Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Is it fall yet?

The end of our summer has been so crazy and I'm just itching for fall to get here! I usually am soooo sad to see summer go but after this summer I am ready for cooler temps and an excuse to stay indoors! Our last month has been ever so crazy. Rayden started school and along with that comes sports....not only did he want to do soccer this year, but flag football too! Every night of the week we are off to games/practice and it is somewhat exhausting! I'm just lucky Ryker isn't quite old enough to be in sports. Next summer we'll have twice the games to attend. Ugh, not looking forward to that. 
Randy and I have been getting up early every day training for a big bike ride. It was exhausting work and I'm glad and somewhat sad to say it's over. Now I can enjoy my mornings and sleep in as long as I want! Well, as long as the baby will let me. Which lately has actually been quite a long time. She is a bit different than my boys and will actually sleep in!
I'm a little bit late in posting about this, but Rayden turned 8 this year and was baptized this month by his father! It was such a special day for our family and I was so glad that we were able to have most of our family here to share his special day with him! Rayden has such a tender heart and is so sweet and loving. I hope he always will remember how he felt that day and always be steadfast and strong in the gospel.
 After the baptism we went camping with the Riddle family to Maple Grove. Since we only went up for Sunday night and Monday morning it was short, but sweet. The weather was perfect for me, not too cold but not too hot. There were some really fun water falls near by that we hiked to. The kids had a great time!









All of our hard work training for our bike ride really paid off. Last weekend Randy and I went up to Salt Lake to start our relay ride, Salt to Saint. We had a team of 8 (well actually 7, one girl did the first leg and stayed in Salt Lake) we started at the Capital and ended in Saint George. We started at 8 am Friday morning and finished at about 3:30 pm Saturday afternoon. We rode all day and through the cold night, getting almost no sleep at all and having the time of our lives! It was great! Randy was our only man on the team. We needed him to do some of the more challenging legs, the hills! Of course most of the legs had some hills to tghem, but some were definitely more challenging than others! On our team was my mom, a few ladies from her work and a few ladies from her ward. The hardest thing of all was trying to stay awake through the night. Most of my legs were at night and early morning so I was completely exhausted the next day! I think I slept for three days straight after it was over to catch up!











As for our little princess, she is getting so grown up! She just gets into everything and follows her older brothers all over! She is still giving hugs and kisses all day long and even starting to say a few words. Of course she won't say momma, but she does say dada and stop. It's so cute, I'll be yelling at the boys to stop rough housing and she'll be yelling stop right along with me! She also likes to blow raspberries on my cheek, it's hilarious! She is also a climber! She has discovered how to climb up onto the kitchen chairs and then onto the table. I have to keep all the chairs tucked in all day or we're in for trouble. Oh she also loves to climb up the jungle gym and go down the slide! At first it was a little scary when I discovered her doing it, but she just loves it! She also is going to be my little gymnast. She loves when I pick her up and flip her back to do a back flip. If I do it once I have to be prepared to keep going and going because she loves it and cries if I stop! She sure keeps me busy. As we were driving home from soccer last night, Rayden said to me, "I hope we have another boy." I asked him what he was talking about and he said he wanted another brother! Oh boy, it must be time to start thinking about another one! I don't think this spoiled girl would like that!
Here is a little video of our little climber! Enjoy!





Monday, August 13, 2012

Summer Adventures

Lake Powell this year was great! Of course, when you are camping on the beach, there is wind and sand in everything! But we still managed to have a lot of fun. And the kids didn't let a little sand keep them from eating their licorice! Our kids happened to be a little bit sick on this trip, but they did pretty good considering they didn't feel well.

