Why crawl...

when you can cruise? To Ryan, the answer is simple, its either doing the "soldier shuffle" across the floor to get to her desired destination or she can cruise across the floor, holding onto the wall, the couch, the turkey bench or whatever else. Obviously she still shuffles a little bit here and there but she spends most of her time working on getting up and getting to move!!! She is very proud of herself and loves to hear our praise once she makes it to her final destination. However, this is a two step process. I will demonstrate first by showing you how she first gets up and moves but gets a little frustrated. But, she perks right up when she realizes she is being filmed. Her attitude changes quickly and completely. It is taking too long to upload two videos to one blog so I will stop here. Stay tuned for the next post of Ms. "Cruise". Good night!

What did she say?

So, Ryan has her very own language and she is beginning to use it more and more frequently. Actually, it isn't really something she has come up with on her own but apparently she is the only one who understands it. It sort of resembles the African click consonant language, if anyone has ever heard that language, you'll know what I am talking about.

If anyone knows what she is saying I would love to know. She says so much, so often that I am kinda figuring out what she is saying and mostly it is just demands because she bangs her hands on whatever she can. Right now it is really cute but if she bangs her hands on the table for "effect" when she gets older, my mouth will drop to the floor. Here's hoping she develops a more docile personality. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

Easter Out-takes...

"TIMBER..."

"I am tired of smiling"
The grass made her legs itch.
Is she sucking her thumb or picking her nose? You be the judge.

I was trying to get this picture to be at the end of the line...didn't work

"You want me to stand here? Ok, I'll stand right here"

"Who left me standing here? Don't you know how wobbly my legs are?"

"Mommy is hilarious!!!"

"I am talking to you!!!"

"This is the last picture I am gonna smile for, got it?!"

Grandma took a lot of pictures for Ryan's easter card...We went out to McClay Gardens the Friday before Easter and while grandma was getting her camera ready I was getting Ryan dressed and re-dressed a couple times. She was awesome the whole time and we had a lot of fun. Grandma even stepped on a small black snake without knowing it, she freaked out when I told her what she had done. It fit perfectly into the crack of the sidewalk in the gardens. I figured something like that would happen and it just made the photo shoot more adventurous. Anyway, we had fun and got lots of good pictures. It is amazing how Ryan is growing into this incredible little lady and gaining her very own personality. It really shows in these pictures and just drives me crazy at how much is she changing and growing every day!!!

Stand up for Easter!!!

This easter, I made Ryan her very first easter basket. But, it was a little different because I didn't have separate baskets for Joe and myself so I decided to include easter presents for everyone in one basket. So this year we had a family easter basket. The "easter bunny" brought Joe a new tie, Ryan a walker and some new toys and me a shirt for church. You cannot imagine how excited I was to look in our basket and see that the easter bunny had left us a FLIP CAMCORDER!!! The easter bunny ROCKS!!!! So, here is one of the first videos that I took of Ryan and she is actually standing up on her own! Please, pay no attention to my screaming in excitement at her standing. I didn't realize how close I was to the camera, even though I was the one shooting while I was trying to get her to stand. Just bear with me, I am a work in progress.

Extreme Easter!!!

Happy Easter!!!

Are you sure this ground won't go anywhere?
Miss Pinky

See my two teeth!

The cutest Easter bunny EVER!!!

So I am sitting here watching Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and trying to fight back the tears. Actually I have already cried and I am not even an hour into the taped program. Usually I don't watch this show but since its for a local family who deserves this awesome dream, I figured it was worth watching. I don't know what it is, but I can't take too much of Ty Pennington, he is just too perky, too smiley, too whatever else.

Now onto Easter!!! Happy Easter!!! This was the best first easter ever for Ryan. She was so good today and we really wanted to do everything but alas, it was not to be. We were gonna get up early and go to Hosford and go to the sunrise service at Hosford School, but that didn't happen. We stayed up too late, like now and decided to sleep in a bit. That didn't work either. But we did make it to Hosford ward for church and to Papa and Debra's to have lunch and visit. It was fun and well worth the driving, packing and too-full bellies (yes, I speak of BOTH of mine).

Then we went to the Longfellow house for round two of easter family, food and fun. Needless to say we had a full day but we had a lot of fun. Ryan looked so cute in her houte couture easter gown that grandma made. She got so many compliments and smiled and clapped for herself over everyone of them. Grandma also took some pictures of her and Amelia because she had made a dress for her as well. They are the same dress essentially but are just different enough that each girl got their own special dress. Take a look, they are adorable and hope everyone had a happy easter!!!

This blog has taken two days to complete. I started last night while watching t.v. and I hope to finish today by placing videos and awesome pictures on here. I hope y'all all think my efforts are well worth it. Enjoy!

Wish me luck...

This is after her early bath today, she puked ALL OVER ME!!! Those white spots behind her head are carpet cleaner-covered vomit spots.

I just thought this was cute
Meris, Ryan and boxes...why do we willingly get into them?...Don't we all know what happens to people who willingly get into boxes?...Does Christmas 2001 ring a bell?
She's thinking "outside" the box
TA-DA!

I'm thirsty, so sue me...

If you won't open it for me, I'll do it myself

Someone bought me a new toy!!!

Showing off my new "kicks"...

Shady Lady

Its 8:40 pm and Ryan is asleep but for how long that remains to be seen. She continues to be cranky and clingy and sick but still wanting to get away at the same time. I tell ya, sometimes she acts like a puppy chasing her tail, she tries to stand up and the minute she does, she tries to turn around thinking something is there. Over and over and over. At church, home, any time she is being held trying to turn around is the first, wait ONLY thing she wants to do. She's still doing it even though she's sick but when she turns back to me, she bears her head in my shirt and wipes her nose on me. Gotta love that.

In the mean time, I will attempt to play catch up on my posts and what Ryan has been up to. Besides the usual "she's doing fabulous" that I tell people every time they ask, she REALLY is fabulous. She is still doing what I call the "soldier shuffle" (see two previous posts, it is awesome), she's standing up on her own with minimal assistance from me or Joe. She really only needs to hold one finger and she can bounce up. She tends to use my legs like a trampoline and propel herself up from there. Too cute. She has two, count em' two teeth now and her bites aren't as cute as they used to be. She bit into my arm one day last week and I had a small red mark the next morning. Something else that is not cute at this point. She goes to parties and plays peek a boo and love to hear anyone, even her "tone deaf" daddy sing "In the Leafy Treetops" and "The Wise Man and the Foolish Man." In the end she claps but mostly for herself. I understand its all about her, she is awesome ya know!!! Its now

10:34 pm and she's only woke up once so far. Wish me luck, good night.