ryder said.

Ryder got to meet Santa for the first time last Sunday at a family party. When Ryder was invited to come and sit on his lap, the following went down...

Ryder: (looking right into Santa's eyes.) Elmo.
Santa: Oh, you want Elmo!
Ryder: Elmo.
Santa: What else do you want?
Ryder: Toast.

And that's his Christmas wish list. Elmo & Toast. He's easy enough. I wish all of my Christmas shopping was this easy.



Our DVD player in our house has been broken for a while now. It was only playing in black and white. (Kid shows just aren't the same in black and white.) Lucky us, Chase is great at fixing things like that. He took it apart last night and found the loose connection that was causing the problem. Now if we can just get Ryder to stop pulling the DVD player out of entertainment center and dropping it on the floor! Before we got it fixed, Ryder had been watching Elmo in Grouchland, in black and white of course, and we had to go run some errands. He was enjoying his show so much that I decided to bring it in the car with us. I was pulling out of the driveway when the movie had finally loaded.

Ryder: Elmo's red!
Mom: laughing my head off.
Ryder: YEAH!

He was so excited! He kept telling me all the colors he was seeing. Only a kid who has had to watch his favorite show in black in white would get this excited about finally getting to see it in color again.

new house.

You can blame our lack of blogging on this...
Our new house!

We couldn't be more excited. It took us a while to find, but we are so glad that we waited. It's the perfect house for us to grow into and we love the location. We started seriously looking in July when we moved out of our condo and into a home my grandparents own and had been renting. We were introduced to a couple who was getting married and wanted to rent from us and we couldn't pass them up. My Grandparents were nice enough to let us live in their house until we found our own place.

We still have a few more things that we want do to the new house before we move in, but hopefully it won't be too long! We can't wait to get settled and make this our home.

nose.

Poor kid. He was out on the front porch playing with his ball and tripped on his too long for him pants. I had them rolled up, but one of the cuffs had started to unroll. He doesn't usually cry when he gets hurt, but this one sure got a good cry. He kept saying "Da Da. Da Da." (He has been going through a Daddy phase lately.) After I wiped his face off a little, he asked for a bottle. Yes, I'm a sucker. How could I deny him when he was so sad?! Now that a little time has passed, he is feeling much better. His nose has stopped bleeding, he just has a scrape on the end of his nose and on his upper lip and a little bit of a fat lip where his teeth hit. He keeps showing me that he is hurt though. "ouch. nose. ma ma. ouch."

glasses.

words.

The words most frequently used by Ryder... The list grows every day.
ma ma mom
da da dad
bama grandma
bampah grandpa
eh mo elmo
eesh swing
oosh shoes
no no
ahh yes
pears prayers
dooce juice
appo apple
doe-st toast
baby baby
ba ba bottle/drink
bee binky
mo more
baw ball
where's? where is?
glasses glasses


Our boy is talking more and more every day. He is so much fun! He has just started trying to repeat things that we say. I love it.

breakfast..

Ryder has a few favorite breakfast foods.
cereal
toast
&

oateal.

We don't do oatmeal very often. Can you tell why? He usually wants to feed himself which turns into a huge mess. It's not uncommon for him to take a handful and rub it in his hair, or he squishes it in between his hands like it's soap and he's washing his hands with it.

.side story.

A couple of weeks ago, Ryder was having a bowl of cereal, I was trying to be productive while he was eating and was doing the dishes from the night before. He was doing so well. He wasn't making a mess. Most of the cereal was ending up in his mouth and not in his lap or on the tray. He hadn't even used his hands to eat yet. I was so proud, thinking he was really getting the hang of feeding himself.

I had just loaded the last dish in the dishwasher when I looked over and saw that Ryder had taken his half full bowl of rice checks and milk and put it on his head and was wearing it like a hat. Milk and soggy rice checks were dripping down his face. He had the biggest, proudest grin on his face that screamed "look mom, a hat!". I couldn't help but just laugh at him. He is one funny boy.

chocolate.

Do you know how to make Ryder a happy boy?
Give him a teaspoon of Hersheys chocolate syrup on his highchair tray.
I think this got me a good thirty minutes of distraction. I can't take credit though. It was his pushover Aunt Hannah who thought up this one. And we wonder why he prefers her over everyone else. Including his own parents!
Love you Aunt Nanny!

graduation.

Chase graduated! He can now officially call himself a Mechanical Engineer. I'm so proud of him and all of his hard work.

for sale by owner.

Call us ambitious, but we're going to try and sell on our own. We're hoping that it will work out and we can sell quickly. We're going to have an open house on Saturday. If you're interested or know anyone who would be, send me an email and I can give you all the info. (krash_2@msn)

Info:
1 bed 1 bath
walk in closet
lots of upgrades
appliances included
washer and dryer hookups
ground level-no stairs
20 min from U of U
15 min from downtown

asking $105,000

senior design.

This is what Chase has been working on for the past year. I'm so excited that he has finally finished! It's been a TON of work on his behalf. He did all the manufacturing of the pod. The white molds in the second picture took forever to make! The third picture is the final product of the pod with all the video equipment in it. I have a limited understanding of how everything works, so I'll have Chase explain that later. It's pretty cool.

dear friends,
sometime in the near future, i plan on actually writing something on my blog.
until then, this is what you get. life with a one year old is a little crazy. he's into everything!
-ash

philip.

