Beautiful Weekend, Wonderful Friends

This weekend was one of the best that we've had in a long time. Friday we got to hang out with all of our High Altitude friends at our annual Christmas party. So wonderful to visit with all of those people that I rarely get to sit down to dinner with. By the way, we also are the proud owners of some pretty awesome White Elephant gifts. Beware if you are on our gift list, you may be getting a new place setting for your table that is heavily advertised with Cialis. (The hostess is a pharmaceutical rep).

Saturday we went out with David and Lisa and their sweet kids to try to get some cute pics for our Christmas cards this year. Lisa does a bit of photography on the side, similar to what we do over at Spell Photography (which our website is in some major need of some updates).

Here is one of my favorites from the day, although I won't be sharing our Christmas card photo -- you'll just have to receive that one in the mail!


For me this is just a perfect portrait of what our life is right now. Just hanging out, not the perfect, put together family, just trying to keep it together one minute at a time :)

And Ryan is becoming a daddy's boy more and more. He loves seeing Jeremy walk into the room. This pictures says it all:
Hmm... it looks like Daddy is a bit smitten, as well.

But more than Jeremy or I, Ryan lights up when he sees Jackson. It is his puppy already. Check out how ready he is to walk the dog :)

Sunday we went out to the same location and did some work for Spell Photography, with some friends who have to be the most photogenic people of all time! Ty and Amanda are the proud owners of my favorite store of all time, Restyle.

The weather was great this weekend, and a perfect opportunity to get out and document some awesome times in our lives.

So I Haven't Given Up

I took a long break, mostly because I kept waiting to get pictures off of Jeremy's camera. I still don't have the pictures. Let's see if I can back track over the last couple of months. I'll add in pics when I get them.

We did alot of travelling in September and October. I managed to visit my family with just Ryan and I, the following week we all went to Mississippi, including the dog. WHO ATE ANT POISON. Ugh. What a trip back to Texas, having to stop for the dog. Again. and. Again.

Then, to celebrate my birthday, I had my wisdom teeth removed. Jeremy's mom came and helped for a few days.

We got all healed up from that, and hit the road again for a trip to Arkansas to visit with Jeremy's sister, her husband, and their little girl. What a drive back :( I'm pretty sure Ryan cried 8 out of the 9 hour drive. Even the state trooper who stopped us for speeding had mercy after hearing the wails.

The following weekend, I was helping host a sweet friend's baby shower in Dallas. What a blessing their little one already is.

And then Halloween -- Ryan dressed up as the Pillsbury Doughboy. It was absolutely perfect. We visited a local Farmer's Market who had a little photo op pumpkin patch.

Then came November .... Parent Commitment Ceremony, Jeremy's knee surgery, and Thanksgiving. Wow -- quite the busy few months. And now it is officially Decemeber. And I hope to resume posting more often again.

Checking In

This is basically a post to promise that I have not slipped back into once a month post mentality. We have just had much going on these past 2 weeks. Which means when life settles down, oh, next year, we might just have some blogging going on. Kidding.

Highlights of the past week:

Trip to East Texas

First Cowboys Game

Oral Surgeon Appointments

Puppy Neutering

Visiting with Jeremy's Parents

On the Agenda:

Oral Surgery

Birthday

Small Group

Mississippi

Dinner 8's

Best Friend's Baby Shower

You know, the usual stuff :)

We literally have something if not 2 things going on every day for the next 2 weeks. I'll post recaps and pictures soon!

Until then I'll leave you with this:

It Melts My Heart

This is the heart of the man I love.

http://somethingseventual.blogspot.com/2010/09/only-once.html

Such a sweet and tender post!

Ryan is Reaching!

I know I've already posted today, but Ryan is getting very intentional about reaching out and batting at the toys on his play yard. I thought I would share a quick video to document this milestone :)

If you notice -- he's using his left hand. I wonder if we have a lefty?

Welcome, September!

10 Reasons why this September is a big month in our family.

1) We celebrate 5 birthdays in our family! Including mine :)

2) The Cowboys regular season kicks off.

3) Jeremy's cousin is getting married; and we will be attempting our first roadtrip to attend.

4) Ryan is 3 months old this month.

5) Fall is coming, and the temperatures will be dropping.

6) This marks the month Jeremy and I first started dating in 2005.

7) Ryan will be seeing ALL 4 of his great grandmothers this month!

8) Hatch green chile festival at Chuy's.

9) Small Group is back into full swing.

