Ryker's Blessing Weekend

Ryker was blessed last week on the 14th. It was a really fun weekend because my mom flew in Friday night for it and was finally able to meet Ryker.

Saturday we went to brunch with Jed's brother, Nelson, at Little America (one of my mom's favorite places) and then spent the rest of the morning at the SLC farmer's market. I was actually excited to hit it up since it's the first one we've been to since we've moved to Utah. I loved it too. I was a little impressed because it reminded me a lot of the Davis farmer's market in California.

I loved the diy booths they had and it gave me a lot of great ideas and now I wish I could do a room in owls

Ryker's playing pick a boo

this was so good! we had one with peaches and marion berry (my fave new berry!)

Sunday morning was Ryker's blessing. Jed blessed Ryker to always be mindful of others and to always serve and that he would serve a mission and get married in the temple. It was really sweet. Afterwards, we went to Jed's parent's house for brunch. We did a breakfast burrito bar with my pumpkin cranberry bread and Jed's dad made his amazing cinnamon rolls. It was a lot of fun to get together with family, although we missed those who weren't able to make it. And a special thanks to Jed's mom for buying the blessing outfit!

I love this pic!

Jed's sister, Bonnie, and brother, Nelson

Uncle Luke with the sleepy babe of honor

dozing...

Jed's aunt and uncle

it's portrait time

this was everyone who was able to make it to the blessing

this one has me in it :)

the blessing circle

grandpa with Ryker

our fam 

with the grandparents

my boys!

On Monday we went for our daily walk with my mom and then carved Elijah's pumpkin before my mom's flight.

Ryker hit his two month mark

ducks!

Elijah drawing his jack o lantern

it ended up being a frog (his favorite thing right now), which he cut out himself

Ryker's Two Months

Ryker two months old

It's hard to believe that two months have already gone by with this cute little guy in our family. He's still the chillest baby I know and the most friendly and "social". He loves to smile. I get to wake up everyday to a happy smiling baby, so of course my day always starts off great. He always smiles when he sees one of us, which the kids love and get so excited about every time he does it, because as Elijah points out "he knows it's me and he loves me and I love him". He also is laughing already and one of my favorite moments was when he was asleep on the couch he just started laughing and he woke himself up from it, smiled and drifted back to sleep. He is always trying to "talk" with us too, which is really adorable and leads to us spending more talk time with him.

 This is the face I get to wake up to every morning

He's seriously a chunk! I love how big he is though, but it makes me a little sad that he's growing so fast. He's already in 3-6 month outfits and size 2 diapers. When the doctor first saw him for his 2 month check up he greeted Ryker as "Mr. Chunkster". At the doctor's appointment he weighed 13# 14 oz and was 22.5 inches long. He does sleep pretty well through the night though. He sleeps about a 5-6 hour stretch then wakes up between 3-4 hours and is finally up for the day between 8&9.

He got sick for the first time. I felt so bad because he got sick from me. I'm happy to say that he finally got over it but he had a cold that lasted about 2 weeks. :( He had a hard time sleeping because he was so congested so during that time he slept for 2 hour stretches until we were able to find our humidifier. It's just so sad to have a sick baby that's too young to do anything to help him get better than just use a humidifier and saline drops. He was happy through it the whole time though.

He also loves tummy time. He can get cranky sometimes but as soon as we put him on his mat and stomach, he is all smiles again. He tries so hard to scoot already and is really close to actually moving up more than a few inches. He can also roll from his back to one side and roll back...we're so close to a full roll over which means we always make sure we don't leave him somewhere he would fall off in case he decides to finally do it.

There's so many cute holiday baby photography choices, that I've decided to take advantage of as many as possible. This is for October. Here's the thing though, unlike all the other smiling babies inside pumpkins, my normally happy and smiling baby doesn't like being stuffed into a pumpkin. Actually he was okay with it until I set him on the ground. And funny story: At 7:30 a.m, 5 p.m and 9 p.m music plays on base (different songs) and at 5 they also play the national anthem and so if you're outside you have to stop, stand still and face the direction of the music during the songs and during the national anthem you have to have your hand over your heart. Well we got stuck outside when the music played at 5 during the pumpkin photo shoot, so I was standing there holding Ryker and bouncing him inside a pumpkin. I'm sure that if anyone saw us, they would have been wondering what we were doing or laughing at us.

I might be a mean mom but I love the ones of him crying 

Chloe's Stitches

So after talking with some friends, I think that I've decided that the second born child is probably the most "active" child. This is definitely true when it comes to Chloe. She's constantly running every where she goes, climbs up and on whatever she can and takes risks without any regard to her own safety. I love my girl, but she's one I am constantly having to keep my eye on.
Last week after a wonderfully uplifting and inspiring conference weekend, we had to end our Sunday night with Jed taking Chloe to urgent care to get stitches again. This was the second time she had to get them within a 3 month period.

