Ridgell....Party of Five

Anna Claire Turns 5!

2010-08-03T21:49:00.000-07:00

Our sweet Anna turned 5 today. It's hard to believe that it's been 5 years since she made me a mommy. It's gone by fast, but than I also feel like she's been a part of our family forever. I showed her the photo album from the day she was born today and I remember just about every detail from that day. (It's also hard to believe I'm about to be there again with #3!) Every year has been so fun with her but I really loved this year between 4 and 5. The conversations we have had, the imagination, the ideas, the questions, and, oh yes, the strong opinions has made for a very entertaining and interesting year. As a stay-at-home mom, how nice it is now to have someone that I can have real conversation with! Here's a few things that come to mind when I think about Anna: She is very loving, affectionate and encouraging. She relishes her role as the big sister to Andrew (and CAN'T WAIT for baby Austin to be here). She loves babies and is very nurturing. She loves to color and paint and is very detailed about coloring in the lines and coloring every single space on the page. She likes to be on the go and wants a detailed schedule every night of what we are doing the next day (and would love a schedule of the whole week if I planned that far ahead!). She loves to play games and read books with me and she really, really loves to swim. She took off in the pool this summer- the floaties are history and she's into practicing her diving and trying to go down to the bottom. She loved her first year of museum school this past year and also graduated from the pre-K program at her preschool in May. We are not sending her to kindergarten this year (being an August birthday, we're holding her back), which she is thrilled about because she tells me she wants to be home with me and the baby (oh, and Andrew too, or course). I'm excited I have her for one more year before the craziness of a full time school schedule starts. She is pretty fearless and quite competitive, which can result in a lot frustation if she isn't good at something immediately. And I mentioned earlier the strong opinions and then there is her inability to accept the word "no" easily, so while not everything is always easy and perfect with her, for the most part she is pure joy in our family. She is actually in many ways so much like me, so even in her difficulties, I feel like I really "get her". I cannot imagine my life without my Anna and I thank the Lord daily that He gave me the priviledge of being her mom.
I'm posting some pictures from her Princess Tea Party we had at our house last Friday. This was the first year that she, in detail, had her party all planned out herself. We had just a few of her closest friends over (only girls allowed) dressed as princesses for hot tea (with sugar cubes - one of her MUSTS), lunch, nail painting, face painting and a little make up. And of course, cake and cupcakes (I haven't mentioned it, but the girl has an unfortunate sweet tooth like her mommy). We had a great time! Since we had a few days between her party and her actual birthday we've done some other fun family stuff together, but now the birthday is over, she's in bed and we can move on to the start of a new year. Can't wait to see what "5" brings!

My helpers with the party that I could not have done without - Annie, Mimi and Aunt Kelli
Anna blowing out her candles with her cousin Elizabeth trying to get a head start on picking her cupcake!

The little Princesses at the party

The birthday Princess!

Me and my sweet girl after the party

The Fifth Member of our Party!

2010-05-19T14:26:00.000-07:00

So I'm trying to get back into my blog. I found a great free site to revamp my blog and changed our title from the Ridgell Four, to Ridgell....Party of Five because we have a fifth member of the family on the way due in August! We are having another boy who we have already named Austin James and we are only 14 weeks away from my due date. We are all very excited and are anxiously awaiting meeting our sweet baby. Anna, who at first really wanted a sister, is so excited about being the big sister to 2 brothers and especially can't wait to help with the baby. She thinks he is every much her baby as he is mine. One day she was telling me all the ways she was going to help me with the baby and I said, "You know Anna, another great way you can help me is by playing with Andrew when I need to take care of the baby." To which she quickly replied, "I have a better idea: You play with Andrew, I'll hold the baby." So I think I"m going to have some competition! And Andrew, who is exactly 2 1/2 today, has just started realizing in the last 6 weeks or so (as my tummy has become quite obvious) that there is another baby coming and loves to say "I the big brother". I am feeling great and am trying to relish every sweet moment of this pregnancy knowing that we are planning on it being our last. The truth is, with 2 other kids to run around after, I hardly have time to think about it! God has blessed us beyond all measure and we are so thankful for the great blessing of children. So that's the story on baby #3, now hopefully I'll get to posting some pictures of and giving updates on Anna and Andrew!

