A Festive Fall Weekend

The Lutz Family had an awesome weekend up in New Hampshire! We headed up Thursday afternoon with Grammy, Grandpa, Auntie Ally, Auntie Hailey, and best of of Kaitlyn!!! We were so glad Kaitlyn could be in town to visit for our fun weekend. On Friday everyone went zip lining through and above the trees (Kaitlyn and Hailey stayed at the hotel and hung out with Ryder). It was so much fun! It was really nice to be able to get back out and do something adventurous after being pregnant for nine months. On Saturday we all set out to try to get in some fall activities. Unfortunately Penn State, the Phillies, and some horse race were all on t.v. so we lost Daddy for the day, but still had a lot of fun. First we found an apple orchard which had the best apples i've ever tasted! After that we drove to a farm that had a pumpkin patch, a corn maze, hay rides, and corn boxes (like a sand box, but with corn). It was one of the funest days I've had in a long time. After our little adventures we headed back to town and met up with some old friends for dinner. They were really excited to meet Ryder, and he couldn't wait to see them :) These pictures are just a quick preview of all the fun we had this weekend. Unfortunately Ryder just fell asleep and I need to head to bed to get some rest myself. I'll try to put up some more pictures tomorrow.

Love Always,
Danielle

Getting ready for our zip line adventure!

One of the zip lines we went on
Me coming across one of the zip lines

Daddy zipping through the trees!

Grandpa hangin' on tight!

Ryder and I enjoying the beautiful river and folliage :)

Picking some apples out of the apple trees

The Winter Girls with the Little Man

Ryder hangin' out

The kids with their pumpkins

Olivia and Jeff lovin' on Ryder at dinner

Kaitlyn is here!!!!

We are so excited that Kaitlyn flew in today to visit Ryder :) This weekend we are headed to New Hampshire with her and the family to see all the beautiful foliage! We are hoping to get in some fun fall activities too. I'm sure we will have lots of pictures from our trip.

By the way.... GO PHILLIES!!!

Happy 1 Year to Us :)

Derrik and I have been married one year today! Time absolutley flew by this year! We are spending our anniversary doing our favorite thing...on the couch with the little man watching football :)

A Night In Boston...

Derrik and I escaped up to Boston for a night as a little present to ourselves for our anniversary. We had joked when we got married that for our one year anniversary we'd go on another amazing cruise which we love doing so much, but when reality kicked in all we really wanted was a full night of sleep! (Plus we'd never be able to leave the little guy for that long)We left early Friday afternoon and headed up. We stayed at a really nice hotel called the Boston Park Plaza Hotel. They had extremely comfy beds with lots of pillows and down comforters. Given the nasty weather were having this weekend it meant it was the perfect time for a nap! We slept a lot longer then we planned, but managed to get out for a nice dinner. We ate at an amazing restaurant on the pier called Anthony's. After that we got that full nights sleep we had been wanting and found ourselves wide awake a little before 8 a.m. feeling fully refresed. Who ever would have thought you could feel refreshed that early in the morning! We got some breakfast and then headed to get an hour long couples massage. It was amazing... after feeling nice and refreshed with a full nights sleeps we headed back home to Ryder who we missed SOOOOO much!

While we were gone Ryder had lots of babysitters! Grammy and Grandpa offered to take him, but Auntie Hailey and Auntie Ally really did a lot of the tasks from what I heard. It is so nice to have family so close by to help out every once in a while. We appreciate it so much and truly enjoy it :)

Grandpa doing his babysitter duties

Ryder is 1 Month Old!

Believe it or not a full month has gone by since our little man arrived! Time sure does fly by when your having fun :) Being one month old Ryder has certainly started to take on his own personality and created his own schedule.

-At one month old (Ryder's 2nd doctors appointment) he weighed 10 pounds 9 ounces and was 22 inches long. That means he has put on 3 pounds 8 ounces in the last month and grown 1 3/4 inches!

- He is drinking 4 ounces now, but is slowly creeping up to that 5th ounce which means we have to move to the big bottles and no more cute little ones.

- He sleeps 3-5 hours, but likes to sleep the five hours periods during the day and not at night when I get to be sleeping. We are lucky though because when he does wake up at night it's just to get a diaper change and a quick bottle then back to sleep he goes! Mommy loves him for this! Daddy tries to stay up for the first feeding playing video games to get Mommy a 5-6 hours span on sleep which she greatly appreciates!!!

- He is still in his newborn diapers which excites me because it means he's still little, but this won't be lasting much longer!

- As for his clothes... The newborn ones are getting pretty small. He outgrew his newborn onesies which makes me very sad. The 0-3 months are really fitting him great now.

