Great Wolf Lodge

This weekend Me & Ryder along with some friends took a trip to Great Wolf Lodge.  We got there about 10:00 Saturday morning and headed straight to the water park!

 

I wish I could have taken pictures of the kids playing and having so much fun in the water…but expensive cameras and splashing water aren’t the best combination so you’ll just have to take my word for it!  I wasn’t sure how Ryder would feel about the water park, but he really surprised me.  He was still his super-cautious self, always holding my hand or having me carry him through, but he really tolerated it well.  He was just skeptical of all the buckets of water falling from above, or the fountains squirting everywhere, but as long as I had his hand he was fine.  Which was FINE with me!  It made me scared to think of Maisy in a place like this, she’d probably be trying to run loose! 

After a few hours at the water park we took a lunch break and let the kids play on the outdoor playground.  Once we checked in our room the kids ran wild like kids do in a new place!

Mikayla took a break to lounge under the lounge chair on the balcony.

 

And Ryder took a break to love on Nicki, he’s always trying to charm her.

I think we were wishing all the kids would lay down for a nap, but there was no way that was happening, so back to the waterpark we went!  Ryder had no desire to get back in, so me & him headed to the arcade.  The best thing about going to an arcade with a 3 year old…you don’t have to spend any money and they don’t even realize it!  He gets on and off of everything so fast, it doesn’t even dawn on him that we never put a token in! 

After that it was dinner time.  Instead of spending a fortune at the restaurants at the resort, we found the nearest Chic-Fil-A!  After that…back to the water park!  Ryder again wasn’t interested in going back, neither was Jelena, so we took the boys back to the arcade and did a little shopping.

Then we met the rest of the crew back at the rooms to get in our pajamas and head down for story time.  This was really the cutest thing, everyone comes down in their pajamas to watch a show and then have story time by the fire place. 

Staci, Raegan, Lindsay, Madalynn, Nicki, Mikayla, Jelena, Owen, Catherine, & Ally.

 

 

We didn’t take a group picture until we were about to leave…so this was the best we could get!  Six tired Momma’s trying to snap a picture of 6 tired kids!

We had a really great trip, it was a fun-filled time away with friends! 

Maisy was hanging out at her Nana retreat with her new friend Lexi while we were away! 

Vacations are fun for everyone but it’s always nice to get back home together and relax with the family!

A Maisy Video & Ryder Funnies

Things have been so hectic around here lately, sorry I haven’t had time to sit down and upload pictures or write about our happenings.  I’ll just keep you entertained with cute video’s of our kids instead! (atleast I think they’re cute, haha).

 

Her shirt says “Sweetest Little Sister” with a big cupcake on it.  I asked Ryder that morning “Ryder, do you think your sister is as sweet as a cupcake?” He said “Nooooo, I think she’s messy like a cupcake!” 

Okay now I feel telling more funny Ryder stories…here goes…

If we are outside and Ryder sees dandilions, you better believe he’s going to pick them for his Momma.  “Mommmmaaaaaa I got a surprise for you” as he picks “I’m pickin’ flowers for you because that’s what you do when you love your Momma” stillll pickin…”Momma do you know how much I love you?  I love you for TWO DAYS!”  Sounds about right…well more like 2 minutes these days! 

Riding in the car the other day “I love you Mom, but do you know who I don’t love??”  oh boy….”who?” “I don’t love Captain Hook.  He’s soooooo sneaky.  I should spank his A**!”  oops, maybe we need to change his taste in music to songs with no bad words.

You know what phase I have always dreaded…the “why” phase.  Being around other children growing up it always made me cringe when they started asking “why? but why? but why? because why?” because I like to have an answer for everything, so when I can’t provide an answer to someone in return it just makes me uneasy…yes even if they are 2 years old.  When it seemed that Ryder had kind of skipped over the WHY phase, I was overjoyed!  Until I realized that he just has a different form of the WHY phase.  It goes a little something like this “well what would you say if…”.  Here are some examples:

Ryder: Can I sit up front?

Me: No Buddy, it’s illegal and Mommy doesn’t want to get in trouble.

Ryder: Well what would you say if you got in trouble?

Me: Well I wouldn’t say anything because I’m not going to get in trouble.  But if a police officer saw you in the front seat I think I’d get in trouble.

Ryder: Well what would the police officer say if I sat up front?

Me: He’d probably say “Excuse me lady, your child can NOT sit up front”

Ryder: And what would you say?

Me: I’d say “oh sorry sir, my 3 year old rules my life and he really wanted to sit up here.”

Ryder: And what would he say then?

Me: I DONT KNOW RYDER BUT LETS NOT FIND OUT…GET IN THE BACK SEAT!!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Me: Ryder if you have to go potty make sure you let me know.

Ryder: What would you say if I didn’t tell you?

Me: I’d say “Ryder you should have told Mommy, now you’re underwear and pants are all wet and I’m not happy.”

Ryder: And what would my friends say if I peed my pants?

Me: Well they’d probably think it was gross because you’d be wet and you might smell like pee.

Ryder: And what would Daddy say if I peed my pants?

