Our little family in the great big desert

Halloween, etc.

2009-11-01T18:23:00.002-07:00

Here are some more pictures from recent days for your viewing pleasure:

All dressed up and ready to go stand in a cold, windy parking lot for 2 hours waiting for the H1N1 shot..

More pictures! Here's one that Mike took the other day after he had taken both kids to the doctor's office (by himself!) to get Aurora's seasonal flu shot. I am so proud of him ;)

Alan had his first official taste of solid food! (Ranch dressing on dad's finger doesn't count) Applesauce was a hit - he couldn't quite get the hang of swallowing but he sure loved smooshing it around in his mouth!

Cute tummy time pictures - please note the ever present drool on his chin! He's discovered how to make raspberries so we've had to make peace with the copious slobbering.

Halloween was fun - we went to an outdoor concert on Friday night and consequently didn't get quite enough sleep, so we skipped the festivities on Saturday and just stayed home and handed out candy. It was fun, quiet, and I didn't have to fight anyone into a costume, so I consider it a win!

Here's the pumpkin Aurora and I carved - she loved eating the guts as they came out (she's weird)

Bringing home a baby bumblebee - I let him wear this costume for about 5 minutes before I took it off of him. He was sweltering and REEKED of chemicals so I quickly gave him a bath. No telling what's in that Chinese polyester! (guess I have to start making his costumes too!)

Here's my little girl all dressed up in her homemade Tinkerbell costume - of course she was unhappy and impossible all day long but she still managed to get her picture in the newspaper!

Fall in Yuma

2009-10-26T10:51:00.007-07:00

Cleaning out the camera again!

This time I have all sorts of random things to show you :)

Aunt Reeny answered the plea for more closed-toe

school shoes - much to Aurora's delight!

Daddy brought home a bunch of tadpoles for us to

grow into frogs - here they are, ready to be released

to our pond! I couldn't get any good pictures of the

tadpole stage.

Grandma Ringler came for a short visit and we had a

wonderful time with her even though Aurora was still

getting over her bout with swine flu.

Aunt Lora sent some beautiful clothes for Aurora, but

she chose to wear the ones meant for Alan instead!

This is a 12 month onesie on my 33 month old kid

(over her clothes!)

We spent a wonderful day at the park, playing and

watching the sailboats while we had a picnic snack.

And the pumpkin patch finally opened on the day Grandma

was to fly back home - so on the way to the airport we stopped

and literally ran in, posed, and snapped as many pics as

possible. Of course since we were in such a hurry, no one

was having a good time - as you can see!

(Sadly, this is just about the best shot I got!)

Aurora got to go to the airport and watch Grandma get on

the plane and fly home - and she's been talking about it

ever since!

And I finally broke down and bought an Ergo - and am I ever

glad I did! Yesterday we were having one of those days -

neither kid would nap, I had a mountain of laundry and ironing

to do, and I was just worn out! So when dear old dad got

home, he strapped Alan to his back and took Aurora out

to the backyard so they could play while I made dinner.

It seemed to be just what Alan needed!

And Miss Aurora is FINALLY feeling well enough for school

again - this morning she woke up and said "I want to go to

school today" for the first time in 2 1/2 weeks! And it's the

time of year where its cool enough in the morning for a

sweater, but warm enough in the afternoon for shorts.

So, shorts and a sweater it is!

Pics for GG

2009-09-27T15:16:00.002-07:00

So I'm pretty sure my grandma might be the only person still reading this blog, so I thought I might stick up a few pictures just for her :) But if anyone else is reading, you can look at them too!

My little thumb sucker - in his natural state - asleep!

There's that curly hair!

Bundle baby - a rare shot of the boy awake

Aurora's new big girl bed! She's growing up so fast -

almost completely potty trained and sleeping in a twin

size bed already.... we might as well just buy her a cell phone and

a car while we're at it!

Flying a kite with dad

Gratuitious Giggling Baby

2009-08-30T21:08:00.005-07:00

Just thought I would share our after bath giggle time with everyone... guaranteed to put a smile on your face! I just can't believe this kid is only 11 weeks old - he seems so big and strong and smart...not that I'm biased or anything ;)

First Day of School!

