My Big Boy

Ryan is getting so strong. When I go get him from his naps, I can usually find him like this:

He's able to pull himself up and stand in his crib. We definately need to lower his crib today. Hopefully he doesn't turn into a beaver and start biting on his crib.
I love this picture. I caught him mid laugh/squeal. Jim thought he was crying when I showed him the picture. Nope, just really happy :)

Playing with his crib toy

Ryan can also pull himself up on the couch, the coffee table, and anything else he can get ahold of. He'll even take little steps to go between the couch and coffee table. He will try and stand on his own, too. It won't be long before he's walking.

In the morning, I sit Ryan on the floor while I make my bed. To keep him busy I give him a pack of pens that I have in my room. After I'm done, I'll go sit down and play with him. He can be playing with another toy, and if I start to clean up the pens he'll immediately go back to the pens. It's pretty funny. I pick up these pens about 100 times a day.

The pens actually keep him pretty entertained for about 10 minutes or so. It'll be a sad day when he can figure out how to get the pen lids off and writes all over everything.

Go Utes!!

I'm better at rubbing it in than taking it--so thank goodness the Utes won tonight!! Jim is a BYU fan so I had to give him crap. He kept telling me that BYU could pull off a win in the last seconds (this was in the 3rd quarter when he was telling me this). He soon changed his tune when the Utes pulled way ahead, and the Cougs couldn't keep ahold of the ball.

I went shopping with my mom today in Provo. We had Ryan wear his Utah Utes shirt and his Utes blanket, of course. We got a lot of dirty looks and a few compliments. I just wore red--the only Utes shirt I have is a sweatshirt and I didn't want to wear that shopping. I need to get me a Utes shirt. Charlie started early with the taunting. He sent us a text message while we were shopping with the Cougs fight song, blah. He's the only Cougar fan in my family besides Jim. I texted him after the game but he didn't respond, weird :)

I had to take some pictures of Ryan with his Utes shirt on. He looked so cute. Jim is sure he will like BYU when he has his own choice. He's a pretty big mama's boy so I think I can get him to stick with me (and all of his cousins, haha).

Jim, Jerry, Richard, Crandall, and Crandall's friend Phil all went to the Gun Show in Sandy today. Richard hung out at our house afterwards because he had a date later in the evening :) Ryan would stare at Richard--he wasn't quite sure what to think of him. But he liked playing with Uncle Rich.

This picture is loading the wrong way for some reason. I have it the correct way on my computer. Anyway, I just had to show Ryan's cute Utes blankie that Grandma Mangelson made him. It is red with black polka dots on the other side. We just got fabric yesterday to make one for baby Ethan. Madeline will be so happy.

Dum Dums = Happy Babies

Ryan and I went grocery shopping this afternoon. While we were checking out, the bagger--that was about 75 years old, not kidding--asked if Ryan was old enough to have a sucker. I told the guy I wasn't sure--he's never had one. So the nice, old guy got Ryan a Dum Dum sucker anyway.

At first I just gave Ryan the sucker with the wrapper on to keep him busy. But the wrapper started to become a nuisance and I thought he was going to choke on it so I took the wrapper off. Ryan was in hog heaven. He thought it was the best thing ever--he was slurping, sucking, and drooling. It was pretty funny. Of course I take my camera with me every where so I got some pictures:

Ryan with his first sucker

Enjoying his sucker...

Drooling and making EvERyThInG sticky!

Apparently eating a sucker is very tiring...he fell asleep on the car ride from the grocery store to our house, which is only about 4 minutes :)

I just carried Ryan up to his crib for his afternoon nap. I took his jacket off and tried to get a bit of the stickiness off of his hands before I put him down but I wasn't very successful. When he woke up and put his hand on my shoulder, his hand stuck to my hair. He was a sticky mess. Oh well, he loved his first sucker.

Dinner with Jerry & Michelle

On Sunday November 16th, we went to Jerry (Jim's brother) & Michelle's house for dinner. They had a turkey they wanted to cook and needed people to share it with. I hadn't been to their house since the night before Jim left for Iraq. So, it'd been a while...

We ate turkey, mashed potatoes & gravy, green salad, green beans, and homemade bread that Jerry made. It was very good!

