Thursday, December 31, 2009

Finally - Christmas Catch Up Post

I know this is way late as it is already New Years Eve, however, last night blogger wasn't allowing me to upload pictures and I needed to play catch up with my posts and also in my house. So here it is....better late then never right? Well I guess that's my opinion and it's my blog so I can say that right?

First off, Just wanted to show everyone how clean up on Christmas Day occurs in my family. Yes, that is the "MEN" doing the dishes. Every year, we have a HUGE Christmas lunch of prime rib, ham, salads, bread, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, and yes, pies and goodies and oh yea, homemade icecream. It is so yummy. The last few years, after lunch, the men have been doing the dishes and cleaning up. It is so funny to see all of the men lined up at the sink washing, drying and putting away the dishes.

- This is two of my uncles and my dad (center) doing the dishes after christmas lunch -
After everything is cleaned up and put away, we always have a gift exchange game. Everyone brings one $20.00 gift and we draw numbers with #1 going first and the highest number going last. You can steal a present already unwrapped or open a new one. It is always fun to watch and see everyone be sneaky and try to hide the "good gift" so no one steals it.
This year I brought a snuggie. When these came out a couple of years ago, we always laughed at the infomercial on TV because they just plain out looked rediculous. I can honestly say that I would never buy one for myself, however if I were to get one, I would probably use it, as would most people. Well my cousin was the lucky one to open this gift. He is a sophomore in college and couldn't believe he got a snuggie. Well it ended up that his dad stole it from him, and of course instead of stealing something else, he chose to open another present and ended up with 2 snowmen mugs, hot cocoa, marshmallows and a blanket. It was SOOOO FUNNY to see his expressions. I can say I believe he was a little dissappointed in the gift game this year, but it was sure funny to watch him be dissappointed!

Well being at Christmas is just plain exhausting in the life of a 16 month old. She zonked out and took a great nap during the gift game. Isn't she just adorable? I think so!

This picture is actually from Christmas Eve Night. The grandkids all opened new pj's, slippers, and sleeping bags. They put in a Chistmas movie and enjoyed some popcorn. A new tradition started.
After the fun Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, we headed out to my sisters for Christmas with my mom. The kids again enjoyed opening gifts from one another and from Grandma Resa and Rodney. Rylee deffinately had fun being "Toted around" by her cousins the entire weekend.


- Hunter is carrying Rylee aound the house -
It was so funny to watch R. interact with everyone. She had no problem going to her cousins Brooke and Hunter, However was holding a major grudge against her cousin Logan who kept stealing her bracelets and necklaces and blanket from her. She also would not go or even look at her Grandpa and was very hesitant to go to any other adults besides her Mom, Dad and aunt Missy. Even Aunt Aimee was on the bad list.
I can deffinately tell that she has been cooped up in the house this winter with little interaction from other people. Guess it's time for mom and dad to get a babysitter and give her some time with other people. Well, maybe we will wait until after flu season.
After the long time away from home, we were all glad to be home. Rylee is just loving her new ball pit and 200 balls along with her dora play tent/tunnel and Everything else she got for Christmas.
She spiked a fever yesterday afternoon and of course all of the doc's at her CF clinic are on vacation, so we took her to the local clinic and they said it looked like ear infection. Poor thing. So we are on another antibiotic for the next 10 days. One of these days all these darn antibiotics will be finished and we can go back to "OUR" normal life which is no where near everyone elses normal.
Well, wishing everyone a safe and happy new year's eve and a wonderful 2010 to everyone!









Tuesday, December 29, 2009

A new Experience - The Wrights!

The weekend before Christmas, I ventured out of town to take pictures of a family - I mean extended family! 19 People total and 9 kiddos. It was deffinately a new experience and a good one to get the jitters out. I now know that I need to be more assertive and creative with my placements and when doing a shoot that big should have an assistant to help keep the attention of everyone. I would say little ones, however when all the little ones were looking, it just so happens that one of the adults wouldn't be.

Overall though, I think I managed to get a semi-decent picture of the entire family and pieced together some others for the family. Here is a sneak peek for the very patient family. With the Christmas holiday, I didn't get a chance to look at them and edit them until last night/today, so here is a little preview.
This one is deffinately a favorite of mine. It took a while to get it together, but I love the way it turned out.
I know "Grandma" wanted a picture for a Christmas Card and since it is after Christmas, i quick put this card together for the "Holidays"

Here's a Picture of Grandma with all the kiddos. Now only if I could transpose the good picture of the adults in behind them this one would be perfect. No such luck though! I tried!


We did get the 1 picture of the entire family (the first picture) and a couple of other ones, and I edited lots of just the kids/individuals.
The family was great to work with and I would love to take more pictures for them as my experience and confidence with large groups grows.
I couldn't ask for a better family to work with on a large scale aspect. They were so cooperative and all such happy people! Thanks so much.



