Funny kids!

Rydge has started to laugh, and it's the cutest thing, but it takes a long time to get him worked up to it. I got a video of him doing a very short laugh, and it happens right at the first. When I was recording I was waiting for him to do a longer laugh, but it never happened. That's why it's so long. There's really nothing exciting after the first ten seconds except Jaycee whining in the background (who knows what it was about?).

Since we've been back in Wisconsin, things have been pretty busy. It's great to be back, but we definitely miss our families. I really miss the help with the kids. Jaycee has had a hard time adjusting to the long days with just mom and the baby around. It has really brought out some sibling rivalry in her. Here I thought she had transitioned so well to having a new baby around the house...the problems just came late. She really is such a good big sister, though. She loves Rydge, and gives him hugs and kisses all the time...they're just very rough. She also thinks she's strong enough to pick him up by herself...which she's not. Whenever she is laying down by him she says, "Mom, take a picture!" That's why there are so many of her laying down by him. At least she'll take pictures, right?

We're trying to break her of the thumb-sucking habit, but it's going to be a long and trying process. I even told her that I had to get twelve teeth pulled when I was young because I sucked my thumb, but it didn't even phase her. I really did get twelve teeth pulled when it was all said and done--not to mention a couple surgeries--because my teeth were so crooked. That's no lie.
Rydge gave me such a cute smile.

I had to put this picture in to show what a fatty he is. That was at the first of August that I took this picture, and he's only gotten bigger.

Part of our busy life since we've been back is because Jaycee has started preschool and dance lessons. A couple of us are just doing an at-home school for our kids, and she went for the first time on Monday. I was going to take a picture of her first day at preschool, and get a picture with all the kids as well, but I was wrong on the time and showed up a half hour late. That's just par for the course for me right now...my brain isn't firing on all cylinders. It's because of a lack of sleep, I'm sure. So, I took lots of pictures of her first dance lesson. She had a fun time, and wants to wear her dancing outfit around all the time. I have a funny video that I took of the cute little dancers, but don't have time to upload it right now. I will have to do it later, hopefully.

Lance's fishing pictures

Lance took pictures over the summer of all the things he did, which include: fish on the Salt River, fish on the Snake River, fish on the Rearing Pond, fish Montpelier Creek, and so on and so forth. Aside from that, he was able to shadow some doctors and learned a lot of cool things about surgery. He also was able to deliver his firstborn son, and mowed lawns with my dad to earn some money. The reason I'm telling you this is because he made it a point to get these pictures so I could post them on my blog. He is a true-blue fly-fisherman and thought he might be able to convert a couple of bait fishermen through photography. Take a look.

I even got to go fishing a couple of times, thanks to the grandmas and other family members. The Snake River is really a beautiful river, and has some great fishing. A lot of people pay big money to be able to fish there. I can't hold onto the fish because I drop them every time, so my dad was holding it. But I really caught it.

Crazy summer

We have had a lot of fun being home for the summer. There are so many things that we've been doing, and I've been so behind on blogging. I have also been pretty bad at taking pictures. I would rather be in the midst of the event instead of looking on behind a camera. I have been doing many things to stay active and lose baby pounds. I confess that I went skiing a couple weeks ago (before my six-week mark)and deeply regret it. I crashed twice, and my muscles were quite sore. We've also been floating on a drift boat down the Snake River and the Salt River (Wyoming). My dad and Lance's dad both have drift boats, and we've almost worn them out. I can say that I'm pretty burnt out of fishing, but Lance still has some trips left in him. We have also been golfing, playing at Bear Lake, attending lots of family reunions, and this past weekend we even went camping. Rydge isn't even 2 months old, but he was a great camper. He slept better in a tent than he does at home. I have lots of pictures, but am just posting them at random. I hope you can tell what's going on.

This is Rydge in his Baby Bjorn. I just had to post this picture to show that I have been using it. Lance didn't think I would use it, but he always falls asleep whenever he's in it.

This was the family reunion football game. Lance had a pick 6 and did his best Deion Sanders impersonation. I also put this picture in to point out his amazing farmer's tan. Yes, he already took his shirt off.
We were able to bless Rydge out at the Jacobson family cabin. Lance's sister bought us his cute blessing outfit, because we wouldn't have had one otherwise.


If any of you know my brother Chase, Rydge looks exactly like him in this picture.
Lance and his cousins decided to bury money and candy in the sand at their cabin to give the kids a treasure hunt. They had so much fun finding everything.
Last, but not least, I thought I'd post a picture of Jaycee with her mosquito bite right in the middle of her forehead. Jaycee has always swollen up wherever she gets a mosquito bite, but it's never swollen quite like that, and it's never been in that location. The swelling went down into the bridge of her nose, and her eyes. She looks pretty scary in the picture, but has her normal forehead back now.

On Saturday we had the pleasure of attending the Due West concert in good old Bear Lake County. I didn't know much about them at first, but was thoroughly impressed, and Lance was as well. We had a great time listening to their music. Lance couldn't believe the lack of enthusiasm in the crowd, but Montpelierites sometimes show a lack of enthusiasm. I'm doing my duty of getting the word out about them because I loved their songs so much. The first song they've released is "I get that all the time" and it's so cool. Check them out.

Guess who's one month old...

Rydge turned a month old today, and I can't believe it. Time goes so slow until babies are born, and then races off after that. A lot of his personality traits have come through in such a short time. One of the most lovable (frustrating at times) traits he has is that he's very laid back. It's way nice for 95% of the time, but when he starts to feed he's so lazy that it takes forever for him to figure things out. I swear every time I go to feed him he has forgotten how to latch on. He has helped me figure out how to possess the patience of Job. He also loves his big sister. She is the only one who has actually got a true smile from him. He's also well-mannered and lets me get pretty good sleep most of the time. I love this little guy.

Many people have told me that he looks just like Jaycee, so I thought I'd post some pictures of her around the same age. I see definite differences, but similar features.

Latest pictures

Here are some recent pictures of Rydge. You probably can't tell, but he has changed a lot in three weeks (almost). This picture is when he was 1 day old.
This is him at two weeks old. It's kinda hard to catch him when he's awake, so I don't have one of him with his eyes open after that.

Here is a picture of his foot. Whenever anyone sees his feet, they are always shocked. They are so long. He's got some extremely long toes as well. In fact, the nurses at the hospital told my father-in-law that he has the record for the longest feet. When they took him to get his footprint, his foot was too long to fit into the square.

He is such a cuddly little guy.

Jaycee is such a good big sister. She sometimes does things that aren't nice, but most of the time she is so loving to her little brother. She always comes up to him and says, "Oh, he's such a darling!" She will also call him a cutie pie, or sweetheart. It's so funny.

These are the only pictures I took of the 4th of July. We really had a fun day, and went to a lot of celebrations, but I had a baby in my arms, which makes it hard to take pictures. We started the day out by going to a breakfast to support the Lions Club to help pay for the city fireworks. Then we went to the parade in Paris. I thought about Meghan and Brad the whole time because we saw their family reunion out in her grandparents' yard. Too bad the Schow's weren't able to be there. After the parade, the men went golfing, and the women stayed home and talked while all the kids slept. It was no small feat to have three little girls and a baby boy all asleep at the same time. All we had to do was wear them out until they couldn't keep their eyes open. Then for dinner we went to the good old Ranch Hand. Our final event was going to the fireworks, which were so awesome for such a small town. These pictures of Jaycee are actually from Sunday night because we didn't have time to do fireworks of our own.