Pearly whites

We visited the dentist and it was another fun outing for me and the girls.  They love the entire staff and have so much fun when we go.  I'm always so grateful that there is no apprehension or fear of getting their teeth cleaned. 

Reese was the first to go and she was a champ.  The hygienist discovered that her top right tooth is loose.  I told Cory that if we think her top gap is big now, wait until that tooth falls out.  She guessed that the tooth would fall out some time in the next 6-12 months.  Agh!  I can't believe they are old enough to start losing teeth.

 Ryan needed something to do while Reese was in the chair.  She and I played 'dentist' while we were waiting.

 Then it was Ry's turn.  Look at those dimples.  She was chomping at the bit to get those toofers cleaned.

 Our good little patient.

 All done!

Cereal

This kid loves cereal.  It's so random to me because I feel like the girls didn't even begin eating breakfast cereal until they were over two years old.  This little guy begs for a bowl of it and will double fist the spoons to get as much down as he can.

 He also loves to sit on the counter and eat.  Drives me bonkers but we let this kid get away with murder.

 Who me?

Father's Day

I'm a little late posting about Father's Day but I wanted to talk about it because we had a really nice day. I would consider Friday-Sunday of that weekend as Father's Day weekend because Cory was recovering from the V surgery and I was on full kid duty for three days straight.  We made Cory some really cute tiles with everyone's handprints on them and they turned out SO cute.  The girls also made homemade cards with stamps and markers and he loved them.  Cory always says he doesn't want presents but at the last minute I caved and bought him 2 new outfits at the Nordstrom Men's sale.  He looks really sporty in his new clothes.  Somehow I have fantastic taste when it comes to picking out clothes for other people.

Lucky Cory got to sleep the morning away while the kids and I took my mom & dad out for Father's Day lunch.  Then we rested some more in the afternoon and headed to Cory's parents house to eat dinner and catch some fish.  They live right across the street from the neighborhood lake and the girls loved catching the fish and then throwing them back in.  It was such a fun relaxing day and we love celebrating Cory and the wonderful dad that he is.

V-day

It's official.  The Whyte House will not be adding more children to the mix.  Cory went in for his vasectomy today and it's a little bittersweet, but we know our perfect little family is complete.  The appointment went really well and he was in and out in about an hour.  We got his prescriptions filled, drove through Starbucks for a treat, and then headed home.  He's been taking it easy most of the day, but now he's up and ready to eat some dinner.  I think he'll be back to running around and playing soccer in no time.

If I had my way...

I would L-O-V-E to live in my Gammie's house.  It's such a neat old ranch house that sits on over an acre of land right in the middle of Chandler (which used to be the country).  The backyard is amazing and the kids have so much fun running around when we get together.  There's so much room to roam and we're all in heaven when we're in that backyard.  We think the little spool is pretty nifty.  The kids are still trying to figure out what it is.  Is it a spa?  Is it a pool?  It's a spool!

 There is oodles of grass to play freeze tag and some rounds of ring-around-the-rosy.

 Her rosebushes are something out of a gardening magazine.  So beautiful!

 

It's the type of place that puts a smile on these little faces.

Chuparosa

We went to Chuparosa park with my brother and his family this morning.  It was a nice morning and the kids had fun playing at the splash pad.  I love how the playground area is under a big canopy so there's lots of shade.  It was twin day at the park because there were two other sets of identical twins at the park.  One dad was there with his 2 year old twin boys and was telling us how much work it was and how tired he was.  I hear ya, buddy.  If we had twin Ryder boys I would be one tired mama.  Look at our little long haired boy who's so full of energy :)

The sand box and splash pad are always a hit.  I finally started bringing our own sand toys so we don't steal from other little kiddos.

 

Our little Sun Devils

We have a few Sun Devils outfits for Ryder to wear when he gets a little bigger.  The girls found them and squeezed into them.  They're about two sizes too small, but they wore them all day long and it was pretty cute.  Check out the bellies below, hanging out in the pint size outfits.

 

These are the types of shenanigans that go on when I'm doing something in the other room and they think I'm not watching.  Sometimes they just can resist a good jump off the ottoman.

