Here and Now: Ryderisms

Ryder seems to have a plethora of nicknames as the baby of the family- RyBabe, Ry Ry, Baby Ry, BabyO, Ryderoo. Spelling them out makes them seem particularly silly! He hates being called a baby, but I think he actually quite likes being the youngest. He'll always be my baby :)

Here and Now: Cooperisms

Yesterday Cooper said to me,

"Mom, did you know I'm an American?!" I responded, "That's right!" and after a pause, "Does that make you feel proud to be an American?"

"Why?" he asked. Me: "Because this is a great place to live, because the people in America make it great."

I was satisfied with my answer, but felt kinda sad that this was the first he'd ever really thought about pride for our country. Guess he's only five, eh? :) These types of statement/answer moments are not rare!

Simple Square Bean Bags

So it's about time I posted something crafty-ish, eh?

For quite awhile now, I've wanted to make the little boys a beanbag.

The big sham pillows from our bed had long since been sequestered to serve as their cushions for TV watching, fort building, slamming each other over the head while pillow fighting... ya know, boy life. :) Anyhow, I decided I'd make them my homemade Christmas present to them this year. I really liked the ones I saw at this post- I love the square shape for a beanbag!

Hello, 2013...

Source: etsy.com via Sky on Pinterest

Normally, January 1 comes around and I've had all kinds of illusions of grandeur

for how much better the year will be. For some reason,

this year I just... haven't so much.

Break Time

Our family is back in the saddle! Maybe even more so than ever before :) The saddle as in archery, that is. This year Keaton got a compound bow for Christmas and Stephen surprised me with one too! Cooper,  Taron and Stephen already had one and little Ry is still happy with the good ole' kids string bow. Over the break, we went to Downwind Archery and got  the feel for shooting again.

I know most women wouldn't be too happy about getting hunting gear from their husband, but this is one hobby Stephen brought into our marriage that I really do love! Remember we spent our anniversary a couple years ago at a 3D shoot? I think the last time we all shot together for real was a few years ago and I was carrying Cooper (maybe Ryder??) in a baby backpack and hiking/ shooting at the same time. Since then I've taken a bit of a break to let our little guys get big enough to enjoy this with us for real- I am so excited! I think we are all in our element here :)

The boys did a lot of just chillin' over the break too. One fun thing they did was battle with their Hexbug Warriors they each got in their stockings- they are these fun, beefed up little Hexbugs that actually have lives and armor and stuff- kinda neat :)

We also enjoyed the snow and did several rounds of sledding at the hills right by our church building! Didn't get any pics- was too busy watching them have fun I guess. I have awesome memories of sledding trips as a kid and this is sure a cool spot to make some for the boys! I love that it's seriously right down the road :) We also pulled the boys behind the truck in the big, slick church parking lot- saved us having to fight the crazy crowd on New Years Day!

The little boys and I also went with Stephen flying on the hills around here- it was SO, SO, SO cold! I really wanted to get familiar with my other Christmas present- a tiny bright red hand gun! Stephen and I will be taking a day-long concealed weapons class later this month and I can hardly wait! Now is the time and I am so ready to have the security of knowing I could be helpful in a bad situation if I had to be. Anyhow... we did shoot a little bit, but wow, it was so cold I didn't get in nearly as much of it as I would've liked- check out this frosty sagebrush we were in. I'm lovin' that it's actually white around here!

Another cool thing we've done over the break is stock our freezer! My parents very generously gave us the neatest Christmas gift- a gift card to purchase a significant supply of meat! We got to pick the items we most needed and wanted at Costco and then cut it up ourselves- what a great feeling! My parents are amazing and we are so grateful. Wrapping our meat in freezer paper and labeling it with a Sharpie sure brought back memories of  butchering my Dad and Grandpa's harvests from hunting trips  as a kid...