Playing Catchup!

November!
What a busy month. Practice practice practice! We are living, sleeping and eating nutcracker right now I think! :) Halee had her birthday party and she tried to find a place JUST LIKE BOJOs!!!!

The month of November also means its time to see Santa and the pink pig! This was the ffirst year that Ryleigh did SPEAK to Santa! He even reminded her she needed to be sleeping in HER bed and not at the foot of mine..... yea still not happening..... Ryleigh enjoyed the pink pig the most however! She loves Priscilla! After the trip to Lenox and Phipps we rode to the American Girl store and Sarah got her hair done!

The next weekend was Ryleigh's pageant. She happened to see a girl trying on a pageant dress at Garden Gate when we ran in for some shoes and she decided she was going to do that too. She did a fantastic job, and looked so grown up! If they (they being the Pageant gods) did not move a five year old down to the three year old group, Ryleigh would have recieved a trophy. Her group was also the only one that did not have a second place... umm

this girl in blue was the five year old who won!

JB and I also went on a crusie over thanksgiving! We left out of Jacksonville and went to Key West and Nassau! THe weather was sooooo perfect. We laid around and did just about nothing the entire trip... and that made it WONDERFUL!WHAT FUN… the weather was perfect.


December

She did great in her Christmas program at school. They sang a few songs and had a dessert party. Momma and Jeff came down and surprised her by coming to watch and eat dessert.

Just being Ryleigh!

Practice practice practice and more practice. But boy! What a show! The nutcracker was fantabulous! Ryleigh is already asking when we are going to start back….. I however, am not ready!

Ryleigh and I at the Sunday show, I was a back stage worker.

This is what everyone felt like by the time the Sunday show came around!

Our beautiful Cherub!

Where I found her, she did this by her self in the dressing room while she was waiting for her call. everyone was EXAUSTED!

We have the fastest little angel anywhere!

Are we alive??? March thru October

Yes, Its been a while since I have updated.... March.... eek!



Let's see if I can count down the months.....

March

At the end of March we did the Miss. Emerald City pageant... Ryleigh enjoyed it ... but thats about all I can say about that! :) We had a lot of fun at the St. Patricks Day festival even though those Thugs ended up fighting. Ryleigh will still tell you about those "bad boys" who the police came and got!

April

April was Spring break, and we went to Myrtle Beach... We had a LOT OF FUN staying at the Dunes resort. They had an indoor water park. We also had a pretty nice balcony. We are already discussing going back next year. We went to a Cirque Show and Ryleigh did not enjoy it at first... but towards the end she did..... (and Its now October and she still talks about it). She also liked Senor Frogs..... yall know I couldnt visit a town with one of those with out going! :)

May
May was the winding down of school.... This year has FLOWN By...... Summer School is starting up for me.... BOO....:( but so do the Downtown First Friday Concerts.... We anticipated these to be a lot of fun, and we were right! By the end of the summer, we only missed .... One (i think). We enjoyed hanging out with friends and just playing around. Ryleigh's performance for her school was a lot of fun. (INSERT PICS). She is not excited about not going to school during the summer, and wants to know when she gets to go back!


June
The Dance recital is HERE!!! We had a lot of fun watching ryleigh perform for her Dance Recital. The theme was 80's Prom.... She danced to I just called to say I love you. (INSERT VIDEO).

July

Due to the oil spill in the gulf, we changed our reservations to Fernandina Beach and Amelia Island.... We love the gulf but this quiet little town had lots todo!

Ryleigh also liked showing off her swimming skills (INSERT VIDEO). We went on a carriage ride, and loved going to the Jacksonville Zoo. Ryleighs spots ended up coming back so we went home early, but Ryleigh was okay with it... she missed her Brinkley!

She is really enjoying the Wizard of Oz movie and already requested to be Dorothy for Halloween.

We ended the month with me starting a NEW JOB!! as a Media Specialist at the middle and high schools :) very excited about this. and celebrating Stephanie turning 30 by a weekend at Lake Oconee with friends who are family!

