I have not done a good job of keeping up the family blog, or I should more accurately say, Rylie’s blog. The last five months have flown by so fast! I cannot believe Rylie is almost 15 months old and we have been in our new house almost a year.

So much has happened over the last 5 months. Rylie is up and running these days and “talks” a lot. Good luck translating what she has to say. Some of the words that we do catch are, “hello”, “hi”, “pat-pat” (for washing hands), “da-da” and of course “mom”, which is usually yelled out when she needs something.

COUNTRY ROAD TRIP TO GOLDTHWAITE

We went to mom and dads a couple of weekends ago to get some country air. We had a great time and Rylie loved it! She got to play outside with the animals to her hearts content. She also got to get in some practice on Easter egg hunting. She loved it.

‘Sammy’ desperate for attention.

I am sure she is contemplating on if she could catch them or not.

Rylie and “Pa-pa” discussing what to do next.

EASTER WEEKEND

We had a wonderful Easter weekend. Rylie had lots of fun at Shane’s 1st birthday party. She got to do a little bit of Easter egg hunting and see some really colorful baby chickens. She loved watching those chicks and did not want to leave them.

Showing off all of the eggs she confiscated at Shane’s birthday party. Rylie scooped up about five eggs and made a dash right back to the chickens

We went to Eric’s parent’s house in Boerne on Easter Sunday, where the opportunity to hunt more Easter eggs presented itself, yet she respectfully declined. Rylie was over the whole egg hunting idea. It was a beautiful day and Rylie took full advantage of it by playing to her heart’s content. She ran up and down the “hill”, played chase with mommy and daddy, loved on Sadie (their yellow lab), went for a ride in the golf cart with Grandpa and made sure everyone had the opportunity to hold and love on her.

Our little baby is growing up to be a mobile princess! Time has flown by and I just can’t believe that Rylie is going to be 10 months old this week. She is getting such a personality and knows when she is being cute. She laughs and growls a lot. It makes my heart melt into a million pieces.

We didn’t do too much for Halloween. Our neighborhood had a hot dog roast and gathering. We hung out there for a little while and then came home and got ready for the kiddos. We passed out candy for almost an hour and took refuge inside from the pesky mosquitoes. Rylie had a good time seeing all of the kids coming over. I was surprised, and a bit relieved, that none of them were dressed up scary.

Now we are gearing up for the holidays. Thanksgiving will be here in 2 1/2 weeks and Christmas will be right behind it. I love this time of year but it also brings some stress with it as well. I am grateful that we have such a wonderful family to visit with.

See what happens when Daddy and Rylie are left on their own for dinner

Who Me?

It never occurred to me how much fun motherhood could be. Before I had Rylie I just thought about how much work it involved and how much time it would take away from what I considered an already busy life. I was selfish with my time, my “want” to do’s, my freedom to do what I wanted and most of all buy what I wanted for me. Notice a common theme? “Me”. Rylie has brought so much joy into our lives and it is absolutely amazing how “me” went right out the window without a second thought. Eric and I are amazed at what this little girl does everyday.

We are not big on Halloween festivities, yet Eric and I decided to have some fun with it at Rylie’s expense. We finally found a costume that would look absolutely adorable. I picked it up and could not wait to get it on her. She was not sold on the idea and needed a lot of persuasion. Right off of the bat, she was scared of it, so we had to lay it out on the floor and let her warm up to the black and white jump suit. She finally got over the fear so I dove off into dressing her up. When it was all said and done, let’s just say that we had a mad cow on our hands. Isn’t she the cutest?

Don’t worry she forgave me after 15-20 minutes and we got some happier pictures.

This weekend was the annual dove hunting gathering with Eric’s family. It is a time for everyone to get together eat a ton of good food, catch up on the latest happenings, laugh a lot and try to get some birdies. This year was no exception. Eric’s dad made awesome barbecue and Eric’s cousin made some rockin’ jalapeno poppers.

Rylie getting ready to go huntin'

Rylie had a great time seeing everyone and getting passed around. I am so proud of her. She didn’t get fussy or clingy to her mommy. Eric didn’t shoot many birds but we had a great time! Little miss princess didn’t go to bed until ten o’clock last night. She was too wound up from the evening.

WEEEEEEE!

