Camping in Malibu

We are leaving tomorrow to go RV/car camping in Malibu with some of our close college friends and their families. I am so excited about it! We enjoy being outdoors and this is a nice compromise to backpacking while Ryder is little. We will be gone until Sunday and are looking forward to some family time. I can't wait to share on Monday how the trip went...

However, I find that today I will be spending the day organizing meals/grocery lists, doing all of or laundry and making sure that we have enough diapers for the trip...

(I was not really a fan of packing before we had Ryder and now I keep thinking that I KNOW I am forgetting something! Each trip gives me an oppotunity to release a little control and learn for the next time. By the time we are 80, I will have this "packing for a family" thing down...♥)

So as I was getting overwhelmed last night with lists, Kit made dinner:

Smoked pulled pork sandwiches!

They were delicious!

Kit~

Thank you for always taking such good care of us!

We couldn't love you more!

bubbles...

Ryder got a bubble maker for his birthday and we have been having some fun playing with it in the yard.

He loves to have his face next to where the bubble come out so that they pop right on his face...

It is so fun to watch...

keepsakes...

We picked up our plate and it turned out better than we had planned...

It is definitely going to be a special family keepsake...

Weekend Recap...

This last weekend was Easter which is such a special time for not only our church as a whole but for our family. From Good Friday, remembering Jesus' death on the cross to celebrating His resurrection on Sunday, it is such a pivotal celebration for Christianity because we celebrate a RISEN Savior. It is humbling to think of what God has done for us and there is so much JOY as well in that sacrifice. So much love was displayed. There is such freedom in life with Christ and we look forward to sharing that with Ryder, not only on Easter, but hopefully as we live in the daily activities of a day with him...

So we started our Easter with our church, as well as other Orange County churches at the Orange County Fair Grounds.

It was incredible...

(To think that last Easter I was anxiously awaiting the arrival of Ryder and then to have him share this special celebration with us was such a blessing.)

That afternoon/evening, we dyed easter eggs and just hung out as a family. (During the business of these "holiday" seasons, it is so nice to just be home as a family...

The evening ended with us reading from The Jesus Story book bible about the resurrection. It was a great day and I am so thankful that we were able to have some quality family time!

"the sun stops shining..."

In remembrance of Good Friday, while eating breakfast as a family, we read the story of Jesus' death from "The Jesus Storybook Bible". The story was entitled "the sun stops shining" and even though it was written for very small children, the message was the same: God sent his son Jesus to die for us because he loves us.

I look forward to this tradition each Easter for our family!

Easter Invitation...

What we will be up to from now until Sunday...

In the words of our grandma Pierce,

"He is risen, He is risen indeed..."

Happy Easter from our family to yours!

Check our more here:

www.oceaster.com

Frisbee golf with family...

Getting to be with family is always so special to us. The weekend of Ryder's birthday, we took a little time and played some frisbee golf in a nearby park. Ryder just wanted to be with the guys. Afterwards, we went to gellato and Ryder could not get enough! I was so bummed not to get pictures of him eating it up. He is Italian for sure...

We love you all! Thank you for being our family!

pictures...

Gosh I love his face. I think it's because he has these expressions that remind me so much of Kit. Someone told me that you can fall more in love with your husband once you watch them become a dad and it is so true!

rainbows...

Our favorite sandals are Rainbows and anyone who knows my Kit knows that he is rarely without his. Well guess who fits into his very own pair...

Like father like son...

Weekend Recap...

This weekend we celebrated our favorite Ethiopian's birthday. We can't believe she is three! My mom was the photographer so I only got a few of the day, but I thought I would share what I got.

My sister had planned the party at one of our favorite parks. She made matching shirts...(My sister is so creative!)

The theme was cupcakes...

