Our Christmas

First of all can I just say I HATE BLOGGER. It is so uncooperative which is the main reason I hardly ever blog! So if there are any typos in this post sorry I am not even re-reading anything cause I am DONE with this post.

Warning: There are A LOT of pictures and words...sorry! Christmas was SO MUCH FUN this year. Last year was fun, but this year since Rylee is a lot older it was just a lot more exciting for us. She knows who Santa is and always points when she sees him and says, “Tanta!” She would get so excited about the lights and loved LOVED watching the Christmas Classics Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer. (Which made me so happy because I loved watching them when I was younger!) She didn’t care about the ornaments on the tree which really surprised me…we didn’t put very many on the tree and only put non-breakable ones on. I was shocked when she didn’t really even touch them. Other people’s tree on the other hand…she wanted to touch so bad! We didn’t put any presents under the tree because all she did was try to unwrap them. She succeeded in that once. We were all 3 upstairs in our bathroom one evening getting ready to go somewhere. Rylee hurried downstairs and came back up with one of Kelly’s presents in hand…unwrapped. Good thing it was only a dumb present – some socks.

Here she is watching Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer.We had so many family parties this Christmas season and were always in a rush wherever we went. Kelly’s business boomed with orders and he was working 15+ hour days most days and working 7 days a week. And with me working 2 evenings a week we hardly ever saw each other. It made me really sad that we hardly got to see each other especially around the holidays but I am of course grateful for how hard he works for us and never, ever complains. And we are so blessed with how busy his business has been! Wednesday, December 14th Kelly’s family had a little Christmas party. It is the first one they have done with just their little family and not the extended family and it was really fun! I was REALLY bummed though because we were planning on going to see the lights at Temple Square but we ended up not going. I haven’t been in several years and I really wanted to take Rylee. We were just going to go up another night but it never happened because Kelly was just way too busy and the days it would maybe work out, ended up not working out. Hopefully next year! Instead we went to Kelly’s parents and ate a YUMMY dinner, ate pie, they read a Christmas story and we went around Salem Pond to see the lights and to the Festival of Lights in Spanish Fork.
Friday, December 16th Kelly’s Mom’s side of the family had their annual family Christmas party. Ugly sweaters and white elephant gifts. The entire family is obsessed with the movie Christmas story and Kelly’s aunt and her family made a leg lamp. It was HILARIOUS. Kelly’s cousin was the one who ended up with it and was so excited to put it in her room.

Friday, December 23rd Kelly's Dad's side of the family had their annual Christmas Party. Dinner, presents, and the Nativity. Rylee got to be an angel this year as well as Uncle Scott. Aren't they so cute?Christmas Eve we spent the evening with my family. We had dinner and opened presents from my Grandma and Aunt and Uncle. My Grandma made her this ADORABLE apron. This seriously is the best shot I could get of her. Little stinker would not hold still! My aunt got her a doll and she loves her! We spent the night Christmas Eve at my in-laws house. We do every year and it is a lot of fun. I was a little nervous that Rylee wouldn't sleep but she did really good...on try #2 anyway. :) We put her down at 9 and she just cried on and off for about an hour and a half. At one point I think she fell asleep cause she didn't cry for quite a while. We finally went in and got her and just assume she didn't want to miss out on all the fun since there were a few people there and we were laughing when she went to sleep. Finally at midnight I put her down in her pack n play again and she didn't make a peep. She went right to sleep without making a noise and slept all night and woke up at 10 a.m. Christmas morning! Here is Rylee and Daddy on Christmas morning. Ya he's gonna be mad at me for putting this up but I just had to. It was too cute not to. :) And she totally looks like she has a mullet...haha!

Santa brought Rylee a CUTE table and chairs and some play dishes...which she totally loves!She loves her baby she got. She was so excited when she opened it and first thing I said was, "Feed your baby!" She layed her down and put the bottle right up to her baby's mouth...and then to hers. She was confused nothing would come out. :)She loved opening presents. We ate some breakfast after she was done and headed to my parents to open presents. We weren't there long because we had to run and get ready for church. After church we headed to Kelly's parents for Christmas dinner. As soon as we got back to their house (a little after 2) we fed her lunch and layed her down and she slept til 6! She has been sleeping a ton since Christmas...lots and lots of sleep to catch up on!

