My Blued Eyed Baby

I couldn't pick just one... This boy cracks me up!

Hoping to get an 8 month post up soon... Just have to put the little guy in a onesie and stick his sticker on. For some reason it just never seems to happen :)

Christmas 2011

I hope everyone had a great Christmas with friends and family. This Christmas was different for us. It was Derrik's and my first Christmas not on Cape Cod as a married couple, Derrik's first in Florida, and the first for me since as far back as I can remember that I wasn't leaving Christmas day for a BMX race, to go skiing, visiting Derrik, or having a ton of family over. I have to admit I was a little nervous at the idea of opening presents and then having nothing to do for the rest of the day, BUT rest assured I stayed plenty busy. Christmas is like running a marathon for a mom. Getting the boys ready for bed on a regular night is a job in itself, but adding on trying to make sure everything was ready for Christmas, cookies for Santa, getting it all set up, doing stockings, and then not sleeping due to anxiety.. I was exhausted before it even started! I had nightmares all night that Ryder woke up and opened all the presents, that I wouldn't see his face when he first saw Santa came, and many more. Needless to say I slept terrible! Christmas day we did our gifts and then went down to my parent's tree for their gifts. After that we spent all day opening boxes and putting toys together.

Cookies and milk for Santa and carrots for his reindeer

Santa came!!!

Our Christmas Cards...

We had a REALLY poor showing early in the month, but it finally picked up.
Santa blocked Ryder's door so he couldn't peek at the gifts
(I saw this idea on Pinterest and loved it! I didn't want Ryder to see our tree when he walked to our room in the morning. We told him to call us and we'd come to him. It backfired when he had to pee in the middle of the night and was totally freaked out!!!)

Our stockings

Ryder with all his stocking stuff

Derrik took charge of the camera during stockings and was so proud of this picture...

It's pretty goofy... and cute :)

This is the best picture I got of Ryder's face when he saw the tree and all the presents. He was so excited he kind of ran ahead of me.

Landon checking out the tree

Checking to see that Santa ate his cookies. Ryder finished the leftovers.

This is the only picture I have opening presents. I guess I decided to be in the moment and enjoy it. Ryder did great opening all of his presents. He asked to open a few toys, but we kept explaining we had to open all the presents first and it went just fine. He let out a loud squeal when he opened his jet from the Cars 2 movie, and screamed at the top of his lungs when he opened the oil rig from the Cars 2 movie. Exactly the response this Momma wanted to hear :)

We had to finish opening our presents because the peanut gallery was watching waiting to go open their presents downstairs

(they will all yell at me for posting this picture!)

Not the best picture of our family, but I guess it'll have to do :)

Ryder loved Landon's toy he got from Mimi and Papa

My boys started to get a little tired while opening presents with the family downstairs

And once Landon went down for a nap Chloe was glad to fill that spot

And some of the boys presents...

Ryder's stocking

Ryder's Cars 2 stuff

For Cars 2 folks... he got the oil rig, the spy jet, and as he likes to call it the mean boy and the nice boat. This stuff has really broadened his horizons when it comes to playing with cars.

His Thomas the Train track he asked for. No clue why since he doesn't watch the show or have any, but Santa had to bring what he asked for. Derrik had a rough morning trying to get this thing together :)

He also got the Matchbox Wall Tracks.... any of you mom's of boys out there wondering if this toy was worth it.... totally!!! He loves it and it was so easy to put together.

Landon's stocking stuff

All of his new toys

His new ball pit. It has since been put together and both of the boys love it. Landon loves to sit in it while Ryder puts the balls in the top to go down the race track.

And... the present that matters the most....

My family spending great quality time together

Playing Rack-O

The smirk on his face is because he knew I was taking his picture, and he also knows he sleeps every holiday away because he is "sooo tired"... being 25 and partying all the time is rough :)

Merry Christmas!

Cape Cod family.... We missed our Christmas afternoon with you!

PA family... we miss you all terribly

Thank you to everyone who sent gifts for the boys. They love all of them, and we were sure to tell them just who sent those gifts with lots of love :)

Some catch up before a Christmas post...

And i'm back... Sorry for the hiatus. Christmas time gets a little crazy for us. My birthday is the 15th, Hailey's is the 22nd, and with Christmas just three days later things go non-stop for us. So... before I do the Christmas post I figured i'd get up some more pre-Christmas stuff.

GINGER BREAD HOUSES

We have attempted home made ginger bread houses a few times with the girls. We used gram crackers and frosting, and just never had much success. I wanted to let Ryder try one this year, but knew he'd only be able to do candy so I went out on a limb and bought one of the tacky premade ones. I must say i'm totally sold! I think the "frosting" in those kids is pretty much just glue, and it was so easy! We will be sticking with those in the years to come. Ryder loved it!!

Landon watching on
(Nini.. I think he has some growing to do into his Temple onesie)

Ally helped with the frosting

Ryder did all the candy


The finished productCHRISTMAS COOKIES

I love Christmas in Florida. I love everything about Florida, but I will admit making cookies down here wasn't the same. It's a tradition we started after moving up to Cape Cod, and it always happened to snow the day we made them. It also wasn't the same without my aunt there. We always put on our Santa hats and drove into Larry's to deliver them. Luckily we didn't have to do that this year, because the cookies ended up not being edible haha.

AUNTIE HAILEY'S BIRTHDAY

I don't have much to show as far as pictures for this, but rest assured it mine as well have been Ryder's birthday. As he put it "ALL of his girlfriends were spending the night at his house". He was in heaven!! These girls were up until 5 AM. Now I remember those days quite well with my friends, but I had a baby up with an ear infection that night and did NOT think it was cool. Needless to say when Ryder asked to see the girls at 7:30 am I did not stop him from going in their room :)

THE BEACH

Amanda and I decided to take the kids to the beach last Friday. It was so gorgeous. We sat right next to the pier so the sun wasn't on the babies at all. We stayed for about two hours, and the kids were great the whole time. We then put our stuff in the car and ate some Dairy Queen to top off our great day. It was so fun we are heading back again this Friday :)

Dyson did that sand taste yummy?

I'm thinking they are totally going to be best friends

Snack time at the beach

This picture might not actually be cute, but Ryder had Sophia laughing so hard. It was just adorable. The two of them are so cute together.

Hoping to work on a Christmas post and an 8 month post, but Landon is on his 2nd ear infection this month. We are a week into antibiotics, and I don't think they are working. He's miserable when he lays down to sleep :( Hopefully i'll get them up soon!