Happy 6 Months To Our Little Man!

Can you believe six months has past by?! It is so crazy to me to think six months ago Ryder wasn't around. Today i'm not quite sure what Derrik and I would do without him. We absolutely love waking up to him every morning and laying in bed with him at night watching him make us laugh before we make him have his bottle to go to sleep. He is really our entertainment around the house. All of you baseball wives just get ready... he'll be our new source of entertainment at the baseball games. He absolutely loves to roll around like crazy now. Changing his diaper has become quite a challenge! He loves to stand up on just about anything, and now loves to grab you by the ears and try to eat your face. It is pretty hysterical. He eats anything you put in his mouth. Today we even let him suck on a pickle for a second and it didn't even phase him. Not even a single funny look on his face. Ryder also drools like crazy!! It makes me crazy because I like a nice clean baby, but there is really nothing I can do about it. His new favorite toy is his wipes bag. He steals it from me while i'm trying to change his diaper, and it is pretty hard to get enough wipes to get him clean without a screaming match. God forbid you take a toy away from him that he is not done with.... he will let you know he wants it back.. NOW! Gosh what else... I could ramble on forever! He is eating solids twice a day now. We attempted three, but I still don't think he is ready for it. We'll move up to that later. Ryder loves to talk to himself in the car. He is still a pretty content baby. Lay him on the ground with a toy and he'll roll around with it for quite a while. He still can put himself to sleep. We will put him down totally wound up some nights and he just crashes on his own. Sleeping through the night is still a rough spot for us. With all the moving around though I can't complain. He very rarely gets out of his crib, but he likes to know we're still around and goes back to sleep. His actual size hasn't changed much this month... Thank God! I can't keep up with buying him new clothes. He looks so cute is all his short sleeve and short outfits. We're still working on his tan though. He looks like a ghost! We are beyond excited to spend his seventh month up at spring training. We head up to Sarasota in a just a few days... hopefully it's a great season coming up!

Ryder's 1st Play Date

Today we had Ryder's first play date with some of his friends over at our house. I had over three friends and their babies: Mady (almost 9 months), Dakota (7 months), Sophia (6 1/2 months), and Ryder (6 months next week). It was a great time to get together and let them play. There were lots of cute little smiles and some tears. Were got some great pictures of their day. Enjoy!

Nicole and Dakota

Danielle and Mady

Amanda and Sophia

Trying to get a pictures of the babies.... You pick your favorite!

Sophia giving her man a smile

Mady trying to get in on the action

Mady getting a little frisky with Dakota.... Dakota makin' his Daddy proud!
Best Buds
Ryder's Pretty Girlfriends

Sophia
Mady

Hangin' with Kaitlyn and Baby Emily's 3rd Birthday Party

Today Kaitlyn came and picked Ryder and I for the day. First we went to baby Emily's 3rd birthday party. It was a Lakes Park which was gorgeous for the type of day it was. We got to see some friends and hang out for a little bit. Afterwards Ryder got stuck going to the mall with Kaitlyn and I. He slept most of the time which was nice! I was so happy to be back at my own mall :)Derrik spent the day at the dog track with some of the coaches from the baseball team. Enjoy the pictures...

Ryder and Kaitlyn :)

Jen with Ryder
Gotta love that hair!... Baby Jack

Ryder with Big Emily

Jen and Meredith.... Jealous Mom?! Sorry :(

First Baseball Game of the Season

Our first baseball game of the season the past two years has been to support the Estero High School baseball team since they help Derrik out so much getting ready for spring training. Last night we headed out to the game and you would have thought we were back up north. It wasn't nearly as cold as it is up there, but we still had to bundle up. Ryder was great at the game. He seemed really interested the whole time, but I think it was the lights more then the actual game. He loves being outside and looking around. Most importantly he ate his dinner at the game, stayed up the whole time, went to sleep late, and slept in later.... ahh looks like we might be able to get a "baseball scheduled" baby!

