Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from our family to yours...Note the window behind the picture of all three kids. This picture was taken Christmas "morning" not Christmas eve. The sun just hadn't come up yet. Do you think the kids were a little excited?!?

Santa Meets The Tooth Fairy

Megan came downstairs after brushing her teeth tonight holding another lost tooth. She lost tooth #2 tonight on Christmas Eve. She had been wiggling that tooth all day. Here she is posing in front of the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve showing her missing "two front teeth"!

Now There Were Shepherds

Declan's Christmas program was this past Thursday night. His class was dressed as the shepherds in the program. Declan also had a line to say with a few other kids. "Now there were shepherds in that region living in the fields and keeping the night watch over their flock". We told him what a great shepherd he was, and he said he thought he looked "ridiculous". I'm not sure where he heard that word in that context. You can see him in these pictures with the dark head covering and plaid robe. Plaid? His favorite song for the night was a very modern version of "Joy to the World" in a very chant-like tune. He keeps telling Megan that the version she has learned for her upcoming Christmas program isn't right...

Ryan is 9 Months Old!

Well, here we are at the nine month mark with Ryan. He went for his regular check-up today weighing in at 20 lbs and measuring 28 inches in length. He got a finger stick to check for anemia (he's not) and a booster flu shot to make sure he has the immunity. The doctor also gave him some antibiotics for a lingering sinus infection that we hope will knock out the cough and stuffiness he's had for a few months.

Ryan has learned to wave back at you when you wave at him. His wave definitely looks like a royal wave. He is desperately trying to crawl but usually just resorts to rolling to where he wants to go. He's cutting his fourth tooth and still puts everything within reach into his mouth.

Here he is in the standard photo with the shrinking bear.

A Cute Little Elf

We took this picture of Ryan while we were decorating our tree. It's just too cute not to post here.

Tooth Fairy

Megan lost her very first tooth tonight. It's been loose for a while, and tonight it came out while we were eating dinner. Megan was very excited and told us her name would now go up on the "tooth board" at school. Here she is showing off her empty space.

Megan's Birthday Video

We finally took some time to figure out how to get videos from our camera onto our blog. Here's our first attempt. It's the video we took at Olivia's in Old Key West of everyone singing happy birthday to Megan.

Turkey Day

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving day today. Megan had a list of things for us to do. (1) Watch the Macy's parade (2) Watch football (3) Eat thankgiving meal (4) Play football (5) Eat pumpkin pie. We have completed steps 1-3 and are waiting for that full feeling to go away before we go out in the backyard to play football. Rob tried a new recipe for the turkey, and it turned out great.

It involves a brown paper bag which turned out to be a very elusive item to obtain.

We have so much to be thankful for!!! Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Here are some very happy children on Thanksgiving day!!!

Tis The Season

We were at the mall today and decided that it was a good time to check in with Santa. We've been telling Megan and Declan lately that they have to be extra good since Santa is using his elves to keep his "list" up to date. They both had some requests for Santa. Declan asked for the Dinoco Sponsorship helicopter (the one with the talking Mater inside) and all the cars from the Cars movie (by the way, there really aren't that many that he doesn't have). Megan asked for all the Star Wars guys she doesn't have (by the way, there really aren't that many that she doesn't have - are you sensing a trend?). Ryan, due to his limited vocabulary at 8 months was just really interested in the bell the photographer was ringing. For an unplanned visit for the annual Santa pictures, the picture turned out great, there was no wait, and no crying or cranky children. Maybe this will be our new tradition...

Ryan is 8 Months Old

Our baby is 8 months old! I swear time goes faster with each child. Ryan is very vocal, has a great laugh, and loves to roll around the room when you put him on the floor. He has graduated to stage 2 baby food and has a thing for pizza crusts. He has his third tooth now - one of the top middle ones. He is an expert hair-puller and is very interested in Lucy and Bailey (much to their dismay). It's a challenge to take his picture with the bear now because he's very interested in playing with the bear, eating the bear, or just resting on the bear...

More From Disney World

MGM Studios at Disney World has a new Jedi Training Academy show/attraction. Since the kids are such Star Wars fanatics, we were really looking forward to seeing it. We were not disappointed. A "Jedi Master" comes out and picks kids from the audience to attend the Jedi Training Academy. Luckily, both Megan and Declan were picked. It probably helped that they had just both had their faces painted and that Megan was wearing a Jedi Training Academy t-shirt. The kids go up on stage, get a brown Padawan learner robe and a light saber (ironically, just like the ones we have at home). The Jedi Master teaches them some cool light saber moves, and then Darth Vadar comes out with two Storm Troopers. Cool, huh? Each kid gets a chance to battle with Darth Vadar while he tries to get each of them to come to the dark side. It was great! Megan and Declan were both very serious and used their extensive light saber skills to keep Darth Vadar in his place. Megan even got a thumbs up from a Storm Trooper after her encounter. Here's a glimpse at the action.

