Happy Birthday Rylie!

It will most likely be very normal for Rylie to spend her birthday with family depending on where we are at for christmas each year. though she doesnt seem to mind one bit. haha. we had such a great visit over christmas and loved to celebrate our sweet little girl. i feel like she has been 3 forever, but now its official. She barely makes the cutoff for being a new sunbeam! and she has been dying to join primary for a while.

Rylie is still our sweet little girl, but definitely has some threenager tendencies. She is still very very independent and will fight for it. more often than not i am not allowed to help her with anything until she decides she cant do it. this involves getting dressed, buckling her carseat, helping in the bathroom, and brushing her teeth at night. there are some things we have finally compromised on. She will let me brush her teeth if she can do it first, then i get a turn. I can only help getting her dressed if she first puts underwear/pants/skirts on backwards and they feel weird. and i can help with the carseat only after she has buckled all she can and cant pull the last one into place. now its only a struggle when we are in a major hurry. We are both working on it.

She is still a great snuggler. sometimes she still comes in at night wanting to snuggle. though we are trying not to have the kids rely on coming into our room unless they need it (with twins on the way soon there will be no room) i always go tuck her back into bed and snuggle for a few minutes. though i am half asleep i still love those sweet moments. she doesnt take naps anymore (if she does its a nightmare to put her to bed at night) but still gets tired enough to snuggle next to me in the afternoon.

of course she also has 3 year old energy. her and Ryker are best friends and love to run around and race often. she has definitely gotten into her girly stage. She loves to pick out her own outfits everyday and 90% of the time they do not match to a horrific extent, but i cant change her mind once she picks it out, so i hope she enjoys the pics later in life and doesnt get mad at me for letting her dress like that. haha.

We love Rylie so much and we are excited to give her a little sister to bond and play with. it might take a few years, but i hope they will be good friends too. We love our rylie and are so glad she is in our family! her bright smile just lights up the room. She keeps us on our toes and we love her for it. Happy birthday Rylie!

our awesome butterfly cake

great tea set from Grandma Reed

our sweet angel. she wore this everyday after christmas. was very sad when it had to go back into grandmas nativity box

already got use out of her tea set

Happy Birthday!

Oct-Dec Pic Dump

alright, here are all the shenanigans that we did from Oct through end of our Christmas trip.

treat after a primary service activity

working on our christmas gifts

elsa and chase from paw patrol! so cute. 

ryker helping give out candy at halloween

silly boy

adjective game during thanksgiving

finally feeling better and after a long nap Rex eating a whole (like size of his face) cinnamon roll with no regrets. i wouldnt either, aunt alicia makes the best cinnamon rolls. 

making snowmen!

our pirate we gave aunt carlee for christmas. it was so epic! and we loved making it. 

Christmas nativity. I love that I have kids to dress up for it instead of me haha

angel visiting the shepards

christmas morning

merry christmas!

they became great friends!

we got to do some sealings in the Fort Collins Temple. they were beautiful. we were able to do some family sealings all together (like someone representing each person in the family) it was so special and i loved it!

halloween treat for a relief society activity. pumpkin roll with cream cheese filling. yum. 

bubbly bath boy! i never tire of bath time pics

the start of our pirate

eating apples we just picked from our neighboor

we are both hungry and sleepy haha

with all the apples picked we made 5 pints of applesauce. and did pretty well for my first time canning!

all my kids will get this picture haha.

such a goober

monster treat for rykers preschool halloween party

i love this because he poked a hole in his sandwich and then stuck a veggie straw in it. he is ingenuitive, and hilarious. 

sneaking some apples while we pick haha

ward trunk or treat

cake walk. they each won a cupcake

it was cold but we enjoyed trunk or treating

justin taught ryker how to drink from the carton. hopefully he will only remember when there is a little bit left and he wont put it back in the fridge

cuddly bear on our trick or treat walk in downtown minot

it was so cold!

silly faces with mom before my stained glass class

after all the glass was cut

once all the edges were foiled

after soldering it all together. i love it. 

cutie on her way to church

such a stud

brothers cuddling. it only lasted 5 seconds

playing in the snow

i know it doesnt look it, but she really is loving the headband aunt alicia made

may dads awesome gift

i saw this at hobby lobby for 40$ and i loved it but not to spend that. so with a little help getting the wood, i made it myself. 

filling our water barrels for storage

15 mo check up. he is doing great!

playing games while mom vacuumes

rylies big gift this year was a fun doll house, and then lots of people to go in it. 

my moms christmas gift. we had so much fun making these

they are riding an airplane. cant you tell?

stopping for a potty break on another road trip. 

they are learning to travel really well. 

basketball for thanksgiving

pie contest. starting them young!

rex was so down for this. pie with my hands? psh okay. 

he looks so chill haha

ryker is now learning to love it too. just took a few years

he really enjoyed it more with a fork

i was the rep for our family in the adult section. 

we rocked it. though carlee won

playing the piano with auntie beez

poor sick ryker just wanted snuggles all day. i  think we finally got him to eat some applesauce

helping grandad put the tree up

they are even decent helpers. though could use some teaching on spacing ornaments. rylie kept trying to put them all on the same branch

grandads little helpers

at least we are starting to feel better

rylie putting the star on top 

and on our way home again

i got to put up my nativity this year and loved it!

i built him an airplane and for how much he begged and whined and pleaded for it, it was in the trash in like a week. silly boy

my first attempt at christmas card photos. 

rylie wearing the tree skirt

helping with our own christmas tree at home

we love pulling out our christmas story from grandma and grandpa deitrick

wishing they could help dad

there we go, thats a better kid shot

little booger would be quiet in sacrament, so he wandered the halls

ryker in the church nativity for our christmas program

everyone wants to sit with dad

painting trim

and doors

my first pic ornament from school. it starts and im so excited!

he always gets to get out too when we stop for potty breaks. otherwise he gets extra cranky

fun snowmen with rykers new mold. 

family pic

christmas eve snuggles

our beautiful angel

our awesome wiseman

great nativity this year

christmas morning awe

that cheesy grin. i love it

playing a new car game

we just wore her out

we went swimming and then came home and he went straight down for a nap. but once he woke up and was in a good mood he gave me the best cheese smile and best hair. bahahah

love going to the temple with justin! i wish we had one closer

trying out the manwaring space chair. man this thing is amazing

dad teaching all the kids fooseball

new years poppers. 

happy new years! a day and 6 hrs early.....

he definitely warmed up to grandad fast this time. 

Lately for night time scripture study we have gone through some childrens primary songs. Rex occasionally joins us when he isnt already in bed. he loves them!

crazy middle child. she is so weird, yet so cute

the thanksgiving song auntie beez taught ryker. he still sings it

reading our christmas story along with grandma and grandpa deitrick