My Ryker Baby

Just a few of Ryker....

Interacting with his fish.

Playing on his new Watermelon Picnic Tummy Mat from his Aunt Rachel

Such a cute boy!

The Woodsmen

The weather allowed us to play outside today and Brodie couldn't have been happier!

Here he is pretending to be a puppy.

Then when Daddy came home, it was time to get some firewood!  Waiting in the warm truck while Daddy preps the chainsaw.

Timber!

So proud!

Hauling wood to the truck.

And now we'll have a warm home!  Thank you boys!

The Battle of the Beds

I don't really mind sharing my bed with the ones I love and I'm certainly not against co-sleeping, but I get to the point where I feel like I'm being touched all day long, that at night, I just want my space!  Hence, Operation Bedtime.  The goal is to get both boys sleeping through the night in their own room.  Ryker currently sleeps in our room starting out in his mini-crib, but usually wakes up and ends up right next to me because I'm too tired to get up and nurse him and wait for him to fall asleep in his own crib again.

(Brodie drew this picture for Ryker the other day to put in Ryker's crib so he could look at something.  What a nice big brother!  And even more surprising - Ryker loves it!)

Brodie on the other hand is a great sleeper in his crib, but in order to get Ryker to the stage of sleeping through the night and in his own room, Brodie is going to have to give up his crib because let's face it, he's growing to be a big boy!  Plus, Ryker won't fit in his mini-crib for much longer.  We have a toddler bed for Brodie ready to go, but he's just not into it, so Friday Brodie and I got out our tools and converted his crib into a toddler bed.

Step One:  Get Brodie to Sleep through the night in his converted crib.

Night One:  Everything went pretty well and I was shocked!  We did our bedtime routine of hugs and kisses and I laid Brodie down.  He got out of his bed and opened the door, I walked him back in, put him in his bed and kissed him goodnight again.  He got out of his bed and opened the door a second time.  Repeated the above step.  Brodie got out of his bed and opened the door a crack to peek out.  I told him to get back in his bed with a stern voice.  He smiled at me, slammed the door and crawled back to his bed.  Asleep.

Brodie woke up once at 3:30 in the morning.  We heard him dazed and confused calling out to us in the hallway.  I got up, put him back in his bed and he fell asleep until morning.

Nap One:  Put Brodie down for his nap.  He opened the door once, told him to go back to bed.  Fast asleep.

Night Two:  Started out great, ended bad.  Put Brodie down for bed, fell asleep right away and didn't even try to open the door!  Woke up to a loud thud over the baby monitor and Brodie crying around 12:30 AM.  He fell out of his bed.  Luckily he was still pretty groggy, so went back to sleep easily.  1:30 AM - Woke up to another crash.  He fell out again.  I scooped him up, this time he did not want to go back to sleep.  Laid with him for about an hour and a half of constant tossing and turning on his part and then he finally falls asleep!  Walk to the end of our hallway, about to open my bedroom door... THUD!  A Third time!  In desperation I take off my pajama pants and try to tie them around the two railings in hopes of keeping him in his bed.

(took this picture the next day, but this is what I did)

FAIL.  It didn't work.  He falls out again.  This time it's 4:30 AM.  I give up and bring Brodie into my bed.  Bo goes out to the couch.  However, Ryker sleeps through the night in his own crib.  Are you kidding me!!???

Night Three:  Getting ready for bed and I'm debating whether or not I should just put the crib back together or not.  I want to persevere, but I also want to sleep! Decide to take the railings off and make-shift a new railing out of the side of the crib, propping it up with a heavy wooden box.

Brodie goes to bed without a whimper and we have a successful night!  But has anything really changed from him being in a crib?

I have a feeling Operation Bedtime is going to take some time....

Viva Las Vegas!!

Last weekend the boys and I went with my mom to Las Vegas to visit my Grandma and celebrate my uncle's retirement from the Las Vegas Police Department (Thanks for all your service Uncle Kent!)  We definitely missed daddy while we were gone, but we had a blast!

All week as I was preparing for our trip I kept debating if I should use the Ergo carrier for Brodie and another baby carrier for Ryker, or if I should bring a stroller.  Thursday I decided last minute to over night a Joovy Caboose Sit & Stand Stroller to my mom's house and I am so glad I did!  It was awesome!  Brodie absolutely loved it, which was great because he has never been a fan of strollers in the past!

Obviously, that's not Brodie above, but this was our exact setup.  We even have the same car seat for Ryker!  Anyways, the airport and plane ride went great!  And on the way back we didn't have to go through the naked scans because we had the kids!

Brodie loved visiting my grandma!  She lives right on the golf course and there are two big ponds with fountains full of ducks...  what little boy could ask for anything more?

And it wouldn't be a trip to Vegas without a little gambling... the family had a friendly $2 each wager on the football game where you draw a random number 1-10 and at the end of the game you add the last two numbers of the final score and whoever has the right number wins the pot!  I passed on entering into the pool, but my mom put $2 in for Brodie and guess what.. he won!  He was generous enough to give all the money back to his Nana though to help pay for airport parking!

4 Generations:

We had a great time in Vegas and can't wait to go back again!

Ryker Boy: 3 months old

My youngest turned 3 months yesterday!  It's always a little sad to me that the first 3 months of pregnancy go super slow, yet the first 3 months after birth go super fast!  Why can't it be the other way around?

Ryker is absolutely amazing!  I love him so much!  He is the little talker in the family.  I swear he already knows how to say "Hi" and he'll probably start calling me Mama before Brodie does.  He doesn't like to sleep for long periods of time and he is definitely a snuggler.  One of his favorite hobbies is sitting in his swing and staring up at his fish.  If I wasn't the food source, I'd say he might like them better then me!  I don't know what their secret is, but they make him so happy and he'll talk and laugh with them constantly.

Look at that balance!

Always happy, even when he's doing tummy time... what baby does that?

I couldn't be a luckier Mom!

The Rest of December...

My first post of the New Year is going to have to be about the end of last year.  I am so far behind on blogging, but it's not my fault.  We misplaced our camera charger so I don't have a camera to take pictures of my cute kids or other events.  So I'll just blog about the rest of December.

We did end up finding a beautiful Christmas tree - the best one we've had yet!

Christmas Eve Day morning at 1:30 am, Bo and I woke up to puking sounds over the baby monitor.  Brodie ended up getting the flu and it was horrible!  He was throwing up every half hour.  I just cringe when I think that he had to go through that.  Then Christmas morning I woke up with what he had, plus Brodie was definitely not back to his old self!  We hurried through presents while I rushed back and forth from the bathroom.  It was the worst Christmas of my life.  This video snip-it pretty much sums the whole experience up:

We were however very spoiled!  Santa brought Brodie a Lil' Quad, Bo got an XM Radio, and I got a Dell Mini Laptop!  I am in love with it and it's going to make blogging much easier!

Here are some random photos of the rest of the holiday season:

New Cousins!

Brodie happy to be around family

My little Ryker Bear!

My Smiley Boy!

  

Love this kid!