I copied this from Aunt Sarah, I don't think she would mind. I attempted to ask Ryleigh these, the first question I asked her was what her favorite color was and from there every answer was a color. So mommy is answering them for her.

Color - yellow, she answered this one (she said yellow twice and purple once)
Food - Hamburger, Hotdogs or Pizza
Fruit - Grapes
Vegetable - Peas and corn (she loves them!)
Breakfast Food - Sausage links
Drink - Juice
T.V. Show - George and SpongeBob
Movie- Toy Story
Book - I don't really think she has one, just whatever she feels like that day
Toy - Dolls
Shirt - A horse one that PaPa got her in Colorado
Ice Cream - Any kind
Cookie - Any kind with filling, she only eats the filling
Snack - Fruit snacks and yogurt covered raisins
Animal - She loves animals, but I would have to say puppies and horses (she sees horses on the way to daycare (tons of them) and she has really taken a liking for them)
Stuffed Animal - Right now that would probably be her deer or monkey
Singer - Elvis, who else is there?
Thing to do outside - Swing, she did answer this one
Thing to do with Mommy - Help, really, she loves to help mommy! She helps with everything, cleaning, dishes, taking care of sissy, laundry, feeding the dog, you name it, Ryleigh wants to be right there helping. She always says. "help mommy". But she also likes to play... I just need to make more time for playing.
Thing to do with Daddy - Sing and dance

I'm a BIG GIRL now!

Ryleigh is wearing big girl panties!!!!!! We bought a potty chair for Ryleigh when she was 18 months old. She was starting to show some interest, so we got one just for fun. Every since then she has gone on the potty whenever she wanted, but we didn't push anything on her. Just recently she really started showing signs of being ready for potty training and taking much more of an interest in it. A couple of weeks ago I bought some Pull-Ups to try. Really, in my opinion, Pulls Ups feel no different to a child than a diaper, so I told Ryleigh they were big girl panties, they just made going on the potty much easier. She was doing pretty good at going potty, so I pushed her just a little bit more this past week. Over the holiday weekend I put real underwear on her just to see how she would do and she did great. On Tuesday I told her if she did really good for the rest of the week that Friday night we could to Wal-Mart and she could pick out a new toy. I told Miss Loretta how well she was doing and she started encouraging her more at daycare too. Thursday when I picked her up, she had underwear on. Miss Loretta said she wet in her Pull Up that morning, so she put underwear on her and she stayed dry all day!!!!! I made the decision that come Saturday morning when Ryleigh woke there wouldn't be any Pull Ups for her to wear, she would HAVE to wear underwear. But this morning I laid a pair out with her clothes and she didn't fuss or refuse. She went potty on the big girl potty and then came back and got dressed!! She went to daycare in underwear and it will be underwear from here on out!! I may have to change a lot of clothes at first, but she will get better! She actually does really good. She had an accident last night after we got home, but that was her only accident all day. Now pooping is another issue.... we are working on that. Tonight Ryleigh gets to pick out a new toy and new underwear!!! We are so proud of her!!!!!!!!!!! And this was COMPLETELY STRESS FREE!! We let her do her own thing, we had no expectations of her at all and waited for the time to feel right and when it was, she was more than ready!!! And accidents don't bother me, so I know that I can stay calm and patient in the first few days of wearing only underwear. Ryleigh doesn't like to be wet or poopy, so I know with each accident she will get better. She has stopped herself many times as she has started to pee in her pants. She is becoming such a big girl!!!!

Ryleigh's New Daycare

Ryleigh is doing EXCELLENT at her new daycare. She loves it! Things are going so much better for her. She is excited about going and doesn't cry, well she whines a little bit every now and then, but that is just because she is such a mommy's girl ;). I feel so good about dropping her off there in the mornings, no more crying for me either! She is always so happy when I pick her up and always has good days. She makes a lot of crafts and is learning a lot. She learned to say a prayer before mealtime and now we do it at home. She loves to pray. I am so glad that God brought Miss Loretta into our lives, Ryleigh is much happier!!!!! This week they are learning about frogs and they have a huge bullfrog that Ryleigh thinks is really cool. Today they were taking a little trip to the park, she was very excited about that. We are just so glad that she is much happier and doing so much better at the new daycare!

