The birthday

Friday was Will’s actual birthday. Kevin and I both took the day off to spend with our special little guy. We took him to a great park to let him have a little fun. He was so funny because he was really more interested in watching all the kids run around rather than playing. I am sure once he can run around it will be a different story.

I’m 1!

Sliding with daddy – not sure what to think!

Monkey bars! I’ll just see what it tastes like.

Look how cute these two guys are! I am one lucky lady!

They had a sand box. He wasn’t totally sure how he felt about it, but he did warm up to it.

I’m sure we’ll cut his hair fairly soon, so I had to make sure I got some pictures of how long it has gotten. Makes me a little emotional looking at this sweet one year old. We reminisced about a year ago – wow. What a year! What a wonderful, happy, sweet natured little boy we have been blessed with. I can’t possibly imagine life without him. What did we do with ourselves before he came along?

We are both just so thankful to be parents to Will Ryan.

Will – please know mommy and daddy love you so much. We may not always makes the right parenting decisions and we may not always be perfect, but we can assure you our hearts explode with joy for you. We prayed for a child to come into our lives and had no idea how blessed we would be. Thank you for being you. Your sweet smile warms my soul. We look forward to seeing your personality more and more. Happy Birthday Will! Love, Mommy and Daddy

Can you believe it?

This little boy is going to be 1 on Friday! What?!? How is that possible? We are cherishing the last few days of him being a baby. He’ll always be my baby, though. :)

Looking so big sitting on the step! He can’t get down it, but man can he get up it quick!

So I haven’t gotten a pic better than this, but Will started standing finally this past weekend! He did it because he wanted our food! Ha! Here daddy is feeding him bananas – which he absolutely loves.

Mimi worked with him on showing us that he is 1! Smart kiddo!

Yes, I know his hair is out of control. And, I promise I’ll cut it soon – but not yet. Not until he’s officially one. And not until after I’ve taken his one year pics. I can’t do it yet. I just can’t.

Just a happy, happy boy with the sweetest cheeks in the world! Makes me one very proud mommy!

Looking forward to his fun party on Saturday!! We will celebrate big sweet baby boy!

All things Will

Wow – three posts in one night – this is one for the record books (scroll on down if you haven’t read in awhile)! We are continuing to enjoy every minute of our little cutie, Will. He is generally the happiest kiddo in the world (except when teeth are breaking through and the occasional diaper change freak-out). Oh and on that note, I am scared to say it for fear of jinxing us, but we have seen great improvement in the diaper changing area. Let’s hope that was just a phase and the worst is behind us! He is cutting teeth number 7 & 8 as we speak! They are popping up like crazy!

We’re still working on eating big boy food independently and working on that cup. The cup is hit or miss. I am guessing the bottle goes away, he’ll figure it out, right? He can do it, he just doesn’t seem interested in drinking much. Strange.

We are so fortunate to have such great parents that help us out so much with Will. My mom has kept him for us so many times and not only does she babysit, she does laundry! It is quite a treat! Will definitely enjoys spending time with his Mimi.

Here is one of his new favorite places to play. Seems like every kid does this while mom works in the kitchen. Luckily there is nothing breakable in this cabinet! We bought Will some new shoes! The poor kid has been going barefoot pretty much everywhere for pretty much his whole life. Shoes are a pain to put on and he generally didn’t care to wear them. Since he should be nearing the walking phase, we figured the kid should start wearing some shoes! He sure looks cute in his new tennis shoes!

I love this jersey and love that it has a 1 on it.

Working with daddy on waving – his new favorite trick.Here is Will with his other grandmother, Ally. He spent the night with her the other night and I imagine he was spoiled! He did great and loved every minute! Thanks for keeping him for us Ally!

Tonight I made baked ziti (surprise, I cooked) and Will loved it! He ate a crazy amount of it! I was shocked. I fed it to him – wonder what he would have looked like if I had let him feed himself?!? This was a straight to the bath night.

Well, that’s all the blogging I have in me tonight! Hope you all have a wonderful week!

TCU game Suite Style

I think I’ve mentioned before that one of the perks of my husband’s job is awesome tickets to all sorts of cool stuff. This past weekend we had TCU vs. Oregon State tickets at Cowboys Stadium. But they weren’t just seats…they came with the coolest parking spot I’ve ever seen at an event (like ridiculously close, should have taken a picture it was that close), tickets to watch the game in a suite, oh and let’s not forget the VIP access to the amazing owner’s suite complete with a fantastic buffet. Okay, yes, I am easily amused – but I am telling you – it was cool. Like really cool. They even had mini hot dogs on the buffet. And truffled mac ‘n cheese. That’s how we roll around here. (Okay we don’t, we just know people who do and were blessed enough to score tickets!).

