One Busy Summer...

Well we have been quite busy over the past month. I believe we have had something to do almost every weekend. This is something I'm not complaining about because I would much rather be around people then sit at home watching life go by, but it has made blogging a bit tough. Since I have a bit of time today, I figured I would give an update of what the Rickabaughs have been up to...sorry if this entry is a bit long, but I have lots to update on.

First I just wanted to put a cute picture of Lily up. She loves these glasses that came with a Yo Gabba Gabba toy, and I finally was able to get a picture with her wearing them. This picture makes me laugh everytime I see it. I think this really captures her personality.

David went to Tulsa for 4 days a few weeks ago, so one of the days I went down to Friendswood to hang out with my family. We went to dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, Kelly's. I know, I'm an old person, but I love home cooking. For those of you who have never been to Kelly's, I believe the full name is Kelly's Country Cookin' and it is usually busiest at 5:00pm mostly with those who draw Social Security. I figured it was time for Lily to be properlly introduced to this restaurant. So the picture below is her enjoying their wonderful mashed potatoes. I think she ate my serving plus some of my dads...needless to say there were potatoes EVERYWHERE!!


I also went down to Friendswood last week, to help my family pack up some of my grandmother's house. We currently have her house on the market, so we have been trying to fix it up so hopefully it will sell faster. In order for my mom and I to get lots of work done, Lily had to be entertained. I ended up bringing my portable dvd player with episodes of Yo Gabba Gabba. I wasn't sure how she would take to it, but she LOVED it! Right after it started playing she laid down on the ground to watch the show. (below is the picture) I am constantly amazed at how grown up Lily is becoming.

At the end of June, David and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary. Thanks to some wonderful friends, we were able to go out to eat baby free! We had a wonderful dinner at the Melting Pot, and we got about 2 peaceful hours to ourselves. I can't believe 4 years have already passed, and it's crazier to me that we have been together for a total of 8 years! In such a short amount of time we have had so many wonderful things happen to us, and I am looking forward to seeing what else the future has in store for us.


The weekend after our anniversary, we traveled to Austin to celebrate my sister's best friend, Molly's wedding. My mom and Ashlee had gone there earlier in the week, so my dad, David, Lily, and I headed there Friday night. Ashlee was the maid of honor in the wedding, and she asked me to do her hair for the wedding. I had previously done her hair for another of her friend's wedding, but all I did for that was straighten it and pull part of it up. This time she wanted curly hair! For those who don't know my sister, she has the thickest hair I have ever seen...I swear her pony tail is like 2 in in diameter. I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do, but after an hour of curling her hair, I think I got it to look very pretty.

The next few pictures are from the wedding. We had such a great time. Lily enjoyed dancing the most! She loved running around the dance floor. Oh! and we learned how much of a ham our daughter really is...she was out dancing with her Auntie, and one of the photographers took a picture of her. She immediately stoped dancing, turned around, and posed for the camera. Then 2 of the photographers and one videographer were standing in a group. Lily walked over right into the center of the group and posed for them to take her picture! Oh Lordy, we are in trouble...I think this girl is going to be a handful.

On our way back from Austin, we stopped by to visit my grandmother. Lily decided to play peek-a-boo with her. This time she played by putting her head on the ground and then popping up. It was hilarious, and my grandmother loved it. She even went over and gave her great-grandmother a kiss which made her day! I was so glad we were able to go by and spend some time with her.

Now to the 4th of July weekend. This time of year is always busy for us, as my mom's parents birthdays are on the 3rd and the 4th. Usually we celebrate on the 4th, but this year we got together on the 3rd.

After we celebrated at my grandparent's house, Ashlee, David, and I went down to Galveston for the Kris Allen concert. Thankfully due to Alex and his rain, the outdoor concert was moved indoors with air conditioning. This made the concert much more bearable than the David Cook concert last year.

On the 4th we headed to the Red, Hot, and Blue festival in the Woodlands. We had such a great time, even though it was a teeny bit warm out. We had planned to stay for the fireworks, and even had a prime spot on top of a parking garage, but at around 8 we decided to go home. Lily and the two of us were hot and tired, and I didn't think we could last another hour/hour and a half.

Finally, on the 5th, we headed down to Friendswood to watch the 4th of July parade. Due to the 4th falling on a sunday, the parade was moved to Monday. We had a fun time at the parade. Lily really wasn't into watching the parade until the horses came by...which she called pup pup...I guess they kind of look like a big dog :)

Lily watch YGG at the parade before it starts

A picture Lily took of herself

After the parade we headed over to Stevenson park to enjoy the 4th festivities. We have fun at the park, but it was so much smaller than previous years. I'm not sure if this was because it was on a Monday, but I didn't mind not having to fight crowds. My mom bought Lily some very cute bows, and Lily even got to play a duck pond game. We did enjoy it a bit better than the event in the Woodlands though, becuase the events for the kids were free. They had games, jumpy inflatable things, and she even got a bear balloon animal.