August
August boy! the summer flew by!

August was spent pretty much getting used to going back to school. We surprised JB with a 30th birthday party at Amanda's aunt Nitas house. That was fun! We did a hawaiian theme and Ryleigh even dressed for the part!

We went here and there but nothing too exciting! Ryleigh started school in Mid August, and LOVES LOVES LOVES her teacher Ms. Shellene. She helped her in the mornings last year and when I got the phone call saying Shellene was her teacher, I am not sure who was more excited :) I taught Shellene's youngest daughter at Trinity. INSERT SCHOOL PIC

September
September started out with a Birthday party over Labor day weekend .... and a 5K walk for the Promise of Hope the next weekend! JB and I walked (Ryleigh rode in her stroller and was "exhausted" after the race) :)

JB was out of town a lot of the month of September with training for work. One activity he missed was Donuts with Dad at Ryleigh's school. So Jeff came and filled in for the day. Momma and Jeff came and spent the night, then Jeff went to school with Ryleigh. They ended up even being in the paper! Ryleigh was excited cause she said she was the 'only one with a Pop there'.

October
October has been a busy month..... JB and I went to Savannah with some friends to celebrate their 30th Birthday! I think we are going back for New Year's! We all had a lot of fun! We started Nutcracker Practice. Ryleigh is really enjoying dancing with the BIG girls. She has practice twice a weekend every other weekend. So it is really time consuming but OH SO worth it to see the light in her eyes when she gets home and shows us what she has learned. She is also having to R~U~S~H to Sunday night church activities after nutcracker. She is exhausted by the time Monday gets here, and SO ARE WE!



She went to the Benton House Nursing home - which we had to discuss is not a place where Nurses live -- and sang with her choir a few of the songs they are learning.... I am hoping to attach the video.



At the fall festival at her school she won a Blue's Clue's pumpkin that Miss Kim's class made this year.



We went to visit Nanny and Bobo over Fall Break.... Coye, Colton, Ashton, Brynn, and Ryleigh had a tea party with nanny and they enjoyed pumpkin cookies.

Friday we went and took family pics with Vance at the hospital.... I will see if i can post a few.

She was Dorothy for Halloween, we went downtown to the merchants and trick or treated and then came back to our neighborhood and had supper with The Hesters and Bennett's before heading out to trick or treat again. Ryleigh did not want to go to church Sunday night to trick or treat because she said " I HAVE ENOUGH CANDY!"... me being the best parent ever... did not make her :)


I will try to attach the pictures and video tonight.

just an update

Just a quick post…

Trying to keep up here. We had a good weekend. The St Patrick’s Festival activities are in full swing in Dublin. This weekend we went to the Hot Air Balloons and Lunch with lucky. We did the balloons at the VA on Friday – to which Ryleigh told us, I am going in one of those tomorrow, the pink one. Our answer… we will see. Well Saturday came and we went to the balloon glow. She didn’t want to go in the hot air balloons then. Although I did make her go touch the basket and take a pic. She walked away and said, “I didn’t get in there”…. Go figure… YOU WERE SCREAMING!

Sunday we went to church and Ryleigh got to go up to the big kid class, and go to big church then children’s church. She did a good job walking down the aisle by herself even though I went and sat on the front pew until she left the sanctuary. I cannot believe that my little girl is no longer in the nursery :(

We have the pageant this weekend. Practice was today. She did A FANTASITC job and came out proclaiming I LOVE PAGEANTS… lord help us! She went in the theater all by herself and is the first one in her group. We are considering this a good thing, doesn’t have to wait too long get up there and get over it! She really wanted to wear her dress today to the practice, and it was difficult to explain that we will on Saturday.

She is so independent that it sometimes scares me. I know how independent I am and I think she is double. It is I can do it myself. She really enjoys playing with others and does not meet a stranger.

