My Big BOY

Ryker turned 2 on Monday, I can't believe how big he's gotten! We went out to eat for his Birthday and got a dessert, he loved it (as you can tell). I love Ryker more everyday, I have the best job in the world!

Happy

Every other word is happy and everything is happy at least according to Ryker. Its amazing how quickly he can learn new things. I taught him today that he's 2, at least he'll be two in 3 weeks by then he'll be able to do it on his own.

We're half way done! Today was the end of the semester for Ryan. He has 4 more months of school left. I thought a Master's degree program would be more demanding, but so far Ryan's been managing his time well. I'm so proud of him and all his hard work. This next semester Ryan will be doing an internship at two different agencies. It will be good to gain some different perspectives, but I think this semester will be more time consuming. We'll see how it goes.

Over Thanksgiving we had some family pictures taken. They turned out really good. My mother-in-law took them and I tried my hand at photo editing.







I love this one of Ryker kissing Snoopy!

FHE

Last night we had so much fun for FHE. I found this blog that has lots of fun ideas and links for family home evening. We made some chocolate chip cookies, Ryker helped roll the cookie dough and put them in the oven. What a good little helper!

Pumpkin Patch

On Saturday we went to a pumpkin patch with some friends, with the intention of purchasing pumpkins. It turned out that almost all of the pumpkins were rotten. Ryker wasn't too interested and ended up just throwing rocks.


We ended up just getting some cool looking gourds.We'll carve a pumpkin for FHE next week. I'm going to try a new recipe where you cook a custard in a pumpkin! The recipe sounds really yummy, we'll see if its hard to make, wish me luck!

Ryker's Favorites

It's so exciting to watch Ryker grow, these last few month he's learned so much! He loves to sing Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree, motions included; Elmo's song; Book of Mormon Stories; and Ring Around the Rosy, falling down being the best part! Ryker has had a language explosion, some of his favorite words are:

silly
want some
bunny
bananas
popcorn
whale
Elmo
Mama
hi
Daddy
hey
hand
bye
fish
eyes
ball
cool
dog
Amen
Jesus
welcome
nose
love ya
funny
not silly
bear
Uh oh

And he'll repeat almost anything you say! Ryker understands more words than he can say. Ryan and I use a philosophy called Love and Logic to teach him obedience and responsibility; it's really helped us learn how to discipline and teach him! He's so obedient and fun to be with everyday.

Ryker

End of Summer

We've had such a fun summer! In August Ryker and I were able to visit my family in Minnesota and Nauvoo. A few weeks later Ryan's family came up to CDA. We've been swimming, hiking, rock climbing, and doing a ton of stuff outside. It's going to be hard to stay inside all winter long! Here are some pictures from throughout the summer that haven't got around to posting.

Ryker and Daddy walking in the sand

Is this for me?!

A Small Milestone

Ryker stayed in Nursery all by himself this past Sunday! I was so excited for him, he gained a little bit of independence. But I'm also sad that he's growing so fast and doesn't need his mommy all the time.

Summertime Fun

On Saturday, we went to the park for a picnic and to play. Ryker had such a good time playing in the water, as long as he didn't get a face full of it! He was really careful not to get any water in his face, if he could help it!

Ryker running with glee! He's such a fun little guy, he was screaming and making some funny faces (of course I couldn't capture any on film!).

We also like to go on walks around Lake Coeur 'dAlene. Ryker's favorite thing to do at the lake is throw rocks into the water. Well, anytime there are rocks to throw he will throw them. He can throw rocks for hours on end without getting bored! It must be a boy thing!

Ryker loves to read! He's such a good little reader, he'll sit by himself and read or we'll read together. That's my favorite part of the day! Of course he's all about the Cat and the Hat! (He has a stuffed Cat and the Hat he sleeps with and tries to bring along with him everywhere!)

Ryker's New Toy....

Ryker has a new favorite toy, our sliding glass door. He opens and closes that door at least 100 times a day. He's also discovered that he can make silly faces if he presses against the glass. I thought that it was pretty funny and had to share!

