All Settled In Our New Home

Wow! What a weekend! Did we really just move for the 6th time this year? Is it really good for anyones marriage to move once in a yet... let alone six times? HAHA! We are fine now, but there were points this weekend they we were not fine with each other. Promise were sitting next to each other now though and love each other very much! Let me see if I can summarize our weekend for you. It's probably not too exciting, but I want you to know how exhausted I feel right now.

Wednesday afternoon I get a call from our landlord asking us if we can be out by Friday for the new renters. We weren't planning on moving until Monday, but after all we had been through to get out of our lease we weren't going to argue.

Thursday... pack pack pack! Then Thursday afternoon Ryder and I took a much needed break and got to go to Page's 2nd birthday party. Page is Tricia's daughter who I met off a mom's website in Phoenix. They have been such a blessing to us out here. It is so nice to have another mom to talk to every once in a while! Ryder had a blast at the party playing with the other kids. I for some reason only snapped one picture while we were there. It is of Ryder pushing a baby stroller with a baby in it... nice huh? Page is the cutie who is cut off on the side of the picture.

We hope you had a great 2nd birthday Page!

Thursday night, after we put Ryder to bed, Derrik and I loaded the cars up with as much stuff as we could.

Friday morning Derrik had to go to the field so I did some stuff I needed to do for work and cleaned the condo. Derrik got home around noon, and we headed for the new place. He unloaded the cars as quick as possible since he had to head to go referree two games.

Our setup for Ryder to try to keep him out of the way

It worked for a little while

Derrik was gone, and I was left with this....

In the midst of putting everything away... This caught my eye...

Our first sunset... well mine... Derrik was still gone refereeing

Around seven (keep in mind this is Ryder normal bedtime) we headed to meet Derrik for a quick dinner at Burger King and to finish up at the condo. We had another two full car loads and had to finish cleaning the place. We got back to our new place around 11:00 and got Ryder a bath. Most nights I would definitely wipe him down and skip the bath, but he was SO dirty was playing in everything from moving. He was in bed around 11:30 and did so great the whole day. We had meltdowns, but for the most part he was a champ! Derrik and I finished putting everythign away because we didn't want to face it in the morning. We wanted to be done! We finished everything, got showered, and were in bed around 1:00 am. It was a long day, but we were so glad we got it all over with.

Ryder's new playroom

Saturday morning we just got use to the new place. In the afternoon Ryder and I had to run to pick up a few things we needed and met up with our old landlord to do a walkthrough of the place and give her the keys. Derrik had to go ref three more games.

We all made it home in time to cook dinner at our new house, and then put Ryder in his stroller and took a walk to the local market to get some ice cream.

We finished our weekend off today with letting Ryder get his first nap in days while Derrik went and did a baseball lesson. Once he was home we went to the grocery store... which was our last thing we needed to do to officially feel settled. We cooked some steaks on the grill and are now watching some tv together :) It was a long tiresome weekend but well worth it!

Ryder coloring a picture

"I loveee our new home!"

Sorry for any typos... too sleepy to proof read!

P.S. - Sorry for the totally random pictures. I'll try to get some of the place sometime soon.

Our New Home

As of Friday, after lots of hard work, we will officially be out of our lease at our current condo and moving into a new home. In case you missed the news flash... our place was robbed over Christmas and we've been working on getting out of it since then.

Our new home we will be renting in located in a beautiful community called Verrado. It looks like it comes straight out of a movie. There are playgrounds, sidewalks, and friendly people everywhere. In the community is a quaint Main Street with a local grocery store, pizza place, coffee shop, bank, CVS, gym, and pool. The community even has their own schools. Most exciting though is that Monday we will be gaining some new neighbors... The Denove's! Yes... we will have friends living .3 miles from us for two whole months!!!

And by the way... I am beyond excited that spring training is starting which means our friends will be heading into town in about two weeks!