Monday, December 28, 2009

Wow Christmas has come and gone!

Well, no pictures but just a quick update......Christmas came and went just like the blizzard that we had did. I have lots to update on later...but for now just a note that we are still here, just being super bad at blogging lately with the holidays and craziness. I have pictures to edit, laundry to do, toys to put away, dishes to clean and much much much more.

We had an excellent Christmas. Little R. got way too many toys and is stocked up for the next 10 years I swear.....well only if she would stay 16 months for the next 10 years. She is loving playing with all the toys and enjoying being home.

Well more to come later including some pictures to document the fun times had by all!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and that the upcoming new year is plenty merry for all!

Monday, December 21, 2009

Wow! Really?

OK, So I have recently become the worlds worst blogger. Has it really been this long since I've posted?

Well, We have been some busy and tired people around this household. After our visit from the cousins, the party, and finally getting the house back to normal, we started to think about christmas...Wrapping presents, baking, packing for the fun filled vacation at grandpas and then aunties. Those were the thoughts anyways...Until....The fear of the major winter storm that is about to hit the area. We have about a 2.5 hour drive to get our destination. To say the least, we will be majorly bummed if we cannot make it.

And then of course there is our little peanut who always throws a curve ball into the plan. While the cousins were visiting she developed a minor dry cough. We played it off to the change of weather causing very dry air.....What can I say, I was a tad bit stuffy in the mornings too. Some days the cough was worse then others, but for the most part it remained very dry and sparse.

We had a clinic visit on Thursday and they were under similar thoughts about the cough. We were told to watch it over the weekend and check back in this week if things were not improved/worse. Well I called today as things are not getting better. She has been up 2 or 3 times a night with a stuffy nose. She gets so frustrated because she can't suck on the paci and breathe through her nose. Poor Little girl. So we added to her list of numerous meds, bactrim for 10 days to clear up a bacterial infection in her lungs and guess what - She does not like it. Anything that comes out of a syringe and a little orangesish/brown bottle - not good.

We also added zantac to help the enzymes work better, miralax to help with the stool issues, upped the amount of enzymes and now bactrim. We are still working on adding all of these to our daily routine/regamine. We don't like to overwhelm her system with 3 new things, so slowly we add a little every couple of days.

Well with christmas away from home, we decided to let R. open one present every night until christmas to make it not so overwhelming. She had quite a few presents from us along with from her grandma and grandpa and some friends and we decided we weren't going to haul them all for the ride. We initially were going to open presents here before we left and then just take the gifts from R. to the cousins and 2 or 3 from us to open with the family, however, we didn't think that opening them all at once was such a great idea. we will be opening presents for about 5 days straight, and she will be more then spoiled.

So we started a couple of nights ago. She got this awesome doctors kit from her godparents along with the movie Snow White. She has also opened some art supplies, puzzles, stacking bowls and nesting and stacking blocks and a "feel better baby doll that came with a stethascope, medicine, and thermometer. She has also recieved a tool set from the A.'s and some very cool stuff from her friend Reese who also has Cystic Fibrosis. They are pen-pal friends and love to get presents from each other along with sending some neat-o stuff to each other. R. got a very nice homemade Christmas ABC book, some bathtime tadoodles, a potty book, a doctor book, a pedicure set, an R. Magnet and a tic tac toe game. R. is really scared of the stethascope and doctors right now which is completely understandable.

She still has quite a bit to go and is loving all of the new toys. Here she is opening the doctors kit.



She still isn't quite sure what to do with the presents. She is getting a little more into it as we go, but still gets distracted and doesn't quite understand the concept yet. She seems to like the way the present looks wrapped.

Well thank you to everyone who has sent R. gifts. She loves them all. We are still hoping for some good news for the weather and Hope that everyone has a wonderful christmas and a Happy New Year. We will have a post later about a photoshoot for a family get together with 18 people...........

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Monday, December 14, 2009

Busy Busy Busy but Fun Fun Fun

We had a very busy weekend at our home! A birthday party, a christmas party, and three rugrats added to our precious one made for one interesting but fun weekend. We deffinately could have used one more day to relax after the weekend, but we will get that next weekend!

My sister, her husband and three kids along with my mom and her boyfriend drove to our house on Friday night. We had a party for Hunter's 6th Birthday. We had pizza for supper and icecream cake. My cousin Jordan stopped up for the party along with my sisters husbands son Zack. It was quite the houseful. We talked, laughed and watched the kiddos having fun! My sisters family and my mom and Rodney stayed the night making for quite the houseful with people sleeping everywhere.



On Saturday morning, my sister and her husband and my mom and Rodney got up and left bright and early for the cities. They were planning on spending the day shopping at the Mall of America and then heading to the Vikings game on Sunday, leaving us with 3 monsters for 2 days!

The kids were far from monsters. We were busy making food and cleaning and setting up for a christmas party we were hosting that night. The older kids played alot on the wii and their nintento ds's but it kept them content for the day.

