Warmth of June

well unlike may in colorado, it has been beautiful here in north dakota. we are in the 70s and 80s. its not too bad. i am loving my air conditioning but also the kids love to be outside and playing. we have spend most of the month just recuperating and getting back to normal from our month away.

Ryker is doing great. still loves his big boy bed. he has just exploded with words! we have progressed to mommy and daddy instead of just mom and dad. i love it. its so darn cute. his words still require a bit of translation, but he is trying and it sounds so much closer than it ever has before. my baby boy is growing up! i do love the added communication though. it helps a ton. he has moved on to his favorite movie being tangled or beauty and the beast. he loves the songs and has to copy everything they are doing on the screen. again, so cute i just smile all day. he still has his cranky moments and has some definite terrible two moments. but i love him tons. i love how he will climb all over me no matter what im doing to come snuggle in my lap. he has become much more cuddlier (sp? is it even  a word?) since rylie was born. i dont mind at all. except when rylie is cranky too, then its a fight for my lap and rylie wants to grab onto ryker, but he doesnt want to be touched. its a struggle. but of the best kind. ryker loves to help her reach her toys and give her her binky. he loves to tickle her toes and her tummy. he has recently graduated to footless PJ's. but thats mostly because its summer time and it gets super hot. even at night. we will bring out the footed ones again come winter time.

Rylie is getting so big. she just had her 6 month apt. her half birthday is on my dads birthday. how fun! double cake right? haha. she is 17 and a half pounds of pure smiles and chub. i love her big round cheeks and thighs. i wish my thighs were that cute. definitely not... she is a little big for her age. i remember ryker followed his age and his clothing size pretty well. she runs a little big. she is mostly in 6-9 and 9 month clothes. and they are all getting cuter! i admit i am loving dressing her up often. she is a rockstar at eating her oatmeal, but only prefers veggies during the day. i tried to feed her peaches once and she would not have it. muched prefered carrots. weird girl.... we havent tried to much yet, but we are branching out. she loves carrots and sweet potatoes, apples and bananas with her oatmeal. we will see how she does with the green veggies... ryker was picky about those too. she is refusing to bottle feed again. i tried so hard to keep it up since my mom was able to get her to take it, but she now would rather cry herself to sleep than eat from a bottle. well. we might give up on that until i stop nursing and she doesnt have a choice. thats the only food she will get then. but we will deal with that when the time comes. she has learned to roll onto her tummy the last few days. now she wont stay on her back, she can scoot just a little but with rolling and pivoting she doesnt stay stationary long. we are about to have another mobile baby here soon i can tell.

justin and i are doing great. justin is still working hard and enjoying what he does. we have recently felt inspired to start looking around for more opportunities and growth for his career. so we are praying and searching for that. justin and i started the state of slim diet about 3 weeks ago. it was tough at first but it is getting easier. it has helped us view some healthy options and get us into good habits. we have also been able to shed some unwanted pounds. i am not down to my goal weight yet, but im getting close. justin is doing great and about 2 lbs away from his goal weight. his goal weight gift/birthday gift is an air compressor. he is so excited and already making plans for it. im glad it makes him happy.

thats mostly whats been going on. nothing big except our new search for a job. prayers are welcome. thanks. we are enjoying our kids and getting used to playing with them both. they are such a joy.

so i was watching 7 brides for 7 brothers the other day. ryker was loving the singing and dancing. this is the part in the beginning where milly makes them clean up before breakfast. then says grace before they can eat. i look up and see ryker is praying with them. i just about died it was so cute. i didnt even prompt this. he did it on his own. it was so precious. he knows when to be reverent! 

so we are still slowly working on the potty training. after we got home everytime ryker told us he was going number 2 we told him to run and sit on his potty! so he would run, but hit bear on the potty and then run to our landing on the stairs, poop, and then come back to get his bear off. the little turkey. if it wasnt so funny i would be a little more upset about it. haha

rylie love love loves her toes! and i love that smile! 

playing in the walker grandma reed got ryker. she loves it too. 

