Party time

Last night my parents had some people from their Korean Branch over for dinner to celebrate Ryan and I being here. We got overshadowed by a couple that is getting married (again) today, but that's o.k., we're really excited for them and are excited to go to their reception later tonight.

When we were in Idaho Nikki got Ryan his really cute onesie, which has been perfect for him to go out today in (yes, he wore it last night and all day today. Heck, he might even wear it to church tomorrow). Then one of the Korean sisters brought Ryan a little snowman toy which he really enjoys. I know that everyone in the branch is going to miss him; I've had a couple of people say that they'll keep him...tempting.

Ryan with Grandpa and his new toy

Doesn't he look so serious?

Looks like he's smiling so that Grandma will stop taking pictures. I came down stairs this morning to there being about 20 on my camera.

Looks like he's doing something suspicious (only 7 more days until Andrew gets to change his diapers!!). That should be pretty entertaining considering that he dry heaves cleaning out a litter box.

Him laying on the design of the carpet reminds me of one of those pictures where if you stare at it long enough you'll see a design. That or "Where's Waldo".

Ryan's first taste of Mormon champagne. O.k., it was actually his third taste. You can see that he wasn't a big fan of it because when they just brought it up to his mouth he started crying...there was no way that he was going to drink any more.

Fun Saturday

We had a really good time yesterday...any time that you can go to a Halloween festival and then eat at IHOP and get endless pancakes is a good day in my book.

The past couple times that I have eaten out with Ryan I can say that it gets less fun and more stressful. I normally LOVE eating out, but now it's just a lot of work. It's ideal if he's asleep, but once the car stops moving and we're in the restaurant he wakes up. He's now able to start grabbing things, which is a whole new experience. The other night when we were at dinner I had him on my lap (because he was crying in his car seat) and he managed to dump a plate of Kimchi in my lap. Even at IHOP yesterday with 3 adults it was interesting. Ah...the joys of parenting.

He looks so big in a high chair. We had to stuff blankets around him, but he did pretty well.

This is a new hat/mitten set that we bought. I think that it's so cute.

His first Halloween costume. I originally thought it would be cute to dress him up as a girl, but I realized that if he grew up and was a little too "artsy" or listened to Clay Aiken, that Andrew would trace it all back to the one time that I put him in a dress.

The local Fire Department had a Halloween party where they had face painting and pony rides, and other things like that. Ryan was too small for most of the things, but we had a fun time showing him off.

They had a professional taking pictures, but we couldn't get Ryan to smile; My Dad and Ryan by the Commander's fire car (my Dad wanted to save putting Ryan in a fire truck for Andrew-he didn't want to take away that first experience); Ryan posing by corn--our tribute to Iowa where I was born

Some more pictures from yesterday.

Pics of this week

Here are the pictures that I promised.

So happy after nap time.

He always wants to sit up...unfortunately he'll just bend in half.


With Grandpa at dinner. I thought it was cute how he was sticking out his tongue (sorry Dad that I cut you out!)



Sharing the same hair style

On one of our walks

We always get compliments on his hat...so cute.

I am so grateful how happy he generally is.

Just starting today I've noticed that he's able to move around more in his walker. It seems like he's growing up so fast!

No pics, sorry

Sorry to those of you who were hoping to get some new pictures of Ryan, I haven't taken any yet this week. Hopefully I'll get some by this weekend.



This week has been pretty eventful so far. Monday was my parents 32nd Anniversary. I've asked one of them to put the story of how they met on the blog, so hopefully sometime this week that will be posted. I know that I should have gotten them a nice card or gift, but I did give them their first Grand kid, so I think that makes up for it. Monday I also went in for a root canal. I am so grateful that Andrew works so hard so that we could afford it, I couldn't imagine having to live with a toothache. My Dad also started work. He has his own office which even has a window!! He's pretty excited about it..plus Madigan has a really nice cafeteria, which he's pretty excited about too. Then Monday night we stuck to our ritual of going to my parents bowling league. While they bowl I watch Monday night football and everyone comments on how cute Ryan is.

Tonight we are going out to dinner to celebrate my dads new job/parents Anniversary; I'll be sure to take some pictures.


I've started counting down until we go to North Carolina...17 days!! Only 17 more days to lose 10 pounds and look like Giselle...not a big deal. I have never been so excited to go live in a trailer park. I'm so excited for Ryan to see Andrew, every time that we video chat it seems like he knows who he is; Andrew always had a way of making Ryan smile. I can't believe how big Ryan has gotten since I've been here, I'm sure that Andrew is going to be blown away.

As excited as I am about leaving, I'm really going to miss being around my parents. I was a little nervous before I came out here about being here for so long (normally a week or two is the max we visit) but it has been such a wonderful experience. It's neat to see them in the "Grandparent" role. There are some things that they do with Ryan that I think that they NEVER did that with me. I am kind-of worried about how my Mom is going to take us leaving (and when I say us I mean Ryan)...I'm half expecting to get a knock on our door in North Carolina and have it be her.

