Weekend by the Sea...

Sea World that is! We were San Antonio bound this past Thursday evening with the Splitt family. Kipp's sister, Robyn, and her hubby, Derrick, & 2 girls, Bethany & Tori, came to visit from Nebraska and soak up some of this Texas sun!

Here's the girls the first night at our house. Since Kella has a queen size bed, we thought the girls could try sleeping together, so we laid them side-ways in her bed and the three fit perfectly! See how Kella is all smiles to have company join her.

We didn't actually think they would make it through the night, but after about 30 min. Kipp went in to check & this is what he found... each one was quiet.sleeping.peaceful.ahhhhhhhhh!!!!! (notice Tori & Bethany's ADORABLE pillowcases I made for them for Christmas... what!what!) Kipp worked almost a full day on Thursday, we loaded our car for an evening drive to have plenty of time Friday, Saturday & Sunday in SA!

We put all 3 of the girls in the 3rd row.... this seemed like such a good & fun (for them) idea in the beginning.... The what-should've-been-4 1/2 hour-trip-took-6, but HEY, who's counting? We made it to our hotel sometime just before midnight, got settled and headed out to Sea World Friday morning.

Here we are waiting for our first ride....we couldn't start the day with anything other than the Shamu Express!!! Kella thought this would be "scary", but I assured her it wouldn't. I reminded her of the "Dragon Wagon" she rode a few weeks earlier and how she was a rock star, but she insisted, "yeah, this is scary!" She made it through and was proud to look back at her accomplishment the rest of the day!

Tori & Bethany getting cooled off after the coaster.

I didn't ever think I would be "that person" that dressed my kids alike, but I have to admit... I think it's adorable (now that it's my own, of course!) Robyn brought Kella a matching cover-up & Grandma Dottie was nice enough to buy them all crocs with matching rhinestone butterfly's (although T & B preferred flip-flops in this pic)!

The Streff's

The Splitt's

Ya know those gi-normous boat rides that come plummeting down a 50 story+ hill and splash enough water on on-lookers to water a small village.... well...this is it! The little ones could not get enough of it. Kella would come across so brave , but as soon as the boat picked up some speed, she bolted from the fence! We would ask if she wanted to ride and her typical response was, "no, not right now!" You can't really tell from the picture, but that's a wave over every one's head, not clouds!

Finally.... SHAMU!!!!

Ryan was, once again, such a trooper. She giggled and squirmed watching the ''big girls'' and you could tell she wished she was right there getting in on the action! Bethany was such a mother hen to her, it was really sweet to watch.

As we made our way to the penguin exhibit the girls got their picture made with this life-size, or adult sized penguin (pic is on Derrick's camera) and luckily it was time for his/her break as we made our way onto the conveyor belt (think airport moving walk-path), Kella was so excited to get the penguin all to herself!

Ryan & Kella in their matching swimsuits.... I'm telling you, this having two girls thing is going to get me in trouble!

Another show we watched was "Azul", think Cirque De So lei meets Sea World water acts. It was hysterical, beautiful, really just amazing. I loved it! This is sort of a weird picture, but the beluga whale is pushing one of the acrobats underwater while he stands on his nose.

There were divers during most of the show and one of my favorite things.... wait for it.... synchronized swimming! I am truly amazed by this! How.in.the.world do they do it??!! One of the cool things about this show was the open-sided tank. You could actually see the swimmers, divers, whales, dolphins, etc. underwater! Also, part of the act was trained parrots that flew over the crowd. They flew so close that everyone was ducking... not sure if that was intentional, but exciting nonetheless! One got really close to Robyn, probably too close if you asked her! If you're heading to Sea World this summer... this is a definite must see!

Okay... this pic is priceless! We HAD to purchase if from the photo booth kiosk. Kella had already ridden this ride with me earlier in the day and wasn't too happy by the end of it... but Kipp wanted his turn and, pretty much made her ride it again, with him. Tori, on the other hand, well, the pic speaks for itself on how she was feeling! I told her that if she wasn't good the rest of the trip, THIS would be this year's Christmas card!!! Sorry T, even though you got a copy, I had to post it!

So, with a 7 month, 3, 4 and 8 year old in tow, we made it through the park for 2 full days. We stayed right on the Riverwalk, so dinner & evenings were spent having dinner and taking a gondola ride. We slowly made our way back to Dallas on Sunday and the Splitt's headed back to Nebraska on Monday morning.

Me & my punkin' enjoying dinner at Hard Rock on the Riverwalk!

Let a girl be a girl

Again.... it's been a little busy around here, so my blogging has taken a backseat to all the fun summer activities...
Here's are little one enjoying a game of checkers at Cracker Barrel...

Kella has gotten on a princess kick a little more than usual these past few weeks. I am in the market of increasing her "dress-up" closet and refuse to pay retail (as I do about most things!) for these dresses...this purple number came from our sweet friend Kiley. Kella's had it for about a year and a half and is just now really interested. I have also quickly learned that being a 3 year old with friends that come to visit requires me to buy several of a popular item, aka dress-up dresses, bikes/tri-cycles, bubble blowers, crazy wigs on headbands, etc.

