18 Months Old

Ryane officially turned a big 18 months old on Saturday, March 29th. Where has the time gone? She is the smartest little 18 month old I know (just a bit biased!) She talks so much now and is starting to put two words together. Some things she says are pretty clear, but there are plenty of words that I think only Matthew and I know what's she is saying unless you've heard her say it before, then you'd know. Then, she has other words that keep getting clearer and clearer. Aside from talking, she loves to be a little helper and will imitate about anything to pretend to help. Now we really got to watch was we do infront of her! We recently remodeled her big girl room and if we'd put down a tool, she'd be the first to run pick it up to hand it to us or try to use it herself. Speaking of helping, she likes to help get herself dressed and LOVES to get herself undressed! We are still working on when the right and wrong time is to take off clothes. She's also a big helper in putting things back like her toys. We get compliments from day care about how good she is putting things back when it's time.

We are still lightly potty training Ryane. We put her on the potty each morning after she gets us and she'll go about 80% of the time if she hasn't gone in her diaper already. Later in the day, she'll set there again, but she doesn't usually "go", but she does like her potty.

Ryane is constantly amazing us each day with the things she knows and can do. I love the way her mind works. For instance this afternoon, I was showing her how she had pockets. Well, after putting her hands in her pockets she began to turn her circles. I knew what she wanted me to sing, so I began "Ring Around the Rosey"..."Pocket full of..." Then I caught on--she associated having pockets to the song with pockets--never would have thought of that myself.

For this special milestone, Ryane "had" to get her pictures taken. Well, I took a set of pictures on Saturday while we were home alone and when I went to upload them that night, they weren't there. I never could recover them and I just wanted to cry. Anyone tried to get pictures of an 18 Mo. old lately?! SO much work as they don't want to stay in one place. She could think of lots of other things to do besides look my way. I "thought" I had a least 3 good ones from the shoot and was happy with that. But, they were gone--still wanting to cry! :( Thankfully, Matthew helped me take her pictures again on Sunday. I think she's probably done with mom-and-her-camera for awhile.

Scrapbook page credits for all my free downloads: Embellishments = Bailey's Room collection from Raspberry Road Designs, Paper = Ecologirl collection from Bibouscrap and a Swanky collection, but I can't remember the webpage for it. I'll keep looking. Oh, and font used was Girls are Weird.

Easter Pictures

Ryane was so much fun this year for Easter. She loved finding eggs and putting them in her basket. She had the greatest looks of surprise on her face and half the time her tongue would be out in ahhh. Ryane hunted the eggs the Easter bunny hid for her and we also had an egg hunt at Great Grandpa Max's house after church. Ryane enjoyed sponge painting her eggs as well.


For those interested scrappers, I used Shabby Princess's latest free kit - Promise. The font used is CK-Ali's Handwriting.

Also, as a side note when viewing some of my layouts and pictures online. When you click on them to make them bigger, most of the time they are bigger than the screen. Use your Ctrl +/- to increase or decrease the size for better viewing. This is something I just figured out a month ago, so I thought I'd pass on the internet tip. :P

Such a big bed....

....for such a little body! Last night Ryane reached a new milestone. She officially spent the night in her new big girl room and in her big girl bed. We tried the night before and I'm not sure she even touched the mattress as she started to complain and cling to her daddy as soon as he went to lay her down. But, on night #2, she layed there perfectly and talked herself and her animals to sleep just fine. Right now, she is taking her first nap in there as seen in the picture. She did fight her nap and cried, but didn't get up. I'm not sure she knows she can just get out of bed yet and come out the room--and that's not a bad thing for now! Ryane is growing up so fast and I'm so proud of her. Thanks for letting me share my pride and joy!

Look now--she's in frills

This is something you won't see often - Ryane in a frilly dress. These are her Easter dress pictures we managed to get this past weekend. She wasn't excited to put the dress on (who really is excited to put on a dress anyhow?), but I dropped her off at day care on Monday and see her excited to play dress-up in a tutu and shasha around. I don't get it?!

The card was a premade card that I just plunked the pictures it. It was free from www.peppermintcreative.com.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Wishing everyone the Luck of Irish and Happy Early St. Patty's Day. I can't believe how close Easter and St. Patrick's Day are falling this year. I struggled with Ryane to get some SPD pictures taken to do a layout (notice the distractions in her hands), that I'm needing a longer break before we attempt Easter pictures---but, I have the idea all in my head of what I want. I should know better than to have an exact plan for pictures after photographing so many kids. Anyhow, here are the pictures.

I got my inspiration for the layout from a premade quickpage template from scrapmatters.com and had to modify it to fit my page size and colors I wanted. I'm still wanting to find some green and pink shamrocks to add, but sleep was calling my name last night.

If we dress for it, will it come?

I am SOOOO ready for spring. Today is supposed to be one of our warmest days yet. I thought perhaps if Ryane and I dressed in capris and springlike clothes, it will help spring arrive quicker. Perhaps?? Either way, just another reason to share a picture of my cutie.

Playing with Dolls

I was able to get some digital scrapbook pages done this weekend. Here's one with new pictures I haven't shared yet.

Credits: Scrapbook paper and elements were from 2 free downloads kits from shabbyprincess.com. She just released a new free kit this weekend - check it out. I can't wait for springy pictures to use with it.

Girl Scout Cookie Time!

Who doesn't love those yummy girl scout cookies we are treated to once a year? From these pictures, Ryane sure enjoyed her first thin mint....well, the parts that made it into her mouth. :) I didn't get to see her all messy, I just saw the pictures afterwards.

Excercising with Daddy

Ryane loves to do everything with Daddy!