Here is my favorite gift from Kelly! I have been wanting an apple green Kitchen Aid mixer for a while now and I finally got one. :) It is SO cute on the counter! I just love love love green. Even Rylee's crib is green. haha!

Spoiled much?

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

Stay tuned for Rylee's 18 month post! She turned 18 months ON Christmas Day. I can hardly believe she is this old already! Her first day of Nursery is on Sunday...wahoo!

Curse you sickness

There has been some nasty sickness at our house since last week. I believe it was Friday Kelly started feeling horrible.. and I mean horrible. I have only seen him super sick like this one other time and that was when we were first married nearly 5 years ago.

He just stayed in bed and slept pretty much all day. His chest hurt so bad and he said he felt like he got hit by a bus. Poor Kelly. I felt so bad for him and tried to take care of him as best as I could but I also tried to stay away to avoid Rylee getting sick. I don't care about me, but I definitely care about her.

Well, that didn't matter. She got sick anyway. A few days ago she started with a nasty nasty cough.. a barky kind of cough that slowly got worse. Her voice was really hoarse and her cry was so sad and sounded awful. And today she didn't eat hardly anything. She drank a lot of water and a banana this morning and a few crackers this afternoon but that's about it.

This evening at about 5:30 I decided she needed to go to the doctor. I had been debating all day whether or not to take her in. Every time I have taken her in the past and it was just a virus so they couldn't really do anything. I decided this time I would just wait and see how she did but this evening she started fussing like she never has before and was starting to sound even worse. Then I knew I had to take her in.

I called the after hours clinic and they had an opening at 6:10 so I took her right over. Sure enough she has an ear infection and croup. My poor girl! She has been so miserable the past couple days and especially today and I felt so bad for her. She is now on an antibiotic and a steroid medicine.. hopefully she will feel better quickly. Sick babies make me so sad! I am just so SO glad I took her in tonight and that there is something that will help her feel better.

I have now definitely decided to try and keep her at home as much as possible this season to avoid her getting all kinds of sicknesses. I know she can get them from even us being in contact with something but I will take every precaution I can. I hate viruses and bugs!

My poor sick baby girl -- have you seen a sweeter sleeping face? Oh how I love her.

Family Pictures 2011

I haven't updated my blog or even been on it for a month or so - I posted yesterday and today. I am on a roll! :)
My friend Madelyn took our family pictures last week... they are AMAZING! I love that Rylee is smiling in almost every picture. I am so happy with how they turned out!
Check out her website: www.madelynwphoto.com

Halloween 2011

Rylee's 2nd Halloween was so much fun. It's amazing how much more fun holidays are with a child - especially the older they are. We actually got to go trick or treating and it was so much fun. Deciding on what she should be was pretty tough! I kept changing my mind - Kelly would just laugh at me. I seriously bought different costumes and returned all of them. I was in the middle of making her Pebbles costume (Kelly and I were going to be Wilma and Fred Flinstone) and then we found this CUTE Dorothy costume at JoAnn's for only $10! We couldn't pass it up - it was way too cute. We got her red sparkly shoes at Walmart for $10 and she can still wear them. My Mother in law had the cute basket and fake dog she could carry around as Toto. But it was funny - everyone thought it was a real dog and no one actually got that it was supposed to be Toto... silly people. Every year my inlaws have a Halloween Party. We eat chili and other yummy food and just hang out in our costumes. This year it was on Saturday. We went to our ward trunk or treat and then headed there for the evening. It was way fun. Kelly and I dressed up as Glenda the Good Witch and Kelly was the Scarecrow. It was so much fun getting all dressed up and all matching each other. What a fun Halloween we had this year!

I officially hate the University Mall Macy's Clinique counter. They are by far the rudest and uncaring people I have ever met. I have always worn Clinique makeup - I love it. The only time I buy from Clinique though is when they are having their Bonus Time. I get a cute makeup bag and a bunch of other stuff such as lipgloss, mascara, eyeshadow, lotion, etc. All I have to spend is $21.50 and I get all the other stuff with it. Totally worth my money.

Today I went because Macy's Clinique counter was having their Bonus Time. I needed blush so I went to buy it. It was only $20 so I had to get something else. (Of course they always do that so you have to spend well over $21.50.) Except my foundation is $22 I think? But with the blush I have to buy something else. I decided to get some $14 lipgloss. The lady who helped me was super nice and sweet and put a few different colors on my lips until I found one I really loved.

