We wish you a Merry Christmas...

We had a successful tour of central Illinois for Christmas.  We were lucky enough to get to spend time with both of our families.  Ryan was spoiled by everyone and had a great time playing with all his new toys!

Excited to see his train table from Santa!

Train table fun!

Christmas in Hollowayville! 

 Aunt Kaylee!

Dwight celebration!

Quick update

I though I would squeeze in a quick update before our Christmas tour of central Illinois begins.  Ryan is really in to Christmas this year...mainly Christmas lights, snowmen and reindeer.  He loves to point out everything he sees Christmas related while we drive.  We recently took a stab at making cut outs...lets just say I'm glad we have other talents.  I'm sure we will have lots to post about after Christmas so until then...Happy Holidays everyone!!

Showing off his decorating skills 

I hope someone likes dough

 Pajama day!

Museum Visit

Today Ry and I headed to Glenview to the Kohls Children Museum.  We had a great time playing in the water area and grocery store.

Playing the drums 

Learning letters 

Water play 

Playing in the dog cage at the "vet"

November Catch Up

I just connected my phone to the computer and realized we had done a bunch of things that we didn't blog about.  So here is our November free for all...

A few weeks ago we headed to Rockford to spend the day at the waterpark and visit Grandpa Bobby.  Ryan had a great time in the water.  His favorite thing to do was (no shock here)...play basketball!!  He also really liked seeing Grandpa Bob!!

Ready for the waterpark! 

Guess who found a basketball? 

And he shoots!!

Ryan also recently moved in to his big boy bed.  He is slowly adjusting but seems to like it.    

What a big boy!!

Ryan has also been learning things like crazy.  It amazes us how fast he is picking up on things.  Here is a quick video of his most recent accomplishments....

Happy Thanksgiving!!

We had a great (but busy) Thanksgiving!  We traveled to Hollowayville for the Popurella celebration and then spent Saturday enjoying "comfy pant" Thanksgiving with the Sand/Eder family.  Ryan loved playing with all the kids!!

 Farm play with Aunt Gina and Aunt Kaylee (and Soto)

Miss O 

 Giving Uncle E a hug goodbye

 Blocks with Mia

Jumping on the bed with Kate

Who loves the slide??

This guy!!

Halloween Fun??

Turns out Halloween was not Ryan's favorite holiday...

"No carve pumpkins"

"No be horsey"

He loved the pumpkin patch though!!

Family Photos

We recently had some family pictures done by Heidi Peters.  I love how they turned out!!

Wilco Love

Ryan has recently become obsessed with music...specifically Wilco performing live (you can see it here).  Check out his performance with only a kitchen utensil to accompany him...and yes, we realize his face and shirt are covered in spaghetti sauce :)

Fall Fun

As usual, things have been pretty hectic around the Sand household.  What have we been up to now?

Meeting Baby Owen!! 

Showing off his tummy!! 

Dancing to Wilco!! 

Seeing Kaylee off to Homecoming!!

Brown bear, brown bear...

He did it!!

One of our favorite things to do together is go to a place called Monkey Business (or MB as we call it when we are trying to be secretive around Ry).  MB has a slide that you have to crawl through an "obstacle" course to get to.  Ryan has never been able to figure it out until last week.  He was able to climb up the course and then he reached...the bridge.  This "bridge" is covered on all sides and there is no way he could fall anywhere.  Ryan treats it like he is crossing a 100 foot bridge on a tightrope.  After about 5 minutes of inching his way across, he made it!! He got to the end, threw his arms up and yelled "I did it!"  I even managed to capture the moment...

I did it!! (Please note "bridge' to the right of Ryan)

Working his way through the course

Is there something on my face?

Go Illini!

Ryan's favorite thing to do lately is wear Matt's Illini hat (backwards of course) and get "tackled".  The funny (sad??) part is that the hat fits Ryan pretty well...

Fairbury Weekend!

In August, we spent a Golden family weekend in beautiful, scenic Fairbury.  There was plenty of rock throwing, fishing and making fun of Papa.

 Nice catch Kaylee!

Learning to fish 

 Not too sure about the end result

 Let's race!

Throw the ball 

Ryan currently is obsessed with throwing rocks in water.  I blame both my dad and my brother.  We now owe Erik & Carrie's homeowners association about $500 worth of rocks :)