Christmas 2009

We had a great Christmas this year!! We look forward to this time every year so that we can have some time to spend at home together, just relaxing and playing. On Tuesday I left work early because our office was so slow, and they let me take Wednesday off, too. Since we hadn't gotten to the mall yet to see Santa, Grandma and I decided to take Rylee Wednesday afternoon. While we were waiting for Santa to get there, I decided to take a few pictures. Rylee found this bench and thought it was the funniest thing! She was being really good, so we got a few good shots: As expected, she did not like Santa at all! Not even after he bribed her with a candy cane. (But that's ok, I was kind of hoping for a picture of my screaming baby with Santa - something I could not have understood until having a child of my own!) Now we just have to hope she isn't still traumatized by next year!! Afterward she wouldn't even stand by the fake Santa statue!! But she forgave me eventually. On Christmas Eve we went to the annual party at Grandma Shelton's house. Ry was pretty shy at first, but she warmed up eventually. She definitely has a special spot for cousins Riley and Ashley. She was also being pretty good buddies with Aunt Marci this time. We had an excellent feast then exchanged gifts and watched the kids play for a little bit before heading home. Ry also got to open her Christmas jammies so that she could put them on there and be all ready for bed when we got home!! Christmas morning we got up and watched Rylee run out to see what Santa had left. She was tons of fun this year, even if it did take all morning to get through presents!! (As you can tell from the video, she wasn't shy at all about Christmas morning.)

On Saturday, Rylee went down to Sandy to play with her Williams cousins while we went to a dinner theater show at Desert Star Playhouse. It was a fun activity and Rylee had a blast playing with her cousins and Aunt Sally and Uncle Connon!! Then on Monday night, we got together with the Shelton's (and extended Shelton's) for an excellent dinner at Hamilton's. Overall it has been a great holiday season and we are looking forward to another fantastic year!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Spare Time

So now that the semester is over and I finally have some free time we have been doing lots of fun stuff. We made homemade goodies to take to the neighbors to spread some Christmas cheer. After many tries, we finally mastered the art of making peanut brittle! Last weekend Great-Grandma and Grandpa Alderman came up to Logan to visit for the day. We had fun visiting and had an excellent lunch at Texas Roadhouse! As usual, Rylee provided the entertainment:

Last night, we went to the basketball game to cheer on our Aggies. Even though it was a late game, Rylee was very good and we had a great time! Grandma and Ry waiting for the game to start: (Of course, a mouthful of licorice always helps, too!) She was very intent on watching Big Blue: Ry had to make sure Daddy looked presentable for the game: Ry and mommy ready for the game to start: Go Aggies, go Aggies, hey hey hey!! So far we have had a great Christmas break and we are looking forward to a week and a half at home to play and relax and just have fun before we have to go back to work and school. Merry Christmas everyone!!!

New Monkey Jammies and Soup

This week Grandma bought Rylee some new cuddly jammies with monkeys on them. She loves jammies so much! So we went to Grandma's house to try them on and Ry decided to make some soup ...

Thanksgiving 2009

I know this is a week late, but at least I am getting it up, right? For Thanksgiving this year we went to Sandy to celebrate with the Larsens. Rylee is getting better with the kids, but still extremely shy around the adults. We have hope that she will get better some day, though. ;) We had tons of fantastic food (and our pretzel jell-o was a huge hit)! There were so many of us again this year that Chad's parents had to rent the church to fit us all in the same room. The kids love it cause there is tons of room to play and it's fun cause we all get to sit together for dinner (which isn't easy with 30+ people). Rylee loved playing with Oaklee (who is her same age). It is too bad we live so far away and they don't get to see each other more often. I didn't get any pictures of them this time, though. For some reason when I see everyone else taking pictures it makes me less motivated to take some of my own. (Maybe I figure I can just get copies of everyone else's or something!) After we got home we decided to decorate the house for Christmas, yay! Chad spent many very cold hours hanging our Christmas lights. But our house looks so pretty now!! Then we set up the inside decorations. Chad setting up the tree: Ry pulling her stocking out: Daddy helped Ry hang some ornaments on the tree: Then she found some more and decided to try to hang them herself: (Luckily only one of them broke!) Rylee was feeling very festive: Overall it was a very fun Thanksgiving break (other than the part where I got kidney stones, but nothing's perfect, right?)

 P.S. Rylee also discovered ravioli recently. Chad took these pictures for me so I could enjoy the experience as well!