Animal Blanket

Jared was introduced to his Animal Blanket for the first time last week. Ryan put a lot of work into it (I helped with a few things) and we're excited to give it to Jared. But, we've decided it would be best to wait; wait until Jared's potty-trained and knows how to play with it without ruining it. We've been wanting to make it a wall hanging in Jared's room, until he's ready for it, but we haven't found a good way to do that yet. So, it's been in safe keeping underneath Jared's crib, but we pulled it out last week so that we could get some good pictures of it for this contest Ryan's applying for. (We did have some nice pictures of it, but we lost them when our computer blanked-out.)

It's for beginner quilters and the reward is to have your expenses paid to go some quilting work shops in St. George. Ryan has written a letter and we just need to send it in with the pictures of Jared's Animal Blanket and the T-shirt blanket Ryan made when he and I were dating (now it's our comforter). We've also made a really nice blanket for my parents, which they use on their bed now, but we're not sending in pictures of that because we don't have pictures of it. Also, since the competition is for beginner quilters, entrants are only supposed to have started 2 large quilts or 3 wall hangings, and since the animal quilt is more of a wall hanging and my parents' blanket is a bit more complicated to take pictures of, we are submitting the two we do have pictures of as his two large quilts.

He's trying to crawl in this picture.

Well, I let Jared play with his Animal Blanket for the day before I put it back underneath the crib. He seemed to really like it. He didn't really need any toys at all. It was a comfy place for him to lay and to play. I tried to move him around every now and again so he would notice all the animals, but he just kept going back to the hippo and the monkey; those were his favorites.

Happy Feet =)

I decided to pull out Jared's walker a week or two ago. It was given to us from a neighbor friend whose two little boys recently grew out of it. It's pretty retro, but it's fun. He seemed to enjoy it. It was a lot like his playing saucer, but it could move (which was nice for me so he could easily stay with me from room to room, I had to pull him though, at first).

He was pretty cute playing in it, but he didn't do a whole lot of walking. The most he did at one time was probably five feet of walking, which I thought was pretty far.

But, now he gets all around the kitchen in it really well. Sometimes he'll get up right next to me while I'm cooking or doing the dishes. I call him my little helper; it's nice to have a cute, babbling little companion while I'm working in the kitchen. =)

Learning to Crawl

Jared's been making progress towards becoming a crawler. It's been fun to watch. First, he got around pretty well by scooting and rolling. He'd scoot backwards by pushing with his hands and forward, well forward he wasn't very good at, but he's scoot with his feet a little bit. Then he started enjoying trying to get up on his hands and knees. He'd get up pretty easily, but then would rock back and forth and fall over.

Sometimes he'd lean on his head and then get up on his feet, sticking his butt in the air. He still does it some times. It was pretty cute. Lately he's been doing a half crawl leap. It seems pretty clever of him. He gets up on his hands and knees and propels himself forward using just one leg. Then he gets up and does it again. It gets him around pretty well. He only started doing that this week.

For mutual, on Tuesday, we had a combined y.m./y.w. derby. There was a track we could race our cars on, but you could make your car how ever big you wanted and out of whatever you wanted. Whatever cars couldn't fit on the track, like ours, could drive across the gym floor. Ryan was really inspired for making ours.

He'd been designing a "Crawler" to lay Jared in to help him get around 'til he learns to crawl. So, we decided we'd make the Crawler in time to be able to bring it to the derby.

 We made it over the weekend and then tried it out with Jared a couple times during the days before the derby so he'd be used to it. But, unfortunately he didn't really like it...

...At all. We've thought of some ways we'd improve it; but for it to be ready for the derby there was no time for that. So, we took Jared and the Crawler, on Tuesday. We had a really good time and there were some creative cars to see, but none as creative as ours.
 We raced Jared once. Ryan challenge his deacons to a race against our "Jared-passengered-Jared-powered" racer (that's how Ryan described it when it was our turn to show our car). Before we challenged them, Ryan told me his mischievous plan. He was going to help push Jared, both so he wouldn't get upset and so he could go fast; while I was going to be a road block for his deacon's cars. The deacon's placed their cars on the track and Jared raced across the gym floor along side the track. So, when they were getting ready to race I placed myself next to the track and then as soon as the cars got to me, I put my arm out. Jared raced like a pro. He kept his feet in the air and just used his arms, while Ryan helped him fly to the finish line. When Jared was close to the end, I let the other cars go so they could come in at a close second. It was pretty hilarious and adorable. Everyone seemed pretty excited to see him race. How often do you see a baby win a derby race anyway. ;) Once he made it to the end and Ryan had let go, Jared kept going a couple more feet crawling by himself. It was so cute. Then he stopped and started crying, so Ryan picked him. Then he held him up for his victory.

