Easter

Ryder had an awesome Easter weekend this year. He really understood the concept of and Easter Egg Hunt, and he LOVED it! I think altogether, we had or went to 4 egg hunts. One was an early morning neighborhood egg hunt, which is the only one I have pictures of. We also went to one at the BYU football stadium with my family, one at the Briggs' house, and one at my family's house. The hunts were spread out over 3 days, and so Ryder started to expect an egg hunt everyday. After Easter weekend I think he was going through withdrawals because he would constantly ask to find more eggs haha. It is so much fun having a little one for holidays. Kids make it so much better!  

 He started a little slow, but once he got going, he never wanted to stop!

 SO serious!

 He didn't want to stop to take a picture :)

 Checking to see how many he has in there so far

 His loot

 digging in on the way home

 sitting with Grandpa Briggs eating his candy

 dying eggs with Kevin

 Me and my bud

 Easter morning and the Easter bunny came!

 Talking about why we celebrate Easter

Off to church we go

First Haircut

Ryder has been in desperate need of a haircut lately. His hair was out of control in the back! The curls were so long, they weren't really curly anymore. Anytime he had his head up against something, like his car seat, highchair, or laying on it, his hair would rub on his head and get so matted! As much as I hated to see the curls go, it was time.  The great thing about hair is it grows, so I know the cute curls will be back. We had Ryder sit in his high chair and I tried to distract him with books and treats while Kevin cut, but he was very scared of the hair clippers. Kevin used the clippers on the bottom and sides, and trimmed the top by hand. Ryder did pretty well overall, and didn't move around too much. I think Kevin did a great job and Ryder looks so cute!

This shows how messy and long the back had become in the back

 His hair wet and combed out, all ready to be cut

 The side view before... mullet!

 During the haircut

 After, side view. No more crazy hair!
 

After, front view :) 

Ouch!

 Today Ryder was walking with me down a hallway and as we came close to a corner, he tripped. He slammed his on the corner of the wall, and my first thought was that he had split his head open and we were going to have to rush to get stitches. I hurried and picked him up and he was crying really hard.  As soon as I was able to see his head better, I could tell he hadn't actually cut it open. It was just a really deep dent, for lack of a better word. After a couple of minutes, a little bit of blood kind of seeped out, but nothing too bad. Poor little guy! I took him to his room and rocked with him in the rocking chair. He cried for a couple minutes but then he was fine. I hate feeling helpless as a parent. The wasn't anything I could do to immediately make him feel better. I did give him some Tylenol to help with the pain and the headache that I'm sure was going to come.  Since it didn't actually cut the skin very much, I don't think he'll have a scar. He sure did get a major goose egg later in the evening though!

By the time I took these pictures, he was actually pretty happy again!

Sunday Best

 Today was our stake conference and our stake presidency was being released and a new one put in. Since it was such a big day, we had a big visitor, Elder Russell M. Nelson. It was a beautiful meeting and it was great to be taught by such an amazing man! Ryder did really well the whole two hours. I was very grateful we didn't have to take him out and walk around because I really wanted to hear the messages today, and two hours is a LONG time for a toddler to be in one spot! We dressed Ryder in his Sunday best and he looked very dapper :)

  (we didn't notice Ryder's shoes were on the wrong feet until we got to church haha!)

After church,we took off Ryder's Sunday clothes to eat some lunch. He was a little cold, so Kevin put his hoodie on him. Obviously it was like a dress on him, but he was so excited to get to wear it! He is such a cute boy!

St. Patty's Day

 For our St. Patrick's Day dinner, we made pasta with green fettuccine alfredo sauce and chicken sausage with green lemonade. It really didn't look appetizing at all, but it was yummy. We also found a green tractor that some leprechauns had left for Ryder. He was pretty excited about that!

 waiting for dinner to be ready

 Ryder enjoyed his green food

 Kevin looks unsure...

Ryder with his tractor from the leprechauns!

What We've Been Up To Lately

 I love hanging out with Ryder during the day, he is my little buddy. I can't believe he is is going to be 22 months old in a few days. He still just feels like my little baby.  Ryder is growing, talking, running, climbing, getting into everything, and playing hard!  He is still really obsessed with cars, trucks, tractors, etc.  He has to carry about 5 little toy cars everywhere we go, even if it's just to the bathroom.  He always has to have his toys tag along.

This shows a typical game of cars on the bed

 This kid loves to dance!  I love these pictures of him dancing with his sunglasses on :)

 

Just playing more cars on the bed

 Ryder trying on his new swimsuit

One morning, the first things he asked for was to put his new sandals on over his socks and for some nutterbutter cookies (or peanut cookies as he calls them).  What a funny boy.

I Love My Family

This morning it seemed like it was just going to be one of "those" days. It was 1:00 and I still had not got myself ready yet. By this point I was very ready for Ryder to take his nap. I went in to get him to sleep, which he normally doesn't have any problems with, but today he just wouldn't lie down. He would easily fall asleep in my arms, but as soon as I tried to lay him in this crib, he would start crying and stand up. I tried to get him to sleep for an hour and it just wasn't happening. I was really frustrated because if Ryder doesn't take a nap, he is extremely cranky the rest of the day. I was losing my patience with Ryder and snapping at him. My mom called right then with a couple questions about something. I wasn't exactly cheerful on the phone with her. I told her I was frustrated with Ryder. After I got off the phone with my mom, I started crying. I'm not sure why, I guess I was just feeling mad at myself for being so annoyed with Ryder. Ryder was instantly very concerned and kept asking, "Mommy?" I felt so guilty! My mom called back a couple minutes later and asked if they could come up here and we could all go get something to eat. I started crying again and said that I would like that. I hurried and got ready and met up with my mom, dad, and Logan at Costco. My mom bought a really cute church outfit for Ryder. Then we went and got some late lunch. It was really fun for me.

