Swimsuit Season!

We took the girls swimming last week for the first time! I love doing new things with babies and watching them discover everthing. I expected them to be a little nervous and they were cautious at first, but they ended up loving it! It was so cute to see them kicking and splashing around! We had a great time! Here they are with Dad!

Time Out for Women

Time Out for Women

Last weekend I had the best experience at a Deseret Book Time out for Women in Kansas City! I honestly loved it and left feeling motivated and rejuvenated! They do these mini Women's conferences all over the country and it was well worth it. Scott finished his finals on that friday (hooray) and we headed off to Kansas City. We went with 2 other couples from Kirksville, the Roos' and Wrights'. Tami, Tobey and I went to the conference while our husbands watched the kids! It was so sweet of them and we all had so much fun together! We stayed at the Hyatt and it was super nice! After the conference we all ate at Cheesecake factory and shopped at the Plaza. We loved it!

At the time out there were some great speakers including Lloyd Newell, Sheri Dew, Stephen Robison, Jane Clayson Johnson, Sharon Larson, and others. Hillary Weeks was the host and she has some great songs she sang. There was another guy there (I can't remember his name) but he has this CD that is called Joseph: A Nashville Tribute and it is country-style songs about Joseph Smith and the early saints. I was skeptical at first, but I'm a true country girl and I actually loved it! I totally recommend it! Anyway, it was so nice to sit through a meeting without juggling babies and be able to just really listen! What a great thing! I have the greatest husband to let me do it!

We loved our weekend in Kansas city!

We love to Play!

For equality purposes I had to write that Bella is also sitting up all by herself these days (just a few days after Maddie). We think they are so cute!

We love Dad!!

(Tomorrow, March 4, is my sweetheart's Birthday! He is right in the middle of finals and has been studying like crazy, poor guy! He is amazing though and we know he will do great... he always does!)

Dear Dad,
Happy Birthday!! We are so glad your birthday fell on a sunday, so we can spoil you and have you the whole day! We are so proud of you for doing so well in school and being an incredible husband and father! We love you to the moon!
Love, your girls

Lots of pink!

So the other day I had a tragedy with the girls' laundry!! I accidentally washed a pair of pink pants with some of their white clothes and suddenly all their white sweaters, pjs, and everything have become light pink!! I was soooo sad about it! Luckily there wasn't a ton of stuff that got ruined, and it could have been much worse, but still!! Anyone know much about using bleach?


We love these cute outfits from Grandma Melanie and the ones below from Aunt Lacey! The girls looks so grown up! This chair is our classic picture place. We have a picture of them here in a billion outfits. It is just the easiest way to get them both to look at me since they haven't been sitting up by themselves for very long.


Here Maddie is sitting up all alone!! Doesn't she look proud! She finally will sit up by herself now, and Bella is getting there too. She isn't quite as stable, but she's close. They have such a tiny little bum and legs, so they don't have a very good base! :) They have finally got the balance thing down though I think.

Ice Storm

The weather was sunny this last week and it was so nice! It has been pouring rain the past 2 days, but it is nice not to have snow! I thought I'd post a picture of an icestorm though. It really is pretty. Every little blade of grass and leaf and everything gets frozen. I hope we are done with these for the year though. I'm ready for spring!!

Babies

You can see a little bit of red hair coming in... not much yet though. Aren't those stares priceless? They look so similar in this picture. People are always surprised when I tell them that they are fraternal. Bella is on the left. She looks bigger in this picture, but is still half a pound or so and an inch smaller than Maddie. We are just waiting for them to start crawling. That is when the craziness will begin because they already want to get into everything!

Bambi and friends

You probably can't really see the deer very well, but this picture was taken last week from our back door. We kind of live in the wilderness and we have furry friends in our yard everyday. We've had a few scares when the deer have been in the driveway, but no accidents yet!

Some Current Pictures of our girls

Bella

Maddie

The ultimate Valentine!

Scott did it again. It never ceases to amaze me how romantic he is! It is the best! Every holiday/birthday/special occasion he spoils me (and I love it)! Yesterday was no exception. I won't go into all the details but lets just say our night included lots of roses, love songs, candles, delicious food, a relaxing bath for me(with 2 new magazines, my robe, and PJs all set out), a sweet sweet love letter, pride and prejudice, a book I've been wanting, and lots of kisses :) I'm the luckiest girl in the world. He truly treats me like a queen. Wow, I love that guy!

