I'm so proud of Ryan! He can write his name all by himself!

Our House So Far!

I went over to our house today and took some pictures. Here's what the house looks like as of today... January 12, 2011!

Here is a view of my bathroom. I'm going to have a corner tub with a shower to the left...


Here's the corner tub!! I'm sooo exicted!!


This next shot is of our front porch. They have a covering over it because they poured the front porch a couple of days ago. To the right is the front door. The window to the left is the living room...


And last, here is a picture of the back of the house...


It's coming along! We're getting excited!

I'm stuck!

Troy and I went by our house this last week because they are framing it. Ben liked to go between the walls and say, "I'm stuck!"


Christmas Eve story:

I forgot to mention in my last post about something funny Benjamin said...

We were putting Ryan and Ben to bed on Christmas Eve. I wanted to have a little family moment before we said our prayers. I wanted to sing some Christmas songs with the boys because they both like to sing... like their mother.

First, we sang, "Santa Claus is coming to town". That was fun. Then, I said, "Ok boys, let's sing a song about Jesus because Christmas day is Jesus' birthday." Ben then thought about it for a minute, then started singing "Happy Birthday to you...." to Jesus. Troy and I both laughed out loud. It was a pretty funny moment.

I just needed to write that down before I forgot about it. I'll remind Ben that he sang that when he's like 16 years old.

Happy 2011!

Here are some pictures of the boys during Christmas time...

I think the Troy and the boys had a good Christmas. I sure didn't. I was sick as a dog for the holidays. I think I either had pneumonia or bronchitis. It was absolutely horrible! I stayed in bed most of the day and Troy stayed home from work taking care of the boys. It was really hard on me and Troy.

One night, we got a foot of snow and my FIL wanted to build some snowmen.


We had fun with those snowmen. They were huge! I like the look on Ben's face here. That was a lot of snow for him to walk in. He kept getting stuck. Poor short kid. I wonder where he gets his shortness.

Christmas presents for the boys were easy. Ben LOOOOOVES trains. We bought him a train and he loves playing with it. It's LEGOs so we are losing pieces already. That's frustrating.


Here is a picture of Ben with the train we had going around Grandma and Grandpa's tree.

I think you can say that Ben is OBSESSED with trains.

Ryan got a mirror ball for Christmas! He likes to turn it on at bedtime.

Ryan also really wanted pillow that has speakers in it so he can listen to his music in bed. He uses it every night and doesn't go to bed.

We also had fun watching Grandpa going out to be Santa for many families that have him come over. Here's a picture of "Andy Claus"!


Now that the holidays are over, we are moving forward and are excited to moving into our new house. It's being built right now. The house is being framed and we love going over there almost everyday to see the progress. All the walls are up and I love walking through it and seeing where everything is going to go. I would post pictures but all you see are wood walls and they would mean nothing because you can't tell what is what. It is projected that the house will be done sometime in March.

Since we don't live in our house right now, we are living with the in-laws in the apartment. It's a 1 bedroom apartment so we transformed it to a 2 bedroom apartment with no living room. It's a pretty tight squeeze but we are truly grateful for a place to stay.

Since we are going to be in our home in a couple of months, Ryan has transferred to a new school. He is going to an all-day kindergarten and he's loving it already. He's been going for a week now and he has already learned some new songs and loves to eat lunch at school. He loves his new teacher, Mrs. Smith and seems to be fitting right in. I'm so happy that he's getting more time at school and more services. The only drawback, I have to drive him everyday... drop off and pick up. It takes about 40 minutes round trip each drive. So, an hour 20 minutes everyday. Fun for me. But, it's worth it for Ryan and his needs. I've noticed that I really miss him during the day. I'm sure I'll get use to it but for the first week, it was kind of hard. I missed my boy.

Poor Benjamin
Benjamin hasn’t had the best of luck with cavities. On his last visit, we discovered that he had 14 CAVITIES!! Can you believe?? Poor little guy! We had to take him to a surgical center and completely put him out to perform all the fillings. Here is a picture of him before they took him back. He got a new shirt and played in a wagon.

He's still a good lookin' kid though. This picture always brings a smile to my face.


As of now, I am training at my gym for my last triathlon of the year. This will be my 4th one to do. After this, I think I’m going to take a break from the gym and pursue working out on my own. That will sure bring some extra savings in our pockets instead of paying my trainer. Hopefully, I can keep up my workouts and use my treadmill a lot this winter.

