Christmas Day and beyond

Christmas morning and day were so much fun.  Ryan loved ripping the paper off and seeing what was inside whether it was his or not!! Emma just laid around.  Here are just a bunch of random pics from the day......

Ryan loves for emma to hit or kick him--so he gets in her face to see what happens

Ryan trying to get on his new tricycle

Ryan and Daddy

Sweet Emma wide awake

Ryan sitting at his new table playing with water--yes in the living room

Well Ryan and Emma got lots of great stuff from their family and friends (thanks everyone).  I think it was a great celebration.  Of course these are just a few of the 400 photos I have from the week long festivities with my family and mike's family.  Maybe later I will post some from those events-----

Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas Eve at home with our families.  Here are just two pics from that night---

Ryan holding Emma

The family all dressed up after church!

Christmas Time Fun

Just some random fun photos from the past few weeks---

My big girl we weighed her the other day and she is at 9lbs 13 oz. Getting big soo fast!!

My big boy--he had his 18month checkup and weighed in at 25 lbs!! He is a little guy! He is looking out our front window wanting to go play in the cold weather!

A trip to see Santa at my moms office--waiting for that picture--Ryan screaming, Mike and I laughing and Emma sleeping.  The bonus was they had a fire truck for the kids to play on which Ryan loved.  But here is the family photo--my how things change in three years.  Mike and I just celebrated our 3rd anniversary and remembered our Christmas card that year was just the two of us on a fire truck!!

Ryan playing in the little snow that we had here in Cypress Texas!! You can barely see some on him.

Ryan playing on snow at my moms church.  There he got to pick it up and throw some!!

Overall December is going well.  We are anxiously waiting Santa's arrival.  We have been busy preparing and doing fun Christmas things--this is only a few of them.  I will post more as we do more.  Hope everyone is having a good Christmas season. 

Fire Station

Ryan, Emma and I went to visit Mike at work the other day and Ryan had the time of his life with the "Wee Woos." Mike enjoyed getting to see his family when he normally doesnt see us for 24 hours.  

Ryan sitting in the driver seat

Ryan walked all around the pumper and ambulances examining them and saying "wee-woo." Ryan just kept looking at Mike and I with a huge smile and pointing at the pumper as to be saying can  you believe what we are seeing!!

Standing on the back.  It was a great day- I think we made Ryans week!! 

Christmas Tree

We went to get our Christmas Tree--our family tradition is to go to a tree farm and cut it down all together.  Not as easy to do anymore with one very busy little boy!! Ryan had fun walking all over the tree farm with dad looking for our perfect tree.  

Ryan taking a break with his new toy--a stick he found on the ground.

Sweet Emma in the baby bjorn--I know bad photo but I had to take one of her to prove she was there.  She slept the whole time--next year she will enjoy it more.

Ryan walking all around--he is into exploring on his own and hiding which he did at the tree farm.

After you cut the tree down a tractor with a trailer come and pick you and the tree up.  Ryan did not take his eyes off the tractor--he was loving it!!

Then while Mike was putting the tree in the car we went to the hay pile to play.  They set up a huge pile of hay for kids to play in.  At first Ryan was unsure then he jumped right in and enjoyed playing.  Overall it was a fun day--windy and cold but that made it feel more like Christmas.  I will post later pictures of the tree all decorated.  

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.  We did however, I took no pictures so no cute photos to post from the day.  My mom made a great spread and we spent it at her house with Mike's family and my family.  It was a good day!! 

2 weeks

We have made it two weeks as a family of four!!!  Things are going good, I can finally drive which is great.  Emma so far is being a good baby like her brother was, sleeps and eats great as of now. (I am probably jinxing us!!)  Here are some pics from the first two weeks----

We went to the duck pond in the stroller and this is Ryan checking on Emma--a good big brother

Our first bath, we didnt like it too much the first time.  Now baths go much better!!

Emma's cute hat that I bought her, however her head is too small.  The hat makes her look like a bishop or something!! I cant wait for it to fit her because I love the hat!

Trying to get a picture of Ryan loving on his sister.  This was very hard because one of them is always in motion and my camera is incredibly slow.  However this one turned out cute.  Ryan loves to touch and kiss his sister. I sometimes cant wait for them to be bigger and see them play together.

Emma just chilling in the swing.  She likes the swing so far.  Emma had her checkup this morning and is gaining weight and growing like she should.  She weighed 7lbs 6oz and was 20 inches long today.  Dr. Taylor was very glad for her weight gain!! Then later today we have a friend coming to take her newborn pics- so stay tuned for better pictures!!

Emma Kate

We are a family of four!! Emma Kate made her debut November 5, 2008 at 12:47pm via c-section.  It all went great.  The whole experience was actually and has actually been good.  We are all home and doing good.  Recovery is going slowly but surely-- I feel good just getting up is sometimes hard. Emma is sleeping and eating well, Ryan is adjusting.  He really likes it when Emma moves or makes noise.  He is really sweet with her and will kiss her head, I know when the time comes he will be a great big brother!!

Right out of the womb!!

Well that is now us!! I love our new family.  We cant wait for you all to see us and watch us grow!! I will continue to post pictures as I get the chance as we are headed into the holiday season and I am off work!!

