Denver

We made a trip to Denver to see the new Andersen cousin. Baby Ryder! He is such a cutie! Ryan loved being with his older cousins. The weather was a little different there than in CA. All we brought was sweatshirts and it turned out to be 19 degrees! So we bundled Ryan up in my sweatshirts and he still had fun in the cold!The Andersen Boys We went to an indoor play place called Monkey Bizness. One of our ( I liked it as much as the kids did) favorite things was the 15 foot slide. I was a little nervous at first, but I had to be brave for Ryan.
Our first ride!After a few tries, Ryan was ready to go all by himself. It was hard for me to let him go, but he loved it. That will be the story of my life as he is growing up, right?Brooklyn and Ryan
The kids helped my make caramel apples. Always a delicious treat.Too bad Denver is so far away! We miss you guys!

Sunday

Gotta love days like this:

Ryan went to sleep late and woke up early.

Ate 2 packs of M&Ms during sacracment meeting to keep him quiet ( at 9:00am).

Wouldn't go to nursery ( like he ever has) so we spent the last 2 hours running around the church.

Afterward, we went to our new house to try to get Ryan to take a nap.

He wouldn't.

Waited for the bishop where Ryan soaked himself while trying to get a drink out of the drinking fountian. I should have stopped him, but it was too funny.

Met with the bishop where Ryan pulled pictures off the wall, pulled stuff out of drawers and colored on himself and the bishop's desk with a highlighter.

We then shoved the screaming child into his car seat to drive home.

And then he crashed.

Isn't he an ANGEL!

Ryan's First Trip to Disneyland

My good friend wWendy took us to Disneyland. Tyler got to go with us. We had a blast. Ryan, on the otherhand, wasn't so sure.

This pictures sums up how he felt about Disneyland. Insert a " NOOOOO" here!Tyler had fun! We were glad he could come!

Thanks, Wendy!

St. George Marathon

Over Conference weekend, my friend Wendy and I ran the St. George Marathon. It was #2 for both of us! We had a great time! We drove up with Brett and Ryan Friday night, ran the marathon Saturday morning and hopped back... ok more like dragged ourselves into the car and went home that afternoon. Yes, we are crazy.

They drove us up the canyon at 5:30 am. Wendy and I were on the last bus in the last seat. Great timing. They started the race about 10 minutes after we arrived. I was a little nervous about how I would feel during the race being that the last time I ran 26.2 miles, I was 20. But, I felt even better this this time. No walls, no blisters, no hurt toenails and I was 5 minutes faster than I was back then! It was a great experience. The best part of the race was as I approached the finish line and I saw Ryan on Brett's shoulders. It was such a sight for sore legs to see my two favorite boys waiting there for me. This is the third race in a year that they have supported me through. What great guys I have.

More marathons to come... who is with me?

( I already know that Wendy and Lorraine are in!)

sorry about the small pictures... I copied them from the marathon site and this is as big as they would get!

Grandma Kirkland

If you ever wanted to feel good about life, you just had to call Grandma. Whenever I called I was greeted with a "hello sweetheart."

Nothing ever seemed too bad when you talked to grandma about it.

She just made life seem so easy.

She loved people - being around them and building them up.

When we would visit, we would spend hours playing games with her.

She would even let us eat chocolate cake for breakfast.

I am so grateful for for humble, sweet, fun-loving and spunky attitdue.

What an example she is - even though she never thought so.

We will miss her.

Baseball Boy

This kid loves " po-ball" like nothing else. It is so cute. Ironically this is the one sport that I have hopes that my children will never play. Nine innings lasts forever! But, if he plays, I am sure I will love it. He does look cute in a hat!

Cause and Effect

Can you guess what these pictures are.... It is our NEW HOUSE! New to us, that is! As you can see we are busy ripping it apart. That picture the kitchen was taken right before we took all of that out! Once we put everything back it, we will post beautiful pictures so you can stop feeling bad for us that our new house looks like a dump. We are really excited about having a little ( literally ) home of our own!

As we are waiting for everything to be finished, we are staying at my parent's house. It has been so nice to have a place to stay that is not under constuction. However, it has thrown Ryan for a loop. He was SUCH a great sleep befire we came here. He was in bed with no fuss at 7 everynight. But now we are at Grammy and Grandpa's fun house with tv and big boy beds and tons of attention. Sleep is not on the priority list. One night last week, I spent 3 hours trying to get this kid in bed. I used all of the tricks; laying next to him, the super-nanny put back in bed tactic, I even put a child-proof knob on his door. But he got that right off. What a kid.

Whie we are looking forward to moving into our new place, I am so not looking forward to breaking these horrible sleep habits! Although it will be nice to have 7:00 bedtime again!

Mothering

Some of the perks of being a stay at home mom:

Witnessing the first nose pick.

So cute, I just had to get a picture before I told him to take it out.

The kisses.

Swimming whenever we want!

And the joy that this cute smile brings to my heart.

I feel so blessed to be able to be with my little boy everyday!

Twenty Seven

I had a great birthday week. Some of the highlights include:

Fondue and Jazz with my hubs.

Making my own cupcakes - Junior Mint. There were pretty good if I do say so myself.

Dinner and yogurt with the fam.

I have heard 27 is a good year. I am sure it will be!

The Ring Story... A Glimmer of Hope

( this is my first time adding text to pictures... can you tell?)

I always knew that Brett was a great guy. But the longer we are married to more I realize it. He really puts up with a lot and is so patient and mostly understanding about most things that I do or don't do... or lose.

And thus begins the ring story.

One of my flaws is that I don't worry too much about things - as in material things. I guess in some ways that can be good but in my way, it is not.

I am working on it.

One day, as I was putting lotion on Ryan, I set my rings on the bed. This was a daily occurrence and almost every time Brett would tell me, " you are going to lose that ring if you take it off like that."

I had, truth be told, been very impressed with myself for not losing it for the 4+ years we had been married , and I would reply with a " no, I won't. how can I lose it in our HOUSE?"

This particular day, Ryan picked up my rings and carried them out to the front room and placed them on the floor. It was morning and I had not yet put my "eyes" in, but proceeded to vacuum the front room. I heard a noise as I was vacuuming, but couldn't see anything so I kept vacuuming. It wasn't until I noticed my ring was gone that I realized what that noise was.

I immediately dumped out the contents of the vacuum, but could not see my ring and threw the debris away. I convinced myself that the ring was still in the house and would show up eventually. That was 6 months ago.

I still haven't really looked because I don't want to face the reality that it could be gone.

As in: under a pile of trash in a dump.

BUT

Today I found this article and now have hope that my ring still can be found:

A New Zealand man has been dubbed the Lord of the Ring after he searched and found his wedding ring more than a year after it slipped off his finger and sank to the sea floor.
The ring was lost for 16 months

in the harbor of the country's capital city, Wellington, before Aleki Taumoepeau

found it shining on the sea floor.
"But, equipped with new global satellite based coordinates

and offering up a quick prayer,

he found the ring after an hour's search.

He found it a sea floor!

I can find mine in my house or my vacuum... but probably not in a dump.

Hopefully a happy follow-up post will be coming soon!

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