End of Summer - Thirty Weeks

Ryder is constantly on the move now!  He has mastered getting up on all fours and rocking back and forth, but not the skills of crawling yet.  However, that does not stop him!  He rolls or scoots wherever he needs to be!  I sent these pictures to Uncle Neal - maybe we have a future airplane mechanic in our household!

Addisen wore one of the outfits that Grandma made her to daycare - she was happy to model it!

We had a nice weekend at the cottage.  The kids enjoy throwing rocks at the boat lunch so Grandma and I took them for a walk while Ryder napped.

 

 

 

I'm sure every mom thinks this - but gosh aren't my kids cute!

 

They thought it would be fun to bandage Grandma with some seaweed!

The funniest thing this summer had to be Addisen's word for shells (in particular snail shells).  For whatever reason while Aunt Ellen was here to visit Addisen started calling them sh*t.  She was down at the dock and pointed to the water and told Ellen she wanted the sh*t!  Where did this come from?  She could say shell...so somewhere things got lost in translation (and I'm not sure where she has even heard the word!").  The conversations just kept getting funnier as the summer went on.  At the boat launch she was always pointing and saying "Look at the sh*t"  "Don't you see the sh*t mommy?"  The best/worst was when we were on the pontoon and there happened to be a snail shell in a cup holder from earlier in the summer - she would say "Mommy your sh*t is in the cup holder, do you want your sh*t" - of course everyone (especially Jim) found this humorous!

The last day of daycare Brody decorated a Chinese Lantern to send up in the air.

Addisen enjoyed the face / arm painting from her teachers!

and the balloon animals!

 

Lighting the lantern!  This wasn't quite as easy as I thought it would be...thank goodness I was holding Ryder so Jim had to do it!

 

Up, up and away - symbolizing Brody moving on to Kindergarten!

 

Aunt Chrissy, Nanny and Poppy Visit! - Twenty Nine Weeks

Waiting for Nanny, Poppy and Aunt Chrissy to get here!

 

There is the plane! 

 

This week was the first flag football game!  We were so excited that we had Nanny, Poppy, Aunt Chrissy, Bobo and Grandma here to watch!

It was a great day for football!  The morning started out a little cool, but by the time the game started it was hot!

Ryder enjoyed his front row seat and his bottle!

Our little Green Bay Packer!

My sweet baby boy!  It is becoming even more bittersweet as he continues to get older and Brody gets ready to enter Kindergarten.  It is so apparent to me how fast they grow up!

Nanny, Poppy and Aunt Chrissy were able to enjoy our new deck at the cottage!  We had great weather while they were here so we were excited to play games and enjoy some time outside!

They addition of the deck has doubled our living space up at the cottage - it is so nice to have a space for the kids to run around and just be kids!

Aunt Chrissy and big boy Ryder!

Nanny, Aunt Chrissy and the boys on the boat

Jim and the kids took Nanny, Poppy and Aunt Chrissy to the Petting Zoo while I stayed back at the cottage with Ryder.  Of course I missed out on seeing the lemur up close!

Brody was so brave!

What a good bunny to let Brody hold him!

A boy really after my own heart - pretty much replicating my past experiences with bunnies and camels!

The kids loved there time with our visitors!  Especially the swimming with Aunt Chrissy!

 

 I got a chance to get some pictures of Ryder while they were all at the petting zoo.  I haven't had much luck at getting monthly photo sessions set up for him - so we will call these his 6/7 month portraits! 

I think we have a mini Uncle Neal - he has the red hair!

 

 

Football and Firetrucks - Twenty Eight Weeks

This week marked the start of Flag Football Season!  Brody has moved up into the next age group - so he is one of the smallest guys on the team.  He was excited to run into one of his best buds, Aaron at the practice.

It was National Night Out on Tuesday night.  We decided to head downtown Rockford and give the kids a chance to talk with some police officers and firefighters.

 

 

Brody was excited to have a chance to dunk a fireman!  He did a good job with dealing with all the heckling!

 

Addisen wanted to try the bounce house out with Brody.  Luckily most of the kids in there were pretty small because she wasn't so sure about it!

We started building the deck at the cottage this past week.  We had a neighbor do a lot of the "hard" work a week before.  He put all the posts and joists in so Jim could focus on the decking.

Our two little helpers were hot while helping so they had to take off their shirts. 

Addisen hard at work trying to get the railings lined up.  As Jim and my dad started on the decking it seemed like a never ending process - everything was seeming a lot better by the end of the weekend!

 

Ryder was a champ during the whole process - I didn't get a picture of him but he was so content to sit and just watch as we were working on putting things together.

Uncle Steve and Aunt Ellen Visit - Twenty Seven Weeks

We were so lucky to have Uncle Steve and Aunt Ellen come and visit us from Pennsylvania for the weekend!  We were able to show them some of our favorite places!

Addisen was brave enough to feed the goats on this visit to the petting zoo!

 

 

Brody even braved it feeding some of the bigger animals!

Ryder was happy to be along for the ride!  Aunt Ellen was so surprised to see how his personality had changed since she saw him last.  When we were in Pennsylvania for Easter it was at the peek of his colic!  While they were here visiting Ryder started to officially roll from his back to stomach and stomach to back!

Brody and Addisen took Aunt Ellen in to feed the birds - they were especially hungry that morning!

Aunt Ellen getting her chance to feed the birds.

This week Addisen was so excited to have Ryder take a bath with her!  He still hasn't mastered sitting up (that big head really slows things down!) so we are using the bumbo seat in the tub!

Brody decided that he wanted to run a marathon like his dad this year!  The Grand Rapids Marathon sponsors a kids marathon where the kids can run 25 miles over the summer/fall and then get together in October to run the last 1.2 miles together.  I'm glad Brody has decided to participate in this - it has allowed a lot of time for Daddy/Brody time during their runs.

He was so excited to kick it off at the local baseball stadium!