Thankful: Day 1

HAPPY NOVEMBER!!!

So I wanted to things we are grateful for in November, at least leading up to Thanksgiving. Here are mine and Ryder's answers. Chase can do this if he so pleases...

Courtney: I am grateful for my family! I love them so much and can't imagine life without them. They are such a great support to me in all of my crazy ideas. Seriously they are the best!

Ryder: Rest

Ryder 19 months

Someday I'll get better at this... 

 Ryder is 19 months old and such a big boy! I cannot believe how smart he is. I thought I'd take the time to record the smart, silly, fun things he's up to... 

He is saying so much I can't even count how many words. His newest are Boo Boo (Blue's Clues with hand motions and everything), more, bebe (baby), da (dad) 

 He likes to play a game where he'll point to himself and say bebe? And then he'll point to everyone else to see if they are a bebe. Today he started seeing if he was Da da? 

 He loves watching Blue's Clues and still like The Wiggles 

 He absolutely loves being outside and helping his daddy any way he can. 

He is starting to be able to match animals. We have a file folder game where you match the head of an animal with the tail and he gets most of them right. He gets a few of the colors right. He also has a animal puzzle and he knows where the animals go, he just doesn't quite know how to line them up.

Ryder got a new pet, a beta fish named Red. 

He had his first smoothie last night and LOVED it! It was banana and strawberry. He even got a big boy cup and only spilled once

We went on a family date for Labor Day. We went to the Dollar Theater and saw Lorax. He did great when he was eating popcorn, but then he wanted to get down and play. After that we went to the little play area at the mall. He had fun!

He loves ducks! He loves to shout it whenever he sees one! He thinks every bird is a duck! 

We are slowly working on potty training. My real intent was to work with him so he wouldn't be scared of the potty when we did start trying, but he actually does go every once in a while.

Something I forgot to ever mention, Ryder had his first fili bs experience July 20th, 2012 He got his own burrito and devoured it!

Easter Weekend 2012

Finally getting around to posting about Easter. It was a fun day and Ryder really enjoyed it!

The day before was filled with festivities too! In the morning my parents ward did and Easter Bfast. It had yummy pancakes and tons of eggs. Ryder was too slow and only got a few eggs, but he had the most fun there I think! He loves being outside!

Saturday was my Grandma's 90th Birthday! Can you believe it??? Us girls [minus Steph & Little Britt:( ] took Grandma out to lunch. It was fun to spend time with her and gives my Grandpa some time to himself:)

That night we got together with Friends and Family and celebrated! We had catered food from Some Burros and enjoyed each others company. The cousins had a blast (as always) playing with each other. Love you Grandma!

Easter morning we woke up to this from the Easter Bunny and plastic eggs all around the house for Ryder to find.

Water/sand table
Each of us got our own chocolate bunny
Dog Treats
Ball
2 books
ABC & Counting CD
Eggs with candy in them
(The Easter Bunny always leaves something churchy, this year was a CTR Tie tac)

Ryder wasn't sure what we were talking about when we got him out of his crib, but he was excited all the same.

He had to stop and make a basket before searching for eggs

He was very excited about that ball!

So sad this picture came out blurry:(

So Handsome!

Those are Ryder's new church shoes. Last night heading home from Grandma's party (9:30pm) I decided I wanted Ryder to have church shoes. Payless was closed, checked Target and these were all they had. Definitely room for his feet to grow.

Easter Egg Hunt @ Mema & Pampas!

We decided to do plastic eggs this year because no one really had time to color eggs. Each person brought how many they wanted their kid to walk away with. Chase had a fun time hiding them. The age range was from 10 years to 9 months.

Ryder loved Easter. Can't wait for him to be older so we can do more things to teach him the real reason for Easter!

NOVEMBER

I hate to do one large post like this, but having no computer makes it a little hard to stay up to date. So highlights of November:

We had our first ever yard sale. We got rid of a lot of crap which was the point of the whole thing. We also made $35. I learned somethings so if we ever do it again we'll be a little more prepared.

Ryder is now crawling with his tummy off the ground (not sure if I've blogged about that yet.) He is super fast and getting into a lot of things.

We celebrated Thanksgiving with lots of food. We love our family and are so grateful to have most of them nearby.

