Ryan- 7 Months

Ryan is SEVEN months old today!  I can't believe how the time has flown!!  I say that about all my kids, I know, but it is so true!  He is such a little joy to have in our house and I can't imagine our life without him.  Whitney and Brooke are helping with him by playing silly little games that make him laugh and give him toys. His smile lights up the room and I can't help but smile and hug and kiss him just about 50 times a day!  I know he won't let me do it forever so I better do it while I can!  

Doesn't this picture just make you want to smile!? 

Sitting up, but not sure what to do next...

 Cooing at mommy :)

Ryan started eating solids a few days after he turned 6 months.  He caught on quickly and now has the hang of it.  He LOVES rice cereal and has also tried carrots, peas, apples, pears, and beef.  The beef seriously looked like dog food and it smelled disgusting, I don't think I'll be buying that one again.  Ryan hated it and made the most disgusted face.  Poor little guy. 

Ryan is scooting, lunging, rolling, and army crawling, and had been for a couple of weeks.  He is working on sitting unassisted and crawling the normal way.  I am not used to having a mobile baby this young.  Whitney and Brooke crawled long after 6 months.  From the time he was a newborn he has always preferred being on his tummy.  He can get to pretty much anything he wants and if he can't one of his sisters gets it for him.

Ryan is finally sleeping through the night.  It took about a week of crying and fixing the binky to get him to sleep all the way through.  For a few weeks before, I started to train him but would wake up, so I'd nurse him and he'd go back to sleep.  He worked his way up to waking and eating 3-4 times a night and that's when I decided it had to stop.  He mostly just wanted to be held and cuddled back to sleep anyway.  He does love to cuddle and I love to cuddle him, but I need my sleep too.

  We love you our sweet little baby boy!

Horse Races

 I took the girls to Ruidoso NM a couple of weekends ago to see my cousins that I hadn't seen in a super long time.  I didn't think to take a picture with my bff cousin Jana who is my age and just had a baby too, so I'm a little mad about that, but next time I will for sure!   

 I had never been to the races before so the experience was new for all of us, and it was really fun to see.  I didn't bet anything, but my uncle won 10 bucks, so maybe I should have :)  Next time, maybe.

 

4th of July

This year for the fourth celebration we got together with my brother Abe and his family.  My mom was out of town, so we invited my dad too.  The night of the 3rd there was a light parade downtown, so we went.  It was raining, but we wanted to go anyway.  Luckily, my dad showed up with an umbrella just as the rain really started coming down.  The evening of the 4th we had a little party at one of the daycare centers that is located close to where the city sets off their fireworks.  We grilled burgers and had strawberry short cake and popsicles for dessert.  While others were confined to a blanket laid out on the soccer fields to watch the fireworks, we enjoyed our evening with about an acre of playground, a grill, running water, a flushing toilet, lights and a picnic table.  The fireworks where beautiful!

Ryan--4 months

Ryan turned 4 months old today.  He has grown and matured so much in the last couple months it's amazing.  He smiles at everything now and has even laughed.  Whitney can get him to really belly laugh, it's adorable.  He rolled over last week and still loves tummy-time so he could be crawling soon too.  I recently got all the beds switched around so that he has his own bed.  It took a little bit of sleep training, but now he falls asleep on his own without being rocked, walked or bounced!  Most nights I feed him, wrap him up, lay him in bed awake and he falls asleep, then wakes up happy the next morning.  He sleeps for about 6-8 hours at nights, wakes up, eats and then goes back to sleep. 

I love dressing him in his little polo shirts and plaid shorts.  I have some little tennis shoes for him too that look just adorable on him!  He is very strong and loves to be on his tummy.  Ryan has grown quite a bit since his last check-up.  He weighs in at 13 lbs and is 25 inches long.  I am still breastfeeding him and want to continue to exclusively nurse until 6 months before I introduce solids.  Daddy can get him to laugh more then I can, but he'll smile at me anytime I look at him.  The girls love him so much and are very happy to have a little brother to snuggle.

