Chillin......Cajun Style

BIG things in January!!!

2012-01-27T12:27:00.000-08:00

Some exciting things have been going on in our family this month!

Gavin has been showing off all his new tricks!
He sits...he crawls...

and he eats rice cereal! These 7 1/2 months have gone by so crazy fast!!!

Down here the winters are pretty mild. It's been warm enough for Bubba to go outside and ride his bike and paint in his UNDIES!
That's right Bubba has been in big boy undies for 3 weeks now!

and Ryanne turned 5!!!!!
She's full of energy and personality....nothing has changed ;)

Her favorite present?
Her "brand new light blue bike"!!!

Northward Ho!

2012-01-01T18:55:00.000-08:00

What do you get when you put together...

Eyebrow waxing

Air Force Museum

Christmas caroling

4-wheelin'

indoor soccer

lots..

...and LOTS of family

several shopping trips, lots of baking, a boyfriend introduction (hey Heather, we like him!!!) and LOADS OF LAUGHS?!

A FREAKIN' AWESOME CHRISTMAS!

That's what!

We headed up North where 2 of my sisters live!
We almost had my whole family up there! Everyone but my oldest brother and his family were able to come! But, Michael has a good excuse for not coming....his wife is 9 months pregnant with their 6th baby!!! (Hurry up baby come on out and play! You're late!)
So we had a total of ...
(momdadheideidenvertylerhuntercarteraddisonjeremykimtraviskelsitristamesheldonryanneaustingavinheatherbillybob)
...20 PEOPLE!
We had so so so so so MUCH FUN! Can't wait til the next family gathering!

Happy Birthday!

2011-12-15T19:14:00.001-08:00

Today is Bubba's BIRTHDAY!!!
He's 3!!!
Time has just been flying by, I can't believe he's 3 already!
It's amazing to see how much he has grown in this past year!
He's not a baby anymore....ahhhh!

look out girls...

Some fun facts about our Bubba Boy...

- he can tell the difference between store brand and name brand cereal. He wont even touch store brand!
- he does not like fruity smells! If you are sitting next to him and open up a juice he will plug his nose and scream I DON'T LIKE THAT SMELL! until you move away from him. yup you have to move, he wont move. haha.
- he loves singing his ABC's
- every morning when Daddy is getting ready for work Bubba will go into the bathroom and climb up on the counter and hang out with Daddy while he gets ready. They talk, laugh, and watch tractor/truck movies on Daddy's phone!
- he absolutely ADORES his baby brother! If G is crying in another room you can hear Bubba's big feet slapping on the floor as he's running and shouting "I'M COMING G BABY, IT'S GONNA BE OK, DON'T WORRY BUBBA IS COMING!!!!

Words can't express how much we love our Bubba Boy! We are blessed to have him in our family!
Happy Birthday Bubba!

Field Trip!

2011-11-30T14:14:00.000-08:00

A couple weeks ago we took Ryanne's preschool class on a FIELD TRIP to the...FIRE STATION!

I'm pretty sure Bubba was the most excited of them all!

I got my camera out a little late...it's not easy balancing a big camera and a huge baby! haha! One of the other moms offered to take Gavin so I whipped out my camera!

They had 2 HUGE living rooms and a GIGANTIC kitchen that had 3 fridges and 2 stoves/ovens!

Then they showed us their sleeping quarters.

10 tiny beds in one room! And every day when they wake up they have to take their sheets off the beds so that the next shift can use the bed! ugh. How would you like to pull your sheets off and on your bed twice a day!?!

Then they showed us their locker room!

The 2 fire fighters opened up their lockers to the kids that they shove their sheets in their every morning cuz they don't wanna deal with folding them up several times a day! (I think this Fire House needs a "House Mom" haha)

Next was the weight room!

Way small compared to the rest of the rooms!

Ryanne was showing us her muscles! I asked Ryanne who had bigger muscles...Daddy or the fireman....she looked at the fireman then thought for a minute and shouted DADDY!!!

hahahahaha!!!

Every time we entered into a new room Bubba would ask if it was time to see the trucks yet.

Finally it was time to go outside to the trucks and when the firefighter told Bubba that he ran straight for the door to go see those trucks!

All the kids got to climb around inside! Ryanne was the first one in!

Bubba climbed in and stayed in there for a bit, haha! All the other kids were in and out several times while Bubba just stood in there and checked out the truck.

He even got to go sit in the front seat!

The firefighter showed the kids the jackets and pants firefighters wear when they come rescue people!

This is about half the kids....the other kids got a little camera shy!

and finally a pic with all the firefighters!

Ryanne and Bubba had SO MUCH fun! They want to go check out another fire station!

Hmmm.....maybe a police station next?...

After the fire station we went to a park that has a TANK and a HELICOPTER!

Bubba bee-lined for the tank!

and started climbing away!

G was asleep and missed out on all the action so I just had to get a pic of him with the tank!

the kids saw the American Flag waving in the wind and decided to stop and say the Pledge of Allegiance! haha it was too cute!

One of the preschool Moms recorded a song and she's been wanting to make a music video so the kids helped out by holding papers that had different saying on them!

And then without warning (other than some dark clouds haha) it DOWN POURED on us!

It is quite a challenge trying to run to your car while holding a 50+lb baby/car seat in one arm, holding the hand of a 2 yr old, cheering your 4 yr old on to run to the car all while trying to put your expensive camera in it's bag and out of the rain!

We could ring out our hair and about a gallon of water would come streaming out!

hahahaha! We laughed the whole way to the car and were laughing once we got to the car when the rain decided to let up! Ryanne and Bubba are still talking about how we got rained on at the park!

Thankful Tree

2011-11-30T13:42:00.000-08:00

At the beginning of November we made a

THANKFUL TREE!

Everyday the kids thought of something(s) they were grateful for & wrote it onto a leaf and stuck it on the tree!

They LOVED the idea! We ran out of paper leaves a week before Thanksgiving!

The first night we asked Bubba what he was grateful he said...

"Bubba, and K & E"

haha, so that's what we wrote down on a leaf for him

Bubba

and

the letters K & E

Ryanne insisted on writing down EVERY SINGLE family member's name!

So that included....

the 5 of us

4 grandparents

14 aunts & uncles

15 cousins (including the 2 that are coming in December!)

Gramy & Grampy's cat, Kurdy

and Uncle Brandon's dog, Sunny!

Thanksgiving has come and gone but we still have out tree up. It's a nice reminder of what we are thankful for....it might come down, one day.

the kiddos

2011-11-30T12:13:00.000-08:00

Football or Baseball? Hard choice.

G checking out Ryanne's computer game!

Trying to figure out this whole sitting thing!

saying she LOVES her baby brother would be an understatement!

Bubba has grown up so much these past few months! Love this kid!

4 Month Check Up

2011-11-01T16:58:00.000-07:00

G Baby turned 4 months old!

I took him in today for his 4 month check up....and...he is BIG!

Before we went in I asked Ryanne to guess what Gavin weighs now and she said 21lbs...welllllll.....

she was ALMOST right!

20lbs 15.3oz

27 3/4in

off the charts for both height and weight!

Just taking after his brother and sister!

He's rolling over from back to tummy and every once in a while he feels adventurous and rolls from his belly to his back, he chews on his hands all day long which makes us wonder if he's gonna be teething soon YIKES!
It's super easy to get him to smile and laugh. If he starts to whine all we have to do is say G BABY and he stops whining and starts smiling and laughing!

And for your viewing pleasure...

We Like To Party. We Like, We Like To Party!

2011-10-28T13:28:00.000-07:00

After preschool this week we had a little Halloween party for the kids!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, Rapunzel, A "Princess, Ballerina Superhero", and a ghost!

Bubba put on his costume and jumped in for a pic!
a couple of the moms came to help with the party!
We had the kids trick or treat to all the rooms in the house!

Afterwards they ate all their candy and we put on some Halloween music and let them dance til their hearts were content!

Last week we were invited to ANOTHER Halloween party...
...Bubba was ready to go home soon after our arrival
hahahaha

There were lots of fun games for the kids, including...
doughnut eating contest! (a family favorite)...

...and a mummy wrapping contest!
Ryanne and her friend, Lydia, took turns wrapping each other!

