May flowers

oh what a wonderful month it has been. not nearly as crazy, but just as exciting.

may started out with my birthday! yay! im not big into making things about me. in fact i try to hide the fact that its my birthday quite often. but feeling a little special is nice. Carlee came up to visit! that was awesome. we chilled and had chipotle and played with ryker and had cake. it was really fun! dont hate me i dont remember anything big that happened. but it was a good weekend! lots of fun. and cake is always delicious.

then the next week was mothers day. how lucky am i to get 2 celebrations in basically 1 week. justin and ryker were very sweet and got me a dozen roses. first time i have ever gotten that! i have gotten flowers before, but never a dozen. it made me feel really special. but to make the day even better, it was rykers first birthday! we  officially have a 1 year old. holy cow where has the time gone! he is so big now. he loves to walk around. he has this new fascination with walking backwards. its hilarious. he loves cheerios. we are working on our words still but its still gibberish to me. we did figure out nana means food. whether i want more or i want yours or even just im hungry in general. he loves to say dada. still no mama yet. im sad but still love my little boy.

he also gets so excited everyday when dad comes home. he gets so excited when he hears the door. he runs to it and stomps his feet with a huge grin on his face. its perfect. he is such a joy. i love playing with him all day long. for his birthday he got a new outfit and a grover toy from grandma deitrick. he got a book that grandma reed read to him along with some of his favorite songs and lots of birthday wishes. he got some new touch and feel books and some sandals from mom and dad. he had a great birthday. even though it was just the 3 of us here we were able to facetime both grandparents and aunts and uncles that happened to be nearby to sing happy birthday and watch him indulge in his first piece of cake. he may have looked like he was eating a smurf. but he loved it. definitely had a sugar high for a while. then definitely had a sugar crash. he went to sleep real easy.

other than that its been a good month. pretty laid back. we sold the truck and  bought a new one. it really was a great deal. its bigger, is a 4x4 so we can use it in ND, extended cab, its super nice. new engine and new transmission. lots of work has been done on it. all right so we really dont have a lot that justin needs to do. i love that. he needs new projects, but i like to see him occasionally on the weekends too. haha. we are happy with it. now just to get the bike sold! sad but a must...

Justin is loving his job. he found out when he is going to ND for the first time so we will be looking at apartments for him to go visit. things are going to change just as fast as we are closer to our move up north.

he was sick with a fever. so after some tylenol he passed out with dad. he never cuddles like this anymore. sad for our sick boy, but loved the cuddles!

he loves to play under the desk. 

this is more mom playing with toys at walmart

dad reading him a book. so precious

my beautiful flowers! my boys are so good to me

lovin the cake

the loot!

whenever he wants dads attention he goes and tries to sneak under dads leg to get his attention. its hilarious and i think the cutest thing ever

trying on dads tie. one day son. one day

5 whole teeth now! some of that may be cheerios.

i went into his room one morning and found him like this. i guess he got hot? 

no pants day in california. it gets hot! even with AC

our memorial day picnic. 

just playing around. he likes to stick things in his mouth and shake!

its fun to move backwards!

April Showers

not necessarily rain showers, but lots and lots of change. so much has happened since i last posted. its all a blur and i dont remember all the details. so it might just be a quick rundown and then pictures because lets face it thats all i post. i cant help it. its my picture journal.

so lets see... end of march justin went on a trip to denver for a few days for a job fair that the school was putting on. he had a good time. nothing too exciting. but it was a good trip. good people to meet. that friday the 28th was our good friends Jaxson and Christines wedding. it was beautiful. they were both glowing. and it was so fun to spend the day with them and celebrate. they are so darn cute together. they really are perfect for each other.

Jusitn then accepted a job offer from KSI. they offered to train him in Bakersfield California and then move to North Dakota for at least a year. after that they will re evaluate and see where they really need him. its good money and they are helping with rent because north dakota is crazy expensive because of the oil boom. we are excited about it!

Justin graduated! he now has a BS degree in Mechanical Engineering. I am so so so proud of him. he really has worked so hard and spent many nights studying and doing homework. it all paid off! he is done and ready to work! a masters might still be down the road, but we will give it a little time for that one. it was great to see him walk and know he has accomplished so much.

lots of family came into town. all of justins family came in. it was great to see misty, italo, tricia, and brandon again. so great to be with the family. then my family came too. mom, dad and alicia all came. mom helped us drive to california. helped entertain ryker. that was a big help. thanks momma!

we spent friday and saturday playing with both families and jareds parents that came. also packing because both us and dani and jared are moving. that added to lots of stress. Justins mom is an expert packer. she did like half the house. i could not have done it without her. and probably half of our pictures and dishes would be broken if it was just me packing.

side note, Dani announced she was pregnant! so exciting. justin and i have known for a week or so, but graduation is when she told the fam. it was cute. everyone squealed.

so now we needed to find an apartment. we looked online, found our best option and went for it. but we are still in idaho so we had to do it all over the phone. it was very crazy and ridiculously complicated. we thought we had it all figured out and then when we got here tuesday the 14th of april apparently there were still some things that needed to be done. so we scrambled to get it all set up and a lease signed. i just wanted to put my baby to bed! we had been driving since 4 am. it was a 13 hour drive. the AC was out in our truck. i was cranky and tired and the woman in the office was telling me different things than what i was told through emails. we had to pay more money and didnt have a bank in california. and i almost cried and it was stressful. but it worked out! we got into our apartment. the ward was great to help move all of our stuff in. we set up beds and promptly went to sleep. it was rough. but we are here and we are set up.

so lots of family, celebration, moving, driving, and much much more. but now justin is liking his job. and we are enjoying the california summer!

cuddling with dad

relaxing morning with mom and spike

dad dont go! i want to come with you!

