Family-ing

We've been having lots of family time lately! Jen is home for a visit. What better excuse is there to get together?
Terry and Sarah invited us down for X-mas weekend, so one car took Mark, Marilyn, Jen, and Granny down, and the other car took Nate, me, Rhya, and the pooches down. We had a fun, lively, fast weekend that consisted of walks, awesome food, fun games (refer to pictures in previous post, thanks to the game of 'Things'), and lots of chattering.
Speaking of Terry and Sarah, it's their 2nd anniversary today!!

We're looking forward to more time with Jen this weekend. In the meantime, I am trying to clean house with a 28 week belly bulge that looks like THIS:

We met my parents at Pizza Hut last night and they took Rhya home with them for the night! It was her first night away from her parents, and she did great. She always loves her grandparent visits!
This house is dead quiet, but I'm so preoccupied with getting stuff done as fast as I can I hardly notice! I wonder how much 'Nama' is getting done. :-) She was going to attempt to clean the basement with the 20 month old 'helper'!

Laugh Til Ya Cry!

Cracking me up

Rhya's been sick. Like sudden puking episodes on the lightrail and on the down comforter sick. I actually helped her reach the garbage can w' an oral output yesterday. It was almost a reason for celebration besides the fact that the poor peanut was bewildered and pale faced and weepy.

Sick equals crabby. We spent a lot of time under the down comforter (a different one) yesterday reading books and attempting to munch on Puffins and sip on Pedialite.

Here's the story that cracks me up every time I think about it. Background: We usually let Rhya feed Sakari her dog food. She carries the bowl across the kitchen and plunks it down next to the garbage can. Sakari follows her inch by inch the entire way, and Rhya says, "WAIT, WAIT, WAIT" the entire journey over.

Yesterday, as we were lazing around on the couch, we started feeding each other white corn chips. Rhya took one, held it up to my mouth, and declared, "WAIT, Waaaaait." I busted out laughing and so did she. It was SO FUNNY coming from a somber, 'nothing is funny right now' spirit.

One thing I've learned (and not just from having a sick kid)- IT PAYS TO BE JOLLY around kids! It's so easy to let negative attitudes destroy my own, but if I look past it and go on my jolly way the kids pick up on it. Easier said than done (Nate is way less affected by me: definitely an even keel kind of guy), but it makes my heart sing when they forget about their ailments and pick up on the optimism.

Speaking of singing, Rhya has been humming 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' lately. It is so stinkin' cute.

Bumpety bump bump

Nope, that's not my bump. I need to stand next to a boulder sign. This is my big sis Kristina!!!!! She is due July 12. Isn't that picture the cutest way to share news? We are sooooo excited! These cousins are going to have so much fun, as will this auntie and uncle.

2012 will be a busy year, as here are the due dates:

March 2: Amanda and Elliot
March 19: that would be me
June 2: Sarah and Terry
July 12: Kristina and Mike

Anyone else out there waiting to add to the list? :-) (I know you are, Jessie K, but yours is practically here, right?!)

Rhya's Words of Choice Lately (the interesting ones)

Uh oh SOSESSSSS!! (absolutely NO clue what the sosesss is all about but she thinks it's hilarious)

Naukeee (hungry)

Noninn (vitamin- she likes to beg for vitamins)

Nike (Mike)

un iiiime!!!!!!!!!! (she yells 'lunch tiiimeee' down the stairs to Cory and or Travis)

We can pretty much understand everyhing else she says, but these are a few that are specific to her personal language.

Consider yourself updated

- Dad had a birthday. We ate delicious gluten free fudgy chocolate cake. Court and Melanie's family can't have gluten, so we were introduced to all SORTS of awesome gluten free creations!

- Mom, Dad, Mike, Kristina, Gpa, Gma B, Court 'n Melanie 'n kids, and Nate, me, and Rhya checked out the Omni Theater last Friday night. It was in honor of Gpa and Gma's 60th. The topic was 'The Amazon'. Rhya sat stock still the ENTIRE time. Her eyes were like saucers.
 Everyone came back to our place and we pigged out and chit chatted until LATE.

