Ryan's Blessing Weekend

Ryan was blessed on Sunday, January 20, 2013. We kicked off the blessing weekend with a trip to San Francisco with my siblings, parents, and Shari & Shauna. We ate lunch at Boudin and had ice cream at Ghirardelli. It was a gorgeous day!

On Sunday we had several family members and friends come to the church for the blessing and then over afterwards for dinner. The Heymans, Smiths, and Dittmers joined us along with my parents, siblings (plus kids), Shauna, and Shari.

This photo is a great representation of the stage we were in-- sheer craziness with the kiddos when we tried taking photos!

Loved getting these three together- born within a few months of each other- Pierce, Ryan, and Sophie.

On Monday after the blessing went to breakfast with Shari/Shauna at Katy's Corner and then we went hiking up in Mt. Diablo!

Such  fun weekend with family and friends as a new crazy family of 5! 

A little bit of everything

This week has been a lot of fun and a little bit crazy. 

We kicked off last weekend with a sibling get together. We're going to try and party at least once a month... though in my family it is hard for us to limit ourselves to only hanging out once a month :)

Jessie hosted our first get together down at her apartment and now the rest of us will have a hard time competing in future months. She made amazing fondue with all the fixings (two savory ones and a yummy chocolate one)... even the babies got in on the action :) Our other crazies had fun at home with a babysitter, so we loved our date night out.

Jessie gave Andrew his last Christmas present over the weekend too... he's a big fan. He makes sure to model his Buzz Lightyear costume for everyone that comes to our house... and launches himself off our bed again and again in his costume (and like Buzz he also falls really hard onto the floor instead of flying and does it repeatedly). 

We are wimps now that we live in California. If the temperatures dip below 40 we freak out a little. This past week it has been in the thirties. The only thing exciting about that is that Catie has been able to try out all of her cool winter coats and accessories. We actually wore socks almost every day this week... which never happens at our house... so that's how you know it is cold. 

Catie's cute vest from one of our neighbors

Catie's pink puffy coat from Grandma Julie

We've been doing reading and learning time every night before Andrew goes to bed since the new year started. It is fun to have some special 1:1 time together every night just the two of us. He is really excited about reading and writing so he pushes me to make it longer every night. He is also a huge fan of the Get Ready for the Code workbooks that I had from when I was teaching. I don't love workbooks, but he is obsessed. He even convinced the babysitter to let him do a few pages when she was over on Saturday night. I make sure to balance out the workbook time with more fun learning activities and games... but he asks me every day when he can move to the next workbook. Too funny! I have a feeling next year when he has to do homework and worksheets he'll have a different attitude... but for right now it is a novelty.

Catie keeps me on my toes lately because you don't totally ever know what to expect from her. I love her cuddles and kisses. She and Andrew have been playing much nicer together too... but any contact with strangers or new people in her personal space (which includes baby Ryan, our house, anywhere within several feet of her, her toys, her stuff, her room, etc) sends her into fits of rage. She is turning into quite the dramatic two year old and I already thought she was pretty emotional to begin with. I am using all of these strategies and them some every single day. Good thing she is SO CUTE the rest of the time (and even when she is raging actually) so I can't get too frustrated. Today she helped me make cookies, loaded all of the silverware into my dishwasher, and helped me put all of the clean laundry in baskets. What a sweetheart!

My little darling Ryan is huggable and so adorable. He is my special little buddy that tags along everywhere and is a positive delight. On Monday night I had a preschool executive board meeting that went from 7-10:30pm. He came with me and didn't make a peep the whole time... just chilled, smiled, played, ate, and slept. Last night he came with me to Young Womens and slept the entire time and then went home, played with us for a little bit and then went to bed and slept from 11pm-7am. I am enjoying every single second of holding him and cuddling with him!

Not too much else going on this week. We've watched way too many movies, eaten a lot of ice cream, and cleaned up a lot of messes! I have a feeling we'll be doing that again tomorrow too :) 

LOVE

There are a lot of things I am loving at my house right now... and I need to write them down before things change and I forget all of them

LOVE...

That Catie sucks her thumbs AND twirls her hair at the same time. Even better is that she twirls one side so much that her hair has a big knot there at least once a week... that turns into a giant rat tail. Cracks me up... until I have to cut the knot because it won't come out.