Mac 'N Cheese = Afternoon Bath

Mac 'N Cheese has become at "at home only" meal for Ryder. He use to eat it out, and we'd basically feed it to him. Now that he feeds himself 99% of the time we have to leave the messy foods for home. Sundays we let Ryder have Mac 'N Cheese because he can get a bath right after.

"What Mom? You think i'm messy?!"

Squeaky Clean
When we first got home from our Christmas get-away Ryder waived like crazy to this fish... I don't know if he was excited to see it, or if he was just excited his Mommy would stop freaking out every time he moved thinking he was going to cut his head open!

Playing hard

Drowning himself in water is a favorite hobby of his... kinda a weird child :)

Golfing with Daddy

A common afternoon occurrence for us in the afternoons these days is a trip to the driving range. Sometimes in the afternoons the walls begin to close in on us, and we all need a little fresh air. It's a fun place for us because Derrik loves to work on his game, Ryder loves swinging his golf clubs at anything and it looks more productive at an actual driving range, and well i'm happy if Ryder's happy!

There are two driving ranges pretty close to us, and we usually just pick whatever one isn't busy since Ryder likes to take charge of the place.

Daddy making sure his Little Man is coming...

Picking out which club they want to start with

Ryder loves to make sure Daddy always has enough balls aound to hit

Is that enough Da?

My Hubby's Baby...
Ryder showing Daddy how his golf swing is coming along

Daddy making Ryder VERY mad when he tells him he can't go chase after his ball

My Handsome Little Golfer

Taking lessons from the pro...

The next Tiger Woods?!?

Minus the whole cheating thing that is...

In case you were wondering...

The little man weighs a whopping 25.4 pounds these days...

Smile Ryder

What I get when I ask Ryder to smile these days...

Somersaults and Crib Climbing

What a great Sunday we had! Ryder played great today. He is still teething and usually hates Sundays anyhow since we do a lot of sitting around, but today he was great. He took a three hours nap which I also took advantage of to nap while Derrik watched football. I did manage to get the laundry done, dishes done, and grocery shopping. Nothing to excited... just another great day with my boys.

Before I explain my next story I need to tell you that Ryder's crib has been relocated out of his room and into our laundry room. When our place was robbed two weeks ago they smashed the window in Ryder's room, and it has yet to be fixed. I won't even get into how irritated I am over this and the headahces we've been through, but just know that he is sleeping peacefully in the laundry room. The laundry room has no windows and is on our side of the condo so for right now we are more comfortable with these sleeping arragenemtn. Plus it's darker then his room and he could really care less.

Now onto the pictures... Lately Ryder has been big into his bed. He's always been easy to put down to bed and for naps. He always just lays right down and falls right to sleep, but now he's standing at his crib whining to get in. Today Derrik called for me to come out of the room to show me this....

Most babies are trying to crawl out of their cribs and ours is trying to crawl in!!! He just loves his bed! He has always loved his paci and has recently becomes really attached to his blanket. He has a matching set of a big blanket and a smaller one he can hold onto. He only gets these items when he is in bed so I think that is was is leading to this desire to be in his crib. I have come to realize that he's hitting an age where he likes to sit and relax for a little while. I have started to allow him to have his blanket and paci while he sits in our lounge chair to relax. He is not allowed off the chair with it and puts it right back in the crib when he wants down. I just think it's cute how he loves to relax with these items :)

Another thing I taught Ryder recently was how to do somersaults. I kept joking about getting Ryder in some gymboree or tumble classes just to get us around other babies and moms, but Derrik has put his foot down saying Ryder will not be involved in gymnastics classes. Needless to say Ryder has perfected his somersaults, and I think will make quite a little gymnasts! HAH! Check out the footage...

Slide

Here is the slide video that got deleted from the last post!

Longest Random Post Ever!

I am just plain awful at this blogging stuff lately! Just when I thought getting back to Arizona and settled would give me all the time in the world for stuff like this... there is NO time!

So why haven't I been blogging? What have we been up to? Let me vent to you... or explain to you... real quick.