 Ryker was brave enough to ride the banana boat!  He has always hated to put his head under water, even in the tub. When they got dumped off the banana boat I thought for sure he would be crying. He was scared but still did pretty good. We even got him to ride the tube after his dump in the lake! What a trooper! I thought Braylee would love riding in the boat, boy was I wrong! She hated being on the boat and wearing a life jacket. She just wanted to walk all over the boat but found it a little difficult with all the rocking and movement!
 Rayden tried water skiing this year on the little training skis. He was the first grand kid of my parents to get up! He didn't stay up for long, but at least he tried and did so good! I got to wake board a little bit, had a few hard crashes, but still kept trying. I just can't quite get the hang of it because I'm too used to slalom skiing. All together it was a great vacation. 
 The kids had fun painting their face for the children's parade for the 4th of July. We did our usual festivities at the park and played in the sun and heat all day long! We ate a bunch of snow cones, cotton candy, and deep fried candy bars! We love the 4th!!!! Next year.....we'll try the deep fried pickles!
 Our little family decided to take a little hike up Monroe canyon. Randy took the boys last year and had a great time so we all decided to go again. It ended up raining, well more drizzling, all day long. Luckily the path was well covered with trees so we didn't get too wet. At the end of the trail there are some great rock climbing routes. Next time we go we will be better prepared with our climbing gear and make a whole day out of it!!!
 Rayden celebrated his 8th birthday this year! I can't believe it!!!! He requested a star wars cake and picked how he wanted it to look. He is so funny with his star wars obsession! We had to cancel his baptism because it coincided with our Lake Powell vacation. We are rescheduling for next month so stay tuned for more on that wonderful event!
 Every 24th of July, Pioneer Day, our kids walk in the Monroe parade to honor our ancestor, Sarah Emily Wall, who came across the plains with the Willie handcart company. Grandma Riddle always does such a good job to get our kids and take them. It was a pretty hot day this year but they still survived.
 Right after the parade, Grandma invited me and the kids to go up to Frying Pan campground, by Fish Lake to camp for 4 days. It was a nice little break in the middle of summer. I got a break from housework and the kids got to play all day long with cousins. Braylee even did pretty good. Cousin Breanna was such a great helper with Braylee and made it so much easier for me! Thanks Breanna!
 Little miss Braylee turned 1 year old! She is such a little cutie pie! We just love this little girl to pieces. I can't believe how quickly girls catch on to things vs. boys. She just picks up on things that my boys never did. She started walking a little a couple weeks before her 1st birthday. She is doing so good now walking. Oh and she loves to give kisses! She is just so sweet and cute and cuddly. She has about 6 teeth and has two more on the way. She loves playing with her brothers. When they are around she is so happy, but if they go play at friends house, she gets so sad and clingy. She loves to feed herself. She hates it when I stick something in her mouth. She has to pull it out and examine it before eating. She is such a great sleeper and eater. She LOVES food! I guess she's a Riddle!
Her hair is long enough for little pig tails on top but she won't ever leave it in. After re-doing them five times in an hour I finally give up! Maybe one day she will let me do her hair! We have loved having this sweet girl in our family!
We also just got back from a trip to Bear lake but my camera died and I didn't get very many pics. We went to our cabin with our friends and did some biking around the lake, swimming at the lodge and of course Raspberry shakes!!! We didn't get to go to Pickleville playhouse but maybe next year! Now it's time to get ready to go back to school. Randy and I celebrate our 9th year anniversary this week! We are headed to St.George this weekend without the kids so we can do some rock climbing and go to Tuacahn and see Hairspray!!! I can't wait to have a little mini honeymoon with the hubby, even if we are roughing it by climbing and camping :)  As always, stay tuned for more pics on that! Although it may be awhile. We have school starting, as well as soccer and football for Rayden. Also, I'm thinking I'll start teaching Rayden how to play piano. That may be a disaster but we'll see!

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Summer madness!

 Be prepared for picture overload!!! Our summer started out with a little bit of eclipse watching! Thanks to my awesome MIL who was a science teacher for many many years, we were all taken care of for this epic event! Not only did we get to watch everything happen being reflected on the white board, we also had some awesome welding shields that we could look directly at the sun with and see first hand the eclipse! It was a lot of fun and the kids had a blast!


Don't you love my mask? I kept thinking Randy and his brother looked like Freddy Crougar with the mask on!

This was about as complete as we got to see it from our location. Apparently we weren't in the prime spot to see the eclipse straight on but it was pretty cool anyway.

The next journey on our summer agenda was Little Red! I rode with my mom and sis in Logan for about 65 miles!!! It was craziness, especially since the longest I had ever been before was about 30 miles and it was 2 months ago. Yeah, I didn't do so great on the training when it came to this ride but oh well. Maybe next year I'll get my act in gear! So the first 50 miles were great! I felt awesome and we only had to do a few little hills. We were quick at each rest stop and we were popping peanut butter topped oreos and red vines in our mouths like crazy!! My only regret is that I didn't grab a few extra gu's at the first rest stop because by the time we got to the other rest stops, all the gu's were gone. I really could've used a gu after lunch. So we stopped for lunch at about 50 miles and we didn't eat too much for fear of getting sick. I was feeling great so we hopped on our bikes and were going to try for 30 more miles. As soon as I started pedaling, I kid you not, I was so exhausted! My legs did not want to push another inch, let alone 30 miles!!!! Mom decided to stay behind at the lunch stop and wait for Randy and Hanna to come pick her up in the van. Sarah and I went on ahead. Well, it wasn't long before I realized I should've just quit at lunch. I was lagging behind so bad and it was still 7 miles to the next rest stop. Then, the horror of it all, I realized that the 7 miles until the next stop was nothing but climbing hills!!! And, the sun decided to come out from behind the clouds, and the wind decided to stop. It was sheer TORTURE!!! But, I'll have you know, I did not stop once on those 7 miles of dread. I thought about it with every single push of the pedal but I just knew if I stopped I was not going to start again. The only thing that helped me keep going was knowing that at the top of the hill I would get to go down the other side. That was pure freedom!!! Riding so fast down that hill, knowing at the bottom I could finally rest!
So, I get to the bottom and I'm totally wanting to kill my sis for not warning me about the hills after lunch (after all, she rode the ride last year). I got to the bottom and I had to wait forever for my sis because she stopped along the way and was waiting for me because she thought I was behind her. We finally reunited and I was totally planning on stopping and having Randy drive me back close to the finish line. Then they said it was only 9 miles to the finish line so I thought, what the heck, I've come this far I can 9 more. WRONG!!!!!! As soon as I started riding again I knew I was done for. Those last 9 miles might have been worse than the 7 miles of uphill!!! But, I did it!!!! I went a little slow, but I did it!!! Thanks sis for pushing me along!!! It was great!!!

