Day Care Christmas Party

Gift from Kathy - Giggle Baby, which Ryane likes to giggle with--pretty cute!


Picture Ornament I made for Mom and Dad.


Santa was alright from a distance.




Why do my parents keep insisting that I set on this strange guy's lap? Get me down!!


Santa brought me a gift.


Ryane and her day care provider, Kathy


Stocking Time!


Look at my goodies!!!


Girls all riding a sled together, which Santa gave to another kid.

Gift Tags

Here's our photo gift tags I made to attach to our gifts this year. It's something I started last year to give our gifts an additional personal touch. Ryane was SO not into getting her picture taken tonight; therefore, we went with a closeup with her Christmas-y rosey cheeks and nose. I created the whole tag with a free download kit from Golden Girls Digital Design. I'd love to see other people's that you've created.

2 down, 1 more to go

We took Ryane to see her second Santa Claus on Saturday. Ryane seemed to really like him while I held her. She took a candy cane from him and have him some shy smiles. She was good until it was time to set on his lap. She was just so worried looking and trying to get down. After the picture was taken and she was off his lap, she was fine and smiling again. We have one more Santa to see at the DayCare Christmas party. We'll see how that goes as he'll be coming in to her "territory".

Ryane Update - 14Mo.

I realized it has been awhile since I gave you all a Ryane update. She'll be 14mo. old tomorrow and is becoming quite the smart little kid (of course!). She knows where her nose, mouth, eyes are can help poke out....I mean point at yours too. She's learning ears and belly and can remember those two off an on. She's got her vocabulary started with saying Momma, Dadda, ball, book, toc (sock), shoes, done, bye-bye (as well as blow a kiss bye), nigh-nigh, dog, cat, hi, truck, baby and other words we haven't desciphered yet. :) Ryane "thinks" she can read books and sing songs; however, they both sound very similar and VERY cute!

We took her to the Dr. about 3 weeks ago for a cold and ear infection. At that time she tipped the scales 21.5lbs. She's wearing 12mo. pants and some 18mo., but some are big around the waist that we've had to go belt shopping already. She's into 18mo. shirts as she needs the extra arm length.

I think that gives you an update. We enjoyed most of the Emporia Christmas parade last night and I'm including pictures of our snuggled up girl watching it. Ryane loved dancing and clapping along with the bands. We left before it was over as we were pretty cold. I'm also including a Thanksgiving picture. Ryane loved all the different Thanksgiving food and ate VERY well!

Holidays are upon us

We got an early start on the holiday season this weekend. Matthew put up our outside Christmas lights Saturday morning and we have our stockings hung.

We traveled to Indepedence to see Matthew's family this weekend since we'll be spending Thanksgiving with mine and while there, Nana and Papo took Ryane by to see Santa at a local florist shop. She didn't mind watching Santa, but when it was her time to set on his lap, it wasn't happening!! Then, she didn't even want me holding her standing next to Santa as you can see in the picture.


On the drive home Sunday night, Ryane slept one hour of it, then was awake and ready to get out of her seat. Our way of distracting Ryane is usually to sing familiar songs to her. You can only sing the ABC's and Patty Cake so many times before you get tired of it, so we broke off onto Christmas carols. There were LOTS of words we didn't know, but I think we have time to brush up before Christmas arrives.

Here's a fun little video to help get you in the holiday spirit!

Current Family Pictures

I tried to get/take family pictures every 3 months during Ryane's first year, so she can see how we all changed together. This past Saturday, I had my sister Sherry and brother-in-law Luther team up to take some current family pictures. These could be my favorite family pics and new favorite picture of Ryane.

Pregnancy Blog

I'm starting a seperate blog for the pregnancy, so I can keep all that journaling together in one place. Please check it out when you want an update. www.howebaby.blogspot.com.

Sporty Girl

I thought Ryane was looking extra sporty and cute this Friday morning, so of course I had to take a picture of her. She was working on brushing her teeth during that time, but hey, whatever it takes to get them to stand still! Ryane's hair is really growing and I can get quite a bit of it into pigtails and a ponytail. We just have to get those bangs growing out!

Family Project

For those who don't know, we have a permanent fixture in our garage. At least there is still room left for me to park on my side during the winter! Matthew's very first car was a 1965 Mustang and he still owns it this day. Currently, he is in the process of restoring it and lately has been taking it apart piece, by piece, by piece, by...well, you get the point. So far, he has it stripped down to almost metal. His plan is to complete the project for his 10 year high school reunion in 2009. At times it becomes a family project as Ryane likes to join in to lend a hand. Here are a few pictures I took this past Saturday after Matthew took the rear window out.

It's like Ryane is riding in a parade. :)

Yes, that's the hood sitting on top of the car.

Ryane helping remove all the old window caulking and molding.


