Why am I choosing to embarrass myself?

I saw this posted on Heather's blog as well as Renata's blog... check them out!

15 years ago, I was...
*13 years old
*In the 8th grade at Osceola Middle School in Ocala, FL
*The drum major of our middle school band for the Ocala Christmas Parade
*playing the flute
(Sorry, no picture for this one... I honestly looked, but the 8th grade was such an awkward year... I probably burned all pictures from that time in my life!)

10 years ago, I was...
*18 years old
*A high school graduate... graduated with honors :)
*Spending my last summer at home doing community theatre
*Moving to Tennessee in the fall to attend Lee University
*Majoring in Music Education
*Playing the oboe in the Symphonic Band

That's me on the right

The only picture you may ever see of me dancing... I'm just to the right of "Frank Butler"
The show was "Annie Get Your Gun"

Freshman year of college in the Symphonic Band
That's Brandon sitting behind us... funny that we barely knew each other in the picture!

Me and Brandon coming home from a mission's trip to Brazil... we were only friends back then.

5 years ago, I was...
*23 years old
*Becoming a mom for the 1st time in January
*Married for 2 years
*Graduating with a Bachelor's of Science in Business Administration in May
*Spending 7 months as a stay at home mom after graduating

My first good look at Chandler

Chunky cheeks!

Graduation was extra special as a mom of a 4 month old baby girl!

Thanksgiving 2003

3 years ago, I was...
*25 years old
*Working as a Ministry Assistant at our church
*Married for 4 years
*Excited that we were buying our 1st house!

Our house just before we bought it
It looks different now :)

Chandler and Me December 2005... the pile of notebooks on the table reminds me of all the work I had to bring home with me!

1 year ago, I was...
*27 years old
*A mom of two beautiful girls
*Married for 6 years
*Staying at home full time!

Riley was born in March 2007

Just me: Mother's Day 2007

My Family on Thanksgiving 2007
Dad and Mom
My Sister,Erin, and her husband, Joel
Me, Brandon, Chandler and Riley

This past year, I was...
*watching my baby have surgery
*watching Chandler turn 5 years old
*watching Riley turn ONE!
*going to my 1st UGA football game
*becoming obsessed with Twilight
*off on an adventure to Australia!
*having life changing surgery
*learning to take time for myself.

Riley's cyst removal: January 2008

Chandler's 5th Birthday Photo Shoot

Riley's 1st Birthday Photo Shoot

Our 1st UGA football game!

My Twilight Obsession!

Me & Charlie the Koala in Sydney, Australia!

Me just before surgery

Just Me: October 2008

So, what are YOU doing tomorrow?

Well? What are you doing tomorrow??

Here's what I'm NOT doing tomorrow...

I'm NOT sleeping in.
I'm NOT lounging around the house.
I'm NOT going to be lugging 2 kids around town.

So what am I doing?

Getting up at 6:15 am.
Having breakfast with my family.
Taking Chandler to school.
Going to the post office.
Working out at the Y.
Buying paint for my guestroom.
Picking up Chandler from school.
Going to a Kindergarten Orientation meeting.
Having dinner with my family.

What??
OH! Did I forget to tell you that CHANDLER STARTS KINDERGARTEN TOMORROW!!!! AGH!!!

She is SO excited that she can hardly stand it!

Brandon is going to work a half day tomorrow so he can go with us (me and Riley) in the morning and then he can be home in time to go with us to pick her up.

SHE DOESN'T KNOW HE'S GOING TO BE COMING WITH ME TO PICK HER UP.... shhhhh! It's a surprise. :)

So, what will you be doing on Monday?

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Happy Anniversary Brandon! I love you!!

This is us last Friday night at Amber's wedding.


This is us seven years ago - June 23, 2001

Don't we look really young?? Especially Brandon. He says being married to me and having 2 daughters has aged him! :)

We went out on Saturday night to celebrate. (Brandon is at the softball field tonight playing a double header. Obviously Brandon wasn't on the team back in 2001 or we probably wouldn't have set our wedding date for June. :) He would have insisted that we get married after the season was over so he wouldn't miss any games!)

We had dinner at Logan's. It was yummy and we were stuffed... maybe because we ate 3 desserts! Don't worry... they were "Mini Bucket Desserts". Only about 5 bites in each. :) They were delicious and we seriously over ate!

After dinner we had a little time to kill before our movie started so we ran over to Target. I tried on a few dresses (without success)... I'm looking for something to wear to my "business casual" high school reunion this coming weekend. Any suggestions????

We headed over to the theatre to see The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.
I really enjoyed the movie, but I still think The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is my favorite. I LOVED Edmond's character in Prince Caspian. I wish he had played a larger role. When we read all of The Chronicles last summer I remember Edmond having a larger part, but I guess the movie script was written to focus more on the tension surrounding Peter and Caspian (really the tension between Peter and everyone!). I didn't really care of the corny one liners. I don't remember there being as many in tL, tW & tW. The "love story" between Susan and Caspian was ok. In the book he takes an interest in her, but I don't remember it evolving the way the movie played it out. I won't spoil it for those of you who haven't seen it yet. :)
But GOOD NEWS (for me anyway)... If The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is anything like the book at all, Edmond will play a much larger role. :)

Riley's 15 month stats...

Riley had a well baby visit today.

She is currently 32.5" (90th percentile) and 20 lbs. 10 oz. (25th percentile). Long and skinny.

Her doctor says everything looks good.

I'll try to take a 15 month photo tomorrow. :)

Watch out world...

...here she comes!!!

She tried chasing Max, but he was just too fast for her!
Sorry about all of the background noise... no, we were not about to be hit by a car. Chandler was riding her tricycle with the plastic wheels down the neighbors driveway!

