Glasses?!

Rylee Jo got the first pair of glasses in our family.  We've noticed for a long time that sometimes her right eye crosses towards her nose.  We finally went to an eye doctor that we feel comfortable with and the diagnosis for now is that she's nearsighted.  The optometrist explained that crossing eyes are a result of either a focus problem (nearsighted or farsighted) or an eye muscle problem (something you're born with).  Because of her past medical history and surgery, there is a possibility that her eye crosses more because of a muscle problem.  But an eye surgeon won't look at a patient until glasses are tried out.  So here we are, wearing glasses.  She'll be wearing these for the next month or so, and then be re-tested and go from there.

She LOVES her glasses (so far).  She LOVES that they're pink!  When I told her this morning that we were going to go pick up her new, pink glasses, she was soooo excited!  She ran into her room after her bath and said, "I want to wear pink to match my new, pink glasses!".  She's do darn cute!

Liberty Fall Festival

 Liberty had their annual Fall Festival this weekend.  We had lots of fun walking up and down and all around the square looking at all of the fun things to see and buy.

 One vendor paid a face paint artist to paint faces for free all weekend.  How Fun!  She was great and the girls loved it... I think it was worth the wait in line (Remember, you can double click to get a closer look at the paint).

I think this is the funniest picture!  The girls specifically asked for a side shot of their faces, pretty cute huh!?!  We had tons of fun, but now we're all tired and grumpy. 

I think it'll be an early bed time tonight!

American Girl Doll Paradise

Can I just say, $money$ can go very quickly in the American Girl Doll store!
Denver has the pleasure of being the next special city to claim an American Girl Store. I thought it appropriate that my 5 girls and I be some of the first to check it out on our very first day of Spring break. It was soooooo much fun!

Here we are, piled in the mini van, just itching to go!

Aren't they all so cute? I really should have taken a picture of myself... I'm sure I was glowing with excitement too!

I spent the first 15 minutes of our car ride doing doll hair. The girls all wanted to take their dolls to this new store looking fabulous, who can really blame them, certainly not me.
(I've taught them well, already!)

We ended up getting there waaaay too early. I misread the time. The store opened at 9 am for media and VIP, we had to come back at 10. But we passed a Krispy Kreme on the way, so off to eat donuts to burn some time. How much better can one day get?!
Well, Donuts didn't take as long as we thought, so we were back by 9:45. So all 5 girls were just hanging all over the big picture windows staring at all of the great things inside.
Our day got better...
An older woman waved me down from inside, then came strolling outside to us. She told me she was going to my mother and my girls grandmother today, and would we like to come into the store early and look around?! Heck, yeah!
So, to make a long story short, we got to be in the store a little earlier than most to gawk at the hundreds of doll things that little girls dream about and grown women, mothers and grandmothers still love to dream about.
Todd surprised me by wanting to tag along and was a great sport of helping to round up 5 (sometimes 6) girls, all trying to run in different directions in the store.

Here they are back at home with all their loot. We did limit how much they could spend, but honestly, it doesn't take long to empty your wallet with 5 girls in a store like that.

The rest of the day was spent playing dolls...sigh...really, truly, a perfect girl day!

Snow Day!

We had our first snow day of the year on Wednesday! Todd wasn't home, so I got to shovel some seriously wet, heavy spring snow. Thank goodness for my neighbor who took pity on me and helped me out! I was shocked at how long the girls spent playing in the snow. Usually it's a half hour and they're inside asking for hot chocolate. But this time, it was actually pretty warm outside and they played for a couple of hours before the hot chocolate party began.

Reindeer antlers!

Rylee found the antlers that I bought Emily to wear in her Christmas concert. She loved wearing them!

Cheesing it!

Girl Pictures!

I spent last Saturday taking snapshots of my girls. This is the only one that sort of turned out cute. Why is it so hard to get 5 girls looking at a camera? Rylee truly was not diggin' it.

First Hair Cut

I finally broke down and gave Rylee Jo her first real hair cut. It was getting pretty bad. She definately had a mulet going on! So, I cut the back and then decided to cut a few little bangs for her. I've debated about bangs for a looong time. I'm usually against bangs. I was tramatized in Jr High when I had bangs and was always trying to keep them straight. So typically I'm anti-bangs. But Rylee kind of has a bumpy forehead from surgery plus she has stick straight hair. So far no problems keeping this little girls hair from kinking up.

She is so stinkin' cute!!

Busy Body

Last week while I was in the shower, Rylee was quite the busy body! She had climbed on top of the table to get to some Christmas decorations that I hadn't put away yet. Well, she threw all of them on floor and then opened box of ornament hooks and put them all through her hair! I think she thought that they were bobby pins!!

I was in a hurry trying to get out the door, but I just couldn't resist taking a few pictures! Can my baby really be that close to the terrible twos?

Marcella wanted to get in on the fun too.

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!