Court and Melanie spent the night that night. We went to bed at 1:30AM. Didn't think I could do that anymore, but we just couldn't stop talking. :-) After all it was their last night in the WI tundra. There was no time to waste!
- The kids played in the falling snow the next morning before heading off to the airport. We also packed all three munchkins in the Burley and the dads took them on an outing to the grocery store. There was not an ounce of extra space but they handled it well!

It was SAD to see them go, but we were glad for the precious time we had together. I told the kids to throw snowballs at me while taking this picture:

- Mom had a birthday last Sunday. She's now in her low 50s. :-) You'd never know it right Mom? I don't think that woman ever sits down except to eat and catch up quick on the computer. Dad treated us to China Moon for supper. burp.

- Kids were here every day this week. This is Rhya and Jordan's relationship lately:
Love

And then.....not so much:

Let's just say that Jordan has very specific buttons that are very easily pushed. NO ONE can touch his stuff. THAT'S his rule and if Rhya breaks it he's gonna bawl. and bawl. and bawl. Rhya knows it, so what does she do? TOUCH HIS STUFF! Even if it's just to poke the monkey that he's holding. That's ALL it takes and he freaks out. She thinks his reaction is pretty amazing. Amazing enough to take it to the next level of grabbing something and then running out of the room just so she can hear him scream. She'll hide for a while and then run back and give it back. Cause and effect, over and over.
Don't get me wrong...I don't just let her run off with his stuff. We talk about sharing and grabbing and being nice and making people happy and...... ooofty. 

Today Jordie went home sick. He puked on the carpet. I didn't see it right away, but they got oddly quiet, so I checked it out. They were both staring at the gross pile in wonderment and slight confusion. Rhya pointed to the pile and said, "Jordie's!"

Mom's project with the kiddos

I love the enthusiasm!

Wow

Since I'm on a posting roll, I might as well keep going. I like to record stuff so I can look back and see what life was like. Here is a Monday recap on the kid sichyation:

- Jordan arrives. Rhya and Jordan run around like hooligans copying and squealing at each other.
- Rhya falls down stairs (first time in months). Pretty sure she tripped on Jordan.
- Jordan bites Rhya. Rhya screams bloody murder. Her frequently used words for the rest of the day was boom and bite.
- Kendra and Makenna arrive. They don't want to say bye to their dad but as soon as he leaves Kendra starts wailing and flings herself out the door to him. MaKenna collapses on the floor in a bawling frenzy and says "All I wanted was one last hug!!" Their dad comes back in and works to console them. Finally he leaves and I start blabbing to them about water parks. Ten seconds later they forget about their dad and compete over who can have the next word in about water parks
- Bus comes for school. Relief
- Finish lunch. Relief.
- Put Makenna and Rhya down and start attempting to put Jordan down in the basement bed.
- Hear loud bang. Hear footsteps coming down steps.
- Rhya's head appears. (WHAT?!?) She looks at me in all seriousness and says, "No night night!!" over and over. This is the first time she's actually crawled out of her crib.  It's surprising to me that she didn't figure it out before now!
- Kids leave. I make supper. Rhya's a huge crab because she never did nap.
- Leave Nate with the monster and go to a 7pm chicken ordinance hearing. It's the first of three and it PASSED! Now if we can get the next hearings to pass it will be legal to have 6 chickens in Prescott. That ought to help sell the house, right? :-)

Gobblers

Nate and Court participated in the Hastings 8K Gobble Gait. Melanie, Saraiah, William, and I showed up for moral supper.. Rhya, Sakari, and I stood at the finish line and watched the runners flood in. Here he is:

The music was pounding away and people were all over the place. Rhya was in awe of the whole thing, and little miss in utero muffet was kicking up a storm. Pretty sure the music was getting to her too!

Later on, as we were walking up Mom and Dad's sidewalk for our T-day feast, mouth watering aromas serenaded us to THIS:

The legs fell off of the grill, so Mom plopped it in the wheelbarrow! How creative. It may have even made the turkey taste THAT much better. :-)

                                       I am very thankful for my family!! Every single member!