playing with dad. dad made a pillow out of blocks and a squishy ball. such an enhineer.... haha

whenever im on the floor playing with rylie ryker loves to come and lay with us. its so much fun!

when we got back we decided our new residence would be sharks! we have a red finned rainbow shark, and a black finned shark that looks kinda like a catfish. they are so cool and fun. my black finned one didnt make it a week before he got stressed with the small size of the tank and died. dang... but it was fun while it lasted!

ryker climbed up to be with dad

playing one day while waiting for me to cook dinner

rylie loves this little elephant. i got it from a baby shower i had with ryker. but its the cutest thing ever and i wanted one of my children to love it. haha she loves to snuggle as she sleeps

while helping dad with the truck we took some pics. cant only teach the boys to love cars. she will learn to love them too. 

to replace my shark we got a platty named mango (the yellow, orange and black) and a molly named rufio. 

all of us at the deitrick reunion last month! so fun to see everyone

family pic! i love my family. 

rylie in the kitchen helping us cook for the week. for anyone who has slept in our spare bedroom, ryker loves to kick the wall when he wakes up. i thought it was super cute. like brother like sister haha

i have a game on my phone called ant smash where you squish ants with your thumb. so when we were outside i taught ryker how to stomp on them. he loved it. i thought it was so funny. beats bringing them in the house. haha

May showers?

okay. so for pretty much the whole month of may we were in broomfield getting some quality time with family. and then the last week of may we had 3 reunions in a week. at the end we were so ready to be home! i love my family, but i missed my bed, and my children in their own rooms sleeping through the night. well at least ryker.

it was so great and i loved it. rylie did awesome on her first flight. we played, she got a little nap, and it was great. on the flight back she was a little more fussy, but not unbearably so and we made it back without annoying too many people. on the trip home both ryker and rylie had colds so we were trying to battle those at the end of our trip as well.

im going to let the pictures do most of the talking. i have like 100 or so and they are all awesome. and this is my own scrap book so i do what i want.  :)

so much fun on our first flight!

tuckered out

we were up at 5 so he was supper sleepy on the drive back to grandmas house from the airport

chillin in the high chair

studly

cant resist that smile

lottie and rylie meeting for the first time

playing together

it rained everyday we were in colorado/utah. this one fine sunday it snowed instead! awesome...

happy birthday to my sweet boy

free ice cream at red robin for his birthday

he loved it

he also loved the free baloon. the gang at red robin

happy birthday! he was actually quite timid of the candles and didnt want to blow them out. 

we had to intervine and help haha

what little boy doesnt want to get messy with frosting? this one... he much prefers a fork. 

walk with aunt dani we stopped at a park and played

fun in the pool

aunt kaitlyn playing with rylie. it was freezing but she was totally fine with it

bahahah i cant get over that face

grandma got a jumper to play in and she loved it

aunt dani with the pseudo twin girls

this is what it would be like if we had twins haha

ryker learned to wrestle the pillows. he has to fight hard with this one!  ;)

grandma helped him try on a new swim suit for lottie haha

they played with the jumper together. so sweet

he grabbed these bunnies that go in a game and became a vampire briefly. he thought it was the funniest thing to give himself buck teeth like the bunnies had

grandad with both little girls. look familiar? its like ablast from the past 23 and a half years ago with dani and i

grandma playing with rylie. it was much warmer...

wrestling with grandad

she likes to cuddle in the crook of his arm. she doesnt cuddle often so this was extra special

pink ladies lovin a quick nap together

we talked with my friend amy and met her little boy. lottie and nate are very confused. 

unlce ethan meeting rylie and playing with both kids

cousin kimber having fun with rylie

they look so cute together

we are getting ready to go into the childrens museum of natural curiosity at thanksgiving point

love the deitrick reunion! so glad everyone could come. we missed rory, but everyone else made it!

ryker riding a shark bike rack

walking with dad and kimber

he loved watching the washing machines

showing cousin kallen how it works

kimber and aydin learned a quick dance. this place was awesome!