Derrik first... what a busy hubby I have! He started back to rehab this week so that took him all mornings and afternoons away from us like usual. He reffed four basbetball games this week, had one baseball lesson, and then managed to squeeze golf in on his day off (pretty clever huh?!).

As for me... I was busy with work this week which took away any blogging time as you can see and when I wasn't working I was dealing with the fussiest, crankiest, teething baby I have ever met! He has all eight of his front teeth and his four molars... that leaves his four eye teeth for a while. I thought, "WOW... only four more to go and we're through this awfulness!" Little did I know these last four would truly do me in! I had a day this week where I truly wondered if I was cut out to be a Mom. My patience were running so thin. I just didn't know what to do, but as my mom always tells me, "Just when you think you can't take it for another seconds... it stops!". It's so true! We didn't miraculously get the four teeth or anything, but he wasn't nearly as bad the last day and a half. Maybe it's the constnat tylonel and teething tablet diet I have him on :)

I also joined a gym! I joined last Sunday and made it five out of six days this week. I need the exercise and time to myself an hour a day, and Ryder really needs the interaction with other kids and a little separation from me. Ryder did pretty well with the day care. He cried the first day when he realized I was leaving, screamed the second day when he realized we were back at the same place, and by the third day did a wimper like "i'm going to cry because your leaving me, but I know your going to do it anyhow". Apparently all days he calmed down within minutes of me leaving. When I picked him up on Friday he was kicking a ball back and forth with a boy his age. I think it's great for the both of us :) Minus the fact that my body is SOOOO sore!

Now on to this long random post I have you all waiting for! I have about twenty posts contained in this one little post... so if you don't have long you might want to come back later. Almost all of this stuff is off my iPhone and goes back to before Christmas....

Dressing Chloe

I have not dressed Chloe in ages. I use to dress her every day when she was a puppy, but now she pretty much just gets a Christmas shirt and that is it. On my sister's birthday she got a ton of preemie baby clothes for her doll. I couldn't resist and had to dress Chloe up. I love the pigtails!

Ryder cuddling with his Auntie Hailey to watch cartoons

Of course Turbo had to lay on the blanket... What's new!

Cozy Boy

When we visited back home during the summer the changing table was off limits with Ryder. He was a crazy man and would not sit still. I was so scared he might hurt himself! This time around I realized Ryder, although still just as crazy, enjoys his time to relax and watch a little tv. He would lay there and cuddle in his blanket and watch tv. He always looked so cozy so I had to take a picture one day to remember it :)

Dressed up for the Larry's P.X. Christmas Party

This NEVER happens!!!
I loved it :)

"Mom, can I get some UGGs?"



Ryder pretty much did this with all his baby stuff... the baby bathtub, bouncer, swing
He loved seeing it all!

Ho Ho Ho

On Christmas Eve I realized I had yet to get Ryder saying "Ho Ho Ho" on video. I desperately tried to get it before the holiday was over and this was the best I got.

Donuts

Ryder's Uncle Tommy works in the bakery at the grocery store. He brought home donuts for us one morning, and Uncle Dalton left his on the kitchen table. I kept hearing Ryder say "more.. more" from the kitchen, which means he wants something, but I was sitting on the couch and Derrik was sleeping on me. I told Ryder to "come here" so I could ask him what he wanted... and this is how he walked in...

He had fount his Uncle Dalton's donut. As you can see by the look on his face he was SOOOOOOO excited! We let him eat it all, and i'm pretty sure he loved us for it :) The next morning Uncle Tommy had brought donuts home again, and I decided to let him have one again since it was our last morning there. He even got to sit like a big boy with his Uncle Cole while he ate it.

Ryder Hangin' With His Uncles

Here is some footage of the three boys. Ryder also shows you his new trick he learned a few times in this video... hitting. We are working extremely hard to make this stop!

