Birthday Girl!!

This is my favorite picture of the day.

I think I could just post this and have the 1000 words do the rest!---But I know a few people who would not like that very much! So, I have a ton of pictures that I would say are second place finalist, they are below and a ton more that didn't make it and got stuck in the slideshow at the end.
Well today is Rhylan's 2nd Birthday. I really can't believe it. She really has changed these last 12 months. She is now my "Big Girl" and not my baby anymore. She is so independent, funny, brave, coordinated, sweet, creative, bossy, loving, happy, smart...well you get the idea. I think she is just wonderful. I so love this girl.

Here is a quick recap of her big day! Last night we opened presents from family and let her play with all her new toys until 10:00pm. Then today she played again this morning while I got everything ready for her party. We invited all the little girls around her age. She had a pool party! Everyone came and swam. I think they had a good time. Then we sang happy birthday and she blew out the candles on her ELMO cake...she has been asking for this cake all week long. She was there when I ordered it and remembered. Then we opened gifts. She had a great time. Thank you friends for coming and making Rhylan feel special today!

Here she is with her new toys from us and grandma and papa!

2 year old toys are so much more fun to buy than 1 year old toys.

She got a new bike. She can't reach the peddles but she can push
herself across the kitchen and back

There is no way she could drown in this outfit!!

Here it is, the long awaited Elmo cake!

This is a picture of Rhylan while we were singing "Happy Birthday." She felt pretty special.

This is almost as bad as last year, just a different color frosting. It's still her favorite part.

Thirsty for more? Here is the slide show of other pictures.

Video for Mom

Mom, here is a video of her playing with the little camping girls set you bought her. It is kind of long but at the end there is a video of her riding her new bike in the kitchen!!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Baby Brudder--has fun clothes

LOOK!!!

I planted these 6 tomato plants from seeds!!!! They are like 2.5 feet tall and yesterday I noticed the first blossom--I am really excited. I gasped from the balcony when I noticed, and Riley was really concerned wondering what happened! There is also a blossom on my squash plant that I have grown from seeds as well. I guess I can garden.

We love the pool

Today we invited some friends to join us while we went swimming. These two little girls are great friends and play so well together. It was really nice to have fun with them. I loved having her mom there too!

Just lounging.

Watering the water.

I think she looks so cute in her hat and glasses. They usually don't last too long.

Snack break.

Strike!!

We went bowling for Memorial day. We had a ton of fun. This was Rhylan's first time and she was getting the hang of things...kind of. Look at this picture, her ball isn't even to the pins yet and she is too excited she has to run back and get another ball!!

I love her face in this one below!

This turn she even got a STRIKE!

Almost 2

We picked Rhylan up from nursery yesterday and she was wearing this cute t-shirt over her dress. It says I'm 2! How fun is that? Her nursery leader made it for her. She wore it all day and kept saying "bir-day shirt!" Her birthday is coming up on Saturday and I think she is getting a little clue what it is all about.

Her little space

Here is Rhylan in one of her favorite places, our balcony! She likes to look over the edge for ducks and turtles in the pond. She also likes to spy on people as they walk below with their dog or take out the trash. This little tiny 5' x 10' space is her backyard for now...and luckily she doesn't know any better!

The Pool Is OPEN!

Well I found out that our pool opened a little early...TODAY! So of course I put nap time aside and went swimming. Sure the water was a little cold at first but refreshing after about 1 min. I just had to take a pic with my phone and show everyone how excited I am. Rhylan and I are going to spend many many hot days here the next 2 months!

P.S. If any of you ever want to come swimming with us, don't hesitate to ask we would love the company--and I think we are going to make this part of our daily routine!

Cir-klk

This week I wanted to help Rhylan better learn circles! So we make this lady bug using circle body, spots, antenna and eyes! She even tried to put on the glue in circle shapes.

She now says cir-klk instead of circle. As soon as Riley got home she wanted to show him her bug.

How can you punsih this?

Rhylan has started turning over this little red buckent, and setting it on top of a chair to sit on. We think this is a little dangerous and try to keep her off of it so she won't fall. But........ When you peak around the door to see what she is up to, and you see this :
How can you punish her? She is reading a book to her baby. She was even helping the baby turn the pages!

At the lake-- oh and 30 down only 10 to go!!!!!!!!!!!!

The other night we went to a lake down here only 15-20 min away. We had a picnic dinner and just hung out. Rhylan really loves her friends and the outdoors so she was in heaven. (she also loves chocolate cake...see her face)



Here we are! The lake is behind, it is pretty big...I'm from Arizona anything bigger than a pond seems huge to me! This seems like a neat place we can come to again and again. Maybe we will come camping here soon or wait until summer and come play at the beach.

OH and here is the parade of the pregos! We are all in the same ward and all of our husbands are first years at SCO. It is pretty funny, but we are excited to all have little kids the same age. Those three girls are all nine months pregnant and I am only 7. Those two months in between are going to be torture!

I AM 30 WEEKS ALONG NOW! ONLY 10 MORE TO GO! That doesn't sound so bad, right?

Self taught

Rhylan was watching a video while I was in the other room scrapbooking. I came in to check on her and found her just laying on the floor. "What are you doing?" She smiled at me and then did this:


I was so amazed I grabbed the camera and she willingly did it over and over again for me. I have never seen her do this before! I was pretty shocked!

Also, Rhylan can draw circles now! Who knew. She drew this on our drive to Branson and showed me when she was done saying "cir-kl". Needless to say, I am a pretty proud Mommy.

That girl is fay-at

After dinner today we went on a walk around our complex. We stopped at a little pond to find a bug or frog for Rhylan to see. There were three little girls on the other side of the pond. This is a conversation I over heard: "What are they doing over there?" "That girl is fay-at!" "She could be pregnant... you know?" I wasn't hurt, in fact I laughed a little bit, I just think it is so funny how little kids don't care what they say or who can hear them.

P.S. fay-at is southern for fat...try and say it out loud it will make more sense.

Branson MO

Riley had a week off of school and my parents had a time share they couldn't use and wanted to give to us. Put those two together and you get a fun vacation!

We spent the last week in Branson Missouri. There were so many neat things to do there. We really had so much fun. Rhylan even enjoyed all the activities we did.

One day we went fishing! We got Rhylan and I new fishing poles and headed to Table Top Lake. We actually caught 1 fish!! (about 4 inches)




Later we went to see the Chinese acrobats of the Shanghai Circus! This show was two hours and Rhylan was so good through it all. These girls were the drummers, they were Rhylan's favorite. Riley and I liked the Kung-Fu master, these guys who could jump through hoops, and the amazing balancing acts.
We also went to The Butterfly Palace. Here we saw so many different types of butterflies. Our favorite was the big blue ones. There was also rain forest animals to check out.


We also spent some time just relaxing in our apartment, going shopping, going to Bass Pro Shops three times, walking around historic downtown, walking on the river and watching a fountain and fire show, and going to an indoor water park. We also had some yummy food, Riley even had GATOR TAIL DINNER! He said it tasted like chicken but I will have to take his word for it.
And then, the last night, we went to Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede. This was so much fun. We got a huge dinner, and a 2 hour show with horses, dancers, racing miniature horses, racing pigs, trick riders and so much more! Here is a picture of the biggest horse I have ever seen up close. Too bad it is the back of him, he turned around later and he was 2-3 feet taller than Riley.