The Bennett Family

Ryan – 3 Years, 1 Month Old

2012-01-17T22:10:00.001-06:00

Ryan turned 37 months old on January 6th. Yes, I know I’m very late with this post, but better late than never, huh?! I’ve actually been debating whether or not to continue his monthly posts because I know I’m going to be super busy with the new baby, but I’m going to try my hardest to continue with the updates because I love going back and reading them … and otherwise I won’t remember a thing he did!

I haven’t taken his measurements this month and since he’s half-way to 38 months I won’t even bother!

I really think that Ryan knows that a big change is coming in his life. He has been super needy the past month and wants to be by my side 24/7. He always wants to cuddle with me, which I do not mind at all! Right after Christmas he started wanting to be held all the time. I told him that my belly was too big to hold him for very long, so I would pick him up and sit down on the couch to which he would respond, “That’s not holding, that’s sitting!”. I explained to him time after time that I was still holding him even though I was sitting down but he was never happy with it!

Ryan calls underwear “underwaiter” and I love it! I often ask him to say it just to put a smile on my face!

Sometimes when I say stuff to him he says, “Don’t say that! Teachers don’t say that!” … It’s usually something like, “That’s cool” so I’m not sure why he thinks teachers don’t say that but whatever!

My hair is desperately in need of a haircut so I’ve been pulling part of it up lately. He gets so excited when I do this and says, “You have a ponytail?”, even though it’s just half-pulled back in a clip!

He says, “You wanna play with me, too?” and always shakes his head while saying “too” … simply adorable!

Ryan still loves to help me cook. We made oatmeal scotchies the other day and he actually stirred everything by himself until I added the oats in and it was too hard for him.

“This be awesome!” is one of his frequently used statements these days … uses this a lot when playing with his race track.

Ryan LOVES the guitar that we got him for Christmas. He took it to show and tell at Preschool two Fridays in a row!

Ryan’s new favorite thing to watch is Care Bears!! I think that the girls at preschool definitely out rule the boys on what they watch!

I am happy to say that Ryan has taken several naps at home in the past month. I have discovered that letting him sit on the couch and watching a movie on Netflix that he’s never seen before does wonders. He ends up laying his head down on the arm of the couch and is out within minutes! Just another reason that I love Netflix! And, I also love taking pictures of him while he sleeps!

I was having trouble with Ryan taking forever to get in his car seat every time when we got in the car. And with it being cold outside, it was really starting to get on my nerves. Micah discovered that we could say, “I’m going to beat you in your car seat” and start counting to three and Ryan would always get in his car seat super fast, so that is now how I get him in there every time! Love it!

Ryan never wants to stop playing and get in bed (of course!), so I have started setting the kitchen timer and when it goes off he knows that it is time to get his jammies on, his teeth brushed, and get in bed.

Speaking of bed, we finally got Ryan’s big boy bed all finished and we love it! We ended up using my old daybed from when I lived at home. MIcah took the back of it off and repainted the ends lobster red (which after much arguing with Micah when he bought it, it really is orange!!). Granny Joy bought him a dinosaur comforter set for Christmas and it matches the orange in it almost perfectly. Ryan has been sleeping much better since we got him in that bed so I am very excited!

I can safely say that Ryan is fully potty-trained now. Since he started wearing underwear to bed he has only had two accidents and it’s been almost a month since his last one. I am one proud mommy because I didn’t even have to try to do this … he just decided to do it on his own! Such a big boy!

He has started wanting to “wash” dishes to which I gladly let him do. One day he stood at the sink for over 30 minutes washing one bowl. I actually got him on video one day and asked if he was going to help mommy wash dishes when he got older and he said he was! So I have proof now and he must follow through! HA!!

Ryan was sick two different times this past month, both times with a mild stomach bug. Thankfully they both were very short-lived! The second time happened at daycare and he actually threw up on a little girl … poor Ryan and poor girl! I made a pallet on the floor for him when he got home, gave him a “special drink” (gingerale) and he didn’t move for about 2 hours. Micah came home and we gave him Tylenol and I went back to work. Within 30 minutes, Micah said he was up running around. After a 3-hour nap he was back to his normal hyper self!

Here is Ryan’s 37 Month picture in the chair:

And a silly pose, courtesy of Daddy!!

Christmas 2011 #4

2011-12-30T23:51:00.001-06:00

We had our final Christmas celebration on Christmas afternoon with my immediate family at Mom & Dad’s. Mom cooked a wonderful lunch, as always. She made the best crescent rolls EVER and I could not stop eating them!

Valerie and Ryan had a blast playing together. They played outside forever and kept coming in to tell Mom that Katy (her dog) was lost. I think Katy wanted to be alone and was hiding from them! They even made a cute trail on the front porch out of rocks and sticks so that Katy could find her way back home! They were having so much fun that they weren’t even interested in opening presents. We finally had to tell them they had to stop playing because it was time to open their gifts. Here they are gearing up to begin the opening:

Do you think they had enough presents?!?!

Ryan opening his new cash register from Granny Joy:

This picture shows the huge mess that was made from all the wrapping paper. These are a couple of spoiled kids!

Me with Ryan, Gage, and Valerie. What cute kids!

Ryan holding baby Gage. Seeing him holding babies makes it hard to wait till his baby sister gets here so that I can see him hold her!!

Such a sweet picture! You can definitely tell that Valerie is head over heels in love with her little brother!

Gage modeling Pa’s new sweatband! Can’t you see the joy on his face!?

Valerie doing the same:

Gage relaxing after all the Christmas madness:

Valerie and Ryan played more after the presents were opened. They even entertained us by putting on a concert. Valerie used Dustin’s new T-Pain mic to sing and Ryan played his guitar. It was so cute! Ryan was stomping his leg as he was playing and I could not stop laughing! Dustin also entertained us with a few raps on the mic! Ryan and I were able to spend the night and visit more with Mom, Dad, Shandy, and Chris, but unfortunately Micah had to leave to go to work the next morning.

Christmas 2011 was a blast! Looking forward to many more fun-filled Christmases in the years to come!

Christmas 2011 #3

2011-12-30T23:25:00.001-06:00

We celebrated Christmas with our little family of three on Christmas morning. Ryan woke up bright and early after sleeping almost 12 hours! He had forgotten that Santa was supposed to come the night before, so thankfully we were able to keep him in our bed for 30 minutes or longer before he started saying he wanted to get up. I videoed him walking into the living room. It was hilarious because he didn’t even notice the presents out by the Christmas tree. He just stood there saying, “Cheese, Cheese, Cheese'” because he thought I was just wanting to take his picture! Here is a picture of what Santa left for him:

He wanted to use his chalkboard right away and then quickly moved on to his guitar. Hope he wasn’t too disappointed that it wasn’t pink, like he had been requesting!

He played with his guitar for quite a while before we were able to tear him away to look at his stocking.

I love how he got so excited over the smallest toys. He loved his helicopters and airplanes that were in his stocking. He also had a good time with his Toy Story etch-a-sketch and loved his new straw cup. I just love this age because he is just as excited about the little stuff as he is the big stuff! Too bad this probably won’t last!

We got him some Superhero dress-up clothes, some puzzles, a toy tape measure, a book, and some Dominos.

Here’s my lovely husband. Can’t you tell he is super excited to be up so early on Christmas morning?! HA! HIs Christmas present was a gift certificate to have a quilt made from all of his old t-shirts. In his stocking, he received a toy gun like the one Ryan got for his birthday so that they can have gun fights, a much needed new wallet, and some candy.

Here’s me showing off my new Razorback Cotton Bowl t-shirt that was in my stocking. I also got a couple of new games and some cozy socks, which I love!! My gift from Micah was a gift certificate to Bedford’s to help buy a new camera. We are going to combine my birthday money and all our Christmas money to get a Digital SLR camera!! I can’t wait!

Micah cooked us a delicious breakfast of fried ham and eggs. Ryan stayed busy playing with his new toys as we got ready to go to Granny & Pa Russell’s for our final Christmas celebration of 2011!

Christmas 2011 #2

2011-12-30T22:36:00.001-06:00

We had the honor of hosting the Bennett Christmas at our house this year on Christmas Eve. I enjoy getting to have it here because it makes me get our house clean! It also means we don’t have to travel anywhere, so that is always nice.

Our Christmas got off to a late start because Kaylynn wasn’t feeling well. Everyone finally arrived and we were able to eat. Becky cooked a delicious ham and the rest of us brought sides. Here’s Granny Bennett helping the kids get started on their meal:

Austin, Ryan, and Ethan enjoyed playing together. Unfortunately, Kaylynn felt worse the longer she was here so she wasn’t able to have a good time with the boys.

The kids got more gifts than you can imagine and we enjoyed watching them unwrap them all. And I was very surprised to see how willing Ethan and Ryan were at taking turns with the others while opening gifts. I was expecting them to want to open gift after gift!

Ethan:

Ryan:

Austin with his new bow. Ryan knew what this gift was and happily told Austin before he even opened it! Little stinker!

Ryan opening his gift from Uncle Cory. I recorded him opening this gift and it seriously took him almost 3 minutes to get it open. He tore the paper little by little and even took all the tape off piece by piece!

Here is what the gift from Uncle Cory was … a Daisy Red Ryder BB gun! I’m not too happy about it because I think Ryan is way too young for a BB gun, but Micah is super excited about it. Ryan definitely won’t touch this gun without his daddy around!

Kaylynn with her new easel:

After we finished opening gifts, the boys all went outside where Austin shot his bow and Ryan shot his BB gun. Ryan had a blast with the gun and kept saying he wanted to play with his ‘real gun’. I see lots of shooting in this boy’s future!

We had big plans to go see the Christmas lights on a house in Goshen that has 100,000 lights, but Ryan was worn out and fell asleep at 6:30pm … and it looks like I did, too!! So we put Ryan to bed and got his gifts ready for Christmas morning.

Another successful Bennett Christmas!

Santa Claus Visit

2011-12-30T22:35:00.001-06:00

I was off work on Christmas Eve Eve. I had a doctor’s appointment and six other errands to run, so despite not having much sleep the night before, Ryan and I took off on our journey. Ryan did surprisingly well and we had a great day.

The highlight of the day was seeing Santa Claus. I had started talking to Ryan about Santa a few days ahead of time and he seemed super excited and willing to sit on Santa’s lap to tell him what he wanted. After we left the doctor’s office, I asked Ryan if he wanted to go eat or see Santa first. Ryan said, “Santa not eat with us. He not eat with his beard!” I guess he thinks that having a beard makes it to where you can’t eat! So we ate first and then went to the mall in Fayetteville to see Santa. We had to wait in line for almost an hour!

I kept thinking he was going to chicken out before we made it up there, but he didn’t. He went right up to Santa, bumped knuckles with him, and started saying ‘cheese’ for the camera. He told Santa that he wanted ‘a pink guitar’ and Santa just said, ‘Uh-huh’ because I don’t think he understood him! I purchased a really good picture of Ryan and Santa, but am not good with using our scanner so will just have to post the pictures I took instead.

Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas!!

Christmas 2011 #1

2011-12-30T21:55:00.001-06:00

I’m finally getting around to posting about our Christmas get-togethers. We had four of them altogether and I have lots of pictures to post from each.

Christmas #1 was with the whole Russell clan. We got together on Saturday, December 17th at Mom and Dad’s. Unfortunately, there weren’t as many in attendance as normal. With the size of our family, it is getting harder and harder to find a time that works for all of us. But we still had a great time! And we greatly missed our Aunt Sandra … this was the first Christmas that we ever remember her being unable to attend.

We had a delicious Christmas feast that consisted of more food than we can ever eat, but I’m definitely not complaining! I think I had three helpings before I decided I was ready for dessert and then, of course, I was too full to even make it to the dessert table!

We all enjoyed watching all the kiddos play together. It is so fun watching them play and thinking that we, as kids, had the same amount of fun that they do when we all get together. One of my favorite memories as a child was playing with all my cousins at Christmas get-togethers and I hope that is one of Ryan’s, also.

The favorite part of the day for the kids was opening presents! They were all so excited to see what each of the others got. We just do a very small gift exchange by drawing names and buying a gift that is $10 or less and the kids love it. Here are some pictures from our day:

Rowan showing off his new stick-horse while wearing his favorite cowboy hat!

Ryan patiently waiting for his turn to open gifts:

All the kids curiously watching to see what Lily’s gift is:

Ryan with his new Uno Choo-Choo train game from Rowan:

Valerie checking out her new feather hairbow:

Ryan holding his new 2nd cousin, Violet, and wondering why she is crying:

Rowan and Violet … I laugh every time I see this picture of Rowan because of his double chin and the look on his face … so cute!

Rowan and Ryan really aren’t sure what’s going on here. Ryan better get used to it considering we will have a new baby in about a month!

This is a picture from later on that night. I absolutely love how they are both cheesin’ it up in their cowboy hats!

Here’s to many more fun Russell get-togethers!

Ryan’s 3 Year Check-up

2011-12-22T20:20:00.001-06:00

I took Ryan to his 3 year check-up today with Dr. Davis. He was so excited to go to the “docker” (doctor). He had a blast playing in the waiting room before we were called back. He weighed 34 lbs and was 38 inches tall. They even took his blood pressure this time! We had to wait a few minutes in the exam room before Dr. Davis came in. Ryan was so cute patiently waiting and kept telling me that he was going to tell the doctor he needed medicine. I told Ryan he wasn’t sick so didn’t need medicine, so Ryan quickly gave me a fake cough and said he was sick! Dr. Davis came in and checked him out and said everything looked perfect. He had a bit of a stuffy nose, but other than that he said he was one of the healthiest 3 year olds he had seen in months! I love getting a good report from the doctor!

Ryan’s Yearly Pictures

2011-12-14T21:57:00.001-06:00

I love looking back on Ryan’s pictures and seeing how much he has grown.

Here he is at 1 year old:

Here he is at 2 years old:

And here he is at 3 years old:

I can not get over how much he has changed in the past year. He went from looking like a baby to looking like a big boy in just a year’s time. Wonder what he will look like in another year?! All I know is I don’t want to rush it!!

Ryan – 3 Years Old

2011-12-14T21:48:00.001-06:00

My little Ry-Ry turned the big three on the 6th! Where did the time go?! It seems like just yesterday that I was in the hospital having him and now he is 3 years old!

Ryan weighs 34 lbs. I could not get him to be still enough to get his height, so I will have to report that after his 3-year checkup!

Here is what Ryan has been up to in the last month:

- He talks a mile a minute these days and uses new words all the time. Micah and I look at each other in awe sometimes and wonder how he knows some of the stuff he does. It’s amazing how their little brain soaks up everything!

- We have been working lots on him saying “Please” and “Thank You”, “You’re welcome”, and “Excuse me”. He’s getting better at it, but still hasn’t mastered it.

- Some of the things Ryan has learned this month aren’t my favorite: He says, “That’s not fair”, “Leave me alone”, and “Don’t boss me” a lot. I guess the kids at Preschool are teaching him all the ‘good stuff’ to say!

- Ryan always wants me to “beep at that car” to get a car to move out from in front of me!

- Ryan helped Daddy paint Maisie’s room. He had a blast, but after a few times of not listening he was banned from the room!

- He is playing with toys a lot more – maybe because he actually has toys that are for his age now instead of his baby toys! He is developing quite the imagination, which I love to see.

- Since Christmas is nearing, the Salvation Army bell ringers are out in full force. Everytime he sees one, he says, “There’s Tinkerbell!”

- Ryan is really into Christmas lights this year. He also loves seeing the big blow-up Santa Claus, snowmen, etc. that many people have in their yards.

- Ryan has the silliest, cutest dance that he does a lot. He sticks his hands under his armpits like he is going to do the chicken dance and just acts really silly, talks in a silly voice, and sticks his tongue out! Where he learns these things, I will never know!

- He loves to race. He always wants to race from our bedroom to his bedroom and always has to say, “On your mark, get set, go!!”

- He counts a lot. Always says, “Let’s count” and then goes at it!

- Shandy got married on November 19th, so Ryan had his first stay in a hotel. He thought it was pretty cool. He slept in his own bed surrounded by pillow towers so he wouldn’t roll out! On the day of the wedding he was very attached to me and didn’t want me to leave his sight. His cousin Valerie came to the rescue and taught him how to play on the elevator and he was entertained from there on out! During the ceremony he kept smiling and looking at me. I heard him say, “There’s my mommy!” at the beginning, but from there on out he was very quiet and well behaved. He loved my bouquet and kept wanting to hold it, as this picture proves:

Ryan had a good time at the reception and kept wanting me to dance with him. Even though I hate dancing, who can say no to a precious little boy?! So we danced quite a bit (of course he had to be held the whole time!) We even did the whole Cha-Cha Slide … I really thought my arms might fall off after holding him that long! Here’s a picture of him with the beautiful bride:

Here’s a family shot from the wedding”

- We went to see the Christmas lights on the Fayetteville Square one Friday night and Ryan loved them! His favorite part was being able to ride on Daddy’s shoulders! I tried to get a picture of Ryan with me and of Ryan with Micah, but he would never cooperate. Oh, and just so I won’t forget, Ryan almost ran out in the road right in front of a car … scariest moment ever! I was getting his coat out of the back, and Micah was in the passenger seat. Ryan was standing on the sidewalk and next thing I know he darted out in the road! He’s usually really good about staying put, but not this time. Lesson learned for sure!

- Before Ryan’s birthday party, we put up our Christmas tree. Ryan loved helping decorate.

I decided I would just let him put the ornaments wherever he pleased and would fix them later. He had a blast and kept asking what each one was. This is how his part of the tree turned out!

- A little over a week before his birthday Ryan refused to wear a pull-up to bed and wanted to wear his undies. I told him that was fine if he would go to the bathroom before he went to bed so that he didn’t wet the bed. Ever since he has worn his underwear to bed and has only had one accident! I’m so excited because I was really dreading getting him trained through the night, but it looks like the smart little boy knew it was time and decided to do it on his own! The biggest problem I have is making him use the potty before bedtime. He is so hard-headed and never wants to go, so we always have to turn it into a game (put cheerios in the potty, race to the potty, etc) to get him to go.

Here are some of my Facebook statuses from the past month where I posted cute little stories about Ryan:

- I told Ryan I was getting mad because I was losing my memory. He said, "I help you find it!", so I asked him what color it was and he said it was purple. He went to find it and came back with a post-it note! Great idea, Ryan!

- Ryan has got to be the sweetest boy EVER. I came in from shopping on Veteran’s Day and wasn't feeling well. He gave me a huge hug, asked me what was wrong, asked if I needed water or medicine, brought me my box of Kleenexes, kept giving me hugs and saying, "You so happy now?" I love that boy so much!

- Love it that Ryan made a macaroni necklace at preschool today and loved it so much that he insisted on sleeping with it in his hand!

- I was sitting at the table eating chili while Ryan ate chicken nuggets. He decided to help me blow on my chili to cool it down and then said, "There's a little chicken nugget in there now!" since he had obviously had a bite in his mouth when he decided to blow!

- Ryan is going to bed much better now, but still gets up anywhere from 1-5 times when I lay him down. He thinks of all kinds of excuses to get out of bed. The latest one that he uses often is, “I want to eat a carrot.” I guess he thinks that if he asks for something healthy, I will give in and let him get up! He normally sleeps through the night now, but occasionally gets up 1-2 times and comes in our room. I carry him back to bed and he normally goes back to sleep without a problem.

Here is Ryan’s 3 year picture …

And the cheese picture …

Ryan, I can’t believe you are three years old already. You have filled our life with great happiness and know you will continue to do so. I went back and read your 2-year post and can’t believe how much you have grown and changed this past year. You are definitely turning into a big boy, and although it makes me very sad, it always makes me very excited to watch you grow. You can not imagine the amount of love that your dad and I have for you!

Precious Time Spent With Ryan

2011-12-13T22:49:00.002-06:00

I thought Ryan was sick yesterday so decided to stay home with him. Once I saw that he was OK, I decided to go in but my car wouldn’t start. I hooked it up to the battery charger (with much help from Micah over the phone) but it never would charge, so I had to stay home all day. I wasn’t happy about it because I was using time that I could use when the baby came, but finally decided I had no choice and decided to make the best of the day. We had the best time wrapping Christmas presents, doing laundry, and making cookies.

Ryan even took a 2 hour nap on the couch! Just look at this precious boy!!

