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (yelled like buddy on elf)

i think this picture is classic!

this is actually the picture that they printed out and gave to us at cabelas.

ryan was so excited to see santa but the closer he got the more scared he was.

santa also came to our ward Christmas party the same night but ryan would only wave from far away!

gabion baskets

when we went to the zoo tyler noticed that the bathroom walls were made out of gabion baskets. he only knows this because he used to help out with the family business. they sell gabion baskets. if you ever need some you can leave me a comment with your information. we'll beat any competitors prices!

thanks.

(mark can i get commission on any sales that i make?)

i might or might not have...

brainwashed my son into liking white Christmas.

my favorite Christmas movie in the whole entire world.

he dances and sings with me.

(his dad isn't too happy about it)

but i sure am!

i love the dancing.

i love the singing.

i love the love story.

i love bing crosbys voice.

i love vera-ellens dancing.

i love rosemary clooneys singing.

and i love that danny kaye reminds me 100% of my grandpa gifford.

and i mostly love that ryan told me that he needs one of these feathers so he can sing "sisters sisters"!

gotta love the Christmas sweater!

love you two

just yesterday this was my ryan

just yesterday ryan was going a million miles an hour.

he has been sleeping through the night(it's been a miracle).

last night we woke up four times, he wasn't crying and he went right back to sleep each time, i didn't think anything of it.

this morning at 6:20 he started yelling for me, i went in his room and he had his hand covering his ear.

he said "my head hurts"

and i picked him up and he had a fever.

he was sick all day today:(

when i took him to the doctor his temperature was 104.

i thought he had another ear infection but he doesn't.

he has his first case of strep throat.

i hope he gets better real soon.

i feel really bad when he just lays on the couch with big tears falling out of his eyes.

he's not crying, he just has tears.

it breaks my heart.

love you little buddy!

Our Yard

From baby grass to...

our yard looks pretty good!

we finally invested in a lawnmower.

we are really growing up!

december 4, 4009

we were so lucky to have dad come to the zoo with us.

dad and ryan went on a camel ride.

i was happy because that means i never have to.

ryan was scared out of his mind.

he wanted the ride to end the whole time.

he kept yelling "i'm done" over and over

as soon as we were walking away he acted like it was the coolest thing he had ever done.

such a man.

(scared while it's happening and then talks it up to all his buddies

like it's the coolest thing in the whole world)

ha ha ha ha

tyler was thrilled that the zoo has a big horn sheep exhibit.

(big horn sheep are tylers favorite animal)

we went to the zoo close to closing time.

we pretty much had the whole place to ourselves.

the weather was perfect.

we had a great time.

in-n-out stickers

ryan: very innocently getting out of the car

ryder: ryan put in-n-out stickers on his head while we were driving

(he slept right through it)

mom and dad: entertaining ryan at church the next day with the same stickers.

ryan:behaving in church

ryder:being the best little brother around

sorry this was actually taken in Sacrament meeting

is this allowed?

thanksgiving 09

we had a fabulous thanksgiving with the owens family!

grandma bonnie and tylers uncle brian and aunt liz came.

we don't get to see them very often, most of the time they live out of the country but right now they are living in the states.

ryan loved playing with his cousins.

football in the park.

four wheeling.

puzzles.

shopping.

lot of eating!

philip and stewart were so cute to play with ryan the whole weekend.

we can't wait to go home for Christmas!!!

thanks mom and dad o. for a wonderful week!

ice cream

so excited

mmmm yummy

give me that spoon

ryan feeding ryder some of his ice cream.

ryder loved it!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

ryan helping ryder "look" towards the camera:)

my cute boys.

thanks grandma o. for the cute "elk" pjs

i think ryan is finally understanding that the elks are really reindeer!

and thanks grandma h. for the cute santa hats.

happy thanksgiving to all

whit came down to phoenix last week. we were able to get together a few times. why don't i have more pictures of this week? we also went to the zoo and played at the park!

so fun!!

on monday we headed down to vegas to see the taping of live with regis and kelly! tune in tomorrow nov. 27, 2009.

the lion king dancers opened the show.

they gave away a car.

kelly ripa is way smaller in person that on tv.

we decided that she is probably a girls size 8.

turkey left over cooking challenge.

uncle kracker sang a new song from his cd.

then we went to dinner for the best raviolis ever.

thanks girls i had a blast!

whit we need to do this more often... love you girl!