Dentist Divas

The girls had their first REAL dentist check-up last week.  They have both been to the dentist before, but this was the first time they let them take x-rays of their teeth, and clean and polish them while laying in the chair.  I was shocked.  I think what happened was, Whitney is old enough to let them do those things to her and Brooke saw that Whitney was okay with it so she let them too.  By the end Brooke was in tears from just being out of her comfort zone for so long and Whitney was excited to have a new Dora toothbrush.  I was so proud of both of them!!!

happy birthday to me

I turned 29 again this year.  I'm thinking I will at least a few more times :)  The day started with me going to work and nobody saying anything about my birthday.  I was a little confused b/c they all knew about it because I kept it a secret last year.  Anyways, my mom took me to lunch and then to get a pedicure.  I got an extra special leg massage for my birthday, and then back to work.  The afternoon was going normal when my mom walks in with a huge birthday cake and all the kids started gathering around the eating area.  Ana, a co-worker, gave me flowers from all the staff and they all sang happy birthday to me.  It was quite the surprise...I had no idea!

After work my mom took the girls and Brigham and I went out to eat at Ruby Tuesdays.  I had the ribs and they were delish!  They don't sing there, so I was grateful to just get a birthday cupcake and enjoy it in silence.  Later that night I opened up a few gifts and the girls sang happy birthday to me.

On Sunday the whole family got together for a cook-out in honor of my birthday.  My sister-in-law, Cody, made my birthday cake which was wonderful.  Thanks to all that made my birthday special this year!

Interesting sleep positions...

I walked into the girls room the other night to check on them before I went to bed and this is how I found Whitney...

I wonder how long she would have slept like this if I hadn't have moved her back onto her bed under her covers?!

And on another night...

Brooke looks like she's sleeping normal except her foot was out of her crib stuck between the bars.  I moved her food back into her bed so she didn't wake up scared and stuck. 

 

I LOVE my Girls!!

Ryan- 2 months old

 Ryan is now 2 months old.  I can't believe how the time has just flown by.  Although there have been some rough nights and long days, I have cherished mostly every minute of it!  Having three kids has been harder then I thought, especially when they all cry at the same time.  We are trying to be patient with our little drama queens Whitney and Brooke, and are also finding ways to make Ryan happy.  He likes to be swaddled, so when he's fussy, I wrap him up like a burrito.

Ryan is now sleeping 5-6 hours at a time during the night.  He sleeps in his bassinet (thanks Connie) most of the night, and then the rest with me.  He loves to be cuddled. 

When he's awake he likes to be held so that he's looking over my shoulder.  I'm still nursing him around the clock, even though I went back to work about 2 weeks ago.  I have a cradle in my office for him and he sleeps or just lays there and looks around while I work on paperwork and make phone calls.  It's nice to have a job where I can have him with me all the time :)

Ryan also started smiling in the last week.  I had to work really hard for a smile at first, but now he's giving them away.  The ladies at work can make him smile too.  Whitney is my #1 helper in the car.  She holds Ryan's binky in his mouth so he doesn't cry.  Brooke always wants to put a blanket on him, so thanks to her, he's never cold.  Ryan has lots of people that love him, and we are all so grateful to have him in our lives!

At two months and two weeks:  weight: 9lbs 11oz  height: 23 inches

Whitney Ballerina

This month Whitney started attending a dance class.  The class includes ballet, tap and hip hop.
 
The first week of the class she was so excited to go that she didn't stop talking about it from Saturday when I signed her up to Wednesday afternoon when we finally went.  And the first day of the class Whitney wore her tutu all day, and couldn't take a nap because she was sooo excited!  She went right inside the dance room and started making friends right away.  Her teacher said she was a natural at dancing and that she followed directions perfectly.  While Whitney is in class, Brooke plays in a little kid play area and I sit outside the class on a chair and watch Whitney dance on a TV.

Today all the parents got to go into the class room and watch the girls dance for us.  Of course the girls were all distracted because every mom (including me) had her phone out filming or taking pictures.  Whitney also insisted on wearing her cat ears from Halloween :)

Hoppy Easter!

