Miss Rylee Turns FIVE

Today, we celebrated Rylee's 5th Birthday.  We invited a few of her little buddies from church and t-ball over to BecBec and Nan's house for a hayride, games, face painting, roasting marshmallows, making smores and just playing.

Brittany and Brooke did the face painting and Zach helped chaperone the hayride!

 

 



 

Happy Birthday, Sweet Girl.  May all your wishes come true!



Rylee's 5th Birthday Interview

I did this last year on Rylee's 4th Birthday.  I was hoping I would remember to do this again this year!  See last year's answers here.

What is your name? Rylee Grace Backus
How old are you? Five!!!!
What is your favorite color? Blue, white and Pink
Who is your best friend?  Colin, BecBec, Daddy and My Momma
What is your favorite animal? A giraffe and elephant
What do you want to be when you grow up? A Doctor
What is your favorite movie? Barbie and Madagascar
What is your favorite book? my bear book
What makes you happy? a heart
What makes you sad? when somebody makes me sad
What is your favorite food? cheeseburger
What is your favorite song to sing? 5150 Sombody Call the Po-Po
What is your favorite game to play? Bowling and Tennis

Some of my Favorites

Orange Beach 2012

On Sunday, June 23, we loaded up for our trip to the beach.  The day before, Rylee Grace ran fever all day and night.  We considered cancelling our trip, but thought we would just see how she felt in the morning.  We woke up the next morning to no fever and thought we would go ahead and try to make it.  We were about 30 minutes out of Mineral Springs and I decided to check my WeatherBug app and see what the weather was doing in Orange Beach, Alabama - our destination.  I was so upset to see Tropical Storm Warnings for that area.  I looked at Roy and said, maybe it's just not meant for us to go to the beach.  He said - no - we are going - if we have to turn around and come back, so be it.  So we trecked on........

Rylee Grace is all strapped in the backseat with her iPad and her coloring books and ready for the ride!



Our next bump in the road came somewhere in Louisiana.  Airlife landed on the interstate in front of us so I knew it was a bad wreck.  I said a little prayer and thanked God for watching over us this far.  I can't help but wonder what would have been if we had not stopped to eat lunch right before this.  But I don't want to think about that.  I know BecBec and Nan and others were praying we had a safe trip so there's no doubt our prayers were heard.  I pray for the ones who were involved in the wreck.

 

We spent the night Sunday night in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.  And yes, I still say

M-I-crooked letter-crooked-letter-I-crooked-letter-crooked-letter-I-humpback-humback-I

when I spell Mississippi.  :)

We woke up to a beautiful Monday morning!  We checked WeatherBug and the chances of rain had diminshed for the week for Orange Beach and the Weather Channel was reporting that Tropical Storm Debbie was turning toward the other coast!  YIPPEE!  We were so pumped!

We could not check into our condo until 3:00 so Roy said he wanted to go by the USS Alabama ship.  I had no idea what he was talking about, but okay - we needed to kill a little time since it was 8:00 a.m. and we were headed out with about a 2 hour drive. 

I took this picture to show how fierce the winds were!  Tropical Storm Debby may have gone the other direction, but she left some pretty ferocious winds in her tails......

And this is the USS Alabama.  I was pretty impressed!

We received a "tour guide" and Mr. Backus read every single word and stopped at every single stop.  I will have to admit that I was VERY clostrophobic (sp) and was ready to turn right back around and walk right back down that ramp to my car!  I kept having visions of the Titanic.  I just knew those Tropical Storm Debbie winds were gonna make us break away from the dock.  I was just ready to go.  But Rylee and Roy seemed to be enjoying it so I sucked it up and trecked ahead.  But I can promise you that I won't be going back again!

We finally made it to the beach!!!!  It was so nice to be there.  Let the unpacking begin!  Stay tuned for "Beach Pictures" in another post........ (notice the Red Flag!  Tropical Storm Debbie.....)



Progress

Here is a pic with the dryer in place. Can't wait to get the washer now! And then add the table top and the spindles as shown in my previous "Inspiration" post.

