Family Kickball Night

Well here are some pictures of a family kickball night that we had this week. It was a lot of fun and the kids loved it. Bailee and Ty just loved to run the bases. They would kick it like 5 feet and then just run. Most of the time it wasn't to first base but towards second or third. We had to put people at the base they were supposed to run to and tell them to run towards that person. Tyson was a running machine. He was so funny when he ran because he has these little legs and tries to run so fast and then he's looking all over the place and looking to see if there is someone chasing him. He ate it hard about 5 times. He would look over his shoulder and when he turned around he would get tangled up and just go head first to the ground. His legs would then flip over and almost touch his head. It was quite funny to watch but only because he thought it was funny too. I've also loaded a picture of Ty running, but not falling. I didn't capture that on video.

I rule Dad!!!

I am the Man!!!

Way to Kick Bailee...Nice Form!!

OK, So this picture has nothing to do with Kickball...but I went running 16 miles this morning and I didn't wake up until 8:30 because there were no kids to wake me up early (Katie and the kids are in Colorado visiting her aunt) But by the time I left it was already 80 degrees and when I got back it was almost 90 degrees. Anyway, this is a picture of my sweat stained shorts it was a scorcher. So just more nasty pictures of me running.

Canyon to Canyon 1/2 Marathon

Here are some pictures of a Half-Marathon that I ran yesterday with my Mom and Dad. The race started at East Canyon which is almost directly east of Jeremy Ranch which is up Parley's Canyon. It was an out and back course up in the mountains. The first and last mile were on the road but the rest of the race was on "trail." It was actually just a dirt road but it was bumpy and rocky. I was pretty happy with my race. I ended up taking 2nd Overall in a time of 1:22:02. I was in the lead until about mile 10 and got passed by another guy and he beat my by about 1.5 minutes. It was kind of a slow race because it was up at about 6500 feet and very hilly. It was described as "rolling hills" but there were quite a few steep and tough hills and it seemed like they never ended. The race had an official photographer taking pictures of all the runners. Usually you have to buy these pictures and they are like 20 bucks for an 8x10 but this was the last race that he was ever going to shoot so he said that he would put them on his website and we could download them for free so that's where I got the pictures of me running, otherwise I would have had nothing. So lucky you for reading this because you get to see some dirty, sweaty pictures of me. Enjoy!

Bullock Family 1/2 Marathoners...Dad (1:53:59) , Mom (2:04:22), Me (1:22:02)

And down the stretch he comes...actually this was only about mile 2

Floating like a gazelle (I hate floater pictures)

POSER

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TY!!!

Well yesterday was Tyson's 3rd Birthday. He was excited to have a big "Shrek" Birthday Party. He didn't notice at all that the only thing remotely Shrek about the party was the birthday cake but he was thrilled. it was so random that he even wanted a "Shrek" party, he kept asking for it, and I don't even think he's that into "Shrek." Katie put together a nice little swim party. There was a little pool, a slip and slide, and all the kids got buckets filled with water balloons. The slip and slide was a huge hit and even after the party ended Bailee and Ty were playing outside all day long. They had Hot Dogs (Ty's favorite food), Cake, Drinks and Watermelon. Ty invited his cousins and some friends from here in Utah. Ty is now a "big boy" also because he is now 3 and has been potty trained for about a month and half now...finally. ( I think we'll wait until all of our kids are 3 to potty train them, I can't believe how easy it was with him) Happy Birthday Ty!!!!




Tyson really enjoyed the Cupcake Cake as you can tell. I think he ate like 4 Cupcakes.



Here is a nice Picture of the Cake



Opening some of his presents.



A few more presents...this one is bigger than him.




playing hot potato (or who can pop the water balloon the fastest.)

Family Night Mountain Excursion

I meant to post these pictures a couple of weeks ago but I couldn't get them to upload to the blog, but it worked tonight so here are some more pics to enjoy.

We went up to the Tanner's Flat campground in Little Cottonwood Canyon just below Snowbird and Alta to roast marshmallows and hot dogs with the kids. They love the outdoors and have been begging me to take them fishing so I guess that is next on our list of things to do.

