Happy late Thanksgiving

so i may or may not be a month or 2 behind, but we went on a big long fun trip, so i have some catching up to do. I will try to keep it simple. 

November wasnt too bad. mostly we were getting ready for our trip to Denver to be with family for the holidays. we decided that it was easier on the kids to only round trip once (13hrs each way) instead of twice within a month. and we definitely didnt want to buy 3 plane tickets around the holidays. its already pricey coming out of North Dakota. so i stayed with the kids in denver from thanksgiving through the new year. it was so fun to play and have their help. Ryker and grandad are now best friends and grandma is the best shopping buddy. he had a blast and is still sad when we wake up in the morning and they are not here. 

we traveled down the day before thanksgiving. it was a crazy trip and traffic was horrid, but at least the weather was good. we made it home around 5 and then let the kids settle down before going to bed early. thanksgiving day was the usual fun. we sat around in the morning helping finish bake and preparing things before heading over to the church and eating around 3. then after dinner was partially digested, we resumed the pie eating contest and all other pies. it was so great. i love my family. we spent time playing and finishing some minimal christmas shopping on black friday. played more on saturday before justins flight. 

the next week carlee became my road trip buddy because i wanted to make a trip out to utah and idaho to see some friends since i was closer now and had the time. i was so very grateful for her help. we drove all day monday and stayed with aunt heidi in salt lake. tuesday carlee saw some of her friends and i visited with rachel and her son luke all day. so great to see them. she is doing great. expecting baby number 2! congrats to her. ryker and rylie were both a little sick with a cold so they were not too happy, but were trying to deal with it. we tried to keep things mellow. we went out to dinner at costa vida with our old college friend Ryan. it was tastey! but poor ryker was just feeling miserable. he didnt want to eat anything and after trying to snack on some oranges he threw up in my lap and we decided it was time to head home. 

wednesday we were going to go up to idaho, but with the kids being sick we decided to have a mellow day in utah. so i spent the day with the kids trying to help them feel better. thursday we drove bright and early to idaho to see jaxson and christine and there little girl qora. she is so precious and small and perfect. we kept the kids a safe distance away, but i loved saying hi. we then saw Livia for a few hours. she is also expecting. this is her first! congrats to her. then in the evening we went out to dinner with crystal and her family before heading home for the night. so good to see everyone! i know it was a short trip, but it was so great. next time justin will come to and say hi. haha. 

i think i will end it there. the rest of our vacation and christmas i will get to next time. 

i wanted to cuddle with justin. apparently while kids are awake thats not okay

rylie still trying to get up on everything

her new high chair!

i made these fun little desserts for a stake activity i had for my calling. Poor woman was gluten and dairy free. but i think this dessert turned out awesome!

smiley rylie!

heling dad fix the hinges

ryker wanted to paint so we used some water. water color right?

new car seat on a cold sunday morning

its hard to tell, but she is licking the stove staring at the cookies baking inside. its histarical

helping dad set up the tree so he has some christmas stuff when he is home alone for 3 and a half weeks

i dont know how much this is helping

but we gotta help just like dad!

loving the movies on our trip!

eventually they both slept

selfie by rylie

cuddling with grandad

playing peek a boo with aunt licia

he wasnt super interested in getting dirty for the pie eating contest. he got a little stage freight 

but more than willing to eat it with a fork not in front of everyone

fae ethan alicia and carlee showing us how its done

success

having so much fun with grandad

updated family photo

while we were getting settled in the downstairs room we found out that after the rainstorm a few years back that flooded everything, this corner of the room had sunken down. not good. it was letting a breeze in and such. so now that we knew the problem was there! justin and dad helped put up a temporary solution will we moved out of their basement and they could fix it haha. 

another ryker selfie

road trip to utah!

ryker liked the camera. also goldfish as shown here

and his shoes?

so carlee didnt have any sunglasses. i let her borrow mine while she was driving because thats important. then i remembered ryker has a pair that he plays with but would totally fit. so i tried to wear them and ryker promptly wanted to play with them. 2 min later i look back and he was alseep with them on. darn kid. 

at friend livs apartment napping because we are so sick and dont sleep well at night. 

rylie didnt nap well either while she was sick. but she did with aunt carlee!

ryker and rylie play ing peek aboo with each other. its adorable

the box rylies carseat came in. like cats they love tho boxes more than the toys. 

quality video by miss rylie

hello from our road trip to denver

video via ryker about our utah road trip i believe. 

Happy Halloween. Warm October

I say warm october. what I mean by that is it hasnt snowed yet. haha. normally we have a snowfall that has stuck by halloween. But that didnt happen this year! I am not upset about it. It gets too cold to fast. I dont mind the cold. but i dont want it freeze your nose hairs cold. thats no fun.

It was a good month! We had conference in the beginning. We were able to watch the whole first session while the kids napped. then again for the afternoon session on saturday we were able to listen. but the sunday sessions the kids woke up an hour into both the morning and afternoon session so listening became a little more difficult. they just wanted to play! ryker was really mad that he couldnt watch one of his movies instead. but that tantrum only lasted a few min.

ryker and rylie are both doing great. ryker is still mimicking everything. its so adorable. he is starting to talk more and make sentences. they are garble to me, but he is trying to put words together. and he is getting so much better with his words. we are now working on combining words. its a work in progress. he is still good at saying please, thank you, excuse me. and if he is in a calm mood he will use his words to tell us what he wants. he is getting so big! My baby boy is so big.

