November

Wow. Where did November go?  I cannot believe December is almost over!  We have been super busy as usual. My birthday was on the 18th of November. We went out to dinner. Since I have turned 30, my birthdays just don't seem to be the same.  I don't look forward to the day at all.  Richie was very patient with my pouting.  He took me and the kids to the Timbermine.  We had steak and shrimp and I had a Shirley Temple, just to remind me of when I wasn't so old.  He even helped me put up our new Christmas tree to help brighten my mood.  I felt a little bad that the tree was up before Thanksgiving, but since our neighbor/bishop put his lights up the first of November (since his daughter was leaving on a mission), I thought it would be OK.

Anyway, the next week was Thanksgiving.  It was our year to go with Richie's dad.  We went to Little America and it was yummy.  Lancer chose to stay with my parents.  My Nana, my Aunt, and my Uncle are not in the best of health, and he wanted to stay and spend some time with them.  After dinner, Grandpa Rich took Ryker, so Richie and I could get started on our shopping.  We did quite a bit and I was glad that I had his help and he wasn't even grumpy when we went to the pre-Black Friday sale at Wal-mart! Imagine that!
The end of November brought what I have been dreading....The start of ski season.  I love to ski, but those first days are tough on my legs no matter how fit I am.  Not to mention the hour-plus drive that we make every week to Snowbird. It turned out to be pretty good and I have thankfully been doing a lot of skiing this season. Lancer is enjoying being a part of the Snowbird ski team and so far Ryker loves his all day group lessons. Richie is SO HAPPY to be back on his home mountain, and I know his friends are too.



 



The Return of Cagney and Lacey

Yesterday I had breakfast with a dear friend that I had not seen in a long time.  I will call her "Shmodi".  I am not sure exactly why we lost touch, but I know that in the 8 or so years since I have seen her last, I have missed her and her family SO MUCH.  Sometimes I would think of a funny story, or watch one of the movies or TV shows that we endlessly quoted and want to pick up the phone and call her.  Don't ask me why I did not.

That is the thing about "Shmodi".  We could laugh about the most random, crazy things.  Maybe it was the strange place and really strange people we worked with, but we could take a not so funny situation and make it something to laugh at. Even a lunch run to McDonald's was fun, when we would take her convertible "bug" and we would wrap scarves around our heads and wear sunglasses a la "Thelma and Louise" or "Romy and Michelle".  Boy how those scarves dressed up our drab uniforms.

The 80's TV show "Cagney and Lacey" was really our thing.  Both of us can do some amazing impressions of these women.  Watching the intro makes me laugh so hard because it is so us.  Well except we don't look like these women, we are not cops, we are not from New York, and neither of us is married to a guy named Harve.  But it so us none the less.

So "Shmodi"  this is for you.  You are an amazing friend.

Halloween Hangover

I love Halloween. I think I may even like it more than my kids.  I love to decorate and make lots of spooky treats.  However, this year I am so glad it is over!  It seemed to go on and on!



The festivities started Tuesday night when we made caramel apples for Ryker's school party on Wednesday.  He brought home A LOT of treats from that party and I hid them in the laundry room so he would not eat too many and get sick.  

Fast forward to Friday.  I was busy. Took Lancer to school, came home, cleaned up and then worked on Lancer's costume.  Ryker was having hot cocoa and playing in the playroom.......So I thought.  He was pretty quiet, so I knew something was up.  I went downstairs and he had found his candy.  There he was in the family room, dancing around scattered candy wrappers and a big puddle of spilled cocoa. I had just been up until 2 am the Monday before cleaning that carpet.  So I was not in the best of moods.  I was scared that he was going to get a tummy ache, but I had to hurry and get him ready to go pick up Lancer from a half day of school, and then take Ryker out to Layton for a birthday party. 

Sharks love birthday parties!

 After he went to the party, we were supposed to go to the pumpkin patch.  But when I picked him up he was really whiny and said he had a tummy ache (big surprise), so we ended up just buying some pumpkins at the store and then staying home for the night.

Instead of getting sick from eating too much candy, he ended up getting my cold and having asthma issues.  I am so thankful that our pediatrician set us up with a nebulizer in August.  It makes his asthma so much easier to deal with. Anyway, Saturday he ended up sleeping on the couch most of the day.  By the time it was time to get dressed for trick or treating, he was feeling better and ready to go.  However, he did say he didn't want anymore "junk".  

Showing family all the candy we were
giving out

Lancer went as Eddie Munster this year.  I love that my kid likes to have fun and original costumes.  I spent hours on the costume, and I think he looked pretty good. 