rylie and i chillin walking around with everyone

he coul dplay with a hand that qould show on the otherside and make i look like it was magic. 

he loved the physics section. motion i think it the actual name, but he loved it and justin loved that he was so into it. 

they had a ton a stations downstairs where you could see if you could flap like a hummingbird, or jump like a tree frog, or hang like a sloth. 

of course at the playground he found the car wheel

resting at aunt tricias after a long fun day

grandma feeding cousin maya

she has the sweetest smile. i love it. it just fills you with joy. 

anderson reunion. my mom with all her siblings. minus aunt kenna. but kaitlynn is standing in. 

grandad rockclimbing

grandmo rock climbing

grandma and fae playing cars with ryker

fae paintballing

we did too! justin and i were on opposite teams dang it. he shot me in the leg. it hurt so bad and i had a huge welt. first time painballing! it was fun. but i think im good for a while. 

playing with uncle ethan

the family! we are all together (minus lottie who was napping but there!) its been a long time since we have all been together. 

of course a silly pic

no one told alicia and i what we were supposed to be doing. oh well. good smiles anyway

duh, 

ryker loved this catch the fish game. it was subject to many cries with lots of the little boys, but he was good to share and learned how to grab a fish!

playing cars on dads leg

he loved being pushed in the stroller

we did a mini pre preschool every morning with kids ages 5 and under. for like an hour so the parents had an opportunity to go do fun things and have people watch their kids. it was super fun. 

racing aunt carlee while the rest of us played spike ball

my first time playing. i did okay. not terrible. i would play again. 

carlee with rylie. 

cant be a reunion without some knockout

playing with blocks

we watched him closely, but he did have fun pushing rylie around. 

we did go shotgun shooting. it was so fun! i even hit 2 targets haha

rylie was so confused with cards. she thought they were the coolest thing and wanted so bad to put them in her mouth

4 generations of girls!!!

aunt kristi and i. i love her. she is awesome. 

rylie and lottie chilling while we rest for lunch on our drive back to broomfield. of course rylie is eating her toes. terrible drive. between both kids with a cold and going though the mountains it was awful. never again with small children will i drive I-70. 

family game of basketball. i did okay. definitely tiring. i gauged justin once. oops... to get him back for shooting my in paintball right? haha. my bad... i made 3 of the 5 points to end our game. im proud of that. 

rylie napped while we played. 

we got a chance to go to the temple! it was great. justin and i havent been in a long time. i know this pic is terrible but i wanted one anyway. we did some sealings as a family. it was so great. 

family at the temple

great way to end vacation. alicia reading, justin rocking out, rylie is sleeping in the midde of eating some oatmeal. no big. jareds face is perfection. so much greatness in this photo. 

grandma with both babes. looks the same as 23 and a half years ago haha. 

so glad to be home. our routine of watching mickey in the morning while rylie eats her toes. life doesnt get much better!

more basketball (out of place sorry)

alicia with her venician princesses. she got those outfits for the girls in italy. they both pull them off so well!

grandad having a great time with ryker. he tried to hide a few times because he was getting tired. but ryker found him! he was not done playing yet! haha

grandparents came in for fae's graduation. we took a great pic with their great grandkids. 

happy graduation

so proud of you fae

all who attended. we were at the deitrick reunion. but we thought of you too!

loving the hot tub. so glad i could go in now

break for lunch during our trip back to broomfield. 

helping little boy feel better from his cold. 

some pics i got from other people

rylie and lottie playing

love that big smile

oh! i had a birthday! happy 24 to me  :)

rylie didnt want to go to bed so she celebrated with us

ryker being geat watching pooh onthe plane to denver

he is still sick, but rocking out just like dad was

playing with grandma the morning we got there

this is when we went and saw marry poppins at the boulder dinner theater. it was awesome and delicious.

cant resist that smile

ryker and i at his birthday dinner

alicia took this pic one day while they were playing outside. my little boy looks so big!

he has so much fun with grandad. this didnt even completely capture how much fun they were having. many moments like this happened throughout our stay. i loved watching them!