Congrats Phillip on your new job!!

Saturday, we went to my mom and Richard’s house and had steak and potatoes. It was good. Phillip cooked the steaks and my mom made the potatoes and salad.

Nana decided to buy pins and a bowling ball….. well they were blown up pins and ball. I got a few pictures of Ryan playing with them, but not any of the three kids. I was playing referee instead of getting pictures. Coop and Ryan liked to sit on the pins. Well, Coop was ok but Ms Chunky Bottoms was bouncing and I was afraid she might break one. Bronwyn showed the babies how to set them up and roll the ball. That worked for all about 2 minutes. Then Coop and Ryan were off and running into them to knock them over.


Then after dinner, Pop took the little ones on a ride on the riding lawn mower.

Then Sunday we went to McKinney downtown, walked a bit and then met the Mears' for dinner to celebrate Phillip's new job. Congrats Phillip. You deserve it and will do a great job.

While in downtown, Phillip got us a Strawberry Lemonade to share. To share..... Ms Camel decided to drink the whole thing with Phil and I only getting one or two drinks a piece. Next time, ask her to say lemonade for you....so cute.

Original

Here is the original picture. This was on their website and what we saw when we made our decision.

Pictures below.... in next post.

Painting with a Twist... "Red Dress"

Heather, Hayley and I went to Painting with a Twist. Heather went last week and had a great time. So she asked if we wanted to go. I had a blast. It was so much fun and I learned a lot. There are different locations, but Garland was so relaxed and you can bring wine...Thanks Heather!!

Here are the Finigan girls painting our "Red Dress."

2nd day of the week :)

Ok, so Ryan really doesn't have a first day of school. She just continues to go to school and loves it. However, she has class pictures today. I just hope that they do not take them after they come in from outside or after a meal. It would be smart to take the picture of the little ones early in the morning...when they have their original clothes on.

Here are a few pictures of Ryan this morning. She is in a skirt. I keep seeing other little girls in skirts and love it.

Look who's cooking?

A lot of people have been inspiring me lately. I am now on weight watchers, which weigh in day is tomorrow, and so I am wanting to cook more. Phillip has always been the best at cooking in our house. He is creative and a great cook. I have always wanted to like to cook, but baking has been more of an interest to me. However, baking isn't quite on the WW diet.

So I have been getting some great ideas from my sisters. Heather made the great brussel sprouts dish and then Hayley mentioned that she made a veggie pizza. So I decided I wanted to too.

We made a ground turkey, pepper, onion and mushroom pizza on wheat crust. I do have to say that it was pretty tasty. Just wanted to share....

Cousins

Saturday, we went to see Phillip's Aunt Barbara who came up from Houston. Isabelle and Mason were there too. Issie isn't much for noise so she stayed near Phillip. He also was giving her a massage and she liked it. It was just to cute seeing her there hanging on her Uncle Phillip.

Every time Ryan goes over to see her grand parents, she takes this doll that has glass hands, feet and face out of her rocking chair. The baby, Flower, sits in the chair until Ryan gets there. Then Flower gets the floor.

Ryan and her cousins played and had a good time.

What if we had three kids?

Phillip and I went to Heather and Josh's Wednesday night to watch the kids. We had Ryan, so it was 20 month old, 23 month old and an almost 5 year old. It was fun, but a lot of "don't push, be easy, don't jump on him, slow down, watch out, sit down" and others that I am sure we said.

We all had a good time, Phillip in particular. He got his hair done!! Boy does he have a lot to look forward too. Just watch out for the makeup session, Phillip.

Oh a separate note, Ryan is picking up so much that I don't even realize. The other day she was watching me, rubbed her hands together and then put her hands on her face. She was putting on makeup. So now when I ask her to do that, she will rub her little hands together and then rub her face. She has also taken the "motherly" role. I was picking her up and one of her friends knocked a chair over and all of a sudden I heard, "Oh no, Ari, no." She was telling Ariana to not do that.

She will also say random people's names in a row... "Mommy, daddy, Ry Ry, Maizie (my moms dog), Ari, Emma (school friends) and many others. She will sing in the car and then say "Yeah Ry Ry." She does this b/c I will sing a song and then she says yeah to mommy. Now it's Yeah Ry Ry!!

What a great year and a half. It is a new thing everyday and we love it.

We didn't have Ryan this morning while getting ready and thought "What a joy to get ready without interruptions." Little did I know we would miss the interruptions. Phillip says "I miss that little buuugger head." He calls her that and I think its the cutest thing in the world. What's wrong with me?? :)

PS...most of you know that I am on weight watchers. I have lost 7 lbs in 2.5 weeks. I am loving it every time I see the numbers go down. What a great feeling. How crazy am I though? I had given a guy a few dollars to get me two tacos from Jack in the Box, which total was points...a normal lunch. I went back, got my money and ate my 4 point frozen meal. I am on a road to better things. Just thought I would post that. I am not fond of the pictures, but this is my week 3 picture. Not much to see nor compare it to, but hopefully in 3 more weeks we will see a difference.

She gets smarter everyday

It amazes us how smart this little girl is. I am sure it's normal, but when she does something new or says something new it is the cutest thing. We have taught her to do "cheers" and it's funny b/c she holds her cup or fork out to get a "cheers." Tonight she wanted her daddy's spoon and when he gave it to her, she picked up a piece food and said cheers as she tapped the spoon to the food.

Then I asked her to make a "happy plate" which is an empty plate after eating all of her food. I asked her if she could make one and she took her plate and turned it upside down and said "happy." Now that's a smart cookie.























Ryan got her first black eye, well the color pink eye. I am sure it will be darker tomorrow b/c it's already gotten darker as the night goes on. She was dancing at school and hit another child's head. At least she was having fun.