Cookie "Monster"osity

Most of you probably know we are headed to Nauvoo, Illinois on Friday. We are going with my family, Aunts and Uncles and Grandma. Everyday someone is in charge of a treat for the rest of the family. Ryan decided he would make his famous chocolate chip cookies. He figured it would need about 3 batches since there are 21 of us going. However, I guess I distracted him and he put in double the baking soda that he should've. This meant we had to double everything else! We ended up with SIX batches of cookies!

We gave 20 away to our home teachers, ate some, and still have roughly 8 gallons left!

A weekend at Grandma's

After Stacia's shower Tally invited herself to her "Grandma Nanny's." She left Saturday afternoon and we picked her up yesterday morning. From what I hear she had a lot of fun., After her long weekend she was completely exhausted. She nearly slept 12 hours!

Why men aren't invited to baby showers

Ryan holding a straw may look innocent enough...

Tally lost "her" balloon in the gym before the shower ever started so we knew that we would need to get one balloon down after the party.

Then Ryan decided to see how many balloons it would take to make a baby bottle pop fly...he didn't catch the balloons when he found the perfect number on purpose.

First Ryan tried shooting a needle from a straw up at the balloon..it got stuck in ceiling.

Then he made a weapon out of needles and a ball of duct tape...

It got stuck too.

Quilt frames are great for getting "bouquets" of balloons down because of all the strings. In order to use them to get a single balloon down you must tape a needle to the end.

Then you have to find the needle that was blown up there with the straw.

Believe it or not everything is off the ceiling so no needles fell on any unexpecting member Sunday at church.

Cassidy's First Party!

Saturday we had a shower for Stacia and her baby, Cassidy, who's due on August 4th. We are super excited for them! The shower was fun and Stacia got a lot of great things for her baby boy.

The cute cake one of her friends made for the shower.

The gift table

Tieing one of the two quilts

Lunch- chicken salad sandwiches, fruit and chips

Tally found lots of friends. I think she was a little overwhelming to all of them though. Maybe a little TOO friendly. ;)

Stacia opening her gifts

Stacia and Nikki

Cinco Cakes

For Staica's baby shower I decided to make diaper cake centerpieces. The party had a "farm" theme. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out and I hope she was too.

Showin off the babe

Friday morning, we headed from Manti to Lehi to show Ryan's family our new arrival. It was a quick trip but still a lot of fun. We were even able to get a 4 generation picture.

Jake and his Great Grandma Kunz

Grandpa and Jake

Tally reading Jake a story

Four Generations

The Mormon Miracle

Ryan called me from work on Wednesday and decided we needed to take a trip to the Manti pageant Thursday night. He promised me when we first starting dating (5 years ago this November) that one day he would take me and last weekend he kept that promise. Yes we took both of our children to a pageant that didn't even start until 9:30. Crazy? Maybe, but we all enjoyed it.

We weren't allowed to take pictures of the pageant so I'll leave you will the pageant backdrop.

Soakin Wet

Tally has been begging us to go swimming ever since the town's pool closed LAST SUMMER. We got her over to the indoor pool in Vernal one time during the winter, and we kept telling her that her dad was going to take her to the pool once it opened Memorial Day weekend and every time we planned it something else would come up and she wasn't able to go. We gave up trying to get to the pool and Ryan just blew it up instead. She had just as much fun and got the water all to herself.

Tally had so much fun swimming that she actually stayed out while Ryan was teaching karate (6:00-7:30) and even had sojme misquito butes when she was done. Needless to say she will be doing this often this summer.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all of my friends and family members!

Especially Brad, Bud and my dad, Keith!

Love you all!

To Ryan:

Happy First Father's Day with 2 children! They love you and so do I.

Life with 2 kids

Most of my childhood my mom had a cross stitch of a a lady holding a rolling pin with a saying next to it "To cope with her domestic life, the working woman needs a wife" This has never meant more to me than now. Though I'm not a "working" mom anymore I do realize why the idea of having an extra pair of hands would be so wonderful.

Enter Tally:
Tally doesn't go to bed until 9 pm and she is up between 7 and 8 every morning. She wakes up with more energy than her dad and I have combined at any point in the day. From the second she is up she needs a sippy of milk, breakfast, Dora or a Disney movie and must play with every one of her toys all at once. She has never been a quiet child, and is having a hard time with the idea of "inside voice" or whispering. She is very demanding and wants everything immediately. However, she also is very excited to have a new baby brother and besides waking her brother up she's very helpful with burping him, feeding him, and changing his diaper. She's a great big sister. Very willing to play with him, hold his hand, "cook" him food and sing him songs. She's a very outgoing girl whose messes occur daily and resentment towards potty training will soon make me crazy.

Then there's Jake:
My newborn of not yet 3 weeks. His first 5 days of life were super easy. He slept most of the day and was up every 2 hours to eat at night. Then he ended up border line jaundice and we were forced to wake him up every 2 hours to feed him so we could help his body get rid of it. My little boy was so tired when we would wake him up that it would take him nearly an hour and a half to eat. Leaving me 30 minutes to sleep. He is very much like his father, though he doesn't look like him much. Very calm and patient, but no idea of time retrictions. :) Trying to decide and cope with how to feed him became very stressful, emotional and tiring. I went back and forth with how he should be fed and never felt like I was making the right decision. Finally after a little over 2 weeks we decided to switch him to formula. Sadly the rushed change was hard on his little body and yesterday we had a hard day of  Jake's tummy hurting. Long nights, long days and 2 kids make for a very tired mom.

Though it may sound like I'm not happy about having 2 kids or being a mom that is not the case. Every day gets a little bit better and slightly easier to handle. I'm just trying to prove my point. Two kids are busy enough without dishes, vaccuming, cooking, the constant messes my kids are making or the cleaning of all bodily fluids, which of course leads to piles of laundry.

A wife would be a blessing.

To my parents: I have no idea how you took care of 2 kids a year and two days a part, both working, and both in college. I'm just so glad you did.

One Word

The Friday before Jake was born Ryan and I went to a sort of birthing class taught by a midwife, assisted by a doula. To introduce everyone the midwife asked us to say our name, due date and one word about our spouse.

Some of the couples described their significant others as "sweet, funny, patient, etc"

Me: My name is Sydnee, we are due on May 27th and I would describe Ryan as patient...very patient"

Ryan: My name is Ryan, and Sydnee is stubborn"

The midwife tried to save Ryan by saying: "When turned around that is determined and I believe that's a good quality don't you?" Ryan quickly agreed, determined was defenitely what I was...

This led me to wonder if everyone would describe me as stubborn (or determined if you'd like to be nicer) or just the honey dearest.

What's the first word that comes to your mind when you think of me? Do you think I was accurate describing Ryan as perfect or does a different/better word come to your mind?

If you'd like to play our game and describe your spouse too you're more than welcome. If I know them I will gladly tell you if you're accurate.

P.S. I KNOW that I am stubborn/determined you will not offend me if you agree. :)