In One Year...

Yesterday was Senior Recognition Sunday at church.  That means, one year from now it will be my LITTLE brother up there, Uncle G to Ryder.

It is so hard for me to believe because 3 short years ago it was me, and that is actually a time in my life that I can vividly remember.  I remember a lot of things because of pictures--but I DO remember it!  I wasn't scared to graduate from HS, I was ready!  Yeah, I was sad about all my friends splitting up & going out separate ways, but I was ready for new beginnings!

I had no reason to cry yesterday as pictures from each of the Seniors childhoods were flashed upon the screen.  But I did.  I did because one year from now that will be Garrett.  I'll be a wreck.  He's not even my son, he's my brother.  He is always supposed to be "little" and I guess I'm realizing he's not any more.

One year from now Ryder will be 18 months old.  WHAT?  Yeah, freakin' scary!  HA!  We haven't even celebrated his 1st Birthday yet, and a year from now I'll be planning his 2nd!  (Well, maybe not YET, but it will be RIGHT around the corner!)

You can already tell that Ryder looks up to his Uncle G so so so much!  If Garrett is in the room, Ryder is staring at him, watching and studying his every move.  I told Garrett the other day that in a few years Garrett & his friends will be leaving to go fishing or something and Ryder will be left crying at the door because he wants to go with them.

I hope they can do all the fun things boys do together, and I hope G can teach him all about fishing, and hunting and four-wheelers & everything else BOY.  That's what Uncle G is supposed to be there for!

I guess I'll just try to soak up this next year where Garrett is still "little" & then I don't know what I'll do.  HA!

"bye-bye" & the "beautiful outdoors"

Punkin' has started to wave & SAY "bye-bye" here in the last week.  He used to always just wave his arms, but when he would do it we would start to do it with him & say "bye-bye".  He finally got the hang of making the "bah" sound and will just wave & "bah bah bah bah" when you do it or someone is walking out the door!    I am so proud of him!  He makes me SO happy!  Maybe I'll try & get a video to post on here!

A lot of nights while dinner is being cooked, dad (Pops) will take Ryder outside to play and enjoy the "beautiful outdoors"!

Dad tried to take Ryder for a ride on the 4wheeler, but when he started to go the louder noise scared Ryder.  This really surprised me, because he has been around noise his WHOLE life, and ON PURPOSE!  He's not afraid of the vacuum cleaner, or carwashes or anything!  We will have to train this boy to LOVE the 4wheeler!  HAHA!

The other night I was making Sour Cream Enchiladas & could see him out the window playing with this big STICK!  I mean BIG!  So...I had to get out there & take some pics!  They turned out cute!  He was so proud of that stick!

"Look what Pops gave me MOM!"

Such a happy little boy!

I love him in his lil cut-off sweats!

On a different front....with no pictures.

Conway Wampus Cat Baseball team played Fayettville yesterday afternoon (who were State Champs 07, 08 & 09).  It was an amazing, AHHMMAAAY-ZING game!  I haven't felt my heart, head or back hurt like that in a LONG time!  The last time I saw the Cats play Fayettville was at Baum Stadium my Senior year with most of my best "guy friends" on the field for the State Championship game, only to loose by a Home Run in the last inning.  It was a TEAR JERKER to say the least.

Oh boys yesterday beat them and KNOCKED them out of the tournament!  WAHOO!  Even if our boys don't it all the way, whoever does it probably glad that we beat them!  HaHa!  I was so proud of the boys!  They played great, and Garrett DHed and had a great single, 2-run RBI!  I love baseball...especially such BIG games, and games where I know the players!  Round 2 is tomorrow @ 4 o'clock!  

lil update on our week!

MAN I'm behind!  I'll start with Tuesday...

Naynee & her gang came to town, and we met them for lunch at Los Amigos, they like the place & of course I'm not gonna turn down some good ole Mexican!  The kids were so glad to see Ryder, and I was glad to see them & catch up with them a little bit!  Ryder was good most of the time, he would throw a fit here & there if he wanted a puff or something!  

Ryder & Naynee...he was giving her ALL my sugars!!

