Happy Halloween!

We have a fun filled day today, so I'll have lots to post tomorrow hopefully. Landree has been fever free since Wednesday, but is gnawing on everything, so I am thinking she's got either her "eye" teeth or her first year molars coming in.....poor thing. Her gums are extremely bumpy and she is very territorial of her mouth and gums right now. She has been much happier and awake then she was on Wed. Along with learning how to walk also comes many bumps and bruises (to the head), but she continues on and keeps trying. Her balance is getting better and she is quicker along the furniture. Yesterday I dressed up for Halloween at work. I will add pictures tomorrow with stories, because I have a really good one related to my 101 y.o. patient!! I also dressed the girls up for daycare in some outfits other than what they will be wearing today, it was a hoot! Today we have planned, a visit to the nursing home (hopefully), a Halloween party for Ryleigh and trick-or-treating.

I also wanted to mention some belated birthday wishes to my long lost (but now found!!) friend Cami and to my friend Nicole. Hope you both had great days. Hope everyone has a safe and fun Halloween!!

Uncle Ryan!!

I forgot to mention last week that my brother went out to sea for awhile.............180 days to be exact. Kelli, my newest SIL, came up with a great idea so he wouldn't miss her or any of us so much while gone (mostly her.....you know how it is to be newly married?) She made him this awesome care package and involved his and her family to participate. I spent a good week getting all the stuff for my portion ready because everything is slower when there are kids involved! Mom sent a bunch of stuff too. Now, Kelli got to put stuff for the second half of the 6 months in a box on the submarine, but mine didn't make it in time for that, so he got the first 3months of her care package and all of my stuff. He is supposed to be back sometime in April, so he got something for all the holidays up until then as well as for his birthday (in February). It was a lot of fun. Ryleigh colored about 30 pictures for him for each of the holidays and for Landree's 1st birthday. I got him a card for all the holidays and then stuck candy and pictures in there for him and then I got him two birthday cards, one from us and one from the girls. I think I put like 10 pictures of the girls in each card. of course, I couldn't find any cards for my favorite holiday (Christmas), so Ryleigh colored about 10 pictures just for Christmas alone. We just found out from Kelli about a week ago that Ryan is able to get email on the sub, so that will be nice as well. I emailed him and already got one back saying that he went ahead and opened a lot of the colored pages and has them hanging up all around his bunk....he loved them!! The email cannot have any attachments and is read before he even gets to see it and then his is read before it can be sent to us. He does not have any other Internet access so he cannot read the blog, but at least I will get to keep him posted on whats happening here in Mankato! Please pray that his journeys are safe!!

I am here at home today because Landree had a fever last night of 102.8 and 101 this morning early. I think she might be getting some teeth but daycare rules are rules and so I get to have the day at home with the girls. Right now Landree is napping and it is quiet time for Ryleigh (who knows if she'll fall asleep), so I thought I would write about my brother as I forgot last night as well as some other things. I forgot to mention that Landree is a kisser. She loves to give you a big wet open mouth when you ask her for a kiss, it's adorable (and wet)and she loves to plant them right on your mouth!! She is also a dog lover, she goes to Remy all the time and shrieks the minute they see each other when we are home!And her and Ryleigh love to play follow the leader, with Ryleigh being the leader. I love it because all you can hear is loud laughter from both of them when they play. And, I almost forgot the carving pumpkin pictures so attached is a slide show......don't forget to watch the videos I posted last night of Landree starting to walk!! Oh yeah, the picture of "Ryleigh's pumpkin" is actually all her work! She drew the face on there and then Jason just followed her lines for the eyes, nose and mouth. It turned out to be one of the cutest carved pumpkins I have ever seen (especially by a 3 year old)!! Oh, and I am trying to get my house more organized as it is driving me nuts. We got this cute little cube organizer for some of the toys and Ryleigh was so excited to help her daddy put it together, so the first couple of shots are of Ryleigh getting to use the tools. She did good, Jason on the other hand, on the last hammered nail, went through the backing and punctured it.....luckily the little pull out cloth drawers cover it ;)

First Steps!

