Summer fun has begun!

Evident by the already scorching heat and the fun activities summer is well under way here! This week Ryder's been into some fun things. I've said before how much he likes to "read" and how he loves his books. This week I just let him go after them and this is what I found one afternoon...

The we played in the backyard and he tried to mow for Daddy.

Friday we went to this big park with a huge sand pit to dig in and "dinosaur" bones to uncover. Then there are water spouts to run through (to turn the sand to mud of course). Had I had the energy or had I known how much Ryder would enjoy the sand pit I would have taken my camera. Let's just say for the first 10 minutes he just sat there looking at my like, "Really, you're gonna let me get this dirty?!?" To which I said, while sitting in the middle of the sand, "Ryder, mommy is not an 'outside' girl, this is not really my sort of thing... but we're here now, so GO for it!"

Yesterday we took him to a friend's neighborhood pool. He'd never been in a pool before. He wasn't really sure about it at first, but once he got a feel for it he loved it! Many more pool days to come in this hot summer ahead - I have a feeling it may be the only way I'm actually comfortable!
Ready with Daddy in his super cool outfit! :)

Watching all the kids in the pool...

In his turtle float, checking things out..

Still not really sure, but getting the hang of it


He got the hang of it, splashed a lot and even kicked his legs.

So cool!

We came home and grilled some burgers and he ate like a little piggy! :)

Memorial Weekend

We loaded up and headed home for the memorial day weekend. It wasn't as planned to the hour as our trips sometimes are which was nice. We relaxed & got some much needed rest and let Ryder get all the attention in the world from all the family! :) Meanwhile I got to shop, see a movie with Daniel, get pedicures, see girlfriends, etc... just what I needed!!! I didn't have my camera with me the whole time and Ryder spent a lot of time with the Grandparents with out me, but here's a few of the pics I took of the weekend.
Ryder with Grandma and his Aunt Renita, the great! :)

Sunday afternoon we had lunch in preston center and just happened to be next to Sprinkles, so we couldn't resist stopping in for some yummy cupcakes. Our picks of the day - chocolate coconut & carrot cake... mmm.


Ryder on his sugar rush got a little excited about the fountain. (Of course if you saw the previous post you'd think he would always want to get IN the fountain from now on and you're probably right!)
Posing with Mimi & Poppy


With Grandmommie.

It was a good weekend. And Ryder is walking! More and more everyday! He walks about 11-12 steps at a time now before crawling off 10 times as fast! And he does it on his own now here & there (with out being held up and bribed across the room I should say). So the family got to witness his new baby steps this weekend.

Well, back into the swing of things for a while... although I'm excited about the summer and everything ahead.

Fun in the Fountain!

Today Ryder's playgroup met at a big sundial fountain near our house. Ryder has yet to be in a swimming pool - but soon. So anyway, he wasn't totally sure about getting in the water at first. He always tries to get in when not dressed appropriately, but today he wasn't sure. Once he decided he liked it though he was ALL about it! Here he's still thinking about it (and still dry):

Then he went for it! (And got me soaked too!)

Pointing - his new thing.

Still crawling...

Time for some lunch outside at Which Wich!

Feed ME!

And... Ryder, OUT.

Plague of the Pink Eye

One morning last week Ryder woke up with Pink Eye. He of course acted like nothing was wrong even though he could not even open his right eye. So I took his picture because him smiling with the swollen eye, while pitiful, was slightly humorous. Well, I took him to the Dr. asap that morning, got the medicine, it started to look better the same day. WELL... this week I noticed Rocky was not opening his eye one afternoon, sure enough, it got worse and he has pink eye! Yes, dogs can get it too, or so we've learned. I was not going to post this picture of Ryder because it was so sad looking, but then it happened to Rocky and I couldn't resist! So here they are - my 2 little monsters:


















Don't worry, they are both much better now! :)

A little over half way...

Ok, so as promised a 'Belly-Pic'... I am now just over 21 weeks along! I feel like I am showing more than last time, but considering it's been just a year since my body went through this I guess that is to be expected! :) Everything seemed good at the Dr. visit last week, not as much weight gain as last time, no major swelling yet & my blood pressure is still down, surprising since I'm chasing a 1-year old bouncing baby boy around all day! So here I am with my growing little baby girl in tow:

Ryder's Love of Knobs and Lights

So Ryder apparently took 6 steps on his own today. I was at work, but Beth filled me in on the details. He was trying to walk towards all my music stuff. He especially LOVES my guitar amp and pedalboard, which I discovered last Sunday morning during rehearsal for the worship band. When I hit that first note, I immediately KNEW something was wrong, and upon further investigation found every knob on every pedal and amp had been turned all the way up. Luckily, the engineer in me had drawn markings on tape for all my favorite settings, so I was able to get back to normal. Here's Ryder tweaking away. As we say around here...MIX, MIX, MIX!!

