Home from the Hospital!

We were able to come home from the hospital Monday afternoon. For those who don't know, we named the little lady Ryan Olivia - despite my dad's best efforts to persuade us into a girlier name.

Here are a couple of her hospital photos (yes, I realize they have the watermark on them but I have to wait 5-7 days for my real copies and couldn't wait to post them):


Just chillin':

First car ride:

Because it's flu season, children under 18 weren't allowed to visit in the hospital - so Xander didn't get to meet his sister until we came home.

He was pretty apathetic at first. He sat there staring at her, eating his orange slices:

Warming up a little... maybe even considering touching her:

First time holding her:

And realizing she isn't so scary after all:


After the initial meeting, he's paid little attention to her. He is a very helpful big brother, though - always willing to get diapers, "yipes" (wipes) and blankets for his little sister.

Stay tuned for the jealousy temper tantrums :)

It's a Girl!

7 lbs, 11 oz - We're in love!!

Thanksgiving Break

We ventured down to Klamath for Thanksgiving break. Andy got back from Paraguay the day before turkey-day so all 6 Guest children were there (barrels of fun, as you can probably imagine!)

Elder Guest, fresh off the plane:

The whole family at Thanksgiving dinner:

Xander getting some loves from his oldest cousin (don't be fooled, they weren't always this nice to each other. It's possible he clocked her in the face with that pink golf ball right after the picture was taken):

You might have to click on the picture to see it more clearly but this is when Xander got into a packet or two of hot chocolate powder. He seems pretty pleased with himself. (This was certainly not the only mess he made at G&G's house):

Playing Guitar Hero:

Singing for Guitar Hero:

Last night we put up our Charlie Brown Christmas tree (first time in the 6 Christmases Ty and I have been married). Xander is having a heck of a time resisting the temptation to pull off the ornaments:


AND...Only 10 more days til our baby girl will be here!!

I'm Ready

Ok, I'm ready for the little lady to make her appearance now.

Xander got a big boy bed. He won't sleep in it. I'm too tired from existing to write more (see above picture)...

Happy Froggin' Halloween

This year the little man was a frog - which he pronounced, "F$&@#" (hence the title of this post). If it had been up to me, we wouldn't have taken him Trick-or-Treating but Tyler wanted to take him so I went along (so glad I did, Xan had a blast).


Kind of confused at first:


Eventually he figured out what was going on and wanted to knock on the doors himself. He never got the hang of saying, "Trick or Treat." He would knock on the door and when someone would answer with a bowl of candy - he'd just go for it. Once he picked a piece (or two or three or four) he'd say, "Bye!" and go on his froggin' way.


Between houses, he'd take a break from wearing his froggin' hat and holding that heavy bucket of candy:


Upset that we wouldn't let him take a break and eat everything in his froggin' bucket:


Finally home and able to enjoy the fruits of his froggin' labor:


Hope everyone had a fun Halloween!

Fall Fun

Last weekend, we went to Baggenstos Farm with a group of Tyler's coworkers. There were lots of fun activities for the little ones - corn maze, petting zoo, pumpkin bowling, and a hay ride where you go out to the pumpkin patch and pick your own pumpkin (which, we missed out on because Xander wanted to play on the swing set).

First we went through the corn maze (Xander walked the entire way, I was pretty impressed):



After the corn maze, Xander (somehow) had tons of energy bottled up so he spent half an hour going down the slide. There was only 1 small setback when he got to the bottom of the slide and fell right onto his butt. A bit shaken, he just sat there as more kids slid down, hitting him in the back when they reached the bottom (of course he was crying by now). I wish I had taken a picture but it probably wouldn't look good for a little kid's pregnant mom to be laughing and snapping pictures as her toddler is crying and getting kicked at the bottom of the slide.


This little girl was getting quite frustrated with Xander's cautiousness while climbing the stairs to the slide. She pushed him aside to cut in front of him a couple times, but Xander eventually figured out how to stand up for himself:


Xander picked out this mini pumpkin and Ty and I picked out a big one for carving. We opted not to grab one of these little pumpkin carts so Xander chased this family through the parking lot trying to put his pumpkin in their cart:


After the pumpkin patch, we went to a co-worker's house and carved our pumpkins and ate pizza. Xander spent a good chunk of the afternoon torturing this little kid by stealing his Elmo backpack (anybody know where I can pick one of those up?):


Since we were with Ty's co-workers, he was peer pressured into carving a pumpkin and couldn't wiggle his way out of it (those of you who know Ty, know that he loves this kind of stuff *sarcasm*):

X's Birthday & Stuff

The little man turned 2 on August 20th, and G & G Guest were able to come up and celebrate with us. We thought about taking Xan to Chuck E Cheese but 4 grown-ups trump 1 toddler so we went to Macaroni Grill downtown (sorry, Xander).

See how happy the Birthday Boy was, enjoying his broccoli?

G&G spoiled him with LOTS of gifts!

He doesn't get much sugar so it was hard to snap a picture without him shoveling cake into his mouth:

After all that cake, he was looking a little lumpy (maybe you should try hitting the gym, Xan):

Here's me looking a little lumpy (or 25 weeks pregnant):

Xan has been doing this a lot lately. He is so sweet, making sure his buddies are always by his side (notice that these weren't all in one sitting - as he is sporting different onesies):