100th Post

Well for this post I thought that I would just post our most recent family picture, we are getting ready to take more so this is a little bit old but it will work. We are all but ready for Christmas and William is so excited he can hardly contain himself. My projects are almost done one of them however is not turning out at all how I had hoped, oh well it'll work I guess. I have decided that I have tried and tried and it is official, I cannot sew. It is just not one of my talents I guess. Well Merry Christmas and Happy 100 day!

Life Gets Busy

I have been terrible about blogging lately and since it is now 5:30am and I have been up with Charley since 4:00 what better time then now. We have just been busy keeping up with life. Ben finished his last class/test on Thursday for the semester so it will be great to have him join us again in the real world. I have been working and then also working on some Christmas present/projects that have been taking up my thoughts an time and not turning out as cute as I would like them to in my head. The days are flying by and we are filling them with various activities. We had a lot of fun the other morning making Gingerbread houses with a friend, William and Sammy worked very hard and I think that they turned out great. Charley is 11 months old and getting big he spends most of his time cruising around with his little waker he loves to chase after William and attempts to get into anything he can possibly reach. His new favorite thing is to 'talk' on the phone where he mostly says no and a few other things in a loud tone of voice. He has a big gooey smile and makes me laugh all the time. I chuckled the other day because William took Charley on a ride on his bike and as they were going around, Charley's feet are now long enough to reach the ground and William kept saying "Charley please stop going backwards." They are getting along pretty well for the most part right now and I am loving it. One more though before I go. The other day I was looking on facebook and I have a friend who adopted a little African-American boy who is adorable. William saw the picture and said "Mom!

look at that cute little brown boy. Can I color Charley brown and paint his hair black so we can have a cute little brown boy too?" I laughed so hard and then told him we would have to ask dad about it. Well since I doubt I will be back this week. Merry Christmas to the blogging life.

I Take it Back

I have to undo most if what I said about visiting teaching. I am very grateful for my visiting teacher that comes every month, it is nice to have some one to talk to occasionally and the more I have gotten to know her the more that I realize that we are a lot alike. I also have found that my visiting teaching partner is great and the sister that we teach is so sweet and such an example to me. I think that is why I was so frustrated with it because I feel like I have nothing to teach her but as it turns out I still have nothing to teach her but I do enjoy going to her house. Life in our household is passing much like it always does, fast but what can you do? Christmas is fast approaching and we are almost ready so bring it on right. No pictures today because I am using our other computer that has nothing on it but this is a quick little update on our lives and it had to be quick because my kids refuse to leave me alone today and we haven't gotten anything done.

Good Bye November

I can't believe that this month is over tomorrow! Then I begin to think of all of the things that we have been doing and I think oh yes that is where it went. Between getting my appendix out and Thanksgiving time has been flying. Ben and I realized that he only has 7 more months left and he will be done with his Masters, Yay! The other major milestone that we reached is that Charley took his first steps. He is Ten months old and can take about 4 steps before he starts laughing too hard and tips over. I am so proud of him but at the same time I am a little sad that he is growing up so fast, he says mama and no and occasionally he will say dada he is also really good at waving bye bye. William is doing great other than the awesome cold that he has had for the last few days he is busy with playing and going to school and also loves bossing everybody around. We are amazed everyday at his imagination he can think of anything and everything. He can't wait for Christmas and talks about it everyday. He is excited to get presents most especially some basketball shoes like his uncle Simeon. This little picture is one that I took of William while I was taking some pictures of my brother and sister and William needed to pose like his uncle Wilson, he looks good don't you think? Thanksgiving dinner was nice and relaxing I think that I made a few too many pies however and we are still trying to finish those. I was so irritated at my little dog too because when I was making the rolls she got on the counter while I was in the shower and they were rising and ate 10 of them! Needless to say she was one sick little dog since she consumed her body wait in raw roll dough. It worked out though and we had plenty of rolls for everyone. I guess that is the basics of the my thoughts for the month.

