Bipolar Wyoming

 More than once in the last few months I have heard Wyoming's weather referred to as "bipolar." It cannot decide between spring and winter. Often it will be drastically different - either sunny and warm, or blizzardy and freezing within a 24 hour window. More than once we have been tempted to get the swamp cooler ready and then found ourselves throwing logs in the fireplace as fast as we can. 

This weather is not unique to Wyoming though. Had we moved from some place other than Utah, maybe this would have come as more of a shock. However, the constant battle between spring and winter is nothing we aren't used to. Spring is something you get a glimpse of between snow storms and then suddenly it's sweltering hot. And though it is really disappointing to go from park weather to "I wouldn't go out there if you paid me" weather, it's not surprising. 

What has been surprising to me, however, is not so much the 180 degree flop in weather from one day to the other, but the fact that this flop seems to change when you least expect it. I think the weathermen here have got to have one of the worst jobs. There have been many night we have gone to bed looking at the weather for the next day on our phones only to find that the next morning when we check again, it is TOTALLY different. More than once we have been told to expect massive amounts of snow, only to wake and find the day predicting sun and a few clouds. Then there are other days that the weather forecasts sunshine and freedom only to look outside and find an inch of snow. Seriously, there are few things I hate more than walking to the door with Dodger for our morning stroll, pulling the door open, and finding snow, and not just a few flakes, but SNOW piled everywhere. My inward reaction will always be that of Tootles from "Hook." I just want to scream, "It's snowing!" and slam the door. Dodger feels the same way. He is always eager to go out, until he sees the snow and suddenly I find myself dragging him outside. 

Sigh...

Thankfully, in the bits of spring we have had, Ryan has made good use of the time. 

He and Pierscen constructed this grow box one day after work. Pierscen wanted to work right by Ryan's side, so he handed him each screw when Ryan needed it. Pretty cute. 

Although I did not help in the construction of this project - I did the REAL hard labor! Just kidding... kind of. Okay, not really.

 Ryan sent me to Home Depot to pick up the lumber, soil, and manure. That might not sound like much, but I would like to see you push around 200 lbs of stuff in a cart WITH a baby! Thankfully there was a nice man that helped me with the lumber and helped me load everything into the car. But I did this two days in a row! The second day was at Menards. On a third trip, this time with Ryan, Ryan was pushing the cart full of another 200 lbs worth of soil preppers and such. I was holding Pierscen. Then these amazing words fell from Ryan's mouth... "How did you do this with Pierscen?!" 

I am amazing! That's how I did it! That was NOT easy! So yeah, a little recognition goes a LONG way. ;)

We now have peas, radishes, carrots, and beats planted. Most of it has already sprouted too! Wonderful what a little bit of sunshine can do. Of course, this was after it was snowed on a time or too. Unforunately, it is supposed to snow again tomorrow. Maybe. (You never know.) So we will be covering them tonight.

Ryan also started working on the fence during one of our brief spring breaks. The fence between us and our neighbor to the west isn't horrible... but it depends on the section. As you can see in some of the pictures below, these first few sections are in rough shape. Further down and closer to the front of the house there aren't as many holes, but due to the trees planted way off center, the fence is being pushed over. 

 He looks quite serious and professional, and handsome wouldn't you say? :)

Below is a good close up of some of the "issue" spots with our chicken wire fix... for now. 

Looks pretty amazing, don't you think? And it wasn't until after he finished that I found out he had never done a fence before. Wow. Sure glad I married such a great handyman. :)

Ryan went back to Home Depot and purchased lots more of the cedar slats (they were on sale) but the following day it was really windy and cold, and the next day... well... it's Wyoming. 

This was going to bed: 

And this was what we saw when we woke up. And it just... kept... coming!

I tried to open the screen door and that's as far as it would open. Never mind then.

  
This shot is out the kitchen window at the neighbors yard. Shows it pretty good though.  

I made an attempt to measure the snow out front. This was part way through the day, but it just kept falling. The final numbers from the weather people put it between 12-16 inches. 

A few days later the sun came out and melted it away. We had a gorgeous spring rain with an amazing rainbow. I have several other beautiful pictures, but alas... blogger is being retarded and won't upload anything without requiring 10 hours. Boo. 

And following the rain came another huge snow storm where we got about 10 more inches of snow. I am really looking forward to the snow stopping. Hopefully someday soon. But thankfully, like always, we have plenty of things to work on and keep us busy inside. :)

Hold That Thought

Seriously, no sooner had I posted that last post about Pierscen just getting started on his walking, that he woke up from his nap and proved me very wrong... He is by NO means limited or preferential to his bedroom. He OWNS this house! :)

Everyone warned us - that as soon as he started walking he would just take off. I knew it was true, but seeing it is a totally different matter. He spent a couple days just getting the feel for it, and yes, mostly in his bedroom. At first the crawling to walking ration was 90/10, then 70/30, then 50/50, and now 8/92... and most of that transition was in about a day. He went from walking here and there to walking/trying to RUN everywhere!

