Daddy goes to Chicago and spring is coming!

Dave left us last week for a trip to Chicago for the ACHE (American College of Health Care Executives) conference.  It was nice for him to get away for a few days and do something else besides his graduate project!  Look at this night life downtown...

 

Dave had lots of delicious looking food while he was there.  Unfortuntely, the food wouldn't carry well home in his suitcase, so I just got the pictues he took and texted to me and got to salivate over them.  Especially the desserts...like the cheesecakes from the dessert bar he went to.  They had to have some authentic Chicago style pizza whie they were there.

Dave on the coast.  It was very rainy and cold the whole time he was there. So they didn't get out much.  Plus, this year, he volunteered when he wasn't in classes or listening to speaker or wokshops, so he was pretty busy.  He really liked the classes he took and the one-on-one career counseling session he had. His favorite speaker was a psychologist, and he really enjoyed his words. 

Dave roomed with Sam & Kevin, some fellow WSU Cougars in the HPA program and they had  good time together.  When I called at nights, they'd be teasing each other and laughing. 

We picked Daddy up at the airport late one night.  We made signs to put in the car, including this one Emma made to put on the steering wheel.  Dave loved it!  The kids wanted to trick him too, so we taped toilet paper from the inside of the door, so when he went through, he would have to go through the "finish line", as Emma said.  He was so glad to be back to us, and we were thrilled he made it home!  It's always so much happier when Daddy is home!

Whenever Dave travels somewhere, he brings hme a surprise for the kids.  They always know this now and highly anticipate wht he'll bring them.  This tim, he brought the girls light-up shamrock necklaces and Cal a light-up shamrock bow tie. They loved them and Cal refuses to take his off, even when he sleeps!

We had a pretty busy week here, I tried to keep it that way, so the kids wouldn't be sobbing and saying "I want Daddy!" like they usually do, especially at nights.  Success!  They said a few times they mised him but we didn't have any cry fests. 

We went to the Reptile Man show for Family Night at Emma's school.  It was pretty cool!  He brought all kinds of neat turtles, snakes, lizards, and even  Lucy the alligator.  After the show, he let some of the animals roam around and the kids could go pet them.  The kids loved it and couldn't stop talking about it!  They even got their picture with the alligator!

We've been going outside a lot, as it's been sunny and pretty nice, even broke 60 degrees a few days!  The kids think its summer and always rip off their jackets outside and ask to wear shorts and flip flops.  Silly!  It's not summer yet!  But that sunshine feels so nice!  We have looked at cloud shapes, played frisbee golf, did jump rope,dodge ball, and just ran around.

Lucy the dirt eater.

Cal the tree climber.

 

Emma the day dreamer.

We've been using our wierd holiday calendar lately, so that gives us something to do most days.  This day was national math and also cereal day.  So we played a math game together and made fruit loop necklaces.  Lucy ate hers off the string quickly!  Cal made a pattern of his two favorite colors - blue & green, and Emma made a more complicated pattern with all of the colors. 

Hehe, I love Em's face on this one.  We were singing and dancing to the Aquabats, I was trying to video her singing and movements, and this is when she realized she was being recorded!

Emma also had school pictures recently with her class.  She wanted to wear this cute floral skirt, flower scarf and hair flower Grandma Di made for her.  So cute!  She was also happy she got to stand on the top row!

We've also been continuing on with swimming lessons.  Cal passed off the introductory level and was moved to the next, Emma is repeating her class again so she can gain more confidence.  When we were getting ready the other day, Cal pulled out Daddy's huge swimsuit and put it on, running all over the house.  Haha!  He's always good for a laugh, that's for sure!  He decided to wear his swimsuit after all, because I told him what might happen if he swam in that...

The kids made a fort with the next door neighbors on the porch the other day.  It was raining, so they made it to keep them dry.  They were having so much fun and even let Cal & Lucy join in the fun (they usually do a great job including them too).

We played in the mud one day and marked up our faces.  Cal said "I'm Grandma Sue's mascot!" and "I like being Grandma Sue's mascot!"  Where he got that, no idea!

So not too many hair raising experieces with Dad being away.  Seems like things are a little more stressful when Daddy's gone, but we survived!  Unfortunately, we still don't get to see him a ton, since he's working so hard and so much on his graduate project.  Only a few more weeks until that baby will be history, and I can't wait for that!

Check out this hair raising experience...woa!  That's what Lucy's hair looked like one night after we took the pony tails out.  Crazy!