LOVE mutual activities I find on pinterest at the last minute on YW activity nights when I'm in charge. I helped make the Provo Temple. I know you're all impressed. ;) I also LOVE when I survive quick trips to the grocery store with all three crazies to get supplies without any major meltdowns (or anyone stealing candy... though Catie tried hard).

LOVE when people do messy art projects with my kids that I want to try out but don't feel like dealing with the mess. Now I have cute art in my kitchen and I didn't have to clean it up.

LOVE that I didn't teach this to Andrew and he wants to spend his free time doing it. Thank you Kinderprep!

LOVE Andrew's creativity and energy. Catie and I just watched as he jumped again and again and again... and he slept all night long last night (which doesn't happen every night). I think we should do this every afternoon.

LOVE being back on schedule. I've decided that I don't love winter break. 2 weeks was way too long for us not to have structure. I have gotten more done in the past three days than I did in 2 weeks.

LOVE that I was sick during Christmas break so now I still have tons of Christmas candy that I never got to eat and since I lost 5 lbs I can eat it and not feel guilty (though I still have probably 10 lbs of baby weight left to lose!).

LOVE this chunky monkey. At his 2 month appointment yesterday (about 2 weeks overdue), he weighed 14.3 lbs. He is all rolls and adorableness.

LOVE how much Catie and Andrew ADORE Ryan. Catie kisses him anytime she is around him and loves stroking his head and being so gentle.

(everyone wants to be around Ryan when he is awake- he is adorable!)

LOVE goop. We made it again this week. Catie wasn't sure at first... but then totally got into it. Andrew and I LOVE it... Kevin usually refuses to touch it. :) Catie makes the best faces.

Goop torture

LOVE when I procrastinate. I had a month to put together a week of activities for my Toddler Approved blog. I waited and waited till the last minute, so we have been doing at least 7 activities every day this week. If you have a toddler, check out the ABC's of Toddler Activities that I've been writing. It is pretty good for procrastinating it and doing it at the last minute ;) Yesterday we did O for Obstacle course and several other activities. The kids are going to be bummed next week when I'm not as fun of a mom.

LOVE this Catie's smile... and her tantrums. Man... and I thought Andrew threw some good ones. Catie takes the cake. Yesterday she was mad she couldn't get her doll out of her stroller by herself. She will not let anyone help her and screams more if you offer (even just to teach her how). She couldn't handle that she couldn't do something and did a lie down kick/hit the floor tantrum... then moved to the landing to tantrum some more, then walked upstairs and did some more, then went into her room and slammed her door and tantrumed until she got over it and then came downstairs like nothing had happened. Crazy girl!

LOVE sleep. I am in love with this kid (like head in the clouds in love, he makes me smile all the time sorta love). He is vying for Catie's spot as favorite child (wink wink) and is trying to be a better sleeper than her. Considering she currently sleeps 16 hours of the day (2+ hours of a daily nap and about 14 hours at night), he has a little ways to go... but he's trying hard. We did nap sleep training last week to teach him to fall asleep without being rocked or using any white noise or pacifiers and he's taking after Catie it seems so far (knock on wood) and likes sleep. Yay! Another kid who inherited Kevin's good genes! This week we're slowing moving his bedtime earlier and earlier and he's been sleeping longer and longer. I woke up to my alarm two days in a row instead of him. Sweet! Let's hope he keeps it up for while before teething or other things like that come and wreck his sleeping again. I feel like a completely different person now that I've gotten 6+ hours of sleep at a time a few nights in a row.

Lastly, I LOVE that I am more relaxed of a mom these days. When Kevin heads to Brazil on a trip in a few weeks and I am a single mom of three for two weeks, I may feel differently, but for this week, I love that Ryan is my third kid and I am not anxious when he cries or stressed out not knowing what to do for him and I love that I am ok with letting other people hold him and help me, etc. I also love that I have two other kids that keep me busy so that even on days when he doesn't sleep all night, I don't have a second to sit around and be depressed or tired... I just have to go go go. 

Let's hope that my positive attitude continues... and if not, at least I can look back here and remember what it was like. :)