Life As We Know It

Happy New Year!

2012-01-03T11:50:00.002-05:00

I have to apologize because we didn't get Christmas cards out this year. Christmas cards are one of my favorite things about the holidays. I have mine hung up all over my house so I can remember how lucky I am to have so many wonderful friends in my life. I will try to be better next year. Here is what my card probably would of said if I sent it.

We love Florida!!! We love the sunshine and the beautiful weather. I guess living in buffalo for four years really helps you appreciate warmth. Everyday we thank Heavenly Father for letting us live here. We spend most of our time outdoors. We love the beach and all the parks. We also have really enjoyed being in the air force. We have met so many wonderful people. The military seems to understand not to take friendships for granted. You never know when someone is going to leave and so you just cherish the time you have.

Here is a run down of how everyone is doing. Rylee is in kindergarten. She is doing so well. She loves to read and will read any book she can get her hands on. She wants to be a cooker, teacher, or makeup girl when she grows up. She is still sweet as can be. She loves her friends. She worries about everyone and is always willing to help. She is loving Florida but still wishes she could live in Utah next to her grandmas.

Piper is hilarious. Her goal in life is to always have fun. If something is not fun then she wants nothing to do with it. She told my friend that she wants to be a monster when she grows up. She wants to marry her dad when she is five. She insists to anyone that asks that she attends school every day (she doesn't). She came out of her room one day with nine pairs of underwear on. She feels no guilt about anything. She just enjoys every moment she has.

Sawyer is thirteen months old and is very active. He explores every inch of the house. He empties ever drawer and box that he can get his hands on. He is either the easiest baby ever or the hardest. He loves to laugh. His favorite past time is splashing in the toilet or pulling the toaster around the house.

Scott is enjoying the Air Force. He is learning a ton and is grateful he gets to work with so many specialists. He is the finance clerk at church. He is a wonderful dad and spends most of his spare time making the kids laugh.

I am doing great. I have wonderful friends who I spend as much time as I can with. I love being a mom more than I ever have. I love to cook and am constantly trying to perfect my recipes. I wish we could live in Florida forever but we will be moving again in August. I forgotten how much I love being near the beach. I am a beach girl through and through. We love you and miss you all. We hope that 2012 is the best year for you yet!

Beach Pictures

2011-11-02T00:06:00.000-04:00

Thought it would be good to share some pictures of where we live now. We went to the beach on Okaloosa Island a few weeks ago and watched the sunset. We are having fun.

2011-05-26T18:12:00.000-04:00

Our Beautiful Children

2011-05-26T17:41:00.001-04:00

Our friend took our family pictures and I love how they turned out. She used an old bike.

Picture of our Family

2011-05-09T09:38:00.000-04:00

My family got all dressed up for a photo shoot and then my friend/photographer went into labor. She tried to tell me early enough so we wouldn't get all ready but I of course did not look at my phone. Since we were all dressed up we thought we would get another friend to take a couple shots for us. Here is the latest picture of all of us.

Snowing and Staying Inside

2011-01-20T21:26:00.000-05:00

It has been a normal winter here in Buffalo; cold and snowy. That means we have spent a lot of time inside. You get used to it over time but the kids become a little tired of it. A tropical island sounds nice about now.

Some of Sawyer's great facial expressions.

Going to a Game

2011-01-01T09:14:00.000-05:00

First off, Happy New Year. It is strange to be in 2011 because I am part of the "Class of 2011" and you just figure going into it that 2011 will never actually show up. We are excited to move on to other things. For those that don't know, we will move to Eglin AFB in Florida in the summer for a year.

I totally lucked out this year. The BYU basketball team scheduled a game in Buffalo. I spend way too much time following BYU sports and this was just too good to be true. We live about 10 minutes from the arena. Heather decided to stay home with Piper and Sawyer so I took Rylee to the game. She is not a sports fanatic by any means but I thought we would try. The game was awesome. BYU managed to win the game against a tough UB team and there were lots of Cougar fans there. My problem was that Rylee put her coat and scarf on sometime in the first half and told me that she was ready to go home. She is funny. We stayed for the entire game, but she did not understand why the game was so long. I think I have my work cut out for me.

Tangled

2010-12-29T10:12:00.000-05:00

We saw Tangled yesterday as a family. We took all three kids. It was quite daring I know. Rylee and Piper have been so anxious to see it. It was a fun movie and we all had a good time. Sawyer did not make too much noise. Piper sat on my lap for the first hour, then got bored. Rylee loved it. She sat in her chair laughing at certain points where I think she was the only one in the fairly full theater doing such a thing. The only problem was the ending. She was crushed by how the movie ended. I don't want to give anything away if you have not seen it, but I might try to request an alternate ending so I don't have to answer more questions when the movie comes out on DVD.

A Buffalo Christmas

2010-12-26T21:52:00.001-05:00

I want to preface this with a few questions from Rylee for Santa. Let me know if you know any of the answers to these. She was not quite daring enough to ask Santa at the mall.

How do reindeer fly?

Does Santa have parents?

Does Santa take his coat off and wear a t-shirt when he is in Florida?

