"I'm a real cowboy now!"

A friend of mine was so nice to invite me and the boys down for a weekend of horse back riding on her family's ranch in Beaver, Utah. There could not have been a more perfect vacation for Thomas and Nathan.
Nate insisted on wearing his "cowboy clothes" almost the entire trip. I was thankful the outfit included his boots, since his overalls are size 12 months and only went a little past his knees!

Thomas loved everything about the ranch. He thought it was great to feed and groom the horses and of course loved each second of riding when he enthusiastically proclaimed that he was "a real cowboy now." (As opposed to the kind of cowboy he was before, when he only got to ride the horses around in a circle at the fair? Perceptive kid.)

I hadn't been on a horse in years, but was glad that it came back to me since I almost always had at least one child riding with me. I give all the credit to great horses though- They made me look good :)

We had to drive up the canyon 20 mintutes to start our first ride. When we got to the trail and started getting the horses ready, Nate began stressing. There was nothing to do but just make him get on the horse. It didn't take long before he got used to it though, as long as we were singing cowboy songs together.

This is Thomas and his cute girlfriend Kallie. They were inseparable and loved to ride together. At one point I turned around to see their horse in a dead run. I began to panic thinking they were scared and would fall off, until I noticed them hanging on for their lives and laughing! Thomas later claimed that was his favorite part.

The last night there we took an amazing 2 hour ride up the canyon. The scenery was so beautiful. For such a long ride the kids did great. I was sore by then so I can't imagine how their little legs felt. Thomas even insisted he ride his own horse most of the time. I had to promise both the boys that we would difinitly go back to Beaver again.

Temple and Wedding

The day before Ryan left for DC, he was doing a job in Daybreak. We had a million things to do to get him ready. One of the things that we had really wanted to do was to go to the Oquirrh Temple open house together as a family. Since, Ry was literally working across the street from the temple already, he called to have us meet him and bring him a change of clothes.

This was such a great experience and I am so glad that we were able to take the time to take the boys to the temple. It was a hot day and crowded, but they did awesome. Thomas would close his eyes to concentrate to "check if he was feeling the spirit." It was so cute. We all appreciated the water and cookies at the end!

Friday we had a special wedding in our family. My dad's youngest brother was sealed in the temple. He is 47 and has never been married. He married this darling doctor of 41 who had just never found the right one. We are so happy for them. I am so thankful for the blessings of the temple.

Since Ry has been gone, my younger brother Dane has been amazing at stepping in and helping with the boys, especially at the reception. (All you girls out there...he is very surprisingly still single.) Thomas and Nathan were so proud to have purple ties like Dane and Papa.

I love my boys!

Thomas was a little stud at the reception. He found the only little girl close to his age and danced the night away. I have to say his moves even included a few twirls and a dip!

Nate loved to get out there and dance too, as long as mom was right by his side. I didn't mind, I needed a dance partner as well. So fun, just wished daddy could have joined in.

Living in Limbo…Still

Ryan has accepted an internship in Washington DC with an awesome company. They only hire from their interns, so we decided to take a chance. It is open ended, but we plan on him being there a couple of months. We hate not having him with us. But, so far he has been working crazy hours and if we were there, we figure we probably wouldn’t get to see much of him anyways. I am going into a bit of shock, though, after having him around so much. I was definitely spoiled. To say the least, we are not exactly where we expected to be seven months after graduation. But, we are HAPPY, we love being close to family and we have an overall good feeling that things are going to work out…eventually.

Birthday Boys

I can't believe that my boys are getting so BIG!! Thomas turned FOUR on May 23rd and on June 1st Nathan turned TWO.

Nathan couldn't be happier with the bubble mower that he got. Thomas was thrilled with his "weed whacker" and of course I put them right to work in the yard!

Question: Who buys a chain saw for a four year old? Answer: Grandma ...because he asked for it. (He still loves it. Even after he figured out that it doesn't really cut anything.)

We had a fun birthday party with the Bull family for the boys and the other birthday cousins as well. I can't believe how patiently they all waited for their turn. At my house that paper would have been flying!

Happy Birthday guys. We LOVE you!!

Thursday I was able to meet up with two of my very best friends from college and it brought back a flood of memories. I remember being a scared little freshman on my way to Rexburg by myself not knowing what to expect. As luck would have it, I ended up in an apartment with these two awesome ladies and we had the time of our lives together, so much so that we roomed together the next year as well. Ah ...Good Times.

Cute Maren put together a slide show of a few of those crazy moments. To check it out, here is a LINK to her blog.

Me, Becky, Maren

I think it's so fun that we all have boys!
Thanks girls, I had such a good time with you!