Finally, I get the computer after Jason did homework all night! I was filling in Landree's baby book and needed some info off of some of my previous blog entries, so here I am filling it in and posting a blog all at once. I was soooo tired when Jason and I got home on Saturday night that I forgot some funny things my parents told me that Ryleigh had done on Saturday, until tonight when I spoke with my mom on the phone and she gave me some reminders! Ryleigh is doing so good with talking. In addition to saying all her words right (some of the big ones need some extra attention, but after she breaks the syllables down, she can say the word and then is so proud of herself)but she is even getting when to use the right person (such as I, me, mine, etc as well as when there is more of something). For example, she knows when there is one....it's a goose, more than one, geese. And she will tell you if someone is a girl or boy. Tonight, she was measuring mine and Jason's height with a tape measure. When I asked her how tall I was, she replied, "36 degrees"! Mom was telling me that on Saturday, dad was trying to play Ice Age for her and he couldn't get our DVD player to work, my mom came downstairs and Ryleigh said, "Gramma, Grandpa can't get the movie to work, he's too old!" I guess they got a pretty good laugh out of it (oh, and our DVD player isn't working, so no wonder he couldn't get the movie to play)!! She is also into playing hide-n-seek, so that was a big hit with Grandpa, too. He snuck upstairs to get a drink while she was looking for him. I guess she had looked everywhere for him as he was hiding on the top stair, she looked at my mom, put one hand on her hip, her other hand..pointer finger on her lip and said, "Let me think about this!" AND, if any of you know my dad.....he's quite the teaser. He is always teasing Ryleigh and she finally got him back on Saturday!! Here's the way it went down: So, Ryleigh was sitting on the couch with my parents and said, "Gramma and Grandpa, I love you!" My dad said, "We love you too, honey". She then said, "I didn't say that, I said Gramma and Gramma!!" My dad then said, "you did not!" When he said that she looked at him and laughed!!! Watch out Grandpa, you're in for it now!!!

Landree on the other hand is doing well. She took some wobbly first steps last week back and forth to us, but this weekend on Sunday and yesterday, she has been letting go of things and walking to either us, or to the opposite couch and so forth. They are still pretty wobbly but she's finally taken her first steps and we got in on film. Now, she hasn't stopped, so I am betting next week she will be even less wobbly and more independent! She also has added a new word to her vocab. Tonight she waved "bye bye" to me and said "ba ba"! She has been saying mama for a couple of months and Sunday actually crawled to my leg, pulled on my pants and said "mama" repeatedly until I picked her up, so I am thinking she now gets what mama is. Ryleigh did some signing as a baby and so I have been using the signs with Landree as well, she likes "more" and that's about it for right now. Usually when I tell her a sign or show her in a picture, "this is mama, dada, Ryleigh" she will just look at me and give me this huge grin, it almost looks like she's saying in her mind, "I know what you want me to do and we'll do it on my terms"!

Jason and I are also excited that we will soon be getting a new roof. We have been praying for a big hail storm to hit the roof and his "rust bucket truck" for the last three years. Our roof is about as old as our house and needs replaced, we just didn't have the means to get a new one. But, this year we noticed some shingles missing from wind damage since we live high on a hill, and yay, insurance is going to replace the roof because they can't find any to match it!!!!! We've picked the shingles out and our house will get worked on in the next couple of weeks when it's not raining (too bad they couldn't work on it today, it was a beautiful 60 degrees with sun!)

Happy Birthday Sarah!

Happy Birthday to Aunt Sarah! Hope you had a fabulous day and got everything you wanted. We tried calling however, I don't think we have your current phone number, Ryleigh was all ready to sing Happy Birthday to you. Also, don't know where you live, so I didn't get a card mailed to you either....sorry! I hope you are happy wherever you are.

