4th/5th of July Celebrations

We finally found one advantage of living on an extremely busy street in Milwaukee--the 4th of July parade is right out our front door. It was so fun to invite friends over and enjoy the parade. It was a long parade with not very much candy, but the kids loved it. Rydge was so cute waiting for the parade to start, then right before it started he decided to take a nap instead. It was great. I had to post these pictures of this handsome little guy. I didn't say much about him in his birthday post, but I really do love this guy. He is so cute, and has me wrapped around his little pinky. He's as stubborn as can be, but has such a tender heart. He's in such a fun stage right now, and I am looking forward to lots more messes and dirty kisses. I caught him right in a yawn. So cute.

That look is to die for.

Jaycee and Myleigh.

These are our neighbors' kids, and they are so funny. We love getting to hang out with them because it doesn't happen very often.

Some of the crowd.

Talking about rotations. Blah.

Jaycee and Caleb.
This was at the fireworks. It was a day filled with fun and adventure and totally wiped us out. We even had to go home and take naps before the fireworks started or we would never have made it.

Life through Jaycee's eyes...

I just thought I'd give everyone a little sneak peek of Jaycee's amazing photography skills. Watch out professionals, Jaycee might give you a run for your money. This is what happens when she gets in the mood to take pictures. Just look at that detail...

She always catches Rydge at his best.

Me getting ready for the day. Timeless.

Another of Rydge's finest moments.

And look at those legs.

Wow! She got a face in there. She always seems to catch the laundry baskets in the background. It could be because I feel like I'm perpetually doing laundry.
And now one of the photographer herself. What a beauty! As soon as she wakes up, she's snapping pictures. I tell ya, this kid's got talent.

Gotta love this girl!

One year later...

My sweet little baby turned into this...

messy one-year-old! I can't believe how fast a year can go by. We celebrated Rydge's birthday on June 17th while we were in Idaho on vacation, and he wasn't very interested in eating his cake. He just wanted to squish the frosting in between his fingers.

The birthday song had to be restarted because of an active foot. (Please excuse the terrible singing.) See video below.

This one's for Lance

These kids (and their mom) miss Lance something fierce, but it won't be too much longer until he gets to come join us in the beautiful, yet frigid weather in Idaho. Hopefully the weather cheers up a little by the time he gets here, or he will freeze on his mandatory fishing trips. Keep studying hard, honey, because that's about all there is to do. How boring! Jaycee has been completely worn out keeping this rigorous schedule of playing all day. She has been taking naps, and not even fighting it. We start driving and she is out like a light.
Rydge is sleeping better because we've been wearing him out as well. In fact, last night he slept 12 hours straight. I couldn't have been prouder.

It's nice having cousins so close. Lots of giggles going on...

I took this video right before we left, and thought it was so cute. Rydge misses his daddy even though he can't talk. I just know he does.

I love my mom!

As my journey of motherhood progresses with each passing day, I am more keenly aware of the love and sacrifice my mother has given and still gives to me. I can't believe the ironies that I have found since I have become a mother. When you're little you think that your parents just shouldn't yell at you. It's that easy. Now I really have to make a conscious effort to stop yelling and remain patient. I don't know how many times I've said, "How many times do I have to tell you!?", which is a phrase that I heard a couple times when I was younger ;) Not to mention all the times I have to ask, "Are you even listening to me?" (husband included in that question). What can I say? I have turned into my own mother, which isn't a bad thing at all. My mom is a very talented woman. I just wanted to write about a couple things that make her so endearing to me. She can play a very mean game of racquetball; she's an excellent spinster (the exercise class); she could wear anyone out in a shopping day, or even in a regular day; she's an amazing grandma to my kids (and her other grandchildren as well); she's an amazing saleswoman--she's the only one I know who can sell temple clothing and lingerie at the same time; she's so ticklish that my dad can't even attempt to tickle her without risking the loss of his favorite appendage; she's willing at any time of day or night to play games; I've always been jealous of her because she's allergic to make-up, and still looks gorgeous; and she stayed up into the wee hours of the morning waiting for me (and all my siblings) to come home from parties, etc., sacrificing many hours of sleep. She's an excellent example of making the effort it requires to keep family ties together. She has done so much for her brothers, sisters, and her own parents. Most of all, she is an amazing example of anything gospel related. She's got such a strong testimony, and taught us all so much about remaining true to your testimony. I love you, mom, and hope you have a wonderful Mother's Day (and belated birthday on Cinco de Mayo).