Like father like son

This post is for Grandma and Grandpa Allen. If you look close in this picture you can see that Ben was wearing his boots and shorts. Rumor has it that this was a personal favorite in outfit choice for him growing up. William this last week was able to find a pair of snow boots in Grandma Rydalch's closet that he felt like he should have. There was only one problem, they are size 13 and he wears an 8. This however has not phased him at all he has worn them every time he has left the house since we brought them home. The plus side, he can put them on "ALL BY MYSELF!" he reminds us of this every time too.

You Never Know!

A funny little update on us. I wrote that beautiful little post last Thursday on how much I love my sweet family and how I would me so lost without them because my children and my husband mean the world to me. Well a couple of hours later I had this pain creeping into my lower abdomen and pelvic area. It worsened over the next little while and by 6:30pm I was hurting so bad I could not even move. Ben was in class, Charley had thankfully gone to bed at about 6:00 and William and i were just laying on my bed. I was wondering if I was going to die. I was thinking that I had this wonderful appreciation for my family that day because maybe it was going to be the last time I saw them for awhile. Luckily that was not the case, just a nasty case of appendicitis. I had my appendix taken out on Friday morning and I am doing lots better now. Still grateful for my family but not feeling like I am going to die. Funny how that worked out though?

Sweet little Ones

I love this stage, he thinks he is so funny!

I think that it is funny how on the days when we are overwhelmed with gratitude and appreciation for our sweet children are not necessarily the days when they are on their best behavior. Take today for instance. William was knocking on the door at 5:00am and was ready to be up for the day so I told him it was waaay to early to be up and tucked him in with a movie thinking I could go get another hour and a half of sleep before the day really started. Charley woke up at 5:30. The morning went as usual, I got the boys in the tub, Charley peed on the floor. I got them dressed, we had no bread for Ben's breakfast. Then we got William all ready for picture day and rushed off to school. Charley fell asleep in the car but it worked out because he luckily went back to sleep when we got home instead of just taking a 5 minute power nap and being good to go. We went a got William from school a couple hours later (Charley was still sleeping and I had to wake him up :(. William was very upset because he had to leave the hippo that he made at school until Tuesday because it had to dry. We go home and William had a complete sobbing breakdown because I told him that he had to throw the wrapper to his candy away and I would not do it for him. Then he fell asleep on the couch even though "it was NOT rest time" said he. Charley has figured out how to open the cabinets and obviously the drawers in his room and he is thoroughly enjoying his new found freedom helping himself to all that is available and leaving a trail where ever he goes. they are now both resting because it IS rest time. I think that they are just the most perfect little guys I could ever get and I love them. We had a surprise of Ben getting to come home for lunch today which is nice because we won't get to see him until 9:00 tonight. We were all sad to see him go. I guess we will see what other fun moments this day will bring.

Venus

While visiting my parents's house yesterday William went for a ride with Grandpa to drop kids off. During their ride Grandpa Rydalch told William all about the planet Venus which is supposed to be so close to the earth this morning that if you had a telescope you would be able to even see the rings. William heard this and decided that he definitely needed a telescope because he HAD to see the rings on Venus. He explained this to Ben last night who had no clue what he was talking about and asked Ben to get him a telescope. Well all day today he has been talking about seeing the planet Venus and using a telescope to see the rings since I am not ready at this point to purchase a telescope for my three year old he an I quickly put together a somewhat rudimentary and slightly inaccurate solar system complete with the rings on Venus. (yes I know that Pluto is no longer a planet but I felt bad leaving the little guy out:)

Halloween 2010

Charley was a little mouse because when I was his size I wore the same costume. He looks pretty cute!

