Haircut

Big girl got her hair cut on Saturday. We cut quite a bit of hair and I think it turned out pretty cute.

Before, during and after.

Of course her reward was a ride on the mall carousel. 

Of course, she looks SUPER cute. :)

Goodbye 2013

How cool is this? Google+ automatically put together this little review of 2013. I may have chosen a few different photos, but it also would have take all of 2014 for me to get it together. :-)

Wishing everyone a happy and healthy 2014!!

Going to See Santa

We made our annual trip to Bass Pro this past Saturday. I feel like a little bit of a poser going in there. I visit once a year and never buy anything but my Santa photos and maybe a snack. I guess that's better than nothing, but clearly the lack of camo in my closet is a dead giveaway that I do not belong.

Ryleigh PROMISED that she would sit on Santa's lap for a picture. I think we all know that two-year old promises don't carry much weight. And I think I've mentioned before that Ry talks a big game. We got close. She said, "hi, Santa." She gave him a high five. But when it came to photo time it was instant fear terror. Her whole body tensed, she started to cry and she clung to me so tightly that I just couldn't force her to do it.
So, this is what we got...

Yeah, yeah, I know I look a little TOO excited to see the jolly old elf. While Ryleigh may be smiling, her eyes seem to be saying, "get me the heck outta here!" Better luck next year. We ran into Ryleigh's classmate Cheyenne there. Ry was very eager to watch her get her picture taken. And to see if she was scared. For the record, Cheyenne kind of looked like a deer in headlights, but no struggle and no tears.

Ryleigh kept asking, "where is Santa's sleigh?" I told her it was parked on the roof. We asked Mrs. Claus for confirmation (frankly she was surprised - it seemed the logical place to me). So then Ryleigh wanted to see the sleigh. She's been asking a lot of questions about Santa. Too many questions. One example: "Am I going to be scared of Santa at our house?" Shes a little scared of the guy. I think the idea of him being in our house is giving her the creeps.

Since I got to be in the Santa picture, we needed to get a photo with daddy too. Ryleigh was a little more relaxed next to this snowman.

When we came out of the store it was cold and rainy. Because we're awesome parents, we had left Ry's coat in the car. As soon as we came outside she said, "it's cold!" Daddy gave her his coat and I gave her my scarf. That helped her stay warm and she just looked too darn cute!

Until next year, Bass Pro...

It's December!

Wow! Quite a whirlwind it's been...thus my serious lack of blogging. We went to Indiana for Thanksgiving. I have been super busy at work the last few weeks. And, oh yeah, it's almost Christmas. Add some shopping and cooking and parties...whew! I could really use a vacation (or a couple snow days.) Here are a few snapshots of  our December so far...

Ryleigh has become quite the volleyball fan. The Mizzou team was undefeated throughout the entire season and we made it to several games - including the first round of the NCAA tournament. Ron had contacted a friend in the Athletic Department who said she had a surprise for Ryleigh. It turned out to be an autographed volleyball! How cool!
Unfortunately, Mizzou had their first loss and got knocked out in the second round by none other than the Purdue Boilermakers. But they had a great season and have a lot to be proud of. And they have one of the cutest fans around.

She was so excited to get a "Tiger ball." She did ask why they wrote their names on it. 

I think the popcorn was her favorite part.

We got our tree and decorated it.

Ryleigh's daycare had a holiday party and program. Her class sang two songs. Well, the teachers sang two songs, while the kids played the bells, cried, or in Ryleigh's case stared at the crowd of parents with a somewhat shocked look on her face. When Jax started to cry she couldn't quite figure out if she wanted to join him or not. Luckily she decided not to cry.

We got some AWESOME new stockings this year. They are HUGE, so Santa has his work cut out for him.

Pretty!
Question: Where are you supposed to hang your stockings when you don't have a mantle?

Ryleigh got her wheels!! Fancy purple wheels. She still prefers to be on the floor where she has more access to her toys. When we had a demo chair this summer she tipped over. Twice. She still remembers and will not let us live it down (talk about parent guilt!). So it has taken some coaxing to convince her that she is safe and will not tip over in her new wheels. I'm really looking forward to getting her out and about - for now the stores are just too darn crowded for a newly independent wheelie.

We got a couple inches of snow last weekend and were able to try out Ryleigh's new "sleigh." I just pulled her from our house to the trail. Don't let that smile fool you, she wasn't the biggest fan. I think she felt a little unstable. And with the crust of ice that had formed over the snow it was a little crunchy. She kept telling me, "I don't like it. It's too loud." I'm pretty sure that was just her excuse. Hopefully we will get to give it another try.

Awesome animation effects!!

