Piggy Bank

Rylan loves putting money in his piggy bank. We are always giving him our loose change so that he can drop it into his bank. His grandparents like to give him money for his bank too, so his money has quickly started adding up to a nice little savings for him. We've been teaching Rylan the names of the different coins and he can identify all of them on his own now. Bryon's grandma gave Rylan 25 dollar bills and a bunch of change for Christmas! He was very excited to put it all in his bank!

Sugar and Spice

Sugar and spice and everything nice...that's what little girls are made of! I guess it's time to start shopping for ribbons, bows, and everything pink. We are having a baby girl! We are thrilled as can be! Most importantly, our ultra sound showed that our little girl is healthy. She is in the 50th percentile for height and weight. We can't wait to meet our sweet baby girl!

Birthdays and Baby Showers

This past month, we've been to birthday party, after birthday party, after baby shower, after baby shower. It's been a busy time of year, but a fun time as well. We've done a lot of celebrating lately! We thought we'd share some pictures from just a few of the parties we've enjoyed recently.

Rylan's buddy, Benton, recently turned two. Rylan was invited to his birthday party at Jump and Bounce. We took Rylan there about a year ago and he wasn't quite sure about all the big toys. He wanted Mommy and Daddy to go on them with him. But, this year Rylan got right up onto the toys all by himself. He had a blast! The big slides were his favorite!

"Look at me, Mom!" -Rylan says this a lot when he's doing something he's very proud of.

Pizza and ice cream-What a great boost after burning all that energy playing!

Our friends, Rachel and Tyson, are expecting their second child (a girl). They had a couples baby shower at a bowling alley. Rylan got to experience bowling for the first time. He and his friend Kariya had fun trying this sport out together. As you can see, Rylan was a little unsure as to where he should stand. He kept wanting to get in front of the ball. Needless to say, it took all three of us to get the job done.

Rylan tried chasing after the bowling ball a few times. He didn't seem to understand why we wouldn't let him run down the lane.

"Do you think I'm going to get a strike Dad?"

Cara, Jera, Sara

My friend Cara just had a baby shower in town. She is expecting her first child, a baby boy. She lives in Connecticut and isn't in town too often, so I was thrilled to be able to see her! It was fun reuniting with Cara, and another friend of ours from high school, Jera. If you haven't noticed...our names rhyme. The funny thing is that when the three of us hung out together and we'd meet guys, they didn't believe us when we told them our names. They thought we were giving them a hard time by making up names. We got quite a few chuckles out of the whole situation. It was so good seeing both of you again!

Our Thanksgiving Story

For the past month at church, we've been focusing on the importance of giving to others. We read "The Hole in the Gospel" by Richard Stearns, the president of World Vision. He really changed my perspective on life. I highly recommend this book to anyone. It is a real eye opener! Anyways, this book states that as Christians, our faith is not just about going to church and being a good person, but it is also about giving to others. Many Americans (myself included) often take things for granted. We live in the "now" and it is all about what we want. We are often comparing what we have to what our friends have and complaining when we don't have everything we want. Most of us don't even stop to think of how blessed we are and how much we do have. Now I don't consider myself rich by any means but, little did I realize, I am rich in comparison to other people around the world. This quote from my pastor, Joe Wittwer, at Life Center Church might help put things into perspective:

"If you make $12,000 a year, you are in the top 13% of the world. If you make $25,000 a year, you are in the top 10% of the world. If you make $50,000 a year, you’re in the top 1%. We are rich. (By the way, to be in the bottom half of the world, you have to make less than $850 a year—that’s $70 a month or roughly $2 a day.) I know what you’re thinking: “I’m not rich.” I don’t think of myself as rich. Here’s why: We look at those who make more than us and that’s how we define rich. But the rest of the world looks at us, and we are how they define rich. Did you know that 93% of the world doesn’t even own a car? It makes your old clunker look pretty good! We are rich. If we don’t think we’re rich, we don’t see it as our responsibility to help the poor. We are rich."

If that doesn't make you thank God for everything you have, I don't know what will. Pastor Joe's message and Richard Stearn's book (and visit to our church) really touched our hearts. Since then, Bryon and I have had a strong desire to give. And boy have we gone on a giving rampage. Let me tell you...it is an addiction. Once you start giving, you don't want to stop. In fact, my entire family decided not to exchange Christmas gifts this year. Instead we are going to use the money to give to someone in need. One of the ways Bryon and I have decided to give is by sponsoring a child through World Vision. Our church is sponsoring over 1,500 children in a small village in Swaziland, Africa. Rylan helped us pick out a little boy who's three years old and he is very excited to draw pictures to send to him.

