Some Recents

Just wanted to share a few recent shots of Rylee. She is really growing up super speed! It is soo much fun to see how fast she is picking new things up. Rylee now knows where her head, ears, eyes, nose, tongue, hands, and feet are. She does all the hand motions to the songs, "Head, shoulders, knees, and toes", "Itsy bitsy spider", "Ring around the Rosie", and "This little piggie". She has also added clock, cat, shoes, that's hot, and papa to her vocabulary. She is still using her sign language very well to communicate 'more' and 'milk/drink' to us. She LOVES her learning videos and sing a long tapes and gets super excited when you start them for her. She also knows how to turn them on and off. She absolutely LOVES the outdoors and would be out there sweat or rain all day if she could. She loves her slide and will literally go up and down her slide nearly a thousand times if you let her.... She's a huge fan of ringing the door bell, knocking, and saying "come-in" and waving hello.... She is such a joy to Mitch and I and we just can't get enough of her cuteness!!! btw, we are going to try to put Rylee into dance classes starting at 18 months. She just loves to dance around the house, and she is doing this thing lately where she prounces around on her tip toes, very cute!!

First Trip To The Beach

At the spur of the moment on Sunday, we packed everything up and headed for the beach, Daytona Beach to be specific. We've been wanting to take Rylee there and never have really gotten around to doing so. We packed up the tent, chairs, radio, cooler, towels, and blanket and were off.... Rylee slept the whole way there, which was great because she was ready to go once we got there! It was fun to watch her 'people watch' as we drove down the beach searching for a parking spot. It was really crowded there!




















































































This was the first shot I took of Rylee right when we got there and she was taking it all in... Rylee was lent this dress from Miss Sara and it was the dress that her little Caitlyn wore the first time she went to the beach, I found it fitting and a cute little memory to have... Rylee just loves Caity and looks up to her.















































I got Rylee in her suit, I thought it would be cute to put her in a two piece, most of her suits are one piece suits, but I thought the matching hat combo would be super cute... Rylee was not a fan of the sand touching her feet and didn't know what to think of it at first. She started to get her sad lip and started to cry a bit... we had to show her how fun sand could be...


























We pulled out the shovels, and buckets, and all the sand toys, we also brought her bubbles along too... We started to build sand castles in the sand and all she wanted to do was to tear them down, LOL.... She instantly broke her fear of the sand and didn't mind it too much after that.... It was cute however, to see how she reacted when it was all over her hands, she didn't know how to wipe it off... soo cute!
















































after the sand fun, we of course hit the water.... Our little water bug was on cloud nine. She LOVED the ocean! Her favorite part would be when the waves retracted and you can feel all the sand moving beneath your feet. She loved the waves and all the splashing. We jumped the waves with her. She just wanted 'more more more'. She tried to taste the water a few times, licking her lips and hands, but we told her 'no', and several times the waves would really move her around and push her over, but she never was upset or bothered, mostly just laughed at everything. She found the birds on the beach soo fascinating. She would chase after them and point to them. She was pretty much excited and happy about everything. You could really tell that she really enjoyed herself.... Here are some shots of the water fun...

































































































































































































































.....and one of all of us girls! Rylee was telling Haylee that we were at the beach, LOL










































oh, and one more thing....... Rylee would like to show you some pictures of her baby sister. She got to watch baby Haylee on the monitor during our 4D ultrasound and she was such a good girl and behaved soo well.

Meet Haylee Jayde (27 weeks)

















































































I think she looks like Daddy, sometimes I think I see 'Rylee' in her, but then I think they will look different. We can't wait to meet her!!

July is the Month of Birthdays

It's birthday party times again! We have 5 birthdays this month. This past weekend we celebrated Jonah's 3rd birthday at a pool party!! Rylee is such the little water bug this summer and enjoys it so much! I definitely want to put her in swim lessons, so perhaps next summer we will be able to do that. Here are just a few pictures of the water fun Rylee had with daddy at the party. Lots more to come as well, but there are only soo many hours in the day to edit all these pictures :) LOL

two of my 'picky little eater'....









































kisses for Daddy.... Rylee is quite the hug and kiss giver now, if you pretend to cry or are really crying, she stops whatever she is doing and runs up to you to give you a hug and make you feel better.






































The wet hand print on my jeans that truly touches my heart. What a miracle a little child is and how beautiful is this???























Our little gymnast in training, she was having so much fun playing with daddy. Daddy was brave enough to try out these little tricks with our little swim bug!! (lots more to add later)






























For some reason, Rylee very much dislikes floating on her back and will fight it to all wits end. I couldn't resist how cute this face was, LOL! "No Daddy No, I will not float on my back" I just love how her toes are pointed here and she is working those ab muscles to sit herself up, LOL




















more to come later................


oh, and one for the birthday boy!! Happy birthday Jonah, we love you!

Happy BIrthday Momma!

