Aloha

As I type this we are driving along the gorgeous coast line of Maui in Kevin's new dream car...a minivan! Haha! It is quite spacious which is nice since we have so much luggage! So we made it! We were well prepared and Ryan did so great - lots of compliments on how he did so well! Everything has worked out so well thus far. We got in first and got our luggage then our sizzling minivan. Right after we got the van my parents got in so we picked them up and now we are headed to kaanapali alli, where we are staying! It is beautiful here and we are so excited to be here! Here are some pics from our trip so far.






This is Ryan right now! He is exhausted.... But it is his bedtime in Dallas!





Sleeping on the plane





Getting ready to take off!





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Dreams: Day 11

Need I say more...

Although his eyes are open here, this is where he does his dreaming...

Hobbies & Passions: Day 09

I decided to capture Yia Yia T for this photo because she is passionate about decorating! Recently she made a last minute trip up to Dallas to come and stay with me and Ryan while Kevin was out of town. It's so great that she is able to just jump in the car and drive up without much notice - Ryan LOVES seeing his Yia Yia. Since she has been getting her business up and running again she is always working on a project and usually brings it with her. When she had her fabric swatches out all over the kitchen table and making calls to different suppliers and such - I knew she was the perfect subject for this photo. She is very passionate about decorating and is really quite amazing at what she does. She gets so excited talking about different projects and its so fun to see her at work.

Dear Ryan (7 months)

Happy 7 months little R!

You are getting so big these days - I weighed you on our scale and you are up to 16lbs! You have been wearing your DOC band for 5 weeks now and the therapists say that your head it looking great. We are still going to therapy and you have really good rotation with your neck now but we need to work on strengthening your muscles now. Your left arm muscle is so much bigger than the right! You are sitting up now - you started that about a week after you turned 6 months. You sit so well and don't even need your hands to lean on. You also have TWO teeth!!! You got your first one x and then your next one came a week later.

Here is what you are up to these days

In the morning you wake up with a big smile on your face anytime between 7am and 8am and I nurse you. It only takes you about 15 minutes these days, which I still can't believe! After nursing we usually go hang out with daddy while he is getting ready for work. Once he has left we play on your play mat and do some stretches. Next we eat! We are still working on making this meal more routine so that you get use to it but you are doing pretty well so far. I give you either rice cereal or oatmeal with a fruit. I also let you play with your sippy cup and you love to put it in your mouth but haven't quite mastered actually getting anything out of it.  After this we watch Baby Einstein and then you are ready for your morning nap.

Daytime is never really routine. You play, nap, nurse, and run errands with mommy and we always have so much fun.

Your night time routine is still the same and you still love it. Since you are sitting up we got you an inflatable tub that you sit in and splash around in - you really love it. You splash the water all around and scratch at the animals on the design. Afterwards you read with daddy and then get your bottle. Your last bottle of the night has changed a little - you use to down 8 ounces without even stopping, now some nights we struggle to get 5 ounces!! You fall asleep and are so not interested in any milk. Luckily it hasn't affected how long you sleep so I suppose thats ok. I guess you are just getting more during the day so you need less at night? Not sure...

Life has been amazing these past seven months and we your dad and I couldn't be happier. We are leaving for Hawaii on Saturday and are excited but also a little apprehensive. I am a little worried about the flight time as well as the time change and hope that you are able to adjust easily. You have such a wonderful schedule and have been so good at sleeping though the night (which I appreciate so much) and I am going to mess that up for you. Oh well, the memories we will make will be worth it! I am so excited for you to play on the beach and have fun in the water!

We love you forever and always!

At the Zoo

The weather in Dallas has been AMAZING and we have been trying to do as much outside as we can. On Friday we headed to the Zoo with Nat & Andy and some of their friends.

Here is Ryan with the elephants...which I somehow managed to not get in this picture...

Feeding the giraffe's

 Nat & Andy with the giraffe's

Ryan's 1st Valentine's Day

We had such a great Valentine's day and I am so glad I got to spend it with both of my men! Kevin had such a great idea of having a picnic at the arboretum - so we did. He worked a half day and then headed home to pick us up. The arboretum was empty and the weather was beautiful. We enjoyed sandwiches from Jimmy Johns (my fav) and champagne. A little odd combination....but it was PERFECT. I couldn't have imagined a better way to spend Valentine's day! 

Sipped some yummy champagne while little R was taking a nap

Yay - airplane with daddy!

Kisses from mommy

Beautiful day!

Playgroup

Yesterday we had playgroup and it was so much fun seeing everyone again. All of our babies are getting so BIG!

