Ryan is a TV star!

I have just been informed that Ryan has also made the local news in addition to his newspaper picture - what a budding little star we have. Click on the link below, scroll down to the bottom of the article, and hit "watch video" to check out his brief moment in the spotlight.

http://www.keyc.tv/article/view/138946/

Twister Party!

The Tornado Twister Party was a hit (at least for Ryan). Mom and I took the kids down to the community center around noon to get the party started. Our first activity was building a birdhouse. I helped Ryan while Mom watched Lauren. This is when things got interesting. About five minutes into our project, Mom walks over and says she is taking Lauren to the bathroom to change her. We soon finished up our birdhouse and started looking for Grandma. After searching for a while, she finally appeared with Lauren in a new outfit - I could only imagine the fun she had had in the bathroom. Turns out Mom was standing there watching us build the birdhouse when she looks down and sees what she thinks is orange pop spilled on the floor so she decides to move the stroller so she doesn't step in it. Funny thing happens, when she moves the stroller, the "orange pop" spill follows. At this point she reaches down and feels the back of the stroller, turns out the spill is coming from the stroller - this is when Mom makes a beeline to the bathroom. Once in the bathroom, she takes Lauren out and sees what a mess she is - a massive blowout with poop all up the back, down the legs, everywhere! She spent the next fifteen minutes trying to clean her up and hoping nobody would walk in on her - welcome to my life mom - this happens almost daily to me (usually in public places). Lauren may appear to be a cute little girl, but behind that sweet smile lies a pooping, spitting, bubble blowing machine and when she goes, she goes big! Let's just say I'm glad I was building the birdhouse. After the blowout, things settled down and Ryan played some games, jumped on the large Twister mat for a while, and had a quick snack before we headed home. All in all, it was a fun time for everyone.

After naps, the kids woke up and Ryan decided he wanted to hold Lauren on his tummy (something he does a lot at home) and show Grandma. Well, Lauren decided to spit and drool not stop while Ryan was holding her and he was getting nervous that the spit might actually fall on him and he wanted nothing to do with her. This reminds me of a little game my brother used to play with me - at least he called it a game. He used to hold me down and hang his spit over my face and then suck it back up really quick before it actually landed on me. Unfortunately there were many times when the spit didn't get sucked back up and it ended up on my face - how special - thanks for the good memories Aaron! The pictures below remind me of my spitting game, only now the sister is the one doing the torture - way to go Lauren!

A look of pure terror (notice the drop of spit on her cheek)

Almost forgot, Ryan made the paper - you have to look pretty hard, but there he is in the gray shirt with his back turned - please no autographs, he is way too busy to be bothered with that! What is interesting about this is that Ryan actually pointed out the picture in the paper this morning. We were all sitting around the table having breakfast when he points to himself and says "there I am." We had all looked at the paper, but didn't even notice the picture - I guess when you are the one acutally in the picture, you pay more attention to it.

4 month check-up

Lauren had her 4 month well child exam today and passed with flying colors! Before we went, I wrote down all of Ryan's stats from his 4 month check-up for comparison. Let's take a look:

Ryan: 16 lbs 3 and 1/4 oz (95%), 27 and 3/4 inches long (>97%), head 44cm (90%)

Lauren: 15lbs 15 and 1/4 oz (95%), 27inches (>97%), head 41.8cm (75%)

It is weird to think Ryan was bigger than Lauren when he was her age because I think she is a BIG baby and I never really thought Ryan was - apparently I had on the "my baby is a perfect little bundle" blinders and didn't notice his size. What is even more difficult to believe is that Lauren's head now is the same size Ryan's was when he was born! Can you imagine how heavy that had to be for a newborn - I always knew his head was big, this just confirms it. Here are some new pictures from tonight of the kids getting ready for bath time.

Check out the guns on that kid!

Sorry for the delay in postings- we had a very unusual/busy week this week - had to drop off Uncle Aaron for lasik eye surgery on Tuesday, then the whole family came over Wednesday for supper - the kids enjoyed having the company. Thursday we spent picking up some odds and ends at Target and running some errands, today we spent most of the morning at Lauren's appointment as her doctor was called to the ER and our appointment was a bit delayed. Now we are at my parent's place for the weekend while Trav has a "Boys Weekend." When is it mommy's turn???? There is a big party tomorrow in town to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the tornado. Ryan went to bed tonight so he could be all rested for the big day - lots of fun and games I'm sure!

Happy Easter!

We went to Trav's parent's house for Easter this weekend. Ryan loved his Easter basket, although, he was not too sure about the Easter Bunny, or who he is. Lauren had no idea what was going on, so everything was good in her world.

As we were sitting in church on Sunday, an interesting question popped into my head so I asked Trav, "How is the day for Easter decided?" This year, it is in March, normally, it is in April - what's going on here? So here is the answer . . . Easter is observed on the first day of the full moon that occurs on or following the Spring equinox on March 21., it became a movable feast between March 21 and April 25 (thanks for the info Paul).