Game Over

2011-10-28T11:39:00.000-07:00

Ryanne had her last soccer game last week

so sad.

She's been nearly inseparable from her soccer ball since the game.
She dribbles it around the house and plays with it outside every chance she gets.
I think we've got a soccer player on our hands! YAY!

I love that she's pointing to herself asking for the ball to be passed to her!
BREAK AWAY!
I totally remember this moment!
I was clicking away on the camera as I'm screamin' frantically
GO RYANNE GO RYANNE GOOOOOO!

Getting in the middle of it!
I LOVE how competitive she's gotten from playing soccer

Game is over.

Bubba watched almost the whole game sitting next to me in his own chair cheering on his big sister!

and Gavin found his thumb!

After the game they all lined up to receive their medals!

her coach, Butch, called out their names as he placed the medals around their necks. Ryanne moved so fast I almost didn't get a pic of her up there!

She asked me if I have any medals like her...
hahaha, um, I think Gramma & Grampa can vouch that I have LOTS like hers!

team shot! Only missing one kid! We had the smallest team in our age bracket, but it worked out for the best cuz the kids got more playing time!

the lone girls!

such an amazing poser! haha!

I love how every game she had a smile on her face throughout the whole game and laughed as she ran. There were a few times you could even hear her squeal! She said she loved playing soccer and is already asking when the season starts up again! Looks like we will be in line for spring sign ups!
We had lots of fun watching her but more importantly SHE had fun!

the letter D

2011-10-28T11:21:00.000-07:00

Last week in preschool we learned the letter D!
And what better way to learn about the letter D than by eating a food that begins with D while having a race!!!
We had a...
DOUGHNUT EATING CONTEST!

Ready. Set. EAT!GO RYANNE!

We even did another round and let the 2 year olds join in!
Oops, no hands Bubba! hahaha!

Krewe da la Fou

2011-10-28T10:27:00.000-07:00

We have some friends that are members of a Mardi Gras Krewe!
Throughout the year they have several parties!
We were invited to their Halloween party!we met up at a friend's house first for some pics!

Superheros!
Sheldon is a red neck super hero...I called him my Super Swamper!

Cowboy & Indian

hahaha Plug & Outlet hahaha

Off to the party we flew...
helping support the theory...
"white people can't dance"
hahahaha!

slow dancing the night away!

end of summer BASH!

2011-10-09T13:55:00.000-07:00

PARTY TIME!
We threw a party this weekend!
The summer is coming to an end...
(ok so I know that , technically, the summer has ended but it's still hot down here!)
...so we decided to have one last hoorah!

We had the car radio on so the men could listen to some football. hahaha, those boys and their football!

The kids all enjoyed swimming and jumping...

...while the parents stuffed their faces with burgers and hot dogs!
(side note: see that cute baby?! That's my friend's baby boy that was born 3 1/2 weeks before Gavin! Totally cute! He and Gavin have had several play dates already!)

oh and who can forget the dessert table?!
cupcakes, home made buttercream frosting (YUM!), and some delicious choc chip/butterscotch cookies!)

It's still hot down here, but not as hot as it's been!
I love that everyone huddled together in the little parts of shade that we had!

We ended the party just in time! About 30 minutes after everyone left the dark clouds came rolling in and the sound of thunder echoed off the mountains..err, ant hills ;)

We had lots of fun!
And there was a party guest (or two) that suggested we should do this every year!
An Annual End of Summer Bash...I like the way that sounds!
Except next year we will make time for games!
3 legged race, pie eating contests, red rover red rover, water balloon volleyball...

so many questions

2011-10-01T20:13:00.000-07:00

Ryanne is FULL of questions....here's a sampling of a few questions that were asked this week...

---

Ryanne: Mom? Where do Heavenly Father & Jesus live?
Me: In Heaven
Ryanne: Why?
Me: They live there so they can keep a watch on us and help us make good choices. As long as we make good choices in our life we can go to Heaven and live with them again.
Ryanne: Really? That's so COOOOOOL!!!

---
(as we are driving around, we pass a car lot...)
Ryanne: Mom? How much is 5580?
Me: five thousand five hundred and eighty dollars
Ryanne: WOW! That car is EXPENSIVE! Lots of things cost lots of money.
Me: Yup. But that's why people get jobs, so they can pay for all these things that cost money.
Ryanne: Ya, that's why Daddy works. So he can buy me clothes, a car seat, food, a house, lots of toys, a soccer balls, soccer clothes, presents, cake....(she goes on for another 5 minutes listing all the things Daddy can buy for her)

---

Ryanne: Mom? Where do babies come from?
(WHAT?! What 4 yr old asks that???? How does she know to ask this question??? Where did she learn this question???)
Me: uh.....From my belly
Ryanne: NO! Where do they REALLY come from?
(dang it.)
Me: From Heaven
Ryanne: Oh. that's cool.
(phew)

I can handle those first 2 questions....that last one?....made me sweat a bit!

Crazy October!

2011-10-01T19:05:00.000-07:00

October is going to be a CRAZY month for us!
Between our 2 families we have 8 birthdays this month!
PLUS we have 4 parties scheduled on the calendar! EVERY weekend is packed with something....except this weekend! The first weekend of October for us is the only chill weekend we have...
...Other than a soccer game of course!

YAY!

This is how well Gavin behaved at the soccer game...
...and this is how well Bubba behaved...

alright, alright, he might have just fallen off the bench just then but he really DID do a lot of whining and crying...you know, just being Bubba ;)

But he did have some happy moments....posing with the trash can...

...and making silly facesit's been so fun watching Ryanne play! She's getting aggressive!

She almost scored too!
well it depends on who you ask...if you ask me I say she totally scored, if you ask other parents on our team they will agree, but if you ask the ref who is standing behind a group of crowded kids and can't even see the ball then she would tell you the ball did not cross the line. whatever dude. Just saves me $1 this week ;)
(she gets $1 every time she scores!)

no no Ryanne, don't watch us, watch the game!

by the end of the game she was TIIIIIIRED! but didn't want the game to end!

after the game with her "soccer best friend" Bailey

once we got home Bubba jumped out of the car, grabbed the first soccer ball he saw, and showed off his mad soccer skills!
this boy got some game!
Must take after his Momma ;)

Whenever we go to Ryanne's soccer games if there is a spare ball lying around Bubba runs straight for it and kicks it as hard as he can....
usually on to a field with a game in progress...oops, dang who's kid is that? Get him under control ;)
2 more years Bub, then you can play!

Pre K

2011-10-01T17:53:00.000-07:00

Would you pay $75/week for preschool if your kid can already...

- write her own name and several other names (without any help on how to spell it)
-count to 40
- can recognize all letters and numbers
- can write all letters and numbers
- knows the sounds each letters make (most of them)
- knows all the basic shapes (haven't quite gotten to the level of "trapezoids")
- knows all the colors
- knows how to use scissors and glue
- knows what patterns are
- plays very well with other children
- can follow directions
and MANY other things?

ya I didn't think so.

So we opted out of Pre K this year. She was SO SAD when we told her she wasn't going to go to school this year. BUT luckily I found 3 other moms that feel the same way I do!

So we formed our own Pre K group!!! We have been taking turns going to each others house 3 days a week teaching the kids!
The first day of "Pre K" was at my house!
YIKES!
Did I mention me and another mom have teamed up together since we have 2 younger ones?!
Yup, so that means for 4 hours we had..
4 4 yr olds
2 2 yr olds
1 4 mo old
1 3 mo old
add that up yet? ya that's 8 kids under the age of 5
can you say overwhelming?!

but we somehow managed to have lots of fun with lots of learning!
Since it was the "FIRST DAY" I took the kids pictures!
And the kids decorated frames for their pictures!

Here's RYANNE!
and the Pre K crew!

Ryanne has so much fun carrying her new back pack and packing her new lunch box!
Can't wait for the rest of the year!
(oh and PLUS it gives me one more year of "cute" clothes before she has to start wearing uniforms!)

Ain't Nothing but a G Thang

2011-09-18T20:21:00.000-07:00

Hanging out with G on a Saturday afternoon!
Laughing at Daddy making silly faces at him!