Halloween

Halloween was lots of fun around here.  We had lots of visitors to come see Ryan in his outfit. My mom made his costume--he was his favorite thing a puppy dog!! He would even bark for you in his costume!!  He did great he left it on all night and he stayed up way later than usual--9pm!!  We had a little sinking spell around his bed time but we gave him some chocolate and he was back better than ever!!  Here are some photos from the night-

Well this is his hat from preschool that he loves to wear--its a spider!

Ryan with his "apples" For some reason you point to a pumpkin and ask what is it he says apple everytime.  It really is funny he wont say pumpkin.

The Family.  

Ryan and Camden (she was a witch)  The two of them sat and played a large portion of the night.  But really Camden took a liking to Aunt Stacy and wouldnt leave her alone!!

Ryan eating candy and digging in his bucket for more.

And there the sweetest face ever.  How could you deny this puppy anything.

Another Texan Game

We went to another Texans Game as a family and Ryan loved it even more this go round.  We went with Chris, Carrie and Reagan (mikes brother and family). This time was extra special because after the game we got to go on the field and the kids got to play.  Chris and Carrie know a player and so we got a backstage look at after the game.  It was really cool--Ryan has no clue how cool it was!!

This is on the way into the game, we took our stroller and when Reagan got tired of walking she got in the stroller and held Ryan while we pushed.  Ryan sat on Reagans lap for a long time as we walked around the tailgaters.  It was really cute she just held on to him and he didnt try to move.

 Reagan and Ryan on the field after the game.  Ryan would look at me for the photo and Reagan was looking at her Daddy for the photo.  Oh well still very cute!!

Our family photo--its hard to get him to look at the camera on command.  Ryan just wanted to run around.  This is the first family photo in about 6 months and we are weeks away from adding an addition.

Ryan Running on the field.  He just ran and ran--it was too cute.  Overall a great day, thanks Chris and Carrie!!

Pumpkin Patch

We have ventured to the pumpkin patch.   Ryan and I first went one day with Guppie and Phil--Ryan just liked to sit at this table.  He did walk around but he really liked the table.

Then Ryan, Mike and I all went to buy our pumpkins.  We went to a local church that had the cutest setup.  Lots of pumpkin people and places set up to take photos but Ryan would not go near the people. (ie the wizard of oz and the yellow brick road--all four characters made of grass and pumpkin heads, they had a firefighter, they had Buzz and Woody--Ryan cared less!)

Here is the only semi-smile I got most of the time he was walking around saying Truck pointing out all the trucks driving down the road infront of the church.

Ryan growling with his pumpkin

Trying to pick up a pumpkin to load in the wagon--too heavy

Pushing the wagon with our pumpkins. (Dad was pulling)

Overall we all enjoyed the pumpkin patch, Mike and I laughed at what photos with Santa will be like this year after seeing him with the pumpkin people!!!

Texans Football

So we went to our first Texans game with Ryan.  He did great!! He was very nervous at first with the loud noises and all the people screaming.  By half time he was enjoying it and well by the fourth quarter he had had enough.  It was a good game however the Texans lost to the Colts in the last minutes--put a downer on the day!!

Walking around the tailgaters

Dad and Ryan in the stands

Fourth quarter--he sleep through all the yelling that was involved in this quarter as we watched the Texans throw the game away

Well and if some of you are wondering about the marking on his face--that happened on my watch--hence the picture of Ryan and I finally.  Ryan was in Emma's room and I walked out to put something into his room and the next thing I heard was screaming.  When I had left him he was in a baby rocking chair on his bottom rocking-- I think he rocked right out and hit his face on the foot of the rocker.  Needless to say we have a large bruise and swollen cheek to our face, hopefully it will go away soon!!

Hurricane Ike

Well we survived without too much damage.  It was a little scary at times--this was my first hurricane!!! Friday during the day we just played outside and waited... all our neighbors for the most part stayed and we all just hung out.  Then in to sleep before we lost power.  Ryan slept through most of it, in our room, thankfully.  Mike however barely slept Friday night during the storm it was too much for him, he had to keep looking out the windows and checking on everything.  We lost power about 1 am and then at about 330am we went and stood on our porch just to see.  It was really windy it looked as if it was going to split the tress.  Then we woke Saturday to see the rest of the damage and enjoy the rainy day.  We were out of power for about 38 hours.  Thankfully after the storm we went and got a camper trailer to sleep in.  Ryan and myself along with the neighbors slept in it Saturday night and then Sunday we got power back!!!  Now we are just getting everything cleaned up and back to normal.  We were very fortunate to get power back soo fast as most of Houston still is without power.  Here our some pictures from the Hurricane days.

Ryan and the Carney girls looking for the storm on Friday.....

Ryan getting ready to go play in the leftover rain Saturday morning

Then we went and drove around to see the damage in our area on Saturday.  This is the entrance to our neighborhood. This big tree was blocking it, so we went another way. 

This is the Valero station around the corner.  

Those are just a few of the pictures I took of the local damage.  It was crazy to drive around and see all the trees down, the amazing thing was to see how many trees barely missed the actual house.  Where we live we have tons of big tall skinny trees that all just snapped right in half-- very sad but thankful at the same time it could have been much worse. 

Ryan got tried on our drive around and rested.  I think he enjoyed the moments of AC. 

After the nap it was back to playing.. I love puddles and rain!!

Oh and one last picture this is the extent of our damage--what a blessing.  One small tree in our backyard snapped in half.  I was sad because that was the only shade in the backyard and it wasnt much.  Now we will have to buy a new tree and wait a few more years for shade.