RyanAndShelsy.com

Halloween 2011

2011-10-25T08:29:00.000-04:00

Thanks to the seemingly unending creative talent of +Karen Joseph, Amber and Evan once again had seriously excellent Halloween costumes this year. They were characters from Toy Story, with Amber being Jesse and Evan being Woody. They wore their costumes to Sea World and Magic Kingdom and got crazy amounts of attention wherever they went.

Monster Toes

2011-10-07T21:48:00.000-04:00

By: Shelsy

Another Month

2011-09-29T22:32:00.000-04:00

By: Shelsy

Evan is getting bigger by the day. He's now up to 15.5 pounds. It's practically an Olympic sport to hold him. He constantly tries to propel himself out of my arms and across the room. And he just rolled over today for the first time!

Mom came to visit for a week, which was a lot of fun. Evan loves the awesome quilt she made for him! Shanna also dropped in for a couple of days--one of which we went to Animal Kingdom. Amber had a great time, as always.

My birthday was also this month--I'm 28 now, which sounds old to me. Much more than 27 did, anyway. Other than that, not much difference. :-)

We got a new car! Ryan traded in his Mustang, which served him (and me) so well for so many years. But, it was time. We're old now, and we have two kids, so we bumped up to a minivan. It looks really strange sitting out in the parking lot next to the Lancer. But we're super excited about it. It's awesome to have so much space! Plus, we're planning on driving to PA a couple of times this winter, and this is going to make the trip a hundred million times easier.

It was kind of sad, though, to see the Mustang go. Amber never got to ride in it (I don't think her carseat would even fit in there). I'm not even sure if she knew it was our car--she rarely saw Ryan driving it. But we took a picture of her with it before Ryan drove it off for the last time. This way when she's a teenager we have proof that her dad actually did have a cool car once. :-)

Three Months

2011-08-22T21:06:00.000-04:00

By: Shelsy

I can't even believe it's been three months already. The time is flying by. I blinked and suddenly he wasn't a newborn anymore. He is quite a happy baby. He smiles all the time. He rarely gets upset, and when he does, it's usually because he's sleepy. This child loves to sleep. He gets upset if he wakes up and still wants to be sleeping. He fights hard to fall asleep. He is very different from his sister in this way. Amber, even as a newborn, used to fight hard to stay awake.

He's getting bigger, too. He now weighs 14 pounds, 10 ounces, can hold his head up like a champ, and will probably be rolling over soon. Just the other day he was able to reach for and grab a toy. And he is squirmy! He is extremely difficult to hold. He kicks and pushes and is always trying to move. If we lay him on his back on the floor he can skooch himself around.

Amber is just as in love with him as ever, though her "hugs" are getting a little more intense. She loves to show him stuff: "Look, Evan! Apple, Evan! Fireworks, Evan!" One of her favorite things in the world is to go in and see him when he wakes up from a nap. That also happens to be one of my favorite things too, because he'll lay there and smile at us for at least 5 minutes.

He is such a sweet boy. He makes us all very happy.

Amber's first Bible verse

2011-08-14T15:10:00.002-04:00

Amber has successfully memorized her first Bible verse. She loves reciting it and is (of course) super adorable doing so.

Site redesign

2011-07-14T10:34:00.000-04:00

If you always read our posts via email or in Google Reader, you should definitely take a minute to visit the site itself. Just head to RyanAndShelsy.com to see the complete redesign. It's faster and cleaner, while still maintaining the original design idea of the first site.

Posts are now collapsed, making it easier to scroll through the main page without having to scroll past an entire post to see the next one. Beneath each post is a big, "continue reading" link that will take you to the full post with more pictures, etc. You'll also notice new social sharing buttons below each post, including Google's new +1 button.

Thanks for continuing to read our little blog here. It's hard to believe this site has been up for over 3 years.

Big Boy

2011-07-05T13:13:00.002-04:00

By: Shelsy

Believe it or not, yesterday was Evan's six-week birthday. I can't even believe it's been six weeks already! He weighs 12 pounds, 9 ounces. He can hold his head up, though he's still a little wobbly. He also smiles a ton--so cute! Everyone always asks how he's sleeping, and I'm happy to report that he's an excellent sleeper. He's slept "through the night" (5 consecutive hours) a couple of times now. He generally wakes up 2-3 times during the night to nurse. I can't complain at all.

