Ultrasound Pictures

Be warned, I am not against flashing baby boy parts on the blog on an ultrasound!

My cute little Mac. 

Look at this brain... so stinking cool if you ask me!

Did I mention his head is measuring in the 88%... this baby may have a Wagner head. Yikes~

It does look like he has a Wagner nose though, we will have to see how my next ultrasound goes in a couple months. 

Just in case you weren't sure the first time, here is a repeat performance. 

More Zoo Pictures

Some days I can't get the girls to look at me for anything in the world... other days they can't stop saying, "MOM! Take my picture!"

 I love those days when they say it. 

 When I was at the zoo I counted my steps and I walked over 4 miles!  Awesome exercise and the kids had a blast. 

Ryann is trying to hatch some ostrich eggs in this last picture. Oh cute things.

Cara was worn out by the end. She wanted to ride in the stroller that was there for our friend Anna who isn't even 2 yet. She only got about a 10 minute ride... lazy bum. 

Patriotic Performance

At Ryann's school the kindergartners put on a Patriotic performance for the other students and families. I couldn't make it, but Rich and Cara were there. He took a lot of videos, which I haven't looked through yet, but I will soon. 

She was hamming it up I hear, and from these pictures I believe it. They practiced long and hard and I was proud of her for all of her patriotic songs that she learned. 

20+ weeks

Half way? What the?

I can't believe I am already 21+ weeks... this baby is growing phenomenally well and I have yet to upload the most recent ultrasound pictures. 

I have a pregnancy app on my phone and finally this week it told me I had excessive weight gain.  (gasp!)   Well I tell my pregnant patients all the time that I don't care much about weight gain as long as you are trying to eat healthy and the baby is growing well. 

So the problem is that I am not eating so well. I eat well and healthy, but then I add a ton of not healthy crap on top of it all. I have tried to rationalize... Christmas, birthday after birthday, valentines day, etc, so I now am trying to get my baby belly in gear and eat better.  I am also exercising finally. I am making sure to hit 10,000 steps a day, stretch and do something else extra... like hike or ride my bike or a couple mile walk each day.

Now that I blogged about it I have to stick to it, right?

Petting Zoo

The girls love petting the goats at our Zoo. 

 The goats are oblivious and really don't mind it either. 

 Cara tried to talk to a lot of the goats. They mostly ignored her. 

Ryann's Song

Ryann does not swear in this video, she is saying, "Eyes shut"

I love the things they teach in kindergarten.

Valentine's Day (late)

Valentine's day sort of gets the short end of the deal at our house because of Ryann's birthday. But I still always want to celebrate and make sure the girls have fun and know they are loved. 

This year both Rich and I asked the girls if they would be our Valentines. They thought that was awesome. 

 I also made pink heart pancakes. 

 Both girls got dressed in matching outfits, and they each did their own hair. 

 Here is Ryann at the end of the day with all of her loot from school!

Birthday Party

This year I knew there wouldn't be time to prepare a fabulous birthday party for Ryann, so we decided to head on over to Makutu's Island. A play place with a personal party attendant. (Seriously, she did everything and it was so awesome to just sit and watch and take pictures)

 Ryann wearing her new party dress and her amazing necklace from Auntie Erin!!

 Grandma Mingo and Auntie Vicki joined the fun. 

  Makutu came to say hi and happy birthday.

 The party girl (Amanda) fed the kids, refilled drinks, helped them play games, open presents, and she even wrote down everything that Ryann got for gifts. She cleaned everything up too!

 Best family picture we could get with Makutu

 Ryann's favorite present was a giant Unicorn. She dances with it, eats with it, sleeps with it... you get the picture. 

 Cara having fun. 

 Rich having even more fun! 

Present Time

Ryann opened some of her presents last week from the family. She was so excited. A new horse backpack from Grandma!

 A Unicorn helmet from Cousin Dean, Charlotte, Mavis, Arizona, the chickens, the other goat, Lulu, and of course Uncle Cory and Auntie Katie. 

 This helmet came in very handy since she crashed her bike and hit her head a few days later. She wasn't very happy that the helmet was snug (aka... not broken like her last one), but now she is beyond thrilled that is saved her head from being cracked open. 

 And of course she got to blow out her candles!

It is great to be 6, even better to stretch the birthday out as long as possible. 

Updated Family Portrait

Some days Ryann comes home with pictures where our baby boy is on the outside of my belly, other times he is in the inside.

This time he is on the inside. 

I am wearing my striped shirt with my big belly. Apparently Rich grew to be almost 8 inches taller than me, but he is wearing his superman shirt. Rich, Ryann and I also have lace up shoes on, because those are the bows. Then Ryann has her new heart shirt on from grandma. The heart shirt has a line from it that says "love" and Ryann said it kind of looked like a balloon. Cara is wearing a butterfly shirt and has her crocs on her feet- hence the little holes. 