We joined yet another rank on Black Friday. I feel very professional at the moment. We are now GPS users. We can certainly justify the purchase since we figure we'll save $100 worth of gas by being able to drive exactly to our destination every time. It sure beats tooling around pretending we know which direction we are going. The only problem is when we tested it out on the way home from the grocery store one mile from our house it thought a dead end was a through street. Let the fun begin.

We celebrated Gpa and Gma's 60th wedding anniversary on Saturday! Ardi put on an amazing spread complete with gorgeous decorations. There was silver and glittery accessories every where we looked! Unfortunately my camera was dead, so I am once again hoping to glean pictures from my sis.

Sunday brought my dad's 54th birthday (well, one day in advance)! Everyone was still around so we had a little celebration complete with awesome chocolate cake.

We had no shortage of family time, parties, feasts over the weekend. So much so I had troubles remembering what I was supposed to be doing on a normal day when Monday showed its face. Oh yeah. Four kids who were trying to readjust from their own festivities. The bed couldn't have been comfier last night. :-)

There's been FUN

First there was the water park, thanks to Gpa Mark!! He treated all of his available kids and grand kids to a stay at the water park and hotel next to MOA. We spent the evening tooling around the indoor water park, and then traipsed up to the hotel room for a delicious meal of Chicken Alfredo pizza. The kids AND adults had a blast. What a wonderful way to get away from November blues and enjoy quality family time. I did not get a single picture so hopefully I can glean from Gma Mo or Shanda.

Next there was dog play. We went up to Nate's parents for Sunday lunch. Terry and Sarah were still around so we rediscovered the fun of card games and had fun watching the dogs romp around. I got some fun pics:

The rest of the holiday weekend was spent with the Boyd relatives. We tried to soak up every available minutes with Melanie and her family, since we haven't seen them since William was a baby! The kids are now thiiiisss big:

   More coming shortly...I'm just going to post this even though it's not done. Last time I let this sit without posting some little tyke (Jordie and he's usually not naughty) got to the computer and erased the whole thing.

There was food and fun

 

Gary and Amber hosted a Sat. evening waffle potluck. As you can see, there was no shortage of wafffles or toppings. We even had delicious bacon and sausage compliments of Jason and Richelle's fair pig.

 After we stuffed ourselves silly Amber showed up with these amazing pudding cups. They were almost too pretty too eat but we indulged anyway.

Rhya had fun with the Auld kids/babies! Shaden is only ten weeks younger than Rhya, and Mattea is pushing 3. Little Wyatt is 4 months. Rhya thought he was great. She got an inch from his face and said 'HI! Hi! Hi!' over and over.
Somehow Dan, Lindsey, Jason, Mike, Kristina, and Jerome escaped my camera but they were there. What a good way to end the week.

Latest antics

- Loves to count. Can count to ten with help. Can count to three by herself, although the other day I heard her go up to six when she was doling out napkins. :-) She counts anything and everything.

- Loves to sing songs. She usually knows the last word of the phrases, like Hickory Dickory Dock, Hey Diddle Diddle, Sing a Song of Sixpence, ABCs.

- Hums to herself A LOT, especially when she's reading books by herself, which is her FAVORITE past time. Her usual hang out spot is the bookshelf in the living room. She takes out a huge stack, flips through a few pages of a book, then stacks it..and on to the next...and next...this can go on for a 1/2 hour easy.

- Is very intense in everything she does. She's got love! She's got silliness! She's got a temper (that goes along with an opinion)! She's got ENERGY!

- She hardly has an ounce of fat on her. I just weighed her. At 17 months she weighs 22 lbs and 31 inches tall. She's so wiry andsquirms/wiggles/climbs her way into all sorts of positions. Yesterday I came into the room to see her standing on top of the couch squealing with joy over her accomplishment.

- Is aware of emotions. She likes to say 'happy' after she takes a bite of food (it makes mommy and daddy happy!) or after she's done something nice to someone (which is usually after she's done something to push their buttons!)

Loves crafty stuff, like colors, paints, play do...all these fun things that she sees the daycare kids doing!

- Is getting good at the potty. The last two days she has come up to me and said 'toot', pointing to her butt. I ask her if she has to go poopy and she says 'YES' so we go racing in there to complete the mission.

