I Love my Job!

Wow things have been crazy lately! But a good kind of crazy :). We are on the home stretch people!!! Randy has 7 hrs. left to do on his internship and 1 test to take in two weeks and then we are FINISHED with graduate school!!!!! Time to PARTY!!!! I honestly thought this point in our lives would never come. It has been such a long road for both of us, and he has worked so incredibly hard. He has sacrificed and given up so many things over the past 8 or 9 years (you'd think he'd be a doctor by now, sheesh!) and I am just so grateful for all he has done for our little family!!! I couldn't as for a better guy! I keep asking myself what we're going to do now that he's done with school and I think the time will just get filled up so quickly with gardening, sports and activities with the kids, and family outings, that it won't even seem like anything will have changed. But oh, I just can't wait! Two Weeks!
Okay, I got that off my chest now I can brag about my three amazing children and how much I LOVE being their mom! It really is the best job in the entire world! While I loved working outside the home, working in the home is so much more rewarding! I'll be honest, there are many days when it doesn't seem that rewarding. The countless loads of laundry and sinks full of dishes day in and day out. The dirty diapers, vacuuming, sweeping, cleaning bathrooms, picking up toys again and again and again. The fighting and tattling and crying that goes on is sometimes just relentless! Not to mention the late nights and early mornings and interrupted sleep! It's very exhausting! But, I wouldn't trade it for any other job out there, no matter how high the pay, not in a million years!
I just love those three smiling faces I get to see each and everyday! The countless kisses and hugs I get plastered with all day long. The laughter and screams of joy I hear in the background while I'm doing each sink full of dishes. The little helpers who think it's so fun to scrub the toilet and the tub with mom! The amazing lego creations I find all over the house remind me of how creative those little minds can be! The fun trips to the park on warm afternoons, the play dates with friends and neighbors, the interaction with my son's classmates when I go each week to help. Each and every activity I do with my kids is such a blessing! These are the days I want to remember and treasure always! These are days when I wish I could freeze time and make them last as long as possible! Really, who couldn't love these sweet little faces?

Another thing I love about my job is being home all day to work on projects. I've been having so much fun sewing for this little sweet girl of mine! This was the first project I attempted. The dress turned out a little too wide and the shoes a little too big, but I didn't want to unpick so I'm just going to have to make do with it. She'll grow into it, right?

This little outfit was project #3. I had so much fun with this project. The dress came together really quickly and the shoes were just so cute. Then I threw together a matching bow and now I just love it!



This was project #2. It is actually a re-purposed t-shirt of mine. It was supposed to be a dress but it ended up being a little too short, so it's a cute little top!


She loves sticking out her tongue!

This kid just melts my heart! He is such a little ball of energy!

She loves to climb and crawl and get into everything!

Another tongue shot!


This girl is definitely a Riddle! She loves to eat! I was a little worried at first because she did not like when I started trying to introduce food. I even waited a little bit longer with her than I did with my boys and she still wasn't too sure about food. It took a good month for her to really start to like solids and eat good. Now, I can't get her to stop eating! I make most of my own baby food and she just loves it! She also really likes to eat what the rest of us are eating. Her absolute favorite is Swedish pancakes! Big surprise - all my kids prefer Swedish pancakes over any other breakfast food out there!
He's such a great helper! He loves playing with sister! He loves it so much that he is constantly going into her room and waking her up from nap to play with her!

So, our Elementary school has an amazing program for students/teachers that teaches them about our country and how to be better citizens. It is called Liberty Kids. This amazing woman in our community, Molly Foster, came up with the program last year and it has been a huge hit! Rayden had fun doing service, memorizing quotes and songs, and learning fun facts about America. He earned his Kindergarten badge last year and his 1st grade badge this year. One special thing that happened this year is that his dad was presented with an Honorary Liberty Kid badge for providing service and being involved with the kids and the community. That's Randy for ya, he's always looking to serve!

What a happy little boy!

This kid is soooo loving the warm weather and playing outside. He is always right by daddy's side helping him garden!

And here is the master gardener! This is him planting the garden at his mom's house. Hopefully her garden turns out better than ours has so far. We've had a little bit of bad luck and may have to re-plant quite a few things.
This is the garden at our house. In the very back of the picture you can see our garlic is doing really well, but that is about it. We planted that last fall and it is just doing great. Our asparagus is doing pretty good too, but our cabbage, broccoli and onions aren't faring so well. We have a bit of a bug problem that needs to be taken care of ASAP!

