Day 3 in Orlando, Florida

So, I'm really good at putting off blog posts, but I know if I keep putting this blog post off, I will get really behind!  So, we spent Wednesday at Universal Studios in Orlando.  It was great!

 The kids looked like they were having the time of their lives at Univeral Studios! (This was right when we got there, after I lathered Ryker up with sunscreen- he hates when I put that stuff on him)

 Ryker at Seuss Land riding the Dr. Seuss carousel.  One of the few rides I was allowed on! :)

 Daddy and Ryker eating some popcorn

 A failed attempt at getting a pic of the three of us on the one fish, two fish ride

 Ryker really didn't want to take a picture.  He wanted to play with the controls!

One of the biggest things I was looking forward to in Orlando was The Wizarding World of Harry Potter!  It was part of Universal's Islands of Adventures, and although I was bumbed that I couldn't ride any of their rides, I had so much fun being there!  It felt like I was really at Hogwarts.  People were dressed up as wizards and witches, and according to Joe, the rides were way awesome.  I'm glad that we got to experience it! Fun times!

 This was entering Harry Potter World.  I had to get a pic right away!

 Platform 9 3/4!

 All the shops were packed!  It was fun to go in there and look at the stuff.

 The heat really wore Ryker out!

 I loved how much it felt like being in the movie! haha

 It ended up being smaller than I expected, but it was really nice! Especially when we got to try the Butterbeer!

 You could get the Butterbeer in the mug, but you had to pay for the mug.  We just went the cheap route.

 MMMM! It was delicious.  It just tasted like a sweet drink!  Ok, I totally thought it tasted like cream soda. Yum!

 Joe liked it, but he's not a big cream soda guy, so I drank pretty much the whole thing by myself. haha

 Welcome to Hogwarts!

 Hogwarts and Hogsmeade

 We went into the wand shop and tested out some of the wands.  Joe's first wand was Voldemort's wand.

 I chose to try out Professor Albus Dumbledore's wand!  I felt very powerful.

 Joe's next choice was the wand of Severus Snape.  Good choice!  We were going to do more of them, but it was crowded in there!  We saw someone with Hermione's.  I think hers looked the most awesome! Also, we were trying to find Ron Weasley's to see how his looked (lol), but we couldn't find it. 

 We went into a huge arcade to cool off for a little bit.  Ryker loved this motorcycle.  He loves all cars, motorcycles, trains...anything with wheels.  Doesn't he look happy?

 Next stop after Island's of Adventures was Universal Studios.  I could not ride one single ride in this park...except the Terminator 2 ride because we had special stationary seats.  It was fun to walk around and see the sights.  Joe had fun riding a few rides for me too. :)

 Ryker playing in the Woody the Woodpecker's kid's zone.  They had these buttons all around this playground that made animal sounds.  Ryker was so funny.  He kept running to every animal to hear the sounds they make.  He thought it was so awesome. He loves buttons.

 Ryker and I had Joe ride this little gem of a ride for us! haha!  It was like a little kid's roller coaster, but Ryker wasn't tall enough to ride it yet.

We ate at a little 50's diner drive-in place at Universal, and one of the workers there thought Ryker was the cutest thing ever, so she gave him a big chocolate chip cookie for free.  As you can see, he also snatched himself a couple of our french fries.  I love how he looks like a chubby bunny in this picture!  We had so much fun, but I think we literally walked a marathon that day, and we were happy to get back to our place and off our feet to relax!

Days 1-2 in Orlando

On October 7th, we flew down to Orlando to spend a fun week there!!! And boy, was it fun!  It was warm everyday.  It was weird for it to be almost 90 in October!  We got to our BEAUTIFUL place that evening after getting a little lost in my very first rental car (haha).  We stayed in a time share that Joe's cousin has with Joe's parents.  We had a room with a king sized bed, jacuzzi tub, and its own bathroom.  It was awesome!  It was also nice because they provided a crib and a high chair!
 On our first day there, we hit the pool.  The pools were huge there, and it was neat because they had kiddie pools too for the little ones!  Later that day, we headed to Disney World for Mickey's Scary Halloween Party.  We watched the Halloween parade, rode It's a Small World, Peter Pan, and a few other fun ones, and we also watched the amazing firework show!  Pregnant women can't ride a lot of the rides, so it was nice to get to ride a few of the easy going rides.  Since we were up until 1:30 Monday night, we mostly just relaxed on Tuesday and swam some more.  Oh, and we took great advantage of that jacuzzi tub in our room.  I think we got in that thing every single day! Now for some pics!

My first rental car (it reminds me of a bigger PT Cruiser)

 There was a balcony in the back of the time share we stayed in.  This was the first official picture I took, and it's funny how the camera kind of fogged up from the humidity!

