We LOVE Daddy!

Father's Day and Ryan's birthday are always in the same week, which means lots of celebrating Dad at our house!  The kids were so excited to do some special things for him, especially my  Madi girl.   This girl is so sweet and thoughtful, and as much as she makes me crazy at times, when she does things like this I can't help but think, this is whey everyone needs to have  a little girl.  She was in creative mode and went to town.

Special Father's Day crown, along with special place cards and some kind of neck decor as well.  I am pretty sure no one else got one of those for Father's Day.  His chair was also decorated.

Mantel Decor, each is a picture she made of something Dad loves.

Each of these is a card she wrote a note on and and folded them up like this.  Can you tell she likes to make cards?  I'm telling you, with out a little girl in your house you'd never get treated to something like this.   Translation: Happy Fathers Day  Dad is rad and glad.

Dad loved opening all of his notes and we had a good laugh.  I am sure he shed a few tears as well, because, well it's Ryan.  And he is sweet.  This note says "You are a fan of BYU"

We were happy to have Grandma over for some of the festivities, she wore Grandpa's BYU apron to represent him.  I am sure he was enjoying Father's Day watching all these cute grandkids.

Daddy's Birthday!  My husband is 39!  How did this happen?!

 Special Birthday breakfast before Dad is off to work, excited kids to sing to Dad and also to enjoy Mom's yummy baked french toast!

 We were sure busy during the day getting Dad's birthday cake ready, it's a good thing I have this cute helper to make sure things taste good!

I may have gone a tiny bit overboard on Ryan's birthday treat.  I had planned to make this delicious ice cream dessert you see and then ended up making a cake as well.  Peanut butter cake, with chocolate fudge frosting and peanut butter cup ice cream dessert, well you only turn 39 once!

 It was delicious!  Ridiculously delicious.  We definitely didn't lose any weight that week.  And of course a birthday crown from Madi made the festivity complete.

This sweet boy loves birthday candles!  No matter who's they are.

Fun week celebrating the greatest Daddy!  These 3 adore him and they are so blessed to have a Daddy who loves them with all his heart.  I am blessed to have these 4.

Major Surgery and Major Cuteness

Last Friday Ryan had a pretty major surgery on his foot. An injury? No. He has lame feet. His feet are shaped weird and have a major curve to them and a very high arch, (which caused him to break his foot in high school.) A few years ago his right ankle started bothering him and it got to the point he couldn't run or jog on it anymore, it was too painful. It has gotten worse the last three years and the pain and discomfort has increased to the point that all he could do for exercise was swim, and even doing things like mowing the lawn or playing catch in the grass with Pierce were painful and causing him to hobble like an old man for days afterwards. We didn't want him to be dealing with the pain and we wanted him to be able to exercise and play with the kids. The answer was surgery.

We've been dreading going through with it, knowing it was going to be a long recovery- he will be in a cast and can't put any weight on it for 6 weeks. Which means no driving and no helping me do much of anything around the house for 6 LONG weeks. He will then be in a walking boot for another 6 weeks. The good news is the surgery went great. Once the Dr. got in there he saw it was even worse than he thought, he'd been planning to repair one tendon and to cut a wedge out of his heel bone and reposition it with screws. He repaired two tendons that he said were just shredded, 36 years of lame feet and they had had it. He also said the ligaments were in pretty bad shape so he repaired those as well, along with the most major part of the whole thing- cutting the wedge out of the heel and repositioning it with the screws.

It's going to be a long recovery for him but I am glad it's done, he'll be so much better off. We have survived the first several days and it's actually been better than I expected. The kids are loving having him home this week and even though he's on the couch or in the chair all day, they love the extra time and attention from him. He's home with his foot elevated for this first week and he'll be back to work next week. Were he'll need all the help he can get.

Here's a look at the scene around here now...


Day 3 post surgery, in his soft cast with a nerve block drip. This was his worst day, but by the end of the day things were improving, plus he was holding the sweetest baby ever, so how could he not be happy?


Day 5 post surgery, soft cast came off, Dr. said his incisions looked great and put him in a hard cast. Madi LOVES helping take care off Daddy, thank goodness!

And now for the good stuff...Major cuteness around here!

I am SO in love with this little boy! I'm convinced he is the best baby ever. Not only has he been sleeping through the night since 2 months (every night, 10 hours now!), he is so happy during the day! I cannot get enough of his smiles and and laughs and he melts my heart every time. Now that he is such a pro at rolling he is really loving tummy time!

