preparing for the next two weeks

when getting ready for bed the other night, ryker decided he wanted to wear his old hat. he wouldn't let us take it off and ended up sleeping with it on. lately we have been enjoying and also struggling with his increasingly obstinate personality!




graham goes in for ACL and LCL surgery on monday. this is a very ‘sore’ subject for graham because he loves to ski and play soccer and now he can't ski or play on his club soccer team for a year due to the intensive recovery process. the accident happened when graham was skiing with a friend last month on an amazing powder day. graham jumped into a chute and heard two popping sounds. he wasn't in immediate pain but noticed his leg flopped out from under him. knowing the powder code of “no friends on powder days” (which, i learned early on in our relationship when i was slowing him down on a powder day so he suggested i hang out at the lodge for a while), graham caught a bus ride home before driving himself to the instacare.

after his surgery, he will be on crutches for at least two weeks, which is exactly when our baby girl is due; my c-section is scheduled for april 18. needless to say, it is a very busy time for us! with baby girl coming soon, i finally decided to take a picture of my growing belly. and by the way, we still do not have a name. our goal to is to have at least several names by the time we go to the hospital.

rough day

we know ryker has had a rough day at preschool when, soon after he comes home, he asks for "bubbles" (a bubble bath). there's nothing like a nice bath to make the stress of a day fade away.

or, in ryker's case, there's nothing like a bath to make messes in attempts to get nigel wet.

put in our place

my beautiful niece, ellie, joined us for dinner a few weeks ago. as we were sitting down at the table, ellie mentioned she wanted to have the TV on so she could continue watching a movie. graham and i told her that dinner time was for talking as a family and that we would finish watching the movie after dinner.

sean and ellie were at our house again this weekend. when we sat down for dinner, ellie said "annie, you're not supposed to watch TV when you eat dinner." sure enough, graham left the TV on so we could keep watching march madness. we all were speechless, not sure how to justify breaking a family rule for big basketball games. after literally ten seconds, and multiple attempts of stuttering the beginnings of some type of rationale, i had to just eventually laugh and give ellie kudos for remembering the rules and for not being afraid to put us in our place.

another haircut

i need to take ryker to get another haircut today. however, i was going through old pictures and i found one of ryker and his curly hair from last summer. even though his hair has no curl to it now, i am tempted to grow it out again.

saving elmo

i'm not sure how ryker became fascinated with elmo but the muppet is either a great way for us to get ryker to do something or an annoyance when we have to watch elmo You Tube videos on our phones or television. for the purposes of this story, i'll focus on elmo's positive aspects.

when ryker was being fussy about eating dinners, graham brilliantly found utensils, a plate, and a bowl with elmo decorations on them. now ryker is much more excited to eat dinner if he gets to use one of these items.

and the other day was classic.

i poured ryker his cereal, and because he loves to be like his dad, he began to drink the milk from the bowl. as he tipped the bowl forward, he caught a glimpse of the elmo drawing in the bottom of the bowl. apparently, this surprised ryker because he shouted “elmo!” but when he put the bowl down, the remaining milk covered up elmo.

ryks was seemingly concerned and made it his mission to “save elmo.” he kept shouting “elmo” right before he started to drink the milk. then when elmo would reappear, ryker would laugh and milk would spill out of his mouth. this continued until ryker drank (or spilled) all the milk so he could see elmo at all times. when finished, he gave us one of his huge smiles and proudly showed us the bowl. so elmo lives for another day.

life at home

some of you may have been wondering what this kid has been up to. the answer is everything you would expect for a little boy, and more.















he jumps from couch to ottoman to couch; he chases and climbs on the dogs (kylie runs away and nigel likes to play); he yells as loud as he can; he tackles me or graham whenever we sit on the floor; he throws, kicks, and tries to bounce balls; and he dances like the best of them.

instead of just sitting down when playing "ring-around-the-rosies," ryks trys to fall on top of anyone else who is playing. we think this is a game he and his
friends play at daycare. we chuckle thinking of a bunch of two year olds falling on top of each other.

we closed on our old house last week. we loved that house but were definitely ready for more space and better location. so we are enjoying the new home! our neighbors have been awesome in welcoming us to the neighborhood. many families here have dogs and the dogs all seem to get along really well. plus, ryker is a big fan of all the dogs and especially likes the lab puppy next door.

here are a few pictures of the house. we are still decorating but that will take time. our out-of-town family should know we have plenty of space (especially those of you who will be traveling for chris weddick's wedding or others like the garcia family who love to visit SLC for the summer). you'll even have the whole basement (pictures to come) to yourself so you should come stay with us.


don't you just love this cheese-ball! i thought sharon would love this picture. i taught ellie to make the same face when she was ryker's age. whenever sharon would try to take a picture, ellie would make this face.


finally a big kitchen where we aren't tripping over ryks or the dogs!








i'm so excited to use this deck in the summer


graham and i have slept on a double bed ever since we got married seven years ago so we are thrilled to finally have a king size bed









by the way, graham and i still don't have a name for baby girl. we like the names "kate" and "reese" but this may be a game-time decision. she is so active throughout the day and night. she is doing well in her measurements and is giving me the worst heartburn. ryker likes to kiss my belly and say "baby" but then he wants me to kiss his "baby" (belly) so i'm not sure he understands what's happening.

ryker is the sweestest kid with babies. he is so helpful - giving them blankets, binkies, bottles, etc. he really loves to touch and hold babies. here he is holding his cousin max (or as my mom says 'here is little graham and little mike').

home sweet home

we bought our new (amazing) home!!
it is in the beautiful old mill area of cottonwood heights.
i really thought we were going to move to bountiful
but then we found this house and knew it was our new home.
we are so excited to be in a much bigger house,
in a cul-de-sac in a great neighborhood, and
with awesome family and entertaining spaces.

we'll post more pictures once we move everything
and clean our old house for our buyers
(it's going to be a very busy week!)

date night

for a new kind of date night, graham signed us up for a cooking class
and given our love of indian spices and all types of curry,
we decided to take a indian food cooking class.

we had a lot of fun, enjoyed talking with other cooks at our skill level,
and ended up making a really good meal that included
samosas, chicken tikka masala, tandoori flat bread, and more!

thanks for a great date night graham!

dog lessons

many of our family readers have seen the video
of ellie blowing bubbles in our yard, while
the dogs were jumping, trying to eat the bubbles,
and ryker was laughing out of control.

we didn't realize the significant impact this
event had on our child's life until yesterday

ryker's teacher was blowing bubbles in class
and graham showed up in time to watch the fun.
ryks was excitedly chasing the bubbles
with his mouth wide open,
apparently trying to pop/eat them just like his dogs.

his classmates seemed confused by this behavior
and decided to just watch ryker run around.
when graham interrupted the fun, ryks ran over to him
with a huge smile and a completely wet face!

understanding how much ryker watches the dogs,
this now explains why ryks prefers to:
use the dog door to go out on the back deck,
go under the our bed to relax (just like kylie)
and loves eating off a plate on the floor
(this happens when we get frustrated he won't eat
so we make a game out of it - awesome parenting award!)

hugs for mom

nigel accidentally bit my finger when
i tried to catch a ball before he could.
i immediately started to cry from the pain.
ryks, who was jumping on the couch,
(his new favorite thing)
climbed down, looked me in the eyes,
and gave me two really big hugs.
he then went back to jumping on the couch.

he is such a loving, thoughtful boy.
my heart couldn't be happier.