He even had pointy ears



 

He loved making people guess who he was, and it was amazing how many people knew!  As a tradition, we used to go to my Nana's neighborhood to go trick-or-treating, but since she has gotten older and my grandpa is gone, now we have her and my parents over to our house.
This year it rained and Lancer's black hair ran down his face and smeared his make-up. Rain or not, nothing was stopping that kid from getting his candy.  We braved the wet weather and stayed out for a couple of hours.  He got a lot of candy, but since I hid both of their bags, neither one of them has asked for any candy.

Richie got really into handing out treats this year.  He sat on the porch with his mask on, looking pretty scary.  When Lancer saw that, he immediately took over scaring the neighborhood kids.  Even though I thought Richie had totally bought too many bags of candy,  we had more kids than last year and ended up giving it all away.

By Sunday, we were exhausted.  One more Halloween is over and I am glad.  My kids told me they already want me to start on next years costumes.  I think I will wait until after Christmas.

The Duke Boys...

So Lancer had not heard the story about Ryker watching the Dukes of Hazzard.  So the other day we were on our way home from school, Lancer starts this conversation with me.

Lancer "Mom, how hard is it to change my name?"
Me "I don't know, like from Lancer to Lance?"
Lancer "No, I mean change my name to something else."
Me  "Like what?"
Lancer "Bo"
Me "Bo?"
Lancer "Yeah, you know, like Bo Duke"
Me "You are not changing your name to Bo."
Lancer " Yeah it would be awesome. Then we could change Rykers name to Luke."

Seriously?  Come on.  Although if it would mean they would finally get along, I will not let them change their name, but I may consider buying a 68 Dodge Charger.

Note to self......

5 year olds probably should not watch The Dukes of Hazzard.  While canning tomatoes this afternoon, I turned the TV on to keep Ryker busy.  He was watching a old episode of Scooby-Doo.  A while later, while my hands were deep in blanched tomatoes, he came into the kitchen and told me he wanted to ask me a secret question.  I bent over and he whispered "Can I drive your car?"  Whaaaaaatttt?  So I said "Yes Ryker, in 11 years you may drive my car." He thought about that for a second and then said  "Well I'm bored. Can I shoot my brothers BB Gun?" 

I washed my hands and took him out of the kitchen. Then I saw he had switched the channel and was watching The Dukes of Hazzard.  It was paused on a part of the show that looked kind of like this......

I am in so much trouble when these boys are old enough to drive.

YEEEEEEE-HAAAAWWWWW!!!!!

Lancer is 9!

This week we celebrated Lancer's 9th Birthday.  I cannot believe how fast time flies.  It seems like only yesterday he was born.

One day old. He looks thrilled to be wearing that hat.

A few things about Lancer that you may or may not know.
Lancer has three nicknames.  1.Toad, which my grandpa started calling him when he was born.  2. Lance, which he prefers his friends call him., and 3. Eggyball, which is what he used to call Easter eggs when he was little. (Shown in the video below.)

Lancers favorite thing to do is to hang out at the Ranch. He likes to ride horses and help my dad work, or take walks with my mom.

Riding his buddy Moose. Thanksgiving 2007

Like Ryker's birthday, Lancer's big day has lasted longer than 24 hours.

This year, his class held a celebration of life for him and Richie and I got to go.  It was so fun to tell stories of his childhood and to watch each kid to tell him something nice for his birthday.  One little girl told him "I like that you are so good at tether ball." I started laughing. All I could picture was Lancer outside playing tether ball, looking like Napoleon Dynamite.  In the 4th grade, however, I guess that is quite a compliment.

Since Lancer's horse died last month, I decided to make him a horse cake.  It was a surprise and he loved it even though it did not look that great. Horse cakes are REALLY HARD!

It kinda looks like a horse, right?

 For dinner he wanted "Chicken legs, just like they have at the Maverick." I was not sure what he meant, but  finally I figured spicy fried chicken would be close enough. It was for him  We also had corn on the cob, rolls, mashed potatoes and gravy.

Spice Cake+ Lime Ricky Ice Cream=Yummy!



Lancer got some clothes, a new wii game and an i-pod charger/alarm clock. Pretty nice birthday.

Happy Birthday Eggyball!  I am so proud to be your mom. You are a wonderful kid!

  

Boogie Boarding in Hawaii, March 2010



Ryker turns 5!

