snow again

Well we were able to enjoy yet another day out in the snow. Ryan is just obsessed with sNOOOW. He loves to sit in the baby window and have people throw snowballs at him, he laughs so hard.

We were going to try to venture outside in the morning, but thanks to a friends very wise advice we decided to wait till the afternoon till in was a bit warmer...so glad we did.

Our goal today was to build an awesome snowman...well I should be honest it was MY goal. What was I thinking with a 21 month old...crazy!!! I gather some items from inside to put on his face when it was done....HA, we never made it half way through the first ball. The snow was so fluffy, it took a lot to compact it that hard, and honestly I don't know if I have ever built a real snowman...its hard work, especially watching a one year old at the same time who has no interest in it.

So I gave up. We (meaning me again) decided to wait till next year when daddy can be present to help.

Elmo did get to make an appearance again, he actually became our snowman topper.
I did get him to make his first snow angel as well, it was kinda hard getting him to lay down in it, but once he was down he was okay. I had to flap his arms though, but he made his tiny little angel.Then it was time to head in doors. He kicked his feet off on the door before we went in to knock off the loose snow. That was an easy task since one of his favorite things to do these days is kick.Here he is after we made it in doors, he looks rough, but believe me, he is happy as a clam!!!

a nice Sunday morning surprise God gave us

I had no idea it was supposed to snow this morning...none of us did. And man oh man Ryan was excited. We went to take Clementine outside and we showed Ry the snow, he was just amazed with it. It was too cold to keep standing in the sun room looking at it, and he pitched a fit when we had to go back in. So of course I took him to the bay window in the living room and he would not leave the window, he just kept saying sNOOOW sNOOOW and pointing and screaming. We haven't had much snow fall this year (even though it was expected to be one of the worst winters in years). So he really hasn't seen it since last year. I went and set on the window sill with him for a bit, and then I asked him if he wanted to go outside and play in the snow. His eyes got so big and his head started shaking yes so hard. He ran over to the door...oh he was so upset, when I told him we had to go change into warmer (multilayer) clothes (especially since I am allergic to the cold now). So after some what of a battle, and tearing through all the drawers looking for some warmer clothes, we headed outside. We finally got to use the snow boots I bought early in the fall (you know since it was going to be a HORRIBLE winter).

A little winter kickball in the snow never hurt any one either!And of course swimming summer time Elmo had to join in on the festivities in the snow We made the snowballs. He was a little confused with it, because we were calling them snow balls, and they looked nothing liked balls (this beautiful snow was so fluffy and light). We threw them at our cars (which looking back probably wasn't the smartest idea, now he will be throwing everything at our cars). At least he didn't eat them, I really thought that would be his first reaction to them. Now I can't wait till we get a ton of snow and we can build a snow man...but I think I am okay if we have to wait until next year! (but then I will have to buy new snow boots...ugh!)

Happy Birthday baby!

Happy Birthday Baby!

I first wanted to give a special blog to my husband. Today he turns 28! (he's gettin' up there with the rest of us).

Matt, I just wanted you to know how much of an inspiration you are to us and many others around you. God has truly blessed us with you. You are an amazing man, husband, and especially father. Ryan is so lucky to have you as his daddy. It is so obvious every waking moment you are thinking of us. Even when Ryan is asleep, you have to go in and set up a 'surprise' for him, for when he wakes up in the morning. He will remember these things forever, and I want to thank you for setting such a good example for him. There is no doubt in my mind he will grow up to be as good of a man as you are.

Baby, you are definitely one of a kind. And I am happy I snatched you up when I did (or stole you...oops). When have been through some incredibly hard things in our lives together, and I know that you are my back bone for survival. You are my milk for my cookies (can't have them with out it).

Thank you for all you do for us!

All our love and more-

Amanda and Ryan

Sesame Street Live- Elmo's green thumb

On Thursday we went to see Sesame Street Live...what an event. For you who have venture on taking your children to an event like this, you know what I am talking about...from excitement to the exhaustion. I don't know who wanted to take a nap more when it was over.