10) Did I mention the Cowboys kick off their regular season? This is huge, therefore worth making the list twice :)


Hope everyone is having a great start to their September!

Disappointed on SO many levels....

Well tonight I got to watch the Cowboys play for the first time this season. I even had a brand new shirt to sport in honor of my love of America's team (thanks,dad!).

And let me just say it very quickly turned me into an emotional wreck in which I immediately turned to icecream to numb the sad, sad feeling I had. And then, to make things worse, Jeremy played a HORRIBLE joke on me. And by the way, I blame the following completely for all of the mistakes and poor playing that I saw tonight.

Hope is all I have to get me through August to (hopefully) February. It is my dream to see the Cowboys play in the Super-Bowl at Dallas. But for that to happen, my husband needs to stop sabotaging the bloodline's love of all things navy, silver, and white!

Jeremy's Blog

I update on just stuff going on with our family. Jeremy's blog has more thought provoking and funny material. Check it out if you want. He's been blogging for several years, albeit randomly.

www.somethingseventual.blogspot.com

Sleep, Smiles, and a Sweet Schedule

Over the last two weeks, life has begun to settle down a bit. Or maybe we're adjusting into the role of being parents. Our little man is growing out of the newborn stage a little everyday. It amazes me when I see how much he has grown over the last three months. He is becoming quite the happy baby!

He spends many hours in the day contentedly looking at his mobile or play yard. And instead of screaming when he first wakes up, we can actually get smiles and laughs while changing his diaper or cuddling.






Also, about a week ago we received the precious gift of five glorious hours of uninterrupted sleep. And after going back and forth for about a week, now we are pretty much guaranteed at least a five hour stretch at night! And because of this sleep, we've also been able to develop a schedule.

Ryan is now eating every four hours. So we get him up between 7 and 8 am in the mornings, I nurse him, and then we spend the next hour or so doing fun things like a bath, or reading a book, or cuddling (which is my favorite, of course). He takes a nap about 9am and again around 1 pm. When he is awake we run some quick errands and what not or Ryan plays in his swing while I start dinner and do my Five Minute Frenzy (which is another post altogether). He goes down for another short hour nap around 5pm. After spending some time with Jeremy, and sitting with us while we eat, we do a bedtime routine with the little guy, put him in his Jammies and put him to bed with sweet kisses and love from both of us. Around 10 we do a dream feed, to extend his nighttime sleep. I usually give him a bottle, and he doesn't really wake up at all, not even during his diaper change. And usually I get to sleep until 3 or 4 after doing this feeding, which is beautiful.

It has been really helpful for me to have some type of routine to look forward to. I loathe surprises. I like things to be predictable, routine, and only occasionally throw in some spontaneity. Occasionally though I'll find that he wants to sleep all day (usually accompanying a growth spurt) and I get sweet moments like this, when trying to wake him up to nurse after a nap:




And speaking of growth spurts, Ryan has started to move into his next size of clothes, 3-6 months. I have a sneaking suspicion that he won't make it to 6 months old wearing these either!


Loving this time with our sweet baby boy!

Loving the Floor Bed

I posted before that we were going to be using a floor bed (Montessori philosophy) and so far I have to say that I am loving it!

The first month Ryan slept in a bassinet in our room, but that didn't seem to be working well once Jeremy returned to work. So then we tried the bassinet in the nursery, with me sleeping on Ryan's floor bed. This was great for me, and allowed Jeremy some rest. After about a week of this though, I missed my husband -- so back to my room. After I started sleeping in our room again, I moved Ryan to napping and sleeping on his bed.

Reasons this is working well for our family so far:

1) It is very easy to put Ryan in bed, and pick him up without hurting my back.

2) We can lay down with him and soothe, while being comfortable ourselves.

3) I can nurse very easily without much disruption to Ryan's sleep in the middle of the night.

4) If the sheet gets soiled in one area, we just move Ryan to avoid changing the sheets and disrupting his sleep.

5) It has been MUCH cheaper to do the floor bed than a crib.

That isn't to say it is completely without challenges. Ryan has rolled off of the bed a few times (no more than 5) but it happens less now that he controls his movements more. I put pillows down around the mattress and that helps ease the transition to the floor. It scares him, but doesn't hurt him. The last time, he didn't even really cry when he rolled off.

Jeremy and I are going to tackle building a Montessori bed frame sometime soon. It gives just a little lip around the mattress, with a lower area in the center to still allow movement in and out of bed.

