Rhylan the KID!!!

Sunday morning she woke up to birthday decorations!

After church, we had a little family party. We ate cheese pizza and watermelon on princess plates! She also opened her presents. Her Grammy C, Papa and Markee (Riley's family) were able to come celebrate with us! That may have been Rhylan's favorite gift:) --Thanks for coming, we loved spending the weekend with you.
Her Auntie Markee got her this little hamster. It runs around on the floor. She loves it and has named him...Talmer?

She was such a big girl and knew just what to do with the presents.

And her big surprise present was a scooter "que-ter" Here is her reaction when she opened her eyes and saw her dream present right in front of her. She tried this out in the store over 2 months ago and has dreamed, asked, wished, for one ever since:)

DID YOU SEE HER SPECIAL OUTFIT?
I made this birthday skirt and matching 3 shirt. She got to wear it to church.

She is a pro and extra safe in her new Dora helmet!

She got a lot of fun things. We have already tried out all the board games! Gone on a walk to try out the scooter, she wore her princess shoes for hours, chased a hamster, listened to her "DVD's" tried out all her dresses for her magnet doll "paper doll," and read lots of princess books.
Then later we did the cake (see previous post for a cake pic.)



Yep Rhylan has passed the baby years, said good-bye to the toddler times and has moved on to being a big KID!! Am I old enough to have a 3 year old? WOW, it is weird to think that I have spent the last 3 years not working out of my home, not going to school, but being a full-time, stay at home, mother (I LOVE IT!)

Rhylan's 3 year stats:

Weight: just under 27 lb--10th percentile (meaning 90% of kids her age weigh more than that!)
Height: just over 35 in--5th percentile (95% of kids her age are taller than her!)

I guess she takes after me. We are a little small. The doctor wasn't concerned with her weight or height at all!! I was so relieved. At her 2 year check up the other Dr. was kind of mad at me for Rhylan's low weight.
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I had a little interview with the Birthday Girl to help you get to know her a little bit... and for our blog book! I answered all the questions first, with what I figured was the correct answer. Many did not match up. But as you probably know, little girls are very unpredictable and often change their mind. I consider my answers the correct ones but hers are the funny ones! (my answers are in the parentheses)

Rhylan, what is your favorite:
Toy? doll house (princesses)
Movie? Madagascar, Jungle Book (Dora Saves the Mermaids)
Color? blue & green & purple (pink)
Song? Single Ladies (Single Ladies)
Friend? Mary & Weesa (Mary and Louisa)
Place to go? park (pet store)
Animal? Lion..RRRAAARRRR!! (cat or giraffe)
Princess? Cinderelly & Sleep'n Blewty (Cinderella)
Snack? carrots (crackers and cheese)
Drink? Lemonade! (juice box)
Letter? R! (r)
Breakfast? Cereal (cereal)
Favorite thing to do with Mommy? play (cook)
Favorite thing to do with Daddy? play (play)
Favorite thing to do with Gracin? play with his toys (take a bath)
Favorite way to help mom? clean up all the bottles (unload the dishwasher--silverware)
What do you do when you are thirsty? "tell daddy drink a water"
What do you do when you are tired? "I have to go to bed"

What to you like better?
Popsicle or ice cream? --ice cream
PB&J or Tuna sandwich? --tuna
Juice or milk?-- juice
Play in the pool or snow? --snow
Be hot or cold? -- hot
Banana or apple? Banana
TV or movies? TV
Cats or dogs?-- Cats and dogs!
Pet store or park?--ZOO!-----This one made me laugh:)

We sure love this big girl. She is so special and is a very important part of our happy family. We love her funny personality. We love her crazy monkey like abilities (climbing.) We love her little round face, her little girl attitude, her sweet voice, her beautiful songs, pretty much every little thing about his girl makes us happy. WE LOVE YOU RHYLAN.

Happy Birthday Munchkin!!!!!!

Preview to our weekend!!

Many, many more photos to come!!! My mom called and requested a pic of the birthday girl with her cake... I had to make her happy:)

I did my first Family photo shoot!

This is my good friend Brittney and her family. She was so kind to let me take their family pictures. I am not going to lie, I was so excited. I think they turned out pretty good! Little Aubrey wasn't too happy about holding still but she gave me a few great smiles. It was a challenge to get all three girls to look and smile all at the same time. I learned how to do a head swap! You can't even tell! Go ahead... look at the picture of the three little girls sitting on the chest. One of those heads was in another picture. Can you guess which one? I took a ton of pictures... here are a few of my favorites!

toys, Zelda, and pretend

These three things have been keeping us busy lately. Gracin is getting so good at playing with his toys. He loves to go explore his toy basket and find all the toys that make noise. He really likes the toy that has the little doors that pop open and he gets to shut them. He also enjoys tackling Rhylan and playing with her on the floor. He really likes to try and stand on his own. He also loves to chase Rhylan and I around the living room.