Her favorite thing is to now tell you her address and most of her phone number. She will tell you she is three, and when she is “7,8” she is going on a cruise like Halee Rae. (she knows Halee just went on a cruise with Mickey Mouse, Momma is going in April on Spring break and JB and I are going in Nov, but she is still too young to cruise). She is eagerly waiting the beach trip over spring break to Myrtle Beach – it is a condo like Splash in PCB and knows we are going to the beach again in July. She is beginning to understand time lines, which I think is very smart for a three year old. Her concepts of days….. and what order they come in – We go to school on Monday and Wed, Dance on Monday and sleep late on Sat).

Well that’s all for now… I will post pics of the pageant this weekend. :)

Shes Growing Up....

Wow! Its been a while. This little girl is growing up so fast before my eyes! Since our last post we have had Christmas, Snow Mountain, a birthday, dance and several other activities.

Lets start with Christmas! Wow what a great time we had this year. Ryleigh really enjoyed the Christmas season and the lights. She loved buying a blank cake from Kroger and decorating for Jesus’ birthday and singing happy birthday. She loved making Santa cookies – he even came and visited our house. She got more presents and goodies to even name! I also enjoyed my time out of school just being around her.

A few days after Christmas we went to snow mountain. Wow! Now I even had fun, she hasn’t ever seen snow outside of hopping in the car last March in Covington on our way back home that Sunday it snowed. She played and played and played…. I have never seen and been around that much snow so it was very cool….

Ryleigh also went to the dentist and visited Dr. Leonard. She did an EXCELLENT job... So proud of her!

Fast Forward…. .her birthday…. She had a party at school and brought cupcakes and milk…. Her real party was at BoJo’s jumping place…. She loved it … We got to see lots of family and friends we do not get to see very often. She had an Alice in Wonderland Cake with Alice on Top….Its very hard to believe that this little girl is “three now mommy”. She has started sleeping in her bed and putting herself to sleep again.. My bad from last summer just enjoying laying with her and I would fall asleep before she did. Opps :)

We went to Covington for the Cirucs last weekend and got a WHOLE LOT OF SNOW! Although we missed the snow in Dublin … yup snow in middle ga…. We had fun in Ctown with Rory and Jared playing on the golf course. So we made the later circus at 3 instead of 11 because of ice on the roads. .. We met Halee Rae the Harpers there and had a lot of fun!

Presidents Day we had Parent Day at dance. Ryleigh loves Mondays because that is dance day. This day she got to get her Daddy involved and teach him the dance for Over the Rainbow (see munchkin note below). He loved dancing with her.

Today she danced at a nursing home in Dublin that we were originally suppose to miss as it was scheduled for the same day as the circus…. But due to snow was rescheduled. Ryleigh did a good job although she was a little scared at first. She ended up handing out valendtines to all the residents and even meeting the only Munchkin from the Wizard of Oz still alive…. Mr. Carl.

Now lets talk about her for a little bit!

At three years old Ryleigh ---

Is learning to spell her name and trys to write it

Likes to do her ‘ABCD’s’ and tell you what each letter is for…

A is alli b is Barbie and Brinkley c is cody Chloe and CANDY d is for Daddy and Dial “that’s me” I is for ice cream J is for Jessica and JB and Jared K is for Kathy P is for Pop Q is for Queen ‘like me and Kathy’’ and quarter R is Ryleigh BETH!!!!

She also knows several of her sounds for the letters

LOVES LOVES LOVES to sing and dance… some fave songs are Deep and Wide and on the other spectrum Fergie ‘the girl’ – The Black Eye Peas and Carrie Underwood… I do not know how many times we have watched the Carrie Christmas Special.

Ryleigh is learning her numbers and recognizes most of the time 1-5. She likes to count aloud to about 11 or 12.

She likes to dress up in any kind of princess attire that can be found.

She loves to play outside

The Nail Salon is a fave stop of hers in town – along with Chick Fil A and McDonalds to play.

Her favorite food meal now is Chicken Nuggets French Fries and Cheese Sticks.

That’s pretty much sums up our little girl.

I will try to post some pics tomorrow.

