Chuck E Cheese

    I guess at some point I must have signed Ryder up for the Chuck E Cheese birthday club because I got an email for his half-birthday with a coupon for 20 free tokens.  Since Kevin was on a break from school and work for Thanksgiving, we decided to take Ryder there.  This was the same Chuck E Cheese that Kevin and I went to on our first date :)

   Ryder definitely liked riding all the little kiddie rides.  We "helped" him play some games and win some tickets.  He got some cool little prizes when we left.  He is still too young to really be able to enjoy going there, but it was still fun!

 Poor Ryder!  He REALLY wanted to ride on this big monster truck that tips from side to side.  Well, I guess it was scarier than he was expecting, because he started crying and wanted to get off!

 

 There is a little game that takes your picture and then prints out a "sketch" of it for you.  Ryder's face cracks me up!  He was too busy watching the screen to smile.

Boxes and Shoes

Sometimes the best toys are not even toys at all.  The other day I made a little "lounger" for Ryder in a cardboard box.  He thought it was so cool!  He was climbing all over it, and kept making engine noises (to him it was a car).  Eventually he got tired and just curled up inside it.  How sweet!

 

 

 

 

 Ryder loves wearing "big" shoes.  He always is trying on mine or Kevin's.  He's actually getting pretty good walking in them too!  Here he is walking around in Kevin's shoes.  We definitely get a kick out of him!

 

Finger Painting

Since it's been getting colder, I have been trying to think of things Ryder can do indoors.  One day, we made some homemade finger paints.  I put him in the bath tub with some paper and we painted for a little bit.  He was really intrigued with the paint on his fingers.  He loved squishing it!

Not too sure of what's going on...

Checking out the paper

We tried to do a hand print to make a Thanksgiving turkey, 

but it was pretty much impossible to get a clear one!

Playing in the Leaves

 Ryder loves playing outside and we had a lot of fun playing with the leaves once they started falling. These are some pictures from last month.  It was starting to get chilly but he didn't seem to mind.  He's such a curious and smart boy!  I love all the little things we get to do together day to day.  It's a simple life, but I wouldn't want it any other way.  It's all these quiet, little times we have that I will miss so much someday.

I LOVE this picture!  Such a sweet face.

 Running to give me a hug!

Beautiful Autumn leaves!

Our Little Oompa Loompa Snow Baby

On Friday night and Saturday morning this past week, it snowed a bunch! We got about 10 inches and it was beautiful!  On Saturday morning, Ryder really wanted to go outside and check out the white stuff.  So we got out all his new snow clothes and bundled him up.  I guess I didn't do a very good job of tucking his pants into his boots, so they just poofed out on top of his boots.  Kevin and I were laughing so hard because he looked just like a little Oompa Loompa from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  It was even funnier when he waddled around like that.

We went outside and put him down in the snow which was really deep for him.  He was really freaked out because he couldn't move and he almost started crying.  He definitely doesn't like the snow yet, but seeing as it's only November, he has all winter long to get used to it!

Trick or Treat!

  Happy Halloween!!

This was Ryder's second Halloween and first time trick or treating.  He didn't really understand what we were doing, but he definitely caught on pretty quick that everytime we went to a door, they gave him free candy!  He liked that a lot.  It wasn't that cold at all, and we went around our neighborhood for about an hour.  It was so much fun.  It made me feel like a kid again!  I think next year will be even better because he will definitely understand more what to do.

 Blue fuzzy monster

 

Ryder was anxious to get outside

He was so mad that we were trying to take pictures!

As soon as we got outside, he was HAPPY!

 He was so cute walking along.  Kevin joined us after taking these pictures.

 I made his first candy bag for him.  I made it out of an old pair of pants!

This is all of Ryder's candy.  He got quite the stash for a one year old, not to mention a bunch of full size candy bars!  He's definitely going to be sharing almost all of it with me and Kevin.  There's no way I'm letting him have all that sugar.  Plus, I have to share his candy now before he is old enough to realize it!

