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.

End Of Summer

Well, here it is, the first day of Fall (my favorite time of year). Summer has been fun, sunny and warm and lots of memories have been made. When I look back on it, Ryland has had so many wonderful experiences that I will cherish forever. Ryland got to go to Disneyland and the beach, be a flower girl twice, play in the pool at home, enjoy many long summery walks, and much much more. So over all, summer feels pretty successful!

And now on to Fall. We've already started on getting the decorations out, and I can promise you that within the next few days our house will be in full fall decor :) Ryland is already throwing around her Halloween costume ideas. So far it has ranged from Tinkerbell to Star Wars characters. So when the time comes, we will see what she chooses. Knowing her indecisiveness, we may not know until October 30th :)

It's been a while since writing. Life has been busy and so has Ryland. We are enjoying the last few days of summer with pool time, family visits and movie nights. We just recently bought Disney's Cinderella (which Ryland had never seen). After watching it once she had already picked up on the songs and has been singing them around the house ever since. If you didn't know already, Ryland LOVES music. Reminds me of myself :)