Ryan's Birthday

Ryan turned 4 today! We tried to make the day as special for him as we could while letting him choose what he wanted to do (his birthday party with friends is over the weekend). We started out by opening presents from Uncle David (Bat cave) and Dad (Star Wars Lego ship). Then we headed out to breakfast at IHOP. After breakfast (mind you it was like 9:00am at this point) we went to Grandma's house where Ryan got his "motorcycle" and a really cool cardboard playhouse. Ryan told me that he had expected me to decorate the house for his birthday- when I told my mom she sprang into action and headed to the store after the kids and I headed home for nap. When Ryan woke up the house was all decked out with banners, balloons and ribbon. He then got to open the rest of his presents- we played with those and watched his new DVD until dinner at Red Robin. Ryan was so embarrassed when the waiters came to sing 'Happy Birthday' to him but it was all worth it when they gave him a dessert. We came home and he got some one on one time with dad so they could put together the Lego ship. He had a great day and I think it might be a shock to him tomorrow when the whole day isn't revolving around him!

Ryan's Birthday Survey

1. What is your favorite color? Gray

2. What is your favorite toy? Star Wars Lego Ship

3. What is your favorite fruit? Apples

4. What is your favorite tv show? Clutch Powers

5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Sandwiches

 6. What is your favorite outfit? Batman Shirt

7. What is your favorite game? Star Wars Legos

8. What is your favorite snack? French Fries

9. What is your favorite animal? Tigers

10. What is your favorite song? Blues Clues Song on the TV

11. What is your favorite book? Blues Clues Book

 12. Who is your best friend? My cousin Kaylie

13. What is your favorite cereal? Cheerios

14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Play

15. What is your favorite drink? Milk

16. What is your favorite holiday? My Birthday

17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? Doggy

18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?  Waffles, Pancakes and French Toast

19. What do you want to be when you grow up? Fire Fighter

20. What is your favorite Sport? Basketball

21. What is your favorite thing at school? Play with blocks

So he is at the age where he answers everything based on what he is doing at the moment. What is your favorite toy? Obviously the one he is holding as I ask. My goal is to do this every year to see how his answers change as he grows up. Happy Birthday Ryan! 

Art

With all of the stuff going on in our lives I haven't had a lot of time to do anything creative besides the superhero capes and birthday t-shirt (which I will post tomorrow when Ryan is wearing it) Last night a friend of mine hosted an art project night where we made shadow portraits. What do you think? Can tell they're my kids? 

Mothers Day Breakfast

My mom hosted a Mothers Day breakfast for us yesterday. It was a lot of fun and the kids really liked all the grandparent attention they received. Notice how few pictures there are of Ryan- he avoided my camera like the plague the whole morning. The only one I got of him was from behind while he was chasing his grandpa around with the hose. 

I hope all the mothers/ mothers to be out there had a great Mothers Day! 

Wonky Hair

I came upstairs after hearing a strange noise upstairs. I find my son standing in the bathroom crying, telling me not to look at him. When I did get a good look at him I saw that his head was soaking wet (with soap suds), he was crying and there was hair all over the bathroom.
According to him this is what happened:

His hair was "Wonky" so he decided to wash it. He got it wet, then put shampoo in it (all in the sink). It was still wonky and he needed to get the soap out so he decided to CUT it out. He climbed up on the sink counter and got into the medicine cabinet where he found my eyebrow scissors. Apparently the obvious answer to how you get shampoo out of your hair is with scissors.
So I picked him up while he was still crying about how his hair was wonky.  I dried it off and slicked it down and showed him that it looked good (we will see what it looks like in the morning). He finally believed me and is now asleep.
I am scared to see what it looks like when I take a close look in the morning. It might be time for another buzz cut.... Don't worry if its bad I'll post a picture before I get it cut....

Yeah that happened.

Good Bye Backyard Photoshoot

Now that we are under contract on another house I am starting to feel like the move is upon us. I figured since things were about to get crazy with the move that I should do one more "photo-shoot" of the kids in the backyard.  The new house is new construction so it needs some landscaping- hopefully my non-existent green thumb makes an appearance so I have interesting pictures to take in the new backyard. 

Summer Weather

Today was 93 degrees! Audrey is not sure she loves hot weather, especially when getting into the car. Instead of spending the afternoon camped out in the AC we braved the heat, picked up Ryan early from school and went to a friends house to play in the sprinkler. If today is any indication it is going to be one hot summer. 

