This is my Cara

Lately Cara has been saying "wah" sounds (like the w sound) instead of the "R" sound. I am not sure why she is doing it, but it makes her sound like she is talking like a baby. A phase maybe? Or is she really going to have speech issues too?

 Either way I finally pulled out the 3t clothes for her. This was one of my favorite outfits for Ryann that Cara can now fit in to. She has a cute fruit punch mustache and by the end of the day she had fruit punch spilled all over the front of her shirt. I am afraid it is totally stained. I will try some spot treatments soon and see if that helps.

She is posing here 1. smiling. 2. grumpy. 3. silly face.

Sisters

What do you think? Can you tell we are sisters?

Devyn and I had some fun this week. At church she was walking the halls and someone said, "Whose baby is that?" She said, "Mine."  He then said, "Wait, when did that happen?" "Umm, about 8 months ago?"

Obviously he thought Devyn was me and it was pretty funny to watch people's reactions. 

Rich told me that he was sad to see Devyn leave. He enjoyed her cleaning and cooking and he adores Hazel. He also had fun on their trips to sonic, and just hanging out while I was off doing crazy things like staying up all night and delivering babies. 

After he told me he was sad, he said that he was also very happy, because for some reason I tend to spend a lot of money when Devyn is in town... oops.

NoseFrida

Have you seen this??

http://www.fridababy.com/

Devyn knew that when she was in town with Baby Hazel that her snot problems were making it hard for her to nurse and breathe well. The first night sleep was tough, but after we went out an got the NoseFrida her life was much better!

 Seriously an awesome new baby product. We found it at BuyBuyBaby.

Happy Girl

Why are babies so stinkin cute??

 Seriously Miss Hazel Pop (as Cara calls you) or Hazey (as Ryann calls you), how did you get so cute with those amazing dimples??

 We miss your face!!

Pretend Sleeping

I love it when Ryann yells, "MOM. COME QUICK! IT IS SOMETHING SO CUTE!"

 Basically that means for once the girls are playing together nicely and not fighting. 

 These girls are wild.  And yes, I do know Ryann has her silkies in the background, ugh, I swear it is only some nights that she has them... not all the time anymore. 

Miss Hazel Came to Play

Hazel and Auntie Devyn came for a quick Phoenix getaway. 

The girls are quite obsessed with her. 

 This was the best picture we could get of her one little tooth! Yeah Hazel!

 The girls just wanted to take picture after picture of her. 

 Here is Ryann trying to get her to smile while getting ready to take a picture. 

We sure love our cousin visits!!

Uncle Zach

Uncle Zach came to play at our house last week for a 10 hour layover... best night ever!

Ryann climbed into his bed in the wee hours of the morning and scratched his back while he asked her questions. 

 I was able to chat with him and take him to the airport in the morning, on my way to a birth!  It turned out to be more than perfect timing (I got to take the carpool lane!!)

Thanks for the quick trip uncle Zach, we love you!

My Little Artist

Remember that Perry the Platypus post I did from Ryann, well she is at it again. 

Here is her very own drawing of him. Dad did tell her how to spell his name though. 

It is now cut out and put up in her frame in her room. 

I guess we are supporting hand eye coordination with the cutting skills. And taping. However, this tape thing is going overboard. I appreciate the picture of Rich and I standing on the sun with sunglasses, but the 9 pieces of tape in the front of our entertainment center might be a bit much.

But who can suppress and artist's creative spirit and talent??

Happy Late Birthday Uncle Phil

We took this pictures on Sunday at Uncle Phil's birthday party but I just was able to download them tonight. 

The girls were more than excited to take pictures with him (I did have to bribe Ryann, but once she found out she could get dessert if she took a picture she was more than eager) and I do think they turned out rather well. 

Happy birthday uncle Phil! Thanks for being such a great sport, especially when the girls call you Uncle Lee.

Princess Time

I ask Cara to smile and I get the most tilted head smile I could ever ask for. 

Better than a grumpy face I guess. 

Update on Cara's first week of preschool... 

She only knows about 5 of the kids names in her class. 

She is finally attempting to trace the letters on her worksheets (she has been doing letter worksheets for over 6 months now)

She does not have a boyfriend.

She likes playing with Lucy and Kate.

She can't remember "Emma" the one other girl in her class (there are only 4).