Later in the afternoon he came down with diarrhea, so I was even more thankful that I hadn’t sent him to preschool. This morning I called in and was told that he had to be diarrhea-free for 24 hours so I stayed home with him again. The morning started out with Ryan saying, “I love your jammies, Mommy!” – It was the absolute sweetest and cutest thing EVER and put a smile on my face for the rest of the day. Ryan felt fine all day so we ate at Mazzio’s, went to the eye doctor, went to Wal-Mart where I let him play in the toy aisle forever, and ran a few other errands. He took another 2 hour nap (in the car this time) and woke up in a fun and silly mood, so we were able to enjoy the rest of the day together.

That brings me to tonight when I probably just ruined 2 months worth of sleep training tonight, but I couldn’t resist and if I did it was definitely worth it. Ryan was super sad about going to bed tonight. After getting up multiple times and me telling him not to get up again, he laid in his bed and cried and cried. He kept saying, “I want my Mommy. Go rock in Maisie’s room”, over and over again. (We just moved the rocking chair from his room to Maisie’s room this weekend and, although he told us to move it, I don’t think he is handling it well at all.) I finally gave in and told him we’d go rock and sing a couple of songs and then he needed to go to bed. Little did I know that a couple of songs would turn in to 30 minutes worth of rocking … but it was so worth it!

It took him a while to finally calm down and stop crying, but he finally did. I sang a couple of Christmas songs (and realized I don’t know the words to many of them, so I must work on that!) Then he wanted to talk so we started talking about baby Maisie. He pointed to the changing table and said it was his and I told him it used to be, but since he didn’t need it anymore it was going to be Maisie’s. I joked with him and told him that he could change her diapers on it and he said, “No, that’s yucky!”. I asked if he was going to teach her to use the potty and he said he was and proceeded to show me how he was going to teach her to put her arms so that she wouldn’t fall in and get hurt! Ryan also mentioned that he wants Maisie to sleep in his bed. I told him that she would be too little and that she would have to sleep in her crib for a while. Ryan got a pouty lip and said, "That makes me so sad!" AH!! The best part of the night was when he wanted to see my belly. He never will sit still long enough for us to even talk about it, but finally did tonight. He put his hands on my belly for quite a while, but unfortunately Maisie never did kick. But he said that if Maisie kicked him he was going to have to tell her “Noooo!”. We talked more about Maisie, counted monsters on his new Christmas pajamas, and sang song after song. Finally I told him it was time to go to bed. He got up quite a few more times, but is now asleep.

I am so happy that I have a job where I can stay home with Ryan when he is not feeling well. Although I wasn’t originally happy about having to miss work one day, which turned into two, I now am very thankful for it. I had posted on Facebook that I was stuck at home to waste 8 hours of vacation that I could’ve used when the baby comes, to which my friend Jennifer wrote, “It's not a waste of 8 hours. It's 8 hours of play time with Ryan before his sister gets here and steals his thunder! Enjoy this time with him you'll miss it someday! :)” I’m so excited for Maisie to get here in February, but am already starting to get super sad about how it’s going to drastically change things with Ryan, so am very thankful for the extra time I had to spend with Ryan. I couldn’t agree with Jennifer’s statement more!

Ryan’s 3rd Birthday Party at Fun City

2011-12-11T17:12:00.001-06:00

Ryan celebrated his 3rd birthday with a Mickey Mouse party at Fun City last Saturday. We had never been there before, but he had a blast! He was joined with 13 of his friends, so it was a wild and crazy time enjoyed by all in attendance.

Before we left the house to run the errands before going to the party, Ryan decided he wanted to wear his sunglasses. He obviously is a little too cool for his party! HA!

By the time we got halfway to Fayetteville, he fell asleep and got a small nap in before the party.

It was a rainy day, so trying to get the cake, balloons, etc. in the car was a lot of fun. I got the balloons at Party City and by the time I got to the car, they were a tangled, wind-blown mess but Ryan’s Grannys were able to make them pretty again.

Ryan was shy at first, but finally started visiting with his friends. They had fun playing in the tunnels and on the slides before it was time for pizza. After pizza, it was the moment Ryan was waiting for – time to blow out his candles! He could have cared less about the cake, but was very excited about the candles.

Here’s the birthday boy!!

Evan, Brianna, and Drew enjoying their cake:

Renee with her three girls:

Rowan cheesin’ after eating his cake:

Then came present opening time. Ryan got SO many gifts and loves them all. It was fun to watch him open them because he got so excited, and as Jessica will tell you, it was almost impossible to get a picture of him because he was constantly on the move.

Here’s Ryan and Evan looking at a gift:

Ryan loves his gun that Uncle Shawn and Aunt Becky got him!

Ryan and Rowan checking out the helicopter:

Ryan got to spin the birthday wheel and won 30 more tokens, to add to the 20 he already had!

So, he played games with Daddy for the rest of the party! His favorite was the game where he got to shoot the clowns, but he also enjoyed playing skee-ball and playing the fire hose game.

In the end, Ryan ended up with 411 tickets!! We decided he didn’t really need any prizes, except for the blue ring he wanted so we gave Kaylynn and Austin all his tickets to split between them!

We loaded up the car, came back home, and Ryan played with his presents until bed time. It was a fun, but exhausting day!

Interview with Ryan – 3 Years Old

2011-12-11T16:25:00.001-06:00

Here is an interview I did with Ryan a couple of days after his third birthday. I got the idea off of Pinterest and thought I’d start it this year. You’re supposed to ask the same questions year after year and make a book of all their interviews. Ryan’s answers crack me up, just as I figured they would. From reading this you would think he eats nothing but fruit, but that sure isn’t true! Enjoy!

1. What is your favorite color? “Red one”

2. What is your favorite toy? “Red one”, to which I asked what kind of toy and he said, “Red one”

3. What is your favorite fruit? “Orange”

4. What is your favorite TV show? “Woody”

5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? “Pineapples”

6. What is your favorite outfit? “Punkin” (His Halloween costume!!)

7. What is your favorite game? “My choo choo cards” (His ABC floor puzzle that we got him for his birthday)

8. What is your favorite snack? “Blueberries”

9. What is your favorite animal? “Giraffe”

10. What is your favorite song? “Twinkle star” (Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star)

11. What is your favorite book? “Mickey Mouse”

12. Who is your best friend? “Toby” (A boy at preschool that he just started talking about this week!)

13. What is your favorite cereal? “Orange one” (No idea what he is referring to!)

14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? “Play on the blue slide, big blue slide” (I assume this is at Preschool)

15. What is your favorite drink? “This” and points to orange juice, but calls it apple juice

16. What is your favorite holiday? “Punkin”, then said “punkin pie”. I asked, “Do you even like pumpkin pie?” and he said, “No, that yucky! I not like yucky punkin pie!”

17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? “Woody”

18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? “Apples”

19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? “Cake”

20. What do you want to be when you grow up? “Milk” (Very interesting!!)

21. What makes Mommy happy? “Milk”

22. What makes Daddy happy? “Milk”

23. What makes Mommy sad? “When I step on tummy”

24. What makes Daddy sad? “Hit him”

25. How old is Mommy? “Two”

26. How old is Daddy? “Three”

27. What is Mommy’s favorite thing to do? “Presents”

28. What is Daddy’s favorite thing to do? “My Christmas tree”

29. What is Mommy’s favorite food? “Apples”

30. What is Daddy’s favorite food? “Blueberries”

31. How do you know Mommy loves you? “Granny Joy loves apples.”, so I ask again and he said, “Love you, too!” (Hmmmm???)

32. How do you know Daddy loves you? “Love you, too”

33. Where is Mommy’s favorite place to go? “Town”

34. Where is Daddy’s favorite place to go? “Choo Choo Train”

Baby Bennett #2 – 30 Weeks

2011-12-05T21:17:00.001-06:00

I am not doing well at documenting my pregnancy at all! And I can’t believe I’m already 30 weeks pregnant, going on 31!!!

Thankfully, I’m feeling pretty well. From almost the time I found out I was pregnant until about a month ago, I had an annoying cough that would not go away and I think it was from allergies. I finally got over that and felt fine for a couple of weeks and then the Saturday after Thanksgiving I somehow got another cough, but this one is the type that hurts! From what I hear it’s going around and usually lasts 3-4 weeks, so looks like I better get used to it! The only other problem I’ve had is lower back/buttock/leg pain if I do too much, so I try to take it easy and not overwork. Oh, and I’ve had some occasional heartburn, but it doesn’t seem as bad as I had with Ryan.

The baby has been moving a lot. I don’t remember Ryan moving this much, although I’m sure he did. It seems like she turns somersaults constantly in there, but I love every minute of it and wouldn’t trade it for anything. Thankfully it hasn’t started getting uncomfortable yet, but I’m sure those days are right around the corner. I had my 30 week check-up last Friday and had gained a total of 19 lbs. I took my gestational diabetes test a few weeks ago and the results were fine, so that was good. But I did find out that I was mildly anemic, so I’m having to take extra iron now.

We have decided on a first name for our baby girl, but not a middle name yet. Her first name will be Maisie, which was my Grandma’s (Mom’s Mom) name. I brought that name up for a girl before Ryan was born and Micah really liked it. I wasn’t so sure about it since it is so different and the only person I know named that was my Grandma. But as soon as we found out we were having a girl, Micah said that he wouldn’t consider another name, so Maisie it is! I want the middle name to be Grace because I love the name and like how it goes with Maisie, but Micah is pulling for Kay after his Mom. I like the name Kay, but don’t like how it sounds with Maisie, so we still have some talking to do. Hopefully we will figure it out before the baby is born, but I wouldn’t put money on it!

Ryan talks about his baby sister all the time. He knows her name (but I think he calls her Macy instead of Maisie because there is a Macy at his preschool) and always wants to get stuff for her. I know he is going to be the best big brother ever!

We are still working on the baby’s room. Micah repainted it a couple of weeks ago and I have got rid of a bunch of stuff in there, but we still have more to go. It’s mainly stuff that Micah will have to move, so I’m hoping that he has a free day soon and can get it cleared out. We finally decided on bedding for the crib and I absolutely LOVE it!! Here is a picture of it:

And we got a dresser painted this past weekend to match the bedding, so I’m super excited about that. Micah and Shaun picked it up today after work and I LOVE it!! I found a girl on Craigslist that repaints dressers all the time and was able to match the paint to the bedding. I probably paid a bit too much for it, but I figure we’ll be able to use it for a long time. It looks blue in the pictures below, but it is more of an aqua color.

Here is my 24 week picture:

And here I am at 30 weeks …

We are looking forward to meeting MIss Maisie, but still have lots to do before she gets here! And with Christmas less than 3 weeks away, I’m sure the time will fly by!

Ryan – 2 Years, 11 Months

2011-11-14T21:06:00.001-06:00

Ryan turned 35 months old on November 6th. He weighs 33.5 lbs and is approximately 37.25 inches tall.

Here are the highlights of what he has been up to:

He is sillier than ever these days. He will say, “This be funny” and then say or do something that he thinks is funny.

Has started saying, “Boy, oh boy!” a lot! I asked him where he learned to say that and he said, “Brennan'” which is one of the boys at his daycare. I asked him when he says it and he said at naptime, so I have no idea!

Ryan is very concerned about us and how we are. If one of us cough or sneeze he will always say, “You OK Mommy/Daddy?” And when he does the same he will always say, “I OK!”

Ryan has a super funny pose that he likes to do occasionally. I like to call it his bodybuilder pose. He kind of makes muscles and sucks in his belly. Here is a picture of him doing it with his Batman jammies on!

When Ryan goes to the bathroom, he always wants to do it in private. Lately when he is done he will “roar like a lion” on the potty so that we know he is done and ready to be wiped!

Ryan went through about two weeks where he was addicted to apples. He ate four in one day and there were a lot of days where he would eat two of them. Guess if the saying, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away” is true, he was doing really well!

Ryan loves it when we watch Razorback games because Micah always does the “Touchdown Dance” with him, which is hilarious!

Ryan loves this new electric toothbrush and it has made brushing his teeth SO, SO, SO much easier!

We took on the Supernanny method of sleep training this past month. For those of you who don’t know what that is, you basically separate yourself from the child (I started off the first night by sitting on a stool inside his bedroom door) and train them to fall asleep without you beside them. The first time they get out of bed, you tell them that it’s bedtime, hug and kiss them, and put them back in bed. After that when they get out of bed, you do nothing except put them back in bed … you don’t talk, kiss, hug, or anything. You repeat this over and over until they finally wear themselves out and fall asleep. There have been a few rough nights, but he is finally doing much better

- Night #1: Ryan has been sleeping on a mattress on the floor but tonight we decided to move the trundle bed from our daybed into his room so that it would be more like a real bed. Micah got it all set up and put the new bed rail on it so that he wouldn’t fall off since he is a wild sleeper. He laid down without a problem, but immediately wanted to rock. I decided that I would rock with him and read him two books and then put him in bed to which he agreed. After reading, I laid him down, turned off the light, and assumed my position on the stool. He wanted me to lay down with him but I told him I couldn’t so the crying began. He immediately said he needed medicine so I asked why and he said his belly hurt. He barely ate any dinner so I knew he was just hungry. Micah suggested filling a tablespoon with water and giving it to him, so that’s what we did. Ryan drank his ‘medicine’ and said ‘That’s water!’ to which we insisted it was medicine and he immediately said his belly felt better! I laid him back down and the fun began. He started out by wanting to ‘wock’ (rock) in Mommy’s lap and got out of bed for the first time. I put him back in, hugged and kissed him, and told him it was night-night time. He continued on and on wanting to ‘wock’. It broke my heart because I absolutely love rocking him and have rocked him almost every night for the past almost three years. But I knew I couldn’t give in this time. Then he wanted his Mommy, which after about 5 times of getting out of the bed and being put back in turned into wanting his daddy. He then started screaming at the top of his lungs for his daddy. He jumped on his bed several times and said he hurt his head and needed medicine, pulled his socks off and then wanted me to put them back on, wanted his nose wiped, and wanted something to eat. I didn’t give in to any of his excuses but did put his socks back on twice. After putting him back in bed somewhere between 20-25 times (I couldn't keep up with the count!), he finally said he wanted his socks on and to be covered up. He finally was still long enough to fall asleep and after I knew he was good and asleep I left the room. It took just about an hour but we got through the first night.

- Night #2 and #3: Extremely easy with no crying … but I was still in the room.

- Night #4: I moved my stool outside the door. Ryan got up 29 times in 23 minutes! Talk about tiring!!! But the funny thing was that he barely cried any. I really think he thought it was a game and just wanted to see how many times I would come in there. Sometimes when he opened the door, he would put his arms up ready to be carried back to bed. It was all I could do to keep from laughing at him at times!

- After Night #4, I decided my pregnant body couldn’t handle this any longer so Micah pretty much took over from there. Currently he still gets up once or twice, but then goes to sleep on his own. I really thought it would take less than a week and he would be going to sleep without a problem, but should have known that it would take my hard-headed child much longer! But I am very, very grateful that bed time is so much easier now and know that it will even be easier in the months to come!

Because of the sleep training, our sleep routine has obviously changed. I will usually read him 2-3 books before going to bed. Sometimes he wants to sit in the chair with me or sometimes he sits on the floor. But the good thing is Ryan is finally starting to like books and will sit through book after book if I will read them. His favorites right now are “Where the Wild Things Are” (which he calls the Monster Book), a Mickey Mouse book that we have, “The Tractor Book” (no idea what the name actually is!), and his two Barney books.

Ryan had a new baby cousin born on October 11th – Gage Anderson. He weighed 9 lbs and had the cutest, chunkiest, face! I couldn’t get over the little rolls on him … so precious! Ryan refused to make eye contact him for quite some time and acted really shy, but finally looked at him a few times!

Micah grew some jalapeno peppers in our garden this year. He picked them before the first frost and, to our surprise, they weren’t the least bit hot. So Ryan would occasionally sit and eat one. One night he wanted to take a bath with his half-eaten pepper and probably had the most fun he’s ever had in the bath tub. He filled the pepper with water and played with it forever! Proves the saying that kids don’t need toys to be entertained!

Ryan surprised us on my birthday by counting to 12. He will never count if we ask him to, but he loves to count out of the blue. That particular day he was on our bed and covering his eyes like he was playing hide and seek. Before we knew it he had counted to 12! I love hearing him do things like that!

He is also recognizing a lot of his letters. When we are going down the road, he often says, “Mommy, there’s a B/E/etc.”

We finally got a much-needed haircut for Ryan. Here he is in all his cuteness (just ignore the mismatched clothes – he had an accident at his Granny Joy’s before I made it over there with an extra change of clothes for him!)

We ate at P.F. Chang’s for my birthday. Ryan saw the building and thought it was a castle! He ate everything we put in front of him, except for he didn’t finish his rice. Probably had something to do with him trying to eat rice with chopsticks, one piece at a time!

At Granny Joy’s, he played in a pile of leaves for the first time with Rowan and they had a blast!

Here are Ryan’s 35 Month Old pictures:

In one more month, my baby boy will be 3! My, oh my!! Mommy and Daddy love you SO, SO much!!

Trick or Treating

2011-11-05T16:11:00.001-05:00

We decided to take Ryan trick or treating this year since he had never been before. I let him pick out his own costume and he insisted on being a pumpkin.

We started out the night by going to Mrs. Shirley’s and Mr. Wyman’s house. Ryan was super shy but finally warmed up by the time we left and gave them hugs. The funniest thing was that they were handing out Flaming Cheeto’s and didn't realize it. About 15 minutes after we left, Mrs. Shirley called and told me not to let him eat them. She said that Mr. Wyman picked up the wrong box at Sam’s! Too funny!

We then met up with the Bells and walked through a subdivision in Fayetteville. It was packed! Rowan wore Ryan’s costume from last year and was super cute.

The Rock Star and his Mullet Head Daddy:

Ryan loved riding on Daddy’s shoulders

The Bells

The Bennetts

The best part of the night involved the lighter that Ryan found on the sidewalk. Ryan wanted to carry it so we let him. As I was taking this picture, Ryan was saying, “This real bad, Ro!” We all got a good laugh out of that!

Ryan and Rowan had a great time and got plenty of candy. I asked Ryan the next morning if he had a good time and he said, “Yes, let’s do that again!” so I’m sure we have many years of trick or treating in our future.

Pumpkin Patch Trip #2

2011-11-05T11:44:00.001-05:00

A few weekends ago we made a trip to another pumpkin patch – Farmland Adventures in Springdale. Unfortunately, Ryan wasn’t too into it at first because we practically had to shake him to get him to wake up from his nap in the car. But he eventually woke up and had a good time.

We visited the petting zoo area, climbed on the hay pyramid, played in the corn box, ran through the tunnel, walked through the small corn maze, visited the pumpkin patch, and picked out a couple small pumpkins to take home.

Ryan is King of the World!!

Ryan waited and waited to get these cups so that he could pour the corn back and forth. He finally saw a kid drop them and made a mad dash through the corn to pick them up!

I LOVE this picture of Ryan & Micah …

Ryan wasn’t too sure about sitting on the hay bale, but we finally got a few smiles out of him.

We had a great time walking through the pumpkin patch. Ryan tripped over the pumpkin vines numerous times, but I still think it was his favorite part of the day.

Ryan found these 'eggs’ and just had to take one home.

I don’t think Micah was too wild about the pumpkin patch, but Ryan and I had a good time.

I’m looking forward to the years to come and can’t wait till we can do the big corn maze!

Happy Fall!

Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-18T20:34:00.001-05:00

A couple of weekends ago, Jessica and I took Rowan and Ryan to Huck’s Corn Maze in Lowell. We decided on this one over Ozark Corn Maze because it was half the price … and we definitely saw why it was half the price when we got there! But the boys had a great time so that’s all that matters!

We decided to go through the corn maze first, but after walking just a bit we realized it wasn’t going to be a good idea. The corn was dead and you could literally see over all the rows and the boys were already asking to be held, so we traipsed over the dead corn and quickly exited the maze, but not before getting these pictures of the boys.

I think they are talking about how crazy their mama’s are for trying to get them to both look at the camera at the same time!

We headed on over to the corn box so the boys could play. They were a little unsure about it at first, but finally decided to give it a try and then they didn’t want to leave!

We finally got them out of the corn and took them over to the tractor, which was sure to be the perfect picture taking opportunity! Of course, it ended up being chaos trying to get them to both look at the camera, but we definitely got lots of laughs trying!

The boys then played on the trailer of the tractor where I got this cute picture of Rowan.

