Restart

I'm thinking I may restart blogging as a way of remembering many of the funny things my kids do and say. I will most likely start with pictures of their dad's visit, after 8 years apart, when he gets back home and sends them to me.

Halloween 2010

I was having a difficult time trying to figure out what the boys could be for Halloween this year. Ryan couldn't really decide and Cayden just kept telling me he wanted to be "Lightning McQueen." As much as I am all for allowing my children to express themselves, I wanted them to be something that 'matched' again, this year.

Last year, they were Buzz Lightyear and Woody.



Anyway, I'm not a huge fan of the costumes that have the child splitting the costume, like a race car or something. I prefer their costumes to *be* someone/something.

As I was sitting at my mom's looking at the ads on a Sunday, the lightbulb immediately went on! I've got it! I know what they're going to be and it's perfect! I suggested the idea to Ryan and he immediately loved it. I talked to Cayden about it and he was all excited, too. It was settled. We had their costumes picked out. We just had to find them. The week leading up to Halloween was pretty hectic. Trying to find the costume Ryan wanted in his size was like trying to find a needle in a hay stack. After searching all the stores in our area, we called a store in Perry, UT (about 40 minutes north) and found one! A friend of mine picked up the costume for me and we were set. Just in time! Ryan needed his for Thursday morning's parade at school. Thursday went over great! Come Friday morning, Cayden's turn to dress up for day care came. He was *NOT* a happy camper. He hated part of the costume. We finally got him to at least smile in some pictures, and took advantage of it before we went Trick-or-Treating on Saturday evening.

Introducing: The Mario Brothers!

Funny story about Trick-or-Treating. While at a house, someone asked Ryan what the "L" stood for on hat (I guess the guy didn't know who Luigi was, or at least he said he didn't because he doesn't play video games.). Ryan replied, "Luigi!" The guy looks at me and I said, "Mario's brother." Cayden decided to reply, too. "NO!" he exclaimed, "He's not Luigi. He's Ryan; my brother." haha!

Lookie mommy, a horse!

When we were walking into a building this morning, a man with a very large great dane was walking out. He was instructing the dog, using language like "heal left," etc. so I'm assuming the dog was in training of some kind. He was a BIG dog. Cayden stops and gasps, "lookie mommy, a horse!" The guy walking behind us just started laughing and I said, "that's not a horse, honey, that's a dog." Cayden kinda looks at me and says "BIG doggie." It was rather cute.

If looks could kill...

My mom got one of *the* most intense, "I'm pissed off" looks from Cayden tonight; I just happened to witness it.

We were sitting on the couch at my mom's house when Cayden was wanting his pacifier (dodie). My mom tells him that it's in a plastic sack that she'd packed to take there while she watched them. He picks up the sack and pulls a pair of underwear out; throws it on the floor. She takes the sack and holds it open for him as if she were going to say "trick-or-treat." He looks inside and pulls out a shirt; throws it on the floor. He keeps looking inside and pulling clothing out and throwing it onto the floor. He gets to the bottom of the bag and pulls out a toy, drops it on the floor, pouts with his bottom lip sticking out and then gets this evil, Chuckie look on his face. Nose scrunched, lips in a pout, eyebrows furrowed... He looks up at my mom with this evil glare as if to say "you said it was in there and it's not!" My mom looked at me and I couldn't contain my laughter. I started chuckling and she had to hide her face so that Cayden didn't know what he'd done had affected her that way.

It was rather hilarious.

In other news, Ryan got a compliment from Mrs. Diane the other day. She is amazed, daily, with his ability to see a car one time and retain who it belongs to as well as make and model. She said that there have been a few times that he has said, "look, Mrs. Diane! A Mazda!" and she had no idea what it was just by looking at the side. He should be a mechanic when he grows up. :)

A lot has happened in 10 months.

Ten months. Did I just type that? I can see how a few months could go by without me updating, but really?! Ten?! Whoa.

A lot has happened in that 10 months. I went back to school to get the degree I've wanted since I was 17. I'm only a few years late. I'm typically late for everything, thanks mom, so I guess I shouldn't expect anything less. Heh. Even got a 4.0 first semester back! Second semester didn't fare quite as well, but still satisfactory, nonetheless. I have just about one full year left at WSU and the PCAT to take, and hopefully then, it'll be off to pharmacy school!

Boys. My boys are growing! They are huge now! Ryan is a full-on little man. He is fully capable of being the man of the house. He's still afraid to help mom kill spiders, though. I need to work on that; I'm pretty scared of them myself! (shh. Don't tell Ryan.) Cayden, the little mister, is full of words and little brother syndrome. You know, when he wants to do EVERYTHING brother can do, just because brother can do it? For about a month leading up to his second birthday, anytime someone would ask Cayden how old he was going to be, his answer was *always* "Five." Heh. "Sorry, little bro, Ryan is going to be five; you are going to be TWO!" He would stick his bottom lip out and pout, "No! Five!" I digress.

