I Fought the Wall, and the Wall Won

I'm taking a time-out from the updates to give you an injury report. The picture doesn't do it justice, but that's a nasty swollen bump with a cut on Cade's forehead. He tried to round the corner to go down the hallway at full speed, but had left his special blanket on the ground and tripped. His head met the corner of the hall, OUCH! After quite a bit of screaming, he started to feel a little better, and I tried to get a picture to send daddy at work. What I was going for was a good pout that said, "Poor me, I'm hurt," but the only pout I could get out of that crazy kid was a Derek Zoolander, "Don't hate me because I'm beautiful" look. See for yourself how much he enjoyed his photo shoot.

Have you ever seen a happier hurt kid?

Ryland's Random Facts

He's a busy boy! Ryland has been growing and changing like crazy lately. Here's a few things he's been up to lately:

1. He started walking about a month ago! He suddenly got eager to get on the move, and hasn't stopped since.

2. He LOVES the outdoors. If he hears the front or back door open, he heads that direction as fast as those chubby legs will let him get there. He also might screech in disappointment if he doesn't quite make it!

3. He got his one year pictures made! We love, love, LOVE Portrait Innovations!

4. His first words are "moon" and "balloon." He doesn't say them all that well yet, but he consistently makes "oom" and " moo" sounds while pointing excitedly at anything that remotely resembles the moon or balloons. Since he says "dit" at everything else, I really do think he's saying moon and balloon.

5. He's gotten really into pushing cars and trains around lately. It's funny to me because it looks like such little boy play, but he still looks like such a baby to me! He has a favorite new orange truck that he pushes all around the house.

6. Most of Ryland's favorite toys are whatever Cade really doesn't want him to play with at that time. Surprise, surprise.

7. Ryland listens and looks intently at books lately. His favorites are ones with moons and balloons (of course,) animals, and Thomas the Train.

8. Speaking of Thomas the Train, Ryland is already fascinated by him. He points to him wherever he sees him, including following Cade around all yesterday poking him in the butt since Cade was wearing Thomas underwear (pantless since he's not potty trained yet!) It was pretty darn funny!

9. Ryland was not impressed with the chocolate cake I made for him birthday, but he still managed to make an appropriate first birthday cake mess.

10. Though none of my pictures show it, Ryland has sweet baby curls in the back where his hair is actually growing. Their days are numbered, however, since Dad is already complaining about his son's "mullet."

That's some of what our sweetie is up to! Next up: All About Chris.

What? I Have a Blog?

I mentioned this post that I started a couple of weeks ago, and now I'm just starting over on it. I think at this point, the best way to catch people up is to do individual updates on my family members. I'll devote one post to each, and I'll probably add random pictures to mine and Chris' just to cram them in! (Note: I can't seem to get my pictures at the end of this thing so you've already been treated to today's picture.) I've already wasted space blabbing on this one, so I'll start with me...

I spent around a month fighting illness, which is why I was heard from so little for awhile. I don't know if I had three viruses, or one, a relapse, and then another, but I felt crummy for what felt like forever. I might feel better for a day or two, and I would spend that catching up on cleaning, laundry and groceries, then I'd crash again. I've finally felt pretty good the last ten days or so, but I've stayed busy with getting ready for Ryland's birthday and making stuff for our church's Trunk or Treat last Wednesday. Now, I hope to catch up on normalcy.


I've had one project going on that I'm really excited about and will post finished product pictures of. I've been making Christmas stockings for the four of us! When Chris and I married, we never got real stockings for our home. I just picked up some pretty Dollar Store stockings for decoration since we spend every Christmas at one of our parents' homes. Then when Cade was born, I started a search for family stockings, but couldn't find something I liked. My MIL offered to make us some like hers, which was super sweet of her, but I kind of wanted something new to all of us. I decided to try to make them, but had no idea how or what I was going to make. I got Cade a cheap stocking since it's not like a nine month old knows or cares about his stocking and I needed more time. Last year was especially pathetic, because Ryland actually never had one at all. We had three stockings hanging and the poor little guy was left out. This year, I got serious about it, and I started early since I knew this could take a non-sewer a LONG time to figure out what to do. Fortunately, I found plain stockings I like and beautiful appliques and buttons to sew on. My mother came over to remind me how to do difficult things like thread a needle and tie a knot (hey, I told you I'm a non-sewer!) and I started in. And to my surprise, it's going REALLY WELL! My stockings look amazing so far! I've finished all but the names on three of them, and I should be done by the day after Thanksgiving, which in my world is the first eligible day to decorate for Christmas (a task that should always be done as soon as possible.) I'm really proud of myself since I could probably win a contest for the least crafts-y person alive, or the fewest crafts completed in a lifetime.