Ryan, of course, had to go to the bathroom so we had our first port-a-potty experience. They were disgusting but thankfully we made it out without Ryan falling in the hole so it can be considered a successful trip! HA!

Ryan was super excited about seeing the ‘punkins’, so we headed to the “giant” pumpkin patch next.

Then it was off on the hayride around the corn maze. The boys loved the tractor! Ryan sat on the very end hay bale and I just waited for the driver to hit a bump and Ryan go flying off of the trailer, but thankfully that didn’t happen. Rowan was so cute and just laid back and relaxed the entire ride.

After the ride was over, we got off; Rowan waited behind the trailer for the driver to get off, waved at him, and then turned around and followed us. It was so cute! After letting the boys each pick out a pumpkin, we headed over to the combine so that the boys could take a ride. We lifted the boys up the very tall ladder and they took a spin in the huge machine.

As they were getting off, the driver said that Ryan said, “That was fun!”, so obviously he had a great time!

After letting the boys watch the combine take off again, we and our pumpkins piled in the car and headed home!

Sleeping with Toys

2011-10-13T22:20:00.001-05:00

As I mentioned in Ryan’s last monthly post, he sleeps on a pallet on the floor every night. Last night he decided that he wanted to sleep with his fishing pole. His fishing pole is actually a super old Snoopy one that he got at his Granny Mary’s house a few months ago. Of course when he laid down, he couldn't stop playing with his fishing pole so I eventually had to leave the room with him crying. After Micah went in and had a talk with him and made him lay the fishing pole beside him, I went back and he fell asleep pretty quickly. Approximately 4:30am I was awoken by Ryan climbing in our bed. I immediately told him that we had to go back to bed and he started talking about his fishing pole. I told him it was in his room and we would see it when we got in there. He cried and cried and I finally sat up to find the fishing pole in bed with us! I could do nothing but laugh! We picked up his pole and headed back to Ryan’s room, as he was catching fish on the way!

Tonight, Ryan’s toy of choice to sleep with was his drum and drumstick. He insisted on holding his drumstick while he fell asleep, so I’m sure it and the drum will end up in our bed later tonight.

Ryan – you crack your Mom and Dad up!

Ryan – 2 Years, 10 Months

2011-10-10T22:27:00.001-05:00

"Ryan turned 2 years, 10 months old last week. I didn’t take his measurements this month although I’m sure he’s about where he was last month. He is still wearing 2T-3T shirts, 18 months – 2T shorts, and 2T-3T pants. We bought him a couple new pairs of shoes and they are size 9!

Here’s what Ryan has been up to this past month:

Ryan talks constantly! I love hearing what he has to say. He knows all his colors, most of his shapes, and can count to seven. I had no idea he could even count until we were all walking through the Wal-Mart parking lot one evening. Micah and I had a hold of his hands and we were swinging him. Out of the blue Ryan counted to seven! WOW!

Ryan loves “peanut butter bread” and often wants cinnamon on it! Another favorite food of his is bagels. He usually wants one in the morning, so I will give him half of one. He eats half of the half in the car on the way to preschool and then wants me to hold it for him. I leave it in the car all day and as soon as he gets in the car from preschool that is the first thing he asks for. Of course, it is hard as a rock but he is sure to eat every single bite of it! He is so silly!

(Note: The above picture was taken on mix-match day at preschool. Trust me, I would never dress my child like this! In fact, I knew we had to go to Wal-Mart after preschool that day, so I took a different shirt in the car so that I could change him before going into the store!)

Micah has taught Ryan to touch grasshoppers to make them jump, much to my dismay. I can’t stand grasshoppers so it’s hard for me to see him touch them, but he’s a boy so I guess I better get used to him liking bugs!

Ryan still loves his blankies that Granny Brenda made him when he was a baby. He sleeps with one of them every night and often carries it around with him after he wakes up. I love how he wads it up in a ball to carry it with him. Here’s a picture of him with his blankie and his favorite monkey that he sleeps with every night.

He is obsessed with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse right now and wants to watch it constantly. Since we don’t have cable we watch it on YouTube! If I’d let him, he’d watch it from the time he got up to the time he went to bed. As soon as he wakes up, the first words out of his mouth are, “watch Mickey Mouth (Mouse)!” He even has his favorite episodes and is very particular about which one he wants to watch.

Ryan can spot airplanes in the sky from a mile away. For a few weeks when he saw one with smoke behind it, he thought it was a rocketship!

He says, “Mommy so happy/sad” whenever he does something that he thinks makes me happy/sad. He often says that I’m so happy when I’m really not and it cracks me up.

He loves to “make waffles” in the bathtub (putting bubbles through the strainer!). He helped Micah make real waffles one morning and obviously thought the strainer looked like the waffle maker. Super creative, I must say!

Ryan has been so, so, so dirty when I pick him up from preschool. There are days when he has worn a lighter color shirt and he comes home with it being brown. His legs and arms are usually covered with dirt. I bought him a new pair of tennis shoes (cheap ones, thankfully) and the first day he wore them, they turned from white to brown! When I give him a bath, the bathtub turns brown and the bottom of it is usually covered with sand that comes out of his hair! Sometimes I can see sand all in his hair. I always ask him who put it in his hair and he always says he did! What happened to my little boy who hated getting his feet in the sandbox a year ago?!?

He loves being scared. Micah is all the time jumping out at him which makes Ryan laugh so hard and say, “Do it again!”.

I think Ryan is really starting to understand that there is a baby in my belly. He talks about his baby sister a lot and also says that he has a baby sister in his belly. I tell him that my belly is big because his baby sister is in there so he always says that his belly is big, too. It is so fun to ask him questions about what he is going to do with his baby sister. Of course he thinks that he is going to play with her from the beginning!

Every time I get out my vacuum, Ryan has to get out his to help me. He even stores his vacuum in the pantry with mine!

One day a few months ago we were trying to get Ryan to eat scrambled eggs and he wouldn’t, so Micah called them “mouse eggs”. Ever since then when Ryan talks about eggs he calls them that … and it actually worked because now he eats them!

Ryan has started saying, “Woo Pig Sooie” a lot, which we love of course! When we watch the games, Micah always grabs him up after we score and does the touchdown dance with him. Ryan loves it!

Ryan loves to jump off of things, over things, on things, etc. It really surprises me how far he can jump and how he can do it over and over and over again. He especially loves it when Micah lies on the floor in front of the couch and he can jump over him!

For the past month Ryan has refused to sleep in his bed and instead he insists on sleeping on a pallet on the floor. I have to lay down in the floor with him until he falls asleep. If he is still sleeping when it’s time to get him up, I will go in and he is never even close to being on his pillow. One day I found him with his head on the bug vacuum!

Micah has started building Ryan’s playset, which we refer to as Ryan’s park. It is going to be huge, which is no surprise to me. Ryan is so excited about it and has been “helping” Micah work on it. It’s so cute to see him take his plastic hammer up there and hammer away on the boards.

Here is Ryan’s 34-month old picture.

All I know is that this little guy is growing WAY too fast!

I’m sad to report that I didn’t get a “cheese” picture this month :-(

Baby Bennett #2 – Ultrasound

2011-09-27T22:56:00.001-05:00

Today was our big ultrasound to determine if we were having another little boy or our first little girl. We were both super anxious to find out and have been for several weeks now. Micah has been thinking it’s a girl for some time now and I really had no clue, but because of those silly tests I took, my guess was a girl, too.

Here I am this morning before the ultrasound. I am 20.5 weeks now and growing ….

My appointment was at 9am … thankfully it was early because I’m not sure I could have waited all day! I took Ryan to preschool and went to work for a whoppin’ 30 minutes and then headed to the Clinic. Micah met me there. You are supposed to have a full bladder for an ultrasound and I wasn’t sure how long I’d make it without wetting myself, but thankfully I did well! Our ultrasound tech took us back, put the warm gel on my stomach, and explained that she was going to measure several things and then would tell us whether it was a boy or a girl. She was measuring along and all of a sudden she said very nonchalantly, “See those three white lines … It’s a girl” to which I looked over at Micah with a huge smile on my face! He, too, had a huge grin on his face.

She continued with her measurements and explained what she was looking at. I must admit that I couldn’t tell whether she was looking at the stomach, the kidneys, or the face at times, but I did recognize the feet and the hands!

She said that as far as she could tell everything looked fine but that the radiologist would look everything over and they would let me know at my next visit how things looked. She said that our little girl is weighing in at 15 oz. and is measuring a few days ahead of my original due date of February 9th. She estimated it to be February 6th now, but said since it was so close they would not officially change the due date. She printed off several pictures for us, I relieved myself in the restroom, and we headed out the door. I asked Micah if he was excited to which he replied he was but that I needed to know that she would be a tom-boy! He is already talking about getting her a pink gun! Lord, help me!!

Micah called his Mom and I called mine to tell them the news. We then went our separate ways and I called Shandy and sent a text to my friends. Both Shandy and Mom guessed it would be a girl and seemed happy that they were right.

I walked in to work with a huge smile on my face and told everyone the news. Everyone was super happy that we are adding a girl to our family of three. It took a while to get back in the work mode, but I finally got back to processing payroll so that everyone would be happy … but I was constantly thinking of what to do with her room, what clothes to buy, etc. I am so excited that I will be able to shop for a little girl … I’m just not sure my pocketbook will be as excited!

I picked Ryan up from preschool and all of the teachers immediately asked what it was. I told them and they all said that Ryan was right. For the past couple of weeks, every time I have asked Ryan he said it was going to be a sister. Smart boy! When we got in the car, I told Ryan that he was going to have a baby sister and he said, “Go inside”. I wasn’t sure what he was talking about until he said, “Go inside. See sister!” I had to explain that sister wasn’t here yet, but that he would definitely see her when she was.

Micah and I talked a lot about it tonight. I again asked him if he was excited or not to which he quickly said he was. He said it will give us a whole new perspective on parenting being able to have one of each. And then he said the words that melted my heart … “Having a girl means I’ll get to walk her down the aisle one day!”. I don’t even want to think of that day now, but it still put a huge smile on my face and a tear in my eye thinking about it.

Baby Girl Bennett … we can’t wait to meet you!

Gum

2011-09-22T21:28:00.001-05:00

In the past few weeks Ryan has decided that he wants to chew gum so I gave him half a piece and he swallowed it almost immediately, just as I figured. I explained to him that he had to keep it in his mouth and gave him another half piece and again got the same results. He would just laugh, ask for more, and tell me that he would keep it in his mouth.

Fast forward a couple of weeks to this past Monday. We were grocery shopping and he saw the gum in my purse and just had to have some. I gave in and told him he could have a piece (of course, just a half piece) and asked him if he could keep it in his mouth and not swallow it. He put it in and to my surprise kept chewing it. You could see the look of concentration in his eyes and tell that the only thing on his mind was chewing the gum. He managed to keep it in until he wanted out of the cart at the checkout. As soon as I took him out and he quit thinking about it, the gum was on it’s way to his stomach.

Wednesday we were on our way to Boingo Bounce to meet Kippy and Sarah and he asked for gum again. He kept saying, “Keep it in my mouth”, so after much begging, I gave him a piece. I just knew that as soon as we got out of the car that he would swallow it, but again he surprised me. He ended up keeping it his mouth the entire 1.5 hours we were at Boingo Bounce!! (Well, minus the few seconds that it fell out on the inflatable while he was trying to do a somersault. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to tell him to throw it away before he put it back in his mouth. But as I told Sarah, I’m sure that’s not the worst thing he has put in his mouth!) Ryan was so proud of his gum and at one point said, '”Sarah so happy.” I asked, “Why is Sarah so happy?” to which he responded, “I chew my gum!” He also went up to some random lady and opened his mouth so she could see his gum! Silly boy!

This morning he had to have gum on his way to preschool and when I picked him up gum was the first thing he asked for! Before I know it he will be trying to blow bubbles!

Baby Bennett #2 – 19 Weeks

2011-09-18T22:19:00.001-05:00

I’ve been a huge slacker with my blog lately! I really wanted to document this pregnancy really well, but I’ve been so busy (and maybe a little lazy) and just haven’t done it. But it’s definitely time for an update, so here we go.

According to my BabyCenter weekly e-mail, the baby is about the size of an heirloom tomato, weighing approximately 8.5 ounces and measuring approximately 6 inches. His/her sensory development is exploding and his/her arms and legs are in proportion to the rest of the body.

As of Friday, I am 19 weeks pregnant. In just 11 short days, we will find out (hopefully!) whether we will be welcoming a sweet little girl or a precious little boy into our family of three. Neither one of us can hardly wait! Micah keeps on saying we are having a girl. I really don’t have a gut feeling this time like I did with Ryan. I pretty much knew with him that he was going to be a boy and was not surprised at all when the ultrasound tech told us. I have taken several silly little quizzes on the internet and the majority of them have told me that I am having a girl. But it’s kind of hard for me to believe when they ask questions like ‘Does your pillow face north or south?’, ‘Does the hair on your legs grow faster than before or the same?’, ‘Do you eat the heel of a loaf of bread or not?’, and ‘Do you pick up a mug by the handle or the body of the mug’? I’m not sure what those things tell you about the sex of the baby, but nonetheless, they are fun little quizzes!

We are pretty set on a girl’s name, but can not agree on a boy’s name to save our lives! As you may or may not recall with Ryan, it took us three days after he was born to agree on a name, so I guess we have plenty of time! Unfortunately, Micah won’t let us tell anyone the name anyway, so it will have to be a surprise so we might as well wait to agree until after the baby is born!

I have been feeling awesome lately. I am overjoyed that the morning sickness has passed and that I can enjoy being pregnant again! I enjoy having more energy and being able to get stuff done around the house, although I have to take it easy because if I fold too many loads of laundry or do a lot of sweeping or mopping, my back starts to really hurt. Thankfully Micah volunteers to mop for me!

I have been feeling the baby move off and on for about 3 weeks now and absolutely love it! I was lying in bed on my back this past Thursday night and was really feeling a lot of movement, so I told Micah to put his hand on my stomach so he was able to feel it move around several times! He gets so excited when he feels it and said that he will be annoying me now because he will always want to feel it moving.

My stomach is definitely growing. I’ve still got one pair of regular jeans that I can wear (the ones I bought right after Ryan was born), but broke out the maternity pants this week! I’ve still got several regular shirts I can wear, but have been wearing a lot of maternity ones lately because I discovered that I had way more short sleeved ones than I remembered having.

Here are a couple of belly shots from previous weeks. Hopefully I’ll get a little better about documenting than I have been!

Here I am at 15 weeks:

And here are my 18 week pictures:

We can’t wait to meet Baby Bennett #2!!

Ryan – 33 Months Old

2011-09-06T21:48:00.001-05:00

Ryan turned 33 months old today. I know I say this all the time, but I really can’t grasp that he is so close to being a three-year-old!!!

Ryan weighs 32 lbs and is 36.5 inches tall. I think I measured him incorrectly last month at 37 inches! OOPS!! He is so skinny these days. He used to have a big belly, but now he is skinny as a rail!

Here is what Ryan has been up to this past month:

First off, Ryan’s boo-boo healed really fast. The accident happened on Saturday and by the next Friday the scabs were completely gone. He still has a couple of red spots on his nose, but they get lighter and lighter every day.

Ryan is all about trying to write his name. Of course, he can’t come close to really writing it, but he is constantly wanting me to write it for him. Then he takes the pen and draws little lines and says, “Mommy, write my name!” He also loves drawing circles, which he is pretty good at.

Speaking of him writing, I think we can safely say that Ryan is left-handed. I haven’t seen him use his right hand with a pen/pencil/crayon in a long time.

Ryan is identifying more of his letters. He can usually identify A, B, C, R, Y, and N.

Ryan has been saying, “Love you, Mommy/Daddy” a lot lately. A lot of it has to do with me making him say, “Please” and “I love you Mommy/Daddy” when he wants something!! HA! But occasionally he will just say it out of the blue, which we love!

Ryan also says, “It’s OK, Mommy/Daddy” and gives us hugs a lot lately. Last night, I was getting ready to rock him and he realized he didn’t have socks on (which is a major deal!) so I got up to get them. In the process of getting back to the rocking chair, I got my foot caught in the loop of his race track and almost fell. When I got back to the chair, Ryan said, “Ok, Mommy, Ok” and gave me a huge hug! He is so sweet!!

Ryan can pedal his tricycle now and likes to try to pedal his bicycle, but hasn’t quite mastered it yet. Micah’s been working with him, so I don’t think it will be long before he has it down.

He has been turning somersaults like crazy this past week. He told me last night that Mrs. CeCe taught him, so I’m not sure if that’s right or not. My guess is that they learned it on the Tumblebus. Which speaking of the Tumblebus, Ryan LOVES it! He asks every morning if he is going to do Tumblebus that day.

Ryan wants to take showers instead of baths, but he still isn’t much of a fan of either. Last night we gave him a bubble bath and he loved that, so maybe that will have to be our new method of getting him in the bathtub!

Ryan talks ALL THE TIME! He is putting together sentences and I can pretty much understand everything he says. One of his favorite sayings right now is “No Way Jose!”. It is so funny when he says it. He was saying, “No way jo-way” but has recently started saying Jose.

Ryan loves watching Dora these days and also likes to dance like her, which is super cute! He is also a little obsessed with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, especially the “rocketship” episode!

Ryan loves playing in his sandbox. He has a handle off of a bubble wand in the sandbox. It is hollow and he likes to fill it with sand and then throw it up in the air and say, “Fireworks!” And you can imagine the amount of sand that gets in his hair!!

Every time he sees my gum, he wants a piece. I was giving him a half a piece when he would ask, but he would almost immediately swallow it. I always tell him that he has to keep chewing and he promises me he will, but within a minute, he says, “Gum in my belly”! So now my gum is hidden from him!

I have probably mentioned this before, but Ryan is VERY, VERY particular about things. He gets mad if he doesn’t have a certain blanket at bedtime (whatever blanket depends on his mood), if the blanket isn’t turned the right way, which cartoon he wants to watch, or which parent (usually me) he wants to do something for him, just to name a few.

Ryan always wants to do things by himself, whether it be buttering his bagel, turning the water on to wash his hands, or opening the car door. It’s funny to me how he can be so independent, yet won’t do anything without me by his side!

Our issue this past month has been getting Ryan in the bath, his teeth brushed, his pajamas on, and him in bed without throwing major tantrums. It’s been very trying, to say the least! We started a reward jar (Big Boy Jar), in hopes that it would help, but it really hasn’t. Ryan needs immediate rewards and doesn’t understand if we say, “If you do this, you will get to go to the park/make cookies/etc. tomorrow".” I am trying out other methods right now, but haven’t found one that works with him yet. I know there is a solution out there … I just have to find the right one!

One Saturday, we went to eat at Shogun. Ryan loved playing the drums with his chopsticks!

After Shogun we went shopping for a TV and then I went to Rhea Lana’s while Ryan napped in the car. We had promised Ryan all day that if he was good, we would take him to the park. He was doing great, until we decided to eat dinner at Five Guys. He got super mad because he didn’t want to drink water and was screaming his head off in the restaurant (a very small restaurant, I might add). There were no available tables, so we went outside to look for one and still couldn’t find one. In the meantime, Ryan was still screaming. We finally went back in and got a table and then Ryan threw a huge tantrum at the table because he wanted to go outside. We tried to reason with Ryan by saying that he wasn’t going to go to the park if he didn’t straighten up, but he wasn’t listening at all. We got up, practically grabbed him by one arm (yes, we are THOSE parents!), and drug him out of the restaurant. We ate in the car, Ryan cried for another five minutes and then was completely fine and ate his grilled cheese … and, you guessed it, we didn’t go to the park! I guess we are pretty lucky that this was our first embarrassing situation as parents … hopefully we won’t have another one! HA!!

We met Sarah and Kiptyn (Kippy) one evening at Boingo Bounce. Ryan and Kippy had so much fun! It was Kippy’s first time to go there, so he was a little unsure at first but after watching Ryan for a few times, he was ready to go. Ryan still talks about going to see Kippy, so we are going to have to get together with them more often.

We had Ryan’s pictures taken by Tonya Reeves at the end of August. I practiced with Ryan for a couple of days and we had mastered saying ‘cheese’ when he saw the camera. Well, at least I thought we had mastered it! When we got there to take pictures, Ryan clammed up and wouldn’t smile for anything. He has definitely perfected his no smiling technique. It literally took about 30 minutes before we saw a smile out of that boy. We finally started throwing a rubber chicken in the air and making complete fools of ourselves, but it did the job and got him to smile. Tonya has posted a couple of previews on Facebook and I’m happy to say she did capture some smiles! I can’t figure out how to post the pictures from Facebook, so here is one I took of Ryan before we left. This is one where he said ‘cheese’ without me even asking. And please ignore his messy mouth … if I haven’t mentioned it before, it is near impossible to keep that boy’s face clean! I promise I cleaned it before the pictures, though!

