Celebrating the Pioneers!

We had a really busy and fun Pioneer Day. It was great to be back in Utah to celebrate with our families. We have kind of missed out on Pioneer Day in Las Vegas. Every year since I can remember, my Grandma gets up very early to save us all seats at the Ogden Parade. We were planning to go down there, but we were invited by the Lifferth's to go to the North Logan parade and decided that might be a better option. The Ogden parade is SOOOO long, so we decided to try this one and it was really fun! It was only about a half hour long which was good for the kids and they threw a TON of candy! My kids thought that was great! They had some pretty nice floats for a little town parade and lots of "Princesses" from each town's royalty that Rylee and Olivia loved waving too! I think it was the first non-Disney parade our kids have been to, so it might have been a bit of a let down after those parades, but they did love all the candy!!! Here are some pictures from our parade experience!

Rylee, Logan and Olivia watching the parade from Robb's Longboard. I thought they looked so cute! Robb took Logan for a ride on the Longboard and he loved it!

Rylee and Logan

Rylee and Olivia

Rylee with her candy!

My kids were so funny about the candy! It took Logan awhile to catch on what was going on and why people kept chucking things at us, but once he figured out it was candy he did a good job gathering it up and putting it in his little bag! Rylee was hilarious!!! She was such a little scavenger - As soon as they threw the candy, she was running around trying to pick up every piece. If she saw a piece, she went after it... even if it was really far away! She would have 4 or 5 pieces of candy in her hands and try to pick up more and have to rearrange all the candy to get more. Darren and I would try and hold her candy for her, but she wasn't giving it up!!! She watched the parade with her hands full of candy for most of the time. It was really funny to watch!Rylee showing off a piece of her candy and Logan watching the parade.Rylee and Logan - Rylee is now eating her candy! She couldn't wait for me to unwrap it and was eating it straight through the wrapper - GROSS! She ate a Tootsie Roll by biting it in half, wrapper and all! She is not the most patient little girl.MMMMM... CANDY!!!Logan and his bag full of candy!Some of Rylee's half-eaten candy - GROSS!

After the parade, we went to my Grandma Boman's house for lunch. She has done this every year since I can remember! Most of my cousins were there and we had fun hanging out with everyone. The kids loved my Grandma's big backyard and running around with everyone. The fam with my GrandmaLogan playing Duck Hunt on my Grandma's Old School Nintendo! He LOVED this game and had so much fun, even though I don't know if he ever shot anything! After awhile, my cousins started playing Mario and Logan just kept "shooting" even though he wasn't really playing. He had a great time!Rylee and Grandma (My mom)Logan and Great-Grandma BomanMy Cheesy Rylee!!! For some reason, she thinks she needs to tilt her head like this before she can say Cheese!

After spending the afternoon at my Grandma's, we rushed home and changed and headed over to the Stake Center. Darren's parents came up and Darren's Dad set him apart as a High Priest since they were going to be out of town on Sunday when Darren was called. It was nice to have family close enough to do this!

Fam Picture

Me and D after he was set apart

Rylee, Grandpa Webber (Darren's Dad) and Darren

After Darren was set apart, we went to dinner at this yummy Italian place called Callaway's. It was so good! Our plan was to go to the fireworks afterwards, but we were so tired from our long day! My little brother, Kyle, came home with us for a couple days, so we decided to just stay home and light a couple sparklers we had left over from the 4th. Logan and Kyle really liked doing that! We thought we might be able to see the fireworks from our house, but we couldn't, so we ended up going to bed! It was a really long and fun day!

Sweet Sleeper!

I love looking at my kids when they are sleeping - They look so sweet! Like little angels! I almost forget all the trouble they can get into! I thought Rylee looked so cute sleeping with her bum way up in the air. This was how she was sleeping the morning that we left for Florida. I felt bad waking her up to go to the airport - She looked so peaceful! Rylee is getting to be a good little sleeper (FINALLY!) and wakes up so cute in the mornings.