Amber is a little bit obsessed with him. She loves talking about him, talking to him, showing him things, hugging him, giving him blankets, holding him.... She loves telling people that she's a big sister and how much she likes Evan and how cute he is.

We celebrated Evan's first 4th of July yesterday by going to the Magic Kingdom. This was his second trip there, but the first time was just a short visit. Yesterday we went in the afternoon so we could stay for the fireworks (which he slept through). The kids did great the whole time and we all had a blast. We went on Buzz (Space Ranger Spin), the Transit Authority, and went to the Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor. Amber's been watching Monsters, Inc. lately and she actually really enjoyed the show. She didn't get any of the jokes, but she had a lot of fun laughing and clapping with everyone. We also went to the arcade and it wasn't crowded so we let Amber climb in all the chairs and "drive" the cars and push all the buttons. That was her favorite part of the whole day.

Welcome baby Evan!

2011-05-24T11:38:00.021-04:00

The second addition to our little family arrived early Sunday morning. Little Evan was born at 1:20am Sunday morning, and was 9 pounds even. Shelsy did great and everyone is doing great.

Evan is adapting well to the real world and seems to be enjoying it. Amber is also doing very well and seems to love having a baby brother. She always asks to hold him, and rushes to give him a kiss whenever he cries.

We'll get a few videos of him up over the next few days, but until then, here are some pictures. :-)

Amber's 2nd Birthday

2011-04-20T20:08:00.001-04:00

by: Ryan

It's really hard to believe that our little girl turned two this month. She's become a total little person now, with a serious personality and preferences that she is clearly able to communicate to us. It's been amazing watching her grow and every day brings something new.

For her 2nd birthday, we took her to the T-Rex Restaurant at Downtown Disney which she mostly enjoyed. Though, whenever the meteor shower (loud noises and flashing lights) would start, she'd bury her face in my shoulder and say, "Scared! Scared!" It was remarkably cute, and a little bit sad.

The room we ate in was the "ice cave" room which would periodically transition from blue to pink as we ate. Amber was a big fan of the room turning pink.

After eating, we explored the other shops where Amber found a snake she liked, and found Mickey and Minnie.

Then we went to Magic Kingdom where Amber got to ride her three favorites: the tram, the monorail, and the train. :-)

Aside from being moderately scared at the restaurant, I'd say it was a success of a birthday. She still talks about eating with dinosaurs. And if you ask her how old she is now, she says, "Two!" while attempting (and failing) to hold up two fingers.

Amber's new bubble machine

2011-04-01T09:20:00.002-04:00

By: Ryan

Amber loves bubbles. She loves chasing them, trying to blow them herself, and asking us to fill the house with them. It's tiring and we've gotten dizzy more than once from blowing bubbles. So Amber got an early birthday present this week, and she's been enjoying it even more than we thought she would:

Yep, she now has a real bubble machine. It sits on the ground and fills the area with a rather insane amount of bubbles. Amber loves it, of course, and asks for it every time we go outside. She especially likes taking her plastic fork and saying, "Poke! Poke!" while popping bubbles.

Here's a video and a few more pictures. Look for another post this weekend about her actual birthday. We think she's gonna have a blast. :-)

click here to watch in HD

Baking with Mommy!

2011-02-10T21:48:00.002-05:00

By: Shelsy

Amber helped me make a chocolate cake today because mommy had a craving. :-) I think she had a good time:

The final product--we're just going to have our Valentine's Day dessert a few days early.

Baking day is complete with chocolate handprints on the dishwasher...

and just about everything else in the house.

Quick update

2011-02-09T10:16:00.001-05:00

By: Ryan

Watching the fountain

Hey all, sorry for the lack of posts lately. Between the new job, prepping for the new baby, and our other blogging efforts, we have neglected to update this site. We will be returning to our regularly scheduled posting-of-updates soon, but for now I wanted to share a quick update on what's been happening.