Here are Ryan’s 33 Month pictures! He didn’t want to take them when he was in his regular clothes, but decided right before bedtime that he was ready to say cheese, so this month his pictures are in his jammies!

And, now, for the monthly cheese!!!

Ryan’s First Dental Visit

2011-09-06T18:36:00.001-05:00

Ryan had his first dentist appointment on August 17^th. I was very nervous about how he would do, especially when he woke up at 5:30am that morning in quite possibly the grouchiest of grouchy moods he has ever been in! He literally cried from the time he woke up to the time we got in the car to go to preschool, but thankfully he fell asleep in the car on the way! I picked him up from preschool around 10:30am. He was outside playing in the sandbox and was covered in sand, so we did a quick wipe down with wipes and headed on our way. I had been preparing him for the dentist and had been telling him how much fun it was going to be, so he was excited to see what it was all about.

They took Ryan back and did x-rays first. He wasn’t sure what to think when they sat him in the chair and asked him to open his mouth, but after getting some stickers he decided it wasn’t too bad. After that, they wanted to take his picture for their files. He stood in front of the camera and would not smile for anything. He had the most serious look on his face and all I could do was laugh. That boy cracks me up with his “I’m not going to smile face”! They immediately took him to the dentist area after this. The dental hygienist we had was really good with him. She let him play with the water sprayer and the suction tube to get used to everything before he started. He loved being able to spray water in his mouth and drink it.

He was getting stickers and toys during all of this, so that made it all worth while. The dental hygienist eventually put some red sunglasses on him and asked him to lay down while she cleaned his teeth. He did really well and she said his teeth looked great. He had no cavities, which was a major plus! Both she and the dentist said his teeth are great because there are gaps between almost all of them which helps in not getting cavities.

As of right now, we don’t have to do any flossing (Thank God because I can just imagine how well that would go over with him!). Dr. Ward came in to see Ryan and he, too, was great with Ryan. Before Ryan left, he had a whole bag full of stickers, a new Cars toothbrush, flossers, pencils, etc. His favorite treat was the gold coin he got to put in the machine to get a prize. Of course he picked the bouncy ball, but then got upset because he wanted the coin back. He is really into money these days, so I think he thought the money was cooler than the ball! Here’s a picture of all his loot!

After his appointment, we ate lunch at McDonald’s and headed back to preschool. About 5 minutes before we got there, he was conked out in the backseat. I carried him in and handed him over to Ms. Lori so that he could go down for a nap.

Great first dental visit, Ryan!

Boo-Boo

2011-08-17T20:00:00.001-05:00

Ryan got his first big boo-boo over the weekend when he was at Granny & Pa Bennett’s house. He decided that he wanted to be like his soon-to-be 7-year old cousin Austin and walk down the slide. Well, you can imagine how well that turned out for him! They said he made it down the slide but tripped at the end and fell face first onto the concrete. Granny Brenda said he cried for a few minutes but then was OK. Here are some pictures I took of him on Sunday, the day after the accident. Note: He was super grumpy and didn’t want his picture taken. I laugh every time I see this picture because he is just so grumpy!

We went to Boingo Bounce with Eric, Jessica, and Rowan for Rowan’s 2nd birthday after I picked Ryan up. One lady thought that his nose was bleeding, so Jessica had to explain what had happened. Ryan was so tired that after we got done eating, he fell asleep in the car. I was able to get him out of the car seat and move him to the couch and he fell right back asleep where he slept until Micah moved him to his bed. Believe me, this is a huge rarity!

We’ve asked Ryan several times if he is going to walk down slides anymore and he always says, “No, go on bottom!” so I think he has definitely learned his lesson! Today on the way home he said, “No like walk down Granny’s slide!” Hopefully he will remember this for years to come!

We have pictures scheduled in less than 2 weeks, so here’s to hoping that it heals before then. If not, there will be a lot of work to be done in photoshop!

I think Granny & Pa Bennett are worried that we will never let them keep Ryan again. Don’t worry … you can keep him anytime you want! Micah and I had a productive weekend of cleaning out closets and cleaning the house. We took a full car load of stuff to Goodwill Saturday evening and still have not finished going through the soon-to-be baby’s room.

Thanks for keeping Ryan for the weekend so we could get some much needed work done!

Ryan – 32 Months Old

2011-08-17T19:43:00.001-05:00

Ryan turned 32 months old on Saturday, August 6th. He weighs 32 lbs and is 37 inches tall.

He still wears mainly 2T clothing, but has some 18 month stuff he can still wear and also some 3T stuff that he can wear.

Here’s what Ryan has been up to:

When Micah gives Ryan a bath, he always wraps the towel around him so he looks like a burrito. I always say, “Ryan, you’re my little burrito.” The other day he said, “No, I’m a chicken nugget!”

Ryan has learned how to catch a ball and he also loves to try to dribble a basketball.

Getting Ryan to sleep this month has not been a fun experience! Micah converted his crib to a toddler bed about 3 weeks ago. Ryan loved it and loved that he could climb in and out of the bed on his own. But he won’t go to sleep in it unless we stay in the room with him. So, our new routine is to rock him and then he wants me (or Micah or both) to lay in the floor beside him until he is asleep. Sometimes it takes a few minutes or sometimes it takes an hour! He has also started getting up in the middle of the night and coming to our bedroom. I’ve been awakened by him a couple of times by hearing him say, “Coming” when he is already in our room. It is pretty funny but it takes me forever to get back to sleep and sometimes forever for Ryan to sleep, too, so sleep has been lacking at our house! When he does sleep in his bed through the night, he usually gets up when I’m getting ready and says, “Wake up” … he is so happy that he can get out of his own bed now!

My favorite part of the day is our drive home after picking Ryan up from preschool. He talks non-stop and tells me little tidbits about his day at preschool. One day he told me, “Zip it up” (which I thought his teacher must say that to get them to quit talking, but later figured out it mean to zip his shorts up!), “Yes m’am” (which must be what one of his teachers says a lot), and “God is good” (which is part of the prayer they say before they eat). He always talks about Michael and how his dad picks him up. I think Michael must be one of his favorites there. And he has also told me that Levi hit him in the face and had to go to timeout and Ms. Lori said, “No, No, Levi!”

Ryan is a little obsessed with coin money. He is constantly wanting money to carry in his pockets and has to show it to everyone he sees! And I’m sure his obsession with money has only just begun!

It’s been miserably hot the past few weeks with record-breaking highs between 100 and 110 degrees at times, so we have been spending the majority of our time inside, which means Ryan is back on his Toy Story watching kick. He will watch the same one over and over for days in a row and then will move to another one for a few days. I know he’s watching it way too much when he can tell me what is going to happen before it even happens!

Ryan still talks about Ro-Ro all the time and always wants to see him. I think it’s so funny because when they see each other, they usually give their hugs, and then could care less about each other or just fight the whole time they are together! We spent the night at Granny Joy’s one night this month and they both learned to turn flips off of the couch after 10pm! They were both hyper as can be and I didn’t get Ryan in bed that night till after 11pm!!

Ryan is doing great with going #2 in the potty (finally!!). He hasn’t had an accident in at least 3 or 4 weeks, so I think I can safely say he is potty-trained. Except we still haven’t been brave enough to put him in underwear at night, but hopefully will get that taken care of soon! But I think we’ll wait on him to actually start sleeping in his bed through the night first!

I think I mentioned this in my last post, but Ryan LOVES shooting guns with Daddy. He doesn’t actually shoot them; He just watches but I think he could do it for hours. He gets so excited each time the shot goes off. I must admit that he does look pretty darn cute in his earmuffs! This day Micah gave him a Gatorade. He thought he was such a big boy taking the lid off and putting it back on. Within a few minutes, it was all gone!!

Ryan always says, “No like” when we go by trees on a hill or power lines that cross the road. I have no idea why he doesn’t like these two things, but he definitely doesn’t. It’s almost like he’s scared of them!

We took Ryan to the Aquatic Center for the first time this year and he had a blast. He surprised me by how much he loved the water. He put his head under fountains and loved getting his head wet. He, of course, loved the slides the most. He didn’t like getting in the deeper water where he couldn’t touch, but other than that he had lots of fun. Next year I think we will brave swimming lessons with him!

On July 30^th, we went to see the Imagination Movers at the Walton Arts Center with Cindy & Allen Judy. Allen started off by dancing and it was so cute! He had the time of his life! It took Ryan a while to soak everything in, but he had a great time. He eventually got up and started dancing (jumping) and had lots of fun. He loved playing the drums like they did and still will say, “Ma Mo” (Imagination Movers) when he plays the drums. He also loved rolling his arms around and around like they did.

We went to my cousin Brent’s wedding on August 6^thin Sedalia, MO. We went to the rehearsal the night before. Both it and the wedding were at a place called the Tiki House. Ryan talked about the Tiki House all weekend and for days afterwards. There was a very steep ramp that you had to walk up and down to get there and Ryan had a blast running on it … and I was a nervous wreck the whole time. He fell down Friday night and skinned his knee all up, but that didn’t stop him from doing it over and over again on Saturday. The wedding was beautiful, but was extremely HOT. I was definitely ready to get in the air conditioning after it was over! Here’s a picture of Ryan’s sweaty little head!

Here are Ryan’s 32 month pictures:

Happy 32 Months, Ry-Ry!! Can you please stop growing now?!?!?

Just A Little Smile ...

2011-08-16T11:39:00.000-05:00

This morning when I dropped Ryan off at his daycare, Mrs. Ce-Ce came up and told me that he was doing great and was so sweet. She went on to say that she would love to have 10 of him! If that doesn't make a mother smile, I don't know what does! I love receiving sweet compliments on my son.

Tasty Tuesday - Chicken & Black Bean Enchiladas

2011-08-16T10:48:00.000-05:00

Before I begin this recipe, I want you to know that I haven't fallen off the face of the Earth ... I don't think I've ever been this behind on posting Ryan's monthly update before! We've been really busy and I have part of it done, but can't seem to find the time to finish it. Hopefully the post, along with a couple of others, will be up by the end of the upcoming weekend!

Now for the delicious recipe that I made last night. I found it on a blog I follow and decided to fix it last night. I made a couple of small changes to the recipe, so that is the one I will post. Micah and I agreed that these were probably the best enchiladas we have ever had! I served them with easy, but yummy Rice-A-Roni Spanish Rice.

Chicken & Black Bean Enchiladas

INGREDIENTS:

1 lb. boneless chicken breast

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 can black beans, undrained

1/2 cup sliced green onions

2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese

4 slices of bacon (I think I might use more next time)

1.5 cups salsa

1 can red enchilada sauce

1 t. ground cumin
1/4 t. salt

8-10 flour tortillas

DIRECTIONS:

Cook bacon until crisp. Remove to paper towel, crumble.

Chop chicken into 1-2" pieces. Cook chicken and garlic in bacon drippings until chicken is no longer pink. Stir in 1/2 cup salsa, beans, cumin and salt. Simmer until thickened, 7-8 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Stir in green onions and bacon.

Spoon heaping 1/4 cup of mixture down the center of each tortilla and top with cheddar cheese.

Roll up and place seam side down in lightly greased 9x13 baking dish.

Cover with red enchilada salsa and remaining salsa. Make sure to completely cover with the sauce/salsa.

Bake at 350 for 15 minutes.

Top with remaining cheese and return to the oven for 3-5 minutes.

ENJOY!!

Tasty Tuesday - White Chicken Chili

2011-08-02T06:22:00.002-05:00

Micah decided he wanted White Chicken Chili last Friday night, so he combined a couple of different recipes and came up with this tasty one! I love it when that boy cooks!!

INGREDIENTS:

1.5 lbs chicken breast

1 can navy beans

1 can great northern beans

1 can chicken broth

1 can chopped green chilis

2 cans Rotel

3-4 chopped tomatillos

1.5 chopped onion

1-2 tbsp minced garlic

1 tbsp cumin

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp flour

DIRECTIONS:

Cook chicken and chop into very small pieces. (Micah cut the raw chicken into 1 inch pieces and then used the spatula to chop up further as it cooked)

Saute onion until soft.

Add green chilis, tomatillos, and cumin and cook for 3-5 minutes.

Add Rotel and cook for another 3 minutes.

Add the flour and cook for 2-3 more minutes.

Pour in all other ingredients and let cook 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Garnish with cilantro, cheese, sour cream and/or salsa.

Baby Bennett #2

2011-07-30T23:02:00.001-05:00

It’s official! I am pregnant with baby #2! We found out on June 6th and could not be more excited! Of course, we are also nervous at the thought of having another little one to add to the ball of energy (aka Ryan) that we already have! I am due February 9th, but since I will have to have a c-section, baby Bennett #2 will likely arrive the first week of February.

This pregnancy has been totally different than my pregnancy with Ryan, and I must say that I had it super easy with Ryan! I started experiencing morning sickness the day after I was 6 weeks pregnant and have just got over it the past week or two. But, luckily I didn’t have it too bad … I think of all these people who are sick for a majority of their pregnancy and I don’t see how they do it! I never did throw up, but just felt nauseous all day; and the nights were worse than the days. There were days when I would come home and go straight to bed and stay there the majority of the night. Thankfully, Micah was super understanding and did a great job taking care of Ryan, bathing him, and getting him to bed. One day I picked Ryan up from pre-school and he said, “Mommy sick, go to bed?” and that’s when I knew that it was bad! I can’t even think about eating certain foods like grilled chicken (also had this problem with Ryan). Most of the time, nothing really sounded good so I would just have to force myself to eat and once I started, I was normally OK. Fruit, salads, pizza, and anything with marinara sauce have sounded the best to me.

Along with the morning sickness, I have had a cough since at least the beginning of June. I had a cold back then and the cough came with it. It always takes me a few weeks to get over a cough, but this one has lasted forever. It is really bad after I eat and sometimes I cough to the point that I almost gag … it’s annoying, to say the least! I finally went to the doctor yesterday and the doctor thinks it is probably allergies that have turned into a mild case of asthma because of the dry weather and all of the dust we’ve been having. He gave me an inhaler and after using it just three times, I already see a difference in the amount of coughing I do. It hasn’t completely stopped by any means, but hopefully it will at least keep it to a minimum.

On June 20th, I got a scare when I woke up early in the morning to use the restroom and noticed bright, red blood in the stool (sorry if this is TMI, but I want to remember all of this). I was able to get into the doctor the next day, so they did an ultrasound and everything checked out fine. It was such a relief! I decided to tell my boss that day since I thought I might have to be out more if I had further problems. I told her she was the only one that knew besides me and Micah, so told her she couldn’t tell a soul! That night, my friend Jennifer from work called me and said, “Hypothetically, if I have taken 3 pregnancy tests and they are all positive, does that mean I’m pregnant?!” I told her, “Hypothetically, that means your definitely pregnant!” I then covered up the phone and asked Micah if I could tell her about me being pregnant also, and he said it was fine with him, so I told her. We were both so excited for each other!

We told my parents on Friday, June 24th. We drove over there after work because I told Mom that Micah needed to get some water to clean his fish tank with. We had been practicing with Ryan and had him saying, “Baby in Mommy’s belly” so that’s how we decided to announce it. Mom, Micah, Ryan, and I were outside on the front porch and Micah got Ryan to set on Granny’s lap and say, “baby in mommy’s belly”. She originally thought he was saying, “pee-pee on mommy’s bed”to which she said, “No! That’s yucky!” and we just started laughing and told him to say it again, so he did. The second time she thought he said, “pee-pee on mommy’s belly” and again we laughed! He kept on saying it and she finally caught on and said, “Really?!?!?!” It was too funny!

I wanted to tell Dad but was hesitant because he has a big mouth and I figured that everyone in Madison County would know about it by the next morning! We went back inside and were sitting in the living room and out of the blue Dad asked, “Are you having another baby?” to which I replied, “Yes”! I think my answer kind of shocked him because he said, “No joke?” and I told him I was serious. Mom and I told him that we didn’t want everyone to know yet and he promised us he could keep a secret, and as far as I know, he did!

We told Micah’s family on Sunday the 26th at Kaylynn’s birthday party. We had Ryan tell Granny Bennett the same thing: “Baby in Mommy’s belly”. She was pretty sure she understood him correctly, but said, “What?” so Ryan said it again. She said, “Is he saying what I think he is saying?” and we told her he was. Pa David said, “I was just inquiring about that a couple of weekends ago”, which he was. I told him we knew then but didn’t say anything! They were both excited and David even said he wouldn’t mind if we had 4 or 5 more!! I think he best keep on dreaming!!

Jennifer and I were so excited about telling the ladies at work, but we both wanted to wait until we were further along. I had my first appointment on July 12th and she had hers on July 14th. I had another ultrasound at that appointment and, again, all was well. The baby was measuring great and they didn’t see any problems. After Jennifer’s appointment on the 14th, we got our rhyming e-mail together and sent it out to our co-workers. Everyone is super excited for us and several think we planned this! HA!! Here’s the e-mail we sent:

We have two things to tell you and they won't take long,

So we decided to put it in the form of a song.

Sit back, prop up your feet, and relax

And enjoy this little story to the max!

Surprised is something you probably won’t be,

But Christy’s having a baby to add to her family of three.

Baby Bennett #2 will arrive at the first of February

Or if it decides to come early, maybe the end of January.

The second bit of news may blow you away,

But little Jennifer, too, has a baby on the way!

Her little bundle of joy will arrive two weeks later;

And she’s mighty excited about having a little tater!

We’re both very happy, as you might guess.

Just take it easy on us and give us no stress!

Two babies will be here before you know it,

So we hope y’all are all ready to babysit!!

I am currently 12 weeks pregnant. I looked in the mirror last night and realized that I’m really showing a lot! I’m always in a rush while getting ready, so hadn’t really noticed until last night. I can tell my pants are getting tighter and today I had trouble finding a shirt that fit right, so I am sure I’ll be digging out my maternity clothes soon, although I’m not sure how much summer stuff I have to wear in this 100 degree weather!

We feel totally blessed to be pregnant with baby #2. I would love to think that this won’t be my last, but more than likely it will be (unless I can somehow trick Micah into a third one which would be near impossible to do) We would also have to win the lottery, as having two kids is going to break the bank with daycare costs. We will definitely be in the poor house for the years to come, but I know it will be totally worth it! Please keep us in your prayers the next few months, for both the baby’s health and our finances!

I will start to update every few weeks about how my pregnancy is going … and, of course, what fruit/vegetable the baby is the size of! I did this with Ryan (on my old blog) and have already gone back and re-read it, so I’m anxious to see how it compares to this pregnancy.

Tasty Tuesday – Jessica’s Taco Casserole

2011-07-19T22:24:00.001-05:00

I’m back with another recipe. I know it’s been awhile, but this one is worth the wait. This is my cousin-in-law Jessica’s famous Taco Casserole. I can never get it to turn out as good as she can (I think she’s hiding part of the recipe!!), but it’s still yummy!

JESSICA’S TACO CASSEROLE

Ingredients

1 bag of Nacho Cheese chips (you can use Doritos or an off-brand)

1 lb Hamburger

1 tsp (more or less) Chili Powder

1 can Cream of Mushroom soup

2 cans Chili Beans

1 can Rotel

Shredded Cheddar Cheese

Directions

Cook hamburger until done. Mix in chili powder.

Crumble up enough chips to cover bottom of 9x13 baking dish.

Pour hamburger on top of crumbled chips.

Mix cream of mushroom, Rotel, and chili beans together.

Pour this mixture over the hamburger.

Sprinkle enough cheese on top to completely cover.

Put Nacho Cheese chips on top of cheese.

Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 30 minutes.

Ryan – 31 Months Old

2011-07-10T16:19:00.001-05:00

Ryan weighs 31.5 lbs and is 36.5 inches tall this month.

Here is what Ryan has been up to the past month:

- Loves to roar like a lion to scare people. And he wants you to be scared so you have to act like it scares you every time. It is super cute because he always does it with a big smile on his face.

- Ryan likes to tell us whether people are boys or girls. He thinks it’s really funny when he calls me a boy or Daddy a girl!

