Mission Possible: Honduras

Well this is the first blog in a while and a lot has gone on since January. These pictures here are from Ryan's trip to Honduras. It was part of a school service project. In order to graduate each student must perform 30 hours of some type of service so Ryan finished his up by heading to a foreign country. As you can see by the pictures he had a great time. It was quite the ordeal just to arrive. He was traveling about 32 hours just to get there and on top of that they left his luggage in San Francisco and they were a 4 hour drive from the Airport they flew in to. Luckily for him so poor taxi driver took a big long day trip to get him his luggage. He only had to wear the same clothes for 3 days in hot, humid, muggy weather. Nasty....Anyway, the purpose of the trip was to build a roof on a school in a remote city and then also help out on an Eco-tourism project but fixing up hiking trails and installing cables for people to grab onto on the steeper parts of the trail.
There was a group of about 13 students with 3 of them that spoke Spanish, so Ryan did a lot of translating. He said he was a little rusty since he got back from his mission almost 8 years ago, but after a day or so he was speaking like a true native. While working at the school he was up on the roof all day helping out and doing the translation with the local contractor they were working with. He got quite the sunburn. One of the pictures shows all the students that were at the school while they were working. When they arrived in the morning they had the whole school assembled on the soccer field. It was cool.
On the last day of the trip he got to go to the Copan Ruins on the border with Guatemala. These are part of the ancient Mayan ruins that are found in Mexico and other countries. It was an awesome experience. Anyway, we'll blog again soon.

WINTER FUN!!!!

So we are now settled back into our routine in Spokane. It's good to get back to a regular routine, but we are a little sad to have left family. I'm sure I speak for everyone when I say I am sick of this freezing cold weather. I don't think it's been above 20 more than a couple of times in the last month.
We did however have a blast going sledding last Saturday, and the weather was actually really nice. The kids loved it and were both so brave. We found the perfect hill in the back of our friend's apartments. Tyson even went down by himself. I had to trick him into it, I told him to sit in the sled for a picture and then I "accidentally" pushed him down the hill. Luckily he loved it and wanted to go again. Bailee was so brave the whole time. She tried all sorts of tricks. I think we'll definitely have to go again. Hopefully it will make this winter go by a little faster.
Tyson is an official BIG BOY, (actually don't get excited, he's not potty trained or anything, He just got a new big boy bed.) We brought it home from Grandma Bullock's and set it up soon after we got home. He is so funny and so different than Bailee. We put it up and I wasn't sure if I was opening a can of worms or not because he did so well in his crib. But he has done great (knock on wood) it's so funny he won't get out of bed unless we come and get him. He sometimes will sit and cry until we come open the door. It hasn't occurred to him that he could just get out. Even in the morning when he wakes up he'll just yell "Mom I'm awake" until I come in and get him. I think it's great. It just kills me how opposite their little personalities are. I just remember Bailee climbing out of her crib and doing what ever she wanted in her room. I would find her in there reading books and playing with toys and whatever else she felt like, and Tyson is just so content to stay in bed. It's fun to have both personalities in our family.
You may notice in the picture above, Bailee and I have new hairdo's. I went dark the night before we came back to Spokane. It was such a last minute thing. I was visiting Betsy and we were both saying how we really wanted to go dark, so we just decided to go for it. I really like it, it's been fun to have something new.
Bailee decided to give her self bangs. she actually did a good job, but I can't let her know that, otherwise she'll try it again. I didn't have to fix them or anything. One day I just looked down at her hair and noticed she had bangs. She was so scared that I'd have to cut her hair like a boys, because I've always warned her that if she cut her hair we'd have to cut it like a boy. I've just tried to scare her into not doing it again, but I actually think she looks cute. Then one day during her quiet time I was asleep on the couch and woke up to find her holding scissors over my head. She thought she was going to cut my hair to match hers. Luckily I got to her before she cut anything. Now I've got the scissors in a hiding spot. Hopefully she won't find them.
I have to tell you one more Bailee story before I go. We were watching a T.V. show where someone disguised herself. She asked me what she was doing so I told her they disguised herself, and she asked me what that meant, so I told her they were tricking someone. So now if she tricks or teases Tyson she just tells me she is disguising him. It's pretty funny.
Well that is about all the excitement that's going on in our lives for now. Ryan is still just keeping busy with school and work and being the best Dad ever. He is so awesome and great and funny. (Added by Ryan during editing). So far It seems like he's home a little more this semester which we all love, but he's only had two weeks of classes so he's not too busy yet. He's been playing ward ball and also refereed a game which he likes.
Well, we love you all and hope all is well. Keep in touch. We love getting e-mails from everyone. Love Ryan Katie Bailee and Tyson P.S Do you like how Tyson is trying to fake sleep for his bed picture?

