Big Year

It's official - my little girl is one year old now! Doesn't seem like a year ago we were all in the hospital awaiting our little girl's arrival. It has definitely been one amazing year full of so many joys and amazing times. One of the best years of my life. We can't imagine our life without her. Ryane is growing into quite the little girl and it's fun to see her personality forming.

Today we had Ryane's big Safari Birthday party with a house full of family. We are so blessed to have so many wonderful loving family members to travel and help Ryane celebrate her big day. I'm adding a few of the many pictures from Ryane's party. She was a trooper and "oh so loved the cake and ice cream!" The birthday party really wore her out, so she went to bed early tonight. All company is gone and the house is quiet once again. Now, if someone would magically show up and clean up the kitchen! :) Oh well, I guess a mom's job is never done, right?!

1 Year Old Family

So many presents and ready to start opening.

Presents double up as chairs at times.

Yummy monkey cake.


Our Birthday Princess

Safari Guide Cousins - Where's the Birthday Girl?! :) They are around Ryane's new toybox that her Nana Howe and Great-Grandpa Max Endres made for her.

Three's crowded!

We ended up having an interesting night last night...or should I say EARLY morning. Matthew was woken up around 1am by weird sounds from Ryane's room. He checked on her to learn she had and was throwing up. Poor girl! :( He came and woke me up and were quite the parenting team taking care of her and changing out her bedding only to realize there's no way we could put her back in her crib. So, back to our bed all three of us went. Two adults and one sick almost 1 year old makes a pretty crowded bed! It took Ryane a bit to get back to sleep. After some crying and whimpering, and getting sick once more, we are all back to sleep. Well, we think Ryane got sleep as Matthew and I were constantly woken up by her moving around, by feet in the side, head in the side, etc. While Ryane laid parallel to the pillows we were left about 3-4 inches each to lay on our sides. Goodness - can you say time to shop for King Size bed? But, this morning Ryane seems all better. Although we are lacking sleep it makes it all worth it with her smiles and funny stuff she does. Here's another try at a walking video. It's much smaller than the last one, so hopefully it works.

She's Got Laaaeeeeeeegggs....

She's got leeeeggggs...and she knows how to use them. Are you singing yet? I can't get the song out of my mind. I say Ryane is officially walking now. We've had her taking a few steps back and forth between Matthew and I, but within the last 2-3 days, she's been walking more on her own. She walks without mommy "forcing" her to practice. Ryane is still a wobbly walker, but, hey, I'll take it! I've taken a few videos and now I have one worth sharing.

Getting All Sentimental.

Wow - I can't believe it's been almost a year since we brought our new little bundle of joy home. In the process of planning Ryane's first birthday party, I had fun making her invitation for our family party. It was fun to go back through each month's picture and see how much she has changed and how much has stayed the same. I loved her as a little baby, but I love the little girl she is becoming. SO full of personality (in the good way) and so cute if I do say so myself. :)

Infectious Giggles

Okay, this is my first attempt at uploading a video. Ryane was pretty funny tonight. It's like she was testing out a new laugh. She must have heard Matthew and I talk about her odd one that she has at times. :) We're her parents, aren't we allowed to say that? This video is Matthew pretending to sleep...and you know how kids like to wake up sleepers.

When did we grow out of doing this?

You don't need to change the color on your computer -her face is really that orange. As parents, what did we sign up for?? I’m thinking Ryane got this messy on purpose. She loves playing in the tub, so what better way to HAVE to get a bath, than to smear lasagna all over your face at dinner? She knows her cause and effect! It’s that or she was trying to look like a pumpkin as we’ve started to decorate the house for Halloween. Either way, she was happy to be back in the tub again! It took a bit to scrub her up. It’s tough for an 11-mo.old to hold still enough to scrub off the food that she smashed into her eyebrows and tried to hide behind her ears.

Just another Blogger!

I'm jumping in and starting a blog for friends and family to visit. I enjoy visiting other people's blogs and sometimes it feels like everyone else is doing it, why shouldn't I? Actually, I've wanted to start a blog for awhile now and another friend recently started one (thanks Trudy!) and that gave me the extra push I needed. I intend to use this blog to give updates on Ryane and other family stuff here and there as things happen. I've found that updating Ryane's website once a month has been very overwhelming, so I figured by doing a family blog now and then, it'll seem like less of a chore to keep everyone updated. Not that I need another project/hobby, but sounds like fun as of now. Maybe it'll inspire others to start their own so I can see more pictures of all of YOU and get updates more often???!! Huh, huh? Hint....hint... :)