It's a....

BOY!!!!

That's right, Ryder man is going to have a little brother! We're still trying to teach him how to say "brother" and that the baby is actually in Mom's tummy and not his own. We're working on it. I was kind of excited about having a girl, but had this suspicion that it was a boy. Sure enough, it's a boy!! Since we found out, I've gotten really excited about having 2 little boys running around. I even found some matching jammies for next winter and I can't wait to dress them in coordinating outfits. Yep, I'm going to be that mom. Hooray for BOYS!

of course my child is cupcake obsessed.

Really, did he have a choice? He does have me as a mother and my mother is his grandmother. The kid is bound to love all things cake. Especially when they are in cute, little cupcake form. When I make cupcakes, this kid seems to have a sixth sense that they are around. On this particular day, I was making red velvet cupcakes for Laci's birthday and they were out cooling on the counter. Ryder man climbed his way up to the counter and then proceeded to stare at them longingly while saying, "mmmm", "mmmmm", "mmmmmm" repeatedly. Each time with more emotion. I finally sat him down in his high chair with a cupcake and he then licked off all of the frosting with immense satisfaction and called it good. I knew then that he is undeniably my child. Cake is good stuff, but really its all about the frosting. So there you go, my child is cupcake obsessed.

Halloween 2013: Harley dude.

This year for Halloween we kind of went the easy route when it came to putting together a costume for Ryder man. We inherited a super awesome Harley Davidson jacket from my little brother (he wore it 12 years ago!) and decided to make a costume out of it. Throw on some black pants, his skull t-shirt, and black tennis shoes and we were good to go! We tried to get him to wear a bandana on his head, but he wouldn't keep it on to save his life. Even 2 seconds was asking too much, he would rip it off and throw it on the ground. Oh well, you can only do so much.

Unfortunately I had to work on Halloween, so I missed the beginning of the festivities, but I managed to make it home by 7 pm to join in on the trick-or-treating. Chad came home from work a little early and the boys headed over to eat dinner at Aunt Kimber and Uncle Dan's house. They did a little trick-or-treating in their neighborhood to get warmed up and Ryder embraced the idea with open arms. He had a blast running from house to house, following his cousins, and getting candy in his pumpkin bucket. At first he didn't quite understand that he was getting candy, but as soon as he saw a smartie (he knows these well), the concept sunk in and he starting yelling, "candy! candy! candy!" The group then headed up to our neighborhood for a little trick-or-treating. By this time, Ryder started to get a little tired and was more distracted by everyone's Halloween decorations than actually going to get candy. So there you go. Our little Harley dude had a great time trick-or-treating!

Pumpkin Carving

Pumpkin carving is a Halloween tradition that I'm so much more excited for now that we have a little monster who likes it too. Ryder man wasn't really too thrilled about the whole "scraping out the guts" part, but he thought that it was pretty funny to poke a pencil through the jack-o-lantern's face. Probably his favorite part was putting the candle inside and then lighting up the jack-o-lantern. He was pretty sure he should be allowed to handle the lighter. Also that clothes are pretty much optional for this activity. Happy Halloween!

that one time Kenna got her wisdom teeth out

I feel like the second you start talking about wisdom teeth being removed, everyone has a story. There are just so many good wisdom teeth stories out there. You know, there was that one boy my Freshman year who got his out and his roommates parked him in the Helaman Halls lobby to entertain anybody who happened to be walking by with his rendition of the soldier boy dance. Then, my very good friend Erin who's mom loves to tell about driving Erin home after the procedure. Apparently, Erin had her eyes closed when she started to panic, yelling, "I'm blind, I'm blind!!" Once her mom reminded her that she just had her eyes closed, she opened them and was just fine. My own wisdom teeth removal was quite the emotional day. Apparently I cried. A lot. Pretty much all day... and I kept asking to see my once boyfriend but was then on a mission. Apparently I was a little inconsolable. See... wisdom teeth are good for something. They provide so many good stories for generations to come.