Ryane is sitting where the Driver's seat "should" be.

Halloween Costume #2

Here are some pictures I took tonight of our little Ryane Bug! She's not a big fan of the shell part, so it was pretty much dress her up, snap a few pictures, then she was ready to take it off. Does this mean I need to have 4 costumes next year for 2 kids??

For those interested, I got most of the scrapbooking "supplies" for free on www.freedigitalscrapbooking.com. Check it out, they have some pretty fun stuff.

Neewollah

We spent a long weekend down in Matthew's hometown for their annual Neewollah celebration. (It's Halloween spelled backwards) We had a really fun time as always. A fun-filled eventful time doing lots of stuff and spending lots of time with family. My parents and brother was there on Friday and two of Matthew's Aunts/Uncles traveled up from Texas and Oklahoma. Friday afternoon was the kiddie parade which Matthew pulled Ryane in her wagon through the parade (first of many I'm sure). He walked with his HS best friend and his little one Aiden who is a year older. My niece and nephew Hannah & Carson also walked nearby as well as cousins. I also had a niece, Shawlisa Pollman, who played/marched in the St. Paul Jr. High band, so it was a parade filled with family members. Of course I had my camera on me the whole weekend and you can see the pictures here.

Deuce...

A picture is worth a 1000 words...




Matthew and I recently found out we are pregnant with #2! We are very excited. We told the family this weekend by putting this shirt on Ryane. We are due mid-June making our kids 20.5-21 months apart -- perfectly planned we think!

Beware of the Lion!

We bought Ryane's Halloween costume several weeks ago. Since then we have played dress up a few times with it. Ryane isn't a big fan of keeping the hood part on, especially when she figured out how easy it is to just rip off. So we play with it often trying to make it look like fun to wear. Tonight, it was nice weather outside, so what better to do than get all dressed up with makeup and all for costume pictures. The more attention she got about how cute she was, the less she remembered the hat.


Here's a couple pictures of the biggest pumpkin Matthew and Ryane are growing in their garden. Will it be ready by Halloween?

My Dear Friend ~ Photoshop

Photoshop is definitely an addiction for me. Thanks to my loving husband who bought it for me as part of our 1st anniversary gift. I just love all it's wonder and capabilities and those are only the ones I know of. I'm still learning new things monthly, so I can only imagine all the stuff it can do that I haven't even learned or imagined yet. Here are a couple of my photoshop projects that are fairly new.

I just did Ryane's name collage tonight with her 1 year pictures.


Here's another picture that I photoshopped awhile back. Took this picture of Matthew and Ryane as they watched the Chiefs first game this year. I wasn't crazy about the background in the original picture so I placed them over a picture I took last Nov. at the Chiefs game--now, it's MUCH better! :)

Relaxing weekend at home

Not much went on this weekend - we mainly had a nice relaxing weekend at home. I had two photo shoots that took up some of my time and we went to the ESU football game on Saturday. We ran into a couple of Matthew's high school friends and their little one, so that was a nice surprise. Yesterday was SO nice outside that we took advantage of it and took Ryane for her first official bike ride (the short one in the dark a couple weeks ago doesn't count!).

Playing peek-a-boo with daddy. Ryane shows a lot of patience when hiding - very surprising!

















Now, what is cuter than an itty-bitty bottom?! Ryane does NOT show patience when it's bathtime! :)
























Loaded up and ready to go.

Pumpkin Patch Time

We had a Howe Family first tonight. We took a trip about 10 miles southwest of Emporia to Roga Pumpkin Patch for Ryane to get a couple "Ryane-sized" pumpkins. Ryane had fun pounding on the big pumpkins and playing with the little ones. She even taste tested her little little one on the way back to town. :) It was fun family evening. Now, we can't wait to see what pumpkins Matthew's mini-pumpkin patch will produce. As of now they are still green green and growing.

After working on Ryane's 1st-year scrapbook and the time it took, I think I'm leaning more towards digital scrapbooking. Here are a couple pages I put together with tonight's pictures using free digi-paper. If you want to see the pages bigger, you can click on them to see the actual pictures better.

Mommy Goggles

I finally managed to schedule in Ryane's 1-yr old photo shoot! :~) I can't help but take a lot of pictures of her as she seems to change so much and is always doing something new. We went outside for these pictures as she is definitely not a fan of staying by the backdrop in my studio. Just Ryane and I went out one day and Matthew joined us the second day. No one can get smiles like those that Matthew gets. Now, if I could only decide on my favorites of my favorites. I liked so many for different reasons and different parts of Ryane I see in each. Maybe it's just my mommy googles, but I'm glad that I don't really have to choose and I can just get prints of them all! Here are my favorites (in no particular order) and feel free to express your opinion on which ones you like the best.
1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.