And at the end, my amazing hubby and kids were cheering me on! Oh, and try not to get too grossed out with my bulging gut!!!! I had guzzled so much water that day that I felt like I was going to explode!!! I promise, it really isn't that nasty!

Our next adventure was on to the cabin at Bear Lake!!! Let's just say the weather was soooo much nicer this trip than it was a month ago!!! The water at the pool was so great!! For the first time ever, the water was the perfect temperature!!!


This little girl and I stayed behind one day and she was loving the ticorice (ryker's word for licorice)!


On the afternoon that called for cooler weather, we headed out to the Minnetonka cave! I haven't been there in years! I have to say, it wasn't quite as cool as I remembered it being when I was a little girl. After going to the Shenandoah cave back east a few years ago, these formations weren't near as cool. It was a whole lot of climbing stairs and not very many formations. But, the boys loved it! Braylee, not so much. She cried the whole time. She had just woken up from her nap and was famished. Next time I will fee her first!



Crazy faces in the car. We spent a lot of time in the car!!!! After Bear Lake we headed to Seven Peaks for a day. Then, we headed back to Richfield to sleep for a night and unpack the car, just to repack the car to leave the next morning!

Our last stop on our marathon vacation was Las Vegas!!! Randy took the kids to go see the new dam at Lake Mead. I chose to stay at the Condo because I was so tired from being in the car all day.

This was the amazing pool at the condo!! It was so much fun!! We just spent all day hanging by the pool, or should I say pools. There was one main pool, two big baby pools, a large hot tub and another smaller hot tub. They had some really fun cabanas all around the pool and a couple covered areas with couches and tables. The best part was, we were practically the only people there all day!

There were little fountains that shot out the side and Braylee kept trying to drink from them! There were these perfect little shallow outlets around the pool that made it so nice for Braylee to just play in. I couldn't ask for a better pool. It was even one of those cool salt water pools. We LOVED it!!! After swimming all day, we headed to Randy's cousins wedding. It was such a beautiful reception! Lots of great food, family, and even dancing! We were lucky enough to find a babysitter within a mile of the reception to watch the kids. A girl who went to school with Randy and his brother lived there and had a 12 yr. old daughter who was kind enough to take our circus for a few hours! It was a great vacation but I have to be honest, I was really looking forward to being back home and sleeping in my own room!







Back in Richfield, we celebrated Ryker's 4th birthday!!! I just can't believe this little fireball of energy is 4 already!
Here's a random picture of Braylee. She is into climbing on everything!

Back to the birthday boy, he really wanted garbage truck pancakes for his birthday. So I did my best to create it and make his wish come true!

He was one happy boy with his garbage truck pancake, with chocolate chips no doubt!

Then, we come to his cake. This boy just LOVES anything construction! This cake (compliments of pinterest) was the easiest cake I've done so far and it turned out just great! Perfect for my little construction man!
He didn't look very happy, but let me tell you, he really was! He just gets really shy, especially when I have the camera in his face and everyone is staring at him singing. He is the craziest kid I know and so wild all the time. However, anytime we try to get him to go on a ride at the carnival, or ride a bike, or sit with kids at story time, or go to primary, the kid is sooooo scared and shy.

The best part of the cake was the inside! It turned out even better than I hoped! And it tasted delicious too! A little too good, I couldn't stop eating it!!!

So that has been our summer so far. We had all our fun at the beginning and now we are moving on to the boring part of summer. The endless days of fighting children and ornery momma. Ryker is such a little fireball. He just teases Rayden all day long and runs around crazy all day long! Braylee is into everything and has developed a little attitude. She has discovered how to open cupboards and the E.T. cabinet. She likes to push on and off the Xbox all day long. I found a way to childproof the cabinet and she gets sooooo frustrated when she can't open it! It's quite comical to watch. She is also starting to stand on her own and maybe even will be walking in a few weeks. I'm a little sad about that. She has pretty much figured out how to go down stairs, but I'm still a little nervous to just leave the gate off. She is just growing up way too fast. Rayden is just a little know it all and growing up so fast too. I can't believe he is getting baptized in a month and a half! CRAZY! Anyway, this is our crazy life for now. Our garden has been struggling a little bit but so far we've gotten some peas, lettuce and broccoli. Oh, and our garlic we planted last fall is almost ready. Randy picked some the other day just to see how it was going and they looked good! I'm glad my hubby is a gardener because I love to eat the stuff, but I'm horrible at knowing how or what to plant! Maybe one day I'll be an expert gardener, ha ha!