We had a ton of fun. My favorite pics are the ones of Ty eating his marshmallow. He didn't want to roast it, but he wanted to put it on the stick just like everyone else. He put his marshmallow on this stick and just started eating away. He got stuck by the point a couple of times but just kept on eating. He loved it.

Bailee, as you can see from the pics, was sitting like a little princess eating her dinner....all proper with her legs crossed. She even had the crown to go with it. We went on a little hike down to the river and threw some rocks in and watch the rapids.

We had a little visitor squirrel that was interested in our food. The thing was huge. I think it had eaten one too many hot dogs. It looked like a Cat...it was nasty we would just throw it food and he would take it. Anyway, it was a lot of fun.

4th of July Fun

Well here are some pictures from of 4th of July activities. We obviously didn't get many pictures because all we have are some pictures of some sparklers. We are such fun parents. Bailee and Ty had a lot of fun and really like the show. We went to Riverton Park later in the night to watch some real fireworks and the kids loved it. Ty doesn't really like the noises so he just sit and puts his hands over his ears the whole time, but he seems to like watching.

I got a tee time through work, so my dad, two brothers and I went golfing at Thanksgiving Point. It was a lot of fun and HOT!! Good thing for me I won...of course...I shot a 43 on the front nine. We got about 4 holes into the back nine and were waiting like 10 minutes on each hole just to tee off, so we drove ahead because we had to get home for a BBQ. Of course we get to the 17th hole and see these moron golfers hitting from the Blacks, like they are pros or something. They were holding up everyone on the course and they couldn't even play. Anyway, it was a lot of fun.

IT'S A BOY!!!!!

Well, we are soon to be a family of 3 Boys and 2 Girls. Katie went to the Dr. today in Spokane for her ultrasound and it became official that it's going to be a boy.

I've tried to scan in come pictures from the ultrasound. This first one is the 4D ultrasound it's pretty cool as you can see. He's already trying to show off the guns, but as you can see he is just about as big as his Dad...me and my 12 inchers.

The next picture is a profile view of his face.

The next is his soon to be runner's leg. That definitely looks like a runner's leg so hopefully he will be the next great Bullock cross-country runner along with Ty.

The last picture is a great shot of his junk. I hope he doesn't mind me displaying it to the world, but as you can see there is no question that he is a boy.

Well we are sure excited to have a little buddy for Ty to play with and Bailee is excited to have another brother. They were already coming up with names today, a few examples of their choices are: Charlie, Stanley, Ernie, Happy, Elmo, just to name a few. Obviously they get all their name choices from the Disney channel and cartoon characters. Katie is due on Nov. 20th but if this one is anything like Bailee and Ty she will be having him sometime in October. Well I am going to try to do a better job of updating this so hopefully another post will be coming soon. Later. Ryan

FATHERS & SONS

Well I guess I can start to do some blogging since Katie is quite the slacker when it comes to posting stuff. Anyway, Tyson and I went on out first Fathers and sons campout this past weekend. We went to the Spruces camp ground up Big Cottonwood Canyon. It was actually the fathers and sons of my parents ward and since we are here for the summer in Utah I though it would be fun to go along. Luckily, we had a blast.
Tyson was the youngest person there by a couple years but he was great and had a fun time. We went for a hike and he wanted to hike all the places that I couldn't get like under trees and through bushes. He would always turn back to me and say "Dad, are we having fun?" I thought we were so I told him we were having tons of fun. We threw rocks and pine cones down a little stream and chased after chipmunks.
I forgot a sleeping bag for Ty so we had to share. Needless to say I slept horribly. Tyson slept like a rock. We slept out under the stars and he woke up at 5:30 am at what I call the "butt crack of dawn." He was wide awake and was asking where the stars went and was watching the chipmunks run up and down the tree. I just laid there but he stayed in the sleeping bag until about 7, then we had to get up and try to hit the chipmunks with sticks and pine cones.
Ty wasn't too big a fan of the fire. He was putting a stick in the fire, like everyone does, and set it down for a minute and when he came back he grabbed the burnt end and got a small burn on his finger. After that he wanted nothing to do with the fire. I guess it's good he learned his lesson early. Anyway, it was a fun time and I think we are going to go back up in a couple of weeks with Katie and Bailee.

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.