Viking Pride!!

This post is for my nephew, Thad-man. He plays football (youth league) for the Vikings. They played the Raiders for the championship Thursday in the Dome. He told his mom that he was going to "go out there and tear it up." He was on FIRE!! He had some great catches (including interceptions), ran his heart out for TDs, and played defense like nobody's business, which resulted in some great tackles. The rest of the team played well and they won 32-12. It was a late game, but so worth dragging my kids to. I love watching my nephews play; it seems like just yesterday we were at flag football games watching in disbelief as Jordie tossed the football to the ref five yards from the goal so he could put his shoe back on. LOL :) It was great to see the previous generation of Vikings (DW's team) working the field as the chain crew and waterboy(ha ha DW!!) Congrats Thad-man...you were AWESOME!!

Highlights

Okay, so I have been such a slacker. Sorry, Britt. I will make a few postings in the next couple of days, but all you get for now is the highlights from the last two months (in no particular order.)

1. I canned 21 pints of peaches, 13 half-pints of peach jam, made two peach pies (with homemade crusts), froze four quart bags of sliced peaches, helped my friend can 14 quarts of her peaches, and ate a lot of fresh ones. I discovered Gabe likes fresh peaches. He sat on my mom's lawn with one in his hand and two under his leg while we were picking them off the tree. He went straight to the tub!
2. I had my 10 year high school reunion! So much fun; loved seeing everyone. I especially enjoyed when Ryan mentioned to John Melling's wife, Marielle, that John was my first kiss. Thanks, hon. What a great way to make a first impression. At least we were only six (1st grade at Southwest.)
3. Gabe has two teeth, is crawling, waving bye-bye, pulling himself up on everything, and has learned how to flush the toilet, which he did four times while I was in the shower this morning. What a pill! At least it just affects the water pressure and not the temperature :)
4. Elliot started preschool!! Yay for me...I mean for Elliot. He loves it and they definitely stay busy. Next week they are going on a field trip to the pumpkin patch. I'm not sure who's more excited, Elliot or me.
5. I got highlights in my hair and cut off three inches in the process. Ryan always laments it when I cut my hair; he wants me to grow it long like I had it in high school. When he will get up every morning to do my hair like my mom did, I will think about it.
6. I watched the Olympics. I am glad they are over so that I can go to bed before 1 AM. Those two weeks were killer on my sleep :) I am addicted to gymnastics and swimming, so I was pretty much glued to the TV. Totally worth the loss of sleep. Go USA!
7. I was put in as the 2nd counselor in our Primary, so most of my free time has been dedicated to that. I love working with the kids and I think I finally know all their names.
8. My nephews have been playing football. I love football, but haven't been able to catch many games this year. I promise to do better next season, although Colleen (their mom) assured me that most of the time they don't notice that she is there.
9. Ryan totally finished our roof. Woohoo!! Next year will be knocking out a wall, building a deck, and if I am really lucky, new carpet. I'm glad Ryan is ambitious, because when it comes to the actual work of home improvement, I am a little lazy;)
10. For the second time this year, Ryan had a nasty case of strep and a double kidney infection. They caught this one before it got really bad and gave him a shot that resulted in him swearing up a storm. He has been obssessing about a better way to give the shot if he ever has to have it again. Good thing that he is usually on the other end of the needle!

Well, that is all for now. I promise to post pictures soon. We took some really cute ones of the boys when we were at Brit & Kody's. However, I am taking advantage of the fact the Ryan is in Boise and I can actually go to bed before midnight. BTW--five new temples! And how cool is the one in Rome?

Honestly...

Yesterday, Ryan & I dropped the boys off at his parent's house so that we could go on a date. (Thank you again for watching them!) We haven't been on one since...before we had Gabriel? We came back to Poky to do some shopping (all by ourselves!) Our first stop was Walmart. Lame, I know. We ran into Colleen, who also thought it was lame that we went to Walmart when we could have gone anywhere. All I have to say in my defense is:

1. Elliot starts preschool in September.
2. He needs school supplies and they are on sale.
3. Walmart was not the only store we went to.