This is what I find every morning when he wakes up...

Happy boy with lots of smiles, giggles and "talking". Have I mentioned how cute he is? Seriously, so in love.

We LOVE Daddy!

The kids were very excited about Daddy's birthday and Father's Day this year, especially since they were just 2 days apart, this meant lots of fun and love at our house!

Father's Day

We had a nice relaxing day at home on Father's Day, something that doesn't happen much for Ryan! The kids were very excited to give him gifts, he got a handsome new shirt and a new hair cutting set. Every guys dream, right! Pierce was also thrilled to give him a BYU tie. (Just for the record, this is the only tie Ryan has ever received as a gift from us, and it was a cool one!) Both kids were also very excited to present him with handmade cards, especially since Madi has just recently learned how to write her letters-this was her first time being able to write a card herself, she was so happy about that! We also made him a delicious cake for dessert that the kids enjoyed helping me make.


We love Daddy!

And thanks to darling and creative primary teachers the kids loved giving him cute treats and cards they had made in primary that day!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Dad's birthday party had been long anitcipated since we had told the kids we would go to see Toy Story 3 for Dad's birthday. It was great timing since the movie opened just a few days before, plus I have to admit I think I was more excited to see it than the kids were! We had a super yummy dinner at Texas Road house and then hit the movie. I just wished I would have taken the camera to get a pic of the kids in their 3D glasses. We all loved the movie, of course Ryan and I couldn't help but get a little teary eyed, Ryan thought anyone who didn't was not quite human. And the kids were so cute, laughing out loud and then clinging to our arms during the scary parts. Great movie. Then it was home for cake! We tried the Red Velvet cake from Costco that we'd had our eye on, and it was delicious!


I can't believe my husband is 35! The kids and I had such fun celebrating him. We love him more than I can say. I am so incredibly lucky to have such an amazing husband, seriously, I don't know how I lucked out with him. If you know "the story", I'm sure you'll agree with me. Luckiest girl ever. That's me.

Happy 35th Babe, I love you so much, thank you for being the best husband and Father ever and for loving me more than I have ever deserved. You are the absolute best.

Fathers and Sons & A Girl's Night Out!

Pierce was ecstatic to go on his 1st ever Fathers & Sons camp out! He had been counting down the days for about 2 weeks. I told Madi that since the boys were going to do something special that we could do something special too, and have a girl's night out. She was thrilled! She was counting down the days with brother, equally as excited for our girls night! The day finally came...

And while the boys were doing this....





The girls were doing this...



... and a grand time was had by all!

Madi was so excited when the boys left, she said, "now we can start our 'guls' night!" I needed to make a quick trip to Costco, so I said, "ok, let's go get ready to go to Costco." To which she replied, "that is NOT part of our guls night!" Although she does love a good shopping day at Costco, she did not want to waste our special night there. I convinced her we needed to go so we could get treats for our girls night and it wasn't even time for our girls night at Annie's house. After a few minutes at Costco, she turned to me and said, "there are boys here!" She was very serious about having a girls only night!

My wonderful friend, Kathryn, hosted our little girl's night and a bunch of us moms and daughters from the ward got together. We painted the girl's toenails, had lots of yummy treats, then the girls played to their hearts content and the moms got a great time to chat. What more could we ask for?! It was a fun night!

Madi was also excited to have a special breakfast in the morning with no boys. She was thrilled to have a muffin for breakfast and we both stayed in our jammies until the boys got home, which was fine by me!

The boys got home and Pierce excitedly reported 2 things to me: he got to ride a 4 wheeler! AND the Bishop loved his BYU hat. Obviously 2 very important items. (Thanks Schofields for thrilling Pierson with his 1st ever 4 wheeler ride, he loved it!) Through out the day I coaxed a little more info from him and found out that: he also had fun playing football and baseball with his friends, had a fun time having an egg toss with Dad and the egg cracked in Dad's hands! There was some sort of water balloon fun, and Bro. Hancock was launching water balloons with a launcher! And even launched an egg! (Is this true Curtis?!) He also had fun going on a morning hike with Dad and hiked "clear to the top of a mountain!" And him and Luke and Grant found "fossils" and "dinosaur bones"! Some pretty exciting stuff! He had so much fun and loved spending special time with Dad. Madi and I loved our girl time too, I think I'll be looking forward to next years camp out.