To prepare for Christmas, we held our annual Christmas tree cookie making event. It involves stacking cookies with frosting and then adding a red hot on top. The girls had a fun time putting the cookies together. They did not exactly pass the hygiene test, so do not be offended that we did not share them with anyone. Piper did a good job until she realized she had a bunch of cookies in front of her.

We had a fun Christmas together. We had some friends come over for dinner on Christmas Eve. Heather did a fabulous job on everything. The kids acted out the nativity story from the Bible. It was probably the most chaotic reenactment I have ever seen, but it was fun.

What a good star!

Rylee as Mary

A wise man with a couple of other guests modeling the new line of strollers

Christmas morning with children is special. They are so genuine with their emotions and excitement that you cannot avoid smiling. We are blessed to have such great family and friends.

We hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

Cape Cod

2010-12-23T00:18:00.001-05:00

We made a trip to Cape Cod last summer around the beginning of July. We did not have much experience there so we planned to take a tour of the cape during our week there. We stayed in Mashpee and made trips to Sandwich, Dennisport, Hyannis, Chatham, Falmouth, Woods Hole, and Provincetown (and I am sure I missed some). While the cape itself is not huge, doing the entire place in a week is tough with one child who naps and the other one who only wants to spend time at the hotel swimming pool. I will try to touch on some of the highlights of the trip.

We both fell in love with Chatham. We spent some time walking down the main street looking at shops. We were blown away by the simple and beautiful architecture of the area. I wanted to take pictures of the area, but the streets are small and I feel awkward going around with a camera. We managed to get a picture of one of the houses.

We also visited the Chatham Fish Pier in the afternoon. We managed to watch a scallop boat come in with their catch. I prefer experiencing an area much more by doing stuff like that than the other tourist attractions. The girls had a fun time watching the birds and seals that were following the boats.


At the fish pier

We also went to several different beaches. The first one by Sandwich was rocky and the water was freezing. We should have thought something was up when there was only one other person on the beach. Rylee lost her pink boogie board there in a matter of seconds. She put it down in the water and wind/current just took it out to sea. I tried to go after it but I was not prepared for a full out ocean swim in those conditions. So we resorted to other beaches on the south side that were much more pleasant and fun for the girls (with sand).


Playing in the sand near Hyannis

Another day trip involved quite a drive up to Provincetown. We debated for a while on whether it was worth it to spend the extra time to go up there. We apparently just missed the huge Portuguese Festival there, but the place was still full of tourists. The city had a large marina with lots of tour boats, many for whale watching. We walked up and down Commercial Street and saw some interesting things. We bought overpriced and supposedly homemade ice cream on the way. The girls were exhausted by the end of the trip. I am pretty sure that is evident by their expressions in the photo.

We also stopped at a really neat place on the way up to Provincetown called the Salt Pond Visitor Center in the Cape Cod National Seashore. We were able to go on a walk along a salt marsh with a large pond. It was a great learning facility and I am glad we stopped there.

We most of all enjoyed spending time with each other. I might try to post more later about the good ice cream places we went to and the amazing clam chowder, but I have to update about other things first.

Just hanging out before bedtime

Newborn Pics

2010-12-22T07:40:00.002-05:00

We had some newborn pictures taken by our friend about a month ago. She did a great job and we thought we would post a few of the pictures. Sawyer is doing well and getting excited for Christmas. We wish that we could be closer to family this year, but we are also having a lot of fun doing stuff on our own.

Year in Rewind

2010-12-19T08:02:00.003-05:00

I am going to try and post things that we have done over the year. I figure that if I do a little each day I might be able to get some stuff done. The hard part about this though is that Sawyer is not on them. I could photoshop him in some of them, but I got some negative feedback on the last time I did that. These pictures are from Halloween. Rylee was a beautiful ballerina and Piper was a ladybug.

Busy Weekend

2010-11-21T21:34:00.002-05:00

Sawyer is keeping us busy and we are also trying to entertain him when we have a chance. He stares at us quite a bit. I think it is funny. He is a keeper.

Sawyer

2010-11-21T09:17:00.003-05:00

After repeated attempts on my life, I figured it was time to post some new pictures on here. These are all from the hospital the first night. Rylee and Piper were excited to see their new brother. Heather is doing great. I will try to post some pictures later, but hopefully this eases some of the tension. Thanks for all of your support.

It's Picture Time

2010-05-26T22:02:00.004-04:00

So my life has finally gotten to the point where I can post some pictures on the blog. I hope that my free time expands so I can do some other stuff as well in the near future. We have done quite a bit since the last pictures. The girls seemed to have grown a bit and developed more personality.

Piper loves ice cream.  She spent most of dinner the other night crying because she knew that there was ice cream.  She managed to get most of it in her mouth.

She loves playing outside.  She looks great with the one side of her hair done in this picture.

Rylee in pink.

I went to the Dominican Republic over spring break for a dental mission and I found these maracas for the girls.

We also took a trip to Kirtland, Ohio on a weekend to look at a car.  The car idea did not work well because the guy sold it before we got there.  Not cool.  Anyway, we had a lot of fun looking at sites in the area.