I cannot believe that my baby is 5!  Having Ryker has been an amazing experience.  When I first got pregnant with him I was so incredibly sick.  I lived on vegetarian pizza and pickles.  Then after 5 months it all the sickness stopped and it turned great.  On more than one occasion I had to go to my docs office because I could not feel him move, he was just so quiet.  He was also so much smaller than Lancer was, but I unfortunately, was still the same size.



The morning I had him.



The quiet stopped the minute he was born.  Since that day he had been on the go non-stop.



The day he came home from the hospital. 

We nicknamed him Goonga. I'm not sure what it means, but it is from the movie Caddy Shack, and it just seems to fit him.

 He reminds me of Fudge in the Judy Blume books. No baby proofing could stop this kid from getting into things that he should not.  You name it and this kid has probably done it.  He keeps us on our toes.  But he is also such a sweet child who fills our days with laughter. When he is at school, or visiting grandparents, our house seems so empty and I miss him instantly

If you are feeling down or sad about anything, he knows just what to do to make you feel better.  On more than one occasion, Ryker has made a grumpy waitress or random stranger smile or laugh with just a look.

 

Ryker did this at the baseball game and even the grumpy guy behind us laughed.

He has been excited for his birthday for a long time.  Like most of our birthdays, it lasted a lot longer than one day.

So right before Ryker's birthday, Lancer came home from school with a nasty tummy bug. Since it was a weekend, he was up at my parents house.  My mom told me not too worry( cuz I do!), he seemed to be OK and she thought it was fine for him to stay.  He seemed better the next day, and so we went on with the birthday plans.
So on the birthday, Ryker told me what he wanted me to make for his dinner. Homemade chicken noodle soup, his favorite rolls, and a SpongeBob birthday cake. Seemed easy enough.  First I made the cake and it was harder than I thought! I think it was too hot in my kitchen because the icing would not set up and my homemade noodles kept sticking together and I had to make a last minute trip to the store to buy frozen ones.  Finally we packed it all up and headed up to my parents.  I had put the cake in a cake box and held it on my lap in the car.  I guess I held it too tight, because by the time we got there, SpongeBob's face was pretty much unrecognizable. Good thing I took a picture of the cake before I ruined it!



SpongeBob before the accident.



Before dinner, Ryker played around and fed the animals.  I made him wait until after dinner to open presents.
While we were eating, my mom commented she did not feel well and thought she was getting Lancer's bug.  I tend to  freak out at the thought of anyone being sick,  and the possibility of anyone else getting sick that I panicked and forgot to take any pictures of my little one opening his presents!



Ryker getting really excited at the thought of cake

 Happy Birthday Goonga!!! I am so blessed to be your Momma!





First day of Preschool this year







Red Rocks, Rivers and Receptions

I know it has been forever since I posted, but it has been a crazy couple of months.

School Started...



Lancer starting the 4th grade



 

Ryker's first day of Preschool

Weddings and Baseball Games...

Our niece Alyssa

 

Bumble and the boys

We have also been prepping for ski season (See ya Snowbasin Alpine Team, The Rouglah's are headed to Snowbird!), Hubby is changing work, yard work, canning,etc. We needed a break.

So last weekend we took a trip to Moab to attend our friend Justin's wedding. We left Ryker at home with my parents and took Lancer, getting some quality time with our (soon to be) 9 year old.

Richie has been in the process of changing companies and so he was pretty stressed out.  He was weighing different options, and I hoped he would be able to "check out" and have a good time.
Friday morning about 36 of us along with the bride and groom, headed out for a day long river rafting trip.

36 people crammed in a old school bus-
Brought me right back to high school

I had never been on one before and it was so much fun. I can't wait to do another one again soon. Lancer loved it, but wished the rapids were higher. He really wanted to fall out of the boat. The guides of our 4 rafts fixed us an amazing lunch, and then guide taught lancer how to row the boat.

Lancer and Jay our guide

After a long but awesome day, we headed back to the hotel. When I called to check on Ryker, I got some horrible news that definitely put a damper on the day. While Ryker and my mom were feeding the horses that morning, they found our old horse moose had suddenly gotten very sick. The vet ended up having to come and put him to sleep. I was so sad that I wasn't there to say goodbye to him. I was even sadder that I had to break the news to Lancer that his best buddy was no longer with us. He took it as I expected. Let's just say he kept his sunglasses on for the rest of the night, and kept asking the waitress at dinner for more napkins. We talked about doing some kind of memorial to Moose, which Lancer liked and made him feel a little better.
Then next day we went to Arches National Park.

Delicate Arch

 We hiked around looking at the amazing scenery, but Lancer was not into hiking around for very long. We just wanted to get back to the hotel pool! I could have stayed there all day, but we gave in and left early so Lancer could swim and I could start getting ready for the wedding.