Chillin' in the recliner watching some football
Making Daddy so proud ;)

Soccer Mom

2011-09-18T19:03:00.001-07:00

The day that I've been waiting for for almost 5 years has finally come...
RYANNE'S FIRST SOCCER GAME!!!
I played soccer from the time I was 10 or 11 up until I got pregnant with Ryanne!
so that's...uh subtract the 2...13 years!

I'm totally excited about being a soccer mom!

Ryanne in her uniform!alright, so, she had a rough start to the game. Before half time she came running off the field TWICE crying & wanting to go home. I had a little talk with her, never pushing her to play, but telling her how much fun she would have if she just gave it a try....and there might have been some thing about her getting an icee if she went back in and tried her best.

She did go back in and had so much fun!
SEE, Mom's ARE always right! haha!
It was lot's of fun to watch her play! We were one of "those parents" yelling on the sidelines for their kid to kick the ball! She smiled the WHOLE second half!

So there's only 2 girls on the team.

Ryanne and one other girl, many times throughout the game you would see the 2 girls standing by each other talking about their shoes!

After the game Ryanne came running over to us with a HUGE smile on her face and told us she had so much fun!

YAY! So excited for the rest of the season!
GO RYANNE!!!

Happy Birthday Sheldon!

2011-09-18T16:56:00.000-07:00

Someone had a birthday!
SHELDON DID!

Check out his awesome cake I made!
and if you're asking yourself...
"Did this cake make it onto the front page of utefans.net like Jen's other Utah cake?"
The answer is YES!

So his birthday was on Thursday and he said we couldn't eat it cuz he needed one more day to "bask in all it's glory" hahahaha!
So then Friday comes, nope can't eat it.
Saturday comes, nope can't eat it.

Saturday night Utah played BYU and well it was a total BEAT DOWN!

(you might want to click on another page if you are a BYU fan...this might be painful)

Final score:
Utah 54 BYU 10

Utah started and ended the game with defensive touchdowns!
BYU had a total of 11 rushing yards while Utah had a total of 242 rushing yards!!!
BYU had 7 turnovers!

(did ya read his shirt? hahahah!)
So finally after the game (about 12:15ish am Central time) Sheldon said
"ok we can have some of the cake now, that cake was good luck!"
see that was my plan all along ;)

My friend came over to help me make the cake....and by "help" I mean she played with Gavin and cheered me on while I got my hands dirty haha!
After we, I mean I, finished the cake my friend took like a MILLION pics of Ryanne.
Who knew one little girl could have so many different faces in just a matter of minutes!

If you look closely you can see a tear roll down her cheek!
she was crying from laughing so hard! (takes after her momma!)
and then I jumped in for some fun!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHELDON (3 days ago)! I LOVE YOUR FREAKIN' FACE!
SO GLAD THE CAKE BROUGHT THE UTES SOME GOOD LUCK FOR YOU! ;)

3 Months!

2011-09-18T16:27:00.000-07:00

G Baby turned 3 months old on the 13th!

He is such a good baby! Smiles all the time! Rarely cries!

Would it be bragging if I told you that he sleeps through the night already? ;)
ya he thinks it's crazy too!

Labor Day Weekend

2011-09-06T11:15:00.000-07:00

After church we had some time for hugs...

...and silly faces!

Labor Day had a little bit of labor. I cleaned out the kid's dressers and hall closet. Filled 2 large bags of clothes I deemed "not cute enough to keep for the next baby" haha
When I was cleaning out the hall closet I found all the old Halloween costumes and the kids wanted to try on a couple!

First, the ducky Ryanne wore for her FIRST halloween!
It was a bit small, haha! So some buttons/zippers we couldn't do up all the way!

Bubba..

...& Ryanne

Then Bubba tried on Ryanne's bee costume from 3 years ago! hahaha!

Then we headed outside! We FINALLY got good weather so we just HAD to take advantage of it!
In the 80s with NO HUMIDITY!!!

G LOVED all the fresh air!

Bubba collected all the rocks lying around on the driveway

and brought them back to where they were suppose to be!
Good Boy!
(See that hand? yup, it's Sheldon getting a mosquito off Bubba's back! You gotta be quick down here or else they'll get ya! We were too slow this time! Bubba got bit. I think we all came in with a few bites, except for G baby!)

Then he decided it was time to make "snow angels" on the driveway...

...and Ryanne joined him!
They must be practicing for our Christmas trip up North!!!

Across the street was a big truck that had a boat on it and Bubba was OBSESSED!
He kept saying "Mommy, let's go see the big truck!"

We finally did.

GAME DAY

2011-09-06T10:39:00.000-07:00

It's the most wonderful time of the year

Sept 1.....GAME DAY!
Utah played Montana State to start of their season.
Since we lack a bit on Utah shirts down here (and by "lack" I mean they don't exist down here!) and the selection online sucks I improvised and made them some Utah shirts!Can you make out what it says on their feet?!
GO UTES

Sadly the game wasn't televised nationally cuz who really cares about Montana State.
So, we had to watch it online. Sheldon hooked up his laptop to the TV and we were able to watch it that way for awhile but our internet is SOOOOOO SLOW!!!
He finished watching it on his tablet.

and OF COURSE Utah won!!!

Back in town!

2011-08-22T19:54:00.000-07:00

Ficek is back!
Ficek served his mission down here and spent 9 months in our area!
That's 36 Thursday night dinners at our house!
He's been home for about a year now and finally came back to visit!
We got to spend a couple days with him and catch up, it was so fun!

First Stop: Outback!
Brennon and Angie met us there!
(side note: our waitress must be a natural blonde cuz homeslice could not take a picture!!! Seriously, how hard is it to push a button?!)

Guess where we went next...

BOWLING!!!
It's ok to be jealous of our sweet bowling technique ;)

Ficek....he made us all look good! hahaha!

Brennon made us all look bad!

Sheldon...

Angie...

and me...

We finished off the night with some Marbleslab Creamery!
It's always fun when a former missionary comes back to visit but Ficek was with us the longest and he became a part of our branch/family so it was really fun to have him come back to see us.

Another party for Ficek

2011-08-22T19:12:00.000-07:00

Ficek came to our branch on Sunday and came home with us after and had lunch. Later on in the day another family came over and we had a super fun dinner/party!

It was his last day in our area so we HAD to throw him a goodbye party!
of course it involved the obligatory/traditional group shot!and the one with crazy faces...

The kids just didn't want him to go!
Can't tell but there are 2 more kids on the other side of him!

Bubba, me, Sheldon & G, Ficek, and those 2 eyes peeking over his shoulder belong to Ryanne

One last group hug...er, dog pile

the girls saying bye to Ficek

Bakers in Training

2011-08-22T18:44:00.000-07:00

I had some help in the kitchen the other day!Bubba wanted to pour in the water...

...and the oil.
OOPS, almost dropped the GLASS cup!!!

Ryanne jumped in to help when it was mixing time

Right as I took the picture Bubba turned around and said "Mommy, Help Me!!!"

I think this is the REAL reason why they love to help me bake...
LICKING THE BEATERS!!!

They've been trained so well!
Washing the beaters when they were done!

2 Month Chunk

2011-08-17T13:15:00.000-07:00

Gavin went in for his 2 month checkup! He's OFF THE CHARTS!
weight: 16lbs 6.2oz
height: 24.5 inches

His Dr was VERY IMPRESSED with his head control and his overall strength! She said he was doing things she normally doesn't look for until his 4 month checkup!
Such an overachiever ;)

Just look at that cute smirk!
Think maybe he's getting to big for his baby bath?

Double Celebration

2011-08-17T12:17:00.000-07:00

the day FINALLY came!
BLESSING DAY!

Before we headed off on our long trek to church I took a couple snapshots of the 3 kids together in their Sunday Best! And it was a good thing I did cuz Ryanne was NOT a happy camper after sacrament! Sheldon did an amazing job on Gavin's blessing!
These kids are so blessed to have such an amazing father who is worthy of the Priesthood!

Our little family of 5!!!

