A Very Merry Christmas

This Christmas was one of the best ever! Rylan made each moment so special. Even though he's still a little too young to understand the whole Christmas thing, he still enjoyed opening gifts, playing with family, and eating yummy treats. What a joy he is! Life wouldn't be nearly as wonderful without him! Thank you Rylan for making Christmas so merry and bright!

This chair was mine when I was little and I have similar pictures of me sitting in it at about this age. It is special that Rylan can enjoy it now!

Rylan loved to look at all the ornaments on our Christmas tree. He particularly loved the reindeer who's mouth opened to reveal a Hershey kiss. Our son loves his chocolate!

Lisa, Chris and Breanne

We spent Christmas Eve with my family. As always, we had a wonderful time! Thanks Mom and Dad for the yummy food and wonderful gifts. We love you!

Mom, Jerimiah, Ty, Jeff, and Dad

My nieces, Ava and Jada opening their gifts with the help of their mom (my sister Jenna).

Dad reading the Christmas story to Ava and Rylan
"You mean Jesus used to be a baby just like me? Wow!"

Auntie Bre and Rylan

Rylan was overjoyed to see Auntie Bre! She's been away at school so we hadn't seen her in awhile. Auntie Bre used to be Rylan's nanny and he sure loves her. He couldn't take his eyes off of her all night.
"Auntie Bre is just so beautiful!"

Ava and Rylan loved wearing reindeer antlers!

"I love my new toy! I'll play with this for hours!"
Rylan got lots of new toys for Christmas. He loves them all and especially enjoyed ripping the paper off the gifts. He's pretty good at it now since he had lots of practice.

Rylan didn't think it would be Christmas without singing Christmas carols, so he hopped up on the piano bench and played us some tunes. We call him baby Beethoven.

"What did Santa bring me this year?"
Rylan seemed more excited about the oranges in his stocking than the toys.

Bryon's parents came and spent Christmas with us too! We were glad they made it here with all this snow. Thanks for making the trip! We really enjoyed your visit!

The day after Christmas we headed to Coeur d'Alene to see all the beautiful lights on the boardwalk. It was a sight to see!

It was so cold outside that we headed in to the Coeur d'Alene Resort to warm up. We sat by the fire, drank Starbucks coffee, listened to music, and enjoyed watching Rylan eat a cookie and wander all over the place.

What a wonderful Christmas! Children make everything so magical!

Winter Wonderland

Those ten inches of snow I was talking about in my last posting was nothing compared to the two feet of snow we ended up getting. It snowed for over 30 hours straight, school was canceled for two days, and everyone was pretty much stuck at home. While most people whined and complained about this treacherous weather, we turned it into an adventure. We enjoyed giving Rylan his first sled ride ever!

"Weeeeeee...faster, faster!


Rylan also enjoyed playing in the snow with his friend Blake.
"Wanna go make snow angels?"

Here's our whole family, including Libby, bundled up in all our snow gear. It sure was a Winter Wonderland outside.

"Don't let go of me Mama, or I'll be buried in snow."


"This was the best day ever. I love the snow! I hope it snows again tomorrow!"

Let It Snow

It has snowed ten inches today and counting. As I sit and type, the snow continues to fall so I can only imagine how much snow will be on the ground by morning. We took Rylan outside to enjoy the first big snowfall of the season and he loved it just as much as we thought he would. He loves to be outside and loves the cold weather too, just like his dad.Just look at these two snow bunnies! They are quite the pair, don't you think?

"Is is time to go sledding, Dad?"

"I love the feel of snowflakes on my cheeks. Mommy says that they're angel kisses. Isn't that nice? I love winter!"

Watch me NOW!!!

"If you thought I was good at walking before...you should see me now. I'm even better than before! Mommy finally got a good video of me. It's too bad she cut the video short or you would have seen me grab my milk and continue walking. I'm all over the house now and I'm so fast that Mommy and Daddy can't even keep up with me. Why crawl when I can get everywhere I want on two legs? Boy, am I having fun!"

Watch out everyone...here I come!!!

"I took my first steps weeks ago, but I am much better now. I can take ten or so steps before falling now, and then I get right back up again and keep going. I'm so proud of myself. I'll be running before you know it!"



"I also love to walk behind my fire truck because I can go really fast!"

Laughs with Libby

There is nothing better than the sound of a child laughing.