William and Charley looking SO excited to go Trunk or Treating

Getting ready to go Trunk or Treating with Dora Jean, Sallee, and Simeon

Our pumpkins that we carved

William made this pumpkin at school and I thought it was adorable :)

William's Pirate

We went crazy this year and for dinner last week William and I had a blast making Halloween scones

Well here is a quick picture journal of our doings for the past 10 days. It was Charley's very first halloween and it was the first halloween that William really understood what was happening. William originally wanted to be a ghost but being the awesome procrastinator and untalented seamstress that I am that really wasn't working out. So true to form on the day before he had to wear his costume to preschool we went to Kmart 'just to see' if they have anything better as luck would have it they had a cute pirate costume that William saw right off and the last one was in his size. 50% off made it the perfect price and made William a darling pirate. Ben had a busy week this week with work and school and then on Wednesday and Thursday I had to take a class all day long so he got to stay home and play Mr Mom. He slept really well those two nights and was VERY excited to go back to work on Friday. I am excited that those classes are done because I hate to be away from my kids all day long.

Masks

I brought some masks home with me when I came home with Charley and the other day when William was helping himself to anything he could possibly get his hands on in my room he found them. He had some fun playing with them and Ben who is always ready to welcome any possible break from his homework played along with William.

Pig Face

The story goes that when I was a very small child I would make a pig face and then pinch the nose of whoever the lucky person was that was holding me. I have been working with my children to make sure the legacy continues. William learned fast and did a very good pig face. Charley has been working on his pig face and since he won't do it in front of anyone here is the evidence of his success.

He does a good job don't you think?

Finally Finished!

After 18 months of working and a lot of stress, bad thoughts ant the help of my little siblings' sweat shop I finally finished William's tractor blanket. Yay! I don't think that I have ever worked on one project for so long and then in the end actually finish it. It was a lot more complicated than I thought it would be and I will NEVER quilt anything by hand again. I do think however that when all is said and done it turned out pretty good. Now on to other projects like Charley's blanket, curtains for the family room, curtains for the boys room, the bathrooms, the basement, my bedroom. I guess the list will never end will it?

Recent Pictures

This is Charley reading a book. Actually he was trying to eat the button that was on that page.

This is him seeing the camera and telling me that he wanted it

Here he is cheese in it up for the camera.

This is William whining because I asked if he could smile for the camera and he said "No I'm playing!"

We told William to put some shoes on so he could go to Grandma's house. These were the shoes he picked.

Funny Hats & Funny Boys

(I'm sure Charley is thinking "if I could just reach the top of my head with my short little arm I could take this thing off!")


Aren't these little boys cute. As you can see Charley will do anything for William and William is taking full advantage of that. I love that Charley can hold his head straight enough to keep that little pot lit on. What are the odds. For the most part these guys are doing great together we usually only have issues when it is bed time and I am trying to get Charley to sleep and William won't stay out or be quiet. Also William is not very fond of Charley getting his toys or coming over by him when he is playing. They will have to get over that I guess.