After church we had a few family and friends come over for lunch and hang out.
After that Sheldon's parents took BOTH Ryanne & Austin home with them for the night!
What to do with just one kid?!?!
Remember the day when you had just one kid and thought that was hard? Wow what was I thinking?! Having just one kid is a piece of cake!
We were so grateful his parents took them, it was a great bonding experience with our baby boy

hahahaha I LOVE when he smiles! He does it A LOT! All the rolls in his face/neck all conform into one huge roll! hahaha!

Such a sweet boy! He wore the same blessing outfit as Austin!

ALSO on that same day we celebrated our
7TH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY!!!
Just look at that stud! Have I mentioned how lucky I am to have in my life?!!!

Austin was blessed on Super Bowl Sunday & Gavin was blessed on our anniversary! Such lucky boys!

Girl's Day Out

2011-08-17T11:51:00.000-07:00

Being surrounded by 3 stinky boys all the time...me and Ryanne needed a GIRL'S DAY OUT!!!

It was way overdue!
First we went to see SMURFS!
Which, by the way, was a super cute movie!
Nest Stop: PEDICURES & MANICURES!!!
She got to sit in a pretty butterfly chair!

Ryanne was slightly obsessed with the lights in the "sink" that changed the color of the water every few seconds

Then we did the boring stuff...grocery shopping and running errands. Lame.
But still at the end of the day she said "That was the best day every mommy, you're the best mommy I've ever had!"
I'd say the day was a HIT!

Cinderellee, Cinderellee

2011-08-01T13:02:00.000-07:00

Ryanne was invited to a PRINCESS PARTY!
All the guests were invited to dress up as their favorite Princess!

Ryanne was determined to dress up as Rapunzel but at the last minute she tried on all her princess dresses (Rapunzel, Cinderella, and Belle) and had me take a picture of her in each dress on my phone. Then she looked at each picture and decided which dress to wear, she chose...
CINDERELLA!

Since she was already playing dress up I let her put on a little make up!
She was SO EXCITED! She went straight for the lipstick!
And she put on my headband I wore for my wedding as her "crown"

She had so much fun dressing up for the party! What a great idea!
EVERY GIRL at the party was dresses up as Cinderella....hmmm, I wonder who the favorite princess is! (Mine was always Belle!)

Caught In The Act

2011-08-01T12:54:00.000-07:00

We finally caught him smiling on camera!

1 month

2011-07-18T11:00:00.000-07:00

Time has been flying by!

Gavin turned a month old last week!

Austin is a multi-tasker, watching over his baby brother while playing games on mommy's phone
Ryanne just ADORES him!
She's already starting to talk about how many kids she is going to have when she gets married! Most of the time she tells me she is having all girls, haha!

Tummy Time!
when he's on our chest he holds his head up like a pro but when we put him on the ground...
...he sticks his butt up in the air instead!

He's been a pretty dang good baby so far (knock on wood)!
We just love him to pieces!

With cheeks like those, how could you not!

Happy 4th!

2011-07-08T10:37:00.000-07:00

Guess who got to celebrate his FIRST 4th of July?!
Yup, this stud!He also turned 3 weeks old on the 4th!

So sweet!

Such a poser
(remind you of anyone Heather?)

The day actually turned out to be a bummer.
It rained right as we were about to BBQ, the "parade" was seriously only 4 floats long, kids were cranky, I was exhausted, it was hot & now more humid from the rain.
It was time to go home.
So we took a family shot and then packed up and went home, no fireworks for us this year....maybe next year.

Baby Shower & Belly Shots

2011-06-30T18:42:00.000-07:00

You know it's awesome having a photographer friend when it's time to update your family picture! But even better, when she uses you and your family as models/guinea pigs!
Andrea has been wanting to take Maternity pictures for so long and I got to be the lucky one that she practiced on!
And she did such a great job!

Hahaha Sheldon struggled to put his arms all the way around my huge belly!

I love that Austin's face is totally smashed into my belly!

Me and my Baby Daddy.....we make some beautiful babies!

Hahaha, we had lots of good laughs during our session.
Once she had me lay down in some tall grass and when I stood up the grass was totally smashed down from my fat body and there was a huge imprint of my body! That gave us a good laugh.
But nothing made us laugh more than when I did my impression of Sheldon's touchdown dance!
One of us had to make a quick trip to the bathroom, hahahahaha, and this time it wasn't the pregnant one!

and then we had to get an old school football pic with Sheldon's retro Packers jersey
This one is FUN!
Hello My Name Is...

Thanks Andrea T Photography!

2 days before we went in to have Gavin 2 of my friends threw me a shower!
Mmmmm.....mini cheesecake tarts topped with cherries and blueberries!

Cute flower balls! I've been doing his room in blues and red so that was the color scheme used for the shower.

Angie, the lovely host! Her co-host, Andrea (the photographer), had to bail out last minute cuz her daughter broke her arm! OUCH!

my parents came down for the birth so we were able to wait to have the shower til my Mom was here!

We played a few games and had some good laughs! One game we played was a guessing game on how big my belly is!
Oh. My. Goodness!
Every single person guessed TOO BIG! Hahahahaha!
But no one was as off as much as my MOTHER IN LAW was - and she thought she guessed too small!! She was WAY OFF! hahaha!
Angie was one of the closer ones but still too big!
thanks guys ;)
We got lots of good gifts! Thanks everyone for coming! It was such a fun shower!

Gavin Britt is HERE!

2011-06-30T17:52:00.001-07:00

Off to the hospital we go!

Just waiting to be taken back!

Getting prepped!
After what seemed like FOREVER Gavin Britt Caple was finally born!

He weighed 8lbs 7 oz and measured 21 1/2 inches long!
Our biggest baby by just a little

His feet are so big that they almost didn't fit onto the card!

We never took family pics in the hospital with our other 2 kids so I was determined to get one this time....drugged up or not!

After only 48 hours in the hospital we were able to go home! Woo Hoo a whole day early!
at 5 days old my friend, Andrea, came over to take Gavin's newborn pics!
There were too many cute ones to choose from!

Thanks Andrea T Photography

34/35 weeks

2011-06-05T17:31:00.001-07:00

So right now I'm 38 weeks right now but realized I never put these pics up last month!
Oops!
WARNING: Bare Skin Ahead

I'm getting so big now that I can't fit all 3 pics onto one page next to each other for the comparison! haha!

This is me with Ryanne at 35 weeks......with Austin at 35 weeks...

...with baby boy at 34 weeks!

a week behind but still a bit bigger than I was with Ryanne and a little bit bigger than I was with Austin!
Can't wait to meet this boy!

Swamp Peeps

2011-06-05T16:40:00.000-07:00

Have you guys heard of Swamp People?!
It's one of the top shows on the History Channel!
Haven't heard of it? Kinda figured.
Most of my family didn't know about the show til I mentioned it to them.
It's a HUGE HIT down here! EVERYONE knows about Swamp People!
(Probably cuz it's filmed down here!)

Well, 2 of the Swamp People were in town at our mall signing autographs!
Sheldon's dad has created a relationship with these 2 guys through the shows he produces so we were able to cut in the front of the line for a quick photo op!
YAY for connections! Cuz there was NO WAY I would've stood in that line!

Meet Trapper Joe and his stepson Trigger Tommy!at the last minute Ryanne decided she didn't want to be in the pic, don't you love Austin's expression in this pic?!
Hahahahahahah!

After that we headed to the food court and grabbed come lunch and saw a BALLOON MAN!
OF COURSE Ryanne & Austin had to have one!
Ryanne got Little Mermaid and Austin got Pluto!

Check out this video our local news took at the signing session! They were interviewing the girl while we were there and it was hilarious to watch! She was a bit excited! hahahaha!

"Swamp People" cast members stop in the lake area

Ryanne's Recital

2011-05-17T12:17:00.000-07:00

Ryanne had her first ballet recital last week!
She did so amazing and she said she had so much fun!
There were 32 performances overall about 1-2 minutes each.
The theme was "Around the World" and Ryanne's class did a dance to "He's got the Whole World in His Hands"

Here she is right before we headed off to the rehearsal! I was so nervous doing her hair! She has really fine hair and her bun was no bigger than the size of a quarter but I made sure she wasn't going to have a single hair out of place! haha! She's got tons of gel and hairspray, and it stayed all night long! Hooray!

When I told her she got to wear make up she was SO EXCITED!
Holding her dress up!