FYI-We don't normally feed Libby from the table, but everyone breaks the rules sometimes, right?

Thankful on Thanksgiving

We were fortunate enough to have two Thanksgivings this year! We spent Thanksgiving day at my family's lake cabin in north Idaho. It is so beautiful there no matter what time of year, and always so peaceful. We had so much fun just enjoying each other's company and watching all the kids play together. We all fit perfectly around the dining table and the food was delicious! The only thing missing was my sister, Breanne. We sure missed you! It wasn't quite the same without you and we're excited to see you in a few weeks!We couldn't fit everyone in the picture. Bryon, Rylan, and my dad are missing.

We had to get a four generation picture while we were all together. Here's me, Rylan, my mom, and my grandma.

Our next day of celebration took place on the west side of the state with Bryon's family. It was the first time in two and a half years that Bryon and his two brothers and their wives were together at the same time. It was very nice to all finally be together. We enjoyed a delicious meal and had a blast playing games together!

"Hey Uncle Brad, it's me Rylan! You are so fun! I loved how you swung me around and played with me. I can't wait to see you again. I'm excited for my new cousin to arrive too!"


This was the first time Uncle Brett and Aunt Laurie got to meet Rylan. They live in Virginia so we don't get to see them very often. We were so glad they could finally see our precious boy in person. The wait was worth it...Rylan enjoyed every moment with them!


During our visit we spent one evening in Bellevue watching the Christmas performance in Bell Square. Rylan enjoyed the music, the big friendly bear, and the candy cane suckers, but wasn't too sure about the real-life toy soldiers. They walked on stilts and their height seemed to frighten Rylan to the point of sticking out his bottom lip.


As we do on almost every visit, we took a nice walk along the beach. Rylan found some seaweed, some shells, saw some scuba divers and seagulls, and enjoyed hanging out with this big whale.

Many times over the course of our two day celebration I found myself feeling so thankful for our wonderful family! We feel very blessed to have so many people who love us! Thanks everyone for making our Thanksgiving so fabulous!

Animal Sounds

"I am so smart! I can make several animal sounds and I'm pretty good at it too! Watch and see! This is one of my favorite games to play with Mommy and Daddy. I get so excited when I see these animals in real life. I even try to talk to them in their language."

The BIG 3-0!!!

Yeah, that's right...I just turned 30. I don't feel any older but that number sure sounds old. I guess I can starting using the old line "I'm 29 and holding". When I look back on the last 30 years of my life, I realize just how blessed I am. I have such amazing family and friends in my life who have been there for me during the good times and the bad. I have so many fond memories and so many things to be thankful for. I can only hope the next 30 will be just as grand! To celebrate my birthday, my parents took me out to dinner at The Melting Pot. It is a yummy fondue restuarant! We had a great time and enjoyed three courses of fondue with lots of things to dip with. Thanks Mom and Dad for making my birthday so special!

Bryon, Rylan, Sara (me), Dad, Mom, and Jeff

The following evening, Bryon took me to Clinkerdagger for dinner. I had the best scallops ever! My parents watched Rylan so we could have an evening alone. Bryon also surprised me with an iPod nano for my birthday!!! Believe it or not, I've never owned one before. I know I'm probably the last person on earth to finally own an iPod, but I didn't really think I needed one before. Now that I have one, I don't know how I ever lived without one. It's kind of like cell phones, high speed internet and DVR...once you have them you just can't imagine how you ever survived before. Anyways, I guess I'm caught up with the times now.

Lastly, thanks to all my friends and family for the nice cards, gifts, e-mails, and phone calls! You really brightened my day! I love you all!

Shiner

"Hey everyone! I hope you are having a better week than I am. I slipped and fell in the bathtub and hit my cheek bone. I woke up the next morning with a nice shiner. Don't you think it makes me look tough? That's cuz I am...I barely cried! But, I guess I shouldn't be so crazy in the tub anymore. I'm also in the process of getting at least two new teeth, so sometimes I'm a little bit cranky because of the pain. Thank goodness my Mommy and Daddy give me Tylenol. It helps for the most part, but sometimes I wake up at night because it hurts so bad. I haven't gotten enough sleep this week and neither have my parents. At least I have some good news to leave you with...I'm really close to walking. I have taken two steps on my own and am getting better every day. I'll post a video soon so you can see what a big boy I am!"