She holds hands with Colten when they go to school.

She has not been able to tell me any rules. 

I think she gets to share for her class on Thursdays. I better double check on that. 

Perry the Platypus

The girls and I went on a mommy daughter(s) date yesterday to the mall. We walked and shopped and there were lots of "I'm sad that I didn't get ______ (toy cat, build a bear, to ride on the train, pretty necklace, cookie, etc.), but we did have 2 excited little girls at the Disney store. 

Ryann's pick? Perry the Platypus, he has been all around our house having lots of fun adventures. She just wants to figure out how to get him a hat so he can be "Agent P"

Mud Bath

When I went to pick up Ryann from her after school program the leader kind of looked at me a half smiled. I was really confused when Ryann came walking out of the bathroom looking like this. 

Apparently 3 other kids and her decided it would be fun to play in a huge mud puddle. 

 I couldn't figure out if I was supposed to laugh or scold or do what... so I simply asked her if she had made a good decision and if she was ever going to do that again. We talked about it and she looked at me and said, "whew, after this happened I looked in the mirror and said to myself 'mom and dad are going to kill me!'"

She was very happy to tell me that she was happy that I didn't 'kill her.'

This child is watching too much TV.

On another note... today she said, "Suddenly" in an appropriate sentence and she also said she was eating her chicken dinner like an "herbivore" but then quickly changed it to "carnivore" because they eat only meat. She has also been using a lot of other big words that I can attribute to kindergarten and I found out that one little girl in her class can snap her fingers, but that is all. Maybe Ryann will be next, we are practicing a lot.

Best Package Ever

~disclaimer~ It has taken me a little while to post this, I didn't want to hurt Erin's feelings, but it is so funny and none of my girls are upset about what happened, so I figured I better blog about it before I forget about it. 

Ryann and Cara got a package in the mail the other day. They were so excited to open it, but they know that they always have to wait for me because I like to take pictures and ooooh and aaaah with them.

 Ryann pulls out an amazing pair of new "dancing shoes" as she calls them. 

 (sorry for the undies shot) and here Ryann is dancing away in her shoes, she was a little sad I wouldn't let her wear them to school yet. I told her they are fancy shoes for church, but we'll see how long that lasts. 

 Then Cara pulls out her shoes. The shipping label says they are "girls size 7"

Maybe they needed to say "big girls size 7" because those suckers are stinkin cute but definitely adult women size 7. 

However, I just might wear them to work tomorrow.

Look at that smile Erin, in no way was Cara upset by this. She kept saying, What? These are too big" but after a little time she realized they were awesome, and then when Auntie Erin promised a new pair of shoes she was pleased as punch, because now she will have 2 new pairs of shoes... a big pair and a little pair.

First Day of Preschool

My baby is growing up!  My sweet sitter was so wonderful and snapped some pictures of Cara before preschool today.

Cara went into the class holding Colten's hand. 

Then I heard she ran full speed, basically saying "watch out world, here I come."

She is finally excited to wear a backpack every day. We have had one for her stuff for the past year, but it isn't until now that she actually wants to wear it. 

 Her preschool schedule will be 3 days a week with Miss Teddie and she couldn't be more thrilled. She has some really fun kids in her class and I hope someday I will be able to visit her class and see how cute it all is. 

*sniff sniff* definitely not as many tears as sending Ryann out the door. 

Pretty Dresses

The girls got amazing dresses in the mail this week from Grandma!  

She made them matching dresses and they couldn't be happier. 

 Despite what professional photographers have you believe, I will never get a good picture of both my girls together!

 But I will say that someone needs to teach me how to photoshop these pictures, because I don't think I will get a good one without it. 

 You can tell that they had fun posing for the pictures though, right?  

 Ryann doesn't like to smile right now, she doesn't like to show her teeth for some reason??

 Ryann's dress really isn't that short, she just had it all bunched up, but my mom did make her a bigger size, Ryann just refused to put on the other one. 

 I seriously have to pick my battles with these two. 

However, I do love them more and more each day.