Heather liked the cows at the Farmpark. I liked them too.  Rylee even did a good job milking one.

I have found it quite impossible to take a good picture of the girls before church when they are dressed up.  They have some cute dresses but I never seem to catch them at the best moment.

What's Wrong With My Fork?

2010-05-11T13:20:00.003-04:00

We were eating pasta for dinner last night. We were almost finished and Rylee held up her fork and asked, "What's wrong with my fork? It won't do the spinny thing." I thought it was funny that it was the fork's fault. I love my kids. I will try to post some pictures soon too.

A four year old teenager

2010-04-27T14:53:00.002-04:00

This weekend we went to Kirtland and saw the historical sights. We had a wonderful time! After Kirtland we went to a place called Farmpark. There we got to milk a cow, ride in a horse drawn carriage, and see many other farm animals. The kids loved it especially Piper who kept saying Moo over and over again. Right before we were about to leave we stopped at the gift shop. Rylee walked around the store coveting everything. Finally she found a purse that she loved and begged Scott for it. She insisted that she would use it all the time. Scott, knowing that Rylee already has at least five other purses, said no. Rylee was outraged and screamed "You are ruining my life." One of the farm workers turned her head so Rylee could not see her laughing. Even though I find this humorous it also troubles me. I cannot believe that my four year old already thinks her parents are making her life miserable. Isn't she supposed to adore us right now. I feel like I am raising a teenager and not a preschooler.

Hey Hey

2010-03-22T21:25:00.003-04:00

I wonder how long it will take for Piper to make faces like her aunt Amy.

The Chicken Princess

2010-02-27T10:52:00.003-05:00

Rylee made this picture the other day for mom. She said it was the "Chicken Princess." It even flies because it has wings.

Worst Day of My Life

2010-01-28T21:28:00.003-05:00

Today was the scariest day of my life. Piper has been sick with a stomach virus this week. She has been really tired and hasn't wanted to eat or drink very much. This morning she was laying on my chest when she started to convulse. Then her eyes went behind her head. She stopped breathing and her lips turned blue. I started panicking. I could not think of what you are supposed to do when someone has a seizure. I called 911 and they were busy with other calls. I started praying begging God to help me. I thought for a moment that Piper had died. It was the worst moment of my life. She slowly started breathing again. The 911 operator came on and an ambulance was on its way. Rylee ran next door and got the neighbor. We went to the hospital. The doctors said she didn't actually have a normal seizure. She had a febrile seizure. It is the body's reaction to a fever. It causes no real damage but it is horrifying to experience. Once you have one you could have one again. Most kids grow out of them by five. You can try to control the fever with pain medication but they could still seize. They gave her liquids at the hospital to help with dehydration and she is now home and safe. I wanted everyone to know about these seizures so you don't have to experience the same terror.
I cannot imagine life without Piper. She loves to laugh and smile. She often has a mischievous smile on her face right before she is about to do something wrong. She is tough and isn't afraid to fight back. She is extremely independent and wants to do everything herself. I love her so much. She brightens up my life and I am so glad that she is my daughter. Please give your loved ones an extra hug and kiss because they are so precious. I hope that I never have to experience this fear again.

Answers

2009-10-29T10:23:00.002-04:00

It was interesting to see how people guessed. I think Natalie was the only one to get them all correct. And sorry, I did not even think to give out prizes.

Top (Left to Right): Rylee, Rylee, Piper
Bottom (Left to Right): Piper, Piper, Rylee

I think there were a couple that were easier to look at the surroundings and picture quality than trying to figure out who is who. Thanks for playing.

Guess who?

2009-10-25T22:53:00.003-04:00

We have been looking at old pictures lately and have been quite surprised by how much our girls look like each other. So we put together a few pictures of each of them side by side to see if other people can figure out who is who.

Happy Birthday Piper

2009-10-23T21:22:00.001-04:00

Savannah

2009-09-20T20:14:00.002-04:00

This is just a small glimpse of beautiful Savannah, Georgia. The place has so much history and we had a great time checking the place out in a few hours. We could have spent a lot more time there, but the girls probably would not have been too happy about it.

Summer

2009-09-14T22:56:00.004-04:00

We had a lot of fun over the short summer break that we had here. We had about a month off from when I took the boards and then started school again. We took a trip down to Florida for about half of that time (including the insane amount of time driving in the car). We actually thought the girls did a good job and we got to see a bunch of things that we would not have otherwise. This is just a glimpse of the stuff we have done in the past few months.

The girls at DisneyWorld with Jasmine and Aladdin

Rylee with Aurora. She got to go to a princess breakfast at Epcot one morning and had a fabulous time. She was so excited.

I was trying to download some more but it did not work. They were mostly of Savannah though. I wish we could have spent more time there. It was beautiful and full of things to see.

Rylee is Getting Surgery!