Tiggers are Wonderful Things!

The most wonderful thing about Tiggers is-Tiggers are wonderful things!
"Happy Halloween everyone! Tigger here. Hope you all had a fun and safe holiday and that you ate lots of yummy candy. I sure had fun passing out candy to the trick-or-treaters that came to my house! It was a fine day for meeting friends. I met a cowboy and cowgirl, some grapes, a princess, a dog, Spiderman, and many others. It was t-rific!"

"You should see me bounce. I'm really good cuz my tail is made out of springs!"

"Now where did my Mommy and Daddy put the candy? Tiggers like chocolate too!

Pssst...don't tell anyone but it's really me, Rylan, wearing a Tigger costume. Bet you never would have guessed!"

Dancing Boy

Rylan got a Frig Farm for his birthday and he absolutely loves it! It has provided endless hours of entertainment! Rylan has always loved music which is what makes this toy such a hit. He loves to push the buttons and hear the animals make noises and listen to the farm songs. Here he is kicking up his heels!

I don't know about you but I can't help but laugh hysterically when I see him dance. He is just too cute! By the way, I know it looks like he took a tumble at the end of the video, but don't worry, he landed safely in Mama's lap. Within seconds, he was up dancing again!

Fun on the Farm

I just love fall when the air is crisp and the leaves are turning color! We've had such beautiful fall weather lately that we thought it would be fun to take Rylan to Greenbluff. Picking our own pumpkins and drinking warm apple cider made for a perfect day! Rylan loved riding in the wagon all around the pumpkin patch. He seemed to think it was most fun to stand while riding!

"I found one! This is the one I want! Will you cut it Dada?"
This is a total Charlie Brown pumpkin, but that's what makes it so special. Children find perfection and beauty in the most imperfect things. I wish we were all like this!

Here's Bryon cutting one of our pumpkins off the vine!

Rylan helped us find three pumpkins; a big one, a medium sized one and a small one. We'll each have one to carve and plenty of roasted seeds to eat!

Rylan had a hayday (no pun intended) crawling through the bales of hay and the pumpkins. It was like one giant maze!

That same week, we got to see our friend Laurie's baby sheep. I thought they were goats when I first saw them, but they are actually called hairless sheep. Aren't they cute? Grammy is helping Rylan bottle feed the babies. Their mother rejected them at birth, so they've had to be bottle fed to stay alive.

This little one sure is hungry. I've never seen anyone love animals more than Rylan. Every time he sees any kind of animal he immediately points at it and starts giggling with delight. It is so cute to watch how excited he gets!

"They are so soft, I just want to grab one and snuggle with it. Thanks for helping me feed them Grammy! You're the best!"

Happy 1st Birthday Rylan!

Rylan turned 1 year old on October 13th! I can't believe it has been a year already! I spent a lot of the day thinking about exactly what I was doing at specific times just one year ago. Here are just a few of the special times I enjoyed reminiscing about: 7:00am-started feeling contractions, 3:00pm-arrived at the hospital, 9:30pm-he arrived! Oh, it brings tears to my eyes!

We celebrated Rylan's birthday by having a party with family and friends on Sunday (Rylan's actual birthday was on Monday). I must say that the party was a success! Most of our family was there! We also invited several of Rylan's little friends and their parents too. It was so fun to see all the little ones playing together. Rylan has been really into cars and trucks the past several months, so we decided to have that be the theme of his party. Everything from the cake to the balloons to the party favors was cars and trucks related. Even some of the food was served out of dump trucks. I had a fun time planning and decorating! Thanks Suanne (my mother-in-law) for all of your help too!

Here are just a few of the guests chatting away and enjoying some of Rylan's favorite foods that we served at the party.

Rylan is getting a little extra help from Kariya on opening this present. She was pretty good at ripping that paper off. She must have had plenty of practice at her first birthday party. Thanks for jumping in there Kariya! You must have known that Rylan wasn't extactly sure what to do! What a helper!

"Oh boy! A new fire engine that I can actually ride! I only dreamed that this existed! Thanks Grammy and Grampy!"
Mom and Dad, I want you to know that Rylan plays that song on his new fire truck so often that I find myself out in public singing "I see a firetruck, a big red shiny firetruck. I see a firetruck coming down the street." At least I can count on Rylan enjoying my singing.

