She's 2!

To borrow an over-used but entirely fitting credit card slogan:

-Mickey Mouse party supplies: $42.49

-cardboard "clubhouse": $27.63

-Coldstone ice cream cake: $38.95

-Having had the opportunity to spend the last 2 years getting to know the most funny, sweet, feisty, and adorable little girl we know: priceless

Happy Birthday, sweet Molly! When you are older you will never remember this day--the day you turned 2. You will never remember how much fun you had celebrating with your family and many friends. But we will. We will remember the smile on your face and the sound of your squeals. We will remember you opening up your present from us before the party even started--before Mom or Dad could get to you to salvage the wrapping job (oh well, you sure were excited to see that vacuum...waiting is a little overrated, isn't it? hee hee). We will remember how big you looked all of a sudden, your cute little "thank you", and how you put up both your index fingers while saying "2" to show us your new age.

Thank you, Molly, for these memories. They and you are worth every cent we spent...and more.

The cake:

The "clubhouse":

The crowd:

The games:

"Mickey Says" led by Dave. What a good sport Daddy was! And look at sweet Mols! She's doing it!

"Pin the bow on Minnie"

Party moments:

Before presents, Abby and Molly needed a little girl time. They snuck away from the craziness, and I found them here inside the "clubhouse"--all smiles.

Trying out the new, fuzzy, super soft pink backpack on wheels. She loves it!

Happy birthday to you...happy birthday to you...

Blow out the candle? I'd really rather not.

But I will eat cake! That's our girl!

Now some of the best for last:

Doesn't he just look like the perfect proud, protective boyfriend for our sweet girl someday?...(Let me rephrase that..."Someday a long, LONG time from now!") Love you, Carter!

But oops! Looks like our girl might have eyes (and kisses!) for more than one boy!

Potpourri Friday

Here are a few random "nuggets" from the past week or so. (I actually really despise that saying. My boss throws out the "nugget" line ALL the time, and it drives me CRAZY!) :)

Life has been busy as usual for the McMinnville-based Ryans. So you'd think with as busy as we've been that I'd have plenty to share with all of you, especially since I haven't posted for quite awhile! Sadly, no. I guess we've just been swamped with all of the normal day-to-day events. Work. Work has been a little extra crazy for both Dave and I. For Dave, he has taken on an increased workload in the past couple of weeks due to some of his job site superintendents being laid off. Eek! Nothing that you don't all know, but the home building industry is in serious dire straights right now! But thankfully Dave is actually enjoying the opportunity to get out in the field again and pick up a hammer from time to time; however he's still managing the waranty department, too, so he's adjusting to being busier than he had been. For me, it's crunch time right now at school as I've got to wrap up mid-year assessments in the next week so that I can fill out report cards. And don't laugh! Kindergarten report cards are serious business these days! The kids, well they're fun and full of energy as usual (and finally healthy)! Here are a few pics from the last week:

Here's our new "time-out" spot. Ha! Don't panic and call Child Services, I'm just kidding!

It has been really cold here this week, yet one night Grayson insisted on going outside in the dark to check on his sandbox. How could I say "no" to the boy when he already had his coat, hat, gloves, and headlamp on?! I mean he dug out his headlamp for goodness sake! And turns out that it was a scientific teachable moment, as he was quite amazed to discover a SOLID sheet of ice on top of the sand. Oh and good news! We found the 'Surf's Up' McDonald's toy that "we" had been agonizing over losing for months now. :)

Also this week, everyone at the Ryan house ramped up his/her exercise routine!

My next post will be for sweet Molly's birthday, which unbelievably is just 2 days away! My eyes literally tear up whenever I talk about it. I just don't know how it has already been 2 years! What an angel we have...

Meeska, Mooska...

Molly's turning two(ska)!

It's been decided. We are going with a Mickey Mouse birthday theme this year. After all, he and Minnie are the only 2 characters that Molly can identify with. Thank you, Disneyland!

Last night we got a little party practice as we helped our friend and neighbor, Nathan Lee, celebrate his first birthday at Scotty's Playhouse.

Two "takers" for cake! Molly, the seasoned pro and Nathan, a new sugar convert! M-m, good!

2 sweeties, destined to be friends.

For those of you out-of-towners, Scotty's Playhouse is a huge, new indoor play structure located at the Nazarene church here in Mac (less than a mile from our house). It was built in honor of a little boy whose life ended far too soon because of cancer. While it's housed at the Church on the Hill, it's totally free to the public, no "churchy" strings attached! That being said, what an awesome ministry! Anyway, I digress from my original point of this post. But I snapped a few shots of the structure to share, as I know I told some of you about over the Christmas holiday.

Tunnels, slides, nets, punching bags, the ball pit--it's all fun!

Brother and Sister

Other than my kids', the brother/sister relationship that I'm most familiar with is my own. Now granted, memories of my earliest years are a bit sketchy, but I'm fairly certain that my relationship with my brother NEVER looked like this:



Ha! Ha! (Jason knows that I love him now, but he, too, would admit that we did NOT get along growing up.) So that's why I'm relishing this brief moment in time (which hopefully we'll be able to measure in years rather than just days or months) when my two children absolutely adore one another. Grayson is a GREAT big brother and takes such good care of his li'l sis. Case in point- This morning the 2 of them woke up way too early (as they usually do on weekends). After briefly working together to build block towers in the bathroom of all places, the 2 comrads headed downstairs to wait for their still very sleepy mom and dad. When finally I could no longer stand not knowing what kind of mischief Miss Molly had gotten herself into (always a bad sign when it's too quiet), I came downstairs to find that Grayson had "prepared" breakfast for the 2 of them and was lovingly feeding his sister bites of Go-Gurt that he had squeezed into a bowl for her. (Molly cannot yet be trusted to eat Go-Gurts in the traditional way!)



The love fest continued later in the day when the 2 darlings set out to survey the neighborhood in their jeep.


An eager Molly waiting with Brother's shoes. A rare January afternoon without rain, and the troops were ancy to get outside!

Gotta love 'em!

Our Patient...Yet Again

Poor Molly has had a rough go of it lately. It seems that she just can't quite "kick" whatever it is that's ailing her. After today's trip to the doctor's office, her pediatrician is now treating her for RSV and an ear infection. Last month it was the H-flu virus and an ear infection. Before that, pneumonia. Please let this be the end of it for the season because I don't think that we can handle anymore additions to her treatment regimen. Between the nebulizer, the new inhaler, the oral steroids, and the antibiotic...it'll be a miracle if we remember what and when for the next 10 days!!!

The "List" (continued...)

Day 8: Sledding (half-check.)

On the day that we intended to check out the hills near the middle school in McCall, it was so blustery and cold outside that no one really cared to venture out into the frigid weather. No one, that is, except for Grayson, Ben, and the neighbor boy. They must have stayed outside for over 2 hours climbing up and down the small hill in Grandma Pearl's front yard!







Poor Molly missed out on all the outdoor action. That's okay though. We learned this trip that she's not so much a fan of the snow. Instead, she and Whitney snuggled for at least 2 hours. Good work, Whitney!




Day 9: Ice Skating (check.)

After the experience at the ski hill, I was pretty certain that Grayson would be no more enthused about skating. Still, he insisted that we must go. And to our surprise, he was a big fan!






Whoever thought of using those buckets is a genius!!!



Again, Miss Molly missed out on the action. Those size 5 feet have got to grow, sweet girl!