Happy Birthday Rylie!!

Rylie turned 4 today, and I can't believe it!!! It seems like just yesterday she was born. Here are a few pictures:
This was Rylie just after she was born. She was not breathing and had to be tubed in the room. Luckily she recovered quickly and we were able to bring her home in just 1 short week. Atleast it seems short looking back.


Here is Mike and Rylie and her Saturday home getting ready to watch her first Nebraska game.


Wasn't she a cute baby???



Here is Rylie on her 2nd birthday with her favorite guy:


The next few pictures were taken within a few months after her 2nd birthday:







I had to work so Rylie had to go to school, but she aws actually really looking forward to it. She brought cupcakes to the class and her teacher really made her feel special today. He hung a banner up in the room and told the class they were not allowed to call her Rylie, they had to call her birthday girl (which she inforced at home!!). She also got to be the line leader all day, come on, does life get any better then that!!! Rylie picked Chick-fil-a for dinner and then Mike had set up a scavenger hunt for her at home sending her all over the house to find all sorts of new bubble toys.

Her birthday party is Friday and I'll post pictures. Bethany's best friend and our family hair dresser, Katie Petty, has graciously volunteered to come over and help us give all the girls a princess make-over!! They will get hair up-do's, make-up and nails painted. It will hopefully be just as much fun as the Sweet & Sassy party Rylie went too earlier this year, but without all the expense. Rylie hasn't stopped talking about that party, but I just couldn't have justify spending that much on a party, but I also didn't want her to miss out on something fun.

Party pictures will post soon!!

Maybe just a little excited!!

My family just might be a little excited about another boy!! We haven't had a boy since Caden, and he turned 5 this summer!! Brook came over that same night we found out and brought clothes she had gone out and bought that afternoon. Since then she has bought more clothes. She said they were summer and on clearance and she just couldn't pass them up!! My mom went out that weekend and bought his bedding from Babies R Us!! There are pictures below. You couldn't buy the bumper pads, dust ruffle and a few other things seperately, so she just bought the set. My mom is still making a quilt, I couldnt' imgine not having one! For those who know my girls, you know they can't sleep with out their GiGi quilts. I'm excited to go pick out fabric and to see the finished product.

Of course, we will have some Nebraska in the room. I didn't want it to be just Nebraska, but that is why we went with the sports theme, so it would look good to put a few Husker things in. We are even going to order Nebraska fabric and have it in is quilt. I bought some newborn nebraska shirts. Hopefully they are small enough, because I would love for that to be what Aiden is wearing in his hospital picture!!

I know my family would of loved another girl, but it has been really fun to see everyone so excited for us to have a boy!! Hopefully more pictures to come soon of the girls. I have been really busy since school started back.

It's a . . .

We had our sonogram today and everything was good. The baby measured perfectly at 18W 4D and everything checked out. Here is a picture of the babies face:


And . . .

It's a boy!!

The girls were really excited. From the start they have said they wanted a brother. Reagan has been more insisted then Rylie. It was funny because I thought it would of been the other way around. This weekend as we were talking about the appointment Reagan told me it could be a boy or a kitty cat!! I tried to explain that those weren't the options and that God would pick for us, but she didn't want to hear anything about that.

The name will be Aiden James, or AJ. We have had that name picked out since I was pregnant with Rylie, and we are excited to finally get to use it! I guess that I can keep the blue blog for now!!

Reagan Singing & Silly Pictures

Here is a video of Reagan sing Take me out the Ball Game!! It is her favorite song right now.

Reagan is so silly!! She is still also really flexible still. She can completely fold in half and sleep basically in her own lap. Here is a picture of Reagan using her foot as a phone!! This is her favorite game to play, especially in the car.

Here is how Reagan wipes her tears away when she is crying...I did mention she is silly, right??

I don't know if I need to say it again... but she is just crazy. Sometimes she reminds me of Bethany.

Rylie isn't normally as silly as Reagan, but she loosens up every now and again and joins Reagan. Bless her heart she is too much like her momma!! Rylie & Reagan are completely opposites, and a lot like Bethany and I. I just hope they don't have to wait until they are both older to get along. They play so good right now and I hope it stays that way.