A sister's love is forever

I don't think that I have ever seen a two year so into their baby sister as what Ryleigh is. The girl is totally in love with Madison. She just can't enough of her. She loves playing with her and holding her. She is more excited to sissy in the mornings or when I pick her up than she is us. She talks and sings to her. She loves playing Pat-A-Cake with her. And of course, she likes to help do everything for her from changing her diaper to getting her binkie. Ryleigh is such a big help too. Having two small children can make it near impossible to get anything done at home(as you all know), especially when Madison has to have attention all the time. If Madison is crying and I need just a few minutes to get something done, Ryleigh is more than willing to entertain her for me. And Madison thinks that Ryleigh is the coolest thing in the world. She loves to watch her and is always smiling at her. Lately, Ryleigh has been able to get Madison to laugh at her. We had several moments over the holiday weekend that were just so heart-warming to watch. Monday evening Tom and I were get dinner ready and Madison was in her highchair in the kitchen. Ryleigh started playing with her and the two of them got to laughing so much. It was so funny. Tom and I agreed that it was so awesome to watch the two of them interact like that. It's such a great feeling to see the love that they have for each other. That's real love, when it comes from two babies!

Rolling all over the place!

Madison started rolling from her belly to her back a while back. But it was very rare that I would see her roll from her back to her belly. Over the last few days she has dramatically improved her skill of rolling over. She rolls from either side and will back and forth until she gets tired.

A ride on the wildside

Ryleigh got her Mustang out yesterday afternoon and wanted to give sissy a ride. She wants to give her a ride every time she plays with it, but I tell Ryleigh that she has to wait until Madison is a little bigger. Well yesterday I got brave and stuck Madison in there ( I only stepped away to take the pictures and told Ry she couldn't move the car). Ryleigh thought she was so cool driving her baby sissy around the yard and Madison didn't mind a bit. It was so cute!!!

Madison's Baby Dedication

Sunday, May 17, 2009 was Madison's Baby Dedication. Tom and I committed ourselves, as parents, to raise Madison in a Godly way, to bring her up in a Christian home and to teach her to know Jesus and to love Jesus. We did the same with Ryleigh last April. The ceremony was wonderful. We had a nice dinner as well. Madison got the same Bible that Ryleigh did last year and a certificate. She also got two really cute toys. The mentors assigned to us are wonderful and I am so glad they were chosen for us. Mimi, Aunt Christa, Dennis, Dean, Devan, Jon and Kylie all joined us. Aunt Sarah, Uncle Matt, Andrew and Gabriella did as well, but Ella was being dedicated too. Here a few pictures that were taken. As you can see in the first one, Ryleigh enjoyed a nice big piece of cake. They did take family pictures and one of just Madison, when we get them in I will post them.

Pictures of the girls playing on their new swingset

The new play area

Ryleigh was always asking for a swing set. Every time she would see one in someone elses yard (or at a daycare) she wanted to play on it. She had recently started telling us that she wanted one. She would even go through magazines and find pictures of them and show us. So we finally got her one. We just put it up on Sunday. She loves it! It wasn't too bad to put together. Don from Barreth stopped by to help. We were missing some of the hardware and that was a pain, but other than that, it went smooth and we got it done in one day. The play area isn't totally done yet. We have to fill it with pea gravel and then put mulch along the outside with flowers and bushes in it. We are also making a walkway from the deck to the play area. It will look nice when we are done. Here are a few pictures I took while putting it up.

A beautiful day at the park

Last Tuesday was a BEAUTIFUL day and so we decided to have a picnic at the park. This was Madison's first time swinging, she loved it! And of course, Ryleigh always loves to play on the swings and the slide. Here are a few of my favorite pictures that we took.

Big Sister

Pictures of Ryleigh being the great big sister that she is!!

Mommy's Little Helper

Ryleigh loves to help... she likes to help clean, do the laundry, take care of sissy, put groceries away... and her newest thing that she loves is doing the dishes. Anytime I do dishes by hand, she is right there helping me. In the pictures below, she went and got some of her own dishes from her kitchen to wash.

Just Hanging Out

These are just a couple of pictures of Ryleigh and Madison hanging out on the front porch together. They are just so darn cute!!!

What color is that?

Ryleigh has been working really hard on her colors lately and she now knows all of her basic colors.... green, orange, red, blue, yellow, white, purple and pink. We are always asking her "what color is that?" And tonight we were going through M & M's and I was asking her what color they all were and then finally she says "Mommy, what color is that?" as she holds up an M & M and I say the color and then she says "ok" and picks up another one and asks me again. When I told daddy that she did that, he said that she was doing that to him last night. What a cutie!

She has also been working on her counting. Her and daddy count the steps when they walk up them. She can count up to 13, but it usually goes something like this.... 1,2,3,7,9,11,13. But she is getting there!!

What a FANTASTIC Day!

