Still no picts

Sorry, still no picts, but here is an update:

-Rob didn't get into nursing school. No, we don't know why, but we heard that only about 10% of the applicants got in. Yes, we are a bit depressed about it. No, we don't exactly know what's next. No, we're not giving up on this plan. No, we don't want to answer questions about it. We'll share our plans when we have them. :) We are grateful for trials and are trying to have faith that all will go well.

-I ran a 5K last week. An awesome experience, I was so proud of myself. I don't think I've ever done anything like that for the kind of reasons I did it. It was totally and completely for myself. Not to impress anyone, not to meet expectations, not to get into a good school or get a good job or anything like that. I did it because I wanted to. I half expected that I would give up (I'm so not athletic) because I rarely have much endurance for things that I do for just myself. So I got a little emotional when I crossed the finish line. Or at least, i thought it was the finish line. Actually it wasn't. I still had about a 1/4 of a mile to go. So then my state of emotion transferred to a bit of anger that I wasn't done. But I made it. It was great.

-Ryan is 10 months old. He crawls all over, and cruises along the edge of the couch. His first official word/phrase is uh-oh. He loves to drop his pacifier, or sippy cup, or bottle, or anything he's holding and say uh-oh. It's pretty cute. He's pretty close to saying bye bye and understanding that the syllables da-da mean daddy, but we're not quite there yet. He hasn't even said ma-ma yet, but don't worry, I'm not bitter. Not like I gave birth to him or anything. :) J/K. He knows his mommy. I love the bond we have, and I love him. More than I can ever describe on a blog.

Happy Spring!

Update

So I promise that I will soon post pictures, I'm so sorry it's been so long since I've posted. In my defense, I am working full time and don't get home usually until after 6 pm. That leaves me with maybe about 1 1/2 hours with my baby each day, so sorry, this just isn't a priority. We are doing great! Ryan is now 9 months old and is crawling all over and is as cute as ever. We're so happy to have such a wonderful son. He basically refuses to eat baby food (of course, he started doing that the day that I bought like 25 jars) and only wants grown up food. Unfortunately, that's limited to noodles, crackers, cheese, and pieces of the occasional mandarin orange slice. We're working on expanding his appetite, which is hard with no teeth (I know, right? 9 months old, any day now, bud!) so our selection is pretty limited. Tator tot casserole (gross!) went over pretty well with him the other night. Guess I'll have to start liking that. We've been waiting and waiting to hear whether or not Rob got accepted to the nursing program. We were told that we'd probably hear 6-8 weeks after his application deadline (which was Feb 1st), but the eight week mark came and went and no word. We've heard that people that didn't get in find out first, so no news yet is good news. I'm certainly hoping. The nursing department chair told Rob that he should have no problem getting in, so I told him he'd better hold her to that. We're so excited for him to start the program, one step closer to him reaching his goal and me not having to leave my baby boy each day (which is so hard). I'm working towards running a 5k at the end of this month. I'm up to interval running at just over 2 miles, so hoping to reach my goal. It feels good to say "I'm a runner." I've enjoyed pushing myself and am starting to see results. I try to get away from my desk at lunch time to go work out at the Y that's in downtown Minneapolis (about a 5 minute walk through the skyway), but it doesn't always happen. Next time I get a chance, pictures will be posted! Hopefully soon, Ryan has gotten so dang cute. He likes to look at you and move his head from side to side almost like he's dancing, but I think it's him just being happy. And he pulls himself up everywhere he goes and is actually getting pretty close to being able to stand without holding onto something. He is a busy boy.

Happy Holidays! Sorry I've been so bad at updating this. A few big things have transpired since I last wrote. Shortly after Halloween, Rob found out that he was layed off from work. Which meant we were jobless. It was a really stressful time for us. But Heavenly Father helped us make it through, and December 1st we both started jobs. Rob is working a seasonal job as package/mail sorter at the MSP airport with the post office, and I am working as a contractor for Target Headquarters in their Marketing Dept. Grammy is taking care of Ryan for us, which has been a huge blessing. We're VERY grateful for her and our jobs. We're looking forward to this opportunity to get our debts paid off and be more financially secure.

Thanksgiving was fun for us, we had the opportunity to go to Utah and spend the holiday with Rob's family. His brother Royce wanted the family to be together so he was generous enough to pay for us to come out there. Rob's father has been having some major health issues, so it was a wonderful blessing to be together. It was quite the event, with all of Rob's siblings (9 in all), all the grandkids (24 in all), and spouses and Rob's parents together. I believe all but 3 of the grandkids are under the age of 10, so it was pure chaos most of the time, but still fun.


Below are a few pictures showing off how cute Ryan is getting and other exciting events...

This is a picture of the snowstorm Minnesota just experienced. Due to snow plows, the snow drifts and mounds were above my head. We received nearly 2 feet of snow in a matter of 24 hours. It was incredible.

Ryan just getting better and better at sitting up. Today he sat up all on his own without any support for nearly a minute. He loves sampling whatever we're willing to feed him. His favorite "real food" is mashed pototoes. Don't tell his pediatrician I feed it to him. He's sucking on a cracker in this picture.

I recently turned 25 (nov. 3rd)! Still so young...

This is Ryan in his church clothes. He's not to happy at this moment. I sure love him!