Old Woodland West Together

We got together with the Watts, the Biggs, the Wilson, and the Crowders this past Saturday. We had a blast. There were a bunch of water activities set up in the Watt's back yard and the kids played all day.

Here is a picture of Reagan and Emily (Shelly's Daughter).


Here is Reagan enjoying Tiffany's ice cream dessert. Brandi took this picture because she thought it was funny how Reagan was sitting. She has always sat like that!


Here is Rylie having fun in the little pool. She is my careful one, so she didn't play on the bigger water toys!!

Here is Emily (Shelly's), Brady (Shelly's) and Cole-yellow shirt (Kim & Bruce).

Here is Emily (Brandi's) coming down the on the big slide. I wish I had taken a picture of the whole thing. It had 2 slides, stairs to climb up and wading pool at the bottom.

Broken camera & Sonogram

Well, I know that I promised pictures, but our camera broke shortly after we got back from our trip. We don't have a card adaptor, so I can't pull the pictures off. Hopefully soon we'll have a new camera and I can post some pictures.



We had our first sonogram last week. You couldn't see much, I was only about 10 1/2 weeks. The baby wouldn't move either, he was curled up in a ball and was just moving his arms. I'm not sure how much you can see in the picture below. The baby's face is turned slightly towards the camera, you can see a little bit of the shadow of the eye socket. His arms and legs are underlength him. I know that I am saying "He", maybe it is just wishful thinking on my part, but that is just what comes out. Michael is convienced it is a girl, so he corrects me everytime and says she! We have about 6-8 weeks until we'll know for sure, so I guess we have a little bit more time to disagree on the issue.




Everything looked good at my first appointment & sonogram. The heartbeat was nice & strong and the baby already is measuring 2 days early. I guess the fact that I have lost 10 lbs hasn't hurt him at all!! I am surprised the baby wasn't small as sick as I have been. I'll be 12 weeks on Saturday so I am hoping that part is just about done. I was induced with Reagan 7 days early and she was 8.5 lbs, & Rylie 4 days early at 8.5 lbs so Dr Weigman expects this baby to be just as big.

Surprise!!

Michael and I received a BIG surprise last week. I found out that I was pregnant again!! We had been talking about maybe having one more, in about a year, once I was done with school. We are starting to get over the shock and the reality of 3 kids is starting to sink in . . . and scary us a little!!

We leave on Wednesday to go out of town to South Carolina to see Cody graduate from Basic and we are really excited to have the weekend kid-free, thanks to NaNa and PoPo coming down from Kansas to watch the girls. I am also taking 1 class this summer, it started 2 weeks ago. It required 5 books!!! That is a lot of reading to do in just 8 weeks. By week 1 I was already way behind.

I'll hopefully have a little bit of time after we get back to post new pictures of the girls. They have enjoyed the summer so far. We have gone to the Zoo, the park and to Grammers to play on the lake. The girls surprised me with how much the enjoyed the water, last year they were scared.

Sorry for the random blog, we've had a busy summer already and it has just began!!

Cody to Army & Easter

Michael's closet friend, Cody, enlisted in the army and shipped out to boot camp 2 weeks ago. We have been so close to the Roche family for a long time. They have a 5 year old daughter & a 3 year old son. Our families have been friends since before we had kids. We have celebrated every birthday & holiday together for a long time!! For right now we still get to enjoy his wife and 2 kids, but by the end of the year he will be done with all his training and he will find out where his first posting will be.

He asked for a picture of the girls to take with him, and this is what we gave him:



Easter was fun this year. The girls had parties & hunts at school, so they were really excited. All they learned about at school was the Easter bunny and other fun things. Michael talked to them about the real reason we celebrate Easter. When I got home from school, Rylie couldn't wait to tell me what she learned. She told me that we celebrate Easter because Jesus can stop dying on the cross. I thought it was so cute!!

Here is a picture of almost the whole family that morning:
Reagan's favorite thing in her Easter basket was the pencils (I think the least expensive too! She doesn't' even want me to sharpen them either, she just likes to hold them.)


