Twas The Night Before Christmas

Tuesday afternoon we headed home to Marquette for Christmas. The weather did not cooperate that day and made the ride up terrible. It took us 14 hours to get there. It was so icy which was very nerve racking. We even pulled over in Lansing to try and rent a 4 wheel drive vehicle and we couldn't find one anywhere. So we went ahead very slowly and eventually made it safe and sound. I was SO relieved to be home! Wednesday was Christmas Eve and we slept in and then relaxed most of the early day. We went to church at 5, then came home and took a few family pics and had a spaghetti dinner.

Rylee leaving church. She looked so darn cute in that jacket and hat and I was surprised that she actually wore the hat and liked it.

Ta dah! She's showing everyone her hat.

The Anderson Family picture

Our Family of 3 and soon to be 4

Another family pic

Rylee and Quincy all dressed up for church. They looked adorable and were both very good during mass.

Rylee singing =)

I love this picture of Quincy! He looks so grown up but yet still so little.

Gramma had fun ornaments on her tree. Rylee's favorites were the football, the car, and the airplane. She pointed and showed everyone them.

If Quincy dropped his pacifier Rylee was sure to be there to get it for him and shove it back in (whether he wanted it or not.)

Proud Uncle Brad

Pajama time!

Sharing her sippy with Quincy (again, whether he liked it or not.)

He must have liked it, he's giving her hugs and kisses.

She loves her hugs from her cousin.

Before the kids went to bed, Grampa read Twas The Night Before Christmas. He put his Santa hat on and Rylee did not like that at all. As you can see in this picture she just stared at the hat. Santa came to her daycare a few days before and her along with a few other kids all screamed when they sat on his lap. Obviously Santa left an impression on Rylee cause she was not going to sit on Grampa's lap once he put that Santa hat on. So Gramma had to hold her and they sat next to him as he read the book.

Grampa took the hat off but she still wasn't too sure. It still was cute and a tradition my dad and the kids will enjoy for years to come.

Christmas PJ's

Last night Rylee looked so cute in her Christmas pj's so I thought I would try to take a picture of her in front of the Christmas tree saying "cheese". Well, any parent of a toddler would know that it's a lot easier said than done. She wanted nothing to do with standing in front of the tree and smiling for the camera like I wanted her to do. Instead I got some action photos of her in her pj's hanging out by the tree (which were still cute). And look at how great her chin looks!

I tried to get her to sit still at first by bribing her with my phone.

It kind of worked but then she didn't want to give up my phone.

Then we bribed her with the ornaments and told her to put one on the tree.

She really liked this. Probably a stupid idea by us though cause she never paid any attention to the ornaments and now she thinks they are pretty cool.

"Now I'll say cheese cause look what I've got mom and dad."

I had to laugh at this one, she's showing some attitude for the camera.

Look at those lips! haha

"Hohoho"! (actually Rylee just says "hoho" and drops the last "ho")

Poor Rylee Dawn

I don't think I will ever forget last Saturday night. The Dippolds were over and we were sitting at our kitchen table eating dinner and Grace and Rylee were playing next to us by the sliding glass doors. They were playing good and then all of a sudden we heard a big thump and Rylee screaming. She had fallen and hit her chin on the metal tracks for the sliding glass doors. She had hit her chin so hard that her gums were bleeding and we noticed right away that her teeth had all been affected. She must have hit her lower and upper jaw together super hard because some of her upper teeth were shoved up and her lower teeth shoved down. We also noticed right away that she chipped a few teeth. It was such an awful, awful feeling to see your little baby scream in pain like that. We took her to the ER right away although the ER doc didn't do much. He tried looking at her teeth and Rylee screamed so he said he was going to page the Pediatric dentist on call. Well, we sat there for an hour and a half and the dentist never called back so they sent us home and said we had to see a pediatric dentist Sunday morning. That wasn't good enough for me so I called my daycare provider Jaime because she used to work in a pediatric dentist officeand I knew she would be able to help. She gave me a name and home number of the Dr. to call. The dentist was great and offered to meet us that night, but it would have been 11:00 so we just decided to meet in the morning since Rylee was tired and seemed to be doing alright by then. We brought her in Sunday morning and the Dr. took x-rays. They had Brad and I step out of the room while they did it and it was terrible to sit there and listen to your baby scream as they pin her down to get the x-rays. Of course it made me ball too. We found out she fractured 3 teeth (2 up top and 1 on the bottom), her upper middle right tooth got pushed back and up which caused it to fracture the root, and she tore up her gums on the bottom and had a hematoma on her upper gums. It sounds terrible and incredibly painful, but the good news is she is going to be ok (that's what I keep telling myself). We've had her on motrin the last few days to help with the pain and she seems to be doing fine. She's been waking up a few times during the nights crying so I think it hurts her more at night but if we go in there and rock her she goes back down pretty quick. We have another dentist appointment on Friday so we'll know more then. But basically we just have to wait and see what teeth make it and what teeth don't. Some may turn black or even fall out but we don't know for sure. Since her roots got shoved up to her permanent teeth we won't know what kind of damage her permanent teeth suffered until they come in years down the road. We'll have to deal with things as they happen. And again I keep telling myself its all cosmetic and it could have been worse. As her mom, you can't help but just feel terrible and think about how you could have prevented it. I know it was just a freak fall but you still feel so bad. I just wish I could have done something or traded places with her so she didn't have to suffer like that. My mom and Grandma told me that even though sometimes we want to, we can't bubble wrap our kids. I sure wish I could have had her in bubble wrap that Saturday.

