On the road again...

We are posting from good old Mission Viejo this morning. The weather was, well, just like Las Vegas yesterday. It was about 105 when we got here BUT it actually cools off at night! Miracle of miracles.

Let's catch all you bloggers up on the rest of the weekend. Ryan's new work schedule keeps him busy until 2pm on Saturdays now- blah! When Ry got home we met with our new realtor and got the home search re-started. After that lovely encounter it was time for a nap, and some spontaneous thinking on dad's part. We called up Michael and Jenna to see if a young, hip, couple like them would want to meet up with some old fuddy-duddys like us for dinner at fantastic Cafe Rio (yes, that makes three weekends in a row that we have dined at that fine restaurant). We got to see the happy couple, visit, and go swimming in their pool after!

Tyler loved the pool and made sure to wave to the other people around. We love having cousins so close that we can meet up and have fun with. Tyler loves Jenna and is already growing quite fond of baby Abigail (only 85 days til we meet her).

Sunday we tried to do Tyler's hair to show of his new 'do. It kinda worked. We were mostly just messing around with it all day and it ended up being flat anyway. But he is adorable and had a blast playing with everyone around us at church. We had the Waites and the Blackwells over for yummy family dinner that evening and then we got all packed up to come here.
Monday morning before we left Tyler wanted to spend all morning with his dad. He was so sad to leave him that Tyler fell fast asleep in Ryan's lap! It was so cute. Tyler hasn't been able to sit still enough in ages to fall asleep while being held. Ty and I miss daddy- but California is beautiful so far. More fun to come and more pictures to follow!

The First Haircut!!

It is a big moment in any mother's life...the first haircut for my little boy. Thankfully, my sister's sister-in-law (resident hair cutter extraordinaire) Emily, happened to be staying the night last night and graciously agreed to do the damage for me so that I wouldn't freak out or pay some yahoo dressed up in a funny outfit to cut Tyler's hair while he was screaming in an airplane hair cutter's chair!

The experience was quiet pleasant. Tyler couldn't take his eyes off of the beautiful woman cutting his hair (or he was just trying to figure out what was going on) He sat fairly still, let out a few giggles, some smiles, enjoyed a bit of a granola bar, and voila- haircut over!

He is so handsome- but so grown-up looking. I am so glad that I didn't have to try to do it on my own, but part of me misses my little boy already. I guess they have to grow up eventually.

BEFORE

DURING

(note the little goatee...a little hair transplant ;) )

AFTER

Fun at the Water Park

Grandma Denos is in town for Taylor's graduation from UNLV Law School. We got to steal her away for the afternoon. Tyler, Grandma and I headed over to the local water park...without thinking we'd actually get into the water part of things since it was windy...but also 87 degrees. Tyler won out- soaking wet fun it is!
An hour and a half, some PB &J, and a few snot-filled tissues later, we stripped the little boy down and made our way home.

Eleven Months Old

Another month has passed already. It is both exciting to see Tyler grow up and sad to watch your little boy disappear. But- he has been a blast lately. Here are some of his latest and greatest...

• six teeth are completely in and showing!
• he likes to point to what he wants
• laughs at animals and people on TV
• goes down for naps soo easily
• sleeps through the night...FINALLY
• "reads" his books in the car
• turns his light switch on and off to let you know he's awake
• really enjoys his crib & his room
• almost walking
• can open more cupboards, drawers, doors, etc.
• drinks from a sippy cup
• still prefers anything on mom & dad's plate over his own (even though it's the same thing)
• he is really good at waving good-bye to daddy every day
• closes the garage door for us when we get home :)
• has been walking every day(with mom & her friend) for nearly two months now & has many girlfriends at the local rec. center!

We sure do love this little boy. There aren't words to describe how much this little one has changed our lives. We are trying to decide what to do for his party since it will be over 100 by that time...but we are definitely looking forward to celebrating the big O.N.E. in just four short weeks!

Pictures n Such

We have a beautiful...well, at least in Nevada it's considered beautiful, Palo Verde tree in our front yard. This tree is usually bare and kinda creepy looking but just a week or two ago the whole thing went up in blooms like this. Pretty huh?! One colorful, beautiful thing to look at definitely made my day :)

Just a little picture of our not so little guy. He really has become my favorite part of every day. He is so loving and cuddly and wonderful! We'll give you the fun update on his 11 month birthday...a few days away!

Also, I am working on the whole mother's day thing...not that I'm crafty, but this is about as crafty as I get. Ryan even told me a did a good job. Unfortunately I didn't think to take pictures of the other three cards I made before I sent them out. I love doing something with my hands every now and then. I know this card is pretty basic- but that's about the extent of my talent so far! {for a good laugh, note the date stamp...ya, I'm a little late. This card only has to make it to Hawaii in a day...better late than never huh?}

What we've been up to

Well, we've been MIA for a bit because the vast majority of my time has been spent looking at homes, researching loans, picking a lender, and making other mind-bending decisions. Ryan is always looking for homes, but with the market how it is, we actually started "looking". We found a repo in a nice part of town that doesn't look too bad and now we're just deciding what exactly we'd like to do about it. We found out that we are approved for our loan and all...it really is up to us what the next step is.