- Knows lots of words and likes to use them. Doesn't say 'no' quite as much anymore. :-)

- Has a fascination with her sternum. Diaper changes consist of her pointing and poking at her sternum, saying 'Whasaaaat??'

- Always has to know where everyone is (which consists of about 6 people) She asks 'Daddy?' and puts her hands up. Then she usually says 'Work' (wuk).

What a fun age! I say that at every stage.

My favorestestest hobby

Thank goodness for 'the farm'!! Anyone wanna go for a ride?!? It'll have to be soon, while I still fit in the saddle. :-)

Rockin' with Grandpa Mark

My sister had a birthday

The sister that is only one year older than me for half a year. Kayla and I always felt pretty grown up and close to Kristina's age for the months of July through Oct. The rest of the year we were little whippersnappers and WAY younger...or so we thought. A whole whopping 20 months! She was always so adult-like. Maybe we twins were just immature. :-)

Now we're all living adult lives nearing young middle-ageism. gasp! (Maybe that's just the husband who is flirting with 30). The months somehow don't matter two tittles. They've melted together into one big happy sisterhood.

Anyway, wishing my big sis a WONDERFUL 27th year of life! I'm delighted to have such a gifted, spirit minded, caring, thoughtful, lively, and creative big sister! Looking forward to celebrating on Saturday.

Love, Diddle Diddle

A Hoppin' Halloween

We had a tigger in our family last night! We practiced how to say 'Trick or Treat' (which sounded like Tic teet) at home, but she was too shy to say it at the actual houses. She said 'tanks' instead after the candy landed in her basket.
We walked around the block and saw LOTS of adorable kids and some scary looking ones too! Rhya was so enthralled she wasn't saying a peep. In between people watching she had to stop every 15 feet or so and readjust the candy in her basket.
After we got home she immediately started arranging the candy on the dining room floor. We finally had to distract her enough to take it away since she figured out if she bit the wrapper hard enough something yummy came from within!!

Visitors, Ultrasound, Applesauce, Riding...

Life keeps trucking! I am officially HALFWAY done with my pregnancy today!! We had an ultrasound on Friday.

First let's back up to last-last weekend. The Jess's came!! To be more specific, this Jess and this Jess:

We had FUN!!! We spent Friday afternoon playing with Rhya and catching up. Then the party kicked into a higher gear when Shanda, Kylie, Karena, and Jerome arrived. :-) We ate food, talked, laughed, stuff ourselves silly with DQ ice cream cake (thanks to Shanda's b-day!), and played a game. We didn't get to bed until after 11pm and I was pooped. Man, you'd think I was in my mid twenties and pregnant or something. :-)

Mike and Kristina had us all over, including Jodi and Dustin, for a lovely Sat. am brunch! After our food settled we took off for Barn's Bluff. Here's the whole group:

This is the 2nd time we've had the Jess's come and we are looking forward to many more visits!

Back to the ultrasound:
Proof of the upcoming daughter/sister:

Can you see the three lines?

The baby never stopped moving so the doctor had plenty of confirmation of the girl parts. He said that it was tricky to get clear pictures because she was moving so much. Sounds like Rhya #2. Everything looks fine and dandy. My placenta is in the back of my uterus, there is a healthy amount of amniotic fluid, and all of his baby checking turned out fine!

These brownish 3-D pictures look kind of strange in my opinion, but here's her face with her mouth open:

Here's a profile of her fingers and foot by her face:

She looks so human it's hard to believe that she still has twenty weeks left to develop! I've felt her move since 17 weeks, but am looking forward to the 'interactive' stage of pregnancy where I can feel her even more (bigger movements, hiccups, jumps, noises that make her jump, etc) :-) We won't talk about the upcoming waddle walk - relieve oneself every 30 minutes - sore feet stuff. :-)

Moving on to this past Sat:

My wonderful/helpful/game for anything mother and I canned 68 quarts of applesauce this weekend. Only two didn't seal, so I call it a success. Yum. Rhya kept stealing apples from various bushel baskets. She filled up her little shopping cart with some, put, two in Tyah's crate, and took random bites out of lots. 

