Visiting Ashton

We were so excited to go visit with the Spangler's today.  Cam and Nathan always have fun playing.  Nonno and Aunt Cara stopped by too so it made it an extra special day!

These two are too funny together.

This little guy was so sweet and slept soundly in my arms.  

It's hard to believe they are only 9 weeks apart.  Riella looks HUGE next to him.

Can't wait to watch these cuties grow up together!

Congratulations, Jenn!

My friend, Jenn got engaged a while back.  We've tried to get together to celebrate for weeks now and have had to reschedule because of bad weather or sicks kids, etc. We finally met up tonight at Sushi on the Rocks.  It is always so nice to see Em and Jenn and catch up.  We have been friends for so long and I so enjoy the time I spend with them.  Jenn is getting married April 12th and we got to catch up on all the fun details.  I'm getting so excited for her big day!

I took Riella with me in hopes she would fall asleep and stay that way in her carseat.  I figured it would make things easier on Robert too.  However, she decided she didn't want to come to Girl's Night Out and not actually join in the fun.  Em and Jenn were happy to cuddle her though. :-)

100th Day of School

Technically, today was the 100th day of school, but Ryker's class went ahead and celebrated Monday as originally planned.  I signed up to help out with the festivities.  Aunt Karen graciously agreed to watch Camden and Riella so I could go.  We were on a 2 hour delay today so the schedule got moved around a bit and I went in after lunch instead of before.  Miss Oliver had lots of fun 100 day activities and stations planned.

The kids were assigned the task of decorating a cape with 100 items to wear on the special day.  Ryker and I decided to decorate his with beads.  We used safety pins and beads I already had on hand.  It was a bit tedious, but fun to work together.

This is him modeling his finished cape Sunday after we finished it up.

Playing with friends at the domino station.  They had 100 dominoes to build with.

The cup station was a big hit.

Miss Oliver was teasing him about his 100 paper.  She said he had done so well that I must've sneaked over and helped.  ;-)

This was my station.  The kids gathered Hershey kisses.  Each one had a number from 1-100 on the bottom.  They had to match up their kiss with the the numbers chart and put them in the correct spot.  

By the time we were done with all the 100 day activities, the day was almost over.  Miss Oliver said they were just going to read a story and get ready to go home and that I could take him early if I wanted.  We took her up on the offer and headed home early.  It was such a fun day and I so enjoyed being in the classroom seeing all the kids Ryker talks about from class.

Today was the true 100th day of school and this is what he brought home.  I died laughing!  So funny!

Another Snow Day

We awoke at 5:00 AM to our phones ringing and buzzing, etc, from all the notifications that school was on a 2-hour delay.  The boys didn't quite get the sleep in memo and were up just before 7:00.  By just after 8:00 we received notice that school was cancelled for the day.

We decided to bring some snow inside for some play  time.  A friend of mine let her kids paint snow a couple of days ago.  We tried using water colors but they weren't working very well and Cam kept trying to eat it, so we switched to food coloring instead.

It ended up being a bit of a mess but it entertained them for a solid hour...totally worth it!

My mother-in-law has been knitting like crazy lately.  This is her newest creation.  I had to take a picture of her in it to send to her.

Cam and I spend some time reading before nap.  His favorite book from the library is one about a dairy farm.  The boy loves cows.  It's making me excited for the trip we have planned to Fair Oaks Farms over spring break. 

Welcome, Ashton James!

We welcomed our new nephew into the world yesterday.  He arrived at 8:09 PM and weighed 8 lbs. and was 21" long.  Since he wasn't born until the late in the day, only Robert was able to go up yesterday.  We picked up Ryker from school and headed straight up this afternoon to meet him.

He is so sweet!

Michelle and I pulled a baby switch.  ;-)

Ryker was so excited to hold him.  He loves babies!

So does this ham.  Like, a lot!

Brother and sister with the newest additions to the family.

We dropped Robert off at the gym to workout with his brother and dad and I stopped at my parents to hang for a bit.

Ryker had a really hard time falling asleep the night before, and ended up falling asleep in the car on the way to Nana and Papaw's at 6:00!

Scenes from our Weekend

Before bed Friday night, I got Ryker's second tooth to come out.  Yay!

I recently got new bedding and we put it all together Saturday. I just love it!

Speaking of bed making, as Ryker was making his bed Sunday morning, I overheard him telling Camden, "This is my bed and it's my responsibility."  Oh, how I love that kid!