Rylie Wagner, 8 months old

My baby is crawling! I can’t believe it. We sent her off to Gemma’s house and she came back crawling. It must be the country air Rylie started at her new babysitter house a couple of weeks ago and seems to love it! She gets to play in finger paints, giant pink legos and most of all, she gets to boogy.  Rylie bobs up and down to music with the biggest smile. It is the cutest thing ever.  She is growing up so fast and developing such a personality. Now that she can crawl around, she loves sneaking up on Ally to try to steal a pet or a foot grab. Ally does well with Rylie. She is a wonderful dog.

I hate to say that our Labor Day holiday was spent recovering from a summer cold and unfortunately for Eric, the flu. Having a kiddo is a lot of fun and many memories are created that will forever be cherished but with that comes the never ending cycle of germs and sickness. Our sick fest started last Tuesday night, with Rylie, and did not officially end until Sunday. Rylie bounced back quickly and was ready to rock and roll within a day or so. Mommy and Daddy didn’t quite display the resilience as the munchkin. We were still suffering a little on Sunday but the future looks bright. We made plans to go to the zoo tomorrow. I love the zoo!

We went over to Rylie’s cousin’s house for a bit and she had a great time! Her and Taytum did well together. I can’t wait until they are both at the age where they can play together and have a good ol’ time. Taytum is 16 months old and is a firecracker! She has beautiful curly hair and a personality that you can’t help but fall in love with. Rylie’s hair is straight as can be, so far, and if she is anything like her mommy, she will be shy until she is comfortable with the company around her. Though their personalities differ, I know they will get along great and bring out the best in each other.

I am excited for Rylie’s trip to the zoo! I wonder if she will even notice all of the animals. Stay tuned….

The Zoo

Daddy and Rylie at the Zoo

At Rylie's daycare they sing Spanish nursery rhymes to her. One of the rhymes that they sing is called Viejito (Little Old Man) and within it, the kids make a funny face to Rylie. Well, needless to say that she picked up on this and we finally caught it on camera!

Say it isn’t so! September cannot be here already. Time is flying by way too fast. Not only does this mean that by baby is closer to being a year old but that also means that I will be a year older this month. Oh, say it isn’t so Oh well, I guess a year older means that I am just a little wiser than last year.

Rylie had a blast at Memaw and Papa’s house last weekend. She spent last Saturday with daddy while my mom and I attended the day with other women in the community share their testimonials and listen to some good ol’ christian music. Daddy was tired when we got back but he survived and Rylie was smiling from ear to ear when we walked in so I know she had a good time with the boys.

Rylie got to see her first kitty cat and “sat” on a horse for the first time. We took many pictures but for those of you who know our little Rylie bug, she doesn’t smile too much when she is in new surroundings. She is our little studier. Smiles came out of course once the cameras were put away.

We took Rylie to the neighborhood pool yesterday evening and she had a wonderful time! She was so intrigued by what the other kids were doing  that she spent most her time in the pool starring at them.We had a great time and by bed time Rylie was out like a light!

Rylie’s front two teeth are coming in with a vengeance and she is not happy. We are back to having sleepless nights! As Eric’s dad would say, “It is only temporary”.

Eric has been working furiously on Rylie’s room trying to get it finished. A project that was only suppose to take a weekend to complete has turned into a three week ordeal. Things like this are never as easy as they seem. It is going to look awesome though once is it is all said and done.

I have been really busy at work and the day flies by so fast that it is hard to get everything done that I need to. Though it is a challenge, I make it a priority to be home by six o’clock and not bring any work home with me so all of my attention is on the family. So far so good.

We are traveling to Goldthwaite next weekend to visit my parents. I am so excited to see them and look forward to spending some quality time with them. Maybe I can talk my dad into making us his famous steaks while we are there (hint, hint mom ).

We have a squirrel in our backyard that loves to chill out on the cool concrete. It is extra convenient that Ally’s food and water are there also. We often find him sprawled out trying to get out of the heat. Ally doesn’t like this too much but can’t do much about it while she is in the house.

Eric and I stayed home this weekend and worked on Rylie’s room. We are so close to being done. Gemma and Grandpa came over to babysit for a couple of hours on Saturday while Eric and I attended an adult luau in the neighborhood. We thought this would be a great opportunity to meet our neighbors. It was SO lameo. We only stayed for about an hour and came home just in time for Rylie to go to bed. Oh well, we gave it a shot.

Sunday we spent the day hangin’ out with Ry and played until she couldn’t take it anymore. We had a wonderful weekend and loving our new house.