Days at the Lake

I live near little piece of paradise. It's true. Are you jealous yet? Bear Lake is gorgeous for those of you that have never been there- you should go. A big part of not committing suicide during the winter months here is because you would then miss out on lake days during the summer. I have found that going out in the evening is one of my favorite things. I'll leave around 4:30 and pack dinner for the kids. We'll eat out at the lake and spend the evening in the sand and in the water. All of the kids love this and we spend hours with our butts planted in the sand.

Ryan's 3!!

Ryan turned 3 on the 11th! How crazy is that!? He is getting so big!! He has been anticipating this birthday for months now. In fact- he keeps asking me if I'm sure that he's really turning 3 and not 6 like Ty is. He always lets out the biggest sigh when I tell him that he really is going to turn 3 this year. Ryan loves his older brother. Loves him. And wants to do anything that will help him to be just like Ty.

He awoke to a stack of presents on his birthday and immediately tore into them while still in his jammies. He was super excited about his new baseball bat (watch out Kate), some new dinosaurs and his Star Wars shirt, which he insisted on wearing (knowing him like I do though- I had already washed the shirt before I wrapped it).

Ryan was also really excited about his cake- I know I use that word a lot when I describe Ryan- but there is no other word that really fits him. He's excited about everything! He'll unwrap his presents or look at his cake and he starts jumping around saying "coooool!!" Anyway- he had a Star Wars cake this year. I ordered the cake topper off of a website that delivered everything as promised and quickly- which was awesome! But- while it said the topper was "edible"... it wasn't awesome by any means. Ty and Ryan ate it because they got to eat Yoda and Darth Vadar- but the rest of us picked it off and just had cake with buttercream icing.

I love my little boy so much and I can't believe how grown up he is. He is officially potty trained- which really only took him a few days to figure it out, and he rarely has accidents at night anymore. He can count to 12 by himself and knows most of his alphabet song- for some reason he leaves out a few in the middle. Ryan is also beside himself with excitement over the fact that we are letting him go to preschool in the fall. He has been so jealous of Ty this year and keeps asking me when it's his turn to go to school too. His wish is going to be granted and we have him all signed up.

Ryan also has the cutest little tongue on him. I know that sounds strange and those of you that don't know him probably won't understand. The rest of you know exactly what I'm talking about. He uses adult expressions and the way he talks just leaves you smiling. He is such a special little boy and I am so grateful that I have him for a son. When I think of how close we were to losing him last year- it makes my heart stop. I didn't know I could love him so much.

I remember when I was pregnant with him- I was worried that I wouldn't love him as much as I loved Ty- because I really loved Ty. But the second the Dr showed him to me over the little blue C-section curtain in the Operating Room- my heart instantly grew and I loved him just as much as I did my older son. I can remember how that heart stopped when the Dr came in at 2:30 in the morning the next day to tell me that little Ryan had been taken into the NICU because the air sacs in his lungs wouldn't stay inflated and he had caught pneumonia from the fluid he inhaled. I was all alone in that dark little hospital room and I remember praying to Heavenly Father that my baby would be alright. It was so scary to see Ryan hooked up to all these machines- he even had his own nurse- around the clock he had his own nurse. I guess that's how you judge how bad off these little ones are- the scary cases always have their own nurses. Little did I know that he would again have his own nurse in less than two years.

Little Ryan has scared a few years off my lifespan- but the time that I do get to spend with him is a little piece of heaven. I love him. And he loves me. He tells me at random times- it's always out of the blue- I'll be folding laundry and he'll come up to me and hug my leg and tell me that he loves me.

Love you too big boy.

Melissa's Bridals

My cute sister, Melissa is getting married on the 21st and she let me tag along to her bridals. Like I've said before- I am NOT a photographer- but I am trying to learn how to take better pictures of my own kids, so I got to shadow her "real" photographer. While we were waiting for them, I got to play around with my camera and Miss let me take a few pictures of her all dressed up. Thanks Miss!

These are in no particular order... just the way I took them.

Here's a closeup of her gorgeous ring... Way to go Jeremiah!

I am in love with her shoes and want to steal them after the wedding... do you think she'll notice?

I love this picture- she just looks so happy!

She's freakin' gorgeous too...

4th of July 2011

You know we love holidays right? You can't be a reader of my blog and not know that I love holidays. My kids do too and Shaun is coming around. We got to celebrate the 4th of July up in Declo this year with Shaun's family, which was a lot of fun. We got to have a huge lunch and go to a parade and watch fireworks- the kids were in heaven!

We started our day off with Red, White and Blue pancakes and waffles. Jacki was nice enough to let me take over her kitchen long enough to make these for the kiddos- my kids love waffles with whipped cream and fruit (we did strawberries and blueberries in keeping with the red, white and blue theme of the morning) and any excuse to have me make it is a good one.