Dianne F. and a Beasley family I have never met came out to the farm. The oldest boy is intrigued with horses, so Dianne asked if I'd be interested in helping him get a little 'horse' fix. :-) There were four kids total, ranging from 5-11. They were adorable. And fun. And outgoing in a pleasant way. 

I gave mini lessons to all the kids and the horses did great. We stayed in the round pen for a couple of hours and then I took the oldest on a trail ride. He was so exuberant about everything and had tons of interesting tidbits on horse knowledge. We cantered up a hill but in his eyes we were wildly galloping. We barged through some brush and he viewed it as a daring charge. :-) We crossed a steep embankment I looked back to see his eyes huge with a mix of slight fear but overall excitement. :-)  He somehow stayed on Tauntsie the whole time. I was wondering how he was doing, and towards the end he said, "MAN my legs hurt!!" :-) Too bad I didn't get any pictures, and somehow Shutterfly's October folder is still bursting with pictures. It's not full yet, either. There will be cozy little Tigger Trick or Treating tonight. :-)

Hilarious!

I am obsessed with finding the 'right' baby name. It's SO FUN!!! It's the 2nd most exciting thing for me after finding out what the gender is...if baby decides to reveal his/herself ,we will have gender news THIS Friday!

Getting back to the point of the title: I haven't really gotten serious at all with finding names because I've been waiting to see if it's a boy or a girl. However, just for the fun of it, I googled 'baby names' and a website pulled up a random sample. This is what the disclaimer said:

"Been wracking your brain for the right baby name? Feeling pressure to make the perfect pick? Our baby name inventor is just the antidote you need to loosen up that creative block (or maybe just get a good laugh). We assure you, you’ll find some names in here that are one-of-a-kinds. Sit back, put up those swollen feet, and have some fun!

Fithed	Rtar	Piamawnet	Chaber	Sha
Veth	Lilucen	Bona	Quclany	Wnam
Xetam	Belisadr	Tert	Lary	Hai
Qusiasal	Udap	Vandaisth	Hletad	Narnir
Wna	Jolian	Mabey	Gnndriad	Nanelle
Picage	Judo	Nadansa	Steals	Xasor
Nenepe	Nabe	Dinan	Phyorl	Riaurbe
Finane	Finaria	Beale	Vindari	Oonetaial
Hena	Vacelle	Veyola	Diett	Mawn
Vinsoll	Joso	Vamate	Gand	Yoeanel

WOW is all I can say. So what do you think? Yoenel or Vandaisth? It's a toss up. HA.

'Picture compliments of Kristina'

Texas portion of our trip- Oct 13-17- VERY WORDY but this is my journal!

Wed. pm: We learned our lesson about 1/2 hour layovers! We both knew that it was too close for comfort, but it was the ONLY decent sounding flight for the money. The plane in Orlando was large; 9 seats across with two isles. The flight attendant was nice enough to move us up so we could be one of the first ones off.
The plane landed, and we buzzed up to the door with all of our luggage...and proceeded to wait and wait and wait until the door FINALLY opened. Then we proceeded to wait and wait for our gate checked carseat to show up. When it finally came, Nate strapped it to his back, and hefted up the massive duffel bag (it was mine- ha). I was left with Rhya, the backpack, and the bursting diaper bag.

THEN.WE.RAN...LIKE THE WIND...or like clumsy workhorses wearing an awkward load. We hoofed it to the blinking light that didn't look so far at first but got farther and farther away the more we ran! Then we rode up an elevator that took an eternity. Next we hopped on the shuttle/tram thing and didn't even look to see where it was going, but were relieved after the fact that it was the correct one. FINALLY we were on the last leg of our journey- we RAN past gate after gate of gawking people. I had given Rhya to Nate, and I looked back to see her laughing her head off because she was being jiggled and jarred all over the place. Nate finally told me to run ahead cause he was pooped (he had the biggest load by far) I only got a few feet in front of him, and got to the gate JUST as the lady was flicking the door shut with her foot. I asked if we missed it and she said that they hadn't started loading yet. WHEW!!!! We made it!!!! Nate was sweating through his shirt and Rhya was still laughing by the time we loaded. Insanity. Pure insanity.