This weekend went pretty quick. Jason and I went to a wedding this past Saturday. Congrats to "Stew" and Holly (this is a college buddy of Jason's)! Mom and Dad came to our house and watched the girls all day, I think fun was had by all! It was a quick day and I had fun despite being the only girl on the way there and back (Ana you were missed). Speaking of...........I got the pictures of Miss Lila today in the mail...............OMG, SHE IS SO STINKIN' CUTE!!!!!!!! I love her pictures, you are so talented mama ;) I have them all out!! I wish I had your camera (but then again, I wouldn't know how to use it, even though I have taken photos with it)! Sunday, Jason and Ryleigh carved pumpkins, and Ryleigh painted a small one. She is so excited for Halloween this year. I don't know if it's her snow white dress, or that she actually gets what trick or treating is? But it's been fun. She did draw the face on her pumpkin and then Jason carved it and it actually turned out really cool looking. I will get pictures posted soon. Not much else went on, next weekend Ryleigh is going to a Halloween party on Saturday and she has been talking all about that. She also did awesome at gymnastics on Friday and I think it was because her friend Grace was there. Hope everyone is having a great week!

10 Months Old

Landree was 10 months old yesterday. I can't believe how quickly time is flying this second time around. I can't believe how close her first birthday is........ She had a well baby check up that we almost didn't do since it had been rescheduled, but it's always fun to get her weighed on the same scale that is more accurate than mine, of course it's nice to also get everyone else checked on too while there ;) And of course, my scale was off. I had said last month that Landree weighed 19 pounds. Well, I was off, and I knew I was last week when I weighed her for 10 month weight and it had dropped 2 pounds. She is a little peanut.......16 lbs, 8 oz (6th percentile for weight). Height is 71 1/2 cm (54th percentile). She definitely doesn't look like shes hurting though, has rolls to squeeze and eats like a pig. In fact, I kept track on Tuesday and she drank 27 oz of breast milk, ate rice cereal for breakfast at daycare, then lunch, then potatoes, carrots and roast for supper. So, she's not hurting and not picky.....in fact, she eats better with table foods then Ryleigh does!!! She hasn't eaten baby/pureed foods for about a solid week, because she just doesn't want them, she shakes her head no, until we give her table food and then she goes to town!!! I was talking to mom about her weight and she told me to look in my baby book because she said I didn't weigh very much at a year old. I found my baby book and sure enough, when I was 1 year and 2 weeks old, I only weighed 15.5 pounds. LOL! I think she is going to be tinier then Ryleigh as Ryleigh weighed about 18 pounds at 9 months old. She has been taking some very wobbly steps by herself and falls after about 2, but she's working it!

Ryleigh is doing good. I wish I would have had a recorder with me when we went to Landree's checkup, you would all be laughing so hard. I gave her a little heads up about Dr. Campbell before he came in and when he did, she cocked her cute little head to the side and said, "Hi Dr. Camel"! This immediately got him smiling. Then she asked him to read her a book which I whispered "no Ryleigh" because I know how busy they are. He then said, "oh that's ok!" They went through the book talking about the pictures when he asked her if one of the animals was a giraffe? "No" she said, "the giraffe is in the jungle book". Then she went and got the jungle book. He then started asking her questions about Landree. "So Ryleigh, does Landree eat carrots and potatoes?", Ryleigh: "no"! "What about meats?", Ry: "no", "what about fruits?" Ry: "no". "Well, Ryleigh, what does Landree eat?" Ry: "she eats from mommy's boobies" OMG, it was so funny, both Dr Campbell and I were laughing and I felt about 10 shades past red. Then at the very end nurse Becky says, "see Ryleigh, that was a piece of cake", which Ryleigh replies in an excited tone as she looks at me, "I get a piece of cake????!!!!" Nurse Becky looks at me and says "sorry, boy she's full of funny comments today!" Oh no, Dr Campbell didn't tell her what she said earlier.............Yes, he did! EMBARRASSING! It was pretty funny and Dr. Campbell said she made his day! Other than some funny and sometimes embarrassing things that come out of her mouth, she has been doing good. She's a singing, dancing freak!