Just Not a Good Blogger

2009-11-09T20:27:00.000-08:00

Who knows if anyone even checks my blog, but simply said, I have dropped the ball on my blog. There are a variety of reasons but the main one is I just don't spend the time doing it. I get all behind and then I am haunted by the months that I have to catch up on. Like, for example, I have posted no pictures of this summer - so many fun times I wanted to post. And yet, as it piled up, it was too big of a task of catch up on. And we're already into fall and still, not a single post..until this one which is just to ramble my blogging deficiencies. A few Sunday's ago I sat down at the computer, kids were napping, husband is watching football and napping and I was ready to catch up. As I started I immediatley had a hard time getting my pictures to the blog (yes, I'm still not good at that) and I gave up, once again defeated. So I write this to say, yes, I am still out here and, yes, and I hope to to better....just not tonight. Tonight I"m going to curl up in bed, finish a great book, and maybe tomorrow during naptime I'll get back to the blog.

Words that Melt My Heart

2009-08-02T21:30:00.000-07:00

So Anna turns 4 tomorrow and being the sentimental person I am I've been a little sad about the idea of my baby girl being another year older. Especially 4 - it just sounds so old....so preschool age, not in any way toddler age. I'm being rediculous, I know. I want her to grow, I pray for her to grow - it's just happening so fast! Anyway, I've been having some of these conversations with Anna and a few of her responses have just made me melt. They've gone something like this....

Me: Anna, I"m not sure if I want you to be 4. I just want you to stay my baby girl.
Anna: Mommy, it's OK because when I turn 4 and even when I grow up big like you I"ll still be your baby girl.
To that I gave her the hugest hug, made her promise me she meant that, and felt a little better about it. Then a few days later...

Me: Anna, I still can't believe you're going to be 4!
Anna: Why Mommy?
Me: Because it just sounds so big!
Anna: No Mom, it's not that big. I still have to grow a lot. You know, so I can be big like you and then I can wear your clothes.
That cracked me up and made me feel good that at this point I'm still cool enough that she likes my clothes. I"m sure that will change in a decade or so.

So that's how my sweet nearly four year old has made me feel better about this whole growing up business. It's going by fast so I'm just trying my best to not ever dwell on the some of the "stresses" of motherhood and just savor every minute I have with this precious girl. What a gift she is to me!

My baby boy is now SUCH A BOY!!

2009-06-26T13:15:00.001-07:00

Not long after I had Andrew people continually asked me, "Isn't is just soooo different having boy?" And my answer for the longest time was, "Well, not really yet. He's just a baby and is pretty much a lot like his fearless, rambuctious, active sister." I guess since Anna has a lot of "tomboy" qualities about her, it didn't really seem any different. Well, let me tell you, that has ALL CHANGED!!! In the last few months (probably around 16 or 17 mon) Andrew just errupted with all these boy qualities that Anna does not have. These pictures illustrate a few.......

#1 What it is with boys and cars? - this was actually Anna's car, but for several months now it has been Andrew's favorite thing to play in....outside of course. We'll get to that in a minute.

#2 Boys and dirt....here we are at the zoo and while Anna and their 2 cousins are running around looking at animals Andrew's looking for any crack in the sidewalk with dirt in it. He loves dirt. He is such a menace to my potted plants. I am contantly spraying him down and digging dirt out of his teeth.

#3 The Stick - Every time he goes outside he has to find a stick. I never noticed all the sticks that are apparently in our very small backyard. When we go for walks he'll find one stick, then pick up another, compare the two and discard the one he doesn't like. He can go through several sticks in one outing.

#4 He loves to eat! This boy can down about as much as his daddy can and I'm not kidding about that. He eats about anything, but watermelon is definitely a fan favorite. He would eat the whole thing if I let him.

#5 He loves the great outdoors. Here's my happy boy the day he turned 18 months old in his favorite place - outside! He would live outside if I would let him. Whether it's swinging, sliding, swimming, playing with rocks, throwing around dirt or digging in the muddy corners of our yard he loves to be outside.

So there are just a few fun facts about our Andrew. I could write about him forever, but I'll stop so as not to bore whoever may be reading this. He is the sweetest boy and I just love seeing the "boy" come out in him. It is so fun having one of each to compare and experience the girl side and the boy side of two kids who, are in a lot of ways, very much the same. I feel so blessed every day to get to take care of my sweet boy.

Sweet Baby James

2009-05-27T14:17:00.000-07:00

Here is the newest addition to our family, James Robert Bankes. Born May 10 (2 weeks after her due date!) at 12:24 am, 8 lbs. 4 oz and I think 21 1/4 inches long. He is perfect and Kelli's home birth went great. For those of you that I told his middle name was Ryan, they changed it to Robert, which was my Granddaddy's first name. Granddaddy passed away 5 years ago and James ended up being born on his birthday. I think it's really neat they changed it to Robert. Since Kelli was due on April 26th we have all been anxiously awaiting this little guy's arrival and we are so thankful he is here!
Is that not the most precious little face! He was just about an hour old here.