And one more shot of my little truck guy. Oh he was in heaven this day playing with his truck in the dirt! Oh what cute kids I have!

life as we know it

Guess who's got two little teeth??? Braylee!!!! It has only taken 3 months for them to finally pop through but they are finally in and the little girl has been sleeping a little better these last few days. Of course she has gotten another runny nose, but I'll take that any day over teething! She is also sitting up, but only for a minute or two, and I even saw her try to push up onto her knees the other day! I'm so not ready for this stage of life. I want her to just stay little forever! Now that she is rolling all over the place and getting closer to crawling it is time to start baby proofing this place! We haven't lived in this house with a baby so it will be interesting.

In other news, things are just the same old around here. Since it has really been snowing a lot I have been staying indoors. I do not like the cold and would just prefer to hibernate all winter! I have been scrapbooking, painting, doing household chores, and just kind of taking it easy! Randy is still plugging away at his internship hours and also been doing some honeydo's!!! He built me some pantry shelves for Christmas and has also been building some shelves in the garage!! I just love having a pantry now!!! For those of you who don't know, I have a rather small kitchen and this home did not have a pantry at all. There is a room off the kitchen with the washer and dryer and a coat rack. We stuck a wire rack from Home Depot in there and it worked for awhile but was definitely not a permanent solution. Randy ripped out the coat rack and built some amazing shelves!!!! Now I have so much more room to put stuff!

So I guess that's all that has been going on here. Pretty boring if I do say so myself! I'm trying to get Braylee's room decorated but it has been slow going. Maybe I will get motivated one of these days to finish it! Here are some random pictures. I have been a slacker in the picture department lately!

Not off to a very good start

Okay, so this is the first year in a long time that I have actually made New Year resolutions! Go me!!!! However, I have pretty much failed, miserably. Starting with the first day of the year I have had sick kids all year! Ryker started us off with a terrible cough and fever. He was practically up all through the night for a few nights in a row, keeping me and Randy up, and continued to cough on just about everyone and everything. I have been downing the Emergen C like crazy in hopes of staying healthy! Anyway, while he was on the mends, Rayden started getting a stuffy nose and coughing. Uggh! Rayden usually handles colds a little better because he is older and can actually take medicine to help him feel better. So I attempted to actually follow through with one of my resolutions to get Ryker to stay dry at night. We tried for a few nights to wake him up and take him to the potty in hopes of achieving this. No matter what time we woke up, he was already wet!!!! So, we had to change sheets and clothes halfway through the night. Also, we are taking a stand and not letting Ryker come into our bed every morning at 3 or 4 to sleep with us. This results in him screaming and crying, turning every light on in the house, and slamming doors. This ended in getting even less sleep!!! By Friday, Rand and I were walking zombies!!!
So of course, who was next up to catch the dreaded cough.....the baby! Yes, as much as I tried to keep her away from the boys, she got a cough and runny nose, developed a fever, and has been so miserable. I think yesterday was the worst day, not for her, but for me! I was so sleep deprived and I just could not get her to nurse or drink from a bottle all day! It was so frustrating because I couldn't figure out what was wrong and why she wouldn't eat. Finally when Randy got home he held her for a while and actually started feeding her a little milk from a syringe. I think she drank about 2 oz. was all. I put her to bed and just hoped that she would sleep most the night and wake up ready to eat. Luckily she did! Well, mostly. She woke up 4 am coughing so I went in and got her up and was successful in nursing her!!! Unfortunately, little Rykes bikes woke up as well. So, another night of not getting much sleep for me. I'm really hoping for a nap at some point today if I want to keep any sanity at all!!!! As for my resolutions - I think I need to do a re-vamp and try and find some motivation somewhere to get my life in order. I'm actually just praying that I can stay healthy. For the last couple days I have had a slight headache and the startings of a scratchy throat! I guess I'll just keep chugging the emergen C and hope for the best!!!! I hope you all are having better luck than me with your new year resolutions!!!!!

Gingerbread houses

Here our the cute little gingerbread houses that we did for family home evening. I totally wasn't planning on doing this crazy little activity this year but it just kind of fell into my lap. Last time I did candy houses, I remember it being a total disaster. The icing wouldn't hold anything up and I think I was pregnant at the time and not feeling well which could be the main reason why the experience was leaving a huge negative sign flashing in my head.

