Almost 6 Months Ago

Almost 6 months ago we went to Florida for Thanksgiving. A bit behind? You bet! But it is better late than never. Instead of all meeting in Jacksonville for Thanksgiving we all gathered in Tampa because my sweet sister-in-law Kaitlin was very pregnant and actually ended up having her baby days after we left. The trip was so nice, so relaxing and so needed. I ran a 5k on Thanksgiving day and got, by far, my best time for 3 miles, but it turns out there are lots of crazy fast people living in Florida. I still had over 100 people in front of me.

Reid also got to visit the beach for the very first time. He was pretty happy to just sit in the sand and eat the shells. We shoved his paci in his mouth and that kept the sand out of his mouth but not out of his diaper.

Love this picture! We are very blessed to have Austin as part of the family. This family keeps getting better and better.

G'ma and her boys. Now she has a beautiful granddaughter. Good luck with all these crazy boys Quinn!

Like I said the trip was great....now the flights, they were a different story.

Garret Says the Darnedest Things and Look Who's Talking

• Garret was playing Ace's phone and obviously did something that he was pleased with because he said "Oh yeah!" When Ace asked him what had happened, he cut Ace off by putting his hand up and saying, "Shhh, not you Dad."
• Garret is really starting to like singing now (yay!) Likes singing, Follow the Prophet, The Itsy Bitsy Spider, The Wheels on the Bus, Five little Frogs, and Ho Hey:-)
• The Star Wars theme song came on my phone and Garret (sitting in his car seat) put his hands behind his head and very relaxed like says, "Ahhh, music to my ears." 
• I. AM. AWFUL at video games and was trying to play a game on the PS3 with Garret. I kept saying this is too hard. I can't do it. Garret very wisely told me, "Mom, we can do hard things."
• Garret is into telling people "you're not my friend," or "you're not my favorite." Well the other day I wouldn't let him do something and it made him upset so he told me "Mom, you're not my favorite Mom." I told him that was ok so then he went even farther by saying "I no love you." To this I said, "Well that's sad! Who is going to take you to soccer practice then?" He thought for a moment and quietly said, "I love you.....(and a little more loudly)but just a little bit."
• Garret is going through a major Daddy phase. Dad is the best and can do no wrong. Garret will tell on Ace to me and I will teasingly spank Ace which somehow gets me in trouble for spanking Garret's best friend. Well today after church I was trying to win over Garret's affections by telling him all the awesome and amazing things I've done for him. I carried him in my stomach for basically 10 months, then I had to push him out in a very painful way, and then I ALWAYS got up and fed him at nights when he was hungry. I think he felt the impact of what I was saying because he got tears in his eyes, but then he said, "But I like Dad. I like you too, but I like Dad most because you are exhausted." (not sure if I say I feel exhausted too much or if Garret was trying to say I am exhausting)

Garret really is getting so sweet. He hasn't always been affectionate or much of a people person but lately he is saying "I love you" a lot and telling people they are the best. A fair amount of sass comes out of him too but the sweet words and singing make up for it.

Reid is talking! Which is a huge blessing because this little boy is strong-willed, which was how our pediatrician put it to nicely say that we have a stubborn, sassy baby on our hands. This little boy is soooo much like his Mom. He wears his emotions on his sleeve and feels everything to the most extreme emotion possible. He loves to be out and about, he loves being outside and he loves sleep. If he doesn't get at least 14 hours of sleep a day his emotions, believe it or not, are even more extreme. He makes us laugh, pull out our hair, want to scream and want to cover his face with kisses all in a normal morning. He stamps his feet up and down and spins in a circle when he is upset and when he is happy he loves to lay against your back and give you a good pat. He is so dynamic:-). 

Reid can say: Mama, Daddy, Garret (sounds more like debt with a "G"), Emma,  Ava (our friends dog), Grammy (sounds like guy) Papa, Wow, up, Side (which means outside), Cracker, Apple, Nana (which is Banana), Cookie, Ball, kitty, Off, Uh-Oh, Hi, Bye, Baby, Please, Thank You, and also sings along to Ho Hey.

We love our loud, sassy, funny, emotional, tender baby boy!

Garret's first soccer practice

Garret had his first soccer practice this week! Hard to believe he's already in cleats and shin guards. Bayfield has a great spring league that's open to 3-year-olds -- though they don't really play games; it's more rotating around to different stations where they do things like dribble, shoot, and toss balls into the air using a big parachute.



Reid, of course, couldn't resist getting in on the action.

Reid learning to crawl

An oldie but a goodie... This is Reid trying to make the transition from scooting to crawling at about 9 months. We stopped recording before he totally hulked out and turned green.

Happy Birthday Mr Reid

 Reid, affectionately known as Mr. Reid and Baby Reid, turned one on Sunday the 26th. One year old; can you believe it!

Reid is such an awesome and amazing little person. He is still so very loud. He is just so expressive with all of his emotions and at a very high volume. 

• Reid can point, clap, high-five, cruise all along our furniture, walls and bodies. He has taken a few steps but they were very unsure and are pretty infrequent at this time.
• Reid can say a few things very very clearly- Mom, Dad (or daddy), ball and he does a great dog impersonation. He also says Garret but it songs very close to Debt. 
• Reid definitely has a sassy side and will hold onto a toy and yell if Garret tries to take something away from him. He just won't go down without a fight.
• He really really really loves ME right now and, for the most part, I really don't mind. 
• He loves music and dances to it ALL the time.
• The other day at church I took his socks off thinking he might want to play with them but for several minutes after he just kept pressing those socks to his feet, willing them back on, and finally yelled at me to put them back on.
• He loves to pinch....I don't so much love it.
• He loves looking out our windows and would be happy if I would just hold him up to a window all day so he could look out, bang the glass, and bark at passing dogs.
• Reid loves baths and is very good at blowing bubbles in the water...surprisingly good.
• Reid is such an amazing amazing sleeper. He goes down around 6:30-7 and doesn't budge until 7. Thank you little man!
• Reid is such a sweet snuggle bug. He isn't always laying his head on your shoulder but he is very happy to be held 99% of the time. He is just the best of the best.