2009-08-23T12:57:00.000-07:00

Well, the fall is upon us, meaning everyone is heading back to school! This includes little Miss Aurora - by the grace of God I managed to hijack a spot in Yuma's best preschool program which also happens to be on my own school campus! This is great because now she can come to school with me and I can stop in and visit and have lunch with her whenever I want to :) Her first day went pretty well, I think - I stopped in to check on her at nap time and of course she wasn't napping, so to keep her from bugging the other kids I took her on a tour of campus and we had lunch together in the cafeteria. I took her back to her class for the rest of the day, and on the way home at 5 she passed out in the car - maybe next time she'll take the nap! Here is a picture for posterity:

First day of School!

From YEAR TWO

And while going through pictures, I found one I really like from when Grandma Miller was visiting. I didn't mention it here at the time but she was definitely a lifesaver for us while Alan and I were in the hospital! We couldn't have done it without her, and I think Aurora really enjoyed having her around :)

From YEAR TWO

Aurora's second day of preschool is tomorrow so we're getting everything packed up and ready tonight...I'll be back with more stories later this week!

Just trying to win a contest :)

2009-08-17T15:36:00.000-07:00

Fall in love at first “spray” with Kinesys Spray Sunscreen! The simple solution to sun protection for the whole family. Read about the experience mom blogger Kalisha at UV Skinz had with this fast, simple and effective sunscreen. Enter for your chance to win a Kinesys prize package at UV Skinz. Giveaway ends August 23. Open to U.S. only.

Alan's 2 month checkup

2009-08-13T07:41:00.000-07:00

Well I'm a few days late in posting this, but I wanted to mention that Alan had his two month checkup on Monday and weighed in at a whopping 15lbs, 8oz! And he is 24 inches long, so he's a chunky little monkey for sure :) He was a total charmer at the doctor's office, too - smiling and wiggling and just being adorable - until the SHOTS. But even the shots didn't slow him down too much.. he just cried a few minutes and then all was well again. I am really happy with how laid-back and sweet this kid is.. he just goes with the flow and nothing bothers him! We even took both kids to Sea World last week (3 hour car ride, day at Sea World, 3 hour car ride home) and he was just as perfect as can be! No major meltdowns, no traumas, no crises - both kids were amazing. He did get a tiny bit of a sunburn across his nose, but even that didn't bother him. Yep, I'm a lucky mama. Enough bragging - here's pictures!

Yep, I made him wear the same clothes and sit in the pink chair so I could compare them:

From Alan James

Twins two years apart, right?

Waiting in line for the Elmo ride at Sea World-

From Alan James

Sunset from the rest stop on the way home -

From Alan James

An orca snuck into our car to eat our child while she slept-

From Alan James

(just kidding - she has slept with Shamu every night since we got home)

Good view of the suburn -

From Alan James

I would say she's regressing a bit-

From Alan James

Long Overdue Update

2009-07-31T13:04:00.002-07:00

Even more pictures....

Doreen's Photo Slideshow

Things are settling down around here... our little boy is just the sweetest, most good natured guy you've ever met. He smiles for EVERYBODY and even for nobody.. he only cries when he's hungry, wet, poopy or gassy..once you fix the problem he's back to smiling and cooing at you! He is a chubby little butterball you just can't help but squeeze and nibble on, he loves his bath and his big sister.... And I know I'm jinxing myself by saying this out loud but I can't help it - he sleeps through the night! He goes to bed around 9:30, wakes up around 1:30 to eat, then goes back to sleep until 6:30!!! I know, right?! I think he is my reward for living through the first year with Aurora...she was much more of a challenge in the sleeping department. Of course now that I've said it, he will stop, but I just had to get it out there that one of my kids actually did sleep through the night at least once :) Anyway, I think we're getting into the swing of things around here... going out alone with both of them is still pretty daunting (I don't want to talk about Wednesday's library debacle) but going out as a family is pretty easy. And Aurora just loves him sooo much... all she wants to do is kiss and hug him and talk about his "cute little nosie and toesies" She sings to him in the car and tells him everything's ok when he cries.. I think she's going to be an awesome big sister!!

