Las Vegas

At the end of February Kelly and I took a much needed getaway to Las Vegas. It was my first time leaving Rylee overnight so as you can imagine, I was a nervous wreck. I knew she'd be ok, it was just really hard for me. It was just for 3 nights but that seemed like way too long. My good friend Samantha watched her the first night at my mom and dad in law watched her the other 2 nights. I was a nervous wreck up until the second we dropped her off...when she wouldn't even give me a hug or kiss goodbye. She loves Samantha so she ran right to her and wouldn't let go. Then I knew she'd be just fine and I'd be just fine. What a FUN time we had together. It was so nice to be just the 2 of us for almost 4 days and to get a fun break from parenting.

We went and saw Blue Man Group while we were there and wow, what a waste of time and money. So many of my friends and family members really liked it. We didn't. At all. Maybe we just were expecting it to be completely different than it was, but either way, we just didn't enjoy it.

We stayed at The Golden Nugget. It's on Fremont Street and it was a really nice hotel. Really nice rooms and very inexpensive. There was a big pool with a waterslide in the middle...the waterslide was in the middle of a huge tank with sharks. Amazing. There was also a HUGE area outside around the pool that we could just hang out at. Lots of couches and chairs. We sat outside some of the time and just talked. We also sat in the hot tub 2 of the 3 nights. Huge hot tub.

I suck at taking pictures sometimes and I really hate asking random people to take pictures for me so this is all we got.
This is one of the nights when we sat outside.

In the Cosmopolitan...gorgeous new hotel!

Although we had a lot of fun getting away it was SO nice to get home to see Rylee. I had my alarm set Sunday morning for 6 a.m. so we could be sure to be out of there by no later than 8 a.m. I was way too excited to see Rylee to leave a minute later.

5 Years and Counting

I seriously cannot believe we have been married for FIVE whole years. What a milestone! So much has happened in 5 years and I look forward to see what happens in the next 5 years and many many more! I am so incredibly lucky to be married to the man I am married to. He makes me so happy. He is such an amazing person and such a HARD WORKER. He is always working his butt off to provide for our little family. He loves us so much and would do absolutely anything for us. We are so extremely lucky to have him in our lives. He is such a wonderful husband and father to me and Rylee. He is my best friend and I love him SO MUCH. Happy 5 years babe!We went to Cheesecake Factory for dinner last night (which is when our anniversary was.. yesterday). I have never been and I have really been wanting to try it. And can I just say holy crap it was DELICIOUS. Now I can see why people talk it up so much. I had a delicious pasta and Kelly had Chicken Madiera. We took some cheesecake home to eat and drank sparkling cider my parents gave us. What a FUN evening we had! Here's to many more years together!We are going to Vegas at the end of the month for our "big celebration" and we want to go on a cruise this summer as well.

Magic Trick

Last night while me and my good friend Erin went to Zumba, her husband watched Rylee for me til Kelly got home from his city league basketball game. While we were gone he made this cute video that I just died watching cause it's so stinking cute! I couldn't help but share it...I hope he doesn't mind. :)



Rylee and Milo are just so cute together. They are boyfriend and girlfriend. :) And they already have an arranged marriage. haha! kidding. They just love each other and are so cute playing with each other. I'm still trying to get Rylee to say Milo but Milo loves Rylee and always says Lylee! I love it!

18 Months

So I started this post nearly a month ago but I am just now getting around to finishing it and posting it!
My little munchkin is now 18 months old! (19 months old in 5 days though) She went to nursery for the first time Sunday, January 1st. I thought for sure she would go right in and have a blast and not even care that I was leaving her...and that is exactly what she did! I dropped her off and she ran straight for the toys. I tried to say bye to her but she wouldn't even turn to look at me. When I went to check on her a few times she was just playing away. Sometimes I wish she would get sad when I leave her but it is definitely nice that she is ok with it! I can't believe she is big enough to be in nursery now! SO crazy.

