May so far

May has been another busy feeling month.  I had an excellent Mother's Day.  I wasn't sure how enjoyable the day would be.   Rylee had a stuffy nose and didn't sleep well the night before, I woke up with a sore throat.  Luckily enough after a few hours of being up both of the problems seemed to go away.  Josh of course knew how to save the day, we decided to go to the Botanical Gardens in Birmingham.  It is one of my very favorite spots in Birmingham.  Josh and I use to go there a few time every week after I got home from work.  We haven't been there in a really long time, I believe since Rylee was born.  That part of it was kinda exciting, I have so many memories of us going there having so much fun and having such great conversations while we walked and now here we are almost two years down the road getting to share it with our little girl.  Besides getting to go there, I also got a beautiful hand made card from Ry that is still hanging up on our fridge.  She is so proud of her pictures.  And I got flowers, but not just flowers in a vase, flowers to finally plant in my garden!  Some of them are beginning to bloom now and they are soooo pretty, orange, purple, and bright pink.
Earlier this month my friend Beth and her son Andrew (he is a few months older than Ry) came over for a few hours and they had so much fun playing in the sand and water table.  They were so fun to watch and it was so wonderful just being able to have some girl talk during that time.  The day after that we met some more friends at the park.  Rylee had so much fun going down the slide, we did it again, and again, and again.  Then we went on a short walk by the lake with all the kids.  Some riding bikes, one scooting on a scooter and some relaxing in their strollers.  And once again, for me, it was great having the opportunity to talk with others. 
What else, what else, what else... the farmers market is now open and we've been going up there every weekend so far.  Sometimes Andrew is even there which makes Rylee very happy.  We've been buying lots of yummy strawberries, radishes, lettuce, and even some goat cheese.  This weekend was the Strawberry Festival so Rylee and me checked it out (daddy didn't get in town till that night) for a little bit but we quickly decided it was too hot, humid, and crowded.  On our way back to the car we decided to buy some new shoes.  Rylee wears a 6 1/2 wide.  She has such a big foot and has outgrown so many shoes, so much quicker than I thought she would.
So these days Rylee is getting more and more talkative.  It really never stops unless she is sitting looking at her books and gets in her zone.  A typical conversation is:
"Mama, look, look"  me "What is it Ry" ry "quack quack quack" me "oh, a duck, look a brown duck" ry "yeah duck".  She also is constantly talking about all the people in her life.  Out of nowhere she just starts going over every one's names.  It's funny to see how she groups things.  She was talking about Gocca, then Robbie, then baby Taytay, then Pop, and from Pop she said lawnmower.  Pop brought over a riding lawnmower last week.  Then dada, b/c dada is the one who rides the lawnmower and then started making lawnmowerish noises.  Ry is also a big fan of singing and will start singing parts of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star which is one of the cutest things in the world, and some of Going On A Bear Hunt.  We are also working on her learning the names of shapes.  She can identify a square, circle, rectangle, triangle, diamond, heart, and star.  Though there names are a little hard to pronounce.  Especially rectangle.  It's so funny how much changes, when they are little you just wait for them to be able to master new physical things; reaching, rolling over, clapping, sitting, crawling, walking, running.  Now it seems like everything has switched.  Now milestones really don't have too much to do with physical things anymore.
And last but not least we get to go to Illinois.  I am sooooooooo very excited to get to see my parents and friends.  It is LONG overdue.  Hopefully, we will have good weather.  May can still be iffy there unlike here.  I can't wait to see how my friend's kids have grown and now that Rylee is old enough she can actually play with them.  It's going to be so wonderful and I will be taking lots of pictures so stay tuned.

Mother's Day and some random pics...

Welcome Baby Jonah Levi!!!

Congratulations Matthew and Naomi, Welcome baby Jonah!

Another miracle in the world!

We can't wait to see more pictures and hear more about him.

Happy Birthday Haven

Today is Haven's 12th Birthday.  I think Josh may still be in shock that she is 12.  We just wanted to wish Miss Haven a VERY VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY.  Hopefully we can see her kick some butt in her softball tournament tomorrow.  Though on the news right now they are calling for thunderstorms and tornado's so we will just hope for the best! 