The girls asked me to take this picture. I thought that was funny because I always ask them to pose that way:


I wasn't able to get any good pictures of the girls looking for eggs. They didn't stay in one place long enough! We had 8 kids running around my house living room & kitchen, and it was crowded! It was wet & rainy outside so we were forced to stay inside:

I wrote on my last blog about Reagan's attitude, and on Easter she displayed it BIG TIME!!!! Reagan is normally so sweet and funny, but every now and then horns come out of no where. She asked for juice after lunch and I filled up the cup about half way, which is normal for her. She asked for more and I told her that if she finished that I would give her more. She was not happy with that answer so she dumped the cup of juice on the floor!!! I couldn't believe it. After a spanking and going to time out for about 5 minutes she had to clean it up. This picture does not due the situation justice. She is still crying hysterically as she is mopping up all the juice. Once I calmed down and looked back, it was actually really quick funny. Good thing she is sweet & funny most of the time, otherwise I think I might go crazy!! I hope one day she figures out that I am more stubborn then she is, and soon.

New Pictures

I know it has been a while since I have posted, but things are going well. We are staying busy with work and school and I am loving working for a CPA firm again. My first semester back is almost done, and then I'll have a few weeks off until summer starts!! If everything goes as plan, then I'll be done in May of 2010!! Just 3 more semesters ... then grad school. Oh well, one at a time.

Here are some recent pictures of the girls, guess where we were head?? The zoo!! I am sure everyone is surprised.

Don't they look like they love each other?? This weekend they have gotten along really good. They had been fighting quite a bit, so it was a nice change.

Side note: It may not look like it in this picture, but Reagan has finally started growing a little bit!! She actually has outgrown her pants from this winter (18months!!). This is the first season that she has outgrown her clothes before the seasons changed. Since Rylie is so tall, they have never really looked a year apart, but maybe Reagan will catch up. She was sick 2 weeks ago, and at the doctor she weighed 26 pounds!!

Here is Reagan being silly:

And Reagan showing me her mad face. Unfortunately, we see this face a lot. Reagan has enough attitude for 10 kids!! My mom says that is exactly how I was, but I don't think I started as early as Reagan. She is a lot of fun, but she can be quite the handful.

My friend Robyn was in town this weekend from Tennessee. We have known each other since 6th grade softball season, and it is always good when she is able to come down to visit.

We actually go to church with her Brother and his family, and so we all went together. Below is the four older kids:

Cora, Rylie, Reagan and Cole.

Here is Logan, Robyn's son. He is 16 months old.

Potty Training & A 3 Year Old Witness

Reagan is about 90% potty trained!! It started taking off about 4 weeks ago. She did really good for about 1 week at home so I bought pull-ups for school (She had been asking for them for a while!!). During that week so only had 1 accident a day in her pull-ups, so her teacher said she was ready for panties! Reagan was really excited. She had been wearing panties at home, but I didn't think she was ready for them at school!! She has had them one for 2 weeks now at school and she does really good. Most days she doesn't have any accidents. All last week she only had 2 accidents. One while they were outside playing and the other at nap time. I am ok with accidents at those times. At home she does pretty good about stopping and going to the bathroom, but sometimes while she is playing she forgets and I have to remind her. The past week was the first week that she would stop and only potty a few drops in her panties and then finish in the potty. That has been nice because we aren't having to change pants!! She is scared of the big potty, so if we go in public she has to wear a pull up.

As I am writing this blog, Reagan was playing with Michael and just peed on his lap!! How funny, I don't think I'll mention what I am blogging about, he might not think it is as funny as I do!! Did I mention she is just about 90%?? Maybe tickling isn't such a good idea for right now!!

