Christmas Eve

My parents came over on Christmas Eve morning. Rylee had already dressed (you know it's a special day when Rylee agrees to get out of her pajamas first thing in the morning) and opened the last of her advent presents.

 

Gaga whipped up her favorite breakfast: fried eggs and toast. She cleaned her plate! I think she knew she was going to need added strength to get through all the present opening. :)

 

We figured it would take Rylee both days to open her gifts so we let her get started right after breakfast. She was so excited and so sweet. She was very enthusiastic and thankful for all her presents. She gave everyone a hug and kiss after each gift and then demanded that Daddy open it up and put it together! She needed to play with whatever it was for at least a half hour to an hour so it gave us time to pick up all the packaging between presents: the cardboard, the tape, the twisty ties, oh my!

Here she is playing beauty shop with Daddy (she also had time for appointments with Papa, Gaga and Mommy).

 

*I had a similar set when I was a kid and there is a picture of me fixing my Dad's hair on Christmas morning. I don't think I have a copy of it in FL though.*

Cont...

Rylee got such great gifts from both sets of grandparents, her cousins and even a few of my friends back home: books, board games, doll cloths and accessories just to name a few.

This nativity puzzle came from her Godmother. Rylee adores it. I have so many cute pics of her opening it and playing with it. We really tried to emphasize "the reason for the season" this year since Rylee was a little older. She was very excited to see the Baby Jesus. She's pointing him out to you here.

 

She sang "Away in the Manger" and "Happy Birthday Jesus" to him. She cradled him in her hands and gave him a kiss. :)

 

Rylee took a nice nap so she could recharge and I could make my mother-in-law's famous lasagna. It didn't turn out quite as good as hers, but it was still delicious. I don't know how we even had room for it when we snacked all day on the great dips and little smokies my Mom made. Just thinking back on it gives me a bit of a stomach ache. :)

After dinner we all started opening our presents. Rylee had fun handing out the presents and helping everyone open theirs. She had become quite the expert throughout the day. She would say the steps to herself as she opened them: "take this off (meaning the bow), flip it over (the package), rip." Too funny!

Here's another present I actually got a picture of with the camera. A friend back home got Rylee her first ever Ranger tshirt and even had her name silk screened on the back. Such an awesome and thoughtful gift! I love that it's a little big so she won't grow out of it right away.

 

All the excitement really wore Rylee out so she went down for bed at her normal time if not a bit earlier. Of course first she left out a plate of the ginger snap cookies she made and some egg nog for Santa. The grownups stayed up and opened the rest of our presents and then we called it a night too. We all knew that it was going to be an exciting (and early) morning!

Christmas Preview

I didn't take that many photos over the holiday. I know, that doesn't sound like me! In my quest to start using the video camera more to capture Rylee's totally sweet and sometimes wildly hilarious personality, I didn't do a good job of remembering to switch back and forth between that and the camera.

I'm sure I have a few photos worth sharing, I just haven't had the time to really check them out - mostly because I have been obsessed with playing with my new Christmas present: a Nook e-reader. (Thanks go to Jon, his parents, my grandmother, our fish (surprised me too) and my Discover cashback program for the gift!)

To tide you over, I'm posting a couple of family pics from Christmas Eve.

The Girls

 

Playing with Papa

 

The only photo I have of the three of us... :)

 

Blooper 4

"Santa Claus has been here, Santa Claus has been here!"

 

(a quote from one of my favorite movies - the Lucille Ball & Henry Fonda comedy "Yours, Mine & Ours")

Merry Christmas everyone!

Blooper 3

This is one of those photos that could have many captions.

I'm calling it: "Did I remember to write 'a pony' on my Christmas list?"

 

What would you say? :)

Zoo Day 2

Rylee liked the "pretend" animals at the zoo almost as much as the real ones. Here are some cute photos to prove it.

"Frogger"

 

"Toadstool"

 

Thank goodness this wasn't a "hungry, hungry hippo." :)

 

Zoo Day

*I have two more "bloopers" to post, but I'm saving those for Christmas Eve & Christmas Day.*

Gaga and Papa took us all to the zoo on Sunday. The weather was absolutely perfect and we all had a great time.

Rylee thought the giraffes were fascinating, but declined the offer to feed them. She looks a wee bit concerned that they are so close to us.