- We got his hair cut a few weeks ago and I love it! Micah took him to a Hispanic lady and told her to leave it 1.5 inches on the top, but I think she misunderstood and cut it .5 inches! He looked totally different when I saw him, but as time has gone by I think it’s the hair cut for him. He looks like such a little man!

- Micah fixed Ryan’s hair into a ‘faux hawk’ one day and it was so adorable!!

- Ryan knows all of his colors now.

- Has been doing great with potty training. I don’t think he has had a single pee accident, but has had a few poop ones but is getting much better. Mrs. Shirley would tell him he couldn’t go outside unless he went, so she had him going every day. I’m just happy that he is doing better and that I can see a light at the end of the tunnel!

- Ryan got a boo-boo on his foot at Granny Joy’s house. He likes to go in and out of the doors and his foot got caught in it. He was pitiful when he got home, so I put a band-aid on it (the first band-aid he has ever had!). Ever since then he won’t wear his Crocs because he says his boo-boo hurts! I tried putting them on him the other day (a good 4 weeks after his accident) and he still remembers it, even though his boo-boo is no where to be seen! The good thing about it is that the only other shoes he had to wear were flip-flops so he finally decided to wear them. It took him a few days to figure out how to walk in them. The first day he had to put them on at least 5 times walking from the house to the car in the morning! But now he is a pro … and Momma is happy because I love flip-flops, especially on cute, chubby feet!

- Ryan’s new going to sleep routine is that he wants me to rock him for a few minutes and then he wants Micah to rock him. Micah always sings “Daddy’s Song” to him which is Alabama’s “Song of the South”! A few weeks ago, Ryan kept wanting us to sing the “rocket ship song”, which we had no idea what it was or if there even was such a song. So Micah made up the following song:

“Rocket ship, rocket ship, flies through the sky; Rocket ship, Rocket ship way up high!

Rocket ship, Rocket ship, flies to the moon; Rocket ship, rocket ship, zoom, zoom, zoom!

Rocket ship, rocket ship, flies all around; Rocket ship, Rocket ship, lands on the ground!”

Ryan loves it, especially the “zoom, zoom, zoom” part! When Micah lays Ryan down in his crib, he almost always lifts his pillow up and sticks his head under it! Silly boy!

- Micah took Ryan out the other night to let Ryan watch him shoot guns. Ryan loved it!! I’m surprised Micah didn’t let him shoot the gun :-)

- Ryan’s new favorite toy is a spray bottle. He loves to fill it up and squirt everything outside and also likes to water the plants by squirting them!

- Ryan is really into kissing. He wants to kiss us all the time – on the lips, cheeks, ears, nose, eye, head, etc. I love every kiss from that sweet boy!

We’ve been busy this past month and I have not been good about posting about our weekends, so here is a summary of what we've done:

- Took Ryan to the park one afternoon. He loves the ‘big slide’ and always wants to go every time he sees one. He had a blast and could’ve played for hours.

Ryan does so well climbing on these bars and is very careful when he climbs. But, Micah took him to this park a few days after this and looked over and Ryan was hanging by one hand from the bars. Micah rushed over, but before he got there, Ryan let go and fell on his forehead. He had a small scrape, but thankfully it wasn’t too bad. Micah said he got up and went right back to climbing on them!

- Went to Kaylynn’s birthday party. The kids had a great time playing on the slip and slide and in the sprinkler. Ryan never did figure out how to use the slip and slide correctly, but definitely did slide a few times while trying to walk on it! Here’s a picture of Ryan drinking out of the sprinkler … and yes, he is just wearing his underwear because I forgot his swim trunks!

- Went to Eric and Jessica’s annual get-together over the Fourth of July weekend. There were 18 kids there and I think all but one of them was under the age of 7! They did manage to get a picture of all the kids on the couch, but I don’t have it. Believe it or not, I didn’t take any pictures that weekend! But here is one of me and Ryan that Alana took with Brent’s fancy camera that I absolutely love!

They shot off fireworks Saturday night. Ryan was so excited for them, but after the first really loud one he started crying. Micah bought him some earmuffs, so we put those on and he did fine. He kept saying, “Loud, noisy”. He talked about the fireworks for days afterwards and kept wanting to see more. Micah bought him some little stuff at the fireworks tent and they shot them off Monday afternoon. They weren’t too exciting, but Ryan still loved them!

Here are Ryan’s 31-month pictures:

And the monthly cheese:

Ryan’s New Daycare

2011-07-10T10:26:00.001-05:00

Ryan started his new daycare on Tuesday. I, of course, was dreading the change, but it has gone as well as can be expected. Over the weekend, I was trying to prepare him for the change and kept telling him that he wouldn’t be going to Mrs. Shirley’s house anymore, but instead he would be going to ‘preschool’ where there were lots of kids and lots of toys to play on outside. Ryan seemed excited and kept saying ‘preschool’ over and over. When I got him up Tuesday morning he was ready to go.

We pulled up and he immediately saw the slides which made him happy. He wanted to walk, so I let him, but as soon as we got to the door he wanted to be held. I walked in only to find out that they weren’t even expecting us. They thought I was going to call and let them know a date for him to start and I thought I had told them July 5th from the beginning. But, thankfully, they were OK with him starting that day. I could tell it was going to be hard to leave him because he was clinging to me like crazy. Mrs. Ce-Ce took him over to the toys, but he didn’t really want to play, so she held him and took him outside to watch me go. He was doing fine, until I realized I forgot my keys inside. She went back in to get them and as I turned to walk to the car, Ryan started crying … and to no surprise, I did too! When I was just a couple of minutes down the road, she called me and said he was fine. I called around lunch time and they said he was doing fine and had just been really quiet. I couldn’t wait for 5pm to arrive so that I could pick him up. They were playing outside when I pulled up and he started jumping up and down saying, “Mommy, mommy”. I went in to sign him out and he walked in with me, but immediately wanted to go back outside and play. I told him we needed to go, but he wanted to play a while longer so I let him play for a few minutes and then we left. He was very talkative when we got in the car. I really wish he could have told me every detail about his day, but of course he couldn’t. He did tell me that he took a nap on the bed. I knew he didn’t have a bed, so I asked him what color it was and he said ‘blue’. But I’m glad he thinks the mat is a bed!! He talked a lot about the big slide and about picking up blocks.

Wednesday morning, he was ready to go from the minute he got out of bed. He kept saying, “Go preschool, Mommy go bye-bye!” and I told him that was right. But as we got closer it was, “Go preschool, Mommy stay?” I told him I couldn’t stay because I had to go to work, but told him he’d have fun with all the kids! He did much better that morning. He still wanted me to hold him when we got inside, but as soon as Ms. Kandace held out her arms, he went right to her … and thankfully there was no crying! When I picked him up, it was just him, 2 girls, and an approx. 9 month old baby. They had just started watching a movie, so he was upset that he had to leave. I finally got his shoes on and we walked out, but as soon as we got out of the door he said in a sad voice, “Tell baby bye.” So I told him he could go in and tell him bye. He ran up to the baby’s high chair and with a big smile on his face he got right up in the baby’s face and said, “Bye!” So cute! That evening he also told me, “Take nap girl”, which means he took a nap with a girl. So funny!

Thursday morning, he walked the whole way in by himself and didn’t even ask me to hold him. He went right over to the bin where there is a toy snake and picked it up. Ms. Lori said that is his favorite toy. Ryan also had to point out where the vacuum was. She asked me if he was afraid of vacuums, so I had to explain that to her. She said that every time she runs it, he goes far away and just watches until she is done!

Ryan did great on Friday, as well. It was sprinkler day, so I know he loved that!

Mrs. Shirley called me Thursday night and left a message saying they were just wondering how their boy was doing! AH! I called her back Friday evening and told her he was fine. We plan on going to visit them this coming week. Ryan still says, “Mrs. Shirley’s house” some mornings, but I have to tell him that we’re not going there :-(

All in all, I think Ryan had a great week. I’m sure it is going to take him another week or so to become fully adjusted. They have a much earlier nap time (11:30 compared to 1pm at Mrs. Shirley’s) and also have an earlier lunch time (11am compared to 12pm). He has been pretty whiny and grouchy when I pick him up, but that is understandable considering all of the change he is going through. I’m excited for him to make new friends and learn lots of new things and know he is going to love it!

Happy Retirement Mrs. Shirley & Mr. Wyman

2011-07-02T08:04:00.001-05:00

Yesterday was Ryan’s last day at Mrs. Shirley’s. To say I was sad would be an understatement. I started crying when I picked him up on Thursday as I was walking him to the car. Ryan saw me and gave me a hug and a kiss and then said, “Better?” He is seriously the sweetest boy ever!! I tried to prepare Ryan for this day, but of course he is too young to understand. I’ve told him for a couple of weeks that he is going to start going to a new place with lots of kids and lots of toys outside and every time the first thing he says is, “Big slide?” so let’s hope the new daycare has a big slide or he is going to be disappointed!!

I bought Mrs. Shirley some pretty flowers and a vase on Thursday evening and also got her a card to thank her and Mr. Wyman for all they have done. Ryan was so excited to give them to Mrs. Shirley on Friday morning. I let him carry the card in and I carried the flowers. Tears were flowing before I even left the car and they didn’t stop. Mr. Wyman was sitting on the porch, so Ryan gave him the card and we walked in. I was crying, so Mrs. Shirley started too. She loved the flowers and cried when she read the card. She mentioned that it is impossible to take good care of a kid and not become attached to them.

Here are a couple of pictures of Ryan with Mrs. Shirley’s vacuum. He has a love/hate relationship with it! Mrs. Shirley has turned it on before while he was there and he, of course, freaked out. But every morning/evening when I drop/pick him up, if he sees the vacuum he will be sure to point out to me exactly where it is. Mrs. Shirley said that recently he will walk up and touch it real quick and then run away! The second picture demonstrates that! He is so silly!

Here Ryan is with Mr. Wyman. Mr. Wyman told Ryan that they were going to break the camera!

And here he is with Mrs. Shirley!

I left Mrs. Shirley’s and proceeded to work. I was in the break room getting ice and Brenda mentioned that she saw my Facebook post about this being Ryan’s last day. I started crying again!!

Mrs. Shirley fixed Ryan’s favorite meal for lunch – chicken nuggets and french fries! Kippy came to visit for a couple of hours and they said that Kippy and Ryan had a ball together! I told Sarah to try to get a picture of them together. She sent me this one and said it was the best she could do because they wouldn’t sit still!

Mrs. Shirley said that Ryan finally started saying “Kippy” instead of “Yuppy”, so that is a big development! I noticed when Sarah sent me this picture that Ryan was wearing different shorts than he was this morning. Come to find out, he had an pee accident, which he hasn’t had in forever!

5pm arrived and it was time to pick Ryan up. I held it together much better than I did this morning, but did cry as Ryan was giving Mr. Wyman and Mrs. Shirley their good-bye hugs. Mrs. Shirley kept asking for more hugs. I told her that we’d be by to visit and she said we had better!

I’m so very thankful for all that Mrs. Shirley and Mr. Wyman have done for us over the past 14 months. I had no clue what a great set of people we had found to watch Ryan. I cried for days when I first took him and then I cried when we had to leave. They treated Ryan like their grandkid and that is exactly what he needed!

I know Ryan is going to love his new daycare. He loves playing with other kids and is going to learn so much! Here’s to hoping that the new place is at least half as good as this one!

Pigs, Zoo, Poo, and Family

2011-06-14T21:28:00.001-05:00

We had one of the absolute best weekends ever this past weekend! We were non-stop busy, but enjoyed every second of it.

Friday night when I got home, I noticed something or someone had dug around the base of our house in the back. When Micah got home he investigated it and finally saw a track of a pig. Our neighbors have pigs, so we had found the culprit. Saturday morning when I woke up, I looked out the back door and there were four pigs up on our hill. I got Micah out of bed and he was ready to make bacon out of them, but I persuaded him otherwise. Micah ended up getting his BB gun and shooting them and we called Animal Control. Of course when they got here, the pigs were gone so there was nothing they could do. We later found out they came back down and got in our neighbor’s yard and he, too, called Animal Control and had them picked up! Stinkin’ pigs!

After the pig fiasco, we got ready and headed to Fayetteville. We ate lunch at Chick-Fil-A where Ryan had ‘hicken nuggies’ (chicken nuggets) and fries. He really didn’t eat much because he was too excited about the ‘big slide’. He had a blast playing on the playground, but we had to convince him to leave so we could get to the zoo.

We went to the Wild Wilderness Drive-Through Zoo in Gentry. I was skeptical of it mainly for the fact that it was in Gentry, but it was AWESOME! Micah got in the back of the car with Ryan and let him get out of his car seat. Ryan loved seeing all the animals.

He was able to name a lot of them.

His favorite were the monkeys, which are my favorite too!

This is my favorite animal picture of the day:

We spent well over an hour in the drive-through part and then headed to the petting zoo area. I was amazed at how many animals they had out for petting. There were deer, goats, pigs, kangaroos, chickens, ducks, just to name a few. Ryan loved feeding the animals and was not a bit afraid to stick his hands up to their mouths.

We took our time and finally made it to the back area where there were lots of monkeys in cages. We were even able to go in a cage with the baby monkeys and hold one of them.

I was not too keen on this idea, but Micah held it so I decided I should. It felt so weird crawling on my arm and neck … and then it saw my earring and started going after it. I was able to get it out of my ear and then quickly handed the monkey back over to Micah! This is the only picture Micah got of me, but I promise I held it for almost a minute!

We also got to see the big monkeys get fed while we were there. It was very entertaining. There were two monkeys in the cage and one of them took all the bananas and took them to the top area where the mean monkey couldn’t get them. He would peel banana after banana and eat, eat, eat! We ended up staying at the zoo for over three hours! Ryan had the time of his life!

After the zoo, we headed to Lowe’s where Ryan enjoyed sitting on about every lawnmower that they had it ‘driving’ them! I think he could entertain himself all day there just going back and forth between the different mowers!

it was time to eat again so we ate at Acambaro and then decided to take Ryan to Murphy Park to play on the slides. We were only there a few minutes when it started raining so we had to get Ryan off of the slides and take him to the car. We immediately noticed a poopy smell and realized he had gone to the bathroom in his pants. So here it is pouring down rain and we have nowhere to change Ryan except for in the front seat of the car. Micah got the umbrella and held it over me while I changed him. Ryan was wearing underwear so you can imagine what a time I had getting his underwear off. To make a long story short, poop ended up in the parking lot and after I was done changing Ryan I had to use an empty Chick-Fil-A cup to scoop it up and throw it away! Ryan – I know you’re going to love this story when you get older!! But that’s what memories are made of!!

Sunday, we went to Micah’s parents’ house for the afternoon. It was a gorgeous day and we spent the majority of it outside. Ryan had a ball over there, as usual. He and Austin played basketball most of the day. And Ryan loved going down the slide, but had to make sure that Pa was watching him at all times - ‘Pa, watch me!’. I enjoyed being able to sit outside and relax! I was even able to finish my book!! Austin and Ryan had the most fun when Pa lowered the back door of his toy hauler so they could run up and down it. Ryan loves anything that he can run on, so he had a blast!

As usual, the weekend went by way too fast, but it was sure fun while it lasted!!

Ro-Ro & Ry-Ry

2011-06-08T07:00:00.001-05:00

This is Ro-Ro & Ry-Ry on April 25, 2010 …

And this is them on June 4, 2011 …

It’s crazy how they’ve changed in less than 14 months!

The four wheeler wouldn’t even move with them both on it this weekend!

I love these cute little boys and can’t wait to watch them grow up together in the years to come!

Ryan – 2 1/2 Years Old

2011-06-06T21:29:00.001-05:00

WOW! Our little baby boy turned 2 ½ years old today! Where has the time gone?! We look at Ryan all the time and can’t believe how big he is and that he is no longer a baby. It’s so sad, but I know that every age will have it’s fun things that I will never want to let go of.

Ryan wears anywhere from 18 months – 2T shorts, 18 months – 3T shirts, and size 7 shoes.

What’s Ryan been up to this month?

- Says “Iwannado” (I want to do.) about everything!

- Says ‘Waztha’ (What’s that?) and wrinkles up his nose in the absolute cutest way at any sound he hears that he doesn’t know what it is. I love it!!!

- Knows a lot of his colors. He normally says that everything is blue at first, but then usually changes it to the correct color. His favorite color right now is orange and he is very good at recognizing it when he sees it.

- When we are in the car, he hates it when I stop at stop lights, so I’ve been trying to explain when the light is red that I must stop. So as soon as he sees it turn to green, he says, “Green light go”.

- Ryan thinks the four wheeler is called a ‘four wheeler ride’. We try to get him to just say four wheeler, but every time he says, ‘No, four wheeler ride!”.

- Ryan wants to see Micah’s ‘four wheeler ride’, ‘hainsaw’ (chainsaw), and ‘mowey’ (mower) every night. He especially likes the chainsaw, but when Micah starts it up, he freaks out!

- He is a huge chatterbox! We still can’t understand some things he says, but if we give it a few seconds we usually figure it out. It amazes me how much he has picked up in the last few months.

- We have been potty-training Ryan for the past few weeks and he is doing well. I decided that I would just put him in underwear and hope for the best. And I must say, I think he is the cutest thing ever in his little undies!! He still has accidents every once in a while, but they have definitely slowed down from what they were in the beginning. He still wears a diaper at night and wakes up with it soaked, so I’m not sure when I’ll get brave enough to attempt underwear at night. He has only gone #2 in the potty one time and that is because I caught him running to his room (where he always goes and locks the door when he has to go) and made him sit on the stool. We made a huge deal about him going poo-poo in the potty, in hopes he would figure it out and start wanting to go on the potty, but unfortunately it hasn’t worked yet. He had a huge mess in his underwear yesterday that was by no means fun to clean up, so I’m really hoping he catches on soon!

- Ryan talks about Ro-Ro all the time. He thinks Ro-Ro is eating what he eats, Ro-Ro is doing what he is doing, etc. And he always wants to go to Ro-Ro’s house. If he thinks he is going there and we turn down our road off of 412 he says, “No, Ro-Ro’s house”! How he knows that we don’t turn off of 412 is beyond me, but he does it every time!

- Speaking of Rowan, I babysat him this past Saturday while Jessica worked. Ryan wanted Ro-Ro to watch him pee every time and would say, “Ro-Ro watch me”! After Jessica got there, she decided to take off Rowan’s diaper just to see what he would do. Well, wouldn’t you know he peed outside!! And then yesterday while they were at home, he peed three times in the potty! Maybe Ryan should start charging for his potty training services! HA!

- We have found a new daycare where he will start on July 5^th. I’m still extremely sad about leaving Mrs. Shirley, but I think this new place will be great for him. There are only 28 kids in the whole center and only 7 in his class. They have a huge outside playground and have lots of play time, so I know Ryan will enjoy having other kids to play with. I don’t want to think about his last day with Mrs. Shirley, but know I will have to face it in a few weeks!

- We got out Ryan’s baby swimming pool for the first time since the summer he was a baby. Ryan wasn’t much of a fan of the water last year, so we never got it out. Well, I think he has turned into a fan since then. He was jumping into the water and splashing all around in it

We even got the sprinkler out and he was taking drinks from it!

I see a bigger pool in our future … at least one that I can fit in!!

- Ryan has started saying 'Froggy' and hopping like a frog. He does his feet just like one and I have no idea where he learned it at. I asked Mrs. Shirley and she doesn't know either. I took Ryan shopping with me last Friday and he started doing it in the middle of Belk. Too cute! He is all the time doing funny things or making funny noises to get me to laugh! Love it!

- Mrs. Shirley says that Ryan eats like a horse at her house and is always asking for seconds and thirds. He doesn’t eat very well at home, so either he is getting full at Mrs. Shirley’s or her cooking is a lot better!

- I’m still rocking Ryan before he goes to bed each night. We were rocking and singing a couple of songs and then he would lay in bed, but now he cries and cries if I put him in bed before he is asleep. So either I rock him until he is asleep or let him cry in bed, which makes me sad!

- Oh, and Ryan refuses to go to sleep unless he has socks on! Silly boy!

Here are Ryan’s 2 1/2 year old pictures!!

It’s hard to believe that in 6 short months, you will be 3!!!! We love you!!

Memorial Day Weekend

2011-06-06T21:09:00.001-05:00

I had planned on going to Little Rock over Memorial Day weekend to go to Riverfest with Shandy and Alana., so Micah decided to go to his Granny’s and take Ryan with him. His whole family was there to help clean out his Grandpa’s shop, so thankfully we were able to combine two trips into one.

