It's Been A While

Okay so since it has been so long since the last time I wrote this is just going to be an overview. So much has happened that there is no way I can put it all down in one entry. So here we go one family member at a time.


Laiken is getting so big and he is such a little boy. He is a social little guy that absolutely loves to be around people. He is pretty much potty-trained during the day although we still have to get him to poop in the potty. He has friends in the neighborhood that he goes outside and plays with on a regular basis. Ryan and I finally got him a big boy bed because he was starting to mess up his crib by jumping on it so hard. Where last year he was totally and completely about Elmo now he is beginning to branch out a little bit. He now loves all the Sesame Street characters and two of his favorite movies that do not include these characters are Annie and Old Yeller. He is very much an outdoors kind of boy. He loves sports and his favorite one at the moment is football. He loves riding his trike and running behind all the older boys that live on our street.





I just began my third full semester at ASU and am taking 5 classes plus an internship. I am in what is call my Professional Teacher Preparation Program which is just basicaly a fancy way to say the teaching program in the college of ed. I am in my first of three semesters of field experience and then I have my student teaching. So with 4 semesters left I am feeling good and ready for this to be over. I still like to try to workout but it doesnt always work like I want it to. I have a workout program that I am trying to master at the moment it is called Insanity and the name is a perfect description of what it entails. I have tried it several times since I got it for Christmas but so far everytime I do I wind up stressing out my knee or my shoulder so it is slow going. Plus with this new class schedule that I have I am getting home later so most nights there isnt time to workout before bed. I will get there though.



Ryan, well what can I say about Ryan. He is doing well just working and doing his thing. I think that he and Laiken get closer everyday and now that Laiken is older he is like Daddy's little shadow. No matter what Ryan tells people I will testify that he is a wonderful dad. You can look at Laiken (his mannerisms) and he is so much like his daddy that it is hilarious sometimes and aggravating at others. Other than work and Laiken Ryan trys to stay home as much as possible although I am usually able to coerce him to go out when I want him to. I couldnt have asked for a better husband even if I wanted to.

Entire Family

Things have actually been going very well for us even though they have been extremely busy. I have been getting ready for graduation and attended my convocation ceremony this past Sunday. It was fun for me to be included in something like that although I should have listened to Ryan and gotten a babysitter for Laiken. All he wanted to do during the entire ceremony was to run around so Ryan was out in the hallway for most of it. Angela did the front of my hair in two french braids and then that morning I did the back of it in spirals so that it was hanging down my back. Our friends Chris and Randi were able to come and see me get the certificate that was presented so that was cool. None of the other family was able to make it because it was just not enough notice. We tried to get pictures as I walked in and as I got my certificate but all of them turned out blurry and you can hardly see me so I will not include them in this post. Hopefully I will get better ones at convocation since I will have more people there and I know of at least 2 that are going to be bringing their cameras.

I cut Laiken's hair so his hair is now as short as Ryan's is. It is so cute because the night that I cut it Ryan had me cut his as well so that they had matching hair cuts. Once Laiken's hair was short though man he looked so much like Ryan that it was scary. His hair grows as fast as Ryan's too because it is already starting to grow back. I have to say though that I will not be cutting it this short again. It was good for me to see it like this and I liked the break from having to comb it but I really miss his curls; he just doesn't look like my baby boy without them. He is finally getting used to being without them however so that is the good news. He is just getting so big and having such a close cropped haircut makes him look like such a little man. I can not say how many people told me how much older he looks since he got his hair cut off.

Other than that everything has been good. Ryan has been working all of his usual days. I am trying to get through the last of my finals and then I get a small break until I start summer school in June. I am only taking on class however and that is online so I will not only have a lighter schedule but after July 2 I don't have anymore classes until the 24th of August so I am excited about finally getting a break. Well that is about it so I will write again once there is something new going on.

Time To Go Outside

Okay so this is happy post. I am so excited because our backyard if finally going to be totally complete. We got the actual landscaping done when we got our tax refund and today we started putting up Laiken's new swing set. We actually had a neighbor that was in his backyard finishing up the one that they just got for their son and when he got done he was actually nice enough to come and assist with ours. Now this swing set is so cool. Ryan and I decided to get on that is all wood and it came with 2 slides, a swing, a glider swing, a trapeze bar, a picnic table, a club house, monkey bars, and room for a little sandbox underneath. Now the sandbox really isnt necessary be when we got the yard done we decided to make approx. 55% of the yard a giant sandbox as it was. Anyways tomorrow we may actually get done putting it together so Laiken will have his own little playground in our backyard between that and the trampoline. I have pictures so that you can see the process that we have been working on for so long now.

Okay so I actually had pictures of the stages of what the yard started as to the finish product and it included a video of Ryan putting the playset together. But blogger is giving me a hard time tonight so I am going to put them on myspace probaby tomorrow. It works out though because there was other pictures and video that I had to put up anyways so all is well. Let it be known though that I am very happy with the say things have gone the past couple of weeks. Life is just so good right now and I wouldn't trade this time in our lives for anything.

Picture Day!!!

I have to say that today was a really nice day. Ryan and I took Laiken to get his 18 month pictures taken and we went to Target to do the rest of the shopping that we needed to do for Easter and the Easter egg hunt that we are hosting here. Laiken of course was a little turkey making us run around in circles just to get any good shots of him so that we would have a selection to choose from. In the end though they are just darling. It suck though because we weren't able to get any extras of this particular shoot. Next time I get paid for babysitting I am going to have to go to Walmart and get some more 18 months taken so that I can make sure that everyone gets a copy who wants one. As for these I am just going to have to make sure that all the family who is interested has the link that way they can get online and order their pictures directly.

Halloween Post

Okay so I know that I have been remiss in actually posting on this blog or any of the others for that matter. Well now I can not even begin to try to catch you all up but I will start this one on Halloween and there will be several posts done back to back for the next couple of days. We went trick or treating and that was a total hoot. Laiken was a St. Bernard and he was so popular among the houses. He wound up with more candy than we really need in the house so Ryan is going to try to take it to work to get rid of it. Then when Ryan finally got off of work went to this big festival that our church hosts down here in Maricopa every year. That was kinda fun but I think that it will be more fun once he is older and able to actually participate more. Well that is pretty much about it for Halloween but I will post again tomorrow.