Whirlwind!

I swear I always start off with saying this but HOLY COW!!!

We have been CRAZY busy.  Let's see. (Picture dump at the end of the post)

I got my wisdom teeth out a week before Thanksgiving. And an implant for my missing tooth. Now I have this cool metal gap in my mouth waiting for a custom tooth! I did it up in Idaho and it was so nice to be with family. It was Randy's family's turn for Thanksgiving this year so we spent lots of time with them. Randy's sister came all the way from Virginia and it's so fun to see their family and how much the little ones have grown. We took some family pictures and they turned out great! Baron Photography in Shelley did them if you're ever looking for a studio photographer.

(Just focus on Ryker...Randy and I are awkward :))

Hmmmm what happened next. Not much until Randy finished the semester. My family came down the week before Christmas to open presents and do christmas things with them before we left for San Francisco. Randy was chosen to travel with the BYU football team as one of the student athletic trainers to help with the Fight Hunger Bowl in San Francisco. Ryker and I were so blessed to be able to go with him since Randy would be there for Christmas. So grateful for them, taking such good care of us over the holidays. Ryker did so well with the traveling. We have such a good boy! (I cannot say that enough!)

Well we landed and literally took off straight for Idaho so we could spend time up there and Randy could go snowmobiling...for three days straight!

Well. We returned from that whirlwind of a trip to spend three days at home before leaving for Las Vegas. The chiropractic school that Randy will be attending puts on a seminar and we went and enjoyed all things chiropractic. Can I just gush about chiropractic for a bit? I'm so glad to have been introduced to such an amazing field. I know that the body can heal itself and I know that we don't take advantage of that possibility! Most people think that chiropractors just crack backs and necks and send you on their way but that is not the case! They deal with the nervous system and they "adjust" and re-align you so that your nerves can send the right signals to your body. OH it's so amazing. It's the first doctor we go to unless it's an emergency.

Next up?? DALLAS, TX. We got back from Las Vegas and spent the next 4 days prepping to go to Dallas to go look at houses. What an adventure! We decided not to take Ryker so that we would be able to go and do as much as possible and it was a good choice. But it was sure hard on this momma! Our schedule was all over the place! We saw SO many houses and apartments but ultimately didn't find a home. I came back very disappointed and feeling like we wasted our time there. But we will see what the Lord directs us to. We are still looking and debating another trip back.

While I was in Texas, my mother called and told me that my Grampy Pete had passed away. It was a total shock. She asked if I would go with her to Maine to attend the funeral and such and I had to say yes. I didn't know if I would ever honestly have the chance to go back.

It was such a good experience to go and see my family and to say goodbye to my Grampy. I had a hard time with his passing because I was feeling guilty that I did not know him very well. With me being in Idaho and him in Maine, I never made the effort to really keep in contact with him. But I do love him so much and wish so bad to hug him one last time. It was quite the experience. Humbling and overwhelming too. Ryker came with us and he was such a good boy. We got so many compliments on how well he traveled. All of our family members just loved being around him and his sunny disposition.  

Ryker has about had it with not sleeping in his own bed and not having regular naps! He slept for three hours straight today and then took another hour nap. One lucky momma. We've sure got him trained!

While we are talking about him: He is almost one!!! Next month, my little baby turns one. It is so crazy to think of how fast this year went by! I swear he was just born, but it also feels like eternity. Everyone still compliments on how much he looks like Daddy. But in Maine, I got so many remarks on how he looks like me too. I think he's a good mixture. He sure is a Mommy's boy but sure loves on Daddy when he's home from school. We call him our monkey because he is always getting into everything and climbing on everything. What's funny too is that he LOVES bananas. He is overall a super good eater and will eat most anything we give him. He has four teeth- two on top and two on bottom. He can stand but refuses to walk unless he uses his walker. He waves bye and loves peek-a-boo. He is super social and isn't afraid of strangers. He gives kisses and snuggles and back scratches. He LOVES to sing too. He sings all the time which I love and we sing together. He is seriously a blast and I love him to death!!! I cannot believe how lucky I am to have such a sweet little boy.

It's so very nice to be home and to be able to relax and have time to be with Randy. We are getting the house ready to sell and about to put it on the market. Anxious but ready.

We are very blessed and life is swell!

