Attack of the Birds...

Brad and I were really enjoying that we had some birds around our house this spring...that is until they decided to start waking us up EVERY morning at about four or five. Without fail they start "singing" that early and it's NOT quiet. Well, if that's not enough, they started squawking and almost dive-bombing us every time we are in the backyard. We were wondering what all the fuss was until we saw some sticks poking out of our rain gutters. Yes, these birds have decided our rain gutters are an excellent place for a nest. I grabbed the ladder and decided to take a peek. This is what I found:




Here are the culprits. They sit on this dead tree behind our house.




This one came close to attacking me when I was on the ladder checking out the nest.



Although I HATE getting woke up, the birds are actually really pretty. I guess I will just have to live with the dive-bombing and squawking because I can't bring myself to do anything to those cute little eggs.

I've given in...

Wow. I'm one of "those moms". Yup. I'm quitting potty training. No more poopy underwear pants for me. Back to diapers. Coop did SO SO well for about a week. We were so excited. Then he decided it was too much work. So many people have told me that they'll be the ones to decide to be potty trained, but I thought this would work. It did...for a while. He got treats, presents, the whole works. Apparently that's not good enough motivation for him. I even resorted to threatening to put him in baby diapers. Today, when I had enough I told him I was going down to get a baby diaper to put on him with which he responded...."No, that's a big boy diaper." I told him it was a baby diaper thinking it would make him not want to wear it. He looked at me and said, "I want to wear diapers, lots of diapers." Great! Looks like I'm in for a long haul.....

Four Months!!

Wow, time sure flies by!! I can't believe my little Ryk is four months old...Ryker is such a HAPPY baby. He's the baby that you look at and get an instant grin! He LOVES attention and is so much fun to play with. I was thinking the other day how there has never been a time when I couldn't get him to stop crying! Crazy! Here are his four month stats:

Weight: 16 lbs 3 oz - 75%
Length: 25 in - 50%
Head: 43.2 cm - 75%

Ryker is loving his fingers these days. I have a special blanket used for bundling and he gets his arms out every time. He is quite the escape artist. He has been falling asleep with his fist in his mouth the last few nights and its adorable. He also loves "talking". He will jabber and coo a conversation with ya. He has started to CRY in his carseat...not loving that but hopefully he'll get over it soon! I'm loving having two kids. It is extra work, but sometime I wish I would've had my kids even closer in age!! It's crazy how you can really feel more of a "family" with each addition.

Happy Fathers Day!!!

Happy Father's day to all the great dads, grandpas, and husbands out there!! Mine especially!!





AND BOTH PAPAS!!

Is that my little boy??

Coop must have been bit by some mysterious bug this weekend because his face has continued to swell over the past few days. This morning he woke up and I knew it was Coop but I felt like I was staring at a different little boy! Hopefully the swelling goes away soon. That can't feel good!

Happy Birthday Grandma!!

Saturday we celebrated my Grandma Buttars 88th Birthday. She is such a sweet lady and we are so glad to have her in our lives. She has been through so much and continues to persevere. We love you grandma!!

First Haircut

While I was up at my parents house on Friday, we decided that Ryker's hair was just too long. I can't believe my baby is only three months and he's already had his first haircut!! Crazy!

Before:




After:

Stupid in Me

Today while I was sitting in the bathroom with Cooper waiting for him to go potty once again he looked at me and said, "Mom, you have stupid in you." What!!!!! I thought I was supposed to be some kind of goddess to him at this age. I guess it's started. I will say that's the only time I've ever had to hold back the laughter when I've been called stupid...

Potty Party!

So, I decided it was about time for me to get in gear and start potty training. I'm about as clueless as they come when it comes to this kind of stuff. Well, I read some books, asked friends for advise and jumped right in. Here are some highlights of our adventure on Friday:

Coop woke up to a "potty party". I had decorated our front room in a little beachy theme. We were going to potty train in style. :) He was given a doll to potty train. He named his doll Baby Booty...(Don't know where that came from) haha

During breakfast he looked up at me and said, "Mom, Baby Booty needs to eat my bottles." hahahah I about died laughing. I guess he's seen me nurse Ryker a few times :)

After he woke up from his nap I took him in to go potty and he looked at me all concerned and said, "Mom, I think my peepee is stuck in my weewee." TMI I know, but it was funny.

That night as part of his reward we told him we could go to Walmart and pick out some more fish to put in his fish tank. We headed in and there was this nice lady to help us. Well, they had a really cool looking puffer fish there that we decided to get along with some neon fish. When the lady went to get the puffer fish out, the motion of the water stirred up about three dead puffer fish. That should have been our first clue to stay away from this fish. That was the least of our worries. As we were about up to the register to get buy the fish I look in on them and was shocked to see half of one of the neon fish hanging out of the puffer fish!! He was seriously eating it whole! The other poor neon fish was just frantically swimming around in horror. Well, the puffer decided he was done with that neon fish and started attacking the other one! Poor fish!! I felt so helpless. I watched in horror as he started eating the other one. This happened in all of five minutes!! Well, I walked back to the fish and had someone else there to help me who thought it was the most hilarious thing ever. She said that puffer fish were aggressive. Oh, I guess I should have known.... Anyway, she said that any fish with a 3 on the end of the price were aggressive. Apparently the first lady had no idea. We walked out with some new neon fish and others that weren't supposed to be aggressive. Well, those neon fish must be at the bottom of the food chain because not even two hours later our goldfish had attacked and killed them also. Now we have a killer goldfish on our hands.

