Friends

We're still alive and well! I know it's been some time since I last blogged. You would think having most of the summer off of work would have given me plenty of time to blog away, but we managed to stay pretty busy. I will try to catch everyone up with the next few blog entries.

Rya has had a fair share of strawberries this summer from the farmer's market. Berries! She is so cute when she tries to attack an entire strawberry instead of having us cut them up for her.
Uncle Kenny and Kyle (her cousin) came over for a World Cup game. Rya's not so great with strangers at first, but she eventually warmed up to Kenny. It helped that he had one of her favorite books. Who can resist books? I'm glad Rya likes books just like her mommy!
Rya has made many friends during her (short) lifetime, but the interaction between them is changing as she becomes more verbal. Rya is pretty good at sharing- with the exception of her pacifier. It's funny to watch her "play" with Landon. Poor Landon is a good sport for having to hang out with a girl who is so much younger and can't play on his level. He is very sweet about sharing with her. Although he gets pretty annoyed if Rya doesn't put his alphabet magnets back in the correct order. I should point out that his correct order is exactly that- his. It holds no rhyme or reason to me and certainly doesn't to Rya. Rya loves letters and numbers (she knows them all, so now we are working sounds) so much to Landon's disliking, they don't always get put back in Landon Order after she's done playing with them. We are thankful that Rya has a boy friend (did you see the big space? It's there for a reason! No boys for Rya... ever!) who is kind and whose parents are raising him to be a gentleman. Thanks, Holmes family! We can't wait until Grayson is old enough to play!

Rya has other friends she has made through us and also some from Gymboree. See one of the future posts for more information on Rya's BFF. We are so thankful to have wonderful friends ourselves and that our friends have adorable kids for Rya to play with. We like you single and kid-less friends too!

Mother's Day, First Hair Cut, and More!

We (mostly Jason) have been working hard to clear out the massive amounts of plant growth in our backyard. We know there's a lot more work ahead of us! Our pool is warm and ready for swimming. Jason took the inaugural swim yesterday, but because he did it sans swimsuit there are no photos! Feel free to come over for a swim!

We can actually see the fence! You wouldn't believe the amount of stuff Jason cut down and pulled out. Ridiculous!
For Mother's Day Jason made me a wind chime! It's made completely out of bike parts we had in the garage. He used new tools from his dad (he's constantly talking about all his new tools- you probably already know all about it) to cut out Rya's hand and footprints. I love it! What a creative present!
I have been saying for months that Rya needs a haircut, but for some reason I have been hesitant. I finally had to cut it this morning because the poor child couldn't see when she was swinging at the park with her bangs in her face. On the recommendation of Uncle Justin's hair stylist (super cool guy I met at Justin and Adrianne's wedding), I am not touching the rest of her hair until she is much older. Rya hates to hold still, so I knew this would be a challenge. Jason did his best to hold her, but she screamed and squirmed the whole time. Here's the before picture:

After:

She got over the haircut pretty quickly and seemed happier at the park today when she could actually see while swinging.

Books!

The time has finally come when Rya will sit through an entire book! We've tried to read to her since she was born, but it usually didn't last for more than a few pages. She's always been interested in books- carrying them around and looking through them herself, but not actually sitting and listening to them. Recently she has allowed us to read to her sometimes during the day and always at night. Like a lot of kids, she chooses one toy/book and tends to fixate on it for awhile before moving on to another. This week her favorite book is:

This book was given to me by my mom in 1990 and is signed by the author. It's a cute story about a girl who wants to be a dancer just like her big sister, but she's too little for dance class. By the end of the book she is finally old enough to attend a class. Soon enough Rya will be able to attend a dance class... or soccer, gymnastics, piano lessons, etc. We can't believe she's growing up so fast!

Jason had this book and added it to Rya's collection:

I had never read this book, but fell instantly in love with it the first time I read it to Rya about a year ago. She couldn't sit through the whole thing then, but she does now. If you haven't read this book and you happen to see it in a bookstore, take five minutes and read it. Elizabeth is a princess and wants to marry a prince, but a dragon attacks her castle and takes the prince hostage. Because all of her clothes have been burned by the dragon, Elizabeth wears a paper bag on her quest to rescue her prince. She outsmarts the dragon and goes into the cave to rescue her future husband. He basically tells her she doesn't look like a princess anymore and she should come back when she does. In that moment, Elizabeth realizes her prince is really not someone she wants to be with. It's a cute story with a good message- one I hope Rya remembers. I'm sure I'll read this book to her before every date she has... FAR in the future of course.

Rya has a ton of books and we can't wait to read them all together! Today is Mother's Day and I was given a super cool, homemade gift. Pictures in a future post!

Easter/Hawaii

Easter was a week late for us this year with my side of the family. I learned that See's discounts their Easter candy the day after and I was able to get quite a bit for more than half off. I think Easter will be a year late every year! Why not?

Chandra and Mike were a big help in finishing a few electrical things at the house and then we all had dinner. Before dinner we had an egg hunt in the backyard. We purposely let the grass grow a bit longer to better hide eggs. Jason did a great job of hiding eggs- some of them were really difficult!

Hawaii was wonderful this year! We deserve it after last year. For those of you who don't remember, we spent last year not sleeping and it was not a great trip. Rya made up for it this year! She slept through the night all week and took naps everyday. She was slightly afraid of the ocean, but not when we held her. She loved to play in the sand!

Our friends, the Hills, happened to be in Maui the same time we were! We had a beach date!

Zoo and Friends!

A few weeks ago we took Rya to the zoo for the first time. Unfortunately, she was still recovering from being sick and didn't want to do much. It was very uncharacteristic of her to want to be held the whole time. She loved the carousel and the gift shop!

We had some friends, the Gurnees, come to stay with us for a few days this week. Rya had a great time with Hunter and thought bouncing in her play pen was pretty awesome!

Sleepy girl!

Carousel!
Give kisses!
The playroom is now pink!

Easter Photos!

Sunday we took Easter photos! Rya was such a good kid and LOVED the toy piano. Child prodigy? For sure! :)

Rya loves her eggs!

Our sweet, sweet girl!
This smile is so Rya! She loves to smile!
Daily Tea is the cutest clothing line ever!

Patience

Thank you for patiently waiting for pictures! The moving process was more of an endeavor than we anticipated. Here are some before, during, and after photos. Unfortunately, our computer died (again) and we lost some of the before photos. Hopefully they can be retrieved off the hard drive. Until then, enjoy these! Start at the bottom!

Mostly finished kitchen. Two of the cabinets are supposed to be glass- they are arriving soon and will be swapped out with the solid ones. The backsplash has not been grouted.

During the kitchen process:

The pool! Come on over this summer! We hired a pool service and it looks beautiful now!
We lived like this for a month. Never again!
The bathtub was green. We had it refinished in white.
We lived with paper on our wood floors for weeks while the contractors were in and out.
New hutch for the dining room!
New windows and carpet (see picture below with old windows and yucky carpet)! The boxes are gone now and Rya has an empty room to run around in while we decide what furniture to get.
While the wood floors were being put in.
Rya's bathroom being remodeled.
Living room with old carpet and windows- yucky!
Kitchen after demolition.

The family room had wood paneling and wood beams everywhere. It was terrible! We ripped out the wood ourselves and our contractor finished the walls.

Master bathroom during remodel.
Rya's bathroom with the old wallpaper- nice!
Kitchen demolition.
From the backyard during construction.