We were in charge of bringing dessert. Jim wanted to make an apple pie. I was behind on house work from being sick and just plain lazy so I wanted to clean the kitchen and the bathrooms. SO, Jim made the apple pie. Something went wrong with the crust--it was a little dry. It tasted okay though. He called it "Frankenpie"--unfortunately I didn't get any pictures. I thought this was his first pie, but it is actually the third he's made :) I was impressed. We took ice cream and rootbeer, just in case the pie didn't taste very good.

Will, Jerry & Michelle's son, was very good to share his toys with Ryan and keep him entertained. Will brought out this castle and Ryan loved it. I asked if we could take it home (teasing), but Will wasn't willing to part with the castle (even though his Dad reminded him that he never plays with it). Will is probably one of the smartest kids I know. One of the first times I went to their house with Jim, Will asked if I would say the pray for dinner. I was really shy and didn't dare. Will looked at me and said, "I'll whisper what you need to say in your ear if you want me to." My face went 10 shades of red. I was way embarassed. Here is this 4 year old that is going to help me with the prayer. I'll never forget that. He would also send Jim emails while he was in Iraq. I should post one--they are hilarious. Anyway, we had a good time. I'm glad they invited us up.

Ryan & Will playing with the castle

We didn't leave until 8:40pm--way past Ryan's bed time. He actually didn't get too ornery until I tried to change his diaper before we left. He was having too good of a good time playing with all of Will's way cool toys. Ryan fell asleep on the way home--he even stayed asleep so I was able to just carry him up to his crib and he slept for the night. He slept in his clothes, but they were comfy clothes so I was ok with it.

We'll have to have Jerry, Michelle, and Will down to our house for dinner next time. I'm not sure if we can keep Will entertained long enough though--we don't have that cool of toys :)

Christmas Shopping with Grandma

On Saturday, November 15th, Grandma Mangelson came up and we did a little Christmas shopping. Jim was taking the HAM radio course, and I didn't want to just sit home all day so I asked my mom to come up and we'd do a little Christmas shopping.

She came up around noon and we went to Toys R Us. Holy mad house! Why do parents take their kids to pick out what they want?? They are just setting themselves up for a tantrum to be thrown. I bet 85% of the kids in that place were bawling. Ryan was wondering what in the hell was going on. My mom was holding Ryan and showing him different toys. He is scared to death of Elmo. My mom would try to hold Ryan close to Elmo and Ryan would pull back and try to get as far away as possible. It was funny. She also showed him this Arfing Dog. He was pretty into the dog so she said he had to have it. It squeaks more than it arfs, but he likes it either way.

Jim showing Ryan the Arfing dog :)

Ryan really likes his new dog. He laughs everytime it arfs. We don't have many toys yet so this will be a good addition :)

I told Ryan he needed to act surprised on Christmas since he was with me while I got all of his toys for Christmas. Hopefully he likes what he's getting--he'll probably like the boxes better. Isn't that how it usually goes :)

And He's Off...

Ryan finally started to crawl today. He's been scooting and all sorts of other maneuvers to get where and what he wants. But tonight he finally did the arm/leg actual crawl. Of course, I missed it. I had just went into the bathroom and Jim was playing with Ryan on the floor in our bedroom. The second after I went in there, Jim yells he just crawled. I couldn't believe it. I'm with him all day, every day, and I missed the first time he actually crawled. That's Murphy's Law though, ins't it.

He isn't great at crawling yet--he still needs to perfect it, but at least I know he can do it. He's been pulling himself up and trying to stand lately. So, I was beginning to think he was just going to be one of those kids that just skips crawling and just walks. I had actually just said that to Jim while we were having dinner. Ryan must have been listening and had to show me he could do it :) I guess I'm going to have to move my plants and other decor somewhere where he can't get to it.

UPDATE:

I didn't post this because I was going to try and get some pictures or even a video of Ryan crawling before I posted. Well, when we woke up on Sunday and were playing, we tried to get Ryan to crawl to get some pics/video and he wouldn't and hasn't since. It was a fluke--he was just teasing us and doesn't really crawl yet. So, until he decides to crawl again...