...so for dessert, my sister had everyone decorate their own cupcakes and then we gave everyone that participated an award ribbon... it was really sweet to watch everyone decorate their cupcakes. (I will be honest. When we were growing up, my sister and I would share desserts, she would eat my frosting and I would eat the cake so watching all these cupcakes getting piled with icing and frosting and toppings definitely was up my sister's alley and not so much mine, but my sister made her famous chocolate chip cookies so I definitely had my sweet fix.♥)

I don't have as many pictures with Ryder and his older cousins. Usually trying to get everyone in the same place at the same time and smiling is a lot when all you want to do is play, so I was able to snap this little one... What a good big cousin Ryder has! Note how red my nephew's cheeks were... He was running around and climbing trees and enjoying the very warm day in the park...

he can climb so high!!!

It wouldn't be a family gathering if I didn't get some photos with our baby girl and our little man...

She is so sweet with him. They love each other so much!

And then it was pinata time. Baby girl wanted to help her Uncle Kit...

We love our baby girl so much and we look forward to celebrating MANY more birthdays together!

backyard with dad

Untitled from Kit Rae on Vimeo.

A year in review...

I can't believe how fast our little man has grown over the last year... I've heard "The days are long but the years are short" and that could not be more true!!!

So here is a little recap of the last year...

Ryder Rae,

We love you and we can't wait to watch you grow...

We love being your parents!

chocolate chip cookies!

This is our favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe and I made them for Ryder's party and wanted to share the recipe!

Enjoy!

Our baby girl is 3!

Happy birthday to our favorite little girl!

You were waited for, you are wanted and you are loved!

We couldn't love you more and we can't wait to watch you grow...

We love you so....

Dedication prayers and blessing

For the dedication we stood in our yard with all of our friends and family around us. We had our parents and our Grandma Pierce pray for the three of us. We chose the verse Zephaniah 3:17 and read it as a blessing over Ryder, then I read this Celtic verse over him because it just seemed appropriate for the day.

My prayer for you:

May the Father of Life pour out His grace on you;

May you feel His hand in everything you do

And be strengthened by the things He brings you through:

This is my prayer for you.

May the Son of God be Lord in all your ways;

May he shepherd you the length of all your days,

And in your heart may he receive the praise:

This is my prayer for you.

And despite how simple it may sound,

I pray that His grace will abound

And motivate everything you do;

And may the fullness of His love be shgared through you.

May His Spirit comfort you, and make you strong,

May He discipline you gently when you are wrong,

And in your heart may He give you a song:

This is my prayer for you.

May Jesus be Lord in all your ways,

May he shepherd you the length of all your days,

And in your heart may he receive the praise:

This is my prayer for you, my prayer for you.

It was a beautiful moment to literally be surrounded by our close friends and family for this very special day. I will never forget it...

Ryder's First Birthday and Dedication

Ryder's birthday and dedication were this last saturday and we just had the best time! I had lotss of fun with everything from the tiny decorating details to the menu to the time of dedication with our family and friends to watching our son DEVOUR his cake.

Note: the day before his party, he took a tumble down our garage steps and skinned up his little nose, so you will see it in all the pictures... We definitely have a mobile little guy!

The decorations:

Our door sign:

Our table:

(We used paper table cloths that people could color on and there were gold fish swimming in the glass bowls and tasty gold fish crackers in my vintage Melmac bowls.)

The table with pictures, a book by Dr Seuss that everyone signed and fish shaped straws that the kiddos used to drink with and the pin wheels that I altered a little bit as well as cards for everyone to take that had prayer requests for Ryder on them...

The menu:

We had sandwich platters and potato salad from Costco and I made

this Barefoot contessa recipe for pasta salad to go with it...

then I made cupcakes and chocolate chip cookies to go with it.

The dedication:

(I will share more about this tomorrow.)

Some photos with family:

And of course he had CAKE!

I made a little sign to hang on his high chair in his place of honor:

Getting a hug from his cousin before diving in.

And the cake time ended with Ryder in the tub:

Presents:

Ryder loved the wrapping paper!

It was a wonderful day. I am so thankful for all of our family and friends that love us so well and support our family.

Thank you for sharing in this celebration with us!

We love you all!