Dust & Tricia down on the sidelines underneath the jumboness that is the Jerry screen.None of us actually went to TCU, but we managed to find purple to wear…except Dust. We also took pictures of almost every possible combination. Fun night! Oh yes, here is where we lounged in the gorgeous owner’s lounge thingy. Comfy white couches!

Birthday Season!

Well, I haven’t gotten any better at blogging. I’m going to try to play catch-up tonight!

Birthday season in our family is upon us! It is almost funny how many of our family birthdays fall right around this time. And every couple of weeks we celebrate another. It is a fun fall!

Not too long ago we celebrated Kevin’s dad (a.k.a Jeff or G.J.)’s birthday at a fun pizza place in Uptown. Will seemed to be the one getting spoiled, though! G.J. and Neille made sure to let him have lots of dessert. Yummy!

Last weekend I turned another year older, as well. And guess what – I got a surprise party! Ha! I can assure you, I was quite surprised! I mean who expects a surprise party on their 33rd birthday? I sure didn’t and was blown away by the love of my family. I don’t know what I’d do without them. Everything was so cute and I felt so blessed that they would take the time to plan something like that for me. They invited all the people I love the most and we had a great time. Thank you family! My brother and Tricia hooked me up with some nice workout shirts. I signed up for another bootcamp – yikes! I survived the first one and actually saw a decent amount of progress in 6 weeks, so I figured I would give it another shot. My sweet friend Lori felt she would help me out and give me some very pertinent reading about raising strong willed boys! I think I’m going to need it!

Hamming it up in the middle of the room… Good practice for Will’s birthday! Kevin, Justin, Tricia and I ended up staying up waaaay too late playing spades after everyone left. I learned – I stink at spades. Sorry Tricia! There were some funny pictures taken but those will not be shared publically. :)

It is crazy when I look back a year ago at my birthday. I was 9 months pregnant and miserable!! I flipped back through pics on this blog from my last shower that was actually on my birthday and – wow. I was a huge!!!! I almost looked like a totally different person. What a difference a year makes!

Finally Updating

I have clearly been a very bad blogger lately. Last Thursday I felt sick all day long from the insane heat/humidity at boot camp. This week I am back to working everyday/40 hrs for the next two months. So, blogging just hasn’t happened.

We’re about to head out in a few hours for a mini weekend get away with our Community Group and Will is napping, so I figured I’d better get to updating!

Will is doing great. He’s happy and he’s developing at a rapid pace. He’s so cute and looks like such a big boy drinking from his bottle all by himself. He’s gotten a lot better with the sippy cup. This morning Kevin made pancakes and he drank a good bit from his cup. He’s growing up on us.

He has started this new thing when when you pull out the camera he starts blinking his eyes to cheese it up for the picture. It is so funny. He had spent the afternoon with his aunt Kayse on Tuesday before she headed back to school on Wed. He had a blast and wanted a pic before she left. Little ham!

Lately he’s actually been a little more snuggly with us. Mainly because I think he gets so worn out by evening. I enjoy every minute that I can get!

This little boy is on the go at all times. Daddy was outside mowing and he wanted to be out there with him so badly. He was so cute. He kept crawling to the back door and banging on the windows. Hi daddy!!!!

Sweetest little boy in the world right here!

Another big cheese from Will! Melts my heart.

Love going in to watch him sleep and seeing his bootie in the air.

His other rather new thing is pointing. For a couple of weeks he’s been pointing at everything and everyone. I keep trying to tell him it is rude to point, but he does with such a cute smile on his face. :) We are busy planning his first birthday – can you believe it?!? He’s 11 months old! Really? Is it possible? It is.

Uncle J came and spent some time with us last weekend. Mom and I got back from a little shopping and found them like this. So incredibly sweet! He had so much fun visiting with you J!Another funny thing lately is Will’s love for his monkey. He loves that thing! Me, him and the monkey did some cuddling recently. I am sure Will’s love for the monkey has something to do with the funny sounds we make with it. He gets crazy excited when he sees Mr. monkey!

Well I hope you are all staying cool and doing well! I’ll try not to slack so much and update sooner next time!