A quick wrap-up of the last month

Well, it has been a long time since we posted anything. Since Christmas is fast approaching and my presents from both my parents and in-laws weigh quite heavily on how many cute pictures of their grandchildren I post, this post may have a somewhat selfish purpose.

This one if for Grandma Hancock. The cowgirl boots are still lookn' good.
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Over Thanksgiving we took a few days and went to watch Weber State University (my younger brother is on the team). Weber was one of 16 teams that were in the Division-1AA playoffs, no BCS crap for D-1AA schools. Weber played William and Mary of Williamsburg, VA. The weather was gorgeous and the town was great. Unfortunately the game was disappointing. Weber got beat pretty handedly, but it was still great to see Joel in our neck of the woods.


This is my brother Joel holding Natalie after the game.
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Last week our good friend Lindsey stopped by with a gingerbread house to decorate with Natalie. Natalie had a great time and in true Hancock fashion she didn't let the house sit still too long after Lindsey left. The house tasted as good as it looked. Thanks Lindsey! Natalie had a great time.

Even Krysta and Ryan got into the action.

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Natalie and Ryan are growing up too quickly.

Natalie told me the other day. "Dad you're buggn' me out"
She is also into big words like fabulous and delicious thanks in part to the Fancy Nancy books.

Ryan is walking all over, as long as he is holding on to something. That kid is fearless and has a lot of fun showing off his new found skills. One of which is pulling Natalie's hair anytime she gets too close to his little paws.

check out these dance moves!
My sister did one of these of her family for Halloween and Natalie has asked to see it every time the computer is on, so I decided to do one of our family.

click here

Our crazy boy

Ryan has become quite mobile and is all over the place! He is pulling himself up and is getting around very well. I'm afraid he is going to be walking before we know it. He is into everything and seems to have a new bump, bruise or scratch on his head everyday. Hopefully none of them cause permanent damage. He and Natalie get along so well. It's so fun to see them play and laugh together. He is such a happy little guy and is so much fun to be around.

Fun with Dad

Adam took Natalie and Ryan to Lowe's (aka The Daddy Store) while I had to help out with the Primary program practice Saturday morning. Adam says he goes there so he can feel like a man. He's like a little kid in a toy store playing with their power tools and dreaming of having them one day. So cute! Anyway, I guess Lowe's has a little children's project class they do every Saturday. They got there a little late, but they came home with a project along with a safety glasses, and a Lowe's apron. She had fun building her garage with her Dad and can't wait to do another project.

Halloween!

We had a fun Halloween yesterday. Natalie loved dressing up and getting lots of candy! She got to wear her adorable Snow White costume (thank you Susan) to preschool Thursday morning, then Saturday morning to our ward's Halloween activity and then that night to go Trick or Treating. Ryan was a scary Dragon and dressed up Saturday as well. Adam and I were pretty boring this year and didn't dress up. We were Muggles last year and those costumes just required too much effort (refer to the Harry Potter books if you don't know what I'm talking about). Anyway, it was a fun day and we have way too much candy in the house!

Trip to the Blue Ridge Mountains

We took off for the Blue Ridge Mountains for a few days of R&R, if that is possible with two kids. We had a great time and enjoyed the changing of the leaves. Krysta's parents were in town so they came with us and we all had a great time. We spent most of the time enjoying the cool weather and the beautiful surroundings.
We stayed in a cabin located in Lansing, NC, which is in the north west corner of the state. So on some of the roads we were in Virginia and very near Tennessee also. We had a great time and would recommend it to anyone.
Here are some pictures of the creek from just outside the door of the cabin.


Every kid should have a bath in the kitchen sink once in their lives.

Krysta and her parents took the kids to a local park earlier this week and had a really good time. We were glad that they took time to come and visit. It was fun to see them play with the kids. Jim and Becky thank you for coming to visit. Jim you owe me big time for not posting the picture of you riding the carousel. :)

A few more...

I forgot to mention that when we sat down to look through the photos Ryan just giggled at each one that came up. He thought it was so funny to see himself and Natalie on the screen. It was so cute.

More pictures!

I took the kids to get their pictures taken today. I had such a hard time choosing which ones to buy and ended up buying a ton. When you've got kids as adorable as ours it's just so hard! I just can't say no. I don't know where I'm going to put them all! So some of you will probably be getting some in the mail. Here are a few.

