What's going on?

Sophie likes to walk! Well, she can't walk on her own, and doesn't even like trying to stand unassisted, but she loves to walk with help. She's very good at guiding us to where she wants to go. When we hold her hands, our arms become the reigns, and she has full control.
Sophie also likes to do school with the kids. She'll grab their pencils and start writing in their books. She's not content to draw on any paper, it has to be in one of the school books. She copies whatever we do. When I exercise, or the kids practice their dances, she'll come in and bounce with us and stick her feet in the air.

Ryan sure looks good, doesn't he? This is, of course, an "after" photo. We didn't take one with the blood gushing out. Head wounds like to bleed. There are 3 preschool kids, plus Ryan. They all like to sit on the bench when we color or have snacks. Apparently there is not enough room for 4 on the bench. Ryan was trying to scoot over to give the girls more room, and fell off the bench. He hit his head on the cupboard. It was really quite a hectic moment as we tried to get the bleeding stopped and tried to decide if he needed stitches or not. Lisa brought over a bandaid and confirmed that he indeed needed stitches. Then we just had to determine what to do with preschool. Should we call the parents and end preschool now? Or should we just wait it out? After all, he wasn't bleeding anymore, and he was still conscious. I couldn't get hold of one of the parents (the first one I called), so I decided to wait it out. I calmed down enough to finish teaching and then we took the kids to Lisa's so we could take Ryan to instacare. We had called his doctor and they said that the location of the cut might require a little sedation so we had to take him to instacare. They were fast and friendly at instacare. Ryan got nervous as I put him on the bed. He was even more nervous and upset as they started cleaning the wound. At his regular doctor he never has to leave my lap. He was confused at why he couldn't stay on my lap. They put a numbing gel on his wound and left for 20 minutes to let it get numb. He calmed down a lot and was even singing to himself, "Mama called the doctor and the doctor said, 'no more monkeys jumping on the bed!'" When the doctor and nurse came back in, Ryan said to me, "Mom, I will not cry." I put him on the bed, Josh was asked to hold his shoulders down, I held his hands and feet, and the nurse held his face. She talked to him the whole time, reassuring him and telling him how brave he was. Ryan flinched a couple of times when they gave him an additional shot for more numbing, and his chin quivered a lot since he was so nervous. But, he did not cry. He didn't even squeeze my hand. I credit the nurse for a lot of that. She was so good with him. Her name was JoAnn. Spelled just like my mom. Ryan got 3 internal stitches that will dissolve, then they used Dermabond to glue the skin together. After we left we were praising Ryan for how brave he had been. Josh told him he is as brave as Harry Potter. Ryan was almost offended and said, "No I'm not! I'm as brave as Snowball." (Snowball is the dog.) We bought ice cream and made shakes for everyone. Ryan also got Skittles which is what he actually requested. We made him have the milkshake because that's what we wanted. He was fine having both.

Well, that's what's going on for now.

Happy Birthday, Tyler!

This post is slow in being added, as Tyler's birthday was on the 11th. Better late than never, though. Tyler was in desperate need of a coat. I think he likes his new one.

We had a fun birthday party with just a couple of kids. There were more who couldn't come, but we still had a blast. We made apple and marshmallow turkeys and teepees out of ice cream cones. We also played a game of "get the football through the goalpost." It's a cute variation of pin the tail on the donkey.

Tyler had high expectations for his birthday, and some of them were dashed as he didn't get the cereal he wanted for breakfast, he had to do school, and the girls put on a movie he didn't want to watch. It reminded me of "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day." It didn't help that his friend party was not until the next night and his grandparent party was a couple of days before. But, things started looking up when we opened presents, ate cake and then let him choose the restaurant he wanted for dinner. Besides, how can he complain when we'd been celebrating all week?

Tyler loves to watch cake shows on Food Network. After the shows he watches he will often go and draw cakes of his own. Most of his designs are quite elaborate with moving parts, fountains, little figures, etc. Several weeks ago he decided to design his birthday cake. It was 3 tiers with red fondant and blue and yellow rings around it. It also had cupcakes surrounding the bottom and candles on top. How did I do? He asked me for weeks about the cake and if I had bought the fondant. He was very impressed when I made it from scratch (with a lot of help from a good friend). He was more worried about the cake than he was about his presents. I think the cake was, by far, the most exciting thing about his birthday.

Halloween!

We only had to get one new costume this year! Sophie was our cute scarecrow.

Tyler considered being a scarecrow, but decided a ghost was better. I thought so, too, since we already had the costume.

Ryan insisted for weeks on being a ladybug. He had his mind made up from the very beginning and never wavered. Josh was a little unsure about it. After all, aren't ladybugs supposed to be girls? But Ryan is proof that not all ladybugs are girls because he is definitely all boy.

