Baby Steps!

Well, just as I was thinking Reese wouldn't be walking for awhile, here she goes trying to stand by herself and take a few steps. She has been going back and forth between Jason and I walking a few steps these past few days. It's like all of a sudden she realized if she moved her feet, she might start walking! Anyhow here are some pictures of the past week with a story or two. Monday, our daycare was ill, so I stayed home with the girls. After Reese, Landree and I went to get Ryleigh from school we played dress up and, I guess what you could say, hide and seek with Reese. I can't remember what the two older ones and I were doing but all of a sudden Reese was not in sight (this usually means she is either on the stairs or playing in the toilet). I didn't hear any splashing of water so I ran for the stairs, but no Reese. When I came back into the living room, we found her sitting in this booster chair on the floor, behind the table and chairs beaming this huge, grin at me!Then the girls decided they wanted their picture taken with her and she didn't know what all the fuss was about!Here she is standing by herself trying to keep her balance, this only lasted a little while.Here she is taking a few steps towards me. I was just trying to get a picture of her leaning up against the couch as she kept doing this funny stance and smiling, but she wanted the camera and so she started walking and I got it in a picture!Here's my most happy baby!Ryleigh in her dress up clothes, posing for the camera!Landree in her dress up dress. If she looks funny in the picture, it's because the dress is scratching her where the waistband is, she only wanted to wear this dress, so we ended up putting a t-shirt underneath it!Here is Landree drawing a picture of a person. It's just the face, but I was pretty impressed!And, I am not really sure what that person is doing now?? Looks like a little vomiting action, but who knows, and Landree couldn't tell me! We have started to work really hard with her on her numbers, ABC's, shapes and colors. Jason attended this "Ready for Kindergarten" program and it gave some great tips and activities for us to work on with both Reese and Landree. Landree is ornery, though and sometimes it's hard to know what she really knows, but last evening she counted really well for me, said her ABC's almost perfect (messed up at H) and found the letter L in her blocks to show me what Landree starts with! She is our hard one. Again, we are not sure sometimes what she knows as she either clams up or gets ornery with us and although she's constantly bringing us books to read, she talks while we are reading them to her, constantly! Here are Ryleigh and Landree loving each other up!
The End!

Slacker!

So, I've been a slacker in the birthday wishes department. It all started in January and now tomorrow is March and I am way behind. For instance, my cousin Brittany's birthday was January 25th and although I didn't get it on here to wish her a happy birthday, I did drink a beer with her the following weekend! And, on January 26th was Grandma Terri's birthday, she did get a phone call. Then, on February 16th, my cousin and Godson, Blake celebrated a birthday, he got a text! Then, the following day was my brother, Ryan's 30th birthday and my Aunt Lisa's birthday, they too, got a text and a phone message! I still haven't been able to catch up with Ryan to see how his party turned out, but I have seen his cake on FB and well, come on, he's my little brother! Then, Monday was Nana Peggy's birthday and we left her a message as well! Now, March has a ton of birthdays in it too, so we will see how well I am at leaving a post for those. So, happy belated birthday to all the above mentioned special people in our lives! WE LOVE YOU ALL!

Winter Project #3

Here we are, middle of February and are finished with winter project #3! I think this might be it and we've already selected what our projects for next winter will be!! I have a picture of what the kitchen looked like when we bought our house 5 years ago! Now, it hasn't looked like this in the past 5 years. It was painted a creamy white color. What we did do was change up the color of the paint, added a hanging light in place of the light that was above the little bar, and put in new counter tops and sink. It took us longer to pick out the color of the paint and the counter tops than it did to paint and install the counter tops. Jason brought the counter tops home on a Friday evening and by the next Saturday evening, they were in place. We had to take everything out of the lower cabinets to put in the counter top, so I got to go through my stuff, reorganize and pick out some stuff to get rid of, and clean them all really well. It was a chore, but fun! I still have all the old decor, and want different, but haven't found exactly what I want so, I moved some of it around for now. (Next winter's project include, a new tile floor and tile back splash, but until then, we have the same floor)! Here are some pictures:

BEFORE PICTURES:

View from the living room:

Heading to the garage/formal dining room:
Now, we've had the stainless steel appliances for a few years, last winter we replaced the handles to the brushed nickel on the cabinets to match the appliances and make for a more modern look, but I can't find any in between photos, so all you get is the above (which is what the kitchen looked like when we bought it) and below (which is what it currently looks like)!