I didn't write much all week about the past week, so I'll give a few updates. Last Friday night after we got the girls to bed, Jason noticed the rotten egg smell again downstairs as I was upstairs starting the dryer. Yes, another gas leak. We went from about 9 pm to about 11 am the next day without heat. It was a good test to see how well our house stayed warm and it only dropped about 6 degrees throughout the night. Heat was turned back on at 11 am and then I finally got my shower in, however we still have no dryer due to the leak. I went to a baby shower early in the afternoon on Saturday for a friend and social worker whom I work with. She is due the day after Thanksgiving. The rest of the weekend, we just laid low, trying to get rid of snotty noses, coughs, and "scratchy" throats and cleaned the house. I was the only one not feeling crappy. I did 5 loads of laundry without a dryer this past weekend, so I had everything hanging all over the house to dry. Tuesday was crazy as always with a make up gymnastics which we missed last week due to not wanting to spread this cold. Then last evening our friends Jerhod and Nicole, Grace and Evelyn came over to play and for supper. We had tortilla soup which was very good and cheesecake. YUM! The girls had a blast and we will see them again this week as we have gymnastics with them on Fridays! After they left and we got Ryleigh to bed, Jason ran and grabbed the movie, Transformers, which I really enjoyed and we both were so into it that we watched the whole thing and finally went to bed at around midnight.....but I felt good this morning. Jason went hunting again this evening and didn't see anything. We've had so much rain here that the farmers haven't even started harvesting the corn yet, so he thinks they are hiding out in the corn fields. Well, that's about it for now. We have gymnastics tomorrow, then Jason and I are heading to a friend of his wedding in WI (just a couple hour drive)on Saturday. My mom and dad are coming over to watch the girls all day, so of course, Ryleigh is excited about that. Hope everyone has a great rest of the week!

Landree Standing Video's!

Some quick videos of Landree again. I know, I know, I am working on getting some of Ryleigh posted. This is all I have for now and then tons of photos and stories!! Tuesdays are crazy and tomorrow will be busy as well. Enjoy these videos and stop by again soon for more!

Landree shakes her head "no"!

Ok, so I again am out of time tonight. Got busy on facebook talking to some of my peeps! So, no updates yet, but I promise soon. But I did happen to get this adorable video loaded!! Landree's newest thing is shaking her head "no" to about anything. As you have probably guessed, we say that a lot to her right now, so she thinks she's pretty cool now that she can do it too. She has a little harder time with "yes"! She will even shake her head no if you bring a spoon full of food to her mouth and she is full or done, so I think she understands what it means for sure!

Landree Dancing

Jason got some nice video of Landree dancing while I was getting ready for the day!! Enjoy! I have more videos and pictures of the girls to post tomorrow, as well as weekend news! Stay tuned!

Thankful & Lucky

Ryleigh and her friend, Colin, at the mall park:

Ever had one of those days? Well, I was thinking from now on I am going to keep my thoughts to myself. I've been feeling a little unlucky lately but tonight I am just thankful that the four of us are alive and thankful for how truly lucky we are. Every time I have said something, the opposite has occured in the past two weeks. "Oh, Landree has been so healthy, haven't heard a sniffle or anything out of her yet!" -- The next day, she has a runny nose and watery eyes and can't breath very well while nursing. ("Luckily" that only lasted a day)! Ryleigh caught another cold this week and she just got rid of one two weeks ago (ever since her pnuemonia in March, she catches any virus that sees her! That's how it feels anyways, but I think it's because its been these two colds within two weeks of each other, it's got to be just my imagination). Landree (who is a very fast crawler) scooted through the hallway and climbed some steps (not sure how many up the stairs) while I was putting supper in the fridge. Next thing I know, clunk and crying. She fell and bonked her head. And....I was just telling our daycare lady, I never have to worry about Landree and constipation because she has a bowel movement every morning and then, tonight she's grunting and crying trying to poop. We got some prunes down her and some good pushing and wahlah, we have poop! Something I deal with daily as a nurse, but never thought I would worry about with having children! Oh, the joys! As, I write and read I am feeling, it seems, a little scatterbrained, but that's how my brain is right now, scattered!! And to my title:

Tonight, the girls and I were listening and dancing to my new CD. Jason was cooking supper and went to the garage to turn on the new furance in the garage, we were going to try it for the first time since getting it hooked up. Well, I thought Jason was downstairs and when I walked by the stairs, I smelled this funky smell. I closed the door thinking, phew, Jasons stomach must be hurting him tonight!! (wink) It smelled almost like sewer. Then, he came in from the garage, which confused me, he went to the basement then back to the garage. Then I smelled it again. When he came back in, I was about to ask him if he was feeling alright when he looked at me and said, "Do you smell that?" By this time, it smelled like someone threw a dozen rotten eggs all over the basement. IT WAS NASTY. Jason looked at me and said get the girls out of the house now, as he called the gas company. They advised us to get out immediately and sent someone over to the house. Lo and behold, we had a natural gas leak under the dryer and in the basement. The four of us spent about the longest 10 minutes in the car waiting for the gas company to get there, when they finally came, our neighbors came to investigate and invited the girls and I over, so then we spent about an hour over at the neighbors. This all started at around 5 pm and now at 9:30 pm we are finally able to turn the heat on!!! So, no baths or warm water for the girls tonight (who had spaghetti for supper) and nice warm pj's and blankies to keep warm!! It was kind of scary there for a minute, hoping my house wasn't going to blow, but we are all safe and sound as I type! I don't think I will ever forget that smell. Nauseating!

Other than all that the girls are doing well, as are Jason and I!! Besides Ryleigh having this cold, she is excited for gymnastics. Attached is a photo of Ryleigh on the balance beam, still not a great photo, but I will keep working at it! This session, her friend Grace will be in gymnastics with her, which will give Nicole and I some time to chat every week!! Ryleigh has been saying some pretty funny things lately. Her daddy, I believe, taught her some new things!! She told us at supper the other night that when she poops, it's stinky, so she needs to turn on the "fart fan"! Now, she's obsessed with turning on the "fart fan" when she goes to the bathroom as well as talking a lot about the "fart fan"-- nice one Jase!! She also got a coloring book at the pumpkin patch and when she was asked where she got the coloring book she said, "from a pumpkin friend!" And whenever she wants to color she says, can I color with my colorcrayons (as one word), it's not just color or crayons, it's "colorcrayons"! She loves putting lotion on at night (well having me put lotion on her). The other night after I put Landree down and went into Ryleigh's room, she said to me, "Guess what mama, I have a surprise for you!" When I said, you do, what is it? She said, "lotion" and pulled it out sneakily from her stack of care bears! She's quite the character!

Landree is doing good, too, besides falling down a stair or two!! She has two new teeth. One came in on Saturday and the other on Monday (now she has her four front upper and lower teeth)! 8 Teeth!! (and two more on the top coming in). She is not wanting baby food much anymore and has been eating what we all eat (which I am thinking is related to her constipation). She loves spaghetti, chicken and rice, tator tot casserole, beef stroganoff, and chicken noodle soup, and is also eating what the kids eat at daycare! If she doesn't get what everyone else is eating, she throws a pretty good fit! She continues to let go of the couch/chair and stand by herself and has started to do "SO BIG" when you say, "how big is Landree"! I have it on video below! It's funny because she grabs her hands together and then she'll throw them over her head!! I have attached one picture where she is all out, hands in the air, to show us how big she is!

No daycare on Friday, so Gramma Terri is coming over to watch the girls, they should have lots of fun!!

Snow, already??? YUCK!!!

