The last week, or so, in pictures...

My neighbor Brendan and I having dinner and playing games. Mom and Dad joined Deklan and I at the Kernodles for some fun and fellowship. I love Brendan, despite his poor taste in college apparel.

Me putting sunglasses on Deklan-d. Mom got glasses (and eyeballs too, as I call her contacts) recently so I have been very into wearing glasses and sharing the fun with my brother.

Great Aunt Judy came to visit us. She met Deklan for the first time and brought me an awesome Cookie Monster outfit. I showed her how I draw on my Toy Story magna doodle.

Diet-schmiet! It all goes out the window when there is a birthday to celebrate. Daddy's big day was a blast! We sang to him and ate oreo ice cream sandwiches for dessert. Yum!

Told you Daddy's birthday was fun!

Me with my pal Frosty. Robert and Kim were nice enough to get me my very own Frosty. Best of all, he won't melt when it gets warm outside!

Tada!

Harry Caray, look out! After a fun dinner with Kernodles I hopped on over to their movie cabinet and borrowed some 3D glasses. Nice, huh?

Me, Mom, Dad, and Hayley (aka Hay-ye). Snow is so much fun!

As promised last blog, I am going to try to get back on a normal schedule. Where the time has gone, I do not know. I have been having a lot of fun though. The snow hasn't been the Frosty-making type lately, so I have been hunkered down inside staying warm. As mentioned above, we celebrated Daddy's birthday recently. I love my Daddy. I got a new book, when we went to get his present, that is all about Lightning McQueen. Cars is a new favorite of mine as is The Sword In The Stone. I like to say "Merlin" and "Archimedes." It cracks Mom up.
Our family spent a great evening with our wonderful neighbors last week. We almost made it a sleepover, since we got locked out of our house, but Daddy and Robert were able to get us back in for night-night time. It was fun to spend time with them while my parents were there. Now they know what they're missing every time they drop us off!
I have  been playing a lot lately with my tools, building houses and fixing everything from water bottles to televisions. I am quite the handy man. I enjoy pretending to take pictures with my camera and saying/shouting my ABCs. I can count to 20 and I am starting to help Mom in the kitchen. I am pretty good at dumping the ingredients into the bowl for her, once she gets them measured out.
That's been my week and a half in photos. Hope you have a great week! I'll be back soon to tell you all about my most recent adventures.

Better late than never...

Note from Mom:
I apologize for not getting a blog out earlier. I have been behind schedule. You'd think that I would have had tons on my plate this past week and a half but quite the opposite...well kind of.
I turned 30 last week. It was one of the best birthdays ever. Lots of people struggle with leaving their 20s but I was fine with it. My mom got me doughnuts, cake, and roses the morning of my big day. Ryker sang and told me Happy  Birthday over and over again, my hubby took me out to eat (I chose Ruby Tuesday because I was craving a salad), and we had a great day as a family. Our house is finished and things are back to "normal" right now. We had a date night, with sushi and a suite at a hotel, and Grandma came down to watch the boys. Jevon even treated us all to Abby-Cadabby cookies from my favorite bakery. Such a lucky gal!

Normal is in quotes above because we decided to go on a weight loss adventure and it has really given our lives a shake up (normal is eating a dozen Abby-Cadabby cookies in a weekend). I'll blame this new lifestyle for my tardiness on the blog and everything else this week. We're on a healthy initiative here and we turned to our favorite no-nonsense trainer to plan our meals. Jillian Michael's is mastering our metabolism. Ryker has come along for the ride. So far, he has liked every single thing that we've made except for one dish: pizza.
We told him we were having pizza and when it came time to eat he said, "Mama, I want different pizza." He knows...and Jevon and I couldn't have agreed more. But, sacrifices are necessary sometimes to get the results you want. One other sacrifice is that I am spending every spare minute in the kitchen, making snacks and meals so that we can eat six times a day and still stick to our healthy food. Thus, a late blog.
Ryker is in a tough phase right now. For the last week we've been having battles. He is strong willed (no idea where he gets that-wink) and independent. He has started being clingy at the same time and fussy about everything that doesn't go his way. We keep praying for patience on our end and an attitude adjustment for him. It is almost like he switches into a different child all together at times. This is part of the adventure though, and we're rolling with it. We've had many nights where he wakes up and want to sleep with us. He is throwing fits and hitting from time to time. He is also doing his adorable stuff, too. Papaw came down for a doc visit this week and I tried to get Ryker to go outside and build a snowman. He refused, several times, but after Papaw left he asked me if we could go build a Frosty. The conversation went like this:
R- Mama, go outside and build Frosty please?
M- Nope, sorry Ryker, you missed your chance.
R- Mr. Chance? Where are you Mr. Chance? (running around the living room looking for someone)
Moments like these are what we cherish. His logic is so simple. So hilarious! He is a great kid and we are so blessed to be his parents, even when he is throwing a honking fit.
Ryker will be back to blog next week. Thanks for following along!