She took me up to the counter, rung me up and I was on my way. I walked to the end of the store super excited about everything I had just gotten so I opened the bag. I saw my makeup bag and all my other bonus items, my blush... and no lipgloss. I thought 'oh she must have just forgotten to put it in the bag' so I walked back and told her it wasn't in my bag.

She took the bag from me and looked through it. Nothing. She walked to the stroller while I was digging through everything in the bottom basket. Nothing. She said, "well it's on the receipt right here and I know I put it in the bag...sorry there is nothing I can do." So basically she was calling me a liar and she "KNEW" she put it in the bag and I was just out my money. I looked at her (totally pissed at this point) and asked her if possibly she hadn't put it in the bag and someone put it away? She asked around. Nothing. I told her I promise I wasn't trying to be dishonest. I mean, come one, I didn't even really want or need the lipgloss I just wanted all the bonus items.

I figured she would be totally nice about it and just give me a new one. No way. She was SO rude to me. I'm sorry, but isn't the customer always first? Don't you just trust someone? I mean, for the most part people are pretty honest. I used to work at a credit union and a guy came through the drive through once and got $20 cash, signed for it, drove away, came back a few minutes later and said he couldn't find his money ANYWHERE. So guess what my manager said to do? Give him another $20 bill. We trusted him enough to give him more money even though we knew he took $20 already. Guess what happened? About an hour or so later he came back and had found it tucked between the seat and middle console. Trustworthy? I think so.

I told the lady she could look through everything of mine and it wasn't there. (I am home now and looked through all my stuff...it isn't there.) The lady told me one more time "No, I can't do anything." I just found it shocking that the lady who helped me was in fact the counter manager and she totally flipped a 180 attitude-wise. She was super nice to me at first and then became a total B. Finally another lady was being nice about it and called the store manager for me. Guess what the store manager did? Came down, I explained what had happened, she walked over and got a new lipgloss, handed it to me and said, "that is very nice lipgloss you enjoy that." What a sweet lady. Thank you, at least you are kind to me and trust me!

ALL OVER LIPGLOSS...can you believe that? Sorry, but I am not getting away with paying for something and not even getting it. I know she never put it in the bag. I will always know she didn't. I also know I am never, ever buying from the University Mall Macy's Clinique counter ever again.

15 Months...and so much fun!!

Last Sunday the 25th Rylee turned FIFTEEN MONTHS. Time has FLOWN by since Rylee turned a year old. I can't believe how big she is getting and how much she has just grown up in the past few months - even past couple weeks! She is a toddler and is so independent now. Her little personality is just developing so much. It is really hard to believe just how much she really does know and how quickly she learns. She is a smart one! I can do something or say something once and she immediately picks it up. I decided since she is 15 months today I will write down 15 things about her right now. :) (her absolutely ADORABLE cheese... I love it!)

#1. She has all 16 teeth!! She has all her teeth til her 2 year molars decide to pop through! I am sure excited to say goodbye to teething for a while and I bet she will be too! I hate teething. I love the extra cuddles of course but I feel so bad for her cause her mouth hurts.
#2. She talks talks talks... ALL THE TIME. Here is a list of the words she says: Da-da, Ma-ma, Pa-pa, Ba-ba, Hi, Bye, No-no, Duck, Yuck, Wow, Woah, Cracker, (cacka) Shoes, (soos) Cheese (tees) Jesus..and I am sure there are a few more I can't think of right now. She is quite the jabber box!
#3. She sleeps so good! Bed time has now went from 7:30 to 8:30-9ish and she sleeps straight through til about 9 most mornings. She takes 2 naps that are each about an hour and a half or 2 hours. (sometimes longer! the other day she took a 3 1/2 hour nap!!!)
#4. She isn't a really good eater like she used to be. I heard every child goes through this "eating strike" so I am not too worried about it. She still eats good, just not as good as she used to. She does snack all day though and drinks TONS of water and cold milk. Her favorite thing to eat is her "cacka's." All I hear all day is "cacka? cacka?" asking for a cracker. It is SO funny though, whenever I ask her to say please she runs away bawling all dramatic. haha.
(eating her favorite... a "cacka")