- We have recently noticed whenever Ryder is in front of a mirror he absolutely loves to look at himself! The doctor says until he is about a year old he will think it is another baby, but it's still cute to watch :)

- Ryder's neck muscles are starting to get stronger and he's always trying to lift his head up when we are burping him. It leads to him bobbing his head onto our shoulders over and over again. You'd think after a while he'd learn not to do that :)

- In general Ryder is a pretty simple baby who would rather be laid out flat on the couch then be in his bouncer or swing. He must know life needs to stay simple when we will be living on the road half the year.

- A plus to him not liking any of his contraptions is that he LOVES his crib! He has slept in it almost the whole night every night since we have gotten home. He sleeps with us in bed for one three hours period every few nights or so, but I don't mind because he's so snuggly to sleep with :)

- Ryder has really started to become quite a pacifier baby! He loves the MAM ones, and can keep them in his mouth quite well.

Ryder is constantly changing every day and it is so fun to watch. Derrik and I are really enjoying being parents and can't wait for the months and years to come!!!

A Happy Baby Once Again

After our long weekend, Ryder woke up Monday morning and was back to being the happy baby we all love so much :) I'm not sure what was wrong or if anything was actually wrong, but he is all smiles once again which makes Mommy and Daddy smile too!

A Longggggg Weekend

This weekend has been a long one! We think Ryder hasn't been feeling very well by the way he has been acting. He is in general a very happy baby and very rarely cries. All weekend he has either been sleeping or crying. Lucky for us he is still doing quite a bit of sleeping, but will out of no where just begin crying before he even wakes up. It breaks my heart. We'll probably call the doctor tomorrow just to make sure our little man is doing okay, but in the mean time we've just been trying to give him lots of lovin'!!!

Napping on Mommy

My cool new hat from the Reeves' Girls

(thanks Jen, Emily, and Erin)

Napping again this weekend... I didn't feel good, but still look cute sleeping :)

Ryder's 1st shopping trip to Target!

All bundled up for dinner... it was chilly!

Visiting GiGi before dinner

Ryder napping at work...

I wish I could crawl in there and let him do the cost analysis! Must be the life!

Ryder In His Big Boy Outfit

Things I've Learned About the 3 a.m. Hour

Over the past few weeks i've learned a few things about the 3 a.m. hour

1. If it wasn't for Nick at Nite and the hilarious comedy of Rosanne it would be impossible to stay awake, and Ryder would end up with milk all over his face when his bottle falls out of his mouth and I don't realize it in my sleepiness.

2. When there is a full moon it seems like the sun is shining into Ryder's nursery trying to wake him up! I never realized how bright the moon was!

3. Even my dog who has followed me every step I take for the past 3 1/2 years doesn't want to get out of bed to keep me company at such an awful hour!

Hanging Out With the Boss Man (Grandpa)

Ryder and I have been going into the office the past few days to get some work done. While I work Ryder loves to relax with Grandpa and Grammy. Grammy always plays with him while he's awake and feeds him, and then once he's alseep Grandpa kicks back and watches his favorite judge shows on tv :)

Our First Chilly Day

Today was our first kind of chilly day, and Ryder looked absolutely adorable in his little sweat suit. It was absolutely gorgeous out! We are so excited for that nice fall weather to be here.

Bath Time!

Some quick pictures of Ryder before his bath yesterday... I could just eat him up sometimes!!!

Go Eagles!

Ryder is all ready for Monday Night Football tonight! He's been alseep for like four hours so he'll be all rested up to watch the whole game with Daddy on the couch :)

...sorry the Eagles are going to have to crush the Cowboys Poppy :)

I just can't help myself...

So now that things are all caught up around here I find that I just can't help but grab my camera every few hours and take a pictures of my little man! With digital cameras it's just too easy to take pictures and put them online to share with everyone. Plus I feel like he is changing every day and want to be able to remember how little he was forever :)

Ryder in his swing this morning

Ryder LOVES his new hat I got him at the crafts fair today... can't you tell?

How cute is the little man in his sweats?!

Passing Time At The Office Before Lunch

The Family

Ryder Loves Kisses!
Mommy and Ryder

Sooo Sleepy...

Mommy making me mad trying to take pictures

All Better :)

Headed South...

Ryder's MiMi and PaPa are headed back to Florida for the winter. We are glad they got to stay long enough to spend some time with Ryder, and are going to miss them very much! Hopefully Ryder doesn't get too big before they get to see him again at Christmas time.