Kids

I just wanted share this little story that I love about Charley. His new favorite thing to do now that he is crawling, pulling himself up on things, and then standing with his own balance. He is full of new tricks these days. He loves to crawl to the bathroom and pull himself up on the tub and then lean over the edge like he is trying to get in. He laughs and screams thinking it is the best thing in the world. I do not like his to play in the bathroom for obvious reasons and so I try to keep the doors shut but William sometimes forgets. Well every time I see him heading that direction I get up and follow him, when he realizes that I am he starts to giggle and crawl as fast as he can go I think that his little thighs are going to catch fire from the friction. eventually he starts laughing so hard that he can't even go anywhere. How does he already know that it is funny to go somewhere you are not supposed to be? One more little thought that would go with my previous post this one is about home teaching . Our home teachers came by on Sunday at 4:30 we get out of church at 4:00 so we did not have time to eat mind you and usually 1:00 to 3:00 at our house is quiet/nap time so by the time we get home from church our kids are REALLY cranky. So our home teachers who are young, one has two little kids and the other is just freshly married with no kids come over and are visiting and William is shoving all of his toys in their faces and pretending to blow them up with his little army tank and Charley, seeing an opening, is headed straight for William's toys. The move into the lesson and Ben and I get a hold of William and are trying to make him sit and listen because if anybody ever needed practice for being good in church William does. This of course brings on near hysteria from a very tired 3 year old and while he is being held down Charley is helping himself to a whole world of toys which when he is excited he laughs and screams this very loud high pitched screams that echoes through our vaulted ceilings. You can all picture this in your heads now can't you? William is sobbing and struggling, Charley is screaming with delight causing more sobs and struggles from William, Ben and I are trying to get William to quiet down, and our home teaching is plodding along giving the lesson. I swear it was the longest lesson that they have ever given and I can't honestly remember anything except the burning of my cheeks from the embarrassment of the situation. The lesson finally ended and they were getting ready to pray, we asked if William could fold his arms for the prayer he said no, he did not want to pray. They said the prayer and left we finally got to eat. I don't know if they will ever want to come back. For what it worth we were glad that they came and sorry that we were so disruptive. Maybe 4:30 is not a good time for our family.

Visiting Teaching

I think that I have the hardest time with this, both ways. My partner and I set up the appointments and all week I have been nervous and stressing about it. Why is that the case? I worry how I will portray the message, if I will say something that offends them, or if they will just think that I am super cheesy and wish that I would never come again. I don't think that I do any good. I also stress about them coming to my house, I wonder if I will have my house clean, if my kids will behave (hopefully William will not hit them or throw anything at them thinking that they will catch it.) f they are judging me because I work (I hate getting that vibe.) I also wonder if the want input in their lesson or if they like to just teach to the wall? And I hate setting up appointments! Don't you hate getting so worked up over something so simple that probably doesn't even matter, or maybe it does I always come away with the thought that I survived that day but will I be able to find something to teach her next month? I feel so inadequate teaching those that I teach. I guess that is why the Lord has us go every month, so that we can grow and become better and maybe occasionally we can have a good month and teach our sisters the message that the Lord wants us to send. Well thanks for listening. Other that this all is well and we are just living. I really need to get the motivation to scrub my house from top to bottom.

Been a Little Lazy

I had been doing so good about posting and taking pictures but for the last week or so I haven't really felt like doing much of anything, and my house shows it. We have been playing with toys and board games and William has been going to school (on time I might add) Charley is pulling himself up on everything he possibly can, chairs, boxes, the baby swing even on William (this does not end well at all! :() He doesn't realize that he can't balance by himself yet and falls a lot after picking up whatever it was he was going for. Charley is finally starting to take a bottle most of the time and I love it, he has also found a great love for macaroni and cheese. William wanted me to put a picture of his 'motorcycle glove' that he got because as every three year old does he got a little too close to something hot but he loved his 'glove'. Silly mom, the next day before we took him back in the edge was starting to come up a little bit and he was super upset about it. I told him that it would be ok and that we were going back to the doctor and he could get a blue one (thinking that it would be recovered like this again.) We went back and she said that it looked great and just put a plain old bandaid on it. When we got back in the car William looked down and said "this is not blue mom" thank you doctor for making me look like a moron.

This other picture is of William with the box that normally his blocks go in on his head. He says he is a decepticon from transformers (he loves the old cartoon). The best part is when he bends over to pick something up and he can't reach it because his arms are too short. I wish however that he would take the box off his head and put the blocks that are all over his room back in the there oh well.

Ben has started yet another semester of school he is still working on his MBA at ISU. He has class Tuesdays and Thursdays so he doesn't get home until about 9:30pm and I am still working two nights a week so we don't see each other much. oh well I guess. He only has two more semesters after this so if we can just make it to the middle of next summer then we will be done.

