Jack & Jake Bryner

My adorable twin nephews have arrived! I am so excited for Abby and Jordan. Abby was amazing and carried them to 38 weeks. Wow!!! They arrived on September 16, 2011. Jack Thomas was 6 lbs. 9 oz. and Jake Jordan was 6 lbs. 2 oz. They are both doing great and got to come home right from the hospital. I spent the last few days taking pictures of them. Boy, that was a challenge! But I think we accomplished our goal by getting some beautiful newborn pictures. I put some up on my photography website which you can visit here. Luvs!

The WORST great deal ever

Warning: If you are convinced that a great deal is worth it NO MATTER WHAT then I caution, urge, and beg you to stop reading now.


It all started on a relaxing July afternoon. Sawyer was down for a nap, so I had a little time to kill. I jumped on Facebook and saw that someone had posted about a good deal going on for Melissa & Doug toys on the site 1SaleADay. I had never heard of that site, but thought I would check it out.  When I found the deal I was surprised that it included 3 different wooden toys (a puzzle, tools, and shape blocks) for only $25 plus $5 for shipping. Not bad, I thought to myself, 3 nice toys for 10 bucks apiece. So I e-mailed Shane the link to see what he thought, 'This looks like a GREAT package deal. Do you think it is worth it??' and he agreed that we couldn't go wrong.


But wrong it could! I got all signed up on the site, then proceeded to the checkout with my GREAT deal. As I entered my information and clicked the purchase button, I received an error alert telling me that my billing address and zip code didn't match. Weird. So I thought maybe I had entered something in wrong. I went back and tried again. Same error message. Now I was starting to get a little frustrated. I gave it another shot, thinking that maybe my auto-fill information was throwing it off. I laboriously typed in all of my information again. ERROR. I believe I tried about 6 times before giving up. Maybe this deal wasn't worth it.


I was just about to give up when a little birdie whispered in my ear that I had now submitted my billing information 6 different times and that maybe, just maybe, my credit card had been charged. Yep, all 6 times. So now my GREAT deal had cost me $179.88. What the?!? Wonderful, now I had to contact this stupid company. E-mail to Support: Blah, blah, blah. I only want ONE of these orders. Please fix this and get back to me ASAP. While I was waiting for the response, I checked my credit card and the charges were pending removal, but not 5 like I requested, all 6.


Response: Dear Valued Customer, I need your order number to better assist you. Have a wonderful day! 
To Support: I never received order numbers because it said the orders didn't process. All 6 charges are removed. Now what? I still want this item.
Response: Try using PayPal. (with a little more embellishment.)


Fine. Let's try this one more time. I didn't have a PayPal account, so I got on to set it all up. But when I got to the part about my credit card number, it told me that the credit card was already assigned to another account (Shane's.) So I tried logging in under Shane's name, but couldn't figure out the password. I called Shane and he gave me the right password. Back to try again. This time it actually went through, I got my order number, and wah-lah, all I had to do it wait for it to ship. Right?


That night, as we were waiting for the final Harry Potter movie to start, I pulled up my e-mail on my phone and saw the confirmation e-mail for my order. But the shipping address said it was headed to PROVO. That was our old address from when we first got married. When Shane set up his PayPal account, that was where we lived. He had never changed the address and I didn't know this! So I must contact Support yet again. To Support: Blah, blah, blah. The address it is heading to is my OLD address. Can you send it here instead?


Response: Dear Valued Customer, Your order has already been submitted and unfortunately the shipping address is unable to be changed as per fraud prevention requirements. I recommend that you notify the tenants at that address to receive or refuse the package for you. Once it is refused, we will reship it to the proper address. Have a wonderful day!


WHAT THE!?! How the heck was I supposed to contact the tenants at that address? This stupid order was SO not worth this! So I did what any rational person would do, I wrote a note. Dear current tenants, Blah, blah, blah. When you get this package will you please refuse it? Call me if you have any questions. ~Riley


I sent it off, hoping that it would beat the package. I received an e-mail telling me my order had shipped and giving me a tracking code. Thankfully, the package was slow. I thought this might all work out in my favor. If I could call it that at this point. But little did I know, when I opened my mailbox one day and saw some familiar handwriting on one of the envelopes, that I was in for more trouble! Stamped across my letter to the current tenants it said VACANT. Yes, no one lived there!!! CRAP, CRAP, CRAPPITY, CRAP! Now what?


