The Rays of Sunshine

Looks like I have returned to the blogging world.  It has been a busy past few months and a lot of things have happened. I have realized that I am not as good of a blogger that I had hoped to be and; I felt like my writing was not very good, and I kinda lost my desire for it, so I took a break. Here is a recap of what has happens, since I have been gone: Derek turned 23 Months old: We are in full swing of planning his 2nd birthday party, and let me tell you, it will be a good one. I will be sure and post about that one. We decided to go with the Thomas the Train theme, because right now Derek is all about Thomas. He is still not talking as much as I would like him to, but we are working on it. Each day we are working on saying a few words, and if there is one thing I know about my kids, is that you can't rush him. He will do it when he is good an ready to, I just have to be patient. I love having him around, he makes everything so much better.   New car: ...

Another Month passes, and we will soon be knocking on the door of a birthday party.We have moved from Barney to Thomas the Train, for which I am grateful. Not that I have anything against Barney, but I was ready for something different. Now to planning a Thomas the Train Birthday party, PINTREST! We are still working on learning new words, and we are slowly getting there! Once again, Derek will do this at his own pace, no one can rush him. We went and seen my brother and sister-in-law, in Tulsa, and we had a nice time. It brought up a few questions, how long do I want to wait to have another baby? Do I want another baby? How far apart do I want my kids to be in age....... To all those questions, it is something to think about, but I don't have those answers. Derek did great with Carson (3) and Corey (3 months), also shows me how much he loves people. We went to the zoo, which was more boring for Derek than I expected, so I was a little disappointed, but that is ok, on...

I don't know about you but I can't believe its already May, and that Derek is almost 2.  Guess I better get to planning a birthday party. Wait a minute, is that right, LOL I can't believe how fast times has flown by, or this year. Here at the Ray house, we live a pretty calm life. We love to spend time with each other at home on the weekends, with the occasional trip out here and there. For Easter, we went to Church, then headed out to my families house for lunch and an Easter egg hunt. Most people post pictures of the whole family, all dressed up for Easter, but instead I will just post a picture of my handsome, little boy. Girls, watch out, I think my child is going to be a stud. LOL Easter Morning, this was the best picture I could get of us, granted I only tried a few times, if it doesn't work, then it doesn't work, this one was the best. LOL Family time is our favorite time. Every night around 8, we do Mother Goose Club, and Derek loves it, and...

The months just keep on passing faster and faster.  Derek is now 20 months old, and let me tell you that is weird to say. He already has a personality of his own, and he knows how to work a room. Give him the spotlight and he will run with it. Cool Kid!!! Here are a few of his accomplishments. He is able to tell you where his mouth, nose, ears, hair, eyes, toes and belly button are. When you ask him where his eyes are, he will blink his eyes at you. When asked about his belly button, he will raise his shirt and show you his belly button. He is still into Barney, and Mother Goose Club. He will go crazy over both of them. We are thinking about having a Barney themed birthday party. Do they still make that stuff? LOL. As far as the sleeping, he is doing really good. Most nights he sleeps all night and on the nights he wakes up, he will turn the soother on and go right back to sleep, with the exception of the past 2 nights, where he has woke up screaming. Last night he ...

WOW I have a 19 month old child. That's crazy, awesome, and sad. My little boy is growing up so fast. My brother and sister-in-law just had their second child, and I was able to be there shortly after the baby was born, and it brought all those memories back to the surface. I am not ready to have another baby, but I was so happy to hold a newborn, and love on him, but it just reminded me of how fragile and tiny they are. As I see my 19 month old son run around, that is what I want to focus on, and how big he is getting.  We have snow!!!!! Its our first snow of winter, and here in the south, everything stops for snow. We had snow last year, but Derek was to small to enjoy it, so we were blessed with snow again this year, and Derk has a blast playing in it. He really didn't know what it was, but it sure was fun.  There's nothing like the Love between a Father and his Son. This month has been a good month for our family. Derek is really growing into something amaz...

