Ryan and Jake Update

It's been a long time since I've done an update on Ryan and Jake so I thought I'd write down a few things to remember.

Ryan:

• is so helpful. He is a pretty good listener, too.  If we ask him to do something, he will most likely do it.  Jake on the other hand...
• loves to do arts and crafts.  If I would let him do one or two a day, he would be in heaven.
• loves to ride his bike and play outside.  
• is Jim's side kick.  He is always wanting to help Jim build whatever he is building, help cook dinner, fix whatever Jim is fixing, help shovel snow, etc.

Jake:

• is finally potty trained.  He goes pee and poo on the potty although he still has an occasional accident (we haven't had one for a few weeks so we may be out of the woods--keeping my fingers crossed!).  I still have to watch him when he is peeing so he doesn't pee all over the place (or I just remind him before he goes potty). 
• thinks he is a super hero--superman, batman, thor, the hulk, a power ranger.  He is pretty obsessed with saving the world :)
• knows how to press my buttons!  How do they learn how to talk back? He also will repeat what I say.  For example:

Me: Jake go clean up your toys.  

Jake: Jake go clean up your toys.  

Me: Not funny, now go clean up your toys.  

Jake: Not funny, now go clean up your toys.  

It gets really old, really fast.  It even drives Ryan crazy.

• is my social child.  He has no problem going up to a group of kids and joining in on their play.

Exercise

I bought the Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred DVD at Target last night along with some 5 and 8 pound weights. My boys were so excited to exercise.

We went to the gym again this morning (Alex slept the whole night again from 9:45-6:45a in the bassinet. He was good at daycare, too). When we got home Ryan and Jake wanted to watch the exercise movie. I wanted to see what it was like, too, so Jake put it in.

Jillian started out with a warm-up. Ryan and Jake immediately started following along. Jillian did the windmill with her arms and Ryan followed suit. He said, " I can go faster than that ladies!" I nearly died laughing.

Then Jillian started doing jumping jacks. Jake started doing them soon after. He said, "I've got skills huh mom!" Too funny! The problem was he was doing jumping jacks like those Iraqis in the training video. It's on YouTube. Go watch the link; it's hilarious.

Ryan aka Iron Man doing the windmill and Jake aka Captain America doing jumping jacks in his mask and all :)

Ryan warming up

Doing weights.

They kept up with Jillian pretty good, but were pooped after about 2 minutes and were ready for some "energy" aka Crystal Light energy drink, lol. After they got their energy, they did some more weights and push ups and they were done.

It was so darn funny watching them "exercise". I hope by going to the gym they understand how important it is to be stay active and eat healthy food. I need to be better about feeding them healthy goods. I try, but sometimes it's just easier to make them mac n' cheese or chicken nuggets. I try to give them fruits and veggies with those things so it's all good, right :)

We're On a Roll!

Alex slept the whole night through again, and in the bassinet!  Maybe we were waking him up in the night, who knows?? But I'm totally digging getting a full nights sleep.

Silly Day at Preschool

Today was silly day at preschool.

I remembered this morning and then promptly forgot, ugh.

Ryan remembered as we were just getting ready to walk out the door for preschool.  He picked his shirt out--I told him it was cold outside, but he didn't care so short sleeves it was.  And we stuck some gloves on him.  That's all we could come up with last minute.  I guess the snow boots are pretty silly, but they are a normal everyday thing at our house :) 

When It's Raining Outside...

It's a cold, rainy day so we decided to do a little crafting.  I bought these wood letters at Remember Your Memories in Nephi while we were staying with my parents.  We were going to paint them while we were staying in Levan and never got around to it.  They've been sitting in the bag, on my counter, ever since we've been home.  I was just about to stick the bag in the closet, and then it started to rain today.  SO, they became our project today.

Ryan picked green to paint his letter R. 

Jake picked blue to paint his letter J.

The boys had a blast painting their letters.  The only issues we ran into to were: they wanted to paint the entire letter in one sitting.  They didn't realize they needed paint one side and then let it dry.  This was a hard concept for them.  The other issue was, they kept touching the wet, painted side so their hands were colored by the time they were done. Oh well.  They had fun painting and it gave us something different to do today.