P.s. Remember this post??? Well a little update on that. I lost 8 lbs. and 8 inches all over my body. The before and after is amazing in my eyes...beware its a little revealing! I can't say that I have been very successful the last 21 days with all of the traveling and all. With traveling comes eating out and crazy schedules so I tried to do the best I could but I am ready to hit it hard again. I'm proud to know that I can do hard things and will continue to work at it!

Christmas sweater! What a HAM!

He loves to get food all over himself....bathtimes are usually after dinner times :)

His hair...his face...it kills me!

Lobster!

Sorry it's sideways but I made these for our bedroom. Randy really likes the quote on the right so I decided to make a print to hang on our wall.

Texas...boring eh?

I made an elephant with a passenger in Sunday school. It was lots of fun!

That whoopee pie is bigger than my head....let that sink in!

Grampy's Mass/Funeral. Pretty interesting experience!

Loving on cousins :)

Uncle Peter

Aunt Lolly

With Grammy Pat

Aunt Barbie

Bike ride to the Golden Gate bridge!

Huge Macy's christmas tree in San Francisco

Just talking on the phone

Fun at the cabin!

Peace and blessins'

Tis the Season

FREAKING LOVE CHRISTMAS!!!!!

That's all.

:)

Here are some of the details of our front room.

Luckily my mother in law has accumulated most of the decorations for me. Except for the tree. We didn't have a tree or anything our first year and we attacked those post holiday sales at Wal-mart for our tree and decor. SCORE!

And I gotta say: I love sparkle and glitter because my tree is covered!

What are some of your favorite decorations that you have? I would love to see! Link up or share your pictures.

Click on the pictures to see them larger and to scroll through.

And here is my funny hubby with his co-athletic training pals from this semester. They have all worked with the football team this year.

Don we now.....

Peace and Blessins'

P.s. I won't be able to send everyone a christmas Card...But here is ours!

Enjoy :)

And so it begins...

Ok. I know it's not a super attractive picture. But I just want to brag for a second. 

After Ryker was born, I was not happy with my body. Everyone says to love your mommy body but I'm sorry to say I didn't buy it. I had a friend say she looks deflated. Totally. I saw friends transformations and saw that it's absolutely possible to tone up and lose that baby weight.

I would whine about my body until one day I realized that instead of whining about it, it would be better for me to actually do something about it. So I did. I was at my pre baby weight, but my body was completely different. My hips certainly don't lie ;) so I joined a 60 day challenge and try everyday to do my best at eating healthy, drinking water, work out and better myself.  

Now I'm not saying that I'm an expert....HARDLY! I had no idea where to begin. But after really looking into clean eating and doing the Insanity program, I'm excited to say that I have lost 4 inches around my waist, chest, and hips. My muscles are growing and I'm really starting to see some progress. (I lost four pounds, but have since gained muscle and therefore weight---I'm more worried about the inches anyways!) I'm now 30 days into it and can't wait to see what I look and feel like on day 60. I know that I will keep going after that as well. 

This challenge is also helping me to stay on track during the holidays!

If you have any questions or would like to join in, let me know! At the end of this, I will post before and after pictures :)

Holy Shenanigans

Holy COW! It's been a whopping 5 months since I blogged.....yikes!! I had a nice friend say that I needed to update (which I knew I did...I was just dreading it because it had been so long!) but it's nice to know that people care and that people actually read this darn thing!

Well....I guess lets get started.

Our summer:

I had lots of photo sessions when I went up for that two week break (previous post). Someday I will be caught up on my website too :( I guess I was just so busy with class, baby and wifeyness that life just overtook everything else! I did the summer semester at UVU so that I would be graduated and done with school while Randy was so busy with Football season this fall.  So glad I did! It was super hard to leave my 3 month old with babysitters to feed him and put him to bed.  But he survived and so did I! I eventually graduated with a 3.77 GPA and on the Dean's list (high honors for UVU). HOLLA! But we really didn't do anything fun this summer because Randy had sports camps and class and I had class and baby to play with :)

Speaking of baby...here's lots of posts of him....you're all here for him anyways ;)

3 months: 

4 months: 

5 months:

6 months:

7 Months:

(Journal Entry)