The proud parents - my brother Jeremy and Kelli

James with his favorite Aunt Jamie!

I took the kids over on Monday to meet their newest cousin. Anna LOVED getting to hold him and was quite reluctant to let him go. She loves being the little Mommy.

Andrew wasn't so sure about him. He kind of just looked at him and then wanted to pat him on the head. After this quick pictures I quickly removed him from the bed before he found baby James' eyes! I couldn't believe how HUGE Andrew looked next to James. It made me kind of sad how my baby all the sudden looked enormous! Look at Andrew's head - it's like 4 times the size of baby James'.

Mother's Day

2009-05-27T13:29:00.000-07:00

This Mother's Day was definitely one that I won't forget! It started at 12:24 am with my nephew, James, being born. Kelli had him at home (Kelli's one brave woman!), so around 1:30 in the morning my brother, my parents and I went over to their house to meet the newest James Bankes of the family. He is absolutely precious and perfect in every way. So it was a short nights sleep, but I did go to church with Anna and my brother the next morning (Joe Don stayed home with Andrew who had an ear infection). Then we had my parents and brother over for brunch that, yes, I did make, but it was what I wanted to do because making brunch was actually EASIER than going out to restaurant these days with my kids. (particularly the 18 month old that doesn't want to sit in a high chair for more than 10 minutes!) Unless the restaurant has a play ground we don't attempt too many restaurants these days. We frequent Central Market and Chick Fil A on a weekly basis. Anyways, back to Mother's Day, we had a great brunch, all took naps and then that evening my mom, Anna, and I had a girls night out together. My mom and I have done this together for a few years in a row, but this year we dediced that Anna was "big girl" enough to come. We had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory (my favorite) and then saw the movie "Earth". It was so fun being together and Anna did great although she had a hard time getting past the "predator attacking prey" scenes in the movie. She kept asking, "Mom, what happened to the baby deer?" over and over. A movie theater is not a good time to discuss the food chain, you know?! I loved being with my mom and my daughter. It was just the perfect end to a great day. I could not feel more blessed to the mother of my two precious, precious kids and to have the most loving and supportive mom and mother-in-law in the world. Being a mom is the one thing I have wanted to be since I was a little girl, and I could not be more thrilled that it's what I get to spend every day doing. God has been so good to me.
The three of us at the Cheesecake Factory- can you tell we're related?

My sweetest girl Anna Claire

I just love this little guy to pieces - he definitely keeps me running these days!

One proud mama

Commotion in the Ocean

2009-05-22T13:42:00.000-07:00

Here's a couple of pictures from Anna's end of the year YCW program. I was so irritated that my camera battery died so these are only pictures I have to post. Luckily my trusty picture-taking friend, Chesley, sent me lots of great pictures of Anna and her friends. The program, called Commotion in the Ocean, was so cute and Anna was helarious during it. She actually did all the motions, but would take a break every 30 seconds or so to wave at us. It didn't help that the whole family sitting on a row together was waving back at her. We were all so proud!
Anna with Annie and Papa B.

As you can see, by the end of the program, Andrew was ready to go home. Sorry buddy, just one of many events you will be dragged to to watch your sister! Notice how Joe Don and I have mastered plastering a smile to our faces in the midst of crying children trying to buck out of our arms.

PapPa's Birthday

2009-05-22T13:31:00.000-07:00

We wrapped up the month of April by celebrating PapPa's birthday (Joe Don's grandfather) at a great tex-mex restaurant in Rowlett. MamMa and PapPa are the sweetest people and it was fun to get to be with them and Joe Don's extended family. We love you PapPa!
This is who Joel (Joe) Don is named after - Joel (Joe) Ridgell. (did you know Joe Don's real name is Joel?)

Our kiddos with their great-grandparents.

Andrew's name has the 4th Joel in 4 generations - it's Andrew Joel Ridgell and Joel "Joe" Ridgell

Mother Daughter Tea

2009-05-22T13:12:00.000-07:00

Here's some pictures from the "Flowers and Frills" mother/daughter tea our church hosted at the end of April. This was the first "mtoher/daughter" event Anna and I have ever had together and we both just loved it. The "tea" really consisted of cupcakes, fruit and punch, so Anna was pretty excited about those cupcakes. All the girls got to go through a candy line and assemble their own bag of goodies (I think I ended up eating most of it - oops!) and then one of the sweet ladies from our church had a cute little lesson on manners. I don't think that caught Anna's attention too much - maybe next year! Anna's favorite part was that they gave each girl a Princess crown to wear. I'm just so thankful that I have a little girl to get dressed up and go to teas with. I hope the two of us have many frilly, girly times ahead!
Me, Anna, Jillian and Jayci
Anna and her cousin, Maylen
Me and my sweet princess
Jillian and Anna - the sweetest friends

