SANTA... I know him!

RYDER MET SANTA
While we were home for Thanksgiving we took Ryder to meet Santa - THE SANTA at Northpark. I really wanted to get his picture in that Santa's lap because not only is he the best looking Santa ever, I also sat in his lap when I was a little girl! (I promise I will add that picture to this blog soon!) So although it was "black friday" and although no one really wanted to go to northpark that day I convinced Daniel and my mom & dad and we all ventured out there. We missed Santa arriving with his live reindeer that morning, but we got our TICKET (note you have to get a ticket) to see Santa at 2:00pm. Ryder sat in Santa's lap at 6:30 pm!!! We shopped and ate and hung out during the day and he was a trooper. He didn't nap the whole time we were there and just as we were finally in line for our turn he started to get sleepy eyes, but I said, "NO NO NO, not after all this!" So here we are waiting:


FINALLY! Ryder went right in his lap and smiled as he grabbed him beard. Santa, obviously a pro promptly grabbed his hand and held it instead.

THE picture.

This is what we found when we got out of the car at home about 7:30!

Deckin' the Halls

Sunday we went to get a Christmas tree! We decided we were gonna support our local economy and go to a local stand. Well, we went there... Ryder was intrigued.


And this is the kind of trees they had. This one that I liked (which would have had to poke through our roof) was $200.

So we tried another local place - same one we got the pumpkins at.

No luck there either... still $70 bucks! Well, we tried to "think globally & act locally" but here we are with our tree at Lowes! :)


After we got home I made homemade pizza while Daniel pulled all the decorations out & brought the tree in. Ryder chewed on his "pizza" while we ate our pizza. What's funny is while he was sitting in my lap I saw him lifting his pizza toward his mouth at the same time I would lift the piece to mine! :) That's why we took this pic...

my little santa


showing us that he can now pull up on ANYTHING he wants!



Like the shirt??? Which will lead to the next post... RYDER MET SANTA... coming soon :)

Ryder's 8 Month Music Video

Ryder and I had a fun night together while Beth was at work, and I managed to get it on tape. Thanks to my mac and a little creative editing, Ryder has his first music video. Enjoy!

-Dan

Seems that I can't get it to upload to blogger, so here's the link to YouTube. Be sure to select "Watch in High Quality" underneath the main video window...much clearer :)

So Thankful.

TURKEY DAY!
Thursday morning we got up bright & early and headed home. I had to work Wednesday night at the 'bucks, so we had to brave the austin to dallas thanksgiving day traffic, but it wasn't too bad and by 11:30 we were at the Allen house. Fortunately we only had 2 real stops on Thanksgiving - unlike marathon day (aka Christmas). I only took pics at the first stop - I dunno, I was tired or something, I just had no energy for pictures the rest of the day... sorry :(

Yep, I ate that. What? It's Thanksgiving! If you've read my blog for a long time you'll remember my love of the turkey leg. below: Full = Happy.

Ryder had some jam time with aunt sarah.


my layered pumpkin cake... it was pretty yummy.

round two:

Playtime with aunt rachel - yes, that's the cowboys on tv - it's Thanksgiving in TX always with the game on.

the cousins... Cooper & Ryder - held by Jade - who was brave enough to pose with the 2 teething babies who were biting on her and each other! The were so sweet though holding each other and playing.

The fam.

So that was stop one. We then went 2 streets over - literally, we walked, and very careful Daniel carried the pumpkin cake to my Grandma's house. We stayed there for a while and then made a little trip over to the Rohde's to see them and little Trapper. (Again sorry for the lack of pictures!) Then we headed back to the Allen house to settle the exhausted little baby boy down and watch the LONGHORNS whoop up on some aggies!!! yep yep!! Funny though, I was watching it in the aggie house and after the Horns scored in the first minute of the game they all seemed to slowly disappear (out of embarrassment?) and leave me alone to watch the victory. Ok, I'll stop. I 'd go on, but the Longhorns have just been booted out of the national championship :(
All in all it was a good thanksgiving. We are SO blessed beyond measure. As I was thinking about the day and all that it means I was overwhelmed with gratefulness. In a year where maybe things in the natural don't seem as prosperous we feel so extremely blessed with God's goodness and faithfulness. The "Noggin" network that Ryder now loves has a special song right now and Daniel & I have found ourselves singing it around the house... (granted this is a moose singing) but he says, "Everyone's together, everyone's so happy, we're thankful that we have so much to share..." We are SO thankful.

