Ryder's 2 Month Stats...

Ryder had his 2 month check up this afternoon. He weighed in at 11 pounds 11 ounces and is 23 and 1/2 inches long. He is in the 50% for weight and the 70% for height. This is a MAJOR record for us! Neither of my older kids have ever been above the 30% percentile for anything! He is such a happy, awesome baby and we are all just loving him so much!

Red and Yellow and Blue and...

We had Brookie and Libby over to make some fun rainbow cookies. Here is the recipe and directions if you are interested in doing it with your kids. It was a fun activity and the kids LOVED it. I like the recipe and am going to try using it for sugar cookies. I think the cream cheese is what makes it so good.
Anyways, enjoy and let me know if you try it and like it!




Rainbow Cookie Recipe
3/4 C. Butter, softened
3 oz. Cream Cheese, softened
1 C. White Sugar
1 Egg
1 tsp. Vanilla
2 3/4 C. Flour
1 tsp. Baking Powder
1/4 tsp. Salt
4 Paste Food Colors
Lollipop sticks (optional)

Cream butter, cream cheese and sugar. Add egg and vanilla and beat until smooth. In another bowl mix flour, baking powder and salt. Add to the creamed mixture. Stir until a sort of dough forms. Divide into 4 balls and tint each ball of dough with food coloring. Wrap and chill for 2 hours.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Shape dough into 3/4 inch balls. For each cookie use 4 balls (1 of each color) to make 1 big ball. Shape the big balls into 12 inch long rolls (like a snake) and starting at one end, coil roll to make 2 3/4 inch round cookies. Place cookies 3 inches apart on lightly greased cookie sheet. Insert sticks if you want to make lollipop cookies. Bake 8 minutes and cool.

"And Please Bless Addie..."

My brother-in-law Darren and sister-in-law Jenn, had a beautiful baby girl on Monday evening. They named her Addison. On Tuesday morning, I received a call that little Addie was being transferred to Primary Children's Hospital. She was born with Down Syndrome and has several other serious health complications. She went through one surgery on Tuesday and will have 3 more in the next year or so, one of which will be open heart surgery. I had the opportunity to go see her last night and also to visit with Darren and Jenn. They are so strong and are such an example to me. I don't know two people better suited to take care of such a special, beautiful child and Addison is very lucky to have such wonderful parents.
When I got home from the hospital, I told Gage and Boe that Addie is very sick and that we need to remember her in our prayers. We already have two other special cousins who we pray specifically for every night. It was Boe's turn to say his prayers and he said, "and please bless Addie. Please help her to be strong and we are glad she is special and we get her in our family." I thought that was so sweet. We love you Darren, Jenn, Kasidee, Hunter and little Addie. You are all in our thoughts and prayers.

Fore!

We decided to take the kids miniature golfing on Friday night. It was a BLAST! I haven't been in probably 10 years and I forgot how STINKIN' good I am at it! Don't you worry, I KICKED Neal's TRASH! Anyways, the kids loved it and actually did pretty good at swinging and hitting the balls.

What did Ryder do you ask? Well, he slept the ENTIRE time of course! What else would a perfect baby do?!?! We also got another picture with all of us. I forget we need to update our family pictures now that Rides has joined us!

Afterward, we went to ICEBERG which is one of my all-time favorite restaurants and shake places and got Raspberry Shakes and Ice-Cream Cones. Look at the size of those cones, and that is a SMALL!

Austin's Wish...

A few months ago, I mentioned our nephew Austin who was diagnosed with Muscular Dystrophy. He is Neal's sister, Karalee's, little boy. Well, on Saturday, we all had the privilege to join Austin at his Farewell Party at the Make-A-Wish house in Murray.

It was such an awesome experience. We went on a tour of the house and each of us got to make our own wish in the outside wishing well. We were given these cute little wish tokens that we threw into the well.
My wish was that I never had to come back to the Make-A-Wish house. Not because it isn't a wonderful place and organization that does AMAZING things for little children but because if I ever have to go back, it's because another little child I know and love will be suffering in some form or fashion.
Austin got to make his wish to the wishing wizard in the wish room.






After his wish was made,
he received a PROCLAMATION telling him that his wish had been granted and that he and his family were going on a week long vacation to DISNEY WORLD!
We all got to write our wishes for Austin and share them with him if we chose. I wanted to share mine, but I was so emotional, so instead I just put mine in his wish box for him to read later. I wished that Austin will be able to have many more days of playing in the SUN.
At the end of the party, Austin got to hang up his star on the ceiling of stars. There are approximately 375 stars hanging which represents all of the children Make-A-Wish has helped in the last 5 years that the house has been operating. That doesn't even put a dent in the number of kids that they have helped in the other 15 years they have been around. While they are hanging their star, "When You Wish Upon a Star" is playing and that song just gets me every time I hear it. I always think of my little brother. When he was diagnosed with Adrenoluekodystrophy in 1995, someone nominated him for a wish. We were able to spend a week in Disneyland with Nathaniel. I am so grateful for the Make-A-Wish program and I'd encourage any of you who are looking for a worthy cause to donate to or volunteer at to consider the Make-A-Wish foundation. Safe and happy travels Austin, Karalee, April and Cody! Have a magical time!

Ryder is 8 Weeks Old!

Look at those rolls! I have to clean between them!



Neal is so evil to tease him with sugar! He was licking it like a puppy!


WOW! It's been 8 weeks since this little love muffin joined our family. I just love him to pieces. He is SUCH A GREAT BABY! I keep wondering when it's going to end, but he is an angel. Hopefully that doesn't mean I am in for it during the toddler years. This kid is a CHUNK! He eats a TON and is actually just about out of 0-3 month clothes. This is a new phenomenon for us. Gage was in 0-3 until he was about 8 months old and Boe was in them until about 6 months so to have a baby actually GROW out of his clothes before the age limit is up is new and funny to us. Here are some recent pictures to document him at 8 weeks. I truly can't believe it's been that long! Ryder is super social and loves to smile, coo and laugh. I can't imagine what our lives were like before him...Love ya Rides...