Another major thing happened today.  Alex slept the entire night and in the bassinet!!  We put him down around 10:30p and he slept until 6a!  Things are starting to look up :)

Jim also went into work late today so I could go to the gym at 9a.  I love cardio kick boxing and haven't been able to go for so long (I actually was able to go last Monday, but you get what I mean, ha ha).  He was nice to stay home with Alex so I could go to class.  The boys came to the gym with me since they love going and playing with the kids and doing crafts, etc.

Alex slept the whole night and I was able to get my workout done in the morning.  It was a pretty darn good day :)

Sleepy Captain America

Jake aka Captain America was a little tired today. 

I found him fast asleep on the couch like this :)

The Crood's

Jake has been doing really well with using the potty so we decided to reward him and take the family to a movie.  We haven't really done anything super fun lately either so it was a good excuse :)

I took the boys with me to the gym this morning.  They love going to play in the daycare while I work out. .  It's a win-win.  I get to work on losing my gut, and the boys get to get out of the house and play with other kids.  

After the gym, we came home.  While the boys played outside (the weather has been so nice the last couple of days) while I hurried to shower, get ready, and feed Alex.

We originally were going to go to the 12:30p showing.  But, we had to feed the boys lunch before we went (so we could get popcorn and treats at the movie, haha) so we ended up going to the 1:40p showing.  We still left the house a little early so I could do a return at GAP.  I bought some shoes online for my boys--one pair was way too small, and the other pair was way too big, ugh.

I brought Ryan and Jake into the GAP with me so we could try on other pairs of shoes.  The boys were not cooperating so I said forget it.  I did find a couple of shirts for me on sale that I decided to purchase.  Of course I got in the check out line that was taking forever.  Then the lady right in front of me insisted on finding a gift card or something in her purse that took forever.  It was so bad Ryan even said, "What's taking so long lady?!?"  I had to cover his mouth, but he said exactly what I was thinking :)  Jake had found a Captain America shirt that he wanted.  He is way into super heroes these days.  Well, the shirt wasn't on sale and it was $25 so I wouldn't buy it.  Jake threw a fit and bawled the whole way to the car.  We left the GAP at 1:35p and the movie started at 1:40p.  Thank goodness it's a matinee so the theatre shouldn't be packed.

Jake was still bawling about the super hero shirt when we got to the theatre.  We got our tickets purchased and got inside.  Jake was still bawling and said he just wanted to sit in the car, and I wish I could've left him in the car.  We got to our seats and when I got Alex out of his car seat, he started to cry--things weren't looking good for our movie (plus, we didn't even have our popcorn and treats yet, gasp).

It's a good thing the theatre wasn't busy--I had to whip my boob out so I could feed Alex and calm him down while Jim went to the concession stand and got us some popcorn and a drink.  The movie previews helped with Jake's attitude.  He was soon laughing and had forgot about the super hero shirt and sitting in the car, thank goodness.

The movie was really good.  I may have even shed a tear at the end; I tend to be a little emotional, always.

After the movie we made a quick stop at Old Navy.  Jake found a super hero shirt that wasn't so expensive and I got the birthday gifts that I needed to get.  The only thing we didn't get were summer sandals.  Oh well, we still have time.

The boys fell asleep on the way home.  While they slept, I got the eggs ready to boil so we could color eggs.

When the boys woke up, they were more than happy to color eggs.  If I would've let them color 8 dozen eggs each, they would have.

 Ryan's favorite color to dye his eggs was green, of course.

 Jake was happy with whatever color Ryan wasn't hogging.

 Alex was a pretty good baby and just hung out while we colored eggs.

I told Jake to show me his egg.  This was the best I could get--he couldn't take his eyes off the egg so I could get a picture of him looking. 

We bought a Spiderman egg coloring kit this year. It came with Spidey masks for the eggs.  Jake thought they were pretty cool.

3 dozen eggs later, I think we're ready for Easter :)

Alex is 2 Months

Alex is 2 months today.  He is getting so chubby--this boy likes to eat (kind of like me, ha ha).  Ryan and Jake totally adore Alex.  Every night before they go to bed, they have to make sure and give Alex a kiss and a hug.  Alex definitely gets his fair share of loves.  

