Halloween and Stuff

We went the aquarium because they were having free admission for kids that were dressed up. Ryan loved it and can be seen in these pictures looking for the sharks. He told me before we went that "sharks are mean and they bite you, but dolphins are nice." I'm not really sure where he got that from. But he was really excited to see a shark.

Jake loved looking up and seeing the fish above him.

Finally we got to the shark tank. This is where they have all the smaller sharks and then the huge whale sharks. He was satisfied with the shark viewing. Though interestingly, he seemed to like the beluga's the best, because he kept running off to go back and see them. Picture me, carrying Jake running after him through the aquarium. Fun.

Then we carved pumpkins on Friday. He loved that too. He liked the guts and wanted to eat it. Badly.

The finished product. It is actually dark outside in this picture but the flash made it seem bright as day.

On Saturday we went to the ward trunk or treat at the tree farm. Ryan loved getting candy from people but was more obsessed with the fire pit. Jake was dressed up as a skunk and was very good natured about wearing his costume! Ryan was a cowboy and loved all the accessories that his costume had. (a map, a canteen, a badge, a hat, etc.) So he has still been enjoying wearing it and is trying to figure out how to get more candy when he puts in on ;)

And for the costume contest at the office (those regular readers are familiar). Tami and I won, yet again, with our excellent insurance mascot costumes! Woohoo!

Stuff That Happened

Let's see. A lot has happened in the almost four months since a post (did I say almost, because I think it has actually been four months) Anyway, I have been taking pictures, so prepare yourself for the longest post. See if you can make it to the end.

Ryan and I were playing cars (a regular occurrence) We got so excited with some sort of ramp, this toy car flew into my face. It broke the fender (which I didn't realize, until this time, is actually plastic) and it took a chunk out of my face. Nice.

I had a really hard time documenting this. I thought it was so crazy that we needed to take a picture, but Ryan wanted to take the picture. Needless to say, this is 7 attempts later. It drew blood....and I need to pluck my eyebrows. hahaha.

I found this one while I was looking through the pictures (notice how much bigger Jake is by the end of the post) I guess when I am away, Matt lets Ryan feed Jake. Maybe I can leave them home alone together?! ;)

We celebrated Canada Day. Actually, the celebration consisted of wearing this hat for about 2 minutes. WooHoo!

We celebrated the 4th of July for real. Real fireworks. Real food. It was fun.

This is a common occurrence, Ryan always wants Jake to sit beside him and for me to take a picture (I really don't mind though so this may be why we do it so often)

Jake tried rice cereal. This was before we even pulled out the highchair. Ryan was sad that Jake wasn't getting any food so we let him try some. He has since moved on to more flavorful selections. And a better chair.

For Ryan's birthday, I got up early to make his cake. Ryan ALWAYS wants to help in the kitchen. Any mother out there knows how big of a help he is ;)

The cake was a success. Of course Ryan wanted to play with it. But when we told him it was for eating, he wasn't too upset cutting into Thomas.

Jake keeps getting cuter and bigger.

And we try to keep him clean. Which has become more challenging now that he is eating more food, and grabbing the spoon and flinging food everywhere trying to help feed himself.

Per usual, Ryan has to be in on the action and loves to help "clean Jake."

Some idiot turned left into our car. Yes, the boys were in the car with me. The car was declared a total loss because three airbags deployed and we had to get a new one.

Ryan found this grasshopper on the outside screen of one of the upstairs windows. THAT IS MY HAND. Which makes that grasshopper more than 3 inches long. Sick. At least it was outside.

Jake continues to LOVE the Jolly Jump.

See?

We went to a pumpkin patch to collect some pumpkins. This is on the hayride.

This is Ryan telling me that EVERY pumpkin is the one we need to get.

This is him jumping on the pumpkins. Despite the numerous signs telling you not too. Hey, he can't read yet, so I figure it's okay.

And this is the end of this post.

World's Most Beautiful

So, we just got back from the beach (okay, kind of "just," we have been back for at least a week and a half). We had a fantastic time. The boys were both so good driving down. I was so excited to stop in Columbus and see one of my old friends from college. Megan recently moved to Columbus because her husband is doing some training at Fort Benning (I think it's Ft. Benning) and so we met up for breakfast on the drive down. They made us some delicious road trip cookies which Matt and Ryan enjoyed the rest of the way to the beach. I don't have the photos from our little breakfast (Megan maybe you can send them to me?) But it was so nice to see one of my old friends, as most of them don't ever make their way out this far!