She was so excited to go to rehearsal but as soon as we got there she kinda got shy...

...but as soon as I mentioned taking a picture with her friend both their moods made a complete turn around!

This is a little neighbor girl that is in the same class as Ryanne

Such a cute picture of Madeline....just had to share it!

Boys are gonna go crazy over her!

Time to go in for the rehearsal!
Ryanne was right there in the front row!

She saw me taking pictures and flashed a smile!

After her recital she ran out to me saying "That was so much fun! And my teacher told me we get to do it AGAIN tomorrow!!!!"
This girl has NO PROBLEM performing in front of people!

Afterwards we took the girls to Dairy Queen!
The next day was the day of the RECITAL!

Madeline didn't seem as thrilled as Ryanne about getting back up on stage, haha

She did SO AWESOME! I was so proud of my girl!
After she performed I rushed backstage to give her a big hug!
She said "I did it Mommy! I had so much fun and I tried my best!"
Haha, I just love this girl!

After her performance she was allowed to go back into the auditorium to watch the rest of the show

We ran into Bubba & Grampy out in the hallway on our way back in!

At the end of the recital all the classes got to walk back in down the aisle waving a flag from a different country. They walked back up on stage and took a bow for us!

Afterwards Daddy met her with FLOWERS!
We got ehr a bouquet and so did Gramy & Grampy, I must admit that there was a small part of me that was just as excited to buy her flowers as I was for her actual recital haha!

We went and ate at a yummy Italian restaurant there in town after the recital. Then it was time to go home and go to bed, it was a LONG day! But oh so much fun!

Watching Ryanne dance in her recital was one of the cutest things in the world!
I am so proud of my girl, she got up on stage in front of tons of people she didn't know and danced her little heart out!
She is AMAZING!

Happy Easter

2011-04-25T14:01:00.000-07:00

Lots of pictures, but worth looking thru them.....or at least I think so

Sheldon's parents were going to be out of town for Easter so we had a mini Easter with his Mom before she left out of town.
A yummy dinner and and egg hunt!

After dinner we headed outside......and the hunt was on!

YAY a PINK one!

All done, they were so proud of all the eggs they found!

and so they headed inside where Gramy helped them check out their eggs and all the fun stuff that was inside them!

The day before Easter we colored our eggs!!!

Those are some beautiful eggs our kids made! The yellow and orange colors didn't take...so that's why it looks like we have 2 white eggs. But still way cute!

Finally Easter was here!
Instead of a cute Easter outfit or a stuffed animal (that the kids would never play with) we got them BATHING SUITS to put in their basket! Really, we could have put the bathing suits to use like a month ago.

They were so excited Sunday morning when they saw their baskets! Ryanne helped get Austin's down from the table for him and showed him everything he got before she even looked at hers! Haha, what a good big sister!

A quick photo shoot, then off to church we go!

After church we went on our Easter egg hunt!
YAY!

Such a sweet Daddy helping his little boy pick up all his eggs that he dropped.

Ryanne & Sheldon went to the far corners of the backyard to find more eggs...

...while Bubba and I made our way back to the front of the house.

Pssst....that tie he's wearing...ya, I made it!

Gosh dang these are some beautiful people!

Earlier in the week we wanted to make sure the kids understood why we really celebrated Easter. Let them know that it's more than just egg hunts and candy. So we cut out a bunch of pictures that when placed in the right order it would tell the story of Christ's resurrection. We told them the story as we laid out the pictures, we did this 2 times. And then mixed up all the pictures and had Ryanne try to put them back together in the right order and re-tell us the story. Now we had totally planned on helping her out but we didn't need to!!!! She put ALL the pics in the right order by herself and retold us the story without us even helping her! Sheldon and I just looked at each other and were amazed by our daughter! She is one smart cookie! She did about 20 more times after that, hahaha!

One little funny side note. Down here you hear tons of "Ma'am" & "Sir", what you may or may not know is that they also you a lot of "Mr so and so" & "Mrs/Miss so and so" (EX: we are Mr Sheldon & Mrs Jennifer to the neighborhood kids). We've been trying to teach our kids to speak that way also. So when Ryanne was retelling us the story and she got to the part where Mary Magdalene came to the tomb Ryanne would call her "Miss Mary". Pretty dang cute if you ask me!

Conference Weekend

2011-04-03T11:39:00.000-07:00

For the Saturday morning session of Conference we invited a family in our branch over to our house to watch it.
After conference we went out to the backyard and fed the horses!After waving the carrots through the fence and calling for them they finally came over to eat!

The miniature ones were the hungriest ones!

Everytime Austin would pet the horse he would quickly run away laughing saying "it tickled me!"

During the Priesthood Session Ryanne's friend came over to play with us!
We had so much fun! I told the kids we were going to THE PARK and they jumped....

...and hugged in excitment!

So we piled into the car and headed to the park!

First stop....the SWINGS!

So cute!

Hahaha!

They both wanted to ride the horse...so we compromised...

We were at the park for at least an hour and then came home for some dinner. Once their tummies were nice and full we MADE A TENT and watched TANGLED!!!
Oh and of course later enjoyed some ice cream in the tent!

Thanks for playing with us Lydia!

While we waited for the afternoon session to come on on Sunday we played "Salon" and did Ryanne's hair, painted her fingernails pink with sparkles, and her toes with just sparkles!While we did all of this Sheldon was sitting only 2 feet away but Ryanne told him not to look because she wanted to "surprise him" hahaha!
When she was all done she jumped up and said "TA DA" and posed so Sheldon could see how beautiful she is! hahahahaha!

Picasos in Training

2011-04-01T18:03:00.000-07:00

The kids have this fun art center/easel thing that has a white board on one side and a chalk board on the other side. You can ALSO pull paper over it and use it as a painting easel!!!

A couple weeks ago we took it outside to do some painting!
Ryanne & Austin loved it and have asked to paint everyday since!
First Ryanne got a turn! This girl could paint, color, or draw ALL DAY LONG!!!

Bubba finally got a turn and it was so cute to see him concentrate so hard!

They wore some of Sheldon's old shirts.....SO CUTE!

Circus

2011-03-30T14:13:00.000-07:00

We went to the Circus a couple weeks ago. We were SO excited to go.....but it was HORRIBLE!
5 minutes into we were all bored....we left at intermission. Oh well, at least we got a couple of cute pics!

Little Helpers

2011-03-30T13:53:00.000-07:00

Austin & Ryanne "helped" me make cookies the other night......

27 Weeks

2011-03-18T16:02:00.000-07:00

27 weeks with Austin (L) and Baby Boy (R)It looks and feels like I'm carrying our boys a little bit different...but still LOW!
(Just pretend stretch marks are a thing of beauty, haha!)

I was going to put a pic of my belly at this point when I was pregnant with Ryanne but I've blown past the size I was with her! Haha! Our boys are just BIG!
I had a dream a couple nights ago he came out 9lbs 3oz! Good thing I'm not pushing him out!

Mardi Gras

2011-03-12T15:46:00.000-08:00

Check out our stash!
We went to the Children's Parade last week for Mardi Gras!The smokin' hot ladies...

...and our studly men!

Ryanne with her best friend waiting for the parade to start!

Austin found beads that had CARS on them so that kept him entertained for quite awhile

We made out pretty well! We got beads, toys, balls, and FOOD!

Ryanne didn't stop jumping until the last float left, she fell asleep before we even got to the freeway!

Showing off some of her beads the next day!

We counted OVER 100 BEADS!
Way to go Ryanne!

Rabbit Festival Pageant

2011-03-11T17:29:00.000-08:00

Ryanne was in a pageant!!!!
I know, doesn't really sound like something I would do!
BUT, Ryanne loves to dress up and we thought this would be fun for her and we were right! She loved it! PLUS her best friend Lydia was in it too!

The girls totally got pampered!
They got their hair done and a little bit of make up!
The make up part got both girls SO EXCITED!
Just one final touch and....

...TA DA!
BEAUTIFUL!
Next step: the dress. But first some waiting.

There was LOTS of waiting and there were moments when the girls were either sassy and/or cranky but...

...for the most part they did a great job entertaining themselves

Finally the girls got dressed and there was only ONE MORE GROUP before it was there turn!

