Saturday Playdate - Shibley Smiles

It is Saturday! Thank goodness, too! This week has gone nothing like I planned for it to. I started out the week by having to take Bryce to Urgent Care for a reaction to some bug bites, and we are finishing it up with him being sick. Hopefully next week will be a better week for us.

Anyway - I'm super excited about today's playdate! Colleen from Shibley Smiles is here today! If you're a regular reader here, you already know Colleen since I talk about her all the time. But just in case you haven't seen her name before, she is one of my long-time and closest friends. We have known each other since middle school! And let's just say that was a long time ago. We have stayed in touch most of the years since then, and due to our recent blogging addictions, we have gotten super close again over the past few months.

Colleen has such a great blog! She has really jumped right into all of this and her blog is taking off! She writes about her wonderful family, and her three adorable kids that range in age from 13 to 4. With ages like those, you know there is always something going on! Colleen is crazy talented when it comes to design, whether it be a blog, a button, or birthday invitations. She has a weekly scrapping meme, where you can see some of her creations. There are also some great product reviews and giveaways going on over there right now. I could go on all day, but this is HER post so I won't. After you're done here, check out her blog and make sure you say hi. I'm sure you'll love it over there!

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Lets start out today by giving a big round of applause for our hostess (clap, clap, clap,clap).  LeeAnn take a bow.....What? Yes I'm serious take a bow.

Thank you LeeAnn for inviting me over to The Life of Rylie...and Bryce too! for a Saturday Playdate. I am excited to be here, enjoying the beautiful scenery, humorous stories, and strawberry daiquiris. Wait where are the strawberry daiquiris? Darn it I knew I forgot something. Oh well, I'm always forgetting something, I think having kids requires you to leave a small memory deposit at the hospital for services rendered. Anyway, before  I begin I will give you a little background on myself, or better yet how about a little background on our hostess (LeeAnn if you were not sure before, let me mention this is where you offer me a bribe to keep quiet). I've known LeeAnn for let's see 1,2,3,4....yeah I'm not going to go there let's just say since middle school. We went to high school together, and I remember seeing her once at a dear friends wedding, and wasn't that you that one night (you did destroy  those photos didn't you?), and now I seem to see her everyday on this blog or that. LeeAnn are you following me? No, no that must be my silly imagination. Our dear hostess is indeed the person that introduced me to blogging. She warned me how addictive it could be, and don't get me wrong I believed her but man was that an understatement. However despite how out of control, obsessive, and time consuming this addiction can be I LOVE IT!! And that my dear friends is the behind the scenes making of Shibley Smiles. The rest is still left to be written.

If you are still with me let me tell you a little about myself and my family. I met my husband in September of 1995 at work. The giggly, already married, office girls told me I just HAD to see the new guy and how much he looked like Steven Seagal. So I strolled on over that way in my white tight fitting dress (the dress that I still have hanging in the back of my closet so when I get down to size 8 I can at least wear it for my hubby again) and he did indeed look amazingly like Steven Seagal (I say did because my husband looks much younger and is more handsome then Steven Seagal.) My son Christopher (aka Buddy) arrived into this world A DARN week and a half late on a hot sunny Sunday afternoon in August 1997. Shortly after that in May of 1998 my husband and I got married. Yeah I know what you are thinking, hey you did that backwards. Well I never claimed to be a structured and organized person I tend to get things out of order occasionally makes life more interesting. In April of 2000 my second son Nicholas (aka Nick), the one with the killer smile, came into this world on HUMP day. Right in the middle of the week, had to take the rest of the afternoon off for that. Just about when things seemed to get in a good rhythm both boys in school along came our sweet surprise. Ericka (aka Honey and named after her belated grandfather) completed our family November of 2005. I say completed because that is it, no more, nada, zilch, ain't gonna happen!

I spend most of my non working hours catering to my beloved family. If I'm not helping with homework or playing dress up I am driving one kid to a soccer practice and then rushing off to a baseball or football game. One minute I'm baking brownies with my princess and the next I'm a referee for the World's Greatest Boxing Championship. I am a goofy, fun loving, skinner by the day, rockin' mom. Ask my kids they tell me all the time I'm the best mother they've ever had. Sometimes I wonder what other mother they are comparing me too, but I'll take the compliment for all its worth. My favorite nickname for my baby girl is "Liver Lips", yep I did mention I was goofy right? Don't know where I got it from but I just love the way it sounds. I wear many hats: wife, employee, taxi driver, sports fan, cook (not a very good one), maid, but by far my favorite and most cherished hat is "Mommy". My Life, My Love, My Laughter, is  My Family!

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And Colleen - it has been way too long! I can't wait to see you in three weeks!