Playtime

Ryan is a little young for the playmat but we pulled it out the other day since Ava was wanting him to use it.  And of course, she joined him for a little playtime too.

Three Weeks Old (Well One Day Shy)

More cute photos of my little boy...

 And this time Ava asked to take a photo with Ryan in her room...she is so sweet sometimes.

Playdate

We had some of our friends over today after dance class (Sienna, Trey, Little Sydney & Case) and while the older kids played in Ava's room, I decided to get a shot of the 2 little baby boys together.

Case (who is 7 months old) and Ryan (2 weeks).  Hoping these boys will be friends when they get a bit older just like their sisters are friends.

Poor Ryan Doesn't Stand a Chance

Here is peek into Ryan's future...I already forsee him being put in dresses and having makeup put on him.  Sorry little man!

Ava doing his nails...

 and having him at her tea party.



Happy Easter!

Ava woke up this Easter to 2 Easter baskets and an egg hunt in the yard (this year the Easter bunny actually hid the eggs instead of making me & Darren do it).

The hunt is on...

 The eggs...

 After church (and another dress change), we all went out on the driveway to bust open the cascarones (confetti eggs) that the Easter bunny brought Ava.  These were a HUGE hit with Ava as you can see.

 And I love this shot of Granny getting hit with confetti...hilarious!

 We were going to take a nice family photo since we were all dressed up but Ava got extremely sad since Granny & Pops were leaving and refused to take a photo so instead I just took a photo of Ryan in his Sunday best ( a great hand me down from Jen's little boy Trey).  Note to self: don't mention the grandparents are leaving until AFTER you get the family photo.  Oh well, we'll try again next time!

Ah! And as I am typing this, I realize that I have another good comparison between to 2 kids...compare the above photo of Ryan with this one below of Ava...see?

Egg Time!

This year, I had forgotten to buy egg dye...and of all years this was not the year to forget as Ava is all about art!  So we sent Darren & Pops out to get some dye for Ava to use.

Getting ready to dye eggs (another day, another old maternity shirt for Ava - ha!  No sense ruining her good clothes!)

 Daddy showing Ava how to dunk the eggs.

 Some of the finished eggs.

 After using the stickers, sand and plastic wraps on the eggs (they did it all! - Ava loved it)

 All done!

 And yet another sister/brother photo...had to include it since Ryan is wearing one of my onesies I made for him...his small fry shirt.



Sibling Photo Shoot

More photos that Ava requested I take:

 And just so you can see how much these 2 look like alike, here is a comparison (wish I could find a head on shot of Ava at this age and wishing I had my nice camera back when she was a baby b/c the photo comparison would be so much better!)

They are seriously like twins...when I look through old photos of Ava, I think it is Ryan!  Only difference is the choice of clothes/blankets etc!  Can't wait to see if he still looks like her in a few years.

Back Door Project

We've been wanting/needing to repaint our back door for awhile now as part of it had gotten rusty and the paint had chipped off.  So while Rudy & Jeanie were here we decided it would be a good time to get it done.  Rudy had previously sanded and primed the part of the door that had rusted (thank you!) so all that was left was to paint it.  I, as usual, forgot to take a real before photo but here is a shot of it during the painting process.

 Ava wanted to paint too, so I got an old canvas and gave her some paint and one of my old maternity shirts to wear (no need for those ever again!).  She had a blast painting a big abstract...will definitely do this one again with her.

 And the finished doors...I like the contrast of color WAY better than the boring tan they builders had painted them before.  Thanks R&J for the help!

Granny & Pops & Grandkids

Yep they came back in to town to help out again...and here is a cute shot of G&P& the kiddos.

Shoe La La

Ava has been wanting to decorate her own shoes ever since we starting reading this book (Shoe La La) that she got for her birthday.  So I finally located some cheap plain white shoes at Walmart ($6!) and bought some fabric paint for her.  I thought this would be a great project for when Darren went back to work and I was left alone with 2 kids and I was right!

Getting ready to paint!

 And the finished product...Ava let me do one shoe (for the most part) and she did the other.  We actually did this over 2 days so that the first layer could dry before we used the puffy paint.  I think we will definitely do this again as she had so much fun and now wears these shoes almost every day.  Even though they are kind of tacky, I still love them and think they look super cute on her.  This totally reminds me of when I was growing up as my mom would let me paint t-shirts and cut off my old jeans, and paint them to make some hideous looking jean shorts...but I always loved them even if looking back at the photos of them make me cringe now....I mean the things I painted were just plain ugly!