All in all, this potty training business is not fun. Coop does awesome, we've only had a few accidents but still!! How long am I going to have to take him to the potty every half hour??!! I guess this is the price every parent has to pay to get rid of nasty two year old diapers!!

I'm A Celebrity...

Okay, so I don't know if any of you have heard about this new show on TV, but I thought it looked pretty lame. The ONLY reason that I watched it at all was because Spencer and Heidi from the Hills are on it. Yes I watch The Hills..I will admit it. Pretty lame I know, but very entertaining.
The first episode was Monday night. Spencer and Heidi didn't disappoint! As I'm watching it Heidi talks a lot about being a Christian. She goes on to say that she aspires to be Mother Theresa and that riches and things don't matter....Wait a second....didn't I just see her on the Hills freaking out that her TEN THOUSAND!! dollar purse got a stain?? Can I say DOUBLE STANDARD...I don't think Mother Theresa owned a ten thousand dollar purse. Is this couple for real??? Did any one else watch?

P.S.: Just so you don't think I'm totally lame...I don't think I'll watch the show again. It was a serious waste of my time :)

Five Whole Years!!

Wow! We celebrated our 5 Year Anniversary on Friday. Have we even changed a bit?? I can't believe five years have already gone by!




I was thinking about the past five years and everything that's happened and realized that I am right where I want to be and where I'm supposed to be. There are moments when our marrige seems like a fairy tale, but I have to say I'm thankful for my "realistic" marriage. Our weekend seemed to coincide with our "realistic" marriage.



Since Ryker is so little we couldn't really plan a major trip like we wanted so we have to postpone the trip until next year. We decided to celebrate anyway. My mother took Ryker and Coop for us..LOVE YOU MOM!! and we headed to the movies. Did we go see something romantic and cuddle the whole time? No. I let Brad choose the movie and we went and saw Terminator. Nice romantic one eh?? I didn't mind in the least because who doesn't want to look at Christian Bale?? haha I really liked the movie though. (Just a side note..if you live in Logan and want to head to the movie DON'T go to the new theater by the mall. It was dirty and gross!) Anyway, we headed to Cafe Sabor next. We had a little argument here because Brad wanted to share a meal to save money and I wanted my own..TYPICAL :). After our great meal we headed to Sherwood Hills to stay. Our room looked a TON like the one we stayed at our honeymoon night....at the HOLIDAY INN! All my friends are laughing right now because they know the story. Anyway, we got a good laugh about it too. That night while I was enjoying my sleep my phone charger just started beeping. I looked at the clock and realized we had NO POWER. Yup, the power went off at one in the morning and hadn't come back on when we left at 10. Oh well, nothing's perfect but it's these "real" moments that make my life what it is and I wouldn't change it!! :) We did have a great time together just the two of us!
On the way home around Salt Lake Brad looks at me and says to me hypothetically, "If I left my computer and cell phone at my parents would you turn around right now and get it??" I replied, "NO WAY!" We got a good laugh about it until......that night when Brad went to look for his work computer and realized he LEFT IT IN LOGAN!! hahahah How ironic?!! That is another indication of what five years marriage and two kids do to your brain. I am learning to laugh at these small little things that make life what it is! Happy Five Years Honey! I love you!!

That doesn't look right

Some of the stuff Coop does these days make me laugh so hard. We got out the jumper for Ryker and Coop decided he wanted in...



I guess it just looked too fun to pass up!

Ryan's Home

My nephew Ryan returned home from his mission last Tuesday. We all went to the aiport to see him arrive. He got in at ten at night so it was a late night for all these kids but they had a blast. I didn't get any pics of Ryan...but we snapped this one of the kids playing on the stairs. They are all getting so big!! Coop even decided he didn't need me to ride the escalator! He ran up the stairs with Ella, Taya and Addy and by the time I realized he was up there I couldn't make it to the top in time before he just hopped right on the escalator. They were totally on a mission. Luckily Kelly was up with Ella and got on right after him because I don't think he would've known how to get off! Four two-year-olds on the escalator alone..YIKES!

Memorial Weekend

Memorial weekend was spent with the Rich family. We usually go somewhere and stay far away but this year was different. We decided to stay close to home. Lori lives in Draper so the activities were centered around her house. We stayed Friday night at a hotel in Sandy..(far from home...haha) and played with family. Our weekend consisted of a treasure hunt, swimming, tennis, talking and good food. Coop had a great time with his 'friends' and is constantly asking to go to Lori's house. We had a great time!

Making his bag for the teasure hunt



All of his friends(cousins). He wasn't having this picture...



The lucky riders...I joined them after a bit :)




How Ryker spent the day



Checking out his treasure



Swimming at the hotel

3 Months

Ryker turned 3 months on the 23rd of May. He is such a good baby and we love having him as part of our family. His favorite things these days are his hands, his baths, getting dressed, interaction with anyone and his binkies. He is a little chunk and pretty strong. He will stand up for quite a while if we hold his hands. He brings such joy to us!!