Oh my, I am the parent of a 1 1/2 year old. Man how time has flown. I still remember when he was a helpless little baby, and depended on me for his every need. Now Derek still needs me, but each and every day he grows a little bit more independent, and I realize that one day, he will not need me for every little need. How am I coping with that? I am treasuring every moment I have with him.  On the down side of that, I have been enjoying every minute of it, I have failed to take pictures of him this month. I am a picture queen, I always have a camera handy, so to realize that I have 7 pictures of this month, kinda bums me out. His new thing right now is the youtube videos of " Mother Goose Club". It has all the nursery rhymes that we grew up with, and they sing and dance with it. Derek loves it. The other big thing to hit the toddler house, Barney, that's right, this kid loves Barney, and since I did to when I was his age, that's OK. A f...

 Earlier this week I posted that we were going to try to get Derek to sleep in his own crib. Unfortunately that didn't work at all. The first night we attempted to try it, we put him to bed, like we do every night, and he cried and coughed so much, that he thew up, everywhere. It was horrible. I felt so bad for him. There was no way I was going to make him cry for not being in my bed so,  he slept in my bed that night. Once again the next night, after praying and praying that it would not be terrible, we put him to bed, and the same thing happened, he coughed so much he threw up again, but not as bad as the night before. So we decided that until he felt better and was not coughing so much, we would wait. To me I seemed like a blessing, and God's way of telling me, now is not the time. The sleeping hasn't gotten any better, and I find myself stressing out about this more and more, and wondering what I need to do next, and I find myself crying a...

Derek is now 16 months old, and I am ashamed to say that I have been slacking on the picture taking, the note taking, and all the awesome stuff he has been doing as he is getting older. Is it because I don't care anymore, absolutely not. We are living life, and having fun, and I have just let the "blog" side of it go to the back burner. Even though I would like to be done with the every month update, I feel like I need to keep it up, at least till he is 2. Who knows, by then this "dry spell" may pass, and I will be back on my game. We do have the holidays coming up really soon and that is my favorite time to take pictures, so I am sure it will pick up. So for now, here is my little boy at 16 months old. Currently everything is "Mamma", we are trying to get him to say more words, but nothing has stuck just yet, other than "yeah", and that is my mistake, and I am trying to correct it with "yes". We celebrated his second Hall...

WOW can you believe that Derek is 15 Months old? Bye Bye curls, I am really sad to see them go, but they had to. His hair was to messy and wild. Also I was really afraid if we cut them, they wouldn't come back. He sleeps in the bed with me every night, the only difference is I am ok with it. He is only little once, and there will a time when he will not want to snuggle and cuddle with me anymore. He has also learned how to get up without using anything, and he no longer says bath time. There for a while, everything was bath time, now when it is bath time, he says Mamma, and I guess that is fitting since I am the one to bathe him. Although he doesn't get into bath time anytime any more, he is ready to get out 2 minutes after I put him in the tub.  Every month, for some reason, the pictures are getting harder and harder to take. My child will not stay still for them any more. I am thinking that I need to come up with a new way of taking pictures of him ever mont...

Bottle free! We started it August 30th and it has been a success and we are proud to say we are bottle free! Yay! That was not as hard as I thought it would be!  Sleep, that's another thing all to its self! I don't know if he will ever sleep through the night! It is defiantly not as bad as it used to be, but we still have had some really rough nights!  I am ready to move his crib back to his room so we can have our room back but I don't know how rough that will be! Since I am not ready to do that, I have finally just given in and put him in the bed with me. The bummer part is that Ricky has to sleep on the couch. Once again I know it is not idea, but what are you going to do? Oh the curls, I love my sons curly hair. I think they are so cute, but I know it is about time for him to get a haircut, and I will be sad to see the curls go away, and hopefully they will come back. For the longest time Derek said bathtime, clear as day, well he will not do it any...

We have passed the 1 year mark with our little guy, and he continues to amaze me, impress me, and I love him more and more each day. When I look at him, my heart swells with joy, and love. He is a constant reminder of how blessed we are to have him! Earlier this month, we went to the Dr. for his 1 year check-up and can you believe that Derek now weights 22lbs! Well this was also the day for his shots, and it isn't any fun for me or him, so I had a treat waiting for him. As soon as the shoots were done, and he is screaming, I would be too if it was me, I pull out a sucker. He loved it. This was the first time I have ever given Derek a sucker. He enjoyed it so much, that he almost he it gone by the time we made it to the car. So once I get him in his car seat, I had to take it away from him, I couldn't risk a piece of it to breaking off, and him choking on it while I was driving down the road, so of course he cried, but a minute or so later he was over it! Derek is lear...