Happy Halloween

We continued the Star Wars theme this Halloween. Megan was Padme, and Declan was Luke Skywalker (actually his costume was Obi Wan Kenobi, but Declan think it looks like Luke, so...). Ryan dressed as Nemo to observe the trick-or-treating activities. The kids had a great time going door to door and just as much fun handing out candy when they got home. The best costume I saw tonight was the the Jack in the Box fast food restaurant mascot - you know the one whose head is a big white ball. Declan saw him and said, "Hey snowman." Here are some pictures from this evening. Stay tuned for more Disney pictures...

Megan's Disney Birthday

We just returned from a trip to Walt Disney World. While we were there, we celebrated Megan's 6th birthday! We had a wonderful time. Grandma Ihle met us there and Aunt Cathy Bates stopped by a few days later. I'll make a few posts to cover the highlights, but this one will be about Megan's birthday. We started out at Epcot in Norway at the Akershus princess breakfast. We met Belle, Aurora (aka Sleeping Beauty), Ariel, Mulan, and Jasmine. Ryan got a kiss on the forehead from Aurora and spent the rest of the day with lipstick on his face. It was very cute. I tried goat cheese for the first, and most likely the last time. We did Epcot during the first part of the day where Megan and Declan made paper from some kind of "goo" and made robots after their robot race. We had dinner at Olivia's - the restaurant at Old Key West. Megan got a cake with candles, and the entire restaurant sang happy birthday to her. There was also this great lime tart, but that's for another post. After dinner, we went to the Magic Kingdom to enjoy the rides. We had a great seat for the fireworks! Since it was an "extra magic hours" night for the Magic Kingdom that night, we stayed until 10 pm - very late by our standards. Megan had a very special birthday. She got balloons from Aladdin and Jasmine and a card signed by all the princesses. She wore a button that said it was her birthday, so she got a lot of birthday wishes throughout the day. I can't believe the girl is 6!

Ryan is 7 Months Old

Here is Ryan today - 7 months from his birth day. He's a joy. He's quite the babbler. He's also a roller - rolling to get from one side of the room to the other. I think he has sampled every item on Gerber's stage 1 baby food menu and loves every one! His two middle bottom teeth are in, and I think more will be here shortly.

Declan's School Pictures

We picked up Declan's school (pre-K) pictures today, and at first I thought we had the wrong pictures. Okay, I'm exaggerating, but he has grown up so much since his pictures from last year! He actually looks like he is two different ages in these two poses.

Our Girl

Megan has already had her school picture taken for this year, and we've already gotten them back. That was quick! Here's our sweet girl in her kindergarten picture.

Declan's 1st T-Ball Game

Declan has joined the crowd and is playing t-ball this Fall. (I wonder if it will ever feel like Fall before his season ends?) I could go on for pages on how different an all girls t-ball team is from an all boys t-ball team. I'm sure anyone else with kids of both gender is nodding their head right now. A quick example is this: When a 4 or 5 year old girl hits the ball, she runs to first base. When a 4 or 5 year old boy hits the ball, he usually runs in the direction the ball went. It's quite a phenomenon. And makes for a very interesting game. Here's Declan....

Our Six Month Old

Here we are at our monthly Ryan update. He just turned six months old! He's a little over 18 lbs and 26.5 inches long. Both are in the 75th %tile. He's a big boy. Ryan is getting really vocal lately. And loud. Lots of BaBaBa and DaDaDa with some squeaks and screeches thrown in. He's also starting to get mobile. When we put him on his playmat, he's not there very long. He rolls across the room to get to more interesting things. And the fun begins...

Megan's First Soccer Game

Megan played in her very first soccer game today! She's on a team with a few of the girls from her kindergarten class. Megan scored 3 goals and definitely liked the cheering from the crowd. I think after she scored the first one, she wanted to score more to hear the clapping and cheering. Here's Megan before the game.

And here she is on the way to scoring her second goal...

Buddy-Bud is Back to School

Declan has returned to school. It was hard for him to wait since he started pre-K a week after Megan started kindergarten. He kept asking if he was going to school each day that we took Megan to school. In his words, he was "so excited." On the way in, he waved to everyone he saw and asked if they were in his class. Once we got into the school, he saw his classroom down the hall and ran to it at top speed. Do you think he likes school? Check out the pure glee on his face in this picture outside his classroom.