Also, I had to share this.  Lucy has started saying this lately, when she is trying to do something, or get something that is stuck: "Come on baby, you can do this!"  It is so cute and fun the way she says it.  I love it!

I am what I am, I meant what I meant...

Every year at the beginning of March, we really like to play so we have a Suess Day!  This year, we made Suessimon Cinnamon rolls for breakfast.  I put characters on toothpicks in them.  The kids liked picking out which character they wanted.  Emma also wore her Lorax shirt for the occasion. 

Then we did a Dr. Suess themed preschool over at our house.  The kids loved making little crafts, reading Dr. Suess books, fishing and learning about magnets (think 1 Fish, 2 Fish), singing songs and doing activities that went along with the Dr. Suess books.  I am impressed how all of the kids sat for so long and giggled in delight at the sometimes long Dr. Suess books.  I was planning on just reading portions, but they loved it so much I kept going and they asked for more.  Dr. Suess has really done so much for literacy and that's why we always honor him on this day. 

After school, we took the Readers Oath, read tons of Dr. Suess books, including 4 new ones from the library we've never read, played the thimble game Suess style, made Thing 1 and Thing 2 crafts.  On the menu for dinner: green eggs and ham casserole, Grinch Spinach salad, butter battle bread, and pink ink.  And for dessert,. the kids made Cat in the Hat kabobs out of half an oreo, half a marshmallow, and cut up bananas and strawberries.  Finally, we finished off the night watching a few Suess videos on YouTube, and then we made some Oobleck out of cornstarch and water.  The kids love, loved that!  It was fun to play with and was pretty darn messy, but worth it!

My favorite Dr. Suess book is Horton Hatches a Who.  I love Horton's determiniation even when times got rough.  "I am what I am, I meant what I meant, an elephants faithful 100 percent!"  And in the end, it all paid off and Horton was happy 100 percent.  I've always loved Horton and his message and hope I can be true like he was until the end, so I too can be happy 100 percent. 

Wrapping up Winter...

And, that's a wrap!  Winter's getting close to over, which makes us all anxious for warmer weather.  Here's a look at what the Ryerse's have been up to these past few months.

We all got somekind of sickness during this cold and flu season at least once.  It was sad to see the kids so sick, but then that much better when they were feeling better!  Like to see Lucy smile and play again after being better, so great!

Em lost another tooth and has 3 more wiggly ones.  She kinda freaks out when they get wiggly and she will wobble them but is afraid for them to fall out. 

We started back up with preschool in January.  I've taught 4 times since then.  Are these kids not so cute?  We have so much fun and do a little learning, too!

 

The kids went to a fun birthday for their friend, Lily.  She is so cute and the party was a Puppy theme, which was just as cute!  The kids had a great time!

 

We got a gym membership to the YMCA, which has been awesome!  We've been working out in the gym, going swimming, and attending classes.  And the kids like to go to the Child Watch there.  When we can't make it, we exercise at home.  Cal loves to work out with Mom!



 I finally conned the kids into watching Cool Runnings, one of my faves.  Since, they've been having fun pretending they are bobsledders. 

Lucy is quite the mischief maker now and definately has a mind and a will of her own!  She is also saying such funny things.  Like "Look, it's Mommy!" when she saw this physiology book.  Compare that to when we pulled out Sleeping Beauty and she insisted that Daddy was the Prince.  :)

Lucy loves her sheet, and has been getting into my underwear drawer lately, and loves getting my slips or other under clothing to put on around her, over her head, through any limb she can.  Silly girl!

Lucy has been getting into everything lately - the vaseline, makeup, electrical sockets, dumping water out and mixing foods and drinks on the table, getting all of the toys out and not putting them away.  It's been fun, NOT!  :)  But it's all a part of learning and growing up I guess. 
                                  

Emma's been working hard at home and school.  She's such a great girl and is so good at her school work, practicing, and helping around the house (once she finally stops complaining that she's the only one who has to do chores and practice)...

Emma was even Star of the Week at school, which was pretty cool for her!

We've been doing lots of activities to try to keep the kids from going stir crazy!  One day, we had Popcorn & Puzzles Day.  We did tons of puzzles, made our own puzzle using photos the kids picked from the computer, printing them out on heavy paper and cutting them out into puzzles.   We also made some popcorn, talked about the science of popcorn a little bit, and did the popcorn dance.  One day, we did our own Zoo.  We had some friends, the Whitings, over that day, and we made tickets, set up the animal exhibits, took care of the animals, took each other on tours, fed the animals, etc.  The kiddos loved that!  We've done lots of other fun things to keep these busy ones busy.  One day, we did potato prints.  Lucy decided to eat the paint...

