Love

I just wanted to say that I LOVE my boys! They are so ;much fun and both getting so big. Ryder is walking everywhere and he seems less and less like a baby. He has starting saying more words like cookie, that, cracker, and cheese. He loves playing chase around the house and always has to have food in his hand :)  Aiden has started gymnastics and although he was a little hesitant about things on his first day he is excited to go back! He loves to have dance parties, sing the ABC's, play racing, and he is such  good helper. He is very independent and always wants to do things by himself without my help. He is also a big sweetie pie. He always is coming up to me and kissing my hand and telling me he loves me so much. I love them and I am so glad to spend every day with them. I get sad thinking that I only have 5 years at home with each of them before they go to school all day. I am excited for that next big adventure of school, but it is also sad even though it is still 2 years away for Aiden. I guess its just the fact that I know it will go by fast.

On a happier note we are going to the zoo this weekend and I am so excited to take the boys! Aiden is older and I think will enjoy it more this time and Ryder LOVES animals so I think he will enjoy it too. Brad has the whole weekend off! woohoo! So I can't wait to have some good family time. Brad also is turning 28 on Tuesday! So we will get to celebrate his birthday as well :) I love Labor Day weekends.

1, 3, and 24

This was the month of birthdays at our house! Aiden turned 3 on July 2nd, Ryder turned 1 on July 25th, and I turned 24 on the 28th. Sorry this is such a loooong post, but there is a lot to cover!
     I can't believe Aiden is already 3. He is so sweet and he is so curious. He will ask questions a mile a minute. His favorite question is why? He still LOVES cars and trains, but he also has a new fascination with robots. He loves to watch Wall-e and The Iron Giant. His favorite colors are blue and green and he has informed Brad that when he is older he is going to have a green motorcycle, a green motorcycle jacket, and a green helmet and that Dada is going to have a blue motorcycle, a blue motorcycle jacket, and a blue helmet and that they are going to drive around everywhere together :) I love him so much and can't wait to see how he will continue to grow and learn.
We celebrated Aiden's birthday first with a pre-birthday party at Grandma's house, then we had his big party in Idaho at Poppi and Gigi's house. It was a Jake and the Neverland Pirates birthday party and he had so much fun! We did a treasure hunt and then had water balloons after cake and presents. Here are some pictures of all the fun:

 Pre-birthday party at Grandma's :)

 Pirate cake #1. Made with love by Grandma and Mama.

 Pirate cake #2 in Idaho. Added an ocean and some sharks :)

 Water balloons! I love this one because you can see Aiden's little hands with 2 green balloons behind Coen.

And the party ended with Aiden in his birthday suit :) 

Ryder turned 1 on July 25th! I can't believe it has already been a year since he was born! He has been taking steps here and there since he was 10 months, but just in the last week he has been walking a ton! He still crawls too because it is still faster for him, but he LOVES to walk. Sometimes if it is a long distance Brad and I will hold his hand and if we let go he will just start bawling. He also loves to play peek-a-boo and loves to climb up and down stairs. His first word besides Mama and Dada that he just said this last week was "cheese." He says it every time we go to take his picture :) We are trying to work on more words. He babbles a ton in baby and he points to things a lot when he wants something, but we are working on him actually saying the words. He is a BIG Daddy's boy. This last week Brad came home from his first day of school and when Ryder saw him he exclaimed "DADA!" with so much joy and excitement. It almost makes me almost cry just thinking about it because it was so touching how happy he was to see his Dada. 

     For his 1st birthday we had balloons and presents out for him in the morning and we made him blueberry pancakes. Then in the evening we had birthday cake with a little cake just for him to dig into you. Here are pics from his birthday:

And lastly we celebrated my birthday yesterday. Friday night brad surprised me with a  nice memory foam mattress top for our bed because our mattress is too firm for me and I kept waking up with achy hips and shoulders. It was the perfect gift :) Sleeping has been wonderful! Then on Saturday morning Brad and Aiden sang Happy Birthday first thing in the morning and then we went out for a celebratory birthday lunch at Saul Good and then had my cake in the evening.

Summer Nights

Although Brad has been super busy studying for his board exam we are able to be with him in the evenings and we have had lots of fun having him home and getting to all be together. Here are some recent pics of our time together. The ones outside were from this past Friday night. We went to an outside movie and it was so much fun!

Mother's Day

I am so happy and blessed to have my husband and my two boys. I LOVE being home with them and I am so grateful that I have that opportunity. I would not want to have any other job. And I am so grateful to know that I get to be with them for eternity. 

And I am so grateful to for my mom and my mother-in-law today and what wonderful examples they are to me and the support and love that they show me and my family. I love you both! 

I tried to take a picture with each of my boys before we changed out of our nice Sunday clothes, but Ryder was BEYOND exhausted after church today and passed out as soon as we got home. So I managed to get one with Brad and Aiden before changing.

Snack Mayhem

So I bought some new snack holders for the boys to replace just putting their snacks in little tupperware holders. These snack holders are the no spill kind with the flaps on top that are supposed to prevent the kids from spilling them and to make it so they can just get a few at a time with their hands instead of trying to dump them. I was especially excited to get these for Ryder because when I give him a little cup of cheerios he automatically just flings it around and dumps it everywhere.

Well, he approached this new snack holder simply as a challenge to his amazing ability to dump the cheerios out.....
He figured out to just push down one of the flaps and quickly shake it back and forth to get them out and these are the results:

Reveling in his new accomplishment

April News

Just wanted to post a few pictures of the boys I have taken recently and tell you all what we have been up to lately. First of all, we had a great Easter. We had an Easter egg hunt at the church and then on Easter we went over to Brent and Meagan's house for an Easter dinner and egg hunt. Aiden had so much fun and I don't think he ate any real food on Sunday. He had candy, brownies, cupcakes...maybe some chicken nuggets somewhere in there, but that's about it. Oh and the Easter bunny came that morning and Aiden got his toy golf set that he had been talking about for a month before Easter. Poor Ryder couldn't quite enjoy the sugar this year like his brother did, but he had fun crawling around outside in the grass and playing with the fake grass in the baskets :)

 So happy with his Easter booty!

More fascinated with the basket and grass than the toys.

This month has been a super busy one for Brad. He has had tons of tests and his finals are now coming up. So, we had one week in the middle of April where he had a little break, but besides that he has basically been at school. We can't wait for him to be done in June! He takes his board exam June 20th and then he is free until the end of July! I have been staying busy well, with the boys of course, but with my online class and projects around the house as well. We are SO excited to go out to Idaho and have a nice, long break. We are both also very excited for next year when there will be less book work and more hospital work! 

Also, yesterday Ryder turned 9 months old!! I can't believe how big he is getting. He is crawling and standing everywhere and is one of the most talkative little guys. He is a very loud talker and loves to shriek and squeal. He loves to play with everything his brother is playing with, which of course frustrates Aiden all the time :) He is very smart and is already trying to copy sounds and words we say. He loves to raise both hands in the air with Dada when Dada says touchdown! He is definitely more of a Daddy's boy than Aiden was. When Brad is home he will follow him everywhere around the house. And he will sometimes give me big, slobbery kisses when I ask him for one :) He also LOVES to eat! He would not stop if I let him. He weighs about 19 pounds and already fits in 12 month clothes. He is so much fun and is always on the move!