Rhya fell asleep on the 2nd plane (we had a connecting flight from Houston to Dallas). She stayed sleeping through the whole unloading process. We stood for at least a 1/2 hour waiting for our shuttle. The guy that finally picked us up couldn't speak English well at all, but we figured out that Nate was supposed to go back to the airport to do paperwork for the car rental. The dude ushered me and my sleeping child back unto the shuttle and we proceeded to jerk/bump/jiggle our way around the airport grounds for another 20 minutes. We were the only ones on the shuttle and I had no clue what his plan was. It made me a little nervous, like he was going to drive off into the deep Texan wilderness with us, never to be found again. Of course that didn't happen, and Nate eventually flagged the guy down again, and we were on our merry way to the car rental place. We successfully placed Rhya in the carseat and drove 1/2 hour north to our hotel (thank you Gpa Mark for the wonderful use of your GPS!!!). 

We got all settled into bed around midnight and slept wonderfully until Rhya decided to wail at 2am. Nothing would calm her, so we finally called the front desk and persuaded them to let us have some of the continental breakfast's milk to calm our screaming child. The milk worked and we zonked again until morning.

Thurs: We took our time in the morning; stopped at Wal-Mart and got some baby food veggies, rice crackers, and fruit for Rhya. Then we stopped at Subway. Rhya got her very first personal sandwich which consisted of tuna, cheese, and avocado on gluten free bread (side note: her nasty face and diaper rash got WAY better since starting her on this temporary diet).
We got to the the Texarcana grounds in plenty of time to walk around and meet a few folks before the 2nd meeting. Kennan and Becky found us and graciously said that their camper was waiting for us!! What a wonderful surprise! We felt very spoiled and pampered but were SO thankful for it because Rhya got excellent sleep which resulted in a happy, well rested toddler which resulted in an awesome convention!!

Fri through Sun were a blur of meetings, meals, naps, and chilling with Jen. We had lots of time with her, as it wasn't her convention to prepare at, so she didn't have as much responsibility. She spoke Thurs am, so we missed it (bummer) but at least she was free for the rest of convention!

Rhya had no problem loving her auntie (who would?!?), and she'd always ask or talk about 'yen' or 'nen' (JEN). Thanks for sending up your phone pictures, Jen!

We had a nice relaxing Sunday evening. Cleanup went super fast, and then they had a Pizza Hut and homemade ice cream supper (sidenote: the food at convention was the BEST I have ever had. Not that it matters. It just hit the spot with this pregnant mama)
We hung out in the house for a couple of hours in the evening. My only problem that night was my EAR. OWIE. It hurt so bad I couldn't even touch the side of my face. Nate and Jen were looking at me like I was maybe half dead but it was not enjoyable (nor was the plane ride home, but I got drops for it right away).
ANYWAY- most of the prep workers were in the house, strumming on guitars and chatting away. We also got a little more time with the Adams family.

Monday am: Rhya didn't wake up in time for the big 'in house' breakfast with everyone, but we got leftovers! Nate ended up driving a ways with Kennan to get feed for his cattle, so Jen, Rhya and I packed up and cleaned out the camper. It took a while to get everything organized, but didn't matter since we were chatting away the whole time.
Becky took us out to their on site furniture store and we had a quick tour before it was time to depart. She took more pictures, so I hope to glean them somehow!
We headed back to Dallas at 11am- sad again to leave, but satisfied to the brim with our wonderful convention and dear sister visit!!

We were pretty uptight about our 1/2 hour scheduled layover in Memphis (why do we DO this to ourselves?) but it turned out to be an hour. WHEW! Rhya once again conked out on the 2nd flight and stayed sleeping. She was a sleep pro by the end of the trip! My mom picked us up at the airport shortly after nine (thanks!!), and our trip ends there!!

Florida portion of our trip 10/8-10/12

Somehow we are already home! We packed so much into our trip that it hardly feels like we were gone...