Stay tuned for updates on Chris, Cade, and Ryland!

Birthday Boy

Hey Everyone,

Mommy's really tired from having all my grandparents over for a party, so I'm posting to tell you that I'm ONE now! As of yesterday, I'm not a baby anymore! Check me out at the Arboretum today. Maybe when Mommy catches up a little she can finally post some more.

Ryland

Good "Morging" to You

I know I'm ridiculously behind on posting. I started one, appropriately titled "What...I have a blog?" last week, but I got sick again and haven't gotten back to it. Expect a longer update sometime.

In the meantime, the funny story of the day. On a typical day, Cade sleeps until around 7am, and he calls from his bed rather than getting out. 6:45-7:15 is pretty average, and fairly convenient to when Chris needs to get up, although it still stinks for weekends. Yesterday morning, however, he roused at about 5:45. "Cade get up!" (Yes, he still speaks in the third person...our own personal caveman.) Chris went in his room and told him it was still nighttime and to lay back down. About 15 minutes later we had to start laughing in bed as we heard, "Mommy! Moon go down, sun come ups! Moon go down, sun come ups, MOMMY!" I went in his room and was greeted with, "Mommy! Moon go down, sun come ups. Morging."

Maybe in some time zones...

Water Day Fun

Here's a post to give everyone what they really want. PICTURES! We've been having a little fun in the backyard the last couple of days, and these are some of the pics we got. Enjoy!

These two LOVE the water!

Ryland's quite the crawler now

Still Cade's favorite activity

"I might be able to get up this slide if my diaper weren't so heavy"

Priceless grin

"Free from the diapers, at last!"

All this play makes a boy hungry

"We were already wet, but now we're clean!"

Ryland decided this ball was the perfect teething toy

This had nothing to do with our time outside, but what a cute picture!

Cade's Spaghetti Recipe

Cade has decided to start helping me a little bit more in the kitchen. The other day he noticed a chair pulled up in front of the stove (I'd been looking in a cabinet above it, and since the stove and oven were off, I hadn't hurried to move the chair back into place yet.) He climbed up on it, grabbed a butter knife and said he was cooking. I asked him what he was cooking, and he said, "Umm...agetti!" Of course, I was relieved that I wouldn't have to cook that day.

Today, as I was cooking dinner, Cade started rummaging in the drawers that I've always left baby-safe items in. He grabbed two muffin tins and put them on the counter, then asked me to get him a chair so he could cook too. He again said he was making spaghetti. I gave him the chair, a mixing spoon, and a bowl, and I kept at my business of our actual dinner. I was so amused when I looked over at what he was doing! He was filling the muffin tins with anything he could reach, which included the following: a sippy cup, two pacifier clips, and crusts from a piece of French bread that I had given him when I was slicing it for our dinner. I wish I could've taken a picture, but Ryland had pulled up on my pants legs, so I was just shuffling around the kitchen trying not to knock him over! I'm not sure this recipe will make the next Betty Crocker cookbook, but it did look easy and fast if anyone wants to try it!

Random Facts

I'm so behind on blogging and reading blogs, I didn't even realize I'd been tagged for this! I've now been tagged a couple of times at least, so here goes...

The Rules:
1. I have to post these rules before I give you the facts.
2. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged need to write their own blog (about their eight things) and post these rules. (**if you’re a non-blogger, you can email them!)
4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
5. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

1. I love to eat frozen M&M's or frozen chocolate chips with a glass of milk. The unusual part? I like to take a little sip of milk and hold it in my mouth while I toss in a few M&M's. Then I crush it all up together in my mouth. I don't know why I started that, but it's the best way to eat frozen chocolate!