Halloween

Well we had a very fun, very cold Halloween. The kids had a blast. as you can see, Tyson thought he was pretty cool in his Halloween costume. He would run up to everyone and stick his arm out and yell Bat maaaann! He thought, he was pretty tough.
Bailee started out being cat woman, but we lost her cat ears (story of our life) so we got her a witch hat at the dollar store and turned her costume into a witch.
we seamed to have lost some of the Halloween pictures that we took, so if we find them we will post more.
The kids were both so cute trick or treating, the first 3 or 4 houses we went to, Tyson just walked on in like he owned the place. he's go right into there living room, we'd have to run and grab him. after a few housed he finally got the hang of it. Bailee had a blast getting all of that candy, and Ryan had a blast eating all of it, (I have to admit I took some also.) There was a house close to our neighborhood that was all decked out with like 15 dummies (one being a live person that jumped out and scared us) and a bunch of other decorations. and they gave out full sized candy bars (score!!) so we just went down that street and back up the other side, it was about 10 houses, but that was plenty for all of us.
we came back home in time for out 1 trick or treator of the night. I was actually surprised we even had one (we don't really live by a lot of young kids.) so we also had a lot of left over candy and the past few days have been a lot of sugar highs and sugar hangovers at our house. hopefully this candy will be gone soon..
I just wanted to tell you one more funny story, we went to our ward party, and I thought I'd try and be sort of trendy, I didn't dress up, but I just wore a new vest I got that has some fur on the hood, anyways like 3 different people (adults not kids) asked me who I was dressed up as. the first time someone asked it was okay but by the third person I was getting a little self conscious. it was pretty funny, and then I wore the vest at church today and a little girl came up to me and said "hay you're wearing your Halloween costume. (maybe it's time I turn the vest in) anyways I thought it was pretty funny.
We hope you all had a fun Halloween, and have a good Thanksgiving. We love and miss you all so much. We will see you at Christmas.

St. George Marathon 2006

So a lot has happened since our last post. THE MARATHON!!!!! ya, we did it.
I have to say it was one of the neatest experiences of my life. It was so cool to set a goal, that 6 months ago I would have never believed I could do, and actually do it.
with out sounding like a big dork, I think this experience is something I will always hold close to my heart. I'm not sure I will do it again or at least not until the kids are a lot older, but it was well worth the endless miles and hours of training.
We had a good size group to represent the bullocks. (Ryan's Mom and Dad, his brother Jeff, sister Whitney, me and Ryan) I think we were all pretty happy with our times. the times probably won't mean anything to you unless you are a runner, but now that I am a "true" runner I have to say our times. Ryan ran in 2hours and 41 minutes, beating his old time by 5 minutes, (that makes his mile break downs like 6 minute and 09 second miles) so I definitely have to brag for him.
My time was a little different. I finished in 4 hours and 37 minutes, which makes my mile break downs like 10 minutes and 40 seconds,( and yes that is almost double Ryan's time, but yes I am still way proud of my time) I was just hoping for under 5 hours and I feel like I beat my goal time.
The whole Bullock family beat their goal time and a lot of them qualified for The Boston Marathon (go Kris!!!!) so some of them may be taking a little vacation this spring.
All in all it was an awesome experience and I totally recommend it to anyone who feels like they are going through a mid life crisis (even if they are only 25).
We love and miss you. Love Ryan, Katie, Bailee, and Tyson

