Monday, January 30, 2012

These Days

I thought I would write a little post about how our days go around here. It's been a while since I've done this and I like to look back and see what it was like when the girls were at certain ages. So feel free to skip over this post....I'm sure it will be long and boring to most of you. 

Emma is about 3 1/2 years old and Ryleigh will be 2 in a month and a half. 
Right now the girls get up anywhere between 7:15-7:45. When they get up I always go get Emma first. As soon as I walk into the room I say Good morning. Emma then says "Good morning mommy, I slept good." Then we go get Ry bear. Ryleigh has been sleeping in her toddler bed for a couple of months now and is doing awesome. In fact, she will not get out of her bed. When she wakes up from nap time or in the morning, she will not get down and play like Emma does. She stays in her bed. We taught her that when she goes to bed she has to stay in her bed and I guess she just doesn't realize she could get down and play when she gets up. As soon as we open her door though she climbs down and give me a big hug. Then they both run to the refrigerator. Neither of them will really do anything until they get their milk. They drink their milk while I make breakfast. They aren't really big breakfast eaters so it is usually a waffle or some french toast sticks. Then we all sit on the couch together under a blanket and watch cartoons while they eat breakfast. My girls are not messy eaters so they sit there very still and eat. We have done this ever since Emma was really little and it is one my favorite times of the day. It's the only time I really get to cuddle with both of them. 

After breakfast I get the girls dressed (or sometimes let them stay in pj's depending on what we have going on that morning). If we are staying home we spend the morning playing, cleaning, doing laundry, reading, coloring,etc. 

Almost every morning Emma asks to go to Target. We do usually end up there about twice a week because we love to just go and look around. 

Around 11:20 we start picking up toys. I usually try to do this 2 or 3 times a day. I always have the girls help me in hopes of teaching them to pick up after themselves. They do a great job and really are a big help. 

At 11:30 I fix lunch and they usually go down for naps around 12:00. Ryleigh naps every day of course, but Emma is starting to only nap certain days. I feel lucky that she has napped everyday for this long, but she is getting old enough that she doesn't really need to. I always put her in her bed though and she will lay there and play with barbies, cars, or books. At least then, she is getting some down time. If Emma doesn't nap I let her come out of her room around 1:00 or so and we go to my room and watch cartoons on the bed. Most days we play Candyland together at that time too.

Ryleigh wakes up around 2:00 everyday. On Tuesdays and Thursdays she has speech therapy at 2, so I have to wake her up a little early to get ready. The girls have a snack at 3:00 everyday too. On Wednesday's Emma has dance class. Around 4:30-5:00 we pick up the few toys that they have gotten out before daddy gets home. Then about 5:15 I start dinner. We eat dinner around 6:00. We usually give the girls a bath after dinner but sometimes I will give them one in the afternoon or morning. Now that it is winter time I can give them one whenever cause we aren't going outside too much, and if I do it before Josh gets home he gets to have more time to spend with them after dinner. We usually bath them every other day. 

The girls go to bed at 7:30. We start getting them ready about 7:20. We pick up toys again, put them in their pj's, give them their Flintstone vitamin, brush their teeth, and then it's time for bed. Ryleigh still sleeps with her glow worm and she also has a sound machine that runs when she is sleeping. Emma sleeps with a combination of barbies, her Lightning McQueen and Mater car, baby dolls, her glow worm, and her flash light. This is also the time we let her use her TAG reader. She usually looks at her book for around 45 minutes before falling asleep. She never gets out of the bed though so she is really good about going to sleep at a decent time. Before I go to bed every night I go in each of their rooms and make sure they are covered up. I always have to find all of the things that Emma is laying on too and put them at the bottom of her bed. Normally she can be found with her hand squeezing her flashlight and her cars under her face.

It seems like our days are about the same around here. We really look forward to the weekends so we can spend time with daddy and also venture out to do different things together.

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Princess Party

This past Wednesday my sweet niece Cheyenne turned 4 years old. I can't believe how the time flies by. 
This afternoon we went to her Princess birthday party. Every morning this past week Emma would ask me if it was time to go. Then she would tell me that she wanted to wear her "tangled dress" and give Cheyenne her present.She was so happy today when it was finally time to put on her dress and go.  The girls really had a great time. I took several pictures but haven't gotten them off my card yet but Autumn sent me these and I almost died. I just had to share them. She took them just as we were leaving. I will try to get mine uploaded tomorrow. Hope you all are having a great weekend so far. 





Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Little Biter

Ryleigh has hit a stage that I hoped she never would. She has become a biter. :-(  Emma never bit anyone so this is all very new to me. I had a feeling she was going to start biting though because when she gives kisses, she started using her teeth a little too. It never hurt, but I knew that she would bite someone one day. She first bit Emma last Friday on the arm. Then a few minutes later, she bit her again on the same arm. I wasn't in the room either time so I'm not sure why she did it. I don't know if she is unintentionally doing it or if she is getting angry.

On Sunday we were at my mom and dads house and Emma started crying. I knew immediately what had happened. She bit Emma on the face. This time I was 100% sure she was trying to give her a kiss. This pictures doesn't even show how bad it looked.


I just don't know how to correct this problem. I absolutely hate that she is hurting Emma too. Hopefully this is just a short phase she is going through and it will stop soon. 