I continued to track the package and decided that the best thing to do was wait and see what would happen to it. If it got delivered, I would go pick it up. If not, then it should be headed back to them and resent to me. Of course it just got delivered and left on the front porch. Being the great guy that he is, I asked my brother-in-law Jeff to swing by and pick it up on his way home from work one day. He told me it was a little beat up, but there! Phew!!


After all of this, I finally got my package. As I opened it up, I was sure there would be something wrong. It couldn't possibly be this easy to get such a GREAT deal, could it? But, it was all there, just as it should be. We gave Sawyer the shape blocks that night and he had a blast. I think we'll save the other two for gifts when he gets a little older.


Isn't that the GREATEST deal you've ever heard of?

16 Months

Sawyer is now 16 months. Holy cow! He is just bursting with personality these days. He loves to growl at people and have them growl back. It is hilarious when he does this with strangers because they have no idea why this small child is growling at them! He is also completely food obsessed. He has been for quite a while, but now his latest word is cooking. Yes, his fifth word is cooking. Anything to do with food or the kitchen is now 'coogy' to Sawyer. If he is hungry, I hear this word about 50 times in a row. His favorite thing to do now is help cook, especially stirring. He loves to carry around a tupperware and spatula and stir to his little heart's content. He is still a little stinker because he doesn't care about learning any other new words. He only cares about saying words of things that he really likes. Stubborn. He can identify his ears, foot, and belly button, but only when he feels like it. He is walking/running all over the place now. It is getting hard to keep up with him sometimes. He is also not a very good listener yet. He thinks he gets to do whatever he wants now that he can walk. Let the (attempted) training begin! One of his favorite games is to be chased by Shane. He laughs so hard, turns on a dime, and takes off whenever Shane growls at him. He has gotten quite a few teeth in the last month, including some molars. But his teeth are only coming in on the left side. Not quite sure why, but it is definitely strange! At his doctor's appointment this month he weighed 21.5 pounds which is only the 12th percentile. But he measured 30.5 inches long which made him jump from the 18th to the 29th percentile in just 3 months! He is growing up so fast.


Here are his 16 month pictures. As you can see in one of them, he has the Smith top teeth gap. Poor boy!

 

Children's Place Contest!

Hey friends! I just entered Sawyer into a photo contest for The Children's Place photo shoot. Will you go vote for him?? Please! All you have to do is click here and enter your e-mail, click on View Gallery. Then type in his Entry ID 258994 and vote for him. Every day you vote, you will get entered in to win a $50 gift card to The Children's Place. Thanks for supporting us!! Luvs.

15 Months

Sawyer turned 15 months a few days ago. Where does the time go? I feel like we were just celebrating his birthday and now it is 3 months later. This month he has broken another new top tooth, for a total of 5 teeth. He also is really cruising around with the walking. He hardly ever falls now. He still jabbers up a storm, and usually in Chinese still. He has figured out how to ask for things by looking you in the eye as he explains his point of view. This is usually after he has been told 'no' for something! He will keep jabbering, thinking if he tells you enough of his reasoning, you will change your mind. It is quite funny! He has also developed a very big temper and throw tantrums. Yes, a 15 month old can throw a tantrum! It usually starts with being told 'no', then he starts to get mad, curls his little hands into fists, screams, and then tries to BITE the counter or floor. I know, we have some fun times ahead with this one! But overall he is still a really good baby (I guess not really a baby anymore, but a little boy.) His new favorite thing is to pat everything. His leg, my tummy, the top of the garbage can, anything that will make a noise! He still loves to say kiddy-kiddy and follow my parent's cat. But now he specifically finds the kitty in one of his books and squeals out kiddy-kiddy-kiddy in excitement. He has also changed from saying 'da' for dog to 'gog'. He is not too interested in saying other new words yet, hopefully that will change soon. We are working on body parts identification. He has shown me his ear a few times. Also he knows foot when I ask him for it to wash. It has been really fun getting to spend more time with him over the summer!


Here are his 15 month pictures. We have a toddler model in the making!

Sawyer LOVES to be outside playing in the dirt!

My mom and Abby helped me make this new 'big boy' blanket for Sawyer.

