Guy Smiley

Ryan is a smiley guy. Sometimes. He's been sleeping really well lately, until midweek last week when he was up several times during the night and the next day I realized he has four molars trying to push up through his gums. Teething makes the kid cranky. But we still catch his smile on "film" quite a bit.

The kid loves his yogurt. A yogurt mustache way cooler than a milk mustache.

 

Rachel's been reading beginner chapter books lately. Like Junie B. Jones and Amelia Bedelia. She's a crazy good reader. I hope she has a good kindergarten teacher so she's not bored to death.

Anyway, Ryan likes Rachel's books. Or any chapter books, really, but Rachel is more accomadating than Jake or I about leaving them on the ground where Ryan can find them and flip through the pages.

 

 

Rachel had zoo/safari day at preschool one day last week. She had face paint to make her a tiger, I think.

Annie likes books, too:

Rachel and Annie like their little camp chairs and will often go out there to sit together and look at the clouds go by, or whatever they do. One day we'd made popcorn, and since they're messy kids, and popcorn is messy, I sent them outside to eat it. They sat there covered in their blanket since it was cold, and laughed at their own jokes for a good long time.

 

Ryan also loves phones. Like he LOVES phones. When I walk by the phone holding him he almost jumps out of my arms to try to get it. And when he has it he pushes the buttons like crazy, then puts the phone up to his nose to say "aah" (hello). Sometimes he puts it up to his forehead. And a few times I've actually seen him put it up to his ear. But mostly it's his nose that listens on the phone. :)

More yogurt happiness:

These last two pictures are for Savannah. Yes, one of Ryan's favorite toys is PINK stroller. He pushes it everywhere. He especially loves pushing it around our little loop in our house.

 

But that doesn't mean he's getting a pink flower rug in his bedroom. ;) Though Jared can share his pink sweatband with Ryan if he wants to sometime. :)

Company picnic

Jacob's work does a good job keeping the employees happy. We have great benefits (it cost $10 to give birth to each of my children, including all the pre-natal appointments), a really fancy Christmas dinner party every year where they give away awesome prizes like iPads and flat screen TVs that we never win, and every spring they have a company picnic at some fun, family-friendly place. This year the company picnic was at Golf 'n Stuff.

Rachel took to mini-golf real quick. She's convinced she's great at the sport. And if it were called hockey-golf, she'd be right.

Annie was more interested in the cool things all around, like castles, waterfalls, and grass. And she was happy to have a ball to hold. That girl always has to have some little trinket or toy or rock in her little hands.

Ryan liked the water. We spent the whole time keeping him from diving in.

The kiddos:

Rachel had a good time at the jumping castle, and eventually Annie got brave enough to have a little fun, too.

Rachel was the only one tall enough to try the race cars. Ryan and Annie were very happy to sit on the sidelines and watch the excitement. Rachel got to go twice. Once with Mom, and once with Dad.

Since Annie didn't get to ride the cars, I took her out on the bumper boats. She liked it for a half a minute. Then she got wet a couple times. She promptly informed me, "I all done!" Rachel got to finish out that ride, which she was rather happy about. And then I only had to be out there for one round, which I was rather happy about.

Annie found this merry-go-round while we were boating and she and Ryan were more than happy to sit on it stationary. We didn't have any tokens on us, and it didn't seem worth it to go get some just for this dinky ride, but I discovered that it was easily pushed, so we turned it on Mommy-power and everyone was happy for the ride.

A fun time was had by all. We had to pry Ryan and Annie off their little animals to go home. We'll have to head back to Golf 'n Stuff again sometime.

Conference Weekend and Other Stuff

Psst -- It's me, Jake. I offered to blog for Colette.  I wasn't around when some of these pictures were taken, so Colette will dictate.

Below is a picture of Annie when she was sick and fell asleep in the playroom.  Being sick is hard work sometimes.

Ryan is a happy little kid.  Here he is sitting in one of the toy buckets showing of a toy broom. He likes to climb into boxes/containers too small for him.