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Fun Afternoon

So I had a really great blog post planned for today but unfortunately that won't be happening. Normally we do the same old thing around here but today we got to do something new. I was so excited to show you all some cute new pictures buuuuut, I just uploaded my pictures and they are horrible. There is either something wrong with our camera or the camera operator. That has yet to be determined. So instead I am just going to tell you about our fun afternoon. 

Josh was out of town again last night and came home late tonight so I decided to take the girls to a place called Safari Nation this afternoon to kill some time. This place opened up maybe about 5 or 6 months ago and I saw commercials for it on tv. It looked so awesome so I hopped online and saw all the pictures and read everything that they offered. Safari Nation has about 5 different inflatables as well as a ballocity center. It has a cool zip line and the Coconut Cabana. It is a really neat place for kids and it is so clean. I have been wanting to take Emma for a while now but I wanted to wait until Ryleigh could really enjoy it too. Autumn took Hailey for the first time last week and she said my girls would love it, so we gave it a shot. 

Emma and Ryleigh had SO much fun. It's no secret that my girls are vertically challenged...like me, so climbing on things is a little difficult. Emma went from place to place and never looked back. However, the first time she went into the inflatable, she got lost and was hysterically crying. No other kids were in there and apparently its got a lot of tunnels and can be a bit confusing. One of the guys who work there had to go in and find her and help her out. They have a little section for 3 and under and Ryleigh was able to go bounce around. We were there for about 2 hours and then it was dinner time. Emma threw a FIT when I told her we had to leave. She whimpered the whole way home too. I am doing my best to get control on that behavior but at least it lets me know that she had a great time. 

Half way through, the girls shared their first slushie at the "Coconut Cabana."  It was a really great afternoon and I hope we can go back soon...maybe with daddy this time. 


While Josh was out of town I got two redbox movies to watch. I always get my chick flicks when he is gone so I don't have to make him sit through them.   :)

I got The Help

and I also got Crazy Stupid Love....but that wasn't even worth talking about. Autumn warned me about it.....I should've listened. 

I know I am probably one of the last people to see the Help but I'm glad I finally got to watch it because it was such a great movie. I really enjoyed it. There is a movie called The Vow coming into theaters around Valentines Day and I am dying to see it. 


Monday, January 9, 2012

Susan G Komen Basketball Game

This past Sunday my sister, Autumn, held a fundraiser basketball game. She is planning to walk in the 3 day walk again this year in Chicago and this was a way for her to raise some money. She got several girls together that went to our high school and played with her before. She also had a few girls from different schools. There was a pretty good turnout and she raised over $500!!

She held a raffle too. Cheyenne got to pull the tickets.

These are all the girls that played. 

It was a very fun event and she did a great job putting it all together. 

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Warm January Days

I can't believe we are already a week into 2012. This past week I spent a little bit of time getting things ready for school. My classes start this Monday and I'm actually excited to be starting back. I am taking 4 classes this semester for a total of 13 credit hours. I think I can handle more but I want to see what this is going to be like before I try that. I am taking a math class, international business, logistics, and an english class. My english class is about argument based research so I don't know how much I'm looking forward to that. But I'm excited to learn. Each step is a step closer to where I need to be. 

We have been having a really warm winter so far. One day this week it was only about 35 degrees and now we are back into the 60's. I LOVE winter so I'm really not happy about this. I want some snow! One good thing about this warm weather is that we can get out in the yard and play. Before Christmas I made a list of things the girls would like and gave it to Josh's mom and also his brother. One of the things on Emma's list was a tee-ball set. I wasn't quite sure how much she would like it but I am so glad Sam got it for her. We got it out today for the first time and she loved it. Ryleigh was more interested in taking the ball off before Emma could hit though. It made for a really great afternoon. 












Aren't these girls just the cutest?!
They are both constantly doing so many new things so I've decided over the next week or so I'm going to take notes on all these things so I can document it here on the blog. I get so used to everything they are doing, but I want to be able to remember what they were like years from now. My little Ryleigh will be 2 in a couple of months and I just keep realizing how she is not a baby anymore. Speaking of Ryleigh turning two, I have finally found the perrrrfect theme for her birthday party. I just need to get started with everything. 

I hope you all are having a great weekend. 

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!!!

I hope you all have had a wonderful holiday season. I am really looking forward to 2012. I think it is going to be a great year for our family. 

I started off New Years eve with my little family. Of course the girls went to bed at 7:30 as usual. Josh and I ordered some pizza and watched Dick Clark's Top 40. Josh never makes it until midnight anymore. I had to work on new years eve for several years and I've gotten to spend the last two at home, but Josh was asleep both times. I watched the ball drop at midnight and then went to bed shortly after. I can't believe how quickly time is passing by. It seems like 2011 just started and now it's over. This past year was a tough year for our family. We had a lot of struggles but I like to think that this year is going to be better. The things that make you struggle can only make you stronger right? I sure hope so. Along with the struggles, we still had some great times and made some great memories. 

I don't make resolutions. I can't remember the last time I did. My main goal for every year is to spend as much time with my family as possible and soak up every minute. 

I hope 2012 brings lots of great things to all of you! Happy New Year!