surprise holiday!

yay november! I always love november because it is the start of the holiday season and everything is cooling off (for better or for worse) and everyone is happy and festive. its just so great.

i admit, i am a scrouge about christmas until after thanksgiving. but its a big deal to me so get over it. haha. i mean that in the best way.

most of november flew by without much going on. Ryker is getting bigger still. he started nursery and did great! he has been 3 times now. he kinda freaks out when i have to leave, but i gotta go to primary for my calling! he cries and it breaks my heart. but if someone is holding him and helps him feel safe than he is generally okay. and when i go pick him up he looks like he is happy and having fun, then sees me and starts to cry and run to me. upset that i left him but willing to come home with me haha.

so speaking of primary, i have been having trouble slightly with my primary calling. mostly the girl i was co-teaching with decided to not come back to church. not that she is inactive (i dont think) but maybe she moved with her parents a few weeks ago and decided not to tell anyone. either way im moderately ticked to not have any warning. also she was the teacher and i was the helper. so after a week of her not showing up and i had to improve a lesson (while taking care of an 18 month old who was almost old enough for nursery at the time) i have to prepare for just in case she doesnt show up. which she hasnt for like 2 months now? awesome... granted some weeks we were practicing the primary program (which went well in case i didnt mention it in my last post) so there were 3 weeks that i didnt have to prepare a lesson, but i was in charge of seven 5 year olds by myself. ugh. then also there was a week that we had stake conference. so i know im complaining about only 4 lessons in 2 months, but still! since i didnt know i was supposed to be teaching and no one has told me anything its a little irritating to be responsible when i dont know i am in charge. gah. but i have accepted it now that i am the teacher and will always prepare a treat and a lesson for the kids. things are going well. even though i have a different co-teacher every week now. thats fun... but also im about to have a baby remember? which means i can teach for the next 2 weeks at most then im going to be hiatus for like a month. and then when i come back i need to be free to nurse my baby whenever she needs it. soooo  i will be a great helper! (my original calling) but not a great teacher once baby comes. we will play it by ear and i have been trying to keep the primary pres in the loop as things progress.

all things to be thinking about. i also need to be starting the rechartering things for my cubscout calling, but am awaiting info for that. now would be best but im probably going to get the info right as baby is born and i will have to deal with all of that at once. awesome!

in rykers first week at nursery he was so kind to bring home a cold. he got it real bad, and i got it real bad. we took precautions so justin didnt get it luckily. but ryker and i were pretty not happy for about 2 weeks. that was no fun. yay germs from nursery. i think i have decided that when i stay home with the new baby i will probably keep ryker with me because i dont want him bringing anything home to the new baby. smart? justin needs to go because of his calling. so me alone with 2 babies? is that smart? well i guess it will be like that every week day so we shall see!

ryker is still working on words. i wish he was more productive on that front, but we are doing all we can to teach him. he is understanding a ton though. he has learned to do 'bones' which is hilarious. he loves it and will always come back a few more times. so cute.man i love that boy. he loves to run around. he also really really loves oranges. like a lot. when he had a cold it was all he would really eat for like a week.

also we found out that justin got an extra day off for thanksgiving!!! we didnt know he got the day after off as well. that was pretty cool. we found out like a week before and decided that it would give us enough time that we could actually go home to colorado for thanksgiving! we decided to surprise everyone but we did tell my parents. mostly so that they would have a room ready and we could sleep haha. but we got there after a 13 hr drive. long long day, but we got to spend thurs, fri, and sat with family. thanksgiving was great. we loved it. ryker was a little ( alot) clingy but it was a long drive for him and then we surrounded him with a ton of new people. so its not surprising. but he did okay. the drive back on sunday was still long, but doable. basically we think that we are going to fly anywhere from now on, but we need the advanced notice in order to get the flights.

as per thanksgiving tradition, we did the pie eating contest. ryker got to participate this year. he was super confused at first. i stripped him down and put pie in front of him and he didnt know what to do. so i helped him start getting messy, and gave him a bite so he knew it was yummy. then he got into it a little more. he came in second! raliegh rocked it and one. i think she is almost 3 now? so she had an advantage. and a great dad who shoved it in her face. but thats the point right? we did some good christmas shopping while we were there and ate great food. it was an awesome vacation. and good to get out of town.

