Winter Blues!!!

I always get the winter blues after Christmas!!! It always seems like Nov. and Dec. are so busy with holiday festivities and family and it goes by so stinking fast!!!! Then January hits and suddenly time comes to a screeching HALT!!!!! It's freezing cold, nothing is happening, and time just seems to stand still. I always tell myself I'm going to do a project to help time go by but I just can't seem to get it together and come up with a project that doesn't cost a fortune!!! So, sadly I have to say that my life has been very boring lately. You know, just the usual stuff going on: cleaning house, doing dishes, taking care of the kids, breaking up arguing children constantly, spending a few hours on the weekend with my hubby, and then starting the week all over again!

To add to our boredom, Rand started his second to last semester of lectures for graduate school!!!!! Then he has a year of internship after that. I am seriously counting down the days he has left of this! While it is still somewhat overwhelming how much he has left, he has really accomplished so much and we're finally on the home stretch!!!! However, this semester will probably be the worst of it so if I can make it through May I will be so happy! Not only does he have his regular Tuesday night classes and tons of homework all week, he started his practicum where he has to get 150 work hours (which are unpaid)!!!! So basically he leaves before I get out of bed in the morning and gets home around 6, we have dinner, and then he is either in class, studying, or we are doing our church calling! It's Saturday before I actually get to spend some time with him, but then he leaves for several hours during the day so he can study where it's quiet! So my weeks are pretty boring sitting home with the kids all day!!! It's too freezing cold to go out so we are just holed up in our house watching truck/tractor movies all day! Isn't it just great? So if any of you are bored at all, feel free to stop on by!!!

Other than school and winter blues, nothing else seems to be happening at the Riddle home. I've started to teach Rayden a little of piano. He was excited at first but after two weeks he's already saying that it's too hard and doesn't seem to want to practice. He is such a little smarty pants, I just don't know what to do with him! He's learning to read at school and he is doing so great!!!The teacher had to skip him ahead in the books he brings home because they are way too easy for him. I guess that's partly because I held him back a year from starting kindergarten but I still feel really confident that I made the right decision! I'm thinking I'll do the same thing with Ryker but I'm not quite sure yet. Ryker is such a rough'n'tough little guy!!! He is so wild and crazy and he is kind of a little bully to his older brother! For being four years younger, he sure can cause a fuss with my soft-hearted Rayden! It's just so interesting for me to see how different my two boys are, but at the same time, they are very much alike! I love watching them grow and learn and play! They truly are an amazing blessing in my life! As much as I complain about how long and stressful each day is trying to raise them, I wouldn't trade it for anything else!

Well, stay tuned for pictures soon. I was really hoping I could put up some Christmas pictures, but wouldn't you know it, right when I finally decide to (and my 6 yr. old isn't hogging the computer) my picture program is updating and it is taking FOREVER!!!!!I know I am quite the slacker but don't give up me!!! It's rough having to compete for computer time with a 6 year old! He thinks he owns the thing!!!! So, you'll just have to wait probably another month to finally see our Christmas!!!

Private

Okay all, I'm going private! Since you all love to read my blog, don't forget to give me your email addresses so you can continue on reading!!! Thanks!!

Thankful

(Our snowman family)

I know this is a little late seeing how Thanksgiving was last week, but I wanted to take a minute and tell you all about the things I am thankful for. I'm not usually a sappy, mushy, emotional person and I always have a hard time expressing my thoughts. So, this is my once a year where I guess it's okay to break out of my shell, sort of. I'm not really going to do a lot of telling, I'm going to show:





These three boys are the LOVE of my LIFE!!! I live each and every day to make sure that they are fed, clothed and happy! I'm going to be honest, I don't LOVE every minute of it. There are many days that I want to pull my hair out and scream and cry and just give up!! But then there are also many days that I just want to scream to the world that I have the BEST children ever!!! So let's face it, if I didn't have these three boys, my life would be so completely empty! I love them so much and I am so thankful that they are a part of my life!

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving cause we sure did! Happy Holidays!

Finally Done!!!