These videos were taken yesterday just before Brandon came home. Since then she has been practicing and, I am proud to report, is doing MUCH better.

What a difference a year makes!

I started looking through old Mother's Day photos and here's what I found.... A year makes a BIG difference!

Mother's Day 2007

Mother's Day 2006... Chandler getting ready for the Cherub Choir. Since you can't see her face I posted this photo...

Mother's Day 2006

Somehow we managed to completely miss Mother's Day 2005. That must have been before our digital camera days! :)

2004. So it's not actually on Mother's Day... we managed to miss it this year as well, but it was taken the same week. We took it on our web camera.

Mother's Day 2003. My first Mother's Day and also soon after my graduation from Lee University.

Riley at 14 months

Well she didn't crawl until 10 months. She didn't attempt to stand until 12 months. WHY WOULD WE EXPECT WALKING TO BE ANY DIFFERENT?!?

She's not walking on her own yet, but at least she's interested in it.

I bought this pushing/riding toy yesterday. She has been trying to push Chandler's grocery cart, but it's a little too tall and not quite heavy enough... I tried loading it with books, but I decided that was a little dangerous!

She really got excited about it and even took a few trips up and down the street in front of the house....

Does she remind you of an old lady wearing a mumu pushing a grocery cart??


Chandler got a kite (can't beat a $1 Wal-mart kite!)....

Big Kid Bike Take 2!!

We tried the "big kid bike" last summer. She wasn't quite ready. Going from a tricycle to a bike with training wheels was harder than we thought it would be!!

She's still working on how to peddle FORWARDS not BACKWARDS! Last summer, anytime she pushed back, and the brakes came on, she would get SO MAD! We finally told her that we were putting the bike away until she could do it without 100 meltdowns a day! :)

A few weeks ago she asked if we could get the bike out and try again.

I went to the shed and had to dig it out from the back... we've managed to accumulate a TON of stuff since last summer! How does that happen??

I reminded her that it would take practice to learn to ride it and she needed to remember that getting mad wasn't going to help her learn how to ride any faster.

Her response? "Mom, I already know that."

She is doing 100 times better this summer. What a difference a year makes!
I'm also very glad that we live on a dead end... It provides a great practice area!

By the way... I took a really great video on my digital camera and I was excited about posting it, but there's no sound AND I could get the picture to rotate! UGH!

Riley Walks!

It's assisted, but it's still walking!

She actually did it twice before it even registered to me that SHE WAS WALKING!

Thank goodness for video cameras on cellphones... that's all I had on me. :)

Riley Slides!

Warning!: Obnoxious Southern Accent! You may want to turn off your speakers...



This is the honest to goodness truth:
I put Riley down at the foot of the playset steps.
She climbed right up to the top of the slide.
She went down!

Of course this video is not the footage of the actual first time... During the first trip down the slide, I was hovering over her terrified that she would fall off and we would have to rush to the ER!
This was more like the 20th or 21st time. :)

Yay for Spring!

The weather has been kind of odd here the last two months or so, but the past week and a half (when it hasn't been raining) it has been BEAUTIFUL!!

We have found that Riley has a LOVE for "all things outdoors". Crawling in the grass, riding in her stroller, standing on the deck watching the bubble machine, taking a walk in the wagon, and most recently, playing with our neighbor's dog, Max.

We "met" Max a few weeks ago. We thought he was a stray because he didn't have a collar. Now, anyone who knows Chandler and has spent any amount of time with her knows she's a little (ok, a lot) intimidated by dogs.

Max trotted up to our Explorer one day as Chandler was getting out. They both just stood there looking at each other. Max didn't jump on her. He didn't sniff her. He didn't bark. He just looked. I could see the panic in Chandler's face, but I assured her that he looked like a nice dog and he was probably just lost and lonely.

Chandler went inside to get a bowl of water for Max... because all lost dogs need a fresh drink! :) When she came back she put the bowl on the front steps and sat down "near, but not TOO near" the bowl. Max took a little drink, sniffed us a little and then sat down next to Chandler. I tried not too intervene too much, I wanted her to decide what to do on her own.

She befriended Max and for the next half hour they ran and jumped all over our yard (front and back). Chandler fell in love with Max and watching her transformation from "scared of dogs" to running and playing with Max made me love Max too!

A little while later we heard our neighbor across the street calling for Max... I knew it was too good to be true. He already had a home.

Chandler cried when I told her we needed to take him to his house. She was convinced that Max would like it at our house more... that's all I'll say about that. :)

We took him home, but he still visits us quite often.

Yesterday was a gorgeous day so we played outside...

Chandler rode her bike... Riley wanted a bike to ride so we pulled out Chandler's old Barbie trike.

"Make this thing GO!"

Max came for a visit...

Riley's 1st up close and personal with Max.
SHE LOVED IT!

Chandler found a ball to play fetch with Max... I don't think he understands all of the rules of fetch just yet!

Riley wanted to share the ball with Max... he's not a very good sharer, but he was SUPER and didn't seem to mind Riley and Chandler bugging him. :)

Chandler calls this Max's "collection". His ball and a stick.

Riley was very intrigued by Max's tail. She would look at me and smile as if to say, "Hey Mom! Do you see that crazy thing?!"

"GOT IT!"

Just after this she took a nice "bite" of Max's tail! :) It was probably more like a "lick", but either way, his tail was in her mouth and he didn't even flinch! GREAT DOG!

Ok, Ok! I'll do it!

After many requests (most of them from my husband) here are all of Riley's monthly photos... beginning at birth:

1st Day Home from the Hospital: March 4th, 2007

1 Month

2 Months

3 Months

4 Months

5 Months

6 Months

7 Months

8 Months

9 Months

10 Months

11 Months

12 Months

Everyone says that first year goes by quickly... it really does!