Our little champion!!!

Pen Project and Presentation

These past couple weeks Ryan's been working with some of his classmates on a group Design Project. The objective of this design project was "to build a children's science museum exhibit that teaches scientific or engineering principles" and they have to use kinematics to put the model together. Ryan and his group made this really cool, large pen. It turned out really neat. Ryan put a lot of work into it.

Yesterday, they took their projects to an elementary school (the professor's son's elementary school) to show the fourth graders how the different models worked and how the real life thing works. Ryan and one other member from his group went to present their pen to the fourth graders. They brought their giant pen and a normal pen so the kids could see how they're both the same. They were then able to show the kids each individual part, using the giant pen, and how the parts work to make the pen advance and retract.

Jared and I got to go with Ryan to see how the kids liked his project, and so we could get a look at the other projects. The other projects were pretty neat too. It's neat to see what a class full of engineers can create when they put their heads together. I still think Ryan's pen was the coolest project though. It was fun to see how interested the kids were in the pen. They each got to hold the pen and write with it too. Jared and I stayed with one group of kids as they went from table to table. By the last couple of tables the kids got used to having me and Jared around, so a couple of the girls started playing Jared. They were cute. At the end of the presentations all the kids took one more walk around the gym to say, "thank you," to the students. The girls in my group made sure to say, "good-bye," to Jared as they went by. It was a fun experience and I think Ryan had a lot of fun teaching the kids something new.

Our Happy Easter:)

This was our first Easter with Jared and we had a lot of fun. For breakfast we had Cinnamon Bunnies, with lots of chocolate chips. After baking them, we frosted them and added eyes, noses, and whiskers.

 

The frosting was a little runny, but they were still pretty cute. Also, I was able to add a couple more eggs to my Easter Tree. For Relief Society this week we made Washi eggs. It's a Japanese way of making Christmas ornaments out of hallowed-out eggs. It was pretty neat to learn how to do.

They're called Washi eggs because the rice paper we used is called Washi paper. We glued our Washi paper on with rice glue, which takes an hour to dry and it's that sticky, so it was very forgiving if adjustments needed to be made. They were fun to make. What a beautiful day it was on Easter! We walked to church and then, after church, we went for another little walk.

We had Jared in the carrier and put his sunglasses on. He fell asleep on the way home. Once we got home, we took his sunglasses off and the lines on his face looked pretty cute. After he finished his nap, we did some Easter Egg hunting. Ryan held Jared and found the eggs while I held the basket for them. I gave Ryan hot and cold clues to help him find the eggs. It was a fun way for me to be involved in the search. =) 

We used our eggs to make some deviled eggs chicks to go with our dinner. They turned out pretty cute. While we were cooking and baking through out the day Jared kept himself pretty entertained with his own little Easter Bunny and the kitchen towels.

He's a really good boy and we had a fun first Easter with him. Oh, we also got a really nice Easter basket from the Richens. It had some Baby Mum-mum treats in it for Jared. We opened one to let Jared try it. He was excited to get it, but once a piece broke off in his mouth, he didn't know quite what to do with it or how to swallow it. 

It was pretty funny and cute, so we gave him another piece to get a good shot. I guess he'll need a little more time before having crunchy foods. We hope everyone had a good Easter!!

Jared's First Tooth!!

Saturday (April 7) morning we discovered Jared's first tooth. We had no idea; he hadn't really been acting any differently the days before. It's a nice little tooth! Our little guy's growing up. :'(

March Madness 2012-Conclusion

So this year was a tipsy turvy year for March Madness, as always. At one point early in the tournament I was ready to give up, but as you'll see it worked out  pretty well for me. It was nice to have the competition giving extra meaning to the different games. Here are the final scores for the Anderson group:

 

:-) I guess Provo was a beneficial place to compete from. I am ok taking second to Luisa, though I'm not sure how many couples ended the tourney on such amicable terms :-)

I'm already excited for next year.

