Lights, Tree, Action!

Usually I love to get our Christmas trees from and actual tree farm, the kind you pick and cut down, but it has become so expensive. Last year our tree was over $65.00 and only about 5ft tall, and since I like Nobles I know they wont get any cheaper. So when I went to Pet-co to get Duke some food, I just stopped in to this Christmas Tree 'section' in the corner of the parking lot. It was actually pretty big and had a lot to choose from, and I was just going to see how pricing was, not expecting anything special.

I ended up getting a Noble Fir about 6ft tall, and only got it for $32.00! I love Christmas, don't get me wrong, but it had gotten a little mundane the last few years as I have gotten older, but when I walked into the house with the tree and saw Rylee's face I definitely remember how Christmas used to feel when I was younger. Rylee kept looking at it and going "OOOOO" and "See", she would touch the branches so gently and would leave it even for a second. When she went to bed that night I put the lights and ornaments on, when she woke up she freaked!! She couldn't stop touching it and squealing.

The tree has to be the best tree we have ever had, it is so worth it after seeing Rylee's reaction to it all.

SNOW!!!

Whew, what a different a couple weeks make. I was really hoping for snow, I love it, but wasn't expecting the winter storm that is blowing outside right now. I am crossing my fingers that our power doesn't go out, last time it went out a bout 2 years ago and the power was out for nine days straight.

We have the little one in warm pajamas most of the day to keep her warm, so she is loving that. I am so thankful we got our new windows put in this last June. I was able to bundle up and get a couple pictures of our house with the snow and Christmas!

Everything looks so much more festive with snow.

Family Pictures

This past Saturday we packed Rylee up to Bill's parents house to get some pictures taken of Rylee, and some family pictures with Bill and I with her. We even got a picture of Rylee with each set of grandparents.

When Rylee was 5 weeks old we took her to get some Halloween pictures that a photographer in Puyallup was offering for a great deal. So we decided to give it a try and the pictures turned out so great!! Below are the pictures from about a year ago.

I decided to call her and get some professional pictures we can have hanging in our living room. I am so glad I called her again, Amber from Amber Sheree Photography is so great! She really knows how to get a great picture, they are candid and so cute! She is the nicest photographer I have met, and really takes the time with little ones to get a great picture.

Her website its http://www.ambersheree.com/ . If you look on her blog she has more examples of recent work.

Here are a couple sneak peaks of the pictures, and I cant wait to see the others!

If anyone needs some family pictures done at a AMAZING price, and not the typical studio pictures give her a call. It is so hard to find someone that is so patient and understanding when dealing with babies and toddlers, and we will most definitely be using her for all our family pictures.

Thanksgiving!

We got all dressed up and headed to my parents on Thanksgiving day with my whole family. This year was the first year that all my family was able to be together without the kids being elsewhere.

We are so thankful I was able to get a brand new kitchen table, our old table was huge and comes with two leafs, and with only 3 of us in the home we would never use it fully extended. We gave the table to my parents since our family has gotten so big, and this was the first year we didn't have to have a kids table. So the 14 of us were able to enjoy a great family dinner.

Rylee got to hang out with her cousin Kodey for some time on the stairs, she missed him since my sister doesn't watch her as much anymore.

The day after we got Rylee all dressed up again and headed to Bill's parents home for our 'second' Thanksgiving. We had such a good time seeing our family, makes the holidays so much better. Rylee got to spend some time with grandpa Fritz looking at a Christmas village, she loves the lights and moving parts.

Halloween!!

I know, I am late on posting pictures from Halloween but work has just boomed and we have a lot of late nights doing estimates and home measures.

Rylee was a monkey again for Halloween, I loved the costume since it was so warm and didn't worry about her being too cold. Halloween was such a busy day, my mom and I headed with Rylee to Bill's work to visit him. Rylee loved seeing her daddy and seeing Aunt Shelby in her office.

We had some lunch with Bill and then headed to Grandma and Grandpa Fritz' house to show off our little Monkey! Rylee got a great trick or trick bag from grandma and grandpa, complete with a pink mirror since she loves Nana's mirror so much. Now we don't have to worry about her breaking Nana's mirror anymore, and of course there is still plenty of kissing the mirror. She just loves this and carries it around the house and tries to get Duke to kiss it too.

We then took our tired little one home, Rylee got a much deserved nap. When daddy got home we headed to my mom's house to Trick or Treat to Nana, and some of the neighbors who I used to go to when I was younger. We couldn't stay long since our street gets many Trick or Treaters for Halloween. Rylee got loves from Nana and even got in a wheelchair ride before we had to go.