#5. She LOVES to be outside or go bumming. Whenever I say let's go bye bye or let's go outside she gets so excited. And about a week ago I asked her if she wanted to go bye bye. All the sudden she started fussing like she was really upset and then started running around saying something. I realized she was saying "soos" (shoes).. she was all worried cause she needed her shoes on. SO cute!
#6. She loves books. She loves when you read her books. She loves looking at books by herself. She holds them and turns the pages and jabbers like she is reading. It is very cute! Every night at bedtime we go in her room and either Kelly or I say, "Let's say prayers." She runs and grabs a book and hands it to you and sits down and is ready to read a book, say prayers, and go to sleep! She is getting very good at being quiet and folding her arms during prayer. :) #7. She really gets moving when there is music playing! She rocks from side to side or up and down. She even dances her little heart out while we are riding in the car. Or sometimes she will just start loudly talking like she is singing. My favorite thing she dances to is the beat of the washing machine - haha!
#8. She got a new tricycle (my nephews old tricycle) and she just loves this thing! We go outside and she immediatly plops down on it and starts riding.#9. She loves anything that is sparkly, shiny, or just looks pretty.. she is definitely a girl! This day we went to the dollar store and she was in HEAVEN with her bead necklaces and the balls.#10. She loves dog and kitties! She hugs them and says, "oooh" whenever she sees them. It is so sweet. :)
#11. She is learning all the animal sounds very quickly! These are all the ones she currently knows. Doggy: "wwwwah" (like they are growling and then barking) Kitty: "owww" Bear: "wowww" (she literally growls though - funny!) Snake: "ssss" Cow: "oooo" They are all so cute to listen to!
#12. She is learning all the parts of her body. Right now she knows where her belly, nose, and mouth is. :) She points to them when you ask.
#13. She LOVES being outside. I am kinda sad it will be getting cold very soon. We will still bundle up and go out but she just loves playing outside in the grass, going for walks, etc.
#14. She is hilarious at bath time! She literally chucks all her toys to one side of the bathtub and then throws them all back to the other side. I have a funny video of her doing it but for some reason it won't let me upload it on here.... annoying.
#15. She has a MAJOR attitude! I will just leave it at that. :)
I am excited... only 3 more months til she can go to Nursery! She will do fabulously. She doesn't have stranger danger like at all so I know she will just run right in and start playing with the toys! (let's hope anyway. :) )

Our Weekend

This past weekend was fun.. long but fun. Kelly's cousin got married up at the Bountiful Temple and was having a luncheon and then later a garden party in her parents yard. My in-laws decorate for weddings using wrought iron. Well, we all went up Thursday evening to set up. Kelly and I decided it would just be easier to get a hotel room and stay the night up there rather than driving all the way home that evening and getting up really early to come up again Friday morning for the wedding. I was a bit nervous about Rylee sleeping anywhere other than her crib - she has only done that once when she was only 6 months old.
The drive up to Layton was a little long. Rylee was really wanting to get out of her seat. The only thing that kept her entertained was her laptop that she kept throwing on the floor and eating vanilla wafers. I finally left her laptop on the floor because she just kept throwing it down.. she didn't like that too much. She finally stopped fussing and just enjoyed the rest of the drive up!

Surprisingly she did FABULOUSLY at the Hotel. She fell asleep on the drive to the hotel after setting up and woke up when we got there. I got her ready for bed and gave her a bottle. I thought she would fall asleep while I was holding her and she was drinking her bottle but she didn't. :) Her pack n play was in the corner.. I stacked pillows on the bed so she couldn't see us and layed her down. She cried for MAYBE a minute and a half and then sat there talking to herself.. and then was quiet. I peeked around the pillows and there she was standing up staring right at me. I quickly moved out of view and she didn't cry thankfully! She was dead silent and then all of a sudden we hear her cute little voice, "cracker." Kelly and I looked at each other like what? HAHA. I looked over on the bed and there at the foot of the bed was a box of Cheez It's. She saw it and wanted a cracker - haha! We started laughing so hard (silently of course). She is so cute.

I found her like this about 10 minutes later. Such a good girl!