Happy Mother's Day!

I had a wonderful Mother's Day. It was a pretty normal weekend for us really. Work, a night at home (always nice with our schedule), church, etc. Although starting off the weekend Friday morning with the sonogram was the best mother's day gift ever! :) And I did go out and buy my first "girl" purchase: little bright pink suede booties! I had not bought one girl thing and wouldn't even let myself look because I was sure it was another boy, but Friday afternoon I went in Marshall's and walked straight to the baby girl section! :)

Daniel & Ryder made me feel super special. Saturday night Daniel came in with Ryder carrying roses! He was smiling & smelling of them. And I've been promised a new body pillow to get me and baby through this summer with ease. :) Yesterday we had a good morning at church, a yummy lunch with friends (with a happy, well-behaved baby through it all), a husband to work in the yard while I napped in the afternoon & a snickers sonic blast to end the night on the couch! :)

Even though we didn't get to be with our mothers & grandmothers yesterday I felt so blessed to celebrate mother's day with my sweet husband, sweet baby boy, & sweet baby girl in my tummy! I thought back to last year - it was Ryder's first trip home. He was 5 weeks old and we got to introduce him to the whole family. Never did I imagine a year later I'd be celebrating with another little one growing inside of me! ha! I feel like now (only a year into motherhood) I can appreciate all of our mothers & grandmothers SO much more than ever before! So to all of you in our lives... we love you more than we could possibly say & appreciate everything you have done & still do for us!

Happy Mother's Day to my "mothers" and all the mothering friends around me! Love to you all...

It's A...

IT'S A GIRL!!!

We met our little girl this morning! She was moving around, waving, kicking & smiling at us! :) I couldn't believe it was a girl, Daniel said he knew it was, but I was sure it was another boy. The sonographer of course waited until the very end of the sonogram and measured everything else on the little body first before looking to see the sex. But toward the end she was measuring the legs and tail bone and I knew I did not see what I saw with Ryder! :) And I was right. But I asked several times after she said it was a girl, just to make sure!!!
Here she is with a cute little *smiling* profile shot:

Her sweet little feet:

And an arrow to point out that it's a girl:

We are thrilled. And I can't stop smiling...

Little Climber

Such a big boy!
Today we met some friends at Chickfila for a playdate. Ryder decided he was big enough to crawl right up in the big kids part! And I decided Ryder needed to burn off some energy since he has been literally climbing the walls (and any other climbable thing in our house). There were no other kids so I let him go and he crawled all the way up to the tunnel entrance at the top and squealed the whole way. At that point I climbed up and pulled him down. I thought I'd save my self the embarrassment of getting stuck in the tunnel trying to get my kid out!

'MOMS' weekend out! :)

I left Friday to go to Houston for the night with my MOMS club. It was the yearly regional luncheon. Grammy & Grandpa came down Friday morning to hang out with Ryder. They had a good time and I don't think Ryder missed me for one second! He was completely entertained! :) We hit the road Friday and took a little adventure into the country to make a pit stop for lunch at Royers. It's been on the food network & tons of celebrities have stopped in to have their pie! It was pretty yummy and yes, of course we had pie. :)

Mmm... pie. They have a note on the menu that says there is a 50 cent charge extra if you do NOT want ice cream on your pie :)

Ok, so Chris didn't eat all that - that was the sample platter we shared!

The luncheon was at the Renaissance, so we had a nice over night stay with a girls' dinner out Friday night at a really nice Italian place in Houston called Grotto's. We all had to stop after we got our food and SLOW down since we are all so used to scarfing our food down while feeding our kids! :) The luncheon on Saturday was full of give aways, food & encouraging speakers. There were 35 chapters represented from our region and it was the 25th anniversary as well. Good times had by all...

We got back home Saturday night and Daniel and I had a date night planned (while Grammy & Grandpa were still here!) to go downtown and see one of our favorite bands, Soulive play at Antone's. We ate a quick dinner and relaxed in a coffee shop a little while before the show started. It was a late show (we felt extremely old out that late and downtown!) but so great and definitely worth it. And I swear the baby was kicking on the beat at one point! ha! :)



In other news: Ryder turned 13 months yesterday! Still not walking, but taking a few steps here and there- he does not seem extremely motivated to get up and go yet! :) He's LOVING strawberries right now (along with his preggo mommy!) A couple weeks ago we ate 4lbs in a week - just me & him! Speaking of pregnant, I will be 20 weeks along on Friday and that's the day we have the big sonogram... so we should know then what the little "it" is! Yay! Whatever it is is nice and active in my tummy these days. I feel the little one kicking all the time!