We've been enjoying the snow while we can, and have had a lot of it, especially in January!  We had a snowman day and went outside to make snowmen and we made our family.  Then we came inside and sang the snowman song, had snowman bagels for lunch, and hot chocolate and snuggled up to read some good books and play inside. 

 

We had tons of fun sledding in what we call the sand dunes behind our house.  It was a blast!  The kids discovered their snowpants worked better than sleds, and so they just slid down on their bums.  It was cute!  Emma also made a cool snow cave with her friends in the backyard.  Here she is popping out of it.  

 

Outside it may be cold, but inside it's been toasty!  Sometimes it gets hot in here with our wood stove burning!  Sizzling...some days its been up to 90 in here!  



                                      
                                     
Cute Cal!  He's so tender and has been loving snuggling lately with me.  It's so cute and I will take his snuggles while I can. 
                                      

 

Besides snuggling, Cal has been way into gaming lately - games on my phone and on the computer.  He loves Angry Birds and a motorcycle game, PBS Kids, Kidzui and some preschool learning games we have.  He also loves animals and is very sensitive to animals and loves reading about them.  This dog is from a friend of ours, they just got a new weiner dog puppy!  He loved it and was delighted to play with it!

 

Besides preschool, snuggling, playing games, animals, Cal enjoys playdates and going to the library.  Here he is at a ward playdate when we had a big playdate in the gym complete with a huge blow up bouncy toy.   

In February, the kids started swimming lessons.  This was their first time, and they loved it!  Cal was fearless and did really well, passing his class!  He had a hard time staying on the wall sometimes though, because he just wanted to swim on his own.  Emma did really well too, but we're going to put her in the introductory course again because she wanted her teacher to help her every time.  So she needs to gain a little more confidence.  They smiled and loved every minute and can't wait to do more!

 

 

Emma and Cal are like little best friends and it's so cute!  I love seeing what they come up with on their own to do and listening to the little conversations they have.  One day, we were cracking open a coconut.  They loved smashing it to try to open it and talked about the coconut bombs from Swiss Family Robinson.  "I hate coconut bombs!" Cal said.  Emma just laughed. 

Dancing with my stars...they just started dancing together one night, doing all kinds of fancy moves!

As for me, I've been doing pretty well.  I've been feeling really good, and am now 16 1/2 weeks.  And the headaches are going away now, yay! 

 

 

Besides cooking, cleaning, playing with the kids and keeping up with everything, I've been trying hard to catch up on family scrapbooks. I finished Lucy's baby book, finally, and 2010.  Now I'm working on 2011 old school scrappy style, and I've been doing 2012 digitally.  I'm trying to do one page a day and I've been doing pretty well sticking to that and hopefully I'll catch up pretty soon!  ;)  Right....

 

Also been working on some fun sewing projects and started making the girls' Easter dresses.  It's early this year, you know!  I like sewing, when my sewing machine isn't being wierd, it's been having some problems lately and it's getting frustrating.  

I've also been into the wreath making thing lately.  I made three wreaths.  One for Christmas I never got to in December made out of starlight mints, a felt ruffle heart wreath for Valentine's Day, and a scrap fabric wreath for our bedroom that matches the quilt on our bed.  Love me some late night or nap time crafting, it's pretty therapuetic and quiet time for me. 

And Dave has been busy working on his graduate project almost 24/7.  This is where you'll likely find him if you come over to our house.  Or at the school at the library.  His topic has been changed several times and he's worked on several projects, so it's been very stressful for him because his committee says they love something, he does it and they then decide they want to change directions after he's devoted tons of time.  For a while, he didn't sleep much, hardly ate anything, and was having panic attacks because he was getting so stressed.  But he's doing a great job and pushing through with a happy attitude and is getting so close!  He's comparing magnet hospitals vs. regular hospitals and their rankings and ratings.  He had a lot of data to compile, math to do, statistics, and then interpreting the data and researching the topic.  I'm so proud of him, less than 2 months left of this, which is crazy!  He also has been applying for jobs a little, he was devoting lots of time to that in January but now is side tracked getting this project done on time.  So soon he will hit the job hunt hard again.  He got one job offer, but it wasn't really wanted to do, so we'll keep on looking!