Rhylan likes to be with Zelda, and try to torture her without getting bit! She loves to play pretend. She is often an animal instead of herself. She also likes to be funny. She will make funny faces or do funny thinks like roll over or try and stand on her head. She loves to try and make Gracin and I laugh with her funny things. And she loves to dance. She can dance to herself singing, no music needed. The song of choice is still Single Ladies, and she knows every word. (Ask her to sing it for you sometime.)

And I love to open the little doors on that toy for Gracin to shut. I love to be chased by Gracin and also pretend I am a big scary animal and chase the two of them around on our hands and knees. Its quite a work out! I love to laugh with Rhylan and talk with her. She sure can be a great buddy. I love to try and capture these fun little moments with my camera so I will remember them forever. And I also love to show Riley the pictures of our day. He gets to see what we do! And I love to share them on the blog for you and for me!

Gracin and his toys.
(click to enlarge)

Rhylan and her funny faces... and cute freckles!
(click to enlarge)

Rhylan and Zelda... Zelda ran away right after the kiss.

Gracin practicing standing. He is really good at it!

make that 2

Wow, I am having a fabulous day... well besides being at the Dr's office from 9:22am- 12:36 pm (literally.) Accidentally drinking a sip of NASTY sweet tea, instead of my Sprite that I ordered.

I won another photo challenge! I even won a Starbucks gift card...they have shakes;) The theme last week was black and white. There were over 30 beautiful entries. Here is the winning photo:

I won a photo challenge!!!!

I won a photo challenge on the internet!!! I was so excited:) They pick a winner every week and then after 4 weeks they pick a grand prize winner for the month for a giveaway. The theme was PINK. Here is the winning photo:

My first sun flare!!

So, before I thought sun in the picture is bad. But in my reading and studying I have learned it can sometimes enhance an image! But it takes great skills and I think a lot of luck to get it perfect. I was just so happy I actually got a picture of one. You can add one in photoshop but this one was all natural:) It made me so happy. ( I don't think it is perfect but I like it!) And man is it hard to focus on a moving target, like a baby in a swing.

We went to an outing some friends had planned. We had a potluck, wienie roast. It was so hot outside even in the evening. But we had a great time eating, talking with friends, and playing with our kids. Here are a few more pics from our night.
Yes Rhylan got a little sweaty, but mostly that is water we dumped on her head to keep her cool in the 90* weather.

Louisa and Rhylan, they are GREAT friends. They were playing together all evening.

(He thinks he is one of the big kids)

While in AZ

Way back in April I went to AZ for a visit. My best friend for the past 10 years was able to drive the 3.5 hrs to come spend the day with me!!! It made my day. We were in the same ward since we were 12 years old, then we became best friends in high school, and roommates in college! We have been really good about staying connected with blogs, phone calls, and visits. We are both marriend now with two kids each really close to the same age. We have so much fun getting together and will continue to, forever. Once we move back west we will have lots more time to hangout.

Rachel is my favorite photography friend as well. She is trying to teach me her mad skills. I always have someone to call with questions and tips. Thanks for sharing your talents with me:) This is a funny pic she took of Rhylan during our visit. I love it even more because Rhylan's most common nickname is Munchkin! I think I'll print this one up:)
Here we are with all of our kids! Rachel baby Grady, Luke, Rhylan Me, and baby Gracin.

Here we are. Don't we look happy. I love this picture of us.

And here is a "College Cheezy" style pic.

Have you seen these diapers?

These are going to make me laugh for days!!

Gracin hates to be changed. Clothes, diaper, it doesn't matter! He literally fights me every time. So he runs around in just a diaper most of the time while we are home. So these are perfect for him. He still looks cute and is happy to get to play and not be forced to get changed. When Riley is home changing his diaper or clothes is a two man job... and when he is not home... well you can see what I have resorted to.

They are Huggies little movers limited time Jean edition. Go to Wal-mart and pick some up to make for easy summer days!! (And darn cute pictures)

A little hair cut

Well it was time again for Gracin to get a trim. I have cut his hair over his ears and up front a few months ago. It had grown over his ears again and was getting long in the back. So he go this first cut using the buzzer! He didn't mind at all. We just put the highchair outside and dumped Cheerios on his tray and he was a happy baby. I cut about 1 inch off in the back:) It was a little harder when I got out the scissors to trim the top. I had to be careful not to cut his fingers, he kept reaching up to see what was going on! Riley took these pics. I think he did a great job catching the little moments.