Pumpkin Patch

Today we decided to take advantage of the nice weather and go to a pumpkin patch. My parents must really love Ryan because as we were leaving we were discussing how they never did that for Andy and I; and also the fact that my Mom thinks Halloween is dumb--so getting a pumpkin is kind-of a big deal.

I warned my Mom that I was going to zoom in to show her missing tooth...she said that she's all ready for Halloween.

Ryan among the pumpkins

Happy baby!




Us at the patch

We ended up taking home this pumpkin-it seems like Ryan really bonded with it.

Happy with his choice

Farmer baby.

After a few pictures he started leaning over so we had to put another pumpkin there to prop him up.

Being helped by Grandpa.

Here's some video of Ryan among the pumpkins...I think that he really enjoyed it.

This week so far

We've had a very fun week so far. Grandpa was in between jobs so he was able to be home during the day, so we did a lot of showing Ryan off to his friends/former co-workers. Even though we had a lot of fun with him, we're grateful that he's able to start work tomorrow (the short story is that he was offered a job at Madigan Hospital on Fort Lewis Army Base so he quit his job; then the paperwork took a lot longer than expected so he's been jobless for a couple of weeks. They should have all the paperwork that they need now, so he should be good to go.

This was Ryan after all of the dancing festivities from my earlier post. He was asleep during it all, which is probably good. I don't want to start embarrassing him yet.

So cute!

For those of you who know my Dad knows that he is really into politics and he enjoys volunteering for the candidates that he supports. Earlier in the week we decided to go for a walk with him as he delivered some literature for his candidates to people who are listed as "Independents".

We even met a Korean lady who was out for a walk with her elderly mother. We were just leaving a pamphlet on her door when they came home from their walk (kind-of awkward). My dad said hello in Korean and then she asked if his wife was Korean. He said yes and offered to show Ryan off. She came over to look at him and he just smiled! My Dad thinks that Ryan helped win her vote (sorry honey that she might vote Democrat).

He feel asleep at the start of it.


You can tell that he's still in his sleepy daze.

We walked to a river creek that in is town, I think that he really enjoyed hearing the water.

The trees are changing colors and are so beautiful!

I still love pictures of when he's asleep. Most of the time when I lay him down I put a blanket over his face (that's probably not recommended) but he really loves it!

In a cute Halloween outfit that Aunt Nikki got him. It says 6 months, but the legs are already a little short. Everyone who sees him says that he is really tall, maybe he will make us rich by playing sports after all!

This was a video of him when he woke up during our "campaign trail".

So far Ryan has rolled over twice. Of course as soon as I get the camera and try to get him to do it again he doesn't. I still think that it's pretty cute to see him try though. I used to be in such a hurry for him to roll over and wondering if he's progressing normally, but lately I've been much more relaxed and just trying to enjoy the time that he's not mobile. I'm sure that once he starts rolling I'll wonder why I ever wanted him to!

Talking

Ryan has been making a lot of new noises lately. Everytime that I get the camera to try to video tape it he stops, so I had to be very covert about it, that's why you don't see much of him.

Viva Las Vegas!!

Well my pants are tighter and my wallet is lighter...sounds like a typical week spent in Vegas. We had such a great time visiting with my Aunt and her husband. I hadn't seen them since I was 8! We had a fun time catching up and showing off Ryan. We didn't do a whole bunch except EAT!! They had a special where you could go to 7 different buffets in 24 hours. We ended up only making it to 4 buffets, but they were delicious! Now I'm ready to detox and start walking again...tomorrow.

Such a great traveler

Our first day in Vegas with Grandma and Emo

Delicious lunch at a Korean Buffet. Unfortunately I didn't think to take a picture until we were almost done eating...it looked a lot better with tons of food



Since Ryan is bald we needed to make sure that his head was covered.



Ryan with Emo. Every time that he would cry she would say that he was hungry! It was so nice that she was there, she babysat so that my mom and I could go relax in the spa.


*Disclaimer: this is a true story. So "Thunder from Down Under" performs at the Excalibur where we stayed, so I wanted to take a picture to put it on the blog. She said that we could go watch them, and I said that I didn't think that Andrew would like that. She said she didn't know why, since they were tap dancers from Ireland. Really? Sign me up for the next tap dancing lesson.

With Grandma getting his diaper changed. She was letting him air out...and he peed on the bed at least 3 times!



Now this might look like I'm shoving the banana in his mouth but he really liked it! I won't mention all of the other things that we fed Ryan, as it might give Andrew a heart attack.


It wasn't fair that everyone else was eating!

Us on the plane from Portland. That dark head of hair in the background is former Gov. Locke. He even had some bodyguards with ear pieces and everything. p.s. if my mom wasn't there to tell me who he was I wouldn't have had a clue!

We finally made it back to Seattle...and he's STILL smiling!!