Gone Fishin'!!

Well, finally it's super nice and warm and.............. I'm not working. Ryleigh and I went garage sale-n this morning and got a couple good deals on some baby gates and a pink shelf for Ryleigh's new room. We are going to move her into where we have the office and keep her room now as the nursery. All the good deals disappeared on Friday. Then when we got home Jason asked Ryleigh if she wanted to go fishing. YEAH, she yelled! So we went. Jason got the first bullhead, I got the most bullheads (2) and Ryleigh caught a bullhead. She was so excited with all the worms, bugs and fish! Such a tomboy at times. We also brought her beach toys and she played in the sand with those. It was good to finally get some Vitamin D. We decided we need to get Ryleigh her own fishing pole! We only went for a few hours and got back to go to a graduation party next door. They had tacos in a bag, which was not only a good idea but it was delicious, too! We have another graduation party to go to tomorrow, which will be even more fun because we will know more people and Ryleigh will even have some friends at that one. She is taking a nap now, so I thought I'd write this blog and then go join her. With all this exhaustion with baby #2........me and naps are best friends. Ryleigh had a good week! Like I mentioned earlier she is such a tomboy. Not only was she into wrestling Jason this week, she was also wrestling the boys at daycare one day when Jason went to get her. HAHA! And she was doing pretty good against them....you go girl! She also has a prissy side to her and loves getting dressed up in dresses and then spinning in them! She is talking up such a storm that I think I am going to take down my side posting of her new words, because honestly, she says anything she hears. This week out of the blue she asked me to open something for her. She brought it over to me and said, "open". I have a fake jewel on my name tag for work and she was pointing to it, I told her it was bling bling and the next thing I know, she's saying bling bling! She and I are also eating up a storm. One evening after eating quite a bit for supper, she finally said no more, I started singing hit the road jack and ever since then she has been singing it too. She gets so excited when trying to tell Jason or I something, that she gets to talking rather quickly and we can't understand her, but in the midst of it all she's doing hand gestures and laughing, so we just go with the flow..........sooooo cute! I think she is going to be quite the chatterbox!! I haven't had any "urpiness" for the past couple of days, so I think that is subsiding.........yeah!!!!! I am however eating like I've been starved and I have gained 5#!!!! AGHHHHH! Well hope everyone has a good weekend. It's supposed to be around 80 degrees all weekend, so maybe we can get the boat out (keeping my fingers crossed), I've almost got Jason talked into it. The water is about 65, almost warm enough to jump in and go for a dip.

Ryleigh's Going to be a Big Sister: Baby Quint #2 is on it's way!!

Well, since most of you who read this know now, I thought I'd better dedicate a blog to the newest little bundle of joy coming to our family. And for those of you who don't know, Jason and I are expecting our 2nd baby! It was so fun how we surprised everyone with Ryleigh so, I had to come up with another fun idea to make it special for this baby too. So, I had a t-shirt made for Ryleigh that says: I am going to be a big sister. We told my parents first because that is just how it worked out. We decided, since my parents were begging us to have her spend the night, that we would bring her to St. James and have lunch with them. Of course, my dad works 7 days a week so that is the only plan we had so that we could be back in Kato working on the house before the day was over. So we had a sweatshirt on Ryleigh and I had mom take it off so we could eat. But it didn't work quite as I had envisioned it because when Ryleigh heard the word eat, she wanted nothing to do with anyone looking at this shirt, plus my dad was trying to chase her. Finally, when my mom read it and my dad figured out what was going on, they were pretty excited. We have it on video! Then we told Uncle Ryan the next evening on the phone. Then we told Grandma Peggy by calling her and telling her to check her email, we told her we sent the video of Ryleigh dancing. Well, we actually sent her some pictures with Ryleigh wearing her t-shirt, and had her on speaker phone. It was so precious. Then she wanted us to tell Sarah so she could start spreading the good news, but first we needed to tell Grandpa Danny and Grandma Terri. So we had them over for supper on Sunday and video taped Ryleigh coming to see them in the t-shirt. It was an added bonus when Auntie Shea showed up with them and got to be there for it. Of course, Terri figured it out before Danny, but it was fun to see their expression! Then we called and told Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Sarah!