First of all, as most of you already know by now, I have a new job! It's the full-time job we've been praying for since moving to Florida and we couldn't be more excited about it. With the new little guy coming along, our desire to buy a house sometime soon, and all that, the job couldn't have come at a better time. It's going great, too, and I'm definitely enjoying it.

Shelsy is doing great with the pregnancy, too. It's a boy, which I'm sure everyone knows by now, but I don't think we ever actually posted here. Very exciting! Still several more months to go, so you'll be hearing more about that soon.

Amber's been learning new stuff every day and surprises us all the time with how much she knows. She's started putting two or three words together to form basic sentences, too. She's a big fan of Disney World, too, and knows that the ball is at Epcot, and that we see fireworks at the castle. She's figured out how to use our phones, how the TV remote works, and how to help put groceries in the shopping cart. She's quite a smart little kid and it's hard to believe that she's almost 2.

Not much else has happened that's worth writing about. Amber's learning so much and gaining new skills by the day, so it's hard to recap how much she knows now. People ask me questions like, "how many words does she know," and I just answer, "all of them" because it's practically true. :-)

So again, you can look forward to more regular posting here about what's happening in our little part of the world. If you're interested, you can check out my blog, or the Android blog Shelsy and I write together. Until next time, thanks for sticking around and being our loyal readers.

.

Amber the Halloween butterfly

2010-11-04T14:03:00.001-04:00

Amber had an excellent Halloween costume this year, painstakingly made by her grandma. She really seemed to enjoy showing off her pretty wings, too. We took her to Seaworld and Downtown Disney, and her costume was by far the best costume present (my opinion is, of course, not biased at all).

Amber Has An Announcement:

2010-10-27T16:23:00.000-04:00

A few details:

We just found out, and I'm already 14 weeks. Yay for getting through the first trimester without even knowing it.
I'm due April 24th, Easter day.
If you ask Amber what's in my belly, she says, "baby."

Coloring

2010-10-03T15:11:00.001-04:00

By: Shelsy

Today when we picked Amber up from childcare at church we noticed that there was a paper there with her name on it. It was under a stack of other kids' coloring pages. This is the first time she's done a coloring page for us, so we were very curious to see it. Here it is:

Haha! All the other ones had scribbles all over them, and this is what we get. :-) Upon closer inspection, we found some very faint dots on the lower left of the page:

I don't even think they're visible in this picture. We were talking to one of the childcare workers when they brought her out, and he was like, "Oh yeah, she loved that. It kept her busy for a good 30 minutes." HA! She worked on it for 30 minutes and barely made contact with the paper. She is so hilarious--it's been cracking me up all day. It's her very first Sunday School picture, and we're proudly displaying her masterpiece on the fridge. :-)

Beach Baby

2010-09-12T21:41:00.002-04:00

By: Shelsy

On Friday we took Amber to the beach for the very first time! Yeah, I know, we live in Florida, we should go to the beach all the time. We're just not big beach people, typically. All you people who take tiny babies to the beach are way braver than I am!

We were actually only there for a few hours in the afternoon, but she loved it. At first she just wanted to stand in the wet sand and let her feet sink in--she wasn't interested at all in the water. But then when we finally got her to check it out she had a blast! She lost her balance every time a wave got to her. She also loved it when Ryan and I took her a little deeper and lifted her up over the waves. She loved thunking her feet back down into the water. :-)

Tea Time!

2010-09-08T10:04:00.003-04:00

By: Shelsy

The other night Amber had her first ever tea party with Daddy:

I'm sure this will be the first of many. :-) I almost always have a cup of tea in the afternoon and I'm very much looking forward to when she's old enough to enjoy tea time with Mommy!

Here are a few more of my favorite pictures of Amber at play from the last few weeks:

Amber playing in a puddle

2010-08-29T15:53:00.001-04:00

(click to enlarge)

This is just a quick post to share a video and picture with all of you. We went to Downtown Disney yesterday right after a heavy rainstorm. Amber had an absolute blast running through the puddles, especially this huge one we found behind the balloon ride at West Side. We didn't have the good camera with us, so pardon the blurryness. But blurry or not, it's still cute enough to share. Enjoy!