At first Rylee's chin was just bruised but the bruise kind of faded quickly and her cut turned really dark.

Our poor little girl

We did manage to get a picture of her smiling to show her teeth. You can kind of get an idea of which teeth chipped and got pushed in. I thought about taking a picture of her gums but I just couldn't. They turned so dark and nasty and I didn't want to hold her down to get a picture, the poor girl has been through enough.

It's Beginning To Look Alot Like Christmas...

The Sunday after Thanksgiving we went out and got our Christmas tree. We got a little dusting of snow that morning so it made it feel wintery out and put me in the Christmas spirit. It only took us a few minutes to pick one out this year, there were a lot of good ones to choose from.

The finished product!

We rearranged our furniture in our living room so we didn't have as much room but our tree still fit perfect in the corner. I love Christmas decorations, it just puts you in such a good mood. So far Rylee has been really good about not touching the tree, we'll see how long that lasts.

Rylee is going to be a...

BIG SISTER!

Yep, that's right, Rylee is going to be a big sister! I am pregnant and due on May 27th. We couldn't be happier about our growing family! We found out September 25th while Rylee was up at Gramma and Grampa's house. We were a little shocked but of course excited. Rylee will only be about 21-22 months old so we are going to have our hands full but it will be fun for them being so close in age.

We made this shirt for Rylee and told my family on a football trip when I was around 7-8 weeks. We were in the hotel room and changing Rylee into her pajama's. Instead I put this shirt on her and told her to go show Gramma. She walked over to Gramma and my mom kind of did a double take but then she got it and of course screamed. My whole family, besides Brad and Bailey, were there and there were lots of shrieks and hugs. Rylee was getting lots of hugs and kisses but really had no clue what we were celebrating. We also saw the Kreider's that weekend and got to tell them too. Jaclynn is pregnant too and was so excited when we told her. Brad was teasing her that she looked like she was on the Toyota commercial because she jumped up, arms went up and kicked. Our kids will only be 2 months apart which will be so much fun.

We called Brad's family and my grandma's during the next few weeks and told a few close friends down here. We were kind of waiting for the first doctors appointment before we started telling everyone. I waited til 13 weeks to tell my boss and coworkers. Also, I apologize cause I know we did not get a chance to call everyone so some of you may be reading this and just finding out...surprise!

Our doctors appointment was on November 5th. Everything on the ultrasound looked good and it was so wonderful to hear our baby's heartbeat and to see the little one moving all around. We were actually really surprised at how good we could see the baby. I had Rylee's first ultrasound around 8.5 weeks and this one was at 11 weeks. It's amazing how much of a difference 2.5 weeks made. We were expecting to just see a little peanut, basically 2 blobs for the head and body, but we saw so much more this time. We could see the arms and legs kicking around, the fingers and toes, and more of the head structure. We really didn't see that for Rylee until our 20 week ultrasound. So that was exciting and of course made me get all teary eyed. The heartbeat was strong at 162. I went back and looked and Rylee's was 180 the first time we heard it. Both are on the higher end, we'll see if that means anything as far as the sex, which by the way we will be finding out again =)

I am 14 weeks now and I feel pretty good. I am a little more tired than usual and probably a little more emotional than usual too. Weeks 7-9 were my roughest weeks. I pretty much felt nauseous everyday, especially when I got hungry. I had to make sure that I always had a little snack around. That's how I was for Rylee too. The last few weeks I haven't felt nauseous, and am very thankful that it only lasted a few weeks. I feel really bad for the girls that feel sick throughout the first trimester and even into their second. Ughh.

