From mophead to buzzcut

It changes my baby boy into a little man. I wish that I could leave the top a little longer when I cut his hair, but giving the kid a haircut is akin to shaving a feral cat. The boy is not a fan. So, it's easier to just buzz it all one length (as short as I can stand to have it) so that we don't have to repeat the process too soon.
Also, I bet you can't tell, but Ryker has decided that shirts are a nuisance and he would rather not wear them at all, thank-you-very-much.

Kite Festival

We never even got the kite out of the box. The bounce houses were just too much fun.





And, of course, the train.

Easter Sunday

Things that are making me happy today:

-Easter Egg Hunt at Grandma and Grandpa's house (458 eggs to find!):
Ryker really isn't so chubby that he's busting out of his clothes, it only looks that way because of the wicked wind that was blowing out in Leeds.


-Mangoes!:

-Easter Crafts with Anicka:

-A Beautiful Easter bouquet from Adam:

-A Pretty Bowl Full of Fresh Fruit:

- Church in my Pajamas!
(imagine that there's a picture of something General Conference related right here. I'm too lazy to look for one.)
Our Easter weekend was wonderful, not counting the awful coughs that my children came down with unexpectedly. I hope that you all had wonderful weekends, as well.

Barely a blog post at all...

...but I feel as if I need to update this page with something. So.






















What Anicka is Currently Obsessed With:

• Littlest Pet Shop
• Rhyming ("Mom, these all rhyme! Listen: dog, frog, log, bog, sog, rog... are those real words? What rhymes with puppy? Shmuppy? Is that a real word?")
  
• Writing and Mailing Letters
• Turning Five (which happens next month)
• Wearing Makeup
  

What Ryker is Currently Obsessed With:

• Cars
  
• Choo Choos
• Copying Everything his Big Sister does
• Learning New Words (and repeating them over and over and over)
  
• Tea Parties (No, really.)
  

Soundtrack to my day

-Mama! Mama!
What?
CAR!
Yep, car.
Mama! MAMA!
What?
Ball!
Yes, that's a ball.
Mama! Mama!
What?!
BOOK!
Yes, Ryker. Book.
MAMA! MAMA!
WHAT?
...CAR!

*sigh*
I love this little booger, but I'm starting to go a little crazy.

Sunnier Days

I am a big fan of rain. I'm loving the weather that we've been getting here the past few days. The kids haven't, so much. I've bundled them up and taken them out to play in the wet, but it doesn't take long before they get cold and whiny, and we head inside for a bath and warm pajamas. last Saturday, though, was a great day for a spur-of-the-moment picnic and a walk to the park.

Ryker spent most of his time running back and forth across the bridge (but every time I tried to take a picture he would stop, and hold very still).

And Anicka spent most of her time on the swing. I spent a little time on the swing, as well. :) (Hello, comfy jeans and worn-out tennis.)




Adam got some really fantastic pictures of the kids in the tunnel:
Seriously. So cute.

it's too bad that vacations can't last forever.

I have been having too much fun the last few weeks to worry about blogging. Adam was able to take a week and a half off of work (with pay!) and we enjoyed every minute of it. Well... the one possible exception might be the day that we spent doing a deep clean of the apartment. Adam might not have enjoyed that quite as much as I did.
Christmas this year was fantastic.
Anicka was old enough that she remembered last Christmas and was excited for this one, and Ryker was old enough that he knew what to do with the presents that he was handed. The kids had a great time decorating the tree




Anicka was determined to wrap all of her gifts herself, this year. The only thing I was allowed to do was hand her precut strips of tape, since she still has a bit of trouble working the tape dispenser on her own.

As per tradition, we spent the night at my parent's house in Leeds. And by 'we', I mean 'everyone in the family', which is starting to become quite a feat. It's hard to sleep twelve people in a tiny, three bedroom house. But, as the saying goes, love grows best in little houses; and it's wonderful (and worth it) to have everyone together on Christmas morning.




I forgot to take pictures of most of the gifts that I made, but here are the pajamas that I made for Anicka: And the CD holder that I made for Evie's new car:

I used this tutorial from Puking Pastilles to make the CD holder.

And, lastly, here is Ryker devouring the first of about half a dozen of my mom's awesome cinnamon rolls that he ate over the course of the weekend.
Since there are already half a million pictures in this post, I will end it here and share more tomorrow.

Adventures in Motherhood - Episode #3

One day last month we went outside to play in the grassy area next to our apartment, and it was such a beautiful day that I couldn't resist snapping a few pictures of the trees... because the leaves were finally starting to turn. That's quite an exciting thing for me. Autumn is my favorite season, and we don't get much of an Autumn here in St. George.


It was such a peaceful, beautiful afternoon. The kids even played together nicely for some time before their game of 'kick the ball' turned in to a game of 'keep the ball away from Ryker'.


At which point I interrupted the game with the suggestion that we go exploring. Ryker decided to lead the expedition.
They were quite exhausted after their mad dash across the lawn, and found a nice stump to rest on. 'Ahh, a photo op!', thought Mom. But Anicka was intent on having her 'favorite stick' with her in the photograph. I was able to get one picture without the stick, where they were both sort of smiling and had both eyes open...

before Ryker decided that enough was enough.

(Mooooom! Ryker's eating diiiiirt!)
And then the children went their seperate ways. Anicka decided to spend the remainder of our time outside in a deep, meaningful conversation with her stuffed dog.


And Ryker decided to try his hand at mountaineering. (Hey. A stump is tough business when you're still trying to figure out the whole walking-with-shoes-on trick.)


Once he had conquered the stump, He moved on to bigger and better things. Namely, the picnic table. His look of satisfaction was pretty darn cute.
As was his indignation when I so rudely removed him from the table. Ah, the heartache.