St. George Trip

We took a fun little vacation with the Bull Family this weekend. Our nieces Amanda and Rachel had a dance competition in St. George. It was a quick trip, but we had a great time.
Pretty much all day Saturday we were in and out of the dance competition. We are so proud of the girls they did such a great job and Thomas and Nate were so excited to watch them dance.
(Sorry, I couldn't get this picture to turn the right way.)

Of course, the first stop was In and Out!

Swimming at the pool. It was so nice to have warm weather!

In between dances we spent time at the park just playing and hanging out.

Nate would have spend the entire time on the swing if we had let him.

Jeff, Rachel and Amanda who are always so wonderful and patient to watch after all our little kids. Thanks guys!

Thomas doing "tricks" and wanting me to take pictures of them all. This is just a lovely sample for you to enjoy.

Ryan drove his grandparents down and back. On the way down, the boys and I hitched a ride with grandma and grandpa Bull, but since they were continuing on to California, we rode home with Brittany and Danny. Don't they look like they are having fun!?

Easter

The boys looked so sharp in their new Easter vests courtesy of Mama Bull.

Easter Egg hunt at the Bulls

We really enjoyed being with family this Easter. Thomas and Nathan love playing with their cousins!

Don't they look like they are posing for a prom picture? So cute, matching outfits and all!

My mom gave the boys these matching blue rain boots for Easter and now they pretty much wear them everywhere. Shirts aren't required for Easter egg hunts are they?

Coloring Easter eggs at grandma's house...the real reason why they have no shirts on.

Besides the egg hunts at both grandparent's houses, I also took the kids to an egg hunt in Mama Bulls neighborhood the Friday before. Thomas, Nathan and Kelli got to meet the Easter Bunny and started the hunt enthusiastically until they realized that the eggs were filled with candy. Then they were just content to sit and eat their treats while the craziness continued around them!

Are you Irish??

I don't think that we are...but it sure looks like we want to be!
Friday, our library held some St. Patrick's Day activities. The kids had so much fun making hats, watching Irish dancing, doing the "shamrock stomp" (a cake walk where Ryan who thinks that we never wins anything, scored a box of green cookies!) and getting their face painted.

The "King of the Leprechauns" even came to tell stories! This was perfect because Thomas and I have been talking about mischievous little leprechauns who might just play tricks on us when St. Patrick's Day arrives. (It's silly, but I can't wait for them to wake up and discover that their milk has been turned green. I know, I'm lame.) Thomas came up with the idea to build a trap to see if we can catch a leprechaun. We will let you know how that turns out. It's cute to see how excited he is.

I was surprised that Nathan held so still to get his face painted. (I promise that I was just holding his little chin, although it does look very similar to a choke hold...maybe that is way he held so still?!

Random things we have been up to.

Thomas' friend Tristen from Arizona was in Utah and invited him to Chucky Cheeses for her birthday. Thomas walked from game to game all day with this same expression on his face. I had to keep asking him if he was having any fun, I guess he was just too overwhelmed to smile. Not the reaction that I expected of the day!

Since the boys are having with drawls from the swimming pool and warm weather, they now spend ALOT of time in the bathtub!

Thomas started preschool in January and loves it. He goes to Northridge High School were my mom works. Because the school's mascot is the Knights, the school is called "Noble Knights" preschool. As you can imagine Thomas thinks that this is just perfect for him. "How did they know, that I am a Knight?"

We now live 10 minutes from my parents, 2 minutes from Ryan's parents and around the corner from Ryan's sister Brittany. It is so fun to have family close by and cousins to play with. Whenever we get together, I always think to myself, "This is what it would be like to have three kids each a year a part!" Thomas and Kelli are like two peas in a pod. When the other cousins are playing princess or school, Thomas and Kelli are in their under ware jumping off the couches or climbing up the closet sneaking cookies with Nate always close behind.

Midway

Back to Blogging...I hope. Why is it that the longer you wait to update the blog, the harder it is!? These posts probably won't be in any order or show all that we have been up to the last...hmmm..two months. But, oh well.

After Christmas, we spent some time in Midway with my family. It was a nice little getaway. We enjoyed sledding, playing in the snow and a sleigh ride.

The horse drawn sleigh ride was the highlight of the trip. It was such a beautiful day.

Thomas wanted to sit up front with the driver and ultimately talked the entire trip. The driver was so patient and cute with him.

Nathan was so relaxed that he fell asleep for most of the ride!

The first day, Ryan took the boys sledding on a what I thought was a little hill just outside of our room. It wasn't until I went with them the following day that I realized that our sledding "hill" was really a little crater that was open at the top and warm dark mineral water was just waiting for one of the boys to slip right into, after a good fall!

Thomas trying to white wash Ryan, and instead getting Nathan. (Notice the delight/mischief in his face.) Good times!