Halloween Party

We had our annual Halloween party on Saturday the 29th this year.  It's was sort of a 50's theme.  I have so much fun planning this every year.  I start in August!  I LOVE Halloween!  Christmas is still my favorite holiday, but Halloween is very close behind it!  It is always so fun to have our families come and hang out and I'm glad they come, even if just to humor me :)  We missed a bunch of people this year, hopefully they can come next time!

 

I had a lot of fun making Halloween crafts this year.  This picture shows some of the crafts/decorations I made.  I made scratch off tickets for everyone to see how much extra candy they won for their treat bags.  I was able to find a bunch of "vintage" candy, so it was cool to have that.

 This shows some of the other decor for the party

 

Of course we had some yummy treats.  We had some chicken pot pie dinner, salad, fruits and veggies, popcorn, and lots of sweets!  There were cake balls made by Jeannine, apple cider, mini caramel apples, whoopie pies, and cupcakes.  The cupcakes were my favorite!  They were browned butter pumpkin cake with salted caramel frosting. 

 And we couldn't have a Halloween party without some awesome costumes!  Since the party was 1950's themed, some people followed that theme, but you certainly didn't have to. Chad and Jeannine went all out for their costumes as Batwoman and the Joker and I loved it!  Ryder was pretty freaked out by both of them, but especially Grandpa!  If you are wondering what my dad was dressed as, he was a "black eye" haha!

I sure do love doing this party every year, but it's a ton of work and by the time it comes and goes, I'm pretty glad it over :)

Happy Birthday to My Hubby!

Happy Birthday to my eternal sweetheart!  Kevin turned 26 today!  It was a  low key birthday this year since I was feeling under the weather.  I made him breakfast in bed, German pancakes, our favorite.  Then he got to open some presents which included a gift certificate to an online tie store, 2 movie tickets, a shirt that made for him, and a new laptop!  We went and got noodles and company for dinner and Jamba Juice as a treat.  Then we came home and had cupcakes and watched a movie on his new laptop.  I love you so much and couldn't think of a better soul mate to have!

 The shirt I made for Kevin.  I think it turned out pretty good.  We went to the store today, and some random guy we don't know came up to Kevin and said, "Hey man, nice shirt!"  How many times do guys compliment a guy they don't know?  Also, a lady ringing Kevin up at the store told Kevin she thought his shirt was cool. So that made me and Kevin pretty happy :)

The cupcakes I made for Kevin were a recipe I let him pick out from Pinterest.  They are called Brownie Batter Chocolate Fudge Cupcakes.  They actually have brownie batter in the middle of the cupcake batter.  Also, the frosting was my favorite chocolate frosting I have ever had.  It has 5 cubes of butter in it, need I say more? I love cupcakes, seriously love all things sugar, and these cupcakes nearly put me in a chocolate coma...  they are extremely rich!  I could only finish half.  Here's the link to the recipe: 

http://www.kevinandamanda.com/whatsnew/new-recipes/brownie-batter-chocolate-fudge-cupcakes.html

Cute little Bum

Ryder got quite the stomach bug this week, and he was pretty miserable!  One night we were up all night because he was had diarrhea every half hour or so.  It was so sad and I was crying right along with him because I hate feeling so helpless.  There wasn't anything I could do to stop it.  All I could do was rock him and tell him I love him (and change his diaper a million times...)  I caught whatever he had but I didn't get it nearly as bad.  Just a little nausea.  He is doing much better and I'm so thankful!  Toward the end of the week, he was getting better, but his poor little rear end was pretty sore from the week, so I let him run around without his diaper on to "air him out".  He thought it was pretty awesome!  At one point he climbed up on the piano bench and started playing on the piano.  It was too cute not to take some pictures! 

Beautiful Autumn Day!

The other morning, I went outside to get the mail, and this is what I saw...

The pictures don't do it justice.  It was breathtaking though! The mountains so colorful, the sun shining through the clouds... What a beautiful world we live in!