We made the 3 hour trek to Little Rock on Friday after we got off work. We spent Friday night at Chris’ house. Ryan was wound up and had so much fun playing with the toys that Chris had borrowed from his nephews. Luckily, I was able to get him in bed and asleep before Jessica, Eric, and Rowan arrived. And I must say it was one of the easiest times I’ve ever had getting him to sleep. I laid down in the bed with him and started telling him a story about a train and within a few minutes he was out!

Micah and Ryan left Chris’ house Saturday morning to go to Micah’s Granny’s house in McRae. I stayed behind for some fun-in-the-sun time at Shandy’s apartment complex’s pool! We laid in the sun for almost 3 hours, and even after applying sunscreen at least 3 times I got super burnt on my knees and shoulders! The water was freezing cold, but it was nice to relax and have no worries! Becky met up with us after swimming and we all got ready and headed to Riverfest where we caught the end of Pat Green, and watched David Nail and Charlie Daniels. The best part of the night was all the people watching there was to do … I could do that for hours and never tire of it! I was super pumped about Charlie Daniels, but very disappointed afterwards because he didn’t live up to my expectations. But he did do a great job on ‘Drinking My Baby Goodbye’, which is one of my all time faves from my childhood days. What a great song to love as a child, huh?!? HA!

Becky and I left Sunday morning and headed to McRae to meet up with the rest of the Bennetts. We enjoyed watching all the kids play. The highlight of the day was teaching Ryan to go to the bathroom outside. I didn’t really want to do it, but he was refusing to potty inside so I finally decided if that would make him go, then all the better! Ryan loved it, of course, so I’m not sure what I’ve got myself into!! I took Ryan on a nap-time drive, which only led to a 30-minute nap, but at least he got a small one. We made a trip to Sonic for Happy Hour and made a trip to Dollar General to get Kaylynn some tennis shoes so she could learn to ride a bike without training wheels. We were all tuckered out at the end of the day … well, all of us except Ryan who didn’t want to go to sleep ! Becky said she has never seen anyone fight sleep like he does and I second that!!

Monday was another day of watching kids play.

Kaylynn mastered riding her bike without training wheels and we were all so excited for her! The Bennett men loaded up all their treasures from their Grandpa’s house, we had a delicious lunch from KFC (which I haven’t had in forever!!), and headed back home with our vehicles much fuller than they were on the ride down. We made a pit-stop in Ozark and Ryan decided he wanted a green apple instead of snack food. This is a first, trust me!!

We arrived home a little after 6pm, unpacked the car, and tried to relax a few hours knowing our three-day weekend was over.

Trip to Alana’s & Mother’s Day

2011-05-11T21:59:00.000-05:00

We had a very busy and fun weekend. We started it off by going to my cousin Alana’s house for the weekend. She had a house full with me, Micah, Ryan, Eric, Jessica, Rowan, Shandy, and Chris. Friday night she had a fire going in her fire pit and we all sat around visiting. Ryan loved the fire and enjoyed throwing stick after stick into the pit. He was a night owl, as always, and didn’t get to sleep till almost 11:30pm!

Saturday morning, we woke up bright and early. Alana cooked a delicious breakfast. The thing I love most about Alana’s house is her front porch swing! It’s just so peaceful to sit on it, rock, visit with the family, and listen to the birds chirp! We hung around the house all morning and ordered yummy Chinese take-out for lunch. That afternoon we went on a hike at Wildcat Glades. Ryan was without a nap, so we had to carry him the whole hike. I promised myself after we were done that I would not take Ryan on another hike unless he had taken a nap beforehand. I’m sure I won’t live up to that promise, but I’d like to think I would! Thankfully, Micah was there and carried him most of the time. That 32 lb kid is too heavy for me to carry very far!

He and Rowan loved throwing rocks in the water and making big splashes.

Ryan conked out as soon as we got in the car, so he missed getting to see Grand Falls.

Grand Falls is Missouri’s largest natural, continually flowing waterfall and is absolutely gorgeous! Trust me … This picture does NOT do it justice!

Alana bought a grill Saturday night so we had hamburgers, potato salad, and baked beans for dinner. Micah was nice enough to grill jalapenos stuffed with cream cheese and wrapped in bacon. They were awesome! Poor Micah didn’t use gloves while seeding the jalapenos, so his eyes and hands paid for it for about 24 hours afterwards. I think he learned his lesson and will wear gloves next time. After dinner all of us except Rowan and Jessica made the trek to see the Spooklight. It is a mysterious light that appears on a dirt road near the Missouri/Oklahoma border, but disappears as you get closer to it. We saw it as soon as we pulled up and watched it for quite a while. It is very intriguing. Ryan even got to see the light!

Sunday morning we had another great breakfast and again hung out visiting. Ryan ate tons of honeydew melon and cantaloupe! We left around noon so that we could meet Micah’s family for Mother’s Day dinner. My Mom, David, and Terri also came with us. We ate at Joe’s in Springdale. I decided that they have the best bread that I’ve ever had!! YUM! We had a great time visiting with everyone. Ryan was hyper to the max and had such a good time playing with Austin, Kaylynn, and Ethan.

Ryan gave his Granny’s their Mother’s Day presents. He painted canvases for each of them. I forgot to take a picture of the finished product, but here are some of him painting them. He had a blast with the paint and they turned out super cute.

I haven’t received my Mother’s Day present yet, but am going to get hanging plants for our front porch! YEAH!

I had a great Mother’s Day and enjoyed spending every minute of it with Ryan. I enjoyed seeing my Mom and my mother-in-law also. I honestly have the best family a girl could ask for and am so appreciative of both of my mothers! Thanks for all you do for me!

Ryan – 29 Months Old

2011-05-11T21:27:00.000-05:00

We’ve been busy the past week, so I’m just finding time to post Ryan’s 29 Month update. Here’s what Ryan’s been up to this past month.

- Ryan’s vocabulary has absolutely exploded this past month. He talks non-stop and is using 2 and 3 words together now. He repeats almost everything you ask him to. It is truly amazing at how quickly he picked it up after he got started.

- When Ryan tells us he doesn’t like something he says ‘like’ while shaking his head no!

- We have to look for ‘back hoes’ (with a long pause in between and long drawn out hoes), ‘big hucks’ (big trucks), water, buses, birdies, and ‘hains’ (trains) every time we get in the car. And if I forget to go by the train tracks after leaving daycare, he lets me have it!!

- I’m very impressed that he can say bicycle, tricycle, and motorcycle correctly and get all the syllables in there on each!

- Thankfully his allergies have gone away after all the rain we got. I have started giving him Claritin every morning because he has been very stopped up the fast few weeks, but am so thankful that his eyes are back to normal.

- Has started apologizing by saying ‘sowwy mommy’ when he knows he did something wrong or has hurt someone.

- Tells Mrs. Shirley ‘see you tomorrow’ (or something close to that!) when he leaves.

- Ryan loves to wear my ‘neckies’!

- Thankfully his routine of getting in the car has been phased out this past month. He can actually get in the car quickly, for the most part, but still wants to get in the ‘otha side’ sometimes. As long as he gets to use the garage door opener to open and close the garage every time we go in/out, he is a happy camper!

- His movie watching has greatly decreased, which I am so happy for. Most nights he doesn’t even want to turn on the TV.

- His favorite thing to do is beat up on Micah. As soon as Micah lays in the floor, Ryan is crawling all over him. He also loves playing with his ‘hars’ (cars) with Micah – I’m not sure which one of them like this more!

- Ryan is still a night owl. It is nearly impossible to get him to bed before 9pm. He gets up through the week anytime between 6:15am and 7pm. On the weekends, he will normally sleep later if we are home and if we’re away from home, he is normally up earlier!

- He talks about ‘Ro-Ro’ (Rowan) all the time. Every time we get in the car he asks if we are going to ‘Ro-Ro’s house’!

- Ryan still loves to help out in the kitchen. Here he is cooking a turkey in his little pan!

- Micah always teases me about being old and started calling me ‘Bobbisox’ for some weird reason one night. For those of you that don’t know, Bobbisox is a club in Fayetteville and from what I hear (I have never been there) lots of older people go there. Micah has now taught Ryan to call me ‘Bobbisox’! Ryan calls me that and starts laughing so hard … and so does Micah! Ryan even says, “Go Bobbisox, Mommy” sometimes! Silly boys!!

- We got some very sad news this past Thursday: Mrs Shirley & Mr. Wyman are retiring at the end of the June. I did my best to hold back my tears when she told me, but when I got in my car I couldn’t help it anymore. I cried all the way home and most of the night. I’m going to miss them so much and I know Ryan will too. They are like a third set of Grandparents to him. Mrs. Shirley said that she and Mr. Wyman say several times a day that they will miss both of the boys so much. They adore Ryan and Ryan adores them back. But I also understand that they have been keeping kids forever and it’s time that they do something for themselves. So I’m in the process of finding a new daycare for Ryan. I’m sure I’ll never find anyone as sweet and loving as them, but I will do my best!

Here’s a picture of Ryan helping his Daddy one evening when I got home. Micah was digging trenches in our yard so that all the water could drain out and Ryan was having a blast splashing in all the puddles with his work boots on!

Ryan is so much fun! He has developed the best personality. He laughs at funny stuff he does. If Micah or I do something and start laughing he almost always says, “Silly Mommy/Daddy!” I really love the stage that Ryan is in now. It can be hard at times, but for the most part he is just a giant ball of energy and does the cutest things. I love that we are able to communicate better since he has started talking. Words can not express the amount of love I have for Ryan and I’m sure it will just continue to grow with time!

Here Ryan is at 29 Months old. In order to get him to take this picture, I had to give him one of his Easter eggs, so he was more interested in the candy in it than he was in taking pictures!

One Year Ago ...

2011-05-03T21:37:00.002-05:00

One year ago today I dropped Ryan off at the babysitter's for the first time as I started my new job. Big tears were shed by both of us.

One year later I drop Ryan off at the babysitter's, he gives me a hug & kiss goodbye, opens the door and says, "Mommy, door, bye."! So thankful i found such a loving couple to care for him during the day. Thank you, Mrs. Shirley & Mr. Wyman!

Tasty Tuesday - Strawberry Delight

2011-05-03T07:00:00.001-05:00

This is a delicious recipe that makes me want summer to get here!!

My mom has made this recipe for years, but I believe this recipe came from my Great Aunt Ruth.

Enjoy!

STRAWBERRY DELIGHT

Ingredients and Directions:

First Layer:

Mix the following 4 ingredients and press into 9 x 13 baking dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

1 cup flour

1/2 cup soft margarine

1 Tablespoon sugar

1/4 cup chopped pecans

Second Layer:

1 cup sugar

1 8-oz package cream cheese (softened)

1 9-oz tub Cool Whip

3 cups sliced strawberries

Cream sugar and cream cheese. Fold in whipped topping. Spread mixture over cooked crust. Top with sliced strawberries.

Third Layer:

1 cup sugar

4 Tablespoons cornstarch

1 1/2 cups water

1 3-oz package strawberry flavored Jello

Combine sugar, cornstarch, and water. Cook over medium heat until thick. Stir in dry Jello mix until blended. Let mixture cool and then spoon it over the strawberries. Refrigerate until set.

Race for the Cure, Water for Elephants, Train Songs, and Sore Throat

2011-05-02T19:51:00.001-05:00

Well, another weekend has come and gone so since we were relatively busy again I thought I’d write a post about it.

Friday evening when I picked Ryan up from daycare he had a small fever. Mrs. Shirley said he hadn’t felt warm the rest of the day and figured it was just because he had been standing in the living room in the window where the sun was shining through watching the squirrels play in the backyard. I had a few items to get from Wal-Mart so we went there and he was super cranky the whole time, so I realized he wasn’t just hot but he had a fever. After getting my items, including some Thomas the Train & Toy Story underwear for Ryan that he will get to start using mid-month, we went home and found out Ryan had about a 100 degree fever. Jessica, Eric, and Rowan spent the night since me, Jessica, and the little ones were doing Race for the Cure early the next morning. Ryan was very clingy all night and actually asked to go to bed, which is a definite first!

We woke up bright and early Saturday morning to go to Rogers for the Race for the Cure. Ryan still had a fever, but I gave him some Tylenol and we hit the road. Becky joined us for the Race. I LOVE doing Race for the Cure and am always amazed at what a great turnout they have. They estimated that there were 16,000 people this year! AMAZING!! We did the 5K and I thought I was going to die! I can walk that much at a slow pace and be fine, but we were walking as fast as we could and even tried running at times, all while pushing a stroller. And there were several hills. I am totally out of shape and that Race definitely proved it. I must start walking more! Becky ended up leaving us a bit into the race and ran most of it. She has been doing the Couch to 5K program and she did really well. Jessica and I finally made it to the finish line and then headed to get all the free stuff. Unfortunately, by the time we made it there a lot of the stuff was already gone but we still came home with quite a few good items. Next year we have decided that the kids are staying at home so we don’t have to maneuver strollers through shoulder-to-shoulder people! Free stuff over kids! HA!!

Ryan with his Aunt Becky

Me & Ryan

Ryan’s asking Rowan, “Do you race much?”!!

After the Race, Jessica dropped Ryan and I off at the house. We had a lazy afternoon. I was actually able to rock Ryan to sleep while singing ‘train songs’, which is what he requested. I don’t know any train songs so I had to make up stories and sing them. They were mighty good, let me tell you! I finally got him to sleep (probably from boredom!) and tried moving him to the couch and he woke up so it didn’t last long. Ryan still wasn’t feeling well and kept saying his mouth hurt so I figured he had a sore throat, but as long as I kept giving him Tylenol he was fine.

I met Becky for dinner at Grub’s Uptown and then we watched ‘Water for Elephants’. We had a great dinner and talked non-stop. ‘Water for Elephants’ was excellent! I finished the book a couple of weeks ago and was glad that the movie was just as good as the book, even though they left out several parts of it.

We took Ryan to the walk-in clinic on Sunday and found out that he did have a sore throat. They did a strep test, but thankfully it was negative. We ate lunch at Mellow Mushroom. Ryan was so good for the entire lunch. He actually sat in his chair the whole time and ate all of his pizza! We came home and had another lazy afternoon and we all were in bed by 9pm!

This morning we woke up to the wonderful news that Osama bin Laden had been killed by the U.S.! Praise the Lord!!

Eggstra Hoppy Easter!

2011-04-26T21:57:00.001-05:00

We had a fabulous Easter weekend, even though it rained almost the entire weekend!

We headed over to Granny & Pa Russell’s house on Friday night after work. Saturday we had almost of all the Russell family and Granny and Pa Bennett together for an Easter celebration. Fred and Shaun smoked chicken and brisket and all the food was extra good. After lunch, Mom watched the radar until we had a break in the rain. They rushed out and hid eggs, while I tried to corral the anxious kids in the house. The older ones were looking out the windows because the little ones got to! I just love this picture that my Aunt Terri took!

Ryan had a blast hunting the eggs and ended up with quite a few.

Afterwards, Aunt Terri had brought a helium tank and balloons for the kids to play with, so we were able to stay outside long enough to enjoy them. Ryan had a balloon tied around his wrist and his cousin Austin and uncle David kept telling him to take it off. I was telling him not to, but of course he didn’t listen to me. His balloon flew up in the sky and poor little Ryan bawled his eyes out. It was so pitiful!

We gave him another balloon and the same thing happened, so the next balloon got tied to his Easter basket!

Ryan enjoyed eating his candy, of course, and was thankful that Pa was willing to help him!

After the Egg Hunt, we went inside and celebrated Ethan’s2nd Birthday. He wasn’t sure what to think about his cake!

Micah and Eric decided to go kayaking afterwards and somehow talked Dustin into going with them. A few minutes after they left, we realized we were under a Thunderstorm Warning and it started lightning like crazy. Mom went down to the first stop they’d go by on the creek and waited until they finally came. Dustin had got swept under a tree and had to get out of his kayak. I think Dustin was very happy to see Mom and I think they were all glad she came because of the lightning. I doubt if Dustin will get in a kayak anytime again anytime soon!

Sunday, we had a relaxing day at Mom and Dad’s while it rained ALL day. The highlight of the day was that Ryan actually took a nap!! It was an Easter miracle for sure! I was able to experience what other Moms feel daily … a little peace and quiet. And it made for such a happier day for everyone!

Before we left, Ryan and Rowan shared some green peas. You would have thought those boys were eating candy! They LOVED them and just kept on going back for more until the jar was completely gone!

We had such a fun weekend, even though it was filled with rain. It ended up raining all day Sunday and all day Monday. This area was flooded in many places on Monday. The University of Arkansas even closed early for the first time ever! I was afraid I might not be able to make it home after work on Monday because when Micah came through, the water was within inches of being over the road. Thankfully, they opened the flood gates on the lake and it went down some before I came home. It looks like we have another day left of these storms and then hopefully will have a nice weekend to look forward to!

Weekend Update

2011-04-18T20:22:00.000-05:00

Here’s a little recap of our weekend.

Micah went kayaking Friday afternoon. I decided that Micah was losing his mind because he went kayaking on the coldest day we’ve had in a while. The wind was blowing like crazy, plus it was rainy. I stopped to get gas on my way home and was freezing my booty off and then I thought of him being in the water! CRAZY! So, it was just me and Mr. Ry-Man at the house Friday night. We had a low key evening that involved playing and watching Toy Story 2 … imagine that?! The highlight of the night was when Ryan pointed to a circle and said, “Circle”! Every once in a while he does something like that and absolutely surprises me. Obviously he pays attention more than I think he does!

Saturday morning we were supposed to meet Eric, Jessica, and Rowan at the Farmer’s Market, but we decided Friday night that we weren’t going because it was so cold and windy. Ryan actually slept in till 8:05am, so after he got up we got ready and headed to Fayetteville. Jessica had to work, so we picked up Eric and Rowan and they hung out with us for the day. I sat in the back seat in between two car seats and Eric chauffeured us around. We went to Academy and I bought some new tennis shoes. I haven’t bought a new pair of tennis shoes since college, except for two pairs of grey New Balances that I don’t really consider tennis shoes! I wanted to get some new ones so that my feet would be comfy for the 5K Race for the Cure (which I will be walking in, not running!) in two weeks.

We also went to Touch-A-Truck in Rogers. It was a benefit for the Junior League of NWA and they had lots of different trucks, boats, motorcycles, construction equipment, etc. for the little ones to get in.

Ryan was most excited about seeing the “Ire Huck” (Fire Truck) before we got there! He loved the fire truck and of course he wanted to push all the buttons in it!

But his favorite thing was the boat. He could’ve played in it forever, but of course we couldn’t do that!

He also loved sitting on the motorcycle and pushing all the buttons. I think he thought he could get it to start up like he does Granny’s four-wheeler!

Ryan had several breakdowns because he wanted to stay on stuff and play too long, but there were lines so he couldn’t. All in all, I think he had a pretty good time.

We came back home and the boys played all afternoon. Micah was kind enough to make shish-kabobs for dinner. Delish!

Ryan slept in till 8:30am on Sunday! Maybe he’s slowly learning how nice it is to sleep in on the weekends! Micah went kayaking again, so Ryan and I had a lazy day at the house. I was actually able to get some reading done while he played, which was nice. I’m reading Water for Elephants and love it so far! I haven’t read a book in a while, and I now know why I don’t read very often … when I read, nothing else around the house gets done!

We had a great weekend and are very excited for Easter this coming weekend!!

Ryan – 2 1/3 Years

2011-04-08T22:21:00.000-05:00

Ryan turned 28 months old on Wednesday.

Here’s what Ryan has been up to the past month:

- He has developed an allergy to pollen in the last week. I feel so sorry for him because his eyes are so red and swollen. Thankfully he is handling it well. Notice how red and swollen his right eye is here. Poor little guy!

- Loves to jump in his bed. He pulls his chair up to the side, stands on the top of it, and propels himself over the rail! He has tremendous arm strength (unlike his Momma!) and can balance on the top of the crib with his arms. I’ve noticed that he’s started doing this while inside the crib now, so hopefully he doesn’t get the bright idea to jump out of the crib. I told Micah a few days ago that we need to think about converting him to a toddler bed soon.

- Loves his “viteys” (vitamins). For the past week he wants them, but wants to save them. He gets two at a time, so he puts one in each hand and will hold them forever before finally eating them!

