Ryder: 15 months

We cannot get enough of Ryder! He is 15 months old tomorrow! Where has the time gone??? He is so big and so much fun! He is getting to be so smart and impresses me everyday.

I just wanted to do a quick post to record something Ryder does. It is awesome! Ryder usually can point out Jesus! It makes Chase and I feel like wonderful parents. He has been able to do it for awhile and we are so happy when we try to show someone he can and he does.

For example, at tithing settlement (December) we were meeting with the Bishop and Ryder was getting a little antsy. So I say, "Ryder where is Jesus?" And he pointed to the picture hanging in the Bishop's office. Thank you Ryder for making us look like awesome parents!

At night before we go to bed we try to have family scripture "study" and prayer. I will usually read Ryder a few books and then Chase will come in with the Book of Mormon. We then ask, "Ryder who do we learn about in the scriptures.?" We'll then show him the picture of Jesus in the beginning of the book or point to the picture hanging on his wall. Ryder's new thing is as soon as Chase pulls out the Book of Mormon from behind his back, Ryder will immediately point to the picture of Jesus on the wall. I love it! Ryder knows who we learn about. It makes us feel like the best parents in the world. If Ryder can always remember Jesus and follow his example I will be a happy Mom.

He is talking more. He says, Bye, ball, uh-oh, and ink (drink or binky, and sometimes anything he wants at the moment.). Those are his main ones. A ball can distract him from anything. Anytime I want him to go do something else (like when he follows me into the bathroom) I'll say, "Ryder, where is the ball?" and he'll go find one. Sometimes he'll hold up his hands as if he's shrugging and look for it.

He loves shoes and loves being outside. I think those go hand in hand because he knows he needs shoes to go outside. He would spend all day outside if I would let him. Unfortunately it is Summer temperatures so our outside time is limited.

His favorite indoor place to play is on Chase's night stand. We are "borrowing" Risk from Chase's moms and for the time being it is sitting next to Chase's bed. Ryder will go in our room and stand on the game and play with things on his night stand. Usually coins and other little knick knacks. There was a screw driver at one point and he looked like he was working on the alarm clock. It's so funny how he has made that his little play area.

Pictures taken April 29, 2012 (almost 15 months)

Playdough

So spur the moment the other day I decided to make playdough. I don't remember the recipe I used it was on the instructables.com website. There are a million out there so it's be easy to find. This was Ryder's first encounter with it and he seemed to enjoy it.

Tastes good too!

Towards the end he just wanted to put it in the cup holder of his high chair.

1 batch of the play dough made 4 1/2 balls that were a good size. We made blue, yellow, red, and green. The 1/2 ball I didn't color and am going to put inside a balloon. I've seen it online and kids for some reason really love to play with it. It will be a part of Ryder's Church Toy Basket.

Water table

For Easter our family got this water and sand table. My Niece has one and the kids seem to enjoy it. I got it for like $6 the end of last summer. Last night we decided it test it out. Ryder loved it! We made a rule to either be in diaper or swim suit, he got pretty wet...!

He really ended up just dumping it on himself.

Tonka and Ella enjoyed the company!

It's hard to tell, but he got pretty wet! Well worth it, he had so much fun!!!

Easter Weekend 2012

Finally getting around to posting about Easter. It was a fun day and Ryder really enjoyed it!

The day before was filled with festivities too! In the morning my parents ward did and Easter Bfast. It had yummy pancakes and tons of eggs. Ryder was too slow and only got a few eggs, but he had the most fun there I think! He loves being outside!

Saturday was my Grandma's 90th Birthday! Can you believe it??? Us girls [minus Steph & Little Britt:( ] took Grandma out to lunch. It was fun to spend time with her and gives my Grandpa some time to himself:)

That night we got together with Friends and Family and celebrated! We had catered food from Some Burros and enjoyed each others company. The cousins had a blast (as always) playing with each other. Love you Grandma!

Easter morning we woke up to this from the Easter Bunny and plastic eggs all around the house for Ryder to find.