rylie continues to grow like a weed! she can stand up and hold onto the table now. when did she get that tall?!?!?!?  crazy. not at 10 months old she loves to crawl after ryker. she moves so fast! she loves to crawl up the stairs when i dont get the gate up fast enough. one day she got up first from her nap and then about half an hour later i went to get ryker and thought i could be quick, ryker wanted to look out his window and was dawdling. i heard rylie in the stair well and knew she was trying to follow. so i grab ryker to go downstairs so i could get her before she fell. she made it to the top of the stairs!!!!! all the way up before i could get her! it was impressive and gave me a heart attack. im so glad she didnt fall. but now i definitely always put the gate up if im going upstairs even for only a quick second. i dont mind her lwarning to go up the stairs! i just dont want to leave her to it until she can learn to climb down them too. that might take a few more months. she loves to walk along the furniture. she still loves to give rassberry kisses on my cheek. she is not standing on her own yet, but she is starting to try.

both kids were sick with colds again this week. the changing weather really hits us hard every time. justin was really not feeling well about 2 weeks ago and stayed home from church. i took both kids and ryker did great in nursery. rylie was with me the whole time. but i still think we brought the bug home sometime. so this last week justin went but i stayed home with the sick kids. poor rylie has been so miserable. all stuffed up and a runny nose. she gets to tired real quick during the day. we propped up her bed to help her nose drain. she loves to snuggle and rest her head on my shoulder. i love it but feel so bad that she is miserable.

justin is still doing great at work. they keep him super busy. his major boss is coming out this next week so he is making sure everything is ready and prepared for that.

My calling is still doing great. I had a ward conference at 8 am one sunday. with a 2 hour drive to get there it made a very early and long day. but thankfully i was hope early to help with the kids/take a nap on the couch.

we are doing good here! getting excited for the holidays! this is our favorite time of year!

sustaining the prophet!

family snuggles during conference

rylie daredevil climbs on everything

he likes to "work under the cars" like dad

sleepy rylie

she will just lay down and try to sleep on the bear. its adorable. but only lasts a few seconds

chewing on the coffee table. why not?

eating cornbread and gravy. its a favorite deitrick meal. 

making pumpkins! rylie was black

ryker was white

bonding?

i helped do the detail. but i think it turned out great!

he looks like the little brother from a christmas story. bahahaha love it

justin and mines pumpkins

ryker knocks on the door if one of his shows does it. rylie wanted to do it too. 

he was our little lumberjack. I have a family picture somewhere. when i get it i will post it later. 

ryker at the trunk or treat. he was too nervous to actually say trick or treat. but he loved going around with dad. 

i tried to snuggle one afternoon with justin and ryker was not okay with it. he needed to jump in and join us. not pictures is rylie standing right in front of me also wanting in. 

she tries so hard to grab his hair. then normally settles for his nose. he is so good to just let her play. its precious. 

Ryker practicing some of his words that he has caught us saying

rylie trying so hard to grab that ice cube!

Fall is coming!

I dont a lot happened in September. More of the same. Justin is still enjoying work! They are definitely keeping him busy after some people were fired. but he does what they want and everyone is happy with his work. job security right? haha

Ryker is doing good. still mimicking everything. his current favorite movie is home. Im not sure that is going to help his language, but it sure makes him smile. i do think its funny. but i am also starting to hide the movie every once in a while. it has quickly moved to the only watch once a day category. he is so cute as he mimicks what we say and do. but we have learned to be very cautious in what we do now. haha. He has learned to open most every door. bathroom privacy is long gone haha. He is now tall enough to reach light switches. he holds onto the rail going up and down the stairs. my little baby boy is all grown up! he still loves to say no, but we are trying to teach him manners. and how important it is to not sit in a poopy diaper.

Rylie is growing like crazy. she is wicked fast crawling around. she stand up on everything. she has finally learned how to get herself down. its hilarious. she spreads her legs then falls on her butt. hey whatever works. she is sleeping great and eating great. she has also recently learned to climb up the stairs. thats a little more scary. she definitely not able to go down. once i was changing rykers diaper and that is all the time it took to crawl to the stairs and climb up half of them. HALF!!! she was fine. but i was scared she was going to fall and break something. that day we went out and bought a gate for the stairs. sorry baby, not till your big enough to crawl down too.

both her and ryker have had a cold for the last week. i think she got it when she went to sunbeams with justin, and then gave it to ryker. 2 sick babies is no fun. but it hasnt been too bad. worse at night, but now they are almost all better.

Im getting into a groove with my calling. I am trying to get lots of contact information and centralize everything so that we can improve communication. for the most part its going great. but i still am needing some people to get back to me. its only been a month! we can still make a difference and a different impression. everything else is going well. i had a ward conference 2 weeks ago. i was gone pretty much from 8:30 am till 5:30 pm. that was a long day for both me and justin haha. he does not envy me with the kids by myself all day during the week. he is very good to support me and my calling though.

i think thats the most of our update this month!

we got a new car!

a minivan we names Triton. as much as i hate minivans, i am enjoying the space. 

my handsome man ready for church

you cant really tell. but during naps and at night she twirls her hair till it stands straight up like alfalfa. its so funny

melts my heart

playing on the landing like usual

love my family!

justin squeezed in between seats while we were installing an auxillary cable. good thing he lost 25 lbs  ;)

one day while justin and i were making dinner ryker grabbed one of my cook books. ran up on the couch and snuggled down to read it. it was so cute. man after my own heart. 

naked party! they both decided to wet the bed and jammies so everything was in the wash and we hadnt stayed still long enough to put on clothes yet. 

i made a small track. ryker loves it. he loves to watch the little ball of tape roll down into the basket. if only rylie didnt pull it off the wall all the time. 

Ryker singing along to the bubble guppies. he did it much better. but i was trying to hard to repeat it so this is the best i got. 

rylie learning to climb stairs

singing happy birthday to auntie beez!!!