About 1 1/2 years ago I made a decision not to let the girls listen to regular music, and just christian music. It was hard for me at first to give up the music that I liked to listen too, but I didn't want the girls to hear some of the things I was hearing! The girls love their "bible songs" and ask for the as soon as we get in the car. Rylie has really asked some really good questions from songs that she has heard. She has asked if God really does have the whole world in his hands?, Does she have the joy of Jesus in her heart? and a few others. About a month ago, she heard a song that said Jesus was on the cross and she asked me about that. At first, she would get upset when I said that Jesus died on the cross. She would tell me that she didn't want to talk about it. You could tell that she was very upset. Finally she was ok with talking about it and I tried to explain that he died on the cross for her so she didn't have too and that was the reason that we love Jesus. I tried to explain it as best as I could to a 3 year old. She then started asking if Jesus died for Reagan, Daddy, Mommy and so on. I told her Jesus died for everyone.

This past Thursday we went over to Bethany's house, my sister. When we were leaving her bible song came on that talked about Jesus on the cross. She asked if Jesus died for Aunt Bethany, Caden and Addie. I told her yes. She got really excited and ask me if she could call Aunt Bethany to tell her because she might not know. I'll be honest, my first reaction was to say no, that Aunt Bethany already knows. Then I realized, she is excited and wants to tell someone and I didn't want to change that. I let her call and tell Aunt Bethany her exciting news. It made me realize that I should have the same excited that Rylie has at 3!! There are a lot of adults, myself included, that are hestitate to witness and share this exciting news that we all know. I hope that Rylie continues to learn and grow in Christ and that I can continue to learn and be amazed by her!!

Christmas and New House (FINALLY!!!)

We finally closed on our house!! YEAH!!! It has been a long time coming. We have ran into many, many problems since we own Bark Busters. Most lenders have put tighter restrictions anyways, but it seem liked we were really having to jump through hoops. One lender told us that if the business address and the personal address were the same that we weren't allowed to claim any of that income!! We also were having to go back about 6 months and print out every deposit that we made to make sure nobody was gifting us money. The list could go on and on. We finally gave up on that. We found a house at a really, really good price that the owner was really to owner finance, and not charge us a high interest rate. It is only about 60 seconds from my parents. It is 2500 sq ft, 4 bedrooms, 2 1/5 baths. It has everything we needed and more. We have an over sized two car garage with TONS of cabinets and a lot of attic space to store all the things we have managed to accumulate. The master is over sized, so it fits all our furniture and we have nice bathroom with 2 big closets. Sorry no pictures, I left the camera in Kansas!! One of my favorite rooms is our guest bedroom. Since both Mike's mom and dad live out of town, we are hoping they will be able to come down and see the girls more often now that we have a place for them to stay.

We empty our two storage sheds on Friday and Saturday before Christmas and then left that following Sunday to go to Kansas. We came back home on Saturday. The girls really enjoyed getting to spend a week with PoPo and NaNa (Mike's Dad). They were spoiled and received a ton of Christmas presents. One of Reagan's favorite is a little stuffed Mickey Mouse she got from Traci. I don't think she has put him down!! She has added him to her collection of animals that she thinks she just needs to sleep with. I think she is up to about 6-7!!

I received a ton of new Fiesta Ware pieces from both my parents and Mike's. I am pumped!! I know have a formal dining room to put my hutch to display everything. Know I can really start collecting things.

Michael's parents are going to come down in the next couple of weeks to see the house so I will hopefully be able to post pictures of our house and Christmas then!!

Forgot 1 thing!

I forgot to mention 1 thing! For those who don't know, I have put my notice in at Kinko's. I will be going back to work for PSK on January 5th. I am really excited. I am also going to go back to school. I had my appointment with my academic advisor yesterday and I learned that I only have 9 more classes left!! I was hoping it was between 10-12, but I really couldn't remember. I am so excited I can't hardly stand it!! I know it will be busy next semester, but it will be worth it when I am done.

Dr Appointments and Sunday

The girls had their 2 and 3 year old check up last Friday. They were healthy and everything was good. Rylie didn't have to get any shots and Reagan only had 1 due. Thankgoodness!! The real reason I am writing about this because of how they ranked on the charts. It is just really funny to me.

Rylie - 65% in Height
85% in Weight
She is eating like a horse, so we think those will even out in the next couple of weeks. She is normally pretty even and right at 85% in height too.