We had such a wonderful weekend, but boy were we tired afterwards. Lily was so tired, I swear she fell asleep after 5 minutes in the car! We hope everyone else had a wonderful 4th of July!

That's all we've been up to so far. I will hopefully be a bit more on top of my blogging over the next couple of weeks.

Socks!

The other night, I had Lily's pjs on the couch...a top, pants, and some socks. She quickly saw the socks and grabbed them. Then she attempted to put them on! I was amazed she knew where they went. I quickly grabbed the flip and took some footage of the event.

Bubble Wrap!

Yesterday I received some dishes that I had ordered. (nothing too exciting just some extra pieces for my set.) Well, Lily found the box and the bubble wrap. She spent the rest of the evening running around on the bubble wrap popping the bubbles. I love that she moves her legs faster to try and pop more bubbles!

Fun in the Sprinkler

Yesterday, the family went on our after dinner walk. Afterwards, David set up the sprinkler to water the front lawn. I took Lily outside to play on the driveway. She had so much fun playing outside. She spent time at the window looking at her pup pup, and then she found her new favorite thing...the sprinkler.

She walked down the side walk where the water was hitting, and she started laughing when she felt the water on her. I had to run and get the camera to catch her playing in the sprinkler for the first time. Below are the pictures I got of her playing outside...sorry there are so many, but they were so cute!

Playing with her pup pup

Running in the water




Going to check on Gracie


She's still in there

Down the side walk

this was a laugh :)

so much fun

ooohh...pup pup!

drumming on the front patio

i got all wet!

love her!

Such a big helper

Lily has become such a big help around the house. Last week she helped me empty the dishwasher. She was very thorough.

She then decided it was a tad dusty...so she grabbed her swiffer and began to work.

Posing with the now dust-free dishwasher tray.

Then, on Thursday we went to the grocery store. She helped me empty out the bags, and she set everything neatly on the floor for me to see what we had purchased.

Finally on Friday, Lily was in a very helpful mood. First, she helped me vacuum the breakfast room. I think she did such a good job.

Next, she decided it was time for some spring cleaning. She helped me clean out my entire cabinet of Tupperware. She made sure she got everything out, and even got in the cabinet to grab the stuff on the shelf.

I just love Lily so much, and I am so thankful she is such a helpful little girl. I can't wait to see what else she decides to help with :)

Cruisin...

On April 17th, David and I set sail on our first (and last) cruise. We decided it was time for us to go on a trip with just the two of us, and we decided to go on a cruise since neither of us had been on one before. We left on Saturday morning for a 5 night cruise that stopped in Progresso and Cozumel, Mexico. David has always wanted to go on a cruise, but I was a bit more hesitant. I am not a big fan of boats or open water, but I decided to give it a try.

Our cruise started off great. The first day David won us scalp massages in the spa, so we booked full body massages with facials to go with the scalp massages. We did some things on the boat during the first day at sea, and we both played our first game of black jack. (we started and ended with $10) We had the most fun laying out in the sun...it was very relaxing...especially when drinking a pina colada.

During our first port day we stopped in Progresso, Mexico. In stead of doing an excursion that day, we booked our spa appointments. It was a very relaxing morning of pampering. Afterwards we decided to get off the boat just to say we had been there.

The next day was our port day in Cozumel. This was by far our most favorite day. We got off the boat around 8:30 to go on our excursion. We took a catamaran out to a reef off the coast where we went snorkeling. It was so much fun. The water was so beautiful, and it was amazing to see all the fish under the water. We even got to see a HUGE school of fish. After snorkeling we took the catamaran to a private beach with all sorts of activities.

We did a little bit of shopping in Cozumel, and then we headed back to the boat. We had one more day at sea. It was such a calm day, the water was like glass.

Little did we know how our day would turn out. At 12:55pm the boat started leaning to one side. At first we didn't think anything of it, but then it just kept leaning. We were right beside the dining room where we could hear dishes slide off tables and breaking, and could see all the bottles and glasses break from a bar below us. Finally the boat settled back to level. It was the scariest thing I have ever experienced. I really thought we were about to tip over. After about 5 minutes, where everyone was freaking out, they came on the PA system and said the boat had to make a sudden turn to avoid a buoy. It was amazing how much stuff was damaged on the boat in such a short period of time. We were mostly amazed with how much stuff is not secured on the boat. The picture below is of the liquor store. The cabinets fell over, and people had to be shoved out of the way so they didn't fall on the shoppers.

While they kept telling us it was a buoy, we were all convinced the boat made a turn due to how close we were to these little small islands that were out in the gulf. Below is our path and the sudden turn was when we were right next to the green dots.

Here is a desk that slid all the way across a walk way and slammed into the outer wall. It put a rather large dent in the wall and broke the desk.

Every time the boat tilted at all after, I got a little paranoid, but thankfully everything was ok. Here is a picture of us with our wait staff. They were so nice, and made our dinner every evening very enjoyable.

All in all, it was a good trip, but I don't think we will ever go on another cruise. I'm not very sure David and I are "cruise" people...next time we will just fly to our destination.