One year ago today...

we said hello to Ryleigh Brooke for the first time (please excuse the picture that includes a very tired new mommy that had just come through 18+ hours of labor).

Wow! She has changed so much in what seems like such a short time. She has totally changed our lives & brought so much joy & happiness into our home. I also realize that the baby stage is pretty much over for us. Ryleigh is becoming more mobile & more independent every day. I'll catch her walking all by herself from room to room instead of crawling or hanging on to the wall. She is full of life, full of giggles & is always on the go. Her vocabulary is growing all the time & words that she has been saying for a while are becoming clearer & more easily recognizable. Happy Birthday, Ryleigh!

We're planning to have a small party for her next week when I get back from Florida. Oh, that's right -- I guess I haven't mentioned that Ryleigh & I are flying to Florida tomorrow so we can see Papi & Nana Burch, Grandpa Stratton & Uncle Jon. My parents & Jeff's dad all were going to be at Hobe Sound Camp & since they haven't seen Ryleigh in months, we decided that Ryleigh & I should go down for a few days to be with them. I really don't want to go without Jeff, but it's not really a good time for him to leave, so I'll be going by myself. The last couple of days, though, he says that he's just going to keep Ryleigh here with him (yeah, that tells you who's more important to him! ;-) j/k!).

Oh, & by the way, I should at least try to explain that the reason I haven't blogged in such a long time is that we've been SO busy! Last weekend (Wed - Sunday), our church hosted our annual Central PA Youth Convention & I had a house full of teenagers. Also, it seemed like we were running non-stop throughout, trying to make sure that everything went smoothly. And, since this is Jeff's last week at work (long story for another post), his boss hosted a farewell party up at his cabin on Monday night. On Tuesday, I met with a lady from our church that just got saved, for the first of several one-on-one Bible studies. Then, later that afternoon, I had errands to run & shopping to get ready for my trip to FL. Wednesday ended up being my literal crash day, as I ended up sick in bed. So...there's my excuse for not blogging. ;-) Okay, I've spent enough time sitting at the computer -- I have to start packing!

Just a couple of my latest layouts that (miracle of miracles) I managed to still work on despite the crazy schedule we've been keeping of late. I'm still not sure if I'm completely satisfied with the top one. It took me forever to finish it because it just didn't seem come together the way I wanted it to. Anyhow....