13 Months

At thirteen months, this little guy is one busy boy.  He's still way low in weight percentiles, but sprouted up in height (yay!)  It's no wonder he can't put any fat on those bones...he's going, going, going all waking hours of the day.  I love taking him for walks out on the side walk.  It's like setting down one of those wind-up toys and watching his little legs go as fast as they can.  So cute, it melts my heart. 

He loves balls....carrying them, kicking them, intercepting them from Nathan....whatever.  Another absolute favorite is anything he's doing outside.  Sometimes I take him out there to eat breakfast because he even eats better if he's in the backyard!  He loves dogs (little ones, anyway), and he may just be the child to convince his daddy that we need one.  (The other kids are counting on it...)  His new favorite toys are toothbrushes.  I gave him a few unused ones to play with, but then he discovered that he can climb up on the stool in the bathroom to access Nathan's toothbrushes in the drawer.  How convenient (and apparently much more fun!  We're now keeping the stool in the closet unless Nathan needs to brush!)

Ryan loves stories.  He'll bring over a book and sit down in my lap so we can read it.  Totally cute!  Another heart-melter.  His current favorites are: Violet's House, Baby Animals on the Farm, and Fuzzy, Fuzzy, Fuzzy (he loves feeling all of the different textures.)

Hmmmm....what else.  He's turning into quite the flirt (just like his big brother.)  Loves the YW at church, all of the girls' friends, other moms at the park, ladies helping us at the cash register...you get the idea.  He certainly knows how to turn on the charm.  Boy are we in trouble!

One of my favorites is when he wakes up in the morning, sits up on the bed and just starts chattering away (even if there's no one there to chatter to.)  He tells some great stories in that baby language of his.  I can't get enough of it.  I sure wish I could understand what he's saying!

Life has been (and still is) busy, but I'm so grateful that I've taken the time to enjoy this little guy.  I get comments all of the time from people that can't believe he's one.  "Where did the year go?" they wonder.  It did go fast (time always does), but it's nice to know that we all spent so much time loving Ryan, smothering him with attention, and getting our "baby" fix.  Ryan is one lucky boy to have a family that loves him so much!

School

Sixth Grader:

Fourth Grader:

Kindergartener!

Looking good...

...and ready for school!

And the Baby, ready for lots of going to and from school...

We've officially made it through the first week, and things have been great (absolutely crazy, but great!)  Anna loves middle school, Aimee announced after the first day that she has the most awesome teacher ever, Nathan is getting used to Kindergarten, and Ryan is wondering what happened to everyone.  We're finally settling into our routines and trying very hard to get to bed on time (these early mornings are harder for some than others...)

Hooray for September....we love school! 

In just a couple of days this sweet little girl of mine will start middle school. What?!

Yep. We went to register a couple of weeks ago.

   

Her locker was a little tricky at first, but she got the hang of it pretty quickly. Can I tell you how weird it was teaching my own kid how to do a locker combination? Jr. High couldn't have been that long ago!

Ryan was there to help out...

Below, with her I.D. card (and looking a little tired from the big day):

I guess it's official....When do I panic? :)