Mustache Movember

November 2014

Ryan has always been a faithful participant in Mustache Movember, all the time that I have known him. Back at BYU he stayed clean shaven until the end of October would come around then he’d let the mustache out. He would always inspire some of his colleagues to participate and join him, and he still does. Jared will even try and make his own mustaches to be like Daddy: milk, chocolate, ketchup, etc.

Ryan's middle-right. He actually cropped a couple of the guys into the picture, but I bet you'll never guess who.

They had a pretty good year of it at Goodman last year. Quite a few people at Ryan’s location participated. While Mustache Movember is typically to support prostate cancer awareness, Goodman/its employees were not able to officially support the cause based on a certain policy they have. But, the men obviously decided to go ahead and participate unofficially.

Ryan’s mustache he decided to go with this past year was completely different than anything I think he’s done before. He had a beard already, so all he needed to do was shave his mustache down to how he wanted it. So, he decided to let his mustache go all the way down to his neck, just shaving his chin and cheeks. I failed to make sure and get a good picture of it, but here’s a picture of him where he still had it. He definitely received some compliments. Ryan was pretty proud of it for the month.

Kirsten the Escape

November 18, 2014

Just before Thanksgiving, our car started smoking one morning while we were on our way to church. We thankfully made it to church; it had only started smoking when we were nearly there. Getting home from church was a worry though, the whole time we were in our meetings. We drove it home though, only stopping once along the way to let it cool down again. After taking a look at it, Ryan determined that a part, involving the function of the radiator, had cracked, a part that was hard to replace. Lol! That’s the best I can describe it.

Ryan had more pressing matters coming up (namely our roof) and we were in need of a good working vehicle until Ryan could decide what would be best to do with the Elantra. Ryan did some good timely shopping and by Tuesday we had a new (preowned) car. 

She’s a Ford Escape. Ryan left naming her to me, so I picked Kirsten. Jared really likes our new car. It has heated seats, a radio that actually works, a chirping lock button, and more storage space. What more could you want!! ;-) 

We’re really enjoying the upgrade from our old car; it’s been fun. J 

Screams and Giggles

November 2014

Ryan can really get some pretty load laughs out of these two boys. It's so funny! Jared has long learned how to tackle Daddy back, but Karl's still learning. Something he's started doing is he'll swat his hand at Ryan and Ryan will swat back at him, and I guess that's their baby version of wrestling. It's cute.

Jared and Karl had a petting-zoo in their bedroom and they came to pick what animals they wanted to "take home." Jared picked his baby bear and Karl mostly just climbed on top of the stuffed animals, but I helped him pick out a small bear that he could "take home."

This is their "nursery tent," as Jared called it, where they cared for their baby bears. I let them each have one of Karl's smaller bottles he didn't use any more. Jared was very tender and caring to his bear. Karl just dumped his bear out of its bed and stole it's bottle for himself. Lol! Yup, he's a natural caregiver. ;-)

Jared has grown to be such a good big brother over the past year. He's always sharing toys or food with Karl and doing things to make him happy. He's also very good at being an alarm if he thinks Karl's getting into something he shouldn't. He's been a very helpful! This is a video of Jared pushing Karl on the swing; Karl was really enjoying it.

It's fun having a few of the windows in our house low enough that the boys can look out them. They love it. I often have to open our kitchen blinds, because otherwise Karl will try to lift them up himself to get a better look outside. It's funny! He's pretty good at figuring out how to get what he wants. :-)