We went with The Partnership for Kids program ( the play group we go to every week). The tickets were dirt cheap, and it included lunch, and great seats! The way it was set up is, we were supposed to meet at the school and everyone ride the bus over. Well Matt thought it was extremely unsafe for us to ride the bus with Ry, with no car seat or seat belt (which I do agree with). I don't really understand how it was legal, all the kids included in this are 3 and under. So Mark (one of his teachers) slide us our tickets on the DL so we could drive ourselves (since Matt refused to go unless we could drive our self). Of course I am the one who has to do all this, Matt is just at home preaching his opinion.

Then when Julia told us we were having hot dogs for lunch, I told her that we were going to pack a lunch for Ry, since we don't allow him to eat hot dogs. Then right then and there it dawned on me...we just became "those parents". We won't ride the bus with the other 65 people who didn't have a problem with it, and now we won't eat the lunch that was included. Thank God both her and Mark are so nice and don't treat us like that...I am sure they are thinking it though.

We did have a really good time. Ryan was just in awe the whole time.

I had to compromise with Matt on what Ryan was going to wear. I wanted him to dress nicely and Matt thought he should wear an Elmo shirt. He said if you go to a Metallica concert (the old Metallica) you wear a Metallica shirt...the same applies to Elmo. Well I don't like character clothes, unless we are lounging or going to grandparents house. We don't wear them in public especially not a big event. So I compromised, he wore his Elmo jacket.Here we are with our home made lunch...I am also very happy that we packed grapes, because we were also promised fruit, and we got potato chips. We also got a rice crispy treat, and we did let him have that...which he loved...go figure.
Our poor little baby was passed out before we hit the bridge into Illinois!

Here is a short little video (even though Oscar asked us not to use them) of the show. Don't worry I wasn't one of those people who totally ignored the rules, this is the only video I took.

Sunday afternoon in a nutshell

I swear I will never learn the lesson...if child is too quiet, its too good to be true,something is up! Case in point...AGAIN! He found his bag of goldfish crackers in my purse left over from church.


Tonight at dinner we had pasta (obviously)! One of those meals that child needs to be taken straight to bathtub (touching absolutely nothing), I feel like we have had alot of these meals lately. This is why I still feed him more than half of his meals...I HATE the food mess..YUCKY!!!

But tonight he got a special treat, his Uncle Andrew bought him a Mickey cookie a couple of days ago. I just don't do the sweet thing for him alot, but he had to eat it before it went bad. So why not tonight, we already had the mess from dinner, why not throw black icing on top of it. He loved it...I hope he enjoyed it, its the last one he is going to have in a LONG time!

Here is a video we also took, we are really cherishing every moment we have together, since they are starting to become very far and in between.

**special note**

Ryan now folds his hands when we say night time prayer. (I am told to say, Matt taught him this). I never thought about it, when we pray at meal time, we all hold hands, and at night we are all standing in a huddle with our eyes closed praying. I just never folded hands with him. And a few nights ago, he folded his hands together, and has for a few nights now, I just thought it was a fluke, Matt said no it wasn't. He was right, cause now when we pray he folds his hands immediately...it is soooo cute.

swim classes

Today Matt started school. This semester he will be in school on Saturday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesdays. So I decided to start Ryan in swim classes on Saturday mornings, to give us something to do.

Its only a half hour, even though we were there for an hour, given time before and after. It was alot of fun. It was totally different then what I thought it was going to be. I thought it was going to be lessons. But it was more activities. And all the kids were about the same age, give or take some months. There is only 7 of us, 3 boys and girls. I am so happy there were more boys, it seems like there is only girls in every activity we do.

We just sang songs, danced, blew bubbles, went under water, played with toys, and kicked balls. Ryan loved it, we knew he would since he is such a water baby. He ofcourse clapped after every song. He screamed with excitement when we walked through the doors to the pool. I am just so happy he gets so excited about all these activities...he can be so much like his mommy in a good way too!

I don't have any good pics...sorry. We took some in the locker room, but they weren't blog worthy. My parents or brother should be going in the next couple of weeks, so I will have them take some good pics in the pool!

"Time Out" time

Well, we started it, we started "time outs".

I was talking to a friend about this last week and she has been doing it with her little one for awhile now, and he is younger than Ry. And it works well for them. Why I thought Ry could not handle this I don't know. Well, we have been having temper tantrums like crazy over the littlest things. So we needed a change.

This is how "time out"time started. I took a discipline class about a month ago. I really liked it, I felt that I got alot of useful info from it. One of the things we talked about was, time outs. She said 1 minute for every year they are. It may not work for some kids and we may just have to figure out what works for us.

