Just because

I admit defeat, it is just after 9pm on the last day of the year and I am way, way too tired to stay awake and play catch up so here are some pictures of the family spanning from early November to December. The boys are darling, my husband is as handsome as ever, and I am, in fact, pregnant even though the shirt still kinda hides it in the pictures. I am exhausted from the fun and excitement of this past year and pray for a calm, wonderful, and fulfilling year to come. Bring on the new year (and hopefully some resolve to stay on top of documenting our family's fun times)

First Date

Ryan and I watched two darling girls for the evening (back in October) who happen to be the boys' friends from play group and church. Towards the end of the night we sat down to watch a show and Tyler and Isis said they were cold so they shared a blanket. Ryan and I laughed and started our "hands above the blanket" rule early ;) If only all movie nights could be this innocent...oh what we have to look forward to!

Pumpkin Patch and Red Rock with our buddy

So what do you do with three boys, 3 and under who need to do something but there is a sleeping daddy in the house who is working night shift? Go to Red Rock of course! (even though it was freezing and kinda raining). This was back in mid-Ocotber when we watched our buddy Shaylor for the week. Somehow Ryan was stuck working nights and we tried to be out of the house for a few hours a day so he could sleep a little bit. This was one of our adventures- going to the visitor's center at Red Rock and driving the loop.

Just Jacob being silly and loving the chance to be shadow to two "big" boys.

The "big" boys living it up. We even got to see a cool turtle that was out way later in the season than it should have been.

Another adventure that week was going to the pumpkin patch with our play group. We got to do all the rides and stuff for only $5 and the boys ran wild. Well...kinda. Tyler wouldn't do the swings, or much of anything other than the big, blow-up slide in fact. But we all still had fun.

This was probably one of the last sane moments by the petting zoo. Once the goat bleeted (or however you say it) at Jake he absolutely lost it and would not go near the place again. It was so funny! Now Jake knows that is just how a goat talks but I don't know if I've ever seen him flip out so fast!

Waking up Daddy

These are from FOREVER ago...but wanted to remember one of the cute things the boys do. This must have been when Ryan was working nights or had a weekend off or something b/c he is hardly ever asleep later than the boys anymore BUTWhen he used to get to sleep in Jake and Tyler would be so excited to get to go wake him up. Jake would usually go crawl up on the night stand and get right up next to his face and say "daddy! daddy!" as loud as he could. Tyler usually attacks him with tickles or tackles and then we all get to dog pile on him :)

T minus 6 weeks

Not only has it been a fun-filled holiday season, but it has begun the immenent countdown to adding little boy #3 to our family.

Christmas this year was spent at our home with Ryan's mom, dad, brother Kyle and his wife Brinly coming to visit us. We are so lucky that everything worked out to have some family with us to celebrate. Ryan only had two days off work so the extended family made the trek to come to our place- and if you ask any of them it was quite the drive in a packed car to accomodate our wish to have family around for Christmas! Thank you to all 4 of them for making the trip down here. It was wonderful to have a full home. Hope you are crazy enough to do it again sometime :)

I really wanted to keep it low-key as far as presents go and we did better than last year, but it seems like the boys still end up with way too much. We did one, combined gift from Santa, one from mom and dad, one from great-grandma, and one from Granny and Grandpa. That doesn't include the little things in their stockings like a toothbrush and gum that they love just as much.

If you asked Tyler what he wanted for Christmas this year he was consistant at saying, "A kitchen, a drawboard (easel), and more train tracks". Don't know why he stopped at three- but I'm glad because it worked out perfectly. The boys have a fun little kitchen to play in from Santa and so far it has actually worked to keep them out of my real kitchen a little more. And, as it would go, Tyler is playing more with Jake's toys and Jake is playing more with Tyler's.

We tried to teach Tyler more about Christmas really being about Baby Jesus and not just Santa. I think he kind of got it. Hopefully next year it will really sink in.

