Ryan's Handywork.....AAAUUUGGGHHHH!!!!!

WOW! I am so frustrated by this kid sometimes I don't know what to do!! This morning while I was in the kitchen I heard a large crashing noise coming out of my room. Then I heard Ben crying. So I ran to my room to see what was going on......


Fortunately neither of the boys were hurt but they could have been!! I don't even know how to discipline him well enough for him to understand!! I put him in his room and went back there 3 minutes later and he was already climbing on his dresser trying to get into the frog tank!!! Putting him in the time-out chair makes him mad but he still turns around and does the same thing over again!! I don't know what to do that he would dislike enough to not want to try something like this again! What do I DO??!!! The terrifying 3's have begun......

Happy 3rd Birthday Ryan!

Yesterday our oldest just turned 3 years old! I can't believe he's already 3! Since Monday was Memorial Day and everyone in the nearby family had the day off, we had a little party for him then. We grilled up some hamburgers and then there were LOTS of presents to open!

Ryan got pretty spoiled this year. Fortunately they're all things that can easily be shared with Ben.
Ben was having a hard time sitting back while Ryan opened all the presents so near the end, when Ryan wasn't showing as much interest in opening anymore because there was already a winner among the opened group, we passed one to Ben for him to open. That was enough to make Ben happy!

G'ma & Papa got him a couple little games, dominoes and a memory/matching game. Aunt Lissa & Uncle Nate got him a cool 3-D View-Master with extra discs of all sorts of animals and both boys enjoy that since they're very much into animals (running like a cheetah, jumping like a dolphin, wearing laundry baskets on their backs to be turtles, that kind of thing). He got a few other smaller things: bubbles, sidewalk chalk, sandals, a Cosmo Cougar DVD....but the thing that I thought Ryan would have been most excited about was his new "Cars" fishing pole and tackle box from Paul & me--and he would have been too!.....If Kendra hadn't shown us up with her present!!

The present of the year came from Aunt Kendra who spoiled Ryan royally....with an "End Zone Ball Pit" and a couple hundred balls to go with it!! (G'ma & Papa helped with the balls!)

I was happy Tuesday morning that although Monday night the ball pit was definitely the most popular item, when he woke up on Tuesday morning the fishing pole was the first thing he looked for! He ended up practicing his casting nearly all day! Between a few breaks in the ball pit, that is!

Bad Day!

This is so funny!!! I totally had to share it. "You had a bad day! Take one to wwaayyyhhhh...!!"

A Hike to Remember

Friday we took our first hike of the season up Grove Creek Canyon in Pleasant Grove. We ended up starting the hike at about 5:50pm and we got back about 9:20. It didn't even get dark until we were pretty much finished with the hike anyway so it worked out just right. It was a long, steep hike (very steep in some places) and I don't know how but I actually made it! Of course, I was pretty sore Saturday and Sunday. I'm already starting to feel much better today which is good because tomorrow Paul wants to go on another hike already, up Battle Creek Canyon in PG. That one will be a lot shorter and easier though so I'm not as nervous about it. We've made that hike a couple of times already but we figure the boys will really like it because there's a pretty big waterfall at the end. It's also a much safer hike. We probably should have started with the other hike but no, we started with the harder hike!


Papa and Kendall went on their Father/Son campout so the rest of us decided to hike up to Paul's bridge on Friday evening. He built a small bridge up the canyon for his Eagle Scout project and I hadn't been to see it yet so we accepted Kendra's invitation to accompany Grandma, Lisa and her on the hike. We were excited to see it was still in relatively good condition despite some severe flooding of Grove Creek a couple of years ago.


We even took the boys with us, though, after experiencing the steep terrain and the narrow trail with the dropoff to one side of the trail, I don't know if that was the smartest decision we've ever made. Still, we all made it without injury (other than sore muscles) and the boys really enjoyed it! There was one moment where we stopped to rest and Ryan started running toward the edge of a cliff. That about made my heart stop and all my paranoid panic begin but I was able to grab him before he got too close and I think all of our panic scared him enough to not want to try it again. Just thinking about it still scares me to death! It'll be awhile before I'm willing to take them on that hike again.


Paul actually carried Ben on his shoulders the whole way up and Kendra had Ryan on hers for most of the hike. They're amazing!!! I barely made it up myself and there's no way I could have done it with a kid on my shoulders the whole way! Ryan actually walked most of the hike back holding someone's hand after we got through the more treacherous part of the trail and he was so happy the whole time! We'd tell him what a great little hiker he was and he'd say, "Thank you!" Ben got to walk a few stretches here and there and really enjoyed that but was carried most of the way and didn't seem to mind that either. By the time we were on our way down the moon was out pretty high so he said "Bye moon!" most of the way back. He's so cute!

Fun Pictures

I thought I'd post some fun pictures of my boys (I may have gotten a little carried away!):

Here's Ryan & Ben with Keith when they came to visit. Aren't they so cute?! I especially love that Keith has pants but no shirt and my boys have shirts but no pants. It's just funny to me!

This is Ryan on his new snowboard. Yeah, his. My 2-yr old actually won a snowboard from a local grocery store Easter promotion. I was pretty shocked. Paul won a bag of candy and Ben got a bag of chips. I wasn't there. Doesn't Ryan look pretty experienced already?! We didn't tell him what to do, he just plopped it down, got on it himself, and started "snowboarding!"