My sister and her family headed to our house and we then went to the end of our street where one of our neighbors creates this amazing 'Haunted Trail' over a stream and bridge on his property. He has Halloween lights, skeletons, spooky creatures, and the fog even rolled in for added affect!

This year the house next to him decided to create a 'Haunted House' and had a great set-up in their front lawn. It was so great! My sister has three boys, the youngest is only 8 weeks older than Rylee, so the older 2 got to enjoy two decorated houses. The neighbors really go all out, they spend thousands of dollars a year to create this for the kids and cars from all over come just to see it. There was a cool entrance to the front door, then a separate section on the side of the house that came back around the the front, this had more 'scary' things.

We actually had kids coming to the door until 10pm, and had about 30 kids all together come to the door. I love seeing all the costumes and also meeting new neighbors. We were all so pooped after such a long day, and we had one tired little monkey by then end of the night.

It was such a great Halloween, I looked back at last years pictures and think about how far we have come. I am so proud of my little girl, she just loves life and truly seeing things from her eyes are the best view you can have. Here is Rylee from last year, she was just about 1 1/2 months old at the time.

A little update...

Rylee gets to hang out with grandma and great-grandma a couple days a week and has fallen in love with their animals. My parents have a dog named Paris, she came with that name, and my moms cat named Gadget. Here is a picture of Rylee and Paris checking out the scenery.

I wanted to give a little update on Rylee's vocabulary too. She can now say a bunch of words, some of which she says a lot and some she says rarely. She says most things when she is home and usually at things she is around a lot.

See- which she will say over and over

This- Dis

Momma

Daddy, Dadda

Juice, which is really JUU

Duke (our dog) which is Duuu

Gadget, she is in LOVE with grandma's cat

Kitty

Thank You, which is Tah Too

Tea- she shares Tea with Nana

Na-Na

Night Night, which is Nigh Nigh

Want This, which is 'we dis'

Bye Bye, which is Bee Bee

When Rylee finishes something I usually raise my arms and say "All gone." So tonight after dinner I said "All gone" then Rylee lifted her arms and goes "Ah goh"

Bill just about fell off the floor, she just picks up so much lately.

Rylee Kisses!

Rylee and I take care of my grandma, or "NaNa" to Rylee, about 3 days a week, while I get things ready and make lunch, Rylee plays with Nana and shares her tea and sandwich. My grandma has an old antique hand mirror she uses during the day and Rylee recently found this and will stare at it and look at herself. This weekend I was holding Rylee and gave her a kiss, she looked at me funny then leaned forward to give me a kiss back!! So she is learning that kisses are good loves. Well yesterday she handed my grandma the mirror, then looked at herself in the mirror and kissed her reflection!!Then tonight Bill was running an errand and Rylee was looking at her favorite book, it has neat pages for the whole alphabet, and under 'Y' is says for 'YOU' and has a mirror page. So I grabbed her dinner, came back into the living room and Rylee had put her book on the couch and had her face smushed against the page. She looked up at me and I realized she was kissing the mirror on the book page! When daddy got home she even gave him a kiss. Baby kisses are the best, as long as you are ok with some food bits and maybe a bit of slobber!

She is still doing well with her potty, we don't push it but she has gone a couple more times before her bath. Last night during bath night she figured that she can scoot back and forth in her bath-seat and make HUGE waves, so I think I will have to bring a beach towel with me for the next bath. The good thing is the floor stays cleaner since I essentially mop it every other day.

Pumpkin Patch!

Today was Rylee's first trip to the pumpkin patch and we decided to head to Buckley with Bill's mom and dad, and sister Shelby. I was not expecting so many people to be getting pumpkins the same day as us, but this pumpkin patch has everything; corn maze, food, jump house, pony rides, petting farm, pig races, and even a live band. It was really nice to have grandma, grandpa, and aunt Shelby there to see everything.
We put the stroller in 4-wheel drive and headed out to find a couple good pumpkins for our house. Grandma and Grandpa got her a pumpkin from them so we are going to think of something special to carve in that one. We had limited room so we just put Rylee on the pumpkin in the stroller!Last year we were not able to get to a pumpkin patch, I started thinking where we were this time last year and it really made me thankful for how things have turned out. A bit over a year ago I was recovering from the Pulmonary Edema, toxemia, and enlarged heart from my delivery, and would have just had my gall bladder removed after it just about ruptured. This time last year I couldn't have even thought about going to a pumpkin patch. I tell you, I will have to remind Rylee a couple times when she is older what I went through to have her, it wont be the typical " I was in labor for over 30 hours.."story. So when I look at these pictures I cant help smile at my little girl and be thankful.