Speaking of the Christmas spirit, Tyler had the opportunity to go sing at an alzhiemer's home with his preschool class a few Mondays ago. He was all dressed up, so handsome, and then he got there and wouldn't sing a thing! He is so stubborn sometimes. Jake went on up and got a jingle bell to sing and we even had the rare occasion to have Ryan with us to see Tyler. I think Ty sang the last verse of the last song for the sweet old ladies. He perked up a little and helped hand out the cute little ginger bread men that the class made to give out.

Jake has loved all things Santa this year...except the real Santa. He will point out any santa he sees and yell "santa!" (think buddy the elf...it was super cute) and he was so excited the first time we saw Santa at the Bass Pro Shops...until he realized it was actually a real human. I wish there were words to describe the look on his face as we got closer and closer. Jake was still waving and thought it was so cool to see a real santa, until we got up there to talk to him, then Jake looked scared to death and kept telling me "done! done!". Needless to say, no pictures with Santa this year.

On top of the holidays I have been having more and more Doctors appointments to check on our latest and greatest. So far so good. We are still going to meet this little guy about three weeks early (depending on what an amnio says) and they are keeping a close eye on me to make sure that I am not in any danger. It will be a fine balancing act at the end between waiting for the baby to mature and keeping me safe- but I'm pretty sure this baby is huge already and knows he needs to be ready for an early appearance (or at least that's what I tell myself to excuse the excessive weight gain)

And Ryan has had a few appointments of his own. He has been fighting some unknown illness for the past few years and on our third doctor we have finally found out that he has been fighting a staph infection all this time. Thankfully it is fairly easily treated and we are about two weeks into treatment. We are hopeful that the right dose of antibiotics will do the trick this time around and we can be done finding new doctors and figuring out what has had him dragging for so long.

Ryan has also completed course work for his bachelor's degree...finally! We are so proud of him for sticking with it and making school, family, and a full time job look so easy. He finished up around December 10th and now we're just waiting for all the transcripts to be reviewed and transfered to the right school to be "officially" done...but we know we are. Not to mention that Ryan is a total smarty pants with nearly all A's. His degree will be in Business Managment with an emphasis in communications. We can't wait to see an actual BS degree in our hands! It has been a long time coming- but so worth it. Congrats baby!

Life is good, times are hard, and it is wonderful to have eachother. We are grateful for wonderful family offering love and support and two sweet, spunky, independent little boys who challenge us every day. We look forward to a new year of health, energy, and adventure with three boys. We hope this holiday season has found all of our friends and family doing well and enjoying the time together. I look forward to having some time to update with pictures but that would mean that the stars would have to align and I need to catch up big time so maybe next week ;)

Sooo far behind!

I'm still hunting for my camera cord since we've been moving junk around, re-arranging rooms in preparation for the holidays and baby- we'll find it sometime.

We are all doing well around here and enjoying having family around for Thanksgiving and we're looking forward to Christmas being just around the corner.

The boys and I took a quick trip to Sacramento about a month ago and we loved visiting with Granny and Grandpa.

We have switched the boys into the bigger of the two rooms and just put up their bunk beds last night.

With my parents in town for Thanksgiving we got a bunch of things checked off our "honey-do" list and have a few more things hanging on the walls (and ceiling storage in the garage) as well as a new freezer and an awesome "fort" from the freezer box.

The boys are still keeping me on my toes. Jake has a very strong personality and will let you know what he wants.

Tyler is growing up too fast in some ways- but he's still struggling with staying in his bed for the whole night.

I am still pregnant and only have about 9 weeks left at this point. We just had another check up at the Doc today and things are looking good. We are still planning on having baby three weeks early for complication reasons and we'll be having him at a different hospital than Jake. Poor guy is still nameless but he is letting his presence be known with more movements and a bigger belly on mom- that's for sure!

We can't wait to celebrate a low-key Christmas at home and we're trying hard to teach the boys a little bit more of the true meaning of the holiday this year.

Hope all of our far-away-friends are doing great and enjoying this time of year with your friends and family.

Jake's first "at home" haircut

Before...funny face but trying to show off his locks. They were just getting too long over the ears and neck so the fun began... Dad's precision and skill helped ease the pain of course. And Jake did relatively well.

