monday.

it’s monday. and I’m feeling like I really just want to be lazy today. seriously considered staying in bed reading books with this little man all day. until he realized it was more fun to push the books off the edge of the bed than to read them. he is always on the move and today I am    tiiiii-herd. he’s at least freshly bathed…can I call that good for the day?

I might have told myself, and the husband that I would limit my trashy, guilty pleasure tv shows this year, but the bachelor’s on tonight and I’m not even going to pretend I’m not planning on watching it. I like Casey B. and that model girl is the weirdest. sometimes nothing hits the spot like an hour of lame dramatic “reality” tv. in other news, our new home came with a new kitchen which means I’ve been having lots of fun cooking up treats for my boys. I’m thinking a recipe blog update is in the near future.   happy monday!

new space

 

we are finally almost entirely unpacked and settled into our new little home. we’ve been here a week and a half and despite all the craziness of a new semester of graduate school, packing and unpacking with an 11 month old, having to buy all sorts of lame stuff we didn’t keep around for the last two years (ex.: garbage, mop, broom, any food….) and three birthdays to celebrate we have been in complete heaven in our new place. people who have come to visit have almost always said the same thing, “this place is perfect” and I couldn’t agree more. all of our searching and prayers paid off and we feel truly blessed to have found this home. we’re just a little bit excited…and as annoying as unpacking is, opening boxes filled with things we haven’t seen since 2010 is a bit like a mini Christmas.

Henry’s favorite feature and one of ours as well, is all the big windows. He loves to stand and stare at all the students and cars passing by.

and whether it’s that he’s in a new room or he’s just growing up Henry has decided to boycott his morning nap, which makes for a lot of impromptu naps on mom and dad come afternoon time.

and in the spirit of the beginning of a new year we have made a few changes in our family. we have never been believers in any of the extreme diets (maybe it’s because we lack discipline), we’ve always believed in moderation rather than cutting things out completely, eating real/healthy food and a balanced diet. granted we could do a whole lot better at avoiding sweets but I’m proud with the changes we are making. ultimately we are eating less red meat (we don’t eat it a ton in the first place) and sticking more with chicken, turkey and fish, choosing more fruits and vegetables, smaller portions and drinking a lot more water throughout the day. we are also paying a lot more attention to the source of our meat and dairy products. we try to buy eggs, meat and chicken from an organic source where the animals are cage free, fed an organic diet and there are no added antibiotics or hormones. we also avoid meat with added nitrates and nitrites. it is important for us to know that the producer pays special attention to the animals wellbeing and makes sure they live in a healthy environment (Kirkland brand Organic Brown eggs are wonderful). I know these may sound like small, no brainer things to some but focusing on a lot of little changes can make a big difference, we’ve noticed. and it makes us happy : )

baby shark

I’m taking an intermission from packing (packing you say? that’s right we are moving! more on that in a minute) to have a proud mama moment and provide proof that the babe has not one but two teeth making their way in. it’s a big deal. getting a snapshot of those teeth was not an easy feat, since once the camera came out this is what I would get:

so I waited till after naptime, I love that this is what I get to see after a good nap

and this is what happens when he realizes I am too busy taking pictures to get him out

I kind of feel bad that I did manage to get a picture of those teethers while he was under such distress. but I made up for it with lots of cuddles and building some block towers for him to knock down. so all is well.

anyways, tomorrow is moving day. we are over the moon excited to have our own place. it has been such a blessing to live with Mckay’s family while his graduate funding was getting sorted out. and now that it is we are off on our own little family adventure, right into the heart of cougartown. I never would have thought. but we are literally seconds from campus now, which means we will get to see Mckay sooner than 630 pm! oh the lunch dates we’re going to have. I can’t wait.

2011 was good to us

I decided to join in with everyone else in blog land and do a little 12 month recap of the Rytting family. I just love the idea of looking back at what we were up to the past year, (through whatever pictures I have, since I cant remember a full year month by month). so:

january

we celebrated Mckay turning 25 and participated in what was easily the most insane sporting event we’d ever been to. jimmer and his fellow team mates beat nationally ranked SDSU. I think they were ranked 3rd at the time? it was madness I tell you.

february

what could be even wilder than that basketball game but baby boy coming a full month early!? Henry Ray graced us with his presence on February 11th, almost exactly one month before his due date. those days he was in the hospital were probably the hardest of our lives but they strengthened us as a couple. I got to spend my birthday driving to and from the hospital to cuddle with our baby and cheer him on as he made progress. what a joy it was to finally take him home 5 days later.

march

we spent our second months as parents trying to figure out what in the world we were doing, enjoying our sweet boy and trying to sneak in an afternoon nap when we could. we spent lots of time cuddling, taking baths and just taking in all the joy of our little boy. we also had henry’s first baby shower. mckay was nearing the end of his last semester at school and driving an hour to and from byu made for a lot of really long busy days.

 

April

with April came Mckay’s much anticipated graduation from BYU. the morning after graduation we loaded up the car and made our way to southern California for some quality family/beach time.

 

may

may we enjoyed the beautiful Utah weather. Henry turned 3 months and got cuter and chubbier by the day (and balder). and I celebrated my first mothers day (which is quite close to becoming my favorite holiday. and I clearly was still too busy to get my hair done…

june

we spent nearly 2 weeks of the month on one of the funnest most memorable vacations ever. Henry met Pickles the talking Parrot in Vegas, hiked amid the Giant Sequoias in Yosemite, relaxed in Lake Tahoe and caught a Major League baseball game in San Francisco. it was a once in a lifetime kind of trip and our little 4 month old handled the hours upon hours of driving like a champ.

phew

july

we celebrated the fourth all weekend long this year. just how I like it. we took a trip to the cabin, had a beautiful view of fireworks all over the valley from Alpine and got a close up view of the Stadium of Fire fireworks. we skyped with adam in Jerusalem and got in some quality pool. Henry had his first bite of rice cereal, not too much of a success. later in the month we took a trip with my family to Idaho and visited Yellowstone for a day.

august

mckay finally cut his hair…almost all of it. the babe was finally blessed and we enjoyed another wonderful weekend at the cabin. the following week we sent mckay and that hairdo off on a boys kayaking trip down the green river. and brother chris entered the MTC.

september

we enjoyed the fall weather by going on a few lovely hikes as a family. we also managed a third trip to the Rytting cabin

october

we picked pumpkins, eventually carved pumpkins and dressed the babe up as Mr. Pan himself.

november

brought “mustache movember”. it also brought back two missionaries, chris (for surgery) and Marty after a long 2 years in Australia. henry finally figured out crawling (hasn’t stopped since) and we were lucky enough to enjoy to wonderful thanksgiving dinners.

december

oh christmas-time how we love it so. we managed to sneak in a performance of the nutcracker. delighted in getting gifts for family members. had an incredibly fun family weekend in SLC and enjoyed our first christmas as a family of 3.

amidst all the fun and adventures 2011 had to offer we also had our share of tough times and lessons that had to be learned. sometimes its hard to know what to do, what is best for your family. being an adult can be stressful. at times we’ve had to completely rely on our faith that the Lord has a plan for our little family and we’re where we are supposed to be. we’ve grown stronger of a family because of that. we’re grateful for those opportunities to grow. we loved this past year with all its ups and downs and are looking forward to another great year together.