School Photos: My Baby is a Big Girl!

Ryleigh you amaze me everyday at what you do, say and know at just 3 years old! You bring so much joy and love into our growing little family. I feel blessed to have you as my daughter. Ever since you were a baby people have commented on how cute or how beautiful you were and even has you've grown others still make sweet comments about your beauty and also on how smart you are. 

Since you were about 2 years old your verbal skills have been just above your average child at your age. Strangers are surprised at how well you talk and at how big your vocabulary is. Sometimes I can't help but smile real big and wonder "Where did that come from?" Your teachers at school are also surprised at how smart you are for your age. I look forward to seeing where the future takes you.

At three years old there are so many things that you can already do all by yourself. I've created the following list so that I can always remember. 

*You've been potty trained since just before your 2nd birthday

*(with supervision) You can wipe yourself after using the bathroom

*You feed Rider and Snowball every afternoon 

*You help fold the laundry. Rags and hand towels are your favorite to fold.

*You can make your bed

*You recently started sleeping in your big girl bed with out the side rails.

*We've been sippy cup free since last year.

*You love to pretend your reading your books to your friends at school and will even play "teacher" while reading. You like cross your legs and hold up the book so all your "students" can see.

*(With supervision) You can brush your teeth.

*You started dressing yourself at the beginning of this school year. This saves Mommy lots of time in the morning. You love to get yourself dressed and then you run to show me what a great job you've done.

*One of your favorite things to do right now is playing dress up with Kee-Kee's old dance clothes. You'll put on an outfit, shoes and some type of head band and come running to show whoever will watch and then you dance for us. You are looking forward to dancing on stage at your upcoming dance recital. 

*You've been able to recite your ABCs since you were two. Since this summer you've been able to identify all the letters too.

*You love to write and enjoy writing your letters. So far you are able to write "T, H, L, I, E, P". You are able to trace all the letters too. We are working on spelling your name but the R and the G are a little tricky right now. 

*You've been able to count to 20 since you were two and now you just keep going. You also can identify numbers 1-10. 

*Mickey and Minnie and all the Disney Characters are a big hit with you. Ever since we went to Disney you've enjoyed watching movies, playing with the dolls and reading their books. G-Gma gave you a Minnie Mouse ornament for Christmas that you carried around with you all day and even wanted to sleep with it. 

*Animal Blanky has been your companion since your 2nd birthday. But recently you were willing to give it to the baby. Now you enjoy sleeping with Jingle. (a little dog from Hallmark)

*You love dolls and pretending they are sick. You like to wrap them in blankets and rock them till they feel better. 

*Barbies are also a new thing you've begun to love. 

*You are polite and use your manners. You know how to say "Please and Thank you" and "Yes maim/sir and No maim/sir. 

Each day you do or say something to make me smile. I look forward to seeing what you learn tomorrow!

Mickey and Minnie on Ice

Last night we took Ryleigh to see Mickey and Minnie on Ice at the Allen Event Center. I was not crowed like I thought it would be. Prices for eats, drinks and gifts were worse than it was in Disney World! 

*$10 for Popcorn in a bucket

*$10 for Lemonade

*$15 for a Snow Cone with a Tinkerbelle Cup

*$15 program

We didn't buy the light spinning Mickey for $22. If we had bought that in Disney World it would have only cost $8.

We did however get to use the Mickey Mouse ears we got her in Disney. She enjoyed wearing them during the show. Here she is just before it started.

We had good seats. She was able to sit in her seat and see everything. It was hard to get very many good photos with the lights glaring off the ice.

Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy and Goofy would come out between shows. There were 4 different Disney movies summarized in a 15-20 minute show on ice.

There was:

- "The Lion King"

- "The Little Mermaid" (Her favorite!)

- "Lilo and Stich"

- "Peter Pan" 

The costumes were very elaborate. Here's a shot of Pumba from "The Lion King"

When Ariel came out Ryleigh yelled "ARIEL!" It was very cute.

Here's a shot of Ursula.

Here's a shot of Ariel and Prince Eric.

 Here's a scene from "Peter Pan" of the pirates dancing. They actually had Peter and and all the kids flying.

Enjoying the end of the show lights.

Waving Bye to Mickey.

Pinterest Inspired Christmas Shirt

Gramz got the idea for her shirt off Pinterest and we bought the tutu at a craft show. I think with our crafting abilities it turned out pretty cute. 

Here are a few posed pictures... 

...and a few funny shots.

Here she was twirling

then just being silly. 

16 Weeks!

I am now 16 weeks along in my pregnancy! 

The baby is now about the size about the size of an avocado. 

