Sedona

We had an awesome girls weekend at Enchantment in Sedona with my mom, Aunt Marilyn, Aunt Carol, Jess, & me.  We left early Saturday morning and got up there around lunch time.  There was a welcome brunch for the spa girls weekend and then we headed off to our treatments.  I changed into my robe and vowed to stay in it all weekend.  My treatment was a custom facial with a hand and neck massage.  It was bliss.  There were views of the red rocks right outside our window.  Our room was an adjoining suite so we could all be together.  We lounged by the pool, drank yummy wine, had lots of laughs, and just vegged out and relaxed.  It was the perfect weekend.

 Sitting by the pool :)

Mom, Emmie, & me

 Look at those red rocks.  Love it!

 Our cute little casita.

 Another view of our lovely room.

Jess & I met up with our friend from our playgroup that happened to be in Sedona with her husband for the weekend.

Happy 5 years

Today Cory and I celebrate our 5 year anniversary. What a fun 5 years it's been. I am married to my best friend and our relationship gets better and better each year we are together.

We farmed the kids out for the night and headed up to Scottsdale for a fun evening out. We visited the swanky Ipic theaters in the Scottsdale Quarter to watch Cowboys & Aliens. The theater is SO nice and we upgraded our seats to the Premium Plus so we could recline our seats in style and receive the service staff that comes with it. So much fun to relax and indulge :) We ate some delish food at the Salt Lounge and my prickly pear margarita was out of this world. After the movie was out we walked around the center and visited a few shops that were still open. We had such a great time and I can't wait to go back and enjoy another night out with my hubs.

 Enjoying the Salt lounge area before the flick.

 Me and my prickly pear margarita.  It was SO tasty!

 Sweet potato fries w/ cajun seasoning.  Yum!

Handsome Hubby!

Who wants S'mores?

Part of the reason I started writing a blog is so I could capture all the funny things that our kids say and not miss out on a moment of hilarity.  Thank goodness my mom is good about writing it down too (and posting it on Facebook).  This is what she wrote about Ryan on FB today:

According to my sweet Ryan, it takes chocolate, marshmallows, and gran crappers to make s'mores. Gonna have to get some of those the next time I go to the store.

I'm not lying when I tell you that the kid is a crackup without even trying.

Pre-K

Today was our first day of Pre-K at Risen Savior.  The girls are doing the afternoon class from 12:30 to 3:30.  The new schedule is going to be an adjustment but I think it's going to work out well for all of us.  They love going to school and they've been so excited about their classroom, teachers, and friends.  Highlight of the first day is the classroom fish named Rainbow Zebra.  Love that.  Here are a few shots of them before we headed inside for our first day.

 Rockstar Ryan.

 Sweet little Reesie.

Side note on their personalities and clothing choices.  

Ryan loves to wear dresses and skirts.  Their school doesn't have a dress code for preschool, but I've made up my own for them.  I don't let them wear skirts or open toed shoes to school because they are playing and getting dirty, etc.  If Ryan had it her way she would wear fancy clothes and shoes every day.  Because I won't let her, she has a new love of skorts-the skirts that have shorts built in.  Perfect for our fashionista who wants to look fancy.

Reese is much more sporty.  She likes nice things too, but she's all about wearing shorts so there's no fight there.  She loves it when her shorts have pockets and yellow is her favorite color, so we're always on the hunt for cute yellow shirts.  Mimi bought them new twinkle toes (in size 12!) for school. They light up on the toes and they were so excited to wear them today.  They've gotten so big the past few months, wearing size 5 & 6 in most clothes. 

Remember these two?

 This was last Summer when we visited the Murphys.  K & Ryder were SO cute together!

 Here they are, sweet little friends, one year later. 

  We had to get the girls in the photo too and it's so funny that Ryan is always the one holding Ryder.  He's such a pistol (perfect for Ryan) and then there's Reese & K behaving perfectly.  What a riot.  This is so indicative of their personalities.

It looks like Ryder is telling K, "Let's cooperate so we can get outta here."  She seems pretty interested in whatever he has to say :)

Rosa Release

The girls are obsessed with a stuffed dog at Mimi & Papa's condo in San Diego.  They named her Rosa Release about a year ago and the name stuck. We call her Rosa for short.  She's a stuffed Boston Terrier that belongs to one of the other partners in the condo.  The first time Ryan saw her it was love at first sight.  They carry her around, place her in the window sill so she can watch the trains go by, feed her lunch.  When Mimi & Papa are at the condo without us we have to call and get updates on RR.  Mimi will text us photos of Rosa on the balcony eating cereal and drinking a cup of joe.  It's pure comedy.  When we were heading out of town we had a dramatic goodbye with Rosa Release and took lots of photos so they can look at her when we get home.

 Ryan + Rosa Release = BFFs

 Reese loves wearing Mimi's reading glasses and pretending she's "Martha the librarian".

Goodbye, Rosa!  We'll miss you.

18 month photos

I've been wanting to take photos of Ryder for a couple weeks now that he's 18 months and it seems like a pretty big milestone.  We had his 18 month appointment and I planned to take photos right after.  Well the doc was running behind, I had all 3 kids with me, and Ryder got a Hep A shot that he wasn't too happy about so we moved the photos to the afternoon.  It worked out well because all the kids had some time to rest and these were a few shots that were taken.