A lot has happened...

First things first, Jaycee just celebrated her 4th birthday last Sunday. She was so excited, and couldn't wait to open her presents. She actually tried bargaining and making deals with me to see if she could trade a pair of her shoes for the flip-flops I bought her for her birthday. She'd say, "But I don't want the flip-flops for my birthday, I want them now. You can give these ones for my birthday." She is such a thinker. I can't believe I have a four-year-old. She starts school in junior kindergarten this September, and I've had very mixed emotions. I never imagined she would grow up so fast, and it just keeps getting faster, but I also think she is ready to learn from someone else besides me. So, I would have taken a ton more pictures of Jaycee on her birthday, but my camera's batteries were dead, and we were totally out of new ones. I did get the video of her blowing out the candles, though, which took forever. We were mentioning in the video that she was going at a Master Uguay pace (Kung Fu Panda) and we needed Master Shifu to come blow them out with his Kung Fu fury (forgive the spelling of the names, I have no idea what it would be). As a sidenote: I bought Jaycee a little cake from the store, but it wasn't that exciting, and she told me she didn't like that cake. She wanted another Dora cake like last year. I decided to try and make her a Dora one, and it really looked a lot better in real life than in the video. Not to mention the fact that Jaycee decided to poke her Dora's out with the candles, which makes it look really creepy. I also know that there are eight candles on the cake. Jaycee just wanted to keep putting them on, and it's not like we'd be able to find those candles next year anyway.

The other day I heard Jaycee in her room laughing hysterically. This is what I found...

She thought she was hilarious.


Rydge has had thrush for a while now because I can't remember to give the medicine four times a day all the time, so this syringe has become his playmate. I'll give him the medicine, then he'll crawl around with it in his hand and suck on it. Speaking of growing up, doesn't he just look so grown-up. I can't believe he's going to be one in a month and a half.

This happened a couple weeks ago. Normal bathtime routine, but I decided that Rydge was having so much fun that he could stay in while I washed Jaycee's hair. Bad mistake. I wasn't thinking about not letting him stand up, and of course he slipped. I couldn't believe he split his eye open on the bathtub. Lance had just left to go study at the school, and I had to flag him down from a window frantically while the blood was pouring down Rydge's face. I was so glad Lance saw me and came back. We debated back and forth about whether or not to take him to the ER, but decided not to. Afterward I decided that the feeling of guilt you have when you think you should have taken your child in to a doctor and didn't outweighs everything else. I couldn't believe how bad I felt. We didn't want to take him anywhere because we could just hear the comments: "Whoa, and you didn't take him to the doctor?" Anyway, now there's just a thin pink line, and he will have a scar, but I don't think stitches would have made it any less noticable. This kid is so tough. He only cried until I picked him up, but then he stopped. He was very wiggly, and wouldn't let us touch his eye, but he hardly cried at all.

Just playing at the park. I love warm weather.

I had to take a picture of Rydge's cuddle moment with daddy. He's always cuddly with me, but hardly ever cuddly with Lance. He plays with Lance.

More pictures of Jaycee's dance recital. I'm too lazy to put them onto the other post.

Dance Recital!

Jaycee had her first dance recital a little while ago. She had been sick a week before and wasn't feeling good at the recital. I just thought I would give that as part of the excuse as to why she isn't dancing at all. It was out of my hands by then, and all we could do was sit back and laugh at her lack of doing anything at all besides suck on her hands. I actually wasn't even going to take her to the dance recital, but at the last minute I decided to ask her if she wanted to go, and she said she did. Lance thought I was crazy to decide to go ten minutes before it started. We were a little late, but the program hadn't started yet. Then I realized that, being the scatterbrained person I am, I had forgotten Jaycee's dance shoes. Who does that? I know, only me. It's not like I had a lot to remember. Anyway, Melissa did a wonderful job teaching these girls, and Jaycee had a lot of fun. She even put together a video for the girls. Thanks, Melissa. On the way home Jaycee told us that she was just dancing really slow. Yeah, maybe. I don't think so. Just in case you can't tell, she's the one on the right with her hands in her mouth. A side note: I hope this doesn't sound like I'm being rude about Jaycee. I love her and think she is the cutest little girl in the world. We've just decided that dance might not be her thing.

