My Little Blue Box

This arrived from Switzerland yesterday-just in time for mother's day. I apparently don't give my husband the credit he deserves because I honestly thought he would forget. I am starting to feel a little guilty about the dress I bought myself as my back-up present...

p.s. it was a pair of earrings

Our First Official Family Vacation

With a big giant change looming over us (that happened May 2nd), we decided to take a little family vacation to spend some serious time together-just the 3 of us. Pete has an uncle that lives in California during the week, but goes home to his family in Utah on the weekends, and he let us stay in his rental home. I got off work on a Friday afternoon and we then headed down to California for the weekend. Ryan was better than we ever imagined that he could be in the car-in fact Pete told me I complained more about the car ride than Ryan did:)

We headed to disneyland Saturday, it was so crowded that we didn't get to ride a lot of rides, but we still had a great time. We rode bikes and went to the beach and then Monday we headed down to the San Diego Zoo and then drove home from there. It was a quick trip but so much fun.

Ryan was terrified of the characters


He LOVED the Buzz Lightyear ride


Nap time




Hermosa Beach


The San Diego Zoo

...Hope...

We celebrated Easter all the traditional ways, but the real celebration came from the powerful messages of hope I was able to hear in church from 4 of my family members. My family has been thru some extremely difficult things and continue to endure trials, as I am sure many of you do, and it was wonderful to focus on the positive aspects of hard things. Knowing there are better things to come some day is the real reason to celebrate.

...I can FINALLY check this off my list...

Running a half marathon has been a goal of mine for a REALLY long time . I have trained twice in the past but had to drop out each time because of sickness-so I have never actually crossed the finish line of a half marathon. Well, yesterday was finally my day. Unfortunately, it was not my training partner's (a.k.a my little sister) day-she got sick this past week and was unable to run it with me. It was a lonely, cold run (it snowed the majority of the race) but I did it and I ran the entire race! Walking today is quite another story though...


                                                            ...My training partner...

I know these pictures of me are the most beautiful you have ever seen and yes those are hot pink ear muffs, but I had just run 13.1 miles so I don't really care.

...really?...

Seriously? Again? You would think after spending my entire life here in Utah I would be used to this yo-yo weather pattern-nope I get my hopes up every year that spring will come and stay and then it decides to do this again.

What jammies will Ryan be wearing this week?

That is the question Ryan's nursery leaders ask each week at church. He LOVES his pj's these days. So much so that he wears them 24-hours a day. It is such a fight to get him to wear normal clothes that we compromise and let him wear them under his clothes-plus it is one of those quintessential kid things that I HAVE to let him do it:)


This past Sunday was special because he didn't just wear jammies under his church clothes-he wore a disney rash guard.

...Joy...

I have thought a lot this past week about the simple joys that motherhood brings into your life (I had to teach a YW lesson on it today). Motherhood is one of the most difficult, heart wrenching, emotional, tiring things I have ever done in my life, but also the most rewarding, happy, incredible, joyful times of my life have been because of motherhood. This mom business is a complex world of emotions, but I would never go back to my previous life.

Yesterday, I got to share in the joy and celebration for a friend whom is expecting twins. She is going to be an incredible mom and seeing how happy she was reminded me how lucky we are to be mothers.

So tell me-what is your favorite thing about being a mom?

...Valentine's Day Rescheduled...

Instead of my hot date with my husband, we got to stay home and spend the evening with this sick little guy. After spending all last night listening to Ryan cough, his every breath rattle, and feeling his little body burning up, I decided this morning it was time to take some action. We took Ryan to the doctor and she almost admitted him to the hospital on the spot for low oxygen levels. He was tested for flu and pneumonia and everything came back clear, but the doctor was still very concerned about his low oxygen levels and told us to bring him back in tomorrow for testing. We are hoping he will be a good little boy and take lots of big breaths between now and then:)

...initiation...

It's official-Ryan can now call himself a "true" Reichman.
His initiation into this elite group: skiing at Snowbird.





The best part about the trip was when his binkie fell off the lift and he tried to jump off to retrieve it. We really need to get rid of that thing...