My PaPa

2009-05-17T21:53:00.000-07:00

Among the fun things we did in April we did have a bittersweet time in our family when my PaPa went home to the Lord on April 15th. He was 89 years old and up until just a fews years ago had lived a very full life where he still mowed his own lawn, loved to hunt and traveled all over the world. The past couple of years he had been in an assisted living home and started to get more and more feable and have a lot of memory loss although for a man in his upper 80's he had great health. The first week in April he fell twice within a couple of days and that seemed to do him in. A couple of days after his second fall he just didn't wake up, so I spent a week with him, my mom and hospice nurses at his bedside until the night of April 15 when he finally got to go to heaven. It was a hard week, but in the end there was such a peace and joy in knowing with full confidence that he was in a place so much better than we could possible imagine. It was hard seeing someone I loved go, it was harder watching my mom lose her last parent. But it was one of those times that I was so mindful of how blessed I am to be a Christian where there is such hope that we will get to see our loved ones again someday for all eternity. Love you PaPa!
My mom, PaPa and my uncle Rob

My mom, me and the kids on PaPa's 89th birthday last August

My PaPa - Ernie Shoemaker on his 89th Birthday

Anna's First Writing!

2009-05-17T21:45:00.000-07:00

I was so proud of this I just had to post it. This was the first time Anna wrote these words on her own. She's been able to write just her name for a while, but every other word she traced. This is a little dry erase board I got for her room and I wrote the words first and then she wrote these on her own. My baby is starting to write......I love milestones.

My little Easter Babies

2009-05-17T21:36:00.000-07:00

Easter Sunday

2009-05-17T21:08:00.000-07:00

Our family loves Easter. Now that Anna is 3 we really spent a lot of time talking about Jesus' death and resurrection and trying to explain that that is the reason we celebrate Easter. I think she got it for the most part, but in the end she was really just excited about the Easter egg hunt. Now I must say that "the hunt" is a big deal in our family. Up until a couple of years ago, me and my cousins were still hunting Easter eggs (Joe Don included :) But now that I have kids that are old enough to do it I've turned into the mom that chases her kids around taking pictures of everything. We went to church, had a great lunch at my parents house, the girls dyed Easter eggs and then we had the the big hunt. It was a great day and we did end the day by reading, once again, the story out of Anna's children's Bible about the ressurection so that she would remember that it's not really about the eggs!
Anna stopped to look at the camera for me while Elizabeth was more interested in her candy bracelet she had just broken out of an egg.

Andrew, Anna and Elizabeth after the hunt was over- notice it's antoher picture of Anna holding onto Andrew.

This must be the first of the hunt because there are no eggs in her basket. By the time she was finished it was overfilling. She loves hunting Easter eggs!

Andrew's first hunt! It was so cute seeing him run around and pick up his eggs.

Our family Easter pic

Mimi's Birthday

2009-05-17T21:00:00.000-07:00

Mimi and Pops came to visit us in April and we got to celebrate Mimi's (Joe Don's mom) birthday. Anna's favorite colors are pink and purple hence the colors on the cake. Nobody loves cake like my Anna Claire so she was very excited we got to have a party for Mimi!

Springtime Fun....Catching up on April

2009-05-17T20:41:00.000-07:00

Every spring since Anna has been born we've gone with friends to the Bontanic Gardens in Fort Worth to walk around, eat lunch, see all the flowers and most importantly, torture our kids with taking pictures. This trip was crazy for me because Andrew wanted nowhere near the beaten path - he wanted out in the trees to find sticks. Trying to keep up with him (and keeping an eye on Anna) wore me out! It still resulted in some cute pics though, so it's all worth it!

There's Andrew in the woods with his stick!

Reminds me of a baby Man Vs. Wild
Best buds Jillian and Anna - I love this pic because I have one very similar

of me and Jayci like this when we were little girls.
Anna pinning her brother's head to try to get him to look in the right direction. This happens often. Poor Andrew!
My sweet Anna Claire
Andrew at 16 1/2 months

Our Trip to California!

2009-03-25T14:32:00.001-07:00

My 31st Birthday

2009-03-24T22:34:00.000-07:00

Me and Joe Don at Del Frisco's - YUM! After dinner
we stayed the night in downtown Ft. Worth - our first
night away since having Andrew!