Darren's New Calling

Today Darren received a new calling. It all started 2 weeks ago, when we received a phone call from the Stake Presidency while we were in Florida. Darren and I both felt that we had a good idea what it might be, and it left us a little stressed for the rest of the vacation. The Stake was supposed to call us back to meet with us when we got back, but they took awhile to call back and we thought maybe we were off the hook, but no luck! They eventually called and we met with one of the counselors in the Stake Presidency on Tuesday night. They had split our ward while we were in Florida (our ward previously had over 900 members and 4 nurseries!) and in the process were reorganizing a lot of things. Darren was called to be the 2nd Counselor in the Bishopric, which is kind of what we expected but still a bit of a shock! Darren was set apart by his Dad on Thursday as a High Priest, so he will know be meeting with the old guys! Today he was sustained and set apart. He was a little relieved that it wasn't Elders Quorum President again (he has done that twice...) but I am a little worried about sitting alone in church with 2 very active children and all the meetings this will entail! We both feel like it will be a good experience for us though and will teach us a lot! Darren is excited for a chance to serve and I feel like maybe it will help us get to know a lot of people in the ward, so that will be good for us. (Most of the people we had made friends with were split into the other ward.... This seems to always happen to us!) We are a little overwhelmed, but I am sure that we will be blessed! I guess the Lord gives us opportunities to serve no matter where we live, in or out of Utah. My testimony has been strengthened that this is where we are supposed to be and what we should be doing now. Wish us luck!!!

I Think I've Recovered....

For those of you who do not know, we spent a week in Florida with my whole family (13 of us!) about a week ago! We had the best time, but came home COMPLETELY EXHAUSTED!!! I think it took us the last week to fully recover. We seriously saw about as much as you could possible cram into a 7 day vacation and had a great time! We visited 4 Disney Theme parks(some more than once), and some of the fam also went to both Universal parks. For a Disney fan like myself, this is my idea of fun, but it isn't so appealing to everyone! We were up early and at the parks all day and home late pretty much every day. There were a lot of us, so it took a lot to get everyone everywhere we were going. We managed to get through the trip without any major fights or disasters and I think we are all still on speaking terms...at least after a week break! It rained on us almost every day, so we learned a lot of tricks of seeing a theme park in the rain, but the rain probably helped with the Florida heat and the crowds. A couple of days, it rained so hard, it flooded all the sidewalks at the parks and completely drenched us, but we still had a great time!
My kids were so amazing and did so well! With relatively little sleep at night and only a rare nap here and there, they were still pretty pleasant and did great! I was so proud of what good travelers they were! Logan had the time of his life and tells anyone who will listen about Disneyworld and wants to play "Disneyworld" with his toys all the time. He will also take the cushions off the couch and tell me he is on "Ex-ca-dition Everest" or at the park he told me the slides were Space Mountain and Splash Mountain. Lately when he plays with cars, he will say "Stay inside the ride and no flash photography. Thank you!" and he keeps saying things about keeping your hands inside the vehicle at all times - I don't think he ever said vehicle before the trip but now he says it all the time! HILARIOUS!!! He even woke up one day saying "where is Chip?" as in Chip and Dale. Another day he was napping and in his sleep said, "Its only Mickey Magic" which is what we told him whenever he got scared on a ride. We have probably caused some serious damage dragging him on all these rides! He got to ride a few of the bigger rides this time. It helped to have his uncles to give him some extra courage! Rylee really warmed up to the family during the vacation and can even say Brad and Kyle's names. She loved everything and just did whatever without much complaint! She really liked all the rides, but wasn't too much of a fan of the characters. She liked them from far away, but up close she freaked out! She preferred to blow them kisses and hoped that if she did that, she would be safe from them getting any closer!
Darren was also great to put up with my Disney madness without too much complaining. I would also like to congratulate my brother-in-law, Jay, for surviving his first official Boman Family Vacation! The 1st time Darren went on one of these, he about went into shock!
Between me, my brother, sisters and Mom, we took over 2,000 pictures on our vacation, so I am still working on organizing them all so I can post them on here with some more details... I know it will be more than most people want to see, but since this is my family journal/scrapbook, I will be posting lots...hopefully soon!
Thank you so much Mom and Dad for giving us such a great opportunity to have fun and spend time together! We had a blast! We love you!

