Some thoughts on hugs!

I just finished reading the book "The Official Book of Hugs" by Martha Bolton. The book is cute and kind of silly, but has some great truths in it. It’s an easy read, you can read it in a couple of hours or less, and it made me more aware of what hugs are all about. I’m making a goal to hug more and hug better! Throughout the book, I thought of the many people who inspire me with their love and hugs.




First of all, my mom. What is better when you’re a kid (or teen or adult), and you’re feeling down, or you just got hurt, sick, or going through a stressful time, than a big hug from mom? My mom always had her arms wide open to us kids at all times. And there really was nothing more comforting. Getting a hug from mom means everything will be okay. (Hers was the first hug I'd ever received.)




One of the first people I thought of while reading this book was my friend Camille Garner Rogers. Camille taught me that hugs have no barriers. She hugs everyone for anything, and they’re always quality! She has always inspired me in so many ways, and that was one thing I’ll never forget about her. The hugs that she gives just make you feel good. She's very good at making people feel good about themselves. (This was the day we dyed our hair with strawberry Jell-O!)

My favorite person who gives really the best hugs ever is my very own Dave (well, at least I think they’re the best ever). His hugs just brighten my day and make me feel safe and valued. Even my Aunt Christy always says that Dave gives the best hugs, it’s like a big teddy bear hug. He hugs so many ways and all of the time. I love his tender hugs! He's the best! R.R.F.! (Dave hugs...on our wedding day!)





My siblings are also great huggers. My little sister Amy is so loving and good to hug me, and Adam, though now it’s usually a long time between hugs, always gives nice hugs. Looking through our family scrapbooks, Adam always had his arms around me or someone else in our family. And let’s not forget little Marko. I hear from the ladies he’s a good hugger! (: No, from the time he was a little boy, and I a little girl, we shared some special hugs. My mom was just telling me a story last week about my sister Amy and I. She said that one night she heard us crying in our room (we always shared a room until I moved away) when we were very young. She opened the door to see what the matter was, saw we had our arms around each other and when my mom asked what was wrong, Amy answered "I don't want sister to be sick anymore!" I had kidney reflux disease growing up, and was sick quite often. Amy is still this way, very compassionate for others, as are my other siblings. I'm lucky to have them. (Me and "my sissie", Amy)

Grammie (Dad’s Mom) gives great hugs too, every time when we part with a “love ya”, “You’re neat”, or some other compliment that gives you confidence. Her hugs are building and make me remember where I've come from, who I am and what I want to be. (The day I graduated from Seminary, Grammie bought me the corsage sinc I had to speak/play.)





My friend Katie Midgley Bills gives awesome hugs! They are very sweet and big and genuine. She has always been giving me hugs, since probably the first time we met. She hugs everyone, and is such an example to me of friendship and love. (This was the day of the "Shrek Date" we took Brandon & Dave on, our sophomore year of college.)













Hugging my children is a tender thing. When I got to hold them in my arms the first time, it brought tears to my eyes. My Emma and Callahan are so precious and each hug is, too. Emma is very sweet about giving hugs. Even when we’re playing a game or something, if I do well, she’ll give me a great big hug and say “You did it!” It’s fun. Emma's also caught on to "Hug huddles" that we used to do in my family growing up. We get together with the family, or whoever is around, and get in a big hug circle and call out "Hug Huddle!" (Awww...I love these kids and their hugs!)

One of the most emotional hugs I’ve had was with my friend Marcy Valenzuela, after her son died. I really didn’t know what to say, but we just hugged each other really tight and cried. And it was so powerful.


I’m grateful to be surrounded by good huggers, and I hope that I can follow their examples and become better, too! The world really can be changed for the better, just by one simple hug at a time. This hug’s for you!

Don't Cry Over Spilt Milk

I have a condition. At our home, we call it the “Melsease”. It’s dropping and spilling and breaking everything in sight! It seemed like for a while, I’d do it all of the time! I’d spill juice pitchers as I’d get them out of the fridge, break casserole dishes, drop candles and crack the glass, spill the box of cereal all over the floor and more. I was getting frustrated with myself for a while. One occasion recently, I spilled our over-sized salsa jar all over the floor. It spattered everywhere, to the point where I’m still finding dots of salsa on the wall or behind the fridge! It got all over my clothes and Emma’s clothes, on the cabinets, on the floor, the walls, everywhere, except for in my mouth. I got so mad at myself and grumbled because similar things had happened many times that week. Emma got kind of scared that I got upset, I felt really bad after and apologized. But Dave came in, and said “Hey honey, let’s salsa!” and started doing some funny dances, and also asked later “Hey, where are the chips?” Then he started to clean up, as I just stood there not knowing where to begin. I’m glad he had a sense of humor about it, because I sure didn’t then. But I’m grateful for his light-heartedness and helping me to see the bright side of things when I get down sometimes! He also took some pictures, he thought it would be funny. I didn't think it was, at least then. But now I can laugh about it.