We bought him his first pair of shoes on Wednesday. He has several pairs of hand-me-downs from my sister and I have used them when we go to the park, but I was looking for something that had a bit of a softer sole as he is trying to figure out this walking business. Ryan put them on yesterday while they were out in the backyard and he kept them on all evening. He did really good! Last night as Ryan and I were going to bed Ryan said, "It's hard to decide who is more proud of him. Us or him." I laughed. We certainly are super proud parents, but I think P is crazy proud of himself. You can tell in his grin as he is walking around, or in his little giggle he has. I think he is loving his new freedom.

Last night we had our neighbors over for dinner. Jaylon, our neighbor's son, was crazy cute with Pierscen. P almost couldn't breath he was laughing so hard. That was also another toss up. Who was laughing harder - us, or him?! It was adorable. 

Dodger was getting all wound up over the attention Jaylon was giving P, so he kept barking at him. Jaylon dished it right back. It was a great evening. So glad to have such fun neighbors - on both sides!

Let The Games Begin

Thursday night Ryan and I were working with P to try and get him to walk between us. I know he can do it. He just lacks the courage. So we sat a few feet apart and tried to get him to go back and forth. To our surprise, he was more than willing to give it go. In fact, he was so excited that he kept trying to run to the other parent, and subsequently kept falling forward into our arms. Either than, or he would lean way back on the other person's hand. Just no effort on his part to actually get his balance. We tried for several minutes, and in the ten passes or so that he made, I think he took about two real steps on his own, upright, and balanced. 

Baby steps. Literally. :)

Friday P took a few more timid steps on his own throughout the day. Ryan left for some Young Men/Scout training in Story, Wyoming right after work. Shortly after he left, I looked over at Pierscen who had just crawled up from the lower entrance level. He stood up, and just started walking. He took about 8-10 perfect little steps over to the next set of stairs. I had to hold my breath so I didn't squeal out right then and there and startled him. It was amazing! One or two steps earlier in the day, and suddenly he was walking like a pro!

So I had proof he could do it. He just prefers to do it when we aren't looking. That, and crawling is still WAY faster and lots less wobbly. 

So I made it my goal to capture it on video. Unfortunately for me, P was having none of that. Every time I tried, he just flat out refused. So I came up with this great idea: select the camera mode where he can see himself. He LOVES seeing himself on the phone, so I thought this would be good incentive to get him to walk. 

The results:

I seriously couldn't stop laughing. Stubborn little guy. And he crawls so dang fast!

I did manage to get his two second clip:

But he was moving too quick for me to get much. 

Saturday evening when Ryan got home, Ryan was heading to the hall for something when he spotted Pierscen walking down the hall on his own. P made eye contact with him, dropped to the floor laughing, and took off at warp speed to the corner where he laid down, put his hands to his side, and started wiggling in excitement. Little stinker. 

Sunday night we kept working with him before bedtime, only this time he did really well! We used the phone as motivation again. We turned it on, hit record, and let him walk to himself. Worked like a charm! 

So far he doesn't do a lot of walking around the house. I think he prefers to walk in his bedroom where he knows he has nice soft carpet to pad his falls. I was super proud of him last night. Ryan and I sat really far apart to get him to walk further. He wiped out a lot, but he kept getting right back up. Oh, which reminds me, the previous night, he took a nose dive to the floor and just laid there for a moment. We were half expecting him to cry, (I know I would have) but he just sat there. So I started chanting, "Go Pierscen! Go Pierscen! Go! Go! Go Pierscen." He popped up onto his hands and knees and started shaking his little booty and crawled off a ways until he had more room to dance. So stinking cute!

I am super proud of him. He will have it down in no time. I sure love the little "gorilla" walk with the hands in the air for balance. Please pardon my squeals of delight in these videos. I am one happy momma. Yes, I know it only means more trouble, but I am really happy for him. It is so exciting to see them grow and develop.

Go Pierscen! Go Pierscen! Go! Go! Go Pierscen!

Easter Weekend

 Easter weekend was fantastic. Ryan had that Friday off, as did all of the school kids. Ryan's list for holidays claims that Friday was "Spring Break," but it wasn't. Spring Break happened for the school kids weeks ago. I still don't know what the real reason for this random holiday was, but I am not complaining. It whole weekend was filled with projects and family time. It was awesome! 

I was actually super excited to see Pierscen in his new suit. He actually got it for Christmas, but I knew that it would be a bit too big. Besides, the fantastic purple color made for a perfect spring debut. If I dare say so myself - holy handsome Batman! He looked so stinking cute! Watch out ladies...