Alex at 2 months is:

• starting to smile more and almost laughs.  Jim has heard him laugh in his sleep :)
• starting to coo and "talk" more.  When he does his little "ooo" I just love it
• sleeping longer at night, yay!  He'll go to bed around 10-10:30p and wake up around 5-6a, on a good night.  It can be anywhere in between there when he wakes up :)
• he is still poops at least 5 times a day.  He has been a pooping, tooting kid since the day he was born.
• his little eyelashes are longer and darker

I'm a slacker and didn't get a picture of Alex on his 2 month birthday :(  

These pictures were taken on March 23rd.

Easter Pictures with {Photo By Emilie}

We took the boys to Salt Lake today to have their pictures taken for Easter.

Emilie did a great job despite my boys' best efforts.

The pictures turned out really cute!

Happy St. Patrick's Day {2013}

We spent St. Patrick's Day in Levan again this year since Jim was still gone to AT. 

We celebrated our Irish roots with yummy Leprechaun floats (no corned beef and cabbage for us this year).

We took the boys to the park to play, but I didn't get any pictures.  It was a pretty mellow day.

Alex in his St. Patrick's Day outfit from Aunt Paula.

Picnic at the Park

It was a nice day out again so we decided to take the boys to he park to play and for a picnic.

Mom took the big boys to Nephi and picked up some lunch at Wendy's while I finished getting ready for the day and Alex napped.

When she got back, we took our food to the park and ate and played.  

It was a nice change of pace and the boys had fun playing.

Hard Work

Ryan didn't have preschool today so Ethan came down to play.  The boys have had tons of fun playing.

The boys got to help grandpa with some yard work after lunch today.  Grandpa cut the aspen tree down that was in the front yard.  We helped take the limbs and cut tree stumps to the truck so he could haul them off.  The boys thought they were pretty big stuff helping do such hard work :) 

The house will definitely look different without the big aspen tree out front.

Field Trip to Two Jack's Pizza

We drove up to Spanish Fork from Levan for a field trip to Fat Jack's today.  We had to be to Spanish Fork at 9:45am today, so we were worried about being on time.  Turns out, we were the first to get to Two Jacks so we did awesome.

We've been on this field trip before so I knew a little of what to expect.  They show the kids how they make the pizza and then everyone gets a slice of pizza to eat.

Here the guy is showing the kids how he stretches out the dough and let the kids touch it.  We didn't eat the dough that everyone touched :) 

Ryan listening how to make pizza. 

Next, he talked to the kids about all of the different kinds of toppings and showed them to the kids.

Jake gets right in on the action like it's his preschool class.  He'll be a pro at these field trips next year, ha ha. 

The guy shows the kids how they chop the veggies and grate the cheese while the pizzas that the kids get to eat bake.  Then they all get a sampling of the cheese, too.  Yum!  Their cheese grater is wicked fast, too!  It's pretty cool.

Waiting for their cheese sample :)

Ryan got to sit by his little girlfriend, Presley, to eat his pizza.  She's a cute little girl.

Eating their pizza. 

Alex was a pretty good baby on the field trip.  Thank goodness my mom was there to help me though.  Otherwise, there would be no pictures.  I would've had to hold the baby. 

Just before heading back to class, we snapped a picture of the morning and afternoon preschool classes.

While Ryan finished up at school, we hung out my house and checked the mail, etc.  When Ryan was finished, we made our way back to Levan.

Warm Weather

Jim left for his Annual Training on Saturday March 9th, so we came to Levan to stay for 2 weeks.  I stayed home last year, but with a new baby and 2 hooligans I figured I could use some help.

The weather has been fairly nice outside so my boys have been having fun helping grandpa do yard work outside.  I'm not sure how much help they are though :)

Jakey taking a break with grandpa. 

My dad still does loads of yard work and is almost 70 years old.

He's the best! 

Alex has been pretty good so far while we've been at grandma's.  I love this picture--his face is so funny! 

Love his double chin, too.