2009-06-16T21:19:00.004-04:00

I just wanted to let everyone know that Rylee is going to need surgery. After taking her for a sleep test we learned she has sleep apnea. The doctors feel that the best treatment is removing her tonsils and adenoids. I am scared because she is so little but I am excited for her to finally get a good night sleep. I am not sure exactly when she is getting the surgery but it will be this summer as soon as they can fit her in. I would really appreciate it if you would keep her in your prayers. Rylee is our little princess and we don't want anything to go wrong.

My Girls

2009-06-15T23:59:00.002-04:00

Dancers

2009-05-04T22:46:00.002-04:00

Still Alive

2009-05-04T15:58:00.004-04:00

I thought I would put a couple pictures on here because I needed a short break from studying during finals week. You would think that I would have found time before.

Smiles

2009-02-18T14:08:00.003-05:00

Heather is coming back from Arizona today with the girls. I was looking at some pictures of the girls. I miss them and am glad they are coming home. The first picture was fun because the camera was on a timer. Rylee and I would push the button and run over to Piper together. This was the best one, but Piper kind of got tired of the process.

Good Morning!

2009-01-28T21:41:00.002-05:00

Rylee woke up with some sweet hair a couple weeks ago. I was going through my pictures and had to put this up here. Even princesses have interesting hair days.

A Tribute to My Girls

2009-01-08T22:08:00.003-05:00

I know it is not good to brag but I think I have two of the cutest girls in the whole world. I wouldn't trade them for anything. Rylee is always so sweet and loves to dress up like a princess. Piper loves to smile and tries to splash as much as possible when taking a bath. I can't imagine my life my life without them.

A Christmas Tradition!

2009-01-08T21:37:00.002-05:00

A couple years ago we started a family tradition of making gingerbread houses for Christmas. This year we made the houses with my parents and Brian and Dalene. This was my first attempt at making the houses out of real gingerbread. We had a great time making them.

This is Brian and Dalene's house. They did such a great job.

This is our house. Rylee had a lot of fun doing the sprinkle walk way. My mom did the beautiful roof and I spent most of my time eating the mint m&ms. They are so good.

Meanwhile Scott worked on the highlight of our gingerbread house, the snowman. He is so proud of his snowman. Every part of him had to be perfect. He loves his scarf and the twigs he got from the christmas tree. It was my favorite part of Christmas this year. Just laughing and hanging out with the family.

Piper's Baby Blessing

2009-01-08T21:06:00.005-05:00

The circle was small but cozy.

It was nice to bless Piper at my parents' house. Rylee dressed up in her Cinderella dress for the occasion. You can't wear that to church.

Scott's mom made the beautiful headband. It went perfect with her dress.

Piper

2008-10-30T10:25:00.003-04:00

I love newborns, but they don't do much. We have tried to take different pictures of Piper. She only has a couple of expressions so far: sleepy and awake. It's nice having a baby in the house again even though we don't get as much sleep.

Doesn't Heather look great?

I remember seeing a picture like this with my older brother

Sleeping away the day

This was taken at the hospital. She has great dark hair. I wonder where she got it.

Rylee Roo

2008-10-28T09:16:00.003-04:00

Rylee and I were looking at some pictures this morning of her. We have had a lot of fun together lately. She is growing up and is such a good sister. I know people want to see more pictures of Piper (and I will add them later when I upload them), but this post is for Rylee.

We went outside and played in the leaves in our front yard. Rylee liked to roll around in them. I thought this picture was kind of cool.

Scott and Rylee outside. Buffalo is starting to get a little colder and most of the leaves are gone now. It still hasn't snowed yet though.

We had a really nice day on the weekend before Piper was born. We went to Beaver Island State Park on Grand Island and walked around. This picture is funny because we were playing hide-and-seek. Rylee is getting better at hiding by herself, but still didn't get fully behind the tree. She was having fun.

Finger painting. I'm not sure what she was trying to draw-- maybe a turtle.

This picture is from my date with Rylee at the Pumpkin Festival. She took me on a date for my birthday. We got to go on a hayride, see a pumpkin cannon, eat some good corn, pet some animals (even a camel), and Rylee got her face painted with a pink butterfly. She was so excited about it and pretends to paint things on Heather and me at home.

The Real Baby Picture

2008-10-23T01:00:00.003-04:00

Welcome Piper Jane. Here are a couple of pictures from the day. Heather and the baby are doing great. She was born at 6 lbs 10 oz and 20 inches. We think she is pretty cute. I will have to get some more pictures of her dark hair tomorrow.

Still Alive

2008-10-06T20:38:00.003-04:00

So this semester has definitely lived up to its hype. I haven't had much time to update this blog, but I will try to do better since we have a baby on the way soon. It's pretty crazy to think that Heather is due in about 3 weeks. I hope the baby comes at a good time in my schedule so I don't have to make up too much stuff.

Things have been fun the past couple months. We have tried to decorate our apartment, prepare for the baby, and watch BYU football. I also spend a lot of time in the basement of the dental school working on labwork. Fun. I don't have that many pictures loaded on my computer but I thought that I could add a couple from over the summer that I haven't put on here yet.