then! to make things even better carlee is here visiting us for the weekend. she came in on friday and leaves today. her and ryker have been having a great time. so much fun to have her around. it has been so great.

also this past week we have broken out all of our christmas stuff and decorated. ryker is learning not to touch the tree or the ornaments. mostly he is pretty good about it and only have to get after him a few times. he loves all the pretty colors!

well thats what we have been up to. i am 37 weeks as of right now. i am ready for baby but im sure she probably has a few more weeks dang it. according to the dr im 1 cm (have been for 2 weeks now) and i was like that up until the day before i went into labor with ryker so im not surprised.

well thats our monthly update !  enjoy. oh! dani had her baby!!! we have a neice on my side now! Charlotte Janez. she is super precious from all the pics i have seen. a little sweetheart.

new fam of 3!

pie eating contest!

the winner!

he really did enjoy it

eating a sandwich and loving time with dad.

yay road trip!

helping dad with the christmas tree

he wanted to dress up and help with everything

loving the pretty lights and all the colors.

grandma with the new little grandaughter

we found a store with more cool carts. we will be going back often

dad with first granddaughter. he just looks so good holding little girls. 

Dad and Fallyn at the Orion launching. it is a satellite that dad has been working on at work and he got invited to the test launch. awesome! 

having fun with aunts at thanksgiving. 

he loved to play basketball at thanksgiving. apparently we need to introduce him to sports more. dont worry... santa has got that covered. ;)

we found airbud on netflix and decided to watch it. ryker got so excited whenever they played basketball. he would cheer for the team and the dog. it was so funny to watch. With justin and i being so not into sports at all we havent really watched anything or played ball with him. clearly now we know that needs to change! we will be better. i promise. haha. 

the hunt for wood october

So i feel like october went very similarly to september. we didnt do much, but at the same time i guess we did a lot and i have plenty to blog about.

first off as the title suggests, we did finish some projects that we have been thinking about for a long time. there is a place here in minot that throws away old palates. and they told us that we were free to take anything that was in the bin. the biggest cost in any wood project is of course the wood so we were super happy to get it for free!!!  not its not all super great quality, but it suited what we needed it for and we were not afraid to get our hands dirty making them smooth and pretty. so we spent a while (both in september and in october) taking apart the palates and taking all the nails and screws and staples out of it all. it was a lot of work. and it was difficult trying not to break the wood as we were tearing it apart.

ryker loved to help. he would often grab the extra hammer and go with dad to help pull nails out. although at a somewhat slower pace haha. justin was great to let him help a little and then when ryker lost interest he could do some more banging and get it done fast. we ended up with a ton of wood. lots of planks and a  good amount of 2x4 s  as well. so we were stoked to start our projects. we made a work bench for the garage. that helped a ton as we were sawing and sanding to not kill justins back. and keep all the important things away from a little boy with grabby hands who wants to do just what dad does. then we made a headboard for our bed. we really liked the look of palate headboards and took some ideas from a couple of places and made it our own. it turned out pretty awesome if you ask me. then we made a chair to go with the work bench/ for me as i watch and be the gopher to justins projects. justin said it was for him as he would do other things and fix small stuff on his work bench. but im pretty sure his pregnant wife is getting more use out of it.

then we made an awesome toy box for ryker!this one was the longest project. obviously we wanted it super super smooth for baby hands. and dad with his deitrick detail needed the planks to be straight and perfect. with imperfect wood it was difficult. but they were good enough to make him happy with it. ryker and i painted letters to go on the front. most of the last 2 weeks was spent painting and then letting it dry for a few days. halloween night we actually were able to put it all together again with the hinges and such./

can i just take a second to say that love justin so much. he constantly impresses me. i swear he knows everything. or at least can make a logical guess that sounds totally legit. even if he is pulling an answer out of thin air its totally believable. but even more so the things he does know and can do i am always impressed. i thought it would be simple just screw some hinges on. no, of course he would notch out a spot for them so that it is flush and looks perfect. am i surprised he wanted to do that? no. and i surprised he knows how to do that so well? no. just didnt expect it. and how much he really wants things to be good quality especially when he makes them himself is just awesome. i just really love his motivation and eye for detail.

halloween was good. we were ready for trick or treaters! but they never came... so now we are stuck with all this candy to eat. darn..... between halloween, thanksgiving, and christmas being in my last trimester i might gain more weight than i should with this pregnancy! ha!

