Shoes!

Rya takes after both parents and loves shoes! That's not to say she loves all shoes. It takes her a few weeks to warm up to a new pair of shoes unless she has chosen them herself. She has recently taken to walking around in Jason's or my shoes which is pretty cute. Last week at Chloe's birthday party she found Avery's discarded dress up shoes and had a ball walking around in her heels! Yesterday when we made our Target run we found a pair on sale and decided to go ahead and buy some for Rya. They are still a bit big, so she has trouble getting them on and a bit of trouble getting around.

Daddy's shoes!

I climbed into the toy box!
"Mommy, help you!"
New clothes for fall/winter and stylin' shoes!

Big Girl Bed

The time for the crib conversion was supposed to be in December, but this morning we realized that December was starting to fill up with big changes for Rya. We were going to transition her to a big girl bed (convert the crib), rid her of pacys, and potty train her. I have six weeks off, but that's a lot of life-altering events for that short of time. We made a hasty decision to convert her crib and crossed our fingers that it would work. Rya is very excited about her new bed that she can get in and out of all by herself. She even "helped" put it together. At nap time we did our normal reading and singing and then I left her alone in her bed. Jason and I watched her on the monitor for about 5 minutes while she got in and out of bed. She ended up back in bed and fell asleep pretty quickly. Success! Let's just hope that tonight and future nights are just as easy!

I know how to help!


Bye, crib!

Big girl bed!

Daddy and Rya just making sure it works!

Pumpkin Patch

Yesterday we went to Fog Willow Farms in Wilton. They have a wonderful pumpkin patch this time of year with hayrides and animals. Thanks to the suggestion by the Holmes family, Rya and her friend Addison joined the Lil' Pickers' Club. We paid $25.00 and we got free admission, a t-shirt, and a 10-15 pound pumpkin of our choice. We get free admission and a free pumpkin every year until Rya's 13. It's a steal of a deal!

Addison's dad, Mark, was home for a bit from some training and we all got to spend the morning together. Rya loves her BFF! We are so glad they met at Gymboree so long ago.

Sharing!



I love this guy and this picture!
Hayride- twice!
Rya is pretty convinced that all animals are put on the earth to play with her. She walks up to any animal, laughs, and runs away while looking back to see if they are following. Most of the time, the animals just look at her like she's crazy, but not this goat! This goat took on the challenge to catch Rya and she had a blast running away from it.

Surprisingly, Rya found something to jump on. It was actually made for jumping- some kind of air/hay combination.
Thanks to Auntie Dagny, Jason and I (and I imagine Grandmas as well) have been reading Elmo's Monster Mash a gazillion times a day. On one page, Elmo accidentally drops his pumpkin and says, "Heavy!" Guess what Rya said when she picked this up? You've got to love Elmo and his Monster Mash!
Rya climbed to the top of the hay pyramid.
This dog was peacefully napping when we arrived. As I explained above, Rya wanted this animal to play with her. Rya started yelling at the dog, "Wake up, doggie! Wake up, doggie!" The dog must have been sleepy because he/she just kept sleeping. Rya tried to get a better angle to yell at the dog, but accidentally tripped over the dog's leg. Jason and I were dying laughing because we've never seen a dog jump up so quickly. The dog was certainly awake after that. Wouldn't you love to see Rya's tummy when you wake up?

Mr. Nintendo Weekend

This year was the Second Annual Mr. Nintendo Competition. Jason spends a lot of time in preparation for one of his favorite weekends of the year. Last year Jason made all of the "trophies" himself and they were once again awarded to the winners of each category this year. All day Saturday was full of so many video games I lost count. Rya and I did our own thing, but caught a few games here and there. The boys seemed to be enjoying themselves. What boys wouldn't like donuts, pizza, and other snacks while playing video games all day?

Here is the scoreboard (I know, I should have rotated it):

Brian and Alvin racing:
The next day some of the boys played basketball and Rya and I were lucky enough to have two friends visit us, Kennedy and Alexis Pyne! Ryan was here for the event and they came along to visit. The girls can actually play together now- it was so cute!

Pool is done!

Now we just need to finish the rest of the yard. That's going to take awhile.

More Birthday Pictures!

More pictures from the Sunday night party! Thanks, Grandpa!