Never have I been so sick of canning in my entire life, but I am happy to say that I am done canning for the season!!!!! It seems like the last 4-5 months have been so crazy and I have constantly had canning materials all over my kitchen and pantry!!!! It all started with a few batches of tomatoes. Then I did some more tomatoes, and then some peaches, and then some more tomatoes until I didn't want to see or eat another tomato in my life!!! I decided to freeze some corn and that wasn't too bad because my MIL helped me!!! In September I thought I was finally done so I decided to clean up everything and pack it away.

Then, I went to my parents and picked some apples!!!! HELLO applesauce!!!! I did so much applesauce I didn't want to eat another apple in my life! Oh.....and then I came home from my parents to find a whole new box full of....TOMATOES!!!!! Ahhhhh!!!! I could've beat my husband for bringing me more tomatoes to can! I also forgot to mention that I did some pickles mixed in with all those tomatoes!!! Once again, thinking I was done and that I finally had my kitchen back, I put away all the canning stuff. A little too soon however, this weekend my husband pulled up all the beets and decided we (I) should pickle them!!!

So, if you've ever canned before, by yourself that is, then you know exactly what was going through my head when I saw that bucket of beets!!!!! But, like a good wife that I am, ha ha, I pickled those beets and now I can finally say that I am DONE canning this year!!!! When I told my husband I was so glad to be done he said to me, "What about the parsnips!!" I think I better not tell you all what I said in response to that question!

Now that I am finally done, it is so nice to go down stairs and see all my hard work!!!! At least I know that if we have a disaster in the next year that doesn't destroy my home or basement, I'll be able to survive on spaghetti sauce, peaches, applesauce and beets! Sounds yummy right???

I guess I better rest up until next summer because my husband is planning all sorts of stuff to garden next year!!!! I should start a sign-up sheet for helpers right now! LOL!!!

Super Mario World!!!

So Rayden decided last year that he wanted to be Mario for Halloween this year. When I got his costume last year on clearance I just happened to see a Luigi costume for Randy and thought I'd get it. Over the last year I thought it would be fun to have a Super Mario family for halloween!!! I happened to have a lot of pink dresses from High School dances and thought I could be Princess Peach. Then I saw a lot of costumes online for a toadstool for Ryker. I was too cheap to spend a lot of money on his costume so I threw together my own costume for Ryker (Thanks mom for the help!) I wasn't sure Ryker would wear his hat but he LOVED IT!!!! The kids just loved dressing up as Super Mario Bros. and so did everyone else!!!!

Rayden was really into the dracula teeth! Maybe next year he will have to be Dracula!




We had fun making Frankenstein cupcakes! They were filled with green pudding!!!!

The last week we have been in a huge apple mess!!!! Rayden and Ryker were huge helpers and we had a lot of fun canning applesauce, apple pie filling and drying apple rings!!!

The glasses were to keep their eyes safe from the splattering hot applesauce!!!

I also got to spend some time with my family this month! My sis and I celebrated our birthday's with the traditional pumpkin pie!!!! Happy Birthday to me!!!!!!

Another school field trip to the pumpkin patch!!!

This was actually the day of my birthday and I had a great day going on Rayden's field trip, making sugar cookies and decorating them with our cubscouts!!! Then we went to a movie with Randy's family!!! Thanks all for the birthday wishes!!!

Rayden picked the BEST pumpkin in the whole patch!!!!! Happy Halloween all!!!

Tired

I'm TIRED!!!!! So tired that I finally gave in today and just let Ryker wear a pull-up all afternoon! Despite that, I still managed to have multiple accidents to clean up!!!! How is that possible you ask? Well, the potty training thing has been so crazy at our house lately! Let me just vent to you all for a few minutes..... I've known from the start that Ryker will test my patience in every way possible. I've said before that it took incredible amounts of patience to even get pregnant with the little guy. In fact, almost three years ago today I found out I was pregnant with him and I was just so shocked and excited all at the same time! However, let's just say the whole pregnancy was miserable, and after the first night in the hospital after he was born, without any sleep, I knew I was in for it with this guy! Every step of the way has been such a trial!!!!

Nursing him was soooo difficult, he would fall asleep every time I would try to feed him or he would bite me, or just not suck at all! His acid reflux was just horrible and I had to give him the nastiest medicine the whole world multiple times a day! The little guy probably thought I was the meanest person on the face of the earth. Becuase of his reflux, he would only sleep if I held him in a certain position and the minute I put him down in bed he would wake up! It was a good day if he took a nap for longer than 30 minutes! Then, when it came to baby food, the kid wouldn't touch the stuff! I had to puree my own baby food and even then he was so picky!

