Happy 2nd Birthday Ryan!

On September 3rd Ryan, my baby, turned two. I can't believe he is already 2, it has gone by so quickly.

He is such a funny boy, he keeps us laughing all the time. He is such good boy, and talks non-stop. He LOVES candy and treats, and anything sweet. He also loves pretzels, and nuts, I guess he loves to eat anything as long as it's not dinner. He loves to ride bikes and play outside in the sand box, trampoline, or swinging. His favorite toys are motorcycles, 4-wheelers, trucks, and tractors. His absolute favorite thing to do is GO. No matter if it's riding in Dad's truck, the 4-wheeler, or Rhino, riding on the tractor, or lawn mower with Grandpa Craig, or the skid loader or mini-ex with Grandpa Mike. As long as he's "going" he's happy. He gives really good squeezes and kisses, and I just can't get enough of them.

To celebrate Ryan's birthday we went for a ride in the Rhino. So we got some Subway sandwiches and headed out.


We stopped at a little stream. Ethan and Ally wanted to build a bridge all way across.


Ryan showing Javan the spider on the water.


I was just taking some pictures of my surroundings as we were sitting by the stream.


Not sure what they were looking at.


Back on the trail, and soon they were all asleep.


Cute little Ally.


I made Ryan a tractor cake for his birthday. He was so excited when he saw it. He didn't want to wait for the party.


We had a little party/cookout with Grandpa & Grandma Halls, and Grandpa & Grandma Redd and Grandma Patsy. We had a yummy dinner, then let Ryan open his presents. Once he figured out that he was supposed to rip off the paper, he was all over it. He was so funny too, because he was so excited to open each present and would say "ooohhhh" with each one. Then we had to take each one out of the package and play with it for minute before he would let us move on to the next.


Javan and I gave him the wiggle bike. He's been riding one over at Grandma Shan's and was a little confused that we had one at our house. He loves his wiggle bike and is very protective of it.


It was finally time for cake.


Ryan loved blowing out the candles.


Singing Happy Birthday!


And finally he got to eat the cake. Yummy!


It was like, just as soon as Ryan turned 2 he started terrorizing our house. First, he dumped out an entire bottle of Ally's nail polish. Thank goodness it was on the kitchen floor, and not the carpet so it could be wiped up easily.


Then, he dumped his cup of pink juice in Ethan's frog/snail tank and sprinkled them with salt and pepper. We were kind of worried about the snail and salt combo, but we changed the water real quick and they survived the assault.


Then, he got into Ally's make-up and made himself and a few thing around him really pretty.


He's quite a whirlwind for such a little guy. But he's so cute, it's hard to be mad at him for too long. I love him to pieces.

Happy Birthday Ryan!

Petting Zoo

This post is a little out of order, oh well. The weekend before school started I wanted to do something fun with the kids. We didn't have time to go somewhere far so we headed to Moab to spend the night with Javan. On Friday night we went to the movie "Despicable Me". It was hilarious. Ryan did great as long as we kept him supplied with popcorn, soda, and candy. Then we went to dinner, and back to Javan's house, where Javan and I slept cozily in his twin bed. Then next morning Javan made us a yummy breakfast and we headed for home.

On the way home we stopped at the Hole n''the Rock store. They have a little petting zoo, that was actually really fun for the kids.


We bought a bucket of food to feed the animals. First we fed the deer.


Then the goat.


There were two huge bull-things (they had some crazy name) that were fighting over the food.


We were hoping the camel would spit or something.


The birds were hilarious. They would walk around normally and then I guess when they felt threatened or wanted to show off they would puff their chest up and walk around like the owned the place. Look how far back their heads are. Crazy birds.



The horses were fun because if you walked by without feeding them they started kicking the fence until you came back. So we thought it was pretty funny to tease them by walking away until they started kicking and then go back and feed them.


Ryan tried to feed the ostrich a carrot and it about ate his whole had. It scared him to death, and me too a little. Once the scariness wore off he was fine, no lasting damage.


The turkey was the last animal and Ally was feeding it the last of our food when it nipped her. She screamed bloody murder and I thought for sure one of my children had lost a finger this time. But, after she calmed down, and saw there was no blood, she was fine too.


We decided not to take a tour of the house but walked around the grounds a little. The kids liked the "dead guy" up in the mine car.


But were pretty disappointed that this old ride didn't work.


We had a pretty good time on our little "staycation". Next time you're near Moab check out the petting zoo.

First Day of School 2010

Ethan and Ally had their first day of school on August 18. They were so excited to start school in their new classes.

Ally is going to Tiny Tots Preschool with Lana again this year. But she is in the 4-day class this year to prepare her for kindergarten. She loves going to school and is always excited to show me what she had learned and made everyday.


Ethan started first grade. He is in Mrs. Brewer's class. Ethan was so excited to start 1st grade. The things he was most excited about were eating school lunch and having 3 recesses. He seems to be enjoying it so far but isn't real fond of homework. Some nights are a battle.


Ryan didn't want to be left out of having pictures. He gets to spend one on one time with me (and Becky) and not have to worry and his brother and sister pestering him. So he loves it that they have started school. He's also really excited when it's time to pick them up.


Crazy kids, gotta love 'em.

Lake Powell - August 2010

Aaahhhh, Lake Powell. My favorite place on earth. Oh, how I love it, and we were able to enjoy it one more time before school started and we had to return to a normal schedule. We had a really small group this trip with just my dad (and mom for a few days) Michael's family, me and my kids, and a few extras here and there. We had some stormy weather, I think it rained a bit every night. We saw some awesome and kind of scary lightning storms. Nevertheless we had an awesome trip, as always.

Ethan and Carson started the trip off with a bang by catching a nice catfish.


The night fishing was pretty good too and Michael was hitting the sweet spot.


Here are a few of the striper we caught. We usually practice the catcha and release method and tried valiantly to save these but alas they went belly-up so we kept them for a fish fry.


Grandpa and Ryan dippin' their feet in.


Ally posing on the rock. This rock was out away from the shore and slightly underwater so the kids thought it was awesome to swim out to it and pretend you could touch out where it was deep.


Ryan playing on the beach.


Ethan and Ally swimming.


Ally finally dared to go off the slide, and I didn't even have to bribe her with anything. She even did it without her life jacket.


There she goes. Good job, Ally.


Grandpa, Ryan and Ethan doing some fishing off the back of the speedboat.


Michael cookin' us up some delicious dinner. (I think I have a picture like this in almost every Lake Powell post.)


The kids playing some cards. We also had some intense games of Farkle going on. Thanks Nicole for bringing it to our attention.


Ally and Ryan playing in the sand.


Jessie and Davis digging a giant hole in the sand.


Davis got this crazy lizard-scale looking back from having the mud dry on him. It looked pretty cool and was pretty good sunscreen too.


Grandpa getting the sand ready.


Workin' it, feelin' it, seein' it.


Grandma, looking on with great anticipation.


Ta da! It's Leo! Grandpa and Grandma's pet tortoise.


Doesn't it look like him.


The kids posing with Grandpa and Leo.


We played so hard everyone was worn out. Michael and Ryan had a good nap.


Ethan and Ally did too.


Michele even got in on the fishing action. Nicole was super excited about it.


I finally got up, and stayed up surfing. I was so excited.


This kayak drifted over to our boat during the night. We thought we had a nice find until someone came and reclaimed it. We had fun with it for awhile though.


Javan got to come for one night. So he played as hard as he could. Got in several wakeboard rides.


And did some surfing too.


Ryan enjoying a ride in the boat.


Good times!