Recent Happenings

I know I've been slow to post lately. Not happy that I had to change my page background because the company that hosted it discontinued my design, so I've been working on something new again. Maybe I'll have it up by next week, but until then I figured I better get a new post up before some of my family start sending hate mail.

We kept my brother's dog Jake again a couple weeks ago and Rylin was happy to have another furry friend around. He especially liked the lounging aspect.

Jordan's parents gave Rylin a gift card for Christmas, so we got him a fold up tunnel with some of the money. He loves it...and he's not the only one!

Daddy had to try it...

Attie & Rylin played hide and seek

Even Duke ventured inside...

The new year meant the return of Rylin's playmate, Atticus. I am keeping him again Tuesday and Thursdays. I will say that they play very well together, though they are getting to be more mischievous. They are always up to no good and I have to keep a close eye on them. Here is an example of a typical lunch time.

Someone needs to teach them some table manners!

Chilly Fun Weekend

Friday morning my cousin Crystal came up from Houston with her husband Rick to spend the weekend looking for baby stuff. She is due in April with her first and I have been helping her with her nursery. Rylin immediately became attached to her and wanted nothing to do with me. Poor prego Crystal carried him everywhere Friday while we were shopping, and then he cried and cried every time she left the room to do anything. He hasn't even had separation anxiety like that with me! Luckily he has since recovered, but I'm not sure what he sensed about her that brought out this side of him. Perhaps he knows that she's carrying his cousin?! We did have a lot of fun shopping and we can't wait for the baby to arrive!


Sunday, we got a big snow and I was excited to get Rylin out to play. Last year he was so little when we got our first snow. So we bundled up, headed outside and he loved it! He was very concerned with eating as much as he could cram in his mouth, and it didn't take long for me to realize he needed gloves. After a mini melt down because I brought him inside, Jordan took him back out with Duke and they ran around some more. Those rain boots from Christmas sure came in handy!

Update: Big Playdate, Christmas

So I feel a little behind...o.k., way behind, but I hope to give you the full update of whats been going on around this busy house before the "busy culprit" wakes up from his nap.

The week before Christmas, this slightly nutty woman decided it would be the perfect time to host a play date. It had been a while since all of my friends with babies got together...in fact the last official play date was this one. Yikes! So I sent an email out to my pals, half expecting they would be busy with holiday happenings. Well...they weren't too busy for a play date. We had eleven mommy's and twelve babies (under the age of two) for brunch in our pj's. As crazy as that sounds, we had a lot of fun and the kids played great. Thanks to my friend Kara for taking some pictures since I was a little preoccupied!

Christmas came and went quickly. We spent our first Christmas eve and Christmas morning at our house this year. Christmas eve we opened a few presents including a matching set of red union suit pj's (sorry no pic!), and drove around looking at Christmas lights. The next morning Rylin woke up to presents from Santa and then we drove to my parents for our family Christmas with them and afternoon with my Dad's family. We returned on Monday, and Jordan's family came to our house for their Christmas. It was a lot of driving around, but we had a good time visiting with family. Here are some of the picture highlights from the holiday. All my pic's are posted on my Shutterfly site for anyone that wants to see more.

Playing with his toy from Gramps & Grammy

running around outside with Papa

It was so cold!

Loving on cousin Pam

Rylin has had a blast playing with all his new toys. He LOVES his woody wagon and uses it as more of a jungle gym than a car.

hanging out the sun roof

I kept Attie one day this week and he got to play with Rylin's new toys too. We joked that it was Christmas all over again for him!

Merry Christmas!

Woody Wagon Make Over

I've been collecting all kinds of things for Rylin's Christmas presents (trying not to go overboard) for several months. He recently discovered a Tiny Tikes Cozy Coupe at Attie's house and was all over it. I couldn't help but think I had to get him his own. I scoured Craig's List and found a rare edition woody wagon for a good bargain, though it was in need of some work.

I should tell you that this was a special find because growing up we had a brown woody station wagon that embarrassed the crap out of me. I remember sitting in the front seat on the "hump" (the middle armrest) so I could see out the window. I remember my brothers fighting and farting in the back seat. I remember the little flower my mom painted on the front seat to disguise a tiny spot one of us left in the vinyl. I was never so happy to see that thing go, though my parents replaced it with an almost equally embarrassing silver Buick station wagon. So when I saw the tiny wagon online, it brought all those memories back. And I laughed. I was determined to make Rylin's woody wagon a lot cooler!

A few cans of plastic spray paint, my own homemade stickers, Jordan's handy work repairing the faux wood panels, and I thought twice about taking it for a spin down the block myself!

I know Rylin will be excited when he sees it under the tree tomorrow morning...though he could probably care less about our little restoration job!

Santa:Take 2

You might remember Rylin's first trip to Santa that I blogged about here. Well, gone are the days of sleepy smiles! Last week, Bethany and I took Rylin and Attie to see the Santa in the mall. Atticus loves everyone, so he had no problem smiling on his lap. Rylin was another story. He puckered his bottom lip and the tears began to flow! Luckily the photographer was taking some time to get set up so I had a chance to calm him down and wipe his face. After a little poking with a hand puppet, we managed to get a cute shot.

He refused to look the bearded man in the face, but he kept a death grip on his finger. It cracks me up every time I look at it cause I can totally hear Santa saying "hey, pull my finger". Ha Ha! Can you tell I grew up with brothers?!

Getting Ready for Christmas

I know I've been slacking lately in updating the blog, but it is for good reason. (Don't I always say that?!) December always seems to be crazy filled with parties, traveling, and holiday events. This year is no exception, but we have been careful not to overload our schedule too much and miss the important things. We are excited about making new holiday traditions with our family and teaching Rylin about why we celebrate this season to begin with. As I've mentioned in the past, Christmas was a big deal in my family, and it began with setting the mood early in December. A couple of weeks ago, Jordan, Rylin and I did just that. I had hoped to visit a tree farm to cut our own down, but after a busy weekend, opted to visit our trusty Home Depot instead.

Rylin quickly learned to say "tree" and probably pointed and repeated that word over a thousand times...and who knows how many times since that night! We picked a nice fat one for our living room, and Rylin helped me put on a few of his ornaments from last year. Notice the stockings are hanging higher this year!

Now a gate safely keeps our tree from some tiny fingers who would like to disassemble it one needle at a time! He still gets excited every time I plug in the lights and I love seeing his big cheesy grin.