Sat: Flew from MSP to Orlando. Kayla and Sarah Sain picked us up after the Sat. night meeting of Apopka convention. We got to the grounds at 10:20pm (they are an hour later than here). Kayla had a cozy spot picked out for Rhya and me in the bunks. Jeremy Baseman led Nate to his bunk abode. :-) Rhya had fallen asleep in the car, and I somehow managed to keep her sleeping despite the clumsy climb up the bunk ladder.

Sun: People started stirring bright and early and Rhya had fun peeking out at everyone from her perch on the bunks. I can't even count how many people asked me if I was Kayla's sister! There were plenty of people who thought I actually was Kayla so I faked my identity a few times to prevent their embarrassment. :-) We got both meetings on Sunday, and then stuck around for cleanup.
I got to spend the night in the workers' area Sun night while Rhya and Nate slept in their own private room. I had to laugh at the unleashed energy in the workers resulting from the convention! It was sure fun to have a bed next to Tina.


Mon: We bumped around the grounds doing little cleanup tasks, and after a tasty pizza lunch departed on our 'free time' adventures. We headed east, and took our sweet time without a care in the world (except for a kid that hates her carseat). We eventually hit the Atlantic coast and found a decent hotel. Rhya was wiped out, so I put her in the complimentary pack 'n play (never knew hotels had them before!) while Kayla and Nate left to pick up some Mexican food. Our plan did not work, as Rhya popped right up and got a major 2nd wind as soon as the food entered the room. Who needs sleep, anyway?!? ha.

Tues: Rhya took an early nap (imagine that) so Nate stayed with her at the hotel while Kayla and I wandered around the nearby mall looking for some warm weather stuff for her upcoming Ontario rounds. We walked out empty handed, wondering why we didn't just look up a Goodwill. The stuff on the 75% off rack was still too expensive for us cheapos. At least we had fun reminiscing of how much we hate to shop!

Our next stop was a DELICIOUS seafood restaurant. We sat out on the covered patio and enjoyed grouper, rice, and veggies. Oh...and daiquiris! Rhya had a blast copying the bird noises and walking the dock with Kayla.

We worked off our lunch by frolicking at an awesome beach. I can't remember the name, but it was in a state park right next to the NASA area. (help, Kayla?) Anyway, the sand was packed solid and the waves were large so it was a fun play area for all of us! Rhya loved digging her toes into the warm sand, chasing the birds with her stick that she wouldn't let go of, and even playing in the waves. She was knocked over once and went under, so that ended her water fun momentarily, but she got over it eventually.
I've never swam in such large waves, but Kayla showed me how fun it was. We even got thrown under a couple of times because of the rip tide along w' the big wave. The sign said to just let your body 'go' with the rip tide and swim out of it, so that's what we did! The water and beach breeze sure felt good in comparison to the hot sticky weather inland.

Quality Auntie time! Rhya was calling Kayla 'mommy' by the end of our trip.

We stopped by a grocery store and picked up ingredients to make sloppy joes at Maye's house. She's a lovely lady with an amazing story who lives on a nearby island (name help again, Kayla?) We had a wonderful evening visit.

Wed: Nate whipped up some French Toast for breakfast. We filled our bellies and walked down the street for one more beach dip! The waves were a bit more powerful, and there were a lot of shells that slammed into us but it was still fun! Rhya liked the water a lot more this time. Here she is 'combing' the beach w' her Daddy:

Playing!

Above- Our lovely hostess Maye. Excuse the humid glare. We departed for the airport after this. Twas a wonderful trip! Thanks for letting us come twinny!

TX portion coming right up! I am patiently waiting for Auntie Jen to send us the pics off of her camera...since she doesn't have anything else to do...like speak tonight at convention. :-)

Sneak Peek

Look UP!

We looked forward to convention for SO LONG and now are enjoying the 'post' convention state. It's so hard to remember everything that was mentioned (especially since I was out half the time), but it is amazing how convention gems come to mind at random times throughout the day. So, my goal...can I feed on what I heard and grow from it for as long or longer as I was looking forward to it?