Family Visit

2010-08-23T17:43:00.001-04:00

By: Ryan

This post is long overdue, but better late than never, I guess. Amber has been keeping us quite busy lately, and even when she's not running around the house being cute, her favorite thing to do is sit on my lap at the computer and watch Pixar movies on the second monitor while I try to work with one hand. Not very conducive to blog writing. :-)

So anyway, this past summer we had the opportunity to have Shanna stay with us for a little while. We definitely enjoyed having her around, and Amber was quite excited to have someone to play with. The door would open and Amber would whirl around, pointing and saying "Sha-sha!" Lots of fun. :-)

Then, in July, we were treated to a visit from my family. They came down for a week and stayed at a hotel near SeaWorld. We had a great time hanging out with them, going to the various theme parks, and watching Amber be her adorable self.

Shanna got us into Disney a few times, which was tons of fun, especially for Amber. Though at the time, Amber was still using the word "Minn-e!" to describe Mickey and Minnie. Now, her vocabulary seems to have devolved, since it's now just "Nee!" Oh well. :-)

Here are some pictures from the visit. Thanks for coming everyone, we had a great time! Look for some videos to be posted later this week.

VICTORY!!!!

2010-06-19T09:08:00.000-04:00

By: Shelsy

Pardon my enthusiasm, everyone, but I'm very excited. Today is the day I finally reached my weight loss goal! You're probably thinking, "okay, big deal. Why do I care?" Well, you probably don't. :-) But it's significant enough for me, that I wanted to share.

When I got pregnant with Amber, I didn't own a scale. So I have no idea how much I weighed pre-pregnancy. By the time I was six weeks along, I was already showing, and weighed 190. So my best guess is that I weighed somewhere between 180 and 185 pre-pregnancy. During my pregnancy I got a Wii Fit, when I learned that according to my Body Mass Index (BMI), I was considered obese (well, I was pregnant). I also learned that the ideal weight, for a woman of my height, is 140.2 (a BMI of 22.00). I think the last time I weighed 140 was in high school, or middle school maybe. That was a bit more disheartening.

At my heaviest (the day before Amber was born) I weighed 220 pounds. The weight came off quickly for the first month or so. The birth itself shed 15 pounds and I continued to drop somewhat steadily. Then I started "working out" around 6 or 7 weeks postpartum.

Now, I'm not big on exercise, so when I say "working out," I mean walking to the end of the street and back. Or 10 minutes of yoga, or something. At least in the beginning. I was in bad shape. Over time, though, as I began to see results I started working out a little more. I eventually came up with a routine that incorporated yoga, belly dance, Wii Fit, and even Dance Dance Revolution. For the last few months I've been pretty much sticking to yoga.

Now, I'm also not big on diet. At all. Which was probably the reason I got so heavy in the first place. I do not believe in counting calories, or reducing fat intake (quite the opposite, actually). But shortly after having Amber we started to move toward more of a "real foods" diet full of whole, unprocessed foods and healthy fats. We made these changes for our general health, not for the purpose of weight loss. These are some of the changes we made:

-Eliminate dairy. When Amber was about a month old we started to notice that she was getting stomach aches when I ate dairy. So I cut it out. We then did some more research about dairy and decided to cut it out of our diets permanently. I believe this is the single biggest factor in helping me lose weight. We used to eat a ton of dairy, and I rarely miss it.

-Eliminate processed foods. We stopped buying most pre-packaged foods and prefer to buy as much as possible in its whole food form. We buy a lot of fruits and veggies, and we make an effort to buy organic for at least the dirty dozen when we can. We make a lot more things from scratch. It's fun, and I'm happy to get all those extra chemicals and fillers out of my life.

-Cut out as much refined sugar and flour as possible. We use whole wheat flour almost exclusively. We also stopped buying white sugar and now only use demerara cane sugar, raw local honey, molasses, or pure maple syrup.

-Eat mostly vegetarian. This is mostly financial, because meat is expensive. When we do eat meat, it's usually chicken or shrimp, but we get other stuff in there sometimes. It's my dream to someday buy only grass-fed beef and free-range antibiotic free chickens and eggs from a local farmer, but...not for awhile yet. :-)

-Cook at home. Again, this is mostly financial, because we would love to eat out. But we can rarely afford it, and it's a little harder with Amber in the mix. But we're much better off making it an occasional thing anyway.