Exciting, scary, inconvenient, wonderful, and crazy pretty much sums up our last few weeks. This may end up being nothing, but we might end up putting an offer. We should have made up our minds in the next week or so. The only thing holding us back is that there might be some electrical problems...and those aren't cheap or easy to fix.

That is what is keeping us from blogging lately. Most likely it will keep me from blogging for about another week too- but if we do anything crazy or exciting I'm sure it will be posted eventually ;) Hope everything is going well with the world of bloggers out there!

A Trip Down Memory Lane

This post was prompted by a question from my Freshman roomie who I found again after almost 7 years. So, thanks to Margaret, for those of you who may find this fantastic little blog and wonder what the heck happened to get me to this point, well, HERE IT IS...

In the beginning...
I was an RA at BYU for two years. That means I lived in the same building for three of my four years of college. Good ol' Hinckley Hall. I was studying Exercise Science, Business, and Gerontology. I picked up some mission papers my Junior summer at home and started the process of filling them out. The Lord most definitely had another plan for me. I'm kinda stubborn so it had to be pretty obvious. I got sick...auto-immune sick. This was a somewhat scary time, but also one of the best of my life. I had direction, dedication, and a whole lotta faith.
Senior year, I lived off campus in a cute little house. I went up to school a week early to be a Y-Group leader. Someone from the ward knocked on the door of my house and invited me to a BBQ that afternoon. I went, and that is the very first time I met my future husband. At that time, it was more like, "They guy BBQing is Ryan, he does activities". My response, "oh. ok. I've got to go now". Little did I know...
I was called to be munch and mingle co-chair, which meant weekly meetings with Ryan and a good excuse to give him my number. I couldn't make the meetings because of a job, but I still made it to ward prayer and church so I had plenty of reasons to talk to Ryan. A few weeks passed, I continued to prepare for a mission, continued to date a previous boyfriend and then... IT ALL CHANGED.
There was one weekend, a fateful weekend. Ryan went to California to help his parents move, the other boy left town with a friend to New Mexico. Well, one called every day and one didn't. I finally saw the light. After breaking up with Boy A for the umpteenth and final time, Ryan and I gave it a go. And after three weeks of exclusive dating the "m" word came up. Ryan's story is much better than mine. He says he knew he was going to marry me after the first night we hung out. My "m" word was still "mission" because I am oblivious ;) we can all guess what Ryan's "m" word was. Well, it was a Thursday night. We went to get shakes for my roommates. Ryan started talking about where "we" could live, where would be better, San Diego or... After shakes and Shrek II, Ryan went from saying "IF" to "WHEN". Next thing I know we're planning a wedding! We had a blast calling our parents and freaking them out. No one was expecting a wedding. Ryan officially asked me to marry him on December 8, 2004...finals week. I recieved a special visitor when I was walking in from a long day at school, drenched! Pretty sure I had to get up for work around 3am that day too...then school, wet, icky. Ryan was waiting for me to have lunch before he left for work. He says, "Why don't you put your stuff down in your room?". I just wanted to eat lunch- but after some convincing I made it into my room and there was a cute little basket on my bed. In the cutest scrapbook-y type note a guy could ever do there were instructions for my "Finals survival kit". Ryan had put together a bunch of my favorite things to help me get through the week. I had some candy, a good movie, an adorable oil lamp, and some ring cleaner...whatever for, I didn't have a ring...yet. Ryan got down on his knee in my room, right there and pulled the ring box out of a pair of my shoes...tricky boy! He popped the question and of course I said yes. The wedding took place in beautiful San Diego in the LDS temple on February 26, 2005 and my forever finally started. We lived in Provo until I graduated then packed up ( we were actually packed before graduation) and headed to Cali. We lived with my parents a bit in Mission Viejo, at my grandparents a bit while they were on a mission (also in Mission Viejo), back with my parents and now, Henderson, NV.
I have worked as a personal trainer, a daycare manager, and an exercise technician at Mission Regional Medical Center. We vacationed to Cancun, Shaver Lake, Ensenada Mexico, and some other fun joints. Ryan has worked as a night security guard at Coto de Caza golf course, an office manager, doing cabinetry finish work, handy man, painter, auto-detailer, and some other odds jobs. Ryan went back to school for real after we were married. He had run his own company in Utah and now it was his turn to do school. He was an amazing student and finished his associates in about 18months...just in time for our first little one.

Tyler Ryan Crooks joined us on June 13, 2007. He is amazing and is the light of our life...and he is waking up now. That is the beginning to our happily ever after...and it definitely is a fairy tale. We are now in Henderson for Ryan's job which he is doing great in. He is a Senior Loan Service Counselor for Wachovia. He works too much and too hard, but we love him to death! Try not to be too jealous and I might even add other installments or fun details if I can remember them. Love to all!