I am definitely showing earlier than I did with Rylee. In fact at 8 weeks I already had a little bump but nobody could notice but me. I am still in my regular clothes but I am not sure for how much longer. I don't know what to expect now that my ab muscles and skin have already been incredibly stretched (and not that long ago either).

I am posting this a little later than what I wanted to but I was waiting to get our ultrasound pictures scanned in so I could include those. Unfortunately something is wrong with our scanner so I am not sure when I will get those up...hopefully soon.

My cousin Aaron and his wife Marissa are also expecting (with their first) and are due on the exact same date. Its fun that we'll be going through the same stages together and our little ones will be so close in age. I've added a link to their blog, "Baby Anderson" in my Family and Friend list so you can check theirs out too.

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving! We all have a lot to be thankful for!

She's going to be such a good big sister!

15 Month Update

I haven't done an "update" on Rylee since her birthday and I thought it was about time (especially for my own records). She has grown up a lot over the last 3 months. The biggest thing that we notice is that she understands everything we say now (well hopefully not everything but you know what I mean). When we talk to her you can tell she knows what we are saying which is so much fun. She doesn't exactly talk back but her actions show that she understands. She is saying a few words now, but not a lot.
Here's a list of her "vocabulary":

-mama

-daddy
-Quincy ("incee")

-football ("ootbaa")

-all done ("da don")

-see ya ("ee ya")

She also LOVES to read now. Before she was more interested in just turning the pages but the past few months she has been obsessed with her books. She sits in her little red chair and looks at them or she will bring one to you and just plop down on your lap so you can read it to her. She is getting really good at pointing out the animals and objects when you ask her too. In "I Love You Through and Through" she points to the teddy bear on every page now before you even ask her too.

Her favorite books right now are:

1. Mr. Brown can Moo can You?

2. Goodnight Moon

3. I Love You Through and Through

4. The Very Hungry Caterpillar

5. Where is Baby's Belly Button?

6. All of her little board Sesame Street books that are about 2"x 2"

She also likes to draw now so we have to be careful with leaving our pens around. The other day I caught her writing on my ottoman, luckily I caught her before she colored all over it. During football games my mom would give her a pen and paper from her purse to keep her occupied and it usually did for awhile. Eventually Rylee got smart enough and when she is around my mom she goes right for her purse. Although my mom always carries treats in her purse too so I am sure that has something to do with it as well. Daycare told me she is starting to show a lot of interest in "craft time" and sits with the older kids and colors or tries to get involved with what they are doing.

Rylee is still a pretty good eater although somedays are better than others. She usually prefers to use her fork or spoon. I am pretty impressed at how good she is with her utensils. She loves applesauce! I put it in a little bowl for her and she uses her spoon and eats it so good by herself. Its cute to watch her concentrate and scrape every last bit out from the bowl. She has been completely off the bottle since her birthday and had no problem giving it up and going to sippy cups. She uses regular sippy cups and the ones with the straws. Oh, and she has 12 teeth. Her 4 molars came in between 13-14 months, which was a pretty rough time. I guess her I-teeth are next and I really hope those don't affect her like the molars did.

She is good at signing "more" when she wants more.

And one of my favorite things she has been doing for the past few months is giving kisses. She opens her mouth and kisses you right on the lips. Usually I have to ask her for a kiss but every once in awhile she will randomly come up to me and give me a big kiss, which I LOVE!

15 Month Stats

Weight: 20 lbs. and 6 ozs. (12th %)

Height: 32 1/4 inches (90th %)

Head: 47 1/2 cm. (90th %)

Last Football Game =(

Last weekend was Northern's last game of the season and it was down here against University of Indianapolis. So essentially, it was a home game for Brad and I, and we had a house full of people...which I love! Thursday night my mom, Vanessa, Quincy, Brad, Ben and his girlfriend Deedra all got here. Rylee was so excited to see everyone but especially Gramma and Quincy. She saw Gramma in the window when they pulled in our driveway and she started clapping and got all excited. Then she ran to her when she walked in the door, it was cute. Then she was excited to see Quincy and kept rubbing his head and getting right in his face. She looks at him all the time on the blog and gives him kisses, she's a big fan of her cousin. Friday afternoon, my Auntie Diane, Uncle Lance, cousins Zach and Meg, and their son Grady all flew in. Grady is only a month younger than Rylee and they had a great time playing together. They were running around chasing each other and played so good together. Unfortunately I was not very good with my camera this weekend so I really didn't get any pictures even though there were a lot of good photo ops. I did get some of them in the tub together and I also stole one from my sisters blog of the 3 kids.