That night we went over to Mama D's & Coach Macs for some Shorty's burgers!  YUMMM...so healthy right?!  NOT!   Of course Ryder was into EVERYTHING...including their pantry!  Ha!  This is just like another set of grandparents to Ryder, and no one would know any different if they saw them out on the street with him!  

Do you not just LOVE those chunky lil thighs?!

Morgan learned a lot about babies on Tuesday, and did a lot of things for the first time!  I was so proud of her!  She wanted to feed him, change him, put him in his carseat, get his diaper bag ready!  It was SO nice!  I told her she'll learn a lot hanging out with us!  If she is half as as crazy about her own as she is with Ryder, she will be a GREAT mom!  =)

Trying to change Punkin'...but he was getting away from her!

CANDID!

Of course we did a lil shopping that day...and he fell asleep with his hand in Mama D's new baskets!

Morgan feeding Punkin'...YUMMM!

I bought a jar of Stage 3 foods today, and Morgan wanted to try it out on him.  He didn't love the chunks so much.

Wednesday-We went & had lunch with Kelly & Charles!  We love to have lunch with Charles whenever he is in town!  I had been telling them I wanted to take them to Cross Creek Sandwich Shop downtown for SOOO long and we finally got to go!  I think they were impressed...well I hope they were!  We had a great visit, as always and I enjoyed catching up on LIFE!

The boys!

Lovin' on Kelly!

Me & my Punkin'...I don't get enough pictures of the two of us!  : /

Thursday-Today.  Today was a productive day...Punkin' was up a/r 7:30 and MADE me get out of bed! HA!  We went & got the oil changed in my car @ the Nissan place and they even put my new wiper blades on (that have been in my trunk since...January) for FREE!  WAHOO!

Of course being on that side of town I had to get Chick-fil-a.  Duh.

We played alot today...I picked up our room, folded two loads of laundry, organized my old closet a lil bit, put all last semesters binders away, picked up our room some more, got all Ryder's pictures on CDs up to date....I feel like someone slipped aderal (sp?) in my water this morning!  GO ME!

Off for some Garage Saling tomorrow...I told Punkin' he needed to go to bed early tonight, because we would be up BRIGHT & EARLY to find some deals!  We will see!

Eight. 8. Ate.

So...it's rather hard to get a good picture of an active lil 8 month old!  I tried the best I could...and these are as good as it got!  They show his sweet little personality though!  He did NOT want to lay on his back and let me get a good picture!  HAHA!

At least I got a smile!

Happy...but "MOM!  What are you doing!?"

Notice the puff in his hand...and reaching for the camera!  HA!

Can you believe my Punkin' is EIGHT months old.  I can't.  Only 4 months away from the big ONE YEAR OLD!  He is pretty wild now, I can't imagine what's he gonna be like then!  I can't wait to find out!

I know I'm a little late on the post, because Sunday was Mother's Day & I have just been TOO busy the last few days to get on the computer!  OH MY!  

What have you been up to lately Punkin'?

-Still wearing size 2 diapers.

-Can crawl SO fast now!  From room to room...you follow me EVERYWHERE!

-Still sleeping through the night, but wake up a/r 6:45, but fall back asleep in bed with me!

-You pull up on ANYTHING & EVERYTHING!

-You have eaten french fries, oranges, avocado, bananas, cornbread.

-You love to feed yourself finger food, but make a HUGE mess!

-We tired Stage 3 Chicken Noodle Soup yesterday..and you did NOT know what to think!

-You have two lil corners of teeth showing in the bottom front now...just as of YESTERDAY!

-You crawl as fast as you can to KeeKee & Pops when they get home from work!

-You talk alot...BUHHHH BAHHH & MMMMAAA MMAAAA!

-We have started to get you to wave "bye bye"--it's TOO cute!

-Sometimes you let me rock you to sleep, but sometimes you just want to be laid down!

-Your wearing alot of 12 month clothes, but 9 months as well.

-You are blowing raspberries now & slobbering all over your shirt!

-You are not taking a regular morning & afternoon nap any more...kinda sad!

-Your eating fruit & cereal for lunch, veggies & fruit both for dinner & lunch.  & your a GREAT eater!