Little Bum

Ryder decided when we got back to Arizona that his diaper wasn't necessary. Luckily he only did this the one day and got over it. How cute is that little tush?! It's all red because he was pulling so much at his diaper.

Working On His Golf Swing

Ryder's golf swing has gotten much better since the last time I posted a video...

The Little Man Slides

With Ryder's fussiness and the lack of Derrik during the afternoons this week to help out, we decided to spend lots of time at the park. Ryder has finally mastered the slide!

OPPS... This video just got deleted by accident... I'll post it in the next blog!


Ryder was more interested in the flag football game then the playground...

He's going to be an athlete for sure!

Basketball

Derrik got to meet us one day at the park and showed up with a basketball. Ryder was so excited! Basketball is definitely his biggest interest at the moment.

First Sports Injury

During basketball at the park Ryder tripped and fell. We noticed he skinned his knee and played it off the best we could. He rubbed it and moved on, but we ended up with this in the end...

"Ryder... Where's you boo-boo?"

Some of What Ryder Knows

Ryder has really been learning so much lately. I should blog more precisely since I know i'll want to look back on it in the future. It is extremely hard to get the things he knows on video, but the other day we got quite a bit of it! FINALLY!

Referee

This is my best attempt at a picture of Derrik referreing (spelling?!) the other night. It's off my phone and he was moving around too much so the quality is bad, but I was so proud of him seeing him out there! He is the person to the left of the picture.

Horse Track for the Day!

Today the horse track was having kids day so we decided to head out. It was gorgeous out and we all needed a day together away from the house! It was a great day with my boys :)

Daddy and Ryder

Pony Ride

Inflatable Obstacle Course

Inflatable Slide

I promise he's ok :)

Patty Cake

That's all folks.... sorry for any typos! I'm exhausted and heading to bed. Maybe i'll get the Christmas background off tomorrow :) MAYBE....

We're Back!!!

Were back in Arizona... but let me pick back up where I left off in my blogging. We packed all of our stuff up from our month long stay in Cape Cod with my family and after a few tears and some really hard good-byes we got on the road to Pennsylvania for Christmas and a few days with Derrik's family.

Opening presents with MeMaw and Poppy's side of the family

Ryder with Uncle Tommy

They crack each other up apparently :)
How we found Turbo when we went to get Ryder up from his nap to go to Papi's house

Ryder finally starting to get the hang of this present thing!

Ryder with his pile of gifts from Papi's side of the family

Think he needed three different Christmases?! We have been overtaken by toys!

The rest of out trip was really low key. The holidays were pretty much over at this point and everyone was back to work and school. We were glad to be able to have just a few extra days with everyone and truly enjoyed our time there!

Auntie Robin and Noah trying to entertain Noah at Taylor's basketball game

He's in the basket if you can't find him

However we did get some bad news while we were in Pennsylvania. The lady we are renting our condo from called to tell us the condo had been broken into. They smashed Ryder's window and took quite a bit of stuff. We lost Derrik's XBox 360, his XBox bag and controller, all his XBox games, our DVD case which also had photo cds in it, our digital picture frame, tool box, and $150 worth of a sewing machine and supplies for it that Derrik got me for Christmas that I never even saw! The fact that people have the nerve to do stuff like this just pisses me off. How do people have the nerve to go into people's homes and just take their stuff?