Daddy and Ryder watching the game

Mom I love this... can we go to more?!?!

And they finally meet...

Ryder finally got to meet his beautiful girlfriend Sophia today! An old friend and I found out last year that we were both expecting and due about a month apart. Ryder and Sophia we born two and a half weeks apart, and we've been dying to get them together ever since. They are both so adorable together!

The Lutz's in Fort Myers

Well we all made it safe and sound down to Fort Myers. We are pretty much settled at this point and enjoying it so much! Derrik has already golfed twice, and i've already gotten to see quite a few friends. I've found a gym to go to already with my friend Amanda. She has a little girl two weeks older then Ryder, and it's been so nice to catch up in the morning! Derrik has already been throwing with the baseball team he's thrown with the past two years down at Estero High School. Ryder is loving be out and about non stop, but can't stand the heat (and the people here still think it's cold). The little man gets the reddest checks and can't stop sweating. I'm not sure how he's going to survive baseball season!

Ryder got to meet everyone at our office down here. I was so glad they could all finally meet him... especially Dakota! Dakota is the son of Nicole and Kevin Smith who both work for the company. He is six weeks older then Ryder, but Ryder seems to be larger then him in pretty much every aspect. I knew i'd have a big boy before I even had him. Ryder also got to meet one of my best friends, Ashley, yesterday. We went over to her new house and spent a few hours catching up.

It has been so nice getting to see everyone. We still haven't gotten to many of our favorite places we miss, but we plan on that this weekend. We have a date tonight at Chili's... can't wait :)

Well Ryder is up from his nap and we are going to try to have some fruits for the first time this morning. We think he's ready to start eating solid foods more then once a day.

Ryder enjoying as few layers as possible

Ryder and Dakota finally meet
Checking each other out

And so it begins... another baseball season underway!

Hello Everyone,

Sorry for the lack of updates lately. Life has been a little crazy yet dull lately. Lots going on, but nothing of much interest to write about. I guess we could call it the calm before the storm! We moved our office up here in Cape Cod into our downstairs so that took up some time. Derrik's been busy every night with his basketball referring and throwing to get ready for this upcoming season, I have been busy making lists and packing bags to get ready for the crazy next few months we have ahead of us, and Ryder has been busy turning into a crazy little man!

So Derrik is in Pennsylvania now. He left earlier this afternoon to head on his trip down to Florida for Spring Training. We had a last minute change of plans last night when we found out our SUV would not be ready in time for the trip. It is still in the shop from the wreck, and we would of had to wait until at least Monday to have it back. Obviously a bigger car would have been ideal given all the stuff we have (babies might be little, but can't travel light!), but Derrik really wanted to get down to Florida.

For those that don't know our plans over the next month and a half here is the plan... Derrik will hopefully be arriving in Fort Myers sometime Monday. Ryder and I fly into Fort Myers Tuesday, and we will be staying at my parents house until March 1st. We are so excited to be back in the town we still refer to as "home" for a little while. I can't wait to see some old friends, and get to meet a few babies some friends have had in the past year. I also can't wait to show off the little man to everyone :) On March 1st we will make the hour and a half trip up to Sarasota for a month of Spring Training. We have rented a house with two other couples on the team to stay in. It will be so nice to have some other girls around that month since the days can become extremely long with the guys at the field for hours on end getting ready for season. The boys have to report March 5th. We will find out at the end of March where we will be for the rest of the season. We are kind of assuming Derrik will be in AA again this year, but the AA team has signed on with a team in Zebulon, N.C. this year. Of course it would have been too simple to go back to a town that began to feel somewhat "home-like" to us in Chattanooga. We will most likely be renting an apartment either on our own or with another couple on the team, but are still kind of up in the air on what our exact plans are at this point. We have to wait and see were everyone gets assigned for the season.

