The Park, Grandma and Grandpa Johnson visit, Annapolis

Ryan’s Friends

We are lucky that so many of our best friends here have little boys Ryan’s age for him to play with. He is within a couple months of Riley and Ethan and Jace. Wesley and Carter are both a little bit younger.

Chris has been busy lately studying for tests and getting stuff done for his paper. He is a good worker but it’s always hard for him to study at home when Ryan wants to play with him so bad. Sometimes Chris will say, “Ok, guys... I have to study.” and I’ll say, “ok, Ryan and I will walk down to the park...” Then Chris will go crazy saying, “I want to go to the park too!!” Needless to say, Chris doesn’t get a whole lot done when he’s at home... (and that’s the way it should be.) It’s fun to watch Chris and Ryan play together. They love to play hide and seek or ‘I’m gonna get you’ around the bed. Chris will crawl into the den and then Ryan will follow... Chris will turn around and say ‘I’m gonna get you’ and then Ryan will come crawling out of there so fast with Chris right at his heels. Ryan giggles and laughs and begs for more.

Homemaking was on Thursday night. I taught a Children’s Literature class and it went great. I love presenting... I read them several of my favorite books and talked about ways to help their children get excited about reading. Chris, my wonderful husband, helped in the nursery. Actually he was the only helper in the nursery. Ryan was no problem at all, however, his friends, Ethan and Riley, were another story. Chris had one or both of them out in the hall the whole night...consequently Ryan got ‘beat up’ by some of the older children. Chris is so wonderful with kids though. He made me so proud of him. He’s such a cutie!

Last Wednesday Geneva and I went shopping for her baby shower presents and then when Chris and Jared got home from school we had dinner over at their house. We do stuff with them all the time. They are great.

Grandma and Grandpa Johnson Visit

It was really fun to have Chris’ parents here. They came in on Thursday night at midnight. Ryan was so excited when he woke up.

Friday we headed out for Gettysburg in the POURING RAIN. The few times we ventured out of the car... the more it rained. We did do the auto tour and it was informative and interesting. After the visitors center we got fudge and yummy ice cream from an ice cream parlor downtown. Then we headed over to the outlet malls in Hagerstown. They are fantastic. All of my favorite stores are there. They bought Chris a new Eddie Bauer shirt, me two fitted t-shirts (yellow & white), and Ryan OshKosh car/train beige overalls and a red shirt. Very cute. That night we ordered Chinese and watched Les Miserables. Pretty good movie -- although there were scenes that were pretty disturbing.

Saturday was GENEVA’S BABY SHOWER! It was so so fun! I was the hostess but we had it over at Geneva’s house because she has a big living room area. The invitations were cute. When everyone first arrived I had them sign and fill in the ‘scrapbook pages’... a congrats page and a guessing page. Everyone thought they were adorable. Then everyone had to take a card that said... “tell us a favorite thing about being a mom,” or “what is your favorite thing to do with your kids” etc. After eating chicken salad pitas and lots of other yummy stuff we introduced ourselves with the cards, and then split up into teams based on the color of your card... The first game was a word scramble, which they had to do in teams. So fun! Then they redivided and we played a baby pictionary game. They had a great time and were impressed on how organized I was. Then we opened presents and had raspberry cheesecake. YUMMY! It was fun to socialize with everyone. Lisa Curran and Terri Breinholt stayed after and we talked for a long time! I’m anxious to do more with them... they are way cute! Geneva was very happy with the way everything turned out. It was so fun to do!

Annapolis

Saturday after the Shower we went to Annapolis - Maryland’s capitol. It’s right by the ocean so it was fun to see the harbor and yacht’s and boats sailing around. The weather was beautiful. We walked around the naval academy, toured some old cool buildings and then ate at a fancy seafood restaurant right on the water. Ryan kept playing with people on nearby tables and they thought he was so cute. He started waving at them and they were just dying. Several people came up to us on their way out and said that they had been watching him and he was too cute. Shelley said it was so fun to finally be the grandma with her grandchild instead of seeing other babies and wishing it were Ryan.

Sunday we went to Stake Conference. It was great. All of the speakers focused on prayer, scripture reading and FHE as a family! Chris and I thoroughly enjoyed it. After church we had leftover Chinese food and sat outside on blankets to enjoy the warm sunshine. Then we played some Hand and Foot and Liverpool Rummy. Fun games. We learned the latter from the Chuggs... it’s fun to play. That night we had roast and potatoes and then watched MULAN.

Yesterday, Monday, we went to McDonalds for breakfast and then drove Del and Shelley back to the airport. Ryan slept the whole way there but woke up as we were getting the luggage out. He opened his eyes, saw us all standing there and immediately waved. It was so cute. Shelley started crying. She always does.

Chris and I drove straight to Home Depot and I bought some cute flowers and went home and planted them. They look great in our flower boxes along our balcony and in some clay pots down by our door.

Last night we had the Carlsons over for dinner and Family Home Evening. We had a picnic out on the grass and then played Frisbee and walked over to a park that we just discovered behind our complex. It was fun. Ethan and Ryan were crawling all over the place trying to get our plates of food and tip over our pop. It took all four of us to control them. It’s cute to watch them do the same things. When we played Frisbee they just stared in amazement. Then when we stopped to look at Ryan he would Patti-cake for us. After they left I read up on ‘weaning’ and then Chris and I had a lengthy discussion on our ‘plan’ and how and when we would try to wean and then get pregnant. Our plan sounds good on paper... I hope it works out like we want. I’m sure Heavenly Father will help us with whatever is best.

I just barely got off the phone with Marilee. It’s so fun to talk to her. It seems like we have the same ideas about parenting. We miss hanging out with them. She’s pregnant with her second and due October 29th. Spencer is walking and running all over the place and is saying words like Dada, Mama, Papa, Flower, Car, Nigh-night, and hi. He likes to smell flowers and play in the sand. I wish we lived closer to them...