Ryan and Henry (they are about a month apart)

Getting all the kiddos on the couch for a group picture

Ryan and Lily (they are only a day apart!)

Lily(6.5mo), Ryan(6.5mo), Riley(6mo), Brooks(6mo), Henry(7.5mo), Conner(7.5mo) and Rebecca(7.5mo)

Ryan is really into Lily!

Ryan might be going in for a kiss!

Riley wants some attention from Ryan too

Just hanging out

And were are done!

What they Wear: Day 04

Here is my little man in his helmet that he wears! We decorated it last night and I LOVE it. I used my cricut to cut out all the letters and turtles and it was so easy. I am going to make a beach themed one for when we go to Hawaii and have it say Aloha on that back - so fun! We had his appointment today and he is making such great progress. His therapist thinks that he will only be in it for a total of two months, so we are already almost halfway done!

I have added a few more turtles and some blue dots for decoration since this picture...looks adorable!

Bad hair day

Ryan was born with a lot of hair....and he has been losing it ever since.  I took his helmet off the other day to clean it and look at all the hair that I found in it!

And then look what I found on his head! Now that is some wild hair. 

He's like "what so funny, mommy?"

 And then he became a wild man!

So we decided to wear a hat!

Generations: Day 07

I took this picture a while ago but I still love it - such a sweet little generation!!!

Who They Love: Day 06

Boy of Boy - if you know Bob you know who he LOVES - Koala bear! He is crazy for this little bear that he stole from my brother Steven. Yes, random that Steven had a koala bear, but it was some little trinket he picked up in Australia. Anyhoo, Bob scouted it out and stole it. He sleeps with it every night and is extremely protective of it. If you go anywhere near him at night he thinks you are trying to take koala bear and will growl at you. Here they are - all snuggled up in his snuggle cup - another favorite of his!

Love to Hate: Day 05

This one took me a while to come up with but when Kevin came into the bedroom with his cereal this morning I knew I had to jump out of bed and grab my camera. I am usually up with Ryan before Kevin eats his cereal so I don't hear him but when I do I swear he purposely makes a racket so that he can wake me up!

He doesn't have bad eating habits at all, there is no slurping or crunching loudly....it's the banging the spoon against the bowl that drive me nuts. That might sound silly but it's something that I noticed right around the same time that I quit working (and was sleeping in while Kevin was getting up for work) and I really really thought he was doing it to wake me up so we could chat.  I would just wake up and laugh at him and say you could really just ask me to get up if you want me to.  He swears he doesn't do it on purpose but now it's just so funny because it always wakes me up and although the banging sound can drive me nuts, I kind of love it now.

Solids - update

Making Ryan's food has been so great! I really love my Beaba Cook machine - it's super easy to use and also fast.  He still nurses 5x a day and takes a bottle before bed, but now we also have one meal at some point during the day.  Here is what he thinks:

- Rice Cereal - digs it
- Sweet Potatoes - blah
- Peas - blah
- Bananas - LOVES
- Carrots - LOVES

So much more for my little man to try. Here he is helping mommy make some carrots today.

Somebody has a tooth!!

My little love bug has his first tooth!!! I found it this morning - ever so often I check to see if there is anything there and there hasn't been unil NOW. So excited for my little bug! For the past two weeks he has been fighting what I thought was a cold but it turns out he was just growing a tooth! I thought we were just passing a cold back and forth so I feel so much better knowing that I wasn't getting him sick - whew. So proud of my little man. He hasn't even been fussy or anything - such a happy little man.

Check it out - you can see the tooth breaking through on the bottom - so CUTE!

On another note....I am SUPER behind on my Joy of Love project. I am still working on it...so I will have them all posted soon!

Snow Day!

It's been a crazy week here in Dallas. Last weekend we enjoyed 70+ degree weather and this week it's been FREEZING! It started on Tuesday with a little snow and lots of ICE. The city basically shut down...which was great for the first day but by day three we were so ready to get out of the house! To top things off we got MORE snow on Thursday night. When we woke up on Friday there was at least six inches - so fun! Here we are hanging out in the snow...

Dad worked from home on Friday and played with us in the snow!

 Our street looks beautiful all covered in snow.

How they look: Day 02

I wanted to capture how Ryan looks at Bob - it's adorable! He is so interested in Bob and just stares at him so intensely. He REALLY wants to be friends and he tries to pet him all the time. In the picture below Ryan is just concentrating so hard on petting Bob - look at that face! AND then you have Bob's face of anger. Bob is growling as Ryan pets him - poor little Ryan wants a nice dog.

Here he is petting Bob and smiling for mommy. Bob is still growling.