Hollyhand House

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Statue Dedication

On Mother's Day, we had a statue of Jesus dedicated in Mrs. Cindy's memory at First United Methodist Church.  The church has created a Prayer garden in the courtyard and the statue and benches were yet to be added.  Mr. Doug and the family wanted to dedicate something in her memory and this was a wonderful choice!  The statue is made of Italian white marble and is the work of the Italian sculptor, Carlo Roppa.  It is beautiful in person!  The verse at the bottom is "My peace I give you" John 14:27.  That verse is so fitting for what Mrs. Cindy went through.  Even though she was often in so much pain, she always lived in peace. 
I know Mrs. Cindy was smiling down at her family together for something so special in her honor and memory.


 
 
 
 
 
 
Amanda (Riley's Sister), Wesley
& Duncan
Leigh, Brian (Riley's Brother),
Ainslee and Brilyn
Our family picture didn't go so well...
 
I was so glad my parents were able
to come to church and the dedication
with us.
Riley with his Dad and siblings
PopPop and the 5 grandkids
The flowers in the sanctuary were also in memory of
Mrs. Cindy
We had a catered lunch at the Northport Civic Center
Sweet girl was tuckered out...
taking a nap on PawPaw
Anna Riley and Ainslee
Sweet Cousins...
Anna Riley, Brilyn and Ainslee
Posted by Picasa

Monday, May 14, 2012

Mother's Day

I had a wonderful Mother's Day. 
 I am so blessed to be the Mother of two adorable, sweet, healthy girls!
 
I was so happy my parents were able to come to church with us and be at the Dedication of the statue in my mother-in-law's memory.  (More on that in another post)

I am beyond blessed with wonderful women role models in my life.  I have a beautiful, hard working Mama that would do anything in the world for her family!  I am also blessed with a Grandmother that holds our family together.   I also claim Riley's Mimi as my own grandmother too and I am so blessed to have her in our life.  They are all such an inspiration to me!!
Riley and Mimi

I had a great day with Mom and my girls and then I got an evening away and went to the movies with a two friends to watch "The Lucky One." Such a wonderful day!
Posted by Picasa

Last weekend/week recap



I never got around to blogging this week so here is a little recap.  I will have some catching up to do this week. 

We had a busy Saturday as always.  We had a pictures scheduled with Kim Lawson that morning at 9.  This was Ava Kate's 6 month pictures.  I had pictures done in the white gown with Anna Riley when she was 6 months so I wanted to do the same with Ava Kate and attempt one of the three of us.  Kim is awesome and was able to get one of the three of us in the 1.2 seconds that Anna Riley sat there.  She also ended up getting some really cute ones of Anna Riley playing that we had not planned on.  Here are the ones that she put on Facebook. 

She got right up to Kim's camera lens and said "Cheese!"
Just to compare...This is Anna Riley and me during her
6 month pictures.


After the pictures, I made Anna Riley take an early nap so we could go to Lily Grace's birthday party in Brent.  Lily Grace had a rainbow unicorn party and they had 2 horses to ride.  Anna Riley had so much fun!
She loves LG!! Can't believe she is already 5!!!
She is becoming a little pro on these
horse rides!  She loves it!


Sunday, after church Anna Riley went and laid in her floor and requested a nap! What?!  She slept in her dress and everything.  She took an almost 4 hour nap!  I had to go wake her.   She felt a little warm when she got up but played all evening and didn't seem to feel bad.  She still wouldn't take the dress off!  We played outside until bathtime.  After she went to bed, she woke up around 10 and had a 101.3 temp.  We went to the dr the next day since it never would go away, just get a little higher, and it ended up being just the "fever virus." 
Playing outside on Sunday night

So, the next couple of days we had to just lay low since she couldn't go anywhere because she was contagious.  Ava Kate enjoyed playing with her new toys from Christmas that I got out.
 
Laying in Mommy's bed with all her babies!
Finally feeling better!
Posted by Picasa

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Ava Kate- 7 months!

Ava Kate turned 7 months this week!  She is such a laid back, sweet baby!  I just want to bottle her up right now because she is at such a sweet age/stage.  This will be the "baby" stage I truly miss when there aren't anymore babies in my house!    Here is what Ava Kate is up to at 7 months old...
- She wears 6-9 month clothes but can wear a few 12 month things.  She wears a size 3 diaper.

-Her hair has lightened a little but is still brown for now.  She has big brown eyes.  She has the cutest rolls on her legs! She looks just like her Daddy when he was a baby. 

-She doesn't like for us to rock her anymore, she just wants to be laid right down. :(  Anna Riley went through this stage also and I know it is great for them but I do enjoy that special time. 

-She has always been a tummy sleeper since the beginning but now she wants to sleep on her side with her back against the bumper and holding her two bunnies.  Most of the time, she rolls over on her back at some point.

-She is a great sleeper!  When her teeth are hurting, I do have to go in a couple of times at night and give her the pacy but she goes right back to sleep.  She goes to bed at 7 and wakes up between 7 and 8.  She takes about an hour morning nap and a 2-3 hour afternoon nap.  She is so happy when she wakes up!! 

-She is a great eater!  So far, she has tried: oatmeal, sweet potatoes, bananas, cauliflower, avocados, peaches, carrots, peas, applesauce, yogurt, hummus and we have tried a couple actual baby foods (Fruit Medley and Hawaiian Delight...Mommy's favorites! :)

-She is on a great schedule but is pretty flexible unless she is just super tired. 

-Her hand/eye coordination is really good.  She loves playing with her pacy and takes it out and puts it back in.  She also loves grabbing EVERYTHING in sight! 

-She sits in the grocery cart like a big girl and loves it.  She is so good when we go places! 

-She is waves like she is waving bye bye a lot and recently she started folding her hands together like she is clapping.  Anna Riley has been trying to help teach her to wave and clap! :)

-She has also found her tongue!  She loves to stick out her tongue at us!

-Ava Kate has also become quite the spitter...she loves doing it especially when she has a mouth full of food! 


-Her reflux is getting a little better but she still spits up after she eats some.  We have cut down on the amount of bibs we are using but we still need...if not for the spit up, for the drool!

-She is NOT a great traveler! She hated that baby carseat! So, she has ARs carseat and AR got a new one. It is still rear-facing but it is much more comfortable and so far it has helped. She has never been great about falling asleep on the go but she has several times in the new seat.  We haven't went on a trip yet though!  I spent a lot of time between the captain seats on the last ride down to Fairhope!  I was very thankful for my big car after that trip!

-She is sitting up well.  She still gets off balance from time to time. 

-She loves the jumpy.  We have the kind that you hang from the door frame and she loves that thing!

-She still loves the exercauser but tries to jump in it, too. 

-She takes a bath with the bath ring now and loves grabbing all the toys.  Big sis is getting better at sharing the toys!
Posted by Picasa

Monday, May 7, 2012

Anna Riley

I haven't updated on Anna Riley lately and she is now 27 months (Riley says to stop saying months after 2...so 2 years and 3 months! :) She has really turned into quite the character the past couple of months. She keeps us laughing. I feel like she is really growing into a little girl!  Here are a few things about Anna Riley right now:

-She has learned how to make "silly faces" and so she makes them all. the. time!  I posted quite a few because they seriously crack me up.

-She loves to try to make Ava Kate laugh. She will say "Hey A. Kate!" over and over again and make her silly faces. And if she hears her crying, she goes to see about her.  She is a great Big Sister...most of the time!

I love listening to her talk to Ava Kate.  The other day the storms really scared Anna Riley and she thought it was the garbage truck and I explained it was thunder and so she was sitting by Ava Kate saying "That not garbage truck, that thunder... ok A.Kate"  

-She LOVES school!  She gets so excited when I tell her it is a school day!  She usually says "WOOHOO" or Yay! I go to school today!" :)  She is going to really miss it this summer but in the fall she will move up to 3 mornings a week.

-She is talking non stop now.  I understand most of it but that is just because I hear it all day!  Here are some of her favorite phrases right now:
-"You stay right there, I be right back"
-"Watch this, Mommy!"
-"Shhh, Be quiet!  (she has the whole finger on the lip down pat so I am guessing this came from school)  We have had to really talk to her about how she can't tell us to be quiet though.
-"No, No I do it" (the infamous toddler phrase!)
-"Come here Mommy, lay down! (This one you would just have to hear because it is so funny the way she says it.  She wants me to come lay on her like I am the baby and then she will just keep saying "come here, come here) and then she pats me on the back!  It cracks us up!
-"Hello in there" 
- She has started telling us she loves us (but still just on rare occasions) but she does say it sometimes.

-She has always loved her baby dolls but she really loves playing with them right now.  She is really getting into pretend play.  She usually sleeps with one or two of them and I can hear her in there talking to them and telling them to go nite nite!

-Speaking of pretend play, she is also mimicking a lot of what we do with her or Ava Kate.  I notice her rocking babies, feeding her babies in the high chair and the other day she pulled out a kitchen chair and put Elmo in it and said "TIME OUT, Elmo!"  and just kept telling him over and over he was in Time out!

-Speaking of time out!  Anna Riley's behavior has gotten somewhat better.  She still gets very frustrated if we don't understand what she is talking about.  She is also very impatient so that often leads to melt downs.  You can tell when she is tired, because like most kids, she starts having more meltdowns.  But she is getting a lot better at listening and obeying! 

-She is turning into such a girly girl.  I was this way when I was little so it doesn't surprise me that she is too. 
-While waiting to get our hair cut the other day, she noticed this sweet ladies shoes that had a big rhinestone on it and looked at her and said "hey, cute shoes!"

-She LOVES her hairbows!  The bigger the better!! True southern girl!  She wants to sleep in them but I try to get her not to because she will wake up in the middle of the night crying because she can't find her hairbow!! I am not kidding you!  I know it is my fault...I have put them on her since birth and I love that she loves them, but I have told her it is ok to not have them in sometimes!! 

-She likes for us to chase her and lay in the floor and tickle her and blow on her belly.
She will say " Tick me, Mommy"  "Blow my Belly!"

-She also doesn't like to get dirty. Well, I say this but if she is striped down to her diaper and she is dirty, she is ok with that. But if she has on shoes and dirt gets in there, she doesn't like that or if she spills water or anything on her clothes. 

-She loves to ride anything that will take her somewhere...golfcarts, 4 wheelers and horses are currently her favorites. 

-She is a great traveler.  She loves being on the go and really does great while traveling on our trips for the most part.  She begs to go sit in the car and watch tv in her carseat while we are at home!

-She still loves going to the doctor!  We had to go today actually, and she said "she listen to my heart, Mommy?"  She loves the stethoscope and playing doctor.  We always get compliments at the doctors office about how good she is but it is because she thinks it is playtime!  She loves it! 

-We did have to get a urine sample today to check for a UTI and she was such a big girl!  They had to put a bag on her to collect the urine since had a wet diaper, we didn't think she would be able to go on the potty.  So, I was telling her I was proud of her for being good and being still since the appointment took a long time and she didn't feel well and she said " yeah, im a good girl, Mommy!  High Five!  (turns out we had a little fever virus and no uti)

She wanted a pictures of her CP doll! :)

-She is learning so much everyday...she is a little sponge right now!
She knows most all of her colors (execpt orange and the stinker still wont say it!), She can count to 10 (most of the time), she knows several of her shapes, she can recognize a few of the letters (A, of course is her favorite).
-She loves to sing.  It is so funny to hear her try to sing songs since she still doesn't get all the words exactly right.  In a way, I am going to be a little sad when she can sing them the right way! :)
Look how tall she is getting!

-She is at a stage right now where she is scared of everything.  She really gets this from me because I can remember when I was little and even when I wasn't so little, being so scared or worrying about certain things.  I really hate she is like this too.  Right now, she is really scared of thunderstorms, any loud noises really unless you have explained to her what is about to happen and bugs (which can be anything that even resembles a bug).  And often, she has been scared of the shadows in her room.

-She is scared to go in our guest bathroom now also because she accidently turned on the vent fan and the loud noise scared her so she will not set foot in that bathroom now!
 
Posted by Picasa

Thursday, May 3, 2012

New Baby Sunday



Last Sunday was "New Baby Sunday" at Church where they recognize all the babies that were born that year.  Well, for some reason they didn't have it last year and they only do it during the 11 am service so we had a church FULL of babies.   We have a reception during the Sunday School hour and then we all go to the front for a little introduction during church and we were running out of room!  That is a wonderful thing though!  It was exciting because Duncan and Ava Kate were both up there together. 
  

They took our family picture and I was so happy that BOTH kids were looking...no smiles but hey, I'm ok with a blank stare as long as we aren't crying! haha We have had 3 decent family pictures in the last 2 months!  That is a huge improvement! 

We usually go to Mr. Doug's on Sunday nights, but we decided to eat lunch since we were getting out of church at lunch time.  (We all normally go to the early service)
Duncan and Ava Kate...The two "new babies"

Someone at church ask if they were twins when we
walked in together
All dressed in blue
Ava Kate taking care of Duncan! :)
I just love this picture
I love how AR is trying to put on Duncan's socks.
I don't think anyone was ready for this picture but it's
too cute!
Just a little better...Dunan and Pop Pop are making the
same face! :)
Posted by Picasa