- Ryan wants to open everything with a knife. One day he wanted to open his own yogurt, so he ran in his bedroom and come out with his plastic saw and tried to use it to open the yogurt!

- Ryan says a lot of words and starting to put more words together, but isn’t talking in sentences yet. I can’t even keep up with all the words he knows now. He can’t say the beginnings of lots of words, so often puts an ‘H’ on them … ‘handy’ is candy, ‘hain’ is train, ‘hanky’ is blankie, and ‘hanny’ is granny! One of my favorite words that he started saying this month is ‘sowwy’ (sorry). So cute!

- Speaking of trains, he is a little obsessed with them! He wants me to drive by the trains every day when I pick him up from daycare. He also thinks that every semi-truck is a train. I tell him, “No, that’s a truck”, but he assures me it’s a train!

- He is big into giving hugs and kisses before bedtime now. I love how he pulls my face in to give me a big kiss on the lips! Precious!! And he will usually give me a hug and then say, ‘otha side’ and hug me on the other side!

- He still likes to rock for a few minutes before bedtime. I always ask him what song he wants me to sing and he always says, ‘Shine’ (You Are My Sunshine) and ‘Star’ (Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star). He can sing parts of both of those songs and I love every minute of it. I really wish I could find a way to get a video camera in there to record it because it is one of the cutest things ever. But, he only does it when we are rocking at night so the video would be totally dark and everyone would hear my horrible singing!! HA!

- When he wants something really bad, he says, “Oh Mommy, Oh Mommy, Oh Mommy”!

- He loves his Aunt Becky! Every time he “talks” on the phone he says it is Becky!

- Ryan opens and closes the garage door with the remote every time we leave. So his process of getting in the car has changed. He now opens ‘mommy’s door’, gets in and opens the garage door, then gets in the ‘otha side’ (driver’s side rear door), crawls across the seat to his car seat and sits down. He is a mess!!

- He is in the super-slow-2-year-old-phase! I used to be able to get him up and out the door in 10 minutes, but we have had to increase it to 20 minutes this past month, and sometimes that is not enough time! It’s a constant battle to get his diaper changed, his clothes changed, and him in his car seat. Hopefully this phase ends soon and he will learn what the word ‘hurry’ means, but I’m not going to get my hopes up!

- Ryan loves to watch videos on the computer and especially loves watching videos of himself and Rowan that I have on Facebook. He sits so still and watches so intensely and laughs and laughs at them! I will admit that they are pretty entertaining! Micah has also got him hooked on watching backhoes on YouTube, which he loves!

- Ryan still LOVES all of the Toy Story movies, but Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3 are his favorites right now.

- He got his hair cut last Saturday and sat in the chair all by himself. What a big boy! Here’s a picture of him a couple of weeks before his hair was cut … it really shows how much hair he had!

- He loves locks and thinks that he has to lock all doors behind him. And now when he has to go #2, he goes in his bedroom and locks the door and doesn’t come out until he’s ready to be changed! Silly boy!

- Ryan loves wrestling with Micah. They’ll both act like they’re taking a nap and then Ryan will get up and jump all over Micah. They are too rough for me, but they absolutely love it!

- Micah has been out of town for the past four weekends, so I’ve had to find things to do to keep us busy and get us out of the house. We met Becky, Kaylynn, and Ethan at Murphy Park one day. We had a picnic, fed the ducks, and played on the playground. Ryan loved feeding the ducks until one of the mean geese grabbed a piece of bread out of his hand! Ryan was so brave on the playground. He climbed up the bars all by himself time and time again. I was scared at first, but after realizing how good he was I tried not to worry about him.

- One Saturday Ryan and I did some shopping in Fayetteville. He did pretty well, so I took him to get ice cream at Chick Fil A. Here he is enjoying this small ice cream. After I got this, one of the employees walked by and told me that they have kid-sized cups. Ryan didn’t even make a dent in this one, so I will definitely get him the kid-sized one next time!

- We spent a Sunday evening at Becky and Shaun’s. Shaun cooked the best brisket EVER and I could not stop eating it! Ryan loved getting to play with Ethan, Kaylynn, and Lily. Here’s a picture of Ryan with Kaylynn and Ethan … you can tell that Ryan just loves having his picture taken! HA!

Here are Ryan’s 28 month old pictures in the infamous chair. Unfortunately his eye was flared up in these pictures, but he’s still the cutest thing ever!

And I’ll leave you with a little cheese!!

Sleep Issues, Haircut, Hikes, and Family

2011-04-07T21:24:00.001-05:00

Micah was working again this past weekend and my aunt Sandra, uncle Everett, cousin Amie and her three boys were down at my parents’ this weekend, so I decided to spend the weekend over there.

After work on Friday, I went home and packed and then left. Ryan wasn’t happy about us having to go home and pack before going over because he was ready to see Rowan. He said, “Ro, Ro, Ro” over and over again. I packed quickly and we headed out. Ryan was hyper and excited to see all the kids. Unfortunately, he was a bit too hyper. I’m not sure if he took an extra long nap at daycare or had tons of sugar or what, but he DID NOT want to go to sleep. I started trying to get him to go down at 9pm and at 11pm he was still as wide awake as before. He wanted to rock, then he wanted to “sweep” (sleep) so we would lay in the bed, and a couple of seconds later he wanted to rock again. It was a vicious cycle and I got very frustrated with him because I knew he would be up at the crack of dawn and not nap the next day. So finally at 11pm, I told him if he didn’t go to sleep that we would just have to go home. He got super excited and said, “home, home” so I packed our suitcase and drove home! He didn’t fall asleep till we got to Huntsville, which is about 15 minutes away … normally when we get in the car he falls asleep within 5 minutes. Thankfully, I was able to carry him into the house without him waking up.

Saturday morning he woke early at 6:20am. We got ready and went to get his haircut. I absolutely LOVE his longer hair, but the back was getting really thick and was starting to resemble a mullet, so I decided it was time for a haircut. I was hoping that they could leave it longer on the top and just trim the back, but that’s not what we got. But it still looks cute! Oh, and Ryan actually sat in the chair all by himself for the first time ... and he did SO good! He started crying when she got the hairdryer out, but after a sucker he was OK. He is just getting so big!

We met the rest of the crew at Hobbs State Park and had a delicious picnic lunch. We ended up going on three hikes and had a great time. Ryan got really tired about halfway through the first one, so I carried him most of the way on all the trails. It was a gorgeous day and it was so nice to be outside.

Here he is with Granny Joy in the tunnel under the highway. Shortly after this, some really loud motorcycles went over and he got very scared!

Taking a break:

Ryan LOVED Benton’s water bottle. Benton was nice enough to let Ryan carry it and Ryan drank all his water. Thankfully, we had more in the car. This water bottle slowed Ryan down on the trail because he wanted to open and close it time and time again and he wasn’t able to walk while doing so!

We went back to Mom and Dad’s for the night and had a delicious dinner and some good visiting! Ryan did much better and was asleep by 10pm.

Ryan and the boys played outside most of the day on Sunday. Within a few minutes of being outside, Ryan’s eyes were super red and swollen. The left eye was swollen a little bit on Saturday, but on Sunday it was the left one that was worse. Mom and I headed to Huntsville to get some Benadryl for him. He looked pitiful and looked like he was in so much pain. We think he has an allergy to pollen, so it may be a long Spring for us.

We left around 4pm and Ryan slept for almost two hours. Yet again, he was exhausted from another weekend of fun!

Tasty Tuesday - Sausage Potato Casserole

2011-03-29T21:41:00.000-05:00

This is one of my favorite recipes ever, but I don't make it often because Micah isn't a huge fan of it because of the potatoes. He doesn't like cooked potatoes in anything ... what a weirdo!! HA!

If my memory serves me correctly, my wonderful Aunt Sandra (aka Mushy) was the one who introduced our family to this recipe ... And am I ever glad she did!! I remember going to her house over the summers and this was one of my favorite meals that she would cook!

SAUSAGE POTATO CASSEROLE

Ingredients:

6 medium potatoes, cooked

1 lb pork sausage

1/2 medium onion, chopped

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1/2 cup sour cream

3/4 cup milk

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon black pepper

Grated cheddar cheese

Directions:

Boil potatoes with jackets on them until done. Peel & slice them 1/4 inch thick.

Place potatoes in 9x13 baking dish.

Brown sausage and onion in pan; Drain.

Add salt, pepper, onion powder, mushroom soup, sour cream, and milk. Mix well.

Heat on low until mixture is bubbly and then pour over potatoes.

Top with grated cheddar cheese to your liking.

Bake in 350 degree oven until cheese melts, approx. 10-15 minutes.

Eat & Enjoy!

Weekend on the Farm

2011-03-20T21:53:00.000-05:00

Micah was out of town this weekend working in Illinois, so Ryan and I spent the weekend at Granny & Pa Russell's house. We got over there on Saturday just in time for Ryan to help Granny Joy make homemade pizza. She let him roll the crust out, which Ryan really enjoyed. Granny made him his own little personal pan sized pizza and wanted him to put the toppings on it, but at that time the stairs and being outside were more appealing to him, so I made his pizza.

Ryan spent the majority of both days outside. I really think that he would move outside if we'd let him! He can always find something to entertain himself with. He loves the dogs, 'Aty' (Katy) and 'Ay' (Clay). He loves feeding the animals, especially Elmo the bull. He could ride the four-wheeler 24/7, if someone would let him! He sat on every piece of equipment that was there and acted like he was driving them all.

A couple of Mom's daffodils ... she literally has hundreds of them. Dustin and I make fun of her because she has them at every fence post around the house! But, I must agree they are beautiful!

Ryan watching Elmo the Bull eat.

Ryan feeding Elmo. He will even let Elmo eat right out of his hand!

A farm boy's work is never done ...

Hopping up on Dustin's rock crawler, which he loves! He even threw everything in the passenger seat in the floorboard so that I could set up there with him. I wasn't too happy about it, considering that there were leaves and dirt covering the seat, but I sat on the very edge to make him happy so that he could 'drive' me!

Checking out the bulldozer ...

Ryan was so tuckered out! I gave him a roll before we left and he was eating it as fast as he could. I could tell he was getting sleepy and then next thing I knew, he was out of it ... and he had half of his roll sticking out of his mouth! I pulled over, took a picture (of course), and pulled this piece out of his mouth. I could tell he still had some of it inside his mouth and tried to get him to open it, but had no luck. Ryan slept the entire way home, woke up as we pulled into the garage, and finished chewing his roll! Nothing like saving it for later!!

I brought him in the house and held him because he was very cranky. I laid him down on the couch to talk to Micah and he actually fell asleep again! This shows how tired he was, because he would normally NEVER do that! He ended up sleeping for almost two hours before I woke him up.

Life on the farm is exhausting!

We had a great weekend and can't wait to do it again!

Tasty Tuesday – Green Fire Chicken

2011-03-15T06:58:00.002-05:00

In honor of St. Patrick’s day being this week, I thought I’d post a “Green” recipe. This is a recipe that my Mom got from a friend a while back and it has become my favorite chicken! When you read the ingredients, you will probably think it sounds disgusting, but give it a try … you won’t be disappointed!

GREEN FIRE CHICKEN

Ingredients:

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1/2 cup mayonnaise

3 tablespoons Green Tabasco sauce (I usually add more than this because it’s what gives it the good flavor!)

1/2 cup bread crumbs

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

Mix together mayonnaise and Tabasco sauce in one bowl.

In another bowl, mix together bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese.

Cut chicken breasts in half so they will cook faster.

Dip uncooked chicken breasts in the mayonnaise/Tabasco sauce mixture then roll in the bread crumb/Parmesan cheese mixture.

Place in baking dish in a single layer and bake uncovered at 375 degrees until done. This will take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour, depending on the thickness of the chicken.

Enjoy!

Tasty Tuesday - Lasagna

2011-03-08T07:00:00.002-06:00

This is one of my favorite things to fix and something that Micah wants me to fix a lot. It's really easy and it's so much better than the frozen Stouffer's kind ... trust me! Pair this with a salad and you have yourself a delicious meal!

LASAGNA

Ingredients:

1 lb pork sausage

1 large chopped onion

2 tsp. minced garlic

1 orange bell pepper (optional)

1 26 oz jar of spaghetti sauce

1 can diced tomatoes (optional)

6 dried lasagna noodles

1 beaten egg

1 15-ounce container ricotta cheese

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

Shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions:

Cook sausage, garlic, onion, and orange bell pepper (optional) in a large saucepan until meat is brown. Drain.

Stir in spaghetti sauce and tomatoes (optional).

Meanwhile, cook noodles 10 to 12 minutes. Drain noodles and rinse with cold water.

Combine egg, ricotta, and Parmesan cheese in a separate bowl. Set aside.

Spread about 1/2 cup of the sauce over the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish. Layer half of the noodles over the bottom of the dish. Spread with half of the filling. Top with half of the remaining sauce and half of the mozzarella cheese. Repeat layers.

Place in a 375 degree oven for 30 minutes or until cheese is bubbly.

Ryan – 2 Years, 3 Months

2011-03-07T21:24:00.001-06:00

Ryan turned 2 years and 3 months old on Sunday. He weighs 30 lbs and is 36 inches tall.

Here’s what Ryan has been up to over the past month:

- He has gone pee-pee in the potty a couple of times, but really has no interest in the potty. I think the two times he has gone were because of bribes of M&M’s or ice cream! I will ask him if he wants to go to the potty and he normally screams, “Nooooo!”, so I just don’t think he’s ready yet. And when he did go, he went to the potty that he carried into the laundry room … he is so funny!

- His vocabulary is increasing. He is starting to put two or three words together now. He still puts Y’s on the end of a lot of words … my favorite one is soupy! He actually said Becky the other day and it was super plain! I’m sure I’ve mentioned before in earlier posts, but here’s how he says some names in our family: Austin = Ah; Kaylnn = Ay; Valerie = Val; Rowan = Ro; Granny = Anny; Shandy = Anny. Ryan also says, “Wow!” and “Whoa!” a lot!

- He has been such a hugger this past month. Mrs. Shirley says she gets multiple hugs a day from him. Also, he has started kissing us on the lips which Micah is not a fan of. Micah loves kisses, but not on the lips! I, however, think they are precious!

- Ryan is very shy when he gets around new people. His new thing that he does is stick his fingers in his mouth when someone tries to talk to him, like he is doing in the picture below:

- Loves to butter his own toast …

- Ryan is VERY independent (except for when he plays). He wants to do everything by himself. He has found that he can move his chair or the stool to get to whatever he needs. He now climbs up in the barstools by himself, turns on/off the lights, opens the garage door, etc. And if you don’t let him do something that he wants to, he will let you have it! He has also started washing his own hands this month. He pulls his chair up to the sink and can usually turn the water on by himself. The only thing he can’t do is get the soap … thankfully! He is also big into brushing his teeth by himself (of course, he doesn’t want any help with that either!).

- Ryan can identify the letters A, B, and C and thinks every other letter is a B!

- He is obsessed with all the Toy Story movies and Lion King. He watches other things occasionally, but these are by far his favorites for now. He can take the DVD out of the case, open the DVD player and put it in, and press play. He has started getting in trouble for handling the DVD’s, though, because he always throws them on the ground and they are getting scratched, so this past weekend we informed him that Mommy or Daddy have to handle the DVD’s. Ryan wants a movie on all the time, but never watches it all the way through. But if he hears the TV on something else, he throws a fit.

- I’m happy about him watching TV for one reason … it is the only way I can get him to take a nap at home! I hold him on the couch while he watches TV and he will sometimes fall asleep, depending on how sleepy he is.

- Ryan has started wanting to play in the car all the time again. One day we sat in there for over 30 minutes while he played. It was then that I realized he can put the key in the ignition and turn it so that the radio comes on … so, I no longer leave the keys in the car and always put the park brake on before he plays in there. He has locked himself in the car several times, so I’m working on teaching him how to unlock the door when he is stuck in there but haven’t had any luck with this so far. One day this past week, he locked himself in and spilled hand sanitizer all over himself and the car … and we think he drank some of it, too! We panicked, but after some internet research we realized that he would have to drink a lot of it to do any harm!

- Speaking of my car and his independence, he now wants to open my door for me every time I get in the car. He runs in the garage and says, “Mommy” and opens the door for me. So sweet! Then he wants to get in the “otha side”, which means he wants to get in the back driver’s side door of the car and crawl over to his car seat on the passenger side of the car. He has been getting in the car seat this way for at least two weeks now!

- We spent a whole weekend at Mom and Dad’s for Mom’s birthday celebration. Ryan had a great time playing with Valerie and Rowan and got lots of outside playtime in. He was so tired one night that he fell asleep at 6:30pm and unfortunately woke up at 3:00am and refused to go back to sleep!

- Ryan spent two nights with Granny & Pa Bennett this month. As always, he had a blast over there! He has so much fun playing with Austin. They run and jump and tickle each other all day! Austin gave Ryan his old bike while he was over there. Ryan can get on it, but can’t quite figure out how to work the pedals.

- This past weekend, I went to a Little Big Town/Sugarland concert with Becky, so Micah kept him for the first time overnight. Micah says he has kept him before, but I honestly don’t think he has … but I could be wrong! They had a great time and I think Ryan is slowly turning into a Daddy’s boy ... I have a feeling that by this summer he will want to do everything that Daddy does! They watched movies at home, ate at Backyard Burger, went to Academy Sports and got a soccer ball, went to visit Shaun and Ethan, and then ate again with Granny & Pa Bennett. He loved his soccer ball and even wanted to sleep with it Saturday night, so Micah let him! On Sunday they set up the race track to ramp cars in the bathtub and had a blast! When I got home, there were cars everywhere and pillows in the bathtub. Silly boys! Ryan was so sweet when I came in the house and gave me hug after hug!

Here are Ryan’s monthly pictures in the chair. I can’t believe how much my little man is growing … it makes me sad! He is a ball of energy and so much fun!

Tasty Tuesday – The Best Roast EVER!

2011-03-01T07:00:00.000-06:00

Today I’m going to share with you what I believe to be the recipe for the best roast EVER! I found this recipe on one of the blogs I read and thought it sounded tasty, so I fixed it and Micah and I both loved it! So without further ado here is the recipe:

THE BEST ROAST EVER

Ingredients:

Chuck pot roast

1 packet of Hidden Valley Ranch mix

1 packed of Au Jus Gravy mix

1 stick of butter

Pepperoncini peppers

Directions:

Put chuck pot roast in the Crockpot.

Sprinkle one packet of Hidden Valley Ranch mix and one packet of McCormick Au Jus Gravy mix on the roast.

Place one stick of butter on top of the roast.

Put the pepperoncini peppers on top of the roast. The recipe calls for 4 or 5, but I normally put a lot more than that on mine.

Do NOT add any water to the roast.

Cook on low for at least 8 hours.

Mmmmm, Mmmmm Good!!

Tasty Tuesday – Taco Soup

2011-02-22T06:58:00.000-06:00

I have decided that I’m going to start posting some of my favorite recipes on my blog. I’m mainly doing this so I will eventually have one spot I can go to to find something I want to cook, but I’m also doing it to share them with my family and friends.

I'm going to start off with a taco soup recipe ... I combined a couple of different taco soup recipes to come up with what I believe to be the perfect taco soup! Enjoy!

TACO SOUP

Ingredients:

1 to 1.5 lbs ground beef

1 onion

1 can black beans

1 can pinto beans

1 can whole kernel corn

1 can hominy

1 can Rotel

1 can diced tomatoes

1 8 oz can tomato sauce

1 package taco seasoning

1 package Hidden Valley Ranch dressing mix

Water to taste

Minced garlic to taste

Directions:

Cook ground beef with diced onions and garlic until meat is brown.

Add all other ingredients. Do NOT drain the liquid from any of the canned goods.

Add water to your liking to make more or less soupy.

Simmer for 30-40 minutes over low heat.

Serve with corn chips or crackers and grated cheddar cheese.

Record-Breaking Snow

2011-02-10T16:25:00.001-06:00

We knew for quite a few days that we would be hit with another snowstorm on Wednesday, but didn’t know the extent of it. Some stations were saying between 2-4”, while others were saying between 4-7”, but none of them even came close to the amount we really got, which was over 20” in some parts of Washington, Benton, and Madison County. In Goshen, we ended up with 16-17”, which is still a lot. I got a text early Wednesday morning that work was closed, but Micah thought he would go ahead and go in … that is, until he walked outside and the snow went over his military boots! We woke up to a Winter Wonderland and it still looks like one out today and probably will for several more days.