Rylee and her cousin Zoey

Rylee and her cousin Lily in Philly

Miss Curly

2008-07-22T09:08:00.002-04:00

Rylee's hair has gone so curly lately. We guess it is because of the humid weather here and her hair is getting longer. We think it is pretty cute. She usually has this tight curl right at the top of her forehead that Heather tries to straighten out.

This next picture was funny to me. We recently moved to a new apartment in Amherst and have spent most of our time trying to get things situated, refinishing furniture, and other stuff like that. Anyway, Heather decided that she would put out her American Girl collection in Rylee's room and let her play with them and see how she treated them. She has been so good with them and thinks they are so cool. The neat thing about them is that they are almost the same size. Rylee is sitting in Samantha's desk in this picture having her own little tea party. I don't know how she fits in there. She is gradually growing out of clothes though so I don't know how many more months she will fit in there.

Crystal Beach

2008-07-20T18:03:00.003-04:00

We went to Crystal Beach on Lake Erie a couple weeks ago. It is a nice beach in Ontario that is pretty close to Buffalo. Rylee liked playing in the sand and repeatedly wanted to go back into the water. The problem with that was that it was really windy and got cold when we got out of the water. Rylee turned slightly blue at times. We met up with some other friends from dental school while we were there and had a fun time.

Earlier Trip to Philly

2008-07-19T07:51:00.002-04:00

Here are some pictures from our trip to Philly about a month ago. I went down there right after school ended and we had lots of fun. Heather and I even spent time in the city and saw some of the historical sites while Rylee stayed home with grandma. I will continue to try to keep up with what we are doing this summer. We are headed to Palmyra today to go to the Hill Cumorah Pageant and will make a stop at a cool museum in Rochester before that.

Our little family

Heather and Scott at Christ Church in Philly sitting in George Washington's pew

Rylee swimming with Uncle Brian using her cool flotable swimsuit (or "swimsoop"). Rylee got pretty brave and wanted to go by herself around the pool. Her problem is that she thinks that she can swim now. I have to dunk her every so often in the city pool we go to now just so that she remembers that she can't do it alone yet.

Another Girl

2008-07-16T07:57:00.003-04:00

So things have been a little hectic this summer but I am finally putting some more stuff on the blog. I guess the first thing to do is to officially announce the coming of another baby girl in October. We were going to post that news when we found out that it was a girl, over a month ago, but that didn't happen. We are really excited for another baby. She has been very active in Heather's tummy and we hope that she can keep up with Rylee from the start. We are still working on a name. I think we are getting closer but we don't want to finalize anything because we still have a few months.

Memorial Day

2008-05-26T12:25:00.002-04:00

We are enjoying having a day off for Memorial Day today. This summer term of school has not been too bad, but it is always nice having a little extra time off. We went to the park this morning and we are going to try to make it to a parade in Williamsville this afternoon. Rylee is supposed to be taking a nap right now, but she is talking to herself in her crib like usual.

Rylee is preparing to go down the slide. She loves parks and playing with kids. She is still working on her shyness though. She could play forever.

This is a picture of the pie that I made Heather for Mother's Day. I thought it looked good. It tasted good too. I hope she had a good day.

We finally ventured over to Niagara Falls with Rylee last weekend. We were waiting for the weather to get warmer, but we ended going between rainstorms and it wasn't warm. It was windy next to the falls. We will go back another time and go over to the Canada side.

We have gone to few more garage sales over the past few weeks looking for several bigger things that we need. We get Rylee a few things when we find a good deal. Heather got her some Barbie dolls last weekend and she thinks that they are so cool. She likes sleeping with one of them, along with her regular dolls. We thought this picture was funny with her and the boy doll.

Here is a family picture taken from a bench earlier today. This was taken at a park that is close to where we live. We like going there to see the waterfall and look at the ducks. Rylee was looking for a playground the whole time we were there though so we had to go somewhere else.

Recap

2008-05-11T20:44:00.004-04:00

We misplaced our camera for a while and I was busy with school so we didn't post any pictures. I am going to put a bunch of them up here now. They are a little mixed up, but hopefully they are good.

Rylee in her pretty dress from her birthday

Overlooking the top of Hill Cumorah

Blowing out candles from her birthday cake (except there isn't a candle)

Finding her Easter basket

Heather posing in front of some flowers at the Botanical Gardens

Rylee is a little unsure of this pig

On a hike in the tropics (at the Botanical Gardens)

Garage Sale

2008-05-09T17:22:00.003-04:00

We had some fun at garage sales today and found this dresser for $20 from an old couple that is moving. We found some other random good things too.

Happy Day Rylee!

2008-03-26T09:51:00.003-04:00

Rylee turns 2 today. We already celebrated her birthday last week when we were all together, but I wanted to post some of Rylee's favorite things on the blog for her to look at. I hope you have a wonderful birthday Rylee.