I love these imaginations and how well Ryann is growing and developing. My sweet 6 year old!

Ear Piercing

Last year Ryann stopped sucking her thumb when she turned 5. I told her that she could get her ears pierced when she stopped. She was excited for awhile and then told me that she didn't think she was ready yet. She wanted to wait until she turned 6.

About a month ago we started talking about it again. I asked her if she wanted to do it and she said yes. Then I asked on facebook for some recommendations on how and where it should be done. I had quite a few people suggest a place called HTC in tempe. It is a body piercing shop. 

I am sure that claires and icing and all the little mall stores are just fine to get your ears pierced, but I have seen a number of infected piercings (including mine when I was a little girl!!) and I decided to do some research. I called this place and looked online. They don't pierce under the age of 8, but I decided to call them and talk with them for awhile.

They said they would consider under 8 if they felt that the child was mature enough to understand what was going on and if they really wanted to have it done. I brought Ryann in the afternoon before her birthday for her interview. It went really well. Kevin said that it was a go.

Ryann picked out some cute pink earrings that Kevin assured me were a good kind with titanium blah bah blah stuff. He also told us how to take care of them, to not twist them, touch them (unless cleaning with soap and water once or twice a day), etc. He didn't try to sell me anything extra special and he was so much fun with Ryann. Ryann did think he looked "a little weird", so afterwards I talked to her a lot about people with tattoos and piercings and how some people do things like that to their bodies, but we still like them etc. (good teaching moment award!).

During the procedure it was fun to see how he used sterilized equipment, how he scrubbed up before the piercing, scrubbed Ryann's ears, talked her through it, and he even explained everything that would happen before it happened. NO TEARS were shed at all. Ryann was brave and nothing scared her as she was well prepared for it all. She said it hurt a little, but she never even flinched as it was happening. After it was over I whispered in her ear that it would be okay to cry, but instead she ran to the mirror and looked at her pretty new self. 

 A little nervous

Let the piercing begin

 One side is done

One Happy (almost) 6 Year Old!!

Valentine's Day

I mentioned to Rich the other day that flowers for valentines day would be nice. He sort of balked at that idea, reminding me how expensive flowers are on valentines day. So imagine my surprise when I came home to 2 beautiful bouquets! 

He said one was from the girls.

 And happy valentines day to my sweet husband, he has been taking a gun safety class for the past couple of nights and I really had no idea he knew how to shoot. I mean, I knew he had been out shooting before, but in the 10 years I have known him he really hasn't gone out much or talked about it much. 

This is his target he brought home to show me... what a sweet valentine... knowing that he can protect me from all those bad guys. If only we had a gun. 

I guess the gun comes next since he passed his class and proved he wasn't a bad shot. 

Thank you again to my sweet valentine for always being there for me. This past year has been the most amazing and wonderful year of our marriage. We have grown together and learned how to compliment each other in ways I never knew were lacking. You pick up the slack when I fall short, and even when I don't you go above and beyond what I would expect any man to do. I am so grateful for you every day. I am so happy that you have a great job that allows you to work from home so that you can be there, every day, to welcome our girls home from school. (Even if you forget Ryann on the bus once or twice or five times). I love you forever and ever and thank you for being my eternal companion and father to our beautiful children. 

Breakfast in Bed: Birthday Style

Happy birthday to my amazing, sweet, loving 6 year old. This morning we woke her up with breakfast in bed.

She requested cinnamon rolls from the can. She is her daddy's girl. 

 Cara wasn't too pleased that we had to wake her up too. 

 She felt like such a big girl because usually only moms get breakfast in bed. 

 Cara is still not enjoying that she didn't get breakfast in bed... so I finally caved and brought her up a cinnamon roll too. 

 We let Ryann open a couple cards, but saved the presents for after school because we never have enough time in the morning. 

My favorite part was when Ryann says, "Cara, I can do whatever I want because it is my birthday." Cara says, "NO FAIR!" then Ryann says, "It is fair, because one day it will be your birthday and you can do whatever you want too."

I quickly reminded Ryann that while she can do whatever she wants, she needs to remember that 6 year olds are really nice and they always listen. She said, "Duh, I already know that mom, remember, I am 6 now."

Torchy's Tacos

One day for lunch we decided to hit a couple places to eat. We first ate at a BBQ truck and had amazing brisket, then we went over to Torchy's Tacos. 

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 Texan's do love their queso cheese dip. We had queso dip with chips, queso dip with eggs, queso dip with french fries, queso dip with guacamole in it, and basically queso dip isn't my favorite, but it is still pretty good. I think if I wanted to live there I would need to bump queso to a favorite food or else I wouldn't fit in.

 I had a vegetarian avacado taco, yummy.