The point of this story is that I'm sure it wasn't the most fun afternoon for my parents or Logan, but it meant a lot to me. They dropped everything and drove half an hour up here just to see me and cheer me up. It was exactly what I needed. I'm really lucky to have a family that cares so much about me! Another really great thing about today was that Ryder ended up not being cranky at all (at least no more that usual). That in and of itself was a miracle! Thanks again Mom, Dad, and Logan!

Big Big Mess

 Ryder loves milk. He also loves nutter butter cookies and snacks on them all the time. He is also a very early riser, so a lot of times when he wakes up, I will bring him in to our room.  I will lay on the couch and try and snooze a little bit while he plays. Well one morning, he really had fun making a mess with his milk and some nutter butters. When I saw what he had done I said he had made a "big big mess."  He then kept repeating that while pointing at the mess. The next day, he got into a drawer in the kitchen that i did not realize he could reach yet.  He pulled out a box of toothpicks and emptied all 1500 of them on the kitchen floor. While we were picking them up, he kept saying, "No No. Big big mess!" He actually says "big big mess" all the time now, even when it's just a small mess.

Valentines Day

 Our Valentines Day was very low key this year. When Kevin came home from school, I gave him his presents which were Chex Mix and Ben and Jerry's ice cream. Ryder's presents were a box of fruit snacks, a Thomas the Train book, and a monster truck. We gave Ryder a bath and got him down for the night. Then we had a candlelit dinner complete with some Martinelli's bubbly. It was nice to have a quiet dinner after Ryder was asleep and just be able to talk and relax without Kevin having to rush to go study. For dessert, I made one of my favorite desserts, creme brulee. It was really good! After dessert, he did have to study for the rest of the night, but I'm glad we got to spend some time together!

 

January

January has been a bit of a slow month. Not much has happened. Kevin started back at school and has been super busy.  He is taking 9 credits of graduate level classes, 5 credits of undergraduate level classes, working 20 hours a week, working on his master's research, and trying to find time in there to do homework and study. The counselor at school told him most people at his level don't take more than 9 credits of grad level classes period, let alone without adding more classes and work. It just ended up being the only way to make it work since some of the classes wont be offered again until after he would have graduated.  He is stressed but I know he can do it. He is successful at everything he puts his mind to but I'm sure he will hate the next couple months!

As for me and Ryder, we have just been adjusting back to life after the craziness of the holidays. He has been cutting two teeth on the bottom and has had a really hard time sleeping because of it.  He has been waking up several times a night and then waking up at about 5 am and not going back to sleep.  It has been really ROUGH on all of us. He has never been a great sleeper and has always been an early riser, but this has just been really hard! Despite my best efforts, I don't think I have been the most pleasant mommy lately :(  I think he is getting back on track though.  The last couple nights he has only woken up once or twice.  He now has all his teeth except the second set of molars and I just pray we have a little break before those start cutting through!

Ryder is now 20 months old. He is busy busy busy! He is talking so much (at least at home. He tends to go into observation mode when we are out and about). Kevin and I were curious how many words he knows so we wrote down all the words he says on a regular basis and it's about 80. Our pediatrician said he's doing great since they usually see kids saying around 50 words at their second birthday. He is so obsessed with cars, trains, trucks, tractors, airplanes, helicopters, bikes, boats... anything that "goes". I seriously don't know where he got it from. Neither Kevin or I really introduced him to this interest. He was just drawn to it early on! He loves to get all his cars and line them up one in front of the other. He's very particular about it and hates it if any of them get out of line haha. When he is really excited to show me or Kevin something, he yells out, "MommaDaddaMommaDaddaMaDada!" really fast. It's so funny. He calls his Grandmas, "Bumba" and his Grandpas are, "Bumpa".

He loves going to nursery at church! He definitely needs a lot of practice with sharing though. If someone in nursery is holding a toy he wants, he can have a major meltdown really quick! We are working on it, and will be for years I'm sure. He loves saying prayers, especially saying "amen".  When the prayer is over, he'll yell out "AMEN!" with a huge grin on his face.  I have been teaching him about saying "please" and "thank-you". He is really good at saying "thank-you" but is still learning the "please" part of the equation. When he does say "please" it comes out as "cheeeeese!" I just love him :)

 Covering the floor with pillows on a snowy day and eating a cookie.  He is snuggling with his "dyes" which means sheep. He started out calling them "daaaa" because he was trying to say "baaa", but now it's morphed into "dyes".  Haha, I don't get it.

cute boy

 

 peek-a-boo!

 I love kissing him on his cheek by his ear because he is so ticklish there!

Getting to take a ride with Uncle Tyler on his wheel chair!

Hanging out with Aunt Tara