Alot Alike

Today I noticed how alike our babies really are.  Check out these brother/sister examples.....

 Kyle is a sucker for babies in hats. 

Do you think they like spaghetti?

No mistaking these kids are related

Who are these kids?

Who are these kids? They are surprising me with new stuff every day!Carter is 99% potty trained. He still wears a diaper for naps and bedtime but he is doing amazingly well during the day. This is the same boy that wouldn't wear underwear to save his life no more then 4 weeks ago! Also, Carter has hated milk since he was 14 months old. I mean HATED it. Wouldn't drink any form of milk...chocolate, white, strawberry...nadda. Wouldn't ya know over the last 2 weeks he has consistently asked for chocolate milk and has been so excited to drink it. Who is this kid!?!

Little Miss Ryan took her first steps today. Although she's been cruising the furniture for a while, Ryan seemed perfectly content to crawl everywhere. We were a bit surprised when she took 4-5 steps between Mommy and Daddy. She did it several times so we're convinced it's not a fluke. Also our Ryan, who only has 2 teeth (and has been that way for nearly 6 months), is teething again. It looks like she is cutting all her top teeth at once. It looks like she's getting anywhere from 4-6 teeth. Poor girl is grumpy, not sleeping well and has swollen bloody gums. I'm hoping this process goes quickly. I can tell she's not very happy. Walking and teething all in one week, who is this kid!?!

Flying High!

Kyle's friend, Bundy, has a plane.

Carter is a big fan of planes and was thrilled he got to visit the airport. He got to climb in Bundy's plane, push the buttons and move the steering wheel.He also loved the private tour of the airport and seeing all the air show planes.A nice little afternoon for a two year old boy!

12 Random Things

About a month before Carter's first birthday I wrote a blog entry titled 12 Random Things. I wrote about how much he loves fruit, about how he will play with anything with wheels (including other people's strollers) and how he will smile for pictures on demand. Now that Ryan is a month out from her first birthday I want to do the same post for her.

1. Ryan prefers to kneel on one leg rather then sit on her bottom. It looks like she should be in the middle of a football huddle.

2. She is the most difficult baby I have EVER tried to diaper. She squirms, turns and twists. Most of the time I'm trying to slap the diaper on while she's crawling away.

3. Ryan loves to play on our king sized bed. If she's gone "missing" in the house she probably crawled into our room and is standing next to the bed simply waiting for someone to lift her up.

4. She loves to eat ice. Watch your glasses folks, she will dive across the table to get it!

5. Her favorite part of the day is when Carter wakes up from his nap and she crawls into his room to greet him.

6. Her favorite toy right now are blocks. She loves to grab them and knock them down.

7. Ryan loves to be startled. I imagine most kids would be frightened or cry if you sneak up behind them and say boo. Ryan jumps and squeals. She loves playing hide a go seek with Mom, Dad and Carter. She loves the anticipations of being found and laughs so hard when you actually find her (usually hiding under a blanket with Mom).

8. Ryan has a "tell" when she's tired. She will always rub her eyes. Unfortunately Ryan inherited her mother's dark circles. Her eyes get very dark when she's tired too.

9. She hates to get her nose wiped. Most of the time you have to hold her down just to get a shot of wiping her nose. Oh, she cries and cries and cries.

10. She hates the child watch at the gym. I think we've tried at least 10 times to take her there. Every time I get about 15-20 minutes into the workout and then either a staff member tracks me down or I'm getting paged over the loud speaker.

11. Ryan is a pretty good eater. She doesn't want to be spoon-fed and hasn't for 4 months now. The only exception to this is applesauce. She loves american cheese slices and cottage cheese. Her favorite "treat" is to lick Carter's popsicle...when he lets her.

12. Ryan is a complete TV junkie. It could be one of Carter's cartoons or Daddy's boring news. She doesn't care what it is. If the TV is on, she will watch it! If her highchair is angled away from the TV somehow she'll figure out a way to turn her head enough to get a glimpse of what is on.

We adore Ryan Michele. Her little smile melts our hearts. It's amazing to think she will be one year old in a couple of weeks. It truly has gone by so fast. We've loved every moment with our baby!

I should be 400 pounds

Complements of Uncle Kevin and Aunt Amy I eat McDonalds at least 10 times a day!

Yep that's right, Carter serves us up a cheeseburger, fries, McNuggets every 20 minutes. He also throws in other play food like a hard boiled egg, a piece of toast or corn on the cob every once in awhile. All meals end with an ice cream cone and washed down with a beer. He thinks all bottled drinks are beer. Wonder where he got that idea from? All meals cost $3. He rings it up in the cash register and if you're lucky you might get change. Thanks Kevin and Amy we will never go hungry again!

Christmas

I hope you had a great Christmas. Despite the entire Meek family being sick, we had a wonderful holiday. My in-laws gave me the greatest gift. They printed my blog in a hardback book. Every post from the last 3 years were in it. The book makes an awesome family keepsake and it's motivated me to keep blogging. If I decide to continue making annual books of my blog I had to hold off on all posts until 1/1/2011 so they would be in 2011 book. So long story short, that's why I haven't posted anything in a while.

Getting back to Christmas....

Christmas Eve, Nonna and Papa Big (Grandma and Grandpa Fearrin) came by to open gifts with the kids.Carter loved opening presents. It's a good thing Ryan preferred watching Carter because he opened all her gifts too!

The night of Christmas Eve we headed to Uncle Todd's for dinner. We spent time playing with toys and hanging out with Aunt Lisa, Uncle Vince and cousins Morgan and Mitch.

Christmas morning they kids woke up to see the house full of gifts from Santa. Carter ripped through the packaging in a matter of minutes. He was so excited about opening presents I think he's still discovering everything he got.

After the presents were open and the toys were played with, we loaded up the car and drove to Evansville to spend the rest of Christmas with the Meek family.

There were even more toys to play with....

And even more family to play with too....The kids (and grownups) practiced their wrestling skills...

and Ryan got to wear her Christmas dress for a total of 20 minutes before we put her to bed.Kyle and I loved watching Carter and Ryan throughout the holiday season. Carter learned about the birth of Baby Jesus and who Santa Claus is. Carter seemed to love everything about Christmas. He loved outside Christmas lights and the giant blow up snowmen and Santa Clauses in almost everyone's yards. He loved Christmas music and can now sing Jingle Bells. He loved decorating the tree and would have preferred to keep it up all year. He had so much fun with his friends and family. I can only imagine how excited he will next year when he's 3. Ryan was as sweet as can be and took the holiday in stride. Although she was sick for most of the month of December she had a smile on her face. All Kyle and I wanted to Christmas were two happy little kids and we certainly got them!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

New Family Member

I want to officially "blog" welcome our newest member to the family, Gaelle Wells.Gaelle, 9 years old, was adopted in November by my sister (Colleen) and brother-in-law (Rick). She was born in Haiti and moved to the United States after the earthquake. Gaelle is a very confident child with a lot of spirit.

Gaelle and her new brothers (Yacob and Ayalkbet) spent some time this month in Indianapolis while their parents were in the process of moving from the family from Tennessee to Bloomington. We spent a couple days getting to know Gaelle and spending time with our nieces and nephews.

At my sister Lisa's house we made Christmas cookies.

Gaelle loved holding Ryan. She is very fond of babies.
We took a trip to Indianapolis to see the circle and play at Jillians.
It was a jam-packed trip full of activities and new memories. All of the cousins had a great time. Welcome to the family, Gaelle!