 Ryker in the kiddie pool with Daddy

 With Mommy

 Joe took this little goody of Ryker... haha!

 This was on the tram that took us to the ferry that took us to the park!

 On the ferry to the Magic Kingdom!

 Family pic in front of the Castle

 This is Ryker watching the Halloween parade on Daddy's shoulders

We saw Lotso on our way out of the park, and Joe and I had to take a pic with at least one Disney character...Ryker was zonked out by this time.

Here's a video of Ryker on "It's a Small World" with his Grampy:

Our Little Man

It has been so long since I have done a post just about Ryker!  Ryker turned 18 months on September 18th.  Ryker is definitely all boy! Busy, busy, busy!  Ryker is pretty social as long as he is well rested and feeling well!  He just started nursery a couple weeks ago.  It was a breeze.  He pretty much went in there and waved bye-bye.  I'm not even sure if he noticed we even left.  He loves being around other children.  The nursery class is HUGE.  There are always at least 10 children in there.  The nursery teacher said that he is always so good and does so well at snack time and loves to color!  His best friend's name is Jenna.  She is so cute.  They've been buddies since we moved into the ward (she is 2 months older than him) when he was just two months old, and they get so excited when they see each other.  They just run and hug each other.  It just melts my heart to see how much love a child can have for an individual.  I really need to get a picture of them together sometime. :)

 Here's our little man at 18 months!  Well, I think it was about a week before he was officially 18 months.  I haven't been the best at getting pictures of him lately.  Isn't he getting so big and even more handsome? We just love having him in our family!  We're excited to see him continue to learn and grow and become a big brother! :)

As for language, he is finally starting to say words that we can understand!  He's always been a babbler.  He loves to talk, talk, talk.  But just around the time he turned 18 months, he repeated "bye-bye" after I said it.  Lately, we've been asking him to look at us while we say the word.  You can tell he is concentrating on how the sounds are made when we say them and then he takes a whack at it and does pretty well most the time.  One day he just said "cracker" and the other day he said "tickle" on his own.  He'll say "tickle, tickle" and start tickling his feet.  It's so cute!  He also says "Daddy" perfectly.  Some other words that he is saying are more, car, go, dog (daw), up, down (dow), Elmo (eh-mo), banana (na-na), two, "what's that?" (uh dat?), and I am sure I am forgetting a few others, but he is doing so well!  We are even more excited for when he can tell us what he wants or needs, so he won't get frustrated with us. :)  He also like to count... it goes a little bit like this *starts pointing at things* " un....two....two....dor...two"  basically he loves the number two.  He's so silly!

So, since it's been so long since I've done one of these things, I'm just going to list off some things about Ryker to make it quick and easy.  This post is already getting pretty long!!!

• Ryker loves giving people hugs
• He loves to climb, especially off and on chairs
• He LOVES LOVES LOVES to be outside.  Any chance he can get, he'll beg to go out there.  It's been raining for like a week here, so he's been going a little crazy
• He loves the gymnastics room at the YMCA.  We get to go during open gym, and he can go in and jump on the tramps and do anything he wants in there!
• He loves to color
• Loves ELMO
• His foot is now a 6 1/2.  He went from a 5 to a 6 1/2.  Big boy!
• He loves to take tissues and blow his nose (he breaths in and out, haha)
• He loves to put shoes on.

• We make veggie drinks a lot in our blendtec (that thing can get loud), and he covers his ears when we run it.  He loves the veggie drinks, too!
• One time we were playing in the backyard, and he was playing with a tennis racket, and he started strumming it and singing!
• He loves to sing!  We sing hymns every night with our hymn books, and he'll open it and start singing his own song.  Last night his song went a little like this....ya, ya, tickle, tickle. HILARIOUS.
• When we say it's time for prayers, he folds his arms.  Sometimes we'll ask him if he wants to say it, and we tell him to "say this and say that.." and he giggles almost like he is shy or something.  Then he tries to say "amen."  It is such an amazing thing to see our child learning to pray.  I'm glad that it is something that we can start from the time our children are born, so that it is second nature to them! :)
• He loves to play hide and seek and be chased
• He has recently started loving showers...actually prefers those over baths
• He loves to turn the faucet on and off and wash his hands
• Ryker is a very strong kid.  He can throw a bouncy ball higher than I can!  He's got quite the arm! We joke that he will be a baseball pitcher! haha
• He loves to build with legos, play with cars, and throw balls (he's ALL boy)  He can hold his own weight too... He's 30 pounds.  I can hardly lift him!!! haha

 Anyways, I think that I'm happy with what I've got.  I wanted to get this post done before I forget everything and he is doing even more things!!! Also, we are headed to Disney World on Sunday until the following Sunday!  We are hoping to make it to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter as well.  Well, there is so much to do in Orlando, I don't know how we could do everything we want to in just a week.  We are super excited!!!  I've never been (I've been to Disney Land, not since 2006) and Joe hasn't been since he was 7!  So this is just as much for us as it is for Ryker!  I guess you now know what our next post will be about!

