Memphis trip

Ryan made his first trip to Memphis over labor day weekend. Our usual 7 hour drive took us about 8 hours. Not too bad with a 2 1/2 month old. We stopped three times. Two to feed Ryan, gas up and take the girls potty and one to change Ryan's poopy diaper. We were so excited to get away and spend some fun time with my parents and family.

We ate dinner at Firebirds. It was soooo yummy! We have figured out that in order to eat out we must go right after Ryan's feeding in the late afternoon (usually at 4). He was awesome at dinner. He was happy and actually took a little nap while we ate.

My brother loves playing with his favorite nephew. I can just see he is going to spoil him for years to come.

We were so excited to spend some time with my parents. They haven't seen Ryan since just after he was born. It was nice to have a little break and have help feeding Ryan. It can be frustrating b/c he spits up so much. We hope to see my parents more often now that they have one adorable grandson. Thanks Mom and Dad for all the help and for an awesome trip.

My dad holding Ryan.

My mom is making the funniest face in this picture. I think she was teaching Ryan to stick out his tongue. I guess he is a quick learner b/c I noticed today he is really sticking out his tongue alot. And not just a little sticking out but like licking-his-lips sticking it out. It's so cute. Is there anything this baby doesn't do that's not cute? Well, his spit up is not cute but we love him anyway. When I get frustrated with the reflux and spit up I just remind myself "it's only spit up, it's only spit up, it could be alot worse".

Four generations - Ryan, Me, my mom and my granny. She turned 90 years old last Sat. on Sept. 12. It was also my parents wedding anniversary. She does good for a 90 year old lady. She's so sweet and we just love getting to see her. So glad she was able to meet Ryan and give him some loving.

It was an awesome trip and we can't wait for our next trip to Memphis over Christmas.

3 Months

Ryan is THREE months old today.

RYAN - What are you up to these days???

• You are on a pretty good routine. You still eat every three hours and take a morning nap after your first bottle of the day. The rest of the day you 'cat' nap.
• You smile at us all the time and have started to laugh. We can't get enough of it.
• You absolutely love it when we play 'patty cake' with you and usually spit up b/c you get so excited. Love it.
• You don't like to lay down too much. You like to stand up with us holding you. You are so strong!
• You hate tummy time but we suffer through your crying, ha. You want to be on the go. When we lay you down for tummy time you kick your legs and are so close to rolling over.
• Your bedtime is between 8-8:30 then you get a last "dreamfeed" bottle at 10PM. You sleep til around 7:30-8:30AM. Mommy likes this as I get a little more sleep.
• You are sleeping in your crib in your room as of last Saturday night. You've done well but you LOVE to wiggle and are always in a different place in the morning. You are still waking at least a couple times at night fussing and just need your paci. We are praying you grow out of this soon and sleep without waking up.
• You are wearing size 1-2 diapers and weigh around 13 lbs. You are wearing size 3 month clothes but will soon be "graduating" to 6 month.
• You love to suck on your fingers/hand. It soothes you when you don't have your paci.
• You are growing up so very fast right before our eyes. Our love for you grows more every day!

Jumping Bean

We recently got Ryan a jumparoo and he LOVES it! He kicks his legs all the time and loves to stand on your lap of course with us hold him. I thought he would love a jumparoo so we found one for a great price on ebay. At first he didn't exactly know what to think but I think every day he is getting the hang of it more.

I just love this pic of him.

We thank God every day for this amazing blessing God has given us. We are so blessed.

Ryan loves to put his fingers in his mouth now. If he's fussing he will find his hand, start sucking and it soothes him. It's so cute!

Don't ya just love the drool? This boy is the spit up king! I tell him that all the time. He spits up alot. After his feeding, before his feeding and all in between. I just tell myself when he spits up all over me that it's just spit and this too shall pass. I can't believe he is going to be 3 months old tomorrow!

Love that smile! I will lay him on his changing table and he will spit up like 4 tablespoons worth or formula then just look up at me and grin. Hard to get upset at that adorable face.

He's not too sure what to think. He can't touch the floor so we put a shoebox underneath it so he can reach.

Backyard Landscape

Sometimes it's just easier to pay someone to do the work!

