Orange Beach/Gulf Shores in Pictures

We've had a great week. We leave tomorrow and start the long trip home......

Weekend Catch-up

Has it really been 2 weeks since I blogged? We had a great but tiring weekend last weekend in DFW.

Rylee's bangs were out of control so on Saturday noon we headed to Pigtails and Crewcuts in Southlake to get them trimmed. I was a little nervous that she would not do well but as you can tell she thought it was great fun! Friday when we got in town we met up with my old co-worker Shelley and her son Cooper. It is hard to believe that when I left Keller, Cooper was a newborn and Rylee was still a ways from even being here.


We enjoyed staying with the Bailey's even if Rylee was a little hesitant at first about Ikey the super weinie dog! Steph cooked a fabulous dinner for a few friends on Friday night (still waiting on that pic P!), and Rylee, Rainey, and Emily enjoyed taking a bath together when we got back on Saturday. I also thoroughly enjoyed playing Rainey in bowling on the Wii- even if she did beat me!!!

I'm hoping some of the musical talent will rub off on Rylee if we keep staying with them when we visit!

We enjoyed seeing everyone at church on Sunday and then eating with some of our favorite people in the world!!! Thanks again Stacey for watching Rylee for a few minutes while I went into Swoozies!

Sacked out after a long weekend. Don't worry, I didn't look to take this picture- just pointed in the general direction and took several shots. She slept from Grapevine all the way until I pulled into our apartments in Texarkana!

We finally hooked up Sandy's Wii and Rylee decided she wanted in on the action (notice the remote in her hand- her own version of a Wii control).

Can't decide on the pigtail look!?!

Looking forward to a busy March and I CAN'T WAIT for Grad School Girls Weekend!!!

February so far...

Time flies doesn't it? Between my grandaddy being in the hospital for over a week and a quick day trip to see a new cousin we have been keeping busy. Not to mention a trip to the ENT to find out that Rylee has fluid on her ears (see SLPs, I told you she wasn't talking as well as she should!). We go back in a few weeks to see if the fluid is gone- if it's not then we will discuss options (most likely tubes). We are coming to the DFW area this weekend. Hope to see some of you then!!!

Can you tell she has been on lots of meds lately?

Like mother like daughter. She has never really been still enough to enjoy tv but she is starting to sit for a few minutes at a time and watch.
She loves wearing her jacket- always has to have it zipped- and when one of mine was lying on the floor she had to have it on.

New baby cousin Tate. He belongs to my cousin Clint and his wife Tiffany. He is too precious!

Rylee making a mess with Tate's big sister Carly.

Hopefully I'll remember to take pictures some this weekend......

90 Years Young

Today we celebrated my grandfather's 90th birthday. I feel so blessed to have this experience and Lord willing we will celebrate my grandmother's 90th in December. I am the youngest grandchild- my grandfather was 60 when I was born- so I think it is pretty amazing to still have both of them with us. Sandy hosted us at her house because it is a central location for everyone. It was a great time! Here's some pics from today and some random ones from the last few weeks.

Caroline helping Grandaddy blow out the candles.

Cheesin' for Whitney

Cousins!!! (the three on the lawnmower were all born the same year) We are eagerly waiting the arrival of the newest, Tate, due in less than 2 weeks!
She found the flipflops that I snagged at Children's Place yesterday and had to wear them(believe me, here in Texarkana if you see something you better get it because next time you are there it will be gone)

This is her spot for when I vacuum. She doesn't like the noise at all!

I can't believe how much her hair is growing. She wasn't too sure about this!

Her absolute favorite thing to do- READ!!!

Words...

This is more of a post for me but I wanted to remember what all words Rylee is saying right now at 16 months. Of course as an speech-language pathologist I would prefer that she was talking in phrases and saying three times as many words as this but I have accepted that she is just too busy to sit down and talk so I will take what I can get! In no particular order-

bite, Bible, light, duck, bath, mama, hoo hoo (owl sound), Abby (Sandy's dog), woof, moo, milk, glasses, diaper, thank you, eye, ice, no, go, baby, ball, book, bye bye, hi, hot, drink, bottle, baa, yogurt, uh-oh, there, bag

She can imitate more than this but these are the words she actually uses spontaneously (sorry if that sounded too clinical). What is weird is that she won't say the names of anyone on her own. She calls everyone "mama" (sounds slightly different that the mama she calls me) but will eventually call them something else if I imitate their name a thousand times and won't drop it until she says something else. I wonder if it's because I'm the only one at home with her and that's the word she associates with people??? Fellow SLPs what do you think? The only exception to the rule is my sister's dog Abby. She starts calling her name as soon as we drive up to their house!

New things to show off

Rylee had a few new things she wanted to show off. FIRST- let me say thanks to one of my very best friends for the new blog look! Thanks PP! We love it!!!

Showing off how she can use a fork. Look at that concentration. I think she would have stayed there all night if I would have let her. You don't see this child very still for long so I had to document this.

Showing off her new chair that Aunt Sandy and Uncle David got her for Christmas.

Showing off the first set of new pajamas.

And the second pair.

Hope everyone is having a blessed week!

Christmas 2008 and more

Rylee was really sick the week leading up to Christmas, running a fever of over 101 for 4 days with it reaching 102.9 one day. I wasn't even sure if we were going to get to go to my parents but my mom threatened to drag me there so we went ahead. (After filling her prescription that was $87 even after insurance- but that's another story.) She didn't feel the greatest but we really enjoyed spending time with family anyway. Here are some pictures from the past few weeks. They aren't in order but I'm too lazy to switch them. Hope everyone has a very blessed 2009.

Christmas morning at my parents' house right after she got up. She still looks so sleepy in this picture!

Loving on my niece Macy on Christmas Eve. Macy was the one reason I was sad to be going to college- she was 4 1/2 at the time and I had seen her pretty much every day of her life until then.

Peyton in the snowman onesie I made her (with some help from a friend- thanks M!) You can't see it really well. Rylee has one too but I haven't gotten a good picture of it so I'll post it when I do.

Nana and Gingy got Ry a slide/tower thing and she and Aunt Sandy had lots of fun in the empty box.

I can't turn my back for one second anymore! Actually my mom was there and I thought she was watching her and I think she thought I was watching her and then I heard my mom dying laughing. She had found the scented trash bags in her changing table had lots of fun dragging them all over the place.

This was going to be the Christmas card picture if I had gotten around to sending them. She would not smile at all that day but I thought I could do the "better not pout" thing but just didn't fit it into my schedule.

Christmas day wore her out so she laid down by Uncle David to rest.

Playing on her slide- It has by far been the most used gift!

Glad to be back home so she can play with all of her new toys!

This was from a couple of weeks ago. We were trying to cook dinner at Sandy's and Rylee was wanting attention so distraction technique- spray Cool Whip on the highchair tray!

Rylee's new favorite past time. Loving on Peyton. Everytime she sees her she literally dives to love on her!