Kick, kick, kick...splash, splash, splash!

Rylee has always enjoyed bathtime, but the last few nights she has really enjoyed playing in the tub. Here's a few videos of her splashing and kicking in the tub. She just started laying on her belly and "swimming". Brad and I were laughing at her this evening. She was in our kitchen drinking water from a cup with a straw. She accidentally spilled the water on the floor so there was a little puddle. She went and layed it in, fully clothed, and started kicking like she was in the tub. I wish I would have had a video of that, it was so cute.

No More Gate

Big girl sitting on the stairs.

Kicking the legs and laughing.

This is her standing up and yelling "Ma!"

And apparently not only did she not want pants on but she didn't want her socks on either.

We took our gate down from the bottom of our stairs. She knows how to climb the stairs but is really good about staying away from them. She only goes up them when we tell her too (for bath time, bed time, etc) and we are right behind her. She does like to hang out on the bottom one as you can see. She thinks she is pretty cool sitting there.

By the way, sorry its been a few weeks since I've posted. My sister was giving me heck about it today. I will try and get caught up here soon. Jaclynn just put some cute pics up of Maddy and Rylee together on her blog so you can check those out there. We saw them around three weeks ago (we are both a little behind in our posts) and we had a great time. The girls really have fun together and of course we do too!

The Apple Orchard and Pumpkin Patch

Last Sunday we went to Stuckey Farms with our neighbors, the Dippolds. Stuckey's is an apple orchard and pumpkin patch. It was a beautiful fall day and I think the girls really had a good time. Now we have a lot of apples to make apple crisp, my favorite fall dessert.

Grace and Rylee enjoying their apples!

"How does it taste Rylee?"

That's a big bite!

Look at those apples.

So sweet!

Rylee and Daddy picking just the right apple.

The 3 of us

After picking a bunch of apples it was on to the pumpkins.

Rylee found her favorite one.

Daddy found 2 more for us too.

The girls and their pumpkins.

We had a great time and look forward to going back next year.

Where's Rylee?

I can't find her...

There she is!

Peek!

"Here I am Mom!"

Peek a boo! (again)

Look at that big smile!

As you can see Rylee loves this game! Apparently she played "where's Rylee" a lot up at my parents house. Ever since she's been home she is obsessed with our curtains. She hides behind them and waits for someone to say "Where's Rylee?" and then she peeks out with a big smile. She does it over and over again...but she is so darn cute when she does it.

On another note, molars are not fun! Last weekend, we met my family at Big Rapids, MI for the football game and to get Rylee back of course. She had a tough weekend and didn't really feel better til Tuesday. Her molars are coming in and they are hitting her pretty hard. She had a fever on and off the whole weekend and didn't sleep good. Her gums were bleeding at night and then she spit up old blood and flem in the morning. We felt so bad for her. Unfortunately, only the bottom right one is all the way through. The top ones are poking through a little too. Hopefully the other ones won't hurt as much, we're keeping our fingers crossed. But since Tuesday she has been back to her normal smiley Rylee. It's so good to have her home and feeling good.

We Miss Our Babe!

Rylee hanging out at the beach in Marquette. (Vanessa took this picture and you can see many more of Rylee and Quincy at the beach on Qunicy's blog)