Haha our poor starving pageant girls trying to break into the vending machine! Hahaha!

Watching the last girl in the group before them! It was almost their turn!

Both Ryanne & Lydia did GREAT! It was SO CUTE to watch them do "the walk" and wave at the judges and blow kisses to their fans!

How neither one of these girls won blows my mind!
(Although, Lydia did win "Best Fashion"! YAY!)

But overall Ryanne had so much fun and says she wants to do it again next year!
I'm not feeling the same way, haha! It was definitely fun to do once but I don't really want to do it again.

Gramy came to watch her and she was so proud of Ryanne and how well she did!!!

And of course Daddy was proud of his girl too!

But after being at the pageant for 4 hours, just sitting and waiting for her turn, Ryanne was ready to go home.

Let the Sun SHINE!!!

2011-02-28T10:59:00.000-08:00

We have had the most perfect weather lately!
But we know it wont last very long.....ugh, the dreadful humidity will be coming on strong sooner than we want. So while it's somewhat dry we have taken every opportunity to go outside!

And for some of us it's warm enough to go outside with a shirt!Where's Mommy?

Blah!

These 2 are so funny! They play awesome together!

This boy's hands are so HUGE! I love seeing him hold stuff! It amazes me those fat chubby things can grasp anything!

It's been awhile since we've gone out shooting basketballs so now all of our shots get stuck in the net! Hopefully it will loosen up the more shots we make......well if we are good enough to even make it IN the basket!

Beautiful Ryanne...

...silly Ryanne

One more "Vroom" around the drive way and then we're done!

Beach Babes

2011-02-26T18:43:00.000-08:00

Raise your hand if you can spend a beautiful Saturday afternoon with 70+degree weather on the beach.....in FEBRUARY!!!!

(All the pics come from the cell phone)

We were aimlessly driving around today when we decided to go check out the beach!
The water was PERFECT!
Austin wanted NOTHING to do with the water unless his shoes were ON!!!
Crazy boy!

Ryanne and Austin could have stayed out there all day if we let them.....but this Momma was HUNGRY!!!

We went to a place down here called Dairy Barn (we needed something other that "Old McDonalds") & the kids thought that place was so cool! It had movies playing that the kids love and had HUGE cartoon characters set up around the place! Ryanne told me she likes the "Farm Place" & can't wait to go back again! Haha!

We are definitely gonna go back to the beach again soon!

Beautiful!

2011-02-23T17:27:00.000-08:00

I forgot that I hadn't put these pictures up yet!
Oops!

While Sheldon's siblings were all here for Christmas/New Years we took the opportunity to squeeze in a quick family picture!

First Gramy & Grampy got a pic with all their grandkids!Then Ryanne showed off her awesome modeling skills
while Austin flashed a quick smile right before he jumped off the table, haha!

And then finally a family shot!
We ALMOST got everyone in the picture! We were just missing Brandon's wife!
BUMMER!
We will have to plan another family picture the next time everyone is in town again!

GO PACK GO!

2011-02-06T20:46:00.000-08:00

Our 2 boys showing their team spirit!
(and then of course our Boo jumped in the pic! Gosh dang she is cute!)

Super Bowl Sunday was just spent with the 4.5 of us at home baking "Green Bay" sugar cookies & enjoying the game!
GO PACK GO!
PS....2 Super Bowls ago we blessed Bubba! Wow, can't believe it's been 2 yrs already!

21 Weeks

2011-02-06T20:38:00.001-08:00

21 WEEKS!
with Ryanne with Austin with Baby Boy

a HUGE difference between Ryanne & Austin....just a little bit bigger this time around!
I love how with each pregnancy I get asked if I'm having twins! Haha! With each pregnancy I get asked earlier and earlier! Haha, luckily I have a good sense of humor about it or else a few people would have some black eyes! Haha!

Frostbitten Cajuns

2011-02-06T20:21:00.000-08:00

Last week it got COOOOOOLD.....well for us!
It got down to the 20s one night and the next morning we woke up to ICICLES on our house! But it was so cold outside I couldn't pull my self out of my warm bed to take pictures. By the time I got outside it was already starting to melt.
So, to you Northerners this may be nothing but down here we don't get this too often!

growing....growing....GROWING!

2011-02-03T18:15:00.000-08:00

The Caple family never stops growing!

Austin went in for his 2 yr check up
and measured in at 35 inches...Above Average!
Ryanne went in for her 4 year old check up
and she measured in at 42.5 inches.....Off The Charts Above Average!

Baby Boy is growing faster than my stomach can stretch!
It's been a LONG time since I've seen my feet!
21 weeks tomorrow!

And Sheldon? Well, he's been doing some growing too.....

Hahahahaha!

Birthday Girl

2011-01-24T10:42:00.000-08:00

Saturday was an EXCITING day for us!
It was...
RYANNE'S 4th BIRTHDAY!

Can you believe 4 yrs ago she looked like this...
This is Ryanne on her 1st birthday!
Oh, just look at those cheeks, don't you wanna squeeze them?!

And on her 2nd birthday...

...and her 3rd...

...and FINALLY she is 4!!!
It's amazing to see how much she has grown these past 4 yrs!

For a few months now she has been telling us she wanted a princess cake for her birthday, so this is what i came up with!

At first she was sad that it wasn't a PINK princess but once i explained to her that we didn't have pink frosting and that Cinderella wears a blue dress she was in love with he cake! Phew!

Make a Wish & Blow out the candle!

Then it was PRESENT TIME! All her friends gathered close to see what she got!

After some of the kids left Ryanne and 2 of her friends tried on her new dress up dresses!

And danced around the living room! Even Austin got in on the dancing action!

Ryanne had a GREAT birthday! She said it was "the BEST birthday EVER!" Haha!
Happy Birthday Boo!

New Years Fashion

2011-01-17T18:18:00.001-08:00

We spent new Year's Day at Sheldon's parent's house.

We had a yummy lunch, watched football and.....

....got FRONT ROW seats to this years #1 fashion show!!!
Ryanne and her cousin, Londyn, raided Aunt Linzy's closet and found all of her old recital clothes and had to try EVERY SINGLE ONE on for us!
The girls had SO MUCH FUN!
Thanks Aunt Linzy for letting the girls raid your closet!

Christmas....FINALLY!

2011-01-17T15:07:00.000-08:00

FINALLY I am getting our Christmas pics up!

We shopped a few different places for a Christmas Tree but couldn't find anything we liked so we ended up buying a fake one. Didn't matter that it was fake the kids just loved having a tree in the house!
(notice the summer clothes! Yup we shopped for a Christmas tree in 75+ degree weather!)
Christmas morning the kids were so excited to see that SANTA CAME!
They had so many presents!
Ryanne was so excited that Austin got a bike and when she saw her scooter she turned to us and asked excitedly "IS THIS FOR ME?!" Haha!
It took awhile to get get them off their new bike & scooter to open their other presents! I guess those presents were a hit!
After the cinnamon rolls were eaten, the turkey was cooked, everyone was showered, and toys were scattered around the house we headed off to Gramy & Grampy's to do it all over again!

When we got to their house we had a super yummy lunch & then opened more presents!
Uncle Brandon brought his dog, Sunny, who is a SUPER nice dog but Austin wasn't too sure about her so as long as she was in the house Austin was on the couch!
He spent the whole time on uncle Brandon's lap helping each other open their presents. It was actually pretty dang cute to see!

Ryanne LOVES Sunny so it didn't bother her at all having her around. Nothing was going to get in her way of opening presents!

After a couple failed attempts for a family picture...

...we finally got a "good enough" one to remember Christmas 2010

It's a BOY!

2011-01-11T18:56:00.001-08:00

Our baby BOY!Looking at him head on.....this pic makes me laugh every time!
We have one just like this from when Bubba was in my belly!

He kept moving his head in just the right position to make it difficult to get a good profile pic of him.

Check out those HUGE FEET! And those LONG LEGS!
He had fun kicking during the ultrasound!

He is still measuring 6 days ahead of schedule, since it's not more than a week they are not changing the due date. So, we are still due June 17!

It was fun having the kids there with us!