So far I'm just getting bigger in my tummy! Hopefully since I won't be pregnant during the summer I won't swell up like I did the first time. I'm carrying this baby lower than I did with Ryleigh. 

I can still fit into my regular clothes but the shirts are getting shorter and I need to use the belly band to hold up my pants. I prefer to wear maternity pants; they are more comfortable. 

We'll find out the gender on December 12th! Everyone thinks it's a boy. 

Names we have picked out if it's a girl it's Reese Emmerson and if it's boy Harrison Cruz (Texas Rangers inspired) 

I felt the baby's first movements today! They were just strong enough for me to feel them but not strong enough for others to feel just yet. I probably wouldn't have realized it if I hadn't been pregnant before.

I laughed when I read that now that I'm in the second trimester I should be experiencing a decrease in needed to pee. Ha! If anything it's gotten worse. I think it's because I'm carrying the baby lower this time. I've learned that if I'm sitting down and think I need to go potty to get up and go. If I wait too long by time I get up the need to go is stronger. 

I recently started craving Club Soda. If I add lime I can pretend it's a margarita! I've also loved eating strawberries. Some things taste different like pickles and really sweet things. 

I loved the picture from 14 weeks where she was looking at me. Brandon managed to get another shot of her looking at me this week too.

Santa 2011

Since we had the week off I wanted to beat the rush of other people going to see Santa I decided to take Ryleigh on Tuesday.

Here she is on Monday trying on her outfit.

She's got her poses down. 

I told her to put her hands on her hips and she said, "No I need to do this."

Ever since she was a baby I've been taking her to the Shops at Willow Bend Mall to see their Santa. We got there right at 10:00 and only had a few kids in front of us.

While waiting we saw Mrs. Claus! 

The theme this year was Polar Bears. While waiting they had video of Polar Bears and facts about them through out the line. 

Here you can see how tall you are compared to a real Polar Bear.

Striking a pose again!

Just before you get to see Santa you get to play in fake snow all by yourself!

She had fun throwing it in the air. 

Last year she didn't want to sit in Santa's lap so Brandon and I had to sit with her to get a picture. (We were going to get our Christmas photos taken just afterwards so we coordinated)

This year I was not dressed to get in the photo with her so I was glad that she was willing to sit down with him. She was a little scared at first but once he stated talking to her about dolls and which Princess she wanted (Ariel) she sat down and told him her list:

*Dolls

*Baby Dolls

*Books

*A baby Sister

When she told him a baby sister his eyes got big and looked at me and said, "I can't control that." I just laughed and told him "It's either one or the other and we'll would find out soon."

I had to get proof that she actually talked to him this year so I bought both photos. 

While checking out my mom noticed they had a nutcracker that holds a photos. I goes perfect with my Nutcracker collection I put out each Christmas. I can't wait to put one of these photos in it. 

 Here's copies of the original photos.

Thanksgiving 2011

This year we hosted Thanksgiving at our house with my mom's family.

Wednesday evening Jackson came in town and stayed at Gramz and Papa's!

Four Generations

Great-Grammy bought an early Christmas present. Ryleigh loves it! She slept with it last night and has been caring it around all day.

Kristen is due late January with Reagan Kelly and I'm due early May with Baby #2.

After stuffing our faces with turkey and lots of food the men watched the Football game while the woman helped me decorate Ryleigh's Christmas tree and wrap 25 books. My mom got the idea off Pinterest to wrap 25 books your child already owns and starting December 1st the child gets to open one book to read that night (or whenever you want to that day). Ryleigh had already shown me which book she wants to open first! (You can see she's set it to the side and placed it on her pony)

She also had fun playing dress up with Aunt Cecile in Kristin's old dance recital costumes.

Here's her this morning playing dress up again and reading a Christmas book. 

We're spending today decorating the house for Christmas and staying away from the Black Friday crowds!

The Nutcracker Ballet

Saturday I took Ryleigh to her to see The Nutcracker Ballet for the first time. Her dance studio was putting it on. It was mainly kids from her studio starting from age 8 to adults. She really enjoyed it.

Here's a picture of her with the large Nutcracker on our way into the theater.

We ended up getting pretty good seats so she could see while sitting in my lap. We sat on the end of the second row on the right side of the stage.

 We had a few minutes to kill before it started so she enjoyed coloring the Nutcracker pages she got at the tea a few weeks ago.

 At intermission she wanted to take her picture again with the other Nutcracker.

 Then had fun dancing around with the other kids while they waited for the show to resume.

She did great sitting still and staying quiet through out the show. I had a great time see her get excited when the ballerinas danced around.

Maybe someday she'll be dancing in the Nutcracker Ballet.