Ryan's nursery:

On another note I love, love, love this Michael Olaf mobile that I ordered from "The Joyful Child". Ryan is so smitten!

It moves with the air currents of the room, and we can use it for years. Now as a mobile for his development, and as time passes it will just be some really cool art for his room.

Sorry for the Incovenience

This post may very well come off as a rant, because it is.

So today I worked very hard to get out of the house, on time, with my baby fed and looking decent myself to pick up Jeremy to have a nice lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant. Not an easy task, and I was pretty proud of myself for doing so!

After arriving, the little man was content, smiling and cooing at us from his carseat while we waited on our food. I could see he was starting to get hungry again, so I warmed his bottle and started to feed him. Meanwhile, the restaurant is starting to fill up and there are very few tables that are open. A nice gentleman got seated at the table next to ours. A few minutes later, while I was feeding Ryan, another guy, lets not call him nice gentleman, joins the guy at the table next to ours.

As he approaches the table which is 2 feet away, he says "Were there no other tables that aren't next to a baby."

I chose to ignore this comment, but the more I thought about it the more infuriated I got. I finished feeding Ryan, put him on my shoulder, patted his back for a couple of minutes while he fell asleep, and put him in his carseat and covered him with a blanket. All the while, my sweet precious baby did not make even one sound, happy, mad, or otherwise.

I'm sorry mister not nice gentleman, that I love my husband, want to have lunch with him, and God has blessed us with a child. I'm even more sorry that I don't stay in the house 24/7 now after giving birth to said blessing. And most of all mister not nice gentleman, I'm sorry that you are so bothered by a baby who does not make a sound, in a family establishment, in the middle of the day, the entire time you are seated next to us.

And come on, how can you bothered by this:

Next time, I think might just say something with a comment like that. I feel better! Thanks for listening.

Welcome, Ryan!

After a week of being on bedrest, and combating contractions with medication the doctor said "when he comes, he comes". I was expecting to have a least a week :| Within two days, I was in labor. We had known for awhile that I was a "high risk" pregnancy, and for the last week before Ryan was born I could not be left alone -- in case of an emergency.

So after the doctor took me off of bedrest and trebutaline on Tuesday -- I felt that urge to get things done. I cooked and froze meals, cleaned, did laundry, ran errands.... Fast forward to Wednesday evening, around 9 pm I started having contractions -- by midnight they were five minutes apart and the "just in case of emergency" was happening. We very quickly (without half of our things) got in the car and ran every red light to get to the Emergency Room.

After seeing a resident, they decided I could labor for awhile under close monitoring. So for the next 21 hours I labored. Around 8:30 pm the doctor noticed that something had changed -- and recommended we do a c-section in the next hour.

Ryan James Spell was born on June 3, 2010 at 9:20 p.m. For being born at 36 weeks (which is considered premature) he was a pretty healthy guy at 6 lbs 4 oz and 20.5 inches. However, he wasn't quite pink enough, and was grunting while breathing -- so he was taken to Texas Children's NICU. I saw him through the incubator as they were leaving the room, we couldn't even hold him until the next morning when he had been taken off of the machine to help regulate his breathing.

Here are some pictures from the next day....I can't post up the ones with all of the tubes/monitors as its just too traumatic for me :(

Kisses from Daddy

Mommy meeting Ryan for the first time.

Praise God for a healthy son, and for the ability to come home from the hospital all together!

* I had been writing this post for awhile -- so I will play catch up over the next few weeks with updated happenings and maybe some old drafts that are in my queue.

Learning a Lesson

So after introducing you to our growing son for the first time -- what do I write about next? I mean it has to be something memorable, ah I have it. The first petty theft.

I get a call this morning from my employer -- someone has called saying they found your purse.
Really? My purse is locked in the trunk of the car (yes I know--not the appropriate place for it). This has to be a mistake -- I call the lady and sure enough someone has broken into our car. Or maybe I left the door unlocked. I thought I locked it, but maybe I didn't :( Luckily -- I keep my wallet in the house.

So the purse was thrown on the street, diamond necklace still in it, and will be returned this afternoon. The first generation Ipod is missing -- good thing Jeremy has an Iphone. All in all -- a horrible experience but not too harsh -- and definitely lesson learned.

Ryan James Spell

I would like to introduce you all to our growing baby BOY, Ryan James. We recently had an ultrasound where we got to watch him move and sleep (sleep mostly). Here are a couple of pictures for you to enjoy.

This is a profile of Ryan -- so much bigger than the first time we saw him like this :)

In this one he is sleeping snugly, but you can still see his face.

