Albuquerque

Last week we went up to Abq.on Christmas so that the kids and I could fly out a few days later to meet my parents in Chicago.Coincidenceul we were able to spend some quality time as a family before Roo left. 

This trip was the first time Ryan went on the carousel by himself.  He still won't sit on a horse but he enjoys spinning around in the cup.

One day we left Ty with a babysitter and took Ryan to a trampoline park.  He really enjoyed it and I think he appreciated spending some alone time with us.

I was adventerous and took the kids on the bus since Roo had to leave early.  Ryan enjoyed it...though now he has a cold.  Coincidence?   I'm not sure.

Squadron Christmas party

A few weeks ago Andrews squadron had their Christmas party...it was a lot of fun!  They had childcare so we dropped both kids off.  I picked Tyler up after dinner and he enjoyed the rest of the party with us.  It was nice to hang out with friends before we all went separate ways.

 

Our frfriend was holding Ty when she won a prize and went to sit in Santa's lap.  Obviously he wasn't excited. 

family pictute before the party...sadly its hard to get Ryan to participate.

Polar Express

Ryan discovered the Polar Express movie on TV a couple of weeks ago and watches it at least once a day.  In Lubbock they have a train that gives kids a similar experience.  I think he enjoyed it--though I don't think he was as excited as I imagined he would be.  Overall we had a really good time and Ty cooperated so that we really nice.

Excited to get on the train.  Of course they told us to be there an hour early but we had assigned seating so we probably could have shown up 10 minutes prior and been just fine.  But whatever.

So excited to get to hold his tickets!

If you've ever seen the movie the Conductor punches the tickets--Ryan even hold him his name and also Tylers--I was pretty impressed with him.

Arriving at the North Pole.  I am glad I listened to reviews and went on the later train so it was dark.  Probably seeing the cut out houses and workers cars parked next to them during the day would make it less believable.

Ty was very impressed.

Pictures from this week

Roo has been out of town so I've been holding down the fort. Thankfully Ryan has really gotten into the movie the Polar Express which is on Netflix--this normally allows me to take a nap each day.  I should go to bed earlier but I love the time when the kids are in bed and I'm free to do what I want!

 Ryan wanted my body pillow in his bed--it doesn't look the most comfortable but I guess he didn't mind.

 Just pretending that Ty is baby Jesus.  Someone commented that they're surprised Ryan shared his blanket and I said it was probably because he was glad that he wasn't having to be Jesus.

 Roo's squadron had a get together so I busted out the ugly Christmas sweater (the one Roo was wearing in the pictures)--I figured that I better get my $5 out of it.

 Last night our ward had its Christmas Party.  The food was delicious and the company was great!  Ryan obviously didn't want to participate in the picture.

Thankfully he did a better job in this one.

Christmas Fun

Last weekend Roo's work had a Christmas Party for the kids.  I'm sure I've mentioned it before but I am really going to miss his squadron here--they do a great job at providing a lot of fun activities for us all.

Since I actually did my hair you better believe I was getting pictures taken of me.  On a side note--Ty is getting so big!

 Each kid got a book from Santa--I was surprised that Ryan went up and got it.  I was even more surprised that when they were asking the kids what they wanted for Christmas, Ryan raised his hand and said,"a bus and a tractor".  I guess I'll enjoy it while it's simple and before he starts asking for electronics.

 A family picture

 Ryan waiting for his name to be called.

Monday Ryan's school had their Christmas program where they sang songs.  I didn't really expect him to sing, which is good because he didn't.  He mostly stood there and covered his ears.  I was still really proud and glad that he chose a red shirt since everyone else was decked out in nice Christmas clothes--at least red bird kind-of fit the occasion.

Obviously he was thrilled to have me there.

We've had a good week trying to get back into the swing of things after vacation.  It's crazy how fast this month is flying by.  A couple more weeks until Roo deploys and I go to my parents...and a ton of things to do before then.  If I don't post much I'll at least try to post pictures of the boys.

Ty finding Papa very entertaining.

I know I've said it before but Ryan is such a good big brother!  The other day we were playing in his room and he told me to put baby on his bed--then he covered their feet and laid next to him.  So cute!

Us enjoying the sun in Colorado before it got really cold.

This doesn't look very comfortable but Ryan didn't mind lying on the cold ground.

Colorado fun

We Andrew took  walking rewrado for Thanksgiving...where we upgraded our phones!  In fact I'm writing this post from my phone,  so I guess I don't have any excuses now to not keep it updated.   Ryan had a lot of fun playing with his cousins and thankfully they were all nice and included him in their activities.   Everyone enjoyed holding Ty until he got fussy and then somehow I always get handed him.

Ryan had a fun time swimming with his cousins.

Ryan rock climbing.  I think that is as high as he went.

Today we got ice cream and took a walk by the river.

Andrew took Ryan walking on the frozen lake. ..probably not the best idea ever.

Family Pictures

We are lucky that there is really talented spouse in Roo's squadron who took family pictures for those that were interested.  It was a little windy but I think they turned out awesome!  We wanted to mix it up and do some ugly Christmas sweater pictures too--and thankfully Goodwill didn't let us down.  It wasn't very easy to coax Ryan to get into his--by that point he was just over the whole thing, but overall I think that he did really well and I'm so glad that we have pictures with all 4 of us.

 My handsome boys!

 This is one of my favorite pictures!  I figure any time there's one that I like how I look--that's a real winner!

 It was neat that we could be by Roo's plane!

She told us to be cheesy--and that's what you get.

My asked for some more pictures of Tyler--so you can blame her for the many on this post.  Roo has been out of a town for a few days but so far I think I've been handling it well (though maybe Ryan would beg to differ).  Yesterday was kind-of a rough day because I realized that I was being really short with Ryan, and it was mostly all my fault.  I realize that doing anything with two kids takes triple the time that it would doing it by myself, so I really need to wake up earlier/get ready quicker so that I'm not frustrated with him going at the pace of a 3 year old.  I really should appreciate that he just wants to look at every bug he sees or pick up every rock we pass by.  I'm going to try hard to work on that!

Ty and then Ryan.  Ryan was a couple of weeks older in his pictures.  I don't really see the resemblance but most people say they can see it. 

Ty sitting in his jumper for a few minutes.  Normally he likes it long enough for me to eat something--so that's nice.

Don't let the smiles fool you--he didn't last much longer.

This year we didn't carve the pumpkins we just harvested the seeds from them--somehow October just flew by!

For being a boy Ryan is really funny about getting his hands dirty...so he just watched us.

I just think Ty is adorable in hats.  I think Ryan is too but he unfortunately won't keep them on.

Last weekend I went out to dinner with a girlfriend--I'm proud that I was brave enough to do it with two.  Towards the end Ryan was twirling around in circles (literally) but at least he was being semi quiet.

Ty dressed in his Sunday best.

One of the girls in Roo's squadron is letting us borrow this--it's pretty good at keeping him entertained.

Ryan decided to put his blanket on Ty like a hat.