Picture Day

Two more pics of the kids during their outdoor play. It was 80 and sunny. We were all sweating when we finally came inside. I don't remember playing in the leaves in that kind of weather before...

 

Today was picture day at school.  Rylee showed us her outfit on Sunday as a trial run.  Adorable!

 

Of course, I made her run outside so I could a better background. 

 

After 80s, the temp plummeted to 55 today.  She still wore the skirt, but I brought along pants for her to change into after her photo.  I was helping out in their class anyway so I decided to be THAT mom.  :)

Fall Fun!

I'm jumping around in order, but here are some recent pics of the kids enjoying the beautiful Fall weather.

A rare photo of Jace looking at the camera!  Usually he's running to me to see the photo of himself ("I see, I see") so he's either a blur or his face is two inches from the camera.  He hasn't quite got the posing first part down.  :)  He's also sporting his "good job" fists in this photo or if he's really feeling proud of himself, he breaks out his "I win" dance.

 

Fun with leaves in the 80 degree weather this weekend.  The pictures tell the story!

 

 

 

 

 

Snuggle Time

When my kids aren't arguing over what to watch on TV, fighting over which color iPad they want to use, or just generally tormenting each other, they actually love each other.  And here's proof...







 
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The Fair

We spent Wednesday morning rearranging the house in preparation of Papa coming home, then I took Rylee, Megan and Max to the fair.  We got there early so the kids could use those ride wristbands all afternoon.  We took a ride break to see the animals and cooled off with some shaved ice.



Then the kids rode more rides...







 

...before we stopped for cotton candy and mini donuts (so we could have treats for the ride home).  I also let them each have an ice cream treat at the DQ as we were heading into town.  It's a miracle no one puked!

 

Vern picked up the kids after the fair and, while he was here, helped move a few of the heavier items and hooked up the TV in my Dad's room.  My Dad couldn't have survived the last 6 weeks without that!

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Horsin' Around

I think I've been avoiding posting about our time after Cedar Crest since it also includes the time of my Dad's fall off the roof, surgeries, and on-going recovery.  The good news is, a month and a half later, he is doing better than expected and we have lots of positives to hang onto.  In fact, I just took my Dad to St Paul yesterday where he had a great follow up with his doctor.

So I'm not going to rehash all the details of the fall and after, but there are a few points that I will touch on - like the wonderful people that helped us out.  Of course the first people who come to mind are our neighbors, Tom and Fawn, who were the first on the scene, stayed with my Dad until the ambulance took him away, and even cleaned up his work area so we wouldn't have to worry about that.  Thank God they were there!  That first night, Heather and Meg also came to babysit the kids so my Mom and I could both be with my Dad when he came out of his initial surgery.  It meant so much to me that I could be there.

The next day (Sunday), they transferred my Dad to St. Paul (and to his amazing traumatologist!).  We were pretty out of it that day, still sick with worry, so I don't remember much of it.  I know Grandpa Chip and Connie visited and Sara helped distract the kids.

We had plans for Rylee to go horseback riding at my cousin Lisa's farm on Monday and since my Dad was scheduled for his second surgery that day, it was another good distraction.  Mom, the kids, and I also spent a couple of hours picking up sticks from the storm.  The kids loved filling up the wheel barrow and helping out Papa since they knew he had been hurt.  It was really sweet actually.

Back to the horsin' around title... (which was about Rylee, not Papa obviously... though my Mom might say he was horsin' around on the roof... she is never going to let him live this one down!)  Here's Rylee in my hat, Maddie's riding pants, and her garage sale boots.  She still looks like a rootin' tootin' cowgirl to me!


Rylee had a fantastic time at the farm (Mom babysat Jace).  They have dogs, cats, kittens, cows, pigs, chickens, and a donkey in addition to their horses.  Rylee had planned to ride Flicka, but try as we may we could not get a saddle on her.  Cheyenne usually rides her bareback, but Rylee didn't feel to comfortable with that idea.  Instead, she "rode" Lisa's horse: Cody Girl.  Cody's not as trustworthy as Flicka so Lisa walked them around, but Rylee loved it regardless!










 

Penney and my Mom went down to visit my Dad on Tuesday so the kids and I were on our own.  We ventured out to the park though and met some very nice people from Melmo.  The three older really hit it off.  They were like instant best friends.  We've since gotten together with them two more times and invited them to Rylee's little party for her birthday last weekend.

 

Next up is the Fair, but since I have pics to go with that post, I'll have to save that for tomorrow.

 

Lastly, today is Jon and my 15th wedding anniversary!  I certainly made the best decision of my life marrying such a wonderful and caring man!  Love you babe!