I highly recommend this art project for anyone whose kid likes to paint!

When a 4 Year Old Dresses Herself

Got to love a 4 year old's sense of style.  This is what Ava chose to wore to Sawyer's birthday party. Had to take a photo as she looks so cute in her tutu dress, cowboy boots and butterfly headband.  Too funny!

Another Ava Requested Photo Shoot

The one above cracks me up since Darren is being silly (as usual) in the background.

Photo Shoot Time

Since it was Granny's last day with us, we decided to take some photos of her and the kiddos. Yes, Ava is in a swimsuit in all of these and no, we did not go swimming in a real pool..see below for why she is wearing her swimsuit.

 Air kisses!

 Me & the kids...maybe not the best photos but I might as well try to get in some photos while I have people here to take photos other than me!

 Ava's face in this one just cracks me up...not sure what she is doing!

 And the reason Ava is in swimsuits...she made a "pool" with Darren on the living room floor out of pillows and blankets.  Then we found some poster board and made a "floatie" for her.  She came up with the idea all by herself and had a lot of fun playing in it. 

 And a little photo shoot of the siblings in the pool...Ava loves to have her photograph taken with Ryan and loves to lay by him whenever he is on the floor.  She always makes me move so she can lay by him and she tells me she wants him to look at her.  Darren and I catch Ava kissing Ryan (either on the head or by kissing her hand and then touching his head gently) at least a dozen times of day.  Such a loving girl....

Oh how I love these two!

P.S.  Darren asked how much weight I have lost since I had Ryan so I decided to weigh myself on the one week anniversay and I've already lost 18 pounds...that always seems insane until you think about the fact that Ryan was 8 pounds 2 oz at birth plus the weight of all the other stuff (fluid, etc) you lose then too.  That's probably at least 12 lbs and the rest is probably from nursing.  Loving that you can lose that much in a week!!

Bathtime

We decided it was about time to give Ryan his first bath at home...not too much fun for him but Ava was excited to help out.  The whole family helped out to get him nice and clean...will be so much better once his cord falls off and we can actually get him in the water.

 Snuggle time!

6 Days Old

Things are going fairly well here.  Took Ryan to the doctor yesteday..everything was good except he had lost an ounce since we left the hospital (not great) so now weighs 7 lbs 6 oz.  We have been having trouble with feedings so I am sure that accounts for the weight loss (all baby lose weight after they are born but should start putting it back on).  At any rate, we have to go back to the pediatrician tomorrow for a weight check just to see how things are going.  I got some advice at the doctor's office so that should hopefully help.  Here's hoping!

Btw, he was 50% weight & height (not that it means anything now) and of course he was 96% in head size...no shock there since Ava had a huge head too.  And of course Darren likes to remind me that my head is huge too.  Thanks for that!

For the most part, he is a good sleeper.  We are working on our feeding issues but he is getting better.  He dislikes having a wet diaper (unlike Ava who sat in her pee forever) and is pretty alert for being so young.

Here's a photo from our little shoot on the floor today (had to do this while Ava was at school).  I'm tired but more so in the morning than any other time and thankfully I've been able to nap and catch up so I'm only a zombie at night and in the morning.

Visitors at Home

My dad drove in from Houston today to meet his grandson so Gabe & kids came over as well to visit and hang out with Dad since it was a day trip.

The girls playing dress up.

 Dad & Ryan chillin' on the couch.

 The girls got a little restless and headed outside to do some gardening (check out the new flowers that Granny & Pops helped Ava plant this past weekend). They also played in the sandbox and blew bubbles with Darren.

 And all the excitement wore me out..I fell asleep reading a magazine (Darren asked me how that is even possible)...not too flattering a photo but...

 had to post that one since Ava recreated the scene for Darren awhile later...notice her smile..she thinks she is so funny!

Ava's Spring Program

Granny is still in town helping out (which by the way, thanks to Granny & Pops for entertaining Ava for the few days we were in the hospital! - can't wait to see all the photos of the things you did with her).  This was great because Ava had her Spring program up at school this week and I really wanted to be able to go but would not be able to take 4 day old Ryan there.  So Granny graciously offered to watch Ryan for 30 minutes so I could go.

As you can see, Ava was super excited that we were able to come watch her special chapel and see her sing.

 Peeking back at us before the big show!

 And after singing...you heard "Hi Mommy & Daddy" -- yep it was Ava.