Cayden is doing extraordinarily well with potty training. That has to be one of the huge pluses of him wanting to be (read: act) older than he is. Ryan wasn't potty trained until after Cayden was born, which means he was three. This potty training at two business is entirely new to me! I'm not complaining, though! The sooner I can stop buying diapers, the better off I'll be!

The boys and I moved out of my mom's house in February. I have thoroughly enjoyed being able to spread my wings and fly and just live my life the way I need to. Being independent and being able to have my own space has been beneficial for everyone, including my parents. My apartment isn't anything huge, but it's enough for me and the kids to have our own space and privacy. I am loving life and know it was the right choice I made to move out when we did.

I took the kids to get their photos taken a couple weeks ago. I cannot believe that they're my kids in the pictures. They are growing up so fast. I love every second that I get to spend with them. They truly are my inspiration to better myself. I attached some photos to show how much they've grown.

Ryan will be playing soccer here soon. He's super excited. I can't believe I'm going to be a soccer mom! Heh. I always knew he would play, given he's half British -and it's not just a sport in England; it's a religion. I just can't believe the time is already here! I think it will benefit him so much, though. Get him ready for school to start in the fall, too. Man, I'm gonna have a kindergartener! Where has my baby gone?! Before I know it he'll be graduating high school... I *can* wait for that, but I know it's just around the corner.

Something funny from Cayden the other day: I was asking him typical questions to get him to answer and just tell me about his little world that day. I asked, "what's your name?" He answers, "Caynez." I said, "Cayden, how old are you?" He looks around and says, "Mmm. Two." I said, "Two! Wow! What's your favorite color?" He looks at me and smiles, "PINK!" I said, "Pink, huh?" He replies, immediately, "Yep." I said, "That's such a nice color. Who's your favorite person?" He says "LIGHTNING McQUEEN!" Joy. Going on 4 years of this stinkin' movie. BOTH my boys now love it. What is it about that red car that gets the motors in their hearts going? I can think of a million things that would be worse than a Disney Pixar movie, but man, 4 years. I think I have every line memorized, as do they!

Now that school is out for a while, I'm hoping to be able to update more often. I should have more things to update about: soccer practice, games, fun things we do, trips we take. ... I'll close by leaving some pics of the kids from recently.

Balloons, Chaos and... Muffcakes?

Has anyone else ever wondered why we, as mothers, put ourselves through so much stress just to put on a 'show' for our child? The party is no longer for the child, rather a challenge for the mother to get the best cake in town, serve the most high-quality food and make sure there is enough to do so that the chlidren attending aren't so bored that they are attempting to use you as the ransom figure in a game of cops and robbers.

Ryan turned four this past week and we had some festivities. We took him to Applebee's for his birthday. He was chuffed when they came out to sing to him. I made cupcakes for him to take to his pre-school and he was all sorts of excited! The morning of his birthday he saw me frosting the cupcakes and asked "momma, are those muffcakes for me to take to Miss Diane's?" I replied, "Yes, buddy, these cupcakes are for you to take to your friends at school for your birthday." He corrected me. "No, mom! They're muffcakes." Okay, guess he told me!

We had a party on Sunday. My boss, Summer, is one of the most amazing people I have ever met. She was determined to let Ryan have the 'best birthday ever,' and took him and Cayden to Chuck E Cheese's Sunday afternoon. After a few hours of playing, we packed up and headed home so I could finish the last minute preparations for the party that night. We had planned to have the party at a park. It's June. Weather should be immaculate and shouldn't cause a problem, right? WRONG. The party would have been held under a pavillion, so if there was rain that wouldn't be a huge issue. The problem was the wind! The wind came and picked up almost immediately after I started setting up for the party. The balloons I had gotten that afternoon were tied to the table and came loose. I look over and there are 13 balloons stranded in a tree. My brother, Josh, was ever so kind to go and retrieve them for me. Anyway, back to my boss. She noticed the wind and everyone standing around wishing they had a warm place to go and offered her house to hold the party. We had 20 people attending this party and she offers her house like it's no big deal! We accept, sheepishly, and pack up and follow her and her husband to their house. Their house is beautiful. The kind of home I intend to own one day. The kind of home I was afraid to stick tape to the walls in, because i was afraid of damaging something. Summer and her husband opened their home to us all and we had a great night. Ryan got lots of presents and thoroughly enjoyed himself. I guess all the fretting and stressing paid off in the end. I leave you with a picture of my most recent masterpiece:

Lightning McQueen.

p.s. Please disregard the horrible focus on the picture, I took this with my phone camera and forgot to take one with my 'real' camera. More pictures of the birthday party and birthday boy to come later! Stay tuned.

