Ryan turned 10!!!

I just did this whole post and it disappeared before I could publish it...thanks a lot, Blogger! Ryan had his 10th birthday on Friday! A child entering a new decade makes you a little melancholy. Sometimes I really wish I could pause my life. Why must my children get bigger??? Of course it's so they can grow and progress and learn...blah, blah, blah. I just want my little babies back sometimes. But watching them grow and become independent is fun, too. Luckily for me, Jake has been such a little baby Ryan repeat that it's like getting to watch him grow up all over again. :)

Favorite gift: WII game--big surprise!

For our kids' birthdays, we let them either have a friend party or a nice dinner out with the family at a restaurant of their choosing. Ryan chose dinner out at Chili's. And like the Super-Mom that I am, I totally forgot to take the camera. Just know that we went, we ate, we enjoyed. :) And we spent...our family is growing, and a night out at Chili's costs a lot more than it used to...

Requested birthday dessert: Texas Sheet Cake. I don't blame him--I make an AWESOME Texas Sheet Cake. But it makes this whole huge pan, and it's like a gazillion calories per serving, I'm sure... Oh that I had more will power! Notice how he licked every single morsel from his fork! ( He is SOOO my child!)

All his loot. He had a great birthday and is excited to be in Webelos now for Cub Scouts.

Some of my favorite things about Ryan:

His calm, quiet temperament.

His blue eyes (they remind me of Tim's, sigh...).

His awesome piano abilities.

The way he helps with Jake.

His snuggles.

The fact that he actually sleeps in (which is more than I can say for the rest of my kids).

His love for puzzles (like me).

His awesome back-flips on the trampoline.

He is just a great kid and I can't wait to see who he becomes over the next ten years!

Our summer home

For many years, Tim's parents and some other members of his family have been parking their camper trailers for the whole summer in the mountains at a place called Grandjean. We've been up several times and love it there. The best part is the hot springs pool that our kids thoroughly enjoy (never mind that one time many, many years ago when Brandon puked in it...). This year, we joined the bandwagon and left our little trailer up there for the summer. Mostly because Tim drew a mountain goat tag not far from there and wants to be able to scout out the area whenever possible. It's not something we were planning on doing this year, but we've been up twice now and have really enjoyed the convenience of the whole thing so far. I'm sure we'll make a lot of great memories, which is the main goal in my opinion.

Some fun things the kids did were go for rides with Dad on the 4-wheeler, lots of swimming, BB gun shooting, playing with cousins in our "neighbors'" sandbox, building a fire pit, hiking, playing games, and fishing. And eating s'mores, of course...

Our spot up there had a fire pit once upon a time, but had been almost completely covered up with dirt and such. We really wanted our own little fire spot, so that was our project last weekend. Tim brought a few shovels up with us, and the boys carried, rolled, and kicked big rocks we found to help make it. One of my favorite pics is the one of Syd with her shovel--she's totally posing--why am I surprised?? Anyway, our fire pit turned out awesome and did the job once it was time for the campfire that evening. I look forward to many more nights around that fire pit...

When we were trying to decide on Ryan's name 10 long years ago, Tim really wanted to name him Ryan Fisher (after all, Brandon's middle name is Hunter, and he wanted to continue the theme...). I refused and eventually won that battle. Perhaps I should have let him have his way. That boy loves to fish! He caught several the first night and I cooked them for dinner, and he also loved eating them (note the fish scale in one pic). The only downside to the whole fishing experience was Ryan "hooking" his finger. He didn't like that too much, to say the least... I think next time he'll be a little more careful when removing moss from his hook.

All in all, it was a great weekend and I'm sure there will be many more to come.

Vacuum Treasures

I love my central vacuum. Really. What I don't love is that Jake loves to stuff things in the wall-suction-socket-thingy. I've caught him more than once trying to do that. Obviously, though, I haven't caught him in time sometimes. Last week, my vacuum wasn't sucking so well. I kept hoping it would get better on its own, since I just had to have a new garage door opener installed and get my satellite TV repaired. I wasn't exactly anxious to pay yet a third person to come fix something. But alas, I couldn't take the dirty carpet anymore, so we had a guy come out this morning. Here is the collection of things he found:

THREE (yes, 3!!!) mini glasses that go to Sydney's old tea set
One huge rock
A toy hay bale
A toy rake
A bouncy ball
A child's-sized spoon (it's about 4 inches long...)

SERIOUSLY?!?!? Nice!

So, after paying the nice man $73.24 (could that amount be any more random?), I now have a vacuum that is in tip-top shape. :)

Guess what I'll be doing the rest of the day...

New 'do--times two

So I've really been needing a new look, and Sydney has been begging me to let her cut her hair like her friend, Jessie's. As in, right at her shoulders... I kept hoping she would change her mind, but no luck, so I asked her like 100 times if she was sure, and she said yes, so we had a little girls' hair-date today and got new 'dos. Before the haircuts, we went to the dollar store (her favorite place) so she could spend some of her money, and I found some cute luau stuff for her birthday party next month.

