Ryan the farmer

This picture was taken a year and half ago but things haven't really changed much except the fence that was being worked on is done and Ryan has gotten bigger.
Over time I'm sure I will be posting lots of pictures of Ryan doing this sort of thing, he loves to be outside and to "work" with his daddy.

I know you're thinking this is just a picture of Ryan "pretending" to drive the tractor but no, to an extent he really does know....not that I'm thrilled about that just yet....actually sometimes I'm more concerned for Roger than I am Ryan! ha ha

Good intentions

I think most people (hopefully)  have good intentions. Some are probably bigger than others. This isn't one of those serious posts like you are probably thinking it's going to be, mainly just a confession on my part. When I started this blog I had very "good intentions" to be fairly consistent with my posts but if you've payed any attention at all, you've noticed that you haven't gotten an email notification in some time. I'm hoping to get a lot better, I really do enjoy it even though I haven't completely figured out the process, life tends to get in my way of a lot of things, or my lack to follow through, I haven't figured out which! ha ha

The poo poo war...part 2

Well several weeks have passed and I am thankful to announce that we are winning the battle!! We've had several days of crying, begging, "threats", bargaining and last week we had a breakthrough!! The day came on a Tuesday, I told Ryan that if he poo pooed on the potty we'd go to Chuck E. Cheese. It wasn't a short time later he goes running to the bathroom yelling at daddy "Daddy I got to go to the bathroom, I got to poop!!" and slammed the door! I was in the other room with Reid when I heard this big announcement, as I came running into the hallway I met Roger and we looked at each other in excitement and disbelief as Ryan yelled from the bathroom, "I did it! I poo pooed on the potty all by myself!!", We squealed, cheered and jumped up and down until we realized that Ryan had also locked the door! Oh my goodness, how do I get in? I thought, then I hear this little voice from the other side of the door say, "I'll help you mommy". Well he unlocked the door and I helped him with the "fine details" and then my baby emerged from the bathroom a new little boy to more cheers and lots of hugs and high fives! We soon were on the phones bragging on our little guy and he on himself. I told him that now we got to go to Chuck E. Cheese to celebrate and he said, "no, I want to go with daddy on the blue tractor". For those who haven't heard about the blue tractor let me tell you that this stinking tractor has become Ryan's obsession, it's all he talks about basically 24 hours a day (and that's not much of an exaggeration).
Well Ryan made his trip on the tractor (a short one) and we did, just Ryan and mommy, make it to Chuck E. Cheese that night. It was our celebratory/date night and we had a ball!

We've made it now just one day away from exactly a week and he has done so very well! He's only had a couple (literally) of times of not making the potty and though I'm constantly asking him if he needs to go he actually has went 90%-95% of the time on his own. I keep "drilling" him asking, "what do you do if you need to pee pee?" he answers "go to the potty" and I ask him, "what do you do if you need to poo poo? he answers "go to the bathroom", I say "cause we don't go in our pants anymore right?" he says, "that's correct" and smiles great big!

I am so very proud of him, it's been such a long road and though I know we will have accidents I also know that we have won such an important battle in the "Poo Poo War".

The birthday dinner

My mom's birthday is Feb. 8 and this year fell on a Wednesday, I wanted to do something fun for her where some family could come and visit and hang out so I had two options...the weekend before or the one after her birthday. Mom had plans the weekend before so after it was. I debated on what kind of meal to have, throwing around some ideas of things mom has mentioned over the last few weeks. I thought about cooking out but the weather turned to cold. I decided on party trays from Subway (I know I know, not to fancy), my thought behind this choice actually came with more consideration than my previous thoughts. Not cooking meant no prep, no clean up and more time to enjoy each other, all things mom always is disappointed with at the end of a get together, "I never get to visit like I want cause I'm always busy in the kitchen" she says. I did make her favorite for dessert, homemade German Choc. Cake, served of course with ice cream!
I think mom really enjoyed herself, she didn't have to lift a finger, except to play with my boys! My mom's sister and her girls were there and my cousin (niece on my dad's side) and her family came, along with my family. Of course we were missing my grandma who is in Texas for the winter, my sister and her family (Kesha was coming home from a work trip and her family was picking her up at the airport) and of course, my dad. I could tell at times by looking at her that he is who she was thinking of, missing him being with all of us like in the "good ole days". Dad always liked dinner with family...almost as much as when the family went home! ha ha
When I was a kid, mom and dad always made our birthdays special, we got to pick what we wanted for dinner and what we wanted for dessert and the same went for their birthdays, as we got older and had families of our own our birthdays were still a big deal, dad and mom always made us feel special and we did our best to do something special for them.
Dad was a big part of several conversations as I'm sure he was part of every one's constant thoughts, our get togethers to me anyway always feel like someone is missing. Dad's birthday is Feb 22, this will be the second year that we will have no birthday dinner for him, or I guess with him....or I guess we will or still do....every dinner and get together that we have my dad is there, he is with us all every day, he lives in me and my boys, without my dad we wouldn't be here, so in a way every dinner get together is a birthday dinner.

The poo poo war

I know there are people out there who would read this and their first thought will be "he isn't potty trained yet!?" Well I'll just answer that with, it's not as easy as everyone says, thinks, or reads. If it were easy every child would be trained at the same age but as we all know, life doesn't come with an easy button.
The poo poo war....I could tell this morning that Ryan "needed to go" so I hurried him into the bathroom all the while he was resisting telling me he didn't want to and me telling him that I knew he needed to and poo pooing on the potty would be SOOO much easier than in his pull up, he didn't care. We arrive in the bathroom dispite his best efforts where I told him, "if you go poo poo in the potty daddy will be so excited!" he quickly responded "I don't want daddy be so esited". This "conversation" went on for a short time all with him sitting on the potty, I read him a book, we looked at pictures of the fish people caught in one of daddy's magazines, we cried, we fussed, I begged and he pleaded. Finally after 30 min, knowing he needed to "go", I told him if he didn't go and he got up and then poo pooed in his pull up I was taking his "movie" out of his room until I decided he could have it back (his "movie" is our portable DVD player that I let him watch in his room sometimes). Ryan wasn't going to budge, he kept telling me "I don't want it, I don't want it". After giving him his choices and him still refusing, I had a decision to make...continue to sit on the cold floor attempting to reason with a 3 year old or let him up and give it a chance. (I wanted to sit there and make him do it.) Well a 3 month old that needed to eat made our choice for us.
I lost the battle but I will not faulter...I will win the war....I will not let this cold morning on the floor be in vain!

Our new addition

Reid Bryon Magnuson joined our family on Nov 4, 2011 at 6:35pm. He weighed 9lbs 7oz and was 21in long.

Here goes nothing!

Well, I have a couple of friends who have started writing blogs and after reading theirs I thought it might be fun to have one for myself. Something to share with family and friends on our adventures and misadventures as a family. Hopefully you'll enjoy reading and keeping up with our ever changing world, and maybe along the way we'll share a few laughs! So....Here Goes Nothing!