Fun in the apartment!
Since we live here now with the in-laws, Ryan and Benjamin are having a blast spending time with their grandpa! They’ve been having fun helping him rake the leaves in the backyard. Andy gets his tractor out and puts his trailer on the back. He loads all the leaves in the back and throws the boys in there. They love it.


One Sunday, my brother-in-law Cody brought over his big semi-truck. The boys were ecstatic!! Here are some pictures of them playing around!

Recently, I had to bring Ben with me to get some samples of carpet and wood for our home. (Ryan was in school at the time.) There was a nice little area with ducks and a pond. Ben begged me to stop so he could take a closer look.

Halloween!
Halloween crept (in a scary Halloween way) up on us! We had a great time out this year. In addition to Halloween night, the boys were able to wear their costumes to school and to our annual Ward Halloween Carnival. It was really fun for them.

Obviously, Ryan was a bumble bee and Benjamin was Sheriff Woody.

New Home
In September, we finally sold our house!! Yay! We were so thrilled that we were able to move forward with building our home. I was sad to see our home go because we’ve lived there for almost 8 years and also the fact that I brought my babies home there. Our home felt really weird when we moved the last piece of furniture out. It felt so empty and just “not ours” anymore. Sad huh?

As of now, we are living with Troy’s parents while our home is being built. They have a 1 bedroom apartment attached to their house. It’s a bit of a squeeze for us but we’re happy and grateful to be here instead of renting an apartment somewhere else. Just recently, we decided to move from our home ward to Troy’s parent’s ward. I’m happy with the decision because I just felt that staying in our old ward wasn’t right. I didn’t feel at home anymore and I felt that we needed to move forward.

As of right now, we will be breaking ground for our new home next week. The construction time will take 90 days. We are excited to create a home that we already love and to make more memories. We get to choose everything… carpet and tile, to doorknobs and countertops. So far, I’m doing great with the stress level. I think I have a handle on things. I just take one thing at a time. I’m not saying that the process so far hasn’t created tension between Troy and I, because it has. We’ve had some fights here and there but we’re working through it. It’s great… our marriage will strengthen because of this experience.

Time to Update!
I guess the last time I blogged was in July! Wow… I sure did take a long break from blogging didn’t I? I figure that it’s time for me to keep it up to date more often. I do that. Blog, blog, blog… then stop for a long time.

Well, since July, here’s what is going on with us…

In August, Ryan started back to school. My little Kindergardner!! I was long awaiting the first day of school!


Yay!! He sure does look so happy in these pictures!

I also thought it was a good idea to get Benjamin in a preschool. I was really excited to hear about a preschool that a woman was teaching out of her own home. Her price was really good so we went for it. Benjamin is having a blast! They do lots of crafts, sing songs, tell stories, and go on fun field trips.


In the fire station pictures, you’ll notice that Ben has band-aids on his chin. Yet again, he fell and busted is little chin open. Luckily this time, knock on wood, he only needed glue to keep it shut. No stitches.

Here is when they went to a fun place called Pumpkin Land.

Swim Lessons and Troy's Birthday Presents

The boys started a 2 week swimming lessons. They are both having fun going to the pool everyday to learn and have fun with their teacher.


They are both still having a hard time putting their heads under water but while Ryan was in the bath tub last night, we did it! I'm excited to tell his teacher next week so he can start having more fun!

Now..... Here are the 2 toys Troy got for his birthday! (Spoiled little brat!)

Troy's first present... The Ipad. He loves to use it for his new job. He needs to take lots of notes at work and take it to all of his meetings. He can also jump on the internet with it wherever he needs to pull it up. It's a really handy little notebook.


The boys are having fun with it too. We've added the Toy Story 3 app on it. It's a storytelling app that also has games during the story. The boys are in heaven!

The second present... A new car!! It's a 2010 Jetta TDI. I don't know alot about cars so go Google it and find out all the specs. All I know... it runs on diesel fuel and gets about 50 miles to the gallon. That's pretty great! The reason we bought it was to replace our 2001 Passat. We spent a fortune last year on getting the car fixed and it ran smooth! All of a sudden, it started making more sounds and that was the last straw for Troy. He really needed a dependable car to commute all the way up to Salt Lake and back. Here it is!

All I have to say is that Christmas better be great for me! I better get something good!