Matt and I have wanted to add to our landscaping for a long time. We are blessed to live across the street from a landscaper who owns his own business. We talked with him just after Ryan was born and we thought his quote was reasonable and the best part was we didn't have to do the work, ha! See, last summer we planted 5 evergreen trees and 4 viburnum evergreens in our backyard and only 2 have survived. Yes, you heard me, TWO!!! We were so mad and call it our "stupid tax". We learned we do not have green thumbs! So here are the before and after pictures of our now beautiful landscape!

Side of the house before

After - Hydrangeas

I love Hydrangeas and can't wait to see what color they come up in the spring!

Before

After

Before

After - love it!

The tree is a river birch (not sure what everything else is called, ha)

Before (what we look at from our deck or out the window)

After - much more privacy!

I love the stone steps leading off the deck!

We are really pleased with the work and hoping nothing dies this time! If it does at least we know it will be replaced under warranty!

Race for the Cure

This morning I was up bright and early to run/walk the Cincinnati Race for the Cure 5K! I was a little nervous about the race. Matt stayed home to watch Ryan so I had to drive myself to the race. I have never before run a 5K this large. I found a great parking spot and made my way to pick up my shirt and bib. Not sure on the official numbers but there was atleast 10,000 people there! It was so touching to see the breast cancer survivors walking with their husbands, family and friends! Made me teary eyed!

The race was great! I'm ready to do another one next month, ha! My goal time was 45 min. but I thought realistically it might be closer to 50 min. When I ran on the treadmill on Thursday my time was 43 min. My time today was 43.25. I was very happy and surprised! I achieved my goal! I was able to run alot of the race and really push myself!

And here is a pic of Ryan for the grandparents! We just can't get enough of this sweet baby! He's such a cutie pie! This is us before our date night at Rendezvous in Memphis!

Road Trip

Our road trip to Memphis started off great last Friday! The car was packed to the hilt with people, dogs and stuff...lots of stuff! Ha! We were so excited to be traveling to Memphis to visit my family! I was a little nervous about how Ryan would do on the 7 hour road trip but he proved to be a good traveler! The only bump in the road came just past Jackson about 50 miles from our destination. Ryan decided to scream the entire last 50 miles. Many deep breaths and some prayer later we finally arrived at my parents house.

Ryan was snug as a bug in his car seat! We hung out in the back seat as our driver (Matt) drove the 500 miles south. I told him just call me Miss Daisy the rest of the day, ha! At first I wasn't looking forward to sitting in the back seat butI ended up loving it.

We stopped at Sonic not once but TWICE on Friday, HA! We stopped the first time about 2 1/2 hours into the trip and we gased up, took dogs potty, we went potty, fed Ryan and ate lunch! They asked us if we wanted the free drink upgrade to a route 44 and I said sure not thinking about how big it actually is. My diet coke was so big I think I only drank about 1/4 of it, HA!

We stopped again at another Sonic just past Nashville a few hours later to feed Ryan! We of course had to order something so we each got slushes and the best thing was it was happy hour!

This is where Annabelle spent most of the drive! We put the middle seat down in the back and placed the dog carrier, with the door off, where the middle seat was. The dogs could lay in the carrier or my lap. Of course Gracie chose my lap, her favorite place.

The girls enjoying the ride snoozing between Ryan and I. Do you see my feet propped up? I was pretty comfy back there! Ha!

Besties

As I mentioned in my previous post my best friend Rachel and her 15 month old son Alex came to visit us last week! I enjoy and cherish every opportunity we get to spend together and hang out! We usually only get to see each other about twice a year! We loved having them here!

Raych is expecting her second baby next spring! We are so excited about baby Tichy and can't wait to find out what she is having!

Here we are with our boys! Hard to believe that 17 years ago we were riding the bus and gossiping over boys and here we are 17 years later as wives and moms to these adorable little boys! It was so neat to stroll our little boys and do our mom thing! I so wish she lived closer =(

I love this pic of Raych and Alex, might be one of my favs!

Alex absolutely LOVED the pool! All I kept thinking while he was playing in the water is how much fun Ryan will have next summer at the pool! He's gonna be a water baby! Have you seen his feet? He might just be the next Michael Phelps, ha!!!

We are in the process of planning our trip to Connecticut sometime before next spring!

*post coming soon - before and after pics of our landscape we just had done and our trip to Memphis!