Sick of being sick

Ruthie is a pro at temperature taking!
Tate can practically do it himself now!
A few of our recent favorite things

We are dealing with yet another sick spell! A couple of weeks ago Ruthie and Tate both had the stomach flu on and off for several days, Tate has 4 new molars that popped through last week, and now he has pneumonia and a double ear infection again! It has only been 4 weeks since the last bout with pneumonia. Poor kids.

I am trying out a new motivator for Ruthie. I made her a reward chart on a magnet board and she and I are loving it! Her reward of choice when she gets to 10 is watching a movie. I am surprised that threatening to move her back actually gets her to do things. She really loves movies, and I am willing to do whatever works at this stage.

Other than that we are just starting a few major construction projects. We are painting our kitchen cabinets first. You'll get to see pictures when there is more to show than my missing cabinet doors!

Our 13 Month Old Monkey

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Tate is a crazy climber! This kid will attempt to climb absolutely anything. He usually celebrates his arrival to the top of the island with a dance. Tate was just excited that I didn't even try to stop him this time.

(Yeah for my new camera. I can finally post video!)

Catching up: Christmas, New Years and Reunion

We had a very fun and busy past few weeks! These are some of the highlights:
-A very Merry Christmas with a bilzzard, and no power on Christmas morning for an hour
-Ruthie got a new kitchen and a hundred other great gifts
-Tate got a workbench and lots more fun toys
-Ryan got a new putter and glasses
- Sarah got a new point and shoot camera and a trip to Chicago (in May)
-The trip is to see our cutest new niece Emery Kate who was born on Christmas Eve
-We had the Bevan family here for a week for New Years and a reunion
-The kids loved playing with cousins and Nana and Papa
-We had played some good card games
-Ryan and Sarah went skiing and snowboarding
-We had a hilarious variety show that everyone participated in (costumes and dancing)

A few low lights:
-Tate got an ear infection and pneumonia
-Ruthie got a virus and had a high fever for 4 days
-Ryan spent 2 hours under the cabin fixing the broken main water line and a plugged sewer line (Yuck!)

Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas!

Happy Birthday to my Ry! He's the best dad and husband anyone has ever had! He is the one who decorated Christmas tree grove (somehow we didn't get around to buying a real tree so he decorated some we already had) and put up the lights outside. Nice work! Just a couple more reasons why we keep him around.

Santa Baby

Notice Tate is dissing Ruthie for the cell phone, feel the love.

Ruthie takes a dance class at our 13 year old neighbors house once a week. She loves class, but apparently the performing thing didn't go so well. At her recital she just went and sat with Ryan. Ry actually missed skiing to be there. But I was working that night so he represented! What a guy!
Also, Ruthie has quite a scrape by her eye from tripping in a parking lot with her hands in her coat pockets. She skidded to a stop on her face! Ouch!

The rest of the girls bowing while Ruthie clings onto her teacher.


This was this morning at breakfast. Are we glad Tate's getting new pj's for Christmas or what?

Thanksgiving trip highlights

We had such a great time in Arizona! Here are just a few of everyone's favorite highlights.



These are the only pictures I have of me on our trip! My favs were:
-Going to see 'Twilight' with my mother-in-law and sisters-in-law. Loved it!!
-Learning how to make and can applesauce. Yum!
-Visiting with friends and seeing the Mesa Temple lights

Ryan's adventures included:

-Taking the Jeeps 4-wheeling in the desert and shooting shotguns.

-Mountain biking

-And of course played in a Turkey Bowl!

Tate:

-Chilled with his cousin Emmett. This is the best shot I got. They are not cooperative subjects.
-Loved playing with Dodge the dog! We are lucky he is so patient with the kids.

Ruthie:

-Had a blast playing with Orren (no picture:( )

-Watched football on Thanksgiving (see 3 pictures up)

-Dressed up in her aunts old dance costumes and dancing with them/wrestling Tate!

Tate turns 1!

We celebrated Tate's first birthday on Thanksgiving Day in Arizona. We were lucky enough to have both families there for presents and pie. He obviously enjoyed his pumpkin cheesecake! We love this little man and can't believe it has been a whole year since he joined our family. He such a sweetheart and still loves to snuggle. I will take that as long as I can! His favorite things right now are: climbing everything, throwing everything, balls, cars, animals and anything noisy.

Ladies and gentleman, we have a walker!

I can't believe my baby is walking! I love those wobbly little steps the first few weeks. Tate is also demonstrating his "cheeser" smile that he does on cue.

Ryan snapped this shot while he and his boy were watching some football together. Tate just loved it! Another proud moment for Dad.

Ruthie fell asleep while she was in time out. I think I left her a few extra minutes!

I have to share a Ruthie story that she will just love me for someday. I was at Target doing some b-day shopping for my baby. While on a toy isle, I look over at Ruthie and she is casually looking at toys while standing in a huge puddle of pee! Right then a girl from my ward walked onto the same isle! Bless her, because she stayed with Ruthie while I ran to my car to get wipes and a pair of pants I had bought at Old Navy not 30 minutes before. We made a barricade with our carts and I stripped her down and changed her right there! This was my first public accident experience and it could have been much worse. I got so lucky with the extra pants and running into Amber. Ruthie is usually very good about going on the potty. She has had only a few accidents in the past 5 or 6 months. If nothing else it is a great piece of blackmail to save for a few years!