The first time she got into my sewing supplies and decided to play with my rotary cutter and sliced her finger. She had to get three stitches in her middle finger. She never cried when they stitched her up but she freaked out all the time afterwards when her band aid would fall off (or when she pulled it off) and would scream if we tried to give her a bath because she knew she wasn't supposed to get it wet. She had to keep her stitches for 10 days. She also cried when they removed the stitches even though that was the part that didn't hurt.

This last time she was running around our kitchen with Elijah chasing after her. Chloe slipped on a piece of paper that they had knocked onto the ground and hit her chin on the wood floor. We told her she had to go back to the doctors and that's when she started to cry. We calmed her down by promising her that she would get to wear her "kitty bandages" (Hello Kitty Band Aids). She stopped crying and again didn't cry while they stitched her up. She did a lot better this time and didn't freak out about her stitches afterwards although she hated getting baths. And this time she didn't cry when she had to get them removed.

I love my active and spunky little girl, I'd just like to avoid Urgent Care!

Ryker's First Month

I can't believe a month has already gone by since Ryker has joined our family. It sometimes seems like such a short time (because it is) and at other times like he's been with us for so long (it could be the long nights). He is such a joy and we all love having him as a part of our family.

Here's a few things about Ryker:
He loves music and when sung to he gives us the reward of the biggest smile. He doesn't mind loud noises, which is nice with a 4 and 2 year old running around all day long. He also is such a happy baby. He wakes up everyday in all smiles. He really is a chill little guy too. He does cry a little bit but mainly when he feels ignored. He also loves his binkie. This is something new since I'm not a huge fan of them and neither were Elijah or Chloe but Ryker seems like all he wants to do all day long is suck on something, so him and his binkie are inseparable right now. He is our little chunk. He gained his birth weight back in just a week (it normally takes at least two) and has gained an extra 2.5 pounds since then. He spits up all the time! He's not as bad as Chloe was (we had to use bath towels with her and still ended up changing her outfit at least 6-8 times a day) but he gets to wear a bib all day long and by the end of the day it's normally turned around so it looks more like he's wearing a cape, plus wets many hand towels throughout the day. And of course, he loves bath time. I don't know a baby who doesn't, but he just relaxes in the tub and normally pees in it to end it, but he loves it as part of his nightly routine. He's also very alert (when he's awake) and loves to soak up his surroundings. He's already a fun little guy and we all adore him.

 During his first week, we had to take him back to the doctors because he was jaundiced. After a few days of sitting him under a window, his levels went from being dangerous to normal. His umbilical cord also fell off exactly one week after he was born. 

His first week we took him to Jed's family reunion over at his grandparent's house. It was Ryker's first official outing. He slept through pretty much all of it. A few days later we took him to the Brigham City Temple open house. He was a little more awake and alert for that outing. His nicknames this week were "the wise old man" and "Popeye" (because he kept winking like Popeye).

His two week doctor appointment he weighed in at 8# 9 oz and was 22 inches long. He also started to eat more so started waking up every 2-3 hours instead of every 4-6 at night. We took Ryker out to Antelope Island and to the Treehouse Museum for the Labor Day weekend. We also took him with Jed and I to go see Snow White and the Huntsmen for our date night at the base theatre.

His third week he started cooing and making the most cutest sounds. He also started smiling at us when he would see one of us. The kids love it (and of course so does Jed and I). He also got his first bath. We had to wait a little bit to fully bathe him since his belly button didn't heal properly so they had to cauterize it and it finally was okay by the third week. This was his first week at church. He showed his approval by making very long and loud "bubble" sounds in Relief Society. This week's new nickname was "our little chunk" (of course out of love). 

His fourth week we took everyone out hiking when my "brother" came in from out of town. He loved it and snuggled right up to his daddy the entire time. He got a little better with his sleeping habits but not by much. He's up a lot more during the day though and loves seeing everyone's faces.  Elijah wanted his nickname to be "frogger" because frogs are Elijah's favorite things right now.

 The kids still fight over him and are so helpful. Chloe is sometimes too helpful but she tries her best. We only had one day of scare from her when she picked him up and carried him up stairs by herself. She was bawling saying that he was crying and she wanted me to take care of him to make him feel better. After that we taught her about the magic of binkies and so now she's the first one to him and tries to get him quiet again. Elijah has decided to name his favorite stuffed animals all Ryker in honor of his brother, because he can "have his brother with him all the time now". Elijah also loves to try to teach Ryker new things and reads him all of his favorite books and has even tried to play catch with him, luckily it was with a really soft ball. And both kids still hover over him to give him lots of hugs and kisses.