So, my girlfriend stopped by the other day with the gingerbread cutouts for two cute houses. (In the past I've always used graham crackers or the kits you buy at the store) She had gotten the houses from an older lady that lives in the next town over. Now this old woman, whom I have never met but want to very badly, has shared some great canning recipes with me that have just been so good. She also has shared some great tips/tricks for all sorts of other things that have really come in handy! From what my friend tells me, she sounds like the perfect grandmother that everyone wishes they had! Well, atleast I do anyway. Both of my grandmothers died when I was a young age so maybe I will just have to adopt her as mine if I get to meet her. So back to my houses - My girlfriend stopped by one afternoon with these houses and told me all about how to put them together, shared an icing recipe that holds them together like glue, and even dropped off a few bags of candy to use. However, the whole time she is telling me how to do these houses I just have those huge warning signs flashing in head saying NO NO NO do not proceed!!!!! Ugh!!! I so did not want another thing to have to do this holiday season. I'm a real scrooge huh? So a few days went by and I kept seeing those darn pieces sitting in my kitchen feeding me all sorts of guilt. I finally decided I'd better get some more candy to decorate them and get the whole thing over with.

As you will see in a few pictures down, I actually have a smile on my face from the whole experience! The icing actually turned out to be the key piece of the puzzle! They went up so smoothly and the kids loved it! I think me and Ryker actually ate more candy than we put on our houses but oh well right? So we made the houses, took the pictures, and the kids smashed the houses with a hammer within 15 min. (so they could eat them) and the mess is all done and over with. Oh, except I keep finding pieces of hard gingerbread with all the candy eaten off it all over the house! Ryker just likes to bite the candy off and then leave the gingerbread. Silly kids!

I think mine and Ryker's house turned out the best! Randy and Rayden's house was tilting quite a bit!


So I was giving my girlfriend a hard time because she still had pumpkins on her front porch a week ago when I went over to help her put up her Christmas decorations. She almost didn't put any up because it is so close to the holiday and then she would just have to take it right back down. I told her she had her Halloween up for two months after the holiday so she could just keep Christmas up for two months. We laughed about it for a minute, but I'm pretty sure she wasn't really laughing inside. Well, I guess I'm not doing much better. If you notice in the picture above I still a pumpkin on top of my fridge! I guess that's what happens when you are short and can barely see the top shelf of the fridge!! Lol!!!

So here is my little princess, Braylee!!!! She is getting to be so cute! I just love this stage when they start to interact with you, but can't move around yet or talk back and scream at you! Although she is getting very close to moving around! She is rolling now! At first she could only roll from tummy to back, and not ever time I put her down, just sometimes. Then, I put her on her back yesterday and within seconds she rolled over to her tummy! It makes me sad to have her growing up so fast.




For some reason she loves looking at this orange car on her exersaucer! Whenever I put her in it, she turns to it and stares. Maybe because it plays music very softly!


Here is Braylee with her little friend Halo! Halo's mommy and I have been friends since High School!! These two little angels are only 9 days apart!!! Aren't they sooooo cute?

In other news, our house has been very busy lately with the holiday right around the corner. Santa's little elf (me) has been very addicted to online shopping! I hope it wears off after the holiday or I'm going to be in big trouble! It's just so convenient when you have a little newborn! I went out on Black Friday to get a few things, but other than that, I have done most my holiday shopping at home, in my pj's, listening to Christmas music, and sipping hot cocoa!!! Now that's my kind of shopping!

Rayden has a new look going these days. I got a note home from school saying that he didn't pass his eye screening test. I took him to get an eye exam and sure enough, the kid is blind! Well, not totally blind. It's mostly his right eye, he can't see close up and I can't for the life of me remember if it's nearsighted or farsighted. His left eye is bad too, but not as bad. So ya, he's sport'n the glasses look! luckily he thinks it's pretty cool. We'll see how long that lasts.