After Walmart, we went to Ross Dress for Less. We are going on a cruise to Mexico at the end of October and figured if we waited much longer, we wouldn't be able to find summer clothes. Ryan had a meeting at work and then we went to lunch and hit TJ Maxx. They had some awesome bedding that we really wanted ( I will post pictures when I actually get it on the bed!) We stopped for a snow cone and then headed to Blackfoot to pick up our boys. Just before we got to Fort Hall, we heard something from the Explorer hit the road. Uh-oh. We pulled off at the exit, and sure enough, the serpentine belt was gone. I think Ryan is cursed when it comes to these--it is his third one! Anywhoo--we called our home and auto program (sort of like AAA) and got a tow truck. Ryan's dad was nice enough to come meet us and then take me to their house while Ryan went with the truck back to Poky to Jiffy Lube so they could put a new belt on in a...jiffy :) Out of the woods, right? Not so fast, buckaroo. The boys at the Jiggly Lub went to put on the belt, but a pulley was missing. Thank goodness the tow truck hadn't left. Ryan got a second tow to a mechanic (a friend of one of the guys at Jiffy Lube), and then called our friend Amanda to give him a ride home (all of three blocks!) Keep in mind he had all of the loot from our aforementioned shopping stops, so the ride really was warranted.

He then got in trusty steed #2 (his Dodge Dakota) and headed to Blackfoot to meet up with the rest of the posse. Brit was there, so we got to visit with her too.It was a long day, but thank goodness that the boys weren't with us when we broke down on I-15. What was with the flying ants? They covered the windshield of Denis's truck. Our entertainment while waiting the 45 minutes for the tow truck was watching the ants get stuck in winshield washer fluid. Amazing what mundane things become exciting when there is no TV.

After all that, it only cost $150 to fix the truck. Yay! Now it will run forever, right?

The 4th of July and then some...

We went to the parade this year. It was only two blocks away from our house, so yay for that! Gabe was just happy to be out of the house. The car was the coolest thing I have ever seen in the parade. Ryan and I had seen it the day before and as we drove past, we looked at each other and said, "That was the coolest car! Did you see it?" Elliot brought home lots of candy. One of the great benefits to having kids is the treats!

Elliot loves sparklers. Since Ryan had to work this year, that was pretty much all we did. He loved Amanda's green umbrella and had more fun with it than watching the parade.

The other pictures are just kind of random. Elliot was sitting in the exersaucer watching a movie one day while I was feeding Gabe. I didn't realize he was asleep until I got up to lay Gabe down for his nap. Elliot was out cold. He hardly moved when I pulled him out so that he could lay on the bed to sleep.

We have a Johnny Jump up that my sister gave us when he had Elliot (I'm glad I am the baby of the family--I get all the hand-me-downs.) It took Gabe a few minutes to figure out how to work it, but now he loves jumping in it. Elliot has even been so kind as to pull it back and let it swing while Gabe is in it. Only twice before I caught him! What a mischievous three year old I have.

The frog is in our pond. Ryan bought two last year to put in the pond when they were barely out of the tadpole stage. We haven't seen them since he put them in, so we thought they had died. Imagine my surprise when I looked out the window and there was a good sized frog sitting atop one of the lily pads! Ryan still hasn't seen it, so I don't think he totally believes me. That's why I took pictures ;)

Dora Winifred

This post is for my nephew, Darren, (aka Dora Winifred.) I told him I would post a baby picture of him with his chubby cheeks. I can't find the one where he is about six months old and just a cute chubby wubby roly poly baby, so this will have to do. He is now 16, all muscle, and still a cute boy.

Memories

I have seen this on a few of my high school friends' blogs, and since I left comments on theirs, I figured I would give them the same opportunity!

1. As a comment on my blog, leave a memory that you and I have together. It doesn't matter if you know me a little or a lot, anything you remember! (You can play this even if we're just blog friends... something that you remember from our blog time together! haha!)

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see what memories people have of you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses.I would love to hear what you guys remember about me! (good or [not too]bad :o)

Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?

So...it's been awhile since I have posted. Ryan has been gone for three of the last four weeks, so I have had a lot less "free time." He comes home tomororrow--yay! I will break up our latest happenings so that:

1. I don't get confused.
2. You don't get confused and
3. Umm...what was I doing again?

Ryan and I celebrated our sixth anniversary on Saturday (July 12th.) Yes, he was in Boise, but he did send me some beautiful purple roses. Does anyone else think he looks about fifteen in our engagement picture? What six years, two kids, and four years at ISU will do to you!

