Mini-Van-Fam

Well, we have been wanting one of these for a while now and we were just waiting for the time to be right. And it was right on Friday!! We got this dodge caravan for exactly the amount we could afford! Already we love it. Did you know moving boxes is SOO much easier in one of these babies? And putting kids in and out is a breeze. It is so comfy, I can tell the kids--so weird to say that-- really like the view they get from way up here. I think we are going to love it.

Outside!

Gracin was really interested in "outside" yesterday. We hung out for quite a while just looking out the window.



Here they are right before we went on a walk. Check out the funny puppy hat.

Tutu

Tiffany made Rhylan a little tutu for her birthday in May and gave it to her while she was here. Rhylan Loves her "danc'n skirt." She even knows how to use it. She is dancing in all of these pictures, I couldn't get her to hold still for a cute pose.


Here Rhylan is having Roscoe (papa, and Gammy C's dog) do his dancing trick at the same time.
Here is a video of her dancing to "My Life Would Suck Without You"--Kelly Clarkson. Every time this song comes on, Rhylan runs in to the room and yells "song, danc'n skirt!" Then she runs back to her room to get the tutu. She is the best little dancer around. At the end there is also a video of Rhylan dancing with Roscoe.


Mom, click on the button in the very bottom right of the video to make it bigger!

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The rest of the story

The rest of the time Tiff was here we had a blast!

She fell in love again...
We...well they went swimming

Gracin and I watched

Tiff got a new hat...
Gracin fell asleep in the bath...what a life
We played Wii
And Riley got to practice some optometry skills...

U.S. Citizen!!!

Last Wednesday was a pretty special day at our house. Riley was sworn in as a U.S. citizen!! It has been a stressful, expensive, demanding, and tedious process. It started 4 years ago and we are finally finished. (That is a relatively short time I hear.) We plan on living here in the US so we both thought it would be a good thing for him to do. It was a little sad for him to swear in the oath to declare allegiance to the US and none other (Canada). But I am grateful for his sacrifice and know he did it for our family. Just because on paper he is American now, doesn't mean that his Canadian heritage is gone!! We are excited to share that part of him with our family! Congratulations Riley!!--and Thanks.

Here are some pictures of his "Oath and Ceremony"

Here he is waiting out side for the Ceremony to start.

He is right in the middle smiling!--Again waiting for it to start--I had to stand in the back.

There were people from 19 different countries there, 1 from Canada. Here he is stating his name and country.

Taking the Oath.

Listening to a welcome speech from Pres. Obama (video)

Big Moment!

It is official now!

1 month old

Wow one month! Gracin now weighs 11 pounds 14 ounces.

He still has all his rolls and then some.

He is learning to make sounds and coos.

Loves to be snuggled. Mommy and me time is his favorite.

What a handsome baby!

To the ZOO

One day we went to the Memphis Zoo. It wasn't too hot for Gracin, so he hung out in the stroller in the shade most of the time. Here he is all decked out un his gorilla out fit--and a little spit up, oh well.

Rhylan, Tiffany, Me

Rhylan peeking at the sheep...she backed away once they came too close.

CHEESE!

A week with "Tiffy"

While Tiffany was here, we went on a trolley ride around down town Memphis. All 4 of us really enjoined it. She got to see the Mississippi river, Peabody ducks, and tons of crazy people.

Rhylan really loves her aunt Tiffy.

4 years

So Riley and I just celebrated our four year anniversary yesterday! My sister is in town so she was able to watch Rhylan for us and we took along Gracin on our date. I wanted to do a progressive dinner. But to make it a little more fun and exciting...I chose the restaurants with out telling Riley. I chose a cheap one, a med price one and a fancier one! Then it was Riley's job to randomly draw the places we would go in order.

Once in the car he drew a note card at random for our appetizer! He drew McDonalds. We had french fries and 6 piece chicken nuggets! We forgot our camera so these are all from my phone, some are a little blurry but we had to document!

Next he drew a restaurant for our main course...
Riley got the boneless bbq chicken wings and I got a Pazone. Yummy!

Then lastly he drew Olive Garden for Dessert. That was so delicious. I had the chocolate gelato and he had the raspberry cheesecake.


We really had a lot of fun. It is fun to change up your regular date routine. We loved spending those hours together. Thanks Tiffany for watching Rhylan. Here is a picture of what they did.