Twenty Weeks - Happy Father's Day!

I've been trying hard to find some time to get some 4 month pictures of Ryder.  It really does make a difference going from two to three kids.  I keep saying to Jim that I'm not sure when we are going to ever catch up with our lives again.  I am lucky enough to have another little model when I get out my camera - CHEESE!

Not too many ways to pose this little guy - one thing is always the same in his pictures - BIG EYES!  He always looks like he is surprised!  He certainly does love to roll over!  He has gone from hating his stomach to sleeping all night on his stomach.  Ryder has rolled from his stomach to his back one or two times, but just doesn't seem too interested in doing it himself.

I decided this week that we should start offering Ryder his cereal on a spoon vs. through a bottle.  The cereal has made such a huge difference.  He is officially sleeping through the night...well he isn't eating at night :)  He does wake up around 4am crying, but it only takes his pacifier to go back to bed.

He wasn't the biggest fan!  Maybe we will try again in a few days!

On Thursday night I worked with the kids on Jim's Father's Day present.  I bought some coozies at JoAnns and some foam stickers for them to decorate them with.  Brody did a nice job with his pirate theme and Addisen put 15 birds on the inside, outside and bottom of her coozie.  They couldn't wait to show him so we headed to give him his present a few days early!

My little doughnut girl!

My parents, brother and Jenny were all with us at the cottage to celebrate Father's Day.  Addisen spent the night with them at the cottage on Saturday night, her first time staying away from us alone.  She had a great time and got up really early with Miss Jenny!  Jim went with Brody and one of his friends to watch the local hockey team in the playoffs on Saturday night.  On Sunday morning we got up and headed to the cottage to meet everyone.

We got bobo all new fishing gear!  He will be spending a lot of time fishing with Brody!

Jim got a few homemade gifts from the kids and a new speaker for his iphone.

Mr. Ryder posed for a few more pictures! 

 

I just love those cheeks and big eyes!  He seems to be a combination between Addisen and Brody.

I hope everyone had a great Father's Day!  We certainly had a great time celebrating two dads, although we wished we could have celebrated with Poppy too!

Nineteen Weeks - Last Day of School!

This week was bittersweet for us - it was Brody's last week of DK. So many emotions around the end of Brody's first year of school and the idea that he would be leaving his beloved Mrs. Zimmerman!  On the last day of school it was "Beach Day", so of course Miss Addisen had to find some sunglasses too!

That first teacher in your life makes such an impact.  I am so thankful for Mrs. Zimmerman and all of the love and life lessons she showed Brody.  We really could not have asked for a better teacher!

One of Brody's best buds, Aaron.  Hopefully they will meet again in Kindergarten!

We celebrated the start of summer by taking Brody out to the local Putt Putt and Go Cart place.  He was so excited to find out that it would be just us going, no Addisen!  We had a great afternoon and then headed up to the Cottage for our first "Summer Weekend".

I took Brody and Addisen out for a walk Saturday morning, it was my first chance in a while to get some new pictures of them!

I often sit and reflect on Sundays as we head home....I am just so thankful that we have had the opportunity to get the cottage.  It was one of my dreams for a few years, and I am just amazed that it all worked out so early in our lives.  We have been so lucky for the location and the great neighbors we have.  One of Brody and Addisen's favorite things to do is to take a walk down the road and toss rocks at the boat launch.

As we were walking down the road we found A LOT of ants...so the kids had a stomping party!

I thought this picture would be so cute...then I got it on my computer and just had to laugh.  Look at their expressions and then the sign...yep these are my slow children!

Maybe this sign was a little better choice!

Silly kids!

I hope these two always find each other as cool and fun to be with as they do now.

Of course we had to head off to the petting zoo - finally the bird house was open! 

Poor Mr. Ryder had a rough week.  He ended up having an allergic reaction to one of his vaccines.  On Thursday morning he woke up and I found hives on his arms and face.  I sent some pictures to our doctor and she had me give him benadryl.  I took him in to the office and luckily by the time we got there they had started to go away.  We watched him for the next few days and finally by Sunday it seemed like the reaction was starting to stop....poor guy!  It's probably a good thing that he is our last baby....not sure what else could go wrong with my kids!