Jaxson and Christine's wedding

loves to stickout his tongue

just look at those boys

loving lasagna

you cant see it well but he has a lasagna handprint on his head. 

our dining room in our new place

so much space in rykers room now

dads tonka truck. 

loving the california sun

Yay dad!

Grandparents with their grandbaby

all the deitrick cousins!

playing with dad in the truck

walking around in our huge living room

loves swings!

bouncing on the tramp for the first time

March Madness

alright. time for the monthly update. i figure i can at least keep up with that. not much has happened in the past month. just lots of school for justin. he is working so hard and doing great. but definitely stressed. i wish i could do more to help, i do all i can from home. cleaning, taking care of ryker, and making sure bills get paid. so he can just focus on school. but when justin comes home stressed and tired and all quiet i just feel bad and want to fix it! i know he just needs time and to probably sleep it off, but i hurt when he hurts like that. i guess thats how being married is. they hurt we hurt. but goes the other way too. when they are happy, we are happy. 

for a graduation gift we decided to give ourselves a budget and splurge a little. we got enough back from tax returns that we could afford it. Justin decided to get a gun. he has been looking for a while, but now was a good time. he got a mosin nagant rifle. its an old WWII rifle that was made in surplus and then they put them all in storage. they are fairly cheap long range rifles. but they are covered in nasty grease that kept them in good condition for decades. the gun we got was made actually a few years before the war, so its a little better quality. but Justin spent lots of time degreasing the gun. the metal parts were easier. but for the wood stalk we needed to put it in the oven to sweat out the grease. bad news, it was too long and didnt fit. so we put it on a towel that we use to clean the guns and used a blow dryer. slow work, but it did the trick. it looks so good now and doesnt feel sticky anymore. we went shooting last friday. i got to shoot my Kahr gun again and am getting better at that. the mosin did great. the kickback wasnt even too bad. i enjoyed shooting it. granted i am definitely bruised even 2 days later. but still worth it! Justin was beaming the whole time. 

Saturday was jaxsons bachelors party. justin and clark planned the whole thing. there were like 12 people who all came. they started out by going dirt biking. everyone loved it. then came back to jaxsons place for pizza and video games. lots of manly things haha. i had my cousin marissa come babysit and i went out to dinner with Christine jaxsons fiance, Courtney Austins (jaxsons brother) girlfriend, and Livia. it was super fun! kinda weird... i havent gone out and had a girls date without ryker or justin before. but i enjoyed myself. then we went back to jaxsons. tried not to interrupt the bachelor party as we helped courtney and christine make food for a dinner they were going to have on sunday. it was was fun. i had a good night all around. 

lets see... other updates... ryker is doing great! getting bigger everyday i love it. he has learned to stick out his tongue. i have a video of him chewing on it and playing with his tongue. i think its funny. he was really doing it for like 15 min before we recorded it. he is learning to stand on his own. he can only do it for a second or 2 at a time. he sometimes is holding on to the couch or rocking chair but then will let go and try and clap. its hilarious. he still falls a lot. im hoping he will walk by his first birthday/. i got 2 months. so we will work on it! i figured out that when he eats cherries he gets a really bad diaper rash. like chapped and bleeding bad. he hurts so bad... i feel bad for him. so we try to keep him clean and dry as much as we can but then we have naked hours. i keep him on the towel because i am not ready for the potty training accidents everywhere. i think he needs to walk first. haha. but we got him cleared up and he is doing much better. 

we also got the chance to babysit a little girl in our ward. her mommy was not feeling well so i took her while her hubby took her to the dr. she was so littl! she was born around 5 lbs. and at 2 months old she was just under 7 lbs. still so little! her name is allison. cute little girl. i was really enjoying myself. ryker liked her too. he wanted to pet her. i was careful and made sure he was soft. mostly that meant i held his hand while i let him barely touch her head. haha. he woke up from a nap and i had her playing on the floor. he still wanted to snuggle and rest so he layed across my leg right next to her and snuggled. it was adorable i just wanted to die. so i took a picture instead haha. makes me want another little one real bad. im trying to convince justin of the same thing ;)  haha. we will see about that... 

oh! before i forget, Justin has got some feedback from a company he talked to at the BYUI career fair. its KS Industries. its an oil and gas company. he sent them an application and talked with the guy who came to talk about it here. he got a call about 2 weeks ago from a lady who works at the base of operations in california saying she would be more interested him coming to work there instead of the oil fields in north dakota. i am all for living in california instead of north dakota. well he had an interview today and it went really well!  

well thats us. our little update. 

dad! dad! come out and play!

I got to babysit a little girl in my ward. she is so small! makes me want another one... ;)

Ryker wants to sleep with little allison

he was jealous that allison got to be in his bouncer so he wanted to get in too. 

my little nephite!

had to try on the motorcycle helmet again. almost fits! haha

playing naked while trying to heal a bad diaper rash. look at all those rolls!

we were playing and having fun! then all of a sudden got really tired.

i made an apple pie braid for pie day. doesnt look pretty but its was so good!

my little leprachan for church!

he looks super tired in this picture but you can see his fauxhawk better

playing peek-a-boo!

playing while mom and alicia were in town

found his tongue! it was so funny to watch him play.