2. I have an unusually difficult time understanding what people say when they have an accent, especially an Indian accent. I also have trouble distinguishing lyrics to songs. I find this odd since I'm very strong in both language and music areas. I can tell you what notes someone is singing, but not necessarily what they said!

3. My husband is the only person I ever dated longer than about six weeks (usually by my choice.) I used to have the longest crushes though! I liked one guy for about six years through junior high and high school, and another through the first three years of college! Things just always worked out better in my head than when I actually went out with someone. Until Chris, of course!

4. Some of you know this, but I actually had the wrong leg operated on when I went in for knee surgery about 10 years ago. Fortunately, they only scoped it before discovering the mistake, so the big operation was saved for the knee that needed it, but I still woke up to having had both legs operated on when I only expected one.

5. I've never been to a major water park and ridden anything. I say "and ridden anything" because I did go to Hawaiian Falls last year to help with VBS, but I was pregnant and couldn't ride any of the rides. I would love to, though.

6. I LOVE kids Christmas movies! I love the magical feeling of the Christmas season, and I love movies that capture it. Some of the movies that I feel like I have to see before Christmas every year include, "The Santa Claus," "Mickey's Christmas Carol," "A Christmas Story," and "How the Grinch Stole Christmas."

7. I'm a little bit of a popcornaholic. I especially crave it when I'm pregnant and nursing. It's a good thing that I need the calories at that point!

8. I visited both Alaska and Hawaii before I ever went to Oklahoma-a state that borders the one I've lived in almost my entire life. And I've still never been to Louisiana.

And now I'm tagging:

1. Christina
2. Elisa
3. Alison L.
4. Summer
6. Melanie
7. Anyone who hasn't been tagged
8. Anyone who has been tagged and not done it yet!

Changes

It's been a busy few weeks! Lots of things have changed since my last post, so I'll just hit a few highpoints.

1. Changes at home: We've been painting and putting upland crown molding lately. Pretty soon I'll post some before and after pictures. So far this summer we've changed the hard floors in the kitchen and entryway, painted the living, dining, and laundry room, rearranged things in the living room, and put up a mantle and crown molding. We've done some stuff outside, too, but it didn't change the look. With all the inside changes it feels like a different house! I love it!!!

2. Changes in the kids: Ryland has become a livewire lately! My laid-back little guy who waited until 7 months to roll over has started crawling, pulling up, and cruising. He'll let go for a few seconds and is contemplating walking! All his physical feats require constant narration on his part ("dadadada," "yeyeyeye," "ababababa," and "NAYNAYNAYNAY!!!") He'll eat anything offered to him, and weighs a substantial 21.5 pounds.

Cade keeps learning to string more and more words together. His English is a little caveman-ish, but it's fun to hear his thoughts. If there's a noise around the house, he'll exclaim, "Cade hear someping!" Sometimes when Ryland fusses Cade will say, "Don't worry Ryry...Cade's here." And every morning he wakes me up saying, "Popsicle, mommy? Popsicle?!" He's supposed to start a two day a week Mother's Day Out in about a month, and honestly I'm having second thoughts. If we take Cade up to church childcare more than once on Sunday, he doesn't want to go. He'll even ask to stay home the next day. How's he going to feel about being gone for five hours twice a week? He's only two; it's not like it's required or anything. Plus, I'm planning on doing Mother's of Preschoolers again. That means in a week that MOPS meets, Cade will be in childcare four times. I stayed home for a reason, so maybe that's too much. Any mom who reads this and has an opinion or personal story, please let me know what you think.


3. Changes in me!
Umm, no big ones really. I got a new, shorter, hairstyle last week. I read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (really good book!) I've had a little cold...man I'm boring. Oh well. Maybe I'll try to do something exciting before I post again.

First Swim of the Summer

Hey Everyone!

