Happy Birthday, Ryder!

Wow, one whole year, twelve months of monthly photo shoots!  I did it!  I can't believe our little guy is one! It amazes me how quickly time goes by!

He had is year check-up this week and is weighing in at 18 lbs 5.6 ounces!  He's just a little guy!  His brother weighed more than he did when he was six months!  We took both boys in together for their yearly check-ups and they both got 4 shots!  Ouch!

I feel blessed to have such a happy little guy.  I can't even tell you how many times people have commented on how happy Ryder is.  "Is he this happy all the time?"

First Halloween - He dressed up as a monkey.  We re-used the costume Parker wore on his first Halloween.  He stayed warm and cozy in the stroller while his brother got lots of candy trick-or-treating around our neighborhood.

We recently joined the Play Network in Missoula and have gotten to go on a few fun field trips:  Apple Pressing, a tour of local bread company and trick-or-treating at an assisted living home.  Ryder was in heaven at Great Harvest Bread!  He loves bread and he got to try some samples there.

Walking - I'm not sure if I would officially call him a walker, but he can walk across a room.  He is getting better and better each day.

Climbing - Ryder is a climber!  He climbs or tries to climb on everything!  I had to move Parker's little table and chair set into another room, because Ryder would climb up onto the chair and stand on top of it.  It made me a little nervous, especially on the tile floor.

Snap - Yes, my one year old can snap!  I'm pretty amazed!  He's been making the snapping hand motion for a little while now, but now he makes the snapping sound.  Parker can't even snap yet.

Ryder makes us laugh everyday!  He sticks his tongue out at us and has started shaking his head no.  Both things that are only funny when a baby does them :)

Happy 1st Birthday, Ryder Norman!  We love you so much!  Thank you for bringing so much joy into our lives!

Happy Champagne Thursday!

Cheers!

Happy Birthday, P!!!

Parker turned 4 years old last Thursday!  We started celebrating on Wednesday, by letting him stay up late on Halloween to hand out candy to kids, after we got home from trick-or-treating.  He loved answering the door and passing out the candy!  Thursday morning he woke up in denial and said he was still 3, then I asked him what he wanted for breakfast, he requested cinnamon rolls and was happy to be 4 after that!  Then he headed off for preschool, where he brought fruit snacks to share with everyone.  Ryder and I picked him up early and we headed to the mall.  After the playing on the Train, throwing coins in the fountain and some time in the toy store we headed home for pizza, cake and presents!  We continued the celebration in Bozeman last weekend, with my parents.  We had fun at the Museum of the Rockies and soaking in the hot tub.  The celebrating will continue this weekend with a birthday party for both boys, with lots of family and friends!  He's already telling people he's almost 5.  

P - Playful & Pretend (loves to play make believe)

A - Active & Amazing

R - Remarkable

K - Kind

E - Entertaining & Elf (favorite movie right now)

R - Rad

J - Joyful

A - Awesome Big Brother

C - Curious & Cheerful

K - Kind

S - Sweet, Smart, Silly & Stubborn

O - Observant - He notices everything and knows if something has changed or is new

N - Nice

I'm looking forward to watching him grow this coming year!  Happy Birthday, Parker!  We love you!

Brand New

1 Year

2 Years

3 Years

4 Years

Happy Champagne Thursday!

Cheers to Parker Jackson!

November Photo A Day Challenge

I'm going to do my best to participate in this November Photo A Day Challenge.  Wish me luck!  If you want more details about the challenge check it out here.  And thank you to my fabulous friend, Jenna for sending this to me yesterday!  I expect you to play too.

Anyone else want to join me?  You still have time.

Follow Champagne Thursdays on Instagram @champagnethursdays

I've taken two "something beginning with 'C'" pictures today...

C is for Candles

C is for Climber

Happy 4th Birthday, Parker!  (I'm hoping to finish one more post today)

Happy Champagne Thursday!

Cheers!

Frame Collage

I started a collage of frames on one of our walls in our sitting room.  I've been wanting to do this for a while now and I've had most of these pictures framed for quite some time.  Anyways I finally got around to hanging them up last weekend. (I feel like I say that with a lot of my posts.  I need to start focusing on one or two projects instead of a bunch at the same time.)  I'm hoping to turn our 'sitting room' into a room we use more often and I think this collage of frames adds a bit of personality to the room. 

I experimented with a few different layouts out the floor, before deciding which one I liked best.  I started with some symmetry in the middle and then added from there.  Deciding on a layout was harder than I thought it was going to be, but I finally picked one that I thought would be easy to add to in the future.

Next I cut pieces of wax paper to match each frame and marked where the nail needed to be.  Then I taped the wax paper on the wall and hammered the nails into the appropriate spot.  After the nails were in place, I took down the wax paper and started hanging my pictures.  Thanks again Pinterest!  

I included the birth announcement prints I made from the boys, a family picture and a few other meaningful pictures and prints to our frame collage.

Here are a few close ups of some of the art we have hanging.

This one is a postcard of Flathead Lake that I framed.  I got it for free at a store downtown.  Score!  They were trying to sell larger prints for $300, but this little guy was perfect for me. 

Here's a piece of Parker's artwork from school.  I love the colors and the texture, its done on sandpaper.

I found this cute, free print on Pinterest, from the eighteen25 blog.  They have different colors you can choose from, then just download and print.  Thank you eighteen25 blog!!!

I found this fun and colorful print at Pike's Place Market for five dollars.  I love all the bright colors and it is a happy reminder of our time in Seattle.

We have a couple Maui pictures on our collage wall, one of our favorite places.  This is one we took when we were there a couple years ago.  It was taken at one of the stops on the Road to Hana.  The other one from Maui is a sunset picture, from the beach where Chris and I were married.  Maui has the most beautiful sunsets!

I'm really enjoying our new wall, I only wish I would have taken the time to hang the pictures earlier.

Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband, Chris!  Thank you for all your love and support.  You are the best daddy to our boys!  We love you so much!  XOXO
 

Happy Champagne Thursday!

Cheers!

Fall in Missoula!

DISCLAIMER:  This post contains A LOT of pictures of Parker & Ryder

I love Fall in Missoula, there are so many beautiful colors!  We took advantage of the gorgeous Fall day we had yesterday and headed to Greenough Park for some outdoor fun and picture taking.  Greenough Park is a perfect place to take pictures, the entire area offers an amazing backdrop!  Getting your kiddos to cooperate is the challenge!  I got a couple decent pictures of Park and Ryde together, quite a few good ones of them individually and one really cute picture of the two of them with their daddy.  

Enjoy the pictures!

Love them!

I think this was his Superman pose

Giant Wishing Rock

Skipping down the path

Cheers!