She wore an itsy bitsy ......

Just a few pictures ... I'm so behind on posting it's not funny.

Paige and I from this weekend ... Charina did a remix of the song from the yogurt commerical with the yellow polka dot bikini ... it went like ... "Paige wore an itsy, bitsy, tinie weenie, floral Gymboree bikini ..." Anyway, this is at the beach ...

















And two pictures from a week or so ago but loved too much to not post ...
My mom, Jack and Riley during the "pool party". The boys were cold and wanted Grandma to warm them up ... plus share some of her lemonade. :)








My new favorite picture of Riley. This was one morning before heading out to daycare I think. He'd laid down on the couch and the light was PERFECT so I snapped this while he watched Sponge Bob.

Shopping. Slip-n-Slide. Artichoke Dip. Sand.

A GREAT weekend was had by all at the Wynia's! We got on the road a bit late (because we were signing a PURCHASE AGREEMENT for our land!!! Whoo hooo ... now I get my hardwood floors!) and hit some traffic but finally made it to Steve and Charina's around 6:30 or so. Jason, Leah and Micah had just gotten there as well. We were greeted with great big hugs and by the most adorable little girl. Little Grace has grown so much in just 4 months. I love that Grace is almost exactly a year older than Paige because I always have a sneak peak into what Paige will be like this time next year.

Saturday morning we caught the end of a parade, ate some fair food and the kids rode a few carnie rides in Big Lake. The girls went shopping in the afternoon while the boys stayed home with the kiddos. Steve and Charina had given Riley a slip and slide to Riley for his birthday so that had been set up out in the backyard and the kids were in their suits. Sam, Kristin and Madeline, another Rochester couple who were in the area visiting family, came over for dinner. At this point the boys headed out for 9 holes of golf ... and somehow it turned into 9 holes of golf, plus beer, a shot or two and some dancing (Sam with an 8 year old) and artichoke dip from a wedding dance that they crashed. If it sounds comical, you should see the pictures ... they are even better.

Sunday we got up (poor Jason and Leah ... Micah was the only one up at 6 both mornings ... Grace, Riley and Paige all slept into until 7:30 or later) and headed to Big Lake for a little swimming and a picnic lunch. Thankfully Riley grew to like sand last year so we were able to enjoy the beach. Paige really liked the water too. She first got her toes in and then dad took her in to her mid-belly and she was just smiling and splashing the water with her hands. After the beach, we decided to head home so that we could travel during Paige's nap time and made it home by about 4.

The kids had a blast all weekend long. Riley, Micah and Grace (and Madeline!) played really well together ... and they were all very gentle with Paige. Now if we could just convince Charina to get pregnant, we could all have two kiddos by this time next year. :)

Rain, Rain ... Go AWAY!

Sorry, still no new pictures. I just haven't had a chance to sit down at the computer and take them off my camera.

The rest of our vacation was nice. We had Grandma Z and cousins Jack and Katelyn over last Thursday for a play day at the "Knudson Waterpark". Riley had a slide/pool combination from last year and then this year daddy had gotten him a 10 x 6 foot 22 inch deep pool too. So we had the big pool up on the deck and the slide down on the grass. I think everyone had a good time. Once I get a chance I'll have to post the picture of a wet Jack and Riley sitting on Grandma's lap enjoying a drink. The rest of the weekend Ryan had school and we tried to get back into a routine to start out the work week.

A couple notes on Paige ...

• I've made her asparagus (which is NOT fun when it comes out the other end) and squash both which she seems to like. I haven't really found a food she doesn't like though ... her current "regulars" are apple, banana, pear, mango, peas, green beans, carrots, yams, avocado. She LOVES to eat things she can pick up with her hands so she's been getting the baby puffs, cheerios and pieces of pancake and bread.
• Ryan and Shelley (daycare) discovered that she's possibly getting three teeth in right now ... her two top middle and the next one to the left.
• She's decided she'd like to hold her own bottle now ... and does so about 80% of the time. She also enjoys it when we give her a sippy cup with water in it at bedtime. She thinks she's hot stuff that she can drink more like mom and dad.
• Her and I have been playing this little game the past few mornings ... she'll cough and I'll kind of mimic her ... and she'll do it again and smile at me. :) It's the cutest darn thing.
• And lastly, she's trying to learn how clap too. I'll tell her, "You're a pretty princess aren't you?" and she'll look at me and SMILE ... then sometimes will clap her hands. She is SUCH a happy baby ... she brightens every single day for Ryan and I.

Riley ... well there isn't much to say about Riley right now except for he's SUPER excited to go to Steve and Charina's this weekend. He woke up and instantly asked if we were going to KiKi's today ... :) We should have a GREAT weekend with them and the Zosel's!!

Vacation is bliss!!

Hey everyone!