The Good Ol' Dixie Round-Up

The Children's Parade

As a member of the St. George Exchange Club, Ryan has been involved in a lot of service activities for the community over the last couple of years. One thing the club does every year is "Give A Kid A Flag To Wave", were they give a flag to every kid at the Dixie Round Up Children's Parade. This is the first time I have taken the kids to the parade since he has been doing this. The kids loved the parade and especially loved seeing Daddy in the parade!



I am not sure what it was - but something about my manly husband walking down the parade route, wearing that ridiculous yellow t-shirt,sweating like crazy, and making sure every kid watching the parade was given a flag...I just couldn't keep the tears from coming. It was such a sweet site for me to see.

And what could be sweeter than this? Not much.

The Rodeo

We have never taken our kids to the rodeo, we always talk about it and never do it, but this year Pierson came home from school after the "Rodeo Assembly" and couldn't stop talking about wanting to go to the "radio." (I kept correcting him, but it was just cracking me up every time he called it the "radio.") So we decided since it started so late, Ryan would just take Pierson and just the boys could go to the rodeo. Pierson was super excited about going with Dad!

The boys ready for their exciting night out

When you are 6 you can get away with wearing a hat like this to the rodeo and people still think you look cute.

Pierson got to ride around the arena before the rodeo started with Dr. Gooch

Pierce had such a fun night! He made it through the whole thing and loved every minute of it. He was completely exhausted when they got home so late. The next morning he told me ALL about the rodeo and even acted it all out for me! He was a bucking bronco all morning and what entertainment it was for me!

FUN, FUN, FUN!

Boy have the kids been having fun lately! They are loving the many fun activities that summer brings! I didn't have internet to do a post last week and now 2 weeks seems like a lot to catch up on. First of all...

The Tooth Fairy

did come and left Pierson a dollar. He was so thrilled about this! He carried it around the house with him for 2 days until I made him put it away.

Dinosaur Discovery

We have a great group of friends who we have been able to get together with once a week and do a fun summer outing for the kids. We hit the Dinosaur Discovery museum- Pierson thought it was pretty cool and had fun. Madi just wanted to climb under all the ropes and was mad I wouldn't let her. But she had a great time digging with brother.
Pierson & Elle

Pierce & Madi digging for dinosaur bones

Happy Father's Day!


I think Ryan's Father's Day was the lamest one yet. Poor guy. Due to his "special diet" I was unable to make him a yummy breakfast, yummy dinner and yummy dessert. I felt bad, but he got plenty of sweet hugs and kisses! Plus he got to watch me learn how to hula hoop that day! (Story to come in later post) However he is doing awesome with his "special diet" and has lost 25 pounds! I am so proud of him! But it was a great day to let him know how much we love him! I am so lucky to have such an awesome man!

Happy Birthday Dear Daddy!

The day after Father's Day was Ryan's 34th birthday! Talk about making me feel bad! His 2 special days right in a row and me unable to spoil him with yummy food! We had a great day anyway...
The kids were so excited to sing to Daddy in the morning and give him a birthday muffin (the kids certainly enjoyed it)

The kids were super excited to surprise Daddy at work with balloons! (No Pierson does not have glasses, they have discovered it is fun to try on the kid frames at Daddy's work.)

That night we went out for Dad's "party" and went bowling. It was great fun for all of us and after Ryan kicked my trash in bowling I beat him in a heated game of air hockey!
Then we let Pierson have a turn to play Dad in air hockey and he loved it. It was so fun watching him and he thought he was cool stuff "beating" Dad!
Pierce, Madi and "Monk" singing Happy Birthday to Daddy

Blue Bunny

This week we had a very fun filled and yummy outing to Blue Bunny. We made a field trip appointment and they show the kids a video, then let them make their own waffle cone! This was so much fun and so cute! They each got to poor a scoop of batter onto the waffle iron, push the timer button, and roll up their own cone. I loved watching and seeing how they make these yummy things and the kids had a great time! It was a fantastic outing!



Pierce & Grant were so excited to get "Super Scooper" flavor!


Madi wanted "pink - my favorite color" so she got peppermint stick. We all enjoyed our delicious (& huge) ice cream cones and had fun with our friends. Great day!