I had my first ultrasound on 5-15-08 (at 8 wks) which was totally awesome. I got to see the heart beating & hear the heartbeat which was 172 and VERY strong. At first it was just a little blob I saw until they turned it to the 3D setting and I could see the little arms, hands, legs and feet. I was tearing up, it was so awesome. I have my next appt. here in a couple of weeks. The due date I figured was 12-25-08 and the ultrasounds due date is 12-24-08, so we will most likely be having a Christmas baby! Besides having that awful cold I had for four weeks and feeling extremely exhausted from that, I am feeling pretty good. Still feel sluggish most days and sometimes a little urpy between 5 and 7 pm. Ryleigh is in love with babies and doesn't get jealous when Jason and I hold our friends' babies so I think she will do awesome. She is already pointing to my belly and saying, "baby!" She also kisses my belly. We have this on video too and I tried posting it, but I am having trouble again, so I will keep trying. In the picture I am about 9 weeks (2 mos)!

Happy Memorial Day!

Just want to give a big thanks to all the men and women who have served our country and fallen so that we could be free here in the United States. What a wonderful and beautiful country to live in! It was a busy weekend as I mentioned earlier, hanging out with friends..........and family. Today Grandpa Danny, Grandma Terri and Auntie Shea came over to hang out and eat supper. It was lots of fun and good to see everyone. Its been awhile since we have seen Shea. Ryleigh had lots of fun too, showing off with all of her new talking skills shes learned over the past few months. It's so fun when she learns a new word and we finally figure out what she is trying to tell us. Auntie Shea taught her something new too. They were outside playing and Shea taught her how to race after saying........ready.........set..........go! So that's the new thing.........Ryleigh will say and has said all evening................ready, set, go................and then she RUNS anywhere there is space. And I mean RUN (sprints). I told Jase, I don't think she will have long enough legs to do hurdles like her daddy, but she might have the stamina to do long distance like her mommy! Potty training is SOOOOOOOOO much fun. LOL. Ryleigh was such a big girl last evening but today was a different story. I keep telling myself, one day at a time. This kid is so smart and stubborn that the next few weeks are going to be fun. Thank God she likes stickers and thank God she likes to go potty after her doll goes! That's how I got her to go last evening, I would sit her doll on the toilet and give the doll a sticker for going potty like a big girl, hey, whatever works. This morning Ryleigh and I planted lots of flowers in pots around the yard, finally some color. It was fun, but very MESSY! Tonight after we put Ryleigh to bed, she laid there and sang for about 30 minutes to herself until she finally sang herself to sleep, it was the cutest thing I have ever heard in my whole life! Hope everyone has a great week. Four more weeks til we go camping! YEAH! Hopefully soon we can get the boat ready to go out, but Jason wants the house painted first, so we are getting ready for that right now.

Ryleigh's Hip Hop Moves (FINALLY)!

Here's the video of Ryleigh dancing finally (I know, I know, it's almost a month later). Sorry it took forever, our computer is starting to behave again. Jason and I aren't sure who she gets her moves from, but Jason likes to think she gets them from him and I like to think she gets them from me. Look at our little hip hopper go! There is another video, so I am working on that one next.

Blueberry Cheesecake Day

Today was national blueberry cheesecake day and since I had to work this weekend, I got in on the celebration. Every day there is something to celebrate, but on Sundays at work the activity dept. celebrates whatever day it is. Last Sunday was national bead day, if I would have remembered Ryleigh and I could have made beaded jewelry. The activity director was going to let me know what book she has because someday when Ryleigh is older it might be fun to do some of the activities and I was asking her if there was a day dedicated to "the cold side of the pillow day" for Sarah! HAHA! Anyways they had blueberry cheesecake at work and I brought some home for the three of us for dessert after supper. Ryleigh loved it, as did Jason and I. Last evening we spent some time with friends and grilled out. There were a few couples and all of our kids. It was a lot of fun and turned out to be a late night, especially for me since I had to work bright and early this morning. Sounds like Ryleigh and Jason had a fun weekend together. They cleaned the house on Saturday and then dirtied it again on Sunday!! Ryleigh found a pine cone, but she can't say it right yet so she calls them...........poppy cones! Very cute! The lilacs are finally in full bloom and smell so good, it got to 88 degrees today and we were in tornado watches all afternoon. The storms passed and it turned out to be a beautiful evening with not a cloud in sight.