Sweet Ryan

yesterday tyler left to go rappelling again...

so i took the boys to lunch.

we were driving and ryder starting crying.

i asked ryan if he would talk to him or give him a toy.

this is what i heard next...

it's ok buddy. daddy left, but he'll come back soon.

so sweet.

it melted my heart.

happy birthday heather

happy birthday to the most wonderful person in the whole world!

i hope you have had a wonderful day.

thanks for being you and being so wonderful!

love you!!

november 15, 2009

ryder cut his second tooth today. hopefully he will sleep better now!

commercials...

every single time a commercial comes on this is what happens with Ryan...

"mom i don't like commercials,

i don't like it,

i don't!"

and then he cries and rolls on the floor until the commercials end.

ha ha ha ha ha ha

he cracks me up

(mid clap)

-he has one cute tooth

-he started clapping

-he loves to play in the bumbo with the basket of toys next to him

-because of the bumbo (or me) he still can't sit up on his own

-he loves all sorts of baby food

-he has started eating cheerios and puffed cereal

-he rolls like crazy and can get from one side of the room to the other in no time

-he doesn't crawl at all

-he doesn't sleep through the night (i'm hoping it's because he is teething)

-he loves trucks and cars

-he loves to do huge smiles for his dad

-he loves watching ryan play

-he loves being outside

-he loves going to the park

-he has huge feet

-he is still mellow

-he is starting to not like the day care at the gym

-he loves watching baby einstein

he is a wonderful baby

have i mentioned that i love

having a baby around?

because i do!!!

love you ryder

the balls

my ryan loves little basketballs.

even though i have a pack of 50 we have been going through them like crazy. i moved his bed the other day and found all these.

ryan was so excited!

utah here we come

we started the countdown a couple weeks ago...

our chain is getting shorter!

Cliff Hangers

Yesterday we went rappelling... WE HAD SO MUCH FUN & WE CAN'T WAIT TO GO AGAIN!!!

This is written by Julia... (she is a much better writer than me).

Enjoy...

Luke came home from school and asked on a whim if I wanted to go rappelling down a cliff he found in a recreation area called Coons Bluff. I agreed to come along as the official photographer and dog leash holder. Luke's friend Tyler from dental school and his wife Kristen and their two adorable boys Ryan and Ryder came along with us. We drove out to the recreation area and walked a short distance to the cliff. It was nestled next to a pretty river where people were fishing.

We all hiked up to the top of the cliff...

...and watched Luke unpack his big old backpack full of multi-colored ropes and carabiners while we peeped over the edge of the cliff at the beatiful view below us:

Cute family portrait:

Lola and Ryan liked going up to the edge of the cliff to look over, so we kept both of them on tight leashes!

Luke set up three anchors (so if one failed, you would have two backups); Ryan "helped:"

I gave him a good luck kiss and all of us but brave Luke hiked back down to await him at the bottom...

Truth be told, even though I know Luke has taken classes, read piles of books, and done lots of actual rock climbing, my heart still jumped (and splatted into my tummy) as he descended off over the edge. But all was well and he lived and had a great time:

Tyler and Kristen even followed suit. Mal Hombre took to barking whenever someone rappelled out over the edge. Ryan ran around, throwing stones into the river and kicking up dust through the trees---he reminded me of the character Max in Where The Wild Things Are. Little Ryder was the perfect specimen of a well-behaved and happy baby; he just hung from any one's chest he was strapped to with his bright blue eyes shining and his mouth curling up into smiles whenever you looked at him.

Tyler rappelled second:

Here is Tyler showing off his sexy harness (it is actually mine since Luke forgot the big manly one at home...pretty awesome that both guys could fit into a woman's extra small---haha!):

Here is Kristen making her way down:

It was a really fun afternoon. Thanks for coming with us Tyler and Kristen. We had a blast!

Thank you so much for taking us!!!

As much fun as it was to have the boys with us, next time we'll leave them at home:)!