Me: OH MY GOODNESS JUST DON’T PEE YOUR PANTSSSSS….OKAYYYYYYY???

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Me: Come on Ryder, hurry up, we’re going to be late for therapy.

Ryder: What would Miss Abby say if we were late for therapy?

Me: She’d probably say “oh no, where is Ryder? He is late.”

Ryder: And what would she say when I got there?

Me: She’d probably say “Oh, there you are Ryder, you’re late.”

Ryder: And what would Mr. Ryan say if Miss Abby told him I was late?

Me: Ummm he’d probably say “I’m sorry Miss Abby I know you probably miss Ryder, I wish he wasn’t late”.

Ryder: And what would Mr. Ryan say when I got there?

Me: WHY DO I FEED INTO THIS???? CAN YOU JUST COME ON???

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And that explains why I’ve had no time to blog.  I’m too busy talking about what I would say…instead of just saying something! 

Ryder’s Playlist

Hank III: Country Heroes & Tom Petty: You Don’t Know How it Feels – Singing the background music and all, funny guy.

Easter 2012

What a fun Easter we had!  Our festivities started on Saturday when our Church had a huge Easter egg hunt for the kids. 

I love watching Ryder play with his friends, it’s so sweet to me!

Hanging out with this girl is always fun :-)

Sunday we got up VERY early and headed to our Church’s sunrise service.  It was such a beautiful service, even more of a reminder of what Jesus did for us and what celebrating the day really means to us.

When the sun peaked over the water, we showed Ryder who was sitting on the blanket with his little friend from Church named Anna, she said “I see the sun, but where’s Jesus??” so they started asking loudly “but where is Jesus?? but where is Jesus??!!”

After the service we headed back to Poppy’s house and he cooked us all a nice big Easter breakfast.  That was followed by an Easter egg hunt which meant eating candy at 10am! 

After that we headed home to see if the Easter Bunny had dropped any baskets off at our house!  Ryder had lots of questions about “how in the heck in the world could a Easter Bunny hop that fast??” I give it another year or two before he calls us on all of these characters.  But not this year, because THE EASTER BUNNY REALLY DID COME TO OUR HOUSE!

Our next stop was to Aunt Annie’s to have dinner with my family.  Are you ready for this…

Maisy’s dress had pink bows on it!!!  Shopping for an Easter dress kind of made me nauseous…sorry but I’m just being honest.  Way too many bows and lace and frills for me, but Daddy spotted this one and we thought it was perfect.  If I would have put it on her more than 5 minutes before we walked out the door, I would have taken scissors to those pink bows on the front!  But she wore them well, cute girl.

 

 

She’s quite the Daddy’s girl these days…I guess he gets her wild side a little better than I do!  Big brother was busy hunting for more Easter eggs!

Oh how nice of him to share some eggs with this little sister!

NOT!  Of course he didn’t share his eggs with this sister…these were donated by a cousin and look how happy they made her! 

We had a great Easter, I love any holiday that gets us together with family and brings on all the good food and fun! 

I posted the words to this song last year too because it is my absolute favorite song to reflect on, especially around Easter time. 

Living He loved me

Dying He saved me

Buried He carried my sins far away

Rising He justified, freely forever

One day He’s coming, Oh glorious day!

Oh Maze!

This phrase comes out of Ryder’s mouth about 20 times a day.  “Oh Maze!” he will say when she’s climbing on something, dumping their toy boxes out, being a drink snatcher…that’s right “Maze” and “Drink Snatcher” are her newest nicknames.  Maze will stick I’m sure because that’s mostly what he refers to her as.  But “Drink Snatcher” is hilarious because he can’t leave a drink anywhere, she stalks him until he sets his drink down and then she is all over it.  “Mom she’s being a drink snatcher again!” or “Oh Maze, you little drink snatcher!” he’ll say.  Pure entertainment, these two.

Here she is having an “Oh Maze” moment.  I left her alone in her room for one minute, come back and she has opened her sock/shoe drawer, climbed in, and started throwing her shoes out! 

Moving on…time to climb out!

She has gotten smart with her drink snatching techniques…now she grabs the drink and crawls away, here she took one to the bathroom and another one to Ryder’s bed!

I wouldn’t normally let my 9 month old have kool-aid, sweet tea, or chocolate milk…but…these days it’s not up to me!  I wouldn’t typically give her an orange yet either, but she helped herself to that off of Ryder’s tray as well!

 

When there’s no food surrounding his chair, she takes the chair over too, it’s her own personal jungle gym!

She’s so funny!  Here’s a video of her just being herself!

Oh Maze…we love you girl!

Photos & Funnies

We’ve had some really beautiful days lately!  Sunday I was able to take advantage of it and snap some pictures of these beautiful babies after Church while we were at my Moms.  Here they are…intertwined with some funny stuff to share.

             

The other day I was getting Ryder dressed and I noticed something stuck on his face, so I started picking at it to get it off.  “Stop picking at my face Mom!  Calm dooooooown, just calm dooooooown! Calm doooooown Mom!” he said.  “Why do you keep telling me to calm down?” I asked. “Because that’s what Daddy told me to tell you when you get all riled up!”