Curly Q

Ryleigh's been saying many new words lately, I can hardly keep up anymore. Every time we say something she is copying us. She is still signing words too, now it's my turn to learn some new signs to keep her learning new ones as well. Jason is teaching her how to count to 10 in English, Spanish, French and German. She does pretty good copying him. Her favorite number is eight, she will say 1,2,3..................8!!

Baking.............I tried my hands at some banana bread and boy was it ever good. Jason and Ryleigh ate it right up. What an easy thing to make and it turned out so moist.

Potty Training.................It's going!...........today(Friday) I had the day off of work so when Ryleigh woke up from her nap we put her in her "big girl undies". I kept giving her the "big girl" speech. I had left her in her room so I could go do some laundry. Well her bathroom is right above the laundry closet and I heard some commotion so I headed up to see what was going on and I got 1/2 way there and she started yelling, "mommy", "potty" repeatedly. When I finally got to her, she was sitting on her potty, peeing, with her underwear still on. She was so proud of herself. Then I kept going back to her every 30 minutes and when I would check her she would be dry, so I would say, "lets go potty" and she kept going on the way to her potty only in her underwear. UGH! Baby steps!!! :) It was very cute though, because she kept saying, "I went potty!" all day and then told Jason that too, when he got home from work.

Bowling.......Thursday I went bowling and got a pretty good score for not going in almost a year. Not my greatest but I was happy to break 100. I got 110!! Jason was at Rush concert in the cities with a friend, so we had a babysitter whom Ryleigh just loved. When we went to get Chelsea (the babysitter), she had a cat and Ryleigh loved it too until it got playful and scratched her arm with its hind claws. Boy will she think twice before just touching any animal. HAHA!

Passport................Went and got my passport Friday morning too! Looks like Jason will be going to Paris France again soon and if I have my passport, I will meet him out there for the weekend and have a romantic little vacation with my hubby in Paris........the city of love.

Ryleigh's hair is getting long but it just curls up so much you can't tell unless it's dripping wet. Her dippity doo's ( the curls by her ears) are getting so long. I started calling her my little curly Q!! I think it fits perfect......don't you!

Outgoing Little Girl!

I don't know if I have ever mentioned how much of an ornery, outgoing child we have, but I have never seen something with SO much energy and always on the go. Has anyone ever seen the nickelodeon movie, Barnyard? She reminds me some days of that animal they keep in the box and then when they let it out, it goes wild like a Tasmanian devil. Anyways, she loves to wrestle and tonight she was not giving up against Jason. It was the funniest thing to watch and I think my cheeks hurt from smiling and laughing at them so hard. This child never sits still! We were talking to Peggy tonight and she says she gets that from her daddy, which I believe. Tonight, as we do every night before bed, we were reading to her. She finally started relaxing and was sitting on Jason's lap. I went over to the other couch to lay there and listen and I was watching the both of them together. She is EXACTLY a spitting image of her daddy. There they were both wiggling their feet and toes, with not a care in sight, relaxed as ever, reading the book. Jason has always done this with his feet, sometimes when we are sitting on the couch together and it can get annoying (definitely not relaxing for me)! I knew she was going to have feet like this before she was born because she liked to jab me in the ribs a lot while I was pregnant with her. Anyways, they were like two peas in a pod and it was one of my favorite moments of them ever, I will never forget it. She also said her longest sentence (that we could understand) when Jason was reading to her and it came out of her mouth plain as day. Jason had asked her if she wanted to go up to her room and read goodnight moon and counting kisses and she leaned over, grabbed a book of the table and said, "I read this book!" She's doing pretty good with differentiating between I, me, & mine. Ryleigh is usually pretty good about her manners too, usually saying please and thank you, and usually does pretty good when we ask her, "what's the magic word?" This past week, however and in front of friends, when we asked her what the magic word was she said to us, "MAGIC WORD!" It was pretty funny and had everyone laughing. Today Ryleigh went on a field trip to a farm and got to see many animals. She had been telling Jason and I all evening what she saw and what the animals say. They also were playing with some dandelions and all decided to paint their faces with the dandelions, so when I went to get Ryleigh her forehead was all "yellow" which just so happens to be her favorite color right now. She also discovered freckles this afternoon. At first she thought they were "ouchies" all over Jason and I and was trying to kiss them, but when we told her they were freckles and don't hurt, she started pointing to them all and saying, "freckles"! Freckles is her newest word, but she will pretty much repeat anything we say to her! Well, hope everyone is having a great week, I am going to go hang out with Jason for awhile.

