Long, Busy Weekend

It was a long busy weekend, hence the lack of blogging. Thursday of course we had thanksgiving dinner with the Dunnings, but you knew that because of the Happy Thanksgiving Picture:-) Dinner was delicious as always. Ryan did well, but he liked exploring all the different places in the house. It got very tiring chasing him around that big old place! Zach read the blessing for the meal and helped serve dessert. We should have thought about pictures earlier because that turkey really took a toll on everyone in our family. The boys did all right in spite of the tiredness. They were real troopers;-)
Friday Lindsay and I had a massages thanks to my very thoughtful husband:-) It was very nice to hang out with someone and not worry about the kids for a while. Then it was back home to get everyone ready for our family pictures. That actually went very well. We had a good photographer that was able to keep Zach and Ryan to look at the camera at the same time. We spent way too much money because we liked most of the pictures so much. I think we both think it was worth it to have some really good family pictures especially since we had never done it before. Plus I think we might be able to get a few good Christmas gifts out of the deal. Friday night Ben came over and hung out. He read Ryan stories and then he and Jay went out to rent a movie. This is something I may never let happen again. They rented Chronicles of Riddick(the sequel to Pitch Black). In all fairness they thought we would all like it because we all liked Pitch Black. However it was totally different from the first movie and quite cultish and strange. Oh well, at least we had an interesting discussion about it after.
Most of Saturday was spent running errands and cleaning in preparation for Sunday.
Sunday was Ryan's Dedication. It went fine. I felt very self conscious up on stage in front of the whole church. I think everything was amplified by the tremendous amount of stress I was feeling. We were supposed to be lined up backstage, but since we had not told everyone where to sit we had to wait for them. We never found one person we were supposed to find and I was just hoping she wasn't lost. This might sound really crazy, but I was worried that the house was going to catch fire while we were at church because we left the oven on warm to keep the chili hot. It just seemed like the next logical thing to happen since nothing seemed to be going right. There were many other factors contributing to my stress. Among them hosting people at my house after the service. I felt like I had no control since I wasn't there yet. There were so many things I wanted to have ready that I didn't get to before hand. I don't know why I stressed myself out so much about it. Everything really worked out fine. Ryan behaved beautifully the whole time. I just kept focusing on every little thing that was wrong instead of being in the moment and enjoying myself. This is probably why I don't like to be the center of attention. I can't think of anything except what might be wrong. I think I might be a little to focused on other people's perceptions. Perhaps so focused on it that I make a fool of myself and give the very opposite impression of what I want because I don't want anything to go wrong. Wow this has been like a mini-therapy session;-) All in all the dedication went pretty well I think. If I focus on the good things instead of the bad I might even say it was good;-) The get together after was nice. Grandma and the Dunnings all came over. It was a pleasant party. Everyone seemed to enjoy the white chili, sandwiches and dip I made for the occasion. It was really great to get to talk to everyone. Especially my grandma since I have not seen her in so long. Ryan was down for his nap for most of the time people were there, but when he woke up he really enjoyed all the attention. He was all smiles and giggles. The rest of Sunday was spent relaxing and recovering from the busy weekend. Jay seemed to sense how much I needed a break so he did all the dishes from the party and took care of the kids while I took a bath.
Today I ordered some Christmas presents and played with Ryan per the advice of our sermon on Sunday-'Slow down and enjoy things' was the basic message. It was a really great message. I definitely needed it after this weekend!

A Better Time at Picture People

We went to Picture People to get family pictures. The photographer ws much better at getting Ryan to smile this time. I was left with the decision of what pictures to get because I liked them all instead of what picture to get because none of them were that great. So we used our coupon and got 5 "poses" for the price of 3. At least we will be able to use them as Christmas gifts! I really didn't plan on spending that much money! Well we've never done family pictures before, so I feel like it was worth it to get some nice pictures to preserve images of our family just the way we are now. I don't think Jay knows this, but I really want to make a yearly event out of this. I think next year we will try JC Penney; They seem to have better prices.
Family Photo 

Zach and Ryan 

Mommy and Ryan 

Daddy and Zach 

Close up Family Picture 

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

I hope everyone had a wonderful day!

Happy Thanksgiving! 

One Step Forward and Two Steps Back

Ryan's new favorite thing to do is walk around backwards. At first I thought he was trying to catch his balance. Then I realized he was doing it again and again, grinning ear to ear. It's actually quite amusing to watch; he gets such a kick out of himself and his new talent.

Zach Video

Today; between striping beds, doing laundry, and putting it away and a little trip to the emergency room; I made a video of Zach's summer escapades. It is up on my website now.

About our little(3 hour) trip to the emergency room, Ryan fell and split his lip on the inside. I thought he would need stitches and so did the nurse across the street. After looking pretty hard(and I think debating in his head) the PA decided it would heal on it's own. Ryan seems fine. The lip bleeds every now and then, but he doesn't seem to notice it now. He screamed really hard when it happened, but about 15 minutes later he wanted to go about his business of exploring and climbing again. I think I was more upset about the whole thing than Ryan. I didn't know if I would be able to watch them stitch up my baby:-( Jay started figuring out how to come home as soon as I called since he takes the bus from here to the city. Thanks to Mr. Dunning picking him up and getting him to us he was there by the time we were seen(well, he was in the cafeteria when we went back to the room, but by the time the PA arrived he was there). So we are all fine and home now.