 

The animal she kept asking to see was the elephant. She loves the book "The Very Lazy Ladybug" where the ladybug finally learns to fly when the elephant sneezes at the end of the book. (Very cute and funny book for those who have never read it.) Here she is giving the elephant a little wave.

 

I'm pretty sure this was: "That elephant is huge, Daddy!"

 

We were at the zoo for almost four hours and Rylee got a little sleepy. Sleepy Rylee = "Linus" Rylee (though Rylee prefers chewing her blankie to dragging it on the ground).

 

Grandma Signe

My Grandma Signe (my Dad's mom) peacefully passed away last night surrounded by family. She has been battling Alzheimer's for several years and has not had much quality of life the past year and a half or so. It was time for us to let her go.

 

We take comfort in knowing that she will be reunited with my Grandpa Speed in time for Christmas.

 

Blooper 2

I'm calling this one: "I'm so over this." The look and the scowl say it all.

 

I didn't have a chance to mention this before, but we had the best day on Thursday. First, I took Rylee to my school to introduce her to the staff for the first time. She was dressed in a cute little outfit since she was going to help me pass out my traditional Christmas goodies. She must have known that I wanted her to make a good impression, because the first thing she did when we walked in was start dancing for all the secretaries and the school nurse. We hadn't even really said hello yet - everyone thought it was adorable and hilarious. She went around to all the offices saying "Happy Holidays!" and passing out the treats. She even gave my Assistant Principal a hug and sat on her lap (after telling her how she liked her shoes). We hung out for almost 30 minutes. It was really fun. A couple of people even gave Rylee little impromptu gifts - a pink jingle bell and a Winnie the Pooh wind up toy. So sweet!

After that, we went to a park that is right next to my school and met Gaga and Papa for some playtime and a picnic. It was the perfect temp outside and Rylee loved checking out the new park. We must have been there for over two hours. What a lovely way to spend the day.

Bloopers

I don't think I have as many bloopers as I originally thought. I have the stereotypical finger up the nose photo, but I think I've been banned from posting any more of those. Many of the others are sort of sweet bloopers, but I'll still post a couple of my favorites. I guess I'll start with one of the sillier ones. :)

Hi-ya Holidays!

 

*On an unrelated thread, I'm not sure everyone loves Rylee's pigtails as much as I do. Miller came over, took one look at Rylee and asked, "What's on Rylee's head?" Too funny! :)

And the winner is...

...me!

Today I got a surprise phone call from Borders. I won a raffle they had for an American Girl doll. I ran over to the store tonight to get her - she is very cute with light brown hair and blue eyes. I was so excited... for Rylee!

Looks like I have one more gift to wrap before Christmas. :)

Rylee's New Hairdo

Rylee's hair is finally long enough for an actual hair style: pigtails! I am very excited.

A) pigtails are ridiculously adorable and B) I've been waiting 2+ years (which could just as easily be a lifetime for someone as impatient as me (as myself?... my grammar is questionable sometimes but that's another post)

Rylee was pretty excited herself. She was jumping up and down and doing "hammertime" (the MC Hammer shuffle) all around the living room so this was the best I could capture.

 

(For full disclosure sake, Gaga actually made the discovery and put in these perfect pigtails, but the ones I did today weren't too shabby.)

Here she is somewhat slowed down by her performance of "Away in a Manger" which is her favorite holiday song. Ahhh...

 

I also caught a hilarious photo of her looking like a deranged holiday monster, but since I already embarrassed her last week with her Shrek photo, I've decided not to post it... for now. I will be posting her Christmas card bloopers soon though... so stay tuned!

P.S. Anyone else think Rylee looks a little like Cindy Lou Who?

800*

*According to Blogger, this is my 800th post. I'm not sure this is entirely accurate since I occasionally upload photos and/or snippets of posts that I don't ever publish, but hey it's a milestone!

We had such a fun weekend here. Friday, my Dad (Rylee's Papa) arrived. It is so great to have him here for Christmas. It was a actually a little bit stressful when he first arrived. My Mom and I thought her dog, Angel, had eaten a drink umbrella which would have been very, very bad. After $200 in vet xrays, I finally found the umbrella shredded into pieces by my dog, Rio. Dog drama! The good news is, both dogs are fine and only my Dad's pocketbook suffered. :( Anyway, it's a good thing he arrived when he did since MN got hammered with a sizable snowstorm the next day.

