My little Reader!

Ok so it isn't 'reading' but she is crazy about books, she grabs her books out of her toy box and heads to her chair in the living room to check it out. She even grabbed my gossip magazine (I know, I know) and sat on the floor to read it. She was sitting on her potty before her bath last night and had to have her book with her, and her Elmo balloon (see previous post).

By no means is she potty trained, but she will go in her potty before her baths and every once in awhile, which is great for her age. She will come into the bathroom when I am getting ready and sit on her potty. She woke up from a nap today and said "poo poo" and sure enough, she had a dirty diaper!

Valentines Day

I love Holidays so much now that Rylee is old enough to really get into them and interact with her gifts. So the night before Valentines Day I set out a pink monkey and an Elma balloon for the little one when she woke up.

When she saw the balloon she was fixated on it, she still wakes up and carries it around the house with her. Even after her nap she is still surprised by it and has to grab it. Good thing the Mylar balloons last a long time.

I was able to snatch a couple pictures of her right when she got her little gifts. She even tried to bring it in the tub last night, and was so upset when I took it away.

We had a very busy day, we headed to North Bend to harass the outlet malls, we really hardly shop for things and it was a fun outing to do some shopping. Bill was in desperate need of some nice work clothes, some nice jeans and nice shirts. We even got him a couple pairs of shoes as well. We of course had to stop in the Carter's store and get Rylee some clothes, I love Carter's clothes and the pricing at the outlet store is so great.

I was even able to get some clothes AND had a chance to spurge, for anyone who knows me I only shop in clearance and am super frugal on clothing or items. So when I went into the Coach outlet store I was hoping for a miracle, and boy did I find one! I have always wanted a Coach purse and never thought I would actually be able to make myself purchase one, but after a 70% marked down purse for under $100 I couldn't resist! I was even able to get a matching wallet. I am still in 'purse shock'.

So our Valentines Day was a great one, Rylee was such a trooper and of course was the store greeter in every store, no one got tired of the "Hi" repeated over and over. We were so tired by the time we got home, shopping pooped us out for sure! Though it was so nice to get out and buy some things to replenish items needed, and some items just dreamed about, I am back to my sales and clearance racks!!

Rylees Interview

Just my luck...

I have had back issues since High School, I used to raise sheep and being the stubborn person I am, I decided getting a 245lb sheep would be a good challenge! Well after a day cleaning the barn and feeding time, I ended up flat on my back across the wood lip on the barn this leaving me with a spinal fracture on my low back.

Over the last few years it has slowly gotten worse and I have gone through acupuncture, massage, chiropractic, and spinal injections to find some sort of relief. I have lost some weight recently, though much more is needed of course, but since my life is so active with work, home, and of course my active little monkey I have been sent to an Orthopedic Specialist. After meeting him a couple weeks ago, getting an MRI (which I am horribly claustrophobic) and a Disco-gram (google it, it was horrible) he has come to the decision that I need a Spinal Fusion.

This news is devastating but somehow not surprising for me, I guess I knew it might come to this. I have been hoping and praying that there might be some other option or outcome, but the MRI results show a deteriorating disc, and the Dr. made sense when saying it was something that only gets worse, it isn't something you can reverse. Bill and I met with the Dr. last week just to go over things and to explain the procedure, there are two types of approaches for the surgery: one is through the abdomen and one is through the spinal canal. Both approaches will be a long and tough recovery, about 3-5 months all together.

I will be in the hospital for 4 days, we have chosen to the the abdomen approach, it allows for greater access to the disc without having to cut through back muscle and be too close to the nerves in the spinal canal. With the surgery they will have to take a chip out of my hip as well to create a bone area for the fusion to start to heal, I will have some metal and screws put in through the back also. I am scared to death needless to say, after having to be in the ICU after Rylee then the gall bladder surgery I am just not wanting anymore surgeries. I think this one is harder since it is a planned surgery, I have ALL the time in the world to think about the pain, the recovery, and the thought of not being able to pick Rylee up for over a month just might kill me. Bill will have to take time off of work, and I think every person able to help might be called upon. :)

So a lot of plans are being tossed around for when I am home, who can watch Rylee when and who can check on me. I hate having to have so many people helping me and rearranging every part of their schedule, but now might be the easiest time before we plan on more children

We absolutely want to have more children, and the Dr says I will have an easier time next if my disc is secure, and the surgery will not interfere with epidurals(this was one of my first concerns). I have to think of the long-run, being able to run and play with Rylee without hurting, carrying her without wanting to cry, and being able to hold her while she sleeps are the things keeping me somewhat positive. I have to think that a few months of pain and recovery will be worth many years to come of playing and holding Rylee and any future little ones.

Rylee's Big-girl Chair

My mom and dad found an old child's chair at a garage sale this past summer for $5.00 and brought it home. We picked out a great fabric and they recovered it and re-made the wood rocker pieces.

It is so cute, it looks like an adult chair, but it is the perfect size for Rylee. She loves to rock and sitting in chairs makes her feel like a big girl. So after a lot of work on my parents end, they got it finished for Christmas. I just got a chance to take a couple pictures of Rylee in it to post on here.

Getting so big!!

I cant believe how bug Rylee is getting, she is climbing on the couch, walking to our door, walking in stores, and has been 'talking' up a storm.

She has always done really well in the speaking part of things, and has added a few new words to her vocabulary, one of which I will not write- it is a work I am hoping she forgets VERY soon. :)

-Pee Pee

-Papa (grandpa)

-Shoes (she is in love with shoes)

-Baby

- Whats that (it sounds just like this)

-Gagga (grandma)

-Doo Doo, this is our Dog, but she uses Doo Doo for any dog

-Poo Poo

- Again (Agee)

-Bye

-No, No (oh yes, this one is great...)

-Night Night

-Hi (she says this to EVERYONE, all the time, over and over)

-Bite (when she is wanting to eat)

-Blanket (blankee)

-Mine

-Mike (my brother)

-Katie (Kay-ee, my neice)

-Good Girl

-Nice

She will repeat things you ask her too, my mom asked her to say store and gas today in the car and Rylee stopped, looked out the window, thought about it for a second and then repeated them. But she has some really solid words she uses a lot. Something I worked on her with was blowing kisses, and now if you tell her it is time to say good-bye, she will look at them and blow a kiss, even with the "Muahh" sound. It is so cute.

I have a bad back, so we are working on her walking more, from the car to the door and even from the car to a store, or a restaurant. She is doing well, she will make sure and hold your hand until you get to the door. Climbing on the couch has been fun, our usual hiding spots for the remote or cell phones is no longer!

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.