Rylie's New Cousin!

Chris and Leslie welcomed their baby girl, Sophie Elizabeth Carpenter, on December 17, 2009 at 8:02pm. She weighed 6lbs 11 ounces and is 19.5 inches long. And I am very honored to be her Godmother!

Dan met Grr and Grr Mom at the hospital to pick up Michael and Brady and bring them back to our house. The boys had a great time playing with Rylie while waiting to hear the news of their sister's arrival, although they didn't have to wait for long. They were here for just a short time when we got the call that Sophie had arrived. This is typical of Leslie's deliveries :-) The boys camped out with Uncle D in the living room that night and got to meet their sister the next morning.

All three kids had their Christmas PJ's on

Camping out in the living room

Rylie meeting Sophie

5 Months and much more!

I have been busy studying for a CPCU test the past few weeks, so everything (including these updates) was put on hold. All kinds of new things to report! After only (in this economy) four weeks of being unemployed, Dan started a new job. He's a sales rep for Alpine (formerly A & B Drywall). He's still doing estimating and the same type of work as before, but with more of an emphasis on sales. So far, he really likes the new job and the company he works for.

Which means that Rylie went back to day care with Auntie Leslie and Grr Mom. The boys sure were happy to see her again and I think she missed them too.

Little Packer fans...ready for Monday night football

Does this remind you of "A Christmas Story"?

Fun in the snow!!

On December 6, Rylie turned 5 months (so hard to believe). We don't have another appointment until January for her 6 month check-up, but she's definitely been packing on the pounds. She loves cereal and waits with her mouth open for the next bite...it can't get there fast enough. She's also tried a few other new foods this month. I'm still waiting to catch, on camera, the look on her face when she takes that first bite. She's just not sure what to think. Here are a couple 5 month pictures.

For the last few years, the cousins on Dan's side have done a name exchange for Christmas. With the number of other sides of families that need to be visited on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, it's hard to get all 8 of us in the same place at the same time. Instead of gifts this year, we decided to go out to dinner as a group and just spend the night out without the kiddos.

Last but not least...Rylie has outgrown her little baby bathtub. In fact, she outgrew it quite a while ago, but we weren't sure where to go with her since she isn't quite ready to sit up on her own in the tub. While I was at Target, I saw a little inflatable duck bath tub. I mentioned it to Dan's mom and she said she already had one and let us borrow it. Rylie LOVED it. Not to mention how cute she looked in it.

Testing it out in the hallway first...hmmmm....

Yep...I think this will work

There are those things again!

Thanksgiving Weekend

Rylie had her share of Thanksgiving celebrations for the first year...3 to be exact. We celebrated at Grr and Grr Mom's the Sunday before Thanksgiving as we would be in La Crosse this year. We had Thanksgiving at my Grandma Kearns' house on Wednesday night, where Rylie met several new family members. And finally we celebrated at my parents house on Thursday.

Sleeping at the table at Grr and Grr Mom's

Grr, Grr Mom, Michael and Brady

Our little butterball

The after-turkey naps:

Daddy

Rylie & Grandpa

I'm stuffed!

Before the turkey dinner at mom and dad's, we attended dad's annual Thanksgiving Day party at the radio station. It has become a tradition for him now. Several of his friends and customers of the station bring in food and drinks. There's nothing like shrimp cocktail, bloody mary's and beer at 7am. They had quite the spread. We were hoping to get Rylie on the air, but she was a little shy. Of course, when the show was over, she started gabbing.

Don't they make these things in my size?

Not that we didn't already know, but Rylie confirmed for us on Friday she is, indeed, a great shopper. She went out with us for about 7 hours as we made several stops on Black Friday. The best part...we are just about done with all of our shopping.

Relaxing with Grandma after a long day

While we thought about the number of things we are thankful for this year, we also, unfortunately, received some sad news this weekend. Pastor Greg, the Pastor that married us just over a year ago and also baptized Rylie just over two months ago, passed away in a car accident this weekend. It is hard news for us to digest. We immediately thought of his family and what they must be feeling. We thought of the hours we spent with him during our pre-marital counseling. We thought of the selflessness and generosity he showed in traveling to La Crosse on his and Mary's anniversary weekend to perform our wedding ceremony. We thought of him coming all the way out to our house (because he wanted it to be convenient for us) to discuss Rylie's Baptism and meet her for the first time. We thought of her Baptism day and that it was so special because she was baptized by the same Pastor that married us. A lot of thoughts came to mind, but most of all, we thought of why this had to happen to such a wonderful person. We are thankful for the time that we were able to spend with him, getting to know him these past couple years and how he touched our lives and will never be forgotten.

Daddy Day Care

Dan was laid off from his job a couple of weeks ago. The best thing to come out of this situation is the amount of time he gets to spend with Rylie every day. He's a great dad and makes sure that she does her tummy time, spends time in her bumbo and plays "in the jungle" (on her activity mat). The other morning, I walked into our bedroom to say goodbye before I left for work and saw this:



How am I supposed to leave this in the morning?!?

4 Months Old!

Rylie turned 4 months old on Friday, November 6. We had her 4 month doctor appointment the following Monday. She's a happy and healthy baby, but still just a little peanut! She weighed in at 11 pounds 10 ounces and 24 inches long. Unfortunately she had to get a couple shots, but mommy and daddy got some too. Here are a couple 4 month pictures.

Rice Cereal

This past weekend we went to La Crosse to visit my parents. It was also the weekend before Rylie's 4 month doctor appointment, so we brought the rice cereal along to give it a try. She had a bit of a puzzled look on her face and more of it ended up on her bib than in her mouth, but we'll keep working at it.

Yummm

Let me try this!

We spent most of the weekend just hanging out, enjoying the nice weather.

A Night Out!

Our first night out since Rylie was born was to the Freight House for our 1st anniversary dinner. As a gift, I gave Dan tickets to a concert he really wanted to see...Eric Church. He was playing at the Pabst Theater in Milwaukee on Thurs. November 5. So our second night out was to the concert. We met up with one of my co-workers John and his girlfriend Maura at Mo's Irish Pub for a couple drinks before the concert and then walked over to Pabst Theater. I hadn't been in there before and it's really a neat venue for a concert. It was a great show...there isn't a bad seat in that place!


Eric Church

Murph & Maura

Dan lovin' the silos

Trick or Treat!

Rylie is a little too young and it was a little too cold for Trick or Treating this year, but she did get her costume on to hand out candy. We were out running errands, so we only made it home for the second hour of trick or treating. And unfortunately, didn't get ANY trick or treaters. In any case, we had the cutest little ladybug in town.



hey...where are all the kids?

Our pumpkins...Mommy's Rylie's and Daddy's

First Pumpkin

A few weeks ago we went with Jerry and Trudy , Chris, Leslie, Michael and Brady to get our pumpkins. The place we went didn't have quite the set up that they had the year before so we didn't get the pictures we had hoped. It was also about 30 degrees that day, so it wasn't the best weather for pictures either. But Rylie did get her first pumpkin and we went to Grr and Grr Mom's afterwards to carve it.

Rylie's first little pumpkin

Today we were able to get to the pumpkin farm by our house to get the fall pictures we had hoped to take. It ended up to be a really nice day, so Rylie and I went for a walk through the neighborhood first and then we headed over to Basse's Taste of Country. We're still hoping to get a few pictures in our yard with the leaves...if we ever find time to rake them!

Ready for a walk!

We attempted to carve all of our pumpkins this weekend too, but we only got as far as cleaning them out. Uncle Patrick made sure his was clean enough to wear.