We did Black Friday! I love it! We got a new camera to replace the one that was stolen. We also bought a few Christmas presents. One of our brother's got a new big screen T.V. so he gave us his old one. THANKS BRIAN & ASHLEE! It didn't fit our entertainment center so we bought a new one off Craigslist for $20! It looks really nice.

Chase celebrated his 24th birthday. It was a busy day. Doughnuts in the morning with some family and (leftover) doughnuts and games at night with some friends.

In between doughnuts we went to the Leslie Family Reunion. It was a lot of gun. I'll do a seperate post on that.

Our brother did give us a computer to use until we get a new one for us, so the Gibson home should be up to date technology wise soon. (well minus the whole no T.V. thing.) Hopefully we'll be more up to date on this thing.

And in case you didn't hear. I started a craft, DIY blog with my sis in law. Check it out and follow us. We need the support.

Happy Holidays!

Happy Mother's Day!

Yesterday was my first mother's day! It was nice. Chase, I mean Ryder did really good! They did a little scavenger hunt (there goes my father's day idea hahaha)

Chase woke me up and next to Ryder was a magnetic picture frame to put a picture in and hang up on the fridge. On it was a post-it that said There is another one in the kitchen. So we went in there and on the fridge was a frame with Ryder's footprints in it.

Then hanging above my desk where I keep my scrapbooking stuff etc. was letters that said moms crafts! So cute. We are going to paint them this summer when less is going on.

Then there was a post-it that said it ends where it started. So I went back to Ryder's craddle and there was a KING SIZE 3 Musketeers bar! My Fav! It was a fun morning. Here is a picture of Ryder like 20 minutes after. I guess it was just too much for him...

I was getting ready for Church in the other room and went to check on him and this is what I came in on.

This was one of the hardest year to get something for our mom's. Usually I can think of something or my mom has unintentionally hinted something. But this year I had nothing. This year we gave Chase's mom a huge cutting board and my mom some spray paint to paint an outside table she has and a huge "pimp" glass that says Hot Mom on it. I thought it was fun. She could drink her Pepsi out of it.

From our ward they gave us this scripture and quote:
Who can find a virtuous women? For her price is far above rubies- Proverbs 31:10

"I believe the women of the Church today... are every bit as strong and faithful [as pioneer women]. The Priesthood leadership of this Church at all levels gratefully acknowledge the service, sacrifice, commitment, and contribution of the sisters.

Much of what we accomplish in the Church is due to the selfless service of women. Whether in the Church or in the home, it is a beautiful thing to see the Priesthood and the Relief Society work in perfect harmony. Such a relationship is like a well-tuned orchestra, and the resulting symphony inspires all of us." - Elder Quentin L. Cook, April 2011.

So they gave us all Symphony bars. YUM!!!

I am so grateful for my mom's. They are a great example to me on how I can be a mom. I am so blessed! I am also grateful that I can be a mommy! Ryder has blessed our lives so much and I love having him on our family. I love every moment I get to spend with him. He is growing up so fast!

Happy Mother's Day to all of you moms and future moms! This day isn't just for Moms but for women!

Happy New Year!!!

This seems like a good way to start off 2011!! Let's see if we can be better at updating this year.

We rang in the New Year with the Gibson's and had a ton of fun playing games and eating good food:) Mom even splurged and bought some sparklers and a firecracker. There were so many going off, it's obvious to see that everyone is excited now that they are legal.

Things are going great with the pregnancy & Ryder. At my last appointment I wasn't dilating at all (which I know doesn't really mean anything). I was suppose to have an appointment yesterday, but she had a baby to deliver and it got rescheduled for Monday. We'll see how that goes. He isn't moving as much as he use to, I guess it's starting to get really cramped for him. He never was one to move a ton. We'll see how that goes once he is born.

Chase enjoyed some time off from his new MPS job and was able to sleep in a little but:) Start back on Monday bright and early. I go back to work as well. We enjoyed our time together, but we gotta do what we gotta do.

Christmas holidays were a lot of fun! Probably one of our favorite things was doing Secret Santa to a neighbor. We weren't that great at it, but I'm sure they still enjoyed it. We intended on doing like the 12 days of Christmas, but ended up doing like 6 maybe. Hopefully next year.