 Couldn't resist getting a shot of the girls together.

 I loved this one of him with all his teeth showing :)

 Little Ry with her wavy hair that she wouldn't let me curl under.  I love her smile because that face is SO her.

 

Little Reesie with her perfectly coiffed hair and sweet smile.

 All three little monkeys together!  This was one of my favorites.

Bed head

This is the cutest face we wake up to every morning.  What a doll!

Ready?

Ready for some updates?  I've been MIA for awhile because we were in San Diego and I stayed far away from technology so we could have a fun family vacation with minimal interruption.  But now I'm back so I'm going to upload some photos of our trip and what's been happening at the Whyte House.  Stay tuned.

Please change his diaper

Ryan is our resident crackup.  Here's what she said to me today that had me rolling on the floor.


Ryan: "MOM!  Ryder needs a diaper change.  I can tell because he has a fat vagina."
Me (laughing): Ryan, boys don't have vaginas.
Ryan: OK. Whatever.  He has a fat penis.  He really needs his diaper changed.
Me:  Thanks, Ry.  I'm on it.

18 months

Ryder boy is 18 months and he's such a fun little crazy dude.  We had so much fun with him in San Diego and he was such a sport on all our adventures.  We visited the Dr. and he's following the same growth trend--long and lean.  Here are his stats from the appointment:


Weight 21.6 pounds, 5th%
Height is 32 1/2", 75th%
Head is 19 1/2", 90th%

He's tall & skinny with a big head.  Lucky for him he really doesn't appear that out of proportion.  He's talking and communication so much with us.  I can't really keep track of how many words any more, but a few new ones this month are: Elmo, thank you, please, Ahhh do for I do, Hi Mama, Hi Dada, Hi Baba (Baba is Papa).  He's stringing the the Hi's and Bye's with our names and it's really cute.

He can tell Reese & Ryan apart and I think it's pretty amazing.  He loves yelling out Ryan's name, but Reese is his little caretaker and always looking out for him.


He has taken his monkeyness to a whole new level.  He was climbing out of his crib so we dropped the mattress to the floor.  We were told by others that this was a sure fire way for keeping him in the crib.  Not so much.  He got so pissed one night at bedtime that he found some superhuman baby strength and climbed out of the crib.  He slept with us for a few nights because I was so freaked out about him climbing out again, but my sleep was too compromised and I purchased a crib tent.  So far it's OK.  It definitely keeps him in, but he kinda hates it.  He screams for a bit before giving up and passing out.  I talked to the Dr. about this and she said it's the safest way to go.  She said that a 18 month old can't be in a big kid bed yet for safety reasons.  We can't sleep with him because he kicks us all night long and also wants to nurse every 3 hours like a newborn.  It would be awesome if he just didn't fight bedtime so much.

I'm still nursing little guy and he shows absolutely no sign of weaning.  I actually think he's getting more attached.  There are moments when I love nursing and will be SO sad when it's over, and then there's other moments when he's pulling on my shirt and grabbing my boob out of my bra when I could be A-ok with no more nursing.  We'll see what happens this next month.

Ryder LOVES swimming and he's really good.  I'm impressed with his skill level at this age.  The girls were scared of the pool and would cling to us in the water.  Ryder is a little daredevil that jumps off the steps and can hold his breath for so long.  We have to watch him 24/7 because he'll just jump off the edge, even if no one is there to grab him.  He's such a little fish and it's been a fun summer swimming with him.

Here is our little baby boy after I tried putting him in a sleep sack and he screamed and yelled until I got him out of his crib.  He fell asleep in our bed that night and I couldn't resist taking a photo of him sleeping the next morning.

Museum of Natural History

Balboa Park is one of my most favorite places in San Diego.  It's lush and beautiful with neat historic buildings.  It's also home to some amazing museums and the zoo.  We decided to visit the Natural History Museum since the kids all like dinosaurs and they had some cool exhibits we were excited to check out.

July 6th

Time for us to get out of the beach house.  We went to La Jolla to see the seals, but apparently the protected beach where they used to bask in the sun is now open to the public.  Of course the seals don't want to hang with the humans so we could only see them floating in the water.  The weather was awesome so we just enjoyed walking around La Jolla and eating some ice cream before we headed back to the condo.  Once we got back it was time for some crab hunting and naked beach running for Ryder.  Another wonderful day in paradise.

I LOVE naked babies. Look at that sandy butt.  I'm so in love.

Drawing a heart in the sand and horsing around with Daddy.

Here we are in LJ trying to find the seals.

Crab hunting with new friends.

Cory and Brian.  They think it's lame for dudes to get their photo taken together.

The 4th

The 4th of July is one of our family's favorite holidays.  It's so fun and festive and we love being patriotic.  We settled in for another wonderful day at the beach since driving anywhere was out of the question.  It was a great day of sand digging, BBQing, and watching fireworks.

The girls LOVED being buried in the sand.  The Hobbs family joined us on the 4th and we were so happy they came down to visit us.

Ryder and Will were looking for some beer.

Watching the fireworks is my favorite part.  We almost put Ryder to bed because it was past 9 o'clock but I'm so glad we kept him up.  He was our entertainment.  He OOHED and AHHHED at every firework that went off.  It was a moment we'll never forget.