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Sofia Party

Rylee kicked off her birthday celebration with texts and video messages from friends and a special phone call from Daddy.  After breakfast, we skyped with Daddy so Rylee could open her presents.  She wanted a Sofia the First birthday party (she's even wearing her Sofia pajamas) and requested some Sofia toys too.  I bought her a talking Clover (bunny) and Jon got her a talking Sofia doll with talking animal friends.  She loved them both! 

 

My mom pulled off another amazing garage sale find.  She got a Barbie Digital Makeover set for the iPad.  It sells for about $85 dollars, but she scooped it up for $6. 

 

Rylee also got some DVDs (Nim's Island, Return to Nim's Island, and The Princess Twins of Legendale).  After a lazy morning of watching DVDs and playing with her new toys, she and I met a few friends for her "party."  Since we already threw her the big Frozen bash, we decided on a low key bowling and pizza party. 

 

We invited Megan...

 

and Max...

 

and some new friends we met recently at the park (Henry & Joey) that we have had a couple of playdates with.  Henry wasn't able to make it, but his sister, Joey, was there.  She and Rylee are new besties.  Here they are showing off their best friend heart necklaces...

 

I gave the kids money to play in the arcade, then we bowled two games and opened up Rylee's presents.  Rylee picked Rafferty's Pizza for dinner so we drove over there for dinner and cake.  I wasn't really sure what Raffety's policy was on cake and candles so we did light some up and sing, but I don't have any pics since we were trying to be stealthy!  It wasn't anything that photo worthy anyway - just a confetti cake with purplish frosting for Sofia (purple is a hard color to make when mixing food colors) and flower sprinkles.  I couldn't find those Sofia toothpick things so I made them out of regular toothpicks and Sofia stickers.  (Rylee made the Sofia goodie bags with stickers too.)

 

After dinner, everyone went their separate ways.  Rylee and I went to Target to spend some of her birthday cash (it was already burning a whole in her pocket!) and you'll never guess what we found: an Elsa Barbie (technically Disney, but that type of doll).  I have been looking for her for months!  My Mom was able to buy the Anna version back in July, but the Elsa has been sold out online forever and although I've checked the stores constantly, I've never happened upon one.  It was a like a birthday miracle!  (Rylee and I have been turning the bottom bunk into a little puppet theater (although we use dolls not puppets for our plays) so Elsa is a great addition to our ensemble!)

 

Rylee said it was a great golden birthday so that's the important thing!

 

 

6 on the 6th

I'm jumping ahead in the blog timeline since tomorrow is Rylee's golden birthday.  It's hard to believe that our baby girl is growing up so fast.  She's a kindergartener now!

Rylee had her first day of school this past Tuesday.  It's hard to be away from Jon, but it's pretty special that she got to start at the school where her Grandma Sandy taught for so many years and where her Daddy went (Jon's was the first class to graduate 6th grade out of this school).

Even so, I was pretty emotional.  The night before I felt awful at bedtime and actually threw up.  I have no idea if it was nerves or something I ate (I did eat out the night before).  The morning of school though, I felt fine.  Rylee's excitement was contagious.  Here are some pics of the big day:

Rylee almost made me cry by asking me to play her "baby song" on the drive to school: "All-American Girl" by Carrie Underwood.  (It's the first song I heard on the radio after the ultrasound said we were having a girl.  Rylee found it on a CD and it's been her favorite song this summer.)  I was teary eyed, but I held it in. I managed to get through the drop off and all day with no tears.  It wasn't until I read a little poem that the teacher sent home in her folder that I shed a few tears.  That's to be expected I guess!

Rylee's loved every minute of school so far.  She likes her teacher and all her specials teachers (who all happen to be men).  I'm glad she's getting over her fear of guys!  Today was her birthday day at school.  The class sang to her, she got to wear a crown all day, and I dropped off cupcakes for snack in the afternoon.  She loved all the attention!  When we were walking out after school, a friend of my Dad's stopped to give Rylee the newspaper clipping of her birth announcement! - she came across it in some old newspapers she had.  How sweet!

Happy 6th Birthday Rylee!  We love you so much and are so proud of you!

Misc Cedar Crest

Here are a few blurry cell phone pics from our Cedar Crest trip.  I must be the shakiest cell phone photographer because my cell pics always look terrible!

Rylee at bingo (wearing her new CC coverup)...

 

 

Jace in his favorite spot: "driving" the car game.  I love that he's still young enough to play without quarters.  :)

The last morning, Jace woke up early so I grabbed him out of Rylee's room and let him fall back to sleep in my bed.  Sleeping kids are just too cute!



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