On Wednesday Ryder and I flew back home from Pennsylvania to Arizona. I was a nervous wreck about this flight with Ryder. We had an hour and a half flight, an hour and a half layover, and a five hour flight (this last flight was also past his bed time!) Our first flight he was amazing! Ryder had a seat of his own which we always love. Not only did he not cry at all, but I also only had to pull out one coloring book for a few minutes because he entertained himself with plane seatbelts, windows, safetely phamphlets, and snacks the whole time. We then had to tackle our layover which is usually difficult because their is small spaces with cranky people all around that don't want a kid playing in their personal space. Lucky for me our gate had a play area in it! It had two little play houses and a few little boys his age playing in them!!! I got some Chili's to go and sat and ate it while Ryder played. This was amazing! I knew our trip was going way to perfect at this point. We got on our second flight which was sold out of course. When we get on a lady is sitting in our seat. I went to the back of the plane had to dig out my boarding pass to prove it was my seat and then the lady wants me to take her MIDDLE seat so she can stay with her friends. Yeah No Chance Lady! So now the two ladies in our row have an attitude with me because I kicked their friend out of MY seat. Ryder decides to immdiately be fussy because of all the waiting we had to do for our seat with me holding him. He pretty much started screaming at the top of his lungs immediately (I can only imagine what the people on the plane were thinking knowing how long our flight was!) All I kept thinking was please get up in the air so I can give him his blanket, paci, and DVD player. Of course the pilot come over the speakers telling us we had a 5-10 minute delay while they de-iced the wings of the plane. I know 5-10 minute is no big deal with the delays some people deal with while flying (i've experienced it), but when you have a screaming sixteen month old 5-10 minutes feels like an eternity! I was holding out on the blanket and paci because I felt like if he had it with his DVD player he'd zone in and calm down, but at this point I had no option since electronic devices weren't allowed at that time. I gave him his pacifier and he crashed! We both fell asleep for about an hour. I woke up to both my arms all tingly and realized they fell asleep. I didn't dare move and wake Ryder, but literally couldn't stay still. My arms hurt so bad! Ryder then tossed and turned on me for about another hour. He started getting fussy with not being able to get comfortable so I put his DVD player on. He danced like a crazy man to Yo Gabba Gabba for a while. We then did a little play dough time and before we knew it we were landing!!! I was so proud of myself for surviving the flight. I then had to figure out how to push the stroller, carry my purse, Ryder's toy bag, our suitcase, and a carseat. Somehow I did it and we made it to a line to get in our taxi Derrik had reserved for us. (We couldn't leave the car at the airport because Derrik flew out three weeks before and the price for parking would have been insane!) Of course we had the meanest lady in the taxi with us who made rude comments about "another baby" and how she "just listened to a baby scream for hours on a plane".... I hate rude people like this!!! Ryder was great on the twenty minute car ride home.. especially given the fact is was pushing 1 a.m. at this point (3 a.m. Eastern time which was what Ryder was on at the moment). I was super nervous being home without Derrik since our place was broken into. I'm a pretty big baby about being home by myself in the first place so this made it even worse.

I survived obviously and Derrik made it home to us on Friday afternoon after an awful drive across country with the car and pets. He left after he dropped us off at the airport on Wednesday afternoon. He hit a major snow storm and had to keep stopping. He told me he counted 26 cars in ditches from sliding off the road. I'm so happy he made it home to us safe and sound :)

Zero degrees on his drive!

Our nasty car when he got here

We've spent the last day getting groceries in the house, bags unpacked, toys put in their new places, catching up on sleep, cars washed, and just simply getting settled. Ryder did amazing once again adjusting to the time change! I have one more load of laundry in the dryer to put away and then we are completely settled :)

Ryder playing with his new golf clubs

Apparently he needs a lot more practice!!!

Thank you to everyone for your hospitality, your wonderful Christmas presents, sharing your time with us, and for always being there for us! We love our families SO much! We miss you all and hope you can come visit us very soon!!!

Go Eagles!

As of right now they are losing 27-7

We are sure Ryder's Papi is yelling at his Eagles and his Poppy is lovin' his Cowboys!

At least one grandpa is happy :)

Prayer Request: As I am sure most of you know at this point, Derrik's grandmother, NiNi, has been diagnosed with lung cancer. Her doctors are very hopeful that she can pull through this, but it's going to be a tough road to get to the other end. She had her first round of chemo on Monday and has been pretty sick the last few days. Of course this is expected, but still is awful to go through. Please say a prayer that this treatment plan she is on will cure her of her cancer and that her spirits stay high through these tough times.

We Love You NiNi... Get Well Soon!