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

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!

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

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

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!

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!

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

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

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!

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