Ryan Turns 8 Months!

Ryan turned 8 months a few weeks ago.  It's going by so fast.  No doctor's appointment this month so I don't have any stats updates.  If I had to guess, I'd say he was around 18.5 lbs, 27 inches.  

He is still a rolly poly.  He moves pretty quickly for just rolling everywhere. He shows zero interest in crawling. When I put him onto his knees, he immediately goes down to his belly or rolls to his back.  I'm thinking he might be one of those kids who just skips crawling since he is so efficient at moving by just rolling.  

He is eating all sorts of foods now. We introduced fruits this month and will give him a fruit/cereal mix around lunch time and then a vegetable in the evening. Next month we will start meat and more texture. We've given him puffs which he now LOVES.  He can't get enough of them. Luckily, he is still on breastmilk only!  I'm so thankful to still be able to nurse at this point. Hopefully we can make it to a year without having to use formula.

Ryan takes usually just one nap a day because the mornings are spent doing activities or errands. If we are home, he'll take usually an hour nap.  But during the afternoon, he pretty consistently will nap from 1:30-3:30pm.  At night, he is usually tired around 7:30pm.  He wakes up for some reason around 6am and will kind of talk/coo for awhile before falling back asleep for another hour or so.

Ryan loves his siblings.  I think he is especially infatuated with Evan who can always make him laugh. He likes Caitlin to sing to him.  We all love him very much and love watching him learn and grow.

Comparison photos... is he resembling anyone more you think?

Happy Halloween!

Halloween finally arrived and the kids were so excited to go trick or treating this year.  Baba, Casey, and Chelsea came over to go with us as did Michelle, Brett, and Ali! It was a great family event.

We of course took some photos before we left for trick or treating.

Evan, Ryan, Chelsea as Dorothy which was Caitlin's baby costume, and Caitlin

Chelsea then changed into her strawberry costume to match Strawberry Shortcake!

The 3 mommas and babies! (Ali is dressed as Brett - it was so cute if you saw them together).

It's always more fun to trick or treat with friends so we waited for the Isaacsons to come over and join us!

Caitlin and Ellie really had a blast this year

The babies enjoyed just riding in the wagon.

The group of us on our halloween adventure - the weather was just perfect for it. Probably the best we have ever had.

Stopped to get a picture of all the kids - they really didn't want to stop though... they wanted to get more candy!

The three ninjas - Evan, Alex, and Dane!

Evan ran into Madison (his friend from class who lives down the street)

And here's what the adults did!  We left a few adults at the house to hand out candy while we took the kids on round1.  Then, we came back and swapped so the other adults could go for awhile with the kids. It worked out pretty well.  I think it should become a Halloween tradition to have the whole family trick or treat together... I guess at least until the kids get older and want to go with their friends more. Next year Halloween is on a Friday - maybe Mema, Papa, and Oma should come to enjoy all the Halloween festivities... what do you think?!

Happy Halloween!

Halloween Party at Caitlin's preschool

I was able to go to Caitlin's school for their Halloween party and help out. It's always fun to see all the costumes and meet the kids and parents.

My strawberry shortcake

Icing their cookies

Looks like a good cookie

Playing one of the many games - I think this was an eyeball relay race.

Pass the pumpkin

Her entire class!! What a great party.

Trick or Treat?

Our first Halloween adventure this year was the Trunk N Treat at the kids preschool.  I took some pictures before we left of the kids. Evan was a red ninja (specifically Kai from Lego Ninjago). Caitlin was Strawberry Shortcake, and Ryan went as Nemo (Evan's costume from when he was a baby).

Isn't he the cutest Nemo ever! Look, I found him!

The neighbors came over while I was doing my little photo shoot and wanted to be in some  pictures.

Caitlin and Ryan

Evan and Ryan

My three cuties.

A few pictures from the Trunk N Treat too...

Getting Candy from Chewy's (like Chuy's the restaurant)

Duck Dynasty was a popular theme this year!

Caitlin and her friend Brinley from school

Ryan and Daddy on the hay ride

The next day, we carved our pumpkins. Although Bryce and I still do a lot of the work, the kids enjoyed picking out their designs and helping a little.

Visit from Angie and Hadley

Over Columbus Day weekend, we were lucky enough to have Angie and Hadley come visit us in Texas.  What a treat!!  They had not met Ryan yet and the kids were excited to get to spend time together.

The day they arrived, we picked them up at the airport and went to lunch and then the Dinosaur Park.  Evan had a soccer game so it was just Caitlin, Ryan, and I with the two of them.  We had never been to the dinosaur park but had heard it was neat and was one of the things Hadley wanted to do.

First off, we stopped for a picture with the T-Rex.  Share Kitty came with us on our adventure (a stuffed cat from Hadley's school that they take on trips and write a short book about). Caitlin became quite obsessed with share Kitty.

The dinosaur park is a walk through the woods where there are dinosaur exhibits set up as you can see behind Caitlin and Hadley.

There are informative signs so we learned a lot about the dinosaurs (although I was impressed with what Hadley already knew!).

Caitlin and Hadley pretending to be afraid of the T-Rex

It was actually a pretty hot and humid day for October so the kids were pretty tired by the time we finished.

Ryan was there too!!

The one dinosaur they could touch.

I don't have many pictures from the rest of the weekend because it actually was VERY rainy.  After being in a drought for a couple years, we have been getting a lot of rainfall lately. I'm just sorry it had to coincide with Angie's visit.  Still, the kids had a blast playing together and I loved being able to catch up with Angie. We even got to go out one night just the two of us - leaving Bryce in charge of 4 kids! What a great hubby :)

We of course had to go to Rudy's though...

Thanks again for coming to visit!!

Fall Soccer 2013

This fall both Evan and Caitlin are playing soccer.  Evan has moved up to the Kinder age group so they are on different teams (although same uniform!). 

Here's a picture of Caitlin's team the Avalanche- it is all kids from our neighborhood which is pretty fun.

There are a few kids missing from the picture - we had a couple who just did not want to be in it!

 The kids lined up before the game saying the pledge

Caitlin is kind of hit/miss with soccer.  She seems to enjoy practice and the games but she can be off in la-la land during the game where she just doesn't pay attention. And she doesn't really show that sort of killer instinct where she wants to get in there and get the ball. But, maybe it will come in time!

Evan is on the Impact with all kids we also know (most have been on our soccer team in the past). It's fun to be able to keep the kids together and see them progress and become friends.

My soccer players!

Evan's team - I'm sure you recognize a lot of the kids from past teams. I think this is Bryce and Travis' 5th season coaching together!

It's a lot of fun to watch them play since it's all 5/6 year olds so it is pretty competitive. This weekend is our last game!