Well, I am 26 years old now!!! Taking that downward slide towards 30! But age is just a number!!! I just know that before I blink my eyes, my 20's will be gone I'm sure. We started celebrating my birthday yesterday (Sunday the 6th) because my mom and Dad wouldn't be available today due to work reasons..... Monday is such a blah day for a birthday anyhow.... Sooooo, for my birthday, I wanted to take Rylee to Monkey Joe's, an inflatable indoor play place for kids!!! We had such a blast with Rylee! You know you've become a mom when your birthday consists of doing something fun with and for the kids, I wouldn't have it any other way!!!!! It was such a great time!!!
Rylee loved the slides, and Mitch and my Dad really got a work out playing there with Rylee. She was really into it! I will post pictures for you soon, I promise!!! We also went to dinner at Texas Roadhouse Grill, where they made me sit on a saddle while the restaurant wished me a Happy Birthday, note to self: don't tell them its your birthday when you eat there, you're guaranteed to be embarrassed!!! My brother came out and joined us for dinner as well and it was nice to have the family together!!!
We also had some family pictures taken with Dana Faye, a friend of mine, whom also shares the same birthday as me! Although, she is turning 21. I am soo happy to finally be on the opposite side of the camera and to have some great pictures of the family, Thank you!!!!!!!!

(I will post all pictures soon)

Attempting to stay cool in this summer heat

Boy is it hotter then ever!!! You really have to try and stay cool in this summer heat. Daddy was gone to the races in Daytona on Saturday the 5th, so momma and Rylee had a fun day with Grandma and Grandpa Reedyk. We noticed Rylee's love of water hoses at her 1st birthday party and so we decided to have some fun with the waterhose and to play with her slide and bubbles. Grandpa is always soo silly and had a lot of fun with Rylee in the water. When we decided it was time to go back in, Rylee kept pointing to the water hose and saying "dat". She really wanted more! We decided it would be fun to go swimming in the pool so we went over to Grandma and Grandpa's house to really get to enjoy the water some more. Here are a few shots from the day out!!

Our little firecracker (Happy 4th of July)

First, let's take a moment to reflect back a year ago, our little girl was nearly a month old! This picture has always been one of my most favorites! Thank you Kristi, we will always cherish it!

This 4th of July was sooo exciting for so many reasons! Rylee is finally old enough to enjoy the festivities of the Holiday, I've had more practice with photography and was able to capture some great shots of the fireworks, and of course being poolside in the hot Florida weather and grilling out with family. The 4th of July fell on a Friday this year and both Mitch and I had the day off of work. Grandma and Grandpa Reedyk were sooo generous to babysit Rylee for us early that morning so that we could go and enjoy a movie date together. Mitch and I went to see Hancock, Will Smith's new movie. It was fabulous and soo great to finally get to see a movie again in the theaters. We saw the 10:00am showing. Once we got home, we got ready and headed over to Uncle Mike and Aunt Jo-jo's for some pool fun and hamburgers on the grill. Miss Sara lent Rylee the cutest '4th of July' outfit. She wore a blue jumper with little firecrackers on it, and then red white and blue flip flops, and momma added a red headband to match. She was true to form in her American pride spirit for the day!!!





It's been somewhat of a battle to get Rylee to eat certain foods lately, but she is doing very well with a spoon a feeding herself. She loves her fruits. Here she is eating her peaches.














and then a yummy cupcake Jo-Jo made (Momma had like 3 of these through out the day, oh no!!)





Rylee played with Loui alot at the pool and had a lot of fun. Loui is just her size!! Sometimes it makes me want to get a family pet for her, but we're not ready for that!!








I don't know what it is, but Rylee has been shying away from guys lately. Michael was holding Rylee and then all of a sudden she just had the biggest poofy lip ever. It was soo darn cute! Rylee finally opened up to Mike later, but she sure was upset. Sorry Mike!!! But isn't this just the cutest picture ever?





Rylee swam and colored with MiMi before we headed out to Lake David to see the fireworks







we pretty much just walked around Lake David to check out what was going on, take a few pictures, etc.... Rylee has started to learn some of her body parts and when you ask her where her tongue is, she'll stick it out for you! It's the cutest thing ever! She also knows where her belly button is, and if we're lucky, she'll show you where her nose is... I'm soo proud of how fast she is learning things. She is sooo observant and such a smart little girl!!














and finally, it got dark and momma got to take some pictures of the fireworks!!!!!!! and yay, here they are!!!! I'm very proud of how these turned out! Last year, I was sooo unsuccessful and was so happy to get it right this time!! The show was lovely! Rylee had a great time with it as well, she was very excited and happy to see them, and at the same time she would bury her face into daddy's chest as if she was also scared.... very sweet! She was definitely ready for bed by the time the show was over. I'm glad we stayed local. I can't believe it doesn't get dark here until about 9 pm!!!!