Reagan - 50% in Weight
10% in Height!!
After the dr saw that, she asked me, is she short or did we measure wrong? It was really funny. We have been wondering if Reagan was short or not. It is kind of hard to tell because Rylie is so tall. The girls are only a year apart, but they don't look it!! You would think I would be lucky enough for Reagan to be able to wear Rylie's clothes from the year before, but no!! The clothes are too big!! Reagan is in 2T pants. Rylie wore 18 months at a year and 3T at 2 years. Oh well, I think to dress them the same anyways.


We had a really busy day on Sunday. We did Reagan's baby dedication that morning. I know, she isn't a baby!! The last church we were at only did them once a year and we were out of town!! We started visiting churches about 3-4 months ago looking for a more active sunday school class. We found that class at First Baptist Mansfield. We know a few of the couples from the church I grew up in and one of the couples is Robyn's younger brother. Wierd how things work out sometimes! Anyways, so we were late, but it is important to us to take the moment to dedicate ourselves to raise Reagan in a godly manner. We didn't bring a camera, but hopefully I can find someone who did and post a picture!! She did really good. I was proud!


That afternoon we went to a baby shower for Tiffany (use to be Watts). She is due in January. It was really good to see her and her sisters and mom again. It had been a little while. I took Rylie with me. She wanted to go to the baby party with all the other girls! Shelly's little girl Emily was there. She turns 4 in January so they had a lot of fun. Rylie and Emily actually ended up showing up in the same dress, it was really funny!! Here is a picture:

Pictures

We went to Sears on Sunday night to get the girls pictures taken. They turned out pretty good I think. We had a rocky start, Reagan didn't want to have any pictures taken. Rylie on the other hand, after we left said she wants to have her picture taken every day!!

We bought all CD and the rights to the picture, but know I can't get them to load to the sears website to send you a link, so I just uploaded them all here. Hope you enjoy!!

Now, I hope that nobody thinks we are mean for the next two pictures, but Reagan is a mess!! I think the pictures are evidence enough!! Rylie is my rule follower and well, Reagan, isn't!! She is ornery, but comes by it honestly. Something about those 2nd born I guess.

Disney on Ice!!

Our girls love Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and anything that has to do with Princesses. We took them to Disney on Ice this past Saturday and they loved it! Rylie was really into show and loved the whole thing. Reagan loved parts of, but didn't get into it quite as much as Rylie. We told the girls we were going to Mickey's clubhouse and they were talking about it for days before.

When we got there (30 minutes early!!) Reagan kept saying, Mickey where are you?, Donald where are you? and through the list. We had a chance to buy tickets before they went on sale, and so we were able to get front row seats on the ice. I was a little worried that it might scare the girls, but they did great. At the end Reagan even got to give Baloo (From jungle book) and one of the Monkeys a high five. She talked about that rest of the night. Cinderella blew Rylie a kiss as she was riding by in the carriage. I thought Rylie was going to pass out. Her jaw dropped and she tried to blow a kiss back, but she just froze!!

The one thing we didn't realize was the it was featuring The Incredibles. Friday night they came on NBC and we happened to watch - good thing!!

Here are a few pictures. It was pretty dark during a lot of the show, so not all my pictures turned out great.

This is Mickey and Minnie in Jail, the were captured during part of the show.

Then they were put into lazer jails. This was right in front of us. I didn't zoom in at all during this shot. Reagan didn't watch take her eyes off of Mickey until he was out. I couldn't figure out if she was just in ahh or worried.

Fronone came later to help them out. The girls liked him because a lot of smoke and stuff followed. He to me tooked the most like his character on the movie.

And finally the are free!!

Here is Donald. I am not zoomed in on this one either!! It was really funny, at the beginning they introduced all the characters. Reagan turned to me and asked, where is Daisy?? I just laughed. With all the excited and everything else going on, she noticed Daisy wasn't there. I told her she might be sick.

Rylie is already asking to go back. A different Disney on Ice featuring Little Mermaid and Cars comes in March. Tickets go on sale in February and we hope we can that show too.