On this particular day, Kella had worn her dress from the time she got up until we went to dinner, now that I think about it, she probably slept in it the night before, oh well, she wanted to wear it to dinner and since Kipp had let her wear it to the Dr.'s office a few days before I thought, what the heck! Does it really matter?!?! Let a girl be a girl! If I were being honest, I would LOVE to wear a princess dress & crown to dinner too!!!!

Weekend with Poppo & Grandma Dottie

We were lucky to have Grandma Dottie & Poppo come stay with us over Memorial Day weekend! We went lots of places, ate lots of food and had amazing weather.



On Saturday, Uncle Bran's horse was running again in OKC. Since Kipp's mom grew up in Ft. Smith and her 2 sister's with their families still live there, they made the trip over to enjoy the ponies as well!
Cash also turned 1 this weekend and he made it out for the big race as well!



Not the best pic of Jazz, but I didn't want to use the flash.




Ryan & Cash checking each other out the next morning at breakfast.



We went to Poppo's and Kella's favorite place for dinner on Monday night, BABE'S!!! Kella got to show off her hokey pokey skills (again) and we checked out the trains next door before it got dark.

Right before we left a 'real' train came by, Kipp & Kella ran over to get a closer look! Because so many trains go through Sallisaw, Kella has really grown to love them. She even loves to point out tracks when we're driving, train or no train. So this was a big treat to see one so close. She'll be talkin' about this one for awhile!

Gettin' in a little more play time before the sun goes down.

6 & 7 mo.

Miss Ryan is now.....well, 7 mo. I see now that I never posted her 6 mo. updates. Her visit showed all normal development, she's pretty average for weight and head circumference, but she's off the charts for height (smile!)

We've started some baby foods, working our way through all the green veggies before moving on to color. We started with peas. Here she is sitting in her high-chair for the first time. We are still working on sitting up by herself, so she leans a little in the big chair. She made the funniest faces. We are only doing one feeding and only a few bites, it's mainly for practice at this point, not calories. All she wants to do is smile, so we are working on getting the mouth open enough for me to get a spoon in. Thankfully it doesn't take much for her to laugh and I can sneak one in!

As I'm writing this, I should note her horrible, horrible case of diaper rash we've been battling since last week. She had diarrhea for more than 3 days strait, resulting in this horrific rash, to the point of bleeding... it was awful! I just couldn't get the poo to stop, so how do you heal the rash when it just keeps coming....???...it was very frustrating, but mostly sad. She was miserable. We were changing dirty diapers every 30 min to an hour at some points, but would slack off when she slept. So for 3 days, at night and for naps she would sleep without a diaper so her bottom could breath. I found a wonderful site, where a mom of ten, that's right 10 kids, posts all sorts of remedies of what to use and what doesn't work. I took her advice since she's been changing diapers for approx 21 years (her words) and knows a thing or two about diaper rash. We followed her advice and Ryan is now in recovery, still getting super lubed up after every change since she's still having about 5-8 dirty diapers a day, but getting better. We think she might be teething, since this is her only symptom, no fever, not fussy, not unusually tired, she's just poopin... a lot! We've been to the pedi and were given a script for a food-based medicine (Cesinex) and are on the BRAT diet, skipping the toast of course! This threw off our green veggie's, but she loves the banana & applesauce. Hopefully we will get back to normal by next week!

Other updates, we did a blood test to check her levels for a possible auto-immune disorder like Kella's and all results came back normal!!!! Yeah, for this! This is a test they do anyway at 9 mo. but we did it at her 6 mo. visit because of Kella's history. Her visits to the chiropractor are starting to slowly taper off. She considers her head to be "fixed" and is just cosmetic now. We are spacing visits to make sure her head doesn't rotate back, which it did last week from not getting adjusted over the weekend. She has made tremendous progress and I'm very happy with the results. No helmet, no special glasses, no painful procedures. I'm so thankful to Dr. Shelton!

Gettin' a taste at Taste of Addison

Kella's last day of "school" was last Tuesday....this only sparks the question of "what to do...what to do..." Last summer we got involved in a weekly playgroup which I'm wanting to get going for this summer too. With all of our "new" friends from school, etc., it would be a sad summer to not get to see them until August, sooooo let the planning begin!

Here she is before heading out on her last day....

Taste of Addison is a yearly destination for us. Tons of food, concerts and, of course, all the rides! Kella got a taste of adrenaline when she was 2 at the fair and I think she's hooked! (Thankfully!) She spotted the mini-coaster right away and HAD to take a ride. Kipp usually can't do these with her because of his head issues, literally, he's had one to many blows to the noggin' in football and anything that spins or goes in a circle wipes him out for the rest of the day. Needless to say, momma ALWAYS gets to ride the carousel!!! But this time, when a roller coaster is involved, excuse me "Dragon Wagon" to be exact, he was all for it!

Kella was adorable! She's kind of notorious for her HIGH.PITCHED.SCREAM. this time was no different...

coming down the first hill.... she even held both hands in the air... such a dare devil!

This is the first time she's been able to ride these by herself! It was a big moment for her (and us!)

She's still doing this thing where she tries not to smile by sticking her tongue in her cheek. Just smile, already crazy girl!!!