(Okay, so I actually had to go back to our pictures from last August to find a picture of Scott and me alone. We only take pictures of the babies these days, so this is out of date and I actually think I look really scary in it! Oh well!)

Love is in the air!

Happy Valentine's Day from the Rynearson's!

We love you!

Baby love!

I walked in from the other room behind the girls and said,"Where's my babies?" They both turned simultaneously to see where I was, and they were in the exact same position. I had to grab the camera for this one!!

Aren't these coats fabulous? They are so cute in them... they can barely fit into their carseats with all that fur!

My family

We have recently realized that our babies are becoming little girls! They are getting so big and doing new things every day. It is such a fun stage right now. I love watching them learn new things and be constantly checking out everything around them. We have a Dr. apointment today, and they have to get their shots! That is never fun, but I'm excited to see how long and heavy they've gotten. I truly can't get enough of them! Isn't that a handsome Dad they've got too?

Cabin Fever?

Have you ever had big time cabin fever? This week I've been feeling a little stir crazy. I love my life and my family, but sometimes you just need some new scenery. I mean, honestly, how many times can I walk the Walmart aisles in a week? We have no mall and very few stores to wander around in. It is so cold that I hate to take the girls out anyway, because that double stroller is a workout to set up! I was ready to drive to Columbia today, but it was supposed to snow, so I didn't. Anyway, I just wondered if anyone else gets this way!
The next place we live must have the following essentials: 1. A close airport to fly home 2. Somewhere to get a really yummy salad (rumbi's, zuppas, or cafe rio preferably) 3. Some fun shopping (Not that I can spend the money, just for getting out and looking).
Scott has been studying so hard for a test this week (bless him), so he has been busy. The girls probably get a little bored of playing with mom all day, but tomorrow is Sunday (hooray) so that means I get a husband for the whole day!

Does this sound like a complainer? I didn't mean to...

10 things you may not know about my darling husband Scott

He's at school... hope he doesn't mind! He'd probably tell you different things, but here are some fun facts I've learned about him.

1. He is an amazing athlete at EVERY sport! He is especially good at raquetball these days!
2. He wrote the story of how we met, dated and got married, and also the story of our girls' birth. We are talking pages and pages of all the details!
3. He wants to serve lots of missions one day. (For the church and medical missions)
4. He loves to cook with me in the kitchen and is great about doing dishes and stuff around the house.
5. He has a lot of patience with me. He is always the one to apologize first in an argument. (Even though it is rarely his fault!)
6. He is clean, clean, clean! I love it! He even taught me how to fold our laundry very neatly!
7. He is a believer in "men's responsibilities" (He takes out the trash, carries the groceries in, always drives, he is in charge of family prayers/scriptures, kills all the bugs or spiders etc.)
8. He has an incredible memory! He is amazing with directions, sports trivia, and of course the insane amounts of stuff he remembers for med school.
9. He spoils me with diamonds, chick flicks, concerts, flowers, eating out, basically anything!
10. I've seen him become an incredible father the past six months. He loves our girls so much and always wants to play with them. He gives them a million kisses a day, and he loves it when they cuddle up with him and fall asleep.

10 things you may not know about me

Lots of my friends have done this and inspired me... it is fun to learn new facts about everyone!

1. I love to travel and have plans to go all over the world someday.
2. I love to organize and plan. (I have a weekly cleaning schedule, monthly meal calendar, categorized to do lists, and I rearrange my closet about every other week!)
3. Someday I want to have a vacation home at the beach.
4. I love to read, and once I get into a good book I hardly get anything else done.
5. I have the biggest sweet tooth ever! I want to eat treats all day long!
6. I anxiously await my monthly magazines and catalogues... Martha Stewart Living, Pottery Barn Kids, the Ensign...
7. I love nursing my babies! (Although I am ready to give up those night time feedings!)
8. I drink a ton of milk! We go through gallons and gallons a week!
9. I miss my dancing days, and sometimes I relive them in the kitchen when Scott's gone.
10. Someday I want to have an amazing craft room with supplies for sewing, scrapbooking, decorating, baking, gardening, floral design, etc.