Ryker is still being as crazy as a three year old can be!!! He's in this new phase where he doesn't want to take a nap anymore. It's driving me crazy!!! Obviously he still needs one because he falls asleep on the couch every afternoon around 3 or even later. Then, he doesn't want to go to bed at night because of his late nap. He's also been having a hard time sleeping at night because he's been scared. He said that fingers come out of the wall and poke holes in him. Pretty scary huh? If we don't sleep in his bed with him, he ends up coming into our bed every night. In the past, I have had a pretty firm rule of "No kids in my bed with me at night". This rule has completely gone down the toilet ever since baby three came along. I've been way too tired at night to fight with Ryker so I just let him come in our bed. Now I'm really regretting it! I think that will be my New Year's resolution: To take the extra time in the middle of the night to send little Rykes bikes back to bed! I'll let you know how that one goes!

Hall - o - ween!!!!

We are a family of Ninja's!!! So, I'm really cheap and I like to get our costumes at the after Halloween clearance sales for the next year. The only problem with that is, you can't be very picky about what you are. Last year we found ninja costumes for the boys and luckily I was able to fit into a ninja outfit that Randy's brother wore when he was a kid. Crazy huh? Anyway, the only tricky part was finding a ninja costume for the little one. I found some black boy pants for cheap at wally world but I couldn't find a black top. I bought a really cute black onesie that had some writing on it so I was just going to put it on inside out. Then, I remembered I had a black turtleneck onesie that my boys wore. I also had a brilliant idea that it would be pretty easy to sew a little top to look more like a ninja top. So...off I headed to the fabric store!
Now let's just get one thing straight - I am not a sewer!!!! I sew a straight line, and I know a few basic sewing tips, but that is IT! Whenever I try to sew something, I always make sure my mom is right by my side to do all the tricky things like: sewing the sleeves on, heming, buttons, zippers, etc. Well, this time, momma lived three hours away and I only had about 3 hrs. total to get the thing put together. I also didn't have a pattern, and was a little nervous about taking on this adventure, but I decided to attempt it anyway.
The sleeves were a little tricky! Have you ever tried to make doll clothes or baby clothes? They have the tiniest arm holes!!! Luckily a friend stopped by right as I was about to sew those little puppies on and she gave me a little tip to make it easier. Phew!!!! My bobbin did come unthreaded (as usual) just as I was sewing the last seam, and a huge wind gust managed to blow my back door open, ripping my cord out of the wall and causing my sewing machine to bang on the floor. Fortunately, all in all, I only had to unpick one small seam, and made it through the adventure without any major problems! I think next time I will try to attempt the project a few days before it needs to be done.
Anyway, the kids are so excited to go trick or treating tonight!!! I can't wait to raid their candy bags and eat all my Halloween favorites!!! Oh it's great having kids to raid their loot!!!

Happy Halloween!!!

Braylee's Blessing....and other random pictures

This sweet thing was blessed on Sunday, October 9th, by her daddy. Of course she cried through the whole thing (which was cut very short due to the screaming), and then calmed right down afterwards and slept peacefully all through sacrament meeting! Gotta love it! It won't be hard to remember that's for sure.

Our cute little family! I think Rayden will be taller than me in another year or two. That's a scary thought!
Here is most of Randy's family that came! It was so fun to have so many family there to support us. Thanks all!



We had a great time at the state fair this year! Ryker loved seeing all the tractors and animals.

These are some of the biggest pumpkins I've ever seen!

I love Ryker's face in this picture, he could barely reach.

Camping at Otter Creek. It was so good to finally get off the couch and out of the house. Even if it meant a crazy night sleeping in the van with two crying kids!

Braylee's first camping trip at 1 month old. It was over labor day weekend with the Riddle family. She was pretty good most the time, until bed time. She had the worst night ever. She was so gassy and her nose was so stuffy she could barely breath. I'm thinking she might have a little allergies because as soon as we got home she was fine. Anyway, it was definitely a camping trip to remember.
The boys spent the whole day camping on the lake at otter creek. They had a great time. Now that Randy is done with all the homework, he can finally enjoy our camping trips instead of studying in the corner.


I love her chubby little cheeks!
She loves sleeping in her swing! It really saves me so much for those times when I just can't hold her and she wants to rock.

Braylee is learning to hold her head up so well!!!

Ryker loves his sister......most of the time! He loves to gather up all of her blankets and toys and make a huge bed to play in. He is getting better at the big brother thing. He


Rayden started 1st grade. He loves it! He is such a great student.
I think this is one of her first smiles at about 7 weeks old.


Ryker also loves to climb in her crib and play with all the blankets!