1st Snow of the Season

We got about 3 inches on Monday night and another 2-3 on Wednesday night. Made for some great sledding for little C!

On a side note: the bun I'm cooking in my human oven kicks a lot! Charlie barely kicked at all so I feel like I'm experiencing something totally new. People always say every pregnancy is different, guess there's truth to that!

Cruise to the North Pole

On Sunday we took Charlie on a 'cruise to the North Pole'. Apparently the north pole is at the far end of Lake Coeur d'Alene. The 2 hour boat ride included hot cocoa and unlimited cookies (a fat pregnant girl's dream!). After about an hour of cruising the captain comes over the speaker and tells everyone to go outside on the bow. Once we get close to the 'Pole' the tree and house light up.

Then Santa and Mrs. Claus appear in a boat house off to the left. They have the 'nice list' and read off all the names of the kids on the boat. The kids all around us went nuts for this.

Charlie looks upset here but he was eating all this up.

Definitely a new Ring Family tradition.

Apple Cup

The Finnegan's and the Anda's came over to watch the big game with us yesterday. Since Charlie's currently out of Cougar gear that fits him he was forced to wear his vintage Huskies shirt (I believe it was Matt's? Cheryl correct me if I'm wrong). Charlie's face is priceless in this photo. If he knew how to form sentences I'm sure Caden would be getting an earful. Instead he just sat there and looked pissed.

This was taken in the 4th quarter and Matt was all smiles thinking the game was locked up. Sorry Huskies, not this time!

Matt Jr.

Back when we were choosing names I suggested Junior. Matt said he didn't want a junior though. This holiday season though it seems like we may have made a mistake.

Matt loves everything about Christmas and it appears that its in Charlie's blood because he is crazy about it. We've been reading Christmas books now for about a month. Charlie can say ho ho, pretty (whenever he sees lights), candy cane, nut (odd I know, but there are a lot of nuts in holiday books), tree, frosty and coal. I'm sure I'm forgetting some of his other holiday words but these are the ones we hear the most.

Yesterday we took him out to Greenbluff and we cut down a tree. He loved trudging through the tree farm in his Napoleon boots with dad looking for the perfect tree.

When we got home he went down for a nap and Matt and I got out all the decorations. We left the finishing touches for Charlie. When he got up his head pretty much exploded. The tree was up with lights on it, decorations were everywhere, Christmas music was playing.

He spent about 10 minutes just walking around the house pointing at everything saying 'pretty...ho ho...pretty...tree'.

He helped us put up the ornaments so beware if you come by in the next month or so. He'll want to show you where every Santa, snowman, moose, etc. is on our tree.

Matt keeps asking Charlie if this is his best Christmas ever, however I think its Charlie that should be asking Matt. He's seriously so happy that his mini-me is following in his footsteps its ridiculous!

Thanksgiving

I managed to take only 1 picture the whole day. Maybe it was because I felt like the day was total chaos. Maybe I just didn't think of it. Who knows.

We had the entire Anda crew (pictured below) as well as the entire Ring clan (not pictured below) over at our house for the big day. I managed to not burn the turkey so I felt like the dinner was a success. Everyone pitched in and brought something to share so I was actually responsible for very little, which was kind of my condition for hosting.


I thought I'd throw this picture on for Aunt Katie and Uncle Cage. Thanks for the early Christmas present! It fits great and Charlie loves the dog on the inside of the coat. He doesn't really love the dog hat but if you hold a regular hat and then pull a switch-a-roo as you're putting it on his head he's none the wiser. Now we just need some snow so we can try the whole outfit out - thank you!

Naming Poll

Update: So far the 'other' write-ins are: 4 Ring Circus and Ring A Ding Ding. Both are very strong possibilities right now.

Bathing Buddies

While my sister's in Milwaukee on a business trip we're watching little Caden in the evenings. Matt suggested we bathe them together and it actually worked out really well. They got along great and when we asked Charlie if he liked having a friend in the bath tub with him he replied with a very definite 'YES'.

