Rylan Takes on the Two's!

My little baby girl is no longer a baby. She moved up into the toddler world yesterday. It is really amazing how quickly she turned into this little toddler person. It seems like six months ago she was still just a little baby and now she is a big girl, determined to do EVERYTHING (putting on clothes, shoes, unwrapping food, going potty, opening and closing doors, buckling her car seat) by HERSELF! You get quite the earful from her if you try to help. 

Her personality is blooming as well. She is not in the least bit shy. She loves to make friends, she loves to show off for the camera and she is not afraid to talk to anyone who will listen. Especially if there is a phone involved. She loves her brother and insists on doing everything with him. Her favorite response to my questions such as: "do you want a popsicle?" or "do you want to play at the park?", etc... is "Parkee (Parker) too?"

Oh... and her giggle! I have never heard such a joyous little sound. She has such a fun giggle! And 90% of the time her giggling accompanies running around with her brother. Whatever mischief they are getting into, she is usually the give-away with that giggle. I want to bottle it up and save it forever!

Happy birthday to our little princess. She woke up Saturday morning asking to see "worsies" (horsies) so we thought and thought of a way to grant that birthday wish. Lucky for us, the fair is in town and what do they have at fairs? Horses!

 Rylan got to ride a pony, watch a riding competition, and pet and kiss all the 4H horses and mules. She was in Horsey Heaven! 

We love you Ry Ry and can't wait to watch you grow some more! But feel free to slow down... like I said with Parker's birthday post... my kids are growing up way too fast!

Four Years Old!

My little blue-eyed boy is now four years old. Sloooow down Mr! I can't believe how fast you're growing up! Should we look back on the past four years?

Here's Parker's first day at home. Getting a little too comfortable on Mom and Dad's bed... still his favorite place to sleep. Parker loves to cuddle when he is sleepy. And we have a hard time resisting his cuddles.

On his first birthday... still in Mom and Dad's hotel bed... hmmm. 

 On the day of his 2nd birthday party. Sweaty from running around at the park with his balloon and water gun. All a two year old needs in life.

 My little pirate last year at his 3rd birthday party. Such a little character. 

And this year at his fourth birthday party. He has grown so much from that first picture. And his personality has gotten bigger too. He is a caring and personable little boy. He loves people, really loves them and loves to meet new friends, play with good friends, take care of his little sister, and have a conversation with anyone willing to chat. I love having him around. 

On his actual birthday he got to spend some "Daddy Time" with Tyler in the morning, they went and got birthday donuts, got their hair cut, and did some other "manly" things. Then we went to a fun little water park with our friends. As if that wasn't enough fun... we went over to Grandma and Grandpa Milligan's for pizza and cake and then we raced off to the Rodeo (Parker is a big fan of the rodeo lately). It was a very busy day but I think he really enjoyed it.

Happy Birthday Sonny.... I have loved every single day I've shared with you. You are very special to your whole family and we love watching you grow up!

Gone Fishin'

Tyler has been really excited about taking the kids fishing lately, so on the 4th of July, after going to the awesome Parade with Grandma, Grandpa and Jake, we all went to the neighborhood pond for a little fishing. And to our great surprise, Parker and Rylan both caught their own first fish! We were all so excited, but I think Daddy was beaming! He was so proud of his kiddos for even having the interest and patience to sit with him. They loved it. Parker got to help cast and reel his little trout in and Rylan got to catch hers off the line in her Barbie fishing net (that she insisted we get her while in Cabela's). Grandma showed us how to stick a worm on the hook! And Uncle Jake took Rylan frolicking after butterflies with her net when she started to get bored. It was a fun little adventure. 

We finished up our 4th of July with Grandpa's famous BBQing and some big fireworks downtown. And the kids actually stayed awake for them this year! A great 4th of July for sure!

Ry Ry's 3 Phrases

Rylan currently has three phrases that sound very similar and at times, getting them confused makes for some funny moments. Here is the list:

1. Grandpa pronounced something like "Bompa" - easy enough to understand when she is talking to Grandpa directly but could be mistaken at other times.

2. Butt Bomb pronounced "Bombom"- The butt bomb, of course, is most frequently used when wrestling with Daddy and Parker, it is a signature Pooley move in wrestling where someone jumps and lands on another person with their butt. She most frequently lands her little toosh on someone else's head and yells out "Butt Bomb!"

3. Sponge Bob pronounced "unge bom"- We all know Sponge Bob, and even though I think Sponge Bob is one of the most annoying TV shows ever!!! I do let them watch it occasionally and she thinks it is pretty funny.

Anyway, the little girl is full of words and phrases these days. She says something new every day and it amazes me how one day, my baby just started talking, like a little adult. It's so fun to have conversations with her. And the best part is listening to Rylan and Parker play together. Parker can communicate his little imagination to her and now she contributes by adding in her two cents. They make up all kinds of fun games and I love to stand back and watch them in their own little world.

Rylan has also decided she is big enough to go potty on the potty. She has been very enthusiastic about it and basically all on her own account. The most entertaining part of this all is that Parker has taken it upon himself to be Rylan's Potty Training Coach. He cheers her on every time she goes, sings songs with her while she sits on the potty, helps me read her potty book to her and especially loves working the Pull-Ups iPhone App, because yes they do have an app for that as well. It is the same app I used to help Parker potty train not too long ago. I think he has some nostalgia every time we use it now :)

My kids are growing up way too fast. That seems to be how it goes at the end of my pregnancies, my older kids just seem to grow up over night. Can't they just stay my babies forever. I would like that very much.

