Feeding The Ducks

We have really struggled with being good in sacrament meeting. The screaming and fighting over pens, pencils, and notepads. Dave finally said enough and refused to bring anything with us. If they were good during church he would take them to feed the ducks. They did so much better this week. We still had our minor scrimmages, but overall it was a great improvement.

So after lunch we went to feed the ducks at the golf course. Each person had their own bag of bread and eagerly ran towards the water to start. Dave grabbed Ryder before he fell in. Reganne did better at the beginning. She slowly crept to the waters edge and I quickly grabbed her.

They had so much fun, but it was quickly over. Ryder decided to throw rocks instead. The ducks swam away. Reganne let out a scream that there was duck poop on the rocks. We were done. We loaded up and were half way home. Rylee yelled out that Ryder had duck poop on his hands. Since we were only 2 minutes away from the house. I asked her to make sure his hands didn't go into his mouth. We ran in the house for a quick scrub with soap and water. A little while later I noticed he had black all over his clothes. Leave it to a little boy to get duck poop all over him so quickly.

Here he is covered in duck poop and drenched from head to toe from the squirt bottle. I am not sure if he managed this on his own or if there was a little help. He sure was proud of himself.

Favorite movies this week: Monsters Inc (Reganne) & Kung Fu Panda (Rylee). We have finally moved away from Spirit.

March in like a Lion

We are hoping that it will be out like a lamb. The weather this week has been so unsettled. It turned cold again and the runny noses reappeared. I am beginning to suspect allergies with Reganne. I feel so bad when I look at her sore nose. She is constantly blowing and has a handful of tissues. Ryder's I believe is teething related. He constantly has his fingers in his mouth.

We have been doing a lot of reading. Rylee must reach 30 minutes each day for school. Primary they have challenged the kids to read the Book of Mormon by the end of the year. We were getting ready for family reading and we noticed Ryder had Rylee's book and he was turning the pages like he was reading. Now every time I turn around he seems to have a book in his hand. He won't let me read to him or look at the pictures with him. He wants to do it himself.

Dave had a Young Men's service Project on Saturday. When it warmed up a little bit we headed back to the schools play ground. Rylee wanted to show me her new tricks. She is getting really good at spinning and climbing. I am amazed at how flexible she is and how quickly she can climb around. She has played so much that she has a small blister on her hand. My favorite part is the big smile she has plastered on her face the whole time. Reganne running around climbing on everything. Ryder slept until it was time to leave. He woke up and was made he didn't want to leave.

The Monkey Bars

Yeah!! We have finally started having better weather. Saturday was a girl day since Dave was gone. He went to the Rhino Rally that they is held each year in the area. He volunteers and gets to enjoy the day outside on his motorcycle and watching the race.

After a morning spent in the house while I work on my spring cleaning. We headed to the park to play. All week Rylee has been telling us about the new tricks she is learning on the monkey bars at school. I asked her if she would like to show me. Of course she said yes and so we were off to her school playground. For once she had the monkey bars to herself. She took advantage of it too.

The small Bar

Reganne posing

Upside down Rylee

Look at me

See Dad I can really do this!!!

This is not fair I can't reach the bar. Mom, Can you help me??? Yeah right I can't reach either.

Reganne & the slide. Her favorite until she found a spider on it.

Ryder just had to be right underneath her. He wanted to try, but couldn't figure out how to hold on. When we would lift him up. He looked at the bar and grinned. Rylee being the big sister tried to help him, but he just wasn't able to do it.

Our last stop was to our new park / splash pad across the street. It is going to be a wonderful place for the neighborhood kids to play. However, it is not finished yet. The playgrounds are in but the ground cover is not. We were the only ones there, but in 1/2 hour the park was full of kids. Then the landscaper drove by, he stopped, and turned on the sprinklers. The park cleared out. We look forward to playing in this park alot this summer.

Beating the Winter Blues

My goal this week was to get everyone moving instead of watching tv and fighting with each other. Our weather has not been cooperating with outside play. The weathermen keep telling us better weather is around the corner. I am not sure what corner they are talking about, but I haven't seen much improvement. I guess I am wrong at least there hasn't been anymore snow.
Sunday was Wii Fit Night. We needed something to wear everyone out so they would go to sleep. They love to play the games and then run. Rylee loves to out run the trainer, Reganne loves to outrun Rylee, and Ryder isn't sure how to run in place so he runs around the room.

Monday was swimming at the Rec Center. Dave is teaching the girls how to float on their backs and to swim. They are quickly losing their fear of the water and love to go under and hold their breath. Ryder is even not clinging as much and will splash and move his arms in the water.

Thursday we were off to the Rec Center again. This time for the Rock Wall. It is the largest rock climbing wall in Southern Utah. We lucked out and they were teaching a class and so it was closed. Dave promised the girls we would go again on Saturday.

Saturday finally came and the girls could hardly wait to go. Finally, we made it and there was a line with about a 1/2 hour wait. Reganne changed her mind and decided not to try. Rylee the longer we waited the less she was sure she wanted to try. Ryder just wanted to run around.

