Quick catch up

*** This is the start of a post from several weeks back- We recently were able to go have a great visit with Colton and Rachel up at their place. As always there was great company and great food! Adam's friend from high school (as well as Rachel's sister,small world) have 2 little girls that where also up at C&R's. I think Ryder may be a little smitten with those two ,he could watch those girls all day! We had a great drive there and back and if I could just get Ryder to be a better sleeper away from home it would be perfect, but he travels just a little bit better every time we hit the road. We are heading to LasVegas to see another Aunt and Uncle fav so he'll have another opportunity to practice :)
Ryder continues to swim at our local pool with us at open swim and seems to still enjoys the water. With all of our sunny weather that we have been having we have had lot's of outdoor outings, bring on the sunscreen!

Our little guy also recently hit up the 8 month mark and with that he has become much more active and wiggly! He's a little bit harder to keep still right now but still refuses to crawl he get's up on hands and knee's and just cries, he also does a kind of bear crawl/yoga pose where he get's up on his hands and feet but just holds the pose until he's pooped and then cries. He's a little destruction monster at 8 months and wants to wrestle and tear apart everything he get's his hands on. He's obsessed with his dogs, a great eater, and entertains himself with high pitched squeals at times. He's sweet and messy and wild all rolled into one little baby that's growing WAY too fast.

Ahh the great outdoors. Ryder might share Adam's same love for adventure!

 This baby is all boy. He basically wrestles with this Tonka truck. He pulls it on top of him then he swings around and gets the upper hand, he is tired and sweaty after a match with the yellow truck and we'll never know who won.

 Ryder got to have a play date with his sweet little friend Charli :)

 Just to be safe we have been starting off our mornings like this. Our weather has been amazing and we find ourselves outside everyday. We could get used to all of this sunshine and dry weather for sure!

 Ryder soaking up some sun on his 8 month birthday :)

Adam put his dirt bike up for sale and every time we have a close encounter with selling it, Adam has to take it out for a ride. Ryder felt like a pretty special little dude getting to sit on it like a big guy.

 

So in the mornings Ryder will watch the birds in the backyard with the same careful eye as Bucker. He looks like he is plotting a world take over here but just keeping a close on those pigeons!

We gave a little Watermelon a try and he loved sucking on it!

Speedo baby

Crawl, no go, but stand up and get into something, now your talking!

This little ham even turns it on before bed time! Maybe we take his picture a little too much if he's always ready for his close up...

 and all that really tuckers a guy out at the end of the day. The only time this sweet little boy holds still anymore :)

 Sweet little miss Kaylie made Ryder this card and gave it to him :) It is the cutest! She wrote his name so well and her drawings are awesome! It lives on Ryder's book shelf so we can look at it often, because we love it so much! Thank you sweet cousin! xoxox Ryder

Well the quick catch up turned out to be quite long but that's what happens when you go too long between posts! I'll be getting some stuff uploaded from Adam's birthday parts 1 and 2 shortly! Take care all and hope you have a wonderful weekend and Mother's Day!

Cheese fest

Here is a ridiculous amount of Ryder pictures just because I'm a cheesy baby obsessed Mama! Please ignore my over the top baby love if it's a bit much :)

Best Bud's- This is big Ry on his 7 month B-day :) I found this adorable little rocking chair that Ryder fit in just right, so I just couldn't turn it down.

 

Here are a few of Ryder's 5 month pictures from our sess with our favorite photographer Alyssa :)

We love this baby so stinkn' much and can't get enough of his chubby cuteness! Okay that's the max on the cheese factor from this Mama :)



Sunny Easter Sunday!

Ryder's 1st Easter Egg hunt! We went to our small town Easter egg hunt and Ryder grabbed just one little egg. He LOVED that egg! He held on to it all day, drooled on it, would have slept with it if I let him. The weather was beautiful and it was so fun to see all of the other little ones all dressed up. 

My 1st egg!!!

Ready to hunt

Ryder was a little unsure about the Easter Bunny...

My Mom joined us on our hunt

Grandma snuggles!

Ryder's 1 Easter basket :) 

Easter at Grandma and Grandpa Reynolds house with cousin Tatum. Yay more goodies! 

Our most recent failed attempt at getting a picture of these two smiling! A half a second before they had cute cheesy grins, there is always next time...

Cooley Family Easter! Ryder got to play with his sweet cousins Kaylie and Tessa.

 Tessa was cracking us up when she took a break from egg hunting to hunt this worm! She is so cute when she's curious!

*Ryder is working on his crawling skills and I know any day now we are going to wake up to a baby taking off! He gets his knee's underneath him and then lunges and face plants. It's caused for some frustration but he'll be there all too soon. He's more ready than we are!
Here is our Easter in pictures! I'll have to get back to you because Ryder looks like he might crawl! AHHH!

How can we possibly have a 6 month old already?!

