Wednesday, March 30, 2011

A New Addition

We have a new addition to our blog family. Now that Ryan has a bit more spare time, he is writing a blog about his experiences with his bike. Since it seems I rarely talk about Ryan on this blog (sorry, honey!), it will be a fun way for you all to see what’s going on with him.

Check it out!

http://ryanandhisbike.weebly.com/biking-eugenespringfield.html

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I also have a link on the right hand side of this blog, because I really do love him!

Monday, March 28, 2011

Some Exciting News!

We have a winner for the giveaway!

Congratulations to Sara Talbot!

Sara is a friend of mine from our days in Utah and she’s having a baby girl in a few months. Baby girls LOVE cutesy hair flowers!

Sara, let me know what your address is (you can send me a message on Facebook, if you want) and I’ll get those sent out soon (I can at least promise you’ll get them before June).

Thank you all for commenting and for reading my blog. I wish I could send you each a prize, I really do. But don’t worry, I had so much fun with this, there’s bound to be a next time!

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Oh, Baby!

This has been a crazy, crazy week! I’m so glad Ryan has been home with me this week because if he wasn't I would be dead by now. Really. I would be dead. I’m not exaggerating. I still haven’t even blogged about St. Patrick’s Day! Now you KNOW I’ve been busy! Here goes!

We made a quick trip up to Washington for St. Patrick’s Day weekend. It was a ton of fun and great to see family. Leslie is always willing to let us use her room while we are there, but Ryan was a little wary of going to sleep in such close proximity to Justin Bieber.

We Wards know how to PARTY!

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I think I’ve corrupted him. I think he doesn’t mind.

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My Little Leprechaun

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Ryan caught a leprechaun! Really, I think we had to catch him to get a picture of him!

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We had a yummy dinner, complete with a treasure hunt.

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We had wonderful company too. Our friend Natalie joined us for dinner. We always love when we get to see her.

Even Kevin came down to join the festivities.

(I made him dress up)

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I did not have to make Leslie dress up. Nor did I tell her to caress the jug of milk. She did that all on her own.

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Really, people! What’s with the creepiness?! Am I the only normal fanatic in the family?!

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On Friday we did a little surprise celebration for Ryan’s graduation.

He was surprised.

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We had to leave on Saturday but we stopped on our way home at some outlet stores. You know how most little kids have some sort of “lovey” that goes everywhere with them? Nathan has one too, and it’s weird. Have you ever seen those little plastic holders that Bath and Body Works sells for their small bottles of hand sanitizer? Well, that’s what he loves. He carries one everywhere- has since he was a baby. We call it his twirly. Thankfully, we can pick up replacements for 50 cents. So, we stopped to buy him a few. You should have seen his face when we walked into the store and he saw buckets of them! Somehow, we only left with 3 new ones.

He was pretty happy about that.

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Oh yeah, the title of this post is “Oh, Baby” because we also brought home Leslie’s old doll carriage and baby doll for Nathan to play with. He has been obsessed lately with pushing his stroller around the house and we thought this would be a bit more manageable. He loves it! He’s so nice to the baby and he loves to load up the carriage with toy cars and drive it around the house. Funny kid.

The other day when I put him down for his nap, he insisted the baby, the carriage, and his plastic chair all come in bed with him- as well as his usual cars and trucks and the previously mentioned twirlies. This is getting a little out of hand!

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Thursday, March 17, 2011

200

This is my 200th post! I think that means it’s time for a giveaway!

I must be a super slow blogger because I really thought I’d reach 200 by Christmas and be able to do a holiday giveaway, but here we are in March, finally getting around to 200. But really, what better day than St. Patrick’s Day for a giveaway?!

What will I be giving away? Well, since I’m poor, and have a broken sewing machine, but also because I’m obsessed with all kinds of cutesy hair flowers, I will be giving away an assortment of cutesy hair flowers!

The giveaway ends on Sunday, March 27th and the winner will be announced on Monday. Just leave me a comment to be entered.

May the luck of the Irish be with you!

