a guy, a girl, a dog, and ry-ry

Thursday, March 6, 2014

Nap time Snuggle Buddies

I love Ry's new school - mostly because he has the sweetest teachers and has made such good friends in his class. He mostly plays with the girls, and they love him. Every day that I get a chance to pick him up (usually Brent's job), at least one adorable little girl approaches me to ask if they can come play at Ryland's house. He's a gentle, easy-going kid - and I think he's a little easy to "boss around" generally. Maybe that's why all these strong-willed little girls just love him.

His teacher sent us this picture yesterday. His buddy Lilly is his "snuggle buddy" at nap time. I think it's so sweet to see how much he loves his friends. I'm already getting emotional about him leaving this school in June.

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Family photos

A local photographer was offering Seahawks-thermed photo session at Century Link a couple of weeks ago. Seeing how my boys are big Seahawks fans, we figured it was a good time to update the family photos. Here's our faves from the session:

Thursday, January 9, 2014

23.5 weeks along

I have my entire pregnancy with Ryland thoroughly documented - and nothing for the new little guy yet!

Here's our pregnancy story so far:

Unlike our surprise baby, this baby was very much planned out. However, we didn't tell anyone we were trying and found out we were expecting only 3 weeks after we decided we were ready for another baby. I feel amazingly fortunate for that!

We were camping on Lopez island the weekend we got our positive test. It was our favorite weekend of the summer and our new yearly tradition (Lopez Island, NOT getting pregnant!)

I started showing SUPER fast, as I expected I would, and had most people suspecting the news before I told everyone at 12 weeks.

The beginning of this pregnancy was very different than with Ryland. I was less nauseous but puked WAY more - all of my puking was triggered by strong smells. I still have trouble with the smells (helping a 3 year old wipe after using the toilet? It's Brent's job now!)

The one thing that is the same is my "pregnancy-induced white coat hypertension" or whatever my midwives like to call it. Nothing of concern at this point, but I get very frequent visits with my midwives. Good thing I LOVE them - they are the sweetest four ladies and they've got me pretty excited for my VBAC.

I am SO thrilled that this baby is another boy. I know other people were hoping differently for us, but sorry guys! I'm pretty happy to be outnumbered in this house.

Ryland is more excited than any of us. I get asked a few times a week if it's time to meet the baby yet. He likes to lay his head on my belly during stories and he calls it the "baby pillow" Just recently he felt the baby kick and he was SO happy. This three-year old of mine is seriously as sweet as can be. I know he is going to be a really good helper and a sweet brother. What I'm looking forward to the most is seeing my two sweet babies together.

So there it is - we've made it to 23 weeks. I feel great - not tired, no cravings, just occasionally stiff from our horrible mattress (our memory foam has been shipped and is on the way!). This little bugger has hiccups all the time - and Ryland and Brent love feeling his pointy little joints jab through my belly. Our due date is sometime around May 5th, but Ryland is hoping to share his birthday month with his brother.

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Happy 2014!

We've been MIA for over a year now... Why?

Life became crazy. Between returning to work and beginning graduate school, some balls had to drop.

Ryland and I just sat down to look at the old photos and posts here and realizing how much we've missed - I'll try to resume this project.

2013 year in review:

Brent began his 3rd year teaching for Seattle Schools
We bought our first home!
Ryland started preschool
Brandi finished her M.Ed. in Applied Behavior Analysis
AND we are expecting baby boy #2 to make an appearance in early May!

So we've been busy! But here we are, saying "hi, we're back!"

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Mother's Day

When Brent asked me what I wanted for Mother's Day, I couldn't really decide...

Then I heard it was going to be near 80 degrees this weekend, and then all I wanted to do was go camping.

So we quickly packed up the car, Ry, and some friends and headed an hour north to Granite Falls.

It was by far the best weekend of 2012.

We learned Ryland thinks river mud is quite delicious

fishing for the first time

Our campsite had a great swing, Tony helped me get some good momentum

My next time on the swing I decided to jump off into the river - it was freezing in that water by the way.

I have been with Brent for nearly 9 years, and I've never seen him do anything like this. He may have been heavily pressured by us all to try it, but we were so proud ;)

Too bad I didn't bring a swimsuit or extra dry clothes!

Best mother's day ever!

A day full of friends

these 2 have some seriously funny personalities... right!?

Last Thursday I had 4 kiddos in and out of the house throughout the day.

Addie came over for the morning and Jacob was hanging out as well - so we did some art

and ate some lunch!

then baby Amelia came to play and Ryland was a GREAT helper. He got out all of his toys for her and kept rubbing her head saying "baby" - I've never seen him with a little baby before and it was downright precious.

Just wanted to share the cute photos.

Thursday, April 26, 2012

The Hoh and Forks

We stayed the night in Forks, which is a tiny fishermen town that has been taken over by Twilight - there was multiple establishments such as the one in the above photo.