Ryder has started watching the show Yo Gabba Gabba, if you’ve never seen it before the whole show is basically one big song.  I’ve noticed ever since Ryder started watching it that he has begun making up songs for everything.  When we’re in the grocery store if I say “we need to find the ketchup” he will sing “ketchupppppp, where are youuuuu ketchuuuppppp, we’re coming to find youuuu ketchuppppp, we found you ketchupppppp” the best part is that after every song he will say “That was a good song, you should add it to my tablet!” 

I don’t know what has gotten into him but he has become quite the story teller this week.  Literally every single person he has seen all week long he goes right up to them and says “Hi, I was sick the other day!  I was throwing up EVERYWHERE! My Daddy took care of me.  And after I was better my momma got sick.  And she was throwing up EVERYWHERE!”  (he was sick like 3 weeks ago, must have been traumatizing…or he loves the sympathy he gets from this story.)  The next story he tells is “This boy in Carter’s class at school pooped in the potty and then played with it and got poop EVERYWHERE and the teachers had to come in and clean it up!”  (Thank you for telling me that story in front of Ryder, Angela!)

When I say that Ryder has a good memory, I’m telling you he memorizes everything!  He has all the commercials on Disney Jr. memorized, and even the little preface that comes on before his shows…For instance he told me the other day “I want to watch Franklin & Friends, it helps kids share and care and develop good social skills.”  We were picking up diapers the other day and he yells “The Caillou Holiday Movie is brought to you by Pamper’s diapers!!!  You have to get those Pampers diapers!!” 

 

Ryder: Who made you?

Me: Ummm…my Mommy….

Ryder: No but who made you?

Me: Well God made me, then gave me to my Mommy.

Ryder: Well what did God make you for?

Me: I think God made me so that I could grow up and be a Mommy to you & Maisy.  What do you think God made you for?

Ryder: To give you hugs and kisses.  (Thank you God for making this sweet boy for me…I really needed those hugs and kisses!)

 

Ryder: Drinking makes me fat.

Me: Ryder you are far from fat!

Ryder: No but when I drink my tummy gets fat.

Me: Well it might feel full after you drink, but believe me your tummy is not fat.

Ryder: Well my tummy’s fat until my drink comes out of my monster then it gets empty again.

choosing to end this conversation.

 

He talks with a lot of emphasis and expression (like his Momma!), what is scary is how he is starting to use MY expressions.  We tried to go to Wawa the other day, the same day 100 people were in there trying to buy lottery tickets, so there were a lot of cars and we couldn’t find a parking space.  Ryder’s version of this story he told people for the rest of the night “We went to Wawa and the parking lot was SO FREAKING packed!  We couldn’t find a parking space because it was SO FREAKING packed!”  Another time he stepped away from his food for a second and one of the dogs took it upon themselves to eat his food…and chew the paper plate it was on.  I hear Ryder coming to find me yelling “Momma!!  What in the heck in the world!!!  One of the stinking dogs ate my plate!!”

 

Maisy has become pretty funny these days too!  The other day I smacked Alan (playing around, of course) and he looked at Maisy and said “Maisy, did you see that?” On cue she started shaking her head no!  That’s my girl :)

A video of Maisy dancing, she gets down!  I love how she stops when the music stops, then takes it upon herself to restart it.

Not to end on a crappy note, but I have one last story that is a must share!  Ryder has been in big boy underwear for 2 weeks now, so we’re still new to this whole going potty in public thing.  The other night on the way home from Nicki’s we stopped at Wawa (that’s not our favorite store or anything…geez) and Ryder said “Mommy I really have to go potty”.  I said “Oh okay, well we’re at Wawa so lets just go inside so you can go.”  He said “I can’t go potty in there, Daddy said it’s disgusting.”  (REALLY ALAN??!!!!)  I said “Ryder, it’s not disgusting, let’s just go look and you’ll see”.  He agreed so in we went, but he wanted a slurpee first, so I made his slurpee, left it at the counter telling the lady I’d be right back to pay, and in the bathroom we went.  I told Ryder that he didn’t have to sit on the potty, I could pick him up and hold him over the potty so he can aim and pee in the toilet, he liked that idea.  So I pulled his pants down, scooped him up, he peed, I put him down, pulled his pants up, then I started smelling something funny…well, stinky.  As the words “Ryder did you poop your pants” were coming out of my mouth, I looked down only to realize I was covered in poop, everywhere his little bare butt had just touched. Of course I was wearing a sweater with holes in it, so it was all over my sweater, the shirt UNDER my sweater, my sleeves, Ryder’s pants, underwear, up his back, down his legs.  Yeah we smelled great.  I tried wiping it but it just smeared.  There was nothing left for me to do but swallow my pride, go pay for our slurpee since, ya know, the nice lady was waiting for us, and get the heck out of there.  I was hoping so bad no one would say “excuse me miss you have something on your shirt”…I would have politely replied “NO SHIT!” (all puns intended).