Another last minute decision we made just this morning was to take our pets with us down to Florida. They were originally staying up in Cape Cod until we got settled during the season, but we didn't want to be without them for so long. After a quick phone call to Uncle Ryan this morning asking if he would mind housing Chloe, Turbo, and Hannah for the month we are in Sarasota (the owners of the house charge a ridiculously high fee to have pets there) we decided to plop them in our already completley packed car! It was okay though because there Daddy was extremely happy to have the company on his long trip.

Leaving this season leaves me with such mixed emotions. One moment I am beyond excited to get back to baseball, and the next moment I am over come with sadness. Baseball is our way of life at this point. I love my afternoons at the pool with the girls, going to baseball games every night, dinners with the girls when the boys are on the road, and getting to travel to parts of the country i'd never get to go to other wise. The best part of it all is getting to see my husband do what he does best, and getting to support him through it all. On the other hand though... There is such instability in it all. I am a huge family girl and being so far away from my family breaks my heart. I love the feeling of home, and leaving all of our stuff behind makes me sad. It is even harder this year to know that we are taking Ryder away from the comfort of home and onto the road for so long. I will miss putting him into his nursery and tucking him in every night in his crib. The pack 'n play just really won't do it for me! I packed up as much as I could of his to be able to make a pretend home for a few months. I am sure he will never know the difference... it's just a mom thing I guess. Luckily we have made some great friends in the past few years in this crazy world we like to call baseball which makes it a little easier.

We will be sure to have tons of updates in the next month or so with the whirl-wind of travel we will be doing. Check in for updates :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Love Always,

Danielle

Ryder saying good-bye to his GiGi the other day

My Little Valentine
Like I said... Crazy Baby!

What happens after the craziness wears off... so precious!

One last family pic up in Cape Cod before Daddy left

Chloe, Turbo, and Hannah (in the travel bag behind Turb) all ready for their road trip south with Daddy

Chloe and Daddy getting ready to head to Spring Training

Soo... apparently my sisters know how to work my parents wayyyy better then Ryan and I did when we were little. When we were little we were lucky to have two pets at one time. My sisters have two yorkies Bella and Buddy, Jake our old man dog, Molly their goldren retreiver, Sammy their cat, and have now talked my parents into two new bunnies. They are adorable, but i'm pretty sure the girls have my parents so far wrapped about their fingers that they have totally lost their minds!!!

Ally and Onyx

Hailey and Thumper (the name keeps changing.. i'll keep you updated)

The Bunnies... Happy Valentine's Day girls!

Some Random Moments of Happiness...

Sorry for the depressing updates lately, but honestly there hasn't been much to cheer up about around here. Luckily there have been a few moments in the last few weeks that we've been able to forget about sickness and put a smile back on our faces.

Ally came home from the hospital late last night without any more answers then we had when she went in. They ran some more tests, and still have some more to be run as an outpatient. The doctors helped Ally out with ways to manage her pain, and we are trying to get life back to normal as much as we can for everyone. Luckily Gram is in town (my grandma that is)! We are sooo thankful she is here because it gives us another set of hands (and patience) to take care of everything.

Yesterday in an attempt to drive Ryder up to the doctors for his cold I slid around a turn in the snow and hit a concrete barrier. Everyone is okay, but the car needs some work. Keep your fingers crossed for us we can get the appraisal from the insurance company and it fixed quick enough for Derrik to be able to head to Florida in a week and a half.

I did finally get Ryder to the doctors today because he has a nasty cough with this cold, and the doctor said to just give it a few more days and it should start to go away. In the mean time he weighed in at 17lb 7oz... the nurse asked me a few times if he was really five months. He is such a big boy!

Hopefully we can get out of this black cloud we're under sometime soon! In the mean time.... enjoy the pictures :)

Ryder with his Uncle Tommy

Ryder with his 2nd cousins J.R. and David
Ryder on his 5 month birthday... he rolled over for the 1st time right before this picture :)

Goofy Man...

Ryder with Daddy at bowling

Hailey and I at the bowling alley

Hailey at the beach... notice the snow on the ground... YUCK!

Ryder at the doctors today for his cold... Looks sick huh?!