Playing in their PJ's

3 kids in the tub (and a naked baby doll)...of course I couldn't get one where all 3 were actually looking.

The game was Saturday and it was absolutely freezing. Two days before the game it was in the 70's and then it dropped 30 or so degrees. Rylee was there for the first half and refused to wear mittens so I was worried about her hands freezing. She was really good but our neighbors, Ryan and Mindi, took her home at half time and let her nap at their house, which worked out good. The game unfortunately was not too pretty either. It was a rough season this year but I am still very proud of my dad and know he'll do his best to turn it around. It was also Alex's last game so it was sad to see him play for the last time. We'll miss watching him. Since it was the last game my dad got to stay with us and go back with the fam on Sunday. Brad had smoked (in his smoker) some pork over the weekend and we all went home after the game and had an awesome dinner and just enjoyed being with everyone. We had 12 people (15 including us) sleep at our house, lots of air mattresses everywhere!

Alex and Vanessa...it was great watching Alex play the last few years, we'll miss him out there.

We made it to 6 of the 10 games this year. It was a lot of traveling but it was so worth it. I love seeing my family so much in the fall and I love being there for my dad, win or lose. I always hate when the season is over cause we don't see them nearly as much in the winter. Of course I balled Sunday when everyone left. I am not good at byes. Brad and Rylee are actually up there right now. Brad flew home to go to deer camp with all the guys in my fam and since Rylee still flies free, Gramma wanted her to fly home too. I had a hard time with it. I don't like being alone and I wanted to go so bad! Unfortunately I had to work and the ticket was $500 so I couldn't go. I've been trying to keep myself busy but I sure do miss everyone, especially my little babe! I've talked to her on the phone everyday and she is having a blast at Gramma's and getting spoiled...surprise, surprise. Today they are going to the Children's Museum which I am sure she will love. I can't wait to see her tomorrow and give her lots of kisses (and Brad too).

I thought I would throw this pic in too. The 4 games that we missed we were able to watch on our big screen TV. I tend to yell at the TV during the games and Rylee was my little partner. She would stand in front of the TV holding her football and yell just like her mom...that's my girl!

Monkey Girl

The past month Rylee has been a little monkey, climbing into or onto whatever she can. The refrigerator and toy box are her 2 favorite things to get into. I was putting the groceries away one day and I turned around to look for her and I didn't see her and she was quiet. I knew she was up to something.

This is where I found her, digging through the food.

Look at that mischevious face.

I opened the door to tell her to get out and she said "oh, oh".

Then she thought she was pretty funny.

She also loves to get in and out of the toybox.

She usually doesn't play in there too long. She'll look around til she finds what she wants...

and then its time to get out again until she wants a different toy.

Happy Halloween!

Rylee was a little mouse for Halloween this year. I've never seen such a cute mouse before =) She wasn't really sure about her costume at first. They had a party at daycare and they said she was not happy at all when they put her hood up but eventually she got used to it. She really didn't need it up because the weather was absolutely beautiful, but she looked so darn cute with it up. It's funny cause I bought this costume thinking it would keep her nice and warm and it even had mittens. Well it ended up being 70 here so needless to say it kept her plenty warm and the mittens were never used.

Here's the serious mouse, still not too sure about the whole thing.

I told you she didn't like her hood at first.

"Mom, what is this thing on my head?"

"I've got eyes on the top of my head."

"Alright, now I am ok with this thing on my head and I will smile."

Let's go trick-or-treating!

One of our neighbors had people over for chilli and fixings before hand. It was really nice to have a dinner besides just candy.

No, they are not bobbin for apples...

...just pop and ice.

After eating, Brad and Ryan took the girls (Grace and Rylee) trick-or-treating in our wagon, while Mindi and I and a bunch of other moms stayed back and handed out candy together. They didn't really get out and go house to house, just got pulled around the neighborhood with the other kids. Next year they will be big enough to go up to the houses.

The little mouse singing her favorite song, "The Itsy Bitsy Spider."

"Check out all this candy!"

"They're all so good I am not even sure what to grab."

After trick-or-treating was over we had a big bonfire in our cul-de-sac with all of our neighbors. It was so nice out. We had a great Halloween! Mindi put up a lot of good pictures on "Grace's blog" from daycare and the rest of the night so you can check out more there.