Fish and Fast

Ryan got his first pets!  We are not big animal owner people so this was a big deal :)  We figured we could handle fish!  

Ryan named them Fish and Fast.  (Fish has already made his exit to the big sewer in the sky. He cost us a whole 26 cents!)  

Ryan has lost some interest in the fish but he does remind us to feed him sometimes..."fish...eat!!!!" 

Girl's weekend #1

A few weeks ago, Mom, Jenny and I had a girl's weekend in Austin!  We took a trip when I was pregnant so we wanted to take one while Jenny is pregnant too!  Mom and Jenny had both seen an ad about the Country Living Magazine Fair in Austin and so we decided to make that our trip! 

It started out pretty eventful.  After getting our yummy Whataburger breakfast in Winnie, mom started having chest pains.  They went away and then came back again.  It was weird because she had never felt that way before and it made her very uncomfortable.  When it came again and didn't leave, we decided to take her to the hospital.  We were nearing Baytown so we found the closest hospital on our Iphone and went there. After a wrong turn, we got her there to find out this particular hospital didn't have an emergency room.  Uuuhhh. A hospital with no emergency room? Never heard of it.  So we waited in the car and Jenny went it and waited while the 90 (literally) year old lady at the front desk pushed the panic button thinking it would call an ambulance.  Instead, someone called the front desk wondering if there was trouble up front.  She then got instructions on what to do to call an ambulance.  Literally.  They work at a hospital and don't know what to do when people need help?  Wow.  By this time, mom was actually feeling fine.  Ha!  But the ambulance was on the way and she still felt like we should get it checked out.  So not only did an ambulance come but also a fire engine...sirens wailing! About 8 of Baytown's finest were there crowding around mom's door all staring and asking questions.  So funny...now!  Jenny rode in the ambulance with mom (in the front seat because she wasn't allowed to ride in the back seat!) and I followed them through every possible red light (no siren) you can imagine.  I am guessing if mom had really been in trouble they would have gone faster because it took us forever to get to the hospital.  Anyway, after an eventful waiting room experience, Jenny and I were able to go in the back with mom.  It was determined that she had none other than....reflux/heartburn!  The people were very nice and got us on our way as quickly as possible.

We stayed in The Domain. It's north of Austin and reminded me of a smaller Woodlands kindof.  We stayed at a nice Westin hotel and there were some shops and restaurants around that they offered free shuttle service to.  It was a neat area.  

On Friday evening, we went to The Oasis.  I am SO glad we went there! It is amazing!  The views were beautiful and we got to watch the sun set.  The food was really good too!

Watching the sunset was amazing!  It was like watching a show and as soon as the sun was completely gone, people started clapping!  I liked it...kinda like thanking God for the amazing sunset.

The next morning was the Country Living Fair.  We really enjoyed it!  We didn't buy much but really enjoyed looking at everything. This was the first year they had this in Austin and they said it will get bigger and better!  There were several thousand people there so it wasn't small! We would like to go back!

We went back to the hotel and relaxed for a while and then ate at Maggianos. We had never eaten there before but it was so amazingly delicious! We got to sit outside which we always like :)

On our way out the next morning, we went to Mount Bonnell. It was so pretty! The views were beautiful.

We had a great time together and are thankful that we enjoy each other :)

Michael and Ryan stayed at my parents while we were gone and had a guys weekend with my dad.  They had a fun time too!

Ryan being excited about something:

On an animal ride:

Driving Paw paw's truck:

Having a slumber party:

It was a good weekend!

Washing trucks...

Michael has always enjoyed washing vehicles.  Don't ask me why cause I sure don't! We have a picture of him when he was very young washing his fire truck :)  

The other day, Michael was washing his truck and Ryan wanted to help.   It made Michael's day :)

Memories...

Ryan is growing and changing so much.  He is really trying to RUN now!  I wouldn't call it running really but it is walking really fast! 

I wanted to write a few memories to remember:

Ryan isn't playing with his race track as much as he used to (most likely because we have put it up in the closet because we wanted our coffee table back and the noise of it was getting to us!) but when he was playing with it, he always liked to put stuff on the track to make the cars crash.  Boys?!  He would say "major wreck, momma!"  (I think he started saying that while we were in Savannah because he came home from his grandparents saying that :) He would also put the cars going opposite directions so they would crash into each other. He would put the tv remote on the track to make a wreck.  Basically anything he could find :)

Ryan thinks the words "open" and "shut" go together.  "openshut momma" means to open something :) (mostly the refrigerator door:)

We LOVE Ryan's inflection when he talks. When he says "come on, momma", it sounds like "come ON, momma". "bye BYE b-paw (grandpa)". 