Under Contract

I have some big news. We bought a house! we close the middle of June. I picked out the house- and since there was another offer on it we actually bought it before Don saw it. Luckily he trusts my judgement. It's big! I'll post pictures as soon as the shock of how quickly things are changing wears off!

Day at the Zoo

Today the kids and I took a trip to the zoo with some friends. It was a beautiful day, luckily we got there early because it started getting really hot about the time that we left. The kids love the zoo because there is so much to see and so much space to run around in. It's funny though because out of all the things they would probably list as there favorite things about the zoo I'm not sure a single animal would make the list. They liked running up and down the ramps, playing in the decommissioned helicopter/truck, digging in the dinosaur fossil dirt etc.   It's interesting to watch Audrey who is not even 2- she doesn't hang out with the babies- she goes right for the kids Ryan's age especially if they are boys (I am in trouble!). I remember going to the zoo when she was a little tiny baby (3 or 4 months) where she slept the whole time- now she is running around like the hyper toddler she is! 

 Ryan Taking Audrey on a helicopter ride

 It's not real- but Audrey was still cautious 

Super Power

Audrey has a super power... she can destroy a room in 3 minutes flat. Now if only she had the ability to clean it up in that amount of time (or at all)!

The Importance of Girls Nights

I have a girls night with some of my friends once a month., We talk, vent, laugh and very rarely cry. It helps get me through the month emotionally, it helps me to have perspective and helps me define myself as an individual instead of just a mom. I was reading an article about how to make a marriage last- it was a lot of stuff I knew and some stuff I hadn't thought about before. One I thought was interesting was something my girlfriends and I seem to have done on our girls nights without ever really talking about it. It allows you to vent without causing permanent damage to the reputation of your spouse (or garnering harsh criticism of your marriage).

 It is a husband pact:

I promise to listen to you complain about your husband even in the most dire terms, without it affecting my good opinion of him. I will agree with your harshest criticism, accept your gloomiest predictions. I will furrow my brow and agree when you describe him as a hideous ogre. Then when your fight is over and love shines again like a beautiful sunbeam in your life, I promise to forget everything you said and regard him as the most charming of princes once more. 

Re-Entering the World

You can tell when I have a lot on my plate because I stop posting pictures. I love taking them and if it has been over a week without touching my camera I know it's time for things to change. So here is my attempt to re-enter the world.

Another Quick Update

Yesterday (and even starting the day before that) was probably the most stressful time of my life (minus exam periods in law school). It started with Audrey being off- she was crying for hours and being almost two she is dramatic but that usually doesn't mean hours at a time of crying. So it turns out after a trip to the urgent care (on the way to pick up Don from the Hospital) that she has an ear infection. Don was also given the green light to come home- but he is pretty bad off, he is still in a lot of pain and now he has symptoms of a head cold- it's hard to tell what is sickness or just his body being warn out from the surgery and all the pain- hopefully as he gets stronger his symptoms will go away.

Medical dramas in a family are hard enough but yesterday we also got two offers on our house! It was kind of crazy because our house has been on the market for 2 months without a single offer and then suddenly we got two on one day! It worked out well and we picked the best one and went under contract but the negotiations and all the waiting was so stressful. Luckily at the end of the day Audrey was on antibiotics, Don got to sleep in his own bed and we are done showing the house (let the dirtiness begin).

It was a lot of pressure and I felt like I was making a lot of really important decisions by myself but it looks like things are going to get better from here on out!

Medical Update

Quick Update:

   It has been a rough week in our family. Don had his surgery which was successful but about an hour longer then they had estimated, that last hour was rough on me. He is still in the hospital in a lot of pain but the worst of this medical drama is coming to an end. The same day as the surgery Ryan got his first incident report at school because he face dived the ground and ended up scraping up under his nose pretty badly. Again that same day I ended up pinching a nerve in my back which is still bothering me (Especially after sleeping in the chair at the hospital). To say that Thursday was a bad day would be a super understatement.
    Hopefully he will be out tomorrow, but it's possible now that it will be pushed out to Monday. On top of everything else we have had 4 house showings this weekend alone which means a lot of cleaning and keeping the kids out of the house.
   I am declaring that tomorrow is our turning point. Tomorrow we will get good news about discharge, we will get an excellent offer on the house and everyone will get a good nights sleep. Here is to positive thoughts and positive results!