A new year has begun!

Happy New Year! 2014, wow! Time just flies by doesn't it?! Then sometimes it feels like it goes super slow, like when my baby is a teething nightmare for about a WEEK. Yikes! I can happily say, I think she's back to normal now, thank goodness! That was no fun for her, or US! If Lilly isn't happy... no one is. We had a great holiday season this year, we were busy busy busy with so many activities! It was fun, but it's nice to be back to our normal schedules now and be able to take a breath. So, to catch up, here's some things we've been up to since my last post...

Oh, and one of my "resolutions" is to try and blog more. We will see how that goes! ;)

We got to see Butterfly Wonderland for the first time and it was pretty awesome! I would love to go back once Lilly is a bit older and can enjoy it more - I even had a butterfly land on my shoulder and stay for a while :)

 

 
 

The girls and I did a "Mommy and Me" photo shoot, which was a lot of fun - they turned out great! I love that you can't really tell where we are location wise. This is actually in downtown Phoenix, very pretty! We would have loved to have Chris join us, but you know that railroadin' work schedule... 

 

 

Gotta love our "winter" weather! This is our time to enjoy playing outside, and believe me we do it a lot! For Christmas, the girls got a big trampoline that has been a big success! Rylie gets some jumping it at least once a day if not more! Best present ever! (Work off that crazy energy girl!)

 

Our little baby started walking! She's going full force now, it's the cutest thing ever :)

 

We all hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

 

And to end, our dogs are the most spoiled dogs on earth!! 

And my house looks like a toy store threw up.... :)

Oops... and it's almost Halloween!

My poor little blog, you are so neglected! It's just so hard to get on here and post these days, something else is always on the list to get done - the chores and duties never end! But I figured it's been more than a month, our baby just turned ONE and we've had quite an October... so let's blog! Enjoy all the pics and sorry for lack of words, it's just easier to put pics up at the moment and caption ;)

Enjoying a rare rainy morning at the splash pad, weather was perfect! And the rain waited to fall until we were headed home :) Chase and Rylie are still best of buds, except when it comes to sharing toys (we are still working on that!) I'm sure they will still be fighting over toys for years to come right? 

Lilly just loves the water - exactly like her older sis!

We had visitors come from Las Cruces! It was so nice to see you all, and was so cute seeing these girls together :) Can't wait to see you guys in November!!

Now that Rylie has preschool three days a week, this little gal and I have ventured out to some meetups, just her and I. This is Lilly at the library, during story time! Look how focused she is, so cute - and getting so big! Bittersweet ;)

We got to visit our local Fire Station! Always a fun time, maybe one of these times Rylie will actually be brave enough to climb into the fire truck!

I celebrated my 31st birthday with these fabulous ladies! A much needed mom's night out, it was a blast!

Opa and Lilly hanging out :)

Swimming with my girls, they are little fishes just like their momma!

First time crawling around in our grassy backyard! She wanted to eat it the whole time :P

Peepaw and Nana J came to visit us! We went to a "Touch a Truck" event that I think my dad had as much fun as the kiddos ;)

The littler ones enjoying the rides

Peepaw and Rylie exploring :)

They love swinging!!

Loving solid food, especially pasta! And getting it all over her face and in her hair! Bath time is an absolute necessity these evenings.... 

Dancing at the pumpkin patch!

Great time picking our pumpkins!

First official haircut (besides trimming bangs), we just LOVE it!

Rylie's new do!

Afternoons at the park when we just HAVE to get out of the house!

Lillian Michelle turned ONE on October 17!

Yes, she enjoyed that cupcake :)

Nana and Lilly

Sisters :)

And the downfall to all that fun, it's NO FUN being sick :( But they are feeling better, hopefully back to school by Friday! 

So that's about it for now, we are keeping super busy around here! Excited for the holidays and spending time with friends and family! 

September already!??

 

I'm sorry, but these two are just the CUTEST kids EVER :)

 Where does the time go?! Seriously, it was just the beginning of August like, yesterday!! Well, at least we are closer to Fall and cooler weather (hopefully!) Just as I type this, today is supposed to be a high of 110 degrees - yikes! Guess we will be staying inside most of the day! So, to catch up a little bit...

 

Rylie is doing GREAT at preschool - we could not be happier! This was crazy hair day at school. I love how they do fun things every week, so cute - makes me miss school! She sometimes still complains about going in the mornings, but once we are there she's fine. She has a few good friends, and loves drawing and coloring pictures for them to take the next time she sees them. So adorable! She gets nightly homework, and we keep a reading log of books that we read together. We are hoping this will really get her ready for Kinder!

 

Here's Miss Lilly, pulling herself up on everything! I see walking in our future pretty soon (Rylie started right at a year, so I've got about a month and half if Lilly follows along! Scary!) She's crawling all over the place, and is pretty quick! She'll be down the hallway before you know it, and loves when you chase her - she gets a big kick out of that! She loves to chat, scream, and tries to copy all of Rylie's sounds too. I can't believe how fast she's growing up! She's mostly sleeping through the night (yay!) and SOMETIMES lets me sleep until 7am :) 

 

Rylie got moved into a big girl booster seat! She seems to love it and is more comfortable in it! Such a big girl... Lilly took over Rylie's old car seat, no more infant seat! She was getting way to heavy to lug that thing around anyways, guess I better start lifting weights instead! ;)

 

My little fashionista has started caring more about her daily outfits, it's so cute to see what she wants to wear. I help her out a bit, but mainly let her decide. She just loves these light up cowgirl boots that daddy bought her!

 

Just like big sis, Lillian is not scared of water - AT ALL! It was too funny taking her to the splash pad, now that she can crawl, she went right for the fountains. She didn't care one bit about being soaked! 

Love our family date nights! It's getting a little easier to take Lilly out, as long as we bring plenty of snacks! I'm sure that won't last, so we will take what we can get!

Rylie practicing writing her name, love this so much!

 

Making funny faces, happy kids!

 

Here's hoping September/October brings cooler weather, some visitors (we miss our Peepaw, Nana J, Grandaddy and Nana B to name a few!! And of course our good friends in Cruces, I hope we can get down and see you guys soon!)

We have a preschooler!

 

 

So Rylie started preschool this week (well technically last week if you count her orientation day)! She did PERFECT! I can't believe how easy it went, for both of us! No tears, no fears, just "Goodbye, see ya Mom!" Her teacher praised her politeness and sweetness, and said she seemed to catch on to things really fast (classroom rules, raising of hands, etc.) She is currently going just 3 days a week, part time, but it's really is a nice break for me too! Lilly and I come home, she takes a nice nap (usually) and I work or read or catch up on a tv show, it's great! There have been a few tears when we go to pick Rylie up, however, it's just because the nap cots have been taken out and she thinks she has to nap, haha! Silly girl.  

Lilly is just a crawling little monster these days! She just wants to explore everywhere, and you can usually find that she's wandered down the hall and into the bathroom (still so thankful that we bought a one story these days!!) She is still having slight problems navigating the one step that goes down into the living room, she can go up but hasn't quite figured the down yet :( We've had a few minor falls, at least it's just one step and wood floor. She also threw her first tantrum the other day! I took a toy from her for one second, to buckle her into her car seat, and BAM! she flipped out!! We're going to have a super fun terrible two-ser on our hands!

 

And I have I mentioned how good our dogs our with these kids? Just check out Cyra below - as the pile got bigger and bigger and bigger, she just laid there so still and didn't seem to care one little bit!