Well, this past week flew by in a flash! Last weekend we hung out with Papa Danny and Gramma Terri on Saturday. We had a good time and Terri and I actually left the girls with the men and headed out to do a little shopping. It's been a REALLY long time that I have gone shopping without the girls during the day (otherwise, I sneak out after they're in bed for the night). It was a good time and we were gone for FOUR hours. It sure didn't seem like it. I am not even able to remember what we did on Sunday. I am sure it involved a little hunting for Jason. Monday we watched the MN Vikings beat the Packers!!!! It was show your pride day at work and wear purple, but to be honest, I have no Vikings gear. Tuesday we watched the Twins win the central division (and now they've lost twice to the Yankees...boo). Wednesday was gorgeous and with snow in the forecast with very cold temps, we decided to bring the girls to the pumpkin patch. Ryleigh had a lot of fun picking out pumpkins, now we just need to find some time to carve them. Thursday, my parents came over and brought chili with all the fixings, corn chips, beer bread and mom's newly famous chocolate chip cookies and then we watched the Nebraska Cornhuskers beat Mizzou. It was a terribly sloppy game, but a win is a win!!!!!! GO TEAMS. Needless to say, last evening Jason and I were so tired that we were in bed at 9:40!! On a Friday. It was a long week with lots of fun sporting events, that's for sure. I was going to post these photos last evening, but sleep was much more the priority. Today, I focused on cleaning our bathroom (I hate bathrooms the most) and laundry. We woke this morning to a dusting of snow on the ground and when Ryleigh saw it she was so excited and screeched, "Mama, can I put on my snowsuit and gloves and go play?" Well, she went out with Jason later. We still hadn't gotten our screen house down and our summer toys picked up in the sand, so he and Ryleigh did that this cold afternoon. At least we didn't get the 16 inches I heard North Platte, NE got!!! Tomorrow the girls and I are meeting friends at the mall park and then in the afternoon, I am getting a 60 minute massage that I am counting down the hours to. I am so excited. The girls are doing well. Landree has three teeth coming in, one just broke through this morning and two others are about to bust through. She has been letting go of couch and tables and balancing herself without holding on. She gets so excited when she realizes she is standing all by herself. I have some more funny things written down that Ryleigh has said, but it is upstairs and I am being tired and lazy again tonight, so maybe I will share another time. Jason's out watching a movie so I am going to go join him. Enjoy the pictures.

Dedication to Nurse Linda!! :)

SO, I accidentally forgot to put this lovely picture on my slide show and I got grief. This is my nurse friend Linda and her hubby Gary at the going away at applebees for nurse friend, Ann. I'd just like to defend myself here and say that usually when I blog, it's late. Most of the time I forget something, mostly with what I want to blog about, however on the post below, I forgot a picture. I honestly did not do it on purpose!! I did forget a few others, but I didn't get grief about those, so I didn't post them ;) wink! I also added it to my slide show, so I hope that makes up for my late night mishaps! So, this blog is for you, Linda!!!! Not only did I get grief about accidentally missing this picture, but when she started teasing me, it turned into a blog entry! After giving me grief and me giving it back all day at work on Thursday, Linda came into my office and asked me a question......"you wouldn't happen to be a Scorpio?", she asked me. "Well, yes I am, as a matter of fact, and what's wrong with Scorpio's?" HAHA! So, she gave me the run down saying I was just like her eldest daughter and here is her definition of a Scorpio!! Scorpio's are ornery and mischievous and when you make them mad they don't let it go, they keep at you, so don't push their buttons! Scorpio's are pranksters who now how to have lots of fun. They are fun loving and like to have a good time. Scorpio's are the life of the party and because of their bubbly personalities, can make friends very easy, just don't tick them off because then their "stingers" come out!! My mom says this is true of me, and I guess I've noticed it as well. I just thought it was hilarious when she teased me once, and then all day I was giving her crap and then she guesses my zodiac sign!! Linda and I used to work "the floor" together before I became a nurse manager and we definitely had fun on the weekends, we would sing in the lobby with the resident's. I am sure they, as well as our co workers, thought we were crazy, but we always knew how to make working the weekends FUN! Thanks Linda for teasing me, I hope this post dedicated to you makes up for my absent mindedness, momnesia!

Happy Birthday Lila!

