A visit from the Great Grandparents

Rylee's great-grandparents came to visit for Christmas this year. Rylee had a blast playing with Grandma Arlyss and listening to Grandpa Willis' radio. We wish they lived closer so we could see them more often! Miss you guys!

Merry Christmas 2010

I can't believe Christmas is over already! It came and went so fast. We had a wonderful holiday filled with family, friends, and great food and wine.
Rylee really enjoyed her presents this year. Her favorite was a dancing Mickey Mouse from Auntie Mandy. She could watch him for hours.

A close second was this cute little baby that talks and moves from Great Grandma Arlyss.

This Christmas was the best by far for us. It was so much fun watching Rylee play in all the wrapping paper. She played so hard on Christmas that she slept over 13 hours that night!

She also enjoyed opening her stocking on Christmas morning.

Even the dogs got to share in the festivities.

Rylee and Auntie got in some special bonding time.

This is a shot of the guys on Christmas eve. We hosted our annual Christmas eve party complete with the Santa gift exchange.

Also a pic of the lovely ladies!

Rylee loved the Christmas tree and all of the ornaments. She loves to pull off the big sparkly ones and then show them to us.

We were even able to paint her teeny toes a festive red! I can't tell you how cute it is to see those little toes painted!!! I don't think she'll ever have bare toes again!

We hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

BFF's

Rylee + Coulee = BFF's

Rylee update

It's been a while since I've written about Rylee. Both of our computers have been down so I haven't been able to do much. Also, Rylee is running around like crazy and never sitting still, so it's hard to take pictures these days. When she hears the word "cheese" she looks the other way!
She is doing great. 14 months and a few days old. Running around like mad. Getting into absolutely everything. Climbing on (and in) everything in sight. She is talking quite well now. She copies everything we say. She can make many animal noises on cue (dog, sheep, horse, monkey, duck, elephant, cow). She says please and thank you. She can sign eat, more, and milk (we are working on others). She loves to give kisses and hugs. She is so full of life. It is so much fun to watch her learn about her universe. (The above pic is of her and her cousin Ace hanging out on Thanksgiving).

She is officially pacifier free and has been since the day after Thanksgiving. We hadn't planned on cutting her off yet, but we forgot it one day and haven't gone back since. In fact, Rylee helped me throw them all away the other day. She's done really well. Nap time can be a challenge sometimes, but bedtimes are still nice and easy.

We are busy getting ready for the holidays (and new carpet this weekend... yay!!), but I will try and keep you updated with new pictures soon!

"Mini Vegas"

Every year my best girlfriends and I get together and spend the night in a hotel. It is our Christmas present to each other. The last 3 years we've gone to the Tulalip Resort. We love it. It's just like a "mini Vegas." It's so nice to know that no matter what happens in life, we all still have each other. I love you girls!

A weekend in Napa

A few weekends ago Lance and I visited Napa Valley (alone I might add!!!) My parents watched her for 3 nights so we could celebrate my birthday in wine country.
I love Napa this time of year. The colors are so beautiful. The weather is usually decent, but it drizzled on us this time. We didn't mind, we were just there to taste wine!

We spent our days visiting wineries, enjoying the scenery, and eating out. Very relaxing!

It was nice to get some alone time and finally get a chance to catch up on each other. Don't get me wrong, we missed that baby so much, but were happy to reconnect with each other. I know she enjoyed her grandparent time as well.

We ended up buying 2 cases of wine from our favorite winery, Peju, and 10 bottles from the other wineries we visited. Guess what our friends are getting for Christmas!! =)

New pictures!

Here's some of my favorite pics from our photo shoot with Erin.

More beads please!

Rylee's new favorite thing is collecting my old beaded necklaces. Too cute!

Sneak peek

Saturday we ventured out to the Brown's Point lighthouse to have a few pictures taken by our friend Erin. This year we nixed the idea of professional pics of Rylee (I hate posed pics), so instead decided to try to get some action shots. It was a rainy day, and Rylee was not cooperative with looking at the camera or smiling, but I think we got a few good ones. I absolutely love this one. I will post more soon.

Happy Halloween!

This last week was spent doing lots of fun Halloween activities. We decorated pumpkins, drank hot cider, decorated the front porch (Dad mostly did that), and went up to Microsoft with friends Madeline and Alexis (and Michelle, Adam, Kerri and Tania) for their family Halloween day. It was fun to see all of the kids (and adults) dressed up. Rylee also had a halloween party at daycare. Lance and I didn't go to any Halloween parties this year. Instead, Saturday night we made cheese and chocolate fondue, drank wine, and celebrated as a family.

Rylee went trick or treating to Grandma and Grandpa's house, and also to the Schmidt and Zehnder houses. She was so funny. Lance and I would ring the doorbell and hide, then when someone would answer the door, Rylee would just walk right inside! She was such a cute little pumpkin!

2 teeth!

Thought I'd share a pic of Rylee with her 2 teeth!

Finding the perfect pumpkin

It was a beautiful fall day today, so we decided to venture out to the pumpkin patch. We usually go to Maris Farms, but after all of the increased prices (and actually having to pay to get in), we decided to try Spooner Farms.

It was pretty cool. Definitely not as big as Maris Farms, and not as many activities, but it was great for us. We had fun exploring the farm and taking advantage of all the cute picture opportunities.

Rylee had fun for about 30 minutes (thankfully we got at least one cute picture of her), and then she was tired and grumpy. That's pretty much her routine now that she's teething!

All in all, we had a fun day and got 3 big pumpkins to carve. Rylee even brought home 2 baby size gourds. Can't wait to go back again next year!

An afternoon in the rainy city

Today was a rainy Saturday, so we decided to venture into Seattle.

We went to Pike Place Market first to get coffee, people watch, and buy some flowers and fresh produce. Rylee had a great time sampling all the fresh fruits.

Next we went to the Seattle Center. Rylee had her first carousel ride!

She wasn't sure what to think of it. She liked sitting on the horse, but wasn't sure what to think when it started moving!

After the carousel ride, we went inside the center to check out the Children's museum. We only had a half-hour to check it out before closing. It was pretty cool and we'll definitely go back when Rylee gets a little older! She loved crawling through the tunnels and going down the slides.

All in all, a lazy Saturday turned into a pretty fun and exciting adventure!