nursery-going

Have you tried attending all three meetings of church with a 14 month old?
Impossible I tell you.
The level of difficulty, is exponentially and directly related to the childs ability to move on their own (ie WALK).

We've been counting down the weeks (for months really) until Rylee turned 18months and would be accepted in nursery. Michael even took her a couple weeks early to help her acclimate.

Yes, I had been looking forward to this 'milestone' for a while, but as it approached - I had a 'minor' freak-out. See, sending your child into someone elses care requires one to relinquish a certain degree of control. For some reason its very different from getting a babysitter - see, its not the adults I fear. . . . . . it may or may not be the other children.

Is this where she'll learn to bite? kick? hit? REALLY scream? will she be a toy stealer? or be the one everyone steals toys from? I want her to be nice but not a push-over. Will she be sick every week for the next 3 years? (she's only had one baut with allergies and one non-teething related runny nose). AAHHH. How do I cope you ask? stay as far away as possible. At least until we both feel more comfortable in this new stage. Of course she cried when she got dropped off, but better for Michael to hear it through the closed door than me- I'm certain it didn't last as long as the alternative.

We were told she did really well (after the initial cry . . . which hopefully wasn't too excrutiatingly long and will fade with time) and even brought back a picture. I suppose another outlet for her to learn about Jesus can't be ALL bad, right???

I like to think I'm a relatively laid-back first-time Momma. . . . . this experience has me thinking otherwise. Am I crazy? probably. Alone? please tell me no.

At any rate: Thank you nursery leaders for letting me attend Relief Society and actually be able to listen. . . . . . I'm looking forward to the next relatively silent four months :)

Arghhh

So here's the story:
Lately, Rylee has really enjoyed playing in the pantry. The items of choice are either the garbage (gross) or the soup cans. Somedays I have more patience than others. At any rate, the other morning she was carting around two cans of soup while I was getting ready. Moments later I heard a crash followed by a scream and she came running around the corner crying in pain. At the time I didn't know exactly what happened but as the hours went by, a bruise formed from the curve of the soup can on her lip (and eye too actually).

the day of the accident I felt sorry for her thinking: Soup cans are hard, that must have really hurt. Poor girl, right on her lip. I'm really glad it was on the outside of her eye so there wasn't 'lasting' damage (you know, like blindness).

Day 2: "hmmm the bruise looks an aweful lot like a mustache (notice the resemblance?). . . . . wouldn't that be funny to draw the rest of it on the other side of her lip." post said thoughts on facebook. Day 3: No FB friends objected (most were encouraging), and I too thought it would be funny, so I drew over the bruise with eyeliner and tried to duplicate the design on the other side (ok, the curly-que was all me)

I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. The harder I laughed the more Rylee laughed too. . . .

I added a homemade eyepatch to complete the look. {its all about the accessories}

too much?

apparently.

what a great afternoon :)

mmmm . . . . . bacon

So, while I was gone a few extra days Michael was home working {he originally was going to be in Lubbock for meetings, but they were cancelled}. Usually when that happens I feel a little guilty - I'm off playing while he's home working. alone. bored. Well, not so much this time. He had all sorts of dinner invitations, saw a movie and to top the week off, went hog hunting with some co-workers.

See, these wild boar are really more of a nuisance than anything, and most ranchers are excited for you to come on their property to get rid of them. But still, having a hook-up is nice. He even got to use his new gun!

Michael didn't actually shoot this pig, but it was a big one (250+ lbs) the other two that were killed were just babies and not worth skinning the whole thing for meat. The buddy that did shoot this needed Michael's "assistance" with the dirty work and gave him the meat as part of the bargain (only to come back a day later regretting his generosity. We'll share. I'm certain there will be plenty) We sent it to a butcher and we'll be up to our elbows in sausage here in a few days (seriously 84lbs of ham, ribs, linked & ground sausage comin our way). I'm not sure how soon he'll be able to go out again - if not for space in our freezer the fact that it took him 3 days to quit talking like a hick.

Sewing 101

While in Utah my sister had a few baby related sewing projects she wanted to accomplish while on maternity leave. We shopped to pick out fabric and had the projects pretty well planned. As luck (or genetics) would have it, she didn't have as much time to WORK on said projects as we'd thought. That's where Rylee and I stepped in. I was working on the carseat canopy (you know the blanket thing that hooks to the carseat handle keeping people from sneezing on your precious newborn, or give said baby relatively undesturbed slumber as you run errands). Rylee was interested in what I was doing, so I plopped her up on my lap to help (it was basic straight-stitch sewing at this point).

We pulled out the camera and she was all smiles. We've got ourselves a future semestress and this Momma couldn't be more proud. I helped her help me guide the fabric, which basically consisted of keeping her hands away from the the needle (which may or may not have been her number 1 priority at the time). As she tugged and pulled on the fabric I was talking to her about the parts of the machine/sewing etc and said "you don't need to push or pull on the fabric Rylee, there are things called 'feed-dogs' that do that for you" After I finished talking she replied with an "OH" as if she were saying "now I get it Mom!" We couldn't help but laugh out loud.

