Starting this post, I would like to note that my willful toddler is becoming increasingly difficult to photograph. she either will not sit still, or will not look at the camera without trying to grab it. So, with that disclaimer in mind, here are the photos of our little Christmas.
daddy is on duty
This photo was texted to me early in the day while I was at work. Yes, her shirt IS too small. And yes, her hat is on backwards. But she's pretty darn cute!
what? is there something on my face?
These were just kind of cute and silly. She had her first Oreo for dessert on Christmas eve.
christmas morning!
pure cuteness
Once she started playing with the dollhouse we had a hard time getting her interested in opening any of her other presents.
guess what? it's new jammies!
another winner (even though her face doesn't show it)
The piggy bank from Grandma Kim was also a big hit. It turns out this is a popular toddler gift with the grandma set...I hear Mimi bought the same thing!
ahhhhh. a little relaxation during nap time.
new christmas jams!
This was the best I could do with a jammie photo. She would NOT hold still. And when I turned the phone around she could see herself and kept saying "Yie Yie" - translation: Ry Ry as best we can figure. She always says it when she sees pics of herself. She "picked out" these jammies one day at the store. So of course I had to get them. They're Hello Kitty if you can't tell.
The recipe for a perfect Christmas gift:
Find the cutest kid in America.
Add a Santa hat.
Take multiple photos.
Cut out said photos and glue them to pretty much any object (a CD works great).
Add some stickers...
Voila!
Ryleigh's daycare teachers made this for us and sent it home last week. I have to say I just LUV it! I love it so much I had to photograph it and post it on the blog. I mean how could I not? Just look at that face.
Well, shoot, I'm being a bad blogger again. I haven't posted in a while, but I have a pretty decent excuse. I started a new job about two and a half weeks ago, holiday parties to attend, a baby shower to host and Christmas shopping to do. Whew! Lots going on. Here are a few photos of our holiday season thus far, all courtesy of my iPhone of course.
christmas jammies + grumpy baby
We made a trip to the magic tree. Which is really just a regular tree covered in more LED Christmas lights than you have ever seen. It's pretty cool. And a popular photo spot as you can tell from all the people in the background. A Columbia holiday tradition, if you will. ;-)
and she fell asleep on the way home
We made our second annual trip to Bass Pro to see Santa.
looking a little apprehensive with Frosty and Rudolph lurking around
just testing out my camera on my new iPhone 5. YAY!
uh oh
yep, we got the classic, "I hate Santa" photo
and I am totally a mean mommy because I think it is so funny.
had to get a pic on the wildcat bench
ok so maybe it's a bobcat, but close enough right?
And somewhere in there we got our Christmas tree. It was up with only lights for a week before I got the ornaments on. And I didn't even come close to getting them all on. But somebody in my house hates Christmas and is no help what so ever. Not pointing any fingers....
one of my favorite ornaments
Looking forward to Christmas with our little bug. I can't believe it's almost here!!
Our little Ryleigh girl is growing and changing every day. At her 15 month check up last week she weighed 27.5 pounds and is 31 inches long. She also seems to be learning something new every day. We made a list the other day and she is saying more than 20 words (some are up to parental interpretation, but she is consistently saying a lot of words) and she understands WAY more than that. She has these great picture books and when you ask her, "where's the doggie?" she points right to it.
favorite books
She's always liked it when daddy gets out his guitar to play, but now she is taking more of an interest in "playing" it herself. Even if playing means beating it like a drum.
She is a little smarty pants and pretty cute too, daddy and I couldn't be any prouder.
Wouldn't you know it, I brought my camera to Indiana for Thanksgiving but I never even took it out of my bag. So the only photographic evidence we have of our weekend with family and friends is from my iPhone.
We arrived Wednesday evening, just in time for Ron to run upstairs, log on and teach his online class. Our arrival wasn't a minute too soon for Ryleigh's cousins who had been sitting in the front window waiting for more than an hour.
seven hour car ride + mickey mouse on tv = the dazed look in my daughter's eyes
cousins have a bean bag chair that i think ryleigh liked sitting in...not 100% sure though.
thanksgiving, the big kids went outside to play pilgrims. abi and madi were extra fancy pilgrims
avry
Of course we had to make a visit to Pizza King.
love this photo
and this one.
does she adore her cousins or what?
fun times.
I didn't do any crazy Black Friday shopping, but I did go out to the mall with mom for a bit in the late afternoon. Madi's weekend shopping included getting a "present" for Zeke - a snowman costume. I don't think he was very impressed, but he's always a good sport.
he was not too happy about the hat.
nope. not too happy at all.
Our Saturday included breakfast with the Kubats (minus one), coffee/lunch with the Glafkes, more visiting with Aunt Christy, Madi and Grandma and a trip out to the Francis' house with the Zupos and Alexanders. Whew, what a busy day!
Sunday we were on the road again, heading back to Missouri. Our little bug was such a trooper all weekend. I'm sad that everyone kind of missed out on her cute, funny little personality - she was just a little out of her element most of the visit and stuck to that binky and blankie for comfort the whole time.
sleepy little girl
Like I said, I did a terrible job taking pictures this trip. I didn't get any of the boy cousins, Aunts Christy and Carly, Uncles Cassidy and Matt or Grandma Kim.... Tsk. I'm disappointed in myself.
We had a wonderful visit. As always it was too short.
I kind of forgot that I haven't posted here, and I think a lot of people already know - but, I got a new job!!!
I have accepted a position as the executive staff assistant for the Associate Vice Chancellor of Health Systems Development. I will be helping to manage his schedule, set up and prepare for meetings and act as his liaison when he is out of the office. I'm sure there are many other duties that I don't know about yet. It's a pretty good position and I have only heard great things about my new boss. He is very well liked in the division. I'm still going to be working on campus, but over in the hospital/med school complex.
...and I start next Monday! I can hardly believe it. I'm sad to be leaving my friends at MAA, but I am super excited for this new opportunity.
I'm a bit late here with my Halloween post. I couldn't decide what Ryleigh's costume should be, until a couple weeks before Halloween...
...and so her costume was decided.
First, a couple cute pics from Halloween morning.
in her cutie-cute hair bows and halloween shirt from Mimi. :-)
If I'd had more time I would have loved to make her a cute little cow costume. But, we had to settle for a store bought cow. Ron was unsure about the costume when we bought it, urging me to leave the tags on, "just in case we find something better." Once she tried it on he said, "ok, I totally underestimated the cuteness once you put the baby in the cow suit." Ha ha!
We went trick-or-treating at our local HyVee grocery store. I know, seems totally weird, right? But they had little treat stations set up throughout the store, and the staff was all dressed in costume. It was pretty nice for a teething, cranky little cow. And since Ron had to teach is online class that night, he was able to come with us before starting class.
We had intended to go meet up with some friends for a little more trick-or-treating, but just ended up going home and handing out candy. Of course we had to snap a few more cow photos.
cutest!
then she started throwing herself back into the chair cushions. i think it was the highlight of her night.