Home Sweet Home

We're really starting to feel at home here in Coeur d'Alene. I've finally unpacked all of our boxes and hung the pictures on the walls. Everyone that we've met so far have been really nice and welcoming. We've discovered that there is plenty to do here in Coeur d'Alene. There are lots of hiking/bike trails we are planning on checking out. This weekend there is an Iron Man competition that is a huge deal here, there are over 2,000 athletes competing in it. All of downtown shuts down for the competition. It sounds like it'd be fun to watch.
These are pics of Coeur d'Alene Lake and the longest boardwalk in the world...I'm not sure if I believe that.

Coeur d'Alene

I know it's been over a month but the move to Coeur d'Alene took longer than expected. BUT, we've made it! Coeur d'Alene is BEAUTIFUL! There will be pictures to come, I've only been here for a day and LOVE it! I think we are going to really like it here!

We're Moving to...

Ryan and I decided that we are moving to Coeur' dAlene, Idaho. Ryan will be attending Boise State University in Coeur' dAlene for grad school in Social Work, the program is 10 months long. We are excited about the move, everything we've heard about Coeur' dAlene has been great!

Zoned Out

We don't let Ryker watch tv, but occasionally we watch Baby Einstein movies with him. He's already showing signs of taking after Ryan. Equipped with comfy clothes and goldfishes in hand he sits back and enjoys the show. Once the movie is on the rest of the world doesn't exist to Ryker. Much like his daddy he stares at the screen wide eyed and open mouthed. He gets pretty into the movies though. He really likes when there are animals on the shows. He claps and laughs at their silly actions. We just love him so much!!

Hair Cut

Ryker got his first hair cut at a salon. We went to the beauty school here and of course I didn't bring my camera, so no shot of him screaming his head off. Well, he did better than I thought so I really can't complain. And the girl that cut his hair was really good with him. Ryker is learning lots everyday, he still isn't too interested in walking yet...which is fine with me he's already getting to be too big! He's mastered the art of eating with a spoon or fork-well for the most part.

Our bathroom is FINALLY finished as of yesterday. It looks really nice, it just stinks that we only get to enjoy it for about a month. It echos now too because of the stone tile, Ryker likes to yell and hear the echo he gets a kick out of it! As far as school goes we're kind of in limbo right now, we haven't yet heard back from any universities yet but we should pretty soon. It's made me a little nervous since there is so much to do before we leave, plus we don't have an apartment to move to since we haven't heard back! I know it will work out but I can't stand the wait!

New Bathroom Tiles

On Monday night it was extremely cold and our pipes froze, which could have been avoided if we would have dripped the faucet. Anyhow, a pipe burst and it flooded the kitchen in our downstairs apartment! Luckily, we got the water turned off before thousands of dollars of damaged occurred. So the plumber and the cleaning & restoration guys came and did their business, while taking out some of the wall in the basement and some of our tile in the bathroom upstairs. Our house looks a mess and there's a huge whole in our bathroom, which prohibits taking a shower. But I must say we are pretty blessed to have been at home at the time. And here's the best part of the deal, because the leak was in between the floor and the ceiling the plumbers had to take out some tile. Since our style of tile would be hard to match our home owner's insurance is going to pay for our shower to be re-tiled! I am super excited, I've always hated the way it was tiled and now it will look real nice. It's just too bad that we will be moving in a few months.



I'm sure it looks much worse for our tenants downstairs, at least we only have to suffer for a few days!

A quick Ryker update:
Ryker has taken to pulling out drawers lately, his favorite thing to do is to sit in the vanity drawer in the bathroom and play. It's pretty cute!


Ryker has almost mastered the art of feeding himself with a spoon! He does a pretty good job as long as it is applesauce. On a side note, Ryker LOVES his spoons, it's almost impossible to pry a spoon out of his hands!


Ryker got a late Happy Birthday present from Grandma and Grandpa Conkle, he looks really handsome! He's learned some new tricks too, Ryker thinks it's hilarious when someone sneezes, so he will fake sneeze all the time and just cracks up at himself! He's a really good kid, but he is in a temper tantrum stage he'll do it over just about anything that doesn't go his way! I can't wait for that stage to be over with or at least limited to one per day! All in all we are doing really good, I just can't wait until winter is over!

Sweet Stroller Giveaway!

So I happened upon this really awesome double stroller giveaway and had to share, so check it out!! Go here to enter to win it, http://inevergrewup.net/giveaway-25-bumbleride-indie-stroller/.