Spring is here!

So April has already been a very busy month so far! There is so much going on in April.  Easter, Kelly and Zoey's Birthdays *Happy Birthday Kel!*, Haven's Birthday, and Kim's birthday plus our anniversary is this month.  Rylee is now 20 months old, getting closer and closer to being 2. I still can't believe it except when I look at her I think you are toddler! You've grown so much. She continually amazes Josh and I. Her personality is wonderful. She dances, sings, and laughs constantly. Rylee has a pretty good vocabulary, she hasn't put words together yet really but has a long list of words she can now say. More and please are used the most. Her favorite songs this month are *Twinkle*Twinkle*Little*Star, and the bumblebee song. Her favorite show to watch is still Winnie the Pooh. Her favorite books this month is her Things That Go book, and If You Give A Moose A Muffin. Jim Gill still seems to be her favorite music though every time we are listening to bluegrass she starts dancing. Rylee also LOVES to play with babies now. She feeds them, puts them to bed, pats their backs, and tries her best to change their diapers. She's very caring. She can also be very shy. Rylee went to preschool for her first time at the end of March. It was just while I was at my MOPS group so it was only 2 hours long and in the same building I was in. The teacher said she did great, that she was very shy but colored and played well. I was nervous about bringing her (Josh was even more nervous) but as soon as we walked in the door she stopped paying attention to me and I went on my way. We had a wonderful Easter, beautiful beautiful weather. Haven and Jordan were here which she couldn't have been happier about. She loves them so very much and is just in awe of everything they do. They give her so much love and attention and she takes all she can get of it. We also got to go to the lake a couple times so far and enjoy some sunshine and family. Today we had another fun day. We went and met my friend Beth and her son Andrew and went to the park. They got to play for awhile and then we wound it down with a short walk through the wildflower trail. Which brings me to something else Rylee loves. Outside. We have gotten to spend a lot of time outside the past few weeks and hopefully like her mom and dad she will love being in the outdoors. She is a big fan of her bike, her sand and water table, her wagon, bubbles, and dandelions. I can't wait till it gets warm enough to take her swimming!

Rylee & Jordan

Haven & Ry

Trying to smell the flowers.

Easter Egg Hunt

Yum, jellybeans!

Ry and Sissy, and her present from them!

Yes, we wear beads in the bath.

We also wear our sunglasses inside.

Going on our afternoon walk.

Bubbles

O.k. not the best picture of the 3 of us

Rylee's first time in a boat. Papa thought she was experienced enough to help drive.

Rylee throwing rocks w/ dada.

New Rylee Pics

I'm working on it

So hopefully by the end of this coming week I will have uploaded the latest pics of Rylee. We have done lots of exciting things this week. I took Ry to the park a few times and then when Josh got home we all went together Saturday morning. It has been such an amazing weekend, sunny and warm! Rylee has also had a runny nose all week. She has been getting in a top tooth which always gets her nose running. Due to the cold temps and the dry air at the beginning of the week it just wasn't getting better. We took her to the dr. tonight and no infections. We also went up to beautiful Lake Guntersville today to look at Josh's parents work in progress lake house. First floor walls are up and I'm positive it will be beautiful. I'm very excited about being able to visit. Guntersville is beautiful and full of lots of things to do for someone who loves to be outdoors. I'm actually hoping Josh and I can get out there soon now that the weather is warming up and go on some walks. The part I'm most excited about though is for Rylee to be able to visit. I spent most of my summers in Northwest Wisconsin at my aunt and uncles cabin on Round Lake. I loved it there and am still so happy and grateful for all my time spent there. Maybe it is why I am so in love with nature today. We would catch crayfish (the northern way of saying crawfish), go to the fudge store, have fires, toast marshmallows and make banana boats, go tubing, and just spend as much time in the water as possible. A favorite story I've heard told about me again and again was that one day my Aunt Sandy's clothes line was full of my clothes b/c I would constantly just jump in the water at my cousins command fully clothed. I'm really happy that Rylee will be able to have a similar experience though maybe we'll just leave her in a swimsuit :)

Anyway, here are some old pics. I love looking at how much she has changed!