-You love to hold things & just look at them & figure them out!

-Your such a HAPPY baby!  When we're out shopping, people are like, "Is he this good all the time?" & I'm like,..."Pretty much!"

-If a doors shut and you want out...you'll go by it and bang on the door!

-If the front doors open you will close it, crawl, close it crawl...untill it's completely closed!

-Your interested in holding your own bottle now.

-We're working on the whole sippy cup thing now.

-Sometimes you get MAD & kinda growl, snap at us, if we don't do what you want!

-You get into mommy's makeup every morning when I put it on!

-I love you so much Punkin'!  Thanks for bringing such joy & life to me everyday!

end of our week...& MOTHER'S DAY!

On Thursday I made taco soup, mexican cornbread & cookies for some friends of mine who just had a beautiful baby girl!  Her name is Ainsley Ryann after the place of where her parent's got married!  =)  HOW SWEET!  She was born a week April 28th, but didn't come home for five days, so I we were letting them settle in and then headed out to see them and cook dinner for them!  She was so sweet & TINY!  I know every mom says it, but I do NOT remember Ryder being that LIGHT and tiny.  And he was even smaller than she was!

Me & baby Ainsley!

Luke entertained Ryder while I played (held) Ainsley.  Luke kept opening those singing birthday cards & Ryder just laughed and laughed EVERY time!

Friday I ventured out for round two of garage saling!  And I scored again...with this 7 dollar leap frog table!  Ryder was already trying to play with it before I could get it sanitized and cleaned up!  I was proud of my purchase!  He speaks english AND spanish too!  HaHa! 

"Look at all this fun new stuff!"

"Oh MY!"

Morgan came over early that afternoon to see lil man & we had such a good time catching up on everything & just talking!  She just got home from school the night before.  I look forward to cooking & watching Housewives this summer!  =)

This morning for Mother's Day we got up & went to church.  Ryder got me a B-E-A-Utiful white boyfriend watch (even with a few sparkles!)  He did such a great job at knowing what I wanted, and I was TOTALLY surprised!--He told me KeeKee helped him out a lil bit! :P--

We got mom a compost...it's what she wanted!...Glee DVD Season 1, Scrabble Slam, and Ryder got her a Turvis Tumbler-like Starbuck's cup & gift card!  She loved it all and seemed very happy!

We went to church & they told me in the nursery that Ryder is just so active!  I was proud of him & thinking "oh no!" at the same time!  Ha!

We headed to Nana's afterwards for a good time as always with the fam!

Ryder w/ Pops!

My sweet lil Punkin'!

I failed to get pictures of us in our church clothes, but oh well!?

I love my lil man!

Punkin' with his Great Grandma-Nana!  

I am so blessed to be a mother.  It is what I have always dreamed to be when I "grow up".  Even though I don't consider myself "grown up"...I've had to grow up alot faster than most and I got to do what I've always wanted to do, just a little sooner than planned.  I wouldn't take any of it back, because this little man is the light of my world.  Not one day goes by without him making me laugh or smile.  I don't think I'll ever be able to thank God enough for such a beautiful, happy, content, healthy lil boy.  I couldn't ask for anything more.

I think about all the woman out there who have been trying to have a baby for SO long, and are having no such luck and have just about given up all their hope.

...And here I am a mom who wasn't even trying to get pregnant and did.  Why was I able to create a baby when those woman can't?   My heart goes out to those woman and I can't imagine what it's like to WANT a baby so bad, but not be able to have one.

Once again, I am so thankful for my lil man, and to be able to celebrate with him today.  I hope in the years to come I am the best mom that I can be and he will be proud of the way I have raised him one day.  

Mom-

Thank you for being such a loving, caring, fun, understanding, & forgiving mom for all these years.  I will always remember the special things you did for us growing up, and hope to be half the mom to Ryder that you are to us.  Now that I'm a mom myself, I wish I would have cared when you wanted to teach me how to cook or sew, or arrange a flower arrangement etc...but I'm so thankful that your still around to teach me all those things!  And I finally can say that....."Okay mom, maybe you were right..."  =)