Saturday was back to back to Christmas parties. Rylee was invited to the first party at Miller's house. She had a great time. I wish I had pictures to back up this story, but we were halfway there before I realized I forgot my camera at home. Oops. "Silly Mommy" as Rylee would say. The kids all did a little gift exchange and Rylee scored some great presents: a Strawberry Shortcake purse, a My Little Pony, a Slinky, a book and a Play Doh kit where you can make these adorable little cakes and cupcakes. She is loving all her new presents, but the "potato" kit as Rylee mistakenly called it, is definitely a hit. Jon and I are having as much fun as she is playing with it too. :)

Gaga and Papa picked Rylee up after dinner so Jon and I could go to party #2. It was fun to have a few kid-free hours with my teacher friends and their spouses. The only bad thing was was stayed out way too late (after midnight!) which we are just not used to anymore. We were all wiped out today (babysitters included!).

So today was a lazy day, not too much to report. One funny thing: Rylee had been in her crib for 30 minutes or so, but she still hadn't fallen asleep for her nap. She had been jibber jabbering and playing with her dolls so I was just giving her time to see if she would finally settle down. All of a sudden, she says over the monitor: "Mommy, can you hear me? Can you hear me, Mommy?" in this sort of exasperated tone of voice. I couldn't help but laugh and, of course, go get her up. She can be so dramatic sometimes. :)

Thanksgiving Recap

I never did get the chance to blog about our Thanksgiving weekend. Of course now that it's not fresh in mind, I don't really remember what I wanted to write about. Here's the gist of it:

We had a nice, relaxing Thanksgiving Day just the three of us. We watched the Thanksgiving Day parade on the TV (Rylee was excited to see the big balloons) and made a couple of Thanksgiving Day crafts. Then we picked up Mom and went to our friend's (Jess & Jerry's) house for a delicious Thanksgiving dinner.

 

We played at the park on Friday and ??? (I can't remember).

Saturday, we went to the County Fair with the Malechas and the Froyds. Rylee had a blast riding the rides and it was extra fun since she had Miller and Norah there to ride with her. Jon even took Rylee on her first mini roller coaster ride. At first she looked unsure, but she loved it by the end. The Fair would have been slightly more enjoyable had it not cost a small fortune (I think we blew through $100 with admission, rides, games & food) and had it not been 100 degrees outside. We were not feeling the Fall weather over Thanksgiving weekend. It was miserable hot! But all in all, it was a great time and fun for all of us to hang out with the kids.

Sunday, Rylee and I spent the day with Gaga putting up her Christmas tree and watching Christmas movies. It was the perfect end to our holiday weekend.

1st (& 2nd) Santa Photo

Jon, Rylee and I made a trip to The Bass Pro Shop last month. It turns out Santa's schedule is pretty open pre-Thanksgiving (the North Pole is a well-oiled machine as they say) so Rylee was able to meet the man in the red suit for the first time (and with no waiting!). She was wearing camo instead of a Christmas dress, but you take what you can get, right?

Rylee was very excited to see Santa... from afar. She screamed bloody murder when the elf suggested she sit on his lap! So the elf quickly suggested that I sit on Santa's lap with Rylee on my lap - clearly not this elf's first time at the photo booth. And so Rylee had her 1st ever picture with Santa. The picture below is not that photo. The first try was not so good. Rylee looked fine, but my eyes were closed and Jon's head was partially cut off.

The elves gave Rylee a candy cane, had me walk backwards to Santa again (part of a sneak attack approach they use), but this time I just sat on Santa's step. I didn't want to be responsible for breaking the jolly old guy's knee right before his busy season! And thus we have Rylee's 2nd ever photo with Mr. Claus. :)

 

Potty Humor

It was a long weekend here and not in a good way. Rylee did not feel like herself with the Roseola. She was a little itchy (she kept rubbing her face on the couch like a cat and we kept her in footie pajamas day and night to keep her from rubbing her arms and legs), fever-y and CRABBY!

By Monday, she was starting to come around... and I was starting to go down. I felt like I was on the verge of getting a bad head cold or the flu. As soon as we got her down to bed, I crawled in myself. The extra sleep and this oscillium (sp?) stuff I've been taking has really helped it to not progress. Fingers crossed!

Last night I was even up to dinner with my old Girl Scout pals (we had a great time catching up), which brings me to the funny Rylee story I alluded to in the title.

