Early Christmas w/ Aunt Val and Uncle Nadim

We celebrated Christmas last week early with my sister Val and her husband Nadim. We had a lot of fun with them and the kids were sad when they left. Ryder loves his Aunt Val and even became attached to Uncle Nadim as well. Thanks Aunt Val and Uncle Nadim for all the fun gifts!

Meeting Santa

Last week we had Nils's work Christmas party. We all met up at the local resturant and ate. We ended up only taking Ryder with us because Brooklyn didn't feel too well. We heard when we got there that Santa would be coming so we told Ryder. He was all sorts of excited and eating his dinner and asking when he'd come. The minute Santa came in and said, "Ho, Ho, Ho." Ryder jumped out of skin and ducked down in his seat. He was terrified! I finally got him to somewhat take a picture with him, but as you can see he was not thrilled.

Ryder sat in his seat and tried to eat his dinner, but was till terrified of Santa coming. Santa walked around the resturant and each time Ryder heard his bells comes near us, he dropped his fork, closed his eyes, and sunk down in his seat. After the party I asked him if he still wanted Santa to come to his home and bring him toys and he said, "Yes, when I go to sleep."

Happy Halloween!

We had a really fun time for Halloween this year with the kids. They both were happy and I think they had fun as well. Ryder is still a Spiderman freak and my mom happened to find his costume for $11 one day. He was SO excited!! I had to sneak it away from him and hide it until Halloween because he didn't want to part with it. We decided to make Brooklyn into a little Fairy Princess. My sister in law Whitney was amazing and awesome; she made her little skirt for us and it turned out way cute on her. Nils is the paint master so he did the paint on Ryder's face. Ryder was a bit hesitant at first, but then went for it and loved it after. They both turned out cute I think and we had fun! We did the common Trunk-Or-Treating and games at our church and Ryder had fun with that. He thought it was neat he was getting so much candy. Brooklyn dug the smarties! In the picture below Ryder was trying to be all serious and big like Spiderman and I was trying hard not to laugh of course. Here Ryder is shooting his Spiderman webs. It is cute when he does it! I wil have to try to get it on video one day. His fingers go just like Spiderman's and he makes a sound to go with it. Brooklyn then tried to hit him with her wand so I had to hold her back. She didn't quite know what to think of the skirt at first, but sure liked her wand as a weapon on Ryder. As cute as she is, she still has a mean streak for sure. LOL!
This has to be my favorite of Brooklyn with her face expression! CUTE! Not sure what she was doing, but it sure made for a cute picture.
We had a good night of trick or treating to grandparents houses and everything, but after a bit they both were fighting to get their costumes off. Ryder has already asked though everyday if we will paint his face, color his hair, and put on his costume so he can go trick or treating. I told him when he turns four we can go again. I really am not a Halloween kind of person, but the kids make it all worth it! We had a blast!

Ryder's 3rd Birthday!

Finally I got Ryder's Birthday pictures uploaded on a slide! I took so many pics that I wanted to be sure to get them all uploaded so you could see them. Ryder had his 3rd Birthday party on September 19th and had a great time. He has been on a Spiderman kick lately so we had Spiderman decor and a Spiderman cake. He LOVED it all and thought it was cool. I only have a picture of the back of the cake; I have no clue what happened to the front view of it I took. We just had a little get together for him where we ate pizza, had cake and icecream, opened gifts, and then just hung out. You can see in the pictures that Brooklyn really wanted to help him open his gifts and she stayed right close. She was just as exicited as him when he would open up one of his presents. It was cute. He asked me the next morning where his party was and if he could have another one. I think he had a really fun time and he loved all the gifts he got!

A Walkin' Fool!

Brooklyn finally started walking! She has actually been walking for a few months, but I never could get her to let me get it on camera. Everytime I got the camera out, she would just sit down. I did get her walking awhile back, but accidently deleted the video off the computer. She started walking about the third week in July. (Just a few weeks after her 1st Birthday.) She is getting to the point now she runs! If Ryder takes something from her, she will literally chase after him now. She is at a fun stage. You tell her to go get something and for the most part she knows what you are saying and goes and gets it. One day maybe I can catch her chasing Ryder.

In the video she was in Ryder's room and I told her to go find her blanket. (She LOVES her blanket!) She let me follow her while she went to retrieve her blanket.

The Petting Zoo

This last weekend Nils and I decided to take the kids and go to the Blackfoot fair with my parents and Misty. The kids had a lot of fun going around looking at all the animals. They had a little petting zoo that the kids thought was fun. We gave Ryder some food and had him try to feed some of the animals. He only really got close to the goats. Here are some of the pictures I got with them and the animals. It's all with goats because I wasn't fast enough with the camera on the others.