Okay so we have had quite the eventful few weeks. Bailee had her Birthday, and I once again learned my lesson that simplier is better with planning a party for 4 year olds. I spent Hours putting together art projects. I thought It would easily last 2 and 1/2 hours, so that is when I told the parents to come pick up their kids. (the party was at the church) . All my projects were honestly done in one hour (and that was a big stretch) so we were able to entertain them for about a half an hour more with games, and then had an hour of chaos with kids running everywhere, It was fun, but a word to the wise, if any of you plan a party for kids 4 and under only plan for 1 and 1/2 - 2 hours tops. ( I'm sure that's common sense to most but I'll never learn.)
Bailee absoultly loves her new Bike. She is a bike riding machine, she asked if she could ride to Utah to visit her uncle Dillon, I told her that might be a little to far but she assured me I could just ride along side her in the car so I wouldn't get tired.
Tyson has also had so much fun riding bikes. We drive around the parking lot of a store across the street from our house, they love it.
Poor Tyson needs a brother. You might notice in the picture above he is wearing glass slippers. He loves playing dress-ups with Bailee, last week he started crying because he wanted to be Snow White. I finally convinced him to wear his super man cape and be a super hero. I will be investing if some cowboy and Superman dress-ups A.S.A.P.
Ryan is still working as hard as ever in school. We are looking forward to are break in Utah YEA!!! not even two weeks away.
I've started a routine chart at home with Bailee, it seems to be working pretty well. She loves to look at the chart to see what we need to do next. And it seems to help with the chaos at home. That's about all the exciting news with me. We love and miss you all. We will see you soon. Love Katie Ryan, Bailee, and Tyson.

Our Exciting Week

So we've had quite the eventful week. Ryan had his first week back to school, and we all miss him at home, it was so fun having him all to ourselves for the summer.
Tyson got tubes in his ears on Friday, and he is doing really well, he was fussy for like an hour and then he was up running around the house like a maniac, so I don't think he was too affected by the whole thing.
Bailee had another bladder infection, so the Doctor said we have to watch her and we may possibly have to do some testing(that doesn't sound fun) to test her kidneys, but we'll see.
She has been so fun and so full of DRAMA. Last week she was upset with her friend Hika,(I'm not sure why) so she went and sat in her room for about 15 minutes, while Hika went and played by herself in the frount room, she then came out of her room and said "Hika I think we need to talk about this." Hika was like no I just want to play, and Bailee said "I want to talk about why I am mad at you." I'm not sure why she was mad but she finally just said can we be friends and they made up. I Just thought it was so funny that Bailee thought they needed to "talk". She's such a little teenager. I'm scared for those years.
She's been so excited about her birthday party. We're going to have an art theme, I have also been so excited, it's the perfect time to do an art theme, Walmart had a 24 pack of crayons on sale for 10 cents and there elmers glue was 9 cents. So I got 20 packs of each and it only cost me $4.00. Then there markers were only 25 cents. I was so excited. So were going to have a bunch of different stations and let the kids rotate. We'll have a playdough table, a painting table, a face making table, and a cupcake making table. I'm excited. (probably more than Bailee is.)
I think Tyson is just my sweet little boy, he loves giving hugs and telling everyone he loves them. He's so polite. He's always saying sorry to everyone, and saying thank you. It's so sweet. I bought him a little potty today, not that I am full on going to try and train him but he always tells me when he is going to go number 2, but he's afraid of the toilet, so I thought I'd let him practice sitting on the little one. I'm sure Bailee will have a few tries on it before Tyson will give it a try, she can't waite for him to use it.
Ryan and I are still running like mad. If any of you have talked to me in the past 3 days, I know I've blurted out that I ran my 20 miles for the marathon. I was so excited about it, it was a real milestone for me, I did it in 3 hours and 35 minutes, which I was happy about If I can keep that pace my marathon time will be about 4hours and 40 minutes, which is perfect, I just wanted to be under 5 hours. Ryan has already done like 3 20 milers, he should do well on the marathon, he has been training hard.
We are so excited to come to Utah and run, Ryan's visit will be short he'll come, run the race on the 7th and then fly home. I'll be there for about 2 weeks and then my parents will help me drive home (since I have no sense of direction and could never do it by myself) also I will be glad for them to see where we live.
Anyways that's our exciting lives. We love you all and hope all is well.
Love Ryan, Katie, Bailee, and Tyson

Kitchen Redo

Well here are the pictures of our redone kitchen. Nothing was actually redone, it was just painted to add a splash of color. You can see the before and after. Well not much has happened since out last post. We have been having fun swimming and being together since Ryan doesn't have to study yet and is only working at night. Bailee is turning into quite the fish. She and her friend Hika swim almost everyday and have so much fun. Hika is a real good swimmer and has made Bailee really brave. Bailee can swim across the whole pool and is quite a good swimmer. She still hasn't figured out how to come up for air but once she does that she is good to go. That is her under the water in the picture. Tyson is a little swim bug also. He loves to blow bubbles and put his face in the water. He has jumped in a couple of times but still has to work up the courage to do that. This past weekend we went to Lake Couer D'Alene with some friends in our ward who have a cabin on the lake and a couple of boats. It was a ton of fun. The kids loved swimming and Ryan and I wakeboarded. We had a blast. Bailee almost had the guts to try and ski but was just a little leary. Our friends had a little board that the kids stand on and hold onto a rope that is pulled behind the boat. There was a little two year old that skied all by herself. Maybe we can get Bailee to it next time. Well I guess that is it. See you later.