Here's another picture of the cutie to finish this blog post off!

Learning to Save Money!

So, I've been trying to get into couponing (I haven't done much yet), but I have been trying to look up deals and ways to save money, especially as baby #2 is on her way! Diapers can be expensive, so I've been looking up sales and coupons lately.  I found this awesome blog that does diaper giveaways! How awesome is that?! And they tell you when there are coupons!  Here is the website if any of you parents are interested!!! http://diapercoupons4moms.com/

A Wedding in Providence, Rhode Island

Wow! I cannot believe that  September has passed and gone!  On the weekend of September 2, we drove an hour and a half over to Providence, Rhode Island for Joe's brother Steve's wedding.  We got to stay two night in Hotel Providence, which is a pretty fancy hotel!  We had a KING sized bed.  I guess I never realized how big those beds are.  Joe and I could both spread out without falling off! Anyways, as you can see, I was pretty excited about the King sized bed.  Ryker was too.  He didn't want to sleep in his pack n play. HAHA

So, the rehearsal dinner was that Saturday night  at a nice little place.  The food was delish, and the family had a great time.  Ryker got his own plate (it must have been adult size) of chicken tenders and fries.  He was in heaven because he loves french fries, and we don't let him have them often.  Steve and Tracy got some nice gifts for their groomsmen and bridesmaids.  Ryker was the best "little" man, while Joe and Rick were the Groomsmen.  I'm pretty sure Steve just didn't want to have to choose between his brothers. :) That's okay.  Ryker was one awesome Best "little" Man!!!  Steve got him some cute little shirts and a little stuffed monkey that sings the ABC's, and he got Joe and Rick those mini helicopters that those guys are always flying around at the malls.  Pretty sweet gifts!!!  Here are some pics from the Rehearsal Dinner:

 Here's the Best "Little" Man looking all dapper while he waits for his adult size meal! haha!

 The parents of the groom! AKA my wonderful in-laws :)

 Joe got a pic of the groom.  I think he was trying to get Tracy too, but she looks like she was talking to someone at the time.

 Joe would kill me if he found out I posted this pic.  He told me not to put it on facebook, so I didn't.  I think this picture is so funny.  He was taking a pic of himself looking "femi" and I jumped in the picture.  I had no idea that he was posing that way! haha!

 Joe's sister Liana and her fiance Greg!

On September 2nd, we headed to a ward in Warwick, Rhode Island.  We ran into one of the missionaries that used to be in our ward, so that was cool! He hadn't seen Ryker since he was like 8 months old, so that was fun.  We left after sacrament because we had to get Ryker some breakfast.  I know, I know, what kind of parents don't feed their child before church? haha.  We were in a rush that morning.  He's always a trooper anyways!  The wedding ceremony was in a beautiful park in Providence at 4:30.  The Bride and Groom were a very handsome couple and the ceremony was beautiful!  I do have to say though, it's tiring having a 18 month old in a wedding party, let alone a husband ;) Just kidding. Ryker, Joe, and Rick were all matching, so I thought that was just so awesome!!!  Here are some pics from the wedding day!

Best "Little" Man with Daddy!!!

 

Bride and Groom after ceremony.  The lighting was really bad on my camera!

 

 Ryker at wedding dinner with Tracy's nephew Jack.  Ryker loved him, and Jack loved Ryker.  Dinner was delicious! He had some pasta.  I had a nice piece of swordfish. Delicious! It really is the steak of the sea! so good! And Joe had some chicken.  It was all so good!

 Rick and his fiance Katie! :)

 The day after the wedding, the bride and groom surprised the family with a morning gondola ride.  They were real gondolas-legit from Italy!! :)  Ryker was asleep when we got there, so he got on with his Grampy and Mimi, and he decided to wake up for the fun! :)  After the ride, we headed back to hurry and check out of the hotel!  Instead of going straight home, we headed the the Providence Place mall.  That is one HUGE mall.  It is three stories and there are more underground stories too.  On the way home we stopped at Red Robin next to Gilette stadium where the Patriots play.  We don't have a Red Robin near us, so we were pretty excited to have one of their amazing burgers and their delicious steak fries!

Here are 3 prof pics from the wedding that their photographer Kristen Jordan took.  I think she did a great job! :

 Steve and his brothers

 I love this picture!  It's totally a precious moment! Ryker was trying to take Steve's hat!

After the park, they headed to a carasoul that is also part of the park, and they took pictures on it.  What a cute idea! Here's the wedding party!