Say A Little Prayer

For a while now we have set a routine of having Rylan say a simple prayer at bedtime. It started off with him just repeating us, but now he knows the prayer without much help at all. My heart absolutely melts when I hear my little boy praise God. He may not fully understand all the concepts of prayer yet, but hopefully we are setting the groundwork for raising a boy who truly desires to please his Maker. My proudest day as Rylan's mommy will be the day I stand with him and witness him accepting Jesus as his Savior.

RYLAN'S BEDTIME PRAYER

Thank you Jesus

For your blessings

AMEN!

"Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever." Psalm 118:1

Summer Fun For Only $99

Earlier in the spring Cody and I discussed getting Rylan some sort of play yard or pool for the backyard. After looking around on the Target, Wal-Mart and Toys R Us websites, we decided on this water slide/pool. It is for ages 2-5, but don't let that fool you because I think Cody had as much fun on it as Rylan did today! Today is the first day we've set it up and it literally provided us with hours of entertainment for Rylan. He had a blast and he had to have gone down the slide at least 50 times. He even started going down head first on his belly. He is definitely our little water baby. He doesn't mind the water in his face at all! We plan on using this frequently throughout the summer and I'm sure it will prove to be $99 very well spent!

I stood at the bottom of the slide for the first few times because I was nervous his head would go under water and he would panic. Momma obviously worried over nothing because he didn't mind going under at all.

He would get to the top of the slide and then say, "Watch me!"

Having a blast!

BIG splash!!

A House Of Boys!

This week Cody ran his baseball camp for 3rd graders through 9th graders. Josiah and Truitt (Cody's cousins) came to stay with us for a few nights while they attended the clinic. Truitt is going into 7th grade and Josiah will be a freshman. Rylan LOVED having the boys here! It was fun for us to have them here because they are about the same age apart as what Rylan and Hudson will be. We got a glimpse into the future...and apparently it involves a lot of wrestling in the living room! :-) The boys were so good and we hope they enjoyed their time here. If they come again next year for the clinic we'll have another boy to add to the mix. I did learn some things about teenage boys this week that may be beneficial for me in the future.

1. Apparently teenage boys don't know that they need to take a shower after sweating in 100 degree weather for 3 hours.

2. Even though a Little Tykes basketball hoop says it is for ages 2-5, it can easily entertain two teenage boys for hours.

Cody, Rylan, Josiah and Ripken playing in the little pool. Rylan just jumps right in no matter how cold the water is. Apparently Cody and Josiah thought the water was freezing. However, that didn't stop Rylan from trying to splash both of them. I love the look on Josiah's face!

Josiah was actually sitting in the kiddie pool relaxing even after Rylan got out...until Rylan proudly proclaimed that he pee peed in the pool. I have never seen someone jump out of a pool that fast!

Some more splashing!

After swimming Rylan decided to crawl up on the couch and watch Truitt play a baseball game on the Wii.

I swear we offered Truitt other sleeping arrangements, but somehow he managed to curl up and sleep on Rylan's Spider Man couch.

So Long Crib, Hello Big Boy Bed

This past weekend my mom came into town to help us get Rylan's new room and big boy bed ready. Rylan actually had no desire to leave the crib, and we probably we have just left him there for a while longer. However, with Hudson coming in less than 3 months we really needed to get Rylan out of the crib and adjusted to his new room. We had done Rylan's nursery in a vintage baseball theme (I know, surprise surprise) so we wanted to carry that over to his new big boy room. My mom and I spent most of last Saturday painting the room. Cody was our work horse for the weekend. The room had always been a guest bedroom so we had quite a bit of furniture to move out and store in the garage. While my mom and I painted, Cody cleaned the garage out and got everything organized so we could store the furniture out there. The house was such a disaster during the day while we all worked, but the end product was well worth it!

Sunday night was the first night we attempted to put Rylan in his new bed in the new room. We were shocked when he went right to sleep and slept through the entire night!! As a matter of fact, he has done that every night since then too! Nap time is a little hard in the new bed. He hasn't really gone to sleep much, but he at least stays in there and has quiet time for over an hour. Overall, it has been a HUGE success moving Rylan out of the crib...what a relief! I can only hope for potty training to be this easy! Ha!

Below are pictures of Rylan's new "Big Boy Room" which he loves!

These are actually autographed pictures I bought for Cody a while back. The picture on the left is Yogi Berra tagging Ted Williams. The picture on the right is Ozzie Smith who was one of Cody's coaches during his minor league days.

Rylan's big boy sleigh bed and his baseball bean bag chair.

A couple of metal vintage baseball signs on the right and a picture of Cody when he played at ACU on the left. Rylan LOVES the picture of his daddy! Whenever you ask Rylan who the best baseball player in the world is, he yells "Daddy!" Like I told Cody, he may not have made it to the big leagues, but there is one person in this world who thinks he is the best baseball player who ever lived!

His new baseball bedding

Vintage baseball pictures that I found and framed when we set up his nursery a few years ago.

Rylan's new dresser that Papa and Nonni bought for him. Thanks Papa and Nonni!

Who Let The Dogs Out

Daddy has taught Rylan the song 'Who Let The Dogs Out' which has now become a great source of entertainment for us. He gets so excited when he sings this song!

* Please excuse the mismatched PJ's. Obviously I hadn't done laundry in a few days.

5 Years...And Still Going Strong!

June 5th was our 5th year anniversary! Five years have flown by, but so much has happened during that time. Cody and I have had some ups and downs during the past five years, but what amazes me is that each experience (good or bad) seems to only strengthen our marriage. Here's a little summary of our life over 5 years...

1. We bought our first home together. We are now quickly outgrowing this house, but I know it will be hard for me to eventually leave this house. This is where Rylan came home and Hudson will also. Who knew a house could mean so much?!

2. We went through a couple years of fertility treatment trying to become parents. After all the disappointing negative pregnancy tests, in vitro finally allowed us to become Rylan's mommy and daddy. What a rollercoaster ride!

3. Cody has been at 3 schools and now completed his first year as a head coach. From my best estimate I have now attended approximately 150-175 baseball games and about 45-50 football games in our five years of marriage.

4. We experienced the deaths of 2 grandfathers. My Poppy passed away in February of 2007 and Cody's Papa just passed away last month. We would have loved to have more time with them, but we also know we will one day join both of them in paradise.

5. We've experienced an "unplanned" yet extremely exciting 2nd pregnancy. After all this time of thinking and being told by doctors that we had little chance of getting pregnant on our own, I was shocked on January 2nd of this year to see a POSITIVE pregnancy test! In just 12 short weeks we will become a family of four!

6. More than anything, in 5 years I have learned a lot about marriage. Every day of marriage isn't exciting, but it's still what I want more than anything in the world. I love waking up and going to bed each day with the man that I vowed to spend the rest of my life with. It's so comforting to honestly say that we are stronger now than we were 5 years ago on our wedding day. It's even kind of fun to know that a "date" is now Taco Bell burritos on the couch while Rylan takes a nap. We definitely don't make a lot of money, but what we do have is worth more than any amount of money could ever buy!

I love you Cody! Five years is only the beginning, and I can't wait for the MANY more to come!