Just pictures

2009-07-25T22:25:00.001-07:00

I am too tired to form coherent sentences, so here -----

click the picture to see all of them!

Alan James

2009-06-16T12:41:00.001-07:00

DRUM ROLL PLEASE! After a week vacation in our friendly neighborhood NICU due to aspirated fluid in his lungs, our beautiful son Alan James Ringler is healthy, happy, and HOME! He was born June 8th at 7:41am, weighed 8lbs 4oz, and has red hair and blue eyes! Now feast your eyes upon the pictures!

Gratuitous Belly Shot

2009-04-29T19:11:00.003-07:00

I think the last time I showed off the belly around here, Aurora was *inside* it.... Now she's found the perfect place to hide - *under* it!!

Almost 35 weeks along and about as enormous as I care to be, thank you... But Aurora loves it. Yesterday I was sitting on the couch and she came over, raised my shirt, put one hand on either side of it and yelled "COME ON BROTHER! GET OUTTA MAMA'S BELLY!" Though I have a feeling that once he's here she's going to want him to go back in!

Summertime is upon us!

2009-04-25T18:51:00.004-07:00

I just realized I forgot to put up some pictures from Easter! We went to Jacob's Grandma's house (Grandma Judy) for her annual Easter brunch and egg hunt - we ate wayyy too much delicious food and the kids had a great time! Aurora had an absolute blast chasing the boys around and finding eggs to fill her bucket - here is my favorite picture of her (click to enlarge any of them):

And here is our happy little family - note Aurora's possessive glare at the camera... No one is taking her eggs away!

And now that Easter is behind us, summer is upon us! Last week we had a couple 100+ days and decided to hit the pool. Here is Aurora's new swim outfit I got for her from UVSkinz - it provides chemical free UPF 50+ protection so I love it! I hate smearing sunscreen all over her every day, knowing what kind of toxic chemicals are in them - and at the rate we go through it, I can't afford the fancy organic ones! So this outfit is definitely a godsend for us in the blazing sun down here. And I didn't even get paid to say that :) I even got a hat for myself from them - it's not the most fashionable look, but I don't care as long as it keeps me from roasting!

She seems to like it - it dries very quickly too so she's not freezing when she gets out of the water. I think I'm going to pick up a couple more for her, and maybe some shirts for me too :)

But, we have fallen upon hard times here at the Ringler house... Mike had to leave for a week at camp for work, so we are bereft, lonely, and bored! On top of that, she has decided to completely stop napping at all... so I get a full 12+ hours of toddler time every day. So, she's bored, lonely, tired AND cranky - and with Mike gone she isn't eating very well either. I haven't sold her to the gypsies yet, but if I get a good enough offer.....

She really misses her daddy - even though we had a great time at the park, and the store, and in the backyard today, she still flopped down on the dog bed to pine for his picture on my phone while I folded the laundry. Thank GOD he will be home on Thursday - we are counting down the minutes!

Cleaning out the camera

2009-04-06T17:14:00.004-07:00

Here are a couple of slideshows from our recent Spring Break exploits -

Sea World!!!

Yuma Fair

Aurora got the camera and then Mom caught the bedhead on film

Random flowers in our yard

Some more pictures

2009-03-15T22:14:00.004-07:00

Just some pictures I've taken over the past week or so!

Flying a kite with dad in the backyard

Conspiring with the kids at Bri's birthday party

Climbing this huge ladder BY HERSELF!
She went up it again and again - like it was no problem at all.

Blowing bubbles with Dad

She figured out how to blow bubbles by herself, too!

Watching the turtle eat everything in the flowerbed

Watching the planes at the airshow with dad - one of many!
Actually now we can say that both of our kids have been going to airshows
since before they were born - Her 'real' first one was at Miramar AFB
while I was pregnant with her!

