Travel Ideas!

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you know that I take an annual girls trip every year with my best friends from college. Well, this year we are all turning 30 so we are wanting to go somewhere different and exciting to celebrate. Requirements are.... somewhere unique (not the beach, lake, or NYC since we we have done that), somewhere that is easy to travel around with 10 girls, can be anywhere in the US (although going overseas would be amazing...but there are too many babies in the picture for that). Oh, and we are probably going to try and go sometime Feb-April..... If you have a minute, leave a comment with any ideas you have for us (and along with the place, an idea of what we could do there)....hmmmmm, maybe I will give away some ashley macs goodies to the winner... Can't wait to see y'alls creative ideas!!!

***There are several picture posts below if you haven't checked this in a while....

Bama Baby!

Roll Tide! Beat those Vols!!!

Uncle Tyler gave me my outfit..and my cool new kicks that I am completely mesmerized by!

TWO NEW POSTS BELOW!

Happy Three Months little buddy!

Ryder is 12 weeks 5 days today...This Tuesday, October 27th, he will officially be three months. I can't believe how fast time flies! Every day gets more and more fun!

What I'm up to:

I smile ALL the time!!!

I recognize my momma and love to play with her

I rolled over for the first time last week!

I can hold my head up really well!

I sleep 10-11 hours a night and it makes my mom really happy!

I eat about 6 ounces, 4 to 5 times a day...I love to eat!

Happy Boy!

Tummy time!

Sleepy head

Nap time with daddy
Watching football with daddy

Sleeping with my monkey

****New post below***

Ryder's first trip to the beach...

.....well, out of the womb that is. We just went down 2 weekends ago to Orange Beach to Andy's family condo where we always go and we had such a blast! Andy's parents, my parents, and Andy's sister came down so it was wonderful to get to spend so much time with everyone-And of course free babysitters for 4 days was awesome too! I love the sun, and felt so much better to get my white post-partum self a tan! He wasn't quite sure what to think about the sand....figured I better break him in early so he will turn into a beach bumb like his mom

Baby feet are the best....

He likes to have the "deer in the headlights" look for pictures....or sometimes I think it's the "mom you can seriously stop taking pictures of me!" look

My two favorite boys...

If you know Andy and I well, is this not the perfect picture to describe our relationship...me with my mouth wide open and Andy with that smirk on this face...

Chillin' out on the beach

Proverbs 22:6

Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it.

****ANOTHER NEW POST BELOW****

Obsessed!

Some of you might recall my post a while back about my obsession with my husband (yes I'm still obsessed with him..another post about that tomorrow)....and now, I just have another one to add to it...ahhhh, I'm so in love with this little baby it's rediculous! I could just sit and stare at him for hours (which thankfully I have the time to do these days!). I seriously treasure every moment...soaking it all in, knowing every stage just flies by! my favorite things to do with him are....
1. watch him on his baby einstein play mat..he loves to look at his octopus and smiles sooo big and coo's and giggles at it..it's adorable!
2. go into his room in the morning to get him up and he stretches and smiles at me like he's so excited to see me....talk about melting your heart!
3. watch him hanging out with his daddy...they are so cute together- he loves to sit on Andy's lap facing out and watch tv with him..well not sure if he's really watching the tv but he's observing the room anyway
4. Let him fall asleep on my chest...and just lay there
5. Give him eskimo kisses on the changing table..for some reason he always seems so happy after I change him and he will coo and talk to me for a long time
6. Take pictures of him!!! We have lot's of photo sessions around here as you can see below..

Birminghams Best

We were excited to be nominated in the top 5 for "Birminghams Best"...for desserts, pie, and takeout....if you have a minute please vote for us and tell your friends too!!!

http://blog.al.com/bn/2009/09/vote_for_birminghams_best_2009.html

Thank You!

Thanks for all the comments on the last post! I feel so much better! I honestly had been feeling great about how things were going and have been enjoying being a laid back mom (which because of that and only "half way" doing baby-wise I was actually surprised he started sleeping through the night so early!) but all of the sudden I started wandering if I was being "too" laid back by letting him sleep on me for hours or in the swing etc... so now I can just enjoy every minute of it!(: I guess I could have taken the advice from my husband afterall (he said the same basic thing y'all did)...but having 7 mommies tell you it just makes you feel a little better...ha!

My baby won't nap!

So, I think we might be going backwards around here...like I mentioned before, Ryder started sleeping through the night at 8 1/2 weeks and has been doing it ever since (he's now 10 1/2 weeks) thank goodness! That has been wonderful so of course I don't have much to complain about! BUT, what I can't figure out...is how to get him to nap in his crib! He will of course fall asleep in my arms, or in the swing, boppy, carseat etc...but once he's asleep I will swaddle him and put him in the crib and every time within 15 minutes he is a)out of his swaddle and b)SCREAMING! As soon as I go in there he stops...I'll rock him back to sleep...put him back in the crib..but then it's the same cycle all over again! I'm still attempting to do the whole eat, wake, sleep cycle from Baby Wise..keep him up for 1.5hrs then let him sleep 1.5 hrs, feed..and do over again...the wake part isn't a problem now...and he actually does get really fussy and fall asleep like clock work after the "wake time"...but then I just can't get him to take a REAL NAP. I just don't want to set bad habits now of letting him getting use to napping only with his "props". I just now have started to attempt to let him cry for 15 minutes or so...it's so hard though and it doesn't seem to put him to sleep! any advice?
Also, about the swaddling....I know every baby is different...but here's our problem...we swaddle him every night and he seems to like it...but at naptime he gets out everytime and I think that's what wakes him up- how will I know when he just doesn't like to be swaddled anymore? how long do most babies do it for?
Thanks for the help!(: