16 Months

Where is time going?! Ryleigh is growing up too fast! Can I just hit the pause button? She is in such a fun stage right now that we wish we could just relive these days. Every day she brings a smile to our face and makes us laugh. It just amazes me at the things she catches on to. Guess we don't realize that she is actually watching and taking in every little thing we do. Ryleigh loves to be the center of attention...she has to have someone looking at her that she can make laugh. If Jarred and I are having a conversation, she has to make some kind of noises or scream or something to get our attention to her...then she just smiles or laughs.
She is saying more words and really trying to talk more. She minds really well. If we ask her to do something to help us, she pretty much knows what we are asking of her and wants to help. It's really cute.
She knows where her eyes, ears, nose, mouth, cheeks, hair, head, fingers, toes and, her favorite, belly are. If we ask where her belly is, she lifts her shirt and points to her belly and grins. Then she tries to lift our shirt to look at our bellies. haha Something about belly and belly button that amuses her.

Sheriff's Academy

Since transferring from Child Protection to Juvenile Probation and Parole, Jarred has to go through the Sheriff's Academy. He started last Friday and it will run for 12 weeks. It is at the North Louisiana Criminal Justice Academy, which is past Benton in Plain Dealing (an hour's drive from our house). Jarred wakes up at 5:00am and leaves the house by 6:00am. Some evenings Ryleigh and I don't see him until after 6:30pm. So it makes for a long day for him and he is exhausted when he gets home. It is tough for him not to see Ryleigh as much, but he is enjoying all that he has learned and got to do so far. The first day was pretty rough as the instructors were trying to rattle everyone, but he has settled in and is looking forward to the next few months. Yesterday he became chemical weapons certified - he had to breathe in gas and get chemical weapons sprayed! I called it pepper spray, but it was 10 times worse than pepper spray. Once they sprayed them with this chemical, they had to complete an obstacle course while they can't see and their eye feels like it's on fire. They also each had to breathe in gas and be able to say certain things before "passing". Jarred did both with flying colors, but he did say he does not wish either of those on anyone! There are many tests and such along the way! Once he passes his final state P.O.S.T. test, he will be P.O.S.T. certified and graduate on April 8th.
Please pray that these next 11 weeks go by fast as Ryleigh and I miss not seeing Jarred as much. We'll keep you all updated on the interesting things that he has to go through! We will definitely all need a vacation after this! :)

Haircut

Ryleigh got her first "haircut" tonight. The baby mullet has had to go for some time now! Hopefully her hair on the top of her head will finally catch up! :) It was quite a task trying to cut her hair while she would not sit still. But I think I managed to do an okay job for the first time!

ROLL TIDE ROLL!

We cheered Bama on to it's 13th National Title Thursday night. Rance, Elissa and Kadyn came over to help us cheer on the Tide. Some of the game wasn't pretty and it got close at one point, but they were able to pull it off and win. We were all excited and couldn't believe that Bama has returned to the top in such a short amount of time with Saban. It was a late night as Jarred and I stayed up watching the post-game and highlights. We finally got to bed about 1:30am, but it was worth it! :)

Snow Bunny

As I have said time and time again, Ryleigh LOVES being outside. Even when it is cold outside, she would rather freeze and be out there than be inside! One evening last week when it wasn't quite as cold out, we bundled her up so we could get a little exercise. We bundled her up so much that she could hardly move. But she looked cute and enjoyed being outside for a few minutes.

Ryleigh's Room....Rearranged

So with all of Ryleigh's new Christmas presents we figured it was time to rearrange her room to make sense of all the madness. With her new kitchen, toys and toy chest coming in, it was sadly time to move her glider and ottoman out. Ryleigh's room now has a stuffed animal corner that she loves running and falling in to. My brother made her a toy chest for Christmas, which looks awesome by the way and I was completely surprised about, so we had to make room for it too. Not to mention her book corner with her chair and her kitchen that she loves! We have yet to stain her toy chest, but until we do so it still looks great in her room! Everything seemed to fit quite perfectly and I'm happy the way it turned out despite turning my "baby's" room into looking like a little girl's room.

Christmas at Danielle's Parents

After we had Christmas at Jarred's parents, we packed up the car, went to the house, unloaded the presents from Jarred's parents house, packed the car back up for Christmas at my parents, and got to Ruston about 5!
Mom made gumbo and then we opened presents.
Needless to say, it was a day and Ryleigh was exhausted! But we all had a great Christmas and are blessed to have wonderful family and friends!

Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning at Jarred's Parents

We had our traditional Christmas Eve dinner at Jarred's parents house - shrimp, hashbrown potato casserole, olive garden salad and breadsticks...yum! All of us wore our party hats as usual, except Ryleigh did not want anything to do with it. Guess she was just wanting to eat...imagine that!
We exchanged our stockings and Ryleigh helped us pass them out.


After Jarred, Ryleigh and I had our Christmas at our house, we packed up and went to Jarred's parents house for the traditional breakfast by Rance. He cooked bacon, eggs and biscuits. Then was onto the presents.

Christmas at Home

We spent Christmas morning just the 3 of us. We woke up, got Ryleigh up and let her open her presents. She walked in the den and wasn't quite sure what all the toys were. But it didn't take her long to figure them out! We let her play with her toys for a little while before going to Jarred's parents.

Ryleigh Loves Her Car

I was on vacation the week of Christmas and had some mother/daughter time with Ryleigh. The weather was really nice a couple of days and we were able to get outside. Ryleigh LOVES being outside and riding in her car.