2010

Wow.  What an amazing, miracle-filled, blessed blessed blessed year the Woody family has experienced.

An unprecedented amount of snow days in Bentonville, 9 total.  We enjoyed each one with Woody at home.

A forward facing car seat for a big girl!!

A walker!

A trip to the beach.

With a girl who did NOT like the sand...

but DID love the bubbles.

A LOT of baseball games.

The birth of a healthy, happy Jude Ryan.

Hanging out with friends.

Swimmin' in a little pool.

Smiles and giggles.

Loving, and a lot of it.

Family time

Kissin'!  And LOTS of it!

And more swimming!

Getting some quality Alex time.

A new play group!

Dancing.

More lovin'.

Exersaucer time.

A toddler bed!!!

Reading with the BFF, Millie.

Posing.

Flirting at the Corn Maze.

More smiling.

Perfecting her tractor-ing skills at the Corn Maze.

Bentonville Tiger Football Games.

A fun-filled Halloween.

Razorback Football.

Our first visit to the zoo.

Jude's first tastes of baby food.  Yumm-o!

Potty training time!!

First attempt at Christmas cookies, a successful one too!

And turning two!

What a wonderful, wonderful year it has been.  I am so excited to see what God has in store for us in 2011.  Surely lots more firsts, lots more loving, and lots of fun times had with family and friends.  Farewell 2010, we will always hold you dear in our hearts.

Last signs of Pregnancy

We all know how pregnancy effects our bodies...and continues for several months (or years for some) after the pregnancy has produced a sweet bundle of joy.  I think those last little effects are leaving my body.  First of all, the weight.  It's gone.  Funny, it's been gone for a while and I didn't seem to notice. I hopped on the scale one morning when Jude was 5 months old, and there was that old number again.  This is a great thing, especially since I didn't work at it (besides nursing and chasing the kids around).  Most of the parts of my body are back where they were previously... most of them. The others can always be surgically altered. :o)  The weirdest one though, is my nail beds.  There is a ridge on each one of my nails, fingers and toes, at exactly the same place on the nail bed.  They appeared after I had Jude, and now those ridges are at the tips of my fingers and are about to be cut off.  This is a little bit sad for me since I really loved being pregnant, and I know I won't ever be pregnant again.  Now that I've said that, I should qualify that by saying we have made all precautions to not let that happen again, although God may have different plans for us.

I loved being pregnant.  And although I am so happy that our family has been completed with Jude's birth, I'm a little sad that I won't be experiencing that amazing miracle again.  So farewell pregnancy-effected body, it was fun while it lasted.  Good ole pre-pregnancy body, nice to see you again.

Sweetest Words I've Ever Heard

Every night, I put Jude down and Woody puts Riley down.  I always tell her "Night night.  I love you."  Usually she says, "too".  But last night, without any kind of prompting on my part, she said "I love you."  That's the first time she has said those three words together.  I'm pretty sure my heart hasn't solidified from it melting at 8pm.

Two!!!

Two years, already.  My oh my how life has changed tremendously in two short years.  We celebrated Riley's birthday in true 2 year old fashion, with an Elmo birthday party of course!  Riley LOVES watching Elmo's world. So why not celebrate with little Elmo's all around us?

Her party was on December 12th, the weekend before her actual birth day.  Lucky for us, most of our friends were able to make it in spite of the party being in the middle of the holiday season.  Jude got very dressed up for her.

Kellen got to come too!  Riley really really likes playing with Kellen, whom she calls "K". I don't know how she came up with that, but it stuck.  She says his name all the way to play group every Tuesday.  She even snuck a couple of kisses to him (when daddy's weren't looking of course).

Elmo!!  I made the cake, a lovely carrot cake that Riley didn't eat because this girl still doesn't like cake.  This might be from her first birthday party when she threw it all up.  My mom, Riley's Nonna decorated the cake, she did a fantastic job.  He was a hit.

Macy got to come too!  Riley hadn't seen her in a long time, so they were a little bashful at first, but fell into step pretty quickly.

Sarah really liked sporting her Elmo hat, maybe not so much, but enough for a cute picture!

Our new friend Brayden got to come too!  Jude, who is excited to have another boy his age to play with at play group, was pretty jealous of his awesome Razorback outfit.