And lastly me. I am just the same as I have always been. I am still working but wishing I didn't have work quite so often. I love my little boys but I sure wish they would sleep at night. I feel like I work 7 nights instead of just 2. Someday they will sleep. I think that I am going to try to force Charley to sleep through the night over the next week or so because after tonight I don't work again until next Friday. We will see however and for right now I will just have to hope that we can all take a good nap.

This was a super long post but there is your update.

6 Months Old! (2 months ago)

I realize that I am going back in time but I love how this 6 month shot turned out so I thought I would post it. We had a busy weekend I worked friday night until 2am and then at 5:30am we left for Boise, we stayed for the afternoon then we drove home pulling in the driveway about 9:00pm. The kids did pretty well and thank the Heavens above Charley is finally taking a bottle! We went to church on Sunday afternoon and then went out to visit Grandma and Grandpa Allen and Hyrum and Laura. Then on Monday morning we got up and spent the day at the Blackfoot state fair. We had a lot of fun and William still talks about how much fun he had seeing the animals and playing on the toys. We were all so tired by the time the real week began yesterday.

The First Day of Preschool

Like you I can't believe that William is already in preschool. He is still only three and so he will do 2 years of it but that is ok he is SO ready. Unfortunately this school thing started out on a terrible foot. I worked last night so I came home about 7:15 this morning and William ate his breakfast, took a shower, and brushed his teeth. I got Charley fed and it was about 8:20. School started at 9:00 so I had the alarm set on my phone for 8:45 just in case I fell asleep, (a very possible thing since I hadn't slept in quite some time). I let Charley down to play on the floor and then thing I knew I could hear him fussing. I went and picked him up and luckily thought to look at the clock. IT SAID 9:00! My phone had let me down. I put Charley in the car seat and literally threw William into his, running out the door. We got to Preschool at 9:10 the last ones there. I was hoping we could just slide William in with nobody noticing but no, as we opened the door William announce "hello guys, it's William I am here!" I died of embarrassment. I got back in my car and drove home where I sat in my car and cried not because I was sad that he was in school but because I had been so late. (I am one of those kinds of people that is always awkwardly early). The picture above is the one that I intended to take before school but as you can see by the name tag, it was taken on the way back in the house. Needless to say I set my phone, the oven timer and the microwave timer to make sure that I picked him up on time. I hope that this is not a bad omen for the school year.

Warm Days of Summer

This is a quick snapshot from back in time when it was still warm. These are little fresh food feeders for babies that I put ice cubes in and they both loved it. It was like a Popsicle. It has been so cold lately that I have debated turning the heater back on. It is kind of a nice change however I am ready for fall.

Fall

Doesn't it feel like fall to everyone else? Maybe its just me. I loved the rain this morning, sometimes it is nice to have my kids in the house with me and no begging to go outside. I am always up for a rousing game of Candy Land on a day like this and so is William! I also love to fold the warm laundry as it comes out of the dryer. I had to laugh because for the last few days William has been talking about how he has to go to football practice (he is not on a football team, therefore he has no practice) on and on he has talked about going to 'foofvall' like Simeon and then after 'foofvall' he has to go to soccerball practice. Today he asked me what he would wear to football and I told him that I didn't know, he would probably wear football gear. He then proceeded to tell me exactly each article of clothing that he would have to wear starting with "Wilson's helmet, and then the thing that you eat in your mouth (mouth guard I don't know who he has been borrowing that from:) then the chin thing, it goes on your chin mom, then the pads, the big huge ones that are Sim's, then the blue pants. Mom I need to get blue pants, Wilson has to wear his." What a silly boy, he then tells me he will be ready to go out there and jump on people and he will tackle Sims but Simeon will not get him. Charley is getting so big I love to see him crawling around the house with a big smile on his face. I will post pictures eventually.

