{Ryder :: 7 months}

 This kid sure keeps us laughing... at 7 months our Ryder man is starting to become his own little person.

• he is WIGGLE WORM, he loves to be constantly moving (as you can tell from some of the pictures)
• makes the cutest little turtle face, sucks in that bottom lip like there's no tomorrow
• he is a happy kid and loves attention... he knows just how to flirt with a crowd
• is in the teething stage right now- his 2 bottom teeth are about to pop through at any second
• loves fruit and gnawing on graham crackers
• tolerates vegetables as long as you let him have fruit too
• sits like a pro but is not crawling yet... we're living up this wonderful stage where we sit him down to play on his blanket and he can't go far
• loves standing up and has this fun trick where he likes to stamp his foot and bounce around when he's standing up
• is starting to have a preference for us over anyone else and we love it
• sleeps through the night except for a night here or there when the teething takes over, we count our blessings he's good to us most of the time
• is such a good sport- lets us drag him all over in his hiking backpack

the Myer family comes to visit...

The end of summer can only mean one thing here in Provo, it's time for Target to be overrun with herds of teary-eyed mothers with their college age children, scooters to run rampant around the streets, and good ol' BYU is back in session. Strangely enough, no one in this house is going back to school this year. Kind of a crazy realization. However it does mean that Riley is back in town and ready to party! This year the whole Myer family joined in on the "bring Riley back to school and spend as much time as humanly possible with Ryder man" adventure. Living a few states away makes these trips so much fun and I was sad when the week was up and everyone had to go home to real life. At least while they were here, we had a blast and Ryder man was smothered with all sorts of love.

Last Wednesday we spent the afternoon floating the Provo River (thanks to the beautiful Jacie Saltzman for watching Ryder!) and then all drove up to Primary Children's Medical Center to visit our good friend Porter Thorkelson. This past spring Porter was diagnosed with Ewing's Sarcoma and has been going through chemo all summer. A few weeks ago Porter had his right leg amputated below the knee and will continue to have chemo for a few more months. It was great to see Tati, Mary Ann, and Porter. Even though Porter wasn't feeling that great, he was a good sport to entertain visitors and play with Ryderman. After a visit to the hospital, we went to try out the infamous pizza place right down the street from the hospital, The Pie. It was delicious and well worth the wait!

Luke had a slight fish hooking accident that required a quick, late night trip to the ER. Boys will be boys.

 My family stayed in the Marriott Residence Inn that is less than half a mile from our house and we took advantage of the indoor swimming pool. Ryderman is all water baby as long as you don't put him on his back. He was loving some quality swimming time, plus he's so cute in his swim trunks!

 We love when family comes to visit!

Nerf Balls from Scratch

So in case anyone is wondering, we have really cool friends. Like, really cool. Our good friends Mark and Laci Brandley have some sweet connections and hooked us up when my family was in town last week. Mark 'the Shark' Brandley is a manufacturing engineering major and works in the lab on campus. He showed us the ropes around the lab (after hours- it was a private session!) and showed us how to make our very own NERF balls. Seriously though, they can make pretty much anything and Mark is the go-to guy! To say my little brother Luke was excited is an understatement. We got to wear pretty legit goggles and play with chemicals. Let's just say we were all a little sad that our majors didn't involve something quite as cool as this.

 Thanks Mark, we believe you now... your major is actually pretty cool and NOT as nerdy as it sounds...

A sneak peek...

So our 2nd bedroom is kind of an all-purpose room. While half of the space is dedicated to all things Ryder, the other half is taken up by our bunk beds/bikes (we have way too many bikes for any normal people)/ski equipment/everything storage. The rusty red color has never really been my favorite and I just want to make it more of Ryder's room and less of a storage space. I've been wanting to make the room somewhere I actually enjoy being, but it is kind of a big project. Especially with Ryder man around. Plus Chad really doesn't like painting/paying for paint when he thinks the room looks just fine.

Enter in best friend Jacie Saltzman. I texted her on Tuesday to see if she might want to come over for a bit to help me paint on Wednesday. I included a bribery of food in said request... it's the way straight to her heart. Since her last final was Wednesday morning, she said she would be over at noon. She spent almost 9 hours helping me clean/paint this room! 9 HOURS. That is true friendship. So we're still working on a few things, but for the most part the painting is done. Here's a quick sneak peek of the room, as soon as it's all done and the furniture is put back into place, I'll show the finished product!

BEFORE

DURING (Ryder man was such a good sport... he camped out on the floor in his Bumbo and watched more episodes of Blue's Clues than I imagined possible... don't judge.)

It's close to being done... stay tuned!

Stuffed Pizza Rolls

One of my most favorite cookbooks is Our Best Bites: Mormon Moms in the Kitchen. Last week I tried their recipe for Stuffed Pizza Rolls and it was fantastic! Seriously, died and went to heaven. I may be slightly biased because it was the first time I had eaten dairy in quite some time (darn breastfeeding) and only lasted one day (we had one fussy baby the next day= dairy is out again)... but still. Amazing.
 

For anyone in the market for a cookbook, this is the one to buy! This book (and also their blog) is full of recipes that are easy, use everyday ingredients that I mostly have on hand, and have resulted in so many successful dishes. I hate it when you want to try a recipe that is full of weird ingredients/spices or doesn't taste very good once it's all done. Almost every single recipe I've tried has been successful and so yummy. You need this cookbook. Plus Costco has it on sale for $15.99 which is a steal of a deal. So there you go. I love the book and I love this recipe. Happy cooking!

An evening with our favorite gals

Last Friday night we got to babysit our 4 nieces while Kimber & Dan went out to dinner and a movie. These girls keep us laughing and are definitely on the top of Ryder's list of favorite people. They have been out of town visiting their mom for the last 6 weeks and we've missed them so much while they were gone. It was nice to spend an evening together playing bikes, board games, singing silly songs to Ryder, and eating good ol' mac and cheese.