A Tree House of His Own

Last Christmas Charlie got a Tree House of his very own. Matt set it up the other night and decorated it with Christmas lights so Charlie could have his own private reading spot. This morning he spent about an hour in there alone with his books. I'm not sure who was happier with the arrangement - me or him. I actually got to unload the dishwasher without fighting him for the silverware and I got to read a few pages of my own book!

This Has Got to Stop

This has gone on long enough. Charlie's book obsession has turned into all night book-fests. Last night around 3:30 a.m. through the baby-monitor I heard Charlie's talking Nemo book. My first thought was that I was dreaming it, not too hard to do considering I read every book he owns at least 3 times a day. However, it wasn't a dream. I went into Charlie's room to find him sitting in the pitch dark, surrounded by about 10 books that he had pulled off his window sill, reading Nemo.

I took the books away and tried to explain that it was still night time and that it wasn't good for his eyes anyways to be reading in the dark. I'm assuming he understood because he didn't fight me too bad.

Then at about 5 a.m. I hear his little voice through the monitor "book...book...book". Since it didn't sound like the chant was going to stop anytime soon I went in and gave in to his request. I turned on a night light and gave him a stack of books to peruse. I then turned off the baby-monitor so we couldn't hear Charlie making his animal sounds to the pictures in the books and Matt and I got about 2 more hours of sleep before the alarm went off.

So the reason this needs to stop is not because I'm against learning. Oh I'm all for that. I'm just more for sleeping these days. The above picture is Charlie passing out in his car seat this morning at about 9:45. I would have loved to have done the same had I not been the one behind the wheel.

So the internal dilemma I'm struggling with is do I just let the kid read all night and sleep during the day and become wierd? Or do I insist he sleeps at night and save his reading for the day time?

Then and Now

Then (1978).

Little Matt reading.
Now.

Little Charlie reading.

Then (2000).
Dave and Matt not quite grown up.

Now.
Matt, (Krusty), and Dave all grown up.

Then (1977).
Grandma Cheryl (Matt's mom) sporting a hot maternity swimsuit.

Now.

Me sporting the very literally same maternity swimsuit.

Now (if only we were past this and I could call it a then) 2007.

Matt wearing his Xbox headset.

Now.

Charlie wearing the Xbox headset.

Then (1996).

Posing for and buying cheesy photos of friends.

Now.

Posing for and buying cheesy photos of friends.

Hope you enjoyed my random oldies post!

Cuttin' A Rug Little Ring Style

Charlie ripped up the dance floor last night at his Great Grandpa's 80th birthday party. He had a handful of the guests captivated all night with his sweet moves (which mostly consisted of bending his knees to the beat and looking ridiculously cute in his party pants).

The Truth About the Rings

We're huge dorks. This was confirmed at the Halloween party on Saturday. The truth is finally coming out and it feels good. We dressed up for a Halloween party and there were probably only 5 other adults dressed up out of about 30. Not only did we dress up but we had good costumes. Costumes that took effort.

Matt went as Obi Wan, as I mentioned in a previous post. However his original idea was to go as Luke and wear Charlie on his back so they could re-enact a famous training scene from The Empire Strikes Back. The only difference between the Luke costume and the Obi Wan costume is the rat tail. And at the end of the day Matt really just wanted to wear the rat tail (you can see the rat tail in all its glory hanging down the right side of Matt's head in the pic below).

I went as Darth Vader but the second I walked into the party I realized my mask was not only scaring my own child, but most of the other children in the room. So for the rest of the night I was just a girl, dressed in black, wearing a cape.

It feels good to get all of this off my chest. I'm finding peace in my dorkiness. These are our friends the Patches. They stopped by on Sunday so little Samee could show off her bee costume. Charlie welcomed her in his Batman pajamas and was actually nice to her for a change (he managed to let her read his books and held back his tears!).

Charlie on actual Halloween.

On Halloween we took Charlie around to some friends and family's houses. Below is Charlie as Yoda, Caden as Pooh Bear/Bee, and Aunt Char as a Chef/Uncle Justin.

Thank goodness this holiday is over!