I remember something very similar to this for myself. . . . . my own Mother was sewing something and I'm sure I was driving her crazy with the project. She stopped what she was doing and pulled out pattern pieces (it was a floral terry-cloth ish fabric) and we made two jackets (mini robes?) for my cabbage-patch dolls. Now, maybe Rylee won't remember her 'first sewing experience' but I remember mine. Thanks Mom, I still love it.

at the Wright's

The rest of the trip we spent at my parents house. We hadn't been there for 5 minutes and Michael was attacked by the boys, pretty soon they were picked up in one big heap. My parents neighbor was taking his horses and buggy in the parade the next week and needed practice riders, we were happy to oblige. "Look Momma, horsies!"

We also spent a day on the lake - this time up to Deer Creek. The water wasn't *quite* as cold as our previous swim - we had a blast chillin on the boat laughing at those who knee-boarded, tubed, and rode the water weenie. Rylee and I even went on a little tube ride.

The best was seeing the little kids go out together, when they fell off the water weenie, they clumped together like magnets, it was really cute. . . . . there was one of us that thought the boat was a bit of a bore:

Since one day in the water wasn't enough, we headed to the local pool a couple times too. I must say Lindon City has an awesome pool for kids. Everyone was a big fan of the lazy river, the slides and the large shallow area. Each of the cousins wanted a turn taking Rylee down the slide- we both loved it.

Our trip just happened to fall over Lindon Days. So Saturday we headed down the street to watch the parade and pick up candy. Pretty sure it was Rylee's first parade. We were able to walk to the end of the street to watch in the shade, its a 30 min parade and they hand out more candy than one child should intake - we shared. We took in another Lindon Days activity: the boutique/craft fair. 4 of the 5 sisters went from shop to shop and had a good laugh with one shop in particular. . . . . They didn't believe we were all sisters (then to top it off one claimed we were two sets of twins) - if they could guess which one of us was the oldest (or youngest) we'd buy one of the prints they were selling. They guessed wrong but since they quoted us such a great price, we couldn't pass up the bargain. :)

The cousins had a great time playing outside together. I loved being able to shop without Rylee.

This is the result of a (soon to be) 7yo helping Rylee get into the swing. It was even more funny watching the 8yo try to get her out - he wasn't quite tall enough for proper leaverage.

Thanks to everyone who made time to come hang out with us!! We love you all so much and wish we could see you more often!!

make it a two-fer

I basically had this trip planned from the moment I found out my sister was pregnant - only it was originally a "girls only" vacation. A few months ago we found out Michael's parents {entire family actually-including his sister & husband who currently reside in Japan} were going to be in Utah near the same time we decided to postpone my trip a bit and he'd join us. Making the vacation a two-for-one. YAY!!

We stayed in a condo in park city and partied away. We spent most of the time catching up, playing games, swimming, and hacking one another's facebook accounts. We even squoze in a few minutes to take family pictures. To top it off, Michael baked a birthday cake since the 3 female in-laws birthdays are within 23 days from one another.

This cousin was basically the only one Rylee allowed to touch her for the first 48 hours. There were A LOT of new faces for her to familiarize herself with, on both sides of our families.

She eventually warmed up. . . . .

sort of.

We even spent a day at Jordanelle Reservoir. The water was FREEZING! I think Rylee was the only one who didn't complain. I was quite the wimp myself, I guess I've gotten accustomed to swimming in warmer water than I bathe in. We had a couple wave-runners to play on and had a blast. It took all the will-power I've got to not throw Michael off - its no fair when you can't retaliate.

On our way out of town we stopped where Michael and some of his siblings rode the Alpine slide/coaster. I did say 'no' to some things this vacation because of my 'condition'. Let it be known, I wasn't happy about it. I settled for taking Rylee on the carousel. She loved it by the way: oohed, aahed and giggled the whole time.

We took the long way home and stopped by Grandma/Grandpa's for a few minutes on our way home as well. I loved going over the mountains, it was beautiful. We got out for a few minutes at the top and spotted a moose (I think?) with two babies. Oh how I miss the mountains!!

It was fun to be together with Michael's whole family for a few days - who knows when that'll happen again, but whenever it is, we look forward to it!

what I went for. . . .

In case you were wondering why I've been a little mia on the ol' blog its because I've been vacationing my behind off. We just got back from a nearly 2 1/2 week trip to Utah. The primary reason for my trip was to meet the cutest little boy on the planet - none other than my latest nephew, Bridger. Having to wait a full 13 days to hold this little guy was killing me!! He is just so sweet!!
There isn't much better than the smell of a newborn. I could have just squooze him all day, but with a big family I had to share.

I was really anxious to see how Rylee would react not only to me holding a baby, but a baby in general. Telling you she loves him in an understatement!!! {I'm a little relieved at that fact and it made me REALLY excited for our baby to arrive}

Her favorite thing was to help burp him: she'd hold out her hand and grunt annoyingly until he was within reach, pat his back a few times then giggle, so proud she helped. She really was facinated with him, she'd say hi and wave whenever she saw him. She'd give him hugs and kisses and even hold the bottle when we'd fed him. Even as I type she is smiling at his pictures, laughing, pointing and waving.

He really is the best baby!! I was there for a week before I even heard him cry and he eats/sleeps like a champ! It kills me that I can't see him more often but alas life goes on {I tried to take him home but his brother wouldn't allow it}. I'm so happy for my sister! {and pray our baby is just as good} everything else we did that trip was icing :)