Memories!

A lot of my friends had posted this on their blogs, so I thought it might be fun to try!
1. As you comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!
2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.
If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments. If you don't have a blogger ID, post your memory anonymously and put your name in the comment!
I'm interested (or maybe scared...) to see what you all think of me....

Little Mommy

Ever since Rylee was really small, she has LOVED her baby dolls! It is so funny to watch her be a "Little Mommy" to them or anything that even remotely resembles a baby as she frenquently totes around stuffed animals or other things and calls them baby. She even had some papers the other day that she was rocking and calling baby! She got her first Baby doll around six months and always has picked it up and cuddled it to her and carried it all around the house. She also rocks her baby and gives it loves and kisses and even pats her back - It is the sweetest thing! She is such a rough and tumble little girl but is so gentle and nurturing with babies...except when she is poking out their eyes - She LOVES eyes for some reason!
One of Rylee's first words and first signs was "Baby". She does it all the time and identifies any child under 2 as a baby, even though they may be bigger than her. She usually does not JUST say Baby though - She usually says "Ohhh...Baby!" just like an adult making a fuss over a little baby.
Rylee loves taking care of her little dolls - She "feeds" her babies bottles and even shares her binkies, which is a pretty big deal since she is addicted to her binky and rarely gives it up! I thought this picture was so cute of her feeding her doll a bottle. She also likes to take her babies for walks in her stroller or pushes them around in her shopping cart. She is so funny! This is her taking her baby for a walk in her little baby stroller.The best though is her obsession with baby blankies. She loves to wrap her babies up in blankies or anything else she can find. Wherever I do laundry, half of it quickly disappears before I can get it folded because Rylee is hauling it off to wrap up her babies. It is quite a process! She spreads out the blanket (or laundry) on the ground, then slams her baby down (for some reason, she is not usually too gentle about this!) and then attempts to wrap the baby and picks it back up to carry her around. The problem is that she is only 1 and can not wrap the baby very well, so it eventually falls out of the blanket and she starts the process over again. It seems to frustrate her a little and is kind of funny to watch. She can spend a good half hour just working on wrapping up that baby! I love to just sit back and watch her at work! Here are some funny pics as Rylee with her baby dolls!

Doing a double wrap - 2 Babies at once!

I think she is trying to do a diaper change here.

This is a little pair of undies that go under her dress. She was really trying to wrap the baby in them, but they were a little small.... Funny Girl!

Rylee at 15 Months

I have been wanting to do a post about Rylee and all the things she can do for awhile now, but I just haven't gotten around to it. Rylee is getting to be such a big girl, which makes me a little sad, and is doing so many things! She is changing a lot lately. She is definitely turned into a toddler and has such a fiery personality! She keeps things interesting around our house. She is either so happy and silly, or really upset and has this ear piercing scream that she lets out whenever she is mad! She is the biggest CHEESE I have ever seen and LOVES to pose anytime she sees a camera! She also uses lots of things as her own little camera and holds them up to her eye and says "Cheese" and pretends to take pictures of us! She even sometimes snaps her fingers to get our attention to the camera.... I wonder where she learned that...

Rylee LOVES her big brother Logan and follows him around constantly! She has even started to say, "Brother" and "Logan" although it doesn't sound too close to the words yet. It frustrates Logan a little that she doesn't say his name right, but she is trying! He is always saying "That's not my name!" when she attempts to say "Logan" and it comes out as "Gogan". She loves to give him huge hugs and can tackle him to the ground while she is giving him loves! Rylee is definitely quite the little mimic and is always copying things we do and saying the things we say. She is really funny and loves to play Cars with brother and drives them around saying "Vroommm" and also knows "Buzz" and "Woody" and likes to play ball and ride bikes, just like Logan. No one can get Rylee laughing like Logan can! Before we moved, they were playing "Gladiators" on one of the mattresses and Rylee was laughing her head off even though Logan was knocking her over again and again!

