Elmo video

Blogger is finally cooperating and let me put up this video. Ryan is still talking about "dan Elbo" on a daily basis :-)

Busch Gardens

Last Friday, my wonderful husband turned 30. Happy Birthday, sweetie! :-)

To celebrate, we met up with the rest of his family in Williamsburg for a fun (and food)-filled weekend, including a Saturday at Busch Gardens. I was shocked at the number of kid-friendly rides/areas there were, so Ryan and I had a blast while the guys went on the big roller coasters!

It may not look like Ryan's having much fun from the pictures, but I can assure you that he kept wanting more!

The rides:

I wasn't allowed to go on this ride with Ryan but he insisted that he still wanted to go. A nice lady said that he could sit with her daughter. I thought he'd freak when I walked away, but he stayed stone-faced the whole time. It was hilarious!

This one was his favorite because it included water!

The train (sure to be a hit!):


The play area:


And finally.... Elmo, affectionately referred to by Ryan as "Elbo":

I was going to include a video of Ryan dancing with Elmo, which was the highlight of his visit, but blogger's having issues... maybe later!

You know it's Tourney time when...

...dinner happens in front of the TV

A sweet moment

Sunshine

It's been a while since we've been able to play outside...

We're so thankful for the sunshine!

Happy Valentine's Day

While we don't do much celebrating for Valentine's Day in our house, those of you who know me know that I rarely miss an excuse to bake! So, Ryan and I set out this week to make some festive cookies:

His favorite part was definitely rolling out the dough


He liked doing the cookie cutters too, though

Decorating was not so much a success. He didn't understand why he couldn't just eat the cookie! So, I had to do most of that myself :-)


Some of the finished product:



Happy Valentine's Day to you all!

SNOW! (and sleet)

Overnight, we got an unusual amount of snow for North Carolina... it changed to sleet first thing this morning, but we still took advantage of playing in the snow, at least briefly.


Ryan was very excited to look out the windows at the (s)"nooo!!!" but he wasn't so sure about it once we were out in the cold. It was exciting, then terrible, then fun as long as he was pulled in the wagon.

We tried giving him some hot chocolate when we came in, but he wasn't too interested.

Maybe we'll try some more play time later.

Loving my new macro lens

Mason & Ryan got me a new macro lens for my camera for Christmas. I haven't had much opportunity to play around with it yet, but so far... I am loving it!

Christmas videos

And to give you a more in depth look at our Christmas, here are some video highlights:

This was taken at my parents' house. We decided to make krumkakes, which are a traditional Norwegian cookie. We used to make them when I was younger, but it had been at least 5 years. As you can see, Ryan was a big fan!!

This one was on Christmas morning. Obviously, Ryan is not talking very clearly yet, but we appreciate his effort :-)

Every year, on Christmas Eve, my family does a hymn sing. When I was really little, my grandmother used to play the piano from her book of Christmas carols. Once I started learning to play, we spent many years playing together and eventually I took over on my own. This year was the first year that we weren't home for Christmas, but I insisted that we continue the tradition anyway, even if it was a few days late. Last year, Ryan slept right through it all, but this year, he was eager to join in, requesting "more? more?" after each song. As you can see in this video, he also did quite a bit of dancing and even tried to play along on the piano. It brings me so much joy to see him embrace some of my very favorite Christmas traditions.

Second Christmas

Christmas #2 in Connecticut with my family:

Blessed to have the whole family together

Ryan got lots of time with his uncles (and aunts-in-law!)


many more presents to be opened, of course


our annual Christmas hymn sing - I couldn't miss out on this tradition, and Ryan joined right in!


just beautiful!