All of this brings me to our Thanksgiving story. We woke up Thanksgiving morning with a very sick son and a broken hot water tank which had leaked all over the storage room floor in our basement. Most businesses were closed for Thanksgiving, so we knew it would be a few days before we would be able to replace the tank and have water again. Obviously, not a good start to our Thanksgiving. No showers, no drinking water, and a not so cheerful son kind of put a damper on things. Normally, we probably would have started complaining about these unfortunate events, but that did not happen in the Talley household that morning. Quite the opposite happened actually. We were both thankful that 1) even without water, we still had more than we could ever ask for (a roof over our heads, plenty of food to eat, each other, etc.) and 2) our son would get better and back to normal in no time. When you think about the millions of people that go without clean water each day, and the millions of sick children whose parents can't afford to take them to a doctor, you begin counting each and every blessing. We truly are blessed!!!

Despite the circumstances, we ended up having a wonderful Thanksgiving at my parent's house. Here are a couple pictures of our day:We celebrated my Grandma's birthday on Thanksgiving while we were all together. Her birthday was just two days after Thanksgiving. Happy Birthday Grandma!

We were all so excited to see my brother Jeff. We miss him while he's away at college. We love you bro!

I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and took time to count your blessings!

If any of you are curious about ways you can give, here are a few websites I've recently learned about where you can find an opportunity to do so:

www.worldvision.org-sponsor a child
www.kiva.org-give a microloan
www.heifer.org-buy livestock for a family in need to help them become self-reliant and fight poverty

Birthday Celebrations

My mom, sister Breanne, and I all have our birthdays within the same week. We've enjoyed celebrating together over the past years. This year, we began our celebrations by getting together with family at our house. We enjoyed a delicious meal of butternut squash soup, pumpkin muffins, and salad.

The birthday girls (minus Breanne who was in Portland)

Since Breanne missed the first celebration, we had to party again of course. This time we went all out! We all chipped in to rent a limo for Breanne's 21st birthday! We met at my house for a little pre-funking, then the limo picked us up and drove us all around town!

Pretty fancy, huh? Apparently it is the nicest limo in the entire Pacific Northwest.

The party girls (plus Rylan who decided to sneak into the picture) enjoying some yummy appetizers and drinks.

Rylan thought Breanne's beads and boa were pretty cool! He was excited his cousin Jada was at the party too!

"Alright limo driver...let's get this party started!"

This is before we all got wild. What happened next included some crazy girls dancing while rocking out to music (thanks Lisa for the great mix), drinking and toasting to the birthday girl (I enjoyed my sparkling cider), and opening the windows, sticking our heads out and screaming at the top of our lungs. We sure had fun!

Girls gone wild!

Jada got to experience her first limo ride at age 9. Lucky girl! We're sure glad you came!

Cheers!

The last stop before heading home was a scenic spot overlooking the entire city. We got out of the limo and enjoyed the beautiful view.

Happy Birthday Mom and Breanne! I sure had fun celebrating with you!

National Board Certification

I just got word that I passed my National Boards!!! I am now officially a nationally certified teacher, which means I am now certified to teach anywhere in the U.S. Prior to my new certification, I was only certified to teach in Washington State. We don't plan on moving any time soon, but achieving National Board Certification had always been a goal of mine. It is a very challenging, rigorous, and prestigious certification process in the world of education. Plus, as an added bonus I will receive a big pay raise!!! After waiting since May for my results, I can finally relax and celebrate! Thanks to all my wonderful friends and amazing family who helped me along this tough journey. I wouldn't have made it without your constant love, support, and encouragement.

First Snowfall

We recently had our first snowfall of the season. Our family loves the snow so we were all so excited to see it arrive. It was beautiful! We immediately had to take Rylan outside to play in it and he had so much fun!"No Mommy, I don't want to pose for a picture now. I'm going to build a snowman..."

"...then stick my tongue out and eat the snowflakes..."

"...and make snow angels."

"I love the snow! Why can't it snow every day?"

Trick-or-Treat

Our Halloween celebrations began with a Gymboree Pumpkin Patch Party for Rylan. Rylan goes to weekly Gymboree classes and loves it so we took him to this extra Halloween party they were offering. It was so fun to see all the little kids in their costumes. They were all so cute!

One of Rylan's favorite activities is running on top of and underneath the giant parachute. You can see him in the middle having a great time! He's the adorable kangaroo!

There are a lot of fun things to climb and jump on at Gymboree.
"Excuse me Mr. Dinosaur. I'm trying to cross this bridge."

I had to get a picture of the back of his costume too. Isn't it adorable?
"Watch the professional. Slam dunk! Now that's how it's done."

Searching for pumpkins with Daddy
During each class they hide items related to that week's theme. This week was pumpkins. They search around to find as many as they can.

Each kid got a flashlight and they dimmed the lights for awhile. They all loved carrying them around. What a fun party!