We enjoyed spending time with our family which we always love!!!

I can never think of anything clever to put as the title...

We will be 36 weeks prego on Friday. It seems so close and so far at the same time. I had my baby shower a few Saturdays ago and man, Ryder is SPOILED!!! He got so much stuff. I think we are set on diapers for a while! He got so many cute clothes! We took a tour of Banner Gateway, the hospital we will be delivering at. They just showed us around to the different rooms. It was very helpful, but I still am a little nervous. Chase was able to get all the wrong turns out of his system so when it's go time he'll know exactly where to be:) Now time to pack the hospital bag. I'm thinking that will be fun for me because just another thing that means it's coming closer!

Chase is busy, busy, busy!!! He finished school and had a great semester! Got the highest GPA he's gotten... like ever! I like to think it's because he is working harder for his family now that we have a baby on the way. He took a long vacation from Dominos so he could do training for MPS Transportation. From the way he talks he is really liking what he does. He seems to enjoy it. I think it will be perfect for our family.

This time of year seems so busy, but we love it! We've been getting our Christmas shopping done and can't wait to see everyone's reaction. We hope they like them:) This week especially we have a lot going on in the evenings.

Tonight (Tuesday) Brittany & Emma (Bryan's Family) are coming in town for Christmas so we are going out to hang out with them.

Then Wednesday we are going to see the Temple lights. One of my favorite things to do around Christmas. We'll see how it goes this year, I've been having a hard time walking too long with these pregnant feet of mine. All this shopping is wearing me down.

Thursday night we are having our somewhat new tradition of like 3 years and celebrating Christmas with the Walkers (my mom's sister's family) We'll be having Mexican food and playing a few games!

Then Friday is Christmas Eve so we'll be fun, some of us are spending the night so it'll be just like when we were kids!

Christmas day is almost here! I'm trying to think of someway to have the kids be reminded of why we celebrate Christmas, but not quite sure waht to do. Thought about having them act out the Nativity, but not sure how easy that would be. I guess we'll see what I can come up with.

Then Sunday we will be at the Gibson's! Cannot wait! We are bringing rolls for dinner and I want to do home made ones, we'll see... I've never really done it before.

This last Saturday I went to a Cookie exchange. It was my first time doing one and it was a lot of fun! There were so many good cookies! I will definitely do things differently next time. First off, I have not quite figured out the purpose of seran wrap. 2nd off cookies aren't as fun as other treats! and don't volunteer to bring someone else's cookies:)

We hope you all have a very Merry Christmas with your family!!!

Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day!

All in all it was a great day! We started with The Gibson Family and honored Momma Gibson! We had a potluck feast!!! It was great to spend time together with the entire family (minus Stephen & Jodi & and Dad)Mom was very loved!

Then we headed to the Packer home...

Unfortunately, due to siblings be married, we never got to See The Davis Family & the J. Packer family. Jen & Kyle were there along with Bryan, Mom, and Dad. Papa and Grandma were even over! It was nice to spend time with them. We watched 27 dresses, which I love!!!

It was nice being able to honor both of our Mother's! We hope they know how much we love them!

We've been busy on Friday nights playing softball! Chase pitches and Courtney plays Left Field. We have so much fun and are doing really good! So far we are 2-1-1! Courtney injured her leg in the first game last week and is kinda scared for tomorrows practice. Not sure if it will still hurt. We think she pulled her hamstring:(

Nothing else is really going on. Courtney is officially laid off for summer vacation and is expected to return July 26th, could be sooner though... hopefully. So until then she is the houseworker and sits at home watching her shows eating bon bons...

Chase finished the Semester! and did really well! I guess all that nagging from Courtney really paid off! And of course she still thinks he could have done better:) So now he has a summer to relax until school starts again in the fall.

So what do the Gibson's do during the day since no work and school??? Today was full of sleeping in and cleaning. Courtney cleaned out the fridge that smelled of vinigar (Pepperchini juice spilled all over) and Chase cleaned off our carport from leaves, dirt, etc. And cleaned our bedroom. He even made our bed!!!There is something wonderful about a clean house! We have a few vacations planned and we expect to enjoy our break with each other and make the most of it!