And Mike's birthday is tomorrow, so I made these Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes for him! They are SOOO good - hopefully there will be some left tomorrow :)

Spring has sprung!

2009-03-01T17:04:00.002-07:00

Well, it is fully and undoubtedly spring here - so that means yard work! And considering that we're going to be up in the 90's next week, we have to take the opportunity while we can. So Mike bought 4 new citrus trees and a whole bunch of flowering vines and bushes. He and Aurora have been spending all their free time outside playing in the mud and water getting everything planted. Of course, I've been taking pictures!

At Home Depot looking at plants - I ask her to smile, and this is what I get:

From YEAR TWO

Here are the four new trees around the pool -
lemon, grapefruit, lime and orange.
The lemon already has tons of baby lemons on it!

Sunshine Girl

Helping daddy plant the lemon tree

Lemon tree, very pretty - and the lemon flower is sweet -

Yep, playing in the pool in February!

"Sleeping" with Brianna after brunch this morning -

And the beautiful bouquet Mike picked for me from our own backyard!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2009-02-15T09:42:00.002-07:00

We had a bit of a Valentine's Day miracle around these parts - Mike wasn't due to come home from Georgia until around 11pm last night, but due to some quick thinking and fast running on his part, he got home at 3:30!! And then when he got here and was hungry, we decided to brave the Valentine's day crowd at Outback Steakhouse and actually managed to grab a great booth in the bar with a very awesome waitress! We had a delicious meal, Aurora was adorable and got so many compliments - one elderly gentleman even gave her a $5 bill! (I'm a little concerned about what kind of precedent that sets, but hey... we'll take it) And then we came home and had great family time together and everyone got to go to bed early. I managed to get a couple of pictures after dinner:

Yes, I know it's dark outside - she's just too cool to take her shades off!
I just love this dress - courtesy of Aunt Doreen!

And here Aurora was playing with Mommy's camera -
she's finally figured out how to smile on command!

And here she is riding an enormous horse at the Renaissance Festival - she really loved it & made the lady walk her around twice!

A quick birthday slideshow

2009-01-10T22:03:00.002-07:00

From Birthday Party!

We had a wonderful time, and I am still recovering! Here are a few pictures - of course we didn't wipe the pizza off her face before her photo ops, but that's okay :)

Christmas pictures

2009-01-05T09:40:00.006-07:00

So Christmas has come and gone and life is getting back to normal around here - and I finally got around to taking the pictures off my camera. Here are a couple of them - unfortunately I didn't get any still photos of Christmas morning because daddy filmed the whole thing on our (ancient) video camera and I need to find a way to get it onto the PC. Aurora made out like a bandit - she got so much stuff we had to hold some of it back so that her birthday wouldn't be a complete letdown! :) But she loved just about everything she got - especially her monkey shoes from Aunt Doreen and all the awesome books from Aunt Lora!

Snuggling in the blanket GG made (with the dragon and mouse mommy made)

And I don't know why these pics aren't coming across all the way, but if you can't see the whole thing just click on it!

Holding Jenny the Gingerbread baby that GG made - she carried that doll around everywhere! (Side note: How can anyone resist nibbling this kid's cheeks??)

~~Mommy's~~ Aurora's favorite Christmas present

And the family gets a Christmas tree too! Next I plan to make curtains, bedspreads, rugs.....

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

2008-12-24T16:31:00.004-07:00

Well, the house is clean, the gifts are wrapped, the tree is trimmed and we're just doing crafts waiting for Mike to get home. I hope everyone has a very merry Christmas - and if you don't do Christmas, I hope you have a good long weekend!

While the thought of glitter all over my house makes me break out in a cold sweat, I've discovered that Kosher salt looks JUST like snow!!

From 24th Month

Aurora's Hands and Foot Reindeer

Randomness

2008-12-14T08:29:00.002-07:00

So uh...it's been a month since I last posted... I blame holiday stress! (Even though it's been a pretty low key year so far). I also blame pregnancy brain and the desire to use Aurora's naptimes for more productive activities than blogging. (like napping!) Nevertheless, here I am with some random pictures from the past month. Feast your eyes!

