We were so excited to bring Ayla home for the first time. As we pulled into the driveway, my mom, Bryon's mom and Rylan were waiting to greet us. Rylan was holding a cute sign that said "Welcome sister Ayla". He was so excited when we took her out of the car and brought her inside and insisted on holding her right away. 
My parents arrived and my dad stayed at our house with Rylan while my mom came to the hospital with me and Bryon. This is one of the last photos of me pregnant.
We got to the hospital around 3:30 am. Contractions continued about every five minutes and things were progressing rapidly. I did some walking around the hospital to get things moving even faster. I was ready to meet my baby girl!!!
Here I am feeling relaxed and ready to go after getting an epidural!
8:07 am-Ayla Mae was born (not even 7 hours after my first contractions started). Here we are meeting for the first time. What a beautiful baby girl! I am a proud mommy!
Bryon sure adores his daughter too!
What a big girl! I knew she was going to be bigger than her big brother who weighed in at 8 lbs. 2 oz. at birth.
I couldn't wait to introduce Rylan to his new baby sister. He had been talking about her for months and was so excited to hear that she had finally arrived. Here is Rylan's first glimpse of his baby sister as she was wheeled into our room.
As the nurse placed Ayla in my arms, Rylan looked upon his sister's face with such joy! I have never witnessed anything sweeter in my life...it truly brought tears to my eyes.
Rylan immediately picked his sister up and snuggled her tight. He was so proud to call her his little sis.
Our first family photo of the four of us.
Ayla had many visitors her first day of life. Auntie Lisa, Auntie Bre, and Auntie Jenna all came to meet her.
Mimi (my mom) was there for Ayla's birth. Thank you mom for being such a wonderful mother, friend, and mimi. I love you and am so glad you shared this experience with me!
Papa holding his granddaughter for the first time.
Grandma (Bryon's mom) arrived into town about one hour after Ayla's birth. We were so glad she made it so quickly.
Our good friends, the Whitman's, also came to welcome baby Ayla into this world.
I was also lucky enough to have my good friend, Anissa, as my nurse during my stay in the hospital. We have been friends since elementary school. It was so special having her there!
Here is Ayla getting her first bath...
while her big brother watches from the window.
Rylan recently had his second visit to the dentist. During his first visit, about six months ago, he was pretty unsure about the whole thing and a little scared. But, this time was a different story. He really enjoyed his visit! The staff there was great. They let Rylan play with all the tools before putting them in his mouth. He got to tickle his fingers with the spinning brush, and slurp up water out of a cup with the tool that sucks up water (they call him Mr. Thirsty). Rylan thought it was so cool to be able to play with everything that he didn't mind at all when they put them in his mouth for cleaning. Also, Rylan sat really still in the dental chair for x-rays. What a brave boy! We told him we were taking pictures of his teeth and Mommy even got to push the button on the x-ray machine. He was pretty excited about his new toothbrush, stickers, and putting his name on the "No Cavities" wall. Way to go Rylan! We are proud of you!
This was the view from our seats until they closed the roof once it started raining.
Rylan is ready for the game to begin. We got there quite a bit early. We wanted to be sure that we got one of the coveted Griffey bobble heads that they were passing out to the first 30,000 fans. Rylan did get one along with a certificate for attending his first game.
Father and son enjoying the game together. Rylan loved his soft pretzel and garlic fries. You can't attend a Mariners game without getting their famous garlic fries.
Rylan did pretty well sitting during the game. He made it through the 8th inning. We only had to get up once or twice to get food/drinks or walk around a little.
Daddy thinks Rylan will be one of the players on the field some day.
We had a great time and the Mariners won!
While in Seattle, we also had a special weekend with family celebrating Bryon's mom's birthday!
Rylan helped to blow out the candles!
Here I am opening one of the many gifts. I received tons of cute clothes, blankets, bibs, burp rags, etc. I think our little girl is set now. And, there's no doubt she'll be the most stylin' baby around this summer!
It was so nice to be surrounded by such wonderful friends and family.
Aunt Sandy, Julie, Jennifer and Zoe, little Leah and Kim
Bonnie, Lara, Brett and baby Griffen, Kathy, Angie
Anissa, Breanne, Lisa
Me, Jenna, Jada
Rhiannon and baby Ella, Lara and baby Claire
The cake was delicious and so darling too!
I had to get a picture with my other pregnant friends.
Family-My beautiful niece, mother, and sister touching the next baby girl to be a part of our family. I am about three weeks from my due date in this picture.
Here I am with my wonderful friend and hostess, Lara.
And, a picture with the other hostess, my beautiful sister Jenna.
My mother made me the most precious quilt for baby Ayla. She did an amazing job. What a special gift! I love it and so will Ayla!
"Happy Easter! Aren't I the cutest little Easter bunny you've ever seen?"
Easter weekend began with story time and an Easter egg hunt at Auntie's bookstore.
"Ohhhh, chocolate, my favorite!"
Then, we headed over to Riverfront Park for their annual Easter egg hunt. We got there about 20 minutes early and Rylan wasn't very happy about having to wait to begin the hunt (look at that grumpy face). In fact, he tried to go underneath the rope and start early at one point. He just couldn't seem to understand what on earth we were waiting for, especially when the eggs were all just sitting there ready to be picked up.
"Finally, the hunt has begun! Let's see how many eggs I can get."
The Easter egg hunt was over about two minutes after it began. But, Rylan still managed to get a basketful of eggs.
The Loot
Rylan was so excited for the Easter Bunny to come. He had been talking about him coming for weeks. He was thrilled when he found his basket full of toys and candy!
He even found a second basket from the Easter Bunny which included a shirt that says "Big Brother" on it. The Easter Bunny sure knows what's going on.
Rylan loved dying Easter eggs! He enjoyed dipping the eggs into several different colors and thought it was pretty cool that we could write our names on them.
"I can do it all by myself this year. Aren't my eggs pretty?"
"All done. Now we just need to let them dry."
After the eggs dried, Rylan got to decorate them with stickers. He loves stickers so he was pretty stoked about this!
Our last Easter just the three of us. Next year, we'll have a fourth egg in the picture!!!