Not much else to update so here is a picture of the family.

Daddy turns the big 3-0!

Trav turns 30 today - can you believe it? I'm married to such an old man, I hope he can still keep up with the kids and I! To celebrate Daddy's birthday, Ryan and I decided to make a birthday cake for his big day. Ryan has been really into cooking since he got the movie Ratatouille. A little background on the movie . . . it is about a rat who becomes a chef and his friend in the movie calls him "little chef." Since watching the movie, Ryan has become my "little chef" and has been a big help in the kitchen. So, "little chef" and I decided to make Daddy a jello cake for his birthday. Although the recipe doesn't call for little fingers to be dipped in the cake mix, or sprinkles on the cake, we made our own version, and if I have to say so myself, it turned out pretty darn good.

Greasing the pan . . .
mixing . . .

and taste testing!

The rest of the day was spent just hanging out at home and watching more basketball games - not a bad Friday if you ask me, especially considering all of the snow we got last night. Speaking of snow, Ryan asked me if it was Christmas when we went outside this morning - I'm starting to wonder myself, enough with the snow already!

To end with, here is one of Lauren in one of her many cute outfits given to her at her baby shower.

Fun with Daddy!

Trav took today and tomorrow off from work to watch some basketball and hang out with the family for a while. He is definitely the "fun" parent when he is home. The fun actually started on Wednesday night when Trav had to run to Target for some household items. He took Ryan with and about an hour later, I heard them come home with Ryan yelling, "Mom, look at my gun." Turns out Daddy thought Ryan needed a new toy because he was so good in the store so he bought him "Wild West Gunslinger." It is a gun that shoots bottles and cans off of a log when you aim the gun at the right spot (look at the pictures below and it will make sense).

First attempt (Lauren is patiently waiting for her turn)

Moving a little closer to make things easier

He is a mad man!

Here he is as Superman - nice look isn't it

After a fun morning of shooting bottles and cans, we were off to Edinborough (indoor play area) for some more fun. Trav and I took turns taking Ryan through the tunnels and slides - it was a real workout trying to crawl through some of the tight areas, but well worth it as Ryan seemed to really enjoy it!

That blue and white shirt is Trav

The boys coming out for a break

After the tunnels we went to the gym area where Ryan showed Daddy the "emergency dog" as he calls it (a big jumping thing in the shape of a dalmatian) and the cool scooters.

Daddy taking a break

To wrap up the fun at Edinborough, we hit the Brodini Magic and Comedy Show. As luck would have it, Trav and Ryan were picked from the audience to participate in the final trick. Trav had to handcuff the magician while Ryan just walked around on stage watching everything. It was the perfect end to our fun little outing.

Lauren was also with all day - she did a great job (as always) of sitting and watching Ryan run around so she deserves a little face time too!

"Nipple" is the word of the day

Tuesday means story time at the library, and that is exactly what we did. Today's stories focused on colors and the lady did a great job getting all of the kids involved - Ryan really enjoyed it. It's kind of fun to see the same kids and moms every week. Ryan is starting to hang out more and more with one of the little boys there - it is fun to see him making new friends. After the library, we headed to the bank to make a deposit and drop off some paperwork. We went to the bank in Shakopee and Ryan of course had to say hi to everyone. As I was standing there talking with the manager, Lauren started to suck her thumb. Ryan noticed this right away and said, "Lauren's hungry mom." Instead of leaving it at that, he went on to tell the manager that, "Mom feeds her with her nipples." Thank you Ryan! Luckily these were some of my old co-workers so we all just laughed. I'm going to need to work on his talking when out in public. After the bank, we went home for lunch. Ryan insisted on having cereal, so I gave in and let him have Fruit Loops. I made myself a bowl of soup. Ryan asked what I was eating and I told him soup. He said he doesn't like soup. He said, "big boys (which he is) only like Fruit Loops, moms like soup, and babies like nipples." There is that word again. Hopefully it is just a one day thing and he'll move onto a new word tomorrow.

Lauren and Ryan wrestling

Ryan is getting bored

Taking time to pose for the camera

This is totally off subject, but I have been trying to figure out all of our medical bills for 2007. We have a 4,000 deductible with our coverage. This means the max we should ever pay out of pocket is 4,000 - simple enough. Well, after looking through everything I discovered we had paid closer to 5,000 in medical bills. I of course was not happy and got right on the phone trying to figure out what happened. The people at Health Partners assured me that if we did in fact over pay, the hospital or clinic we overpaid would catch it on their end as their books wouldn't match up. I found this very hard to believe so instead of taking their word, I went through every payment we ever made and found $900 and some odd dollars that we paid for no particular reason. After many, many phone calls, I was able to straighten everything out and now we are just waiting for all the money to be refunded. I can only imagine how many people this happens to who don't get their money back - what a crime! As if healthcare doesn't cost enough already!

That is all for today . . . until next time.