This is my niece, Gillian. or as we call her, "Gilly Bean." She is six and playing T-ball this summer. She is about a head taller than any of the other kids on her team and at the first practice, she was the only one who knew which way to run the bases! She is the queen of her house, but with three older brothers, how could it be any other way?
Here she is playing rover. They should have tried her out on first base...at least she knew what to do with the ball! Totally different from Thad's super league, isn't it Colleen? We forgot how much fun Knothole Baseball is. Where the heck was the snowcone man? That was always the best part!!
Elliot fed Gabe this afternoon while I was on the phone with the Primary president. They both had to take a bath! There were pears and applesauce all over, but it could have been worse!
We have a rabbit (not my idea.) It was inherited from the teenage daughter of our the bishop in our old student ward. (Thanks, Bishop Cady:) ) It came with a hutch and a "portable" cage. Elliot's favorite thing to do is get in the hutch, get the bunny out and then torture it by chasing him and pulling his ears. This day he got in the other cage with the bunny and then couldn't get out. Any of you who know how I am with pets (of any kind) know that I don't touch anything with fur (or scales, or anything, really.) I got Elliot out, but I went and got our neighbor to put Dusty (yes, the bunny has a name) back in his cage. Eww. I made Ryan fix the hutch so that Elliot couldn't get in it anymore. Although his idea of "fixing" it was to put two buckets filled with limestone on top of the cover. What a man.

New Tricks

Elliot truly makes me laugh several times a day. Sometimes I just have to shake my head

and wonder how a three year old can be so observant. I put away his stuffed animals ages

ago because he has so many and I got tired of picking them up numerous times a day.

However, he "re-discovered" them the other day. At first, he just buckled Minnie Mouse

in the car seat (with no help) and then he put all the others in on top of her. Then he wanted

me to put the handle up so that he could carry them because he was "going to the store."

Who knows what he'll think of next? Minnie looks pretty comfy all by herself.

We have an excersaucer that I put Gabe in so I can fold laundry or clean or even check my email. At first he wasn't sure what to think of it, but now he will stay in it for 20-30 minutes without complaint. It has a small mirror along with the other toys, and as you can see in the picture below, he has discovered the baby in the mirror. He got really quiet the other day, so I turned around to see what he was doing. He was trying to figure out who that baby was.

My cutie boy! Ryan always says, "He is so fat. Look at these rolls!" I think he is adorable and his chubby cheeks are so much fun to kiss!! Ryan is just hoping that his eyes stay blue. Elliot started out with blue eyes and then his went brown, so Ryan is hoping he doesn't get gypped this time around. Gabriel is rolling over now (consistently) and is so proud of it. He makes sure that we take notice when it happens. He has got the cutest laugh and when he smiles, we can't help smiling back. I love this stage. He can't really get around (read get into things), and although he definitely has his own personality, he can't sass me yet!

Something's Afoot...

Sometimes Elliot is too smart for me. He has seen me put baby powder in my church shoes before, but I never realized how closely he pays attention. He was really quiet the other day, and I found him sprinkling (okay--pouring) baby powder in his cowboy boots. It was everywhere! I just laughed (what else are you going to do?) and sent him to play at the neighbor's house while I vacuumed it all up. At least it smelled good.

Hot Tin Roof...Day Three

So here the guys are in the final stages of the roofing project. The weather really wasn't nice enough to work until Friday, and then it was really nice. About the time I was taking these pictures, Ryan realized that he needed his hat, sunglasses and some sunblock. Lucky him, because although he burns, it turns into a tan the next day.

The east side of our roof is so steep. When we had that big windstorm, our Elder's Quorum president came over the help Ryan put tarps up. He almost slid right off. Chase also offered Shay $100 if he would do a back flip off the roof onto the grass. Ryan nixed that one. Thank goodness for older brothers. Wait...isn't Chase Shay's older brother too? Can you imagine what shenanigans would have taken place if we would have had Trav here too? The poor Idaho Air National Guard. What is it going to do with all four of them enlisted? At least none of them are in the same unit. They would drive their commanders nuts! Sorry about the butt shot, Denis. At least everyone can tell you were working! Ryan was too slow with the nail gun, so he tossed down shingles instead.

The roof isn't quite finished in this picture, but they did finish around four on Friday afternoon. Ryan has a few spots to finish, like the ridges and in the front, but it is mostly done. Yay!!! Thanks to Denis, Shay and Chase...Ryan would still be working on it if not for their help. I know Ryan walked around sore for a few days, so I hope everyone has recovered. After the outside is done, Ryan wants to rip out a wall. Any volunteers? :)

Capsons on a Hot Tin Roof--Days 1&2

I told Ryan that our lawn makes us look like white trash. He moved it all into the back yard. Much better;) Hopefully he will have this done within the next few weeks. I just know somebody is going to ask if we are opening our own home improvement store!