Thanks Aunt Sarah!

Thank you Sarah so much for the package. The little crackers were awesome, Ryleigh loves them. My favorite are the grape candies...............OMG, I practically ate them all by myself. SEND ME MORE!!! ;) HAHA! Ryleigh loves her little chopsticks, she used them last evening with her mac-n-cheese. She did pretty good, I got pictures and video, so I will get it posted soon. I also got video of her saying hi and love you to everyone as well as, thank you Sarah. She says your name so good. We, of course loved EVERYTHING in the package, thank you. Ryleigh is spending the night at my parents tonight. We brought her over to their house this morning, had lunch and came back to Kato to get some major stuff done with the house. I knocked four things off my spring cleaning list. I am so happy! Jason power washed the house b/c we are going to be painting it here in a few weeks. He has a bunch of friends going to help and I just need to supply beer and food. Works for me. Jason and I are going out to eat and then coming back home to watch some movies. It's amazing how much we are missing Ryleigh right now. It's so weird not hearing her or having her with us. Well hope everyone is having a great weekend.

Miss Independent

What a beautiful day, hitting almost 80 degrees. I have been fighting a cold for the past three weeks, losing my voice a little over a week ago from coughing so much. It has not been fun and I am extremely exhausted, but I am finally starting to feel better. Thankfully, Ryleigh has been well. I am SO THANKFUL I have a very, VERY healthy and happy child. It's hard to believe that our little peanut is going to be 2 years old in a couple of months, it is so crazy how time flies. She is quite the little Miss Independent. From wanting to put her own clothes and shoes on to helping with cleaning, to washing herself in the bathtub, to reading, to puzzles to opening and closing things and she lets you know with her latest phrase, "I'll DO IT!!" But oh does she get frustrated when her little hands can't quite do what she wants them to. It's like her little brain is more advanced than her little hands. I'm not saying by any means she is behind in the physical areas, it's just that her wheels upstairs are ALWAYS turning. Instead of just playing with something, her wheels are trying to figure out why something does what it does. She has always been a thinker and I think she always will be. Last evening we were putting our trash and recycling bins out at the end of the driveway. Ryleigh was running full speed to bring Jason a can and tripped over her growing feet. She skidded across the driveway and seemed fine, but this morning she woke up with a little strawberry on the top of her nose. NO crying.............that's my girl! She just "shook" it off. If she gets hurt we say this little saying, "Shake it off" and instead of crying she just shakes her hands and legs and shes good to go. Oh............funny story. We bought Ryleigh some new underwear with princess' on them for potty training. She was so excited and wanted to wear them so we put them on her last Sat. I kept checking with her every so often to see if she needed to go potty and she kept saying, "no"! Well she crawled up on the couch and just sat there and all of a sudden started crying. I knew right away she was peeing, so I ran over to her, picked her up and sure enough she peed. It was so cute, then she sat on her potty chair trying to finish, however I think she scared all the pee out of herself. My mom gave me the idea, saying she probably wouldn't like sitting in her own pee and my friend trained her daughter that way to, so we thought we'd try it. I wasn't quite sure if she was ready yet until this evening when she was taking a bath and started holding her butt, saying, "poopy". I got her out, she sat on her potty and pooped a tiny little turd. She was so excited. I think my mom was fibbing when she told me how easy it was to train my brother and I, and I am still questioning her on if I was really trained at 18 months, which is what her and my dad swear by. HHHHHMMMMM! Ha Ha! I am going to try to add some photos and will put a couple with my last two posts. I am still having trouble with videos, but I am working on it.