The Broken Duck and Allergies

Yesterday I had to take Cayden to the doctor. When I got to ShopKo to fill the prescription I had gotten for him, I ran into my dad. He asked me if I had heard from my mother about the "broken duck." I told him I hadn't. He then told me that Ryan had gotten super excited when he was outside and ran in to tell my mom that there was a "broken duck" in the back yard. She could not figure out what he was going on about so she decided to go outside and investigate. He led her outside and took her over to a dead starling in the yard. "Look, Grandma! A broken duck!" My mom said to my dad that she just had to chuckle to herself. I thought that story was pretty cute.

And... Back to the doctor visit. Cayden has had a profuse rash in his diaper area for about two weeks. I had some leftover ointment from a previous yeast infection treatment and since I *thought* it looked like thrush I started using it again. The rash didn't get any better, in fact, it got worse! So, I took Cayden to the doctor and found out he's allergic to Pamper's diapers! I know allergies can form at any time, but I used Pampers on him until he was about 5 months old and never had any problems. I switch one time now, because of the 'type' of diaper they are and he's allergic to something in them. Poor guy. He looks a ton better today after only one day, so it's nice to know I got it taken care of.

"Grandma, You Help Me?"

I had to work late tonight so my mom picked the boys up from daycare for me. When I got home we were talking about how the night went with the boys. She tells me that Ryan wanted to go outside; she told him to eat his dinner and then they could go out to play. He's looking out the window and eating and all of a sudden says "At Diane's, Savannah has to clean her room before she goes outside. Grandma, you help me?" My mom said she looked at him and said, "Help you what?" He says, "clean my room so I can go outside." My mom chuckled (as did I when she told me) and told him if he could let her finish her dinner she wouldn't have a problem helping him. He looked at her and said "okay." When he was finished he got down and headed straight into his bedroom and started cleaning. My mom said she finished her dinner and was getting ready to go in there and he comes out saying "all done, Grandma," so my mom goes in to look and sure enough, he'd cleaned. "I got my jammies on my bed, too." By this point my mom is thinking "did I pick the right child up from daycare?" Heh. He is such an angel sometimes. I have to document these times for the times he's not so angelic. :)

RSV, Croup, Ear infection, Sinus infection

Anything else you'd like to add to the list? My boys, more specifically Cayden, have been sick SO much this winter. Cayden has had a stuffy/runny nose, horrible sounding productive cough, etc. pretty much since December. I took him for his 12 month check-up on Monday and he only got over RSV two weeks ago and now has an ear infection. The doctor said it is common for the child to develop an ear infection after having RSV so it's nothing to be too alarmed about. Ryan has stayed relatively well, health-wise, only he must have been totally run down because when we were at the doctor on Monday he was barking like a seal so I had the doctor take a look at him, too, only to find he had a sinus infection AND croup! He was given his VERY first course of antibiotics and an oral steroid to help open up his lungs a bit to stop the coughing. My poor boys, I hope they start getting well soon!!!!

Cayden, though is a CHUNK. He weighs 23lbs 13oz and is 31 inches long! He's TALL! He's been trying to run now that he can walk fairly well, he copies movements and, unfortunately, he slaps everyone in the face and thinks it's funny. We're trying to rectify that- but it's slow going.

I am going to be updating the photos on the sidebar very soon - I think they need it, don't you? And here are a few pics to update you on my two sweeties. These are professional pics I had taken in April for Easter.

Can't Leave Ryan Out.

Ryan is going to get his own post. He has been misbehaving a little bit lately and I'm pretty sure that I know the reason behind it. Doesn't make dealing with the behavior any easier, but understanding it is a good step in knowing how to take care of it. I've been listening to a man/therapist on the radio recently and will probably end up buying his book. He has so many great ideas on how to parent in an effective way and also to give you tips on how to be your child's friend but also the person in charge. .
Anyway apart from the behavior, Ryan is coming on in leaps and bounds. His vocabulary has increased tri-fold since we've moved and he is becoming more efficient in his shapes, colors, letters and numbers. I definitely have to give props to my childcare provider for a lot of it. She seems to have this effect on him where he wants to go to her house on MY days off, too! Haha! I love that he likes her so much though.

