More Family Pictures!

Jumping Family Pics!

My mom took our family pictures on Nov. 1st and these were some fun jumping ones we did. We just cracked up looking at them. Blake thought it was great, therefore, the little jig he is doing in the lower pic.
I would say I am putting up the regular family pics tomorrow, but knowing me, it might take a couple of days!

Political Stress Syndrome!

I tend to let politics stress me out sometimes (as most of you who know me, know). This election and some of the props on the ballot have struck me hard, seeing how our country once founded on God, has now become one of no morals. As I see our country continuing to fall victim to liberal ideas it saddens me, knowing this is the world my children will grow up in. I pray that what I teach my children will outweigh the pressures of this world and that they can be another generation fighting for what is right. Having said this, I plan to continue to support my country and our leaders while not supporting the immoral ideas that may come. I am proud to be an American and to live in the USA!
"As for me and my house we will serve the Lord" How grateful I am that I can declare that statement!

Halloween!

Blake & Ryker getting ready to trick-or-treat!

Ryker didn't like his hat and we had a hard time keeping the legs of his pants down, but other than that, he had no problem taking candy from everyone. He is kind of a chicken and kept telling us "I scared" everytime he went up to a house with decorations.

Blake hardly wore his hat and didn't attempt wearing the face mask, but was very excited about being a knight. We only made it to 4 houses before he said he was ready to go home though. Ryker was still willing to look for candy though and we ended staying out for about 45 minutes.

Blake's class party was actually on Thursday the 30th and they had a great time. His teachers are Miss Cathy, the pink crayon, Miss Amy, the purpleish crayon, and Miss Cathy, the cowgirl, is his speech therapist. They bobbed for apples, made witches hands (medical glove with popcorn and candycorn for fingernails), dressed up like mummys and iced cookies! We just love his preschool!

Always getting into something!

I know this isn't a great picture, but I wanted to start putting a few pictures up now and then of the silly thing my kids do or get in to. I caught them in the laundry room getting into the little foam stickers and putting them all over their bodies. They were having such a good time I had to grab a picture before I made them clean it up.

Blake Gets Glasses!

Blake got new glasses a few weeks ago. It is his first pair and has taken him a while to get used to them. He now wears them more often than not and that is a huge improvement! I think they look so good on him, he is just so cute and sweet!

Whenever the camera is out, neither child can go without a few pics of himself. In this picture I am glad he is a boy since all he is showing off by lifting his clothing up is his upper half! In the other picture of Ry he has a hat on that he made the previous Sunday in church. It is by far his favorite hat, go figure!

Ryker is 2!

These are pictures from Rykers birthday! He is 2! I cant believe how big my baby is! What a sweetheart! He is still singing happy birthday and loves presents now! He even sang happy birthday to my sister Kilee who happens to share the same birthdate, it was priceless!

The Bride & Groom!

Congratulation to Levi and Kil'ee! They were married this last Saturday! Don't they look so cute together!

My cute boys at Ki & Levi's wedding!

Ryker is eating a cookie right before Kil'ee and Levi come out of the temple. And people wonder why his face is always a mess in his pictures :)
This is Blake waiting for Ki and Levi to come out of the temple. He was playing with Uncle Jordan and Uncle Cody and couldn't understand why we would make him stop for a picture.

Here Comes the Bride!

This is my sister Kil'ee's ring! She is getting married this Saturday! (there is a picture of her and her fiance in an earlier post). Congratulations Kil'ee! We love you and can't wait to see you!

Ryker, Blake & Brock

Aren't they cute?! Ryker is on the left, Blake is in the middle, and Brock, the boy I watch during the week, is on the right. They were being so good and all were happy so I just had to take a picture!

Swim Lessons for Blake & Ryker!!!

This summer my boys both took swim lessons through ISR. They were taught how to "swim-float-swim". I really wanted more of a survival swim lesson which is what ISR does. Both boys did great and were able to float and swim by the end. These pictures are of them floating.
The boys both learned to swim, flip over and float, and then flip over to swim again. These pictures are of both of them swimming. Blake is actually diving for sticks is this one.
These pictures of both boys reaching the side. I am so proud of them and feel a little bit of comfort knowing they have these skills. If you are interested in looking into these lessons for your kids go to infantswim.com. They take kids 6 mos. to 6 years old.

First Day of School!

These are pictures of Blake on his first day of school this year. He was just so excited to get on the bus and go to school. What suprised me was that after school he was not at all excited to tell me about his day. Our conversation went like this:
Me: "Hi, how was school?"
Blake: "Good"
Me: "Did you have fun?"
Blake: "Yes"
Me: "What did you guys do today?"
and he walked away to go play. I had to just crack up that he, at age 4, is over the "telling mom about my day" thing. He does share who did things that got them put in time out every day though. Luckily it hasn't been him yet.... Ill hope it stays that way.