The last thing that had a big impact on my weight loss was breastfeeding. I think it played a large role especially in the first few months. It's still helping, I'm sure, but not to the extent that it did in the beginning.

Now, for some stats. From my heaviest (220) I lost a total of 80 pounds (I weighed in today at 140.0). I've lost three inches off of my waist since January when I started measuring. I'm not sure how many pant sizes I dropped, because I don't currently have any pants that actually fit me, but I'm guessing I'll fit in at least an 8 now, and I used to be in 14s.

I weigh less now than I have in probably 10 years, and it's awesome. I feel like I have a whole new body. I DO have a whole new body. :-) I'm proportioned a lot differently than I used to be, due to pregnancy. And I have lots of stretch marks and loose skin, but that's alright. I'm happy! :-)

So to all my pregnant friends out there, have hope! It's possible to have your pre-pregnancy body back (or better!). It only took me about six months to get to my pre-pregnancy weight, and only 14 1/2 months to get all the way down to my ideal weight. Not too bad. :-)

Here's what I looked like almost two months after Amber was born.

And this is now!

These are the best-fitting jeans I own. I got them just before Christmas.

Amber and her raincoat

2010-06-18T08:47:00.001-04:00

This adorable ladybug raincoat was a present from Amber's grandma and it's definitely one of our favorites. Amber loves wearing it, even just around the house. Up until now, all of the rainstorms we've had have either been while Amber's asleep, or they've been heavy thunderstorms (which are, of course, unfit for little babies).

But earlier this week we got our first chance to let Amber play outside in her raincoat. She had an absolute blast splashing in puddles, pointing at passing birds, and repeating, "Rain!" over and over. Here are some pictures and a video of the fun.

Click here to watch in full HD quality

Harry Potter in pictures

2010-06-11T10:07:00.003-04:00

By: Ryan

So as everyone is no doubt aware, the very highly anticipated Wizarding World of Harry Potter opens on June 18 at Universal Studios Florida. The advertising blitz in central Florida has begun with billboards, commercials, and posters everywhere. Even driving past Universal, you can't help but notice the castle towers above the trees.

We headed to Universal yesterday just to walk around and let Amber have some fun. When we finally made our way back to the Harry Potter area, we discovered, much to our surprise, that it was open! We were able to check out almost everything inside the new area, even the new ride inside Hogwarts Castle. Here are some pictures of the excitement.

(note: if you're reading this in a feed reader or by email, be sure to visit RyanAndShelsy.com to view these pictures in a clickable slideshow format.)

Amber and her shoes

2010-05-29T09:04:00.000-04:00

By: Ryan

Yesterday afternoon, I was sitting at my computer, working on something nerdy and uninteresting to most of you, when Amber comes toddling into the room with a big smile on her face. She was carrying a pair of her shoes, one in each hand. She held them up to me and eagerly handed them over.

I asked her if she wanted to put the shoes on and she looked down at her feet. So, I told her to sit down and she sat motionless, watching while I put the shoes on.

Click picture to enlarge

I told her to go show the shoes to mommy and she immediately turned and marched out of the room, staring down at her feet the whole time. It was adorable. She's worn shoes before, of course, but she's never asked to wear them and gotten excited about it.

Click picture to enlarge

Looks like we have a fashion diva on our hands here. We've always known she was super cute and good-looking. But now, it looks like she's starting to figure it out for herself. :-)

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Amber walking by herself

2010-05-19T17:44:00.000-04:00

Amber is officially walking on her own. She still falls from time to time, and her balance is less than perfect, but she's totally mastered it and has been walking all over the house. She's always giggling and is quite proud of her newfound skill. Here's a video of the excitement. Enjoy!

Some New Pictures

2010-05-16T20:50:00.002-04:00

By: Shelsy

I finally got around to getting all the pictures off of my camera from the last month. Here are some of my favorites.

Walking with daddy

The only picture we managed to get of her vampire teeth before her center ones came in.

I managed to sneak in without waking her up.

She loves her Gloworm! And spoons...

Mother's Day!