Rylee's 2 favorite things are her baby dolls and phones! She loves to tote her babies all around the house and wrap them up and is so sweet with them. She also is obsessed with my cell phone and carries it all over the house! I have even found it in the trash can because she likes to hide things from me there. She holds the phone up to her ear and tilts her head so funny that it always makes me laugh. She says "Ello" so cute and is almost always talking to "Gandpa" She doesn't stop at just talking on the phone though - she also likes to "take Pictures" with the phone and text! She has sent several text messages and pictures to people and calls the first person in my address book quite frequently (Sorry Allison!) She has also added a HUGE list of contacts to my address book - I counted the other day and there were more than 20 that she has put in there! I have no idea how she manages to push just the right things - It is a little funny! Most of the contacts are just numbers, or a letter and number but one says "Wada" which I thought was so funny for some reason! I am a little nervous for her teenage years if we have such a phone obsession already!

Taking a picture on the cell phone - She is telling me to say cheese!

Rylee's other favorite thing is FOOD! She eats like no baby I have ever seen! She is constantly eating and most of her first words and signs have been food related. Whenever she wakes up in the morning, she points downstairs and continues pointing and grunting and signing "Banana" until we reach the kitchen and she gets her morning banana! She looks like such a monkey when she eats it too!She HAS to have one every day! The other day, I gave her one and it fell out of the peel and she had a total melt down!
She also likes to always have something in both hands when she eats! I guess it makes it faster between bites or something for her.
Whenever we go out to dinner, people are astonished at all she can put away - She will eat the entire time we are there, no matter how long dinner takes! She can even polish off a WHOLE hamburger at Wendy's or In-N-Out! She has insisted on feeding herself since she was about 10 months old or so, so eating time is always extremely messy for her, but she is doing so great with a spoon and fork by herself now - She attempted these things much earlier than Logan because she is so independent and stubborn in many ways! I have no idea how she stays so tiny with all she eats, but it is probably a good thing!
Rylee is also my little daredevil! She never stops and is always running around and LOVES to climb! She climbs EVERYTHING and then likes to jump from it. She just assumes that you will catch her if you are nearby and will jump whether you are ready for her or not. Luckily, she has not broken any bones yet, although she did fall off the little playground at our complex. Of course, she fell from the highest point, but somehow, she was OK and wanted to get right up and try the slide again!
This is how I usually find Rylee if I leave the room for even a minute - On top of our kitchen table! I have no idea what the excitement of this is, but she always manages to find her way to the top and then enjoys jumping off! I could barely get this photo before she jumped to me! She also really loves the stairs in our new place. I think that she thinks it is her own personal obstacle course and loves to climb up and down them. She has been able to go up stairs since she first attempted them at Grandma's at 8 months, but I was nervous about her going down. I thought we would need to buy a gate or something, but she mastered them the 1st day we moved in. She does great at sliding down on her belly, however she prefers to JUMP down the stairs or hold your hand and go down like a big girl instead.


This is Rylee holding a frog in Vegas before we moved. Logan has always been pretty nervous around bugs and frogs and lizards and such. He will watch them, but he does NOT want to touch them. Not Ry! She grabbed this frog and about squeezed him to death before Darren stopped her. She is always trying to pick up bugs and other things too!
Ry is also my Binky Baby! She loves it so much, she even invented her own sign for it when she was about 10 months old. She thinks she has to have it constantly and we are trying to keep it to bedtime and in the car. However, she will frequently go around the house patting her mouth saying "Binky, Binky, Binky!" We may never get it away from her!


Rylee also LOVES being outside! This is one of her favorite things about our new place is that there is a place to play. She loves our little yard and running around and going to the playground. She can make it all the way up to the top of the slide in about 30 seconds! She is always standing by the front door saying "Outside"!




Rylee swinging with her cousin Chloee at Grandma and Grandpa's - So Silly!

Rylee still only has 6 teeth - I have been trying to get a good pic, but haven't succeeded! Rylee got her first 2 bottom teeth in February and then at the beginning of May, she cut her 2 top molars and a few days later, her 2 front teeth! A little out of order, but at least she has a few teeth to chew with!