 

 

Eighteen Weeks - Memorial Day

Of course this week has limited pictures because I forgot my camera for the weekend!  It was filled with so much fun and a lot of time out on the water and in the sun!

A picture of little miss Addisen sporting her lifejacket on the pontoon boat.  We were able to get it in the water on Friday and go for our first family ride Friday night.  Then on Saturday my parents, brother and Jenny all came - it was a great time with the kids!  It is so much fun to just go out for a little stroll around the lake!

 

Mr. Ryder sporting his sun hat.  As you can tell by the picture he is really starting to drool more.  He was waking up a lot at night for the last week.  On Monday I took him to the doctor because I was worried about his breathing (so scared he was following in his siblings footsteps).  I also took Addisen because I thought she might have an ear infection.  She got a clear bill of health, but poor Ryder had two ear infections!  No wonder the poor guy had so much trouble sleeping!  He was sounding a little wheezy too - so he got a breathing treatment when we got hom.  I couldn't believe that he had double ear infections - he really didn't complain about eating or even cry much during the day!

The first picture of me and the kids.  Don't we all look great!  Addisen is squinting in the sun and the two boys looked terrified...oh well I will take what I can get! 

 

Ryder had his 4 month well child visit today.  The good news of the appointment is that his breathing is much better and his ears are almost all the way cleared up!  What a relief.  The bad news is that I don't have a reason for him getting up every 3 hours to eat at night!  I am going to give a few more days, but if he doesn't seem to go back to his schedule of getting up once a night, we will probably introduce cereal to see if it helps tide him over!

 

He is our BIG boy!  He weighed in at 16lbs 11oz (up 4oz from the week before) and measured 26.5 inches long!  He had grown 2 inches in 2 months!  I looked back at Brody's blog posts from his 4 month appointment and he was 2lbs less than Ryder - I wonder if he will continue and end up being our little linebacker!  Of coures his head circumference is off the charts - but now we don't worry because all three of the kids have had big heads!

 

When I went to pick Ryder up for his appointment there was a sign on his door that said there was a case of RSV in his room!  My worst nightmare!  I'm glad I didn't see it the week before when he was having breathing issues.  I vowed to nurse Ryder until he was 6 months old trying to save him from the path his brother and sister had gone through - and with this sign and his ability to fight off the virus he had the week before - maybe we did it!

 

Ryder continues to eat about 4.5-5oz every 3-4 hours during the day.  He is wearing some 3-6 month clothes but is definitely starting to move up into the 6-9 month clothes.  His size will actually work out nicely for using some of Brody's clothes.

Seventeen weeks

Rockford had it's annual Relay for Life on Friday night, so of course we had to try to cram it in before going to Brody's T-ball Game.

Here is Addisen modeling the sunglasses she won in one of the booths and the dinner that we were quickly trying to eat!  She is such the little superstar!

 

Life continues to get easier in our house.  Ryder is officially HAPPY!  I didn't know that this day would truly come and that the moments where I felt I wouldn't make it would become a distant memory.  For a moment during the day I could kind of imagine another little baby in our lives...and then reality returns and I think NO WAY!  My friend told me that Ryder was meant to be, I always wondered if I was "done" having kids after Addisen, Ryder came along to leave no doubt in my mind...we are done :)

Uncle Neal spoiled Addisen with a Princess Dress (complete with a wand, crown and white gloves - not pictured here!).  She put it on Saturday morning and decided that it was the outfit for the day!  Luckily we were able to convince her to change before we left for Meijer - it is a little revealing at the top!

Addisen is truly our little sunshine!  She does have her tantrums, but the majority of time she is just full of smiles!  She loves to be silly and copy EVERYTHING that her big brother does, especially the things he shouldn't be doing!  She is full of love for her brothers - every night she needs hugs, kisses, pounds and hi fives.  I don't know what I would do without my baby girl!

This weekend was our first trip to the cottage as a family of five!  Ryder did pretty well there, a little difficulty going to bed at night, but otherwise was a happy little guy.

It was a weekend of getting things ready at the cottage.  We haven't gotten our boats out yet, although Jim and Brody did get the speed boat cleaned up (let's just hope it floats!)

