November and December

Well... November and December have been very busy, with not much time left for blogging about it! Ryker turned 2 on November 25, but the last 2 months have basically been one big party for him! We invited all of his little friends for a birthday playdate at the park, and a few days later we celebrated his birthday with him as a family. For his real birthday, he was spending a week with Grandma & Grandpa while Ben and I were in Cancun with Ben's family. (I've been working on Ryker's scrapbook, and haven't had a chance to even look at our Mexico pictures yet... sorry!) Anyway, of course there was another birthday celebration at Grandma and Grandpa's house, so the whole month was just one big party, and then it was on to Christmas!

We spent Christmas here in Florida with just us. We were kind of sad about not seeing everyone, but we had a good time. Ryker got to help decorate a little and Grandma and Grandpa's before he left, and when we got back we put up our little Christmas tree! I've still got to go through our pictures of the actual Christmas Day, but here's a start! Hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

Birthday playdate at the park

Birthday party with Mom and Dad

Party at Grandma's

Week at Grandma's

Helping Grandpa with the tree

Ryker got a scooter for his birthday, and a bike from Grandma and Grandpa (to be kept at their house since he already has a bike at home) He is getting fast on both, and hard to keep up with!

Our Christmas tree

Happy Holidays everyone!

(Thank you to Charlotte Gardunia for all of the scrapbook backgrounds!)

Halloween!

I am trying to come up with a scrapbook page for Halloween, but so far I'm drawing a blank. Here's some pics from the big night. Our apartment complex goes all out for Halloween by turning the office into a big haunted house. They work really hard on it, and it turned out really good this year. Ryker is so brave... all the scary Halloween stuff doesn't scare him too bad. He just clings to you kind of tight! He really loved trick or treating, and he is so proud of his pumpkin basket full of candy! Isn't he a cute little football player?! (Thanks, Mom for the costume!)

The Pumpkin

I can't believe its already Halloween again! Our time in Florida is really passing by fast.

Happy Halloween everybody!

We had fun carving our pumpkin for Family Night this week! I'd say it went pretty smoothly, with only a little bit of "pumpkin guts" on the couch! Ryker really loves his pumpkin!

Bike Ride

After waiting and waiting for his legs to grow, Ryker can now ride his bike! He has been doing it for a couple of weeks now, but I couldn't find my camara charger, so this is the first video. This is from today at the park. Pretty good, huh? (Our neighbors moved out and left this little bike behind, so the maintenance guy gave it to us! That's one advantage to living in an apartment... I guess.)

Big Boy Bed

This weekend we converted Ryker's crib into a "big boy bed." We added this rail because he would definitely fall out, but now he can get in and out of bed by himself. (Of course, good luck getting him to climb into it voluntarily!) He was pretty excited about it.

However... last night around 3:30 I heard some clanking around on the monitor and then Ryker started crying like something was very wrong. I ran in there to find him in his closet, stuck behind the vacuum! He had woken up and climbed out of bed and headed for the closet instead of the door. He got all the way in behind the vacuum before he realized he was lost and stuck and got scared. When I turned the light on he was still crying and had the saddest, most scared and upset look on his face I have ever seen. It makes me want to cry just thinking about it! He got to sleep with Mommy and Daddy the rest of the night.

... And today I bought him a night light.



Ryker doing "canon balls" into the pool.
(this was just tonight)

2 BIG Accomplishments

Ben is completely done with his year of PA classes, and ready for a year of clinical rotations!! Friday was his White Coat Ceremony. They give them their white coats to wear, and it means they are ready to treat patients!

Isn't he handsome?

Ben all ready for his first day of clinical rotations! The first one is Pediatrics in Tampa. Sounds kinda fun, except the patients are 80% spanish speaking! (Ben no habla espanol!!) He's gonna do great though!

And the other BIG accomplishment of the day?

Ryker went poop in the potty today! Yay! I think he's starting to understand! He actually told me "stinky" and ran in there. I was so proud of him, and he was pretty happy with himself too. Then he flushed the toilet and said "Bye bye pooey!" These pictures are not from today (unfortunately I missed his moment of triumph with the camara), but you get the idea!

August Happenings

It has been so long since our last post that all of the things a planned on posting seem like old news! Oh well... here's some pics of the things we have been doing in August! Things that are going on that we don't have pictures of? Well, Ben finished his year of classes, and will begin his year of clinical rotations next week. Yay!! Ryker and I have just been hangin' out, playing with his friends and keeping cool at the pool. Ryker starts swimming lessons tomorrow, so we will see how that goes! And now for the pictures...

HOME AGAIN!!

We have been very lucky to be able to go home to Idaho as often as we have. We just passed the 1 year mark since we moved to Florida, and we have been back 3 times. Our last trip was the first week of August

MUD LAKE

Pickin' raspberries with Grandma

Yum! Yum!

Ryker playing with his cousins

Ryker just loves playing with his cousins! We wish he could be around them more. They have so much fun together.

Ice cream cones! Thanks Grandma!

Aunt Aubrey giving Ryker a haircut. Isn't he handsome? Thanks Aubrey!

Giving the 4-H pigs a bath before the fair!

Checkin' out the horses

TWIN FALLS

Boating at Shoshone Falls

Look whose driving!!

I remember riding this horse when I was little! Luckily Grandpa and Grandma kept it around!

CAMPING IN SUN VALLEY

Ryker looking at the stars and singing "Twinkle Twinkle"

We rode the Sun Valley ski lift to the top and rode mountain bikes down. At the top it was hailing, so we went in the lodge for a minute. The janitor gave us garbage bags to put over ourselves to stay dryer. Don't we look stupid!

The view from the mountain.

Luckily the sun came back out, and we got to lose the garbage bags, but we still look kinda stupid!

BACK IN FLORIDA

Ryker trying to be just like Daddy

Fun at the pool!

We still love the beach!

Ryker's first time bowling.

We let Ryker push the ball down the alley! The guy had to come get his ball for us like 5 times because it got stuck half way. I think they were happy to see us leave, but we had fun!

Ryker's new pool trick is going under the water. This made me decide maybe we should try swimming lessons!

Congratulations!

You made it to the end of this post! If you actually looked at the whole thing I'm impressed! Sorry it was so long.