Finally!

This is what I've been doing today... now I just have to take it down to the post office!

Blog-Hopper RAK

Okay, so most of you are probably wondering what in the world I'm talking about. Well... RAK stands for Random Act of Kindness, and it often involves a surprise package of goodies (particularly scrapbook goodies) sent to a random person. I received my RAK from Jamie in the mail on Saturday. I will sent a RAK to the first person to post a comment to this post. Then, when you receive the package, you will give away a RAK on your blog. Let's see how long we can keep this going!

In other news... Ryleigh started walking on Friday night. She is so much fun to watch, because whenever she falls down, she starts giggling! You can watch the video clips of her first steps here and here.

***Edited***
Congratulations to Debbee! Email me your address & I'll get this out to you.

Busy week...

It's been a busy week. I've been working on getting ready for company (my Grandparents & Ana are coming for a visit next week) & also putting finishing touches on my Hall of Fame layouts. I'm all done except for actually putting the entry together - which I'm told can be somewhat time-consuming. The contest deadline isn't until Feb 10th, but I'm hoping to get it in the mail by Jan 22nd. That's pretty optimistic, though, considering the week we ahead of us! ;-)

Jeff is taking Contemporary Missions, an Intersession class he has to take to complete his graduation requirements. Anyhow... the class always does a 3-day field study (touring different mission organizations in the Philadelphia area & studying about different missions strategies) - and Ryleigh & I are going along. I took this class four years ago & enjoyed it a lot... I think we're going to a lot of the same places.

When we get back on Wednesday, Jeff will be responsible for the annual "commissioning" service that our church always holds for Penn View's new representative groups. Bro. Plank is going to be away at a revival this week, so Jeff will also be in charge of Sunday services. I'm trying to help him put together some special things because it will be Sanctity of Human Life Sunday. I am a peer counselor at the local crisis pregnancy center, so I need to pick up some brochures & information packets as well as create a special bulletin insert. Anyhow... it's going to be a busy week, but I'll leave you with this picture of Ryleigh doing her usual thing - making a mess. Her new favorite thing to do is pull books off the bookshelf. She's already gotten in trouble several times for doing this!

Two Years

Yesterday, we celebrated our 2nd Anniversary. Can't believe that two years have flown by so fast. On one hand, it seems like yesterday, but on the other, it feels like a lifetime ago.

Still, they've been the happiest two years of my life!

1.4.07

Nothing exciting to post here... just some new pictures of Ryleigh.

This is what Ryleigh is doing while I'm sitting at the computer... she loves to walk all around my chair,

reach up & see if she can push the keys on the keyboard, try to get over to the computer so she can push the reboot button, etc., etc. Such a handful - I have to watch her all the time!

She's trying to imitate the things that we say. Some recognizable words that she uses consistently are "Daddy", "Mama", "Pooh" & "What's this?". The other day I was reading her a book & making the animal sounds that go along with it. When we came to the "moo" that the cow makes, she started "moooo-ing", too. In fact, she liked that sound so much that she mooooo-ed every time I would make every other animal sound! ;-)

Ryleigh really loves the doll that she got for Christmas. It's kind of funny, because she wasn't

really interested in playing with it when she first got it. In fact, it never even got taken out of the box &, unbeknownst to me, got left under the Christmas tree. A couple of days after Christmas, I was sitting on the couch & she crawled around to the other side of the tree and started saying "Oh! Oh!". At first, I

thought she was talking about the Christmas tree, but when I went over for a closer look, I saw that she had discovered the doll, still in its packaging. As soon as I got it out of the box & gave it to her, she

got a huge smile on her face & started rocking it back & forth!

Creative Scramble

For the past couple of days, I've been working on my Hall of Fame entry. The deadline is looming & I have all but seven out of ten layouts done. Right now I'm working on the mini book assignment & then I have two more "favorite" layouts left. I'm so pleased with my work, because I feel like it's my best work yet - but then I get discouraged when I think of the 2500 or more other entries I have to compete with. Jeff reminded me last night that he thinks that I'm THE BEST - such a sweet thing to say & I love him for it! I'd love to post pictures, but I can't since the contest requirements are "never before seen" layouts. So... it's a secret for now. All I can say is that I love, love, love them!

Christmas pictures... finally!

I've been meaning to post these for the past week, but it didn't get done for various reasons. First, I kept having issues with Blogger, then we were out of town for a couple of days, then too busy, etc.

Filling stockings on Christmas Eve

All is in readiness

A new Christmas Eve tradition - Cornish hens stuffed with Pineapple Ginger Rice

Opening stockings on Christmas morning

Opening the push toy from Nana & Papa