 

Next weekend we will be celebrating Memorial Day with my parents, brother and Jenny at the cottage.  It should be a fun weekend with only 2 bedrooms and 9 people!  Hopefully we will have the boat in the water and good weather!

Sixteen weeks - Happy Mother's Day!

We celebrated Mother's Day at Grandma and Bobo's house.  They wanted to get some new pictures of the kids - and Addisen was more than willing to pose!

We even lucked out with a good one of Brody!

It was a great opportunity to get some updated pictures of us too - Can't think of the last time we had a picture taken of just Jim and I.

And finally - a picture of our whole family!  My mom said she saw this and it surprised her to see how big our family of five looked!  It is a pretty good picture of all of us - although Ryder is looking a little stunned!

We couldn't leave out Uncle Neal and Jenny!  Their insta family!

This year I made my mom this photo for Mother's Day - it was a combination of two things I saw on Pinterest.  It was an interesting night - drawing on the kids feet made them laugh and then to try to get them to all lay in the grass with their feet up...not so easy (hence Jim's head and hands in the picture!).

I'm trying to get some more pictures of Grandma and Bobo with the kids - this is typically what it looks like these days.  Ryder enjoying Grandma and Brody enjoying Grandma's Ipad!

Ryder has successfully passed the stages of Colic.  I never thought I would see this day come!  It all changed on May 3rd, he started smiling and talking more than he was crying!  We are now only up one time a night (anytime between 1-3am) and bedtime is about 7:30-7:45.  The routine is now down to just enough time to eat and them maybe 15 minutes of putting the pacifier back in if needed.  Wow - what a change!  I actually have about an hour each night to sit by myself and relax!

Jim ran in the 5/3 Riverbank 25k this weekend.  He did great, finishing in under 2 hours!  I had planned to do the 5k Walk with my parents and the kids...unfortunately we got there and the tire was flat on the stroller.  No one volunteered to carry Addisen 3 miles...so we just spent some time visiting my work and then waiting for Jim at the finish line.  We will try again next year!

Fifteen Weeks

 

One of my favorite photos of Jim and the kids.  This has become our bedtime routine for the last few days. The kids love reading in Ryder's room!  Our favorite book right now is from Aunt Chrissy, Boss Baby - very fitting for Mr. Ryder!

Brody had a t-ball game on Friday and it was COLD and rainy!  My mom and I stayed home with the kids and Bobo and Jim braved the weather.  I really enjoyed the pictuers that Bobo captured - I guess Brody likes to run with his tongue out!

I would have loved to see Brody play catcher!  I can't imagine him having to pay attention to all the balls that were coming his way.  I have watched him play in the dirt and pick weeds while balls flew past his head!

Cutest catcher I have ever seen!

Life is starting to slow down a little bit - but it is still difficult to get pictures taken of everyone during the week - I think I just need to start accepting this is life with 3 kids!

Fourteen Weeks

Brody had his first Tball game this week - we lucked out that the weather was great!  Unfortunately for Ryder it was his first experience with HOT and he didn't have a great time at the game.  Addisen LOVED playing on the playground and in the sandbox, and I got a workout trying to keep tabs on everyone!  I didn't get to see much of the game, but Brody said he hit the ball both times up to bat and got to run the bases.  I did get to see him playing shortstop and he caught one of the hits!

It happened to be picture day - so Addisen was still in her dress and ready to pose!

Brody wasn't quite as excited to pose with his little sister!

When Ryder really started to lose it at the game I convinced Addisen to take a walk with us.  I was trying to calm Ryder by pushing him in the stroller...but mainly trying to get it so we weren't within earshot of the crowd!  As we walked we came across a huge sandbox - Addisen was in heaven and I got some of my favorite pictures of the week!

This is my one and only of Ryder this week - at least he looks peaceful! 

Ryder continues to have a good time at daycare.  He is still sleeping about 4 hours while he is there, but sometimes breaks it up into two or three naps.  He continues to drink about 4oz every 3-4 hours and the sleeping at night hasn't changed too much.  His bedtime has been around 7pm but then takes about an hour for him to calm down and go to sleep.  This boy is definitely keeping us on our toes - I guess he just wants to prove how every one of them can be different!