Anticipated

Can I be lame and put this off until some other time? My afternoon did not go as planned. Matt didn't get home from church until 3:30 and Jake wouldn't nap because he still isn't feeling 100% (he has the FOREVER lasting double ear infection - seriously this is #4 this year!). So, here it is 8:30 and I can't remember any of the stuff that I was going to put on this blog.

I guess I'll just upload some pics. Nobody like reading all the rambling anyway.

Here are some from Christmas

Here is Ryan doing his begging face.

Here we are hanging out in my bathroom. Why is the bathroom the favorite room in the house?

Jake woke up from a nap and Ryan jumped in bed with him before I could even get in there. Funny.

So that's it for now. I made good on my promise but I know I had more stuff to post so I will think about it and make that really long post soon :)

Did you know?

My grandparents read this blog? I found this out a while ago and thought I should blog something, anything. But I haven't. Although now that I know that they are reading I'm motivated....it's a super busy week though. So Grandma and Grandpa - if you are reading THIS - come back on Sunday (all of my other fabulous readers are welcome to come back too). We have morning church. And I know what I will be doing in the afternoon ;)

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.