Our handsome little man re-appeared after we shed some hair and he knew he looked good! It is so wierd to see our boys grow up so fast.

Preschool Field Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

Early in October we went to Gilcrease Orchards in Northern Las Vegas to pick our own pumpkin off the vine. We had a blast walking through the farm on the way to the pumpkins and chasing my boys through the big old group of school kids who were there at the same time!

Oh California!

At some point we went to California when Ryan started working nights. The boys had a blast just being there. We did a bunch of nothing and it was perfect. We played at the park, in the pool, and loved hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa Denos.

One of Tyler's favorite things this time was building the marble race track over and over again.

BBQing with "Batchu"! The boys loved cooking breakfast and dinner with Grandpa...and spending any other time that they possibly could with him.

Silly boys!

After church one Sunday the boys enjoyed stomping around the house in my shoes- making as much noise as possible. This only lasted as long as mom and dad could handle the noise, but the boys could have gone on for hours!

Tyler took this picture of Jacob enjoying the booster seat as a big boy. Jake most often enjoys being in the booster at the table with us now. He kinda throws a fit when we try to have him in the high chair....guess he's growing up whether we like it or not.

GREAT day with our play group @ the Children's Museum

It is sad to think how long ago this was- but we had an awesome day at the Lied Children's Museum with our play group. I don't think I've bragged about how awesome the group of ladies is that we get together with every week. Tuesdays we take turns babysitting so we can have a small break from being a mom and on Thursdays we get together and do something fun.

So, here is Tyler fixing cars like at daddy's work. He was so excited to see this part of the pretend land. It was cute to see him emulate his daddy.

They have these awesome bubble stations where you can make huge bubbles. Tyler and his friend, Isis, had a blast blowing the bubble at each other.

Cutie-patootie all dressed up to get to work!

Jake being a little worker bee! He loved running around and he had his little buddy there too, Kai. They are two little blondies.

We carpooled with my friend, Rachel, and her sweet little girls Isis and Elise. Loved being with my friends, having Tyler and Jacob with their friends and having a GREAT time!

Big Brother Moments

From FOREVER ago...

The boys have their moments. Good and bad...er...terrible. Here are just two of the good moments that I have caught on film.
Jacob was sad before naps one day and we couldn't figure out what he wanted, that is, until Tyler asked if Jake wanted for him to rock him. So, here is Tyler rocking Jacob to sleep. And now Tyler asks all the time when he can rock his new baby brother.

Jake will copy everything big brother does, so here the boys are, two peas in a pod jumping on Tyler's bed- complete with George in on the action!

18 months...already!?

Jake turned 1 1/2 a few weeks ago but between procrastination, watching another kid for a week, and a generally hectic schedule, we just got to his 18 month appointment today.

This kid is getting so big! Just the other night Ryan and I were watching him as we did our bedtime routine and Ryan asked, " When did he get so big?!"

Jake is turning into such a strong, independent, (stubborn) wonderful little boy.

He finally put on some weight and some more height. Here are his stats:

33 1/2 inches tall 75-90%
24.7 lbs 25-50%

He deserves a much more complete post, which I'm sure I'll get to someday soon. We only have a month or so to catch up on :)

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Today is Ryan's Birthday! We love having our Halloween birthday around here...almost as much as we love our daddy. Hope today is wonderful :) Love you babe!

You know you've been too busy when....

there are no posts on your blog in almost two weeks.

good news is, we're alive and well

bad news is, this really doesn't constitute catching up at all and this is all I've got time for :)

It's a BOY!

Boy! Boy! Boy!

I am going to be so outnumbered- and I'm sure I'll love every second of it. Hope they can be good buddies and enjoy sharing a room. Wish us luck :)

We had a fun Wednesday around here!