We went to the Balloon glow - we had a great time with our friends and the kids loved watching all the hot air balloons lighting up with the music.

From 23rd Month

Here is her friend Noah - how can you resist that face??

From 23rd Month

Wearing Christmas pajamas and playing drums with Brianna

From 23rd Month

Wearing a beautiful dress from Aunt Lora (black leggings and pink crocs Aurora's idea) (Not pictured: Daddy wearing shorts and a t-shirt)

From 23rd Month

Close up of hat I quickly crocheted to match her new sweater from Aunt Lora (not shown)

From 23rd Month

The Very Fuzzy Caterpillar

2008-11-08T08:30:00.002-07:00

So this is what we discovered yesterday - I grabbed the camera and tried to control my cringing while Aurora and Daddy played with the fuzziest caterpillar in the world.

Finally Fall

2008-11-03T18:57:00.004-07:00

**** Edited to add: PLEASE - go vote tomorrow! If you are still undecided or don't know what's on the ballot in your state, you still have time to do a little research! Please - stand in line tomorrow for your voter sticker and make sure your voice is heard. If you don't vote, you can't complain!!****

Well, Halloween has come and gone, so I guess that means it's officially Fall. Not that you could tell around here - we're still in the high 90s every day! But you can feel it cooling off incrementally, and nights are absolutely wonderful in the 60s and 70s so I shouldn't complain. We had a fun but quiet little Halloween here - Like Henry, Aurora had a choice between two costumes and violently refused both of them! Cathy loaned us an adorable handmade monkey costume and a Clifford costume but Aurora screamed bloody murder when we tried to put them on. I think it was because she didn't like the "footies" on the monkey costume, and was convinced the Clifford one would have them too. (It didn't, but try convincing a toddler.) So, I just put her monster t-shirt on and some black pants and called it a day. We went to Hastings' music store where her friend Brianna's dad works for their Halloween costume contest and party. It was lots of fun, complete with a cake walk, bingo, snacks and goodie bags for all the kids. I even won a contest in which the goal was to see how many jumbo marshmallows you could cram into your mouth (for the record, it was 9 - but only because I ran out of marshmallows!) The prize for that was my choice of books, and I chose a nice little lift-the-flap book about Outer Space for Aurora. After that we went to Bri's house for some trick or treating and pizza - but unfortunately only one house in the neighborhood was into the Halloween spirit! So we only got one piece of candy, but that's okay because we still have a huge bowl full at home. Mike was in charge of candy distribution at our house, but we had even fewer trick or treaters than last year! Only about 5 or 6 - sad. But, more candy for us, right? Anyway, on the way home from Brianna's house, Aurora spied a huge hot air balloon at a church on the side of the road - so of course we had to stop and check it out. Turns out, the First Christian Church was having a huge festival complete with balloon rides, bounce houses, sack races, bbq, cotton candy and all kinds of fun! But since we didn't know about it beforehand and it was already pretty late, we just walked around for a minute, snagged a pink 'bloon' and went home. But we definitely know what to do for next year! So I forgot my camera on Halloween night, but I did get some shots at the pumpkin patch last week:

And here is a quick movie from Wednesday night - the college was having a free jazz concert at their amphitheater so we packed some sandwiches and a blanket and went to check it out. It was surprisingly good! The band mostly consisted of select high school students from the area, as well as some older musicians and college students. They were all in costume, too - it was pretty funny to see Darth Vader on drums! Anyway, Aurora absolutely loved it - she danced and ran around and had a wonderful time. At the end of each song, she would clap her hands and yell "YAY MUSIC!!!" It was so cute :)

And in other baby related news, we had our first OB appointment today and Aurora's little brother or sister is truckin' right along at 9.5 weeks!

Nothing to see here...move along...