Splat!

The look that says it all!

This past week, Emma was getting out some Nesquick powder to make some chocolate milk, when it spilled all over. Luckilly, I’m getting better at laughing about it. Emma and I just giggled, and Emma saw nothing wrong with eating the chocolate powder off the floor! She ran before I could catch her, and was grabbing all of the chocolatey powder goodness she could fit in her hands and ate it. It was pretty funny. We just had fun playing in it, but I decided I’d better clean it up before it got tracked all over the house! Dave thought it was halarious when I showed him the video and pictures. We had a great time, and I've learned my lesson lately not to cry over spilled milk!

Valentine's Day!

I love Valentine’s Day (okay, okay…I know I say that about just about every holiday, but I guess I’m just a little festive)! This year, I decided to do the Fourteen Days of Valentine’s Day for Dave. Each day, I gave him a little something, or do something for him, along with a little note explaining the significance. Some were inside jokes, so you may think it’s lame, but Dave really liked it! Here are a few of the things we did.

· Love notes in his lunch (which I try to do often)
· The kids and I put on sunglasses and sang “You are my Sunshine!” for a singing telegram.
· A mini box of chocolates that had a big truck on it that says “I like the way you roll!”
· Some pictures we took at the photo booth in Kmart
· A new orange tie
· Valentine’s card
· A flute performance of “Valentine” by Lukas Foss
· Craft flowers Emma and I made
· Gum (because we’ve stuck together so long)
· Heart attack in his cubicle
· Homemade poppy seed bread
· Valentine’s breakfast

Here's the "heart attack" Dave took some pictures of. His favorite heart was the one below.

Our candlelight Valentine's breakfast


Dave is also very sweet and always sends cute e-mails and pictures he draws, and little notes. On Valentine’s Day, he brought me an orange flower, and chocolate marshmallow and cherry ju ju hearts. On Valentine’s Day, we had our special family breakfast featuring heart-shaped eggs, cinnamon chocolate chip pancakes and hash browns. That night, Grandma and Grandpa Stoddard came up to have a Valentine’s Day party with Emma and Cal (they had a heart-shaped pizza and ate popsicles, colored Valentine’s pictures, and watched Charlie Brown’s Valentine’s Day), while Dave and I went to the young married’s Valentine dance. We had fun seeing some friends we hadn’t seen in a while, eating Costa Vida for dinner, getting pictures taken, decorating sugar cookies, and dancing. We decided we’re such terrible dancers, so when Dave finishes school and we have an open weeknight, we made a goal to take dancing lessons or check out videos on how to really dance – the waltz, tango, salsa, ballroom, swing, whatever we can find. The night was fun and we did a little reminiscing together about our marriage so far. It’s been so amazing! I’m so happy I have such a fun spouse who makes me smile always.

Hugs and kisses for Callahan on Valentine's Day!

The Valentine's Dance

What's my age again?

I just had to post these pictures...

When going to the bathroom on the potty, Emma likes to take off her panties/diaper, and her pants. Whatever works, and gets her to go, right? One day at Grandma & Grandpa Ryerse's, Emma was going to the bathroom, and decided she wanted to take of her diaper and the rest of her clothes, as well. After she was done, she took off running, and I was trying my hardest to catch her and put her clothes back on, but she thought it was so funny, she just kept running and laughing! I had a hard time not laughing as well, and so I had to take some pictures! Hopefully, these pics won't offend you. If my brother Marko was around to see them, he'd probably cover his eyes and say "Ewww!"

Emma's little episode reminded me of the music video by Blink 182, "What's my age again?" that was so popular when I was in junior high. The three from the band are running around the neighborhood in their sneakers and socks, with no clothes on (of course, it's censored where it needs to be). Luckilly, Emma is little, and it's cute since she's just 2. I don't think anyone older would be able to get away with this and it would be funny.

Callahan's Blessing

Callahan Benjamin Ryerse was blessed on February 1, 2009 by his father, David Ryerse.
Callahan was blessed that his life would be productive. He was blessed to grow strong and healthy, and to grow in wisdom and gain knowledge, to know all required to return to Heavenly Father. He was then blessed that if he was to fall, he’d have the strength and courage to get up. He was blessed that he might increase his faith, and be an example to others. Last, he was blessed with the tools and all other things he needs in this life. In the circle: Dan Ryerse, Scott Stoddard, Jeff Ryerse, Randy Ryerse, Jerry Ryerse, Brian Ryerse, Kolby Rollins, Rex Lammers.