End of the year wrap up...

 Happy 2011!I hope your year is off to a great start. I am writing to you from Grammy's couch as our house is under repair and Mom feared we wouldn't enjoy all the noise of excavation for 3 straight days. So, here I am enjoying some Grammy and Papaw time, relaxing and blogging.

Mini-vacation at Grammy & Papaw's

Cute boys!

Napping with Grammy

Christmas was fantastic! One of Mom's favorite memories is when I came down stairs Christmas morning (around 9 am...but then again I didn't go to sleep until almost 1 am) and threw my hands up in the air in front of the giant Christmas tree and without prompting shouted "HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS!" They eat that stuff up. I got to see so many loved ones, which was my favorite part of Christmas. We ate way too many Christmas cookies and I opened boat loads (actually car loads...3 of them) of presents. Santa brought me the moon. Literally. It is hanging in my room and it lights up every night. He knows how disappointed I am when it's too cloudy.
I spent time with Grammy & Papaw as well as Grandma. It was so much fun being with them and my aunts, uncles, cousins, and extended families. Did I mention that was my favorite part?

Rilei and I celebrating Christmas

Grapes Grandma, Grammy & Papaw, Uncle E & Aunt B, Mommy & Daddy with Deklan and I

Great Grandkiddos- Blake, Tyler, Me, Savannah, and D

Santa delivers the moon!

Christmas morning shot

My new Woody Buzz mitt from Papaw

Grammy gives me walking and talking Buzz

Sleepy drive to Grandma's...but not too sleepy to take off my mitt.

Buzz phone from Grandma

Playdoh playtime with my cousins

More of the cute boys!

Emerson and I braved the elements to take in Connor Prairie. Little did our moms know that the best part would be all the snow...if only we had special CP snow outside at one of our own houses, right?

Snowball fight with Emerson

Speaking of snow, my neighbors Brendan and Brandon are the best big guys to play in the snow with. They took an entire afternoon to help me build Frosty and some other great stuff out of the snow. I had a great time!

My neighbors Brendan and Brandon helped me build a touchdown Frosty. They also built a fort for me and a chair out of snow. How great do I have it!

Daddy took time off the week after Christmas, only working two days. I LOVED having him home to play with. We pretty much just relaxed, watched football, and I broke in my new mitt, ball, and bat.
That leads us to New Year. We were invited to spend some time with friends but after a sleepless 10 days with Deklan, we decided to just relax at home and enjoy our family time. We had fondue and I loved the bananas. I poked Mom and Dad in the noggin with my fondue fork, but I promised "I not do it again." Those things look just like the perfect sword for me!

Fondue-licious!

A boy after Mommy's heart...taking pictures of Deklan's first solid food feeding.

Looking back on a wonderful Christmas and New Years, I can't help but recall some highlights of 2010. Like many of my friends who are doing a top 10, I'll follow suite in no particular order:
10. Baby Deklan arrives
Obviously becoming a big brother was the biggest event of the past year. I love Deklan D and am so glad he is my brother. I can't wait til he can play with me!
9. I get cured of my ITP
A low light in one respect, my blood disease caused several months of restricted activity, many, many, many trips to the doctor with blood draws, and a couple night stay in the hospital. The good part is that I got to spend a lot of time with Mommy, Emerson & Yorn, and learned to master my jump shot on the hoop. In the end, I got to see first hand how God answers prayers and I was cured by August, and that was awesome.
8. Fun with Emerson
Perhaps my best moments of 2010 were spent with my best buddy. We went lots of places and did lots of things together. It's never a dull moment when he's around. I love that guy!
7. Time with Grammy & Papaw in their pseudo-retirement
My grandparents came to visit me lots and lots this past year. I loved it! Grammy used her limitless energy to tucker me out over and over again. What a blast!
6. Time with Grandma
Grandma came to see me several times this year. It was so nice to get some extended time with her on my own turf. I'm thinking regular visits should be mandated for 2011!
5. My neighbors
The Kernodles are the best second family a guy could ask for. They willingly take me in every other week and treat me like their own. I went to dinner with them, celebrated birthdays, went sledding, threw the football, and played a lot with my favorite family next door.
4. I do it myself!
My battle cry of 2010. I learned to do all kinds of things without help this year. From climbing stairs, feeding myself, getting things out of the fridge, and getting dressed, to many other things that I think I can do alone but still need assistance with.
3. Turning 2
What an awesome party. What awesome people to share it with! I'm such a big boy.
2. Advent/Christmas
Time with family is fantastic and will always make my top ten no matter how old I get!
1. WOODY & BUZZ
I read a Woody Buzz book from Kernodles early in the summer. I loved it. Then, I saw my first movie on television (Toy Story), followed by my second (Toy Story 2), followed by my first movie in theatres (Toy Story 3). It was life changing!
Thanks for following along in 2010. I hope 2011 brings you blessings beyond measure!