Ryder's First Birthday

Friday, May 20th was Ryder's first birthday!  It is so crazy to me that it has already been a year.  Yet, in other ways, it feels like he's been around forever.  It was so fun to be parents celebrating your child's birthday.  When we got up on Friday, we took Ryder out to the hallway to see the birthday banner I made.  He loved it!  He was jabbering away and trying to grab it.  Then, we went to see his presents.  He crawled right over to them, but wasn't interesting in opening them, even when we showed him how to rip the paper.  So I "helped" him a little.  One of the presents he got is a little car that makes noise and actually moves when you shake it.  Ryder LOVES that car.  The whole morning he was just zooming all over with it.  It was so cute. 

The banner

Opening presents

Playing with his new car

For breakfast we had pancakes, which Ryder really loved also.  We were going to go over to Wheeler Farm that afternoon to see the animals, but it was raining, so we decided to go to the aquarium instead.  If you go to the aquarium twice, you have already paid for a year pass, so we just bought the passes.  The aquarium was really cool!  We had never been, and it was a lot nicer than I expected. Ryder loved looking at the fish and would follow them along the tank with his finger.  They have a sting ray pool where you can pet the rays.  Ryder couldn't reach but he loved to splash in the water.  That night he opened a present from Grandma and Grandpa Briggs.  It's a little musical push walker that is supposed to help him learn to walk.  He was having so much fun with it!

Sitting on a frog at the aquarium

Watching the fish

Following the fish with his finger

Petting the sting ray

Just chillin in a canoe at the aquarium

The sign at the front of our neighborhood.  They did a terrible job, but our message was "Ryder is One"

Ryder's new walker toy

Ryder with G and G Briggs

On Saturday, we had his birthday party.  It was cowboy themed.  I made him a little cowboy vest and bandana bib. The party was great.  We had bbq pulled pork, baked beans, rolls with cinnamon butter, salad, chips, and lemonade.  Then, Ryder opened his gifts with some more help from me.  He loved everything he got and would start to get mad when I took one toy away so we could open the next one.  Kevin and I, and my parents, went in on a super nice tricycle for him.  It has a bunch of things you can take off to adapt it for when they get older.  It starts off with him just sitting in the seat riding with the parent pushing and steering.  When he gets older, it will be just a regular tricycle that he can pedal and steer.  He LOVED it.  Kevin took him around the yard and he had so much fun.  We are definitely going to put it to good use going on walks this summer!  After opening gifts, we had cupcakes.  I made a larger cupcake for Ryder to eat.  He actually didn't really get that dirty while eating the cupcake.  He sure loved it though!  It was a lot of fun to watch him get to dig in to something he's never had before.  I got the frosting recipe from my Aunt Kim, and everybody raved about it.  It was so delicious!  It tastes like you are eating really nice vanilla bean ice cream, but in frosting form.  It is definitely my new favorite. Thanks for the recipe Kim!  Tonight we had a yummy Sunday birthday dinner for Ryder.  Jeannine made homemade lasagna and it was delicious.  He got a couple more gifts from Kevin's grandparents and Aunt Carol and Uncle Bruce.  He sure is getting spoiled :)  It's been a great birthday weekend. 

 The cousins in their awesome outfits!

 Opening presents

 Ryder's new tricycle

 G and G Nelson

 Ryder's cake

 cupcakes

 Digging in!

 Messy fingers

 He loved it!

All smiles :)

I love my little boy more than I could ever express!  I made a slideshow of pictures from his first year, and pretty much every time I worked on it I started bawling because I can't believe he's growing up so fast and has changed so much in one year!  It's exciting and terrifying all at the same time.  He's the boy who made me a mom, and I am eternally thankful that I am the one who got to have him :)

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!!  We had a fun morning as Ryder discovered an Easter stash that the "Easter Bunny" brought him.

The stash 

 Ryder found an egg!

 Eating the treat from the egg

 Checking out all his goodies

All ready for Church

The real reason I am thankful today has nothing to do with Easter baskets, eggs, or bunnies.  I'm so thankful for the sacrifice our Savior made on our behalf.  The gospel, and specifically the atonement, make it possible for us all to be forgiven of our sins and return to live with our Father in Heaven.  What an incredible blessing!  That's what Easter is all about.  I hope you have a fun and peaceful Easter sunday!

My Eleven Month Old!

Ryder is 11 months old today.  He is a crazy little guy!  I love him more than i ever thought possible!  He still has an obsession with lights and fans on the ceiling.  Any room we go into he has to stare and point for a while.  He has started cruising around the furniture and is actually doing really great with it.  He does try to do things he can't quite do yet and as a result he falls at least a couple times a day.  So he has been getting a lot of bumps and bruises on his head/forehead.  He keeps going back for more though!

His favorite song right now is "Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree."  His whole face lights up when we sing it, even if he's in the middle of crying.  He'll stop and smile and listen.  He moves his hands around and says "tuh tuh tuh", which is his version of the words.  His favorite part of the song it when it says, "it wasn't really so..."  When we get to that part, he shakes his head like "no" and wags his finger like he's saying "tsk  tsk".  It's so cute!

He also loves saying "uh oh" lately.  He will start saying it before he even drops something (on purpose, of course).  I think he just loves the way it sounds.  When he says it, it sounds like "uh uh"  and when he really gets into it, he'll say the first "uh" loudly and then the second one really soft.