The boys are really into smoothies right now.  We mix some up in the blender and they slurp them down in nothing flat.  They aren't allowed to have them in the family room and they were in the middle of a movie, so they pulled over two of the kitchen chairs, drank their smoothies, and watched their movie.  They crack me up.

Ryker is getting to be so independent and such a big kid.  He got hungry and went over in the kitchen, gathered all the ingredients, and made himself a peanut butter and honey sandwich.

Before bed Sunday night, Cam got down with Riella during tummy time to talk to her.  It was too sweet.

Robert had today off, so we planned to get some errands done together.  He took this pic of Riella in her adorable outfit.  Unfortunately, she had to be changed before we ever left due to a blowout.

Cam always has kisses for his baby.  :-)

2 Month Appointment

Today was Riella's 2 month appointment.  We had to reschedule due to the bad weather last week. 

She checked out great and Dr. A said she looked perfect and healthy as can be.  It's so refreshing to not have any medical concerns with her.  With Ryker we had to keep an eye on his hydroceles and a heart murmur.  Camden was still dealing with jaundice at this point too.  

Her stats:

Height: 24.25" 94th percentile

Weight: 12 lbs. 14 oz. 69th percentile

She had 3 shots today.  I'm not sure if it's her delicate girly nature or the fact that her thighs are so much thinner than the boys and she doesn't have that extra layer of chub, but shots were devastating!  She bled and bled and cried and cried.  I couldn't get her to calm down for quite a while afterwards.  Once I picked up the boys and gave them their pacis they calmed down quickly.  Since she refuses a paci that didn't help either.  It was fairly traumatic for me.  It was just so sad!  She was fine the rest of the day though, so all was well. :-)

Back to School

Ryker finally headed back to school this morning.  He had three weeks off between Christmas Break and the week of snow days last week. 

I was a bit worried about how he'd do.  Once I got him up and moving he was fine though.

He was looking studly and was all ready to go.

We were all sad to see him go.  We miss him during the day!

Cam hung with me while I got ready for the day.  He decided he needed to blow dry his hair too.  He's so funny!

I took Cam and Riella to the library and then we picked up lunch and took it to Ryker at school.

It's always nice to hang with him.  He's so funny!  You can really see how his teeth are coming in in this shot.

We headed home and Cam wanted to watch a show.  I set it up for him and took a load of laundry upstairs to put away.  By the time I came back down, he was passed out on the couch.  He's so precious when he's sleeping. 

Sunday Funday

We slept in Sunday morning and hung around home for a bit.

Riella is getting so good at tummy time now.  If you get down on the ground with her, she will even smile and coo at you.  This is a big improvement from her usual crying and screaming.

All that tummy time will wear you out!

We headed over to Nana and Papaw's for dinner and to play with the boys once more before they return to Kentucky tomorrow.  The boys absolutely love when Hudson is in town.  They all play so well together!  

Kate has been trying to get Hudson to say Aunt Amy for a while and he's really trying but it's just not coming out right.  When I was a teenager, I babysat ALL the time.  One little girl, Addie, that I watched full time in the summers and became like a member of our family always called me Mamie.  I suggested maybe he try that instead and he instantly said it perfectly.  Nana has been his favorite word for a while, but once he said Mamie he was walking around saying it a ton.  It was sooo cute and made this auntie's day!  

Happy 3rd Birthday, Nathan!

Today was Nathan's birthday party.  He's not officially 3 until next Saturday, but with Michelle due any day, they opted to have the party early.

The boys had fun playing games with Nathan.

And "riding rides"

Ryker and I had fun on the driving games.  We got 3rd place on this round and were pretty proud of ourselves.  

Cam rather enjoyed the cake.

Nathan did a great job on the ticket blaster. 

The birthday boy with his mom and dad (and Nonno with the awesome photobomb) 

We were trilled to help Nathan celebrate!

Polar Vortex

We have had some severe weather here in Indiana the past week.  The snow started falling Sunday and boy, was it coming down!  It was falling at the rate of about an inch an hour.  It was thick, heavy, wet snow...perfect for snowman building.  Robert and the boys bundled up to go out and play.  Our neighbors, the Rush's, and the new neighbors that just moved in next door ended up outside too.  They worked together to build a huge slide complete with stairs on one side to climb up.  The kids had a blast sledding down their slide.  I love where we live.  It's so nice being on this small, quiet cul-de-sac.  I love our neighbors too.  We didn't have anyone nearby that had kids in our last house and we love that we do now.  I hope the kids have wonderful memories of growing up here playing the neighbor kids out in the street and just being carefree kids.  I grew up like that and treasure those memories so much!

