Rylee's 1st Haircut

There were a few things I was hoping to accomplish prior to Rylee's birthday. . . . one of which was to get her first haircut! She's almost 3 and hadn't had an official cut (I did clip a few bangs several months ago, but I was too chicken to do more).  She had a serious mullet going on and then combine that with the way her hair grows (two cowlicks at her crown pushing it all forward) it was getting too long in front to not pull back all the time which was causing a lot of breakage. . . . . it was time.

 

A gal in our ward does hair and I promised Michael the next time I was getting a cut I'd take her with me for her own.  I warned her I might cry.

 She shortened up the mullet making it look a lot thicker. She didn't cut off all the curl (or perhaps she'll keep some??) and gave her a few swoopy bangs.  She got a treat for doing so well. She has a little bit of a bald spot from breakage so I'm trying to not pull it back so much and let it grow in. I'm also trying to cut the elastics out and not let her sleep in them as much.

 She did get a little impatient when it was time to round brush/style.

 I so badly want her to have long thick hair I can play with but I just need to give it more time. I'm embracing thin and fine for now :) 

 

 After she was finished I held her up to the mirror to see it and she gave the cutest little smile! The gal that cut it said "Do you look your Momma?" Rylee nodded and beamed the cutest slightly shy smile and leaned her head against mine. melt. my. heart.

Twiners it is then.

"Gym-stics"

We purchased a groupon a while back for a Mommy-and-me Gymnastics class (or as Rylee calls it "gym-stics").  We finished up the session a couple weeks ago and we had so much fun! Rylee asks about it all the time.  She'll show me something and say "look Momma, like gym-stics" She loved to do the spiderman (hanging by her hands and feet on the bar - like the upper right picture), walk the beam, ride the car-coaster and jump in the ball pit at the end of each lesson.  I was a little surprised by her strength in the length of time she could hold herself up.  And her balance was pretty good. She would "ta-da" with the biggest smile!

They had three stations and we'd rotate through items in each a few times and then move on. She had to walk with her hands behind her back from station to station and follow her "line leader". She looked so "official".

Climbing the ladder, "ta-da" hands up, jump and FREEZE.  Then hanging like a monkey.

posing after her first lesson.

in the ball pit.

We're both sad its over. . . . .I wouldn't complain if it came up on groupon again :)

Dallas

Since we were in the city, we decided to see what our friends the Harris's were up to.  We both got eye exams from our favorite optomitrist. We spent Friday afternoon at the Dallas Arboretum.  It reminded me a lot of Thanksgiving Point.  Lots of flower gardens, paths and grass. They had a couple cute play areas for kids. One had a little village with these old houses, a school, hospital etc.  Rylee was preteneding to be Rapunzel in the tower and was "letting down her hair"

 Rylee really liked the little "waterfalls" - though I didn't get any pictures.

 The gardens line the bank of a lake.  It was really pretty to see downtown Dallas across the water. (again no picture).

It was actually kind of cold. I forget how 5 hours north can make a difference in temperatures.  But the sun came out for the rest of the weekend and it was great.

 

Apparently I didn't take any pictures of our hosts or her growing pregnant belly. Though, if I had it would have been a photo of the backs of our heads and the ever shifting Settler's of Catan board. While we played games, Rylee had a blast in their playroom (the doll houses were her favorite) and nearly unlimited movie watching. Kelsey napped :)  Maybe that means we'll get to meet up again (perhaps to see their baby??).

Cowboy Staduim

 

Last week Michael's brother was attending and presenting at a conference in Dallas and had some free time Thursday afternoon/evening so we decided to take the 5+ hr drive to spend some time with him.

 

We're very blessed that the girls do so great in the car. I was a bit surprised that Rylee didn't fall asleep at all on the way up. Here she is sharing her snack with Dolly. 

 After we got into town we decided we'd take a tour of Cowboy Stadium.  Its a pretty amazing building.

 We learned all sorts of interesting facts about the Cowboy's, the stadium, the gigantic TV, and Jerry Jones in general.

 They were getting ready for a motor-cross event over the weekend so the actual "field" was rolled up and stored inside.

 This is the box where Jerry himself sits for all the events. 

 Rylee was obsessed with her uncle.  She refused to hold anyone else's hand and if he left the room she didn't stop asking questions about him.  (She did occationally call him Uncle Shaun, and then more frequently would state "That's NOT Uncle Shaun". . . . .we had just talked to him for his birthday)

 We got to see another suite- those glass panels can be removed and they slide down a track and stored in a closet in the wall.  Pretty nifty. I thought it was funny that the rooms are leased - not purchased. I don't remember the exact number of "standing room only" tickets the stadium can sell for each event but it was insane. Though I'm pretty sure that's the only way we'd stand a chance to actually be inside the stadium for an event.

 Then it was off to the locker rooms. First the cheerleaders, then the players.

This is where the players enter the field.  Of course there's a giant star, the floor is lit up and then fans seated in certain sections can come and cheer the team on as they enter the field.  Apparently most other arenas the players enter at the endzones. . . . not here.  The visitors side also has cowboy fans line their walkway. . . . though they are separated by plexi glass.  lol.

If the field had been out we could have gone out and played around out there, which would have been cool, but oh well. Maybe another time.

After the tour we grabbed a bite to eat and headed back to his brother's hotel since we were going to bunk with him for the evening.  I was reminded quickly as to how annoying it is to share a room with our children.  It took a long time for them to fall asleep and then they were up several times in the night.  Around 5:30 Rylee asked if we could go home. . . . . I was this close to taking her to the car.

That morning we leasurely packed up and headed our separate ways.  It was nice to be able to visit for a little bit since we don't get to see each other often.  Thanks for inviting us up!

Steps

Baby girl is growing up!  She took her first steps in December {sometime?} and has been slowly taking more and more.
(its been really interesting to me seeing how my girls learn/embrace these baby milestones differently)

Over the past two weeks I'd catch Kelsey being brave and taking a few steps on her own.  Without any cooersion. And it seems each day she is slowly adding more little wabbly, wide steps.  With her hands out either to help balance, or catch her if she falls.  She's still at a point where crawling is faster.  I feel like any day she'll just decided to make the switch and embrace walking entirely.  We'll see.

In typical "walk to me" fashion, Dad and I would sit across from one another encouraging Kelsey to walk back and forth between us. Getting really excited when she succeeded. Then Rylee, not letting anyone else have too much attention, would jump in "My turn!" She would completely mimic everything Kelsey did (or didn't do?) down to laughing and being to weak to stand up and trying really hard to make it look like she couldn't hold her balance, taking small steps. But then our 'excitement' when she reached the other side seamed a bit anti-climatic. Too funny. 

Big Lou's

Everything's bigger in Texas.

 

even the pizza.

 

This weekend we went to Big Lou's Pizza - their "specialty" is a 42" pizza.  You read that correctly:  fourty-two inces.  Its huge.  Don't worry, we went with friends :)

I've been wanting to try it for a while. The pizza was good (admittedly not the best I've ever had) but it was fun.  Though, its certainly not the place to go if you're in a hurry:  You get in line to order, then get in line again to be seated.  Once your party has been seated, THEN they bake the pizza.  I personally liked the extra time to chat with friends without feeling like I was taking up our servers section. Again, its not a place we'd eat at regularly but we had a great, tasty time.