Grandma Guin

Grandma Guin is going in for surgery tomorrow. She is having her left knee replaced--she had the right one done July 7th and now it's time for the next. It's taken from July until now to get her recoverd, and I'm not sure if she's actually fully recovered. Guin's a little anxious for the surgery because she knows what she's in for :(

Here are a couple pics from the first knee replacement:

This picture gives me the heebie jeebies. It looks painful so you know it is.

We just want to wish Grandma Guin good luck tomorrow. We Yyou!

Another visit to Grandma & Grandpa Mangelson's

Ryan & I went to Levan today. Jim had drill again today and wouldn't be home until 6pm or so. Instead of sitting home all day (hmm like I usually do, haha) I decided we'd come and visit my parents.

Before my mom left last night, she said I should try to come down by 10:30am so I could go to church with them. I thought that would never happen. But, Ryan decided to get up at 6:45am this morning, and after changing and feeding him it was almost 7:30am so I just decided to keep him up. I got him breakfast, bathed him, and folded a little laundry. By that time he was ready for his first nap. While he napped I showered and got ready. He woke up a little before 10am, which was perfect and gave us just the right amount of time to make it to Levan for church.

I'm not sure why it was a big deal to go to church. I pretty much wrestled with Ryan the whole time. The last 15 minutes felt like 9 hours. You don't realize how loud your kid(s) are until you're in church and everything is quiet. My mom & dad's ward is an older ward--there are not a lot of kids--so Ryan and his noises definately stood out :) It was fun though. I'm glad things worked out and we were able to make it.

We stayed for lunch and hung out for a few hours. Ryan started to get tired around 5pm so I thought that would be a good time to leave so he would sleep on the way home.

I took this picture at church and my mom was really mad, if you can't tell. I guess you're not supposed to take pictures in the chapel. I broke the rules :)

Grandpa & Grandma Mangelson and Ryan in a more appropriate picture taking setting

Me & Ryan

This is Ryan's toy that we just haven't taken up to our house yet. He loves playing with it. It's probably best we keep a toy at Grandma's so he has something to play with when we go there. All the grandkids love playing with it.

Ryan is so close to crawling. If he really wants something, like my laptop, he'll manage to get to it.

We're glad Grandma & Grandpa Mangelson aren't sick of us so we can go visit them when Jim has drill or just when we want to visit :)

Congrats & Good Luck Donna

A good friend of my family's is getting married and moving to Oklahoma. She lived with my sister Molly for a long time and has always been good to support our family at weddings and family parties, etc.

My mom and I went to Salt Lake to congratulate her on her upcoming marriage and wish her well on her move to Oklahoma.

My mom with Ryan, Donna, and me

Donna, Cheri, and Alex
Cheri is also a good friend of Molly's that our family has got to know. Alex is Cheri's daughter.

Donna and Cheri

I would have got a picture of the two with Molly, but Molly worked the concessions at the BYU game with her drill team and was stuck in traffic. We didn't stay long enough to see Molly at the shower.

We walked into the party and my mom recognized these people. Ron is in Donna's single's ward bishopric and grew up in Nephi. Kaye also grew up in Nephi and is a sister to Pam Jackman from Levan. Pam used to babysit me when I was little. It's a small world.

After the bridal shower, we went to Cafe Rio to grab something to eat. Ryan fell asleep on the way home. I just had to take a picture of him--I thought he looked so cute :)

Congratulations Donna! Hopefully you come back to Utah soon :)

Sick!

I came down with the gungboo on Wednesday night. I was fine all day; went about my normal business. We made dinner--hamburger soup. Carolyn Royce made this soup for me last December when I had my gallbladder out. It was really good. I'm not sure why we haven't made it since then. I'm really not sure what made me remember the soup and want to make it?? Anyway, Carolyn happens to be on a cruise to Barbados (lucky) so I got the recipe from her twin sister, Marilyn--well, I was too shy and had my mom call Marilyn for the recipe. We used potatoes, carrots, and onions from my dad's garden. We also used a jar of tomatoes that we canned this fall. I only took pictures of the soup because it was the first time I've ever made soup from scratch...

Jim enjoying dinner

Even Ryan liked the soup. We put a scoop or two in the blender and puree it, since he doesn't have any teeth yet. Doesn't look too appetizing, but he eats it like a champ.