Mom and Dad took me and the fam to Joe T.'s

It's our favorite celebration place.

Jayci and Luke came with us to Del Friscos.

Nothing like a good steak dinner with great

friends!

Me and my 2 brothers in our annual birthday picture

All of our birthdays are in the last week of February!

In Abilene the week before - my mother in law

had a surprise birthday lunch for me. Anna insisted

that I wear the birthday hat that I think was supposed

to be a table decoration.

Andrew at 15 months

2009-03-24T22:17:00.000-07:00

Andrew Joel Ridgell:

Age: 15 months

Favorite Word: Ball

What he loves to do: shoot baskets, chase and throw balls around the house, ride in his red car, open and close anything and everything.

Guilty Pleasures: Playing in the toilet and unraveling toilet paper, playing with the soot in the fire place, climbing up on the dishwashwer (all these we are tying to break him of)

Valentine's Day

2009-03-24T22:05:00.000-07:00

My two sweet little Valentines. I loves these pictures because it's quite a feat to get them both smiling at the same time! These two really do love each other. Although Anna's hugs often do get a little too tight. Sidenote....these pictures were taken the same day after the haircut took place, so see...with a little hairspray and a bow, it's all good!

THE Haircut

2009-03-24T21:46:00.000-07:00

So here are finally some pictures from the day Anna cut her own bangs. These pictures were taken after she was heavily scolded for doing such a thing so it kind of went like this...

No mom, don't take a picture of my hair...

OK fine, one picture, but get it over with.... After some laughter about the whole incident, we all decide

it's reallly not that bad!

Short Cut

2009-02-14T09:53:00.000-08:00

So I don't usually use this blog to rant and rave, but something happened in the Ridgell home this morning that I just have to share. Anna has this place in the corner of my closet that she likes to get in and hide or play. I let her do it, she thinks it's her own little secret hiding place. Well, this morning, little did we know that she got into her corner in the closet with a pair of scissors and cut her own bangs - super short. She never said anything, came downstairs asking to watch Dora and sat in my lap. So I"m sitting there gently playing with hair when I notice that she has all these very short pieces. I frantically look at her, and realize her hair is cut. It takes her a while to fess up to it...she realized pretty quickly she was in trouble about it. But finally she took me to the closet where I found the crime scene - scissors still sitting on the floor. So now we have these super short, choppy bangs that I have no idea what to do with. I nearly cried until Joe Don started laughing, which made me bust into laughter. What else can we do? I would be able to take it a lot more light heartedly if Anna's hair didn't grow at a snails pace. I just took her to get a haircut specifically to even up her hair with her bangs that took nearly 3 1/2 years to grown even. So at this rate, by age 6 or 7 maybe her hair will be even again. Or maybe she'll just have to have bangs now. I think I did this once to my own hair, I know a lot of kids have done this. I feel like I've just expereinced yet another initiation into motherhood. I snapped some pictures of her handywork, so I'll post some later. When I asked her why she cut her hair she simply said, "Well, I needed a haircut." And there you go.

El Salto Fishing Trip

2009-02-11T11:08:00.000-08:00

This may be my (Joe Don) one and only blog post but I couldn't resist. My dad and I just returned from a three day trip to Mexico to fish the famous lake El Salto for largemouth bass. My dad and I have spent many days (and some nights) fishing for bass but we have never taken a trip like this. The trip was absolutely incredible. However, I could have done without the goats, snoring, 4:30 wake up calls, anytime I road in a car (lanes, speed limits, and signs mean absolutely nothing to the drivers). Looking back now, you realize that even some of "negative" things made the trip that more memorable. Three full days on the lake for 9 1/2 hours each day. We caught a total of 190 bass but my dad caught the two biggest: a 12 lb 5 oz monster (last pic) and her 11 lb 11 oz brother (fist pic). I suspect many of you don't have a clue how big that is but you should know that you are talking about huge bass -- twice the size of anything we have caught in the past. I caught two 9 pounders and 1 eight pounder but never cracked double digits. And don't worry, every fish was released. I will always remember this trip and the time I got to spend with my dad and hope that my kids will have such great memories of trips we take in the future. I would love if one of those future trips would be back to El Salto. Here are some pictures for your enjoyment...