Then we headed out to Rupert for the parade- the boys love parades- and they think Grandma Jacki does too- so they made her sit down on the curb with them. She's such a good sport. The kids got lots of candy and we saw some pretty cool floats- my favorites are always the ones that hand out popsicles.

Later that day- we had a little time to kill so the kids sat down to make decorations for our BBQ. They handmade some flags and some lanterns to hang from the trees.

And... drumroll please... my favorite part... FOOD! We had a big family BBQ with grandmas and grandpas- and everything was soo good!

You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism.

-Erma Bombeck

I was VERY patriotic this year!

Then we pulled out fireworks! Chase and Dani got us the hookup with fireworks this year and Ty was just beside himself with excitement. He even got his dad to help him light some of the bottle rockets off.

Ty with a sparkler...

We even got Ryan to come outside with us. Anybody that knows Ryan knows that he is kind of a Chicken Little when it comes to fireworks. He literally thinks the sky is falling and will either cover his head with a blanket or make a run for the house. We coaxed him outside under the lure of snakes and smoke bombs because they don't make any noise. He was leery of the sparklers- but did eventually light one of his own. And then he tried to make a run for the house when we pulled out the tanks and the rockets and the fountains.
Grandma Jacki came up with a creative solution for this though... Yeah... those are the earmuffs that she uses when she goes shooting. Ryan was in 7th heaven. He couldn't hear the noise, but still got to be a part of shooting off fireworks.

Kate didn't care about the fireworks. They didn't bug her and she didn't really watch them. She just sat on the blanket with me totally content to be my little buddy.

As evening fell- I snapped a quick picture of her and her dad. He loves to do what he calls "Rub Rub" with each of his little ones. Ty and Ryan think they have outgrown it- but Kate still humors her dad and will rub his nose when he picks her up.
And one of these days I WILL have a picture that has all three of my kids looking at the camera...

Finally as darkness started to fall- we made our way to the Burley golf course for the BIG fireworks show. Ty was in awe from beginning to end. I love how much he loves fireworks.

Ryan was a little miffed that we forgot his earmuffs, but settled in with grandma to watch them- towards the end he finally took his hands down off of his ears and just sat and watched. Cousin Deja would keep pulling his hands down from his ears and point to the sky- like she was telling him to relax and enjoy the show.

Kate made it through the first round of fireworks before she zonked. And she didn't move the rest of the night. She didn't open her eyes when we put her in the carseat, and she laid as limp as a rag doll when we tucked her into her bed. I guess it had been a long day.

At this point- I would like to say thank-you to all of our service men and women out there who are serving our country. It is because of people like you that we live in the country that we do and have the freedoms that we enjoy. It is my sincere hope that I will be able to pass on the message of hard work and patriotism to my children so that they too will know how important you are.

a

Pictures by the Red Wall and Train Tracks

Anyway- like I said- we had fun playing around with pictures. I am by no means professional- but I love having tons of pictures of my little ones.

Kate on the other hand wants me to have NO cute ones and did THIS most of the time...

Pictures from the Back Pasture

This Ain't No Hay Ride...

Name that movie folks... If you guessed Robin Hood- then you watch too many movies. I know I do.

We went to Declo this weekend for the 4th and Uncle Chase took us for a ride on the four wheeler... kind of... He hooked up a trailer and we all got to ride on it.

Granted it was for another purpose (we were trying to get to the back pasture to take some pictures of the kids), but it was still fun.

The Cardiac Unit at Primary Children's Hospital

The title makes this post sound scarier than it actually is. Thank goodness.

Kate had her one year checkup a few weeks ago and the Dr was still hearing a heart murmur (they found it at her 6 month checkup), so he sent us down to a Pediatric Cardiologist down at Primary Children's. I had hoped that we had seen enough of the inside of Primary's to last a lifetime- but apparently not.

Kate had to have an Echo-Cardiogram in order for the drs to see if the murmur was benign or if it was more serious. So we stripped our baby girl and the nurse hooked Kate up to the machine and let it do it's tests. Kate was seriously ticked- and let the nurse know it. This however, was the reason that I brought my secret weapon... Tyler John. When Kate cried- he held her hand and talked quietly to her. When she was irritated- he made her laugh. There is something so special about that boy- he had the same effect on Ryan when Ryan was in the hospital. I am so grateful for him and his talent.

The tests were run, and the cardiologist came in and took a look at them and at her and told us that she would be fine. That in all likely-hood she would outgrow it and the murmur was no cause for concern.

YAY!! Way to go Kate's heart! I have to admit- I was worried. And I could have kissed the dr when he told us to go home and play.