Pics of Our Boys and Tad's Blessing Day!!

Bro Griffin offered to take pictures of Tad for his portfolio and it ended up being a photo session for both boys...Lucky us! The pictures turned out fabulous. A Big Thanks to Bro Griffin! The cute matching overalls are courtesty of Gma Shirley.

********************************************************************************

We blessed Tad a few weeks ago. Rob gave a beautiful blessing and we had a great time with family and friends afterward. We are lucky to have all these wonderful people in our lives and double lucky...Blessed...to have our boys!

One of my all time favorite pics of MY BOYS!

There are four generations in this picture...on both sides of the family.

With the Grandpa's...

Daddy and Tad

Mommy and Tad

Our Precious Baby Tad!

(I'm pretty sure we have the exact same pic of Rylend...

they wore the same outfit)

He's Here!

Thomas Allen Duve (TAD) was born on June 25th. He was 7lb 5oz and 19in long. He and Mommy are both doing great! We think he kinda looks like Rylend as a newborn, so it will be interesting to see how much they end up looking alike as Tad gets older. We are so happy to have both our boys! We are so blessed!

Rylend is a great big brother! He loves to give baby Tad lots of kisses!

The pics below are when he first met Tad at the hospital. He was so sweet...he just kept patting and kissing his new little brother.

Here's our newest addition...all ready for the ride home from the hospital.

We wanted to show everyone the resemblance Tad has to his brother. The first pic below (arms up) is Tad and the one below that (in the blanket) is Rylend. They don't look identical, but there is a certain familiarity between the two. We love them both so much!

New Family Pics!

Caitlin has been taking pictures from the day she could hold a camera and it has paid off. She recently did a family/pregnancy photo shoot for us and the pictures turned out really well. It was her first time doing something like this and I am really proud of the results. She has been taking a photography class and was able to borrow one of the really nice cameras from school. Check out her work...

Back from the dead...

In the slight chance that somebody out there still checks our blog, I decided it was time for my quarterly post. (ha ha) I commend all you "real" bloggers who actually update your blogs on a regular basis. Though I had high hopes in the beginning, turns out I'm not very good at the "regular updates" thing. I would like to say: "I'm going to try a lot harder," but the truth is, I don't want to oversell myself. So in the words of one of my theatre students, "You get what you get and you don't throw a fit!" :) I really do appreciate those of you who update your blogs. It is so nice to see and hear what's going on with your lives. Now, on to our family's life...

Somewhere along the trail of the past few months, Rylend has sneakily slipped from any trace of a baby stage into full blown toddler. I think one of the things that did him in was getting his haircut. I didn't think it would make much of a difference, but as soon as those little whispy curls were gone, so was my little baby. Check out the pics below:

Before:
During:

After:
And yes, for those who are particularly observant, the shirt does say "Big Brother" with "Only Child" crossed out. We are expecting again!

In other news, I have a garden!!! I am so excited. You have to see the pictures.
Started Oct 21st:
Only One Month Later:

Taken today after a weekend of rain:
I have wanted a garden for a long time and look forward to eating those yummy vegetables!

Well, thanks for tuning in. Until next time, which I can only hope will be sooner than later!

Reasons Why You Haven't Heard From Us...

Our last few months have been packed with (are you ready?) birthdays, rehearsals, performances, reunions, vacations, business trips, airplane rides, visits from family, packing, unpacking, moving to a new house, finding renters for our old house, yard work, a garage sale, new ward, new church callings, summer theatre workshop, Amber getting braces, starting a performing group, decorating, shopping, budgeting, Rylend walking, Rylend running, Rylend swimming (alot!), discovering Rylend's obsession with the outdoors, Rylend opening doors and letting the dog out, Rylend talking...Rylend entering the wonderful world of toddlerhood...and the list goes on! We have way too many pictures to post individually, so just refer to the slide show up on the right!

Hilarious!

I have to say that meal time with Rylend is probably the most hilarious time of the day. It seems the funniest things happen when he's eating...as seen in the following pictures. The video is the best though. I crack up every time I watch it.

Random Updates...

The following is my attempt to catch everyone up on the latest in our lives with one post...I'll try to make it easy to follow along...

A few weeks ago, we took a long weekend and headed to Vegas. Even though it was short, it was a fun little family vacation that was much needed. We found a place on the strip selling shirts 3 for 6.99 so we figured we couldn't beat the price for wearable Vegas souvenirs. I think Rylend is trying to do an Elvis impression to go with his shirt...who knows? He's a silly kid. You gotta love him though. :)

Rylend and Cousin Julie. They got to hang out when Julie was in town from Safford to celebrate her first birthday! She's already walking and Rylend studied her every move trying to figure out how she was doing it. You wouldn't believe how ridiculously hard it was to get a picture of them sitting still. All the other pics are blurry because the kiddos move so fast now!

Grandpa's 50th Birthday Party!
We threw a party for my dad with dinner, dessert, decorations...you know...the works to celebrate his 50th birthday!
Everyone had a great time...especially Rylend and grandpa.
(Even with the blurriness, their smiles shine through)!


P. S. I made this yummy ice cream cake for my dad and it actually turned out pretty good...yes, those are thin mints...mmm...so good!