Little Miss Sunshine

Ryley is taking a ballet/tap combo class. She loves it and she loves to dance. I think it's so funny to watch her. As a mom I'm proud of her no more what!! Regardless of whether she is good at the sport or how she does...mom will always be her number one fan. Dad may disagree but why do NFL players always say Hi to their moms? We are trying to teach Ryley that she can do anything she puts her mind to. We tell her that practice makes perfect (as perfect as one can do, we don't believe that anyone or anything is perfect besides God). Ryley is at that hard stage. She gets frustrated very easily when she can't do something. So as long as she enjoys all the activities she's doing we'll continue them. Dance is helping with her frustration. She has to listen, pay attention, repeat, try, and practice over and over until she gets it.

Practicing her tap.

Ballet

Ready here we go...

Dancing...oh my little Olive.

Practice...



Here are a couple of videos of Ryley's practice...Our...Little Miss Sunshine!

Golf Ball

I picked Ryley up from pre-school and was told that she had fallen and hurt her forehead. Poor thing wanted her mommy and kept saying it over and over. The one thing that struck me as odd is the fact that Ryley didn't put her hands out to stop herself from falling. She just went face/head down. I thought it was a natural instinct to put your hands out to catch the fall? Well...it may be but not Ryley. She ended up with a huge welt...golf ball size on her forehead. This is one of the biggest cherries I have seen on one of my children. Besides the deep gash on Kaitlin's leg that required stitches. I will be saying sorry forever!

Look at the size of that thing!

She still smiling...

My dirty faced child. She kept closing her eyes...EVERYTHING hurts her when you've got an aaweeee :))

BALL

Ryley is on a TEAM! Finally! She's been asking to be on a team. We signed her up for the Yucaipa Biddy Ball Basketball team. To our surprise she loves it! Her first day of stretching she didn't participate. She sat there and looked at everyone else. They called her name and told her what team she would be on and she didn't even want to walk over to the team. Daddy encouraged her and by the end of the evening she was having so much fun she didn't want to go home when practice was over. We'll see how the season goes.

Our Biddy Baller

She shoot and she scores!!

Ryley and her friend Grace.


Having a blast...until she got hit in the face with the ball. She told me she wanted to go home while she was gasping for a breath while crying. It's heart breaking but after talking to her we made our way back to the court:)


She shoots and she scores!

I did it!!!

It's been a while

It's been a while since I lasted blogged. You may be wondering why? Well...I'm addicted to Facebook and Dave's been busy. If your not familiar with facebook I'm insisting you check it out. You'll either love it or hate it. Most people I know become addicts. It's a great way to keep in touch with your entire family. You always know what's going on and what your friends and family are up to.

I can't help but to keep thinking about our economy and all the tragedy around us. I keep trying to think positive but it's so hard to do it when you know it will be a long time before things turn around. Listening to the news is almost depressing when you hear how many people are losing their jobs daily. On top of people losing their jobs you get people who don't think that there's another way to deal with things other than murdering their families and killing themselves. This is not the answer! I truly believe that if there's ever been a time to develop a relationship with your God then this is it. I'm glad we have our beliefs, it helps comfort me at times like these.

Yesterday morning there was a horrific accident on one of our freeways. A driver on the freeway was driving the wrong way he hit another driver head on. That other driver was a police officer Sgt. Curtis Massey who lost his life on his way to work...Sgt. Massey leaves his wife and three small children behind. I don't know this man or his family. This tragedy simply hits home. It hits homes because it's another reminder of just how precious life is. It can be taken from us at any given moment. I pray that the Massey family finds comfort and strength in their beliefs. Things like this and my own experiences teach me not to take life for granted.

Two hours

The day after Christmas we all went out to Big Bear for a White Christmas. Our general 50 minute to an hour drive took us 2 hours!! Not only because there were a million people making their way up the mountain, but because we had to put chains on our tires to drive up (the chains isn't what took long). You can only drive about 30 miles per hour with chains on. It's so fast to put the chains on...so fast that we stopped and asked ourselves did we do it right? (We knew we had, but it's that fast with cables). There were sooooo many people/cars pulled off to the side of the road putting their chains on and asking us for help, or if they should be putting the chains on the front or back of their tires. We even saw a car that was a 4X4 with chains on all four tires!!! These are the people you see skidding off the road and getting into accidents. The ones who don't know what their doing! LOL!!!! It was an experience that's for sure!

We knew it had snowed a lot but we really didn't imagine what we were about to see. The snow was about 4 feet high. I can only imagine what it would have been like if the neighbors didn't plow the snow in front of the cabin. Even with their help, my sister Isabel had to shovel the snow and make a path leading to the door. We had a great time. We went to dinner with the family. Watched movies and ate a lot. Our brother-in-law Danny tried snowboarding for the first time! He did such a great job!

Snow chains...cables...so easy to put on.

Big Bear!

Mr. Snowman

The path to the front door...

The view from the front door.

Piled high!

Dave shoveling.

Look how high the snow is...you can see Ryley on the right.

Happy Holidays!

Our Christmas this year was one of the best! Why? Our 4 year old is old enough to really understand and ask questions about Santa. The look on both of their faces were priceless. So eager, full of joy and happiness. It was so much fun preparing for the big day. We read the book a Christmas Story so many times before bedtime and throughout the day. We really tried teaching our girls that Christmas is not only about receiving but also about giving. We tried teaching them (especially Ryley) that we should be grateful and are very blessed for what we have. We taught them about Baby Jesus' birth. We made Jesus a birthday cake as well.

We made our traditional Christmas cookies, a gingerbread house, and we can't forget about the tamale party! All the fun holiday/family traditions we wait for all year have come and gone. All the hard work that goes into the holidays are surely worth it! Every year is so much more special with the little ones.

We had lots of fun with family and the girls enjoyed playing with their cousins. We had a pre-Christmas celebration with Tyler and Kaitlin, so we got to open up some gifts early! SCORE! We were blessed to have my mother and both of my sister's and their families come stay with us over the holidays. My sisters really wanted to be here when the girls woke up to see that Santa had arrived! We hosted Christmas Day at our home. It was a lot of work but everything turned out just right. We enjoyed our family stopping by and spending time with us.

Our sweet little princess! She's already into dressing up!! We think itcause Ryley dresses up almost everyday! Kai wants to do everything her sister does.

Isabel using her muscles and mixing the masa for the tamales.

Ryley making snow with Uncle James and Auntie Brooke.

Ryley and Kaitlin working on the gingerbread house.

MMMMM Christmas Eve dinner!

Santa made it!

Santa left Ryley a note!!! Ryley was so surprised by the note...so was mom!

Kai got the hang of it QUICK!

How can you look this good when you wake up?

Ryley squealing! It was a My Little Pony Christmas! Ryley got My Little Pony...EvErYtHiNg!


The best gift!!!! Thanks for everything David!!!!