Birthday Dinner

My mom, sisters, and I all went to Pizzeria 712 to celebrate my 29th birthday.  29 seems so old--I'm getting up there in age :)

Most of us hadn't been to Pizzeria 712, but it was featured in the Food Network magazine we recently bought on a whim so we figured it had to be good.

The food on the menu all seemed really fancy--alot more fancy than I'm used to anyway.  They claim that their food is fresh and locally grown, not more than 50 miles from the restaurant. We ordered 3 different pizzas to share and we each got a salad to start.  My salad was delish and I slicked it right up--all but the thick cut bacon :)  It was a little too thick for my liking, LOL.

I didn't get any pictures of the pizzas, but they were all so good!  I was actually shocked that I would like them all so well because I'm a pretty picky eater.  

Of course, we had to get dessert.  I have to say, I wasn't as impressed with the dessert as I was the salad and pizza but they were good--just not fabulous :) 

All of the amazing desserts we sampled.

Dinner was great and we had some really good, intense conversation regarding some recent happenings in our family.  All in all, it was a good night.

Thanks to my mom and awesome sisters for taking me out for my birthday!

Back To School Night with Ryan

Tonight we went to Back to School night for Ryan.  He will be attending preschool at Just Imagine Preschool with Miss Tiffany.  I don't think he really knows what he is getting into, but I'm sure he will love preschool once he gets used to it.

We couldn't bring siblings to the back to school night so Lacy was so kind to take Jake for us.  Lacy lives just down the street from Miss Tiffany.

Miss Tiffany had the kids sit in a circle on her family room floor.  Ryan was a little too shy and would not sit by the other kids.  Miss Tiffany talked to the kids about school and what to expect.  Then she read them a book.  

A funny story that happened...Miss Tiffany asked the kids if they had any friends?  A few of the kids spoke up.  One said he had 3 friends and the next kid said he had 6 friends.  They just kept one upping each other--it was hilarious.  She told all of the kids that they would have 12 new friends at preschool.

After going through the logistics school such as tuition, homework, snacks, etc., Miss Tiffany took the kids to see their classroom and then gave them all a cookie.

I'm excited for Ryan to start this new adventure in life.  He is a really smart kids; he just needs a little work in the social department :)  He's just a bit shy and doesn't like to participate in activities so hopefully he'll get over that a bit by going to preschool.

I didn't take that many pictures at the back to school night.  I didn't want to look like "that mom" that takes a billion pictures even though I am :)

Bag

Jake got some blocks that came in a white bag to store them in for his birthday.  We finally opened them up so we could play with them.  BUT, rather than stack the blocks and build towers, Ryan thought it would be fun to play with the bag.

He looked so funny with the bag on his head.  I was laughing so hard, which made him act even sillier.  

What a turkey!

Dinner with the Girls

Annalisa, Kristy, Lacy, and I all met up at Zupa's tonight for dinner and some girl time.  Julee is living with Annalisa so she came with, too.

We had a good time chatting and eating some good soup!  

Jim isn't a fan of Zupa's so I never get to go there :)

Us after dinner--Lacy, me (it looks like my arm in the background on the poster, ha ha), Annalisa, and Kristy.

Annalisa and Julee

Trip to Levan to Visit Grandpa

My mom is vacationing in Europe with her friend Arlou until the end of the month. She's been gone a week now and I think my padre is a bit lonely. He called yesterday afternoon and invited us down for dinner. We decided to go down and visit with him even though we've just got home from Oak City.

Emilee had made a yummy cheese ribbon meatloaf.  We also had new potatoes with ranch, summer squash, beets, tomatoes, and corn all from my dad's garden.  It was all so good!  I haven't eaten so much in a long time.  Molly, Scott and Kendrick also came for dinner.  Molly made some yummy peanut butter brownies for dessert.  We also brought a peach pie that we bought yesterday at the craft fair in Oak City (Jim's cousin made the pie--the peach filling was home canned, YUM!  And I'm not even a fan of pie.) 