Happy Birthday to our friends' Ryan and Ana's little girl, Lila Kate. I can't believe it was a year ago, I got a text at like 6:30 am that she had arrived. Congrats to you on making it this far, she is the cutest, sweetest little thing and we just love her. Hopefully we see you soon as we have a little something for the birthday girl!!

Rain, rain, go away, come again another day!! It has been raining here since Thursday and although we haven't had any flooding, I am in need of seeing the sun again, soon! Looks like there is even a possibility of snow in the forecast for Sunday.........darn, I was hoping for an Indian summer. I remember Ryleigh's second Halloween was so warm, it was like 80 degrees on October 8th when we went to get pumpkins at the pumpkin patch! I don't think we will see that this year, and last year she didn't have to wear too warm of clothes with trick or treating, but I bet she has to bundle up this year. She has been invited to a Halloween party this year, so she and I are looking forward to that. What a great idea. I wish I were a creative person, I guess I wish I had more time to be a creative person, either way, I am not!

I wanted to post some pictures and I have below, but when I was putting the slide show together, I realized I haven't been real great with the camera the past few weeks. I need to work on that and get it out more. I want Landree to have lots of pictures of herself as well!! I did get some gymnastics ones on here of this evening however, some were blurry and this lady who saw me getting my camera ready, put her head forward at the same time I was trying to get a picture of Ryleigh jumping of the vault, so needless to say, I didn't get any of it but some lady's face. I will try and get some good ones next week. Her first session was done today and she got a lovely certificate that she was SOOOO proud of. Her hair is crazy and some days (you can see in the pictures) we can't get it to be good, especially with all this rain! And, you can see food on their faces a lot. Ryleigh got some chocolate pudding for snack one evening and wouldn't you know, Landree wants what big sister has, so she got a few bites and loved it. "Dress up" has been a pretty big thing in our house lately, so if you see some goofy clothes together, Ryleigh is picking out or dressing her self lately. Enjoy!

One more thing...................GO MN TEAMS..........Vikings....win.......Twins.......win!!!! Yeah!!!

What.............standing??

So, tonight Jason went hunting again. He saw 4....count 'em....4 bucks!! He found 'em!! Ryleigh had fun coloring and tonight she called me over while making supper.........."Mama, look, I stayed in the lines!!!" She colored a picture barely going out of the lines. She is really into peeling the paper off the crayons and breaking them in half which is driving me nuts!! Landree and I were having fun playing on the floor when Ryleigh was coloring. Jason and I have been having her walk back and forth between us (which is pretty funny as she has had no concept of balance), however tonight I was behind her and let go of her and she was standing all by herself. When I came in front of her, she gave me this look like, if your not holding onto me, how am I standing here???? HAHA, then she slowly sat on her bum. I kept standing her up and then she got braver and braver. She stood for almost a minute one time, which allowed me to get some pictures! Take a look...................



















Balancing for one of the first shots, about to fall (see her on her tip toes)........




















I have a feeling our world will soon be seeing change again soon!! Also, my brother made the navy times..........go to http://www.navytimes.com/ to check out the story. On the home page in the middle of the page, there is a story on the debate over women on submarines. He's not in the article, but he made the picture.......interesting story. Here is the picture. My brother is the one in the jacket and glasses..........cool huh? GO SAILOR RYAN!!! Thanks again for keeping our waterways and country safe!!!

Surprise, surprise!!