Ryder loves this little guy! He was a birthday gift from Hannah and Ryan. Thanks guys! Ryder spends a good majority of his day pointing at the tank so that I will lift him up on the counter to see him. It's been a lot of fun. Hannah suggested we name him Tiger because he has orange and black stripes. Chase thought that Phil Mickelson was even better name since he had just won the Masters, and I think Phil is a way cooler fish name! Don't you?

the party.

four.fourteen.ten

I had to share some picuters of my cute boy on his birthday. Grandma and Grandpa Winegar took us to the park that afternoon. Ryder hadn't been feeling well that day, so it was a much needed escape from home (mostly for me). He was so funny! He didn't ever get too excited about anything. He seemed so serious the whole time. Mostly watching the other kids playing and taking everything in. And I'm pretty sure that he almost dozed off a few times while he was swinging with Grandma!

uno.

if you give a baby a sandwich.

diaper change.

Ryder has decided that he hates to have his diaper changed. He gets pretty close to throwing a full on temper tantrum sometimes. We're talking screaming, kicking his legs, arching his back, rolling over... It makes the somewhat simple task of changing a diaper nearly impossible by myself. It's easily a two man job now. When Chase isn't around to help me, I have to use my feet to pin him down. Sometimes that doesn't even work.

He's also decided that he doesn't really care to wear clothes. To avoid the aforementioned temper tantrums, we sometimes let him chill naked. He loves it!

sick again.

Poor Ryder has been sick for over a month! That's no joke. He has had a runny, stuffy nose, a cough, horribly dry skin... I feel so bad for him. And if I'm being honest, for myself and for Chase. Having a sick baby is not an easy thing. Since he hasn't been feeling well, he hasn't been sleeping very well. By "very well," I mean horrible! I feel like my 11 month old should be able to sleep though the night. Guess not. There are nights that he wakes up 3 or 4 times crying. It's like having a newborn all over again, except he doesn't take 10 naps during the day. I've tried letting him cry for a while to see if he will fall back asleep, but that doesn't seem to work for him. He just gets himself more and more worked up. (Have I ever mentioned how much I love sharing a room with a baby? It's great.)

Last night my lack of sleep had finally caught up with me. I could have gone to bed at 7:00, and really wanted to. Of course that isn't how it happened though, I was up until 10:30 on my computer checking blogs. (I have a serious problem. Time can just get away from me.) I finally crawled into bed at around 11:00. At 11:30 Ryder woke up. I let him cry for a while and luckily he fell back asleep. It's a good thing. I'm afraid I may have had a nervous break down if he didn't. I was at the end of my rope. Well lucky me... Ryder slept the whole night. (except that 15 min.) We didn't get up until 8:30 this morning! I was so happy I could have cried. Sleeping all night is wonderful. I'm really hoping that it continues to happen. I love my sleep. I think it will. It should.. After Ryder's third round of antibiotics, he's finally starting to feel better. He can actually breath through his nose!

I couldn't post without including a picture, so here's our little dear with Eucerin on his face. It's the only thing that helps his dry skin.

kisses

I love these babies. Whitters has recently decided that it's cool to give her cousin kisses. She does it on command, and sometimes if we're lucky, she'll even do it all on her own. It's no surprise that it makes all of us melt.

Enjoy.

as promised.

It's finally our Christmas post! In February. I had to upload everything on my Mom's computer because I still haven't been able to figure out how to fix my computer. One day.

Christmas was really eventful in the Winegar house. Lots of places to go. Lots of family to see. First we got together with the Brey's (Chase's Mom's family). It's always fun to see all of the Cousins and their kids. We had a lovely dinner and visit. Santa came to visit with the little ones and see what they wanted him to bring them on Christmas night. I LOVE watching the looks on kid's faces when they see Santa! They were SO excited.

Christmas Eve was our time with my family. This was the first year that I haven't slept at my parent's house and gotten up to open presents with everyone. It was a little sad, but I'm really looking forward to starting new traditions with my own family. I think next year will be even more fun! Ryder will actually understand what is going on. My Mom made us a great dinner on Christmas Eve night. She always goes above and beyond when it comes to dinner. I love that! Thanks Mom.
After dinner we read the nativity story. Something that we have always done in our family. My Grandpa always reads the story and after we open up one gift which is always pajamas. This year we had to put on our pajamas and then do our gift exchanges. I just loved watching Ryder open his gifts and play with them. We have one sweet baby.



Christmas Morning we got up and went to Chase's Parents house. We had brunch, hung out, played The Traveling Hat Game, opened gifts and talked to Jamon. It was fun to hear from him, he doing really well and loves doing the Lord's work. We're so proud of him!

a little something to hold you off.

Yes, I'm aware of the fact that I haven't updated my blog in 2 months. Let me explain.. My computer has a virus that is keeping me from uploading my pictures the way that I like. I've tried to fix it. Chase has tried to fix it. We still haven't figured it out. So this is going to have to hold everyone off for a short while. I have a ton to blog! We'll be back soon. Promise.

Here are some of our family pictures that I've never gotten around to posting. Enjoy.