Justin had a super busy week last week. he worked like four 12 hr days and then friday was still even longer than usual. he was super tired and ryker missed him so much. one night he got home right as i was brushing his teeth for bed. justin came up and said good night and i put him in his crib. he just cried. he wanted dad time so bad. so justin got him and rocked him in the rocking chair for like half an hour. he was so happy to just snuggle with dad. thats all he needed. it was so cute. and so sad that it had been such a long week for everyone. ugh. oh well. we are glad its over and we had a relaxing weekend with lots of family time. definitely needed.

anyways, its been a fun month, and we are excited about all of our projects. things are definitely getting colder here and ryker is sad that he cant go outside as often. but we are all doing great. ryker now has 11 teeth, 3 molars and all 8 of his front teeth (4 on top and 4 on bottom) so we are doing great. he definitely still drools a ton and likes to chew on things. but we love him!

our halloween pumpkins!!!

helping dad remove the nails

chewing on a frozen banana to help with those sore teeth

bassinet for baby rylie came and we put it together! ryker loves to turn on the music and dance to it. 

found some awesome carts at home depot! we have been back like 3 times. he loves it. 

he is a crazy driver!

we learned how to play baby jenga. ryker loved it. at least for this moment

or maybe its because he was playing with dad...

biker outfit still fits!!!

we also had to use the skeleton outfit at least once. its a little small, but we made it work. 

so happy to help dad!

our toy box! ryker loves it so much. we brought him down saturday morning and it was like christmas morning he was so excited. ran right over to play with it. 

our rockin headboard. 

making dinosaur sounds. its hilarious! i love this boy!

dad taught him how to make all the shifting noises while driving. haha. he has no chance of being anything but a gear head like dad. 

slow september

well... to be honest i dont know what there is to say. september seemed to fly by and now its over and i dont know what we did. we are just continuing to settle into life here in minot. we dont have any travel plans anytime soon. not with baby girl so close to arrival during the holidays. we are continuing to pay off the student loan and have plans to have that done by the end of december.

justin still enjoys his job. he still drives a crazy amount, but they love what he is doing so everything is great there. Ryker is getting so so big! i love playing with him every day. we are working on words still and dont have anything new to report there, but he is trying and babbling a ton so im hoping they will come soon. we practice words everyday. its very repetative and simple for me haha so i love when justin comes home and i can have a real conversation. thats nice... he has gotten 2 new teeth. his 3rd tooth on the bottom and a molar on the bottom just poked through as well. i can feel the other 3 molars moving down. makes for a cranky boy sometimes but he is doing really well. drooling of course, but thats expected. he is doing better at night. he hasnt gotten up for about a week now. im grateful. my nights are restless enough.

im feeling great. getting bigger everyday. i feel like little girl is moving a ton more than ryker did. but im glad to know she is there and safe and healthy. we just ordered a carseat cover for her. one that will protect her from the wind and hopefully help seal in some warmth so the -40 degree north dakota cold doesnt bite at her nose. this little one will be using all the blankets we got. haha. i am officially 28 weeks this week. its crazy how fast this pregnancy is going. so different from ryker. but equally exciting. she could be here in as early as 10 weeks! i would totally be play with that... i am actually hoping she comes 2 weeks early so that she can share a birthday with auntie fae and also be far enough from christmas that she can feel special and its still all about her. we will see what she has planned, but heres to hoping....

it really was a slow month, so not a ton of pictures. but after last months overload its okay right?

he LOVED!!! washing the car with dad. he was so happy to play with the hose

with our new cubscout callings grandma deitrick sent Justins old scout stuff. here is ryker wearing justins old cubscout shirt. he has a lot to live up to! look at all the badges and everything!

he has gotten into shoes. he loves to have me put them on him. and he loves to try on daddys shoes

we were practicing patience with goldfish. mostly he was still out of it from his nap, but we thought it was funny

quick story! the pic doesnt do it justice. this bruise was BLACK! i went for my glucose test at the dr. the lady taking my blood was super nice. she put the tourniquet on and the vein in the middle of my arm shot up! you could see it from space. big. bulging, full of blood. perfect spot. but no. she chose to go for one of my side veins. i dont know if she just wanted to practice or whatnot. im not going to tell her how to do her job. and thats a decent vein as well even if its not as obvious. but she had to search a little. and i think her first attempt poked all the way through. its been a month and its still big and a decent shade of dark purple. it makes me roll my eyes. but whatever. i just dont get why she chose that one when i had a much better and easier vein like an inch to the left. oh well. 