Just a few days ago we got Ry's new braces. These are KAFOs (Knee, Ankle, Foot Orthotics) They go all the way up to her hips and should help keep her legs in line for some pulling up, standing and maybe even walking. I was really worried about them inhibiting her movement when she is on the floor and crawling. But when we tried them out for the first time at home last night she was moving around like an old pro. That was a huge relief and very exciting. We have to keep trying them out for 30 minutes at a time and make sure they aren't giving her any pressure sores anywhere. So far, so good.

So, as you can see we have been quite busy. Our house is definitely looking pretty Christmasy. I haven't done a ton of shopping, but we are as ready as we are going to be. And we are really looking forward to a visit from all the Kentucky Rowes next weekend!!

Seriously, our tree looks awesome, even without special effects. :)

Have a happy Christmas!!

Halloween

Yeah, so Halloween was a couple weeks ago, but I've been so busy I haven't posted about it. Here are a few photos from the day.

She wanted to dress up as a firefighter. After her school party and horseback riding she wasn't very cooperative for photos in her costume. This one was about the best we got.

I think you can get the idea here of what our little photo shoot was like... Ha ha!

One of these days I'll have a few minutes to post some of the photos from her last horseback riding session.

It's Friday!

YAY!

Have a great weekend!!

(One of these days I'll post a couple Halloween pics, I promise).

Gah! Really?!?!

Today is just such a beautiful day! Last fall, we were robbed by the drought. Everything just dried up and turned brown. But days like this really make up for for last year. Gorgeous, I tell you.

the view from our backyard

I am just in LOVE with our maple tree out front. 

The leaves even look pretty on the ground.

I know my iPhone photos hardly do it justice, but this is my attempt to hold on to it just a little bit longer.
Have a great weekend!

MIZ Homecoming

Ever since we first moved to Missouri I spent my birthday weekend working homecoming activities. Well, except the year that I was out on maternity leave. That year I was kicking it at home with our almost 2 month-old.

Anyway... This year was the first time we actually got to go and enjoy the festivities and we had a great time. We started out the morning by going to the parade. Or as Ryleigh calls it, that "pah-hade." We bundled up and got to a great spot just before the parade started coming by. Ryleigh was so excited to see Truman, I think it was a little disappointing for her that he came by at the beginning of the parade. She liked watching the bands and of course there was the candy. She got her first sucker and I'm pretty sure she was a fan. She would hand it to me so she could clap, but if I tried to put it away she asked for it back.

:-)

"Cheese!"

She also noted that some of the high school cheerleaders were not doing the M-I-Z cheer. "There's more cheerleaders. They're not 'Mizzou-ing'."

She pointed out the Weinermobile - "there's a hot dog!" Which I found surprising since as far as I know she has never seen the Weinermobile, nor does she ever eat hot dogs.

It's not a parade without the Weinermobile!!

After the parade we walked around campus a bit and stopped by the Alumni Association to say hi to all our friends there. And there were a few photo ops...

Oops, daddy cut off Truman's head

Yay! So excited to get a photo in the helmet car.
Even if the sun was in our eyes.

After some afternoon napping, we decided to head back up and go to the football game. We were able to walk from home, which was awesome. It was a beautiful day for football and the game started off great!

M-I-Z!

We only made it to half time before walking home and watching the rest of the game on TV. Unfortunately the Tigers lost in OT, but at least we were there for the good part of the game. Ryleigh had a good time watching the football men and being silly with the other fans sitting around us. She did a great job cheering for the Tigers too. I only wish we'd had someone take our picture at the game - it was pretty tight quarters there in the stadium though. At least we have our helmet car pic.

Great Pumpkins

We decided to go ahead and carve our pumpkins yesterday. We bought three awesome pumpkins on our trip to Peach Tree Farm. They were so pretty in front of our house.

Well some jerk stole the one on right three days after we got it. We came home from work to find the broken stem lying in the driveway. Jerk! We had to replace that one and the little one is too small to carve. So we ended up buying two more pumpkins yesterday at the grocery store.

The best we could do in our attempts to get a pre-carving photo.

I told Ryleigh that we would have to cut the pumpkin open and take out all the guts.
Her response? "I don't know what 'guts' is." Ha ha!

Yummy, want a bite?

They carved a pumpkin at school last week and Ms. Jen told me that Ryleigh wanted absolutely nothing to do with touching the insides or the seeds. But she wanted to be right up close watching the teachers and the other kids do it. At home she was a little more into it, she touched some of the pumpkin insides and played with the seeds.

We told Ry she could decide what kind of face the pumpkin should have; happy, scary, mad... She decided one scary and one happy. The third was TBD. About half way through the carving process she was over it and decided that the pumpkin should have a sad face because she was sad. At that point we had to put the carving on hold until after dinner and bath.

Just look at that concentration

Ron and I finished up after Ry went to bed while we watched the Colts-Broncos game. I haven't carved a pumpkin in years. And Ron said he didn't remember ever carving one. But as it turns out we have some mad carving skills. I mean, these guys turned out AWESOME!