We hope your holiday preparations go well and you all have time to remember the joy and true meaning of this season. I have been reflecting lately about how Mary must have felt when she was told she would be the mother of the Savior of the world. And then the moment when she first held Him in her arms. It was an overwhelming experience for me when I first held Ryan, and I can only imagine what she went through. I am so grateful that I have been given a child of our Father in Heaven to raise, and that He had entrusted such a sweet, wonderful boy to me. We are all His children, and He loves us dearly. As parents, He entrusts us with His children and relies upon us to raise them up unto Him. What a responsibility. Yet such great joy comes from doing this. I am truly grateful for my little family.

Happy Halloween!

We had a great halloween this year! It was fun to dress Ryan up and attend our ward party. He is an adorable little guy. Grandma Green sent Ryan a superman costume, so Rob and I decided to dress up as superbaby's mom and dad... Lois Lane and Clark Kent. My costume was pretty lame, but Rob's helped tip people off.



At one point I was asked if I was a librarian. Not so much. Thanks though, cuz I've worn that outfit to work before. At the end of the night Rob lost the shirt and tie and just had the superman shirt on and perched the glasses on top of his head. Ryan was off with his Grammy. We then were asked if we were the nerdy couple or something. Guess it's time to update our wardrobes.

Ryan is getting so big, he's just adorable. Grandpa taught him how to do raspberries, which is his favorite thing to do when we're feeding him. Yes, we've added rice cereal to his diet, which is definitely a treat to feed him. (Not so much, over half of it ends up all over your hands and all over him). The other day I tried out some baby food on him (carrots!) and he just loved it, he wanted more and more. Here is a picture of the delightful mess he made:

He certainly makes us laugh! Tomorrow he'll be four months old, which is crazy. He likes to do these stomach crunches, where when he's laying down he'll completely lift his head and legs up and sit in that position forever, longer than I can do it. Rob figured out a little trick, he'll hold the pacifier just inches away from Ryan's mouth when he's laying on the floor, and Ryan will do a tummy crunch to reach up to the pacifier and get it in his mouth. It's hilarious. Grammy and I joke that he's trying to get a six pack of abs before he starts nursery so he can impress all the girls. He really is a flirt, at church or in any public setting, if he's in a good mood, he want to look around and give everyone adorable little smiles and get them to coo all over him. Kind of a distraction in relief society! We sure love him!

Thoughts on Conference

I thoroughly enjoyed General Conference last weekend, it was so wonderful to be uplifted and strengthened by our General Authorities. I know that President Packer's talk was met with some resistence by several individuals. Our church has definitely received a lot of criticism due to our stance on homosexuality. I can definitely understand why our beliefs are met with such anger and resentment. However, I wanted to say that we have never preached hatred against the GLBT population. On the contrary, we've been told to treat them with love and respect and as sons and daughters of God. Anyone who treats these individuals contrary to that is wrong. I have the utmost respect and compassion for homosexuals. I will honestly say that I'm grateful that isn't my lot in life.

On the otherhand, I am grateful for church leaders that are willing to take a stand and aren't afraid to teach hard doctrine. I have no doubt Elder Packer knew the reprocussions of making such statements, but I fully sustain him as a prophet, seer, and revelator, and I know that the doctrine of marriage and family as taught by our church is the word of God and all that is said in the Proclamation to the World is true doctrine. I'm grateful to know that the leaders I look to for guidance will not be swayed by the views and current issues in the world, but that they will speak according to the teachings of Jesus Christ. They are not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and neither am I.

Family Pictures

We took family pictures last week, it was so much fun! Abby Van Stone, a friend from high school, took them for us. She is way talented. Here are some favorites (they all were amazing!)

He is an adorable little boy, we love him so much. We're so happy to have him in our lives. At two months old he is more than a mother could ask... sleeps through the night, cooes, takes a bottle, and loves his mommy and daddy. It is wonderful being parents, I thank my Heavenly Father for him and my dear husband every day!

8 weeks young

It's true, Ryan is 8 weeks old! He is growing like crazy, and we grow to love him more and more each day. He has started smiling, which just melts anyone's heart that is lucky enough coerse a smile out of him. We haven't caught on camera yet, but Grammy is working hard on it.

A few weeks ago he was blessed, below are pictures from that special day.

I feel so blessed to be his mommy. He just melts my heart. Being a mother is definitely stressful and tries your patience, especially in the wee hours of the morning, or late hours of the afternoon after a sleep deprived evening. However, I am so glad Ryan is in our lives.

Thursday I had my gall bladder removed, which wasn't the most pleasurable experience I've ever had. It's a pretty non evasive surgery, but still required four incisions in my stomach. I'm on percocet, way powerful drug. Every four hours I take that, and in between doses I'm taking four IB profen. It's making the pain tolerable, and now I'm more sore than anything. I've missed giving cuddles to my little boy, but it's hard when he wiggles so much. I'll be as good as new before we know it I'm sure. My parents have been helping out a lot as I've been recovering and Rob has been working.

Here is some exciting news: I have two job interviews next week! One is with an ad agency, and the other is with a firm that creates loyalty campaigns for retail clients. Hopefully a job comes through soon for us.

As far as updates about other members of my family:

My sister Danielle is getting married on October 16th in Mesa, AZ. I'm hoping to make it to the wedding (hence the hope for a job).

My brother Mitch was just married at the end of June, and within a matter of weeks he'll be leaving for Iraq. His wife Aly will be coming to live out here in Minnesota. When my parents recently parted with them before Mitch reported for training duty, my dad gave him a blessing and promised that he would return to his family and he has more to do in this life. That was such a comfort to us all.

Life is crazy and wonderful!