Ryan's recent feats:
Alphabet
Counting 1-15
Spelling his name
knowing his birthday, age and brother's age.
He can color mostly in the lines now
And he can pretty much have a full telephone conversation now. :)
We're working on his address and phone number and shapes and colors. He's so stinkin' cute! He's getting better at understanding things too. ... When I talk to him about something he is starting to understand more of what i say. He amazes me. :)

Cayden is ONE

So, Cayden turned ONE on the 14th. I cannot believe that time has gone so quickly. He's walking fully now and even stood up in the middle of the room all by himself the other day. I will post photos of his party soon.
The party went well. He enjoyed all the company and loved the attention. He had some little friends as well as 'big' (adult) friends that came to his party. He loved his cake and was so cute when he was eating it.

Just a small recap of Cayden's accomplishments in the last month:
Walking
Standing up from sitting down without the help of an object/person
blowing kisses
clapping

He's getting so big!

So Here's an Invite

Cayden is turning 1!!! I haven't had a chance to update this in so long- because taking care of two boys keeps me busy~!!!

Anyone that reads this: This is an open invitation. We would love to see you! You're all invited to Cayden's birthday party (Tuesday, April 14 at 5pm)! If you would *like* to come - let me know, either here or at 801.388.3365 and I'll give you the address.

An Entire Month?

Wow. Time flies when you're having fun. I can't believe an entire month has passed since I updated this. Lots has happened.
The boys are enjoying daycare. Although, they brought home some kind of stomach virus that has made its' rounds in the family. That wasn't fun. Ryan got it first, then Cayden, then ME, then I gave it to Josh, my dad got it, mom got it and Chris got it. We've also all been fighting some kind of viral infection that has affected us all differently. We're still battling with that part. :\
i'm working quite a few hours, which means the boys are at daycare more than I wish they had to be. Another thing, Cayden got his first ear infection. Poor little guy.

Let's see. Cayden got his first TWO teeth a day apart from one another. His first popped through on Dec 2. His bottom left. And his bottom right popped through on Dec 3. He also started crawling right around my birthday (16th). He's thinning out now, but he was a little chunk for a while.
Ryan is doing really well with everything now. He only doesn't behave when he's getting tired, otherwise, he seems to be doing a lot better with listening. Thank you, Miss Diane! haha!

Ryan and Cayden made me gifts at school. Cayden "made" me a plate with his hand print and the year on it. And, Ryan painted a little ceramic snowman. They were adorable. They were wrapped for me and everthing, it was totally sweet opening them up on Christmas morning.

Both boys had an enjoyable Christmas. Cayden was sick, but still seemed to enjoy everything when he wasn't feeling sick. It was nice waking up to Ryan saying "Merry Christmas, Momma", since last year all he could say was "mayee kimmups" haha. I can't believe that another year is almost over. Once this year is over, I'll have a baby that will be ONE in 3 months! I cannot believe how fast this year has gone. Time flies when you're having fun

Twilight the Movie

So, Rachael and I went to see Twilight last night at midnight, along with a bunch of other screaming women. The movie was good, yet a let down at the same time. The movie was obviously very low budget and the special effects weren't that great. It followed the book pretty closely, yet there were things added and things changed to fit the story of the movie. The CGI was okay. The baseball scene and the fight scene were the best two scenes of the whole movie. And the "glistening" in the sun? Yeah, just a bunch of glitter on his body.



Who would have thought that showing up to a movie an hour and a half before the movie starts would make you late for seating? Yeah, we showed up at 10:30 for a 12:03 showing and our theater had already been seated! We sat in the second row because there weren't any other seats left! I will probably go see it again, just to see it at a good angle.

So, all in all. I was pretty disappointed, maybe if I see it again, I may feel differently.

We are Back!

I'm so sorry I haven't posted in nearly a month! Things have been a bit hectic. The trip across the pond was fairly uneventful. The boys were fabulous on the plane, I had so many comments on how well behaved they were for me being on my own with them. I had lots of help. A friend of mine met me in Manchester to help me through the airport and get my bags checked in (If you're reading this, Sue, thank you so much for your help!). Once I got past security there were people that would help carry things for me if they saw me and thought i was struggling. They were all so nice.

I got to Utah at about 8pm. I had a welcoming committee waiting for me! Mom, Dad, Chris, Josh, Rachael, Corban and Isabelle. It was a nice warm welcome home.

Once we got here we kept pretty busy for quite some time. Went to Idaho to visit family and have been doing what I need to to make sure the kids are taken care of, etc. I will start working here shortly, which will give me a little bit more freedom. I am wanting to take a weekend and just do what I want. Get away, without the kids if I can, and just go out and let my hair down. I'm feeling pretty wonderful right now but it would still be nice to just go out and have a good time and do what I want. That's not too much to ask, is it?

Thank you all so much for your continued support. I wouldn't be where I am today without all of you behind me.

I will leave you with some photos of our endeavors since we arrived.