Etsy

So after a year or so of not having anything to put in my Etsy shop, I have finally reopened it. mokru is back in business!


Right now I have a few ruffle tank/tshirt dresses and a few peasant dress (mainly in smaller sizes) but I am hoping to soon add more stuff like upcycled t-shirt dress, hoodies and boy t-shirts.

Let me know what you think!
Check it out in the sidebar to the right or just click here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/mokru

And He's Off!

Ryan took a few steps the other day and I told Darren that I gave him 2 weeks before he takes off for real.  Well, I was wrong.  It was more like 4 days.

Here's our little walker!

Wagon Rides

Ryan enjoyed his first wagon ride around our neighborhood today.  Ava was excited to finally have someone to share her wagon with.  Look at those cuties!

Surgery Day

The big day has arrived. Ryan is having his circumcision repair surgery (or whatever it is called).   I'm not going to go into too much detail here since most of you won't know but I did want to document this day.   Apparently, some circumcised boys get adhesions (stuck parts) and while most are fixed using steriod cream, Ryan's were not.  

So off to surgery he goes.  2 days after his 1st birthday.  I really did not want to have it done now but I would rather get it over with and then maybe he won't even remember it.

The surgery was scheduled for less than 1 hour and it was actually faster than that as they did not have to do some extra stuff that might have had to be done.  I was extremely worried about the surgery...no so much the actual procedure as I figured there was little chance things would go wrong there.  I was concerned about Ryan going under general anesthesia.

Ryan did great with the whole no milk, food etc for half the day.  Right up until about 30 min before the surgery and then he got a little fussy.  He got to put on a very small peach hospital gown for the surgery and although he looked very cute in it 1) it is sad to think about other babies who might actually have more serious things that might require them to wear one often and 2) I was by no means in a happy mood that my baby was going under for surgery.

I am smiling in this pic but don't let it fool you, I bawled when they took him away from me.  Ryan, on the other hand, was the happy baby he always was and went off without much fuss.

After the surgery, they brought him to recovery and he was super unhappy (having recently woken up from the anesthesia) but after a nap on me (that never happens!), he woke up and really was just thirsty.  We headed home shortly thereafter and after he second nap of the day, he was his normal happy self.  They said he might be fussy for a few days but really Ryan did well and it was business at usual around our house.

I am thankful everything went well and thanks to Granny & Pops for hanging out with Ava while we were away for the day!

End of Easter

Finally at the end of the day (before the Friends had to head on home), we got out Ava's old catepillar sprinkler for the kids to run around in.  Ava decided to do her "naked bottom" dance as seen below.  Thankfully she was not actually naked.  Don't even ask about it.  Just don't.

 And after, the kids all got warm in the sun on their towels.  All in all a great day!

Easter Photo time

As usual, we tried to take some family photos of the whole group...never an easy feat.

Here is a nice one (well except for the kids who decided that this was a silly photo opp).

 A silly one.

 The Friend Family

 Our family (which is now our new blog header)

 And Granny & Pops & kiddos.  Not too bad for having 4 kids in 1 photo!

 And finally one shot of my sweet Ryan...you can actually see 2 of his 3 teeth in this one.  Sad that thsoe are all the teeth he has, but I'm sure more will come!

Cascarones!

After church, the kiddos came home & changed clothes (I think they went through 4 outfits a piece on Easter!).  The Easter bunny had come and left the eggs and their baskets.  Ryan got a little help from Pops & Granny during the hunt but the other kids were running all over.  I think there were 90 eggs or more in the yard.

The Easter bunny left each kid a dozen cascarones (confetti eggs) and they had a blast destroying them.

Ava & Emily thought it was fun cracking them open on their heads.

 We got out the baseball bat so Ian could show us his skills.  He did a good job busting them open.

 The aftermath on the driveway....nice and pretty.

Happy Easter!

We had a wonderful, fun filled Easter.  Where to start?  We did so much on one day.  Let's see, we all got up and got ready for church.  Ryan & I were not going seeing as it was his nap time and we wanted to make sure he would be happy for his first egg hunt.

Ava & Emily were ready first and let me take some photos of them.  They are becoming such good friends and it is wonderful to see them enjoy one another.  Ava still LOVES Ian and looks up to him a lot but the dynamic is definitely changing.  It used to be Ava following Ian around, but now Ava & Emily play together.  Makes for an interesting situation and sometimes I think Ian gets left out (very sad for him).  That just means Ryan needs to get older fast! 

The girls went from being sweet...

 to singing...

 to giggling...

 to making silly faces...

 and finally ended up with loving hugs. 

Note: Ava has been wearing Harajuku girl shoes since Christmas and I was lucky enough to find a size up on sale at Target so Ava decided to give Emily her old ones to wear.  Love that their Easter outfits are nice dresses and funky tennis shoes. That's Ava's style for sure!

The After Party

After Ryan's party and everyone but the Friends & Okruhliks left, we let the kids play in the backyard. We got out the water table which we knew Ryan would love. The big kids still loved it too. I remember when we got this table. 

2008 - Ava's 1st birthday (only 4 kids born then - Lexie not pictured)

Look at how small Ian, Sawyer & Ava were!

 2009-  Ava's 2nd birthday - Ava & Lexie & Sawyer

 2012 - Ryan's 1st birthday - Ava & Emily dumping water on Ry's head and styling his hair. He loved it!

 Then when Ryan went down for his afternoon nap, we busted out the hose and sprayed the kids some.  Not sure why they love this but they do.  They also watered the yard quite a bit in the process.

 Darren decided that playing with the hose on the deck was not enough and convinced the kiddos to run in the yard and try not to get sprayed by the hose.  This was of course very good entertainment for us adults.

Ian dashing by.

 Ava's turn!

 Emily's up (although i think she enjoyed getting sprayed the most...that girl loves to dump water buckets on her head!)

Finally after all the outdoor play time, Aunt Donna & Uncle Mike helped the big kids dye some Easter eggs.  Ava handed out her aprons to Ian & Emily so their clothes would stay clean and we got to dyeing.

 Ian looks so serious...concentration is key!

 Emily did not have the patience to sit still and wait so I think she only dyed one egg but she was happy!

Happy Birthday Ryan!!

Ryan is one!  It seems like just yesterday that he was born so it is crazy to me that my little man is getting so big.  We had a family party for him today at the house.  Besides the Austin family (Me-Mommy, the Tilsons & McFaddens), Darren's family (the Okruhliks &  Friends) also came into town for the Easter holiday & to help out Monday during Ry's surgery (more on that later).  It was a BIG party...10 adults & 8 kids.

Yes, we kept the balloons up for 2 weeks on our wall.  I wasn't going to let all my hot air go to waste!  I spent quite some time/energy blowing those bad boys up so they were going to be Ryan's decorations too. (Not so sure Darren was as keen as I was about Ryan having his first birthday be rainbow themed).

We did switch it up and made it a giant R. (I also left the pinwheels up too).

The birthday boy playing with cousins in the sanbox. Always the happy boy!

Rudy & Donna enjoying the kids' table.

And cake time...

Yep he likes to make messes...

Smoosh!

Ryan's cousins/sister enjoying the cake smashing.

And finally we took the plate away after a failed attempt by Ryan to throw it off the highchair.  And Ryan enjoyed eating the cake hands-free.

Oh and one more shot from the party..Mr. Guthrie giving me the stink eye when I tried to take a pic of him playing.  Such a cutie pie!