Merry Christmas 2011

 We had a magical Christmas Eve and Day.  Christmas Eve was spent with family friends at the Zhender house.  Normally we host this party, but it was a nice change to just go and enjoy ourselves and not worry about cooking or cleaning before and after.  We spent time with people we just don't see enough.  We had such a great time.

 Monica and Woodman even made it out for the party.  (These are friends who have been passed around year after year, showing up unannounced at parties and other events).  Rylee's BFF Rick (Pa Thomas) kept her entertained the entire party, chasing her around and hiding.  I'm sure he was tired the next day! 

 Christmas morning was spent with just the Craig family.  Rylee slept in till 10 am (I had to wake her up!), and then we spent time together opening stockings and gifts from Santa.  A little later we headed out the door to pick up Starbucks and spend time with the Jacobsons.  We opened presents, hung out with the family, celebrated my Dad's birthday, and had an amazing dinner of crab and prime rib. 

 Rylee got so many gifts she could barely open them all.  She would stop after each one and have to play with it for a while.  Her favorites were a little dog that came in a leopard spotted purse, and a Dora microphone.  (Soon-to-be) baby Carson even got a few gifts!

 The girls got the traditional PJ's form Santa that we wore ALL DAY.  Dad kept asking when we were going to put clothes on.  Thanks Auntie Diane for the fun shower caps! 

We hope everyone had a joyful Christmas.  We feel very blessed to have such amazing family and friends in our lives.  We are thankful for all the love and support we have around us.  We truly had the best Christmas yet! 

A fun-filled holiday weekend

 We went out to my parent's beach house this weekend for some fun and relaxation.  Rylee spent lots of quality time with Poppa and Grandma.

 She also got some quality time in with her BFF, Coulee. 

 One of Rylee's favorite beach time activities is feeding Sammy and his seagull pals.  (I think it may be one of Poppa's favorite things too).  She wakes up each morning asking "where Sammy?"

On our way home from the beach we stopped at the Pt. Defiance Zoo to see Zoolights.  We've been wanting to go for a while now, just never made the time.   It was really cool.  Rylee really enjoyed all the Christmas lights (and of course all the zoo animals).  We tried multiple times to get pictures but like I've mentioned before, Rylee does not like to have her picture taken. 

She is also right in the middle of the terrible two's.  Her favorite words are NO and NOW, and when she doesn't get her way she throws a big ole tantrum.  She is also protesting bedtime now.  Our bedtime routine (that used to be so nice and easy), now takes about 2 hours.  We are hoping this is a phase and will quickly pass!!!

Christmas cookie baking

 Last Moday my mom, sister, Rylee and I did our annual Christmas cookie baking.  This year, Rylee decided she wanted to help too.  She spent most of the time eating the dough and powdered sugar (see pictures).  It was pretty funny.  She was trying to be sneaky about it too.  It was a great time as usual, and we made some of the traditional fav's: candy canes, snowballs, magic bars and sugar cookies.  Best of all, we had some quality family time!  =)

Welcome baby Ronan!

 Our friends Elisabeth and Sherman had a beautiful baby boy on 11/28.  His name is Ronan Jameson Veh, and he is just perfect.  We had the pleasure of meeting this little guy this weekend.  Just holding a brand new baby makes me really excited to meet my little guy in a couple months!

 Rylee had fun meeting this little guy too.  I'm sure that someday he will have a little crush on my beautiful girl.  Ronan and Carson (our boy on the way) will be about 3 months apart.  How much fun will we all have playing together?  I can't wait.

 This is Rylee's new thing.  Her cousins taught her how to do this (among other fun and dangerous things) last weekend when they were visiting.  The farther the table away is... the better!  Makes me nervous just looking at it.

This is me at 28 weeks.  I can't believe we are less than 3 months away from meeting our little man!  

Ready for the holidays

 It's been a while since our last post.  What can I say... we've been busy!  And we are horrible about taking pictures.  That and Rylee hates having her picture taken.  Anyway, we had a great Thanksgiving weekend.  The Bend Craig's came up for the weekend and the kids had a blast playing together.  Rylee is finally old enough to join in on all the fun.   Friday we had more family over and hosted our 2nd ever Thanksgiving dinner.  Everything was delicious... kudos to Lance!

 After everyone left today we put up Christmas decorations and decorated our tree.  My very favorite time of year.  The house looks so festive and ready for fun and holiday cheer.

 Rylee had fun decorating the tree.  She got bored after putting about 5 ornaments up, so then she moved on to going through the boxes looking for her favorite ornaments.  Her favorites this year are a little kitty in a stroller (one that I bought the first year I had my kitty Charlie), and a new Dora one that Grandma bought her.

 I must say it looks pretty good.  And there are already presents under the tree!   Lance took me to Seattle for a night last weekend and we spent 2 days shopping downtown... lots of fun!  There is just something about being downtown Seattle in the winter... the pretty lights, crisp air.  We had fun spending time together just the two of us.  That rarely happens! 