WHAT A JOKE!

So I am copying my good friend Lara-she recently did a post all about the good ol' sarcastic saying "WHAT A JOKE." Let me start with my two older kids as of late. Their behavior? "WHAT A JOKE." Their manners? "WHAT A JOKE." Their general dispositions? "WHAT A JOKE." I am about to GIVE THEM AWAY...really and that ain't no joke folks. Let me offer some evidence to back up my claims.

Let's start with this past Sunday...
1. Bath time and Poop...doesn't mix...'nuff said...don't want to gross my few readers out...
2. Primary...#2, that would be Boe, was SO hyper and off the wall that the cute secretary in Primary, who also happens to be my friend, had to come get me to "sit" with Boe. As soon as I saw him in action in his class, I knew that there was no saving the situation and opted instead to take him out and get Neal from Priesthood.
3. After church while I was making dinner, I happened to go upstairs to check on the boys, who were supposed to be playing in the playroom, only to find them emptying an ENTIRE bottle of aerosol spray air freshener all over the playroom walls and NEW CARPET.
That pretty much covers Sunday...
Moving onto Monday.
1. We took a trip to the Zoo. The conductor on the little zoo-train was a VERY large man, VERY LARGE. I hoped against hope that Boe wouldn't notice. No such luck. As he took our tickets, Boe said, "WOW mom, that man is HU-MONGOUS. I mean He is FAT-AT!" Yeah, I almost died.
2. While we were playing in our front yard later that evening, Gage thought it would be fun to do an UnderDog with Ryder in his little baby swing. Ryder ended up on the cement. SO-O scary and to Gage's credit, he was terrified and soooo sad. Ryder by the way is totally fine and I think Gage learned a lesson.
3. I opened up the mailbox to get the mail and found a BLANK check in the mailbox signed by GAGE. I asked him what he was doing with this and he said he wanted to pay the mailman. Nice.

As far as Tuesday, Wednesday and Today are concerned, there have been many other "Pulling My Hair Out Moments" Too many in fact to list. I feel better just having listed the few I did. I am actually laughing right now and am feeling a bit more loving toward Gage and Boe. Sometimes they are hard and more than once in a day I find myself thinking "WHAT A JOKE" when it comes to my life right now. But I know I would never change where I am. I watched my cute neighbor Bryce Brinkman leave yesterday morning for the MTC. I was with my 3 little boys in Ryder's nursery and I just started bawling, wondering how I will ever be able to let them go and say good-bye to them...Life comes at you fast and then it is gone and I am SOOO-O grateful for these little "JOKE" moments even if they do sometimes test and try my patience.

Lake Powell 2008!

We just got home from our annual Lake Powell trip. I LOVE it there. It is so beautiful and the water is to DIE FOR! This year all of my sisters (except Ashlee-missed you sissie) came in town for it along with 3 of Kim's 4 kids. It was a lot of fun. Trips are always a little bit different with a newborn, but all in all Ryder did great. Gage and Boe had a GREAT time and are little waterbugs. We had a new toy this year called a SKED and Gage was able to stand up and ski on it ALL by himself! Bring on the water-ski's next season for sure! Boe was able to get up on it on his knees and he loved it as well. We all got in a TON of ski/wakeboarding time as well as lots of talking, laughing and games (along with some hi-larious inside jokes, most of which are too inappropriate to post on here eh Karidee and Kaylee?!?! Oh hot jock...:) Oh yeah and like usual, there was TONS of food! Thanks Dad and Kim, it was a great time. Can't wait for next year!

Six Weeks...

Ryder is six weeks old today. I cannot believe how fast time goes by. Ryder is such an awesome baby. He wakes up once or twice a night and only cries when he needs something. He is very peaceful and calm. He loves to laugh and smile and he absolutely LOVES Gage and Boe. He totally reacts to them when they talk to him and he turns towards them whenever he hears them come into the room. He is really strong and hold his head up most of the time now. He also likes to be on his tummy and scrunch his legs up and try to wiggle his way around. I have to say that he is a full-on mommy's boy and I am LOVING it! Love you so much Rides...

Ryder's Baby Blessing...

We blessed Ryder on Thursday evening (September 4) at our house. My sisters all came into town for our annual Lake Powell trip so we decided to plan the blessing around them so they could all be here for it. It was a really nice evening. We started it at 7:00 PM so we didn't do a dinner, we just had a buffet full of DESSERTS with LOT'S of chocolate! It was a very quiet, intimate event with our family members. Neal gave Ryder a wonderful blessing and he was so good throughout the entire evening. I am so grateful for my little family and for my three adorable little boys. I love them all so much. I am also grateful for my family. As a mother myself, I am grateful for my mom and the way she raised me. I love my sisters and Nathaniel and I am extremely grateful for my dad and Kim and ALL they do for me. I am grateful for the support we get from Neal's family too. I am especially thankful right now for Ryder and for the opportunity I have to be his mom during this life. He is such a sweet, peaceful baby and I feel his calming presence in our home. He laughs and smiles at just about anything and he LOVES his big brothers. He is starting to sleep well through the night and only wakes up once or twice, which I am REALLY appreciating! We love you Ryder and are so glad you chose us!

Boe's First Day...

of the last year of Preschool! Boe is soooo excited to be starting school again. He loves Magic Moments Preschool and his teacher Mrs. Amy. He couldn't wait to see all of his friends again! Running errands today without my little chatterbox was a little strange and I missed him a TON! Love you so much Boe-Boe!