totally stealing a picture, or two, from Beth

Handprints from today at Mother's Day Out. Ryan's is the blue one on the top row.

Again, having so much fun...

The Zoo

Yes, they are in the refrigerator...crazy, huh?

Yesterday, checking out the kitchen counter

Ryan's first day at "Mrs. Beth's". Looks like he was definitely having more fun than I was...

"CHEEEEESSSEEEE"

Hardly paying attention to Mommy while she tried to get some pictures. Gotta stay glued to Sesame Street.

My beautiful roses that Ryan picked out for me...

Saying, "cheeeeeeeesssseee"

A picture the day after my birthday

My little munchkin

Getting ready to "JUMP" on the couch. Something he knows he isn't allowed to do

Talking to Daddy tonight on the phone. He was so funny, he started waving at it when I told him to say hey.

My new scalped hair cut -- Daddy what did you do to me?

LOVING Barney the purple dinosaur these days. Watches the same one EVERY day!

THE SPIKE

I mean, seriously...this is what I come home to?

More spike and "Cheese"

definitely hamming it up for the camera!

Pre-scalping

Look at me...I am joining mommy and daddy with the P90X craze!

Yes, this is Ryan in Riley's bed. He loves it and thinks that it is hysterical.

CHEESE!!

Dad and Mom

aka: Pop and Gigi

Hanging out in SC on the lake

Sailing away with Pop

Look, Gigi let's me have remotes - YES!!

The Views in Montana were AMAZING

Lewis and Clark Caverns

Mike and Doc

Playing one morning at the Sacagewea

Such a serious face...

It was freezing here - got down to the 30's at night

Amy and Mark at the Rehearsal.

Ryan and Mommy

Tom and Priscilla

aka. Doc and Mimi

Amy and Ryan

Waterfall in Yellowstone

Old Faithful is getting ready to blow again any minute.

(she blows approx. every 90 minutes)

Mike and Ryan

OLD FAITHFUL!! Really cool to see!

Hiking the "M"

Reaching the top of the "M"

Amy, Ryan, and the Steer

Ryan stopping to see the flowers...

and now, to smell them.

Ryan could not resist getting his lawn mower out as he watched Daddy go round and round in the yard. It was so cute and so not staged.

what can I say? It has been a long time since I posted... Lots of things have happened...mainly, we went out to Montana for Mike's sister's (Amy) wedding. That was so much fun, but remind me of this trip the next time I want to take an 18 month old on a plane for 12 hours. The next big thing is me going back to work. I have left the world of SAHM and entered into Full time working Mom. I have to say that it is a transition I did not look forward to (and most days still don't) but it pays the bills, so, here I am.

We left at the beginning of August for Amy's wedding. It was an awesome week and culminated in a beautiful day for her to celebrate.

Mike and I stayed busy 100% of the time - we went hiking up the "M", we went to the Dinosaur Park and Rocky Mountain Museum, we toured Bozeman, met up with lots of family, toured a cave/cavern with Tom, went to Yellowstone for the day and saw Old Faithful as well as some BEAUTIFUL water falls. We stayed at a little historic hotel in Three Forks for the wedding. It was a great atmosphere and really allowed us to meet and mingle with everyone that was attending the wedding. Ryan didn't end up making it down the aisle, but he had

a great time throwing rocks at the back of the ceremony. (too many days and nights without going to bed and missing parts of naps just did him in)

Mark and Amy looked wonderful for their wedding day and the all of the guests really enjoyed themselves.

We got back to Columbia a couple of days after the wedding and Mike immediately had to head up to Asheville for a sales conference for work. So, I took advantage and spent some time hanging out in SC. Ryan got to feed the ducks that visit my parent's house each night (must get those pics from my parents b/c they are really cute)

When we finally got back from our 2 weeks out of town, I only had one more week until I went back to work -- FULL TIME. Ugh!!!

I am now starting on my 3rd week full time and I have to say that it is an adjustment. I enjoyed my time with Ryan and I miss doing things with him every day now. I have a sweet neighbor who offered to keep him which was amazing considering I was really dreading putting him in daycare. I just didn't want to go that route if I didn't have to. Luckily this worked out and I didn't have to disrupt his life too much. He loves going to see Jake and Ms. Beth everyday. He is so cute (and so grown up) walking himself over to their house every morning. Beth has been very good about taking pictures of the two of them. Don't miss her blog http://www.tysonandbeth.blogspot.com/

Enjoy all the pictures...Ryan is just growing and growing and growing. Hard to believe that next Tuesday he will be 20 months old. Time flies by!! He is really into Jumping right now. He wants to jump onto and off of everything. He also runs every where he needs to go. No walking for my little toddler. He is also learning the skill of zipping. He still doesn't say much, but can communicate with the best of them. Just this week he started seeing "cheese" to the camera and he tried to say both push and please this weekend. That is huge because he never mimics words when I try to get him to repeat. He still uses his signs quite a bit, but I am hoping that every day I will hear a little bit more of his sweet voice.

Oh, and the spike...this is the last time that Mike takes Ryan in to get a haircut...he is SCALPED!!If you look at the lawn mower pics then you see LONG HAIR.. Then we got it cut before Montana. Very short, but really cute and thinking..."this might be a good length to keep it so we don't go to the hair place every few minutes." Well, this takes the cake. This is SO SHORT. When i came home from running errands, this is what I came home to. SCARY!