It's a new season

Last night we WERE going to go to the Christmas tree lighting at the domain. Big out door event, light the tree, music, fireworks, shopping, etc. So we got all dressed in our warm, cute clothes, all ready, Christmas music in the car and everything, and we headed out. We get a couple miles from the domain and the traffic stops. We sit there for about an hour just trying to get to the area. uhhhggg. So finally we realize this is a bad idea. If we did even get in & parked we'd never get out. (I had no idea everyone in Austin was going!) So while driving around deciding what to do we saw a Freebird burrito - and that was it. We said, forget it let's just eat a burrito and call it a night! :) For all Ryder knew that's what we were going to do in the first place! Plus, we left Freebirds just in time to watch the fireworks. And unlike 4th of July when he fell asleep he was SO into these! As we were watching I found myself watching HIM and not the fireworks. I didn't even care to see the fireworks, I just wanted to see his reaction! It made me think about the coming holidays and how this year it's going to be all about watching him experience things for the first time. It's a new season... literally. So here are are at Freebird - Ryder has a new vest! :)



And this morning at church Ryder helped Daddy run sound while mommy sang- is this not the sweetest picture ever!?!

Baby Food!

Several people have asked me about making baby food. So I thought I'd do a little blog about it. I try to make most of Ryder's baby food at home with organic veggies. I heard of people doing that before I had him and thought it was crazy and a waste of time. It's actually very easy, very simple, and VERY cheap. I am not all crazy against using a jar of baby food though, we buy jars here and there for travel and such. Ryder's been eating ALL kinds of things and so far he's liked everything! He loves avocados & bananas - and they are the easiest. So this is kinda how it goes...
Frozen organic peas ($2.00): cook in the microwave or boil

blend:

Ryder sits and watches and drinks water from his sippy cup - look what a big boy! :)

Butternut squash ($2-$3): roasting in the oven

pull the inside out and stick in the blender:

Most of the time I just use it fresh for the week or so. Sometimes I freeze the food in ice cubes, then just pop it out and microwave it when needed and it looks like this:

So there you have it... Baby food. a la cuisine!

On another note - I've started working for IWL (Interactive Worship Live) doing admin/publishing stuff from home a few hours a week. This is the same company Daniel does editing stuff for. It's been a little process getting in the groove with Ryder, I'm learning to value nap time! :) Wednesday I was really trying to get a few things done and Ryder just wouldn't slow down! We were in the guest room while I was trying to print some stuff out, do stuff online and talk on the phone. I had toys all over the floor, but that was not what he wanted. At one point he was drumming on the printer, at one point he was trying to crawl in Rocky's crate and at one point I look down to see this...

By the time I grabbed the camera he was on his way out, at first all I saw was feet! :)

So over the weekend we made a little trip home so that Daniel could paint his parent's house for them. So while he painted Saturday Ryder and I hung out. We had the girls over for breakfast, then went to Northpark with Mimi & Poppy before coming back to get ready for Dinner Under the Cedars. Grandmommie & Grandma of course had to stop in and get a quick minute with Ryder too. :) I didn't take a bunch of pics, but did take a few. Apparently Ryder discovered his TONGUE this weekend. All weekend he was sticking it out. People kept asking, "What's the deal with the tongue?!?" Notice it's sticking out in 3 of these pictures!! He also started REALLY crawling - video to come! :)
Ryder & Mimi:


Ryder & Grandma

Dinner under the cedars is the Mesquite Historic Society's (where Daniel's mom works) annual fundraiser dinner. It's outside in a tent at the Lawrence house and it happened to be very cold Saturday night! Ryder was all bundled up...


THIS is what the tongue looked like all weekend! :P



Sunday we went to church with Daniel's family for C life's first service in the new building, had lunch with the family, Daniel finished up the painting and then we hit the road. It was a quick & busy, but good weekend!