Finally another Blog

So, It has been forever since we lasted posted on our blog. It has been an eventful time. Tyson just turned 2 last week and Bailee will be 4 in September. Ryan finished his first year of law school in May and we were able to go to Utah for part of the summer and stayed with family while Ryan clerked at the firm that he has been working at for almost 3 years. He helped out in Litigation and learned a lot and had a lot of fun. He got good enough grades to keep his scholarship so that will help us to be less in debt when we finish in another two years.
We have been back in Spokane for a few days and the kids are excited to go back. When we first got here Tyson just walked around the house all night saying..."My house, my house..." He was sure exited to be home. Bailee has had a ball playing with her friends here in Spokane again and has already gone to the park, a movie, swimming and played with just about all of her toys in the space of an hour. We had been home only a few hours and it looked like we had been back for weeks because of all the toys laying around.
My new project is to repaint the kitchen and add a little color to our house. Both Ryan and I are terrible decorators but we try to make things look nice maybe I will post some before and after pictures when we are done.
Well I will try to blog more often and keep in touch with everybody. See you later.

Fun with the bullocks

We had so much fun with the Bullocks. they came to town last week and just spoiled us. It was so fun to see everyone. Bailee and Tyson had so much fun Playing with Grandma Bullock and their Uncles. I couldn't believe Tyson was so playfull with the boys he's usually such a mama's boy, but he went right to them. We gave them the tour of Ryan's school and of all the parks. It wasn't untill they came to visit that we realized we really don't know much about what to do in Spokane. Luckily Ryans mom left us with a book to read up on sights in Spokane, so if someone comes to visit we will have all kinds of fun planned "hint hint" .

Halloween Trick or Treating

Tyson and Bailee both loved trick or treating. Mostly they just loved to see the other kids' costumes. Bailee was thrilled to see other princesses, while tyson just wandered around staring at everyone.

fun in the fall

Today we went to pumpkin patch and a corn maze. it was so cute and fun these are some of Bailee and Tyson's new friends. Tyson's favorite thing was playing in the dirt.
you can see in this picture that things started out a little rocky. Bailee was a little upset. she calmed down quickly and had a blast. This girl she is hugging is Hika they are the best of buddies. they get along so well. it so fun to watch them play.
Tyson was so cute, there were big stuffed animals of lions and tigers, and Tyson would just stare at them and I could hear him wisper rarrr!!! it was so cute!!!

Bailee's Birthday

This is a little bit late but here is Bailee's party. We had so much fun. This is her new Belle dress. The castle she is in frount of is one of the first games. The "Brave Knights" had to throw magical balls into it to protect it. then they had to pop the magical bubbles. While they were protecting the castle the princesses went into the kitchen and painted their nails. then everyont decorated there crowns. We then played" poison apple"(it's suppost to be played like hot potato) it turned into eat the apple. eveyone that got the apple just started eating it an wouldn't pass it along. it was pretty funny. all my party activities were over in about 5 minutes. so then the kids played on the swing set. (I think they liked that more than anything, the other games were basically just for me.) all in all it was a good success. Bailee got more princess stuff that anyone could imagine. she now likes to put all of her jewlrey on with her crown and go lie down pretending to sleep, then she calls ryan in to kiss her awake. She has been so cute lately. yesterday she asked "mom do you think I'm wonderful?" I said yes and she said I think your wonderful too. she also has been saying at the most random times "Mike Wasouski" from monsters inc. it will just be silent and she'll just yell out Mike Wasouski. it's so funny.
Tyson really started taking off walking on Bailee's birthday, now he walks everywhere. he is also mastered the stairs. he loves to go up and down them all day. another favorite thing of his is to rub lotion in if I put some on his hand he'll rub it in his face it's so cute. he loves to wave bye bye and to give kisses. he's still a little sweetheart.