More pictures by Abby!

5 Year Wedding Anniversary!

In honor of our 5 year wedding anniversary, Joe and I decided to renew our wedding vows. After having Ryan, we came to realize just how important our marriage is and how difficult it has become to put each other first all while keeping God at the center of our marriage.

This seemed like the perfect time to rededicate our lives to each other and I am so happy that we did it. Our vows were renewed by our friend Jon Peacock (his father Walt actually did married us!) in the same place we were married 5 years ago.

Jon reminded us that in the midst of such busy lives, jobs and becoming parents, it's even more important than ever to be 100% committed to each other and to our marriage. When you become a parent, everything is depleted....money, sleep, time, patience, making it more and more difficult to remain a rock solid couple.

It was a very rejuvenating moment for us. To stand before God and each other and say our vows again meant more to each of us than we really thought it would and we have committed to doing it every 5 years! I knew it was true, but it was just nice to hear Joe tell me that he would marry me all over again.

Following our short ceremony, me, Joe and Ryan all headed downtown and stayed the night in the Hilton Palmer House. My parents booked the room for us, so we didn't even have to pay for it!! We walked around downtown, went to dinner and just really enjoyed some family time. It was a great weekend! Went by way too fast as always, but it was definitely one I will remember forever!

Watching football....seriously

5 Months!

Ryan will be 5 months old tomorrow! We really can't believe how fast the time is going by! Ryan is taking his 10:00 am morning nap, and I am sadly packing up some of his clothes that don't fit and washing his 6 month outfits. It's always so sad to do that, but then he gets to wear all his new clothes, so that's exciting!

I feel like so many changes have taken place in the 4-5 month timeframe. He now rolls over from tummy to back and back again.... non stop! Changing his diaper is a task and a half because he tries to roll onto his tummy the second I lay him down. I have poop on my arm about twice a day! We had to stop swaddling him at night for bed because he rolls over and likes to sleep on his tummy now. That was a few nights of no sleep in this house. It took him a while to get used to not being wrapped up like a little mummy. He still wakes up a few times in the night to eat, that can end ANYTIME now :) I like to think he just misses his mommy and wakes up and cries for me.

Rice cereal didn't agree with his little tummy, so we switched to oatmeal. He likes it better and it doesn't bother his tummy, so that was a good swap. I don't give it to him everyday, since right now it's really just for practice anyway. Once he is 6 months we will try new things, but for now, it's pretty much just milk for this little guy.

Ryan is starting to notice Penny sooo much more now! He loves dogs and anytime we go to someone's house who has a dog, he is just fascinated by it. Joe bought him a dog piggy bank for Christmas (Ryan was still in my belly, but it was for his room) and the other night I was holding him and he was just smiling at something. I look over and he was smiling at the dog bank!!! It was hilarious. He was smiling and smirking at it like "I found you...." He has such a little personality.

I didn't think it would happen this quickly, but our little baby is getting his 2 bottom teeth. It's hard to see them because he doesn't want me in his mouth, but I can feel them and see 2 tiny slits when he does let me in. I don't think they will make their appearance for a while yet, but they sure do hurt him sometimes. Last night the poor little guy was up half the night crying because he was in pain. Thankfully teething tablets, baby orajel and baby tylenol help a bit. Mostly he just needs snuggles from mommy and daddy and he feels a little better.

He loves to stand now. Sometimes he will cry laying on the ground, I hold his hands and let him stand and he grins from ear to ear. He is so proud of all of his new skills. All he wants to do is roll around, scoot in circles and stand up. He even puts one foot in front of the other like he wants to walk. He's a little maniac! He wants to crawl so badly.... I hope he holds off for a while. He can get his knees underneath him, but then he doesn't know what to do, so he just scoots a little bit. It's pretty entertaining.