Somehow, we did not get a picture of Riley's BFF Millie.  :(  But we did get a picture of Millie's mom (Aunt B) greeting Elmo. :)  We also neglected to get a picture of Elisa, Mallory, and Sutton.  :(  Sometimes I think I should hire someone to take pictures at these events so I make sure to get good pictures, since I am busy with other things throughout the party.  But then I remember that I am a stay at home mom and I don't have the cash for that.

Nonna and Poppi got Riley this birthday outfit.  Riley loved it, calling it her TuTu.  The party was SO much fun.  We had great company, and pretty good food too!  I love any reason to get lots of friends together, but a party for my little girl makes it a fabulous time!

Riley, you have made the past 2 years the most fun 2 years I've ever had.  You learn something new everyday!  Your vocabulary has taken off and it's so fun to hear your cute voice communicate even the simplest of desires.  You are speaking in little sentences right now.  You can tell me what you want (fruit snacks mostly), and what you want to do.  You can also ask for help when you need it.  You love Jude so much.  You play with him, tickle him, and help him learn his body parts by touching them, although you do stick to the nose and head mostly.  You share your things so well with Jude and your friends.  Your soft heart becomes more evident everyday.  We knew you would be a great big sister, but you have exceeded our expectations.  You are also a great helper.  You love to cook, clean, and help with all other kinds of housework.  You and Daddy pray together every night.  We know you are going to be a girl after God's heart and we praise Him for that.  I am still in awe that He gave you to me to love, nurture, and raise.  I truly do not deserve such a precious life.  I love you more than words can explain.  Happy birthday Riley Grace.

The Lion Says...

We were in Little Rock for the 7A Football State Championship during the first weekend of December.  Go Tigers (who won!).  On Saturday, we took the kids to the zoo.  We thought Riley might like to see the animals and hear them make the sounds we always tell her about.  The first thing we saw were the gorillas.  We pointed them out to Riley and she said "Oooh, Rocks!!"  Great.  We spend money to go see the animals and she wants to look at rocks.  Go figure.

Here we are at the duck pond.  The bars were so far apart that Riley could have easily slipped through them and into the pond.  I stood over her like an over-grown shadow the whole time. 

Woody held Jude in our Snugli. This contraption has been worth its weight in uranium.  It stays in the Tahoe so it's right there whenever we need it.  Jude enjoyed himself tremendously.

Farmer Riley, the cutest farmer I've ever seen.  This was in the kids' land area.

The farmer and the dell?  I'm not a dell.  What is a dell anyway?

Jude didn't want to look through the hole because the sun was so bright. 

This would have been SO cute if Riley would have been looking up, or forward.

Background shot of the last pose.

Mary, or Ellen.  We learned they are sisters.  Riley wasn't too impressed.  They didn't make the sounds we tell her about.

We brought Riley's big stroller, and she might have spent 1/3 of her time there.  The zoo was not at all busy, so we let her run around most of the time.  At least the stroller carried our stuff!

She loved the giraffes.  This one was eating some grass.  It doesn't look comfortable when they have to splay their legs out to get down to the ground.

Jaguars.  The zoo has the right idea about toys.  These animals had a bowling pin, a box, and an empty keg.  Maybe I should take a whisk, some rubbermaid bowls, and an empty shampoo bottle and throw them to Jude and Riley as toys.  That would make a fun Christmas. 

Beautiful and majestic.  I love lions.  They didn't roar for us either.  NONE of the animals made the sounds we hoped.  Maybe we should go back in the spring?  Are animals more fiesty in the spring and less so in the winter?

Riley really loved riding on Woody's shoulders.  And with Jude on his chest, he was much like the bus/teacher/sting ray in Finding Nemo.  He even sang a little for them. 

We strategically planned this trip for morning time so she wouldn't miss her nap.  We weren't even to I-630 before she was asleep.  For those of you not familiar with Little Rock, it might be a half mile from the zoo to 630.  Even though she wasn't extremely intrigued or interested in the animals, I would consider our first trip to the zoo a success.  Both kids behaved so well.  Riley ran and played and did see some animals she liked.  It makes me look forward to a time when both kids really appreciate what a zoo is and want to go.