When she fell asleep it was about 10:30ish.. We rented a movie to watch on the laptop but Kelly didn't last long so we turned it off. We went to bed at midnight straight up. I kind of knew Rylee would wake up at some point and be scared cause she didn't know where she was - which is exactly what she did. At 4 a.m. she woke up crying. I got her up and she would not go back to sleep. She started playing her little heart out - until 5:30 a.m. She then layed her head on the bed and went straight to sleep. She slept til 7ish until someone in the hall made a super loud noise and woke her up! I was a bit annoyed. :)

We got to the temple at 10:30 - Rylee had fallen sound asleep on the car ride over. We were in the parking garage getting stuff out of the car making tons of noise and she slept right through it! She was so tired. We got her out and she immediately wanted Grandma and layed her head on her shoulder.We took pictures after the sealing and Rylee was just so tired.

After the luncheon was over (about 3 p.m.) we hung around at Kelly's aunt and uncle's house setting up and waiting for the reception to start. By this time Rylee was SO tired and needed a nap. We brought the pack n play in and set it up downstairs. Rylee was quiet almost immediately after we layed her down.. and then decided to poop 10 minutes later and she woke up. I changed her diaper and layed her back down but of course she wouldn't go back to sleep! So.. no nap for Rylee - at all.

This is only half of the yard all decorated but trust me - it was SO cute! Probably one of the cutest I have seen.Kelly's brothers and Dad at the reception. Love this pic!

My 2 favorite people in the entire world!Finally around 9 I got her bathed and gave her a bottle. She was so tired she wouldn't eat much dinner and didn't know what she wanted. She hadn't gotten much sleep the day before because we were driving for a few hours and that day she woke up super early and didn't have a nap ALL DAY. She was more tired than I have ever seen her! After I bathed her and brought her back outside I told Kelly she felt warm to me but he didn't think so..

Dancing at the reception.

Do you see how tired she is?! She almost fell asleep bouncing on Uncle Scott's shoulders!

Finally she couldn't take it anymore and passed out in Daddy's arms. (YAY!)

Everyone cleaned up and I went downstairs and held her til it was time to go. Poor girl had only gotten maybe 8 hours of sleep in 24 hours! She just wouldn't sleep all day long!

As soon as I put her in her car seat she fell sound asleep and slept all the way home. Well, to Orem. We dropped Scott (Kelly's brother) off at his house in Orem.. when we got to a stop light near his house Kelly slammed on the brakes and it woke Rylee up and her blanket fell off her onto the floor. We turned around to check and make sure she was ok and she looked at us and said, "uh-oh" cause her blanket fell. haha. She was barely awake for the rest of the way home. And she is holding her bunny as usual!

We got home right before midnight (Friday night). I brought Rylee inside and was holding her on the couch for a second and then was gonna change her diaper and put her in bed. All the sudden she spit out her binky and was kinda gaggy (just like when she would throw up when she had the flu) I was thinking oh crap! I ran over to the sink and she threw up a little bit and felt really hot. Sure enough she had a fever. It was a little over 102. I gave her motrin and held her for a bit.. she was definitely sick. I didn't know what she had for sure. We didn't know what her fever was from but we kinda thought maybe her being so overly tired and being suddenly woken up in the car from slamming on the brakes mixed with her having a fever mixed with it being so late and the long car ride home caused her to throw up?

I put her in bed and she slept.. and slept.. I checked on her every few minutes it seemed like and she was doing ok.

Her fever stayed down - I would just have to give her motrin every 7 hours. As soon as it would wear off I'd have to give her more cause her fever came right back.

Saturday was a really weird day. We all slept most of the day. We had to catch up on sleep and Rylee DEFINITELY had to catch up on sleep! She woke up in the morning at 10 and we put her back down at 11:15. She went right back to sleep and slept till... 4:45!!! Can you believe that? A 5 1/2 hour nap!

She has been sleeping a ton the past few days and hasn't been eating as much as she usually does and her fever stayed 101/102. Her fever is finally pretty low today, but she still won't eat a lot and is still really tired/sleeping all day. I finally took her to the doctor this morning. She has a viral sore throat. Apparently it's been going around so parents keep your children away from sick people!

I hate seeing her so sick and miserable but she is just so snuggly I love it! Here she is snuggled up in her chair drinking her bottle. Notice her bunny on the floor? She can't walk around the house or go anywhere without her bunny! She loves him SO much. It's so cute how she just picked her bunny to be her comfort item. It's adorable.

Well, hopefully in the next couple days she will be back to her silly, busy, playful self!