We finally got a chance to get in a pool! With all the rain and no neighborhood pool or anything easy like that, we haven't swam all summer! Poor Ryland had to wait until he was almost 9 months old for his first swim, but it was worth the wait. He laughed hysterically as I bounced him in the water (mostly he was laughing at Cade splashing.) He also loved being tossed in the air and caught as he splashed down. We took him under just once, and although he didn't know what to think, he also didn't cry! I think he's going to be a natural!

(If you're wondering, I have not been using my Dove lotion)

Cade has always loved the water, of course, and he had great fun splashing everyone around him. He especially loves it when he can get Ryland laughing, so all in all it was a good experience. Thanks Angela for inviting us over!

Cade and his good friend, Miss Angela

And now for the promised vacation pictures and synopsis...
Here is what Chris and I learned about traveling with two children so young...it's exhausting! We've started saying that it was a trip, not a vacation. Someday we'll leave the kids with my parents for a few nights, and then we'll have a true vacation.
But overall, it was a good trip. It was great to get out of town for a little while and have Chris around all day long. It was neat to see some different scenery and break out of routine (except for nap routine, which is under no circumstances, EVER to be broken!
The weekend started out at a family reunion for my dad's side of the family. We've never had a reunion before, and haven't had all of the family together for 16 years. Since then there's been seven new grandchildren (my generation,) two of the grandkids have gotten married, and there's been two great-grandchildren born (my boys, of course!) All 29 of us made it to the reunion, which was pretty cool. After the reunion, Chris, the boys, and I shared a house with my parents and younger brother for a few days in a little town near Yellowstone. We finished the week with just the four of us in a hotel in another town near Yellowstone. Now the key to a Yellowstone vacation is that you are either going to drive a lot or walk (hike) a lot. The problem for us was that Ryland didn't really like the driving unless he fell asleep, and Cade didn't do well with the hiking because he wanted to get down and walk himself, but couldn't manage much of the terrain very well. And he takes forever. So what we found ourselves doing was visiting all of the waterfalls. You didn't have to drive too far before you came across another one, and you didn't have to hike too much to see it!
Enough talking about the trip. Here are the pictures!


The aforementioned waterfall.... On a hike...
Outside the house...
We saw a little too much of this...

Another waterfall...
At the reunion
He got to hike by himself to this river...
Our first family vacation!
Wilderness family!

I'll be back

For anyone who cares, I will be posting again soon! It's been a little crazy here. First our visit from Chris' fam. It was great to see them, and they did a TON of work around our house, but the house looked like a tornado had hit it when they left. I had just a few days to clean up from that, try to finish painting the kitchen, and get ready for a trip to Montana. I'll post more about the trip next time, but lets just say that taking the four of us on an eight day trip is a lot of work both to prepare and recover from. And, after a few days at home, both boys got a cold, and they gave it to me. So, I'm not feeling up to writing anything interesting or funny right now, but I have a ton of great pictures of us in the mountains that will be posted soon!

Another FYI: for all of you whose blogs I read (e.g. my friend list) if you ever wonder why I rarely, if ever, leave a comment, it's because blogger doesn't seem to like to let me pull that window up most of the time. I love seeing your comments though, when it does let me!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend!

Big Weekend

It was a big weekend for Chris and I, and we're still a little exhausted! Thursday night we had tickets to see the musical "Camelot." Not a favorite, but it was good to have a date night! Friday was our anniversary, so we headed to a Japanese hibachi restaurant, and then to Putt-Putt. We joked about betting on the game, and we should have because I WON!!! I never beat Chris at anything (except foosball...and I'm sure I could win Scrabble, but he won't play me) so I have to brag a little. Saturday was Chris' birthday, and we had friends from church over to cookout. We put out Cade's new kiddie pool that looks like a giraffe. He LOVED it! He was only coaxed out briefly to eat, which was nice because it allowed us to actually socialize with our friends. It was a fun evening. Sunday was full because after the morning church services (which were awesome thanks to an amazing guest speaker, Voddie Baucham) we went back in the evening to help with New Member stuff. I don't know if that sounds like as much activity as it felt like, but it was pretty busy. Fun busy, though! This week I'm mostly going to be getting ready for Chris' parents' visit this weekend. We're probably going to be painting the living and dining room while they're here (they love projects) so I'll have to post pictures of that when we're done. We finally got new floors in the kitchen and entryway over Memorial Day, so our house is looking really different! I guess that's our main news for now!