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

As Nathan would say, “Da dada da dada da dada DAAAA!”

It’s official, Ryan is finished with Graduate school! I’m so proud of him. He is now the proud owner of a Masters Degree in Economics from the University of Oregon. We made it! We really really really really made it. A few weeks ago Ryan said to me, Get ready to say goodbye to being students!” and I said, “Yeah!” then, “wait, YEAH! What will that be like?” I’m really not sure. We’ve never not been students before. I’m thinking it will be GREAT!

I am so proud of Ryan and all the hard work he’s done the past few years. He’s so brilliant and passionate about what he’s learning.

I don’t know what lies in store for our family right now, but I know we can look forward to a lot of wonderful things and a lot of big, exciting changes. Where will we go? We have no idea? When will we get there? Don’t know. But we know that Heavenly Father will take care of us, just like He always has before. In the meantime, Ryan gets to spend some time at home with me and Nathan  and we’re gonna have some FUN!

How did Ryan celebrate the end of school (FOREVER)?

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With a 5 pound Costco cheesecake, of course!

It’s a good thing I’m here to help him eat it.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Chuck E Cheese

A few weeks ago Nathan got invited to a birthday party for his friend, Micah, at Chuck E Cheese. He was pretty excited because we live right next to Chuck E Cheese and every time we go past it, he excitedly points out the “kitty” on the front.

He had a lot of fun on the rides, but got a little nervous when we showed him how they could move. He preferred just sitting on them.

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Then he figured out how to put his tokens in the slots of the games- that was the best game he could imagine! So he put the tokens in over and over and we pushed the buttons for him. He had a blast. And Ryan and I had some fun too.

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This was supposed to be a picture of Nathan and Micah playing the froggy game together, but my camera is slow, so it ended up being an “intervention picture”. Something about not hitting and taking turns pushing the buttons.

 

Nathan discovered the tunnels and wanted to go exploring. I said, “Go for it, Nathan! Daddy will take you!”

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In the middle of yelling “Hewoooooo!”

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He got here and yelled down to me, “I stuck! I stuck!” while he grabbed the bars and tried to figure out a way to get to me. I’m pretty sure it was Ryan who got stuck, though.

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They made it out!

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Micah, the birthday boy, with Chuck E Cheese.

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Cupcakes! Yum!

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Nathan’s Antics

Nathan turns 2 in about a month and I’m planning to write a post about him then, but I know it’s going to be long, so I thought I’d write a few of the funny things he’s been doing and saying lately.

Every time he does anything, he must have fanfare and shouts a loud “ Da da da DA!!” Or sometimes it’s more like “Da da da da da da da da da DAAAAAAAA!”

Every time I feed Nathan anything, he has to have some on every plate he owns. No wonder I feel like I’m raising a herd of puppies instead of one boy.

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Nathan knows the song “The Wheels on the Bus”, as well as all of the hand motions. He sings it ALL THE TIME.

Nathan loves the Toy Story movies and has recently started saying, “To Infinity and Beyond” only it sounds like “mumble mumble mumble DOND!”

We live in a duplex and I don’t think Nathan understands what’s going on when we can hear the neighbors through the wall. The other day, he stopped and said, “What’s that?!” Then ran into the nearest bedroom and looked around. He came back, gesturing around himself and said, “I see nothing! I see nothing!”

He also likes to walk into an empty room and yell, “Hello? Anybody home?” I don’t know where he learned that but I’m pretty sure he thinks we have some weird phantoms living in our house with us.

Currently, Nathan’s favorite activity is painting. He paints every single day. It’s getting a little out of hand.

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And sometimes the paint doesn’t go where it’s supposed to.

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Nathan is the proud owner of 10 toy cars from the movie Cars and they go everywhere with him. EVERYWHERE. Luckily, he has a special bag that his Grandma made him, because it’s really hard to juggle a toddler and 10 cars. I really have no idea how he sleeps with them all in his bed, but if they ALL don’t join him he does not go to sleep. Silly boy!