AFTER PICTURES:

Loving my new undermount sink

A view from the living room:

Looking toward the garage entry:

Coming in from the garage way: A daytime photo since the others are during darkness:A view from the garage entry/formal DR:

Miss Reese is 11 months!

Miss Reese turned 11 months on Saturday! She is getting so big and is so smart........AND gets into everything...not kidding! She has 6 chompers, and, I think, two more on the way! What else, she's still "afraid" to take that first step, but is working on it. She will pick up a phone, put it to her ear and mumble something that resembles, "hello"! She LOVES food! She climbs stairs, but hasn't yet learned how to go down and has fallen down them several times. She loves getting into everything shes not supposed to............cabinets, open toilets, trash cans, crayons, paper, stairs, drawers, plants (all which are out of reach until a leaf falls off), pulling things off of shelves.............and will eat whatever she finds. I constantly chase her out of what she's not supposed to be in. She doesn't play with toys, likes to play with things she shouldn't and if I don't take it away, she will put it down like it's not fun anymore. Last but not least, she likes to dive, head first out of the tub and did so yesterday morning which resulted in a pretty good sized goose egg right above her right eye! Anyways, we can't imagine life without her and soon she will be 1. :( It's gone way too fast, this past year.

Funnies!

Okay, back to tell the funny story of Ryleigh!! She is so cute and grown up sometimes. Some days I feel like she is 5 going on 15, thank goodness, she doesn't:

So, last Friday I got some clothes for the two older girls and some pairs of shoes for Landree as her feet have grown since the fall. I also found a pair of cute boots for Ryleigh! Most of the items I got at Once Upon a Child (which is a little thrift type store for children's clothing)! It is all gently used and lots of name brand items, very good condition. Ryleigh's outfit however, I found on the clearance rack at Target (except the boots)! So Friday when we got home from school, Ryleigh tried on her outfit (don't mind the skinny jeans which are a little big, but I thought they would be nice for her to "grow into")! She wore it the entire evening and then asked if she could wear it on Saturday to show Grandma. Sure, why not! That evening, she folded her outfit perfectly and set it on the stairs to be ready for the morning. So, Saturday, she was up before me as was Jason. They were both in the bathroom getting ready for the day and of course, Ryleigh was getting her new outfit on and as she was looking in the full length mirror at herself and said, "Daddy, I look older today, I feel like I'm six!" HAHA! Cutest little statement EVER! Anyways, we couldn't go without a picture so, here she is (now she tries to tuck every pair of pants she has into these boots.....what did I start):

Another funny about Ryleigh. Today she was irritated and upset with Jason for something I can't even remember, but I wrote down what she said because it was hilarious. She of course got mad at us for giggling after she said this: "I'm still CROSS with you, Daddy!!!!"

And a cute funny from Landree today as well! At the supper table, here was the conversation:

Jason: "Let me see your pretty blue eyes!"

Landree: "Like yours?"

Jason: "No, what color are mine?"

Landree: "CHOCOLATE!!!!!" and then she gives her big grin!!

Love them!!! :)

Thoughts/stories!

Listened to the St. Jude radio-thon on the way to work and back home today and did everything in my power not to cry. I am so thankful today for all the good health in my family, especially the children. I was thinking that I don't know if I could be as strong as some of those parents that were telling their stories. Good reason to just snuggle in tonight, especially with this frigid weather that is now here. BRRR. On that sad note, a few cute stories to make everyone smile again....

