Ryan hits 7 months!

Every month when the date shows up on my calendar, I'm shocked at how quickly time goes by. That's a major reason why I've decided to scale back on my work as our church admin and just do random things from home and only go into the office "as needed." I will definitely miss being there; getting out of the house sans children, dressing up, having adult conversation where I don't have to answer the same question over and over and over again or ask the same question over and over again, "What do you say?" However, my children are only under my roof for a short time-a blink, really-and I don't want to pick up my kids from the babysitters and hear about a first step or share one of Bella's "firsts" with someone else. So here we are!



Ryan sprouted two teeth a few weeks ago. You can just make them out in this picture. I love that he's such a smiley baby.

And yesterday we had our first "snow." Just a dusting, but enough to have Isabella at the window practically begging to go out. Once Ryan woke up from his nap, we suited up and headed outside.

Her first touch of snow (this year, anyway). She was having a blast until her hands got really cold and then she was ready to go in (just to get mittens and head back out though).

Ryan gets ready in his Pooh snowsuit. Okay, so it used to be Isabella's, but he won't know. And it's a 6-9 month suit that he just barely fits in. We'll have to ask Santa to bring him one!

We are in the process of selling this retro playpen on Craigslist. Isabella has determined that it's her new play area and frequently asks to get in. When her friend was over and had a time out, she was so distressed about it that she asked to have a time out in the playpen while her friend did. LOVE the compassion!

We had the great joy of going to Chicago for Thanksgiving and thought it only fitting to document Ryan's first trip to Barnaby's. He happily gnawed on "pizza bones" (what we call crusts) and enjoyed time with the family.

Ryan thoroughly enjoyed his first Thanksgiving-naturally, since it's a holiday built around food! Papa had a blast feeding Ryan (it's quite a task) and laughed because any time anything went near Ryan's mouth (food, fingers, April's cell phone) his little mouth opened right up. He most enjoyed the sweet potatoes that Uncle Jeff made. We all did.

Joshua and I spent the day cleaning up the den. We had these baseball hats in the GoodWill pile since they're a bit small for the kids, but Isabella had other ideas. She spent quite a bit of time putting hers on, putting Ryan's on him, then taking them off, putting them on backwards, wearing Ryan's hat...you get the picture. Then I got the pictures!

This is a classic. I'm pretty sure it needs to be printed on 11x14 or something. LOVE Ryan's face.

And one for the road to tide you over until next month...is this kid a future ladykiller or what?