Ryleigh had a fantastic day at her new daycare. The teacher said she never cried or seemed sad or upset that she was there. She made a ladybug from a rock and put together a lady bug counting book. She took a great nap and ate a good lunch. When I picked her up she didn't want to go home, she wanted to stay and play!! What a change that was. She didn't have to be in time out at all today (of course I have never known Ryleigh to be in time out so that wasn't something that surprised me) so she got to pick a piece of candy out of the jar before she left. She was a totally different person when I picked her up. And the teacher stood and talked me for a few minutes and Ryleigh was able to show me the things she did that day. Usually I was always rushed to get out because Ryleigh wanted to go and was crabby and the teacher was always so busy and didn't have the time to talk. It just wasn't as calm and welcoming as this new daycare. When we got in the car I asked Ryleigh about her day and she was happy and excited. I asked her if she wanted to go back and she said yes and I asked her if she likes Miss Loretta and wanted to go back to her house and she said yes. (And just to make sure that she wasn't say yes to everything I also asked her if she wanted to go to school and replied with a no.) I pray that each day goes this well and she continues to love it this much!

The Playhouse

We decided to take Ryleigh out of the daycare that she was in. Right before I had Madison, Ryleigh had to switch classrooms. She was in there for 3 weeks before I took her out for maternity leave. She didn't adjust to the classroom at all. When she went back to daycare when I returned to work I expected the first week or so to be tough and it was. Then she came down with pneumonia over the weekend and missed the entire second week. So I knew that we were going to have to start over and have another rough week, but it never got any better. Some days I felt like it was getting worse. I spent many mornings crying on my way to work and feeling so guilty for leaving her there. There were days that I would spend my entire day obsessing over what I could do. There were so many things that I had to take into consideration and the biggest one was taking her out and starting all over at another daycare and making it worse. I would tell myself, just a few more days, let's see what happens. Then 2 months later, here I was, still dropping off Ryleigh at a place that she hated. And I wasn't sure why. I didn't get a good impression of the morning teacher and I don't think that Ryleigh liked her at all. I did like the afternoon teacher and so did Ryleigh. There were a couple of kids that I wondered if they picked on her. Every time I talked to the teachers they said she did fine during the day. She spent a couple of weeks being a loner before the afternoon teacher told me, so I asked them to work with her and they said she was improving in that area. Nothing got better for Ryleigh and I emotionally couldn't handle it any longer and something was telling me that something wasn't right. Her behavior at home changed and her social skills took a few a steps back not forward. Monday morning I decided that was enough and called my mom (gotta love her, she is always there) and she told me about a lady that she knows from church that has a state licensed in home daycare. I called her and talked to her and planned to meet her on Tuesday, but by the end of the day I already had decided that this was best for Ryleigh and I gave the daycare notice that afternoon when I picked her up. Her last day there was Friday and Friday afternoon we went by the new daycare. She seemed to really like it and we talked about it all weekend. We used to call daycare 'school' but daddy came up with a new name for the new daycare, playhouse, because if you mention daycare or school she gets upset. Last night we talked to her about going and she seemed excited. I told her she could bring a toy and asked her if she wanted to, she said yes and I told her to go pick one out. She goes to her playroom and comes back with an armful of her dollhouse accessories. I laughed and told her she couldn't take all of those and needed to find just one toy. So she goes back over and looks around and decides on her doctor set, I told her that was fine. This morning she woke and was ready to go. After I go out of the shower, she went downstairs and got her doctor set and came up telling me she was ready to go bye-bye. For the first time in a long time, Ryleigh was excited about leaving and I got her in the car without any problems. She ended up taking bear instead of her dr kit. As we back out of the driveway, I looked at her as I turned around just like I do every morning, only this time she looked happy. Every morning when I turn around as I am backing up, Ryleigh is doing one of three things, looking out the window and not saying a word, looking down or staring at me. She isn't smiling or looking happy either. I tell her I am sorry every morning when I look at her. This morning we didn't have any of that, I truly think she understood she wasn't going back to the other daycare and was going somewhere that she was excited about. Some of it could have bern me too, I felt like a huge burden had been lifted off my shoulders the day I told daycare I was taking her out. We talked about the playhouse on the way there and when I pulled up to the stoplight, she says "yay, house!". Most mornings she would have started crying and saying, "no school mommy, no school." So we talked about it some more and half way there (this is the part I have to get used to, it took me 3 minutes at the most to take her to the other daycare, this one is down Hwy AD and it takes me about 10 minutes to get there) she looks over at Madison and says. "sissy playhouse!". We pulled up and she was ready to get out. She wanted to play on the swing set, her favorite part. But I told her she had to wait until outside time and we went in. All the kids said hi to her. She kept saying she wanted to play outside. She looked around as I put her stuff in her cubby and then she walked over to the fish tank (which is really cool) and one of the little boys showed her the fish, then she played with the wooden train set (I stayed and played with her). Then she walked over to door and tried to open so she could go outside, I once again tried to tell her she had to wait, she got mad but did much better than usual. The teacher said that maybe it would be easier for her first day if they went outside, so they all got in line and said that Ryleigh should be the line leader because she was new. Well, Ryleigh didn't understand and just wanted to go outside, but she wanted me to hold her. So we stood at the back of the line and I held her hand, but as soon as the door opened and the kids took off she took off running as fast as she could down the sidewalk. She was the last one to swing set (she is the youngest) and so Caiden gave his swing to her. I walked over and told her I had to go to work and she was going to stay here while I was working. She never said anything and so I told her good bye, to have a good day and I loved her. I gave her a kiss and walked away. She never cried, she never said anything. I turned to look at her as I was closing the gate and she was swinging and looking as happy as can be. I almost cried on the way to my car because it was such a wonderful feeling. For the first time in 2 months, I dropped Ryleigh off without a single tear or an ounce of sadness. It was the best feeling I have felt in a long time!!