After we got dinner cleaned up and the dishes done, we went outside to play.  Ethan had wore a baseball helmet to the house and Ryan tried it on.  He thought he was pretty cool with the helmet on.

Wearing the helmet backwards--he's such a goober!

Ethan on his bike

Jake being his silly self!

Kendrick is just learning to walk.  He did really well on the uneven sidewalk and grass.

We had to swing and jump on the trampoline.

Jake thought he was pretty tricky and would lean back on the swing like so.  It was making me nervous.  I thought he was going to fall out for sure!  Especially since Jim kept pushing him pretty high while he would do his new trick.

I'm glad we were able to go down and visit my dad.  It was a fun to visit and play with cousins!

Potty Talk

We're totally doing the potty dance at our house tonight, woot woot!! Ryan has the #1 part of potty training down pretty good.  Since Sunday July 31, the day we jumped into potty training Ry, he has only wet his bed twice and had a handful of pee accidents.  BUT, #2 is a whole different story, ugh.  We've had to throw away about 6 pairs of underwear and have some major talks (more like meltdown/freak outs, lol) with Ryan.

Three nights ago, we went for a bike ride and stopped at the park.  Before we left our house we asked Ryan (for the 100th time that day) if he needed to poop.  He assured us that he didn't.  Not 10 minutes after being at the park Ryan we notice Ry is constantly touching the back of his pants and itching his booty.  We instantly know he's crapped his pants.  We had to leave the park and head home (yes, he had to ride in the bike trailer sitting on his poop, ick) so we could get him cleaned up.  We had one of our "talks" about pooping in the potty and not his pants.  I think we scared him enough that he hadn't pooped since that night.

Toinght, we went outside after dinner and were running around in the yard.  Ryan came to me and said he needed to poop.  Even though he has cried wolf before about having to go poop, I take all of his cries seriously.  So, we bolted into the house and went straight to the bathroom.  His Cars potty seat was already on the potty and ready to go.  He said he didn't want the Cars potty seat on; he just wanted to sit on the white potty.  He did a couple of grunts and lo and behold he pooped on the potty!  I was so excited for him--I couldn't believe he actually did it!!  He ran out and got Jim to tell him about his success.

Ryan has been dying to make sugar cookies so he can roll and cut out the dough.  We told him if he would poop on the potty then we would make cookies.  Immediately after he was successful on the potty, he wanted to make sugar cookies.  Mind you, it was 8:45 at night.  We improvised and made a batch of salt dough.  He was happy because he just wanted to roll and cut the dough anyway.  He was so funny though--while we were making the salt dough he was telling us about how easy it was to poop on the potty.  Let's just hope that now that he knows the feeling and how to do it, he'll keep pooping on the potty :)

Playing with salt dough at 9pm!  Jake benefited from Ryan using the potty, too :)

Mashing Daddy

Jim has been home in the mornings since he is taking some leave from work.  The boys love to come in our room in the morning and wrestle and "mash" Jim.

The boys also like Jim to "mash" them.  It's quite funny to watch and the boys LOVE it!  Sometimes they ask me to fight and wrestle with them, too.  I'm not as much fun as Jim though :)

The boys "mashing" Jim

Living Planet Aquarium

Jim has had some time off so we wanted to do something fun with the boys.  We decided to go to the Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy.

We got to the aquarium around 10am and were some of the first there that day.  It was nice that it wasn't so busy.  You could definitely tell we were at an aquarium though--the smell was awful, but we got used to it pretty quick.

The boys had fun walking around and looking at all of the fish, spiders, snakes, and especially the penguins.  

It only took about an hour to go through the whole aquarium.  We walked through and saw everything we wanted to and spent as much time as we wanted in each area.  The only we didn't do were any of the special programs, but that was OK with us.

After we had seen everything, we got the boys a little toy from the gift shop and left.  We went to Noodles & Co. and grabbed a bite to eat then we went home.

