NoVeMbEr

November happenings...

Where do I begin?  November was full of beautiful weather, fun, family, activities, and we started to get a little taste of the holiday spirit.  This is my favorite time of year and I am trying to soak up every second of it.

This is a little glimpse of what I see at least 3 times a week.  These boys are the BEST!

Parents day at dance.

Taylor and I got to go to Dance with the girls and see what they have been working on so far this year.

They are learning a lot and progressing.

This picture of Kamryn (she is on the right) makes me smile everytime I see it.  She is so NOT flexible.

Ryker is 9 months old.

It is hard for me to spit those words out, I TRULY can't believe he is 9 months old already.  This year has FLOWN by for me and it breaks my heart to see this little man grow up so fast.

*He is crawling

*He LOVES ALL food (we have yet to find anything he dislikes)

*He claps

*He says mama and dada

*He sits up

This is how Tayson entertains himself while trying to go to sleep.

Brynlee just goes and goes and goes all day long.  Somedays her little body and mind just give up on her.

Ryker does a little army scoot to get himself around the house.  It's the cutest thing ever.  As soon as we turn the tub on and take off his diaper he is off in a matter of seconds, but as soon as his little body touches the cold tile he kind of freezes and his body curls up.  He tries to get on his knees and curls his toes and does whatever he can to not touch the cold tile. 

Another exhausting day for Brynlee.  hehe

Little Ryk is the sweetest and most adorable little kid but he can't leave my side for more than a few minutes.  It's great to have someone who loves me so much but it makes it really hard to do things sometimes.  This is where Ryker sits while I do my hair and put on my make-up.  This prevents him from touching and getting into everything and it also makes him really happy.  He loves to sit in the sink and play.  Sometimes I undress him and fill the sink up with water and he just splashes and has a dandy old time.

Brynlee just being silly.  Love this pose and her facial expression.

Ryker is all over the place and into everything now that he is doing the army scoot and now he is figuring out how to climb onto things.  UH-OH  I am in trouble.  There is no stopping him now.

Kamryn's Kindergarten Picture

Thanksgiving

Not many pictures were taken this day but I did take a picture of Brynlee enjoying a Turkey leg.  She was soooo excited for Thanksgiving and just as excited for some Turkey.  The anticipation was killing her while Grandpa was carving the Turkey so he gave her a Turkey leg and she was in heaven.  Looks disgusting if you ask me.

Brynlee took a big bite of her apple and it got stuck.  She thought she was so funny and she walked around the house like this for awhile.

Santa's Workshop

Kamryn and I met with my family at Santa's Workshop and looked around at all the cute crafts.  Kamryn was lucky to be able to sit on Santa's lap and to also not have to wait in line at all for it.

Little Ryker monkey climbing out of his swing.  And yes he is buckled.  I kind of have a feeling he is going to be a lot like his older sister Brynlee.  The two of them have a lot of the same characteristics and mannerisms at this same age.  Oh boy, I really might be in trouble.

Happy Boy

He is such a happy smiley little guy.  He is full of energy and life.  He bounces, hops, kicks, and swings himself all day long.  He bounces, hops, and kicks while nursing, sitting, and holding him.  He swings and bounces in his bouncer.  He rocks himself in his carseat and bangs his head on everything (intentionally too).  If he is sitting on my lap he will bang the back of his head on my chest, if he is in his highchair or carseat he bangs the back of his head on the back of the seat.  What a goof!

This picture just makes me smile because this is what 99.9% of his pictures turn out like.  He is all smiles for the camera but he can't keep his eyes open to save his life.  I have to take multiple pictures to get one with his eyes open.

I have been refinishing a lot of my furniture in my house.  It's been fun and very therapeutic.  I didn't get all the before pictures but just imagine all of these looking like the top left brown table before and this is what they all look like after.

Last but not least, here are our family pictures for this year.  Enjoy!  I will save my favorite picture for our Christmas cards so unfortunately you won't see it on here.  Thank you http://www.kelliestilsonphoto.blogspot.com/ for our adorable family photos.

We are saying farewell to another wonderful month but saying:

Let the holiday spirit, chaos, shopping, and excitement begin.  Bring it!

OcToBeR

Really?  Can it be true, is October over already?!?!?!  This month went by way to fast.  Life is busy, chaotic, but wonderful.

We tried teaching Kamryn and Brynlee to ride their bikes with no training wheels.  It was good practice but they most certainly have a long ways to go. 

