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!

Rya is 2!

What a weekend! We started the birthday weekend with a family party on Saturday afternoon. It was so nice to have almost all of Jason's family over to our house. Many of them helped us paint back in December, but the house was still pretty much gutted at that point. They got to see the ALMOST finished product (inside). The outside is a whole other story- one which will be ongoing for awhile I'm guessing. Rya was a bit overwhelmed as usual by the big group of people, but warmed up after awhile. She spent a great deal of time on the trampoline to no one's surprise. Jason purchase three little Sesame Street plush toys for Rya and we made the mistake of having her open those first. She was so in love with Oscar, The Count, and mostly Ernie that she didn't want to open other gifts. The gift-opening process took two different sittings and then didn't hold her attention. She loves all the gifts, she just wants to have time to spend with each one after opening it and we didn't have that much time. Rya made out like a bandit with some awesome gifts!

Sunday brought another party! Uncle Mike gave Rya an awesome present- he ran all the electrical (with some help from Jason) for the new pool equipment! We are so appreciative that he spent time in the heat doing that in order to save us quite a bit of money. Plus, Rya got a bonus of hanging out with her cousins during the day.

The friends party was on Sunday night and started with Rya just waking up from a nap. She's not the cheeriest baby when she wakes up. I spent a good deal of the party wondering if the Terrible Two's started a day early. She was very fiesty and only wanted to jump on the trampoline with Jason who was trying to barbecue dinner. With help from both grandmas, Auntie Chandra, and Uncle Mike we were able to serve dinner to the 30+ adults and kids there. Once again, we had the gift-opening issue. It was getting late, so I ended up opening most of the gifts. Next year we'll plan to start opening gifts when the party starts. Ha, ha. Though it started off a bit roughly, the party was super fun. The only thing I would change is being able to talk to more people for extended periods of time. We have the best friends and family!

The cake. I planned to make this (in my mind) perfect cake for Rya's birthday party on Sunday. I baked the cakes on Saturday and the crappy pans I own coupled with the major PMS from which I was suffering put me over the edge. At one point I was sobbing on the kitchen floor. Thank goodness for Jason. He came to the rescue, assured me all would be okay, and helped get the cakes somewhat back together. Sunday morning I made the buttercream icing and covered the cakes before making the fondant. The store bought fondant doesn't taste great to me, so I decided to make my own. That basically caused a repeat of Saturday's breakdown until once again Jason came to my rescue. The fondant was just not cooperating with me. Jason covered the cakes with the fondant, but unfortunately the mangled cakes were not magically transformed into perfect molds under the fondant. I finally (sort of) came to terms with the fact that it was my first time attempting to make a cake with fondant and I was just going to have to live with the finished product while it was far less impressive as I had intended. Jason insisted I call him Cake Boss after that. I tried to explain to him that I was pretty sure that name was taken, but he would have none of it. Cake Boss he was- for the day. The good news is that the cake tasted good. I swear it's the buttercream icing. I found the recipe a few months ago when I was dissatisfied with the one I had and it's far superior to the old one.

Thanks to everyone for the wonderful company and awesome gifts!