I know. Not a single post for the month of March. Totally hanging my head in shame here. Sadly, this blog has dropped way down on the priority list. I haven't even been taking pictures lately, as I have nowhere to store them. It's ridiculous but I just can't bring myself to erase pictures from my computer memory, even though most are backed up in at least 3 places. I feel like I need a whole day, uninterrupted, to get this thing organized and figure out what to do. My computer is constantly giving me the "you are out of memory" message and I am fearing one of these days the whole thing will just crash!

I really need to get some pictures of Ryder, but it's nearly impossible these days! He goes about a mile a minute so every time I try, they are just a blur. He is exhausting, to say the least. He is nearing 17 months and I never even got around to a 16 month post!

Ryder now has 4 teeth (2 top, 2 bottom). He still has tiny feet - only a size 4. He keeps getting taller and skinnier. He says tons of words and will pretty much try and say anything we ask him to. He is saying more phrases too. He loves to run. He loves to run back and forth, across the couch (always keeping my nerves on edge) and in the bathtub. He absolutely loves his toy cars, but I think his favorite things to play with are my kitchen utensils. I'm going to have to get him his own set because I hate having to search the house when I need something for cooking (and then having to wash it before I can use it).

The boy could spend hours outside in our boring backyard, and no matter how long he's been out there, he will throw a major tantrum when it's time to come back in. Our next project is to make it more exciting out there. Speaking of tantrums, Ryder is a champion tantrum-thrower. It's very frustrating and I HOPE this phase will pass quickly. I gave him his first time-out recently and was surprised that it actually worked. I won't use it very often at this age, but it's nice as a last resort.

Rudy and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary on the 5th. I can't believe it's been 3 years!! We had a great day! Woke up and went out to breakfast at a place we'd never been before. It was great and we will definitely be going back! Then we went to the park to let Ryder run out some of his energy in hopes he'd take a good nap. After nap, we went to Home Depot to look at some supplies for our backyard project. And finally, Rudy and I went on our FIRST date, just the two of us, since before Ryder was born. I can't believe it took us almost a year and a half!! We ate dinner at the Cheesecake Factory (we originally were going to go somewhere much fancier, but I just think it's ridiculous to spend SO much money on one meal) and then, for lack of anything better to do on a Tuesday night in Tucson, we ended up at a little dive bar, not too far from our house. It was in interesting crowd and we stuck out like a sore thumb, but we still had a good time. Metalhead, a popular 80's rock cover band, was playing. We had a few drinks and when we decided to pay our tab and head home, we found out that a random guy had already taken care of it for us! How nice is that!? We of course found out who it was so that we could go and thank him. We had such a great night and decided we HAVE to do that regularly (the date night part - not the bar, haha). Of course, the next morning was rough .... we agreed that we are MUCH to old to be staying out till 1am. Especially with a toddler who wakes up at 6.

As of Monday, Rudy will be working much closer to home and we are super excited! This is going to be a great change for our family and will allow us at least a *little* extra time with him each day, PLUS he won't have to work 6 days a week anymore!! We couldn't be more excited about that part! The only downside is that we have been planning FOREVER to go camping for my birthday and it's looking like he may not be able to get that time off. :( We used to camp ALL the time and haven't been in forever. It's our thing. We can't wait to take Ryder - he is going to love it!! I REALLY hope we'll be able to make it happen. If not for my bday, SOON. We sooo need a vacation. A nice, relaxing vacation. One where we get to one spot and stay there. No driving all over the place. Just hanging out as a family.

So this weather we've been having is all over the place. Last week we had record heat for the time of year ..... tomorrow record cold for this time of year. I'll take the cold, gladly, but what the heck!? It's supposed to rain all day (too bad for the yard sale our whole little community planned) and I really hope it does!! I could really use a good rainy day before it gets skin-melting hot. Blah. SOO not ready for that.

I think that's about all ..... maybe one of these days I'll get some pictures taken and posted. Maybe we'll just get a whole new computer. HA! Wouldn't that be nice .....