Baseball, Bubbles, Buddies and the Beach

Durham Bulls baseball game

Blowing bubbles

Best buddies

Wrightsville beach, Wilmington, NC. (Wow! Check out those tans!

We spent a fun day at the beach on Saturday. Though a bit of work with 2 kids. It was a great day to be there. Not a lot of people, mid 80's and a slight breeze. Very nice. Natalie had fun building a sand castle, finding sea shells and of course playing in the waves.

Ryan is rolling over a ton and sitting up really well. I think he's going to be crawling soon too. He's such a happy and smiley boy. He so much fun. He and Natalie are really cute together. She smiles at him and he laughs. It's really cute. She is a great big sister and a good helper to me.

Preschool!

Today was Natalie's first day of preschool. She's been looking forward to this day ever since we told her about it and has been counting down the days. She was so excited this morning and of course wanted to take her backpack. So we get there and walk up to the door and as I start talking to her teacher Natalie walks through the door and doesn't even look back! Our little girl sure is growing up. :(
We also went on a fun, little bike ride tonight. The weather has been SO nice here the last few days, around 80 degrees with no humidity! I can handle this kind of weather.

Peter Piper...

Natalie had a lot of fun with this tongue twister. Also, Ryan can now roll over by himself, but we cannot seem to get it on video.

Our visit to Utah

We just got back from a fun-filled trip to Utah. The kids and I got to stay for about 3 weeks. Adam came in the middle for 9 days and left a few days before we did. We had such a good time. This was my first time flying alone with 2 kids. And although I would have loved to have Adam with me to help it actually went okay. Natalie talked the ear off the lady sitting next to her. I really don't think she closed her mouth for more than 15 minutes of our 4 hour flight! The woman was very nice and played with her and even let her watch Sesame Street on her Ipod (probably so she could get some peace and quite and read her book)!

My parents and brother Robby (who just got home from his mission the end of May) picked us up from the airport and we went straight to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house. Natalie had been really excited that she was going to get to go to the Temple. It was beautiful (of course) but I think her favorite part was the cookies they had for everyone after we got done walking through the temple. I've got to get the pictures we took from my Mom because I left my camera in the car (of course).
We had our annual 'Girl's Night Out' with my grandma the night after we got there. We had a yummy dinner and did crafts that night then in the morning we made Plucketts (yummy) and then went out to lunch. Thanks Nana! You amaze me with all you do!
Adam's mom just got a pool in their backyard. It got done just a few weeks before we got there. We loved playing in the pool! Natalie couldn't get enough. If we were over there she wanted to be in the pool. Sarah and Steve were even there a few days and the girls got to play together. Poor Ryan. He has all girl cousins on the Hancock side. He really needs a boy cousin to play with. Hint, hint. Just kidding.
We went to Heber City for a few days with my family. We stayed in a gorgeous house up there. The boys golfed Wasatch Mountain two days. The girls left the kids with the men and went shopping to the outlet stores in Park City one afternoon. We also took the kids to the Kamas pool. They loved it. It really is a fun place. Natalie and her cousin Ty really had fun playing together during that trip. They played really well together and were so cute!


I also got to visit with some friends. Visiting them made me realize how great it is to be able to walk next door or up the street and have friends right there. I also miss our little, old house and backyard. I am excited for the day when we are living in a house again.

Now that we're back I feel like I need a vacation from our vacation! It seemed like we were trying to fit in so many things that we didn't have any time to just hang out. So I'm tired! Plus the kids haven't been sleeping well since we got back. I think the time change has affected them. And we think Ryan must have some teeth coming in because he hasn't been his normal happy and smiley self all the time (though still such a good baby).

So now it's back to real life. Back to this humid, hot climate. Have I mentioned that I hate humidity. I don't think I'll ever get used to it.

Thanks for the great times!

4th of July fun

Happy Little Boy

Krysta and Natalie are out shopping and she asked me to post this short video that we took of Ryan laughing. He was laughing quite a bit harder before we got the camera out. Seems like that always happens.



Since Krysta is not here to stop me, I'll post a picture of Ryan in a shirt that some friends of mine from work got for him. It may be redneck but oh well.

Random photos for grandparents

Picnic Table

Over the weekend Adam built a little picnic table for Natalie. He's been dying to build something so we thought this would be a fun project. Poor Adam. He really misses having something to work on. He (and I) really miss our house. There was always something to work on there. A 60+ year old home always has something that needs fixed or updated. Anyway, he had fun building this and Natalie loves it!