Friday, January 6th she had her 18 month check up. She is a whopping 23 lbs (29th percentile) and is 33 inches (83rd percentile). She is still tall and skinny! She has grown so much since she turned a year. She still has her umbilical hernia and her Doctor said if it doesn't heal up completely by the time she is 2 she may need to have surgery. And she has a cyst on her head she has had since she is born. He hasn't been too concerned with it but at her checkup he said we may need to go have an ultrasound on it because he thinks it may be on a suture. If it is, we will probably need to have it removed. Poor girl! I hope both things are fine and she won't need any surgery. It definitely scares me.
She has the cutest little personality right now. She keeps us laughing every single day. Right now is by far my favorite stage yet. She amazes us at how fast she is learning. She says at least one if not two new words daily and catches onto things almost immediately. We have definitely had to be extra careful to the things we say and the things we do.
It would take way too long to list all of the things she says, but she is a little jabber box. She finally says please now after trying to get her to say it for sooo long she decided it wasn't as tortureous as she thought it would be...now she says, "Mom dis peas (this please)" or "dink peas (drink please)" ... you get the point. These are the words I can think of off the top of my head: Mommy, Daddy, no, ball, dis (this), pees (please), cake oo (thank you), dink (drink), buppy (bunny), baby, biki (binky), ba-ba (bottle), juice, cacka (cracker), cookie, bubble, duck, Jesus (while pointing at the picture of Jesus), boon (balloon), Meee (Mickey) Tanta (Santa), Papa, Mamaw, puppy, bye bye, hi, keys, socks, soos (shoes)...the list goes on but I can't think anymore. So many words sound so similar. The main word is "Mom! Mom! Mommy! Mommy! Mom! Mom!" to everything...she has to show me something, tell me something, wants me to pick her up...ALL DAY LONG. I love it...most of the time. :) She can say most of the animal noises and knows all the parts of her face and where her belly is. She also knows the color blue and we are working on the other colors.
She climbs climbs climbs...on everything.
She loves to eat. Her current favorites are cheese, all fruit including tomatoes, cucumbers, mac n cheese, chips, lunch meat, bread, goldfish crackers, Nutri grain bars, and mixed vegetables. She is a really good eater most of the time.
She sleeps a lot right now. Goes to sleep at 9 and wakes up at 9:30 pretty much on the dot every single day. Her nap is at 1:45 and she sleep 2 1/2 to 3 hours every day. Lots of sleep! And lots of "me" time.
She loves to give hugs and kisses and loves to snuggle. She's never been much of a snuggler until the past little while. I love it so much.
Her tv show of choice is Jake and the Neverland Pirates, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, or Sesame Street but the only thing that keeps her entertained for the ENTIRE thing is Toy Story 1,2 & 3. We watch at least 1 every day.
She loves "soos." She is constantly going to get them and brings them to me and says, "soos" or puts them on.
She loves all the girly stuff. Necklaces, bracelets, headbands, fingernails painted, etc. She is such a girly girl!
She loves to go places and go shopping. I say, "Rylee, you wanna go bye bye?" and she runs to the door.
She is still a binky ADDICT. I don't know how we are going to cut the habit, but for now I am not TOO worried about it... definitely by the time she is 2 it will be gone. :)
When you are eating something and she wants some of it she chucks her binky and bunny behind her and comes running. It is SO funny! Yes, she pretty much always has her binky and bunny in her arms. And it's so cute. Just the past few days she walks around the house saying, "biki...biki" trying to find all her binkies and when she sees one she says, "biki!"
She loves to dance...to anything. Even hymns at church. She has quite the moves and pretty to-the-beat. I can't wait to get her into dance lessons.
She is still in her crib and hasn't yet figured out how to climb out yet. (thankfully)
She loves to feed her babies. Either with their little pretend bottles or even with a spoon and a bowl. Grandma taught her to "stir the food" and make a smacking noise and pretend to eat it...it's pretty stinking cute when she is "feeding" her baby and makes a smacking noise.
She loves being around kids and plays so hard with them. It is so cute to see her with all her cousins. She doesn't get to be around most of them very often but when she does she plays so hard and laughs and has the best time!
She still loves to bath but doesn't love it as much as she used to. She only plays for a minute and is ready to get out!
She is so good about cleaning up her toys when she is done playing. I ask her to put her toys away and she runs and immediately starts picking up. She is such a good little helper! She also loves to do whatever I am doing. If I start wiping up something on the floor she grabs a towel or something and starts "helping" me. She also loves to help me do the laundry. She hands me clothes or puts clothes into the basket for me. When I am hanging up shirts she hands the hangers one by one saying, "cake oo!" (thank you) each time she hands them to me. :)
She loves to wipe her face and hands and always asks for lotion to put on her hands.
She has to close every door and drawer that is open. With doors she either pushes it shut or pulls it closed. She is constantly closing herself in a room or closing herself out of a room I am in. She is so silly.

She is such a sweet little girl and I am so grateful for all the time I have been abe to spend with her. I feel so lucky to be able to stay home with her and watch her every single day growing and learning so much. You never fully realize just how fast time flies by until you have a child of your own. I can't believe that is nearly 5 months she will be TWO. Unbelievable!

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. :) )