We've Moved!

I'm excited to announce that we have a new site for you to visit. Moving forward all of our posts will be available at www.thegardnersgrow.com. Eventually all the posts from this site will be transferred over, but in the meantime I hope you enjoy the new site! It's a work in progress but I think it will be better than ever! Thanks for following us :)

My Life, My Love

It was a beautiful day in a pecan grove in Phoenix, 2 years ago to this date, that I married the most amazing person I know. He is my best friend and the best daddy there could ever be. He also always has a trick or two up his sleeve. This weekend was no different.

I expected our anniversary weekend to be full of PJ wearing, pizza eating, movie watching laziness, but much to my surprise, I ended up with a gourmet meal prepared for me by a personal chef.

At around 4:30 yesterday I was hanging on the couch in my pajamas, sleepy as anything and starving. Rylie usually goes to bed around 7 or so and that's when I expected Harris would start making our anniversary pizza. He kept trying to convince me to get out of my pajamas and make myself presentable for my pizza... "c'mon Mary, at least make an effort for our Anniversary."

So I took a shower, got dressed, and then we gave Rylie a bath. She got really sleepy and ended up going to bed at 6:00. So I ran downstairs and urged Harris to start my pizza. He took his sweet time, telling me that the dough was too cold, the grill needed time to get to temperature, whatever. Any excuse to slow the process. But he eventually couldn't make any more excuses and had to get that pizza on the grill...I guess we were running a bit ahead of schedule.

I sat on the couch patiently waiting for my pizza and eating cheez-its when the doorbell rang. We don't typically answer the door but Harris went straight for it. He walked in the kitchen with 2 strangers and my heart immediately dropped. I thought he had hired some strangers to babysit our little girl so we could go out. I really had no clue what was going on.

They introduced themselves and told me they would be making me dinner. Huh? What? They laid a menu on the counter and Harris poured some wine and we watched them make us one of the best meals I ever ate.

I don't know what I ever did to deserve all of this but I hope I stay on the right path cause I seriously have the best life ever.

Oh, and now we have a whole leftover pizza to eat for dinner tonight! SCORE!

I love you always husband. OK, OK, enough public mushiness. I know how much you hate it :)

Fun in the bath

Veteran's Day Thanks

Thank you to my dad, my hero and all of those who have served or are currently serving in the military to fight for our freedom.

Me and my dad

It's been too long...

Let's start this post out on a happy note...

All ready for school momma...

I can't believe it's been nearly 2 weeks since my last post. I've heard rumors that some have called me a slacker..uh hmm...you know who you are. Well I'm here to tell you, this momma is EXHAUSTED. Worn out. Beat. I don't know how working moms keep up with their blogs but this woman just can't do it.

Rylie turned 4 months old on November 2. She also contracted her first horrible cold that day from her boyfriend at school. I know, I told her no boyfriends til she gets older, but kids just don't listen. This little boy comes to school every day with a nose full of green snot and I can just see the germs leaping from his face on to hers as he rocks her in her chair and pets her legs. OK, this is getting a little risqué.

The boogies only added to the misery we had already been experiencing at night after bringing Rylie home from school. For 2 weeks Rylie just couldn't tolerate anything after school and her screaming for hours on end was wearing us down. It seems she has settled with her new schedule and is finally happy when she gets home, but the boogers still flow.

Lately we've had few good nights of sleep and a number of really bad nights. Sometimes I'm so scared that she can't breathe that I sleep in her room with the snot sucker close at hand.

So we visited Dr. Hartsook for Rylies 4 month checkup and learned that Rylie is 13.8 lbs and 25". He cleared us to give her rice cereal but we really struggle with getting her to eat it. I thought she would like it but just not really know how to eat it, but she really just shows no interest. During her visit with the Dr. she got 2 shots and an oral vaccine. The next night was pure hell.

Rylie always wakes up in the middle of the night but NEVER cries, she usually grunts and rolls around until I wake up, but this particular night she just cried and cried. I took her temp and it was 100.2. We called the triage nurse around 2 a.m. after hours of her just sobbing. We were able to get her temperature down and no trips to the emergency room were necessary, thank goodness.

It's been rough, but I am thankful that Rylie's overall health is really good. I am amazed by her every day.

At 4 months Rylie...

• Loves to use her legs to stand up (I swear she will walk before she crawls, or even rolls over for that matter. She is so strong)
• Is not a big fan of tummy time but is getting better at it
• Has lots of friends at school
• Enjoys reading books with mommy and daddy
• Watches too much Yo Gabba Gabba
• Got a new bouncy chair and bumbo, she loves them both
• Knows how to do raspberries with her mouth
• Made a hand turkey at school
• Made daddy a birthday card with her hands that said "Best Daddy Hands Down"