Christmas Eve Fun!

This post is for my Grandma and Grandpa Thorson who live in Omaha. Every year on Christmas eve, ever since I was born, we have been going to my grandparents house to celebrate Christmas. My grandma always makes chili, oyster stew, rolls, munchies, and always plenty of yummy desserts! When I was little I remember running downstairs as soon as dinner was over to check out the presents! The mom's would all stay upstairs and do the dishes, this seemed to take hours!! My brothers and cousins were convinced they were going slow just to torcher us!! Looking back, I'm sure it only took them 20 minutes! Once everyone would finally get downstairs we would start passing out the presents. Then once all the presents were passed out we would go from youngest to oldest in opening them. This memory of Christmas Eve has been the same as long as I can remember, and this year wasn't any different. (except for the part about us kids running up stairs trying to hurry the adults along in the clean up). For several years now my Aunt Teresa makes all the kids form a human pyramid. Most of the "kids" are now in their 20's and we still do it!! (see pictures). Anyway, I just wanted my grandparents to know how much I cherish this time. As we are getting older and our lives are getting busier it seems harder and harder to get together with family. I love that no matter how hectic life gets, we will always have Christmas Eve to bring us all together!! Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for always opening your home to us, I know sometimes it gets kind of crazy (especially with the Chinese Gift Exchange and the Blow Game!!). I just hope that you two have as much fun as everyone else does!! OH, and by the way, Ryder LOVES his new outfits!! :)

Merry Christmas from Us!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Ready for Winter

One of the benefits of living somewhere cold is that I get to justify buying all the adorable winter hats for Ryder! There are so many cute ones and they're usually less than $10 which is a bargain in my book!! Here are a few pictures I took today of Ryder doing some modeling! :)

Swing time

We discovered that Ryder LOVES to swing! He's still a little too small for it so we packed him in blankets to keep his head from going all over the place. His face is priceless though! Each time the swing would rock forward his hands would fly up in the air like he was on a rollercoaster, it was hilarious!!

More pictures...Ryder's 4 weeks!

It really is true what they say about time going fast! Ryder's changing so much right now. He's definitely been going through a growth spurt because all he wants to do is eat!! This means I've been getting very little sleep but there's still nothing sweeter than his little sleepy eyes at 3 am. I've had fun taking his pictures this last week because he's starting to become more interactive and alert which makes for some pretty funny snapshots! He's still not smiling but Grandma T's determined she's going to be the first to pull it out of him!! I can't wait to get it on camera when she does!! Here's some of my favorites...

Playing in his boppy while mom puts laundry away... Just voted!!! Just being sweet...
Bathtime at Grandma's...
So far so good...
We knew this was coming!!
Life's good again!
Snug as a bug!!

3 week photo shoot

Ryder's 3 weeks old already! Look how big he's getting!! (Scout tried to help in the last one)

Update

We saw Dr. Brad today and Ryder's doing great!! He weighs 6lbs 10oz which is 3oz above his birth weight so while he's only in the 5-10th percentile for weight, length, and head size he's growing like he should be...yay! He may be little but he sure is mighty!! :) He did so good while they were checking him over, he didn't really cry at all!! He's already such a sweetheart! We go back in 6 weeks for shots. :(

2 weeks old

Ryder's 2 weeks old today! I'm waiting for him to wake up so I can take a picture of him with his eyes open! He's so animated with his facial expressions! I tried uploading a video but the file was too big so I'll work on that too! Tomorrow we go see Dr. Brad for his 2 week check up. I can't wait to find out how much he weighs. It's so hard to notice that he's grown when I see him everyday. I'll upload a picture later this evening and let you know how the checkup goes tomorrow.

Spicy Pumpkin Bread

I decided to attempt to make pumpkin bread today. This is usually not a hard task but I wasn't sure how it would go with Ryder and Scout and no Ryan!! I managed to get as far as mixing everything together and putting it in the pan but it has yet to make it into the oven...Ryder decided he was hungry, and who can blame him with the house smelling like pumpkin!! :) Here's a picture of it from http://www.tasteofhome.com/. I love that website!! Wish you all were here to share with!!

Our new addition

I've been wanting to start a blog for awhile but never felt like I had anything substantial to write about....until now!! Ryder Michael came into this world a few weeks early and we are so excited he's here!! This blog will most likely be all about him so if you like baby pictures/fun baby stories this blog will hopefully keep you up to date on Mr. Ryder. Here's a few pictures for now...i'll upload more later when I have more than one free hand!