Ry had a great Xmas. Here are a few pictures of our fun....

Before the madness

This was probably one of his favorite things

He was pretty happy about this one too.

This was the squeaky mouse he asked for, he seemed pleased with it.

After the madness!

Holiday Baking

Ry and I did some holiday baking this weekend, as in, all we did this weekend was bake!

Here is Ryan helping me put the lemon sandwich cookies together. Thanks to Karli for the recipe. They turned out perfect!

These are the chocolate peanut butter candy that mom always made. Thanks JuJu for providing mom's recipe and then the advice on shaping them! They turned out beautifully!

Here we have the Chocolate Mint Squares, which despite this picture turned out really well. and Haylee's "Easy Almond Roca", which even though it looks great in the picture did not turn out at all. I guess I didn't get it hot enough, because it didn't set up.

After the baking was finished Ryan went off to play, he came back and said "Mom, let's be Superheros" This was his "Superhero Getup" A lunch box and the straps to some exercise equipment. I'm not sure who he is supposed to be, but he was pretty serious about it.

Gingerbread House

Having just gotten back from our trip, I knew that I wanted to spend the weekend at home, leaving the house a few times as possible. Then Saturday morning Ryan woke up sick. He had a sore throat, slight fever and according to him a frog in his mouth. So, I knew we wouldn't be doing much of anything. I got a Gingerbread House kit to entertain us. Hard as it is to believe, I don't think I've ever put one together before. I certainly wasn't brave enough to try making one from scratch. I was a little worried how it was going to turn out, but it was really pretty easy and I think it turned out great. Ryan loved it and it perked him up from "the sickness" for at least a little while.

The finished project!

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico was so much fun.  The weather couldn't have been better, the beach was fabulous, and our hosts were wonderful!  Here are a few of highlights:

(I know I have more to say about this trip, but since we missed our connection flight last night and ended up getting home really late.  I am still too sleep deprived to think of anything clever to write.  I'll try to add more later.) 

This is a view from the beach we spent most of out time at.  We loved it because we were protected from the big waves by the rocks.  Ry really loved swimming here.

This is in San Juan

Lisa and Ryan trying to climb the wall to get into the City

More beach time

Happy beach girl

These were at the Lighthouse Park

This is a view of some of the Park. 

And even more beach time...

Okay so this was at the "Bird Park" ( I can't remember what it is actually called).  Ryan was pretty freaked out by the birds but said he wanted to feed them.  It was pretty chaotic.  

Happy Thanksgiving

As a family we have a lot to be thankful for, everyone is health, and doing pretty well. Mostly, Ryan and I are thankful that we get to leave this cold weather in 6 days and enjoy the warm PR sun.

I hope everyone has a nice holiday!
We miss you all!

Favorite things.....

Right now, one of Ryan's favorite toys is his trains. He doesn't like set the train tracks up in circular routes, however. He's more of a cross-country kind of guy. In the pictures below he put all the tracks together in one big line that stretched from one room to the other. Then he would run from one end to the other waiting for Thomas to arrive so he could turn him around. I don't know, but I think he might have a bright future with Amtrak some day.

Birthday/Halloween

C made this video....

PR here we come!

In my excitement about our upcoming trip to Puerto Rico, I told Ryan that we were going. That may have been a mistake. It's just under a month away and normally I wouldn't have told him so far out. For this reason........
Ever since I told him, he has asked me several time a day, "Can we go to Puerto Rico Now?"
To try and help him understand when we are going we made a paper chain to count down the days. We did this for his birthday and that went really well. We would tear a link off every night right before bed, which helped motivate him to go to bed at night. (An added bonus)

Here is our Puerto Rico chain!
I can't wait!

Trick-or-Treat!

In our neighborhood we don't trick-or-treat on Halloween. We do it on some night prior to Halloween, it varies from year to year and no one seems to know who makes this decision, but everyone seems to go along with it. In the past this has really driven me nuts, but this year it actually worked to my benefit. We did it on Thursday night, so it didn't interfere with Ryan's birthday. Here he is helping me hand out the candy. After the candy was all gone we went out and did some trick-or-treating ourselves. We went up our street about 10 houses and came back. Poor Daddy had to work, but he patrolled our street about the time we were walking back to the house so he got to see us. All in all it was a pretty fun night, even if it wasn't "on " Halloween

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOY!!!

My boy turns 4!!!

Happy Birthday to Ryan....

He was pretty excited about some new train stuff.

We went to Chuck E. Cheese for some pizza and fun!

He got lots of balloon, which he loves!!!

Hard to believe this was just 4 years ago!

On the Road Again

Ryan and I headed out again, visiting friends and family in Altanta as you can see Chica was pretty jealous, she wanted to come along...
While in Atlanta we went to the pumpkin patch....

Such a cute family

On the hay ride

Ryan's first funnel cake, obviously he loved it!

Ryan and S. having fun

On Saturday we went to a Halloween Party.......

My little Frankenstein