Lovin' Sundays!

I love Sunday's! Our Sunday's remind me of a country song...Church, then off to Grandma's to visit with the family, eat a good meal, and relax. We transferred our membership from our old church today, so we're really excited to finally be a part of the Church family at Cobb Island Baptist Church (even though we've felt like part of the fam for a while now). Ryder did great during the service and looked adorable in his outfit, see pics below ;)

Due Date

April 24th...today is the day that we've been anxiously awaiting since my very first prenatal doctor appointment in September. The date has probably come out of my mouth 4 million times to answer the question "when are you due?", I have "Ryder's due date" written on every calendar I've come in contact with, my cell phone alarm even went off today just letting me know the day was finally here! Needless to say, the date is practically engraved in my brain...I'm sure anyone who has been pregnant can relate. So all day I have felt like something HUGE was supposed to happen. Lucky for us our huge event happened 5 weeks ago, Ryder decided to grace us with his presence. So nothing happened today, it ended up being a nice, relaxing day that I got to spend with my husband and our sweet baby boy. But hey, I'd much rather be doing this than rushing to the hospital in labor!! So Happy April 24th :)

One Month Old!!

I can't believe Ryder is 1 month old today, time is going by so fast. It's hard to remember what life was like just a month ago before he was born. It's such an incredible experience to watch him grow and learn new things as each day passes. Ryder's one month stats:

• At 4 weeks old he weighed 6 pounds 11 ounces
• He eats every 3 hours throughout the entire day & night
• He can now make eye contact with us and looks in our direction when he hears our voice
• He's noticing his toys and has started swatting at them
• When he's on his tummy he can lift his head for a few seconds
• He has a pretty tight grip and loves to grab a finger (or Mommy's hair) and squeeze
• He had his 1st follow up appt with the kidney doctor, the left kidney has definitely regained some function. We will visit once a month and by 1 year old should know whether another surgery will be needed.

I know that these milestones will get a lot bigger, but just watching these small things take place reminds us of what an amazing creation the human life is. We all started out as little tiny infants and our parents watched our every move making note of the baby steps we took towards developing into who we are today. Too bad there weren't digital cameras because I'm sure our Mom's would've loved to have "photo shoots" like these that we have with Ryder every day!

Newborn Baby Pictures

Baby's First Easter

Holiday's are always jam packed for us because we like to make it around to every side of the family to visit. We figured that would be a lot harder this year since it's not as easy to run around with a baby. Luckily Nana & Poppy (Greg & Cindy) did dinner with us on Saturday night, so that only left 2 places for us to go on Sunday. We went to my Aunt Annie's house first to visit with Yaya (my mom), and all of Ryder's Aunts, Uncles, and Cousins on my side, then we went to Me Mew's (Grandma to us on Alan's Moms side, Great Grandma to Ryder). For some people this was their first time seeing Ryder, so that was neat, and for others it was the first time they got to hold him and love on him. He really enjoyed it, I think, he slept through the entire day! Here are some pictures from our day (the times I remembered to get out my camera...I have to get better about this!)
Wake up sleepy head, we need to get this day started!
Bath Time

Looking all cute in his Easter outfit
Strapped in, ready to go
Yaya with all the Grandkids
So sleepy, wearing his bib from Nana
And... we're done!

Our First Week at Home

It has been a whole week since we got to bring Ryder home from the hospital, time goes by so fast! The past week has been spent just really trying to get to know him. He's such a good baby, we feel so blessed to call him our son. He's sleeping pretty good at night, just waking up to eat which is usually about every 2-3 hours. He loves it when we let him sleep in bed with us, bad habit I know, but he's just so cute and cuddly! I love picking out his outfits every day and getting him dressed, and then giving him a bath and putting him in his PJ's at night. This is such a neat experience, we never could've been prepared for it, but are doing our best to learn as we go. I'd say we're catching on pretty quick...and by the way he looks at us, I think he thinks we're doing GREAT!

Here are some pictures from the week:

Nap time with Mommy & Daddy - his favorite pastime...



So cuddly in his pajamas

Finally!!

Just thought I'd post some pictures of our big trip home from the hospital! We're so glad to have Ryder home, he's amazing.

On our way to go get the boy!

Getting him dressed

Bundled up ready to go!

Saying thank you and bye to the nurses

Home Sweet Home!

Resting after a long day

Everyone waiting in line to spend time with Daddy!