Anyway, I'm proud that I was willing/able to let go of control of her hair and let her do what she wanted to with it. If there's one thing I've always said, it's that ,"It's just hair...it will grow back." Heaven knows I've had like every hairdo in the book. I think it'll be fun for the summer. And I guess it will take less time to do her hair now, which is a big plus. :)
My new look. I've been trying to grow out my bangs for a couple months, and now they actually look like they are part of my style. :) My brown-eyed girl.
I. LOVE. HER.

Our newest first-grader!!!

So, we officially have a first-grader in the house! Thursday night, Sydney graduated from kindergarten. She was SO EXCITED!!!!! I was so proud because she was one of two kids in her class that got the "Good Citizen" award--go, Syd!!! She has had such a great year and is now reading like crazy! She loved her teacher, Mrs. Browning, and has asked if she can still have her in first grade. I can't believe she'll have school every day this fall like her older brothers... The best part of the graduation program was the "Cool Cat" song. She has been singing this for me at home for weeks. It has these cute little actions and she swings her hips so cute when she does them...it was awesome! She and three other little kids got to be in front and say each phrase, and then the rest of the kids would echo them. Such a little performer! Oh, and I love her cat mask. :)

Utah Trip

Last week I drove down to Utah with Sydney and Jake to see my parents, a couple sisters and three nieces. When that many members of my family are within 7 hours, I have to take advantage of it! It was a REAL long drive with Sydney playing mommy to Jake so that I could focus on driving. There were some moments that I just had to let him cry, but overall, he was really good. It was only about 48 hours that we were there, but it was so much fun and worth every minute spent in the car. My family is awesome and it's always so fun to make new memories with them!Some pictures from our motel room. It was nothing fancy, but it was real cheap, and even cheaper since I split the cost of the room with my parents. :) The funniest part was Jake with that phone. He played with it ALL THE TIME. I don't know why it was so exciting, but that's all he wanted to do, so we unplugged it and let him go crazy. It made him real happy.
Hugs and kisses...when your kids only get to see their extended family every once in a long while, you have to get in as many as possible.
Ahhhh...dinner at Pizza Factory. It was my first-ever trip there and the breadtwists were just as yummy as I had been told. Nothing beats a nice dinner out with the fam. Especially when you remember your camera and Sydney wants to be a gangsta!

More fun pics from the trip. It was so good to see my mom and dad and let my two little ones spend some time with them. Maggie was an awesome "host" in her hometown of Provo, too. She, Megan and I had a girls' night my last night with some card games and some frozen Oreo dessert...doesn't get much better then that! Oh wait, yes it did...when Jake for some reason decided that Maggie's name was "Ruff Ruff"...you know, what a dog says...it was so hilarious, and definitely one of my favorite memories from the trip, haha!!!

Before we left, we stopped by a park close to Maggie's house and let the kids play a little before stuffing them back into the car for 7 hours. It was a beautiful morning and they had so much fun. Sydney learned how to go across the pulley-thing (I have no idea what it's called...) all by herself, and Jake somewhat overcame his fear of slides. It was the perfect ending to a perfect trip. I especially love the picture in the center of Jake with my parents...LOVE IT!!!!

Dance Recital

Last week was Sydney's dance recital. She really does love being in her dance class! Their dance this year was to "Over the Rainbow" and was a hula-like dance. She looked so stinkin' cute in her hula skirt! Some of these photos are from her dress rehearsal and some are from the actual performance. Once again, she was beside herself at the opportunity to once again wear make-up. Pretty much her favorite thing about the recital. Her group also did a tumbling routine to "Men in Black" and she whipped out some awesome cartwheels. It was really fun to watch her and see what she has learned. She looks forward to doing it again next fall.

Happy UN-birthday

Sydney's kindergarten class had a special day in May to celebrate summer birthdays. Sydney was so excited!!!! She chose to bring Twinkies to share with the class. Jake was more than happy to help her celebrate and indulge in some goodies.
Their teacher gives them each a glow-in-the-dark bracelet for their birthday present and it's their favorite part of the celebration. She turns the lights out and they all hold up their hands to show that their bracelets are indeed glowing. It's pretty funny to see how excited they get!
Oh, how he makes me smile!

Such a cheeser!

Demonstrating that yes, indeed, her bracelet is glowing. Her face just makes me laugh! :)

Take a look at all the "junk" she got. I think there were 6 or 7 kids celebrating that day...lots of goodies!

Jakey, Sydney, and her awesome teacher, Mrs. Browning.

Gettin' my "craft" on

I am a little behind on blogging lately. Too much end-of-the-year school stuff and such. So now that summer is officially here (never-mind the awful non-summer-like weather...) I'm going to try and catch up one post at a time.

A couple weeks ago, my dear friend Marisa and I got together like old times and had a sewing party. It really did remind me of those days long ago when we learned how to sew together and made hideous jumpers--one in yellow and one in bright red...but I digress...

Anyways, she has this cool pattern for little girls' skirts and I made one for Sydney. It turned out so cute. Today I even made her another one. It's Americana for the 4th of July--pics at a later date...

All ready for church and posing. Her hair looked much better after about 2 hours when the curl wasn't so new...

Clearly she's been trained since birth to pose for the camera...

Little man wanted in on the picture action, haha! I love his slicked hair-do in this pic, too. :)