Where's Baby!?

Jared really likes to play peek-a-boo. So whenever he puts a blanket on his face, which he often does, I start saying, "Where's Baby? Where's Jared?" Then, I can tell he's excited because his little arms start wiggling. Sometimes he'll pull the blanket off himself or he'll wait for me to pull it off for him and, then, I say, "There's Baby!" and he gives me a big smile every time. We do this several times a day, whenever I've noticed he's put his blanket on his face. Neither of us ever seem to get tired of it.

What a fun, silly boy!! =)

Easter Trees!

Yesterday, for young women's we made Easter Trees. They're a simple and cute craft that you can really use for any season or holiday. All we needed to make the eggs were a foam egg (from a craft store), circles punched out of a scrapbook paper, pins with heads that aren't too small, and ribbon. We pinned our paper circles on, starting from the top and working down. We then topped it with a bow (12" ribbon) and loop (7" ribbon) attached with hot glue and a pin.

We then made trees to hang our eggs on. One of the sisters in our young women's group brought small branches from her apple tree that we could pick from. We glued foam cubes in our pots and then jammed our branches into the foam along with a drop of hot glue. We then covered the foam cube with brown grass. They turned out pretty cute. The idea is to have several eggs hanging from your tree, but we each just did one for the activity.

I had Ryan in mind when I made mine, so I made it orange. =)

Happy 25th Birthday, Ryan!!!

So, on Friday we threw Ryan a Surprise Birthday Party! It was a lot of fun. Friends from school and family came over and had pizza and played Jeopardy. The theme was based on "The Office" and Jeopardy, so I had Ricky make a banner that said, "It's Your Birthday." like Dwight does on The Office. 

Mark, Michelle, and Steve

The topics for Jeopardy were ones I thought Ryan would be good at, including Ryan Trivia. I think we all have fun getting to know each other while playing. It was pretty good competition.

Levi, Brettany, and Reagan

The final Jeopardy question was a question instead of an answer. I asked each team to write down their closest guess as to what Ryan weighed when he was born and Ryan, Mark, and Kris couldn't help. Both teams were very very close, so they both won their final Jeopardy bets.

Kris holding Jared

Ryan did very well and his team ended up winning. They were each awarded silver metals made out of paper clip chains and Yo-play yogurt lids (like in the office), made by Ricky. Ryan's necklace was specially made out of Jared's link toys.

Ricky, Brettany, Levi, Ryan, Kris, and Jared

The second place team were also awarded metals, but theirs were pink. They were all very sad about losing. :( But, they also did very well.

Reagan, Adam, Jessie, Wyatt, Mark, Michelle, and Steve

I would just like to mention that despite what some thought we did not invite an Elder and Sister missionary over for the party to hook them up (cough, cough.. Mom ;D).

Ryan had a orange chocolate cake with 25 blue candles. He's getting so old! Jk;) I got a lot of hot air in my face carrying his cake from the kitchen to his seat in the living room. It took one long blow to get all the candles out.

 

We had a good time visiting and catching-up, while eating our cake. 

Girl talk! (Roni, Jessie, and Wyatt)

We made sure everyone signed Ryan's birthday banner. He even signed it himself with the huge pen he and a group of his schoolmates made. He also let a couple of the other party guests try it out while signing his banner.

Jared got a lot of attention and play time during the evening. Everyone got to take turns holding him on their laps as he bounce up and down, up and down, almost nonstop. He's an enthusiastic little guy! He also enjoyed playing with the balloons. =)

We also had a gallery with pictures of Ryan from throughout the years. (Thanks for the help Roni!)

That's our Birthday Boy, my best friend, the love of my life. He gives me something to smile about every moment of the day. I've learned so much from spending these last two and a half years with him. He's been such a great husband and father. I couldn't ask for a more loving, caring, and understanding companion; not to mention playful, creative, hard working, imaginative, ambitious, funny, and so much more. I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with this amazing man.