Here is Ryder barely starting out letting the goat eat from his hands. He was WAY nervous about it.
Ryder got a little braver now and had just put more food in his hand for the goat. He wouldn't let Nils let go of him though. Yes, he is my whimpy boy. ;)
Brooklyn was a bit curious at first, but then started petting it and loving it. Ryder finally decided here he was brave without Nils holding onto him. When I took this picture he had said, "Here Brooklyn, this is how you feed them. They are nice, I promise." It was really fun watching them feed and pet the animals!
I told Ryder to let me get a picture of him standing by the goat, but he was too busy watching the big goat with horns coming towards us. LOL! He wasn't about to take his eyes off it! (You can see the goat's horns that he was watching in the bottom of the picture.)
Brooklyn was just a laughing and having a great old time! She tried to sit on it, then sit by it, then feed it, and then pet it. She was cute and Ryder thought it was fun showing her how to pet them.

Bye, Bye Tree!

A couple weeks ago we had a nasty wind and rain storm that came through. We had gotten home from Church, ate our lunch and just put the kids down for their nap. The wind was blowing really bad and it was raining like crazy. We were watching T.V. when Nils and I heard a loud bang sound like something had crashed. We looked out our windows and didn't see anything. Ryder came out of his room a little later and we thought it was weird for him to be awake so soon, but again didn't think anymore of it. We decided we would take stuff over to Syd and Kevin's house so I went in to get Ryder a jacket. I then had an urge to look out his window. Right when I looked out I noticed tree limbs. I looked closer and saw our last pine tree along our house had been blown over. Ryder's window is right by it and how it didn't hit it or go right through it we don't know. Nils and I decided to go out and take a look at it to see it and this is what we found.

The tree was all the way out of the ground, roots and all!! If you look to the right you can see Ryder's window. It was right there for the top of the tree to go through, but it didn't.

We had a few other pine trees along this side of our house, but they were all dead when we got moved in so we chopped them down. This was the last pine tree and the only tree along our house. Now the side of our house is bare!

Again, just another view of the big tree and how it missed his window we have no clue! Crazy! I guess it means next year I'll be planting trees along our house for shade now.

Baby Contest

On August 15th I entered Brooklyn into the Preston Baby Contest. Misty took her up on stage for me. In the picture above Brooklyn refused to look at the judges; she was more interested in the kid next to her.
Here she is finally smiling, but again looking away. The picture is a little blury because I had a hard time getting her because she wouldn't stand still. She actually spotted her Grandpa Inglet and got excited here. Here is Brooklyn again watching the other kids. She ended up not winning, but her name did get drawn for a couple door prices. Even though she didn't win a placing, I still think she is one adorable baby!!

Carnival Time - July 31st

Nils and I took the kids to the Preston Carnival. Brooklyn didn't go on any of the rides because I wasn't quite sure about her brother really holding onto her. We let Ryder go on a couple of the rides though and he loved it. He was mad when he had to get off. Above is him just starting out on the train ride. He is in the back next to Porter in the green.
Now he is getting use to the train ride and loving every second of it. He has his best friends with him and figured he was just fine. Payden, Ashton and Parker are in the front and then Porter is in the back with him. They are his best friends who he wants to play with all the time.
This is him on the Dragon roller coaster. This is right when it was starting to go and he was a bit worried. Of course once the Dragon got going he was laughing and smiling. I just could not snap very many good pics though because it went too fast. He had a lot of fun and we can't wait to take him and Brooklyn next year.

Hogle Zoo Trip - July 20th

Nils and I had the chance to take the kids to Hogle Zoo. We went with our friends Chris and Cheryl. They had their little girl Vanessa with them and her and Ryder had a blast. It was a VERY hot day, but it was neat to watch the kids get excited over the animals. That was Ryder's and Brooklyn's first time ever to a zoo. Above is the four of us standing in front of the Elephants.

The Elephants were eating, but by the time we got Ryder to half look at the camera they were done eating. So, here is Nils and Ryder with the Elephants and Ryder being his dorky self. LOL.

Here is Brooklyn and I inside the Giraffe house. The Giraffes were huge and Brooklyn didn't quite know what to think of them. I finally got her somewhat close without her freaking out for a picture. She loved all the animals from a distant, but not too close up.

Here is Ryder and Nils standing outside of the Giraffe house with a Giraffe just laying down.

They had this big sign posted by the Ape exhibit. Ryder was standing there and I thought it made a cute picture. As many of you know he HATES monkey's, but he did get close to the sign. The whole trip was fun and we would like to do it again soon. The kids behaved and enjoyed the day besides being hot and tired.