Oh yes, and I am late again, school started on August 6th. And although I did take the pictures on the first day of school, it has taken me this long to post them. He is just so cute though!

My Fat Feet

I have gotten this rare virus thing that is not contagious but is extremely painful and annoying. I get these lumps/masses under the skin that hurt and then cause heavy swelling. It also causes really bad joint pain which I have learned subsides a little as I walk and move the joints. Since it is a virus there is not really anything they can do, I just have to wait it out. In the meantime I thought I would post some pictures of my now fat feet and to any of you who see me at church on Sundays, I apologise for the flip flops.

This is my right foot. It was just barely starting to swell at my ankle though it is enough swelling you can no longer see the inside ankle, instead, the inside ankle is a mass of swelling. You can also notice the good sized lump about at my instep which is another lump/mass, not swelling.
This is a picture of both of my feet together so you can see the significant amount of sweeling to my left foot. My ankle on both sides of the foot is now covered up and I officially have the "roll" around the front. The swelling on my left foot is all the way to my toes and feels really tight. You can also see some of the redness on my left leg and a newly starting nodule just above the ankle of my right foot.
This is a picture of the outside of my left foot. You can see the swelling all the way to my toes in this pic and also how bad it is around the heel. These pictures were taken on Saturday and since then I have had many more nodules pop up on my knees, ankles and shins and the swelling is of course continuing to swell. Luckily though, these are the only places I have lumps right now.

Me and my sweet boys

For any of you who don't know, I have chopped about 6 or so inches off my hair and gone blonde again! I love changing my hair and my I think my hubby likes it too. I know he is appreciating the time I don't have to spend in the bathroom now that I dont have as long of hair. My two adorable boys are in this picture with me and even though Ryker had been cleaned moments before, he somehow always manages to make a mess of himself immediately after, therefore making his face covered in food for yet another picture. I love my kids so much and am so grateful for them.

Blake's Birthday Pictures! I know I am very late!

This picture is of Blake blowing out his 4 candles on his Nemo cake. I can't believe I have a four year old. He is so sweet and cute and I love his adorable personality!
This is Blake with his friends at the birthday party. Aparently he is the only one who won't look at the camera. Ryker is on daddy's lap and the rest are from left to right, Brock, Cailyn, Blake, Landon, Lukas
This is Blake counting money he got for his birthday. I know he doesn't really get how much it is worth in the sense of buying things, but he was thrilled. I love that at this age, pennies are still a large amount to earn! Thank goodness for me!

Congrats Kil'ee & Levi

This is my beautiful sister and her fiance Levi! Aren't they so cute together! Congratulations! I love you Ki!

Slacker!

OK,
So I am apologizing for any of you who come to my blog planning to see something new posted because... it just doesn't happen. I keep saying, "I am definitely going to get to that this week", and surely enough, the week passes and it just doesn't happen. Needless to say, I have pictures of my sweet little four-year-old's birthday party and also a picture of my new hair cut and color that have not been posted, but I will get to it... hopefully this month :)

Rosa, the mother of the three children, and their new home. They are such a wonderful family and it was such a blessing to get to know and help them.
Rosa's three kids, named Gual, Selvi and Iris.
Ki, me and the kids showing our green hands after painting the inside of their new house.

Everyday to and from the job site we rode in the back of trucks. This is us so happy to be headed back after a hard day working.

This is another very lovely picture of us. Here we are waiting for the trucks to come pick us up to take us back to Antigua.

Mom, Ki & I working on the house!

Well here we are moving cinder-block from one location to another. This happened almost every day and was really hard work. We all appear to be really happy about the fact we are loading block after block but we are only smiling for the camera, and apparently Kil'ee found the energy to pose.

Here we are filling the cracks between the blocks with concrete. We actually became decent at this task, though I wouldn't recommend hiring us. We eventually ended up walking along the beams about 5 feet off the ground doing this and although I am a big chicken, I pulled my self together on the unstable beams and helped get the job done.
We actually had to mix the cement and concrete. First we would shovel the amount of wheelburrows full of dirt or rocks needed, and then we would add the cement bags. Mixing it all together was by far the hardest and most exhausting job we did. The second to last day we mixed 14 wheelburrows full of dirt with 7 wheelburrows full of rock and 8 bags of concrete at once. It was painfully exhausting.
This is me mixing cement.
This is a lovely picture of Ki and I carrying buckets of concrete to pour on the ground making the floor for the home. If you can't tell, we are covered in it and quite disgusting. I had bruises on my arm and leg from holding, lifting and carrying the buckets.