He's crawling everywhere!

A while ago (as in March 27th) Rydge started crawling. He was so close for such a long time. He had good positioning, good form, and the muscle strength, but could not get his arms to move alternately. Then while waiting in the doctor's office for his 9-month check-up he just started crawling all over the bench they have the kids sit on. He was so proud of himself and did not want to be contained by sitting on my lap. This video is old news now because he has gotten so fast at crawling, but it was so cute when he was just starting. He reminded us of a frog.

A couple key points or disclaimers to talk about before viewing this video clip because Lance thinks we look like a disfunctional family.

1. Jaycee starts out by saying she's scared a tornado's gonna come, which is something she has been doing randomly throughout the day. No worries, there wasn't even any wind.

2. My daughter bonks Rydge's head on the floor and I laugh. Not cool, I know. It just happens a lot.

3. I don't normally let my baby suck on batteries.

Along with picking crawling up on the 27th, Rydge also figured out how to pull himself up to a standing position in the same day. I'm so proud of my little guy. Jaycee made Rydge fall in this video, too, but he didn't get hurt.

Here's a little video I took while I had preschool at my house. It's been so fun having these kids get together. We were missing Drey, the poor only boy, and these girls were pretty wild. So many fights over toys it's almost comical. I have to apologize to the moms if they don't allow their girls to jump on the bed. They love it when they come to my house. (I don't know why Jaycee was crying. I think she hurt herself right at the first.)

A glimpse of our spring break

Once again, I failed miserably at remembering to take pictures so I could document all the fun times we had. We are so grateful to our parents for catering to us and making sure we had an excellent time. This picture below shows the only circumstance that Rydge would allow anyone to hold him. After he was asleep I could hand him off. Other than that, he would cry anytime anyone tried to take him from me. Towards the end he finally got used to being around other people, but that was just in time for us to leave. The only time he let anyone else hold him without him crying was when I was getting my hair done. I went to my sister (who is in beauty school) to have her cut my hair and give me some highlights. She did a great job, and I have enjoyed having short hair for a change. While that was happening my mom and sister-in-law were watching Rydge, and he let Vanessa hold him. When I went to take him from her he didn't recognize me (I cut quite 6 or 7 inches off my hair) and wanted to go back to Vanessa. It took me three tries to convince him that it was me. I got a taste of how he was treating everyone else, and did not like it one bit. I love my momma's boy!

We went to a kids playplace that had a dress-up room, and Jaycee loved it. She is always wearing dresses to dance around in at home. Take note of the fingers playing with her neck. That's a remnant of her sucking her thumb. She would suck one thumb and play with her neck with the other hand. She still does the neck thing to go to sleep or when she's tired.

This is Jaycee's cousin, Cael, and they are inseparable when they get together. She was convinced she was sleeping with Cael that night, so she snuggled right up next to him, and we had to pry her away from him.

We spent a lot of time swimming at the hotel pools. We stayed in a hotel two nights so the men (Lance, his dad, brother, brother-in-law, and my dad) could float down the Snake River in the drift boats. The weather cooperated so well that they were able to float three days in a row. They were in heaven, I can assure you. I was fine staying back with the kids. They were pushing the fishing season just a little bit. Anyway, Jaycee floated around everywhere with this ladybug floatie. She loved it.

Rydge is showing off his two new shiny teeth. They were just barely breaking through. He loved kicking and splashing in the water.

We can't forget about Jaycee's other favorite cousins. These cute girls are my brother's kids, Kynzee and Kambrie, and they have so much girly fun when they're together. A lot of giggling and screaming goes on.
Something I don't have pictures of right now is when we went with my family and played around in the Paris elementary school gym. We had so much fun with all the little kid toys. Hopefully I can get some of the pictures my mom took.

This picture has nothing to do with our spring break except for the fact that it shows how tired Jaycee has been since we got back . She has taken more naps than usual because of our busy schedule we were keeping. This shows how she took one of her naps the other day. I just had to take a picture because she has never fallen asleep in weird places, but this time she did. She told me that she was cold, and then I hear snoring. So cute.
Now that we are back in Wisconsin, we are having great weather, and are taking full advantage of being outside. I love being able to go the park with Jaycee, but she never wants to leave, which is a problem. We miss family, but we'll be able to see them soon for summer.