Perfect Pairings

Good design and good coffee.  Cute little boy and a hot chocolate treat. Grey afternoon and free coffee. Sleeping baby and (insert anything). So many perfect pairings on this lazy Sunday afternoon.  After church, we stopped by Revel 77's soft opening to check out their new coffee shop. It is pretty close to our house and has really cool modern interiors. I wish I had taken more photos of the space, but I was distracted by this handsome guy. He was pretty stoked to have his own treat and didn't notice that we only let him drink about 1/3 of the hot chocolate they gave him. (These pictures are all from Patrick's phone - I'm impressed!)

Cheers Daddy

The last two places we took Ronan this week, he has pretty much insisted on finding his own place to sit. Such a streak of independence. He's allowed to explore a little as long he listens to us. :)

Halloween 2012

With Ronan's birthday being on the 30th, this time of year will forever be busy for us. Good busy though. :)  We carved pumpkins for the first time on Monday, celebrated Ronan's birthday Tuesday, and got decked out for or church's Candy Carnival on Halloween.  (thanks Bobby for these first two photos!)

Aislinn's hands!

pumpkin group shot

 I'm guessing this will be the last year I have any say in Ronan's costume, which is totally fine and even exciting for me, so I thought it would be fun to do a family theme again. I think I got the idea while I was down in Disneyland with Aislinn. I thought she would be the perfect Tinkerbell (she was!) and that Ronan would be the perfect Peter Pan (he was!).  I found a female Captain Hook costume for me and a pirate for Patrick. For some reason I went to Goodwill at the end of September and it happened to be the day they put out all of the Halloween costumes. I totally lucked out, finding everything I needed for just a few bucks per person. And most of it was brand new! I diy'd a lot of Ro's costume, including the tights, hat and a dagger, from this tutorial. I was concerned he may not like wearing the tights, but he requested to wear them to bed as pajamas, so I guess he liked them. :)

I love the Peter Pan pose

We volunteered at the Plinko booth at the Candy Carnival. I love Plinko. :)  It's funny though, only the parents knew how to play, the kids had no idea. Made me feel a little old! Taking care of the booth and both kiddos was a little crazy. But fun! Luckily the Ronan was mesmerized by the Plinko board and the hoop shooting game was next door, so he never wanted to venture too far away. He may or may not have also  been bribed with suckers to stay near by. ;)  And he may or may not have had a massive sugar high/crash by the end of the night.  Aislinn was a doll as usual, hanging out in her carseat or our arms.

Birthday Day

I've joked this week that it's a good thing Ronan probably won't remember this year's birthday...because I don't know if we can live up to it! With a celebration in Clarkston last Sunday, his actual birthday and a party on Saturday (plus opening a few presents in between) He has been one blessed little boy!

I'm all about making the actual birthday a special day. My parents were always so good about that and I think it's a fun tradition to pass down. With two other parties planned, I didn't want Ronan's special day to be too crazy, but still more memorable than a regular day. Plus, I realize now how special of a day it is for us as parents too and I want to pause and reflect back to the day we first became parents to Ronan. :)

We decorated just a bit. I hung streamers from the chandelier in his room and I could hear his excited squeals the moment he woke up and saw them. Love that. :)

I watched a friend's two little boys in the morning, which was great for Ronan because he and Jax are the same age. All that playing and sharing produced a great nap time! When Ronan woke up we went to Sweet Frostings where he got to pick out his very own cupcake. The bakery is so cute and every person I've met that works there is so nice. They went out of their way to make Ronan's experience special and even sang him "Happy Birthday!"  He thought the frosting was pretty amazing (and it is!) but moved on to bigger and better things once the frosting was gone. I've learned this week that Ronan loves frosting but could really care less about the cupcake. :)

"for me?"

"cheers mommy"

practicing cutting

exercising his independence

who's that cute boy?

When we got home, Ronan got to open his presents. We found him a really fun book which he actually wanted Patrick to read him before he opened his big present.  Then he tore into (okay, more like carefully peeled back each layer of wrapping paper) his big present.  Knowing Ronan's love for trains, we knew we would get him something related to trains. A couple months ago, I found this awesome tutorial and then found a train set half off. We knew it would be the perfect present for our train-loving guy (and we had all of the materials on hand!). He pretty much loves it. :)

Weekend Festivities

I mentioned in the daily photos here, here and here that we spent last weekend at my parents. The whole family was in town for my cousins wedding. It was a very much needed break and distraction for us. Getting to see everyone and have lots of good food together made me feel like it was Christmas!

The wedding was beautiful! It was a great celebration and we all had a really great time. Like I said before, Ronan could have danced the night away. He and Keegan were so stinkin cute and very entertaining! I wish we had some of their dancing on video. And of the times Ronan yelled "amen!" after each prayer during the ceremony. :)  We are so excited to have Staci officially join our family (because really, she's been a part of our family for awhile)! Congratulations Josh and Staci!

I love these photos of my grandparents. Aren't they the sweetest?

Ronan was SO tired at the end of the night, but still wanted to keep dancing!

My parents threw Ro a little Cars themed party on Sunday with just the family. I think he's starting to understand opening presents and how much fun it is. I'm even surprised how much he likes getting cards. He thinks they are books and has asked to read them several times. :)

this his his hilarious "squeezing the sauce" face