I cannot believe it! My little man is 7 months old! He sits up on his own and "swims" to get around (he looks like he is doing the breast stroke and scooting around).  He hasn't quite gotten the crawling thing down.  In time! He's starting to stand up around the couch and at the bottom of the stairs.  He loves the water--he's always been good with baths. He wakes up about 3-4 am (since he started teething) to eat, but that's ok! He has two bottom teeth and they're so cute! No luck trying to capture a picture of it! He talks a lot but no words.  He is such a happy baby.  We are very lucky. He is 17 lbs. and 27"! He's pretty good with baby food (we didn't start until 6 months) and cheerios.  Still working on the bigger foods.  He is still nursing too.  He can drink from a sippy cup with help.  He doesn't understand he needs to hold it up to get the water in his mouth! He does well with most food.  Not a huge fan of veggies...but who is??? :) He loves sweets!

He is growing too fast!!!

Randy has begun his crazy and super fun time with the BYU football team.  He loves the players and the experience he is having.  He's not as excited about waking up at 4 am to work and class and such but I'm so grateful for him and all of his hardwork!

oh ya...I cut my hair :)

Summer Begins!!

Another semester down!! For randy that is :) we are so glad he is now finished with the semester. It was another rough one with lots of anatomy classes. We are currently on our way home to Idaho for a little break. I will be there for 2 weeks with my little sisters recital and a wedding the next weekend. Randy starts his spring term in a couple days, but he will be going snowmobiling one more time before he starts. Kind of a rather goofy blog post title and mentioning sledding in the same breath. Oh well. It relaxes him and gives him a nice break with his brother!

I will be doing a summer term as well no ended up changing my degree so that I will be able to finish (hopefully) this summer! Then I will get to do what I love most-being a mother! I've learned so much doing photography at UVU and have loved it. It will be so nice to be done though!!

Ryker is still awesome :) we'll keep him ;) no really. He is such a good baby. He sleeps well, naps well, is super content and can entertain himself. He talks, laughs and smiles so much now. We are still working on the sleeping through the night thing, but it's all good! Makes me baby hungry :)

Peace and blessins

P.s. just a reminder. If you want to stay up to date on posts and so you aren't annoyed by my reminders on Facebook, on the right hand side you can either follow my blog or submit your email to be informed when I post. Just a thought!

2 months

I cannot believe Ryker is two months old! It's flown by so fast.

Some highlights:
-He can hold his head up. He's basically been able to do this from the beginning. Burping him is a chore because he is all straight up and down. No snuggles while burping.

-He's not much of a snuggler anymore. He will do it when he is tired, but that sleepy newborn stage (that I miss SO much) is gone.

-He has found his hands! He will gnaw on them for awhile.

-He has found his voice. He is quite chatty!! We love talking with him. He is quite aware of when we are around and talking to him

-He has found his smile. He will respond to smiles. It's the best.

-He laughs!! It's my favorite!

-Still eats like a champ. We are trying to get him used to a bottle for at least one feeding. But it's a lot of work pumping and stuff. We need to just in case though.

-We blessed him March 24th. He looked quite dapper :)

-Has yet to sleep through the night. Sometimes we get lucky and he'll sleep from 9-4am, but right now it's about 9-2 or 3 then 6 always.

-He can roll over from his tummy to his back. He is quite strong. Changing his diaper and dressing him is sometimes a chore because he resists.

He is the love of our lives and we are so happy to have him here. I love everything about him.

Randy has two more weeks of spring semester left! He has been doing his clinicals at American Fork HS and helps with the spring sports. He helped with basketball while I was in my last month or two and I would go with him, but just walk the stairs and halls to get Ryker out!
Most exciting news for us right now?? Randy will get to do his next clinical assignment with the BYU Football team!!! He says that sometimes they are just glorified water boys...but who cares!? He gets to be with the team and travel for a few with them. It will be an eventful fall that's for sure!!

As for me, I just did my first wedding post partum. It was awesome and fun but so tiring!! I forgot how long those days are-blisters and all. I have another one coming up in May as well as starting a summer semester at UVU. I am hoping to graduate in the fall, but I have no idea how we are going to balance school, clinicals, and Ryker. It's hard. But we know that Ryker is here at the right time and we will figure it out!

Oh! And we hiked the Y here in Provo. It was pretty intense being the first big workout in a year. But a good one!

Peace and blessins'