15 States

2008-03-25T08:30:00.003-04:00

Rylee managed to make it to fifteen states before her second birthday over last week when we made a little trip to New Jersey. Heather's parents live about twenty minutes to the border and we have driven to the western bank of the Delaware River several times before because we really like this "restaurant" over there. We finally went over the bridge so Rylee can put it on her list (not that she even knows what a state is). New Jersey is actually a beautiful place, contrary to what I thought of it from growing up in the West. We will hopefully go over to the beach again this summer and bring Rylee along. I would have put more pictures on but I don't have the camera and I am up in Buffalo by myself for the next week while Heather and Rylee spend more time with Grandma Olson.

Busy with School

2008-03-06T20:17:00.005-05:00

I thought about naming this post "March" to go with the "February" post last month. I am going to try to do better than that though. I just finished up a brutal midterm portion of the semester. I think everything went well. I had lots of help from Rylee as seen from the picture below. She likes to pound the keys when she is on my lap. So I finally have a little time to work on other things.

One of the great things about being a dental student is that I have access to lots of cheap or free dental supplies. We bought a whole case of floss a few months ago. It's tough to go through floss very quickly so we let Rylee play with them because she thought they were fun. Well, she learned that she can pull the floss out a long ways and play with it that way. So I decided that I needed to teach her how to use it correctly. I think I managed to place it between a few teeth, but Rylee's favorite part was the taste. She just started putting it in her mouth and extracting the mint flavor from it. I guess I never thought of using floss as a treat before.

I also wanted to give props to my sister, Amy, for working hard in dance and receiving recognition from the Deseret News.

February

2008-02-18T20:39:00.004-05:00

I really should be studying for my occlusion class that I have an exam in tomorrow, but I thought I would just post a few things since I haven't in a while. I am amazed at some people that they can put together these long orchestrated posts together (i.e. Tad's blog). I usually just give the update on how Rylee is doing and call it good. We have had a busy month but I don't have as many pictures this time. I think we just got busy and I get tired of taking pictures inside of our apartment at night because everything has a yellow glare to it. Anyway, we got a car a couple of weeks ago to replace the car that I had before. Heather and I are still getting used to the fact that we can go to different places at the same time. My friend that I carpooled with over the first semester moved and we figured that we needed to do something different. We ended up getting a good deal on a Honda Accord and hope that it will last us forever.

Before I move on to the pictures, you have to check this video out of a baseball prank. I thought it was funny.

Another big thing that happened was that I officially joined the US Air Force and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant. I will serve for three years after I finish dental school. We are excited about the opportunity.

The commissioning part...

...and pinning on my gold bars. Rylee thinks they are cool.

Now for Rylee. She is showing her personality more and more now. It's tough for others to understand because she gets shy around people. She likes playing with her friends and likes to watch her select movies. Currently they are Clifford ("Red Dog"), Shrek ("Shrek"), and High School Musical 2 ("Kids"). In a way, she reminds me of my sister Amy because I can remember a little bit of how she acted at this age. Rylee also looks a little like Amy did with her brown eyes. I took this video of her today that I hope you like. She is just acting like Rylee.

Pretty Girl

2008-01-21T09:07:00.001-05:00

I thought I would add a few more pictures of Rylee getting dressed up. We think she is pretty cute. She likes being the center of attention, but I still have to run around in circles trying to get a somewhat decent picture of her.

Hanging out in her dress after church.

She is playing with Little Mermaid dress up kit.

And talking on one of her many dead cellphones.

Crayola Factory

2008-01-20T22:49:00.001-05:00

During our time in Pennsylvania over the break, we stopped off at the Crayola Factory/National Canal Museum in Easton, PA. The Crayola Factory had tons of different activities for kids to do. Just imagine a giant room with all of the crayons and markers that you can think of. Rylee only wanted to draw for a bit though, as expected. I enjoyed the canal museum more though because it explained how canals worked and had hands-on activities built into it. So if you are ever in Easton you should check it out.

Rylee liked getting into the water with her canal boat.

I'm pretty sure that this was Rylee's favorite part of the trip. We stopped off at the gift shop to look around and Rylee spotted this shopping cart and loaded it with stuffed crayons. She kept going around the store loading and unloading more items in her cart seemingly knowing exactly what she was up to. It was funny to watch.

Merry Christmas...finally

2008-01-20T22:15:00.000-05:00

So it has been a while since Christmas, but I have been slacking on the blog posts. We had a lot of fun down in Pennsylvania at Heather's parents' house. Rylee enjoyed seeing her relatives and still believes that Brian, Dalene, and Josh are in their cars coming to visit her. Rylee also had a fun time opening her presents. She would stand by her presents with such anticipation and wanting to play with each one before the next present was unwrapped. We brought presents down from Buffalo with us and managed to fit everything Santa and other family members gave her in our Corolla on the way back.

Rylee loves her big lion and her Radio Flyer car. The one downside is that she has to have keys in her hand before she will sit down at the wheel.

She started to understand the concept of tearing wrapping paper, but she got tired by the end.

Rylee loved spending time with her Uncle Brian.

We dressed Rylee up in one of the outfits her Grandma Davis (and Amy) picked out for her. She actually keeps her cupcake hat on her head. She also enjoys carrying around purses so this one was great. We routinely find surprises hiding out inside.