I haven't wrote much lately and most of you probably know why. Football season started which means we have been very busy traveling. We have been out of town 3 out of the last 4 weekends plus we are traveling again this weekend. Most of our friends down here think we are crazy but it's just what we do this time of year. And we love it! I love being there for my dad's football games and even more importantly, I love seeing my family so often. This year we are going to make it to 6 out of the 10 games and for being so far away, that's pretty good. Last week we took Thursday and Friday off of work and headed up after work on Wednesday. We went to the Kreider's house Wednesday night which was nice to be able to split the long trip up for Rylee. The game was Thursday night against Tech. It didn't exactly go the way we wanted it to but it was a great atmosphere and pretty cool that they were on TV. But then it was nice because we had a long weekend there. Actually Brad and I had a long weekend there and Rylee has a long week there! Yep, we left her with Gramma and Grampa for a week. They were so excited and couldn't wait to have her there. It worked out good cause there is not often where we get to see each other back to back weekends. Plus then Rylee didn't have to do the long 10 hour trip home with us last Sunday. Instead we are meeting at Ferris St. tomorrow which will be about a 5 hour drive for both. She is a good little traveler but 10 hours is just a long time, so splitting it up like that is nice. Plus she is getting absolutely spoiled with love from Gramma, Grampa, Uncle Brad, Auntie Nessa, Alex, Quincy, Uncle Ben, and Auntie Bailey. They are having so much fun with her and I know she is loving it! My mom said she has been such a great girl. They've been going on lots of walks and spending a lot of time outside since its been so nice out. And she's been giving out lots of kisses to everyone. Vanessa was nice enough to take some pictures for us and put them up on her blog cause she knows how much we are missing our babe. It just makes me smile to see her, thanks again Ness. Brad and I miss her SO much but we are so glad she got to spend that quality time with them. Its been kind of nice for Brad and I to get some stuff done around here too. When you travel every weekend you tend to fall behind on house chores. So we got caught up on that stuff, we even steam cleaned the carpet. We also went out to Maggianno's for a dinner date last night and then walked around the mall. We didn't buy anything but just looked around and walked off our big italian dinner. So tonight we have to pack again cause we head out after work tomorrow. We can't wait to see our little girl! I just want to hug her and kiss her over and over!

1 Year Pictures

A little while ago we took Rylee to JCPenny's for her 1 year pictures. Once again, we were really happy with all the pictures. In the bottom two pictures she is carrying a little wooden "1". You can't really tell what it is but you can tell she was having fun. The pictures were definitely a little harder this time with her walking now. She was all over the place but the photographer still managed to get a few good ones.

Happy 1st Birthday Grace!

We went to Grace's birthday party on the 24th. That's 3 weekends in a row of birthday parties, and once again we had a great time.

Mmmm...good frosting!

And there goes the cake! (I thought it was great that I actually caught the cake falling on her face)

Gracie opening her presents (and Rylee helping)

The girls...just hanging out.

Grace got a picnic table for her party too.

I thought I would put up a few pictures of the girls together from the past year. It sure has been fun with the two of them. We are so lucky to have such great friends living right next door!

3 months

7 months

8 months

10 months

11 months

11 months

Hurlock Girls Turn 1!

On Saturday the 16th we celebrated the Hurlock girls turning 1! On our cul-de-sac we have 3 girls within two weeks of each other. Rylee was born on Friday the 10th, Macey who lives across the street from us was born the following Friday on the 17th, and Grace who lives next door to us was born the following Friday on the 24th. It is so much fun having the girls so close in age! We had a huge party for the girls with about 65 of our neighbors there (it was kind of just a reason to have a big neighborhood party too). It was going to be on our cul-de-sac but we moved it to the Miller's yard cause it was in the shade and we had a big yard to spread out in instead of the street. We had burgers, brats, chips, sides, drinks for all, and of course cake and icecream. It was quite a party! Unfortunately Macey and Grace weren't feeling that great so they called it a night around 7 but Rylee was a party animal and stayed up til 9 with the "big kids". All the kids played good and ran around, the dads had a huge bean bag toss tournament with about 5 games going on at once, and the moms sat around talking and enjoying our drinks. It was a good time. We are so lucky to have such a great neighborhood!

Happy 1st Birthday Rylee, Macey and Grace!

Grace (Aug. 24), Rylee (Aug. 10), Macey (Aug. 17)

We tried to get a few pictures of the girls together before the party started but it was a lot harder than what we thought it would be. As you can see, Macey wasn't excited about picture time.

Rylee and Grace hanging out by the coolers. Notice the keg in the upper right hand corner. That's right, the girls even had a keg for their birthday party!

Taking the water out one by one, this entertained her for awhile.

Cake time, dig in girls!

They must have all ate too much dinner cause none of them really cared for their cake. They just had a few bites and then weren't really interested.

She poked at the frosting, had a few bites, and then she was done. She did pig out on ice cream later though.

Mariah and Megan played with Rylee all night. It was great!

They took her over and played on the swingset, they know she loves the swings. The girls are so good with Rylee.

Hanging out with the "toddlers"