Life has FINALLY been back to normal for Rhya this week! She had two straight weeks of MAJOR fussiness, gross diapers (and a rash), breakout around her mouth, and random fevers...the Monday after convention she started to get back on the right track and now she's back to her normal self.
After doing some research and talking to some people I decided to start treating her for a yeast infection in case her woes were more significant than teething. I've been giving her echinacea (which she LOVES. I think it's disgusting) and probiotics, and have totally cut out gluten, yeast, sugar (except fruit), and dairy (except yogurt). Her diaper rash is gone and her face is WAY better! Best of all- she is not so irritable!!

 See the scratch on her temple? That was the result of the 5 ft stick she carried around all day.

We've been LOVING this week's weather. The kids have been outside way more than inside. The crunchy leaves have been the highlight this week.

Rhya is now starting to put two words together, like 'Ari teat!' (Sakari, treat!), 'baby cy' (baby cry), bubye Joady (or whoever is leaving), cacka pease (cracker please)...

We depart tomorrow to see our sisters! Kayla is picking us up Sat. evening, and we'll be with her until Wednesday. Then we fly to TX and spend the rest of the week with Jen at Texarcana convention. We figured NOW was the time to go, before I start waddling and before Rhya turns two (she won't be free airfare anymore). See ya soon sisters!!!

First time with Play Doh

Not a lack of 'Going Ons!'

As I sit here thinking of packing for convention it makes me want to sit here longer. :-)

I would be utterly embarrassed if anyone walked into this house right now...dirty dishes all over, messy floor, coloring stuff all over the table, papers, toys, and books all over the living room floor, laundry all over the bedrooms, we won't talk about the bathroom, OR the basement (result of the kid's popcorn party this morning, NOT Travis or Cory!) I should take a picture to look back on in 20 years. :-)

Not to mention that I've hardly unpacked from last weekend's Marion adventure in order to repack for Menomonie convention starting tomorrow!! There was lots of good bread at convention! There was also a crabby, unsociable, consistently tired and diarrhea laden girl at her wits end in the molar poke emerging department. She cried the whole way home. 3 hours of crying made her mommy cry too- I tried all the tricks and nothing worked. Now I am slightly worried about the upcoming convention...it'd sure be nice if there was a method of speeding those molars along. Any advice that I haven't thought of?!?!? She's so anti-everything right now.
However, we had a FUN evening together so maybe the end is in sight! We turned her loose stools into a game (getting desperate!). Every time she'd sit down on the pot and let it loose she'd turn around and exclaim excitedly over it. ;-) Then she'd turn around and do it all over again. Was that TMY? oops! I was just glad that she was acting jolly. ;-)

We checked out the park tonight after the daycare kids left. Here's another picture taken with my phone. I need to get better at taking my nice camera places, but this should do for now! I told her to hug Sakari so this is the resulting pose:

Don't get me wrong: I LOVE my current state as a stay at home mom!! The challenging times makes me appreciate the happy times in a deeper way! I am off to check on my sleeping beauty. Have a lovely week!!

Copycat

Mommy: sees a mosquito and swings at it
Rhya: Flings hand wildly at an imaginary mosquito

Daddy: Subconsciously stands with legs apart
Rhya: Grunts and exhales sharply as she widens her legs

Daycare girl: Does some random yoga pose
Rhya: Goes down on hands and knees and sticks a leg up in the air

Mommy: applies deodorant in the morning (yes, surprisingly)
Rhya: Begs for the deodorant the entire time that Mommy is applying, then rubs it all over herself (luckily it's the salt stuff that only goes on while wet)

Meeting folk: Sing hyms
Rhya: hums along and tries to find the correct note

Daycare kids: Say 'amen' after the mealtime prayer
Rhya: Says amen the second we open our eyes. Sometimes she jumps the gun and says it as we're saying "We ask these things in Jesus' name"

Meeting time: Look at bible and hymnbook
Rhya: LOVES to sit there with an open hymnbook and bible. (for about 10 sec increments)

Daddy: Opens mouth to get the tricky spots while shaving
Rhya: Grabs Daddy's shaver while sitting on the bathroom counter and opens mouth big and wide while rubbing the shaver on her face. :-) Here's a horrible quality picture from my phone to prove it!

Goodness. This post could go on forever. This girl has to eat like us, brush her teeth and floss like us, laugh like us, clean like us, you name it!!!
Of course everything is on her own accord. Like eating vegetables.