Meet "SuperStar" Minnie!

Katelynn decided today that she wasn't just going to dress up as Minnie Mouse but that she was going to be SUPERSTAR Minnie!  I guess it was the sunglasses that made her the superstar?? 

Super Stubborn Napper

You all know that my children love to sleep, right?  Ha, Ha -- Wouldn't that be the day if they actually did!  Justin went through a phase of not napping, but I found that without a nap, he would wake up several times a night versus only one or two at the most.  With a newborn waking constantly, I just can't afford to also wake up with Justin all night long.  I occassionally let him skip, but we can't skip naps consecutive days or it gets rough on me (waking with both of them each night is bad enough without it being multiple wakings for both of them).  Today, of course, he just had no interest in napping and was having a fit over it.   I finally just left him in his room because he wouldn't give in and went back in to find him asleep in this position.  He was so determined he wasn't tired that he refused to even lay down!

My Attempts at Newborn Photography

Do you ever browse photography sites and see those super cute sleeping infant photos they get?  I keep thinking I actually have some photography skills to be able to do those pictures myself (since I'm too frugal to spend the money and have them done -- haha), but after two days of trying to get those pictures of Ryan, I am pretty sure I need to hit the books (or the internet) A LOT more before I can call myself anywhere near a decent photographer.  (And all jokes aside, I would LOVE to learn more about my camera and photography but where do I find the time with three kids under 5 years of age?)

So, these are the best of my "outtakes" aside from the photo I picked for his birth announcement, which I'm not sharing until I figure out who I am mailing announcments to.  What is the normal these days for announcements anyway?  I only ordered 40, which is less than my Christmas card list because I am not sure who to mail them to.  I don't want people to think I am announcing it for a gift, but I love doing announcements.  So, anyway, we will see what I figure out for mailing the ones I have and then I will share it on my blog.

Meeting Uncle Dan

Jonathan's brother typically visits once a year in June for a week, but this year he waited until Ryan arrived to come visit so he could meet his new nephew before he was almost a year old!  We had a great time visiting with him... sad it will probably be another year before we see him again!

Ryan's First Family Boat Trip

Yes, we might be a crazy family but at least for most of you that won't be a surprise.  We took Katelynn kayaking and rafting on small rapids at 8 months old so why wouldn't we take Ryan out on the pontoon boat at 9 days old?  :)  We asked the pediatrician if he could be outside when we went for his follow-up appointment after hospital discharge and they said as long as we tried to keep him in the shade and keep the clothing to a minimum that he would be fine.  Jonathan went out and bought a fan that would hook up to the boat for Ryan, and we headed out to spend the day with Jonathan's family.  Uncle Dan arrived the night before from Michigan so we wanted to have some fun on the water.

I'll be honest though- even though we are a crazy water-loving family, I may have to suck it up and sit out boating for a little while.  I can't go in the lake water because of my incision and we didn't want to put Ryan in the lake water just yet, and it was MISERABLE in the heat without being able to dip in the water to cool off.  We typically spend most our day on the island playing in the sand and water, but we ended up calling it an early day because when we weren't cruising around on the boat, it was just too warm!!  In fact, I didn't even take any pictures that day except this one picture of Ryan when we were almost back to the boat dock to load up and head home. 

Bedtime for the Brothers!

Each night I put Justin to bed.  Jonathan helps a lot by putting Katelynn to bed for me most nights when he can, but Justin isn't very good about going to bed for J so I tend to put him to bed each night.  Most of the time I end up nursing Ryan while Justin falls asleep, but tonight Ryan was already asleep in my arms when we came up for stories so he crashed in Justin's bed during storytime.  Justin thought it was super cool that "baby brother" was in his bed with him! 

First Walk

Katelynn has been itching to take the baby on a walk ever since we came home from the hospital.  Finally today I have been feeling pretty good and decided we could give it a try.  It was pretty warm outside so we didn't go far (only just down the street and back), but it was a start!  Katelynn pushed her baby in her baby stroller and Justin pushed the baby (and was very insistant on pushing all by himself.  Everytime I tried to touch the stroller, he had a fit!)  We stopped at the neighbor's house since they were outside to show off our new little guy so we literally spent all of 30-ish minutes and barely made it out of the culdesac but at least we got out today!  :)