He loves his cousins, Payton and Riley.  He and Payton are especially little pals.  She is 7 months older than him and now that the gap of his abilities vs hers is closing more, they are so cute together.  Sometimes they will put their foreheads together and turn their heads back and forth while smiling.  It's adorable!  Ryder really loves other kids or babies in general.  Sometimes I will just look up videos of babies on youtube and he watches them and smiles and makes little laughing noises.

Ryder loves Kevin so much!  It's so funny sometimes to see just how huge his reaction is when Kevin walks in the room after coming home from school.  Ryder practically lunges out of my arms to hug his daddy. I love it so much!

Ryder is scared of loud noises like the vacuum, the blow dryer, the mixer in the kitchen, etc...  He gets this terrified look on his face and bursts into tears when he hears those types on noises.

He seriously has such attitude lately!  He is becoming more and more stubborn and freaks out if he doesn't get his way.  Not to mention he only has one volume lately, which is LOUD.  He loves to scream everywhere we go.  In the car, at the store, at church...  It's great fun.

Sleeping has been horrible lately!  Ever since he figured out how to stand up in his crib.  He constantly wants to practice standing up, but then I guess he doesn't know how to get down.  So he gets scared and starts crying.  Eventually I go in and lay him back down.  Within minutes he is right back up though. This goes on and on for hours at a time.  I have not been getting much sleep lately, and I'm afraid that makes me super cranky most days...  I just hope he figures out how to sit down soon...

Ryder really is amazing.  He tests the limits of my patience daily, but he also makes me smile and feel so happy countless times everyday.  There are always so many times throughout the day where I feel like I'm not even coming close to where I want to be as a mom.  However, I keep trying to do my best and above all, I definitely make sure he knows I LOVE him!

 Hanging out with Grandpa Briggs

 Grandma and Grandpa Briggs

Trying to walk

 The other day, Ryder and I were playing outside in the backyard.  I was pushing him on the swings and we were having so much fun!

Happy Birthday to Chad!

Today is Kevin's Dad's birthday!  I couldn't have asked for a better father in law.  He is awesome!  He works so hard for his family and is such a great example.  We love you!

The thing is, when you get as old as Chad, you start forgetting simple things.  Things like taking your toothbrush out of your mouth before you go to sleep :)

(This is classic!)

Happy Birthday Chad!!

Scary Bubble Baths

Ryder is ten and half months old!  Next month, in May, he'll be ONE.  He's so smart and very observant.  He always notices to teeny tiniest little crumb or piece of lint and tries to pick it up.  He loves when Grandma and Grandpa Briggs' grandfather clock chimes.  Wherever we are in the house, he'll always stop and his eyes go wide and he tries to find the clock so he can point to it.  He knows the word dog.  He says it everytime he sees one, he just can't say the "g" at the end.  It's so cute!  He's getting sick of baby food really fast and is usually only interested in what everybody else is eating.  He loves eating with his hands.  When it was warm for a couple days, we went outside and blew bubbles and he loved that!  He would get a huge smile on his face when he could pop one.  He loves playing outside, especially on the swings in our backyard.  He's still nursing really well, so I decided we're just going to keep it up for a while.  He's sleeping pretty well overall.  He goes down at 8, and unless he wakes from teething pain, he'll usually sleep until about 5 or 5:30, and at that point I bring him in to cuddle/sleep in our bed for a few hours. He still doesn't nap much at all, unfortunately.  His hair is slowly getting longer.   It's pretty light still, so it doesn't show up great in pictures.  He is such a funny kid!  He personality is becoming so strong and distinct.  He is getting very good at throwing tantrums...  A skill I would be totally fine without!  We live in a ward that is mostly older more established families, so Ryder is one of about 3 babies.  Everybody at church loves him and we have people tell us all the time how much they love to watch him during church because he is so funny and busy.  Also, pretty much every single time we go anywhere, at least one person comes up and tells us what big, pretty eyes he has.  I'm biased of course, but I definitely think he has gorgeous blue eyes!

A couple of weeks ago, for Ryder's bath time, I decided it would be fun to do a bubble bath.  So while Kevin got Ryder undressed and ready for the bath, I added bubbles and got the bath ready. As soon as we put Ryder in the water, he immediately started crying.  Hard.  He was so scared of the bubbles!  We tried to show him it was ok, but he just got more and more worked up.  He was holding his arms out to be picked up and he was shaking!  Poor baby :(  So we got him out, wrapped him in a towel, and he cuddled with me while we drained the tub and refilled it without bubbles.  We'll have to try a bubble bath again when he's older I guess.  We did get some sweet pictures of him cuddling though (which he doesn't do very often).

One time, when it was snowing, Ryder wanted to see outside.  So I let him sit in the sink upstairs and watch the snow.  He was so cute because he fit so perfectly in there. 

Now that Ryder is crawling and getting faster and faster everyday, I feel like my world has been turned upside down...  He is thrilled at his new found independance and has been exploring everything!  He has now discovered how to pull himself up while holding onto something.  Since that discovery, it almost seems like he's not interested in crawling for fun as much as crawling to find something he can pull himself up with.  I'm a very paranoid mommy and I'm constantly worried he'll slip and smack his eye or crack one of his little teeth.  I'm trying very hard to not interfere with his exploration and learning this new pulling up skill, but I'm always right there ready to help him if he needs it.

 pulling up on my sewing machine

I LOVE this cheesy grin! 

He get's so excited when he's trying new things,

he can't help but smile and show off, haha

 You can see all five of his teeth in this picture. 

His sixth tooth is going to cut through any day now, I wish it would hurry up!

Ta da, look what I can do!