Garden of the Gods

Todd had training in Colorado Springs this last week. So the girls and I decided to drive down Thursday after school, spend the night, (skip school on Friday) and visit the Garden of the Gods after Todd got out of training Friday, late morning. The Garden of the Gods was beautiful!

The girls all took turns climbing between these two rock formations.
Olivia above and Audrey below.

Just to give you a picture of the size of this formation, here's Emily climbing through.

Our five girls!

Here's Todd leading the way to a formation called the Cathedral rocks.

More beautiful views...

My girls wanted me to take a picture of this 'face' rock...do you see it?

Marcella climbing around and striking a pose.

Rylee eating a snack.

Todd tried to carry Rylee around on his shoulders. We didn't realize that most of the paths were actually paved, or we would've brought a stroller. Rylee actually preferred to walk, but it was slow going that way.

Climbing more and striking more poses for the camera. Emily liked it so much that she's told us she wants to come back for her birthday!

Emily showing off, she wants to send this picture to her rock climbing Uncle Michael.

We had so much fun!

Rylee Jo's 1st Birthday

Rylee Jo turned one on the 10th of July! I can hardly believe that a year has gone by!

Kathryn, Scott and their children were visiting from PA. It made such a fun party!

Todd and I bought Rylee a baby walker. Her favorite toy from the start. She wasn't walking at all on her birthday... I'm afraid this is why she was walking about 2 weeks later.

I tried to get a picture of Rylee next to her cake. Aunt Kathryn didn't do a very good job at watching Rylee and she ended up trying to grab a piece a little early. Oh well, not too much damage was done!

Blowing out her candle

Eating Cake...and boy did she eat! There was no hesitation once the cake was put in front of her. She dove right in and loved it!

Todd gave the birthday girl a SECOND piece. She ate it all, but was definitely finished.

It was in the tub after that!

Pumpkin Pickin' and Corn Maze

This weekend our family went to a local Pumpkin Patch to pick our pumpkins. Everyone had lots of fun choosing a pumpkin. Audrey though, just about drove us crazy! She had the hardest time choosing a pumpkin! It seriously took her an extra 15 minutes longer than the rest of our girls! (with us hurrying her)

After paying for our pumkins, our family decided to brave the corn maze. Am I ever so glad Todd was there with us. They would've had to send someone in to rescue me! I would've been in there HOURS!!

Poor Marcella! Her little 2 year old legs just couldn't keep up the whole time. And my poor shoulders! They were so sore the next day, it was hard to brush my teeth!


Isn't that curly-top so sweet?!


Following the leader!


We finally finished!

Rylee Jo's Blessing

Rylee was blessed September 28th. It was a beautiful Sunday. Todd's family that live in Colorado all attended and Kathryn and Hugh. Can you believe that Kathryn hasn't missed one of my babies being blessed? It's pretty amazing if you think about it.

Me, Rylee, Kathryn and Hugh

Look at those tiny feet and adorable shoes!

Rylee Jo

Mom's Visit

Todd had Scout camp the end of July! So my Mom flew here to help with all my girls. It was so nice to have my Mom for a week. Rylee Jo turned 3 weeks old in the picture above. She's wearing a dress that I wore as a baby and that all of my baby girls have worn!
Grandma and the girls having a night of hair beauty!

Mom and I went to the parade of homes together one day. Todd's sister watched the older girls and we just took Rylee. It was fun drooling over the multi-millon dollar homes together.

Visitors

Olivia, the biggest sister
Emily
Audrey...she nearly threw Rylee out of her arms when Rylee started to cry!
Marcella
Grandma

Quick update

Happy 4th of July! Sorry I haven't updated my blog...no fantastic excuse, just plain busy. Here are the girls for the 4th of July! We just spent the morning and afternoon at our community pool and then went to Dylans birthday bar-b-q. But the girls had so much fun. How do you like Marcella's hair!?!! It's very curly and getting longer. When it's fro-ed out, we call it "Papa Hugh hair". My grandfather had the whitest, curliest hair that was worn very poofy.
Audrey turned the big 5 on June 29th. She had been looking forward to this birthday since November when Olivia and Emily had their birthdays.
I somehow talked Audrey into a Polly Pocket cake. She at first requested yet another Tinker Bell cake. I've already done two of those for her last 2 birthdays...I was fresh out of new Tink ideas!!

Well, we'll see how everything goes, but I'm still pregnant! My doctor told me last Thursday that if I didn't go into labor on my own this week that he wanted to see me Wednesday. Yeah right, like I EVER go early!! So, I'll have my doctor appointment this Wednesday and he said that they would most likely induce Thursday. Wish me luck and I'll post pictures of our new baby girl as soon as I can!

Laura and Mike's wedding

Todd's younger sister, Laura and her fiance Mike were married this past weekend. Laura had all of the kids be part of the ceremony. They matched up perfectly for everyone to walk down the isle together. The ceremony, I hear, was very nice. You see I was inside trying to get Marcella to stop crying the whole time! Unfortunately the ceremony was at 2:00pm, Marcella's nap time...need I say more? Yes, actually it's a pretty funny story. Soooo, Marcella and her cousin just 7 months younger, Austin were paired together. Of course you see, it's his nap time too. Everyone it seems but me wants the line of nephews and nieces to be youngest to oldest, tooo cute, right?! I was just thinking it might be easier to get Marcella and Austin to walk down an isle of strangers if they saw some of the older kids do it first. I was over ruled. Well, well, Marcella was already grumpy from pictures, but we showed her the great basket full of petals that was hers to carry down the isle. That made her sooo happy, to have her very own basket of flowers! Well, the time came for Austin and Marcella to make their debue...Austin had his own basket of petals to keep him happy as well. Well, Austin was not happy about walking anywhere without his mom, so Brittany picked him up once he started to cry. Austin still not happy, chucks his basket on the ground spilling flower petals everywhere! Well, Marcella's quite concerned about Austin, but more so that he's spilled his petals everywhere. Instead of walking down the isle, Marcella wants to pick up Austin's petals. So Brittany takes off with Austin leaving Marcella to Todd. Todd tries to pick up Marcella and haul her down the isle in his arms. This makes Marcella even more mad so she follows suit and chucks her basket to the ground crying the whole way down the isle. I finally relieved Todd of Marcella once we realized that calming her down outside wasn't going to work. I took her inside, got her to stop crying, but every time we went outside to join everyone else, there were those poor petals all over the ground and isle so Marcella would start crying all over again. Does anyone know how to explain to a 2 year old that the petals were suppose to be on the ground?

The rest of the afternoon and evening was very nice. Laura was a beautiful bride and Mike a handsome groom. Laura and Mike are just perfect for each other.

My Beautiful girls

Payton and Audrey

Dylan and Olivia