Six Months

We can't believe our girls our six months old! Yesterday was their half birthday, so I took this picture. I remember thinking when they were first born that six months seemed like an eternity away. Now it is here, the time really has flown by. I love these babies more than I could have even imagined. Our life has been so blessed and happy to have two beautiful, sweet, and healthy girls. One day I will get a picture of them both smiling. It is tough because they just stare at the camera like, "What is that?" Scott thinks Bella's hat is like an old school football helmet, but I love it!

Be grateful

One of my new year's resolutions is to really focus on implementing President Hinckley's "Be's" into my life. Both my sister and my mom gave me something for Christmas to put up in our house that has them on it, so I decided that there was a good reason. Anyway, I'm studying and reading about one each month. This first month I have been thinking about being grateful. It truly is amazing how much happier you can be if you always focus on the things you are grateful for.

For example, this week I made a yummy bbq chicken salad for dinner. It was in one big bowl and we sat down to eat. Right then Maddie grabbed onto the bowl and pulled it over into Scott's lap and the floor. My first thought was, "Oh great, all that work for nothing," but then I looked at my sweet daughter who didn't know any better and realized there is no way I could be mad at her. There was still some salad in the bowl to eat, so I thought, "Just be grateful that the entire thing isn't gone!" This probably seems really silly, but I have to say that after tiring days and nights sometimes making dinner is a big accomplishment. Anyway, there is no reason to worry about such trivial little things.

Thinking about being grateful has helped me this month. We came back from a wonderful visit with family and friends and I was worried because it is hard to adjust back to being alone taking care of the girls after we've had so much help and company. Their sleeping was way off, and of course we all had the stomach flu. Anyway, everyday I've thought of things to be thankful for and the adjustment has been sooo much easier than I expected. Here are a few things that I've been so grateful for this month:
1. The girls are starting to sleep much better in the day! I can just lay them both down and they will fall asleep by themselves! It got so exhausting to rock them to sleep every day, but it is getting so much easier. We are now working on the nights... still a little rough sometimes, but not bad!
2. Online shopping! I have had so much fun waiting for my packages to arrive in the mail each day. I got some high chairs for the girls, a new book, and some other things. I'm so grateful for the internet because there are limited shopping options in this town.
3. I am so happy that we have met so many great LDS families around here to hang out with! I love all the other wives and it is so fun to spend time together. It makes the days go by faster and we do a lot of fun things. Every tuesday night is project night and we get together and work on something and chat. Wednesay nights I go to activity days for my church calling and it is really fun. It is a perfect calling for me right now! Thursday night is movie night which always ends up being just the girls talking and eating treats, but that is what we like! Last month we all got together and brought our wedding pictures and videos and watched everyone's. It was so funny! There are always activities going on through the school's spouse association (playgroup, cooking club, book club, socials) and enrichment activities too. We could be doing something every single day if we wanted! It sure is nice to have wonderful people around us when we are far away from our family!

Anyway, we have so much to be grateful for. It is truly amazing! In President Hinckley's book Way to Be he tells one of my favorite stories about gratitude. I'll just paraphrase it. There were two little boys walking by a field and they saw a man working a ways off, but his shoes were laying in the road. ONe little boy suggested they hide the shoes, and see what the man did when he couldn't find them. The other little boy thought it would be better to put a silver dollar in each shoe and see what he did when he found them. The man came and slipped his first foot into the shoe and found a silver dollar. He looked around perplexed but didn't see anyone. Then he slipped his other foot into the other shoe and found the second silver dollar. Right then he was overcome with thankfulness and he fell on his knees and cried and thanked Heavenly Father for whoever had done that. He spoke about his family who was sick and starving and prayed that the Lord would bless the anonymous giver.

I love that so much. We always have to remember where all blessings come from and show Him we are thankful!

More food fun

Bella likes to do it by herself already. What a mess!

We think this picture is hilarious. She is like a little gangster saying, "What up?"

Maddie digging in!

"No more cereal... I won't open my mouth!"

We have just started giving the girls rice cereal! It is so cute! We ordered them these little high chairs and they are loving it. It takes them a minute to decide if they like the cereal...

but once they start eating, they love it!