Poor Sleeping Habits

So the other night we went through our regular bedtime routine of putting William to bed multiple times. Finally I had given up because it was like 11:30pm so Ben and I were laying in bed and of course Charley woke up. I told Ben it was his turn to get Charley so he got up and left the room, as he was walking past he called to me and said "I will get Charley but you better go find William, he is not in his room." I found him out in the living room sitting in his chair watching a movie that he had turned on himself. You can see he was not very pleased at me turning off the movie and once again sending him to bed.

William called to me while I was working in the kitchen this afternoon and said that he was going to put his man down for a nap (the man is in his hand) not even 3 minutes later this is what I came into the living room to see. He is completely asleep. Silly William

Growing Up

Charley is now crawling on his hands and knees, he can get to pretty much anything he wants. He is only 7 months old I cannot believe it. One of his favorite things to do is dump out all of his toys and then hit them against the box to make as much noise as possible. He also likes to get to William's toys whenever he can.

Starting out Early

This is not a good picture but the other night we mixed it up a little bit and ate dinner in the living room. Charley had his eye on the ketchup the entire time and when we were cleaning everything up he took the opportunity to get to the bottle and was sucking on it. Ketchup is a Rydalch family favorite and we cannot eat a meal without it.

This is his Special Binky

I just had to post this picture, this is the only Binky that Charley will take when he is tired or sleeping. I took this picture today while he was taking a nap in his swing (because as of last night he is refusing to sleep in his crib.)It looks like he has the binky all tucked in with him and I like his fat little sleeping face.

'lil Punk Charley

This was just a cute little picture of Charley in a hat that William wanted him to wear. It looks great on him don't you think? We haven't really done a lot to speak of. William got signed up for preschool and we went and visited the school. He is so excited, unfortunately it does not start until Sept. 2nd it will be a long couple of weeks. Charley is now starting to crawl a little ways and can get around pretty well. He has also attempted to pull himself up on the couch multiple times, luckily for me with no success. I don't think that I am ready for him to be doing this already, he is barely 7 months!

Almost finished

So I have been working on William's tractor blanket for awhile, well probably about a year in a half. I can finally say that it is almost done. All that is left is to quilt it. I turned out ok if I do say so myself. obviously I am not a professional. I must say this however, before I start another sewing project I need to invest in a seam ripper because steak knives become very dangerous sharp objects in the hands of a very frustrated seamstress (there were many times when I wanted to just shred the silly thing.

Precious Moments

This is exactly what I want to do. He did this all by himself. he gathered up a couple of soft toys, nuzzled his little head down on a dolphin with a monkey under his arm and went to sleep. These are the precious moments when they learn to do things for themselves like going down for a nap. this made my day even though I was up all night with him and now he gets to sleep and I don't I am still touched to see his sweet little self sound asleep on the floor.

Where did the Week Go?

Wow, this month is really flying by. Our week has been busy but we haven't really done anything. Don't you hate that? First of all Happy Birthday to my mom, she is wonderful. We finally filled up the pool that we bought back at the beginning of June it has been so cold all summer that I haven't gotten it out. We had Dora Jean, Sallee, and Simeon over yesterday for a swim. William had a blast and then they all had lunch and went home. On Monday we went and played at Grandma and Grandpa Rydalch's and we had a lot of fun we love that all of the aunts and uncles are out of school and so we get to play with them. It is now Thursday and I get to go to work but hopefully tomorrow we will be ready for some more fun. I can't believe how fast William and Charley are growing up Charley is 6months, where has all of the time gone??? He is cute and scooting around on the floor. He gets a little frustrated because it takes him a long time and a lot of work to get anywhere but he is full of smiles and gets there eventually. William is learning so much everyday. He can sing his ABCs will pull up his own pants and undies (I have been waiting a long time for this.) he is usually very good but has been visiting Time Out quite a bit lately hopefully that doesn't last long. These are just a couple pictures to document that this week really existed. This is William when we asked him to go get his shirt and shoes on. This is the little personality and attitude that I was eluding to when I talked about the time out thing. Charley is just his cute little self. I need to do his 6 month pictures. Oh well, maybe next week :).