Walla Walla, WA

Walla Walla, Washington

The kids and I decided to tag along on one of Tyler's appraisal trips over the weekend. We haven't been able to go with him lately because he has been traveling so far away so we were VERY excited to take a little mini vacation again. Parker was so excited that he packed his own suitcase, full of all the necessities such as his favorite stuffed animals Bunny and Jingle, a monster truck, a Nerf gun and a little school house. I had asked him all morning if he wanted to help me pack up his clothes but he was too distracted with other things. Then, right as we are about to load up, he walks out of his room with an additional suitcase and says, "Mom, I packed my suitcase!"

We were kind of surprised by how quaint and pretty Walla Walla is. We got there, took a little rest in the hotel, found a beautiful park to play in for a few hours, found a yummy Italian Restaurant for dinner, went back to the hotel for some swimming, watched the Blind Side (one of the greatest movies- I wish I was Sandra Bullock's character in that movie!!) and got some sleep. But not too much sleep because the sun came pouring in the windows at 6:30 am and woke our kiddos right up!! Then we drove all over the country side to take care of Tyler's appraisals. 

It was a very much needed break. Plus we really miss going on these little trips with Daddy!

Pioneer Park, the gorgeous park we found, was full of all kinds of different giant trees. It had a super fun play ground, a bird aviary- which we wandered around checking out all the cool birds, oh and Rylan lost her shoe so mom got to go on a little shoe hunt- and a fun gazebo. It was perfect weather for playing and we were all enjoying a little piece of Heaven on Earth that night! Here are some of the pictures we had to snag of our beautiful kids in the park.

Surprise, Surprise!

In life there are happy surprises and not-so-happy surprises... we've had our fair share of both lately but the happy surprises are quite happy, so now that we are finally catching up with our own life, we thought we would share them!

In February we were SURPRISED to find out we are expecting another baby!

Babies are happy surprises :)

We figured out the due date would be somewhere in late September, possibly early October.

Due to many scheduling conflicts between my doctor and I, we weren't able to have our first appointment until I was about 15 weeks along... 

At that first appointment we were also surprised to find out that I was actually a month farther along than we thought and we are having another....

GIRL!

Quite the first appointment!

I had Tyler come and we brought the kids along so they were able to see their baby sister in the ultrasound. Parker was amazed and ecstatic. I wasn't sure how he would feel now that he is actually old enough to understand what was going on. He loved seeing her move on the ultrasound screen and afterward he carried the pictures around talking about how he has a baby sister in his mommy's tummy. Now the pictures are hanging on the fridge and he will still point to her and ask me if I love that baby in my tummy. I'll say "Yep, I love that baby, just like I love you!" and he'll say "I love her too!"

He is already such a a great big brother to Rylan. These two little girls are very lucky to have him around.

I don't think my little Ry Pie knows what she has coming in a  few short months. She will not be the only little princess around the Pooley home! Right now she loves to point out babies, give my belly kisses and and play with her own baby dolls. I am very excited for her to have a sister because my sister is my best friend!

So my new due date is August 29... just 10 days after Rylan's 2nd Birthday. This may be the only time I hope that my baby will be late! I want there to be as much time in between the girl's birthdays as possible because I have a feeling they are going to have to share a lot of things in life!

And that is it for now. Hopefully we'll have more happy surprises ahead!

Here are some Easter pictures, just for fun!

In other news, my best friend and sister is getting married! I am so excited for her. Her fiancé Eric seems to fit into our family very well and I'm excited for them to experience all of the wonderful blessings of an eternal and happy marriage.

Aren't they cute?

Happy April

Wow, what has happened to the last few months? I wish I had some great excuse for why I haven't had any time to blog, but really I don't. Life is just busy. Here are some of the events that have taken place:

1. We went to Rexburg the beginning of March to welcome home Tyler's brother Jay from his mission in Brazil! It was very fun to see him and hear about the two years he spent teaching the Gospel in Brazil! Tyler is happy to have his brother back and Parker enjoyed getting to know his uncle again. Rylan wasn't so sure about Jay, but I'm sure she'll warm up to him soon.

2. Tyler went to Portland for almost two weeks for an appraisa

l class. We missed him SO much! The kids and I spent the two weeks with the stomach flu and pink eye :( So we were quite relieved to see Tyler walk through that door! In addition to his class, Tyler ran his first 5K up in Seattle with his brother and sister. I was so proud of him to be motivated enough to go for it. And they all did great!

3. Tyler and I had our 5 year anniversary!! I can't believe it has been five years. It has gone by so quickly yet I can't seem to remember life before him. We unfortunately did not get to do much celebrating because poor Tyler caught that awful stomach flu as soon as he got home from Portland. I will write more about our 5 years together once we actually get to celebrate!

4. I left Tyler and the kids alone for a whole wee

kend for the very first time! I think we were all a little nervous but Tyler and the kids survived the whole weekend while I went down to Salt Lake with my mom to visit my sister and go to conference. It was a fun trip and it sounds like the kids had so much fun with dad, they hardly even missed me.

So that's all for now... I do plan on posting more often, and hopefully with some exciting things to read about. For now, here are some pictures:

Welcome home Jay!

Ready to Ruuuun!

My kiddos on Valentine's day.

My Funny Valentine

Love.