CaLiFoRnIa

Here we go again

We have been waiting for this vacation for a long time and within about 16 hours Ryker had his first seizure.  We drove to California, unpacked, went to bed, and a few hours later Ryker woke up screaming bloody murder but his eyes were still closed.  After a few minutes he woke up and went completely limp and went straight into a staring zeizure (kinda like a trance) for about 2 minutes and then fell asleep.  The next morning he woke up and was acting normal so I thought maybe he had a night terror.  Well about an hour later Taylor was playing with him and noticed that he was acting unusual.  He went into a small staring seizure and then came back to.  Kicked around for a minute and then went back into another staring seizure and came back to again.  Taylor and I discussed what was going on for a minute and looked back over at Ryker and watched him go straight into a Tonic Clonic.  His eyes rolled back, fists clenched and pulled towards the face, body shaking vigorously, lips purple, and face blue.  We ran out of our bedroom and into the living room where grandma, grandpa, and Matt and Ashley were and told them to start timing the seizure and to call 911.  Shortly after calling 911 the paramedics came and took Ryker and I to the Hospital by Ambulance.  The hospital evaluated him, ran a few tests, drew some blood, and talked with us for awhile.  After discussing with the Dr. about the family genetics he decided that it was ok to start Ryker on Phenobarbital so that we could finish out our trip comfortably and to prevent him from having another seizure.  It was a relief to get him on the medication quickly but also very frightening.  It's a very serious medication and has a lot of side effects.  But we knew it was the right thing to do.  Tayson was on the medication for 6 months and did really well on it and has not had a seizure since.  It took a few days for Ryker to adjust to the medication, but has been doing really well on it since.  He has had to have quite a few blood tests done (which is NEVER any fun) and we have been to his pediatrician and a Neurologist in Salt Lake thus far and things seem to be going good for now.  Fingers crossed!

We had a great time in California and tried to make the best of our trip even though it was off to a bad start.  The kids were all over the place and running on fumes.  Lots of treats, tons of activities, and no sleep.  Brynlee gave up one day and just crashed on the table.

SeA wOrLd

We spent one day at Sea World and had a BLAST.  I had not ever been and was excited to see what it had to offer.  It definitely did not disappoint.  The shows, atmosphere, rides, and food were wonderful.  Brynlee rode her 1st roller coaster here and she LOVE LOVE LOVED it.

DiSnEyLaNd

Oh boy, the kids have been counting down the days for Disneyland for about 10 months.  Since Ryker had a few seizures we decided to leave him with grandma and grandpa for the day, but we wanted to include him by having him where his  Mickey shirt too.

It was so blasted HOT on the day we chose to go to Disneyland.  We rode It's a small world twice cause the ride inside was nice and cool, the ride was long, and the line went fast.  It was at least 100 degrees that day and humid as heck.  It was seriously awful, BUT we didn't let the heat ruin our fun.  We were a little disappointed though that there were no Disney characters out and about, it was hot, the lines were long, there were no fireworks, no parades, California Adventure was under construction and half the rides were closed, and both parks closed at 8.  It really was kind of a bummer day!  But we still managed to have some fun.

Mickey was the ONLY character we saw that day.  No princesses, no Woody and Buzzy, NOTHING.  It totally sucked!  Every time we have gone we have always seen characters roaming around to take pictures.

We of course spent a lot of time at the beach and managed to squeeze in a few family pictures.

Silly Tayson.

Silly Brynlee.

Once again, my kids have weird sleeping habits.

Ryker hung out with dad in his car for a few minutes while he was on the phone one day.  Taylor put him on the steering wheel and Ryker quickly figured out that if he pushed hard enough with his belly that the horn would honk and he LOVED it.

The kids and I made these skeleton cupcakes to get in the Halloween spirit.  Not only were they cute, but they were yummy too.

Pumpkins Before

Pumpkins After

Salt Lake City

We went to Salt Lake for an appointment for Ryker with a Pediatric Neurologist.  The appointment went well.  We managed to fit in a few activities on this short trip.  We went to Gardner Village, stayed in a hotel and went swimming, went shopping, and visited with my family.

The kids had lots of fun at Gardner Village shopping around and dancing with the Witches. 

This is Tayson's new "Cheese" face.

We stopped in Spanish Fork on our way home to say our goodbyes to Uncle Bryce, Aunt Kara, Kate, and Grandma and Grandpa Tano.  This little park had some fun stuff to play on.  Brynlee especially loved this big and crazy climbing wall.  She managed to get through it twice and did really well.

Ryker is quite the little wiggle worm.  He bounces all over the place, rolls everywhere, and army crawls to everything.  He manages to squirm his way out of the swing so he can play on the ground.

He also squirms into his carseat to play with the buckles.

HaLlOwEeN

Here is Kamryn at her school parade.  I loved seeing all the costumes that the kids had, there are some creative moms out there.

My cute little Ryker monkey.

Welcome to the North family Zoo.  I really was kinda lame this year and not real creative.  But they are still ADORABLE!  Kamryn was a Tiger, Brynlee is a horse, Ryker is a monkey, and Tayson was a Zebra.  Brynlee, Tayson, and now Ryker have all worn the monkey costume before and  Kamryn has worn the Zebra and Tayson has now worn it twice.  So we have definitely gotten our money out of those costumes.  The kids had a BLAST Trick-or-Treating and got loads of candy.

Happy Halloween and Happy October all!