A Very Merry Christmas

2009-01-31T20:48:00.000-08:00

Pics from Andrew's 1st Birthday

2009-01-24T11:25:00.000-08:00

Andrew is One Today

2008-11-19T19:23:00.000-08:00

My sweet baby boy turned one today and I can't believe it. I really think this past year has been the fastest year of my life and here we are at November 19th - Andrew's first birthday. We had a great and fun day today and it started when he woke up this morning to eat at 4:30 am. Not that I'm usually excited when he wakes up that early to eat, but it was sweet today because he was born at 4:33 am, so I was in his room rocking him, feeding him, praying for him and thinking about those very minutes one year ago today. I can remember every detail as if it happened yesterday - my water broke at 10:45 pm and less than 6 hours later he was in my arms - beautiful and perfect. He has been such a good natured and sweet baby all year and I have loved every minute of taking care of him. I am one of those moms that LOVES the baby stage, so I have some sad feelings about the first year being over with. But since Andrew is my second and I know from Anna how fun the milestones are in the second year, I'm excited to see how he grows, learns and changes this next year. I'm also a girl that loves celebrating birthdays so we've been celebrating this big first birthday all week! It started on Sunday when we had a big family party at our house. All of Joe Don's family came in from Abilene, Joe Don's grandparents drove in from Sulphur Springs, and all of my family came that's here in town. The party went great other than Andrew putting out his birthday candle with his own fingers. We had about a minute of very red faced crying, and they he eyed that cake, got back in his highchair and dug in. I've never seen a baby make more of a mess out of his first cake than that boy did. Today we had a birthday party with his friends from our small group and he had a great time. No burns, loved the cupcake and was in a happy mood all day. It was great. We ended the day by going with my family to Ultimate Pizza where Andrew got to try is first pizza (which he wasn't crazy about) and ride a bunch of little rides. He loved it. So here we are at the end of the day - kids are in bed and the first birthday is over. It was a great day, it was a wonderful year and I am overwhelmed with the Lord's blessing of this sweet, little one year old son. Pictures will soon follow!

Halloween!

2008-11-10T12:16:00.000-08:00

This Halloween was so fun for several reasons - we got to have another Halloween party, Anna loved trick or treating, and Andrew had his 1st Halloween. Because of Anna's love for Disney princesses, Anna and Andrew went as Ariel and Sebastian and Joe Don and I were Sleeping Beauty and Price Charming. We had a great time with our small group. There were lots of great costumes, not just from the kids, but adults too. There was a new crop of babies in the group that were so cute in their costumes and all the older kids had so much fun running from door to door together trick or treating. The night ended with Joe Don's favorite - a pinata. Such a fun time!

Catching up on Fall

2008-11-10T09:41:00.001-08:00

So I know I've been horrible with posting blogs, so I finally just created a slide show that shows some highlights from our fall. In September Anna starting back to school at YCW, we celebrated lots of family birthdays, and we took a trip to Abilene. We had so much fun in October going to the pumpkin patch several times and took another trip to Abilene for ACU's Homecoming. We had a really fun end to October at our Halloween party for our small group. I'll post pictures of that next. Here we are in November and our next big family event is Andrew's 1st birthday next Wednesday! He has grown so much over the past few months and became very mobile. He speedily crawls all over the house, climbs, hides, and walks behind a walker. We've had a really fun fall and continue to be so thankful for the many ways the Lord has blessed our family. Halloween pictures next...stay tuned.

Our Fun Fall!

2008-11-10T09:38:00.000-08:00

Tu-Tu Cute

2008-09-16T22:34:00.001-07:00

This is Anna on her first day of dance class. She has been so in to dressing up, dancing around, and tapping on our tile in her Sunday shoes that I knew she would love this - and she does! It's one of the cutest things I've ever seen seeing a bunch of little 3 year old girls in tu-tu's trying to pirouette. This is what having a girl is all about!

Our Little Fish

2008-09-16T13:46:00.001-07:00

One of Anna's favorite summer activities this year was swim lessons with Ms. Kelly. Anna has always loved to be in the water, but this summer she actually starting swimming by herself! She did lessons with her friend Garrett and they were both great. Here's a few pics of Anna swimming, diving down to get rings and jumping off the diving board. This girl is fearless - which can be good and scary all at the same time!

Our 9 Month Old Baby Boy

2008-09-14T22:39:00.000-07:00

Andrew at 9 months....he has 4 teeth and has a little vampire look going on since his 2 upper side teeth came in before his upper front teeth... he loves to be on his tummy and scoot, roll, stand holding on to something, and is starting to pull up on stuff...he's doing great at feeding himself little pieces of fruit and seems to like any food we put in front of him...he loves to swing, jump in his jumparoo and laugh at his big sis...he's weighing in at close to 21 pounds...we LOVE this little guy to pieces!