And by the way.....the Laundry Soap sitting in top is a Pinterest project I made about 2 months ago. I made my own laundry soap, which cost less than $20.00. As you can see, I have use about an inch of the container. Typically, I would use that entire amount of laundry soap in about 3-4 weeks. At 10.00 per box of Gain.....I'd say it was well worth the time it took to mix it all up! Love love love it!!!! Here's a link if you're interested!  Also - here is the link to the Etsy Shop I used to order the vinyl lettering for the jar - I purchased the jar at WalMart in the kitchen utensil aisle, by the way!  I think the jar was about $10.00 and the lettering was $3.00.  I found all of the items needed to make the soap while I was at Brookeshire's, but I looked and WalMart had everything too!  I enlisted Roy to help me mix it up.  We put it in a couple of trashbags, which made it easy to mix up.  It smells so good!

Inspiration

So, this is my inspiration for what is causing much perspiration during my summer break!

My dryer went out about a month ago.  Roy has been going back and forth across the yard to use his mom's dryer.  My new dryer was delivered Tuesday.  I don't know who was more excited!  Me....or Roy!

Before the dryer was delivered, we had some things we wanted to do before the dryer was delivered.  We had never put tile or any type of flooring down in the space where the washer and dryer currently sit in our kitchen.  I knew I wanted to finish it out before the dryer was delivered so we got busy! 

Maybe you can see what was underneath......

Rylee was such a help......

And the new tile......with the new paint.  I decided I was sick of that color.  So I painted it a chocolate color......

And then, I decided I was sick of the red EVERYWHERE, so I painted the hall, living room and kitchen in the same color......

I'm loving it!!!!

 It's a work in progress......stay tuned......



Summertime!

I'm loving my new camera!  This picture above is of a bumble bee which has overtaken our Hibiscus plants.  In hindsight, the Hibiscus plants sure look good by the pool, but it was a bad choice.  We fight the bumblebees a lot of the time!

Rylee Grace's snapshot.....She looks like her daddy, but I'm starting to see a little of her momma in her too...... :)

Round 1 of Swimming Lessons complete.....

These are the Bell kiddos - they were spending a few days with their Mimi and Pop (Rick and Mandy Bell) and came to spend an hour a day with us.  Sweet kids.....

Rylee thinks swimming lessons are a perfect opportunity to have a pool full of kids for her pleasure!

......and my favorite concotion from my garden!  I love, love, love me some "Refrigerator Pickles".  For those interested..... the recipe is:

2 quarts of thinly sliced cucumbers

1 cup of thinly sliced onions

Pour 2 TBSP of salt over the cucumbers and onions and mix well.  Let sit for 2 hours.

After 2 hours, pour the water completely off.

In your bowl, put 1 1/2 C sugar and 1/2 C of White Vinegar.  Mix well.

Refrigerate and it keeps indefinitely......although, it lasts about a day at my house!  :)

Enjoy!

Some Favorites

Rylee Grace

My little swimmer

Roy and Rylee Grace - I think Roy was getting ready to go under water? :)

I love this man! 

Miss Priss

Day at the Zoo

Today we left after Sunday School and met Joe, Kim, Jeremy, Natalia and Ian, along with LOTS of other members of the Chism / Aylett clan.  And a clan it was!  It was VERY hot, but we had a good time.

Colin and Rylee Grace were patiently awaiting the arrival of the other members of the family.    We waited and waited.....and finally were able to go in!

As we waited, Rylee Grace was a little nervous about whether the animals would be out of the cages or not.....and about riding the carousel and the train.....and the monkeys peeing on her (thanks, Uncle Joe).

We had plenty of time to shoot some pictures.  I love these two precious angels with all of my heart!

Rylee and mom waiting for the carousel to start.  Can you see the look of anxiety in Rylee's forehead?  HA!

Colin acting silly in one of the photo "ops".

He is growing up so fast.  Such a handsome, sweet boy!

Roy and Momo waiting patiently.  Patience is NOT in my husband's vocabulary.

BecBec and Momo trying to keep cool.

Rylee Grace found a "mister" station and was able to have a little fun while trying to cool off.

Rylee cracks me up looking up at Colin.....I think she was a little taken back that he was a squirrel.

Miss Priss in her finest cowgirl photo.

Signs of Summer

 Juicy Red Tomato

 Lazy Days with Daddy

My pretty Red Geraniums

My pretty Rylee Grace with her Rolie Polie

A little bit of bravery

not quite ready

very inviting!

and a few Pinterest projects! 

Stay tuned!.........