Finally...an update!

Well, life in the Stuart house has been pretty busy lately. School has started with a BANG!! It seems as if someone has been busy every night for the past 3 weeks. I am loving my new position as a first grade teacher!! It is challenging, but I look forward to it everyday. My class is sweet and I think it is going to be a great year. Hopefully things will start slowing down soon now that "meet the teacher" and "room forum" are over. I only have a couple of after school meetings over the next few weeks and then things should be nice and routine.

Brian is loving football season. He is busy with long days and nights, but it is worth it. Somedays he doesn't get home until 9, so he misses seeing Ryleigh. But I do my best to take her up to the school whenever I can. The bulldogs started off the season great, and I bet they make another playoff run.

My sweet baby is probably enjoying life the most right now. She is learning something new every day and she is doing something new every day. I don't know if I have mentioned how wonderful our new sitter, Shana, is...but she is wonderful!!! There are not enough words to express my happiness that she is watching Ryleigh. It makes going to work much easier knowing my baby is in the best of hands. Ryleigh starts saying her name as soon as I put her in the car. She knows where we are going after breakfast everyday. Shana takes her to do all sorts of fun things and she teaches her something everyday. I think Ryleigh may be closer to all my friends by the end of the year than I am. She gets to see them all around town and at school while I work all day!! Speaking of school! Tomorrow is her first day of real school. She will be going to Young Children's World two days a week with Shana. She is a teacher there! I am a bit sad that she is growing up and going to school, but I think I am even sadder that I am going to miss it. I am not going to be able to take her or pick her up because of work. So Shana will be her "school mommy." It makes me cry, but I know it will be worth it. I am just so thankful to be in the situation we are. I never thought Ryleigh would get to go to "school" until she got to kindergarten since I worked...but God had bigger plans.

So that is a quick update on our lives. I don't have much time to post lately, but this long Labor Day weekend did us all some good. We enjoyed spending three whole days with our "daddy!" Here are a few pictures from the past couple of weeks...enjoy!

This is Ryleigh and I up at school during my teacher work days. It felt good to show her off to all of my teacher friends after a long summer break. She has changed so much!

This is Ryleigh with Shana's two boys Jonathan and Jared. She just loves them. They all play so well together. They are the big brothers she will never have. She spends most of her time with Jared since Jon started kindergarten, but I hear that she can't wait for Jon to come home from school every day!
This is my little pianist! She loves Shana's piano. Everyday when I pick her up, she climbs up to show me what she learned to play! It is adorable!

I don't know if you can see it, but this is Ryleigh's very first black eye. She busted and hit her face on her sippy cup. It looked pretty bad for a few days, but she is all better now. I know there will be many more bumps and bruises to come in her lifetime, but we survived the first.