Last week was Nurses Week

Last week seemed so busy I forget to mention it was Nurses week. I hope I wished it to all my friends who I worked with but those nurse friends of mine I don't work with, thank-you for all you do. What would we do without the caring, compassion of a nurse. Today at work we had a hula hoop and bubble gum blowing contest. The hula hoops were kind of cheap so it was hard to hula for very long. We had to hula around our waist, neck, each leg and then around the arm, but while it was still twisting, switch arms. It was really funny and I won around the neck, right leg, and once around the waist. I didn't have long enough to get my bubble gum worn in so I didn't do as well with the bubble gum contest, but it was fun anyway!! We got to keep our hula hoop for participating so, Ryleigh had a lot of fun playing with that this evening. It was fun to see her try to hula!! We went to visit Grandpa Danny and Grandma Terri this past weekend. Ryleigh thought she could walk on water and wound up taking a few steps into their pond. It was hilarious to see her face when she felt the COLD water hit her skin......AH AH AH!! Unfortunately, mommy didn't pack a spare outfit or an extra pair of shoes! Oh and Sarah, there really is a Grandparents Day, I'm pretty sure it is celebrated on the first Sunday after Labor Day (it should be on your calendar)!!

Happy Mother's Day!

Just want to give a shout out to all the special moms in our lives. Thanks for always being there for Jason and I. I woke up this morning and came downstairs to a beautiful bouquet of flowers that I later learned Ryleigh picked out. I was supposed to work today only to find out that I could have the day off, so I went into work to make sure all was well and to let the day shift nurses know, that way if they needed anything they knew to give me a buzz. No phone calls so that's a good thing. I love it when I am on call and all goes well, I should knock on wood though, b/c I am still on call until Thursday. I have been pointing out this necklace that I have wanted for a few months now, I had been laying the hints on quite strong the past few weeks. Jason had trouble finding the one I wanted, so I get the option of going and getting it myself, which suits me just fine! I had fun spending time with my family today. Ryleigh is usually a daddy's girl too, but I got a lot of loving today. Jason was teaching her to say Happy Mother's Day to me and the stubborn little squirt finally started saying it this afternoon. Jason's mom, my mom and Terri all got to hear it today. Finally, she has stopped saying, "Happy Easter"!! Ha Ha! Still having computer issues, so I will get the picture Jason took of Ryleigh and I today on here at a later date! Again, HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!

Puppy at Heart

It's been a busy week and with our computer acting up it's been hard to get any pictures on here. I have about had it with that computer, I just want to throw it out the window. Hopefully, Jason can get it fixed soon and hopefully, there is no virus. Luckily I can email myself some pictures and then open them on my laptop and get them on here. I am, however, having trouble with videos, so the dancing one I promised will of course, get on here late. This past weekend, when Ryleigh and I were getting her clothes out for the day, she spotted a puzzle that she got as a gift when she turned one. Back then though, she was more interested with chewing on the puzzle pieces, so I hid it in her closet. She's spotted it a few times, but I have been redirecting her to something else. This time I got it out for her and she was so excited. She had only been working on it a few hours before she got the pieces put in and could name all the animals, which are wild animals. She knows all the farm animals and the noises they make as she has for quite some time, so it was fun for her to learn some new ones. I love the way she says hippo. Today she said a-b-c-d and l-m-n-o-p all by herself and then the rest of the alphabet with Jason and she counted 1-2-3 dogs in a book that we were reading. She has been "reading" her books to and actually says some of the sayings in them. She says this line out of Go Dog Go, "Hello, hello, do you like my hat?" and this evening she signed hat after I read it to her and I just showed her that yesterday once. We went to a bike rally on Thursday and Ryleigh and I got bike helmets. Ryleigh's is so cute, blue with pink butterflies and ladybugs. She loves her new "hat", but only likes to wear it awhile if she puts it on herself. She is really into dressing herself to. She has been putting her own shoes on for a few months and does quite well, she of course puts them on the wrong feet quite a bit. She has also been trying (and doing pretty good) with putting on her pants and shirts by herself. She has been trying that for a few months but is starting to now get better at it. I will get pictures on here of her in her helmet once our computer is fixed. Unfortunately my new camera I got at Christmas fell in the sand on the beach, we thought we had it fixed, but it must still have some sand in it, so I have been using our old camera until we can get our new one looked at. And now to the title of my post. We have always called Remy our puppy but after last Sunday it is now evident that she will be 10 years old in June. She has definitely settled down a lot in the past year or so and usually just lays there when Ryleigh climbs all over her. Jason and I were playing Frisbee together last Sun evening and of course our puppy (at heart) was playing with us and she just kept going like the energizer bunny. After we were done we were just hanging out on the deck together and when we got up to go in the house our poor puppy was limping badly on her hind legs. We felt so awful that we just kept playing and she kept chasing the Frisbee, but we didn't even get a hint from her that she was in pain. She finally stopped limping about Tuesday. Poor thing. Attached are some photos of her and Ryleigh from a couple of months ago.