We got two cakes for Rylan's birthday; I made him his very own personal cake (backhoe loader) with the help of my mother-in-law and a Costco cake for everyone else to enjoy. Oh, I guess I should mention that Bryon and his step dad Mike did help out a little bit with the homemade cake. Using their knowledge of backhoe loaders, we were able to assemble the cake to look as real as possible. Thanks for the advice guys!

Here we are singing "Happy Birthday" to Rylan! If I were to guess what Rylan was thinking at this moment, it would be..."I don't care about that stupid song everyone is singing. Just put me in my high chair and let me dig into that cake already!"

And...what you've all been wondering. Did Rylan like his cake? Of course he did! I thought I'd show you some sequential pictures of this glorious event! So, here's the before picture. Rylan is about to dig in!

During: "Forget the spoon...that takes too long. It's much faster to get this delicious cake into my mouth by using my hands! Oh, so tasty! How did my parents know I'd want chocolate cake with cheesecake filling, and buttercream frosting and Birthday Cake ice cream to top it off? I'm in heaven!"

After: "Whew, I'm stuffed! I know I'm an eater, but this time I really outdid myself. I ate that whole piece of cake and all that ice cream all by myself! Aren't you impressed? Is is time for a nap yet?"
I have to tell you that Rylan actually did start to nod off shortly after finishing. He laid his head down on the tray of his high chair and was ready to take a snooze and probably would have if I hadn't startled him by turning on the camera. I hate it when I miss good photo opportunities like that!

On Monday (Rylan's actual birthday), our family of three celebrated again! Daddy made him a really yummy breakfast of eggs, sausage, toast and fruit, he got to open more presents from Mama and Dada, and he got to eat his truck cake. You can tell how much he likes it from this video! What a fun birthday! Thank you friends and family for joining us in celebrating Rylan's first year of life. It meant so much to have you all there! We hope that you'll be celebrating his birthday with us for many years to come!

So Active!!!

Rylan wakes up each day ready to go and maintains this momentum until bed time (even then he still bounces around in his crib for awhile before falling asleep). He is one big ball of energy! Better yet, he's the Energizer bunny! He definitely keeps me on my toes and certainly gives me a good workout every day by constantly chasing him around the house.

Rylan loves to walk around underneath our kitchen table. He thinks that cruising from chair to chair is pretty fun! Maybe I should drape some blankets over the table to create some sort of fort! What do you think Ry?

The baby swing at the park has been quite a hit. Visiting the park has become a frequent outing for us. We've had fun walking there and back with our friends Katie and baby Emma. Thanks for the fun times ladies!

As you can see, our coffee table has provided endless entertainment for Rylan. He spends countless hours cruising around it pulling out every basket and exploring its contents. He has a special basket just for his cars and trucks which are his most prized possessions. When we ask him where his cars and trucks are, he crawls as quickly as possible over to his basket and pulls them out with a big smile on his face!

Rylan has discovered how to crawl out of the dog door. If I turn my back for one second, it seems to be his cue to escape. He likes to follow Libby and the kitties in and out the door. Needless to say, the dog door may have to go. I can't have my child disappearing now, can I?

This week Rylan transitioned from his small inflatable tub to the "big boy" tub. It only took about one minute for him to get used to such a big space before he was crawling around all over the place. He wasn't able to crawl around in his last tub, so he thought that this was quite a treat! We even got Sesame Street Wild Watermelon bubble bath for him as an added bonus for his first "big boy" bathing experience. He didn't want to sit still and almost slipped a few times while curiously exploring all that there was to offer. I guess it's time to buy a grip pad too.

Rylan seems to think that Libby was made to be his jungle gym. He gets quite the thrill from climbing over her on one side and sliding down the other. Because Libby loves him so much, she's willing to put up with some abuse. I don't know what either of them would do without the other. They keep each other so entertained!

For several weeks now Rylan has been climbing our entire staircase. For those of you that have not been to our house, our staircase consists of fifteen steps. He climbs them so fast that you would think he was going for some kind of world record. Unfortunately, I can't seem to capture this all out race to the top on video camera, so this was the best I could do for now.

Rylan is constantly on the go (and he's not even walking yet) and I don't think he'll be slowing down any time soon! As tired as I am at the end of each day, I wouldn't want it any other way. Every day is one exciting adventure for both of us!