Oh my goodness, what happened to the month of September?? I can't believe it's October already. I was hoping for an Indian Summer, but I don't think we are going to have one. I think our family in Georgia sent us some rain. It has been raining non stop all day, luckily no flooding though. Before I go any further, I just wanted to say Happy Anniversary to our friends Ryan and Ana, their anniversary was yesterday. It's been kind of a busy week. Jason had a test on Tuesday, so Sunday and Monday I tried keeping the girls busy so that he could study. Tuesday, after studying so much, Jason and a friend watched TV and I started a new book. Yesterday, Jason went hunting and the girls and I went to a going away gathering for a friend/nurse that I work with at Applebee's. (Jason has had no luck by the way, it's like the change in weather has forced them elsewhere??) She is moving to Denver on Monday and will be greatly missed. And...we just found out a couple of weeks ago that we share a birthday!! The girls were good, but busy and I felt like it was hectic. I am so used to Jason being around in a public sit down place, with the both of them, and since Landree has become more mobile, I felt like I was in crazy mode. However, I must have been playing it pretty cool because I had so many compliments today on how well behaved they were. That made me feel like a really good mama!! I got some good pics that I will have to share. My friend, Amy brought her little 2 year old, whom was also a model child. I rented a movie for Jason and I to watch later, Knowing, with Nicolas Cage. It was kind of creepy and we didn't get to finish it, and I don't think Jason will finish it with me. He's not into suspense or horror films. BRITTANY..............where are you when I need a person to watch a scary movie with....I miss you. HAHA!! (sorry Jason).

So, yesterday, before heading out to Applebee's I wanted to change out of my scrubs. I put the girls into the playroom and told Ryleigh not to let Landree put anything to small in her mouth. (Trust me, I've gone through the room and removed all of the inappropriate toys, but Ryleigh always feels like a big help if I give her a little chore). SO, anyways, I hear this giggling coming from the both of them. I said to Ryleigh, what's going on, what are you two getting in to? When I came around the corner, what did I see?????? Landree standing on the first step. At first, I thought Ryleigh had picked her up and put her on the step (she is into picking her up and carrying her), but when I started lecturing Ryleigh on not picking up her sister, she said to me, "Mama, I didn't do it, she crawled up there all by herself!!!!" So, I went and grabbed my camera, put her back at the bottom of the steps and we had her do it again. I had to get it on film, because I wanted to show Jason, as I knew she would be asleep when he got home from hunting. Don't mind me in the video, but watch in amazement as Landree crawls up the stairs....agghhhh!! Landree is also waving (it's a limp wristed wave, but oh so cute), I have it on video too (see below). She is also starting to put her hands above her head all by herself when I say, "how big is Landree??", " Sooooo BIG!!" CUTE!!

Ryleigh is doing good too. You should here all the songs she has memorized from the radio. TOO CUTE! She has been in Gymnastics for 4 weeks now and is really enjoying herself. I need to get some pictures, but the 45 minute class seems to go so fast. She goes on Tuesdays now and it starts at 5. Tuesdays are my crazy days. Not only have the last two Tuesdays involved rounding with several doctors and nurse practitioners/PA's, but I get off of work at 4:30 and have to race across town to get the girls from daycare and then to North Mankato to get Ryleigh to gymnastics by 5. Last week we were changing clothes in the car with only a few minutes to spare. It's nice though, because Jason works in North Mankato, so I have him meet me there, he watches Ryleigh for a few minutes and then takes Landree home, gets her fed and then starts supper. It's worked out pretty good, considering. Ryleigh has worked on almost every gymnastics piece of equipment....I love watching her do the bars and of course the balance beam, it's pretty cool to see her walk across the balance beam with airplane arms and no one holding onto her (it's even regulation height...no fear)! I have included a video below of the chant the toddlers say after their class is over and before they get stickers. See her cute little leotard too, does it look familiar anyone??!! And, don't mind the chocolate pudding mustache, LOL!! Anyways for those of you who can't understand three year old language it goes like this: "tumbling tots, tumbling tots, flip, flop, hooray!!" I also added to the bottom, Ryleigh's favorite song right now, it's funny when she starts singing the song without it even playing on the radio!! So, enjoy the black eyed peas, I gotta feeling!!

Here is Landree showing you all how she waves. Like I said above, it is a limp wristed wave, but we know what she means. Her skirt is one of Ryleigh's "dress up" skirts. Ryleigh thought it would be cute on her baby sister and had me put it on her. ENJOY!

OH, and Happy Anniversary today to Jason's mom and her husband Perry!! Hope you had a good day!