This is a pic from a couple of weeks ago- at 24 weeks.  I feel like I'm getting a lot bigger, and fast.  I have gained quite a bit of weight in the last month and am definitely feeling it.  My belly is always achy and itchy from all the stretching.  This pregnancy has been a lot different (and a lot more uncomfortable) than the last one.  I think chasing around a 2 year old doesn't help with the fatigue either.  According to all the pregnancy books, today I am officially in my 3rd trimester (I'm at 27 weeks).   I'll post another pic next week when I hit the 7 month mark!

Happy Halloween 2011

 We were kind of "bah-humbug" about Halloween this year.  We did decorate the porch (although we didn't go all out like we normally do), but we didn't decorate or carve pumpkins.  In fact, we didn't even buy pumpkins!  We did take Rylee trick-or-treating though (to 3 houses)!

 She wasn't really into trick-or-treating this year.  She'd get to the door, ring the doorbell and then walk in the house when they opened the door.  She'd say "trick or treat", but then she'd give them candy instead of taking some!  (Or take the whole bowl of candy in Uncle Mike's case).  She did like going to Grandma's house though because she got a big bag of goodies!

And of course she looked adorable.  I love my little strawberry!  

Fun at Maris Farms

 It was a beautiful day today, so Rylee, Grandma and I headed over to Maris Farms to enjoy some fall fun.  We pretty much missed anything to do with pumpkins (Rylee ran the other way when I tried to get her to pose for pictures), but we had a lot of fun doing the other activities they had.

 She had a blast playing on the giant web, bouncy house and on all the slides and tunnels.  She even enjoyed her first solo ride (a little cow car pulled by a tractor).  I wasn't sure if she'd have fun or be scared, but she seemed to like it!

 She really liked all of the farm animals.  We went through the barn about 8 times.  Each time she'd call out "piggies, goat, sheep, kitties, etc" and point at each one.  Before we left she had to go through the barn again, saying good bye to each animal.  What a sweet heart.

We had a great day!  Maybe next time we'll even get a pumpkin in the picture! =)

Pink or Blue?

We had our anatomy ultrasound today and guess what?

IT'S A BOY!!!

We couldn't be more excited.  Of course now I have to go out and buy the baby a whole new wardrobe (darn!)!  The baby was very active during the ultrasound and didn't hesitate to show us his stuff!  He is now 1lb 1oz and growing more every day (as you can see by my pic below).  We took Lance's Dad and my Mom (my dad was ref-ing a football game) to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, HG Bistro, and let Rylee open the envelope that housed either the pink or blue socks.  I was surprised (although I did have the tiniest feeling) to see the blue socks, but very happy.  I am a little nervous though... I have no idea what to do with a boy!

 21 weeks

I must admit that I was surprised to see this picture, I feel much bigger than this!!

Welcome baby Kennedy!

 Today our friends Dino and Chenda had a baby girl.  Her name is Kennedy Norah and she is precious.  For the most part Rylee seemed to like the new baby, but she did get a little jealous when Lance was holding her.  Makes me excited to meet our little one!!  We find out the sex on Friday and I am so unbelieveably excited.  I can't wait to start decorating the new nursery, and of course, go shopping for new baby stuff!

The no cavity club

Rylee had her 2nd dentist appointment today.  She was such a big girl and let the dentist brush her teeth, floss them, and put fluoride on them!  I was so pround of her.  AND she had no cavities! 

She also had her 2 year check-up last week and everything went great.  She is in the 95th percentile in both weight and height.  What a big girl!

Happy 2nd Birthday Rylee!

 The perfect start to her birthday- snuggling with dad on the couch watching a movie.

We invited just family and close family friends this year for her actual birthday.  We wanted it to be small enough where everyone could talk and spend time with Rylee.

Rylee definitely had 3 favorite people this year.  Pa Thomas was the most popular... Rylee kept him busy coloring and playing babies.  She would point at him and say "mon" (as in c'mon), and make him sit on the floor next to her.  A close second was Nory and Auntie Mandy.

 She had fun making Auntie Mandy go to sleep next to her on the couch.

She had a blast opening gifts this year.  You could definitely tell which gifts were her favorites!  One of her favorite gifts were 2 oranges from Ma and Pa Thomas (yes- I said oranges... long story).   

 But of course the most favorite gift was her new "bike" from Grandma and Grandpa Jacobson.  It has Minnie Mouse on it and plays all kinds of music.  The first thing she did the next morning was get on her bike and start riding it around the house!  It's great because it has 2 baskets- one for her babies and one for the babies bottles!  She can't go anywhere without those babies!

 Cupcake time was also fun.  She (amazingly) is not a big sweets eater so she mainly ate the top and threw the rest away.  I absolutely LOVE the picture below.  (Thanks Janice!)

 The whole gang made it over to celebrate.  We have the best family friends ever.  I grew up with them (I pretty much had 3 dads!!), and now Rylee also gets to grow up with them.

 Janice also took some great family pics.

 Rylee had to do some table dancing too.  (Not sure where she learned that! =) )  Rylee had so much fun.  She kept saying "happy 2" all day and night.  I think that meant that she was very happy to be 2!

Rylee had an amazing birthday this year. We couldn't have asked for a better party. Thank you to all our wonderful friends and family for making it such a special day for my little angel!