Easter this year was lots of fun.  The girls had a party at school and brought home lots of candy from their egg hunts.  The Easter bunny visited us, and Sunday morning the girls hunted candy filled eggs.  They each got a chocolate bunny in their Easter baskets too.  At church Whitney gave her very first talk in primary.  She talked about the Easter bunny and also about the true meaning of Easter.  She did a really good job too.  Sunday afternoon we went to my parent's house for dinner and an egg hunt.  Brooke found the golden egg and got a dollar and Whitney found the biggest egg that had a huge marshmallow peep inside.  We all ate candy til we felt sick and then ate some more.  The weather was perfect and all the kids (and adults) had a super good time!

A visit from Texas & Car-Car

This weekend Brigham's sister Texas and her little boy Carson came to visit.  They mostly came to see baby Ryan, but I think the girls enjoyed having Carson here to play with more than Ryan did.  We went to fun places everyday, and the kids played in the backyard in the evenings while Brigham, Texas and I sat on the porch enjoying the great weather we had.


Thursday:  After we picked them up from the airport we went to the El Paso Zoo.  I had never been there before and was surprised at what a nice place it was.  It was large enough to have lots of animals and not too big not be able to walk through before the kids got too tired.  It wasn't that busy either, which was nice.

 

 Bird watching

This sea lion was really entertaining.  We watched him for about 1/2 hour.

 It was scary how close this tiger was to us...luckily there was glass.

Riding the train around the whole zoo.

I can't believe this tiger actually let Whitney sit on his back!!  

She is so brave!

Friday:  The next day we went to the bounce-house place in the mall.  It only took about an hour for the kids to get tired and ready to go, which was a shame because we spent a ton on admission.  Before we left the mall we went to eat at Chick-fil-a and then went to the most amazing dollar store ever.  The store has make-up, hair bows, jewelery and much more and all for only a dollar.

 My new triple stroller.  Since we had so many car seats in my car I wasn't able to fit my double stroller, so the single one had to do for this trip to the mall.

 

Saturday:  Texas and I loaded up the kids and went to the farmer's market that is held every Saturday.  We ate hotdogs and kettle corn.  After we had walked around for about an hour we went to the park to play.  Aunt Texas entertained the kids while I fed Ryan.  Afterwards, we went over to the pond to feed the ducks.  The kids started throwing bread into the water and the ducks weren't even interested! :(  I guess on a Saturday when the park is full of people, the ducks get plenty to eat, and probably things that are a lot better then bread.  Next time we will have to go on a weekday when the park isn't so busy.

Sunday:  Brigham and the Texas took the kids to church while I stayed home with Ryan.  After church and naps we broke the sabbath and went to White Sands National Monument.  We got there with plenty of time for the kids to wear themselves out going up and down the dunes.  The kids enjoyed sledding too. The wind was perfect for Whitney to fly her new cat kite.  Before we left we stripped the kids down to nothing and washed them off with a jug of water, put them in their pj's and they were ready to fall asleep on the way home.  Whitney was asleep before we even got out of the park.

 Brooke really enjoyed filling up her bucket.

 Carson and Texas

 Daddy giving the girls a ride up the dune...I honestly don't know if it would be possible even for such a strong guy.

 Ryan enjoying the sand :)

 Brooke kept bringing me trash she found in the sand...luckily she didn't bring me anything too disgusting.

 Riding down the dunes with daddy.

 This is how I spent most of my time there.  Since I'm still recovering from my c-section, I didn't think I should be climbing up any sand dunes even though it would have been fun.

 Brooke and Whitney flying the new kitty-kite.

 Car-car and Whitney had so much fun together.

 This little girl had so much energy it was exhausting to watch.

Monday:  We had to wake up way too early to take Texas and Carson to the Airport.

Thanks Texas and Carson for coming to visit!  It was great getting to know Carson better.  We had a wonderful time and hope to see you all again soon!!!!