Way back in January and out of the blue Ryan started asking Daddy if they could go fishing (which was pretty surprising since they hadn't gone since August or September of the previous year. We didn't even realize his little memory was already working that well!) Of course it was too cold to go back then but the first chance they got after it warmed up a little, Daddy took Ryan fishing! Ryan was SO excited! He was even more excited when they actually caught one. A pretty good-sized one at that! After their adventure Ryan was pretty tuckered out and fell asleep on the way home.



These were taken on another fishing trip shortly after Daddy & Ryan's first. This time we all went. Check out the look! And then the eye. You can't see it too well because the picture is smaller but Ben totally biffed it and hurt himself right above his right eye. It's true folks, he takes after his mother in more ways than one!

Ben was starting to get tired of hanging out down by the river, mostly because I wouldn't let him go swimming, and he was making me nervous so we went back to the car to wait for Daddy & Ryan to finish. Ben loves cars! It's funny to drive into a parking lot with him because there are so many "Cars!!" //Another thing of note in these photos is his hat. I love his little backwards hat. Ben always puts his hat on backwards. If I try to turn it around, he'll change it back. On the flipside, Ryan hates wearing his hat backwards and always makes sure his is on properly! Just more evidence of how different my boys can be.

And here's another of my little angel, Ben. He got to the top of the stairs and I guess he just decided he couldn't make it any further so he fell asleep right there!

My Kids' Quotable Quotes

It's been a couple of weeks since my first post so I thought I'd get on and update everyone a little. I'm not giving up on blogger already, I just still have to learn to make a habit of writing. I'm actually pretty bored right now so I thought I'd get on and share a couple of cute things about my boys. They're just funny kids!

A couple of days ago Paul took the winter covering out of our swamp cooler since it's about time to use it again. Well, you know how there's always some dust and dirt that settles in the vent during the winter, Paul turned on the swamp cooler and that dust and dirt all came flying out. Ryan was standing right there because he's always curious and loves to watch (and help if possible) his daddy work. So when all the junk came flying out at Ryan he yelled at Paul: "You scared my eyes!!" It was so funny!

Today Ryan and I were sitting at the table eating lunch when he suddenly exclaimed, "I have to go to work!" So I countered, "You have to go to work?!" And he said, "Yeah, I have to go to work for my own business!" I was a little surprised to say the least. I had no idea my oldest son was already so entreprenuerial! I tried to ask him what his business was but he wouldn't tell me. I guess someday I'll find out. I know he's said lots of funny things in the past but since I don't know that I wrote them down, they may be lost forever. That's why from here on out I've started writing down everything he says that's so funny.

Some of his favorite phrases lately are: "too bad!" as in not gonna happen! (Mom: Time to take a nap Ryan. Ryan: Too bad!); he says "I don't think so!" a lot too; and he loves telling me "It's too late!" if he doesn't want me to do something. It can be the middle of the afternoon but for him, it's too late! (Mom: I need to go to the store. Ryan: You can't go to the store! It's too late!) and he says "Not quite yet" a lot also. That's one he uses a lot with nap time or bed time. I'm sure there are more but those are his most-used. Oh that and he says "Sure!" and "Great!" or "That's great!" a lot when he is happy about something.

Ben hasn't said a whole lot of funny things yet although he already speaks quite a bit for his age. His nursery teachers mention often how he's the easiest child in his class/age group to understand which is fun to hear. I'd love to take credit for it but since I have no idea why my children are so blessed with great vocabularies at such a young age (Ryan was too), I'll just be glad that he can communicate and the teachers don't feel like they're always guessing what he wants. I know I've been very grateful that he's always been able to tell me what he wants or needs or that he got hurt because I would probably get frustrated faster than him if I didn't understand him! Every now and then he says something I don't understand and he'll sit there and repeat it and repeat it and finally he just walks off but he's never gotten upset with me for it, thank goodness!

No, Ben doesn't say many funny things yet but you can already tell he has a great sense of humor! He communicates that more through his facial expressions and his eyes. Some of the mischief I see in his eyes already has me warned that I'd better be on guard as he gets older! Between him and Ryan, I know I'm in for some very Kodak moments! Hopefully I'll be able to appreciate them as they come. They've already started teaming up too so I'm in for an adventure to say the least!

I love my boys and it's been a lot of fun to watch them grow. It's sad to see them leave the baby stage but at the same time it's been so much fun watching their personalities develop further as they can communicate more clearly and become more independent.

Oh! On the independent note, I do need to mention one more thing, Ryan made his first peanut butter and jam sandwich last week and he was so proud of himself. I was in the kitchen when he walked in and started saying, "I want to do it myself!" "Do what yourself?" "I want to do it myself!" {blank stare} "Peanut butter?" "Oh! You want to spread the peanut butter yourself?" "YEAH!" "Okay..." So I got out the bread peanut butter and a knife and he dipped the knife in the peanut butter himself and very excitedly started putting it on the bread and even trying to spread it around. After he was done with that slice he went for another slice and I realized he wanted the whole sandwich so I asked him if he wanted the jam to which he eagerly said yes and we repeated the process with the jam. Then all by himself he put the slice with peanut butter on the slice with jam. He was so proud of his accomplishment and he actually ate the whole sandwich! Yay for him!