Caroline's photos

We recently had a photographer friend, David Shirk, take Caroline's pictures. They turned out so great! You can check them out here. Just enter your e-mail address, and then the password "unplug" (all lower case). Enjoy!

Cookies and Dancing...

Debbie Cox invited the Sunday School gals over to her house to teach us how to decorate some fabulous Christmas cookies. Stephanie and I had a blast learning from the baking master! These were some very labor-intensive cookies. No break and bake here! None of that gel-like icing in a tube with some sprinkles on top! We are talking homemade icing in icing bags. They turned out so great, I didn't want to eat them! Philip, however, had no problem doing so. I am looking forward to more baking lessons from Debbie! If you've ever had her cooking, then you understand.

We recently purchased Dance Dance Revolutions for the Wii, and the Allums came over to play this week. Sadly, both Casey and Philip were better than Stephanie and me. :( Who knew I was married to a man who can dance? OK, really he can't dance; we've discovered that DDR isn't anything like the real thing. It is a bit of a workout, though! We are just starting to leave behind the beginner level and move onto basic. (OK, Philip is... I am stuck on beginner.) I can't even imagine the difficult and expert levels! We have accidentally started a round or two in the expert level, and we can't even begin to do it. I don't know how the twelve year olds in the mall play this game! It's fun to try, though!

How is it that Casey looks so normal in all of these photos. and Philip looks like a dancing maniac? :)

Four months

My baby girl was four months old yesterday. We had her pediatrician appointment today, which went well. She got her vaccinations, screamed for a second, and then zonked out in the car. She was sleeping so soundly that I was able to go to Michael's and Publix without her waking up! She now weighs 11 lbs 13.5 oz, which is about the 20th percentile. She is 24.25" long, which is about the 50th percentile. She is pretty much sticking to her growth curves! She is still such a petite little thing. She started wearing 3-6 month clothes at Thanksgiving, and is still in size 1 diapers. I'm glad we're in the 3-6 month sizes, because we have a ton of them! :)

Fauxhawk

Caroline's Auntie Erin gave her a bath last night, and she apparently decided that my sweet little baby needed a more exciting hairdo. Rock it, baby girl!

Thanksgiving

We had a great time with my family at Thanksgiving. My parents recently moved to Pell City, which is about an hour away from us. We love having them so close! We had a good time together eating (of course), playing Wii, and hanging out by the lake. I managed to get everyone together for a family pic, which is a feat in and of itself. My college suitemates Bethany and Liz came for a visit on Saturday, along with Liz's husband Shawn and daughter Ava. Ava is six weeks older than Caroline, and we want them to grow up being buddies! And it goes without saying (though I will type it anyway) that we enjoyed the game on Saturday. Roll Tide!

My bro Rob and his youngest, Anna

Our nephew Joshua

Our niece Laura Beth

After this photo session, I picked Caroline up and quickly realized that Matt's (very large) dog had recently peed in this pile of leaves. :(

Caroline and Ava

My brother Matt with Tonka~~~~~~~~Roll Tide!

I've been tagged...twice!

The first one comes from Stephanie ... I'm supposed to post the fourth picture from the fourth file on my computer. It's of my niece Anna Grace when she was about 4 months old...she was such a chubby cutie!

And here is a photo of her from Thanksgiving at Mimi and Pop's house last week...still such a cutie!

And the second tagging comes from Shelley (a little over a month ago, but better late than never!). I am suppossed to name six things that make me happy. Here they are (in no particular order):

1. Hearing Caroline laugh at her Daddy.

2. Reading my friends' blogs!

3. Eating all of the delicious fall foods...pecan pie and pumpkin fudge! Yum!

4. Getting mail (obviously not bills or junk mail, but the real deal). Yesterday I got a postcard mailed by my college suitemate Erin from Spain! :)

5. Mornings with Caroline...waking up to her cooing, and then nursing her while enjoying a cup of coffee.

6. Taking a nap on a rainy afternoon ... our back porch roof is right outside of our bedroom window, and it is so soothing to listen to the rain beating down on it.

She's quite the talker...

How cute is that?

Hello to all the faithful that continue to check my blog despite the sparsity of the posts. :) Let me update you on what's been going on in our lives...

Caroline is growing and changing too quickly! Slow down, baby girl! She started laughing this past week, first only at Philip, but I eventually got her too as well. The only thing that has made her laugh so far is beat boxing. It reminds me of that episode of Friends where Emma will only laugh at Baby Got Back! Oh, well. It's cute nonetheless. I've yet to capture it on video, but hopefully will one day soon.

She absolutely loves her exersaucer. This girl likes to sit up where she can see what is going on. She also likes her vibrating rain forest bouncy seat, but doesn't like her swing! What baby doesn't like a swing? Now, she'll sleep REALLY well in her swing, but she has to be already swaddled and asleep before you put her in it. Otherwise, she just fusses right away. And she doesn't like her car seat, either. She MAY sit in it when it's on a grocery cart at the store, but I usually end up having to take her out by the end of the trip. She's mostly OK if you are moving, but that means you have to shop without stopping. Plan out your grocery list in the order that the items appear on the shelf! Keep moving! Hope no one gets in the way! Especially those people who seem to have all day to consider the many types of cereal available, or if they want two cans of soup or three. And then there is the meltdown at the checkout counter. Thankfully the employees at Publix are very gracious, and will often unload my buggy for me while I hold her. They actually recognize her now! I thought that the upside of the pumpkin seat was that you could leave them in it and tote them around more easily. I should just bite the bullet and put her in the Bjorn when we shop!