2008-10-17T23:05:00.005-07:00

Okay so its been a month since I posted - but we've been busy! My Chem class is kicking my butt in the studying department (but I'm pulling an A so far!), and we've had a stretch of some fantastic weather so we've been outside enjoying it and spending time with friends at the park. In fact we spent Wednesday in Phoenix at the AZ State Fair - trust me, it is NO comparison to Big Tex's domain - but it was a fun day nonetheless. They had a petting zoo complete with zebras, camels, itty bitty tiny baby goats and a kangaroo! (Seriously - those goats were so darn small I wanted to pick one up and hide it in the stroller basket and run away.) They also had a ton of terribly unhealthy food, elephant rides and lots of shiny stuff to look at. Here are some pics (click for bigger ones if you want):

This sweet camel just LOVED Mike!

And a video of the Ferris Wheel ride - by this point she was pretty tired:

Oh, and did I mention she's going to be a big sister sometime around June? :)

Brag book

2008-09-15T08:23:00.003-07:00

So it's been a while since I last posted - mostly because I didn't want to sound like I was bragging about my budding young genius. But then I thought, it's my blog - I'm SUPPOSED to brag here!! This is for me to look back on in 40 years and remember the milestones of my kid's life, so here goes. At nearly 20 months old, Aurora can identify and say every capital letter of the alphabet, almost all the numbers, every color & shape, and she correctly identifies her left and right extremities 50% of the time :) She LOVES reading books - that's still her favorite thing to do, by far. She reads by herself, and she also brings books to you and climbs up in your lap saying "Read book! Read book!" And you can't just hold it and look at the pictures, either - "READ!" She tells you all the letters on everything she sees - tv commercials, other peoples' t-shirts, menus, billboards, everything. She talks a blue streak all day long - about anything and everything. She likes to point out ownership of different objects - "mommy's shoe", "daddy's glasses", "baby's yogurt".. she calls herself baby but she knows who Aurora is too. She loves Sesame Street and Curious George and she's getting pretty proficient at eating with utensils (when she chooses to eat AT ALL, which is another blog post entirely) She loves all kinds of music and dances all the time... this morning I was getting her yogurt out of the fridge and sang a little 'yo-gurt yo-gurt' ditty about it, and she said "DANCE!" and started wiggling her little butt so I had to keep making up the yogurt song as I went along. Oh and speaking of her little butt, it's actually a "hiney!" I have no idea where she got that - I'm assuming from her father, but he denies all knowledge of it. We're inching ever closer to potty training, too - yesterday she said "poopoo", "potty", and "RUN RUN!" but when we got there it was a false alarm. Once we get that figured out, my work is done, right?

Yep, she's pretty much grown.

The story of an obsession

2008-09-03T09:00:00.002-07:00

It all started with a simple trip to San Diego's Wild Animal Park.
The baby elephant and all the giraffes roaming the grounds were so cool, a couple days later at the gift shop for the New Children's Museum we added one of each to our family.These figurines are so cute! And so lifelike! And not terribly expensive or anything!
"I'll have to keep my eye out for more!" I said. Luckily, I didn't have to wait long. Ducking into a little toy shop in Sea Port Village the next day, we found a whole display of all different species!
A neigh-neigh and a turtle joined the menagerie. Mike chuckled and noticed the vast differences in scale between the animals - the turtle is as big as a baby horse! The baby horse is bigger than a baby elephant! No matter - he liked them too. So after we got home and he happened to be at Toys R Us with Aurora one day, he decided to get a bunch more to add to the fray.He went in more of a domesticated direction, but that's ok.. at the rate this obsession is going, we'll have the entire animal kingdom in no time. Notice we even have a possum - how many kids do you know with a possum?? Not many. I really do like these animals - they are designed in Germany by Schleich and you can get them at toy stores and gift shops everywhere. They have adult males, adult females and babies of many different species. The best part is they range from $2-$7 each depending on scale, so it doesn't break the bank to pick up one or two every so often. Aurora likes them too - the pig was going around kissing everyone this morning. And just look how detailed they are:Right down to the eyelashes.

If you can't tell, we really haven't been doing anything blogworthy lately - Mike has had some time off so you know what he's been doing: Which leaves the rest of us to our own devices:But, the weather is starting to cool off incrementally, so hopefully soon we'll be able to go outside and do fun stuff more often!