My best friend

I just got back from a week in California and had such a blast!  I went down with a good friend of mine while we are on break from nursing school.  However, my best friend left for Hawaii the day before I got home which means that I won't get to see my best friend for TWO WHOLE WEEKS!  I know that doesn't sound like a long time, but I happen to see my best friend every day and am a little sad that I still won't get to see this person until Saturday night.  This person is...

My beautiful mother!

I absolutely love my mom and appreciate, so much, all that she does for me!  I hope that one day I have a daughter that I am as close to as I have been with my mom.  Love you Mama!!

Hello again...

Alright everyone, so I know it has been AGES since I have been on here.  Where to begin...  Well I started nursing school in January at Provo College and will be in my 3rd semester next week.  I was a little nervous about this semester because the topics we will be covering are - labor and delivery, mom & baby, NICU, pediatrics and... psych.  Yeah, I have a 12-hour shift on Halloween in the psych ward.  Should make for a really good blog post right?  So we have added a couple new members to our family since I was last up to date in the blogging world.

This is Miss Quinn (all big now and eating graham crackers)

who belongs to Stain and Katie

And Mr. Finn who belongs to Pete and Anne

We are so excited to have little babies in our family again!  Our last baby boy was none other than my little Ry-guy, who was the reason that I started this blog!  So I was chatting with Anne on Sunday and she was a little stressed about who was going to watch their boys when she goes back to work and Pete is busy with his second year of law school.  She mentioned that someone might be able to help out on Saturdays, but was having a hard time finding someone who could watch them on Tuesdays.  

Me: "If only you needed someone on Mondays.  I don't have school or clinicals on Mondays all semester."  Anne: "Are you serious?  Because I could talk to my boss and see if I could switch to Mondays!"  So that is how I landed...  MONDAYS with Ryan (and Finn)!  But I'm going to keep the title of the blog as is, mostly just because I don't want to change it.  I am so excited that, starting the end of September, I will get to spend Mondays with these handsome brothers!

My Little Bud

Now it is a new semester and I won't be watching Ryan on Tuesdays anymore :(

I have passed that torch along to my Mom... Good luck!

I will still try to keep up with my blog though, I just can't promise that it will be very often.

But here is a really special story about "My Little Bud".

Most of you know who know me, know what I went through last year.  

It wasn't easy and I couldn't have gotten through it without the support and prayers from many of you.

So for that, I want to say THANK YOU! (you all know who you are!)

Another thing that helped me get through it was having my "Tuesdays with Ryan"

I kept myself so busy studying for finals and doing hair that I was actually feeling pretty good.

But on Christmas Eve, it hit me hard...

We had some family coming over that night and so I was in my room, trying to gain composure, when I heard a little knock at my door and in comes Mr. Ry-Guy.

"What's wrong Jessie?  Are you feeling lonely?"

"A little bit..."

He then walks over, throws his arms around me and says,

"I love you.  It will all be ok.  Santa is coming tonight!"

Then he stayed with me until I was ready to go downstairs with everyone.

WOW!  What a guy!  

I know I shared this on my Facebook already but one of my favorite gifts this Christmas was a card that I got from my parents:

"I wonder if you know how often I whisper in my heart,

'God keep her safe, I love her so.'

Wherever you go, whatever you do...

always remember how much you're loved."

Thanks Mom and Dad for all the love and support you have always given me.

Thanks to the rest of my family as well, I know I couldn't have done it without all of you!

And a special BIG thanks to Ryan!  

Thanks for all the memories!!

You know Dasher and Dancer....

A few weeks ago (when I was supposed to be studying for finals)

I got SUPER bored and wanted to do something fun.

So I got on google and looked up fun things to do in Utah during December.

What did I find?

REINDEER at Thanksgiving Point!!!

Only one problem, Ryan is usually my excuse to get to go do fun kids stuff even when I am 24.

But he was in Cali that weekend with his mom.

hmmmm....  What is a girl to do?

So I called up my adorable nieces who, pretty soon, probably won't think it's very cool to hang out with Aunt Jessie on Saturday nights...

Nicole (pink hat) is 12 and in 7th grade!!  She is already as tall as I am too, which isn't too hard to beat :)

Natalie (purple coat and earmuffs) just turned 10 on the 22nd of December and is in fourth grade.

Kirsten (blue coat and, I am not sure why, but wearing two hats) is our spunky little first grader.

So my sister and her husband got a date night, and I got to hang out with these fun girls!

We drove to Thanksgiving Point and saw the reindeer.

This one even stuck out his tongue for us!

Then we went to one of our favorite restaurants, Pizza Factory!!!
I hope they don't get too cool for me too soon, because I sure love hanging out with them!
Thanks for the fun night girlies!!

Haircut

In October I had the amazing opportunity 

(because of my amazing parents!)

 to spend 10 days in Maui with my mom!! 

We had a blast just laying out, shopping, eating good food,

and watching NCIS episodes in our condo at night.

I think our favorite meal was the butternut squash pizza at Monkeypod!

And the sunsets were beautiful!

Even though we were there for ten days, the end of the trip seemed to come WAY too fast!

Just as it does with all good vacations...

While we were sitting in the airport I get a phone call from my little buddy:

Ryan - "Jess you need to come home from Hawaii now!!"

Me - "Do you miss me that bad?"

Ryan - "No, but I really need you to give me a haircut!  My hair is so long I am starting to look like Kirilenko!!"

What a little stinker :)

Before haircut...

And after!

Isn't he handsome??

Hiking

So I think I have proved to be just as good at blogging as I am at keeping a journal...  Time to play catch up!!  Ryan and I have had a LOT of adventures since I last posted.  One of these adventures was hiking to Stuart Falls up Sundance Canyon.  It was beautiful the day we went because the leaves were just starting to change colors.  Ryan, of course, has a love of costumes and on this day he had to wear his "hiking costume" which consisted of a long-sleeve under armour shirt, gray basketball shorts, long white socks and his spiderman running shoes.  

We brought Oakley with us (my parents' golden retriever)

Found this CRAZY looking caterpillar...

We didn't quite make it all the way to the falls because someone got a little bored :) 

But we did see some really pretty leaves too!

Thanks for being my special buddy Ry-Guy!

Ladies Man

For only being four years old, Ryan is quite the charmer.  He already knows that the best way to get what he wants is to give a compliment to the person he wants it from.  

While watching his favorite movie, Spiderman:

me: "MJ is pretty, huh ry?"

Ryan: "Yeah... Kinda like you Aunt Jessie"

me: "Oh thanks Ryan!"

Ryan: "Now will you make me some toast?"

His best friends in his neighborhood happen to be a family of three girls, all older than Ryan.  He also has a girlfriend at school named Kate, who he says he is going to marry.

My favorite story happened a couple weeks ago on one of our Monday night sleepovers.  My brother and his wife are trying to have another baby and it is so sweet to hear little Ry-guy pray for his mom to get "pregnick" each night.  So we were kneeling down to say prayers before bed.  He had his arms folded, eyes closed, took a big breath to start the prayer and then...

Ryan: "Wait, wait, wait!  Do you wanna be pregnick?"

me: Umm... No.

Ryan: "Why not?"

me: "Because I am not married, remember?"

Ryan: "Ooh...  So you need to find a cute boy first!"

Yes Ryan, that is what I need :)  So this is for all you other girls who "need to find a cute boy first".  We have Ryan praying for us!