Ranch Weekend

2008-09-14T22:26:00.000-07:00

In mid August we went with our small group from church to the Owen Ranch for a weekend. We had a really fun time with our friends and the kids loved looking at cows, riding 4-wheelers, and running around all over the place. I think there were 12kids/babies babies in all there - it could get crazy but luckily it was a big house! We are so blessed to have such a great group of families at our church to raise our kids with. Here's few pics from the weekend.

Birthday Girl Weekend

2008-09-14T22:03:00.000-07:00

August 3rd Anna Claire turned 3 and we had a big birthday weekend! Friday we had her birthday party with her friends at a swim park. It was a party for Anna and one of her best buddies, Garrett Walton, because they share the same birthday and have a lot of the same friends. It was great! Garrett and Anna love being together and I loved having another mom to plan the party with. Joe Don sadly had to miss out on the party because of a last minute business trip, but there was still more birthday fun to be had. On Saturday my mom and I took Anna and her cousin, Elizabeth, to the Wiggles concert. The girls had so much fun and (sadly enough) all four of us knew all the songs! Sunday was her actual birthday and after church we had a family party at our house. Mimi and Pops drove in from Abilene and took Anna to a pizza and game place for dinner. It was a fun weekend and Anna loved every minute of it. We love celebrating birthdays around here! I can't believe my baby girl is 3...I mean my big girl and Anna would say. Time flies when your having fun!

Anna Claire's 3rd Birthday!

2008-09-14T22:01:00.001-07:00

The Lake with the Beards

2008-09-02T22:06:00.000-07:00

The last weekend of July we spent a long weekend at the lake with Ryan and Ashley Beard and their 2 kids Garrett and Scout. Ryan and Ashley were our best friends when we lived in California. They now live in Austin and their two kids are the same ages as our two. We did lots of travels together when it was just the 4 of us (pre kids!) and we do some type of trip together every summer, but now there are 8 of us. It's a little crazier, but we love having our families together.

"G" and Anna ready for a boat ride!

Andrew and Scout are only 3 weeks apart - they were so sweet together!

This was me and Ashley's best attempt of getting a picture with all 4 kids together

Avery's 1st Birthday Party

2008-09-02T21:55:00.000-07:00

July 19th we went to Abilene to celebrate our neice, Avery's, 1st birthday. It was also the day Andrew turned 8 months old so here's a few pics from Avery's party and of our sweet 8 month old boy.

Anna's First Haircut

2008-09-02T21:47:00.001-07:00

Just a few weeks shy of turning 3 it was finally time for Anna to get her first hair cut. I've never wanted to cut or even trim her hair because it took her so long to get it! But it was time to get a little trim and she loved it! She got to sit at the "Princess" station and watch a Barbie movie while the lady trimmed away. She didn't want to leave after it was over. I was very upset by the fact that my camera battery was out when I got it out to snap pictures of this monumental event,so here's a pictures after we got home. You probably can't tell that it's cut, but it was still a big deal to me!

Sea World with the Ridgells!

2008-09-02T21:26:00.000-07:00

Joe Don's parents took all of us to San Antonio and we spent 2 days at Sea World. Anna LOVES Sea World and she had so much fun with her cousins Jake and Avery. Andrew did great too and seemed to enjoy looking at all the animals. Here's a few pics from our great trip with Mimi and Pops.

This was Anna and Jake's reaction to seeing Shamu come out. There was a lot of screaming involved.

Andrew and Avery - the 2 sweet babies of the family

Mimi and Pops with the kids after the Shamu show
Both of these kids love being in the water!
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Our family pic at Sea World - we had a blast

Catching Up on Summer

2008-09-02T21:22:00.001-07:00

Well, here it is September and I haven't posted anything from July or August. I'm not doing good at keeping up with this blogging thing! We had a fun and very busy summer with lots of activities and events so I'm about to post tons of pictures from July and August. Hopefully once I get caught up, I'll stay on top of this better. Wishful thinking! OK, here it goes....

Our 8 Year Anniversary

2008-07-31T10:06:00.000-07:00

July 1st Joe Don and I celebrated our 8 year anniversary. I can't believe it's been 8years! We went out on a great date to celebrate and talked about how blessed and fun each year has been. I am truly blessed with the most wonderful husband.

Joe Don Turns the Big 3-0!

2008-07-31T09:39:00.000-07:00

June 29th Joe Don said goodbye to his 20's and joined me in the new decade of 30. I don't think he had as much of a problem with it as I did (and still do!) We had a great birthday weekend for him. We started the weekend with a dinner at Mary's on our way to the lake. At the lake Joe Don got to play golf with his dad, my dad and Jeremy and then we drove to Albany to the Beehive Steakhouse to meet Joe Don's family from Abilene. Sunday (his actual b-day) we had lunch at La Hacienda Ranch and then had a party with our small group at Babe's Chicken that night. (We had 42 people at Babes - 18 of them being children under mostly 3 and under! What a crazy, but fun stage of life we are in.) So we basically covered his favorite restaurants, had a few cakes and all gained at least 5 pounds. Here's some pics from the weekend.