5 Generations

We were lucky enough the other day to get a picture of five generations in our family. Ryder is a lucky little boy to still have his great-great-grandmother around! She is such a special person in our family :)

Sleep Schedule

Ryder is still sleeping a lot which is great. We have an eight hour stretch every night that Ryder sleeps minus a quick twenty minute feeding which we are very spoiled by! Unforunately this eight hour stretch is now from 7pm-3am. That would be great if my body could function getting up at 3am and starting my day, but it's just not going to happen. Luckily Daddy is still at home this week from work and has been waking up around 7am and letting me jump back into bed to sleep for a few hours. Unfortunately life isn't always going to be like that, and next week he'll have to be at work at 8am which means no naps for Mommy! We are hoping we can push this sleep schedule back a few hours and have him sleep from 10pm-6am which will be much better! Of course keeping a newborn baby awake when he is ready to sleep is a joke. We did everything we could to keep him awake tonight and at 9:30 we gave him a bath hoping it would really wake him up for a little while to snap him out of his sleepiness. It is now 10:30 at night and judging by the quietness of the baby monitor I think he is sound asleep. Wish us luck that our new plan works and we sleep til around 6!!! I'm sure it's wishful thinking... but I still have hope!

Ryder all cozy and ready for bed after his bath tonight

Our Little Boy is Growing Like a Weed

Ryder had his first doctors appointment today. He is already growing like crazy which makes his mommy and daddy sad. We want him to stay little forever! He was 20 3/4 inches long and weighed 8 pounds 6 ounces. At birth he was 20 inches and 7 pounds 1 ounce. The doctor was quite impressed by how much he eats! The doctor said he looked great and we go back in two weeks for another check up.

Ryder's Hospital Picture

Go Eagles and Phillies!

I just thought this was too cute :) Daddy is in heaven with his little boy watching sports all day!

All Settled in at Home

Well we survived what we thought would be one of the longest weeks ever! We managed to travel across country, let Ryder meet most of his family, and move all with a newborn, and believe it or not it wasn't all to bad.

Derrik's season ended later in the afternoon on Labor Day. As soon as the game was over we got in the motor home and headed on the road towards Pennsylvania. It was just about the half way point on our trip home to Cape Cod so we figured it would be a great idea to let the guys some get sleep and let Ryder meet his Daddy's side of the family. We only had a few hours, but it was really nice to let everyone see Ryder while he is still so little and cute :) We first met with Derrik's dad's side of the family at Perkins for some breakfast.

Four Generations - Papi, Papa, Derrik, and Ryder

NiNi and Papa with Ryder

After our breakfast we headed over to Ryder's Me-Maw and Poppy's house to meet some more family. His uncles were very excited to meet him! Unfortunately Uncle Tommy was at work, but we ran by earlier in the day to say hello.

Uncle Dalton excited to meet Ryder

Me-Maw and Great Grammy checking Ryder out

Me-Maw and Poppy with Ryder

We were going to attempt to get a picture of Ryder with his uncles, but unfortunately Ryder never even made the picture. I guess we'll try again later :)
Mommy and her babies on the trip home

After our short visit we headed back on the road towards Cape Cod. Luckily our trip was very uneventful. With it being Labor Day we thought we could hit traffic, and with our past history of travel in the motor home it basically meant anything could happen. I think God knew that if we ever needed the motor home to make it home this was the one time! We made it home around 9:00 pm on Tuesday night which was just in time for Auntie Ally and Auntie Hailey's first day of school on Wednesday morning. When we got home we finally got to see our downstairs all finished! It looks absolutely amazing!!!

Ryder has a belly button!!! His umbilicial cord fell off during his first diaper change in his new home!

Our first morning home we went to Larry's P.X. for breakfast of course! While we were there Ryder got to finally meet some Cape Cod family who patiently waited over a week to meet him. While there he got to meet his MiMi and is Great Great Grandma (GiGi)!!!

Ryder with GiGi (She is so proud to be his Great Great Grandma!)

Grammy finally got to show Ryder off to her sister... Ryder's Great Auntie :)

PaPa finally got to meet Ryder! Grammy and PaPa the next day at lunch

The rest of our week has been spent getting unpacked from the baseball season and finishing the move of our stuff from Florida. Our furniture was all moved in, but we had to put the finished touches up this week with all the pictures and stuff. The apartment looks great and already feels like home. Chloe, Turbo, and Hannah are loving having some more space and are still exploring around. I will get some pictures up of the apartment really soon!

Derrik and I are both really enjoying the start of our journey into parenthood. Luckily Ryder is a really great baby who sleeps well, and doesn't fuss much. We have found he hates being in bed with us and loves his crib! We're not complaining though we just get our cuddling time in on the couch. We both know we are being spoiled and thank him with lots of hugs and kisses.

Today we are spending our first day on the couch with our little man watching football :) We've been waiting for this all baseball season! It's just as great as we thought it would be! Go Eagles!!!

Ryder after his first trip to Home Depot... Grandpa was so excited to take him there! It was the only night Ryder hasn't slept great for us... I think he was so excited he couldn't sleep!