Birthday Party

We threw Rylan a birthday party on Saturday night.


It was a simple party. We had it outside and got out a bunch of our water toys. Being a holiday weekend, a lot of our friends were out of town or busy but Amy and Erin and their families came as well as our next door neighbor and her son (Lane) who is just a few months younger than Carter.

I made a banner to match Rylan's birthday invitation ...


And decorated the back deck with matching balloons ...


And we set up all the toys in the backyard ...


We got pizza from Snappy Tomatoes and had fresh fruit, pretzels, and spinach dip. And lots of beer for the adults because it was HOT. It was sunny and in the mid-90s.

We had cupcakes and sang to Rylan ...

Rylan wasn't too sure about the cupcake but did put his hands in the icing ...


Like Carter, Rylan prefers to not get dirty and eat cupcakes with a fork ...


When will I learn about colored icing?!?


I had gotten black and yellow icing on Carter's cupcakes for his construction themed party and the kids that had the black ones got really stained. This bright blue wasn't much better!

The kids didn't seem to notice how hot it was and had fun playing.

Carter and Caitlyn enjoyed pushing Rylan in the swing (Rylan loved it too) ...


Baby Izzy does an awesome job of hanging out and playing on her own ...


Cooper and Lily and fun spraying their dad (Matt) with water guns ...


Thanks everyone who was able to come and thanks for the awesome gifts!!!

Ocean Isle - Day 5

On Wednesday, June 8th, we drove up to Wilmington. Cinda (Brian's mom) stayed at the house to relax and read in a quiet house. Art, Tony, Tina, Dominic, Brian, and Carter went to the USS Battleship North Carolina while Kristen, Maddie, Rylan, and I went shopping in historic downtown Wilmington. We had fun exploring all the little local shops and picked up a few things.

Everyone else had fun touring the battleship.


Apparently Carter was very independent this time and wanted to climb all the ladders by himself.






We met back up for lunch and went to The Trolly Stop, a local hot dog restaurant that is a Wilmington staple.

After lunch we headed back down to Ocean Isle and since the boys took a nap in the car, we took them back out on the beach when we got there. I'm so glad that the boys loved the beach so much. We spent hours just digging in the sand and building sandcastles.




Rylan discovered that sand blows in the wind and ended up covering his head ...


After dinner we headed back outside. I finally got a picture of all the kids together ...


I also got a few pictures of our boys on the steps of our private beach access ...




Then we headed down to the beach and the kids ran and ran and ran. They all slept well that night.


Dominic is an aggressive hugger and these two usually ended up on the ground when sharing a hug!


Carter really loved Maddie ...


Some cute group shots ...



Rylan only had naps in the car so he was worn out ...

One Year Check Up

Rylan had his one year check up today. As we had suspected, he's put on very little weight in the last three months and is approaching a more "average" weight.

Rylan's 1 year stats:

• Weight: 24 lbs, 7 oz (75th percentile)
• Length: 29.5 inches (50th percentile)
• Head Circumference: 19.25 inches (95th percentile)

Rylan's 9 month stats:

• Weight: 23 lbs, 14.5 oz (90-95th percentile)
• Length: 28.25 inches (50-75th percentile)
• Head Circumference: 19 inches (>95th percentile)

Rylan had to get a finger stick today for a couple of blood tests and didn't even seem to notice it. He just watched as the nurse took the blood sample and didn't cry at all. He wasn't as agreeable with the two shots he got but as soon as I picked him up, he stopped crying.

Developmentally, Rylan is doing fine. He's not pulling up or standing very well while holding on to things, but the pediatrician wasn't concerned since Rylan is crawling (even if it is a one-legged belly crawl). He has started crawling over things like toys or my legs so he's making some progress.

We Have AC!!!

We had our air conditioning repaired today! As we expected, a nail from the new roof had pierced the coolant line.

The HVAC guys had to cut a large hole in the ceiling of our guest bedroom.




They screwed the drywall back up but we need to have it taped, mudded, textured, and painted. Our roofing contractor took a copy of the bill from the HVAC guys so he can reimburse us for the cost. He is also arranging for someone to complete the drywall repair.

Our roofers came back out this afternoon. They installed the 4 missing ridge vents, put another row of shingles over the exposed nails, and cleaned out our gutters. We are starting to make some progress on getting our repairs done!

While Brian stayed home with the HVAC guys, the boys and I met Erin and her kids at their pool. It's been awhile since we've been able to meet up with them and Izzy sure has grown! She's six months old now. Here's a picture of Rylan, Izzy, and big sis, Lily.

Rylan's Birthday

Rylan started his birthday off yesterday with his first cow's milk. He only took a few sips, but it's a start.




We didn't do much all day but we did take the boys out to dinner at Moe's. Rylan had his first cheese quesadilla. He hasn't been very good with eating lately and only had a few bites. That molar is breaking through his eruption cyst on his bottom right side and the bottom left molar is pushing up too.



We got Carter a kid's meal since they are $0.99 on Tuesdays (we typically just share our food with him or bring him something because he rarely eats food if we order it for him). He never drinks anything other than water or milk, but he had his first apple juice last night. We were all about new food and drinks for the kids yesterday!


When we got home from dinner, we had cake.


Rylan seemed to enjoy us singing to him ...

He didn't want to dig into the cake with his hands ...


But he LOVED what I fed him with a fork ...

We opened presents after eating cake. We tried to get Rylan to pull the paper off ...


But Carter ended up doing most of the unwrapping ...





We can't believe our baby is one already! We really need to start calling him Rylan now instead of Baby!

House Update

When our roofing contractor came out yesterday morning, we asked him if he was aware of anything happening to our air conditioner while we were gone. He said he was not. Then he called back yesterday afternoon to tell us that his contracting company has had a problem with roofing nails puncturing the coolant line between the furnace and condenser unit when it is run too close to the roof. Apparently this has happened on three or four of their jobs already. When the coolant line is punctured, the coolant evaporates. If this is what happened then that is why the air conditioner was still running but wasn't putting out any cold air.

We had a heating and cooling guy come out today and confirm that everything is fine with the condenser unit. He added some freon to the unit and was able to determine that the freon was evaporating in the coolant line. He pulled out the soffit to examine the line and looked at the line in the attic but couldn't see the puncture. There is a section though between these that he couldn't get too which is most likely where the puncture is. So tomorrow he's sending out a couple of guys to cut out a section of the ceiling in our guest bedroom. They are going to patch the coolant line and then screw the drywall back in place. Then we are going to have to find someone to tape and mud the drywall, add the texture to match the rest of the ceiling, and paint.

The roofers were supposed to come back out today to add our 4 missing ridge vents, coverup the exposed nails, clean out our gutters, and roll the yard again with a magnet to pick up nails. But there was a chance of rain today (which never happened) and they decided to come out tomorrow instead.

Also, we have worked out with the roofing contractor for them to pressure wash our entire driveway and sidewalks so that the gouges caused by the first crew's trailer blend in. They were willing to demo the three sections of driveway that got scratched and pour new concrete but we figured it wouldn't match the existing driveway at all. And it would be a big pain.

On the bright side, our garage doors got installed yesterday and look great. The guy that installed them did a great job.

Wedding Photographer

My sister's wedding photographer (Abby Fox Photography) sent her a preview of her pictures today. Here are a few of my favorites ...






We can't wait to see the rest!