Strawberry Picking

Strawberries are in season in North Carolina :-) Hooray!

This morning, Ryan & I went to pick a bunch, and we had so much fun. The entire 20 minute car ride there, he kept saying "pick strawberries... pick strawberries" and he wasn't disappointed.

I did discover that it's pretty hard for a toddler to pick a strawberry without either crushing the strawberry or taking half of the bush with him. So, we developed a system and it worked great. Ryan found them, I picked them, and he put them in the bucket. He even patiently waited until we were all finished to eat one. And then he devoured it in about 3 seconds :)

Here are some pictures of our little adventure:

ready to go with his "bucket"

finding strawberries


showing off the prize

finally getting to eat one
happy boy with a strawberry face!

Ring Bearer (alternately titled Kyle & Debbie's Wedding)

bride & groom leaving the church

On April 24, Ryan had the honor of being the ring bearer at my brother's wedding. It was a very special occasion & we were all thrilled to be a part of their celebration.

Ryan did as well as I could have expected. He made me a little nervous during the rehearsal when he had a complete melt-down walking down the aisle once everybody started looking at him. But we practiced a few more times and he seemed okay with it. When it came time for the real thing, he took one look at the church full of people, grabbed on to my leg and said "up!" So instead of holding my hand & walking down the aisle on his own, I carried him. He still did his "job" and carried the pillow to his Uncle Dain, and he didn't cry once during the ceremony, so what more could I ask? He even chimed in with his very own, very loud "AMEN!" at the end of the prayers. :-)

Unfortunately, I realized after the fact that we never actually got a picture of him with the pillow, but we'll hope that the official photographer did.
Until then, here are some photos of the big event:

Ryan, all dressed up in his tux, goofing around at the reception

Our family - the best one we could get with a rather squirmy little boy

because we almost never take pictures of just the two of us anymore!

Ryan had loads of fun playing on the stairs with his Papa

Impressive (to me) dancing by the bride & groom

At a certain hour, Ryan turned into a zombie. We thought maybe he had fallen asleep with his eyes open. It was a big night & he was so tired!
This is him (sort of) watching the dancing with his Nana

Cake time. Isn't it gorgeous?

Ryan with his Uncle Kyle & (officially) Aunt Debbie, at brunch the next day

Congratulations, Kyle & Debbie! We love you! Thanks for letting us be a part of your big day :-)

Greensboro Children's Museum

It's been a busy few weeks and I have lots to update on here. I'll start with a fun day that we enjoyed a couple of weeks ago. We were able to go to the Greensboro Children's Museum with some friends of ours. We had a blast! I highly recommend it as a day trip to anyone in the area.

The train was, of course, a huge hit:


prepping some food in the dining car


The fire engine was a close second!


Ryan enjoyed playing with his friends, Eli & Ava

Eli & Ryan playing with cars

all three sending packages down the conveyor belt in the mail room

Driving the mail truck


and finally, doing some shopping


Overall, a wonderful time! Thanks again, Kristi, Ava, & Eli :-)

Not exactly singing

This morning after breakfast, Ryan kept repeating random sounds that I was making, so I decided to make them not so random... he makes me laugh :-)

And... a couple of my favorite recent pictures of the little guy:


almost every time we get home in the car, Ryan asks if he can "drive drive" - he loves it!

Happy Easter

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead
1 Peter 1:3

Happy Easter!

In addition to rejoicing in the truth that Jesus is Risen and singing many of my favorite hymns, we also celebrated Easter on a level that is a bit easier for Ryan to understand: eggs!

Here we are decorating yesterday (and clearly we had Duke on the mind!):

All set up & ready to go!

Watching carefully (all the while instructing me on what colors to do)

Family fun :)

The finished products

Discovering his Easter basket this morning:

The egg hunt:

He knew just what to do & after each one that he found would immediately ask, "more egg?"


That was so much fun!!!


A basket full of eggs (and Ryan's favorite basketball... apparently another treasure worthy of being found)


The one egg that actually had jelly beans in it - check out that face!


and... back to the basketball!

Game Day

While we're not able to be in Indy with the rest of my family, we're cheering on our Blue Devils just as strongly from home!

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