Rylee was in the bathroom with me while I was getting ready. I sat down to pee and then when I stood up, I decided to take my pants off. No point in pulling them up again since I was planning on changing for dinner.

Without missing a beat Rylee says: "You go potty in your pants, Mommy?"

That made me chuckle. :)

Roseola Rylee

Rylee's mild fever back on Spa Day turned into two days of 103-104 degree fevers. On Thursday, the rash broke out. I was pretty certain it was Roseola, but we made a quick trip to Dr. S to confirm. (And I do mean quick. I called at 8, got an appointment at 8:50. We were in and out of the office by 9:15. That never happens!)

Rylee is head to toe rash. Literally, the only place she doesn't have the spots are on the bottom of her feet. Thank God I took the Christmas pictures already. :)

Here she is after her bath last night:

 

Getting her "Shrek" on (Jon made me post this - he laughed for about an hour after he captured this):

 

Finally telling Daddy to stop taking pictures when she doesn't look her best!

 

The rash starts in the face and then spreads lower so I'm assuming that's how it disappears too. Her face looks better today in that the spots have all melded together so now she just looks like she has a puffy red sunburn. It's an improvement - take my word for it. :) Hopefully her face will clear up soon. It's cold here next week so the rest of her we can hide under long sleeves and pants! :)

Honest Ry

Jon and I read books to Rylee every night before bed. Here are some interesting things she'd shared with us over the last few days.

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Her new thing is for all of us to lay on our backs with our heads huddled together. We were in this position when we heard a strange rumbling noise come from Rylee.

"That was your stomach," Jon explains to Rylee.

"No, that was my butt," Rylee admits, "from the chocolate milk." :)
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Rylee is rubbing Jon's whiskers while I read. Suddenly she turns to me and strokes my face. Afterwards she asks, "Do you have whiskers, Mommy?"

Hmmm, I was hoping the answer to that question was obvious.
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I was opening a rather large hardcover book with lots of tiny print and few pictures. You're only supposed to read one page a day leading up to Christmas so it's really not that daunting.

Rylee took one look at the book and said, "No Mommy, not that old lady book!"
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Spa Day

We had plans to meet some friends at an indoor playland today, but Rylee woke up with a fever. Needless to say, she was extremely disappointed. In trying to cheer her up, I suggested we have a spa day. Rylee thought this sounded fabulous.

We filled the bath for a foot soak and pulled out all the pumice stones and foot scrubs. When we were finished, I painted her toe nails a pale pink to match mine. (Chemically this is probably not the best, but I don't plan to make a habit of it so hopefully it's okay!) While her toenails were drying, I cut her fingernails and pretended to give them a buff and shine. Gaga even curled her hair a bit with the curling iron.

Here she is showing off the results of her spa makeover:

 

I'd say she looks pretty fabulous!

Pajama Party

We had a wonderful holiday weekend, but I don't have time to elaborate right now. Chores (and a Christmas movie on TV) are distracting me. Instead, I'll just post this cute pic my Mom snapped of Rylee and her "babies" today.

 

Rio & Mrs. T

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We did!

Not much else to say so here's a silly Friday Foto instead of Rio & "Mrs. T":

 

Father / Daughter Weekend

With me MIA this weekend, Jon and Rylee had some adventures of their own. They went to the park, went on walks, played outside... basically had a great time. Jon even managed to get the laundry done and give the dog a bath. Though he did have the benefit of Rylee taking an unheard of 3 1/2 hour nap. Lucky bastard! :)

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Here's one funny story from when they played hide and seek:

They started out taking turns hiding. I use the term "hiding" loosely. When you hide from Rylee, you have to shout out to her so she can follow your voice to where you are. When she hides, she comes running to reveal herself as soon as you say "ready or not, here I come!"

What Rylee really likes is to have someone hide with her. So during the course of the game, she said: "Hide with me, Daddy."

You can't argue with your adorable daughter so Jon hid with her. After they were in their hiding spot for a minute, he asked: "Rylee, who's going to come find us? We're the only ones home."

Rylee: "That's a bummer, Daddy." :)

(If you caught the blog last week, you'll notice Rylee's new favorite word is "bummer.")
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Rylee had so much fun with Daddy that she kept calling me "Daddy" the day I came home. I think Jon put her up to it so I'd never want a weekend away again! Just kidding!

Rylee is definitely "deer to Daddy's heart" now. :)