Emma originally wanted to be a witch, but we couldn't find a costume that she liked and that came in her size. I really didn't want to make anything this year, so she settled on being Belle again. Doesn't she look beautiful?

Anna is our lovely Snow White. Anna is content to be anything as long as it's a princess. She likes anything that makes her look fancy and pretty. Well, that's all for now. More updates to come soon, I'm sure.

Beating Up.

Recently Tyler asked Ryan "What is your favorite thing to do?" Ryan responded by saying, "Beating up," and proceeded to beat up his big brother. Ryan can be pretty agressive, especially when he is tired. He will grab anything he can see to throw it at us. His favorite thing to find is books. Today, Tyler was innocently watching T.V. when Ryan found some of the school books that hadn't been put away. He took them into the other room and threw them at Tyler, which really hurt. Tyler was crying and upset and shouted "This is why I hate school!" Later, Ryan was wrestling with Anna. I grabbed him and was holding him and then continued doing something else. He kept saying something to me, but I wasn't really registering what he was saying. (Side-note--Ryan likes to tell us what to say, like: "Is this mine? Mom say 'Nope.'") All I heard was Ryan telling me "Mom, say 'okay.'" Then I registered what I was saying okay to -- "Mom, let go of me so I can beat up Anna. Mom, say 'okay.'" I did not let go. He apparently was not kidding around when he told Tyler that his favorite thing to do was "beating up."

We've got self-confidence!

We often change the words to songs to fit the situation we are in. One of our favorites is "If you're happy and you know it." There are just so many possibilities with that one. Ryan found some great words for it this morning. After he had finished coming his hair, he came in dancing and singing, "I am handsome and I know it!" I laughed and he got embarrassed before he could continue.

More Josh.

It has been several weeks since I blogged about Josh. I was going to keep you updated about our life 10 years ago. Life got away from me and now it is October all of a sudden. Even as I sit here I don't know exactly what I'm going to write about. Should I tell you about more of our dates? Should I recount our engagement? Well, I think I just came up with something.

Our first date was on July 20, 1999. Our second date was not until August 5. We had a lovely time hiking at Silver Lake. He took forever holding my hand that night, but I thought it was cute how nervous he was. We then went out to dinner at Macaroni Grill and then to Leatherby's. I didn't even tell him how much I loved ice cream or Leatherby's! And then he revealed to me that he makes his own milkshakes just like my dad! I knew he was the one for me. (That's just a little bit of a joke. I didn't base our entire future on whether or not he could make a good milkshake. There were many other things I liked about him.) By our 4th date, we pretty much knew that we were going to be together. (He even kissed me that night!) On August 16 I started teaching school in Provo. It was my first year teaching and I was nervous, busy, excited, busy, tired, busy, etc. Josh was worried that I would be too busy for him. He expressed to me how much he wanted to continue dating me and how he hoped that my teaching wouldn't take away from that. I was a little overwhelmed with school and now the thought of having a boyfriend was more than I could handle at the time. I got over it, though. I survived the first day of school, which made it much more plausible that I could survive school and a boyfriend. On Thursday August 19, I took the day off because of Megan's wedding. After the ceremony I was driving back to the luncheon with my mom and dad. My dad asked me what I thought of the ceremony and I told him how wonderful I thought it was. Then he asked, "Do you want one of those?" And I replied, simply, "yes." So Mom asked, "Is Josh coming to the luncheon?" I had not invited him. We were serious, but inviting him to a family wedding when we had only been dating a couple of weeks seemed a little fast. But my mom's question made me think that it's really not that fast and I didn't care anyway. I wanted him with me. So I called him up and he met me at the church for the luncheon. He stayed with us the rest of the day and all through the reception. I knew I was going to marry him by that point. The next day most of my family headed out to California for my sister's reception there. Josh and I were supposed to go to his work party, but it was raining so we stayed home to watch a movie. That was the night that we decided to get married. Not wanting to waste any time, I immediately got out the calendar and we set a date. Since my family was in California it was hard for me to get in touch with them. I finally contacted my mom while they were setting up for the reception. I told her to get used to it because there was another one on the way. They were not at all surprised, but maybe a little tired after having just finished a wedding. Josh and I got married 4 1/2 months later. We had a total of 9 dates before getting engaged. We were "official" the beginning of September when he gave me a ring at Silver Lake. I love you, Josh!

One year.

Sept. 2, 2008, 7:12 p.m.

9 lbs. 1 oz. 20 in.

Sophie Rae McFadden

Now 21 lbs. 11 oz. and 31 in.

Happy birthday, little Muffin! We love you. You are such a joy in our home. We couldn't ask for anything bettter.