I especially love Pierscen's little innocent pose on the right. ;)

Church was fun because the primary president offered to have her husband sit with my sunbeam class during sharing time so that I could go to Sunday school with Ryan. I felt kind of bad about making her hubby miss class, but she insisted that he was usual in primary anyway helping her out. Besides, all of their kids are in primary, so it gave him a chance to be with them. AND... it is really good for the little guy in my class that struggles the most. He respects men far more than women and it is good to have his influence there. 

Ryan and I only made it to part of class because Ryan was chatting with a few people and organizing some things while I let Pierscen get some wiggles out. But for the little bit that we were able to go to class, it was good. I think it will be a nice arrangement.  

I wish I had thought to ask someone to take our family picture. I think we all dressed up nicely for the day. :) So this self portrait is the best we could manage. The sun rays make us look pretty angelic though, don't you think?

I loved getting some pictures of these two handsome men though. They look so good! In the picture above, P had dropped his plastic egg and was saying "Uh oh!" as it rolled away. Priceless. 

I am so lucky to have these two in my life! I sure love them!

I think P could have been a little Easter suit model this year. So cute. 

We were going to do the little Easter egg hunt right after church, but P was super tired. In retrospect, I still think we should have done it then. We waited until he had had his nap, but by then, it was getting a little chilly. We headed to the park to spread them around a bit, but I think this served to be more of a distraction. He was far more interested in the sticks and grass and just cruising around. Oh well. Better luck next year. 

I also think it would have been better just to have empty eggs this year. As it was we only put one candy in each egg. No need to bombard him with candy. He was super excited to open each egg, but then once he found the candy, he just wanted to pop it in his mouth and sit there until he had finished it. It took quite the prodding to get him to move on. As soon as he picked up the next egg I would prompt him to drop it in the bag so he wouldn't shove the candy in his mouth. Notice the nice robin egg drool?

He thinks the eggs are a lot of fun, and we have enjoyed playing with them since, but I think next year will probably be better. 

As mentioned, that whole weekend was awesome. We had great weather and got lots of things done. 

Here is Pierscen getting ready to help dad do some gardening. We haven't planted anything in this pot yet, but P thought it was fun to dig through. Boys will be boys!

We went on a picnic at the park and ate some KFC. I thought that as soon as P saw the playground equipment that he would take off, but he thoroughly enjoyed the food and sat with us on the grass chowing done until his stomach was about to burst. 

I included more of the pictures in the previous post. It was such a gorgeous day and it was so nice to have Ryan with us! Pierscen sure loves his dad!

Back at home Ryan tackled a pretty big project: Popcorn ceilings! Ryan actually tried this out for the first time a few days before Easter weekend. He started with the half bath and moved out to the hallway between P's bedroom and the master bedroom. It's actually surprisingly easy. Just get it wet and let it soak for a few minutes, then it comes right off. But it is VERY messy!

 
We did learn a few things from this. A. Wear a mask. B. Put down plastic sheeting for easier clean up. We didn't do this with the hallway and getting it out of carpet was a pain in the rear. Even though the ceilings need to be patched and painted, it already looks WAY better!

Evidence that "somebody" (cough, cough, Baby P) was having fun...

The big project for the weekend was one of the upstairs bedrooms. This one turned out to be a much bigger project because someone (previous tenants or earlier) painted over the popcorn which made it much, much harder for the water to soak in. 
 

Ryan is amazing though and kept at it. Just looking at these pictures is making my shoulder and neck muscles tense up. :) So grateful Ryan isn't afraid of these tough projects. 

 Looks pretty awesome, right?! He bought a sander extention gadget that you can put on the end of your broom handle so you don't have to stand on a chair and scrap at the ceiling with a little piece of sandpaper. Certainly made things much easier.

However... that being said... I would say goggles would be a good idea. ;)

 While Ryan was working upstairs, I was working my magic trying out some Easter rolls I found on Facebook that I imagine originated on Pinterest somewhere. The idea was super cute and it looked easy enough...

Unfortunately, this little gem has now jointed the throngs of Pinterest Fails. :) Hahahahaha!

Check out those devil fat cat rolls! I could not stop laughing! Thankfully they still tasted good. I do think it's possible to make these things look decent, but I think they need to be smaller, the ears need to be bigger and rounded out, and then pushed back down a bit. Maybe I will try again some other time, but needless to say, these did not get delivered as Home Teaching goodies. :)

The whole weekend was wonderful. The weather was fantastic. We got a lot of stuff done, and best of all, we had a three day weekend to enjoy as a family. I enjoyed trying to teach my little sunbeams about the true meaning of Easter. Easter truly is a wonderful time of ear. All the new life, the warmth, the hope - all symbolic of and reminiscent of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He lives! Remember, even those little Easter eggs (once the candy has been eaten) reminds us of the empty tomb. He lives! And because He lives, we will live again too. I am so grateful for our knowledge of this gospel and the promise of eternal families. The church is true!