He was so cute while eating his cake. He seemed very careful, but he definitely didn't hesitate to dig in. He just seemed like he knew what he was doing and didn't make a big mess of it. It was like he had been eating cake all of his life...which he probably has done more than your average 1 year old.

I don't really get emotional when my kiddos turn one. I did get a bit emotional when Garret went to the Sunbeam class for the first time at church but besides that Im mainly just excited for each new phase. My very favorite little memory of Reid's birthday that did get me a little misty happened right before bed. I was carrying the little guy up to bed with his footie pj's on and was singing happy birthday to him one last time for the year. He just snuggled in really close, laid his head on my shoulder and with eyes wide open listened to the entire song without moving. 

It melted my heart! 

As soon as I finished he popped his head back up, looked at me and smiled.

Reid has definitely been more of a challenge then Garret was but he just has so much life and wants to yell what he feels to everyone! I can't believe how much I love this little guy. It amazes me how we can just keep loving people, just as strong and as powerful as if they are the first person we have ever loved.

Happy birthday my sweet Baby Reid!

Garret turned 3

Garret turned 3! This picture pretty much sums it up.

Love this little guy.

Fall Family Photos

Happy Holidays!

My heart is full of such gratitude for the wonderful thing that is MY life! 

I couldn't have dreamed that my life would have turned out this sweet. 

It is full of love and laughter and wonderful family both on the Beck and the Stryker side....how many people can honestly say that.

We have had another full year and have added another person to our family. Reid gives our family a lot of adorableness and spunk and volume...noisy boy.]

 Ace and I still manage to be super into each other. 

We have a very full life, but it starts with the two of us and so we really try to keep the flame alive.

Ace is definitely my better half. He makes every day of my life so rich and full. 

So thankful for him and for the wonderful man he is.

 (we sometimes just have to put the little people second so we can take some time to snuggle:))

 Jeremy, our photographer for the past three years, moved:-(. 

But we are so blessed to know and call a friend the talented Jessica Wood. 

She has a crazy busy schedule with so many unique demands on her time but we are so grateful she made time for us during a particularly crazy time in her life to capture our special family moments.

Thank you, thank you Jessica for being talented and for sharing your talent with us.

But most importantly, thank you for many years of beautiful friendship, love ya!

 Poor Garret was totally Hot and Cold!

I think he was generally in a happy mood because he was outside, but then we would snag him for a picture and destroy all the joy in his little heart. He just kept telling us "I'm feeling sad."

 (Doing his thing)

(fake smile...but beautiful little face. Melts my heart)

 Another sad moment that obviously lead to an explosion of emotion depicted by the below picture.

 Reid is probably wondering why we think he is the loud one:-)

 Some how we managed to get this picture before the melt down. Well done Jess!

Happy Holidays 

Love,

The very blessed Colorado Stryker Family

October happened in a big way

 October came and went, but not without leaving us with a month JAM PACKED with awesome adventures. We kicked off this month with General Conference. Listening to the words of our Prophet and leaders is definitely one of the best ways to begin a month. From that point on we were just rolling into one activity after another. At the first of the month I was able to participate in another Red Rock Relay. This one was in Park City, UT and fall was alive and well in those beautiful mountains. It was a gorgeous race! My team was so much fun and we had a blast but it wouldn't have been possible without awesome dads like these two. Most of the dads were able to stay home and watch their kiddos. But these two fellas got suckered into following their wives around Utah valley with two kids attached to them at all times. Pretty exhausting Im sure, but it made for a great picture. So thankful for Ace for always letting me join whatever crazy activity I find I have time to do. He is so supportive of me and my hobbies and is willing to work hard at work and at home so that I can still pursue my own interests. Love him!

One evening we took the boys to the Bayfield Elementary Fall Carnival. We had a great time and the boys looked super cute! There were games, candy and rides. Earlier that day we had gone trick-or-treating in Durango. This cute little neighborhood near the hospital has a huge Halloween Party the Saturday before Halloween so we started our candy stash early (actually I used the candy Garret and Reid got to give to the kids at our wards trunk-or-treat and to the kids who came knocking on our door Halloween night. Shhhhhhh....don't tell the boys, especially Ace)

 The above picture is the cake walk that we did 4 times in order to get Garret the cupcakes he wanted.

 Every Halloween the Rec Center in Ignacio does what they call a Pumpkin Splash. It is actually quite simple. The kids can come to the pool, pick out a pumpkin to keep and they get to swim with it. Again simple, but so fun! First of all Garret loves swimming and then it was fun for him to see his pumpkin float and to be able to push it off things and have it pop right back up. This was kind of a last minute decision. I wasn't thinking clearly and so I only grabbed a swimsuit for Garret. It was also like 5x too big so I had to use my hair-tie to keep them up, but that didn't slow him down.

 Reid didn't get to swim, but to make up for it we let him crawl around with all the pumpkins.

And last but not least, this year we got to ride the train to the Pumpkin Patch. Garret loves trains so this was a really special treat.

"I've got a golden ticket"

 Going through the Hay Maze

 Turns out Garret REALLY loves Bounce Houses

 Taking a tractor ride. Have I mentioned how beautiful fall is. Such a great time of year.

 We went trick-or-treating 3 times on Halloween and then Garret excitedly came home and passed out candy at our door for another hour. Basically every evening of October we all looked like Reid in the above picture. We've been busy and having fun but thankfully we have all been sleeping great too!