I decided most people all have a corner by their front door (at least we do and all his grandparents/sitters do) so it will be the same spot at every ones house. So instead of having a chair, he stands in the corner by the front door.

We did for the first time over the weekend (it has been countless times since then, maybe 2-3 per day). Well, he does really good in "time out". Maybe too good...I walk him over and tell him to stand in the corner till we say it is time to get out.

My sweet sweet baby walks stands in the corner and just stands there, not a peep from him. He will even sigh half way through, and maybe rest a shoulder on the wall. But never looks back or cries. We even have to say "okay Ry you can come out now" a few times...then when he does he turns around really fast and says "taaadaaa" with a huge smile on his face. (what the heck, is it some kind of game to him). Then I tell him to come give me a hug (which he runs to us with open arms) and we explain to him what he did wrong to go in there (you know, just like they tell you to do on Super Nanny). And while he is in there we are laughing so hard (I don't think he can hear us), because it is so sweet how he just stands there and does nothing.

So, yes this is working. He is not going back and doing the same thing right away ( he may later, which he usually does). I think it may only be working because it is a distraction from what ever he was doing. And when he goes in there because he was having a fit, he is ultimately getting our attention, and I think that is what he was seeking to begin with.

I don't know what to do. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Do I keep it up? Do I try something different? Should I not be complaining?

Family night

Last night Lauren, Jonathon, and Bradley came over. The kids played while we got to play games. Finally they are old enough to just let them play while we can play a full game as adults (kinda, they still some attention I guess.) I just don't know when we turned into our parents. They came over around 5, we ate and played and they were gone by 9:30. We had tons of fun, and the kids were tired, it was definitely time to call it a night, but after they left I was sitting on the couch wanting to go to bed. It felt like it was 11 or 12. My age progression is definitely showing.

Ryan and Bradley played very well together, not to many injuries. They even shared pizza off each others plates in their jammies.



Then they watched (kinda) word world and Shrek. But I love this next pic, cause when they were babies we had similar pics. I hope they remain life long friends like their mommies. Ryan was 4 months and Bradley was 2 1/2 (?) months.

I did it again...

I locked my keys in the house.

I had to take Clementine to the vet and Ry to my mom and dad's. I was putting Clem and Ry in the car, and it hit me...I had no keys!

I do this about 3 times a year. This does not include the times I lock them in the car. Plus I loose them on a weekly basis. I have even locked Ryan in the car with it running while I was at Shop-N-Save (my phone was in there too!). No, I didn't go in the store with him in the car, I put the groceries in the back and shut it, forgetting I had it locked so no one could steal my son. (thank God, I saw a friend in the store, so she watched him while I ran home to get a spare set)

Well, when these things happen I have to go to the back of the house, pull a chair up to the kitchen window, (I leave it unlocked for this purpose only, and this is when I definitely grateful we built that deck on the back of the house) clear everything off the window seal, take everything out of the sink (I just got done doing dishes before we left). And then I hoist my self up into the window, onto the sink and counter and jump down. I definitely feel like Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible ( or sselyap, right Matt). Then I go get my keys and walk out the front door like nothing even happened. I am quite used to this by now!

Why don't we leave a key outside you ask. We have/do, but we put it in different spots or we forget to put it back, so we don't always have one.

And for Clem, her vet appointment went well. No heart worms, and she got all her shots. Dr. Patrick ( which I just love) was still concerned about her vision since it was just gone one day and never came back. He was also concerned with her weight, she gained 2 lbs in a year. Which is alot since she only weighed 18 lbs. He chalked it up to the holidays, but I know exactly what it is. Since she went blind, she doesn't run around as much and Ry feeds her half of his snacks. He said to start buying lean dog food. He said she is not obese yet, but she definitely is not a super model...poor Clem, I'm sorry baby girl, but it runs in the family :(

Our lil' CC...Construction Camper

For Christmas Ryan got this backpack/tent combo thing. He loves to build forts, hide under blankets, he just loves to get inside things. So I figured why not get him an indoor/outdoor tent (which I don't think I would trust this tent outdoors with my child in it). The whole thing came in a backpack, that included a whistle, flashlight, cones, vest, tent and sleeping bag ( and I got it on black Friday, so it was only $12).