Fun Weekend!

Well, it's been a busy weekend as usual. Ryleigh is changing so much every day and has really changed a lot in the past 3 weeks. Shes working on her 2 year molars, but after the four of them come in, she will have all of her teeth. Molars are her worst so, until they come in we have super happy baby one minute and cranky the next (luckily more super happy baby than cranky)!! Friday, Jason met with some college buddies for supper so Ry and I hung out at home. I had put Ry on the floor with her crayons and coloring book while I was cooking supper. I realized that after a few minutes it was very quiet behind me (which usually means she is up to her mischievous ways), so when I turned around to see how she was doing, she was not where I had put her. I heard something over by the window so I went to see what she was up to and guess what................you guessed it............she was coloring with purple crayon ALL OVER MY WALL. I scared her by saying, "what are you doing, your supposed to color on paper not on mommy's walls." It was hilarious, I wanted so badly to laugh but I kept it cool. She colored a few lines and then came over and gave me a big hug (which is what she does when shes sorry for something). The only reason why I wasn't freaking out was because I purposely bought washable crayons and they actually work, it washed right off my wall with some soap and water. Phew!! Saturday flew by as it always does. Ryleigh and I and hung out with our friends Nicole and Grace. Grace turned 2 in Feb and her daddy works with Jason. The two girls have fun when they are together and it's always nice to hang out with a mom and not talk about work, so we both had fun. Then Jason and I had supper with our good friends Ryan and Ana, we cooked burgers and brats on the grill, yummy! We are so excited for them, they are expecting their first baby in October! Boy was Ryleigh ever flirting with Ryan. In the past, she has always been a bit leery of him, but not last night! Today was gorgeous here. We spent most of it outside. Jason on the other hand worked on homework. Finally he's down to his last week and is patiently waiting for summer break. Ryleigh and I hung out at the (very crowded) park! She did so good with all the big kids running around her, I think they were getting a bit impatient waiting for her to go down the slides, but it all worked out. She was digging in the sand and started saying worm, worm (if you say it like her, the r is silent ;) I didn't see anything so I was saying there's no worm, but she kept saying it so I got down next to her and low and behold a worm started moving. I picked it up and she just giggled as it moved around in my hand. She wanted to hold it so, I put it in her hand and when it started to move she just giggled, but dropped it pretty quick. She continues to talk up a storm and is talking in sentences now (very short sentences)!! She is also quite the little singer. She's learning all about colors and has got yellow and blue down perfectly, her favorite is yellow. She said her abc's one at a time after me today and then said a-b-c in a row herself. And she can now count to two!! It's crazy all the stuff she is picking up on these days. She can also be a little naughty sometimes. She hit me today and had to sit in a time out until she said she was sorry. She finally mumbled a sorry and gave me a hug. Hopefully that works!

Vacation Slide Show #2!

To see the descriptions for the pictures, just hold your mouse over the picture. Enjoy.

Vacation Slide Show #1!

Here's the first slideshow. I will get the second one done later as it takes about a few hours for only 50 pictures to download. Plus, Ryleigh and I have a little playdate we are heading to with our friends Nicole and Grace. So maybe by the time we get back, the other slide show will be finished.