We stayed in a condo right on the beach and enjoyed being able to go from the beach to our place quite easily so one of us could take Jake to nap and Ryan could keep playing. Some of our friends were down at the same time and we drove over to the condo they were staying at one day and played at the beach and the pool. Ryan had a great time chasing all of their kids around! And digging this giant hole (I'm pretty sure he wasn't that helpful in digging but he sure was interested!)

The giant hole. It only got bigger as the day went on!

Ryan is such a thrill seeker. He loves the "bungee," as he calls it!

Lunch at Pineapple Willy's. Ryan was WAY too interested in all the people on the beach to eat anything.

One of two pictures I have of Jake. He was so good the whole time and would just sleep in his stroller. And yes, that's Ryan's hand trying to wake him up.

We are so glad that we were able to enjoy the World's Most Beautiful Beaches (Okay, all of the signs say that, but I think they might actually be right) before they are covered in oil. Hopefully we will get to enjoy them again someday, once they are clean!

In other news, I will also include in this post project #2. This was Matt's Christmas present and was finished well before Christmas. It was still very challenging and required help from the best handyman we know. Luckily he lives not to far away ;)

Before, this was right when we moved in.

During, this whole was big enough for my Dad to fit half his body in. The wall had to be reinforced to hold the TV.

After.

Project #1

Well, clearly blogging really isn't a strong suit of mine. But since my sister is on bedrest and keeps asking me to post to "give her something to read," I figured I could post something. The projects that I was working on up to the end of my pregnancy are almost complete. Numbers 3 and 4 are just a few lazy minutes away from done. BUT project number one, started over a year ago, is finished. The hold up....getting my lazy self to take some pictures. First the before's...

Here are the after photos. What you should notice is the paint color. I had to paint the ceiling too, because our ceilings are beige and it didn't look good with grey walls. So the ceiling is light grey. Also, we extended the molding on the lower part to make it more substantial and we added molding to the trey part of the ceiling. And I made the drapes. With the fabric that I purchased a year ago. They weren't that difficult but sitting down to actually do them proved to be a challenge. So, I still need to find some stuff for the table and the hutch, but if I wait for that post we will easily be well into 2011.

In other news, this little boy just keeps getting cuter. He is a really good sleeper, such a welcome experience considering his big brother only started sleeping through the night about two weeks ago. (I'm serious, when we brought Jake home he was sleeping better than Ryan.) He is also a really content baby. Just happy to look around and observe. Whenever he does fuss, Ryan will dance around in front of him and say "It's okay Jake, I'm right here, don't be sad." Because obviously Jake would only be crying because he has lost tabs on Ryan :) Funny thing is, Jake often does stop crying, which does a lot to perpetuate Ryan's idea. Jake also seems to be much fairer than Ryan. He certainly has a lot less hair than Ryan did, but he also has blue eyes. Ryan had blue eyes when he was born but they changed to brown by about 6 weeks. Jake's are still much bluer (is that a word?) than Ryan's ever were, so I guess we will see.

I'm kind of surprised at how much Ryan seems to like Jake, always wondering where he is and making sure that he has what he needs ("Mom, where is Jake's paci, blanket, etc.") . However, he is still jealous when Jake is getting any sort of attention, politely instructing people to "Put Jake down now" and if he doesn't get his way, instructing them much less politely ;). He is equally as bossy to Jake, telling him in this picture to "say cheese for Mom." Or going into his room and tell him to wake up now (I really don't get this as it's not like Jake really does anything at this point)

Ryan has also decided to potty-train himself. He started refusing to wear a diaper about 2 months ago. Whenever we were at home, you can pretty much guarantee he was naked from the waist down. He has never had an accident in all the time he has spent naked. But, whenever I would convince him to put underwear on, it seemed he didn't grasp the concept because he would lose the ability to go on the potty and simply pee right in the underwear. So, we have been working on it this week and he seems to be quickly grasping the concept of still using the potty despite the fact that he is wearing his "McQueen's". I don't think it would take most mother's two months to finish potty-training your child when they obviously would like to be potty-trained, but hey, I guess I'm just special.

We are getting ready to go to the beach next week so I should have some pictures and another update then. Should...but will I? I guess we'll see.