After dinner and naps, the Rush's came over to hang out and play games.

Ryker and Carson happened to have on matching pj's.  These guys are such good buddies. 

We played Guesstures, Taboo, and Farkle.  Amber and I pretty much dominated in Taboo. 

Monday brought freezing cold temperatures.  It was -14 degrees with a windchill of -45.  It was colder here than it was in Antartica and the North Pole!!!  Miss Riella got bundled up in her sweet owl sweatshirt from our friends the McCollister's.  

Robert was scheduled to work from home Monday so he went ahead and worked upstairs.  By some miracle, all the kids fell asleep in the afternoon and I had a quiet house.  I curled up with my Kindle and a Diet Coke to read. It was so nice!

Tuesday was super cold again.  The Mayor asked businesses and schools to remain closed again.  So, Robert was able to stay home and not work today.  We spent a lot of time playing games, watching movies, having wrestling matches, and just hanging out as a family.  The above picture is of our backyard.  It wasn't fun to be outside for sure, but it was beautiful!  I saw the quote last week on Instagram and found it very comforting and soothing.  It helped me focus on what was important and prevented the cabin fever from setting in.

To demonstrate how cold it was, Robert took boiling hot water outside and threw it in the air.  It was crazy to see!  We also did lots of other fun cold weather experiments that Ryker thought were fascinating. 

School was cancelled again Wednesday.  Robert did make the drive in to work and said the roads were awful.  I brought the easel down from the playroom and let the boys paint.  They had so much fun!  Ryker painted a tiger chasing a baby zebra in the jungle.  Camden did a more "abstract" painting.  ;-)

By the afternoon, the temperatures had warmed up enough to go out.  We bundled up while Riella napped and played in the front yard until the sun went down.  Carson came over and they had fun throwing snowballs.  Camden got out his Cozy Coupe and I took him on a ride around the cul-de-sac.  I never imagined using that thing this time of year, but he loved it! 

School was cancelled again Thursday.  I hadn't put the easel up yet and the boys asked to paint again.  They seriously loved it.  Ryker got new brushes and paints for Christmas from my mom and loved getting to use them. 

Robert worked from home again Thursday, so while Camden napped and Ryker watched a movie, Riella and I headed to Target and the grocery store.  This new jumper she's wearing may be my favorite thing in her closet.  It's sooo cute!

Ok, so I really like this one too. :-) There are only a few 3 month size clothes left and we're getting out the 6 month stuff.  This outfit was one of the very first outfits purchased for her.  My mom bought it the day we found out we were having a girl.  It is seriously precious..and that headband- I die!

Ryker's bottom two teeth have been loose since before Thanksgiving.  He has refused to wiggle them much and I've just been checking them every so often.  I checked them Sunday and realized that his adult teeth were already coming in behind them!  I talked to my cousin Mark (he's a dentist) and he said it's not terribly uncommon but it's definitely best to get the baby teeth out sooner rather than later.  So, I told Ryker he better get them out or we'd have to take him to Mark to have them pulled.  Nothing else had worked (not even the money to come from the tooth fairy) but that threat sure motivated him!  We started wiggling it and biting into different things to make it looser.  Ryker watched an episode of Max and Ruby a LONG time ago where Ruby is trying to get her tooth to come out.  After trying several things, she bit into a marshmallow and it came right out so we had to try that.  It didn't come out right away, but it really did loosen it up even more.  Finally, by Thursday night it was hanging by a thread and he let me get it the rest of the way out right before bedtime.  He was so excited!  He didn't want the tooth fairy to take his tooth though so we had to write a note asking to keep it.  

This morning came and he had a fresh glittery dollar from the tooth fairy and he still had his tooth.  He was so happy!  Kate and the boys drove up yesterday afternoon and came over to spend the day with us.  School was cancelled yet again so we were all here to enjoy the boys.  

The temps warmed up quite a bit today and the snow melted off some.  Aunt Kate had dinner plans with friends and so did we.  We met the Rush's at Mama Nita's in town for pizza and then went back to their house.  Amber and I planned for some freezer crock pot meals we wanted to try and the kids played in the basement.  We played Farkle too.  It's becoming our favorite game. 

It was a long week of bad weather, but we really enjoyed our time together as a family.  Ryker really enjoyed being home and has already been saying he doesn't want to go back to school.  :-(