I am grateful to have our children born to us in the covenant. How the Gospel blesses families! I’m also grateful for the Priesthood in our home, and to Dave, who holds and uses it worthily. And we’re also grateful to now have Callahan in our family!

The day was a great one! I woke up early, and we were actually on time to church that day (well, 2 minutes late, but hey! That’s good for us lately!). Luckily, all of my worst fears were unrealized. He he! He pooped before getting into his blessing outfit, and no spit-up even got on it all day. Cal looked so adorable in his little romper I made. I sewed it all myself, except for the quilting on the vest, I was a little nervous about that, so my mom did that. I think the tie was my favorite part. While sewing it all together, I told my mom that maybe we should just make a tie and a white diaper cover (it’d be so much easier) and he could be a little Chip and Dale’s baby. My mom laughed SO hard, it was pretty funny. She’s amazing, and I thank her for all of my help. When I made mistakes, she knew just how to fix it. My other fear didn’t happen, either. He didn’t start crying or freaking out during the blessing. He’s usually pretty calm, and was perfectly alert and calm during the blessing.

After the blessing, we had a luncheon with the families, a full out nacho bar, and chocolate fountain with all of the fixings! It was yummy and fun to be with family. We have such an awesome family, so supportive and I love them all a lot! For a few more pics, visit my sisters blog at www.kolbyandamy.blogspot.com.

Enough to make a mother's heart melt!

So about 2 weeks ago, Callahan began smiling! Oh, how it makes me so happy to see him smile! He is just such a cute, happy boy. Here are some of my favorite smiling pictures we’ve captured of him. It seems that usually he’ll stop smiling when he sees the camera, though he usually smiles a lot. Go figure! That's why it took me so long to post these. So enjoy them!

A happy, [belated] Wicked birthday to me!

I had a great birthday, a few weeks ago on January 7. Most of the day was pretty normal, it seems to get more that way the older I get. And speaking of that, I honestly didn't know how old I was turning. I thought my mom was crazy growing up that she didn't know how old she was, and now I'm doing the same thing!

Emma was sweet to sing happy birthday lots, and when Dave got off work and school, we went up to Maddox in Perry for dinner. I had bison-fried steak and their yummy rolls. To top it all off we had cheesecake, which is my favorite food of all-time. Our little boy was crying quite a bit at the restaurant, which was kind of sad. He's usually so good but was pretty colicky that night.

Because my birthday is so close to others in my family, we share birthday parties, which is fun. On the Stoddard side, I had a co-birthday party with Kolby. We had coconut shrimp (yum!), BBQ chicken sandwiches, and caramel apple cheesecake, and just talked forever. For the Ryerse side, I share my birthday with Julie. We had Subway and cheesecake and lemon cake Julie made (she's a little baker...I call her Julie Crocker). The trick candles we had got pretty smoky. My favorite part of birthdays with the Ryerse's is the singing of "Happy Birthday". It is crazy! The first time I heard it, I laughed so hard I couldn't sing, I was crying. They turn off the lights and everyone sings on whatever key they want, as loud as they want, whatever they want. Everyone is singing in their own style and is so crazy! It is halarious!

For my birthday present, Dave got me Wicked tickets! I am so excited to go! Dave and Brandon (Bills) got up early in the morning at 2:30 a.m. to be in Salt Lake at the Capitol Theatre by 3:30 a.m. (ZZZZ!) in December. It was pretty cold outside, those poor boys. I had a feeling they would be on the news the night before, and sure enough, shortly after 6 a.m., Dave called me to tell me the Fox 13 News truck pulled up. So I flipped it on, put a tape in the VCR to record, and a few minutes later, Ninevah Dinhah interviewed them. This is basically how the conversation went:

Ninevah: "So what made you want to come stand out in the cold here to get Wicked tickets?" Dave: "Well, I am a fan of musicals, and he (pointing to Brandon) is a great fan of musicals." (Then they talked a little bit about what Wicked is about) Brandon: "Yeah, our wives sent us out here, while they're warm in bed." Ninevah: "Awww, So you must be good husbands, then?" Dave: "Yeah, we're really good husbands." (To which everyone in line with them began snickering). It was pretty funny. Here's part of the video footage that was shown on the news with Brandon and Dave:

http://www.myfoxutah.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail;jsessionid=31D1E53D8235DE777A2E8B825079DAD7?contentId=8060444&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=1.1.1&sflg=1

So we're excited to go...that is, if we don't sell our tickets on eBay. They've been selling pretty well and we could make a little profit, so it is tempting. But otherwise, I'm looking forward to a great show!