My Masterpiece

While watching TV, I looked over and noticed Ry had fallen asleep in the cutest way. She was slightly backlit from the window which gave me a great opportunity to work with natural light and capture her in such a tender way. I loaded the image into photoshop, cropped it, and gave it an artistic texture (I forget which one I used). I just love this picture. I think I might need to get it framed.

I love my baby girl! She's my masterpiece.

Note: Edited to add - if you're looking at this on the blog and click on the picture you can see it full size. =)

Lavender Farm in Kula

We needed an outing to do today because it was a little boring at home. It was too windy to go to the beach or play in the pool and I have a hard time chasing Ry by myself at the park (she likes to climb!). So we went to the Ali'i Kula Lavender Farm. It was a gorgeous day for it. Nice low clouds on Haleakala and no direct sun. Nice and cool for a great walk around the farm! Ry got to smell lots of different kinds of lavender and also chased around some bugs. We finished the afternoon with some lavender lemonade and a chocolate lavender brownie.

I think she had too much fun though cause she threw a major fit in the parking lot on the way back to the car. Hopefully it tuckered her out nicely. It was a really fun afternoon. She did NOT want to sit on the statues lap though! That was pretty funny. Look at that pouty face!

Ryenne Loves Poke

Saying "Aloha" to the Castillo's

Last night was the whole gang's get together to say goodbye to BJ who is leaving for Arizona next week. The rest of the family will come in the summer. They bought a beautiful home in Casa Grande, Arizona and we are so proud of them!

The Ericksons

We had a great dinner with Phil, Dencia, and Matthew last week. It was really great visiting with them while they were on vacation from California. Me and Denicia had fun talking about our babies on the way and Ryenne and Matthew became great friends!

Slide!

P-2 Update

Well I think pretty soon I'm going to have to change the name of the blog to "Ryenne & P-2" as we don't know if Pepper Two is a boy or a girl.

Haven't posted much about the pregnancy because it's just going by really fast and Ryenne keeps me on my toes! My belly is definitely popping and it feels like I'm carrying around a mini-watermelon. Sleeping is already becoming challenging because I am a tummy sleeper!

Ry knows where P-2 is and touches my tummy and says "Baby in Mommy" or "Mommy cooking baby". It's very, very cute!

I'm about 18 weeks right now. I'll be in the 3rd trimester when we move to Austin, but I'm so thrilled that I'll get to give birth the way that I want to. I was really bummed thinking I had to give birth at Maui Memorial. I've made contact with a birthing center in Austin and will meet with the midwives when I get there. Should I need a C-Section, there are two hospitals only minutes away from the center. EXCITING!

I got some new shorts from Motherhood Maternity. They have this thing called "Secret Fit Belly" and it's genius! Since I have such a flat butt most maternity stuff sags off my booty. But these stay up! YAHOO! And they'll be super comfy after baby comes too.

Girl name is 100% picked. Boy name is 90% picked. I think it's a girl though. I had a dream that I had three girls - Ryenne Alicia Grace, Marisol Sophia, and Emme Isabel. So we'll see!

The Perfect Schedule

We're on day three of the perfect schedule. Ryenne has never adhered to any kind of schedule and the past few days have been like heaven!

She's been sleeping through from 9:30pm to about 7 or 7:30am. No crazy fight before bed... just TIRED and goes down (in my bed of course). This leaves me time for a little tv time, or clean up time, or whatever and I've been going to sleep around 11pm so I can get a full 8 hours.

Then, she's been going down for a nap around 12:30pm and SLEEPING TWO HOURS! I've gotten in some pretty awesome naps too!

Oh man I hope this schedule keeps up. I LOVE it!

Letting Her Hair Down

More from Reno

Back in Reno

We've had a nice couple days in Reno with Mom and Dad. We spent some time with Grammie and Grampy and also visited the wild horses. They were VERY interested in checking Ryenne out.

Ry had a blast getting all dusty and dirty in Mom and Dad's yard. You're not having REAL fun unless you're getting dirty! haha

We're Moving to Austin!

Well... we found our dreamhouse. Or I should say that I found it and told Peter I wanted it. Hahaha

After driving all around Austin (to all the places I could afford anyway), I found a neighborhood I fell in love with. It's in South Austin about 20 minutes outside of town. It's called Olympic Heights and all the streets are named after olympic athletes. Anyway, the neighborhood is about 2 years old and they just closed out the neighborhood. So we checked out some resale homes. The neighborhood has a swimming pool, a toddler pool, open green spaces, and a playground. It has great sidewalks and you can really see the sense of pride that the homeowners have. All the yards are so pretty!

So here's the house I fell in love with. We put in an offer and it was accepted today! We close in mid-June and should move over in July. Peter might be coming earlier to start working.

I am so excited and nervous all at the same time! What a huge leap for us.

Cameron Park Zoo!

We drove to Waco to meet with Amber, Bobby, and Skyler - friends on my internet mommy's board. It was so cool! After getting lost and being totally late, we met with them at the gate and although it was our first time meeting in person, it felt like I've known her forever!

The girls are instant friends and enjoyed the zoo so much. Wasn't too impressed with what I saw of Waco though...

Back in Reno and have the internet!

Our hotel's internet went down for a few days so I wanted to get these pictures up!

Ry and Stuff

So in addition to playing in the fountains last night, we started the day with a trip out to Del Valle. We visited KB Homes and the houses were gorgeous. But on the way out we noticed that the scenery had changed to a little "ghetto" and there weren't any stores or shopping nearby. I was blown away by the homes, but the neighborhood was already about 2 years old and I could tell already that some people weren't tending to their yards and there was some parking on the street. When we went to the playground and pool, a guy was putting graffiti on the kids playscape!

So on we went... My cousin Brette gave us some resale homes to drive by and as we were driving around, I saw a neighborhood that I wanted to go check out. As we drove through, we could tell it was a couple years old already because the trees were larger and the homes were immaculate. It was like driving through Pleasantville!

We learned that the subdivision is sold out (all except one lot) so we started looking into resale possibilities. I was excited to see several signs and we're going to look at those today. The community has a pool, clubhouse, kids playscape, and open green areas. It's just lovely and it has one of the best kids elementary schools nearby. DOUBLE COOL!

Ry is being an amazing, good girl. She's having so much fun and it's great that she gets to bond with her Pops a bit. As I'm typing, he's got her outside checking out birds and stuff. So cool.

Water Fountain Fun

There is this awesome park near down-town that has jumping fountains. It is SO MUCH FUN! It was about 80 degrees and Ryenne and her cousins had so much fun running around. At first the fountain scared her when it jumped up and then she was so into it.

More House Pictures

Here's another few pictures of houses.

We went to my cousin Brette's house for dinner and it was lots of fun. I think it's been about 15 years since I've seen Brette and Erin. I got to meet their husbands and kids and it was fun!!