Vuksinick Family Campout 2011

Two days after Sawyer and I flew home, we headed off for the annual Vuksinick family campout for the weekend in Huntington canyon. I look forward to this camping trip every year. We just hang out and catch up with all our extended family. We also have a horseshoe tournament each time.


This year since Abby was very pregnant and Shane was still in Tahoe we did the 'sort of' camping stay. We slept in the Huntington hotel at nights, but spent the rest of the time at the campground. I LIKE this kind of camping. All the fun, but none of the cold/wet tents! Abby and I think it would be convenient if one of us were pregnant each year so we could 'sort of' camp every time! 


We spent lots of time talking to everyone and finding out what they've been up to. We always assign out the meals, so we ate super well while we were there! Then on Saturday afternoon we played the annual horseshoe tournament. So fun! This year I was partners with my grandpa (Pops). He is such a fun and loving grandpa. We beat out the team in the first round. Then we had to play Anton and Max, who had already won two games. We actually beat them too by quite a bit, I was amazed! But they weren't out because of an odd number of teams. So to finish up, the last three teams all had to play each other. To take the gold, you had to win twice. Anton and Max beat the other team, so Pops and I had to play them again. This time we weren't so lucky. But we did come close, losing 18 to 21. In the end Anton and Max won first place. Pops and I took home second! That's the best I've ever done. I also got to bring home a trophy!! Impressive, I know.


Sawyer had so much fun camping. He could have played in the dirt all day long. He also loved walking around on his newly working legs. But because the ground was so uneven, he mostly walked with someone's hand. He also loved eating s'mores for the first time! We camp at a place called the Big Rock because it really does have a HUGE rock sitting there. So of course Sawyer needed his picture on top of the rock. Uncle Anton was nice enough to climb up and take Sawyer for his first Big Rock picture. It was a really fun trip and I can't wait for next year!

 Look at that growing belly!

 Pops taking Sawyer for a walk.

 Pops and Gram

 Abby being score keeper because she couldn't play.

Anton and Sawyer (and Sophie) on the Big Rock.

My horseshoe prize. It says 1st place, but really I won 2nd.

Last time to play in the dirt while we loaded up.

Cali Continued

Next we hit the San Diego Zoo Safari Park with mom and Anton. We decided to try it out instead of the regular zoo. It was pretty cool and full of lots of roaming animals. We took a little tram ride through the main areas, then we explored the exhibits. We went into a bird area with Lorikeets just flying around. You could feed them nectar and they would just land on your wrist to drink it. But we just watched other people do that. It was really fun though because the birds weren't afraid of us. Sawyer really liked seeing them up close.

Sawyer's favorite part of the Safari Park was the petting area. They have several deer-type animals in there that are very docile. He just wandered from one animal to the next petting them and saying Kiddy-Kiddy (which is what he calls my parent's cat.) We'll have to work on that with him! He was very sad/angry to leave that part. Lastly, we finished up with Sawyer's first taste of cotton candy. Yum! Then we had to drop Grammie and Anton off at the airport so they could head home.

As we continued on our trip we went to Shane's friend's wedding. Did a little dancing with Sawyer. Congrats Rob and Kelly!

After that we made the crazy windy (as in the road, not the air blowing) drive up to Yosemite National Park. I had never been there and it was sort of on our way, so we decided it would be fun to stop by for a day. It is definitely beautiful! We lugged Sawyer around in a baby hiking backpack and he actually did pretty well. We ate some lunch, then hiked up to see the nature center and Mirror Lake, which isn't so reflective. We stopped for a yummy snack. Then we finished with a hike to the lower waterfalls. It is an amazing site! But poor Sawyer was so tired by then that he was falling asleep sitting up in the baby backpack. As I got my camera out to take a few pictures, his head lolled right to the side, so I had to catch it!

 Half Dome right behind them

Lastly, we drove to Lake Tahoe to enjoy our last day out. I forgot our camera when we went to the lake, so Shane took a few pictures on his phone. But Sawyer did much better at the lake than the beach. He warmed up to the water pretty quickly, then sat down where the water came up and threw handfuls of sand for about 20 minutes! Oh the joys of a one year old. Sawyer and I then flew home from Reno for a family camping trip while Shane stayed to enjoy Tahoe with his cousins. Sawyer did really well on his first airplane ride! Overall we had a very fun and happy trip!