Christmas Prep

Christmastime has been so much fun this year. It's definitely been a little difficult for me, just low energy, BUT Rutherford is so much more into it this year. He's really beginning to get the idea. We've made Christmas crafts, watched Christmas specials (actually we're both sick with a cold, watching a Curious George Christmas on the sofa this morning together), made some cookies and every day he gets to open his advent calendar with a new fun holiday activity. It's been awesome.

I am pretty much all done with shopping, wrapping and decorating. Now it's time to relax and soak up the holiday fun. With our colds we had to skip out on music class today, but I'm thinking maybe we'll try making some cinnamon ornaments later today. I hope they turn out cute!

Here's some pics of the last week or so:

 Ned, R and I made reindeer cookies :)

Checking out the Christmas parade in Alpine. R loved the dump trucks and fire engines that were decked out with lights.

 

We drove around the neighborhood and found some awesome light displays.

 

I took Rutherford to the puppet show at Balboa Park. He had a great time. It was such an old-fashioned kind of event. We'll definitely be going back.

 

R getting a hug from Bogo the orangutan after the puppet show.

  

After the show, we split a cupcake (peanut butter cup, R picked it out). Rutherford ate the frosting (after I scrapped out about 4/5 of it, don't need no crazy sugar high baby) and I ate the cake. Teamwork.

 

 

R LOVES his new workshop that the Houston Grands sent him. He's really into his tools. It's a great addition to the playroom!

Napping

This pic is from a few weeks ago... I woke R up from his nap but he wasn't done. So we snuggled in bed and I got this blessed 15 minute nap with my beautiful angel.

Connect Four

I picked R up a Connect Four set - he loves it! Of course he doesn't really play the game, but he really likes dropping the "coins" into the game. I can see traces of OCD - he likes alternating the colors and gets kinda mad if I "help" and do it wrong. Haha!

Magnets

I bought R a small magnetic board for the playroom. I had purchased some letter magnets a while back for him at a garage sale. We're practicing spelling! Or at least letter recognition. He likes to count the "R"s in his name. "I have thrrrreeeeeeee Rs mama!" Love.

DISNEYLAND!!!

OK, first off I have to apologize for not posting for so long - Ned and I are pregnant again (yay!) and the first trimester kicked my ass. But, I'm back and have some great pics from our latest trip to Disneyland :)

This was R's third trip (so proud!) to Dland and he was amazing. Ned and I couldn't believe how awesome he was. never whined or cried the entire three days we were there. We were able to meet up with some family from Houston who were visiting the park for the first time with their three kids. (Three under five - much props, that is crazy hard at Dland).

Here's some pics of our adventure!

 At breakfast, Tigger borrowed R's hat - Rutherford is still talking about this :)

 R rode two new rides this time. Above is Finding Nemo, a submarine voyage. He was so brave! He thought it was super cool. The other was the Astro Orbiter (some rockets that fly around). They go pretty high but he thought it was rad!

 Queue shenanigans, classic little kid Disneyland stuff.

 The yellow teacup - always his favorite.

 The badass Christmass tree in the lobby of the hotel.

 Us and Mickey! 

 R's reflection in an oversized Christmas ornament.

 Mugging on It's a Small World.

The Week in Pictures

 Rutherford and Madison cruising around in her awesome jeep.

 Little post-nap snuggle with Papa Daddy.

 Baby in a pot.

 Heat wave + early morning rainbow.

R taking selfies in the car.

It's Not Regular Milk Day, It's Chocolate Milk Day!

R gets Ovaltine a few times per week. Usually Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. Not sure how we settled on that schedule but it seems to be acceptable to him. When he figures out it's a chocolate milk day, he jumps out of bed, runs down the hall and says "It's not REGULAR milk day, it's CHOCOLATE milk day! Papa make Rutherford chocolate milk!"

More Beach

We went back to the beach today, R just LOVES it there. I found two really pretty, whole sand dollars and R spent a lot of the trip playing in about three inches of water. He loved watching the sandy mud drip through his fingers and burrowing in a little mud hole that he could splash around in. What an adorable, adventurous little boy we have :)

Hey That's Rutherford's Job!

R really likes being busy and helpful. If I start doing something that he usually does (e.g., feed the doggies in the morning, sweep the front porch, etc.), he gets all huffy and says "Hey! That's Rutherford's job!"

Bwhahaha. He's getting pretty bossy. Wonder where that comes from.

The Week in Pictures

 R had so much fun at the beach! We went twice. He loved hunting for seashells and stomping on the sandcastles we made.

 Playing in the sand.

 We hit the carousel in Balboa Park pretty frequently, at least once a week. R has a couple of favorite horses and and he's getting really good and holding on tight!

 Music class is back in session. We were pretending to be flowers and bunnies waking up to the sun :)

 Sleeping in. I love it when he sleeps past 7am!

 Rocking his library bib and sporting a smoothie 'stache.

Swim class with Papa Daddy! They were doing some big tosses in the air, R loved it!