Fun in the Snow

2007-12-13T21:13:00.001-05:00

Rylee got her first real experience out in the snow today. Heather dressed her up with so many layers that she could barely move. The second picture is of Rylee on the snow and she can't roll or get up. Well, at least she stayed warm.

Cold Weather

2007-12-03T21:10:00.000-05:00

Winter has finally hit Buffalo. Most of the big storms are hitting south of us so far but it is getting pretty cold with strong winds. I didn't intend this to be a weather report because you can check that on your own if you like. I wanted to post a few more pictures on here. I actually brought my camera with me lately (and took pictures) so I have more to share.

Rylee sporting a hat and mittens

Rylee making sugar cookies before Thanksgiving. We only found one cookie cutter so we had to settle with hearts.

Rylee helping her Grandma Olson with cooking

We enjoyed the warm weather right before Thanksgiving down in Pennsylvania

Almost 200

2007-12-02T22:31:00.000-05:00

So we went bowling yesterday for a dental school activity. I got really lucky and bowled 5 strikes in a row and ended up with a 196. It was my highest score ever but I rolled a lousy 1 on my last ball after a spare in the tenth. I could have easily passed 200. Anyway, Rylee thought it was a blast to push a ball down the lane. She got an 80 with bumpers...not bad.

In the Air Force...

2007-12-01T11:57:00.000-05:00

I have been debating about joining the Air Force for a while now as a way to pay my tuition for dental school. I was accepted into the Air Force Health Professional Scholarship Program (HPSP) this past week. We are pretty sure that we are going to do it at this point. I have not signed a contract at this point, but that could happen within the next month along with being commissioned as a Second Lieutenant. It seems like a great opportunity for us. I would be obligated to spend three years in the Air Force following graduation. That time would allow me to get more practice as a dentist and get more confidence before I enter into a private practice.

More Pictures

2007-11-08T18:41:00.001-05:00

I basically just needed an excuse to post a few pictures here so my face wasn't the first thing that popped up on the blog. So I picked a few new pictures of Rylee and here we go. Rylee got a cold the other day and hasn't slept much. She has been a little cranky and only wants to wear dresses even though it has gotten pretty cold. We just put the dresses on over her other clothes so she can stay warm. I am hoping she feels better soon.

Scott Tries To Fit In

2007-11-04T21:28:00.000-05:00

Scott thought it was great having a girl until Rylee wanted to do his hair. He is now starting to feel out numbered so if you can't beat them you might as well join them. Doesn't Scott make a cute girl. Too bad he wouldn't take my suggestion and try on a dress. It would of completed the ensemble.

Rylee's first Kiss

2007-11-04T21:15:00.001-05:00

Rylee got her first kiss this saturday. We were babysitting Parker, the child of one of the dental students. We were getting them ready for bed and they decided to kiss each other good night. I didn't actually capture the kiss but I do feel I captured the moment.

Palmyra Temple

2007-11-04T21:05:00.000-05:00

We went to the temple yesterday and it was wonderful. It is really cool to think that our temple is the palmyra temple. We took Rylee to the sacred grove for the first time. New York looks beautiful right now with all the fall colors.

Like Mother Like Daughter

2007-11-04T20:37:00.001-05:00

Rylee is obsessed with dolls right now. She spends most of her day carrying them around, pushing them in her stroller, or changing their clothes. The other day one of her dolls apparently needed a nap. Rylee placed her in her little bed and then went to her crib for her blanket and duck. This is the stuffed animal and blanket she always sleeps with. Then she read her doll a story. Finally she said prayers with her doll. It is fun to see how she mimics exactly what we do to prepare her for bedtime. She is becoming a little mother already. I thought it was so cute.

Trick or Treat

2007-11-04T20:22:00.001-05:00

Scott and I took Rylee trick or treating for the first time. She loved getting the candy and putting it in her bag. We practiced all day wednesday saying trick or treat and she said it at maybe half of the houses we went too. She was very disappointed when we were finished. She would have trick or treated all night. Rylee was a cheetah and I was a witch. Scott dressed up as a cowgirl but did not let me take a picture of him. Rylee is enjoying all the candy she got and is very reluctant to share with her parents.

Trip to Utah

2007-10-09T20:53:00.001-04:00

We took a trip to Utah a couple weeks ago for my sister Lisa's wedding. I could only go for about a day because of school, but Heather and Rylee were able to stay for a while longer. Heather vows that she will never take Rylee on a plane again because she was miserable. We had a lot of fun while we were there though. The wedding was wonderful and even Rylee had a good time. Heather and I went to the BYU v. Air Force football game the day after and Rylee went up to Ogden for Lily's birthday party. There is a picture of her below riding a horse and loving it. She adores animals of every kind. It was great being able to see family again since we don't get to see them often up in New York.

Rylee in her cute red dress for the wedding

Rylee and her cousin Lily on a horse

Lisa and Tyrell just married. Mazal Tov!

Rylee and her cousin Kiara playing together

I might as well give a little update on dental school while I am in the process of writing this. Buffalo is great. I have a big group of guys that I hang out with and we have a great time together. School takes a ton of time, but it is interesting and I am learning quite a bit.