We are very excited to know that we will be soon welcoming our son into this world. Please pray that God would prepare us for his arrival, and that we would be able to enjoy the birth plan we have envisioned.

Cutting the Grocery Budget

So here's honesty -- for the past three years we have spent WAY too much money on our grocery/dining out budget. Oh I've always clipped coupons and meal planned. However, until recently I wasn't concerned with pairing what we already had with sale items to make meals that were even cheaper. Oh -- and shopping at HEB didn't help either. Everything was so fresh and tasty we'd just about buy the entire store once a month. Yes..we only shopped once a month, which meant that we made $10-$15 Kroger trips a few times during the week buying what we needed regardless of whether it was on sale or not.

After moving into a house -- this had to change. Our once "disposable" income is now being spent on home projects, preparing for the baby, and trying to furnish our house. So I joined the grocery game , if you haven't heard about it - check it out! Many of our friends play this game and now that I have the time (and incentive -- as whatever I save gets reallocated elsewhere for date nights, trips, saving for a new bigscreen TV, etc.) I decided to go for it.

The first week -- I saved a whopping $53 and brought home enough meat to pack the freezer, as well as, produce for the week and other various items. The second week-- I wasn't too interested in the sale items, but we did have a dinner party, so I spent approximately $50 for the week. This week was the beginning of February -- and a real shot at seeing just how much money we can save each month, it being the beginning and all. So how did I do?

I watched my Kroger bill go from $145 -- down to $78. It was awesome -- I had a cart load of things (many of which I needed -- some of it was stocking up) for well under a $100. We are on our way to cutting our grocery/dining out budget by 50%. I'll update on our final progress at the end of the month! Pray for us to keep it up!

Here's what I walked out of Kroger with for a measly $78.

Night Owl

The baby is already taking after me with it's schedule :)

An ongoing "struggle" (annoyance) in our marriage is our different body clocks. Jeremy is the ultimate morning person, after his cup of coffee, getting up early and taking his time. He starts projects in the morning and usually by 7pm he is winding down for the night.

I on the other hand am quite the night owl -- I wake up at the last minute to rush out of the door, spend the entire morning groggy and start coming into real existance around 10 am. My most productive part of the day is usually from 9-11 pm. (Usually cleaning during this time -- Jeremy doesn't appreciate the vacuuming and mopping around midnight, while he is trying to sleep, which is why I called it a struggle.)

So up until today -- I hadn't really been feeling the baby moving -- only the really large movements whenever I happened to be yelling at a Cowboys game :) But I was sitting on the couch in my lazy stuper (it was before 9pm) and I start feeling this kicking... thinking it was the baby I started to experiment. I pushed on the side of my abdomen the baby prefers and yes the baby gave my hand a swift and pretty powerful kick for the little person weighing in at less than an pound and only approximately five inches. I never played soccer -- but maybe this is their calling. Or perhaps the baby knew how upset I was that the Cowboys need a reliable kicker and this is their way of being empathetic with my pain ;)

So it seems that we have an active night owl as the kicking has been steady for the last two hours-- I can't complain! Hopefully this means they will sleep in most mornings!

Nesting

In the last 24 hours I have developed the deep desire to start preparing the nursery. I have spent countless hours online at Target picking out all of the things that I am envisioning for the room. It might seem a little different to most people, I am following Montessori principles in setting up the room. There will be no adult furniture (except a dresser -- which happens to be free storage because we already possess it), crib, changing table, and all of the wall art and decor will be at eye level for an infant. In case your having a hard time picturing this ... it will resemble something along these lines --

A mattress on the floor supports independence, and of course their room would be more "child proofed" than this room appears. This is more along the lines of what our baby's would look like in about a year and a half. This is certainly not the traditional way of putting together a nursery -- but I am excited to see if it works for our family. I love Montessori and would love to put our child into the school that I currently work at -- unfortunately it is WAY too expensive! I have learned enough in the last few years of being there that I think that I can at least incorporate the basic philosophy at home.

I will post pictures as we start building the nursery :) If you have any questions feel free to ask!

A Window into Our Lives

Many of our friends blog, and while I find what they have going on interesting and funny, I am realizing they are giving access into their lives through this little window. So here I am, starting a blog.

With the impending birth of our first child and family and friends being spread across the country, I would like to share our experiences with everyone. As of right now it will be very basic -- just things going on, but as it progresses I hope to share recipes, good books, ideas for home projects, etc.