Horseback Riding

Last week Ryleigh started therapeutic horseback riding. Let's just say it didn't go as expected. She had been crying for mommy all afternoon at school. (Heartbreaking for me to hear). When we got to the stable the fussing and tears continued - for most of the hour session. Once we got home I discovered that she had a mild fever and probably just wasn't feeling well.

Luckily last night was an entirely different story! I should say, she has been having a great week. She is loving the farm theme at school this week. She's been waking up in a good mood. Yesterday morning she even told me, "I'm having a 'yes' day!" AWESOME! So this made me even more excited for a great horseback riding session. She did not disappoint. When we arrived she was excited and ready to go. She put her helmet on and went right to the volunteers to get on her horse, Babe. It was also good that she got to ride the same horse she rode last week - we'd been practicing, "walk on, Babe!" and "Whoa, Babe!" all week.

As she passed me she would say, "Hi mommy! I'm riding a big horsey!" :-) She was chatting up the volunteers the whole time too. On one pass I heard her telling them, "it's not going to rain today." The girl has the gift of gab and already know how to make small talk. Ha ha!

Unfortunately, I forgot to grab my "real" camera and only had my phone. They're not the greatest, but I did manage to get a couple pics.

She did so great. She listened and participated. And she had a great time! I'm so proud of her!

Hi, Remember Me?

Wow, August was a busy month! And I can't believe it's almost halfway through September already.

Here's a little rundown of some recent highlights:

A few weeks ago we got a demo wheelchair to test. Ryleigh is getting big enough to be independent when we're out and about so we were excited to try it out. Aside from independence it is great that she can be up taller to see out the windows, which she loves.

Here she is trying it out for the first time:

This model was a little big and bulky. We've returned it and currently have a lighter, more compact TiLite model that's PURPLE! Unfortunately, it is a little on the small side and we had a couple incidents of tipping over. Luckily, she seems fairly unfazed. Although she does keep reminding us, "Ryleigh fall down in the grass. And Ryleigh cry." We'll work with our mobility specialist Pete, to get the exact specs and have a chair custom built and will fit her better.

We've made several visits to the public library

"Doing work" on the computer

Playing with the library doll/treehouse

Oh yeah, and somebody celebrated her second birthday!!!
We didn't have a party this year. Instead we took the birthday girl out for some fun and ice cream on Sunday and had a birthday cake for the big day on Monday. She also had plenty of presents to open from mommy and daddy and family in Indiana.

Opening legos from Aunt Christy and crew

We decided to brave Chuck E Cheese's for some fun with our little birthday girl.

Playing a game with daddy

Ok, so "fun" may be a stretch. I can't say Ryleigh was all that impressed with all the wonders Chuck E has to offer. This video pretty well sums up her feelings, and really cracks me up. Especially at the end when she says, "get off."

 

She loves her princess castle from Grandpa Hugh

Cheesy smile from the birthday girl!

She blew out her candles like she's been doing it for years...

A couple weeks before her actual birthday, our wonderfully talented friend Christy took some two-year old photos for us. They turned out great, but for now I'm only going to share a couple...

You may remember Christy took Ryleigh's pics last year too. Looking back, it amazes me how much she has changed in a year.

And just a few more pics of some of our adventures over the past month...

Ry and daddy stopped to check out a fire truck on the way home.
She says she wants to be a fireman for Halloween. :-)

We made some salt dough to play with on a day off from school.

We also went out to lunch with some friends that day. Ryleigh pointed up to the wall and said "it's a frog!" It took us adults a few seconds to figure out what she was pointing at. It really does look like a frog! I love that she has such a creative eye to point that out!

"It's a frog!"

"Cheese!"
A little mixed message here... MU shirt and UK headband.

We rode the carousel at the mall.
But don't let that smile fool you. She wasn't the biggest fan at the time.

and ate ice cream at Andy's...at Ryleigh's request of course. 

You may notice a theme in her clothing throughout many of these photos. No, they were not all taken on the same day. She has her favorite "pretty dress" and wore it many, many times during the month of August. She is becoming quite fashion conscious and wants to pick out her own clothes most of the time. Sometimes those choices can be pretty interesting.

I'll just share one last video. Gerti sent this to us earlier this week. I'm certain this is the best walking I have seen her do. So exciting that she just keeps getting stronger and stronger.

We start therapuetic horseback riding tonight. I'm super excited! We've been talking a lot about it. We did the pony ride at the fair and the carousel - both were met with hesitation. I hope she'll be brave and actually enjoy it. Keep your fingers crossed!!

We also had a Labor Day weekend visit from Mimi and Pop. Along with more birthday presents. But all those pictures are on my "real" camera, so that will have to be another post. :-)