I have to clarify the Ryleigh one with Jason before I post the picture and write about her, because I want to get it just right....but it will crack you up. Jason is asleep, so maybe later this weekend, I will get it on here! We did make her a special Valentine box for her party at school next Tuesday though, so I can share that one. I only wrapped the box, she decorated everything else, and in the picture it looks huge, hmmm. They also will be celebrating the 100th day of school on Friday the 17th with a party. She had to bring 100 objects to school to display at the party and picked colorful buttons! Can you believe they haven't yet had one snow day this year!!

Landree is our entertainer, sneaky, sweet and funny one. She thinks all of our middle names are Grace except hers. I am Mommy Grace, we have Daddy Grace, of course, Ryleigh Grace and then there is Reese Grace. Usually when she scolds any of us, she will give us our name and add Grace. Well the other day, she was getting into trouble for something and I used that "TONE" where you are in trouble (you all know it, right?) Well, I said in that "tone"........Laaaaaaaandreeeeeee. She knew she was in trouble and when I didn't spit out her middle name she very quickly added, "Issssssssabelllllllllle". Then gave me the cutest little grin ever. Really, you have to be cute when getting in trouble? Who can get mad then, not me! She can so easily turn a room from grumpy to hysterical in just a few minutes. Anyways, I just love her so much. And, here she is:

Reese is becoming a toddler to quickly. Although, she hasn't quite mastered any movements without holding onto something, she is walking along furniture and with her push toys. She will be 11 months old in a week and is nowhere near where the girls were with taking their first steps. They were both walking solid at 11 months old across entire rooms, but Miss Reese won't even stand for us, just plops right to her knees. She is however, into shaking her booty and will now dance whenever there is music playing. And crawling, I think she crawls faster than I run!! She gets into everything she is not supposed to and is the first kid of ours where "outlet covers" and "cabinet keeper outers" are a must! She just figured out how to stick out her tongue, blow and make the "farting noise"! She loves to make faces as much as Landree does/did and I caught our favorite in a picture finally. This one she will blow in and out her nose while making this face and it makes all 4 of us laugh.

Oh, and I am going on a date tomorrow with my hubby! Can't wait!!

Some Randomness....

It doesn't really feel that long ago that I posted but it appears to be creeping up on 2 weeks. We've been busy. The Health Dept. was at work and as always, it was intense....I'm still trying to catch up on sleep from being stressed out. Let's move on........last weekend, Jason and I took a quick trip (with the girls) to Nebraska for a Dinslage family Christmas. I was traveling on someone special's birthday, so Happy Belated Birthday to Grandma Terri on here!! Hope your day was fabulous and we will have to finish our conversation soon as we got cut off somewhere in Iowa! It was weird, I even had 3 bars, but those valleys are tricky with our cell phones! Anyhow, I got to see lots of family, the girls got a couple presents each, we had a White Elephant Gift exchange and I actually got a good gift.......a book.......The girl with the Dragon Tattoo, had tons of good food and I took some pictures (that I haven't got off my camera yet)! Jason and I have almost completed Winter Project #3. As soon as we put the finishing touches on, I will post some pictures! That's what we spent the whole weekend on. Now, I just have to put my kitchen back together! So excited for next Saturday. Jason and I have date night and I am looking forward to dressing up and hanging out with him! Here are some random shots from January that I hadn't posted yet!

Here's the pictures I talked Jason into taking with me at the photo booth on our night out on New Years Eve. See how the first and last one he is looking down (too many captains to figure out where the camera was)! HEHE

It was Clifford the Big Red Dog's Birthday last month and they celebrated his birthday at Kindergarten. Don't you love Ryleigh's ears and nose she made. They got to take the picture with Clifford, wear red and do some other fun things to celebrate!

The girls love the Wii. Here is Ryleigh riding a bike!And here is Ryleigh helping Landree ride a bike!