The Birthday Bash

A few pictures from the big day:

Ryan waking up bright and early and hanging out in the Girlies' room...

Then a little rummaging through the cupboards before breakfast (we thought it would be a good b-day present to let him get into any cupboards he wanted, then keep cleaning up after him and letting him do it all over again....wait that's what we do every day! :)

On to a morning nap...aww, he is sooo sweet...

Ahhh, lunchtime....he's been waiting for this!

Cherries, veggie chips, and the "forbidden until he's 1" peanut butter and HONEY sandwich....in teensy tinsey pieces.  He loved it!

He finally got dressed...nothing like hanging around in your jammies until the afternoon!  Ryan found the ear buds to my phone and thought they were the greatest things for a while.

And here he is helping me with his b-day cake.  He got to lick the buttercream frosting beaters...lucky!

Voila! 

Gotta play with the balloons for a while too...

This birthday stuff is exhausting!  Two big naps in one day!?  That's just not like him! :)

Now we're ready to party...check out the camo jeep pinata.  Way cool.

Pizza for dinner...yum!

Ryan was not too keen on the pinata.  He especially disliked the "whack!" sound of the bat hitting it.  Maybe next year...luckily Nathan had a blast with it!

Presents...now things are looking up!

Loving it...

Still loving it...

And now, what we've all been waiting for....drumroll, please...

the cake!

I think he wasn't sure why we were letting him just dig his fingers into it.

Okay, we've got the bib on...go for it!  (Notice Aimee's hand on his neck.  I think she's ready to shove his face into it, if we'd have let her...)

Hmmm....a spoon works much better...

Now that's the way Ryan likes to party!

Happy Birthday, cutie boy....what a fun day!

Our Little King

We are never very good at deciding on baby names ahead of time.  In fact, Annalyn was a whole week old before she had a name.  Aimee was named in one day because they told us we couldn't leave the hospital until we had the paperwork filled out for her birth certificate.  Nathan was actually decided a couple days before...well, not definitely, but at least we had a name that we both agreed on!  And with Ryan, well Scott and I both had names we'd been thinking of, but we'd never even discussed it.  A few hours after he was born Scott decided it was time to talk names.  He told me the names he liked, and I wasn't too excited about any of them.  Then I presented my names, and they were instantly given the "thumbs down."  Hmmm...what to do?  We started from square one, and one of the names that popped into my head was 'Ryan.'  I am big on name meanings, so we pulled out our trusty laptop to look it up.  When I read that it meant "little king" I knew we had found our name.  Don't you think this picture says it all? 

He is definitely the little king of this family!

He certainly doesn't want for attention.  Here he is with the girls and their friends, wow-ing everyone with his clapping...this kid is loved, and he knows it!

Ryan has started pulling funny faces whenever he sees the camera.  It's pretty hilarious!

He loves PIZZA

and CHOCOLATE (shhh...)

He found a bag of chocolate chips somewhere and we found him making a glutton of himself as fast as he could before we discovered him and took them away...

Of course, we had to take a few pictures first...good thing I keep my floors sparkling clean...ha!

Ry-ry loves climbing into things...

...playing in closets...

...taking baths...

...and he especially loves hanging out with his big brother...

they are quite the pair!

Ryan is a great help to Nathan when he plays the Wii

He is there to provide support, lend advice, and give lots of hugs...

..this was an especially tense moment for Mario...

He is our sweet, happy boy...

What a fantastically fun year this has been for us!

We are so lucky and so grateful that we get to have him in our family.

Love you Ry's!  Happy Birthday!

(p.s. Now would be a good time to stop growing up...)

One Year Old...

I just want to know how you went from this:

to this:

so fast?

We love you little Ryan.....more than you'll ever know. 

Happy 1st Birthday!

Go Nathan Go!

Look who's riding without training wheels!

My New Favorite Picture...

doesn't it just make you smile?

Eleven Months

This cute boy is eleven months today.  I could go on and on about how much we love him, but I think I've mentioned that before...

He loves:

*Blankies (none of my other kids have really been attached, but Ryan finds great comfort in snuggling up a blanket....I love it!)

*Blueberries-and pretty much any other fruit, but blueberries are his current favorite.  He downs a bowlful like you wouldn't believe!  Gotta love those anti-oxidants...

*Watching us play "Just Dance" on the Wii.  Ryan gets his groove on too.  He can't help but bounce up and down and wave his arms to the music.  Sometime I'll post a video.  It's pretty darn cute!

*Any other kind of music...he loves to bang on the piano and play with the strings on Anna's guitar.

*Tackling and "wrestling" with Nathan.  Boys will be boys... :)

*Playing peek-a-boo...anywhere with anyone...

*Going up stairs...we're still trying to teach him the "down" part.

*Playing outside.  What baby doesn't???
*Playing "escape artist" and finding his way out of the seat belt thing that holds him in his little seat that hangs off of the counter (no matter how tight I make the straps.)  Yikes and double yikes!  We will be taking that down...

Love you, Ry's. 

Eleven

Well, it's about time I post about my little girl turning eleven.  Whoa....it's going to take a while for me to get used to saying that!  We had a fun birthday celebration at the cabin (on the 4th of July) with a gooey chocolate dutch oven cake that was DELICIOUS (with some homemade vanilla ice cream on top...yummm....)

I could go on and on about this sweet eleven-year-old, but I'll keep it short.  Anna is such a blessing to our family.  She is such an amazing daughter and older sister.  I always dreaded my kids getting older.  When Anna was in Kindergarten and Aimee was a cute little three-year-old and Nathan was a baby, I wanted to just freeze time and go on like that forever.  But I'm so glad it didn't (otherwise Ryan wouldn't have ever come along!)  I never thought that having older kids would be as fun as it is.  We are buds (most of the time, anyway....unless I'm making her do chores:) and we love hanging out together.  Anna especially loves "one-on-one" mother-daughter time.  It's very cool...

I also love that Anna is developing her own interests and talents.  I can't tell you how many hours I've spent in years past worrying about what classes she should be in, what sports she should play, what she should do with her time, etc.  (Me, worry?  ....No!)  I didn't want to push, but I didn't want her to miss out on anything either.  Well, all of the sudden she has become her own person and sets goals and works hard to accomplish them.  Again, very cool.  She has so many talents, and it is fun to see her discover and develop them.

Her latest favorite thing was a Drama Camp she did last week.  They were performing "Grease Jr." and Anna tried out for and got the part of Sandy (the lead!)  She was pretty excited.  Here are some pictures of her performance (there are a ton...these are for you, Mom & Kim!)

This is Anna with the cute girl who played Rizzo (Sandy's rival...)  Anna said she was too nice to play a mean girl!  They got to be pretty good friends...

I'm so glad she got to do this.  What a great experience for her.  Good job, and happy 11th, Annalyn!!!  We love you...