Friday we started putting the new shingles on our house. Ryan's dad and his brother Shay came to help out. Ryan is already worn out and they were just getting started:)

Seriously. Does anyone else see a problem with this? Who thought that giving Ryan the nail gun was a good idea? Notice that you can't even see Denis & Shay. Smart guys. I am teasing, Ryan. We know the only thing you can't be trusted with is a subwoofer!!

This is the back of our house at the end of day two (Saturday) They made some really good progress. All they have left to do on Monday is the really steep side of the roof. Break out the rock climbing gear. Really.

Proof that Chase really does work...sort of.
Just kidding! You were a great help.

Shay showing off his pythons. Lucky to have them; the bundles of shingles aren't exactly as light as a feather. I think that is the part that is really kicking everyone's behind.

Before the guys even got started, Elliot felt the need to help out with the paint. I think it's funny, but I didn't spend three days painting either. Sorry, Ryan! At least he caught it while it was still wet and he could wipe most of it off!! He'll just have to add this to his list of touch ups (and make sure the paint can lid is on tight next time!)

Home Improvement

So...we are in the process of painting our house. Of course when I say we, I really mean Ryan. I hate painting and it was his idea. I am also not fond of climbing a ladder, and someone has to watch the boys! Most of our neighbors think we have made a vast improvement and like our color choice. The neighbors next door (who do not like us at all--the feeling is mutual) think it looks hideous. I will have to post a picture of our house before; it was long overdue for a makeover. Now when I drive up in front of it, it takes me a few seconds to realize that it is our house. This weekend Ryan and his dad will be redoing our roof. It will have black shingles, so it will really look like a new house when we are finished. I will post more pictures when that happens. Ah--the fun of Do-it-Yourself home improvement. We should have stock in Home Depot and Lowe's.

It has been ridiculously hot here the last few days (89 yesterday), so we have been spending a lot of time outside. Elliot would live ouside if we'd let him. He is outside by nine most mornings, and usually doesn't come in until after seven. I try to keep him inside for a few hours when it gets really hot; usually we end up watching a movie. He says, "I can know how to start it and push the numbers." He is three and can use our entertainment system as well as I can. I thought I had a few more years before he was smarter than me! :)

I mowed the lawn today. Big deal, right? I don't think I have mowed the lawn since we bought the house. I don't think Ryan trusts me to do a good job. He's been so busy with painting that I threatened to hire one of our nephews to do it, but today I told him if he would get out the lawn mower, I would do it. I put Gabe in his bouncy chair and brought him outside and Elliot got his little lawn mower and followed me around. I only mowed over one tulip and that was because the grass was so long that I couldn't see the leaves. It's been a few weeks since the last mowing. I was feeling ambitious and was also going to use the weed whacker, but we didn't have any string for it. I can't stand the look of an unfinished lawn for too long, so we will probably have string by tomorrow!

Since Gabe's favorite thing is to get up at six (yes, AM) and eat and then stay up to play, I am going to bed now. Stay tuned for updates on our ongoing projects!

Get the Party Started!

Confession: I have no idea what I am doing. I was starting to get jealous of everyone's elses cute blogs, so here I am. At midnight no less! Who needs sleep? My boys are in bed and Ryan is in Boise for Guard drill, so the house is quiet...for now! I will have to go back and take notes from all the blogs I've visited so that it will look like what I know what I am doing. Until I get the hang of this...

Ryan and I have been married for almost six years now. We have two boys. Elliot is three and Gabriel is 3 1/2 months. They grow too fast! We live in the thriving metropolis that is Pocatello! J/K - we really do like it here. We bought a house just before we had Elliot, and Ryan's mission is to see that he experiences every home improvement project possible. I hate to even paint, so I usually let him go (within reason.) He got his nursing license last year and is loving that. I graduated from ISU with a bachelor's in Music Education, and then went to work for my sister and her husband at their business (nothing musical at all.) I loved it though, and it put Ryan through school. Now I get to stay home with my boys -- although some days I would gladly go to work! I am teaching piano again too. It keeps me out of trouble:)