Last week, my own little sister got her wisdom teeth out and I was lucky enough to get to be her nurse for a couple of days. That meant Ryder man and I got to take her to her appointment, hang out in the waiting room for her to come out, and then drive her back to our house amidst her post-anesthesia craziness. For a little bit, it was even like I had 2 children to take care of. Trying to get Ryder man into his carseat while also getting a sobbing Kenna into the car took a little bit of juggling. Then I had to figure out how to drop off Kenna's prescription and get both of them down the stairs to our basement apartment without anybody falling. I tried to take Ryder man by himself and then come back for Kenna, but Ryder threw a fit that Kenna wasn't coming with us, so I ended up having to hold both of their hands down the stairs to get everyone inside.

At least the car ride home was full of laughs. Post anesthesia patients really are the best. After she stopped crying, she had a couple of hilarious comments about various topics that kept me laughing. On one corner she saw a man with no legs in a wheelchair. She started laughing hysterically and yelling, "he has no legs... that guy has no legs... what is he going to do?" Then when I told her that he was handicapped and in a wheelchair she got really sad and kept saying she was sorry. A few blocks from that conversation, she got really excited about all of the tractors in the construction zone we were driving through. She kept pointing them out to Ryder and making the accompanying sound effects. "Ryder... did you see that? Look, there's a tractor. A tractor! Woot Woot!". I was dying. And Ryder thought it was hilarious. Then, she gave me her philosophical opinion about life. "Alyse. You just need to do what you want to do. Don't let anybody tell you what to do. You just got to be like, You don't know me. I do what I want."

So thank you wisdom teeth. For the most part, you're a pain in the butt. But you do provide some good stories and for that I thank you.

Pregnancy this time around

This picture is from when I was 11 weeks along, but as of Thursday I will officially be 14 weeks and in the second trimester! Party. Turns out that the second pregnancy is a little different than the first time around. First of all, chasing around a 1 1/2 year old is brought to a whole new level when you don't feel like dragging yourself off the couch. Pregnancy updates thus far:

• The nausea is just starting to go away... it started around 6 weeks and was my constant companion for the first couple of weeks. Then, it seemed to just be the worse at night. Good and bad because that meant I had Chad home to help take care of Ryder man but also that I didn't feel like doing a single thing anytime that Chad was home. You can't always win.
• My pants are all snug but I haven't had to bust out the bella band or a rubber band yet. I guess that's one of the good things about it taking me a while to lose the weight from baby #1... I have pants in varying sizes to accomodate my new growing waistline.
• Depending on the shirt that I'm wearing, you may or may not be able to tell if I'm actually pregnant. Most of the time I just look chubby. Awesome.
• Been totally craving salty things and sour gummy candies. Mostly sour gummy worms. I just want to eat them all the time.
• Time seems to be passing so much faster. All of a sudden I can't believe we're already at the second trimester. With pregnancy #1 I think we just had so much time to think about it and wait, while this time the thought of having a baby AND Ryder just blows my mind a little and I think all the time we have left, the better.
• Having no impressions on whether the baby is a boy or a girl. Chad talks big that it is going to be a boy but I think it is just to cover up the fear that it might be a girl and then he might have to learn how to watch Princess movies and play tea party some day.

That's it so far. I'm also really bad at documenting this time around. I think that picture is the only one I've taken so far. I totally get why it may appear that second children don't have nearly as much of their life documented.

Hee Haw Farms

For family night this past week we ventured over to Hee Haw Farms for some Halloween festivities. We got to do it all... pony ride, saying hello to the farm animals, tractor ride out to the pumpkin patch to pick our very own pumpkin, riding on the little tractor train. Ryder was in heaven. He's all about tractors all the time, so he loved that. But the farm animals were also a favorite, particularly the pigs and cows. When we were over at the cow pen, Ryder had his face up close and a cow walked over to us. It kind of freaked him out so he jumped into Chad's arms and then the cowed mooo'd very loudly. Ryder thought that was kind of the best thing ever. Hee Haw Farms for the win!