Here's a picture of Ry-guy eating applesauce when he was getting over diarrhea.  He is demonstrating his skillz with a spoon.

Rachel had been pestering Colette for a while about taking down her bunk, apparently she doesn't like to climb her ladder anymore.  Colette relented and said that Rachel had to clean her room before we rearranged the beds.  Rachel was eager to comply and when she finished cleaning her room, she turned on some music and started dancing.

Here's a look at the room after the beds were moved.  Seemed like a good time for a celebration and a party ensued. (Rachel's doing a belly flop here--a skill she has missed doing on the bunk bed.)

With no top bunk to restrain her, Annie was free to practice her trampoline skills.

Rachel joined in on the fun.

I discovered that it is quite spacious under the girls' beds.  Ryan thought playing under the beds was fun also.

Hey man, I'm a cool dude!

General Conference was a spiritual feast (as always).  Colette provided the kids with activities to help them be quiet while the parental units listened to conference. They even listened for part of it. When candy bingo was involved.  Here's a picture of the kiddos doing quiet activities.

When Ryan is grumpy, a trip outside is often in order.  He likes Annie's trike.

The girls enjoying some good books. Annie found a special spot to read.

Rachel wanted new PJs since all she had were winter pajamas, and we've had the A/C on for a while now. We finally made a trip to the store and she picked herself out a nightgown. She's been so excited about having a nightgown again. Apparently they're better than regular shorts and shirt for pajamas. Annie, naturally, had to copy her sister. Luckily Rachel's outgrown clothes included a nightgown in Annie's size. Here they are showing off their new nighttime gear.

Muddy buddy

Ryan loves his dirt. And Annie helped him out the other day, adding some water for some extra fun.

 

 

 

 

Easter

I need to hire someone to clean my house, edit my blog book for 2012, and update my blog if I have any hope of ever getting those done in a timely manner. Oh well. 

Here's our Easter. A few weeks late...

The day before Easter we went to Grandma and Grandpa Knight's house to dye eggs and have a little Easter fun. Unfortunately McKenzie and Peyton were sick, so they didn't get to come join in on the fun that day. 

When we got there Rachel immediately noticed the first clue for the scavenger hunt Grandma and Grandpa had set up for after we dyed the eggs. The girls set out right away. Still wearing their Easter bunny ears.

 

The scavenger hunt ended outside by the new pool with some presents that turned out to be new swimming suits for everyone.

 

 

 

Before getting wet we decided to dye the eggs. The girls really got into it.

 

 

Ryan tried to get into it a bit, but we gave him a can and a big spoon to play with off to the side and that occupied him for most of the time.

 

Ryan didn't stay out of it for the whole time, though. Cups usually mean drinks, and he had to investigate.

Rachel and her egg:

After the eggs were all done they wanted to test out their new bubbles that they'd gotten on their scavenger hunt.

Then it was time to test out the swimming pool/suits. Ryan sported the gangsta shorts. All the way to his ankles.

The kids played in the water until their hands and feet were frozen. They didn't even notice. Annie often asks to go play at Grandma and Grandpa's pool.

Sunday morning we had our regular 8am church, but the girls knew they could only do the Easter Egg hunt before church if they were all the way ready, so they were extra quick. Then off they went to find the eggs.

Overall a happy Easter. The girls enjoyed their Easter baskets. Our backyard neighbor saw them hunting for eggs in the back yard and brought over an extra Easter basket that the Easter Bunny had apparently left at her house. Annie was completely sugared up all day, but by the end of the day most of her candy was gone, and the rest of the week she spent begging off of Rachel, who was much more frugal in her candy use, with only mild success.

We did talk often about the real meaning of Easter. And apparently Annie's nursury lesson was particularly special because even now, two weeks later she tells me every time she sees a picture of Jesus: "I wanna tell you sumpin (something). Jesus died and was locked in the gate. But then he was resurrected!" Or something along those lines. She even taught FHE last week about Jesus' resurrection.