i take baby bump pics in this shirt a lot... i believe this was last week? (27 weeks) ish. its getting round! and not just because i eat whatever i want...

he recently got into wearing this hat. he looks like a thug but i love it. 

ryker loves to play in the truck. now everytime we go somewhere he will come stand by the steering wheel till the driver gets in. climb on their lap and sit down. clearly this is his spot. he will look up at us like okay im ready to go. lets drive! its so cute every time. i finnally took a pic of it and got this perfect shot. i love this picture so much i can hardly contain myself. its just so perfect. i love my boys! i love that they are pretty much the same person. 

a new game he learned to play with dad one evening while i was at a relief society activity

he loves this song so so much. we watch it every morning. and he stops whatever he is doing to dance to it. its that good. 

more fun boy sounds! i think it doesnt help that we are laughing so hard egging him on

so many pictures so little time

yahoo! so august was fun. and its hard to remember it all. so i might not explain a lot but the pictures tell a great story. the biggest thing is that i was able to go to utah with alicia and go to the shakespeare festival plus a few other plays. it was so amazing! i had so much fun. ryker stayed with my mom and siblings in colorado and justin had to stay in north dakota for work. so we were in 3 different states! it was crazy and i was super nervous, but it all worked out. ryker did great on his first plane ride. he played with another little girl the whole way to colorado and then slept half way through on the plane ride home. it was good and im so glad he did so well. without justin i didnt know how it was going to go and i hoped he wouldnt scream.

alicia and i and madeline drove tuesday all the way to utah and had a show that night at the tuacan theater. it is an amazing place. for my trip i really will let the pictures tell the story because i could write a 12 page paper on what we did and all we saw. the tuacan shows were amazing. the shows we saw in cedar city for the shakespeare festival were astounding and i was blown away with the quality of their performance. i would go every year if i was able to. it was that good. by wednesday my tailbone was so sore from sitting down but i still enjoyed all the shows we went to. we ended up going to 11 shows in 5 days. it was going to be 12 shows but tuesday night we went to see the little mermaid and the storm scene got a little too real and they had to cancel the show because of weather issues. sad day. so we got reimbursed and were able to see it again friday night but that meant we missed another show that we were planning on going to. little mermaid was so  so so worth it. i have a small little boy crush on flounder. he had a great voice and was so precious. i wanted to take him home with me and have him be rykers big brother. so here is our schedule play wise.

Tues night - little mermaid - tuacan theater
wed morning - 6 seconds - shakespeare festival
wed afternoon - into the woods - shakespeare festival
wed night - joseph and the amazing technicolor dreamcoat - tuacan theater
thurs morning - breakout - shakespeare festival
thurs afternoon - sense and sensibility - shakespeare festival
thurs night - the wizard of oz - tuacan theater
friday morning - hamlets shakespeare - shakespeare festival
friday afternoon - twelfth night - shakespeare festival
friday night - little mermaid again (was supposed to be measure for measure) - tuacan theater
saturday afternoon - comedy of errors (i have never laughed so hard in my life) - shakespeare festival
saturday night - henry IV part one - shakespeare festival

then we drove home early sunday and i was able to pack everything and go to sacrament meeting before ryker and i headed to the airport.

the ones we saw in the morning were plays that were still in production. so they were still being developed. they were good. some better than others. but i enjoyed them. basically i loved everything. they all did so amazing. actors in the morning and afternoon were all in 2 or 3 shows. and then all the tuacan performers were in the same 3 shows. i just cant get over how awesome it all was.

before we get to pictures, just a little family update. we are settling in well here in minot. it is about to get a lot colder and we are expecting our first snow on thursday. justin and i got callings. we both help out in primary as well as cubscouts. justin is a leader and i am a committee chairman. which means i do a lot of paperwork and making sure all the boys are where they should be. haha. it should be fun! i am excited. primary and cubscouts are all new to me so here we go!