Now this little stinker......I set out the sugar cookies (thank you Jodee for the recipe! they were perfect and still NO FAIL as even I didn't fail these cookies) and this little stinker kept swiping the gingerbread men. Finally after walking around with his 3rd cookie, I had to place them up so he could no longer reach them. I was running out of gingerbread men. He sure is a cute little stinker though.


Saturday afternoon the house began to fill. We had Rylee's friend Haven and her mom up, friends Abby and Shawn, and of course the Austriems.



The kids had so much fun decorating the sugar cookies. We only let them eat 1 but I have a feeling that ate more then that, as when Brooke and Hunter left yesterday they each only had 2 cookies left! Oh well........lots and lots of sugar every once in a while isn't a bad thing....IS IT?


Austreims brought up Rylee christmas present and let her open it. Ashton had to help her as she wanted to keep placing the big bow over the whole. I have a NO PEEKER on my hands. She loved the dora paper (even though she doesn't really know who dora is thanks to no cable tv) and she absolutely loved the present. They got her a huge set of black and decker toy tools. She has so much fun playing with them. I don't seem to have any pictures, but I'm sure they will appear in the near future!


And after an exhausting night of christmas fun, These two conked out by 9:15 on the air matress on the living room floor. Their dad called at about 9:30 to say goodnight but they were fast asleep. I guess lots of sugar and excitement leads to tired tired tired kids. Their little brother was asleep by 7:00 and guess what.....our little angel was asleep by..oh wait it was still 10:30 before she finally zonked out.


On sunday we spent the majority of the day cleaning, playing the wii, relaxing, studying for Brookes big science test today and keeping the house from becoming totally demolished again. R had such a great time playing with her cousins. Logan will be back in February to stay for a week when the rest of his family ventures to Florida. R. is really looking forward to it.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Love of my life!

Two posts in one day, but I had to. This afternoon, me and little miss took a great big NAP. Like I said earlier, I got home late and Little Miss got up early so we were both tired. We layed in her bed sleeping and I began feeling her stir so I just layed there waiting for her to come climb on me. She came up to me, looked at me and then pulls out the cutest squinty face ever. What a great thing to wake up to! I love My Little Squinty Face!
It is one of the few things that can always make me smile. As in yesterday, while we were attempting to take a nap, well I was attempting to get stink butt to take a nap, I would tell her to lay down and she would stare at me for almost 2 minutes straight faced and then all of the sudden, squinty face! I couldn't help but smile.
This picture is of R. and her dad at the Parade of Lights prior to visiting Santa. I held the camera up and she instantly made the squinty face. This of course is the end of the squinty face so you don't get the full effect, but still, you should be able to get the main idea. She is so cute - and I can say that because she's my daughter and I love her!

A Night Out!

Last night, I ventured out, on my own. My sis was in the area and so I drove the hour to meet up with her for the evening. I left when hubby got home from work and then drove the hour to pick her up at the hotel. We went out to eat at the Olive Garden and then to the mall and target for a little more christmas shopping. My sister hasn't started christmas shopping yet so she has a lot to do yet. I still have a little to do for the nephews and one of them is having a bday also...so we need to buy some more for that too........

Otherwise we had some great conversation, and I enjoyed my Night Out. I got home around 11:00pm which is way past my bedtime. R. skipped her nap yesterday so she went to bed early and guess what that means - Up early in the am. So I am running on low today and feel a nap coming on today. NO NAP SKIPPING!

Time to go play and get some stuff done. I still need to make a list of exactly what I need to finish shopping for christmas!

Happy Tuesday!

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Soundly Sleeping and 15 months old!






I just realized as I sit her wide awake, that my I hadn't updated on the sleeping issues we had been having with our dear daughter. As you may or may not know from previous posts, R. had struggled with the whole sleeping arrangements since she was sick and in the hospital at 5 months. Well she is now 15 months, and we are finally getting a routine down. We bought her a Queen bed and literally, problem solved. She has been sleeping SOOOOOOO.GOOD! She loves her bed and has only fallen out once. OOPS. We have since put up a guard rail on the side of the bed. She sleeps the majority of the night and usually wakes me up in the am to come snuggle for another hour or so. We are loving it!

I also took some 15 month pictures today! They turned out pretty good considering what we have to work with for an indoor studio and a 15 month old girly. She does not cooperate for the most part, but I was able to snap a couple of decent shots to hang on the wall!
This is by far the favorite.
And my second favorite. Notice the lens cover in her hands. She either has to have something in her hands, or else the hands are in the mouth!
And finally, an O.K. one. She doesn't have the best ever smile or facial expression on, but it works. Once I get a few "real" lights - not lamps - and some backdrops I will be able to do some better shots. But for what I have, it works.
To bed it is for me! I'm sure the diva will be up early and wanting attention! Good night to all!