Dedication and more!

Well, ALOT has happened the past 2 weeks! Namely, we dedicated Rylee at church yesterday! It was so special. Both of our families got to be there. Pastor Greg explained the dedication to the church (since we have only done 1 other one in Top Hand's history!) Then he read scriptures over Rylee. Then my dad got up and gave a "charge" to Top Hand to pray for us and Rylee and hold me & Rob accountable and support us. Then Rob sang a song for Rylee that he wrote. It was the most beautiful song ever. Rob wrote me a song when we were dating, which is obviously extremely special. But hearing the man I love sing those words over our precious angel was even more special. ....And I'm crying again! It was a big day - I had been thinking on it all week, and I had heard the song once before, but it was still pretty emotional. It was a struggle between enjoying this special moment and trying not to be sad about our baby growing up! Apart from the song, my favorite part was part of my dad's prayer - he said "God, we know that you are big enough for Rylee Grace Dubois!" Wow! What a comfort and awesome promise! I am so thankful that I can claim that over my child. Me and Rob are limited in our parenting, but our GOD is limitless!!! And that is why it is easy to dedicate her to HIM!!

After church we went with our families to eat which was a great time. Rylee must have known it was her big day because she was hamming it up! She does this thing where she shakes her head and kinda dances - it is so cute!!! She was making everyone laugh!

Also, one of her top teeth broke through! Gigi was the first one to feel it! I kept thinking it would break through, but never acutally felt it. So far - Rylee got her first 2 teeth on Christmas and Papa (Rob's dad) was the first one to feel them! Third tooth on dedication day and Gigi felt it! I'm sensing a trend here...

Other milestones (which now seem very small):

*Rylee went from laying down to sitting up!

*Then she went from laying down to her knees, to pulling up! yikes!

*When she is standing now, she will let go - which is scary because she can't stand on her own yet! But she is very brave!

*She started making clicking noises with her mouth, which kinda sounds like dolphin noises to me.

*She STILL hasn't crawled. She is so close!! We even got a new rug to help her out!

* This one is silly but she sat in a high chair at a restaurant like a big girl! We usually try to leave her in the car seat or hold her. But she did great in her chair and she was happy because she could see everything.

The other night we went to eat and afterwards, Rylee and daddy played air hockey on the table with one of her pacifiers. She has one that is flat on the back so it slides really good. I was holding Rylee and Rob just slid it across the table to her. She thought it was funny so she started playing! He would slide it to her and she would catch it! I am amazed by her coordination and motor skills! She's gonna be an athlete!

I have a video of the dedication, and have been trying to post part of it, but can't figure it out.... I will try again later. It has been a great two weeks for us. This precious girl has made our lives so rich! Thank you Jesus!

My dad didn't get to be in this picture because he had to go preach. :( But he got pics with Rylee later!

Easter

Well, Rylee's first Easter was a blast! On the way to church I was telling Rylee the Easter story, even though she didn't understand, I felt it was really important to talk about anyway. So I start crying telling her about the Resurrection and look back and she is asleep! I had to laugh - guess I need to work on my story-telling skills! We had a great service at church, where Rylee looked ADORABLE in her dress (notice the necklace)! Then we had lunch and an Easter egg "hunt" with my parents. We put Rylee down on a blanket with eggs all around and made her crawl to them. She did really good!! She banged eggs together and cracked them open! She ALMOST crawled, she rocked back and forth a lot - it is so funny! I, of course, forgot the video camera, but we got it on our phones, so when I figure out how to upload that, I will. Not only did I forget the video camera, my SD card on my camera filled up in the middle of all the action. Go figure.

After we left my parents, we came home and daddy & Rylee took a long nap together, and then we all played outside! It was pretty much a perfect day! So, here are a few Easter pics! More to come...

Milestones!

A lot has happened this week! Let me go through the list...

-Rylee went from sitting to the crawling position.

-She is getting up on her knees really good, but still hasn't crawled. But she is scooting like an inch worm, where she sticks her butt in the air and then scoots forward. (Part of the reason I think she hasn't crawled is because we always have her on a blanket on the floor and she figured out how to pull the blanket to bring her toys to her! Smart or lazy??)

- She started trying to pull up!!

- While she was standing up holding on to one of her toys, she inched her way around it. So my guess is she will crawl really really soon and then walk really soon. yikes!!

- I had her in her jumper toy in the kitchen the other day while I was cooking and she figured out how to open the kitchen cabinets! Time to bust out the cabinet locks!!

- She has been "clapping" for a while now, but she never opened her hands up very good, so it didn't make the "clapping sound". Last night she made the "clapping sound" and was so proud of herself! It was funny! She looked at her hands and smiled and then looked at us as if to say, "Look what I just did!". So she clapped the rest of the night and even this morning! So cute and funny.

- I was feeding her last night and she was eating peas. Then I started giving her sweet potatoes and she licked her lips after every bite. It was so funny! She loves sweet potatoes! And lets face it - they taste WAY better than peas! :)

Also, I ate Mexican food with my best friend this week and we gave her a little queso on a peice of a tortilla and she loved it! Girl after her mother's heart!

We have gotten to the point where eating is pretty clean these days. We could feed her without a bib and it not be a total tragedy. But this it what it looks like after green beans. She does NOT like green beans!!