Just stopping in quickly. Ryan and I are on "vacation" this week ... well, it's a vacation from work ... not a vacation from Byron. :) Our daycare provider took the week off so we decided to both take it off as well and spend a week stress free. Since we didn't have any true vacation plans I was a bit worried about getting bored but so far we've been having a great time. Here are a few highlights ....

Riley ~ Ryan and I dropped Paige off at my moms today and took Riley to one of the pools in Rochester. This pool has a great little children's area that's zero depth, fountains ... the works. Towards the end of our visit there, Riley was playing with one of four little water fountains (maybe the correct word isn't fountains ... but it's water that bubbles up out of the water about a foot high). There were five middle school boys who had wandered over from the big pool also playing with them. At first my motherly instincts popped in ... thinking that they'd try to kick him off the one so that they could control them all ... but instead what happened was HILARIOUS!!

Three of the boys were covering the holes for three of the fountains ... meaning the water was super high and forceful coming out of the one Riley was at. The poor kid was trying to keep up with the bigger kids ... he'd try to cover the hole with his foot but the force was just too much so it'd end up squirting ALL OVER. Never one to give up, Riley decided to use the full force of water to his advantage ... buy straddling over it and laughing to beat heck. Not only were the middle school boys laughing hard ... but so were we. They "played" with Riley a little ... covering and uncovering each fountain to give him some sprays in the face as he looked to see why the water had slowed down. Over all it was just a hilarious thing to watch. The middle school kids couldn't believe Riley. :) Yep, that's our son.

Miss Paige ... While Paige didn't get to go with us today, she has gotten some pool action this week. On Monday we took out Riley's toddler tub and filled it with warm water. Paige was decked out in her baby bikini and everything. I have pictures but don't have them downloaded yet. All this as she's now SEVEN MONTHS old. *gasp* Where does the time go? :(

She's started some new things this week too ... she's beginning to say the sound "da" and "ma" ... but I don't think she knows what she's saying yet. She's also started holding her bottle when she decides she wants to.

I feel like I'm forgetting stuff but that's it for now. Really, for not having any plans I really am having a blast on this vacation. It's been great to have EVERYONE home ... and believe it or not, we've all gotten along too. ;)

I'll post back later this week with pictures!! Enjoy the rest of the week!!

They like to snuggle!

This morning I dressed Paige then put her in bed with her still-sleeping brother. I put her right on his belly, thinking that she'd start banging away with those wild arms of hers and eventually wake him up. Instead, she laid her head down and he woke up just enough to realize she was there, then wrapped her up in his arms to snuggle.

They were both as content as could be.

PLEASE tell me they'll love each other this much forever. :)

PS ~ Don't forget to check out the new pictures of (mostly) Paige below.

Our little princess.

Yes, she's a princess. :)

Here are some shots I took last weekend. I really wanted to do something out of the studio but I quickly lost my natural light as we had some storms roll in ... so down to the studio we went where I got a few more. I'm only in LOVE with one or two of these ... but she's still awfully darn cute!

Enjoy!

Bad, bad mommy!!

You know it's been a while since you've last updated when even your husband mentions it. :) Yes, Ryan reminded me that I hadn't updated in a while. I have no pictures to share but I'll do a quick run-down of our past two weeks.

We spent half of Memorial Day weekend down in Jackson and Worthington. We had an High school graduation open house on Saturday for Kristin's second cousin then spent the night in a hotel in Jackson with grandma, Uncle Jim, Auntie (or Unkie ~ as Riley says for all of his aunties) Krys and cousins Nate and Ben. I'm not sure if it was the water readiness classes for Riley or just the fact that he's a year older than he was last summer ... but he LOVES the water now. The kid who had the death grip mastered while in the water is now telling Ryan to move further out into the pool so he can jump further (off the edge). So, yes, we had a great time at the hotel ... the kids (including Paige in her little bikini that grandma Karen bought her last year) swam, we all ate way too much snacky food and my brother tried harassing beer out of our cousins in the next hotel. Sunday we went to our yearly family reunion in Jackson. It was good to see everyone ... but there were about a million little gnats that LOVED my hairspray so we ended up cutting out of there a little earlier than normal. Riley had a great time though. It's kind of funny to see how times have changed ... for the longest time, I was always the one out at the park with everyone elses kids and now those kids are the ones out at the park with mine.

Other than that we haven't been up to much. Ryan had school this past weekend so the kids and I kidnapped Grandma Karen and took her to Old Navy. We also had a birthday party for cousins Katelyn and Jack on Sunday.

We have a busy couple of weeks coming up. Ryan's parents are coming down this weekend for a visit, Ryan and I are taking all of next week off because we didn't have daycare, Ryan has school again and then the next weekend we (along with our other neighbors, Jason, Leah and Micah) off to Steve and Charina's new home up in Becker. Riley is VERY excited about this visit. We're looking forward to having all three families together again.

I promise to try and post more often. Since it's gotten nice out again we've been spending a lot of time outside and I haven't been on the computer much. Anyway, hope everyone has a great day!!