Rylan and Mommy made some yummy Halloween sugar cookes. Rylan was really good at frosting and decorating, although I think he probably did more eating than decorating. He has a sweet tooth!!!

We made candy corn cookies, ghost cookies, and...

pumpkin cookies. Thanks for your help Rylan!

We took Rylan trick-or-treating for the first time this year. He was a little apprehensive about walking up to people's doorsteps (he wanted Mommy and Daddy to go with him) but once he saw they had candy in their hand, he was pretty excited. In fact, once we had finished the rounds in the neighborhood Rylan didn't want to stop. He kept asking for us to take him out again.

As soon as we got back home after trick-or-treating, Rylan immediately started digging into his candy. The first thing he went for was a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. That's his favorite (just like him Mom).
"Oh man, this candy was worth the wait. Yummy! I can't wait to go again next year!"

Baby On The Way

Rylan is going to be a big brother!!! We are all very excited to welcome another little bundle of joy into our family! I am 13 weeks along and due May 2. We'll be finding out the sex of our baby around Christmas time, so we'll keep you all posted.

We're already starting to prep Rylan for this big change in our family. We've been reading him books about being a big brother and what it will be like to have a little brother or sister. He's shown a lot of interest. Sometimes he even points to Mommy's belly and says "Baby in there." He's going to be the best big brother ever!

Pumpkin Carving

We enjoyed a fun, family night of carving pumpkins, roasting pumpkin seeds, and watching Halloween cartoons. Rylan really enjoyed carving pumpkins this year, especially the part where he got to draw faces on the pumpkins with his smelly markers.

"What's inside that pumpkin Daddy?"

"Oh, it's squishy, slimy orange stuff. Interesting!"

"I'm not sure I like the idea of putting my hand in there. Can you get out the pumpkin seeds for me Daddy?"

"Oh, good...you found me a spoon. I'll just scoop the seeds out instead. This is much more my style!"

Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin Picking

We headed up to Greenbluff on a beautiful October weekend to pick pumpkins and enjoy the fall festival. We went with our good friends, the Whitmans. There are so many fun things to do there! We enjoyed watching Rylan and Blake...

...pet the goats and the ducks,

play in the giant chickpea box (it looks like a sandbox, but is really full of chickpeas),

go for a ride around the apple orchard,

pick a few apples,

and search for the perfect pumpkin.

"There are so many to choose from Mommy. I just don't know which one to get."

"I found the perfect pumpkin. Please no one take it! This one is for me."

What a great way to spend a beautiful fall day!

Happy 2nd Birthday Rylan and Ava!

We had a joint birthday party to celebrate Rylan turning two and Ava (Rylan's cousin) turning three. Their birthdays are just two days apart, so we thought it would be fun to celebrate together. It turned out so well, and we all had so much fun, that we've decided to make it a tradition (or at least until the kids decide they want their own party)!

We invited all our family over to our house for a pizza party. Here are all the cousins, plus Auntie Bre, enjoying their dinner.

It was so fun watching the birthday girl open her presents! She was so excited!

Rylan was thrilled with his presents too! In fact, he loved every present so much that we had a hard time getting him to open the next gift...he was too busy playing with the one he just opened.

Grandma gave him a whole bunch of new cars and this big mat that he can drive them on. He loves it and plays with it for hours every day.

Uncle Jerimiah, Auntie Jenna, Jada, Ty, and Ava gave Rylan this slide. This has always been one of his favorite things to play with at his friends' houses and now he finally has his own. I can't even begin to count how many times he went down this before he was ready to open the next gift. =)

Mimi, Papa, Aunti Bre and Uncle Jeff got Rylan a new winter outfit (he was too busy to try on the snowpants and gloves). Now he's all ready to go play outside in the cold, wintry weather. Doesn't he look so cute in this outfit?

Rylan and Ava shared an icecream cake...one side was decorated with tools and the other side with princesses. It couldn't have been cuter or more delicious!

Within seconds of putting the cake in front of the two birthday kids, Rylan was dipping his fingers into the frosting and eating it while Ava was sitting there patiently like a princess until we cut her her own piece. What a doll! These two are such good buddies that they even decided to hold hands for this event.

Rylan's birthday was on a Tuesday this year, so we threw his party the Saturday before. The day of his real birthday was pretty low key. We had our friends, Brian and Lara, and their two little ones, Blake and Claire, over for dinner. Blake is one of Rylan's best buddies. We had hotdogs for dinner (Rylan's favorite meal) and then Rylan got to open more gifts. Thanks for the fun new toys Blake!

Mommy and Daddy got Rylan a new train set. It makes noises and has flashing lights and came with lots of train to drive around the track. He's loved playing with this every day.

We ended the evening with Rylan's favorite dessert; chocolate brownies with icecream. Can you tell he's just a little bit excited?

Happy birthday sweet boy! It is so fun to watch you grow up!