Santa Claus

We took a trip to see Santa Claus last night. We went to Bass Pro Shop last year and the Santa Claus was very good, the line was super short and we got a free 4x6 picture (which makes Marc very happy...FREE picture)! So we decided to try it again this year. The same Santa was there and again the line was very short even on the busiest shopping day of the year - black Friday. Ryan took one short glance at Santa and screamed louder than we had ever heard. The elves were very friendly and said we could all be in the picture. Marc was a good sport and even sat on Santa's lap, while Ryan and I stood beside him - with Ryan as far away as possible. I had attempted to move Ryan to my right arm so he would be next to Santa and again we heard one of the loudest screams ever. Oh well, he will learn what a great guy Santa is. Anyway, here is the O'Neal family visiting Santa Clause - Christmas 2009...

1st Birthday

I cannot believe that Ryan is 1 year old already. This had to be the fastest year of my life so far. It has been a fantastic year - full of many discoveries and joyous moments. Ryan had a great 1st birthday! Marc took the day off work so we were able to hang out as a family on his actual birthday. His party was Saturday November 14th. We had such a good time! The party was at our house and we had so many friends and family there. We had a balloon artist come to entertain all of the kids. He was great! He could make any animal, character, person, or thing you can imagine. What great memories!

All of the kids and their balloon characters...

The cupcake cake...a car, of course, because the theme was cars & trucks...

Of course, Ryan had his own cake. It took a few minutes for him to figure out he could tear into it but it didn't take long to destroy the cake...

First Airplane Ride!

On the weekend of November 6th to 8th we had the opportunity to travel to Washington D.C. for a wedding. My "big brother" was getting married and we were able to go. This was Ryan's first airplane ride and our first real vacation with a baby! I booked the plane tickets according to Ryan's nap schedule, thinking he would fall asleep on the plane. Well, I was sorely mistaken - I should have known that our curious little boy would much rather check out the world around him versus sleep (how boring). Even though he missed a couple of naps he was a fabulous traveller. We just needed to introduce a new toy every couple of minutes to keep him occupied on those tiny airplane seats. Once in D.C. Ryan partied like a champ. He went to the rehearsal dinner, the wedding and the reception. He even danced at the reception :) He was exhausted by the time we returned home but we had a blast!

Happy Halloween!

Ryan's first Halloween was a success! He was a perfect lion! He put his costume on around 5:30pm and didn't touch his hood all night! We went trick-or-treating to a few neighbors homes and then to a Halloween party. Costumes were encouraged at the Halloween party so I was able to talk Marc into going as the characters from the "Wizard Of Oz." Here are a few pics of our Halloween...