The other day, Michael took Ryan to meet up with an old friend of his and his son.  I don't know that Ryan really knew where he was going...all he know is that he was going with daddy and gonna ride in his truck.  Ryan was SO excited :)  He was at the door saying "bye BYE, bye BYE!" So sweet.

I know that as Ryan grows up, things will change.  He won't want to blow everyone or everything (buildings, trucks, cars, etc) kisses when he leaves the room.  But I sure love the sweet, innocent stage he is in. He has no thought of being self conscious.

When Ryan disagrees with something or doesn't want it he says "no" and then the thing he doesn't want.  "no throw ball", "no watch".  One time I was giving him kisses and I said "momma needs some kisses!" He said "no kisses momma! and he holds his hand out and waves it like "NO!" So funny.

There are so many things I want to remember and I can never think of when I sit down to type them out. I need to keep a running list going...

Mommas don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys...

Michael bought Ryan this black cowboy hat for his baby shower...it fits now!!  Still a little big but it will work.  Michael has been wanting to buy a hat for himself too. Don't they look cute? :)

Quick draw, McGraw!  Iphone can't keep up with him!

Michael's 34th birthday!

For Michael's birthday, we surprised him with a trip to see his cousins in Frisco!  I told him a couple days before we left where we are going...

Ryan was comfy in his seat :)

Natalie had a sign on their door and their garden flag to tell Michael happy birthday :)

 We got supper ready while Peter and Michael took Ryan to the park...

 We had taco salad and yummy chocolate cake for Michael's bday dinner and had fun opening gifts :)

On Friday, Peter stayed home with us and we picked up Caroline early from school!  We had our first In and Out Burger experience...yummy!!!

We went to the mall and Caroline and I went bathing suit shopping while Peter, Michael and Ryan went to Dave and Buster's to play games.

 Caroline and Peter have 2 dogs and Ryan really liked them...once he got used to them :)

We went to Gloria's for dinner and Ryan ate the famous black bean dip :)

 They have a pond with ducks and geese...

Ryan slept so well while we were there...think we may need to move in :)

Ok...so this trip WAS for Michael buuuuut I had some fun too!  Natalie texted me the week before we went that Pioneer Woman (REE!!) was gonna be in town doing a book signing. I was SO excited!!  We went with a friend of her's and her girls...so fun!

We got there 2 hours early and were about #200 in line. They said 600 people showed up!  Poor shoppers of Sam's that day! The line was weaving all through the store and up and down aisles...in front of the merchandise.  Some people were not too happy!

Ok, so Ree is even prettier in real life and skinnier.  I think she's a doll on tv but she is gorgeous in real life!  And most importantly, she was SO nice!  And warm and personable and kind!  We had waited for 3-1/2 hours when we finally got about 10 people from the front...and a lady tells us that she is gonna take a break real quick.  We were thinking like 10 or 15 minutes...nope, she was back in less than 5 minutes (think she took a short potty break:) and got right back to the line!  Very nice. 

I realize that if you don't know who Ree is then you could not care LESS!  But I do care and I am super excited that I got to meet her! We were all so impressed with her people skills. As she was signing, she was talking to us and asking us questions!  That takes skill, people.

Here's the play by play:

This is her singing Ryan's book (she also wrote a childrens book and Natalie had gotten one for Ryan:). She asked me how old Ryan was as she was signing.  

I was the last one in our group to go through, so this is her asking me who I was with...

This is her listening to me explain that I was with my cousins and their friends...

I told her we were in town visiting our cousins so she asked me where I was from.  

This is the blurry picture of us :(  Wish it would have turned out better...

Natalie, Caroline and Ree

Here are a few shots of Ree...look how cute she is with her cowboy boots!

Wow. Typing all that out really makes me fee like I am in high school with a crush on a boy band. I just like her, ok?! :)

Moving on...

The boys went to a gun and knife show while we were gone.  Peter got a new knife and Michael enjoyed being there with them! Ryan had fun and was worn out!

We had a great weekend!  Besides the few hours on Saturday, we really were able to just hang out.  We so enjoyed it! Happy birthday, Michael!  Hope you have a great 34th year!