Friday, May 30, 2008

He never lets go...

Today while Ryder and I were in the car out running some errands I was listening to some praise & worship music, just singing along, one in particular struck me today. As I was listening to this song, "Never Let Go," I was just thinking on how even in the times it seems we don't "feel" God, He's holding on to us just as tightly as in our "highest" spiritual moments. You know what I mean? We all have days where instead of saying, "Hello, God..." we want to say "Hello?? God???" It reminded me of something I heard Beth Moore explain: Imagine you are holding arms with someone. (You're facing them, and a little past holding hands, they are grasping your arm and you a grasping theirs.) Or imagine someone is holding onto you like this as if you're hanging on the edge of a cliff. Well, now imagine GOD is holding on to us like this, the problem is there are times WE let go. And when we let go (lose our trust in His hand) He's still holding on to us, but our hand is loose, falling, hanging, maybe feeling around for something else to hold on to.

ever faithful ever true...
perfect love that never lets go...
oh what love, oh what love, oh what love...
joy & pain , sun & rain, you're the same, oh you never let go...





Be encouraged, He won't let go, He's still holding on, are you?

Monday, May 26, 2008

memorial day weekend

We've had a very uneventful, but pretty relaxing weekend. Really the only real reason this feels like Memorial Day weekend is that Daniel was off today. Friday night we did have a BBQ with the worship team and Ryder did great. Again he was passed around and stayed awake and happy through it all AND then slept almost 7 hours during the night!!! It was like heaven for me! :) (I know this may not happen again for a while, I'm not getting my hopes up, but it was nice!) With the exception of church, the past few days we've just chilled at the house and caught up on some much needed rest!

Ryder is getting bigger fast and now some of his fun clothes actually fit. So this week he started wearing his PUMAS that his aunts gave him! Are these not the cutest little shoes ever???

We also pulled out the "Happy Hippo" play mat this week! He's just starting to respond to toys or bright things around him, so I thought he might start liking this ... and he did.


And Rocky didn't really know why Ryder was in the floor with him, but knew it had something to do with toys, so he brought his to join in on the fun!!!

Daniel took this picture this morning of Mommy & Ryder resting together - notice how we are both sleeping with our hands up - that was not planned! (I've always slept that way)

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Erin Visits!

This past weekend Erin came from Nashville to visit! She's the last in the "scheduled" line-up of company!! (But I'm sure there will be more to come!) We shopped a little, showed her around town and even left Ryder at home for some Daddy time while we went to a movie. It was just really great to be together... I LOVE my friends!!!



Ryder & Daddy took a little morning nap together
(this was before we knew Daniel was sick!)

And again we dragged Ryder all over the city, but he didn't seem to mind...

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Ryder's First Trip

Behind on blogs again... but better late than never, right?

We drove to Dallas last weekend for Mother's Day and then Ryder & I stayed for most of the week to hang out and introduce him to the family. It was his first trip and he did pretty well. He was great in the car and pretty good being passed from person to person - every time he woke up someone else was holding him! But I think he missed his Daddy during the week and was ready to get back to a little bit of a routine.

Saturday we got to go to a Mother's Day luncheon that my mom spoke at. Ryder made it all the way through, just for Mimi! :)

The girls in the family on Mother's Day

My first Mother's Day...

So my little man got all dressed up...


Ryder met his Great-Grandpa...

His Nana...

And his Papa... and lots more family.





He also met his cousin Tyler who's 6 weeks older

And finally got to meet his Aunt Rachel...


We had dinner with Michelle & Hayden & Rachel


And had lunch & a little shopping with Grandma

And Ryder got to meet Aunt Loretta


PLUS... Ryder got his first guitar from Poppi! HA! :)


We also got to go shopping with the aunties, see Mimi at work and Grammie at work, have lunch with Poppi and lots more! WHEW! After all that in a few days Ryder was pretty worn out and this is what I found after I left the room for a minute!


We had a really great week and it was nice to spend some time at home with the family.

Monday, May 5, 2008

Kirsten Visits!

Kirsten came from Nashville to visit this weekend! She got lots of quality Ryder time & he of course LOVED his Aunt Kiki!! :) We had to give her a good taste of Austin, so we shopped, showed her around town & ate Mexican food ALL weekend- what else? I mean really- we ate Pappasitos, Freebird & Chuys! You thought I was kidding. It was SO great to be with her, we miss her so, so much!! Come back soon...


Ryder's first trip to Pappasitos had to be documented...
I think he liked it, he behaved very nicely!

The boys in plaid...


Kirsten, me & Ryder - he's in that sling I'm wearing!






Our baby boys love her... rocky even slept with her & cried when she left!


And on a side note bath time is getting better (there's less screaming now!), I just had to follow up on the previous bath blog.


Thursday, May 1, 2008

one month later

That's right... he's 4 weeks old today. In a way I can't believe it's been that long and then in another way it feels like he's been here forever! Our life has changed in so many ways over the month. Let's see, for starters we do no get any REM sleep!! One night last week he slept for 5 hours and I woke up panicked that something was horribly wrong! But that 5 hours was a fluke I think, we're still averaging 3 hours at a time. But seriously life is different, but it's good. Everyone always told us this, but it's true, you never realize how selfish you are till you have a child! I also never realized how much time I had and how easy it was to do simple things like, oh, shower. :)

Now that Ryder's a month he's much more alert and aware of his surroundings. He responds to sounds and voices and smiles occasionally. (He loves hearing his Daddy's voice when he comes home!) His cries are starting to make more since and he's getting better at letting mommy know what he needs! :) He's gotten out of the house a good bit now- we've been on walks, shopping trips, to church and met most friends and we're planning on taking our first trip home next weekend! Tomorrow he gets to meet his Aunt KiKi :) Kirsten is coming from Nashville to spend the weekend with us! Yeah!!!

So here's a little video of Ryder TODAY...