Fun with Cousins

I love that we live close to my cousins...and that we have kiddos close in age! We love to get them together to play and the older that Rylie gets the more fun our little play dates become! :)

My mom babysat Tatum and Rylie the other day, so they had some fun outside with the water toys.




We had this crazy amazing weather today (like highs in the 70s!) so Amy, my mom, and I decided to take the kiddos to the zoo (Amy also is watching her sister's little guy, Cayden).

Amazing! They are looking at the camera at the same time! :)






They loved the 2 baby calves that were born a few weeks ago.


Rylie loved the goats...though her and Cayden called them dogs...actually every animal that moved was a dog. :)

Water Fun!

My mom bought Rylie this really fun sprinkler for her birthday party, but there was a lot of older kids at the party so Rylie was a little overwhelmed and didn't really get to play in the sprinkler. Well, she got to play with it yesterday! I got to my mom's house after work and Rylie was having the time of her life in the backyard! :) She played longer with this sprinkler than any other toy...ever! Looks like months of water fun are in her future!


(Don't you love the outfit! :)...nothing better than a heavy, soaking wet diaper!)

Rylie Walks!

Rylie just decided yesterday that she was interested in walking. We have been coaxing her and bribing her for a little while and she has taken numerous steps, but yesterday it was all her. She would just stand up in the middle of the room and take a few steps here and there so last night we got to catch a little bit on video. Guess this brings a whole new world to the Juarez house!

Gotta love technology! Here is Rylie showing Gammie in California how she walks (I know the video is a little rough, but I thought it was so cute!)

Mother's Day 2011

We got to do a little more this year for Mother's Day (last year was a week after my C-section, so I couldn't really do that much). Brandon surprised me a little early with my gift (a new white Iphone!) because he had to activate it at the time of purchase and I tried to use my old phone and obviously it didn't work...so he had to give me the new one before I got on the phone to Verizon to see why my phone had suddenly stopped working. :) The morning of Mother's Day, him and Rylie gave me a shirt. We then headed to meet my parents at the zoo. My dad has not been to the zoo in about 20 years and my mom got a zoo pass for Mother's Day. We had a blast! It was not too hot yet and was actually not very croweded.









Showing Grandpa all of the fun stuff at the zoo :)




After the zoo, we picked up Paradise Bakery for lunch and then hung out at my parent's house swimming and relaxing before going to church that evening. It was really the perfect Mother's Day! Very relaxing and spending time with the people that I love the most! :) Not much more I could ask for!

This was before I decided if I actually wanted to get in the pool (it was pretty cold still!)...Rylie decided that I should get in because she did...and what kind of mom would I be if I put my child in water so cold that I wouldn't even get in it! :)

Rylie at 1 year

So this is about one week overdue, but our little peanut turned 1 on May 2! I know it is completely cliche, but wholly cow! Where did the last year go?! Here is what she has been up to lately:

*She weighs 19 lbs. 7oz (25%) and is 29.75" long (75%). Her head is still off the charts :) She has definitely slowed down in the weight department, but how could she not with a crawl that fast?! :)

*She has started to get way more vocal and now will say bubble, dog (her favorite word), bye, Mama, Dada, And-ma (Grandma), hi (to everyone I pass in Target, the grocery store...pretty much everywhere), hot dog (and tries to say hot diggity dog-thank you Mickey Mouse Clubhouse), and she has this little phrase that she says all of the time that I swear sounds exactly like "What's this?"! The other times are spent talking in Ryliese. :)

*Her favorite things in the world right now are books, bubbles, and Micky Mouse Clubhouse. She also loves the little fake bread pieces from her grocery cart. Why the bread? I have no idea...she just always has one of the pieces in her hand and one in her mouth. :) She also loves her Hokey Pokey Elmo, her Cozy Coupe, and her grocery cart.

*She weaned herself off of baby food...just stopped eating it when she got really sick and never seemed to want it again. That being said, she is not exactly the easiest child to feed. We haven't seemed to find very many foods that she likes. She literally would live on strawberries, watermelon and crackers if I let her (don't worry...I'm not). :)

*No more formula!!!! (We are just a little excited about this fact if you can't tell). She has no signs of a milk allergy anymore, so bring on the dairy!

*She has taken a few steps here and there but doesn't really have that much interest in walking. She did take 9 steps to my cousin Amy at the gym one day, but that has yet to have been repeated. Though she can crawl at the speed of light!

*She is super easy to put to sleep (I know, knock on wood, right?) and will sleep from about 7:30-8:00pm to 6:30-7:00am. She is actually starting to nap better (I know, knock on wood again) and has recently taken a few 2 hour naps (!) though her normal seems to be about 2 one hour naps a day (not great, but way better than those 30 minute ones she was on for so long!).

*She gives kisses whenever you ask and sometimes even when you don't. :)

*She is now riding in her brand new, fancy-smancy, forward facing car seat and thinks she is pretty hot stuff. She has also discovered that car rides are way more fun with her cds playing...much to Daddy's dismay (you can only take so much of "Wheels on the Bus" and "Row, Row, Row your boat). :)

The following is how we spent Rylie's 1st Birthday day:

The morning started off at swim lessons. Normally we go on Fridays, but I had some make-ups to do so we got to go swimming on her birthday!







She got to pick a present out of the birthday chest at the gym :)


Telling Grandma all about her Cozy Coupe :)


Frozen yogurt time! She did figure out very quickly that she loved it and proceeded to eat quite a bit.


This is actually the next day at her 1 year Dr.'s appointment. She loves the fish tank in the lobby.


My little trooper after getting 3 shots :(

Gotta Love Her...

I mean, how could you not? :)