Thanksgiving 2011

Since I am a world-class procrastinator, this post is obviously very late. (At least it isn't Christmas yet!) It was our year to spend Thanksgiving with the Larsens. Chad got up early that morning to bake an apple pie (made from scratch!) then we packed up the car and headed to Sandy. Dinner this year was hosted at Sally and Connon's church - it's hard to find a place that seats 40 people! - and the kids loved it because the gym had a stage to play on. The food was delicious, as always, and Rylee had so much fun playing with her cousins (so much that I couldn't get her to sit still long enough to get a clear picture on my phone).

A side note on Rylee: at her 3 year check-up with Dr. Firth he expressed concerns that her extreme shyness was more than just a normal young child amount of shy. After asking me several questions about her behavior (and attempting to get Rylee to communicate with him in any way) he decided that she has some severe anxiety. She gets so nervous around strangers and large groups of people that she "freezes" up. He said her brain knows that she should talk and react but the signals don't make it to her mouth, eyes, arms, etc. So he has been treating her for a couple months and we have been working with her to try to help with the anxiety. Thanksgiving was the first real "test" we had to see if she was improving or not. It was amazing how different she was around Chad's family! Before, she wouldn't talk to anyone (I'm not sure any of Chad's family had actually ever heard her speak before) and it took a long time of sitting by her and letting her slowly get used to them before she would even get down on the floor and play with anyone or give her grandparents a hug. When we went down there she clung to my legs the entire time and stared at the floor. Over the couple days we spent in Sandy this time, though, I didn't see her for more than 5 minutes! She played with everyone; she talked to everyone; she even left Chad's parents' house, where we were staying, to go with one of her aunt's to play at another house without us! We were so proud of her and relieved that she was doing so well and excited for everyone else to finally get to see her real personality coming out.

Jayden, unfortunately got sick right before we left with a bad cold and also suffered through the holiday trying to cut his first tooth. He tried to be brave, but it was a pretty rough weekend for him. He spent most of the time passed out in the swing hopped up on Tylenol.

When we came home Friday evening we got to bring one of Rylee's cousins home with us. (Before her recent changes this is something we never would have been able to do. Rylee would not have been able to handle that kind of major change in her home environment without a lot of time for us to prepare her for it.) Oaklee is the same age as Rylee, but since she lives in Nevada they don't get to see each other very often. So Oaklee came home with us Friday night for a sleepover then we all went with my mom to see the new Muppets movie Saturday afternoon while Chad went with some of his family to the USU - Nevada football game. The girls had so much fun together playing and giggling all night long!

Sunday we put on the Grinch (a favorite tradition) and put up the Christmas decorations.  Rylee was much more helpful in hanging the ornaments this year! Jayden helped by taking care of the tape on the boxes. Aren't these two little Santa's helpers too cute?

It was such a great weekend and we can't wait for Christmas to come at our house!