We all bundled up and ventured out in the snow yesterday afternoon.

It’s definitely the most snow I remember getting ever and from what everyone is saying, it’s one of the biggest snowfalls on history. I had a blast running through the snow and acting like a kid. I ran several times with Ryan and he thought it was so much fun … I loved hearing him giggle! I even jumped face first into it … let’s just say it was a little (or maybe a lot) chilly! Ryan wasn’t a huge fan of it and definitely didn't’ want to walk in it. I don’t really blame him since it would have gone to his waist in spots! Ryan did enjoy the opportunity to be outside, though, and didn’t want to come back in the house. Micah shoveled a pathway from the garage to the highway, so that he could get his car out better this morning. Thankfully, my work was closed again today but Micah trekked in to work in the Forester. Thank goodness for an AWD vehicle! Last night, there were record breaking low temperatures. Our thermometer said –7 degrees when Micah got up at 6:30am, but from what I understand it was much colder than that. Fayetteville got down to –18 degrees and one city in NW Arkansas got down to –23 degrees! WOW!

Here are some pictures of the snow:

Micah’s Geo Metro is somewhere under that snow!

Our Front Yard:

Measuring the snow with Micah’s homemade ruler!

This just makes me want to get a book and take a nap … Doesn’t it you?!?

I love this picture of my two favorite boys!

The snow was fun and beautiful, I enjoyed watching the birds eat the birdseed off our back porch, and enjoyed two days home from work with Ryan (and Micah for one day), but I am definitely ready for Spring now! This coming week, we will see highs in the lower 60’s … and I CAN’T wait!!!

Ryan – 2 Years, 2 Months

2011-02-06T15:31:00.002-06:00

Ryan turned 26 months old today. He weighs 30.5 lbs and is approx. 36 inches tall.

Over the past month, his last two two-year molars have come in, so he now has a full set of baby teeth.

What has Ryan been up to this past month?

- His vocabulary is expanding every day. He calls water ‘wattey’, he loves to ‘hel’ (help), and he loves to ‘tir’ (stir). He also wants to ‘see’ everything (and he actually says that word correctly!) and loves to 'dumpy' (jump). I’m very ready for him to start saying his “p’s”, so that ‘hel’ becomes helP! HA! He also adds a ‘y’ on to lots of words, i.e. dip is ‘dippy’, jump is 'dumpy'. He also is a big fan of saying, "No way!"

- Ryan can now say ‘Mommy’, instead of calling me ‘Mahi’ like he was last month!

- Naps are still non-existent during the weekends or anytime when we are at home. He will normally take one if we go for a drive, but the other day even that didn’t work.

- Ryan thinks every letter is a ‘B’ … not sure where this came from, but I will say, “No, it’s a ‘W’” and he says, “No, ‘B’”, so I eventually just give up!

- If we want him to do something that he really doesn’t want to do, we can usually say, “You better not …” and he does it immediately. I’m sure this won’t last too long, but it is nice for now!

- Ryan loves to run off when I’m getting ready to change his diaper or put him in the bathtub. He takes off as fast as he can and laughs the whole way. He normally makes his way to the couch or gets trapped in the corner of the kitchen and I scoop him up. He can do this over and over and never gets tired of it.

- He is finally able to do “Rowan’s trick”. Rowan puts his head down on the floor while standing up and then puts his arms up in the air with his wrists flipped. Ryan can now do it, but is still not near as good as Rowan.

- He is starting to get way too addicted to watching his DVD’s. He thinks that he owns the TV now and should be able to watch his movies over and over again. And most of the time, he doesn’t even watch the movies when he has them on, but if we try to turn them off he gets very upset. I think he just likes the background noise.

- I’ve started letting him watch Elmo and other videos on YouTube. His latest favorite, much to our dismay, is Barney or as he says, ‘Bonnie’.

- He still loves helping in the kitchen and thinks that he should help with EVERYTHING that I do. It’s getting to the point that he makes it much more difficult to do anything, but I still think it’s super sweet that he wants to help. He wants to pour everything in and wants to get his own spoon or spatula to help stir everything. I just hope that when he grows up and can really cook, that he wants to!

- Ryan still loves his toy vacuum and wants to vacuum with it when I vacuum the rugs. He also begs me to vacuum a lot, which is good.

- Mrs. Shirley got him a Woody doll from Toy Story for Christmas. He always sleeps with Woody by his side. Cute!

- He loves wrestling with Micah and the rougher he gets, the funnier he thinks it is.

- Loves to dance! His favorite move is to turn around in circles. He loves playing with his Leap Frog Car Wash Magnet and always wants Micah to dance/jump around with him.

- Mrs. Shirley has been trying to get Ryan to use the potty, but hasn’t had much luck yet. One time she said he peed just a few drops, but that’s been it so far. She also said that last week he sat on the potty for 15 minutes but didn’t do a thing. When I ask Ryan if he wants to pee-pee in the potty, he normally screams, “Noooooo!!!”, so I think it may be a while before he is potty trained, but that is OK with me. I will let him go at his own pace because I’m really in no hurry.

- Ryan is a big eater at Mrs. Shirley’s, but doesn’t eat well at home. The other day I picked him up early because of the snow and he was just finishing his second WHOLE grilled cheese sandwich. I fixed him a grilled cheese sandwich at home yesterday and he ate about three very small bites and was done. Maybe Mrs. Shirley is just a better cook than I am!

Here’s what we’ve been up to this past month:

- We’ve had a pretty uneventful last few weeks, mostly thanks to snow. January and early February have been filled with snow, for the most part. We got several inches a couple weeks ago and then have been hit with 4 inches last Tuesday and another 3 inches or so yesterday. We’ve had record-breaking low temperatures and another big snow is supposed to hit next week. Ryan and I went out in it the first time it snowed, but he wasn’t a huge fan of it. He took off his gloves the first time we went out, so we had to come back in and he cried for over 5 minutes about having to put them back on. We finally got back out in the snow and Ryan didn’t like the snow on his boots.

- We did have one very warm Saturday where it was actually 71 degrees out. Ryan and I played outside a lot that day and he even vacuumed the grass!

- Eric, Jessica, and Rowan spent 3 nights with us in mid-January. Ryan and Rowan had a great time playing. Jessica and I took Rowan and Ryan to the mall and let them ride the motorized car rides for the first time … neither one of them were huge fans.

We rented strollers and Ryan was so tired that he fell asleep and his poor little head was banging against the bar of it. It was so sad!

Then we ventured off to Ozark Natural Foods and thought it would be a good idea to let Rowan and Ryan push their own little shopping carts. Let’s just say that it probably won’t happen again for a while! The boys were out of control. Ryan wouldn’t look where he was going and would run into people. He wanted to take everything off of the shelf and put in his cart. Rowan would just walk off and leave his cart in the middle of the aisle, so Jessica ended up pushing it most of the time, which was quite the funny sight!

- We went to a Razorback Hockey game last night. Ryan did really well, despite not having a nap. He watched this little boy that was below us the entire game, but would never go down to play with him. Finally with about 10 minutes left in the game, the little boy came up to see him and they had a blast. They laughed, ran, jumped, fell down, acted silly, and hugged each other. They were definitely two peas in a pod!

Here are Ryan’s 26 Month pictures in the infamous chair:

He was super cooperative today, so he was smiling in every picture I took. Miracles do happen! And I even got a good cheesin’ one!

Ryan-isms

2011-01-26T21:38:00.004-06:00

Ryan has really started saying lots of new words in the past couple of weeks. Here are a few of the cuter ones:

“Si-e daddy” = Silly daddy

Yes, I taught him this one!! He puts a big space in between the “si-e” and the daddy and always gets a huge smile on his face. Micah tries to get him to say “Silly Mommy” but he won’t do it !!

“Yuppy” = Kippy

Kippy (Kiptyn) is Sarah and DJ's little boy who goes to Ms. Shirley’s with Ryan. Ryan just started calling him “Yuppy” yesterday. Ms. Shirley said that he kept saying, “Yuppy, go away!” so we’re going to have to work on Ryan being a little nicer!

“So-ee” = Shirley

Ms. Shirley told me today that he started saying “So-ee” for her name. The only reason she knew what he was saying was because she had a nephew that used to call her the same thing.

“Wy” = Wyman

Ryan always has to give Mr. Wyman a hug before he leaves daycare each day. He always says, “Wy” and looks around until he finds him.

“Soun” = Sound

Last night he kept saying “Soun, Soun” and I couldn’t figure out what he was saying. I said ‘sound?’ and he should his head yes and pointed to his Leap Frog Letter Factory DVD. He wanted to learn his sounds!

Show Us Your Life – Single Girls

2011-01-18T21:55:00.001-06:00

It’s Show Us Your Life Friday on Kelly’s Korner and today’s post is on Single Guys or Girls. Kelly did one of these posts a few months ago and afterwards I thought it would be fun to put my sweet cousin Alana on here, but it was too late. Well, wouldn’t you know she decided to do another one, so now is my opportunity! I contacted Alana about this before doing it and she approved of it, so here it goes.

First, here is a picture of Alana …

And one of Alana with her cousin Shandy.

The FACTS about Alana:

1) She is 25 years old.

2) She lives in Southwest Missouri, where she is a 1st Grade Teacher and is working on her Master’s Degree, but she spends a lot of her free time in Northwest Arkansas with her extended family.

3) She loves to cook and is probably the best cook I know, besides my mother! And you know, the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach :-) And she’s the best hostess ever and always wants to cook for people.

4) She loves her family. She comes from a family of 3 girls and 2 boys and she is the second to youngest.

5) She has 7 nieces and nephews (all of them are 6 or younger) and LOVES spending time with them and is adored by all of them! She even wants to keep them all this summer at her house for a few days!

6) She is fun-spirited and is always up for anything.

7) She has an awesome personality, great smile, and the most contagious laugh you’ll ever hear … you just can’t help but laugh when she does!

8) Her hobbies include hanging out with friends, music, traveling, and drinking coffee. She also loves to dance and has even been known to say, “I can do anything when I’m dancing!”

9) She is beautiful inside and out and is going to make some lucky guy a great catch!

So guys, if you’re interested in a cute, sweet, family-oriented girl, leave a comment with your e-mail address and I will pass it on to Alana!

Thanks for looking!

Dough Bellies

2011-01-18T19:19:00.001-06:00

Ryan loves helping his Granny Joy cook … and so does Rowan! They both love sitting on the counter and watching everything that goes on. Ryan usually hates getting his hands dirty and hates it when anything gets on his clothes, but as you can tell from these pictures, he quickly got over it … probably because he was eating dumpling dough by the handfuls! I love that Ryan and Rowan get to spend so much time together and hope they are always great friends!

Brush, Brush, Brush Your Teeth

2011-01-17T21:48:00.001-06:00

Ryan has started wanting to brush his teeth while sitting in his high chair. He doesn’t even sit in his high chair to eat and hasn’t for months! But we have yet to move the high chair out of the house so it sits by the bathroom door. Here are some pictures from last night.

He was SUPER grouchy because he had fallen asleep in the car and then woke up when we pulled in the garage. He was having a major breakdown because I wasn’t getting his toothbrush fast enough! Poor little guy!

He finally calmed down and started brushing …

But wasn’t happy to see me with the camera again!

Shortly after this last picture, he knocked the tray off of the high chair and you would have thought the world had ended. He cried and cried and cried! I put him in bed where he proceeded to cry for quite a while and then finally went to sleep. Thankfully he woke up this morning and was a happy boy again!

Ryan – 2 Years, 1 Month

2011-01-10T21:21:00.001-06:00

Ryan turned 2 years and 1 month old on Thursday. He weighs 30.5 lbs. I haven’t been able to get him to stand still to get his height, so we’ll have to skip that this month!

- Loves getting his bow and arrow out of Daddy’s gun cabinet to shoot it. And loves shooting his bow! Micah, once again, got Ryan a gift that he loves!

- If he can’t reach something that he wants, he will go to his bedroom and get his little stool and carry it so he can step on it to get what he wants.

- Loves sitting on the counter to watch things going on in the kitchen. Also, has started sitting on our table to eat. I’m not a big fan of this, but he refuses to eat unless he’s sitting on the table so I let him get away with it. Also, I know this will be a short-lived phase so that helps!

- HATES bath time still!! It is complete torture to give him a bath because he screams and cries and tries to get out of the bathtub. I’m ready for this phase to be over!

- Says “Woo, Stinky” when I change his diaper because that’s what I always say to him.

- Speaking of stinky diapers, his new favorite place to make one is standing under our kitchen table. And he doesn’t want anybody to look at him while he’s under there!

- Micah has been picking him up from daycare a lot in the evenings. It’s amazing how much of a better mood he’s in when I get home if Micah picks him up versus me picking him up. Micah says he is already changing over to ‘Team Daddy’, but I refuse to believe it.

- He’s finally going to bed in his crib without crying very much. But he still wants to lay down in our bed before going there, but I’ve stopped letting him do this because he never will be still when he’s in our bed. He will sometimes lay in his bed forever and just talk before going to sleep.

- Thinks that I need scissors or a knife to open everything.

- He is saying a lot more words – so many that I can’t keep up with his vocabulary.

- Runs everywhere he goes!

- Doesn’t want me to leave when I take him to daycare, but when I come to pick him up he runs through the house so that I can’t get him to put his shoes and coat on. Little stinker!

- Has started calling me ‘Mahi’ (Mommy). I LOVE how cute it is. He says it over and over and over, especially when he doesn’t want me to leave. Precious!

- I think that he has started saying, ‘Why?’ already. I’m not 100% sure that’s what he is saying, but it sure sounds like it. I thought that word wasn’t supposed to start for a bit longer. I dread the days of ‘why’ already!

- Likes wearing my necklaces around the house!

Here’s what Ryan has been up to this month:

- Went to Bella’s birthday party at Boingo Bounce. Ryan had a blast jumping and going down the slides. He also enjoyed playing in the house with Bella.

- The whole family got sick this month, starting with Ryan. He had a bad stomach virus and threw up about 6 or 8 times in one night. I have never changed pajamas so much or did so much laundry. Thankfully he got over it quickly and Micah and I only had it for a day, also.

- Had a busy Christmas (see prior post)

- Went bowling with Shandy, Chris, Dustin, Chelsea, and Valerie. Ryan loved it, but got very upset that he couldn’t bowl all the time. He threw a major fit (embarrassing!) and cried most of the time we were at the bowling alley. He wanted to either be bowling or wanted to stand at the ball return and play with the balls the entire time!

- Went to Eric and Jessica’s for New Year. Ryan had so much fun playing with Rowan and Cecelia. Micah had to work in Pine Bluff over the New Year’s weekend, so it was just Ryan and I. Ryan spent the night with Granny Joy on New Year’s Eve so that I could sleep in late. Ryan loved Jessica and Eric’s fireplace … he jumped off of it over and over and over again!

Does it get any cuter than this?!

Here are my sweet little boy’s 25 month pictures (and once again, I didn’t take them on the 6th … I’m slacking!) But the good thing is that I actually got Ryan to cooperate with me for once. I asked him if he wanted to sit in the chair and have his picture taken and he ran right in there. I told him I’d give him a treat if he let me, but after he was done he started playing with his toys and didn’t even think about it. I treasure moments when I can get a picture of him without him trying to jump out of the chair!

Christmas

2011-01-07T20:31:00.001-06:00

This post is very late, but better late than never!

We had a great Christmas, but the weekend went by way too fast, as always!

Ryan let us sleep in till almost 8am on Christmas, so that was nice! He finally woke up and we brought him out to the tree, where his Talking Chuck was waiting for him. I think it kind of scared him a little bit at first because it kept talking, but he finally got used to it.

Then we let Ryan open the rest of his gifts. It took forever because he would open one and want to play with it for a while before he was ready to open another. He got a bug vacuum (probably his favorite gift of all!), a Thomas the Train flashlight, Elmo slippers, clothes, cars, a dump truck, tractor, tools, and much more. We had a blast watching how excited he got over each gift. Here are some pictures from Christmas morning … of course, I couldn’t get him to look at the camera for any pictures except one of his silly little smile, which I love!

After opening gifts, Micah cooked us waffles for breakfast and then we headed over to Shaun and Becky’s for the annual Bennett Christmas Bash!

I had to take a picture of our White Christmas before leaving the house! HA!!!

Ryan loves playing with his cousins and was on the go non-stop the entire time we were over there. We had a delicious Christmas lunch – I even made fancy green bean bundles! Then we opened gifts with the Bennetts. Ryan got money to go towards his play set that Micah is going to build him later this year. He also got some clothes, a bus, and some blocks. I put Micah is charge of taking pictures, but he had the camera on a weird setting so none of them turned out :-(

We headed home and packed to go to my parent’s house for the night. We had Christmas with the Russells on Sunday. Ryan once again had a blast opening his gifts. He got clothes, shoes, books, cars, and more!

We had a wonderful Christmas! When we got home, I had to clean toys out of Ryan’s room to make room for his new ones, but they should keep him entertained for quite some time!

A Rooter and a Tooter!

2010-12-23T21:20:00.001-06:00

This week when I tell Ryan it’s time to go to bed, he points at Mommy & Daddy’s bed and says, “Beh” (Bed) because he wants to sleep in our bed. I love cuddling with him, so there have been a couple of nights this week that I’ve let him lay down with me in our bed. He gets so excited as we head in there and can hardly wait to lay down. Then the rootin’ begins! He can’t even think about closing his eyes until his head is right up against mine, or sometimes on mine. His hair is often in my eyes, up my nose, or tickling my face. He roots around with his bootie in the air until he is as comfy as he can be and I’m usually as uncomfortable as I can be. Then he will lay really still and I will think that he is about to go to sleep. On Monday night, he was very still and then all of a sudden he tooted and started laughing. I laughed and then the game began … toot, laugh, toot, laugh, over and over again! Then I told him to lay still or he was going to go to his bed. This is when he started sticking his finger up my nose and again laughing. Needless to say, he went to his bed very quickly after that. I just had to laugh because it is so funny the things he can do to keep himself from sleeping! Tonight, he laid down with me and Micah … there was some rootin’ and a little bit of tootin’, but he was snuggled up between us and snug as a bug and fell asleep fairly quickly. As I type, he and Micah are still sound asleep and cuddling in the bed. Life is good!

Ryan's 2 Year Checkup

2010-12-21T10:17:00.003-06:00

Ryan had his 2 year checkup on Friday the 17th. He weighed in at a whopping 30 lbs 3 oz and was 35 inches long, so he is in the 75th percentile in both height and weight now. The doctor was very impressed with his growth spurt over the past year!

I was finally able to ask the doctor about Ryan’s tongue. He said that Ryan is not tongue-tied, but that his frenulum (the piece of skin that attaches the tongue to your mouth) might be longer than most. I asked the doctor about Ryan’s talking and he said it was completely normal for kids (especially boys) his age not to be saying a lot that people other than his parents understand, so that made me feel better. He said that by the time he was 2.5, he bet that his speaking would be tremendously better. I also asked Dr. Davis about Ryan’s soft stools and he said there was no need for concern as long as he isn’t complaining about his stomach hurting and as long as he is growing, which he definitely is!

Ryan received the FluMist and a tetanus booster shot. He did great with both and barely even made a whimper with the shot … such a big boy!

All in all, it was a great report from the doctor and we won’t go back until he is 3 years old!

Russell Family Ugly Christmas Sweaters

2010-12-19T21:26:00.000-06:00

For our Russell Family Christmas this year, we decided to wear Ugly Christmas Sweaters ... well, at least some of us did. Get ready to be jealous!! HA! I seriously can't quit laughing every time I look at these pictures.

Here is cousin Eric, being a dork as usual! He wore a Santa Polo dress, courtesy of me ... and yes, he sported a dress!

Here's Me, Eric, Dustin, Brent, and Alana:

The Three Stooges - I love how Brent is so jolly in this picture!

Eric, Dustin, Brent, and Micah

Dustin, Valerie, and Chelsea - What a cute little family! I love how Dustin always goes all out and even brought a wig to add to his lovely sweater look!

And the winner of the Ugly Sweater Contest is Jessica! Her sweater was homemade by a teacher at Alana's school. They cut a stuffed Santa in half and put it on a sweater and then hung various things from the sweater. I laughed every time Jessica walked by because the sweater was so ridiculously funny! Here's the front of her sweater:

And here's the back:

We had some great sweaters and I can't wait till next year when hopefully more of the family joins in on the fun!