Halloween

Audrey started our Halloween with her first lost tooth! She was soooo excited to finally loose it. She couldn't wait to go to bed so that the tooth fairy could visit.

My girls looked so festive in their Halloween shirts!

Dressed up! Audrey wanted to be a GREEN witch, Emily was her black cat, Marcella finally decided on Sleeping Beauty for the second year in a row, Olivia was Susan from Narnia. She even carried a pretend bow and arrow. Rylee was a Chick-fil-a cow and their cousin Mikey was Yoda. Too cute!

Rylee was so stinkin' cute!
But her favorite part of Halloween was riding in the wagon with her cousin and being given candy!

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!

Crater Lakes

Saturday, August 1st, Todd and I went hiking with no kids! We hiked up to the Crater Lakes to check out potential campsites for Todd scout troop. I think Todd said it was about a 3 mile hike in. It was quite the mountain hike, but so much fun! And everything was absolutely beautiful!

Todd and I

Nice picture, huh?! Of course my eyes are closed...and really, our camera doesn't do the mountains any justice.

One of the Crater Lakes. It was gorgeous. Look at the snow still there!
And here's Todd between two boulders that we hike through.

Back to School

Thursday, August 13th was our first day back to school!!! School starts sooo early in this part of Colorado. What ever happened to summer break from Memorial Day to Labor Day?

All of the girls were very excited to get into the new school year though. And I must admit, so was I. I think I'm a better mom when I have a couple of hours to myself during the day while Rylee and Marcella nap.

Speaking of Rylee...can you believe that she's walking? She started about 2 weeks after her first birthday. Maybe I can post her 1st birthday later.

Here's Marcella getting in on the action. She got dressed for school, but I didn't have the time to get her hair done. It's poofing pretty good this morning.

Marcella and 'Bun Bun'

Audrey Maxine- 1st grade and ready for a whole day of school and eating lunch in the cafeteria.

Emily Kathryn- 2nd grade and very nervous, as you can see. She broke down in tears just as we were taking pictures. But she recovered pretty quickly and ended up loving her first day. Do I see a bit of her Aunt Ashley creeping in?!

Olivia Aaron-4th grade and she has some how forgotten how to smile for a camera that day. She's excited that recess is before lunch this year so she'll be missing a lot less of it this year. Last year she had to check her blood sugar before lunch, then eat lunch, then got to recess...needless to say, Olivia isn't the fastest, so missed recess about a 4th of the time.

Coronal Craniosynostosis

For those of you who have asked and I haven't been able to pronounce Rylee was born with Coronal Craniosynostosis.

Coronal is for the suture involved, Craniosynostosis is the premature closing of sutures, or soft spots as most of us know them as. The Coronal suture is the opening from the top of your head along the side, down to your ear. All babies are born with several openings in their cranium to allow brain growth. I had always thought there was only the one at the very top, that Pediatricians always check. Rylee was lucky, I suppose, that only her right Coronal suture was fused. Because of this condition, Rylee had major craniofacial surgery on May 31st. Our neurosurgeon was in charge of opening up the closed suture and our craniofacial surgeon (a specialized facial plastic surgeon) did work on Rylee's forehead, nose and right eye that were affected. The picture above was taken April 4th, four days after surgery. Sorry I didn't put it in the right order.

This is Rylee in the hospital on April 1st, 24 hours after surgery. In the picture you can see the drainage tube really well on the top and side of her head.

We just couldn't believe how happy Rylee was during this whole process! Even though she could barely see out of her swollen little pumpkin face, she was smiling and playing less than 24 hours after major craniofacial surgery!! The yellow stuff you see in her eye brows was an antibiotic, disinfecting type of stuff that was all through her hair too. It has the consistency of gum. It took a couple of weeks to wash out/ scrape off.

This is Rylee now! I can't believe how great everything looks! You can barely see the scar already!

Our happy girl was 10 months on the 10th...Mother's Day! And she's waving 'Hi' to everyone she knows... Strangers are a different story.

Just this week, Rylee is trying to pull up the furniture. She can pull up to her knees really well and then screams and squeals at everyone until we help her to her feet.

Rylee has never crawled, but she scoots everywhere she needs to get. The picture below is how she uses her feet to scoot around. Boy, can she ever do a 360 in no time!

I know this picture is a little blurry, but it's exactly how Rylee smiles when she's happy or excited! She is such a blessing and source of joy in our family!