And pose...

A precious profile shot

She takes requests, show tunes from the Noggin channel

Stopping to pose for a moment

Looks like we cought someone in the midst of rehersals...

Will she ever like bows in her hair?

Blowing kisses to her fans...

Riding off into the sunset...

Grandma totally has a better camera than me so when she gets the itch to take pictures with her camera, I can't help but post them. My pictures look kinda like a two year old is attempting to stay in the lines of a color page, you get the picture. Anyway, speaking of getting the picture, Grandma had a photo shoot this week with the kids and Ryan was more than obliged to be a willing model for her. I can't believe how fast she is growing, saying so many words and doing so many new things. I swear she learns something new every night in her sleep, she amazes me every time she wakes up. Just gotta love her...

Rock band, part deux...

I guess one night of ROck Band wasn't good enough!!! We had so much fun initiating Jaren and Drew on Friday night into the rock band mania, we were on the phone Saturday morning planning to party that night!!! We even invited Garet to come and grace us with his singing abilities, he performed "Wanted (dead or alive)" courtesy of Jon Bon Jovi. Take a look at the boys, you won't see much of Joe because he's chillin' on the couch and playing the guitar. Then we have Drew on the drums, but watch carefully because it seems that Drew missed the tutorial that Jaren took the night before!!! It was awesome to watch and we all want you to know that even though the guys aren't ready to go on tour yet, they still have a couple die hard groupies to capture all the fun along the way!

Rock Band part une...

We have gotten back into the Rock Band mode this past week and invited Jaren and Drew. Well, we actually initiated them into the Rock Band mania because we started on Friday night and they didn't go home until 1:00 in the morning!!! By Saturday, we were on the phone making plans to plug in the microphone again that evening. We even invited Garet because he too is a Rock Band-aholic!!! We got the country song pack and RB I and blasted out tunes all night long. Jaren had to take a short tutorial on the drums before she would commit to playing. She practiced really hard!!! It totally payed off, right?

Doing Laundry...

is one of Ryan's "favorite" things to do. When I say that Ryan loves to do laundry, that really means that she likes to sit on the floor by any given dirty clothes basket and pull the dirty clothes out. She sometimes separates them into dark and light but not always. She then comes up to me and shows me some of the dirty clothes, I guess to let me know that they are dirty and need folding. Oh, and did I mention that she likes to do the OPPOSITE with the clean clothes? When I fold clothes she likes to unfold them and put them back into the basket. Usually I tell her no but she gets to laughing so hard I had to see what all the fun was about...behold the belly laughter!

She FINALLY said it!!!

Ryan finally said "MAMA MAMA" for me!!! It did happen a couple weeks ago, August 16 to be exact but at least it happened! I have waited a long time for her to say my "name" since she has been saying Joe's "name" since she was about seven months old. It was totally worth the wait!

Vacation video...

So, this is a video of everyone at the Parthenon, there isn't too much special about the video except for Ryan being in it...She does her walking and not listening routine and is just too cute...I don't really need more than that...

Volunteer State, part two...

This is her chipmunk/monkey face...gotta pass the time in the car somehow...

I thought she looked like a gremlin with her wild hair...
Walking around the Hermitage Plantation...

"I am NOT a crook!!! I just like wearing my jeans with my PJs..."

The Hermitage...

The Parthenon at Centennial Park, Nashville TN

Ryan looks like she is in the middle of a dance step, look right & step left...

Swinging at the Parthenon...

Entrance to Centennial Park

The Parthenon, totally awesome!

After we finished taking Adam through all the country music places, it was MY turn to vacation in the Volunteer State. Yep, that meant history museums, mansions, plantations and the only standing replica of the Greek Parthenon in the United States. It was awesome for me and Joe seemed to enjoy it too.

We started off at the Parthenon and couldn't tour inside because Joe and I both left our wallets in the car! So, we just walked around outside and let Ryan play and wear herself out so she would be ready for a nap. It worked. Then we went to the Belmont Mansion on the campus of Belmont University, its a hoity toity mansion that is the center of the university. We couldn't take pictures during the tour but it was really awesome.

After that we went to The Hermitage, the home of President Andrew Jackson. We couldn't take pictures inside the mansion, but we did tour the grounds for over an hour and took in all the scenery including the mansion, the first house, the garden and the plantation cemetary where the president and his wife along with family members and their slaves are buried. The Hermitage also boasts a tulip garden and a family chapel but we didn't get to go there because things were closing down. I would've loved to go there. I got a couple pictures and a video or two but like I said before, its really no fun to take pics of buildings when we aren't part of the pictures. This concludes my posts on family vacation 2009! Until next time!!!