Leading up to the ultrasound I would tell Ryanne about what different things she was going to see and that we would find out if it was a boy or a girl, that part she was really excited about! She was glued to the TV screen that had the images of him, anytime the baby would move we would tell her what she was looking at and she thought it was so cool! She was really hoping for a girl but she seems just as excited that it's a boy. She was kind of sad that we didn't get to bring him home today, haha. Ryanne loves to rub my belly and ask me what he is doing & how much longer is he going to be in my belly. And if she thinks he is hungry she tells me that I need to feed him ice cream, haha! She is going to be a great Mommy one day!

Austin was a typical boy. Haha! He just ran around the room in circles and climbing on tables. Once we told him it was a boy he just kept repeating "boy boy boy boy boy". Silly boy, he is.

Oh it feels SO GOOD to actually call him a HIM now and not "it" or "the baby"

No name has been decided yet, but I'm sure we will pick one out soon!

Look to the Light

2010-12-25T07:19:00.000-08:00

Birthday Boy

2010-12-20T14:09:00.001-08:00

We had a small party for Bubba on his birthday!
Since he LOVES cars & trucks I made him a "cake" that was just a bunch of cake balls piled high in the back of one of his dump trucks hoping that they would like clumps of dirt!
At first he just stared at us while we sang Happy Birthday to him but by the end he was laughing at us!

Luckily the drool stayed attached to his chin until after he moved away from the cake! haha!

Mmmm!

The cake balls were a HIT....with EVERYONE!

The girls kept playing with Austin's new toys & he was getting upset cuz he wanted to play with them so I suggested to the girls that they go play dress up instead. They both jumped up & ran to Ryanne's room to put on dresses & tutus and then immediately came back to play with the boy toys. Haha., crazy girls....all dressed up to play with boy toys.

After a long night of partying he was ready for bed, & SO NOT in the mood for pictures!

Night Night Big Boy!

2 Years Ago Today....

2010-12-15T13:32:00.000-08:00

...we were blessed with our boy, Austin Ray Caple
And oh my goodness we LOVE him!
We are so lucky to have him in our lives!

Just a quick look back on the past 2 years!

Daddy holding his boy!
(the nurses kept calling Sheldon "Dr McSteamy" once he put on the scrubs! haha)
My sweet baby boy!

6 Months Old

He was so excited that he could sit by himself he didn't know whether to laugh or scream!
Hahahahaha!

It feels like FOREVER ago we celebrated his 1st birthday!
Look at that bald head! Haha!

Today my Bubba is 2!
(goodness that almost makes we wanna cry....almost....ok just a few tears.)

There is no question about it, he is ALL BOY! He definitely keeps us on our toes!
He has brought so much joy into our lives and has made it so much better!

Happy Birthday Bubba Boy! WE LOVE YOU!

Happy Turkey Day

2010-12-13T16:56:00.000-08:00

We got really lucky and were able to have Thanksgiving at our house AGAIN!
My parents & my little sister came down from Utah & Idaho for it! Sheldon's parent's came over for Thanksgiving dinner too.

My Mom said that since I was the host I was supposed to be the one to stick my hand up the turkey's butt!
EW! SO SLIMY!oh, actually, it wasn't that bad. haha!

Ryanne, my Mom, & Me - Thanksgiving evening.
I'm pretty sure whoever took this picture had to wake us up from our turkey coma, we were so ready to pass out by 4pm!

My Dad was busy at work the whole week they were here!
He expanded the shelves in both of our pantries & our hall closet.
He added a shelf in our closet and in our cabinetry in our laundry room.
Oh AND he helped me make a frame to put around the mirror in the kid's bathroom!
Everything turned out so great!
THANKS DAD!

Heather, Ryanne, me, Austin, & my sweet Sizzle (aka mom)

Perfecting his football stance!

Bubba attacked Heather...all the while Ryanne poses pretty for the camera! Haha!

Heather TRYING to model in our backyard....

...Sheldon showed her how it's REALLY DONE!

Bubba "whistling" at our neighbor's dogs!

The Saturday after Thanksgiving was a BIG DAY in our house!
UTAH vs BYU
Sheldon, me, Heather, and the kids all dressed in our Utah Red...
...and my parents dressed in their BYU blue!
Utah played HORRIBLE but somehow managed to pull it off and won by 1 POINT by blocking their field goal attempt!
My Mom was hesitant taking this picture of me & Heather, haha, that sore loser!

We had a GREAT Thanksgiving! How could you not when hanging out with awesome people like them!

chEEEEEEEEEse!

2010-12-08T14:00:00.000-08:00

I love that anytime I have my camera out they don't want to take pictures but as soon as I put it away they pose so perfectly and even say "CHEEEEEEEESE!" So then I run and grab my camera and this is what I get! Haha!

Crazy kids
(please excuse Austin's post nap hair-do, haha!)

My Witch's Brew...

2010-11-20T15:06:00.000-08:00

For Halloween Ryanne's ballet class got to wear their costumes to class & put on a little show for us! Anf after their fun little dance they had a little party with lots of yummy snacks!Ryanne is sitting in the front row, 3rd from the right.

This is the warm up dance they do at the beginning of each class...

This is their Halloween dance they did for all the parents...SO CUTE!

3 Nights of Halloween!

2010-11-15T12:07:00.000-08:00

Boo at the Zoo!
Our neighbor works at the Zoo and so she always keeps us informed when fun things happen at the zoo! So the week before Halloween we took the kids to the zoo in their costumes and they got to trick or treat! Fun! (actually it was kind of lame, but the kids liked it)

Ryanne went as a 50s Girl and Bubba was a Greaser!

We got to see TONS of monkeys, this Zoo is overloaded with monkeys.

oooh and a TIGER! He just paced his cage the whole time! Kinda glad that there was a barrier between us! Yikes!

Bubba felt the same...."oh my"
...some gators...

and "Melman" (thats what Ryanne call giraffes)

Gramy fed some llamas...

Sheldon turned into a turtle...

...and so did Ryanne!

She also got to ride a "horse"

Oh and how can we forget about the FAT PIG!!!
(and this time I'm not talking about Bubba, haha)

It's a really small Zoo so after a couple hours we were done and headed back home in time for Bubba to take a nap and to watch the Utah game! Yay!

A few days before was the Trunk-or-Treat for the ward
We couldn't find Bubba's shirt for his "greaser" costume so instead we just dressed him up in his Utah gear.

Ryanne with her Princess friend

Halloween Night!

Quick Pic with a neighbor before we hit up the houses!

Bubba only lasted a few houses and then came back to help Daddy hand out the candy. Ryanne actually didn't last much longer. So we came back and the kids played basketball with Daddy on the drive way while I handed out the candy. We ran out....oops!

We ended the night at our neighbor's house for some down time and yummy home made nacho dip! Another neighbor brought over some super delicious home made apple cider while we handed out the candy! It was SO GOOD! We have some awesome neighbors!
Ryanne with 2 of her neighbor friends!

50s girl, Mrs Potato Head, and a Bunny

Such a stud! We had an awesome leather jacket to go with his outfit but it was way too hot to wear it!

Now it's time to start thinking of awesome ideas for next year!

Grampa Dizzle

2010-10-26T10:44:00.000-07:00

My dad got to visit us for a couple of days!!! YAY!

Have you ever seen an old man try the hula hoop?!Hahaha! Now you have!

His visit was way too short. Ryanne was so sad to see him leave. She got all pouty and asked why he had to leave. He told her that he was going to Uncle Michael's house, and then she got happy and said then you can come back to MY HOUSE! But she got said again when he told her her that he had to go back to Utah to be with Gramma. Then she had a brilliant idea and said "you AND Gramma can come back here then!"

September Summary

2010-10-16T18:26:00.000-07:00

We had lots of fun in September!

One thing we did was go tailgating at McNeese!
We took Grampy's RV and tailgated in style!
(McNeese is a 1-AA school down here)Grampy & Bubba

Me & Angie be rockin' the "M"
GO MCNEESE!

Heading over to the game!
We could totally be models...you know, with the hair in our wind and all! haha!

Ryanne and Austin actually REALLY got into all the cheering! It was so cute to see them get into the game!

We left at half time, it was way past the kids bed time!
On our way home we were listening to the game on the radio and they had evacuated the stadium becasue of lightening!!!! Looks like we left just in time!!!