What We Learned

What we learned from Ryann's first week of Kindergarten: (most of these are straight from her mouth)
-Ryann heads straight for the playground when she gets off the bus.
-Her class doesn't line up by their number because it is too hot. They line up in the shade.
-When you get to class you put your backpack in your cubby.
-Don't forget an ice pack in your lunch box.
-Ryann doesn't like it when boys bite her hair (she doesn't know the name of the boy who did it, but she knows he is "crazy" and doesn't listen to the teacher).
-Ryann isn't a tattle tale (yet), she didn't tell the teacher when the boy bit her hair.
-There is a red wall in her classroom.
-Each morning you sit on your square with your legs "criss cross apple sauce" and your hands in your lap and don't touch the lines.
-Lunch for kindergarten is at like 10:20, so if we forget to feed her a snack after school then she eats 3 pieces of pizza and 2 breadsticks for dinner.
-She loves to play with Kennedy at recess.
-She learned a song about a frog, but sometimes she doesn't remember it so she will practice quietly for a minute or two before she will sing it out loud.
-This week they read a book called "It is hard to be 5" and that is a really funny book.
-Ryann has only tooted 1 time at school because she doesn't want kids to think she is stinky... she said when she tooted it wasn't stinky and the kids didn't know she did it.
-The bathrooms at the school are cool like at Aspen Grove.
-Ryann believes I haven't met her teacher yet, and she can't wait for me to meet her.
-The after school program finishes 15 minutes earlier than we thought, and apparently they charge $5 a minute that you are late.... except during the first week of school.... whew.
-Cheetos are the best item you can have in your lunch box.
-There is a boy named Eric in her class who colored on his eraser, he didn't listen to the teacher that time,  but most of the time he does.
-It is not a good idea to save a gogurt for later.
-Annie from her church class is in her class at school.
-Ryann is teaching herself how to do a cartwheel and I am not sure where she saw someone do it. I think we may need to get her into a tumbling class.
-Ryann is loving and kisses us all before getting onto the bus.
-Her favorite color is "rainbow".
-Every paper says RyannMomDadCara on it. It melts my heart every time I see it, we are her world and I love it... unless she just doesn't know how to write anything else... hmmmm... I will go with the first thought.
-She is happy

Father's Blessings

I remember before school started every year getting a blessing from my dad. 

It was super important for me, I knew that it was the start of something new and I was going to start it off right. That is why this year before Ryann started school that I made sure we talked all about Father's blessings, why we have them, and what they are for.

Rich asked Ryann what she hoped would happen during this school year. She said, "That I will listen to my teacher." That is all. She is so sweet, she isn't worried about friends or learning to read or getting lost, she knows all of that will be taken care of.  She just wants to make sure she listens to her teacher. 

 Both blessings were really sweet and meant a lot to me. Cara thought it was more for fun and didn't understand it as much as Ryann did, but Ryann was really happy to have had her daddy give her a blessing for an excellent school year. 

Cara will be starting preschool open house this coming up Monday and we are so excited for her!

On the Bus

 I snapped these gems yesterday as well. Both girls running off to the bus stop.

 Ryann knew it was all about the pictures.  

 Mommy had to have pictures.  

 Here she is getting ready to get on the bus.

 Meeting the bus driver. He asked what grade she was in and she kept saying her teacher's name. 

I am not quite sure why the bus driver looked confused. Hehe. She finally figured it out. 

Seriously, who sends their kid on the bus on the very first day of school??  She rode it home without incident as well. Rich was so happy to see her get off all by herself. 

Kindergarten

Wow, the day finally came. I swear Ryann slept better than any other day in the past year. She went to be at 7:15 and didn't wake up until 6:45am. 

She wouldn't let me brush her hair before school.  

Great. Good thing it doesn't need much attention now that it is short.

 Here is a picture of her at the growth chart. She looks to be about 3 feet 9 1/2 inches. We will see how tall she is on her last day of school too. 

 She was so excited and so was Cara. They are both wearing their new clothes from Grandma Mingo. Very first day of schoolish. Right?

 There had to be a picture of me and Ryann before I got all weepy... and yes I did cry. Big time. 

Here is daddy with his sweet girls. He says he didn't cry, but he sure was anxious all day. During the morning I got a text that said, "Her teacher has our cell phone numbers just in case, right?"

Yes Rich, yes she does. 

That was probably one of the sweetest things I have ever had him text me. His concern for our sweet girl just fills my heart with more joy than I could ever have imagined. I am so thankful for this beautiful girl of ours and all she has done to enrich our lives.