Beach Weekend

We decided to take a trip to the beach for the weekend. Yes, I am aware it's January but I really wanted to get out of town and the beach is only a quick two hour car ride away. When we first planned it a few weeks ago the forecast said rainy and cold so we planned lots of indoor activities like children's museums and shopping.

We however lucked out, and the clouds parted as we arrived and the weather was sunny and between 65-70 during the days! We split our time between the beach and downtown Wilmington. Ryan loved the boats, planes, dogs, sand, shells... really everything about the trip. While at the beach Ryan decided to sort shells, he would keep the ones that made good shovels and throw the other ones away, they each got one chance with one dig. It was very cute because he was so determined! He also played chicken with the waves, he wanted to get close enough to throw sand in the water, but not so close that he got wet (luckily dad was close enough to insure he didn't end up too wet).

We all had a great time and it was nice to get out of our routine for a weekend! Enjoy the pictures (taken with my new camera)!

Birthday Party

My wonderful friends and family (Jess, Mike, Jay, Don, Mom and David) organized a birthday dinner for me! We had Thai food, which I had desperately wanted and chocolate cupcakes from Whole Foods... wow, what a great way to spend my birthday. Thanks to all of them!

My brother got me a new camera so if you start to notice a large improvement in the quality of pictures it is thanks to him. It will be really obvious when I post the pictures from our weekend trip to the beach.

Everyone minus Don who was taking the picture

jay texted "Happy Birthday Kat" to the music channel... and they posted it!

Yummy

A party can't go wrong with a cupcake like this (Jay brought a total of 14 of these fudgy, rich, delicious cupcakes... there were only 7 people at the dinner)

Today is My Birthday!

I admit I am not always a huge fan of my birthday. It isn't an age thing, maybe because I am still youngish but my age strangely doesn't even cross my mind on my birthday. This is probably exagerated by pregnancy hormones like every other emotion but whatever. I used to go out of town, but that gets hard when you have a small child so it hasn't happened the last two years. Anyway... this birthday seems to be an exception. I received chocolate covered strawberries from Rachel, donuts from Laura, some cards, countless emails, phone calls, and facebook wall posts. My mom came over and played with Ryan giving me a little more freedom and Don made me breakfast in bed, took me out to lunch (alone, while my mother watched Ryan) and made me a super great dinner. All the love has really put me in a great place mentally and so I ended up having a great, relaxing day.
So to everyone that made this birthday great, thanks!

Fun with the Camera

Ryan saw me in a scarf and decided he wanted one too.

Mom and Ryan being goofy

Ryan's new game is that if he wants to continue doing something he asks to do it "one more time." This picture is him asking me to take one more picture.

Quick Update

Quick update on the pregnancy... I look like I did at about 6 MONTHS pregnant with Ryan however I have only gained as much weight as I did at about WEEK 6 of my pregnancy with Ryan. I'm not really sure how that has happened... but such is life. I still have a touch of nausea but now that I'm at week 13 I think it's going to be going away shortly.

Ryan is doing great, he has become obsessed with babies, I don't know if it is his age or just all the talk of babies, but he loves them. He points out all the babies on TV or in his books, and if he sees one in person he waves like a maniac. Cute cute.

That's all from the home front...

Baby Pool Submit Your Vote

If you want to participate we are doing another baby pool for baby #2. You can weigh in on whether you think it will be a boy or girl, it's length, weight, birthday and birth time.... it's easy just follow the link http://www.expectnet.com/games/Baby2mason
Jenn won last time!

We are doing it early this go round because we will be finding out if it's a boy or girl in February and we want to see what you think before then!

Happy New Years

December 2008

December 2009

I've noticed that a year passing means a lot more with kids around... they change so much so fast that 12 short month changes them completely. This year Ryan learned to crawl, stand, and finally walk. He went from baby (7 months) to toddler (19 months). I can't believe that in 2010 we will have a new baby and a whole new adventure will begin!

Haircut

Ryan has been growing like a weed... He has been out of control in the last month (he grew out of his 18-24 months clothes... at the beginning of the week they fit, by the end they were too small... notice the shortness of the pants in this picture).

So I noticed today while we were out that with the static cling of his jacket Ryan had a mullet! He got a haircut probably 6 weeks ago, I couldn't believe how fast it had grown. I immediately loaded him into the car and we went to get the apparently much needed haircut. He was so good through out the appointment and sat all by himself, the woman gave him animal cookies so he was putty in her hands. Hopefully next time I will catch the hair growth before it turns into a mullet!

Copy Cat

Ryan is a watcher, he sees everything and is starting to get old enough that he can copy a lot of it. This morning Don kissed me goodbye as he was walking out the door, Ryan saw and ran over to me and gave me a kiss too.

The funniest copy that Ryan does is he has to hold the car seatbelt when we are driving. He is fully strapped in his car seat but because everyone else is using the seatbelts attached to the car he wants to do the same. Because you can’t actually attach a seatbelt over his lap while he is in the car seat he seems perfectly content holding it. In fact he now refuses to let us pull out of the driveway until he has the seatbelt in his hand, he will only let go when we are safely parked again. You can see just how his mind is working, he sees what we are doing and thinks that that is how things are done but he isn’t quite to the point where he understands the reasons behind the actions.

Random December Pictures

Ryan's new motorized car... I don't think I am going to deal well when he is 16.

Happy Boy

Taking a walk

This is how Ryan signs "Uncle David"

Huh?

Second Trimester Begins

This week has been an epic battle between my first and second trimester of pregnancy. Remnants of the first trimester are still around because I am still nauseous while at the same time the second trimester has taken hold and I feel starving. I am trying to eat only what I crave, which of course makes for some strange meals, but I suppose that’s just part of the fun of pregnancy. If I listen to what my body wants I am less likely to feel sick afterwards. Luckily I have a very supportive husband who doesn’t mention the strange food combinations! I’m hoping after this week the nausea subsides and I can focus eating.

Christmas Pictures

Ryan and Grandma watching the Wiggles DVD... Ryan's all time favorite present.

Ryan watching old family videos my mom transferred from VHS. The baby on the screen is my now 23 year old brother!

Ryan got into his stocking chocolate

Ryan got an easel, he loves that he can now do art whenever the mood hits.

Uncle David in front of the tree and all the presents Christmas eve night.

Uncle David and Don have a Christmas pj picture tradition

Ryan in his Christmas PJs

Merry Christmas!

We wish you are wonderfully merry Christmas! Ryan wasn't a huge fan of sitting in the big man's lap, but he seems to like the tree, the presents and Santa from a distance :) We have so much to be thankful for this Christmas and we are celebrating by spending lots of time with family starting our own family traditions, I hope that you are able to do the same.

Ryan's favorite thing so far was that the super nice UPS driver let Ryan take a tour of his truck. Ryan is one of those kids that is obsessed with trucks, so he was in heaven actually getting to go inside!

Announcement!

Since I have been such a slacker in the last few weeks with the blog I need to make this post a good one so here goes....

Ryan is going to be a BIG BROTHER! Baby is due July 17th. Here are the pictures we have so far (they are from a few weeks ago... we had another ultrasound today but I didn't have them print any of the pictures). In case you are trying to do the math, I am about 10 1/2 weeks pregnant now :)