Looks like someone lost their diaper! Haha!
(Good thing it wasn't dirty!)

Haha, he just walks it over to his Daddy! Good boy!
(Love that cute bootie!)

I got to have a GIRLS DAY! YAY!
We got pedicures (ooo the chairs we sat in massaged us, aaaaaahhh) and then got some ice cream! YUM!

We have had such nice weather lately! It's been awesome, really!
So we've been playing outside a lot! Going on bike rides...

...lots of walks...

... and LOTS of trips to the park

Ryanne looks so upset even though the thought of a picnic at the park made her jump for joy earlier

AND Ryanne started Ballet! YAY!

Her friend is in the class too!
She is having so much fun in ballet, she shows me all her fancy moves throughout the week and gets excited for the next class!

Well, that's about it for September!

Our Gang it is the Jolliest.....

2010-10-01T13:05:00.000-07:00

...That You Have Ever Seen!

It's that time of year again!We were SO EXCITED for Utah's first game!
1. Because we knew it would be a good game cuz it was against a ranked team!
and 2. We got to wear our UTAH SHIRTS! YAY!
We wore them all day! We got asked everywhere we went that day if we were Utah fans!
DUH PEOPLE!

Ryanne loves flashing the Utah sign! Too cute!

By the time the game started it was almost bed time so the kids were bathed and in their jammies. Luckily their Sugar Bowl shirts are still too big so they got to still wear "Utah"-ish jammies!

Sheldon spent 90% of the game standing 2 ft from the TV, phone in hand texting 5 (at least) different people!

The other 10% was spent dancing in celebration...

...and wrestiling the kids in excitement! The kids LOVED it, they kept asking "is it time to wrestle Daddy?"

Things calmed down during half time. But Bubba was still throwing up "TOUCHDOWN!"
Utah beat Pitt!
27-24!

Rest of August

2010-09-27T12:14:00.000-07:00

August was a fun filled month....Bubba and I went to Utah, Sheldon's Aunt came into town for 2 weeks (Teri, Ryanne STILL talks about her "Aunt Teri" haha), and we made 2 trips out to Houston!
We went there with Grampy (Sheldon's Dad) and his fancy RV and camped out at a SUPER awesome campground! It had a pool, a convenience store, game rooms, you could rent movies there, PAVED ROADS (haha), and a fishing pond...and much more!
We went swimming every day! Bubba even dunked the basketball in the pool! We hit up the mall and it's playground & Cheesecake Factory (yum!)
Thanks Grampy for inviting us! It was WAY FUN!
And THEN we went to an Astros game! Woo Hoo!
Go 'Stros!
Uncle Brandon (Sheldon's brother) got tickets through his work & invited us to go with him! We had awesome seats! Just a few rows from the field, close to home plate....I kept looking to see if George Bush Sr and Barbara would show up to their seats but they never came, darn it.

uh oh...lok who's the BIG 3-0!

2010-09-20T12:13:00.000-07:00

On September 15 Sheldon turned 30!!!
I'm not sure how I did it but I managed to throw Sheldon a surprise party and he had NO CLUE! One of the first things he said to me was "you are the worst liar! I have no idea how you managed to keep this a secret from me!" hahaha! I'm so awesome!
The tricky part was that it's football season and getting Sheldon out of the house was impossible so I had planned it that everyone meet at our house at a certain time and then we'd all walk in the house together and surprise him! He was SO SHOCKED! He was SPEECHLESS! He couldn't move, he said he didn't know how to react cuz he couldn't believe what was going on! hahaha!

Tried to do a kids themed party...had a trifle dish FILLED with his favorite candy, hot tamales. Played Family Feud, his favorite game show, played a fun version of pin the tail, and had a Saved by the Bell-ish cake!

We had a house full of people!
We celebrated as we watched the Utes crush UNLV!
What a great day!

The kids went directly to Ryanne's room and within seconds it looked like this...

Bubba's room didn't look much better!

I'm not sure which one was more of a shock...the fact that I pulled off a SURPRISE PARTY or that his BEST friend flew down for it!!! I am SO sneaky! haha!
TJ & Sheldon

During half time we played GAMES!

We played "Pin the Mullet on Sheldon"
& "Family Feud...the Sheldon Caple Edition"
I knew the games were a hit cuz I heard the guys say
"This is more fun than any half time show that we'd be watching on TV!"
YAY!!! hahaha!

I found an AWESOME pic of Sheldon that just seemed fitting for this game and drew it on a big poster board and then printed out a bunch of mullets and handed them out to everyone! It was so much fun!

This is by far the ugliest cake I've made, I'm so sorry hun! The plan I had in my mind was quite awesome but it quickly turned into this. I had to make the cake at a neighbors house so Sheldon wouldn't see it and I was totally out of my element, maybe next year! But it was still yummy! That's what counts right!
Instead of "Happy Birthday" I put "Happy Wrong # By The Sea!" to continue with the kid theme! All you Saved By the Bell lovers will understand that one! haha!
and of course Bubba helped himself to everyone else's leftovers!

We've always joked about getting a Utah snuggie so for his birthday that's just what I did! I got him a UTAH SNUGGIE! And actually, it's pretty dang awesome! It really IS comfy! Sheldon says he can't wait til it gets cold so he can start wearing it! hahaha!
(doesn't it look lik ehe has footie jammies on?! haha)

TJ, Sheldon, and Brennon

the kids LOVED the balloons! They played with them FOREVER after the party!

check out my 30 yr old!!!!
I think he gets hotter with age!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHELDON!
I love you babe!

Sunday Sunset

2010-09-17T13:22:00.000-07:00

Did you know we have cows and horses in our backyard!
Jealous? haha.
We go out to the back quite often to say hi to the cows and feed the horses if they're out there. So one Sunday afternoon we were sick of sitting in the house and so we went out back!
Ryanne sat so pretty for a long time so I can take tons of pictures! I'm slightly obsessed with taking pictures of my kids!

But then she got sick of it, she'd rather go run around

and then BUBBA came out to play! YAY!

Pucker Up! (at least it's a closed mouth kiss!)

Dang they are just so CUTE!

We all took turns jumping off out giant sewer pot!

Except for Ryanne....she had an encounter with an ANT! ahhhh!
Earlier this summer she stepped right into an ant pile and got COVERED with ant bites on her legs and feet and since then she is absolutely terrified of ants. Poor girl.

but Bubba got in on the action!

Watching the sun go down....guess that means it's time to go in!

Puddles & Pillow Pets

2010-09-17T12:27:00.000-07:00

After it rains we always have puddles on our driveway and the kids LOVE going outside to jump around in them!

I'm not sure he can be anymore of a BOY! He cracks me up!
Yum Bubba. I guess he was thirsty.

While I was in Utah Gramy & Grampy bought Ryanne a PILLOW PET!!!
Have you heard of these? Well, if you have kids then you have!
So when Bubba & I got home Bubba fell in love with her pillow pet so we went & got him one too! They LOVE these things! They grab it before they go to bed...

...and first thing in the morning.

Ryanne has a purple unicorn and LOVES telling people about it. Whether I'm on the phone or talking to a sales clerk Ryanne asks is we can tell them about her pillow pet! haha, she's so crazy!

and Bubba has a cute puppy, he ALWAYS barks like a dog when he hugs it!

These things are pretty dang awesome actually! So glad we have them!

PS- we bought Austin's at Walgreens and it was only $20!!!! If you buy them at the mall they cost more!

Bye Bye Mullet!

2010-09-09T18:38:00.000-07:00

On August 7 we celebrated our 6 year anniversary!
Yay for us!

Something else very exciting happened on that day...Bubba got his FIRST HAIR CUT!
He got to sit in a big red airplane and watch Cars!
Looks like he's having fun, huh?! Well it didn't last long!
This was the ONLY picture I got of him smiling. Seriously.

This is how he was for the rest of the time.

Don't believe me? Just watch this video. This was towards the end, when he was winding down, it was worse than what the video shows.

And surprisingly the lady cutting his hair said she has had FAR WORSE kids come in! WHAT?! Yup, she said that kids have come in and have THROWN UP from screaming and crying so hard! Whoa, I'm glad Bubba wasn't that bad!