Saturday, December 31, 2011

Turning 28 was great.

This year I turned 28 in Arkansas. We took a girls trip + Ryder to go visit my sweet grandparents. We had such a fun time just catching up and hanging out. This was the first time they met Ryder as well, so that was fun. We were so excited to see my grandma doing unexpectedly well, she is a trooper and has had a rough year under going cancer and chemo. So happy to say that she came back from her doctor's appointment last month with a clean bill of health! Yeah!

Shane dropped us off at the airport, I think he was sad to see us go but excited for a guys weekend full of ESPN, golf and who knows what else :)
Ryder's first time on an airplane
Ty was occupied the entire time playing games and watching movies
My sweet grandma and grandpa

My mom with her parents and her uncle
We flew home on my birthday and Shane, my dad and Jeff picked us up at the airport. By this time we were pushing 10:00 p.m. but still grabbed a bite to eat. When we got home the boys surprised me with cake and presents. I was so surprised when I opened one of Shane's presents and it was my entire blog from 2008-2011 printed and made into a hard cover book. I love it and it makes me want to be SO much better of a blogger come 2012...like in 3 hours.

The following weekend we celebrated with our little immediate fam. by going to the Grove and grabbing some dinner.

It was a week of CAKE! I feel like I got a cake every place I went. No Joke! I'd be ok if I never ate cake again :) but it was good while it lasted.







Valerie and Brandi Hicks came to my work to visit and drop these babies off! They were delish and they are welcome to drop by anytime... like in the near future! ;)

Halloween


It's New Years Eve and I have a ridiculously miserable cold. I've been in bed all day, but just got a genius idea to catch up on my ever so lacking blog before 2012. So here's my attempt...

Halloween was so fun this year. This is the first year Tylie really REALLY had an opinion on what she was going to be, and there was no changing her mind! Here's how it all played out...

We got BOOED on one Sunday night in October! If you could see the look on Ty's face when she opened the door, you would have thought she won one million dollars...and that's why I LOVE kids so much! It's the little things!
Thank you to our ghost friends, you made our week! Of course we returned the favor by BOOING 3 other friends, which Ty equally enjoyed!
Have to have new spooky Jams in October...our favorite part was turning off all of the lights and watching them glow.
And Tylie was, drum roll please...Rapunzel!!! I know, how original. I'm pretty sure she was one out of 800 million Rapunzels this year! I thought she made a beautiful Rapunzel if I don't say so myself.

And the little one was a puppy dog to go right along with his big blue puppy dog eyes!
So, I saw a Rapunzel pumpkin carve out and I had to try it...3 hours later this little girl was ecstatic about it!

Don't mean to toot my horn but I was pretty ecstatic about it as well.
Looks so cool all lit up!
This little pup hated his hat but posed for a few pics. Smile too? That would be WAY too much to ask for!


Happy First Halloween to our little Ryder Spider!


Sunday, October 2, 2011

Photo Shoot


















Doesn't look a day over 25...

Bri turned 31 in August. We had a good time celebrating at Casa Vega in Studio City and then at Pinz. It was such a fun night. HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRI!

Birthday Girl





Thursday, September 22, 2011

Long and overdue


I don't even know where to start...It's been months, 5 to be exact! I love to blog and love to have a journal of all the latest happenings in our life. I love to go back and read old posts and reflect on memories in the past. Poor Ryder is already going to have the second child syndrome so early on in life, because the first 7 months of his life have not been documented. I will do my best to play catch up, but at this point I think a fresh start sounds more realistic and much more refreshing!

So what have we been up to? Life has been crazy! Life with two kids was a really big adjustment for us, WAY bigger than I thought it would be. We love our little Ryder man to death and simply cannot imagine our lives without him. He truly has been such a blessing in our family! With good, there definitely comes hard. He has been a really hard baby! I do not wish colic on anyone! It is miserable. Miserable for the baby, miserable for the parents and miserable for everyone around. We tried everything, and I mean EVERYTHING! Whatever is on the market for colic, we had it, nothing worked and thus I am completely and utterly convinced that it is something you have to grow out of! We didn't leave the house much at all with him for the first few months. Our daily outing would usually be the park, just to get out of the house before all of us went crazy (especially our active 3 year old ;)). That's pretty much all our little man could take. It was a huge ordeal 90% of the time. Crying, screaming and more crying in public is not so pretty and makes me extremely anxious. Amongst all of this, I didn't think I would be returning back to work, but turns out we couldn't "make it" any longer on a zero income in CA, weird huh?! So back to work I went! I truly am blessed to have such a great job while Shane finishes his last semesters of his Masters. So fast forward almost 7 months later and Ryder is a much different kid. I noticed the biggest change when he turned 6 months old. He just seemed more content. Don't get me wrong he still has his fussy times, good days and bad but most babies do! The past two weeks have been really great for us, (I hesitate to actually write this down, because I don't want to jinx it) he is so happy and sweet...Now let's gear up for teething! :/

As of late Ryder has been smiling, laughing, rolls around everywhere to get to what he wants, standing while holding onto support, jumps jumps jumps the kid loves his johnny jumper, is sitting up (but still a bit wobbly), chews on EVERYTHING, drools more than I have ever seen, pulls hair and earrings and anything he can get his hands on, and as of yesterday started to wave. We love LOVE love him. Tylie is still OBSESSED with him. She is a very rough lover. You know the kind that grinds her teeth and grabs his hand really tight and gets really close to his face and says "Oh Rydee my little chubby chub, you are so cute and chubby, I just want to eat you up" in a very high weird voice. It is kind of creepy, but I love it. I love when I hear from the other room "Oh Ryder, (still in creepy high voice) you stop crying. I love you, why do I love you so much!?" The other morning I caught the end of one on video. Here's an example of what I mean...

LOVE

Here are some random pictures of the past few months, mostly just taken from my phone...
First time on a boat
Big smiles
All handsome for church
Love this picture because it shows his cute ears...those come from my mom's side. His uncle has them too.
This kid is SO strong, but hates to sit! He literally thrusts and arches himself out of the bumbo.
First time to Santa Barbara
First time to the beach (not a fan) not sure where he came from
First camping trip
First time he held his own bottle
The end! Be back sooner than 5 months... that's if he keeps up his good behavior! ;)