Jake riding the big frog and Ryan driving the boat.

Jake was brave and touched the sting rays with Jim's help.  Ryan was being a bit ornery and wouldn't have anything to do with the sting rays.

We had a really fun day at the aquarium.  I think our favorite animals were the penguins.  They were really fun to watch play and swim :)

Ice Cream Cones

Tonight we made ice cream cones after our bike ride.  Yes, we got rained on once again on our bike ride and we had to peddle fast before we got too soaked.

Ice cream cones made it all better :)

{2-9}

Happy 29th Birthday to me today!  I can't believe I'm almost 30, wowza!  I woke up this morning and had to meet my cousin Marci at a gas station in Spanish Fork at 7:45am.  I have a cd that she wanted a copy of; it has a song on it that she wants to use for the drill team's dance this year.

When I got home, I opened up the fridge and found this:

A cute card that the boys had made for me while I was out last night and some yummy cake bites from the Sweet Tooth Fairy, YUM!

It was a pretty low key birthday this year--we just stayed home and hung out.

Impromptu Trip to the Splash Pad

I went to the gym this morning and took the kids to the daycare while I worked out.  We ran to the post office to mail some Wings of Love shirts to a participant and then had to go to Johnny's for some penny candy, of course. 

When we got home around 10:45ish, I had to call USAA to get a quote for new home and auto insurance with them.  It took forever (and I knew it would).  While I was on the phone I got a text from Lacy but didn't read it.  When I was finished on the phone around Noon, I was finally able to read the text.  She was going to take her boys to the splash pad and wanted to know if we wanted to go.  I hadn't showered or done any housework, but the summer is coming to an end and who knows when we'll be able to get there again so I decided we'd go.

I hurried and got the boys in their swimming shorts and put some sunscreen on them and we were out the door.  Jake was not cooperating with me and would not get in the car.  I told him I was going to leave him and he still just stood there.  SO, I got Ryan in his car seat, got in the car, started it, and backed out.  Jake looked a little concerned, but he didn't freak out until I shut the garage door :)  I let the door completely close and even let him scream for a bit before I opened it and told him to come get in the car--mean, I know, and didn't help with me and trying to get on the road any faster.

We stopped at McDonald's for a happy meal and then headed for the splash park.  From McDonald's to the splash park, Ryan fell asleep.  Seriously.  I had to wake him up to get out of the car when we got to the splash park though.  He wasn't too ornery and perked right up when he saw Kam and Krew.

It was pretty hot outside and there isn't any shade at the splash park since it's a pretty new park and the trees are still really small.  We sat and ate our lunch and then got in the water.  It was nice to be able to cool off in the water.

Not sure if Ryan was tired or what, but he decided to sit in the stroller. 

Jake came over to take a break.  He doesn't love the splash park or pool for some reason.  Maybe he'll like them better next year.

L to R: Ryan, Ryan splashing in the splash pad, and Kam.

We only stayed to the splash pad for an hour or so and then we headed for home.  The boys were more interested in the cement steps to the north of the splash pad and weren't really playing so we decided to go home.  In that short hour we were at the splash pad, my shoulders and nose got frizz-ied!  I failed to put sunscreen on myself, but didn't think I would really need it.  I thought wrong.

We had fun at the splash pad and were glad we were able to go.  Thanks for the invite Lacy!

I decided to go to Darise's RIPPED class at the gym that night.  I made myself a protein shake before I went because I was a bit hungry and didn't want to eat something that would give me a side ache.  Jake loves my protein shakes and always takes them over. 

Jake lovin' my banana protein shake, yum!

He wasn't too thrilled when I asked him to give it up hence the "ruffled" eyebrows :)

After the gym, I went to a party at the Buckle with Molly.  One of her drill team girls' mom works there part-time and has a party where the drill girls can come after hours and get outfit ideas and try things on.  It was lots of fun.  I got a couple of cute shirts.  I would've liked to get a pair of pants but thought I shouldn't spend too much money, lol.