A Day at the Zoo

2007-09-03T20:38:00.000-04:00

For labor day we decided to go to the zoo. There was a great deal where you could go to the zoo for only a dollar a person. Rylee absolutely loved the zoo. She especially loved petting the goat.

Expressions

2007-07-23T12:50:00.001-04:00

It is amazing to me to see the different faces that Rylee will make in the course of a minute while taking a few pictures. I thought I would put a few of them up here.

First off is the sweet smile

Then we get the monster claw

She seems to be processing something in this shot

A couple seconds later Rylee is having a good time laughing

Trip to DC

2007-07-23T12:15:00.001-04:00

We took a trip over to Washington DC recently and checked the place out. It was fun and there were many places that we were not able to see in such a small amount of time. We saw all of the big stuff though including the capitol building and this cool truck in the middle of the grass. The memorials were neat and the Smithsonian exhibits were fascinating. I was amazed by the things that are available to see for free. We left Rylee with her grandma over in Virginia where were staying. I thought I would put a picture of her with her dog that I took while we were there.

Rylee's Words

2007-07-09T17:48:00.000-04:00

Lately it has been fun hearing the new words that come out of her mouth. Her regular words are dog, no, yeah, shoes, ball, bath, and duck. Some of the fun words have been hippo, horse, and an attempt at alligator. She tries. She also has a new thing of wanting to wear dresses. She had a fun time dressing up in the pictures below. She finds most of the stuff to put on too.

Heather's mom had surgery about a week ago on her wrist. She is recovering well but we had to put this picture up because she doesn't tell anyone about it.

Parades

2007-07-05T16:33:00.000-04:00

I played softball for quite a while yesterday at a local park. We had to fight the parade traffic to get to the field we were playing at. When we turned to corner to the park we learned that one of the fields was being used as a parking lot for the vehicles used in the parade--some American Legion labeled trucks, a slew of fire engines, and a dozen or so John Deere tractors. It's great being out in the country where tractors are a main attraction. I am just glad we were somewhere else during the parade.

More Pictures of Rylee

2007-07-01T18:01:00.000-04:00

Time to Catch Up

2007-06-22T19:39:00.000-04:00

We are currently in Doylestown, PA living with Heather's parents. It is great here. We have had quite the experience getting here though. First we took a trip down to Arizona to hike around in Sedona and to visit family. Then we had to make the trek across the country to Pennsylvania. I think we have recovered now, but it has been almost a month since we got here. I will put pictures up later because it isn't working right now for me.

Graduation!

2007-05-02T15:54:00.000-04:00

It's great to finally be done with my B.S. in Biology. BYU was a great school and I enjoyed my time there. The graduation ceremonies were better than I thought they would be. The commencement with V.P. Dick Cheney was quite enjoyable. We only brought Rylee for the convocation and she proved to be quite a handful. She loves to climb stairs now and tried to go up and down the Marriott Center.

We had to get a family shot in front of the baseball stadium. Baseball fields look so great.

Rylee is entertained by the tassle flapping around.

My brother (Russ) and sisters (Amy and Lisa) who were able to come to the convocation. Tad had to stay down in Arizona. We are going to visit him this week though.

Me and my good friend Scotty Hutchison

Moving On...

2007-04-19T00:49:00.000-04:00

We are currently getting ready to move on to other things as graduation gets closer. Our time at the Family Support and Treatment Center has been good and we are excited to go to the green part of the country. This is just a sample of the things that we have been doing lately.

Rylee is playing with the only thing left on her crib because everything else is packed and because she sleeps in a travel crib...long story.
The Blue and White scrimmage at BYU last Saturday.
Rylee and Heather seem pretty excited to be at the game.
Rylee is trying to figure out whether to keep the spices in the box or not. She really likes to unpack. We should get her to do everything when we get to Buffalo.

Happy Easter too!

2007-04-11T02:37:00.000-04:00

Well, this wasn't actually from Easter but these two just look thrilled to be sitting next to each other outside.

Rylee and Aunt Amy sitting on the couch after finding their baskets full of (for Rylee) empty eggs...YES! They are awesome.

And a cool bus to drive around.

The Easter egg hunt begins. You would never know that nothing is in the bucket.

Taking a stroll down the sidewalk away from all those eggs.

Uncle Josh thinks this egg hunt is pretty funny while Rylee chomps down on a cracker found in one of the eggs.

Happy Birthday Rylee

2007-04-09T00:31:00.000-04:00

This was taken on her Rylee's actual birthday. She had fun with a Cinderella cupcake.

She really only liked the frosting though.

Rylee had a Pooh cake for her big birthday party. Too bad she wasn't feeling well.

Mommy always makes it better.

Favorite Pictures

2007-03-09T00:07:00.000-05:00

Well, since Rylee is coming up on her 1st birthday later this month I thought I would post a few of my favorite pictures that of her over the past year.

Hopefully this gives a little glimpse into the life of Rylee. I need to get out the camera some more.

In progress...

2007-03-07T15:30:00.000-05:00

I am going to start on this and see how much time I have to make it exciting.