Early Christmas with the Wille's

This year we were going to be in La Crosse for Christmas, so we celebrated early with Grr and Grr Mom and the Carpenter's. Trudy always does a great job of making it actually feel like Christmas Day. We ate, drank, exchanged gifts and played some games...we had a great day. Rylie LOVED her gifts. And she did some unwrapping of her own this year which was fun to watch.

Petting her new rocking horse from Carpenter's

Rocking away

Dan showing off his new snowmobile helmet

Rylie loves playing piano. Auntie Beth has a piano at her house (where Rylie is 3 days a week) and Auntie Leslie has one too that Rylie and Sophie "play" as well. So for Christmas, Grr and Grr Mom got Rylie something that mommy has always wanted (only in a bigger version)- a baby grand piano. She was thrilled (see video below). She even got right back to it the next morning.

One tuckered out little toddler

Turkey Day 2010

We spent Thanksgiving Day with the Wille side this year. All the kids had a blast playing together...so much so that Rylie decided to skip her afternoon nap...grreeeaaat. She actually held together pretty well and didn't have any major meltdowns.

Auntie Leslie captured the best possible shots with this many kiddos!

Brady, Rylie, Sophie and Michael

All the kids: Krause's, Carpenter's and one Wille :-)

Family pic

We ended up leaving for La Crosse at about 7:30 that night, which is Rylie's bedtime and she didn't make a peep the entire 3 hour trip! So it ended up working out well for the most part. She did, however, stay up until midnight or so once we arrived, but we got things back on track the next day. We celebrated with the Kearns side on Friday. We decided not to do our usual black Friday shopping. Something about having a child just makes it a little more difficult to drag ourselves out of bed at 4 am. We'll take all the sleep we can get! So we opted for a little more online shopping this year.

Rocking in her favorite chair...it was Great Grandpa's when he was little

She also made the rounds with her books. Rylie LOVES being read to. She will pick up a book, plop down on your lap and start turning pages...this could go on for hours.

Great Grandma

Grandpa or "papa" as Rylie calls him

Carving up the bird- for the first time!

Checking out grandpa and grandma's tree

The weekend after Thanksgiving was the first snowfall of the year, so we went out to take a few "winter" pictures for the Christmas card. Rylie helped us decorate the tree that weekend too!

What is this stuff??

Rylie is famous!

Check out this website: www.supersticker.com and she's on the third advertisement!

Halloween 2010

At the pumpkin farm with Grr and Grr Mom picking out her pumpkin:



Helping Grr carve her pumpkin:



Carving one at Grandpa and Grandma's too:


Trick-or-Treating at Mommy's office:




First time Trick-or-Treating (just to a couple neighbor's houses):


Some other recent pictures:

There is a picture of both Patrick and I sitting in this same box...which I have saved somewhere and will have to post it.

Ready to go hunting! Maybe Uncle Patrick needs some help spotting a deer?

Taking her temperature (sick day at home)

More swimming lessons!

15 Month Stats

Rylie had her 15 month appointment mid-October. Her stats don't shock us in the least...she has and probably always will be a little peanut. She weighed a whopping 21 lbs, which is in the 19th percentile and is 30 inches long, which is in the 32nd percentile.

She had to have one shot at this appointment and also had blood drawn to check for lead (which came back fine). They attempted to do this at her 12 month appointment and she was not very happy about it. They checked both arms and couldn't find a vein. This time, they were able to find just one and basically said they had one shot at it. She made mommy and daddy proud because she didn't make a peep. Just sat there and watched them do it. What a trooper!

We also decided it was time she made her first trip to the dentist. She has four teeth- two on top and two on the bottom. But she has a bunch starting to come in all at once. She has molars coming in on the top...one on each side and also has something coming in on the bottom. Her incisors are getting very close too. No tears at this one either! She just laid back (on daddy's lap) and let the Dr. take a look. We are lucky that Rylie loves to have her teeth brushed; however, she also loves running around the house with her toothbrush and has a fit when she has to give it up. We're hoping as it becomes more of a routine and that she'll get used to mommy having a turn and then Rylie having a turn and then we put it away. We'll see how that goes...

Rylie's New Dance Moves

Love the foot stomp :-)

Spinning!

And testing out her Halloween costume at the same time...

Snow Show and Girls Night Out!

Last year's snowmobile show was a little easier considering we had a 3 1/2 month old that slept through the majority of it. This time she needed to be entertained.

big sled

little sled (wrong color)


This past weekend was my second (ever) overnight away from Rylie for my friend Jen's shower and bachelorette party. Well worth it for a fun girls night out. It will be followed very soon by a couple more nights away for the wedding on New Year's Eve and we are looking forward to it!


Bride and Bridesmaids (minus 1)

This next picture is being posted because we cannot believe how long and curly Rylie's hair is getting. This was taken just after her bath the other night. It appears that she's going to have her mommy's curls...hopefully hers will stick around longer than mine did!

Rylie:

Mommy:

Fall pictures at Basse's!

We have made it our annual tradition to head down the road to Basse's Taste of Country for our fall pictures. Unfortunately, this year ended up to be an 80 degree day so we were just a tad overdressed. But I couldn't do fall pictures in short sleeves! Check out how much Rylie has changed below in the "How Tall This Fall" measurement from last year to this year! That same day, we took some pictures in the leaf pile at home. She wasn't crazy about being in the middle of it , so we only got one smile. Enjoy LOTS of pictures below.

2009

2010




Daddy had enough...