I couldn't be happier that I made this decision and I pray that she continues to do this well and likes it! It's a small daycare that feels very warm and homey. She will gets lots of one on one, which is what Ryleigh needs right now and she will have a calm and nurturing environment, not a chaotic one like at a bigger daycare. She will also have a lot more structured learning time than I feel she got at the other daycare. And the best part is it's Christian based, she will get basic bible teachings while she is there.

This day has turned out to be a great day for me and hopefully for Ryleigh. I will update you on her first day there later.

MORE

Ok, well I have way too many cute pictures of them together to only share 5, so here are 5 more. I don't have any picture after March uploaded on this computer, so I have LOTS more at home to share too! ;)

Sisters are best friends forever!

When I found out I was having another girl I was soooo excited! I love having little girls and I have a sister so I know what kind of relationship sisters have. I knew from the beginning that no matter if we had a boy or a girl, Ryleigh would be an excellent big sister... and I was right!! She has adjusted very well to the arrival of her baby sister. She doesn't always like to share her mommy and daddy and there have been a few (but VERY few) issues with this. The only major thing I can think of that Ryleigh has done is the day she threw a bottle of bubbles at Madison because she was mad that we wouldn't let her play with them in the house. Other than that, Ryleigh has done great. She absolutely loves Madison. She is very motherly to her and tries so hard to take care of her. She helps in every way that she can and always so delighted to see Madison. We are very proud of Ryleigh for handling this huge change in her life so well. And we are proud to watch the way she is with Madison. Ryleigh and Madison will be the best of friends their entire lives and it melts my heart to see how much they love each other. Madison thinks Ryleigh is the coolest. She loves to watch her and smiles from ear to ear when Ryleigh talks to her. Sometimes, though, Madison does get a frightened look on her face when Ryleigh is bouncing off the walls (but I think daddy and mommy do too). They are amazing together and we love them so very much! Here a few pictures of Ryleigh and Madison that were taken the first few weeks after Madison was born.

Trash Day

Today is trash day, one of Ryleigh's favorite days. She LOVES to sit on the front porch and watch the trash truck. She gets so excited and I hear a lot of "Look Mommy!" and "Oh Wow!" while she is watching. She will even talk to him. This morning she heard it and ran to the window. She started yelling "mommy trash truck". So she sat and watched it. Then I hear her saying "poopy" over and over. (About 5 minutes before the truck took our trash, I took her poopy diaper out to the trash so it didn't sit in the trash can in the house all day.) Then I hear her say "thank you". So I peak around the corner and the trashman is taking our empty trash cans back to the driveway. So I am guessing that she was saying poopy because she knew he was throwing away her diaper and then said thank you because he dumped the trash. It was so cute, she sure is polite. Then after a few minutes she started talking about her poopy diaper and was upset that he took it. What a nut!!

Look what I can do!!

This is Madison's latest milestone. She is holding her head up so good. She has always had great head control and a strong neck (both of the girls were this way), but within the last 3 weeks or so, Madison has started holding her head straight up while laying on her belly. She looks around like it's a whole different world. But this is what happens when she tries to go to sleep sometimes, her head just pops up. Theses pictures were actually taken after I put her to bed. I went to check on her just a few minutes after I put her down to see if she had fallen alseep yet and this is how she was when I walked in.

Ryleigh's School Pictures

Ryleigh had Spring pictures taken last week at school. Here are the proofs (they are not the best quality because they are scanned proofs). She didn't smile in any of them, but she really HATES getting her picture taken. It's usually a very stressful time for me. They said she did fine, she just wouldn't smile. She is really bad when I take her, she cries and screams and just plain refuses to sit down. I think these turned out really cute even though she wasn't smiling.

Pictures of Ryleigh