Nightly routine

Ryland's nighttime routine has changed a lot throughout her life. Most recently, she has become obsessed with reading books. We usually check out a lot of books from the library and then end up reading them over and over again. I think Ryland would let us read to her for hours if we could stay up long enough. She loves trying to read herself, and tries sounding out letters/words.

Of course, before we read in the bed...Ryland puts on her pj's and brushes her teeth. Then after that, we all play a round of an old Care Bears card game that used to be Champ's when he was little. This is the first game we've played with her that she follows all the rules. I can only foresee how many games we will play in the future...

Christmas Time

It's that time of year again, my absolute favorite...Christmas!  So far this year we have decorated the house (inside and out) and put up our tree.  Our hunt for a Christmas tree was on a beautiful day, and Ryland enjoyed walking through the tree farm.  It's always a difficult task for me to find just the right tree, but we found it!

 

Bringing the tree home and decorating is one of the best things when you have children.  Ryland loved sifting through and hanging up the ornaments.  She is quite good at decorating, if I do say so myself.  She loves to just lay under the tree and examine it.  I'm really suprised she hasn't removed a lot of the ornaments to play with them...since many are Disney related. 

 

We have also been watching quite a few Christmas movies, one of them being The Santa Clause.  Ryland loved it, but when the movie was over she became very upset at the realization that Santa was going to make his appearance while she was sleeping.  She really loves Santa, and wants him to come while she is still awake.  Poor girl had a pretty big cry over this.  She even asked for us to take her to the North Pole so we could see Santa.  I guess we are going to have to make another trip to the mall... 

 

 

Waiting to find out...

If baby is a boy or a girl?!?

Well, on Friday I had my 20 week anatomy scan....finally! Part of me feels like this pregnancy is flying by, while on the other hand it feels like it is dragging on and on. I think Ryland, Champ and I are just really anxious to meet the newest member of our family...our baby GIRL! Yes, we found out that Ryland's wish to have a baby sister came true. Baby girl is perfect, and is growing right on schedule. In just another 20 weeks, we will be holding her in our arms :) I cannot wait to see the smile on Ryland's face when she gets to meet her baby sister. Priceless.

Mama's birthday

This past weekend was my 29th birthday. And as you may know, having a 3 year old can make it pretty difficult to find the time for birthday shopping. So, as a family Champ, Ryland and I all headed out to Target (I obviously separated from them while they picked up a few birthday surprises.) Of course, the second we met back up in the store, Ryland insisted that I see the presents they picked out. She did not want to wait one more day for me to see them. In fact, she could barely wait one more second. So, as funny as it may seem...I spent the car ride home looking at my newly bought birthday presents. Ryland even showed me the unsigned cards she and Champ had picked out. It was a pretty cute moment. Ryland was so happy.

A special birthday memory I will never forget.

Halloween

I can't believe that last night was Ryland's fourth Halloween. Last year she was excited, but this year she was even more ready to take on the neighborhood. Infact, she walked so far last night that she is bound to be a little sore this morning. But hey, she's only 3, so maybe not.
So to each house we went, knocking on doors, and quietly saying "trick or treat". Most people smiled and dropped a few pieces of candy into Ryland's pail. However, every now and then we would come across a house where they would tell Ryland to pick the candy she wanted. And, if you know Ryland...that means we could stand on this person's doorstep all night contemplating which candy to pick. She kept telling Champ and I "I'm having trouble picking the candy I want". Luckily by the end of the night, Ryland had gotten way more candy than she could ever eat.
Ryland also told me and Champ "this is the best night of trick or treating ever". She's always been good with words. Our little Tinkerbell.

Big Sister

Surprise! Ryland is going to be a big sister, to a baby that she has currently nicknamed 'Minnie Mouse'. I am 14 weeks pregnant...so just 26 more to go. Sounds like a lot to me, but I am hoping the next 6 months go quickly (haha...yeah right). Anyways, Ryland is absolutely thrilled. She is constantly looking at baby clothes in the store, and keeps telling us how she plans on sharing her stuff/toys with the new baby. She seems to be leaning more towards wanting a sister, but is also becoming fond of the thought of a little boy in the family. Either way, Ryland is going to be an amazing big sister. She is so caring, thoughtful and helpful. And from seeing her with other babies, I know she LOVES changing diapers. We are planning on finding out boy or girl right around Thanksgiving :) So much to be thankful for!

Silly

We all know Ryland is a bit silly. She loves to play. She loves singing, running and dancing. Sometimes she even loves to help clean the house. One of her least favorite things however, are loud noises. So when it comes to the vacuum, she is not so much a fan. When she was a baby she would scream at the top of her lungs if you even thought about running the vacuum. So to this day, she still is a little unsure about the noise it makes. Luckily, she has a very thoughtful dad who lets her borrow his ear protection headphones. The other day was a bit different. She decided she would also put on a hairnet with the headphones. She knew it was silly, as you can tell from the look on her face in the pictures below.