Megan's First Day of Kindergarten

Megan started kindergarten this week. I think she was a little nervous at first but by the time she got home the first day, she was ready to go back. She has a few kids in her class this year that were in her pre-K class last year. She has classes in math, science, computer, religion, social studies, language arts, music, art, spanish, health, and PE. I guess kindergarten has changed since I was five years old!

Since we're talking about Megan, I'd like to share a "Megan-ism". Megan asked me what my favorite restaurant is, and I answered "Ruth's Chris". She then said, "Is that the place where you have to be quiet?" (We had taken both kids there -pre Ryan- when we went for my b'day in 2006, so she knows what the place is like.) I said yes and reminded her that she had been there once. Megan's reply was, "I'm not a big fan of that." I'm pretty sure she wasn't a fan of being quiet but didn't have issues with the food selection (somehow they whipped up the all time kid favorite chicken and french fries for both of them), but I do remember that both she and Declan were very well behaved on that visit to Ruth's Chris. She obviously wasn't as impressed as I was. By the way, her favorite restaurant is a local hamburger place called The Purple Cow which has a train around the ceiling and does not require you to be quiet!

Ryan is 5 Months Old!

Here's Ryan's 5 month pose with the naked Build-A-Bear. He gets a kick out of sitting in the chair with the bear. He is reaching for everything he can see and trying to put most everything in his mouth. He loves sitting in his exersaucer and playing with the vast array of buttons, knobs, and assorted toys within his reach. I couldn't choose between the two pictures I took, so I am including them both on this post.

Cousins

This past weekend, we got the chance to see my parents, all of my siblings, and many of my nieces and nephews. We don't all get together very often, so the times we do get together are very special. Here's one of many pictures taken over the weekend. This one is of all the cousins that were there. From left to right: Finn(2), Megan(5), Hannah(17), Ryan(4 months), Carleigh(6), Connor(8), Declan(4).

Ice Skating

How do you stay cool during the summer in Texas? Why, go ice skating of course. Megan and Declan are both taking an ice skating class this summer. The basic premise of the class is to teach them how to fall, get up, and move across the ice. Megan really enjoys it and throws herself whole-heartedly into it.

Declan, on the other hand, doesn't think it's quite as fun. This is him looking at me through the glass wondering how I got him into this.

Traffic in our Neighborhood

Here's a look at some of the traffic in our neighborhood.

This picture was taken from our front porch.

Ryan is 4 Months Old!

Here's Ryan 4 months from the day he was born. He's rolling over and loves playing with toys. He's sleeping in his crib every night now. He wakes up in the morning making a variety of noises to get our attention. His favorite is still the fake cough to let us know he's awake. He's very interested in his brother and sister and listens intently to their every word.

Declan Turns 4!

Declan's much awaited 4th birthday finally arrived! We had his party at a bounce house. The kids "bounced" for about an hour and then dug into pizza and a Cars themed birthday cake.

There was even a magic act that involved a magic cauldron full of water that wouldn't spill on you if it was your birthday (see the picture for a look at how Declan didn't quite trust the facts on this one).

Then the kids got several tokens to use on games in the arcade. It was a whirlwind, but everyone had a great time.

Declan-isms

Kids really do say the darndest things. It's true. My Mom keeps telling me to write down some of these things because one day, it will be fun to look back on them. Declan has had a few good ones over the last couple of days, so I will put them in here.

#1. The first was after I had just gotten done working out. I changed out of the sweaty clothes and hung them on the doorknob of my closet to dry off. Declan picked one up and told me to put it in the dirty clothes basket because it had "jogging all over it".

#2. Declan has had a cough and a bit of a runny nose. I came home from work earlier this week and asked him how he was feeling. He said, "I'm feeling a little disappointed". :-) I never could find out if he was feeling better.

Here's a typical and recent picture of "Buddy-Bud" that fits right in with all his "Declan-isms". This is one of his many "take a picture of this" moments.

Ryan is 3 Months Old!

Ryan is now 3 months old. He is growing and changing every day. He is more vocal and is starting to laugh out loud. These pictures are of him smiling and then laughing while getting his picture taken. I just love what he does with his feet too. He does pretty good on "tummy time" and loves to look at toys and anything that has a pattern. Scroll down the page to see how much he has grown in comparison to the teddy bear.

Baptism

Ryan was baptized on Sunday during Pentecost mass. After mass, we had a great lunch at Buca Di Beppo. We have a video of the baptism and took some good pictures after we got home. Here are a few of them.

Here is Ryan in his outfit.
















Here he is with Aunt Cathy Bates - his Godmother.