Our Little Trouble Maker....

I have reduced hours with work, so I can still work from home and still be able to take care of my grandma. Grandma had a leg amputation about 5 weeks and cant be left alone for too many hours for safety reasons. This leaves me some great time to be with Rylee during the week instead of always having to have my sister watch her. Rylee really loves her Nana too and gets to enjoy sharing lunch and giving loves.

Since I have been home more with Rylee I have just seen her personality come into full view, she is learning so many different expressions and noises. She will say 'Thank You' now once in awhile and is really our little animal lover. She loves anything with fur, and is actually really gentle.

So our morning starts out with a diaper change and some strawberry Eggo's, she generally plays in the living room while I get breakfast going. And this morning I walked out and this is what I found...

She saw me and luckily my camera was right on the kitchen table next to me. She gave the best expressions followed by a couple "Oh's" She was too cute to be mad at!!

I should be posting more tomorrow, we are heading to the pumkin patch in Buckley so we should have some good pictures to post!

Rylee Vs. Dog

We have two dogs in the house, a Australian Cattle dog mix Duke, and Basil, a rescue Cocker-Spaniel. They have been pretty good with Rylee for the most part, Duke was our first 'baby' so he gets a bit jealous but he never uses his teeth or even comes close to doing anything to her. He has backed down to small dogs who have attacked him and literally falls on his back and doesn't fight back.

Basil on the other hand had a very rough time before we got him, he was starved and had a open wound on his neck when the rescue found him. He has had severe food aggression with Duke and used to pee on the floor at any loud noise, including flushing to toilet. We have worked a lot with him and he has come so far, we are very proud of that actually, but today for some reason he had a set-back.

Bill was standing next to Rylee while I was in the kitchen, both dogs were in the living room, as they usually are. As soon as I walked around the corner I saw Basil for some reason lunge at Rylee and bite her on the forehead. Bill rushed to tackle Basil to put him in the back room and I grabbed Rylee. She has a bruise in shape of doggie teeth and a little cut right on her eyebrow, she was of course crying but handled it like a champ.

From the very beginning I have said if the dogs bite Rylee they are gone; as long as it didn't involve food, toys, or her bugging or teasing them (I do have to understand they ARE animals and when those factors are involved they will want to protect their things). But this was a completely different situation; she didn't have a toy, food, or wasn't even touching him. I do love Basil and he is a good little dog, he just needs a home with no small children. He had such a rough life when he was younger that there are just some things we cannot fix. I am going to call the rescue tomorrow and see when they can come get him, when we adopted him they stated if for some reason we couldnt keep him they would take him back.

Rylee peed in her potty!

I am in no way one of 'those' moms who wants my child to start everything early, but I wanted to get Rylee a potty chair to show her so when it did come time to use it she wouldnt be scared of it.

At first I wanted to get a crazy fun potty that plays a 'potty song' and has all these sounds that play. But then I figured she might just want to play with it instead. So I bought her a $10 super simple pink potty, and put it in the bathroom next to her bath seat. At least every other night it is Rylee's bath night; we brush her teeth, clean her ears, and tonight I put her on the potty before we put her in the tub. She sat like such a big girl on the potty and kinda hung on to the front, she was just looking around at me and the tub. I offered her to hold a toy and she didn't want it, she just sat there completely content. Then after a couple minutes she just got up... and there was pee-pee in the potty!! She was so proud of herself and started clapping when I got all excited.

We will see if this is was just a coincidence or not, but it was still exciting!

Rylee is ONE!

Rylee turned ONE on September 4th, we did a family cupcake and had a special time just with Bill and I with our little one. She is just getting so big that it was a bit surreal looking through her birth pictures and through the months.

Bill was in a wedding the next day, so Bill's parents watched Rylee during the wedding. They spent time with Rylee and took her for a walk. She is such a busy little girl I think it took a couple days to recover!

We had a BIG birthday party on Sunday, we invited friends and family to celebrate her first year. We were so surprised on all the people who came, we couldn't have been happier! Since many of our friends have children I wanted to make sure their kids had fun and didn't want to leave right away, so......

I got a BOUNCY HOUSE!!

The bouncy house seemed to be a big hit, and it allowed parents to stay longer since the kids were occupied! We were so blessed to be able to see our friends and family and have them be there to celebrate Rylee. Rylee is going to be one styling girl, she got so many great gifts and clothes that I am so overwhelmed! It was just a great day, Rylee didn't have a huge melt-down and we were able to see everyone!

We are just so proud of Rylee, we have a very happy, healthy, and very loved little girl. We cannot wait for the many more birthdays that will come through the years.