The Girl Loves Shoes

2008-07-18T08:50:00.000-07:00

So one of Anna's favorite things to do right now is put on my shoes and walk around the house. And not just any shoes- only my shoes that have heels on them. She can walk, hop, dance around in them better than I can. I'm contantly telling her to be careful because I'm afraid she's going to fall, but she assures me that she IS being careful and she IS NOT going to fall! So far she hasn't. The downside to this little pasttime is that there are shoes all over my house! These are some pics of a fashion show she did for me a few weeks ago. I liked the arms crossed pose. And you will see that it's very hard to get these shoes off of her - she insisted on sitting on the potty with them. If she loves shoes this much now I'm scared for the teenage years!

Andrew at 7 Months

2008-07-17T20:45:00.000-07:00

Here are pictures of Andrew on his 7 month birthday. This first year is just flying by with him! He is such a sweet and happy baby and I personally think he has the cutest smile I've ever seen. (Tied with Anna's, of course)He's pretty layed back and at this stage is very happy just to sit up on his toy mat and play. It's pretty nice that he's not mobile yet. I only have a short time left before I will be chasing 2 kids!

Father's Day

2008-07-17T20:26:00.000-07:00

I love celebrating Father's Day because it reminds me how thankful I am for the 3 Dads in my life. Joe Don is such an amazing dad with our kids, I have such a wonderful relationship with my dad, and my dad-in-law treats me like I'm one of his own. Me and my kids are so blessed to have these 3 men in our lives. Thank you dads! We spent lunch with my dad and family and then Joe Don and I spent the rest of the day with the kids and went swimming. I really wanted a picture of Joe Don with both Anna and Andrew together, but as usual, I didn't get a lot of cooperation. Oh well!

Anna's Potty Train(ing)

2008-07-17T20:09:00.001-07:00

The day after we got back from our trip to Mexico a monumental event happened in the Ridgell household - Anna finally decided she wanted to potty train! She had shown no interest up until she found out that one of her best friends, Jillian, had potty trained while we were in Mexico. So we spent a Friday at home and I made this train chart that she got to put a sticker on when she went in the potty. I thought it would take her at least 4 or 5 days to fill it, but she had it filled by Saturday! She got the peeing thing down with no problem. We are still working on "the other", but I won't go into those details. The last picture is her "potty prize" - a swimming pool. We are so proud of her and are thrilled to not be buying 2 sizes of diapers! My baby is such a big girl now!

Let's Make One Thing Clear...

2008-07-17T20:04:00.000-07:00

So I've been informed by my dear husband that I need to make something very clear on this blog - I amd the one posting on this, not him. I apparently made something sound like it could be me or him and he was not cool with that. He told me that blogs (or at least the kind of blog this is- full of pictures of my kids) is a mom thing to do. Glad we got that cleared up.

June Trip to Acapulco!

2008-07-15T21:01:00.000-07:00

Our summer started out with Jamie's parents taking the family to Acapulco, Mexico. Anna had been talking about going to the beach for months and she loved it. It was Andrew's first trip on an airplane and he did great too. The vacation was a blast!

Andrew in his pool side tent. He would sleep in this for hours!
Anna loves swimming!
Dad and Andrew relaxing on the couch
Anna and her cousin Elizabeth were not too crazy about the waves!
Happy Birthday Dad! We celebrated dad's birthday on the trip.

Finally Did It!

2008-06-30T09:42:00.000-07:00

After talking about wanting a blog for well over a year I have finally followed through! And what did it take to get it done you may ask? Having someone else create it for me! A friend from church, Amanda Aslin, creates cute blogs and so she worked her magic and I now I have one. (froggiebloggiedesigns.blogspot.com) I have started my own before but just never did anything with it. So now we have this great blog that Amanda started for me, now I just hope I can keep it up. As I type this I still don't know how to get pictures on it. I am just not talented in this area. However, I am going to get good at it because that is the main purpose of this blog. I take hundreds of pictures of my kids (I'm kind of addictive about it) and then I don't really do anything with them. So this will be a great way to do something with my pictures and let anyone who is interested keep up with our family. I thought it would be nice especially for those family and friends who don't live in Fort Worth. This will not be a blog of philosophical thoughts -it's just for fun. So welcome to the Ridgell family blog. Hope you visit every once in a while.