Road Ready

Well, we decided over Memorial Day weekend that we would start Cade on driving lessons. After all, what are we supposed to do, be his chauffeur until he's sixteen? I don't think so.

As you can see, he's already mastered lesson #1: Looking good while driving.

Since he's not a girl, we can skip lesson #2: Applying makeup while driving, and go straight to lesson #3: Simultaneously eating and talking on your cell phone while driving. Add in one more, lesson #4: Changing 5 lanes of traffic to exit while changing the radio station, and he should be ready for Dallas traffic!

Ryland's still a little young for driving we decided, so he's going to have to keep hitching rides.

Wildcats and Watermelon

Cute picture alert!!!


Is he adorable or what? I was working on getting a good picture in his "Born to be a Wildcat" onesie for ACU Today (ACU's alumni magazine.) Although I'm not going to use this one since you can't see the onesie, I just had to post it! In other Ryland news, he got his first tooth today! It's so weird to me since Cade was almost 11 months before his first tooth. We thought he was going to be gumming his first birthday cake! Ryland, however, is on a quest to be different from his brother, and this is just one of the ways. He hasn't been too fussy, but I knew a tooth had to be close because every time I pick him up, he just sinks his gums into my shoulder and stays that way until I pull him off. Fortunately, it doesn't hurt!

This is Cade's first experience this summer with watermelon. Last summer he liked it some days and not others. Today he ate about half of the watermelon. Chris had cut smaller pieces of the watermelon for him, but check out the size of the piece he picked up! Lately when he eats something good, he turns to us and asks us, "Like ick, momma? Like ick, dadda?"

This kiddo keeps reminding me that I have to be careful now that I have a mockingbird for a son. You would think this wouldn't be too hard since I really don't use bad language. But it's amazing the little things you do when you're not thinking about whether anyone's paying attention. Not surprisingly, it usually occurs when I'm driving. Recently I was pulling out of a parking lot, and I wanted to get going to make the green light at the next intersection. The cadillac in the lane I needed was creeping along. "Come on, old people!" Okay, I'm not always nice when I drive. "MOMO PEOPLE!!!" came echoing from the backseat. Just what I need to teach my son, how to be rude to the elderly. So the next time I was in bad traffic, I told myself I wasn't going to say anything. We were stuck on 75 (it took us over 30 minutes to go 3 miles) and I was a little frustrated, but holding my tongue. Then I realized that Cade was imitating the exasperated sighs I was doing! Just a little thing, and yet he's catching every bit of it. I better go around doing nothing but singing praise songs...or maybe I'll just keep repeating, "Yes, Mommy. Whatever you say, Mommy!"

Have you tried...?

Two of my friends have now tagged me with this. It's called "Have you tried..." and you list your favorite new products. So if you're reading this, then Tag! You have to do it now.

Have you tried:

1. Dove Energy Glow Lotion
I love the idea of a no-cancer tan, but I hate the fact that I can smell it on myself constantly, plus everything I had tried gives my semi-sensitive skin these weird rashy bumps. A week into using Dove's new version, I don't smell it all day long, no bumps, and I no longer blind anyone with my white legs!

2. Mr. Clean Magic Eraser Mop
Magic Eraser is the only thing that gets my vinyl flooring completely clean, but this used to require 45 minutes on my hands and knees. I was ecstatic to find a new mop version! It almost makes me not want to change my flooring anymore...almost.

That's actually all I can think of right now. What have you got?

Take Two

Whew!
I've been trying to figure out the formatting to get my pictures where I want them, and I'm a little frustrated. My narrative gets a little shorter each time I write this...



This was going to be Ryland's first pool experience, but our friends didn't heat their pool as promised and it was COOOOOOLD! Cade will play with the hose in 50 degree weather if you'll let him, but even he wasn't trying to get in!




For some reason, Cade really wanted to put Ryland in his lap today. I set them up and just had to get a picture! Are they cute or what?