we figured out that we are expecting a little girl this december. we are so excited to have her join our family. it will be fun to have 1 of each haha. she already has justin wrapped around her finger. its adorable.

ryker is doing great. we still dont have words yet but he is learning more consonant sounds. we have been teaching him sign language a little bit. he has gotten really good at pointing to what he wants. he now can sign thank you, more, and food. with accompanying sounds but not real words yet. he can fold his arms to pray and say amen. well his version. he can now crawl up and down the stairs no problem. he is really good at saying and waving hi or bye. still only 6 teeth but with the drooling i think more are on their way. he loves to dance to commercials. he is phasing out of his afternoon naps which make me a little sad. that is when i get the most done like write on this blog! haha. he is doing great and is so happy. i have lots of smiling pictures of that little boy. he is growing so fast!

okay. i think thats all about us. in utah we learned how to take a panorama pic where we could be in it like 3 different times. i hope they upload so you can see. they are awesome. enjoy!

they both just sit and watch car shows on saturday mornnings. seriously they are the same person. 

loves being with dad

okay we have fun too. look at those chompers!!!

we went to the park and he loved it! the slide was fun and confusing all at the same time

he got good at climbing to the slide

loves the swing!

he always needs to be involved with dinner, so this is the easiest way to use both hands and keep him happy. we do this often shopping in stores too. haha

still loves his big trucks. and has learned to put stuff in the bucket to haul around

little girl coming end of december!

when dad is home that is all he wants. just cuddle with dad. clearly dad doesnt mind. 

just got into denver! loopy but happy!

went to the pool on monday. took him some time to get used to it. but by the end he loved it and didnt want to leave

yay lazy river!

he loved the wheel, but didnt like getting splashed. he eventually got used to it. and enjoyed the play place

his favorite was pushing his floatie. he would go till he was neck deep. it was a great stabalizer

on the road to utah!

little boy is having so much fun with auntie beez. not missing mom much

it was cold and rainy at the little mermaid, but we were determined to stay and stick it out!

in front of the building where we saw the morning shows in cedar city

having fun with statues on campus

issac newton i think? we both have great hair....

i hope you can make them bigger and really see. they are so awesome

peach cobbler as part of dinner. it was super tasty

in the rain after they cancelled the show  :(

might as well play a little bit!

madeline and rachel were with us

an awesome hat i found at the shakespeare festival

at red rocks in st george close to the tuacan theater

she looks so pretty!

i was tired and hot, but rachel took a cool pic anyway

enjoying the rain waiting for it to let up. we wanted to see the show so bad!

huddled under 1 umbrella

rachel and i huddled under ours. 

we thought it fitting since we were wet anyway

acting like einstine

bench around the theater where the shakespeare festival was. 

sitting with falstaff. 

lady juliet

we finally got a pic with all 4 of us

different bench still cool pictures

i think its king lear? maybe king henry? 

more great hats

who wore it better? haha i think alicia does great face. it compliments medusa very well

beautiful view at the red rocks in st george

i loved when i found a shady spot

front sign at the tuacan theater

we let madeline see a friend real quick in town and they gave us mints from the hotel. we got home and realized they turned our mouth green!

these were some awesome masks we found

just chillin with shakespeare

flotsum and jetsum from the little mermaid! i really loved them. they were so flamboyant. it was perfect. a close second to flounder

alicia found a rockin mask. it was so perfect

the steps at the tuacan

side note, prince eric/joseph was a beautiful individual. alicia loved seeing him in egyptian attire meaning without a shirt on for most of the show. haha

this is where the shakespeare festival was held

on fri night when alicia and i went back to the little mermaid we got a pic with ariel and prince eric

a cute little french bakery we found. they had some very tasty desserts. 

eating leftovers in the hotel

the back of the fake globe theater they have here. this is where we sae henry IV part 1

and had fun on the stage before the show

these came from a souvenir program. but these were the actors we saw.. so so so great! amazing job

so hilarious. i cried laughing so hard at this show

andrew agucheek. he was hilarious. also died laughing at his antics during 12th night

i know he isnt smiling. but he really did like grandad!

and auntie fae

i am 23 weeks i believe?

riding on dad. a new favorite game

dancing to a commercial. man i love this boy

playing with grandad! took all week but they had so much fun

he loved!!! the drums at grandmas house

he still loves the swings and i still love his happy giggly face  :)