This cute little firefighter finally got his costume in the mail. We have been tracking it on UPS every day since we ordered it. This is the first year that Tyler picked out his own Halloween costume and he is sooo excited! This picture is after bathtime, the second time he put on his costume. I wish I would have had my camera with me when he put it on for the first time. The package came during his nap, so we told him when he woke up that there was something for him downstairs. I don't know if I have ever seen this kid more excited and happy. It was the most genuine, adorable, smile I've seen out of him in quite awhile. So glad he likes it! Now we just have to hope that it lasts until Halloween and he'll take it off a few times between now and then.
Just for the record, Jake is an adorable green monster and, surprisingly, he loves his costume too. He got mad when I tried to take it off the first time! He and daddy have been practicing his green monster noise. I'll have to try to get some video on here again because it is precious!

Earlier in the day we got to play in the car that Ryan brought home. Today was a Chevy SSR. It looks kinda sissy but that thing can haul! This was the second day in a row that Ryan brought home a convertible (without knowing it) Both days he didn't figure out that the top came off until the boys were checking out the car at home. Well, Tyler was still in a pretty good mood and I needed to get Jake down for his nap so we put Tyler's carseat in with daddy and the boys went for a joy ride.

Tyler absolutely loved it and thought it was the coolest thing ever! He got to sit in the front and go fast with daddy. They drove by our church which is being built about a mile away and then over the train tracks- both special things to Tyler. From the looks of it, I don't think daddy minded the joy ride either :)

We'll see what car Ryan brings home today...you never know :) Although I still don't love the hours, at least Carmax has its perks!

What I loved about today

Today I LOVED that my husband was around. He had the day off work since he starts working 2a.m. - 12 noon on Tuesday.

I LOVED that I got to go grocery shopping with Ryan, Jacob and Michael (while we were watching him)

I LOVED that my darling friend dropped of a little surprise- Ginger Ale, which totally did the trick to help calm my tummy. So grateful for thoughtful people in my life.

I LOVED spending the last few minutes of the day with a compliant little Tyler. He has been so trying lately that it was more than needed to have a few, peaceful, blissful moments with my sweet little boy. Now, I just hope that this sweet, wonderful, boy sticks around for tomorrow ;)

I also LOVE that today is over because I am exhausted...and it means that playgroup is that much closer so we have a fun day ahead of us. Tyler is so excited to host this week. He can hardly wait.

Our Final stop in Utah- St. George Temple

The boys were needing a break and we were just coming up on St. George- so we made a stop of it! Tyler loves seeing new temples and Jake enjoyed getting out of the car and walking the temple grounds. I love the stark contrast of this beautiful white temple against the red rock in the background.

August 14, 2010...the wedding

The real reason we went to Utah, Kyle and Brinly's wedding. Jake spent the reception in the sandbox playing and getting his brand new clothes all dirty!

Ryan lookin handsome in his blue and yellow for the evening.

The kids loved playing with the bubbles a little early. They were supposed to be for when Kyle and Brinly left, but the party started early.

Tyler spent the reception playing and having fun with new friends.

This kid loved the sandbox.

Brinly, her mom, mother-in-law, and the bridesmaids. Sarah and I were lucky enough to get to be bridesmaids for the wonderful day. It was a perfect wedding day.

The handsome groomsmen.

Just the ladies.

The siblings outside of the temple. It is so awesome to be there for the beginning of a new family. Welcome to the family Brinly- we love you already!

August Utah trip- visiting an old friend and playing

Well, way back in August we went to Utah for Kyle's wedding. We had a blast staying with Ryan's parents the first two nights we were in town. The boys thought it was awesome staying in a hotel. Tyler slept in the closet on an sleeping bag and Jake was in a porta-crib on the other side of the room. These boys had a blast visiting with family and of course- playing in the beautiful Utah weather. Here is Tyler playing in the mud the night we all got together before the wedding.

Jake had to get in on the action too!

Another highlight of our quick, packed, trip was getting to visit one of Ryan's buddies from his mission. From what I understand they were never companions but they served together for quite a bit of time. We went to Jeff's shop in American Fork where he works on Harleys. The boys were excited to see motorcycles...until we got there. Then they were both scared of the loud noises. We got to go enjoy dinner with the Pope family at their home which was just down the street from the Temple. We had so much fun saying hi to them again for the first time in over five years!