We managed to hold on the all of our stuff this week. That's a victory, I guess. Not much else of interest to talk about!

ROBBED!

Yes, robbed. As in, a man in our garage stealing our stuff. As in, Chris walks into our garage to see a man drop my bike and go running out. He then discovered our car had been rummaged through (nothing important in there, so nothing was gone, thankfully,) and his bike was gone.

We feel violated.

It was pretty scary actually. You never think you're going to just walk in on a total stranger in a part of your house. Chris yelled this horrifying yell (it reminded me of the time he dreamed he was fighting a demon. Yeah, SCARY) to scare him off and anyone else who might still be lurking in the garage, but luckily no one else was in there. The guy must have been working with someone else though, because he only had a few minutes and he was trying to steal two bikes.

So the full story. Ryland was already in bed, and Chris and Cade and I were in the backyard. It was starting to get dark (but still daylight) and I went in to draw Cade a bath. He was all muddy from "helping" Daddy work on the sprinkler system, which is also why the garage door was open. Chris had been going in and out using different tools. Anyway, Chris stopped for just long enough to strip Cade down, walk back to bathroom with him and tell me he was going to the gym. He then headed out to the garage. I had just put Cade in the bath when I heard that horrific yell I referenced earlier. Although I know full well that you are not supposed to leave a two year old in the bathtub by himself, I decided it was more important in that moment to find out if my husband was being attacked or something, so I went running out to the garage. I was hoping he was just scaring off some unfriendly dog, but unfortunately, it was worse than that.

We're extremely lucky, really, that only one item was stolen and the guys weren't violent at all. We've learned a valuable lesson to keep our garage door shut at ALL times, even if you're only leaving for a minute. And in case you're wondering, Cade was fine. I immediately went back to him when I found out that Chris was okay. He was painting on the wall with soap and hadn't even realized I was gone.

NEVER NEVER NEVER LEAVE ANYTHING OPEN!!!

Okay, got that off my chest.

Ah Boo Dit Doo!

Cade has a pretty good understandable vocabulary...most of the time. He's at that point that whenever he combines too many words (usually three or more together) it turns into gibberish. Recently I was playing with Ryland, saying, "I'm going to get you!" and blowing rasberries on his tummy. Cade was watching and giggling, and would say "Cade! Cade!" for me to blow a rasberry on his tummy. Then he said, "Mama! Mama!" He lifted my shirt, slowly and dramatically said "Ah boo DIT doo!!!" and more or less spit on me. He thought it was a great game, though, and after awhile he started doing real rasberries on both me and Ryland.
Today I was looking at a safari book with Cade. We came across a picture of a cape buffalo, and I said, "Look, buffalo!" He said, "bubbabo" or something close. I added, "Cape buffalo" and Cade said, "Cade...bubble juice." At least they were real words!

An Intervention

I've been shamed.

My dear friends had to run an intervention about my blogging. In all fairness, I did say in my first blog that it would be amazing if I kept up with this...

So, in honor of my college friends that I got to see tonight, I'm reflecting on friendships.

In high school I had some good friends. We had fun together, participated in common activities, and spent time together. Some people had catty fights that I tried to stay out of. Others were always loyal. I miss some of them and wonder how they are doing.

I college, however, I learned about a different kind of friend. Friends who really share your values. Friends who support and affirm you on a regular basis. Friends who are ridiculously FUN! I don't know if it's something about living away from home and how your college friends are your family for that time in life, or if it had more to do with the friends I chose, but I value the girls I hung out with in college more than I can say. I didn't have one particular best friend, but instead a group that was the best set of friends I could imagine. I miss them a lot and wish I kept up with them better. Tonight I saw three of my best college girlfriends, and it's amazing how comfortable it was whether I'd seen them last month or over a year ago.

Friendships now are a little different since I'm married and live with my best friend, but they're still important. I feel lucky to have a church home in which I've found many very good friends. They are women I can count on for prayers, help, advice, and of course, FUN! I'm glad to know all of them.

I hope that all my friends who read this will know how important you have been in my life!