Hawaii 2012 Part 2

Rylee was a champion sleeper in Hawaii.  She was sleeping good before Hawaii but got even better while we were out there.  Coming back was a different story...

Family Picture! (Keeping Rylee warm after another dip in the ocean)

We took some pictures for a Christie to enter into a Yukalele picture contest:)  Taking a picture with these two girls seemed like it would be an easy task.  Skye did great, but since Rylee wasn't to the point where she could sit up, it was a little difficult.  We finally decided to prop her up on the Yukalele.  She decided to eat it instead.  We might not have gotten the pictures we thought we would have but I think we still got some keepers!

I think you forget how uncomfortable and hard it is to breath with you are buried in the sand...or at least we did (and we will probably do it again next time we go)

On the way back from Hawaii we had another non-stop flight.  This one, however, was a red-eye.  I was a little worried how this would go with Rylee since she didn't sleep too long with us holding her.  Diane had a genius idea of making a bed on the floor in between our feet.  She slept 6 hours!!  And then I fed her and she slept some more!  It couldn't have gone any better...until we were getting our luggage and found out that they left our car seat in Hawaii.  Luckily they have spares:)  It was a really long trip home, but it was worth it!

Hawaii 2012 Part 1

In the middle of August we went to Hawaii with my family.  We were able to take a non-stop flight from DC to Honolulu.  We were excited for it to be non-stop, but it was still 10 1/2 hours.  I was worried about how Rylee would do.  As she has gotten older she has become more and more alert, so the odds of her sleeping most of the time weren't very good.  But she still did awesome!  She didn't take very long naps but she allowed us to entertain her and keep her from driving our neighbors crazy :)

Rylee's first time in the sand.  She liked it until she tried rubbing her feet together.

Rylee feeling the water for the first time.

It didn't take long before Kenny had her really experience the ocean:)  And she did awesome!  I was sure she would feel cold but she did great!

Here is Rylee with her awesome sunglasses.

They're twinners!  Well sort of... :)

Rylee is a drooling queen!

This is out in front of the house.  Rylee was using her hands and mouth to grab onto Kenny's hair.  (Don't worry, he still had a hand on her...you just can't see it in the picture)

Rylee and Kenny took lots of naps together:)

Rylee with her cousin Skye.  I thought the water was a little cold, but Rylee did pretty well.  I guess she takes after her dad on that one:)

And of course Kenny and Christie had to build a huge trench.  It is definitely their biggest one yet!

Rylee's Blessing

While we were in Utah we decided to have a double baby blessing with Rylee and her cousin Bennett.

With all the wild fires going on, the sky was red and ash was falling from the sky.  It was crazy!  After Rylee was blessed there were little specks of ash on her face.  We tried to get a picture of it but you still can't see it.  

She isn't so sure about Lindsey...

It was so awesome to have so much of our family able to attend.  Check out the crowds!

Since Rylee was born I can relate to this character from a series of phdcomics even more. Maybe I just wanted to enjoy the beautiful summer weather. Or maybe I just didn't want to work. Or maybe I just remembered that my daughter was WAY more important than work ;)

Original comics available here, here, and here.

Gratuitous shot of me playing with Rylee at lunch:

Utah June 2012

When Rylee was 7 weeks old we went to Utah to visit family.  I was a little worried about the 5 1/2 hour flight but she did awesome!  She slept the entire time.  What more could you ask for? :)  While in Utah we were able to finally get some pictures of her smiling.  Sadie was actually the first one to do it so I must give her credit on that.

Addie was checking out her new cousin.  She was so helpful with babies!  She knew just what to do when they started crying...the magic of the pacifier:)  I hope Rylee will be as helpful as Addie is when we have our next one.

Rylee and her cousin Bennett are 25 days apart.  Despite how it looks, Rylee is actually the older one.  She couldn't stop moving while we were taking these pictures and Bennett loved looking to his right.  It was probably safer, since her arms were flying everywhere.

We finally switched them around so it would look like they liked each other:)

And this they actually did all on their own!

And of course while we were in Utah we went to Maple Canyon.  It was so much fun!  With all of the wildfires we almost had to cancel our plans, but luckily the fire blew the opposite direction of Maple Canyon.

We also went to a lot of Softball games while we were in Utah.  Sadie's team kept winning and so they kept playing.  Rylee did great at the games.  And I was able to learn more and more about softball.  And the more I started to understand the sport the more I enjoyed it:)

More Pictures of Rylee

When Rylee was a few weeks old, any time she was startled or put on her back she would stick her arms and legs straight out infront of her.  When we would lay her down to change her she would do it, and then curl one arm in and gradually roll over to her side.  No matter how many times she did it, it was always entertaining.

Rylee likes to be held the same way Mossimo does:)

This is actually Rylee at 3 1/2 months.  (Don't worry I will back track a little) She is still loving bath time:) The first time she laughed was in the bath.  We didn't really do anything to make her laugh.  We were just cleaning her hands...apparently she was enjoying it.  We give her a bath every night before bedtime.  It doesn't matter how tired, or how cranky she is, she loves bath time.  She is all smiles and loves kicking around.  It's a great way to end each day:)

Visitors

After Rylee was born we had some people make the long journey to central PA:)  I always thought it would be nice to have people come visit after you have the baby.  (I thought it would be a good excuse to see family.)  I didn't realize how helpful it really would be.

When I had Rylee 8 days early my parents decided that they didn't want to wait until she was a month old to come see her.  They decided to come visit her when she was a week old.  I was so glad they came.  Kenny was back at work and it was nice to have the extra hands.  And also very nice to spend some time with them.

Towards the end of my parent's visit, Diane was able to come out.  It was so nice to have her!  She bonded with Rylee late at night while she would give me a couple hours sleep without a baby (since Rylee had to be held all the time).

After Diane left, Kenny's mom came out.  And she somehow got Rylee to sleep in her crib for the first time.  Kenny and I were blown away!  We both stared at her in her crib asking ourselves if this was really happening.  She woke up a lot at night but I was able to sleep so much better without having to sleep with her in my arms.

Then a week after Kenny's mom left Kenny went to a conference in Copenhagen.  Thankfully my parents came out to be with me the entire time he was gone.  There is no way I could have made it without them.  And while Kenny was gone, my dad stayed busy building a deck.  He built us a huge deck in less then a week!  I still can't believe it.  The deck project kept me busy and helped take my mind off of Kenny being gone.  You can see the new door behind my mom.  It was awesome!