Pampering

I'm so lucky to have an aunt that does facials and microdermabrasions.  She is moving out of her Chandler home soon and moving to east Mesa :(.  We went to her house for a last hoorah and enjoy some pampering before she's out.  Auntie M gave the girls facials and put some lip gloss on them.  They were SO excited!  Then the girls decided they wanted to give me a facial.  What a crackup!  They were massaging my face and washing it with sponges.  Then Reese was putting bronzer and blush on my eyelids.  We had a few good laughs that night.


This is kind of macabre, but don't I kinda look like a corpse on the table with my eyes shut and hands folded on my chest?  My mom pointed that out to me.  What the heck!

Here are some really cute shots of the girls getting pampered by Auntie Emmie.  They were in hog heaven.

17 months

Ryder is 17 months old.  Today I saw a photo of him a year ago on my screen saver and couldn't believe how much he has changed.  He has totally lost his baby look and is such a lean, strong little toddler.  I love our little monkey so much and he is SO much fun right now.  Here are some highlights of him at 17 months:

•  Running everywhere, and I do mean running.  He tries to keep up with his sisters and he's pretty fast, but when he gets going really fast he loses his balance and bumps into walls.  It's pretty comical.

• He's using utensils on his own and doing really well.  He's never enjoyed being fed, so it's nice that he can really do it on his own with a fork and spoon.
• Still breastfeeding. Some days it's only 2x a day, other times it's more.  No signs of weaning any time soon.
• Talking more and understanding everything.  You ask him questions and he says no or nods.  He's saying a lot more animal sounds this month and loves to grab a fake phone and say 'Hi Dada'.  He leaves out the 'h' sound so it sounds like, "I Dada".  So cute.
• Loves drinking spinach juice smoothies, yogurt smoothies, & water.  I still have to force the whole milk a bit.
• Climbed out of his crib three nights in a row so we dropped the mattress to the floor.  It seems to be working and I don't think we're breaking any safety regulations.
• He really wants to sleep with his sisters and when it's bed time he points to their room and yells out Ryan's name.  I'm starting to look for bunk beds that they can all share next year when he's ready for a bed.
• He is obsessed with cars and really enjoys anything with wheels, but the Disney Cars characters have a special place in his heart.  He has 6 Lightning McQueen cars and carries them around everywhere.  If he was older and we took our kids to the movies, then we'd be going to see it when it comes out in 2 weeks.  Instead, we've just watched the trailer on YouTube about 100 times.
• I'm not sure how tall he is but I think he's gained a couple pounds, maybe at 22 pounds now.  He's got such a skinny waist that I can put him in 6-12 month shorts and he's wearing 18 month t-shirts.
• He just started swim lessons and seems to be going good so far.  A few tears in the beginning but he's a champ at going under water.
• His hair is L-O-N-G.  Cory wants it to keep growing so we'll see how long it gets :)

• 

Children's museum

We visited the Phoenix Children's Museum this weekend, just the five of us, and had such a fun outing.  It's rare that Cory and I both have a Saturday off, so when his morning appointment canceled we jumped at the opportunity to do something together as a family.

 The girls loved playing puzzles and LOVED the grocery store.  They played checkout together and it was so sweet.

 Ryder got in on the action too.

 There was a motorcycle and car section that Ryder was really diggin'.  The girls had fun climbing on the big motorcycle and pretending.

 Beep beep!

Chops

I've been waiting for the day when one of our girls gets adventurous and decides to cut her own hair.  Well, wait no longer because it happened today.  Ryan said her hair was bugging her and was in her face, so she decided that cutting it would be the way to go.  It would have been waaaay too easy to ask mom or dad for help and put the hair in a ponytail.  Funny part of the whole scenario is that her hair isn't that bad.  She did cut some wicked sideburns and some chunky layers that I could have lived without, but it's actually a pretty good cut job.  She now has some wispy bangs and a few face framing layers.  I'm laughing out loud as I type this because I was pretty mad when I found out she cut her hair.  Take a look at the damage and tell me what you think:

 Awesome sideburns!

The pile on the dining room floor.

 Wispy layers and bangs.  Oh yeah!