Water/sand table
Each of us got our own chocolate bunny
Dog Treats
Ball
2 books
ABC & Counting CD
Eggs with candy in them
(The Easter Bunny always leaves something churchy, this year was a CTR Tie tac)

Ryder wasn't sure what we were talking about when we got him out of his crib, but he was excited all the same.

He had to stop and make a basket before searching for eggs

He was very excited about that ball!

So sad this picture came out blurry:(

So Handsome!

Those are Ryder's new church shoes. Last night heading home from Grandma's party (9:30pm) I decided I wanted Ryder to have church shoes. Payless was closed, checked Target and these were all they had. Definitely room for his feet to grow.

Easter Egg Hunt @ Mema & Pampas!

We decided to do plastic eggs this year because no one really had time to color eggs. Each person brought how many they wanted their kid to walk away with. Chase had a fun time hiding them. The age range was from 10 years to 9 months.

Ryder loved Easter. Can't wait for him to be older so we can do more things to teach him the real reason for Easter!

Ryder's first haircut!

Ryder had his first Haircut on April 6th (he was 14 months old). He had been needing it for awhile, but I loved his curls and didn't want to see those go. But after too many "what a sweet little girl" comments from strangers and with Family events/ Easter coming up I wanted to just get it done.

We went to Cool Cuts 4 Kids. It is really expensive! I "had" a $7 off coupon that made it the same price as the beauty school, but of course when I go to pay it was expired. So annoying! (it was a coupon with a sale on hair products on it, the Expiration date was for the sale, the coupon expired earlier.)

BEFORE

DURING

AFTER

Isn't he so handsome! I cannot get enough of how Sweet my BOY is! He did such a good job. He sat very still. They have TVs and you get to choose what movie to watch. We picked The Wiggles because that is about the only thing he sits through. Then when he was done he got a dum dum. LOVED IT!!!

Forget Me Not

Chase gave me a challenge today to do something spiritual. I always know I need to do this, but I seem to always put it on the back burner.

Today I went to lds.org to find something to read. At first I was just going to read the first thing I found, but then I decided I wanted to read one of my favorite talks. It was in the Relief Society Broadcast 2011. Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf's talk intitled "Forget me not". One of my favorite parts that apply to ANYONE:

"... wherever you are, whatever your circumstances may be, you are not forgotten. No matter how dark your days may seem, no matter how insignificant you may feel, no matter how overshadowed you think you may be, your Heavenly Father has not forgotten you. In fact, He loves you with an infinite love.

You can read the entire talk here (which I encourage!)

Zoo Trip

My sister's zoo membership expires this month so we want to get a few more times in before it does. We went to the zoo on Wednesday. It was a lot of fun. Only downside is Wednesdays are field trip day so there are a ton of kids there.

When we first got there we had to wait for Preggers (aka Brittany) to go to the bathroom. As we waited some ducks came up to us. Kaden even touched it. The kids had fun chasing after the ducks.

An unplanned tradition is we always go to the reptiles first. That is what Kaden always says he wants to see first.

This is about the time Ryder went wild looking at everything. He had some much fun. He could walk around and go where he pleased...

Outside of the reptile place they have this little half wall that has some birds in it. Ryder wanted nothing more, but to look over this wall that was just his size.

He'd even get up on his tippy toes!

As we were walking around having a swell time we came across this fowl. We decided to make friends with it...

Even Mema tried befriending him.

He followed us for about 30 seconds, we named him Fred. He was our friend...

Until Ryder chased after him...

Sad day, all well, Ryder had fun!

This was the first trip that Ryder actually acted like he cared!

How cute is my boy???

The day was like a never ending game of musical seats (without the music).

Ryder took his turn and pushed Hunter for a little bit. What a trooper!

Does anyone else remember when the alligators (or crocs) were at the end of this little bridge thing? I remember it being so scary because you were surrounded and it looked like it could break any second. Now they have flamingos and a few other animals.

For some reason I absolutely love this picture!

It was a fun time. Afterwards Mema treated us to Olive Garden and then the kids had fun playing outside in Mema's backyard. We're hoping to get one more trip in before the membership expires.