We didn't get home until 11pm, but it was fun to go.  I'm glad Molly invited me to go with her :)

Ice Cream Kinda Night

We went to the bank after Jim got home from work today (we were going to go earlier in the day, but we never made it, ugh).  While we were out Ryan wanted to get an ice cream.  We hadn't had dinner yet so we promised to take them out for ice cream if they would eat their dinner.

The boys ate their dinner pretty good so we held up our end of the bargain. We took the boys to Arctic Circle for an ice cream cone.  Against better judgement, I decided to get the boys a small ice cream cone rather than the really small courtesy cone--don't know what I was thinking.  Of course, they got the ice cream all over themselves, more Jake than Ryan :)  Jake had a full on ice cream goatee; his car seat was a mess, too.

Jake thoroughly enjoyed his ice cream :)

Ryan's ice cream mustache wasn't as bad as Jake's goatee.

Earlier in the day, Ryan was putting one of his buckets on his head.  He was determined to get Jake to put the other bucket on his head, too, but Jake was not interested :)  I love the first picture--Jake is pressing his face against the window kind of like he is saying "please help me"!  Too funny :)  Ry looks like such a dork with the bucket on his head.  Jake knows better than to put it on his head--he doesn't want to look like a dork :)

Little Ducky Duddle

Jake sang the Little Ducky Duddle song in the tub tonight.  I sing the song to my boys occasionally, but I had no idea that Jake knew all the words to the little song.  It was too cute and put a huge smile on my face :)  I need to record it the next time he sings it (he won't sing it on demand either, it has to be his idea, or course).  His little raspy voice and how he says some of the words just makes my heart melt :)

41 & 25 Months

Ok, so I know the 41 months thing for Ryan is probably getting a little out of control, but this month is a bit monumental  for him and I feel like I should update what he is doing :)

Ryan at 41 Months:

• Is in the process of being potty trained!  Woot, woot!!  He's had a few accidents during the day (each day we have fewer and fewer) and we haven't been able to get him to go #2 on the potty yet, but he is out of diapers and that is progress in my opinion :)  He thinks its pretty cool to "wipe" his booty after he goes potty, too.
• can jump off the side of things.  He's been able to jump for a while now.  BUT, what I mean is, he can jump off the side of the pool without being afraid and hesitating.  Or, he'll jump off of the last stair and it is a full on jump.  I hope that makes sense :)

Jake at 25 Months:

• is having issues going to bed at night.  The last 3-4 nights he refuses to go to bed and screams his guts out.  He hasn't been to bed before 11pm those nights either.  Its starting to wear on us.  I'm not sure what to do with him?  We may need to move him to a big boy bed and have him share a room with Ryan--I don't know??
• is a little parrot!  He will mimic anything and everything that Ryan says or does.  Sometimes its funny, but when Ryan is whining and/or being naughty and Jake "parrots" that, it can be frustrating.

Molly had a workshop she had to go to and Scott had to work early this morning, so we watched Kendrick for the day.  The boys had a good time playing with him

Kendrick thinks he's just as big as Ryan and Jake.  He keeps up with them pretty good for the most part.  They got into my closet and made a bit of a mess.  Ry looks good in high heels, don't ya think :)

Kendrick just started walking a few days ago.  Like I said, he does really well keeping up with Ryan and Jake.  He'll be running in no time.

Jake wearing my monstrous looking gym shoes, LOL!  He was even trying to run in them which was even more comical.

Ryan using the potty on his awesome Cars potty seat.  I know, I probably shouldn't post pictures like this, but he looks like such a big boy on the potty :)

Happy August

It's August!  Where did the summer go??

I know what's coming so I better enjoy the warm summer days while I can :)

The picture of Jim and I was in Hawaii last year doing our "duck" faces.  And the picture of the boys is from our family pictures last August.  They are growing up!