As you know, Christmas was almost 2 weeks ago, and I am just now getting around to putting this thing up. I just thought it was going to be huge, and put a tent up in our living room are you crazy! So, today was an icy day, and we are staying in till this afternoon till I have to go to work. So, I figured why not pop it up. Well, it is much smaller than I thought (if I would have read the dimensions, I would have know this. It is only big enough for 2 people to sit in. Ry has been screaming with excitement since I pulled it out...why oh why did I wait for this

I thought, yeah, we can have fun today! I put batteries in his flashlight, I told him to go grab his favorite books and lets meet back up in the tent. So I turn off the lights, and I crawl in. Well he just kept waving his hand saying he was finished (sign language). I couldn't figure out what he was finished with. Well, it was me, he was finished with me in the tent with him. He wanted his flashlight and books all by himself. So, with my crushed heart I crawled out. This tent is obviously just for him. He did not like it when I put his sleeping bag on the floor of the tent either. Apparently, only Ry, vest, flashlight, and books allowed :(

He figured out how to blow his whistle really fast. Ofcouse since it makes noise, but I can't get him to blow his nose for anything.

The Game

On Friday afternoon, Matt got off work early, so he had the great idea of going to The Game in Glen Carbon. It is just a facility for indoor soccer that has this huge padded climbing/crawling area for kids to play. The bottom is for toddlers and its $1 for unlimited play and the top is for older kids $3/unlimited. Well try keeping a toddler from going up top...but thank God daddy was there to follow him to the top since I am so scared of heights, plus there was like a 30 big kids crawling around up there. But he had so much fun, it was so worth it. I think we are going to become regulars.

Welcome 2009

Well its another year...WOW, time really does go by faster when you get older and when kids are in your life. Where does the time go, I can barely remember Ry as an infant, the only thing I can think of is the fact he is going to be 2 in April. Thank God I have over 2000 pictures of him ( and unfortunately its true)!!!

Matt and I have set a resolution. We ARE going to get organized in '09. Our house and our life has been so flipped upside down for the last couple of years. We both want to be organized and more put together, but for what ever reason its a struggle any more.

We went to my parents again on NYE. There was 12 of us, including Ry. He stayed up the entire night, some good moments some not so good. Over all though it was fun, we played games and rob your neighbor. We even missed the countdown. A few minutes till we turned on the TV, but the countdown was 2 hours behind us, and it took us a few minutes to get it, so it was 12:02 when we all got to kiss...Hope everyone had fun, and have a good new year.

I am allergic to everything!

And when I say everything, I mean everything. I am now officially allergic to cold. That's right cold. Cold air, cold objects, cold water, just cold anything.

It all started a little over a year ago. October 2007 I had to have this minor surgery done on my finger. I had some weird growth on it. The dermatologist told me the day he looked at it, it may be some kind of skin cancer. So I immediately freak out. He sent me to a face and hand plastic surgeon in Maryville, were he set up an operation date. So it officially became surgery when I had to lay on an operation table. (it was honestly more prep and freak out than my c-section, and I walked out with 5 stitches and a band aid) Anyway, when they were done my whole arm broke out in hives. They gave me some benadryl and told me they should go away and I should be fine.

Ever since then, any time I hold or touch something cold, or even go outside in really cold weather, I would bet hives and some times full blown welts, that just burn and itch like crazy. And not just on my arm, but any where on my body. So it was winter after this surgery incident and I was getting them like crazy. But being a new mom, and trying to balance a household with out ending up in a nut house, I did nothing about it. I said I was going to call the doc and just never did. Then the summer came, and it calmed down. It only happened when I would wash my hand with cold water or hold something cold. Well, it has been getting really cold again. So I made an appointment with the doc, cancelled it because, well you know the whole mom thing ( I haven't even been back to the OB since my check up after Ry was born...how bad is that)

So me being the motor mouth that I am, I have told just about everyone I know. Which has really paid off, because Jen, a girl I work with brought me in an article she found in the paper. I think the article was written about me. It lists my signs and symptoms just like I have them. This is called "cold-induced urticaria". It is having an allergic reaction to cold. They say it may only last a couple years, but some have it so bad they can have an anaphylactic reaction.

But I am not worried, I am just happy its not any type of reaction to the meds they gave me. So I am not going to do anything about it, just like I don't about any of my other allergies. So cold, is just another thing to add to the list.