Here's Callie in her Halloween costume. What a cute punkin'!

And here are Caroline and Auntie Erin enjoying a football Saturday. Caroline is mesmerized by anything on TV, especially colorful, action-packed football games.

This is the only nap she has even taken not swaddled or in someone's arms, and it lasted all of 20 minutes. Cute, though! I've never seen her asleep without looking like a cocoon! All of the grandparents call it her straight jacket, and want us to stop with all the swaddling. :) If they want to come hold her for all of her naps and all night, go right ahead! I am just thankful that I have a baby that sleeps through the night (usually)!

Pensacola Trip

Life here in the Ryle household continues! Caroline is finally gaining weight; she was 10 pounds at almost 10 weeks old when we were at the pediatrician last week. Her cheeks are getting chubbier by the day! We have now discovered she has a dairy sensitivity, so no more dairy for mommy. I am not going to complain, however, because she is pretty much sleeping through the night every night now. She goes down about 8:00 pm or so. I wake her to feed her one more time around 10:30 pm, and then it is straight back to bed. She then sleeps until 6:00 or 7:00 am. This has been going on for a week or two, and I am loving it!

We visited Philip's family in Pensacola this weekend and had a lot of fun introducing Callie to friends and family. Philip's best friend from high school, Jonathan, recently moved from KY to Gulf Shores, and he and his family came over to the Ryles' house on Saturday to visit. We got to meet their youngest child, Levi, for the first time, and see their older two kiddos all grown up. Philip, his dad, Jonathan, and Josiah had fun playing football in the front yard whild Kai cheered them on. Then everyone headed home, and we watched the Bama game (of course). Caroline wore her adorable elephant outfit that her Nana got for her. Roll Tide!

Two months

Wow, how the time flies! Our baby girl was two months old yesterday. We are having more fun with her everyday, watching her expressions and seeing her little personality develop. Let me be the first to say, I think we have a little Philip on our hands. She is looking (and acting) more like him everyday. :) She's definitely her daddy's girl!

The picture below is set as the background on my laptop. It makes me laugh out loud whenever I see it. She actually gives me this look a lot; she is too funny!

FIREPROOF

Tonight, Fireproof premieres in theaters. It stars Kirk Cameron and the lovely Erin Bethea (my college suitemate). By the same group that made Facing the Giants, it's about a struggling marriage between firefighter Caleb and his wife Catherine. They are on the brink of divorce, and he learns how to "rescue her heart" and try to win her back. Go support it on its opening weekend!

She's smiling!

Caroline started smiling at us this past weekend...it melts my heart! Now I get more than just blank stares when I talk to her. After awhile, though, the pouty lip comes out!

I know it has been awhile since my last post. We've had quite a few experiences, so let me try to catch you up. Three weeks ago, we ended up in the ER at Children's (along with about 7 or 8 handcuffed young teens...still not sure what they were doing there) because Caroline had been throwing up all afternoon and was refusing to eat. There was something concerning on her x-ray, so then we were sent to have an upper GI done a couple of days later. She did great during the procedure; she loved the bottle of barium, and then she slept through the series of x-rays. It turned out that there was no blockage, but we did discover that she has acid reflux. Now she is on medication, and it's like she's a different baby! She is so much more pleasant and content now. We had no clue that she had reflux, because she never did (and still doesn't) spit up hardly at all. Also, she is finally catching up in the weight gain department. She was just back to her birth weight (6lb 13 oz) at 3 1/2 weeks, which was concerning, but she is making up for lost time now that her tummy isn't hurting. She gained 14 oz two weeks ago and 10 oz this past week! The beginnings of fat rolls are forming on her thighs, and her cheeks are getting fuller. :) So even though the whole fiasco was frightening, I am thankful it happened!

Ryle family visits

A month ago, Philip's family came up to visit. It was a fun weekend, with lots of Wii playing, and fishing in our neighborhood lake (who knew there were fish in there?), and of course a lot of eating! Oh, and cuddling the baby. :)

And a lot of football viewing ... It was the weekend of the first Bama game, and Caroline got all dressed up for the occasion. Roll Tide!

We're so glad the Daniel and Natalia could come up from Miami to meet Caroline!

Uncle Daniel and baby Callie

Daniel and Natalia decked out for the game

Family Visit

This past weekend my brothers, sister-in-law, nieces, and nephew all came to visit with us and meet their new niece/cousin. It was a very short visit, but packed with a lot of activity. There was plenty of Wii playing, of course! It's always fun to watch other people hula hoop on the Wii Fit. And Uncle Matt gave Joshua a BB gun; we all enjoyed watching the guys target practice in the back yard (while trying to keep the poodles and 17 month old Anna out of the line of fire). Thanks for coming to visit, family! We enjoyed the rare chance to all be together!

Anna, Laura Beth, Joshua, and Caroline ... all four grandkids together for the first time!

Philip, Laura Beth, Matt, and Rob playing doubles in tennis.

Like mother, like daughter ... Michelle and Laura Beth playing soccer on the Wii Fit.

Uncle Matt getting some snuggle time with his niece.

Joshua and Laura Beth holding Caroline for the first time.