The wedding was very beautiful but HOT!!! Richie and I wore matching clothes by total accident.

Mr and Mrs Rouglah

Right after the ceremony we went and changed our clothes. Did I mention how hot it was?  After some fish tacos we were much more relaxed and ready to get our groove on.  

 Lancer seemed to be channeling John Travolta  because that boy danced. He was dancing on rocks, dancing on chairs, and dancing with all the ladies. He even did some dancing air guitar!  He seemed to entertain everyone.

The best part of the trip was that that my hubby got to get away from the stress of work and spend some time with his good friends. Since he has moved from SLC, he does not see these guys very often, and his good friend Frank recently moved to Moab to open a new sushi restaurant. Frank was able to come to the wedding and I was so glad to see Richie having such a good time.

Richie, Frank, and Johnny





Our Summer Vacation

It has been a busy summer at our house. We have been to Montana and Yellowstone, baseball
games and zoos. Did I mention how much time we have spent in the water? Between swimming lessons, pool parties, and boating, we all are a dermatologists nightmare.

Lancer found his dream car just outside Big Sky, Montana.
(No really, this IS his dream car!)

We had some awesome buffalo burgers at the Corral in Big Sky, Montana.

Spent some time with our cousins in Billings, Montana.

Did you know Bears in the Billings Zoo like White Cheddar popcorn?

Slip-n-Sliding in our backyard.

An indoor water park in Billings, Montana.

Swimming at a friends house.

Lancer on the high-dive at Dr. Iverson's pool party.
(I won a sweet snow cone machine at this party.)

Tubing on grandpa's boat.

The Summer is only half over. I think more swimming is in our future.

The Ladies Man

Ryker used this trip as a way to meet girls. I know he is only 4, but the boy likes the ladies! He is not picky about their age, however, he does like for them to be able to bring something to the table--IE pool toys.

Girl #1-- She did not have any cool toys to share, so he moved on after a hour or so.

I met some new friends at the pool. When I turned around to check on Ryker, he floated by with this little girl. I don't know if it was the pink floaties or the goggles.

Pretty soon he disappeared again. Richie found him by the water slide, using some other girls Elmo floaties.

This is Olivia. They met during our snorkel cruise.

These are students at Texas A&M. Ryker had no hesitation to ask them to hold his brothers coloring book open. Lancer probably treated the book for Girl Cooties after.

He would jump into the water, swim up to someone and say "Hi...I'm Ryker.. R-Y-K-E-R. .. I'm 4... I live in Salt Lake and in Utah...Where do you live?

I told him it is OK to spell his name to girls while he is 4. When he is 24, the girls might not find it so cute anymore.

Lancer's heaven

Most kids want to go to Disneyland. My son's version of heaven on earth is WWII museums. He couldn't wait to go to Hawaii so that he could go to Pearl Harbor. For MONTHS, it was all he talked about. We waited in line to get tickets and Lancer immediately spotted one of those machines that you put in 50 cents and they give you a pressed penny. He pleaded for 50 cents. After he put the $ in, he cranked the machine and out popped his penny.

"That's it.....all I got was a stupid penny?"

"Not just a stupid penny, honey." I told him. " A stupid penny engraved with the USS Bow fin on it."

First place we went was the USS Missouri. Lancer was in awe. When we met up with our tour guide Reggie, I thought Lancer might try to impress this former Marine with some push ups. But instead he followed right behind him, like he was following his idol.

USS Missouri

Lancer & Reggie

After the Missouri, we headed over to a airplane museum, and then had a quick bite to eat. Then we got in line for the ride out to the USS Arizona.

It is hard to explain the feeling when you are looking at a ship that has been underwater for 60 years. She is still leaking oil, and the smell of diesel fuel is still strong. You can see her underwater and in the distance you can see the Missouri, who they have anchored facing the Arizona, as she is watching over her older sister. It is surreal. The wall of names of those who lost their lives made me choke up, as did the small list next to it, of those who survived and upon their passing, have been cremated and returned to the ship and their shipmates.
The Bow of the Arizona.

I have a lot more pictures, but hate to post them all. After coming from the Arizona, we went to tour the USS Bow fin. This was probably my boys favorite part. They loved playing with the guns and touching all the buttons inside the Submarine.

The Bow fin

After the final submarine and of course a trip to the gift shop, we headed out just as the memorial was closing. It took us 7 hours, and we still did not get to see the USS Utah. It was a long day, but it was worth it watching my boys have such a great time.