The Week in Pictures

 Rutherford and Papa, snuggling in bed... with their tablets :)

Drumline.

 Neddie's friend Kyle and his adorable family visited SD last week, we got to have dinner with them and run around Balboa Park!

 R's pumpkin patch at the Ranch - can't wait for some wee punkins!

Duckface. My son through and through. Look at those lips! He kills me.

Rutherford's Flower Garden, Day 11

So many sprouts!

"Hmmm... let's see!"

Rutherford picks up on everything so quickly - and it's super cute. I find him repeating phrases back to me that I must say frequently, including this one. It usually goes like this:

R: "Mama ask where Rutherford's ball went!"
Me: "OK, where did Rutherford's ball go?"
R: "Hmmm... let's see!"

When he says it, he usually puts one finger on his chin, in a very contemplating manner.

He is adorbs.

Rutherford's Flower Garden, Day 4

Over the weekend we helped R plants some seeds. I had a self-watering planter that was just wasting away so R picked out some seeds (cosmos and marigolds) at the nursery and we gave the planter some new soil and R planted the seeds!

He loooved doing it (he's also planted some pumpkin seeds at the Ranch a few weeks earlier) and he was very good at placing the seeds just right into the little holes we dug. We've been lightly watering them every day and we already have sprouts!

Rutherford was excited and the first thing he asked me was if he could pick them. Haha. I told him we have to wait until the flowers grow big and strong and then we could pick them.

 Right after planting

Our little sprout!

Happy Birthday, Rutherford!

Last weekend we celebrated R's second birthday with a brunch picnic at the park. We had a great time and Rutherford was super excited about his birthday party. We had four little friends over - Kaitlyn, Ryder, Madison and Penelope plus their parents. It turned out to be super hot, even in the morning... but I guess the great thing about two year olds is they don't seem to complain about the weather too much :) R got some awesome loot - I think the pizza-baking set from Aimee and Ryder might be the biggest hit - and we had cake, juice boxes and played with lots of bubbles. A great birthday!

 Playing bubbles with cousin Madison.

 Penelope looked adorable!

 Opening presents with Papa.

 Ryder eyeing the cake. Rutherford managed to scoop up some frosting before I cut it :)

Blowing out the candles :)

And singing Happy Birthday to Rutherford!

We love our son more than anything in the whole world. I thank God every day for sending me my wonderful little boy. Happy Birthday R!

Hat

R is finally into hats! We made a special one the other morning.

Hello Summer!

Friday marked the first day of summer. I'm so excited for us and Rutherford, so many fun things to do when the weather is warm. R's birthday, Fourth of July, picnics, zoo nights, beach days and hot dogs! So much fun with our little man. Here's some pics from the past couple weeks:

 Rutherford and Penelope playing with the kiddie roller coaster at Java Mama.

R playing with his water table. He's recently discovered that adding dirt makes mud. He loves it and says "Rutherford makes MUD!"

 Swimming. I dipped my toes in, too. R likes skinny dipping.

 R's favorite animals at the zoo right now are the giraffes. There's a nice little family of them, with a brand-new, six-week-old girl giraffe. She is sooo cute. R calls the bigger giraffes the "mama" and "papa" giraffes, and the baby is the "Rutherford Giraffe."

 At the zoo with Mimi and Grandpa. After the zoo, we had a picnic. R is really into picnics right now, he loves eating on the blanket, having some snacks and being outside.

R's star sunglasses. Last week he and I went to Party City to get some things for his birthday party (less than a week away!). R got to pick out all the treats for the goodie bags - balls, bubbles, stickers, a plastic tambourine and these sunglasses. We're having four of his little friends and their parents come to the park for a brunchie picnic. Should be fun! R is going to help me make his cake on Friday, he enjoys baking, especially eating batter :)

Houston!

Ned, Rutherford and I took our first trip to Texas together :) We were a bit nervous about flying with R for the first time, but he was a real trooper. It was fun to see everyone and R loved his little adventure :)

 

 Rutherford was amazing on the plane. On the way out, he fell asleep almost as soon as the plane took off!

 After arrival, R played with Mimi Charlotte (he's calling both grandmas "mimi" which is totally adorable) in the car.

 We hit up Goode Company for BBQ!

 Jumping on the bed at our hotel - Rutherford LOVED staying there and everyone was very sweet to him. He liked running up and down the halls and looking at the fish in the aquarium in the lobby :)

 We spent a morning at Bobby's office. R got to meet Bob and Doris, play with fun office supplies and help GrandBob out.

 Playing and reading with Charlotte.

 Cars!

 Riding the carousel.

 Visiting Gramit at her new place :)

 Dinner with the Houston Grands. 

 We visited Adam, Amanda, AJ, Olivia, Owen, Wayne and Jackie at their awesome new place in Bellaire. R had SO much fun playing with AJ and Liv - especially their adorable little playhouse and awesome matching convertible Mercedes!

 And here's a little video of R and Gramit playing together!