November and December

November was a busy month!

We went to see Santa and The Pink Pig .

The next weekend we met some family at the Rock Ranch.

JB and I had our 5^th anniversary, to which I celebrated in the bed sick as a dog, the three days prior to Disney world. Then we spent the week of Thanksgiving at Walt Disney World. We called the Wilderness Lodge home for the week. We had a GREAT time. Ryleigh loved each and every minute of it.

We then came home and the next weekend she had a dance program and was in the Dublin Christmas Parade. Each parade we watched at WDW she said, Im going to do this next week. Ryleigh did a FANTASTIC job dancing to Jingle bell Rock and Frosty the Snowman. I will try to get the video posted soon. Then she went to see the Rockettes with Barbie, Dannette and Addie. She really enjoyed watching those girls dance like she does.

We have been to a whirlwind of birthday parties the past few weeks as well. She has decided she wants a Alice in Wonderland party. We think we will do this at Bojos this year – more later. We are getting ready for Christmas. Ryleigh loves to look at Christmas lights, and doesn’t know if she like the Blinking lights or the baby Jesus the best…. Lol…. She is in the Christmas Play at school on Monday night –she is a sheep. She is patiently waiting on Santa to arrive because she claims she has been ‘good’. On other topics, I graduated yesterday at Ga Southern WHOO HOO!

October!

Well its been a while. We have been so busy! I have been working steadily on school stuff. I am so excited I will be finished with my reading endorsement in two weeks and will graduate with my masters on Dec 11!!! J

The month of October has been jam packed, and November and December will be the same!

Ryleigh had her pictures taken at school, not the best pictures she has ever taken!

Ryleigh and Momma went to Alabama to visit everyone for a few days during Momma’s fall break. I went to Covington on my fall break to do some practicum hours. Ryleigh had her fall festival at school,

a field trip to a corn maze and pumpkin patch, and a pumpkin party at school. She set up her Christmas tree in the play room… I mean everyone needs a Christmas tree in October! She did a fantastic job at the block party dancing with Fancy Dancer!

See video below! And Trick or treating was lots of fun with Nathan and Nicholas!

We are counting down the days to go to Disney but first we must;

1 – go see Thomas the train today – this was a last min thing we bought tickets for, 2- go get pics with Santa and ride the pig next weekend. Ryleigh is alos going to the Wiggles next Sunday. The next weekend we are meeting the Harpers at the Roc Ranch… Then its almost Disney time!! J Like I said… a busy few months!

Carving the pumpkin!

JB Took pics of Ryleigh on his John Deere Tractor, Ryleigh would not change and put on an outfit, she said she was already dressed!

Mickey Mail -- Ryleigh's Disney mail came
One of her Christmas Pics JB took Yesterday

Okay I cant get the video to load... go to phanfare... its there dial.phanfare.com

Catch Up.

Well I feel like I haven’t blogged in forever! I am at home today with Ryleigh. She has been running a fever since Saturday… no flu though…. We went to doctor today and we basically just have crud…. Yuck!

Ryleigh is getting sooo big! She acts so grown. Its funny to watch her!

Ryleigh is loving school, loving dance. She is having to miss both today because she is sick. I hoped she would not realize it but on the way home from the doctor she asked if she was going to school now….lol.

At Orientation!

Ryleighs first day--- Saying Cheeeese

We were suppose to go to the zoo the last weekend of August but ended up at Dauset Trails instead. Here are some pictures from there.

Ryleigh had planned on getting a Princess motorcycle from Barbie and Pop for Christmas but called them one random Thursday and decided she wanted it now…. Here are some photos of it. She has had it about 3 weeks and is finally riding it. Too cute. I need to find some pics of me on my motorcycle…. I had one too… although it was blue… umm I may look for that today.

Also here halloween coustme came in that I ordered... she is going to be a bee. Although the box it arrived in was just as fun.... she may act grown but you are never too old for a box! :)

Here are just some random pics.... Ryleigh swinging and a few saturday's back at BoJo's jumping....