We also made banana bread Wednesday night. My mom had some way ripe bananas at her house when I was there on Tuesday. I knew she wasn't going to eat them so she let me take them. I used to make banana bread for Jim while he was deployed and mail it to him. I would make it in the afternoons and give it just enough time to cool before I'd wrap it up to mail. Then, my mom and I would take it over to the Post Office right before 6pm when the mail truck came. It paid to have an "in" at the PO :) It took about 8-10 days to get to him, and it actually made it before getting gross and old. He loved it...

Around 9:30pm that night I started to get a stomachache. I finally threw up around 10:30pm and did so about every hour after that until 8am the next morning. I also had some other issues that involved the bathroom...but I don't need to go into detail. Anyway, I was so thirsty. But even when I would drink water I'd throw it back up. It was terrible. Luckily, Jim was able to stay home and help me with Ryan. Jim had to go into work to get a few things done and even took Ryan with him to the office :) I thought he'd only be 30 minutes or so, but Ryan was really good so he stayed for about 3 hours.

I started feeling slightly better Thursday night, and I felt even better Friday morning. I'm still a little queasy and weak. I get tuckered out really easily, too. Oh, and it's hard for me to eat. The sight of food still makes me want to throw up. I'm sure I'll get over that soon though :)

Since I was feeling a bit better today, I decided to ride up to Draper with Jim and Ryan. Jim is taking a HAM radio class next Saturday with his brother Jerry, and Jerry had a manual for Jim to study so we went to Draper to get it. I'd never heard of a HAM radio until Jerry asked Jim if he wanted to take the class. It's a class to get a license from the FCC to operate a short wave radio.

We ran a couple errands while we were out. Ryan was a little tired on the way home. I snapped this picture of him sleeping with his mouth open. I also sleep with my mouth open...he'll probably start drooling just like I do, too :)

Jim saw this contraption at TJ Maxx a while ago that cooks whole chickens and what not. We went back to browse a few weeks later and it was still there so he just had to have it. He finally tried it out tonight... the chicken turned out pretty good. But, just before we sat down to eat, Jim said to me, "It kind of looks like Widget begging." Widget is my father-in-laws dog that sits on her butt and begs. The chicken wasn't so appetizing to me any more.

Can you see the resemblence to the chicken?? haha

Jim has his monthly drill this weekend--hopefully I feel even better tomorrow since I have to take care of Ryan by myself :)

Signs of Winter, ughh

We woke up this morning to a freezing, cold blanket of snow covering everything. I don't think I'm ready for Winter yet...

It was too cold to actually go outside to take a picture. Here is a pic from the front door.

And a picture from the north kitchen window

I'm not a big fan of the snow if you can't tell. It's cold, terrible to drive in, and just plain miserable.

Baby Ethan's Blessing

Emilee, my sister, and Joseph blessed baby Ethan this past Sunday. Joseph did a great job blessing Ethan, and Ethan was such a good baby during his blessing. He didn't make a peep. After the church meeting, we went to Em & Joe's house for a luncheon. We had some really good food and a great time visiting with everyone.

P.S. I forgot to take my camera to Ethan's blessing--can you believe it. We had to be to Em & Joe's by 9am, which meant we had to leave by 7:45am. We had just left our house and were going up the street when I realized I hadn't grabbed it. Unfortunately, we had left 10 minutes after we were supposed to so we didn't think we had time to go back and grab it. The pictures I posted are courtesy of Annalisa and my mom. I'm glad they had their cameras with them.

Joseph with baby Ethan

The proud parents, Joseph & Emilee

Emilee with Great Grandma J holding baby Ethan

Emilee with Grandma Sandra holding baby Ethan

Look at Ethan's cute little mug. I think he looks alot like Joseph.

Starting to get mad...

Baby Ethan--finally got to change into some comfy clothes.

Me & Annalisa giving Julee lessons on blogging

Me & Ryan

Caleb, Jon (Joseph's brother) and Jessica's little boy, is 6 days older than Ryan. They've seen each other before, but they've never really interacted. We sat them down by each other and it was so cute. They touched each others face--more like tried to claw each others eyes out :) and talked to each other. It was funny. I kept asking Caleb to show Ryan how to crawl but it wasn't working out so red hot.

The meeting

Caleb & Ryan having a conversation

I can't wait to see them interact more when they get a little older.