When it came time to crawl I was so excited because I thought that maybe I could finally get something accomplished during the day without him constantly by my side or in my arms! Not a chance!!!!! He wouldn't crawl anywhere unless I was in his sight!

Then he learned to walk!!!!! Unfortunately he learned so well and decided to branch out so much that he constantly was running outside into the road or down the street and all over! There is no middle ground with him, he is only into EXTREMES!!!! He must be his dad's boy.

So, a few months ago he decided that he no longer wanted to wear his diaper anymore and would just take it off all day long. I finally gave in and said no more diapers, except at night of course because let's face it, I don't want to wash and and make his bed every single day! We were off to a great start. The first couple weeks went so well that I thought we were officially POTTY TRAINED!!!! Of course we had accidents here and there but they were pretty rare. Then, he decided that he no longer wanted to poop on the potty. So we struggled for a week trying to get that down and things were flowing pretty good. Then, we had to go camping. Something happened that weekend that totally destroyed all our hard work!!!! I think he just got the idea in his head that since we were outside all day long that he could just drop his pants anywhere and just go!!!!

It's been a month now since we went camping and I really thought we were making some great progress. The last few days have been so great with hardly any accidents. Hurray!!!! And then today happened. I have been super busy with trying to do all the canning and cleaning and laundry and homework and church callings and playgroup and the list goes on and on and on! We had a little accident while I was working out with some ladies this morning. Nothing too bad, it only took a few minutes to clean up and I thought we would be good for the rest of the day. Let's just say the rest of the day turned into accident after accident after accident. I think I am ready to just give up with the whole thing and just put diapers back on the kid! But actually, I know that isn't an option because he will just take it off and go anywhere he feels like it!!!! So what do I do with this little child of mine?????? I'm in a no win situation here!!!! It's a good thing he is so stinking cute! He truly does make me laugh all day with the silly little things he does! I can't imagine life without him (well actually, I can. It would involve a lot less cleaning up of his messes)!

So here's to the next few weeks! May we have fewer accidents, a lot less laundry to do, and many more trips to the bathroom!!!!! Wish me LUCK!!!!!!

Heber Century

What a SEXY husband I have!!!!! Rand started riding with some of our friends about 3 months ago and he immediately got hooked! He loved it so much that I decided to give him my dishwasher fund so he could buy himself a road bike (instead of borrowing from people all the time). He started out just going with some friends about once a week and riding about 30 miles. Then he just kept going further distances a couple times a week and pushing himself to get ready for the 100 mile race in Heber.

So originally he was just going to ride the race with our friends and I was just going to bum it for the day at my friends cabin because, HELLO!, I have never ridden my "mountain" bike for more than 2-3 miles! When I mentioned to my mom that Randy was going to ride the 100 miles, she got excited and talked me into riding the 25 mile race with her and my sister. So, here I am on my lovely "mountain" bike thinking it was going to be a breeze! SO NOT AS EASY AS I THOUGHT IT WAS GOING TO BE!!!! It was so DIFFICULT for me!!! I just felt like I was pushing myself so hard the whole time. My amazing friend GiGi, who has been cycling for awhile, invited us to their cabin to ride the race with them. She was so amazingly nice to poke along the tail end of the pack with me probably bored out of her mind. She is such a great friend and I am forever grateful to her for sticking with me until the end!!!

All in all, it took me about 3 1/2 hours to ride the 25 miles and Rand made it through the 100 miles in about 8 1/2 hours. CRAZY STUFF!!! Next time I ride in a bike race, I will make sure to either have my own road bike, or borrow one from someone because that was just plain torture!!!! But, we had a great time with our friends and loved being in such a beautiful country!!!

Rand, Dave and Dan finishing the 100 miles!!! Way to go guys!!!!!!

Me, my mom, and sis. We were just about to start, hence the smiling! Trust me, I was not smiling at the end! But it is kind of cool to say that I've ridden 25 miles!

Me and GiGi!!!! What a Saint for sticking with me!!!

I love this great guy!!! He is such a hard worker and accomplished so much!!!!!