No More Cooties!

All of us have been sick in the last couple of weeks. Scott had a sore throat and cold. I had a cold. Ryann has been sick for a week. Even Keelan, Scott's brother who's staying with us, got sick. Whether I'm bringing cooties from school or Ryann's bringing them from daycare, we've had enough.

It started as a pretty rough weekend for the little one. Ryann had a very hard time sleeping on Friday night. She kept waking up and crying throughout the night. I put the humidifier in her room but I don't know if it helped or not. She was very cranky on Saturday and refused to take either of her normal 2 naps. She just cried and cried but wouldn't allow herself to sleep. Finally, I got her to go to bed for the night and she tried to sleep. She kept waking up, coughing and crying. She had a fever of 100 so I gave her Tylenol a couple of times in the night. I was sure we were headed to urgent care on Sunday. I got her up Sunday morning and checked for fever...nothing. She ate her breakfast and played. She wanted to go outside so I took her to the park. She coughed and had a runny nose but was actually happy and pretty healthy all day. Phew! I was relieved that she was better. I feel so bad whe she's sick. She's so pathetic acting and there's nothing I can do to help. Today, she had another great day. I love the days when she's happy. :0)

Apparently her little sister is happy, too. She never stops wiggling in there! She is so much more active than Ryann was. I feel her rumbling around in there all day and into the night. She hasn't woken me up yet, though, so that's good. I have a feeling she's going to be a handful when she comes out into the world. It's getting closer. Only 14 weeks left. I just hope I don't end up completely round by the end. I've already gained a lot more weight than I did through my whole pregnancy for Ryann. Oops!

Things Settling Down

After several weeks of company and activities, we're getting back in to our normal routine. I'm back to work, Ryann's back to daycare and we all got colds, of course. Scott blames it on Ryann and I getting cooties from the kids at school and daycare. He's probably right. She got her cold 3 days into being back to daycare. Scott got his right after her and I followed. Winter is so much fun! Of course, we can't complain about our 70 degree weather most of the time lately. Especially when I hear about the below zero temperatures in other places.

Ryann has made many trips to the park in the last few weeks. She loves walking and going down the slide. She also loves to sit on the park benches and talk about cars and trees and whatever else she sees. Most of the time, she speaks her own language but she has a lot of words that I understand. She gets more and more real words all the time.


This is Ryann with my dad at the park last weekend. He came to visit with my brother who was here working the Supercross race.

Happy Holidays!

These past two weeks have been busy but very nice. I've been able to be home and spend lots of time with my little girl. She's so amazing to watch as she learns new things every day. She really enjoyed her Christmas presents, although it took her a week to open them all. She just appreciated each thing so much and had to play with it properly before moving on. She was very happy with her new table and chairs, books, baby Elmo and other toys. She's especially into coloring these days so her fairy coloring book was a big hit. We've had fun watching her and playing with her.

We were blessed to have lots of family visit us for the holidays. We had Scott's sister, brother and father for Christmas. It was great to have them all come and escape the cold and snow for a while. Ryann really enjoyed having them here. She's still asking if "Ganka" and "Kee Kee" went "bye bye."

My brother came for New Year's Eve. He flew in here for a couple of days before going to a race in Anaheim. We were pretty wild and stayed up until midnight this year. We even had a little bubbly to celebrate (sparkling grape juice, of course).

Keeping with tradition, I packed the Christmas decorations on New Year's Day. Scott took down the outside lights today so it's offically over. I still have a few boxes that haven't quite made their way to the garage yet but that'll be tomorrow's project.

Now that the holidays are over, I'm preparing to go back to school on Monday. I've had two weeks off but I feel like I need a vacation after all the excitement of the holidays. It really tired me out. :0) I've had several random naps in the past couple of days. I'm sure the amount of food I've eaten may have contributed to the sluggishness. Anyway, it's back to work Monday so my life of leisure is over. It really has been a nice Winter Break.

Aaahhh...Vacation

Yesterday was my last day of work for 2008. Report cards went home and the quarter officially ended. What a relief! The last week of the quarter is always hectic. We usually have testing to do and report cards to do. Luckily, we didn't have conferences this time. We'll have those again after next quarter.

With half of the year over, I can take a break and relax for 2 weeks with my family. Of course, I see this as a great opportunity to get a head start on next quarter so I went to work today. Yes, it's Saturday, but school was open and I feel so much better when I get ahead of things. I worked from 10-2 while Scott and Ryann watched college basketball all day. I don't know how much progress I actually made but it's a start.

We have company coming on Tuesday and staying through New Year's. I'll start getting ready for that tomorrow. This afternoon, I'm in school mode so I'll be on the computer for a while while Ryann sleeps. It's just so peaceful when she naps. :0)

It's a Girl!

We went for another ultrasound on Thursday. We found out that we're having another little girl! Ryann will have a little sissy to torment. Hopefully she'll take it easy on the little one. We're hoping they'll get to be great friends. Here's the latest picture of our newest little girl.

It's Official...

The holiday season is here!

I love Christmas time. I have a long tradition of putting decorations up the day after Thanksgiving and taking them down on New Year's Day. On Friday, Scott had the Christmas music playing throughout the house and Ryann and I decorated the tree. She's not as helpful as you might think. She is very good at taking the hooks off the balls and smashing the balls together. This year, it took a lot more energy than it has in the past. :0) Scott put up the outside lights on Saturday so we're all set.

Here's a picture of our new living room, complete with new furniture and a Christmas tree! As you'll notice, I haven't found the perfect things to hang on the wall yet. I'm still searching.

Pictures...Ugh!

A week or so ago, we decided to take Ryann to get her 18 month pictures done and have our family portrait done as well. We had a 6:20 appointment so I rushed home from work and we all got ready. We got there on time and waited 45 minutes for them to tell us that they didn't have us in the schedule but they'd fit us in. By then, Ryann was cranky and so were we. Her hair was also a wreck by then. The photographer was obviously in a hurry so she gave up easily when Ryann began to run away between shots. Overall, I'd say it was a pretty unsuccessful attempt. Here's what we ended up with.