Finally, it was Rylee's turn. They harnessed her up and got her to the wall. She tried really hard and started up the wall. She decided it was to hard and to come down.

Surprise... Reganne saw Rylee do it and now she needed a turn. The line had disappeared to only 1 or 2 kids. Reganne forced Dave to give her a chance.

This child has no fear and up the wall she went.

Not to be outdone by her sister. Rylee had to have another turn. She again started to climb. She did really well. However, both girls don't have much strength to pull them selves up yet. So they could only go as far as Dave could reach.

Down, Down, Rylee goes!!

They had so much fun and want to try again next week. Ryder couldn't be out done and started climbing the fence.

Ryder has become our resident monkey this week. He had discovered that he can climb and reach all sorts of things. He climbs up the dinning room chairs and onto the table to reach the tv remote, food, or the girls projects. He has only fell once and landed spread eagle on the floor. He wasn't hurt just scared. It hasn't slowed him down any and he is always open to try to climb something new. If I didn't already have gray hair. I am sure it would be turning white now.

The weather is supposed to be better this week. Maybe we have reached that elusive corner. Reganne wants to swing, Rylee wants to swim, and Ryder wants to run. I want to sit and watch. Yeah right!!!!

Happy Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day when did it become such a big holiday. The kids have been talking about it and planning for the past 2 weeks. They had to make enough valentine's for each of the their classes plus make them for Ryder's. Then every day this week they have asked is it time yet? There was almost as much anticipation as there was at Christmas. Finally, Friday came and each one had their bags and off they went to school. This is what they came home with. Each had a bag full of cards and candy. Are we sure this isn't Halloween??

Look at these grins.

Ryder came in carrying this valentine flower in a vase. The top kept falling off and he would scream. We would try to put it back together. He was all smiles until it fell again. Finally, he was distracted by Rylee's balloon and moved on.

Happy Birthday Grandpa Bob. We are starting a new family tradition. So many of our grandparents are no longer with us. The kids get really confused when we talk about them. So this year I decided to have mini birthday parties for each grandparent on their birthday. I gather some facts about the day they were born and pictures of them. We then sang Happy Birthday and had a treat. The story and pictures are going in Our Family Book so they can look at them whenever they want. The girls then wanted the stories about when they were born.

Pile on Daddy Time. The weather has been cold this week. Everyone was cold so they piled on daddy to get warm. Then the fun began.

The weather is still pretty miserable so we have gone swimming instead of playing outside. Rylee & Reganne are really overcoming their fear of the water. Ryder wants so much to play with them but can't figure out why the water is over his head. The girls favorite part is showering afterwards in the hot showers. They thought it was so cool to shower somewhere else other than home.

Finally February

Finally February is here and it is starting to warm up. Or so we thought the cold, windy, drizzly weather from December reappeared this week. One of our fun places to visit is the Washington Rec Center. We decided to join this year and hopefully have a year full of family fun. The kids were so excited with the possibility of going swimming. They brought the swim goggles to me. I set them down and the next thing I turn around there is Ryder behind me struggling to put them on. I put them on him and was rewarded with this awesome smile.


Getting ready for bed. Reganne couldn't get her jammies on they were stuck. She got her ponytail stuck in the armhole and couldn't figure out what the problem was. When we tried to show her how to fix it she cried. I think somebody needs to get some sleep.

Ring A Around The Rosies is the new game to play. Who lasts the longest?? Reganne. She then gets upset with the others when they won't play.

Wii & Wii Fit are the games to play. They were trying to play the Disney Princess Game by themselves. They did pretty well. When they would have problems they would yell Mom!!! I would then yell Dad!!! I am so helpless when it comes to playing games. I can do Wii Fit and love the work out it gives me. I do this early in the morning before anyone wakes up and wants to play.

As I turned around from taking the girls picture. There was Ryder behind me. I told him to say Cheese and he wrinkled up his nose and gave me this big grin. To cute to miss. For the next five minutes he followed me around laughing and smiling when I would say Cheese.

His new words this week are Nose, Eye, Dog, Down.

He took his bottle (nothing in it) out of his crib on Friday and we couldn't find it for bedtime. Of course he cried for about 5 minutes until he fell asleep. I was frantically searching the house knowing we were in for a long night without it. I had told him earlier that he needed to throw it away since it was out of his bed or put it back. So I tried the garbage can. Surprise it was sitting right there. He minds really well right now and follows simple instructions pretty good. I am going to enjoy this since I know it won't last.

January Blahs !!!

We are totally suffering from the January blahs!!! I can't wait for the warm weather and sunshine to appear so we can go outside to play in the evenings. Instead right now we are watching movies and tormenting each other.

I found that if I turn on some music the kids will get up and start dancing. The girls will spin and jump. Ryder is right behind them trying to get them to spin around with him. They discovered Ring Around The Rosie's and they all were laughing so hard. Rylee got tired of bending over dancing with Ryder. She picked him up and started twirling with him. He loved it. She was tired way before him.


Reganne wanted to get into the action as well. She couldn't wait to dance for me, but I took to long taking the other pictures. I turned around and she was right there saying cheese. This was to cute too pass up.

I sure hope that February brings better weather and fun things to do.