Happy Birthday Ryleigh!

Today I am the mother of an ELEVEN year old.
It does not seem that long ago that I could hold her little body in my arms and try to snuggle with her (she did not like to be snuggly) Now, she is much bigger but finally wants me to snuggle with her.
I am so grateful for her. She is absolutely wonderful and I could not have asked for a better girl.

Happy Birthday Ryleigh

I LOVE YOU!

Saturday Night Fun

Today was a really fun day. Dan's dad and step-mom live up in Portland and they decided to come down for a visit this afternoon to celebrate Ryleigh's eleventh birthday that is coming up on Monday. They came with a cake and plans! They wanted to take us bowling and to dinner... so here is the proof!
Karen (Dan's step-mom) made this super cute amazing cake! It was delicious too.

Obviously. Livy loved it too!

After eating a mid-afternoon snack of birthday cake we headed over to the bowling alley!

Livy LOVED the brightly colored bowling balls. In fact she loved everything about the bowling alley except for me keeping her from walking on the alley.

Karen (aka Ma'ama) Ryleigh and Livy

Ryleigh is a pretty good little bowler. She gets it.

Ethan was also pretty talented. I was very impressed with their skill level.

Spencer on the other hand........

I don't know how, but he ended up throwing the ball into the other lane!! We got quite the giggle out of Spencer this evening.

Even Olivia could handle getting the ball in her own alley.

Look, I was there too!

So was Dan!

Bruce was dancing with Ryleigh, embarrassing her.

Bruce & Karen ~ thanks for a great time!

Finally, after 2 rounds of bowling we went and got some Pizza.. Livy loved it.

Ryleigh was totally brave and sang karaoke! She was amazing. She sang "Before He Cheats" and "So Small" by Carrie Underwood. She did a fantastic job. We were very proud. It ended up being a really fun evening.

pretty much.... I'm feeble.

Olivia, my dear sweet Olivia, is a thumb sucker. Not a single one of our other children sucked a pacifier or thumb, so this is all new territory for us. When she was little I kept trying to get her to switch over to the pacifier instead of her thumb (because I can take away a paci, and I can't really take away a thumb) but she would have NOTHING to do with those rubbery things. Thumbs only.

Well here we are, nearly 14 months after she blessed our family we are starting to notice some teeth issues. They are not buck teeth, just a bit crooked. Not to mention the constant blister and callous she has on her favorite thumb. After much discussion Dan and I decide that it would be be best to try and break her of this habit sooner rather than later. So we decided to put socks on her hands one night before bed.

The evening started out great, Liv thought it was hilarious! She was looking forward to picking stuff up and throwing stuff. That is until she picked up her favorite blankie...

That is when things got.... not so happy.

No she is not break dancing here. She was trying her hardest to get the sock off her hand with her teeth. After nearly an hour (or maybe 30 minutes, I can't really remember) I had to rescue her. We decided that we will attempt this again when she has her own room.

Whats up!?

Are you wondering what we have been up too? Well let me fill you in on our first week of February 2009:

Ethan got the flu... he is so sweet and sad when he is sick. We put a small TV and the 360 in his room so he could watch movies or play video games. I find it hilarious that his movie preference is Star Wars 3 (he is only 6 - does he really understand it , because I don't!)












Olivia had her first experience with Fudge at our Super Bowl get together - she loved it!






Ryleigh is in the 'I can't take a serious picture to save my life' stage - luckily she is cute anyways and I can totally remember being in this stage...




























Olivia is learning lots from the Wii Fit - like the word "HELLO" it is so cute. The only issue is - she wants to be on the Fit board when anyone else is on the board so it is difficult to get in a real workout - if that's what you can call it.

Spencer, we have discovered is challenged.......

He can NOT take a picture with his eyes opened. How many pictures does it take to get one with his eyes open? .....

Ahh, finally. And guess what - I accidentally deleted 3 of the picture with his eyes closed! He is such a sweet kid though, so I guess I will forgive him.

Go Cards!

Even though we are not in Arizona we are still SUPER excited for the Cardinals! We feel like we should be pinching ourselves - is this the same team we grew up not watching?