I just can't believe that our little dot on the ultrasound screen is now already a 6 month old wild man! It seems like yesterday we where watching a quick flash of a first heartbeat and excitedly anticipating just who we would be so lucky to meet at the end of 9 months. Well our little Ryder at 6 months is sweet, and funny, and occasionally naughty (he loves to pull hair as cousin Tess found out) but overall he is our whole world. I'm literally obsessed with this baby! He is sitting up, chewing on everything, eating solids and loving wrestling matches with Dad in the evenings! They wrestle until they both sweat, Ryder on his tummy on Adams chest wiggling and grabbing and rolling, both cracking up. It's almost more fun to watch them. Adam is that little boy's hero already and the way those two are together is my favorite part of the day :) His likes at 6 months are- being outside(!), petting his dogs, reading (and eating) books, wrestling and flying with Dad, swim lessons, watching the pigeons fly circles around our house, and cracking himself up! I literally heard him laugh in his sleep in the early morning. He is a whopping 20 pounds and 27.5 in long. He was in the 75th percentile still for all three measurements so I guess you could say he's consistent. He's still pretty demanding about his sleep and his nursing, he just doesn't fudge on those two things very well. Although he continues to slowly become a better napper! We've also embarked on stranger danger recently and a loud sudden noise really bum's little Ryder out! If you cough, sneeze or yawn loudly while your holding him he kind of freaks out, but will slam wooden spoons against his tray in highchair so loudly he blinks before he actually slams, and squeals with joy. I guess he's a little bit of an enigma like his Dad. We've never loved or enjoyed anything in the world as much as our "Little Bubba".

This may seem a little mean but after swim lessons I stopped at the store with my Sis and Mom we all ended up with a little something from the bakery. I thought it would be cute to have "Happy 6 months Ryder" put on the mini carrot cake that we where going to indulge in. Little man got Sweet Potatoes!Did I mention he's becoming very expressive with his face?!

So there was definitely a 6 month dress-up and photo shoot :) My Mom and Sis did some Ryder cloths shopping so dress up had to ensue and naturally WAY too many pictures follow!



Try to ignore our dorky-ness if you can! We LOVE when our Aunt Ned comes to visit!

So I said before that Ryder has become really expressive with his face, this is his "mean mug". His snorty little angry face that cracks us up!

A big thank you to Grandma Debbie and Aunt Butt for letting us borrow Ryder's new favorite thing, the backpack. If he's outside he's really happy and relaxed, reminds me a ton of Adam!

and after a busy day, he sleeps hard enough that Mom can sneak a picture with even a flinch! He looks so sweet when he sleeps! He sleeps on his side now and will snuggle his blanket. My favorite thing to watch.

I also wanted to add a little loving memory of my Uncle who lost his battle with cancer last night. He fought bravely and now is free of this horrible disease. He loved Ryder and playing with him on his weekend visits. Even when he wasn't feeling well he always smiled for Ryder and Ryder always smiled for him. Rest peacefully Uncle Steven. We love you.



A new state to color in on Ryder's map!

We have enjoyed lots of fun in last week or two. We where able to go visit Colton and Rachel in Washington, had Ryder's pictures done in Portland and got visit with our favorite photographer, swim lesson's, celebrating all of our favorite February birthdays, a last minute visit from Uncle Nate and a day of love as a family of 3 :) Phew! We are pretty low key these days so all of that equalled so much hustle and bustle I still have some Valentines to hand out! So here are some highlights of our last week or so-

Swim lessons!!!Ryder was a pretty shy and scared at his first lesson. He was totally that crying kid who wasn't loving it. In the last 10 minutes he perked up a little bit but overall I was thinking it was going to be a long few weeks of swim lessons with the little cling monster. The next lesson he did great! I don't know if switching the time of the class made a difference but he LOVED swim class! It was so fun! He splashed like a mad man and even went for the dunk. I was so nervous for him to go under but it was literally the most amazing feeling when he came up smiling and reaching his arms out for me. It felt like Christmas. I never though his tiny accomplishments would mean so much more than anything that I've ever experienced. Sorry I know I'm a total cheese but he just melts me.   

 



 

Shy little baby at first....

 and now we are going for the dunk...

 heading for the deep end!

 

 wholy moly Mama! I did it!!!

 

 

We also enjoyed a party to celebrate all of our February Birthdays! Here are a couple fun pictures from the party Logan and Jess hosted-

 Great Grandma loving on the grandkids :)

 Boys and fire. Even at 6 months fire is cool

 The babies where loving on Aunt Rachel!

 

We also where SO spoiled on our weekend visit to see Colton and Rachel! I really wanted to bring them some treats and spoil them but Rachel just wouldn't stop whipping up great food for us to enjoy. Much thanks you two for a fun weekend, we more than enjoyed our time with you! Ryder was a bit of a crab but I promise he loved seeing you guys :)

 

 We lucked out on a flash of sunshine!

 

Just a random to show the degree of chub we've reached :)

Uncle Nate came for an impromptu visit! He rocked a stroller ride with us and lots of snuggles! 

 

 

I have a couple more pictures to add but I think Ryder might be working on a tooth (or two!) right now so he's requiring lots of loves (what better way is there to spend a grey day?!) so I have to add his 6 month pictures (!!!!!!!) and our visit from Aunt Nat!