Rylee seems to be doing much better since we moved to this house in many ways, but I think the greatest thing for her is having her OWN room! She has never really slept through the night, but about a week after moving here, she started sleeping from about 8 pm - 7 am almost every night! It has been fabulous for me! I know that most babies do this much earlier, but it has always been such a battle with Rylee, so this is a big deal at our house! She is also napping so much better too! She also FINALLY gave up nursing the end of May (at 14 months). She is doing so great!


Rylee all wrapped up like a burrito! She still likes to sleep this way - I keep thinking she will outgrow it, but she LOVES it and gets very excited when I wrap her up! She is so busy that I think if I don't bundle her up, she would never hold still long enough to fall to sleep!


Rylee has also recently really started loving books! She is always toting one around and flipping (or tearing!) the pages. She doesn't really like to be read to though. She prefers to do things on her own terms and turn the pages when she wants. The only time I can really read to her is when I put her down and she is all bundled up! I guess that is just another part of her independence!Rylee reading a book in her baby stroller!

Rylee is also starting to be quite the little chatter box and can say lots of words and also does a lot of sign language to express what she wants. This is very helpful since she is not the most patient child and does not want to wait for me to figure out what she wants very often! Here is a list of words Rylee knows at 15 months:
More, Nana (Banana), Mama, Dada, Cacker (Cracker), Cookie, Bath, Eat, Please, No, Yes, Uh-Oh, Binky (This is Definately the favorite word!!!), Hi, Shoes, Bye Bye, Hello, Dog and Doggie, Boo, Go, Baby, Ganpa (Grandpa and I think it means grandma too), Nack (snack), Gogan (Logan), Yogo (Yogurt), Cheese, Outside, Poop, Up, Help, Stuck, Burger, Sip, Drink, Wee, Jump, Brother, Ank You (Thank You), Blankie, Fish, Socks, Eye, Monkey, Duck, Jesus, The End (She always says this when I close a book I am reading to her), Hat, Book, Teeth, Out, Water, Splash, Kiss, Bow, Pretty, Kitty, Peek-A-Book (She says this SO funny! It is one of my favorites!), Car, MaKeen (McQueen), Buzz, Woody, Melmo (Elmo or anything that looks like Elmo...), Walk

And here are a list of the signs that Rylee knows at 15 months: Eat, More, Finished, Banana, Cracker, Cookie, Fish, Bye, Baby, Milk, Drink, Bath, Elephant, Lion, Dog, Cow, Horse, Bear, Turtle, Shoe, Red, Orange, Please, Thank You, Go, Go, Mama (its not the right sign, she actually pats her chest, but its the one she uses...), Monkey, Giraffe, Bird, Duck, SeaLion, Ice Cream, Hat, Book, Brush Teeth, Water, Beautiful, Soft, Mickey

Rylee also can point out her body parts since she was about one and LOVES to do animal sounds! She can do "Arf", "Meow", "Moo", a horse sound, a funny fish pucker, "Teet" (bird), "Kack" (Quack), a funny elephant noise and she always does the sign with , "Roar" (lion), "Grrr" (Bear), "Ar Ar Ar" (sealion) and the silliest monkey sound ever! She is also so funny when you ask her a question - She has a very deliberate Yes, nodding her head, or No! It is pretty funny! Rylee also blows kisses so cute and makes this funny loud, smacking noise when she does it!

Rylee also loves to sing! She is always singing and she has to tilt her head from side to side as she does it, which is so funny! I always sing to her at night, and if I stop, she will pick right up where I left off, at least with the tune... there usually aren't words! She also loves to do songs with actions like "Eensy Weensy Spider", "Monkeys on the Bed", "Monkeys Swinging in the Tree", and Pat-A-Cake. Sometime I will have to post a video of her funny actions and singing - I think it is hilarious! Of course whenever we try and get her to perform for others, she doesn't usually want to! She also LOVES to play Ring-Around-The-Rosie and makes us ALL participate and she likes to do the piggy rhyme on her toes! Her favorite part is the "Wee, Wee, All they Way Home!" It is the cutest! She also always loves a good game of Peek-A-Boo!

Since we have moved back, Rylee is also starting to warm up to others, especially her grandmas, grandpas, and aunts and uncles. She has a great time playing with them and will actually let other people hold her! Rylee is such a fun little girl - We love our sweet princess!