Rylie's 2nd Birthday...(it's a long one)

Rylie started off the morning with a pedicure from mommy while she ate her breakfast watching her favorite morning shows. Or as Rylie says "Mama paint toes!". We stopped down at my office to see some friends since it had been about a year since some of them last saw her. We went home for a nap and Dan was able to sneak away from work for a couple hours to join us at the zoo for the first time this year. We had great weather. We finished the day with dinner at Chili's and a Rylie sized cake!

Doing her best elephant impression

Checking out her new book case and books from mommy and daddy

Perfect spot for bedtime stories

She loved this part

The following Saturday was the big party. Again, we had great weather for an outdoor party. The day didn't start out so well since Rylie woke up with a little fever, but thank goodness for an afternoon party. By the time 3:00 rolled around she was ready for some fun. We were very lucky to have a lot of family and some friends join us for the big day. Here are a few of the MANY pictures taken.

First (and probably last) time baking/decorating a cake for this mommy

Birthday girl!

Listening to the "hot dog dance" song

Taking a break from all the action

Ready for some tea parties!

Helping Daddy assemble the new bike

Blowing out her candle...over and over because it was so much fun!

Having fun with new toys!

Rylie had her 2 year check-up the Monday after her birthday and she weighed in at (as usual) whopping 23 lbs an is 33 inches long. She's a little peanut and is swimming in all of her 24 month summer clothes (that I thought I was smart to purchase at the end of last summer on sale), but she is a healthy little girl. She is talking in close to complete sentences and repeats every word we say. She loves to sing Wheels on the Bus and Row Row Your Boat. She counts, knows most of her ABC's and spells her name. Some of her favorite phrases at age 2 are: "I too shy", "I no like that", "watch this!", "I need help", "I go 'wimming'!" (we don't know the 's' sound yet), "come play", "sit down", "I run fast", my personal favorite, "I crazy Mommy"....and so many more.

We love watching Rylie learn and listening to her speak. Every time Rylie hits a new milestone, Dan and I tell each other that we love this age and want her to stay there for a while, but truthfully, it just keeps getting better and better. The amount of joy that Rylie brings to our lives is immeasurable and we couldn't picture our little world without her. We just can't believe how blessed we are.

Happy 2nd Birthday baby girl...we love you SO much!

4th of July

For the first time since I moved to the Milwaukee area, we spent 4th of July weekend in La Crosse. It was great to get back down to Riverfest and to watch the fireworks over the Mississippi.

We didn't get to La Crosse until Saturday afternoon. We went to the Toby Keith/Eric Church concert at Summerfest on Friday night and left for La Crosse Saturday morning. We went straight to Myric park to meet up with some old friends from the bank (Debbie Kim and Julie) for lunch and to meet little Ruby (Kim's baby girl) for the first time. Rylie loved looking at her and I loved holding a teeny tiny baby.

Ruby Irelyn Erickson (and her cute little painted toes)


Me (Rylie), Kim (Ruby), Debbie and Julie (Morgan)



We spent lots of time playing outside in the pool, hung out with Elaine and on Sunday got to meet a little puppy. A friend of my dad's stopped by to pick up some tickets and they brought their new baby black lab along. Rylie was a little scared at first, but was much more brave once the puppy was asleep!

Sharing her milk with the sleeping puppy


And her toys, blanky and a snack


And then gave her a little kiss too


Auntie "Yain"


Running through the sprinkler!


4th of July!


My uncle Robin was in town for the week so we go to see him a couple times and take a few updated family pictures too! Rylie wasn't thrilled with this, but we got a few good ones.

Just Another Birthday and Father's Day

There is no physical evidence (i.e. pictures) that I turned 31 this year...therefore it did not happen. That's what I will keep telling myself. As it has the past 25 years or so, the Charlie Kearns Memorial golf tournament fell on my birthday weekend, so we packed up and headed out to La Crosse. Dan's parents came out for the weekend as well. We celebrated with some drinks and music out on the back dock at the Freight House on Friday night and the following day we played in the tournament. It was the first of (most likely) very few rounds I will get in this year, so I was just happy to be out playing...nevermind how we were doing. Ry got to spend the day with Auntie Elaine. Rylie stayed up way past her bedtime both nights and both nights woke up at precisely 3:30 and decided she would not sleep any longer. Dan, the great daddy that he is, took her downstairs to watch ONE episode of Mickey Mouse and would hopefully bring her back upstairs and put her back to bed. Some of us know what typically happens when Dan gets up with Rylie in the middle of the night. For those that don't, it usually goes like this- Dan falls asleep on the couch and Rylie pretty much has full rein of the house. So I woke up over an hour later to the sound of little feet running. Rylie was wide awake running between her little kitchen area in the dining room and the TV in the living room. Dan was passed out on the couch. This happened 2 nights in a row. It was, however, a great weekend with great birthday gifts.

The tradition for Father's Day in the Wille family is for the guys to golf in the morning and then everyone meets at Ted and Marcia's to hang out by the pool. The weather was iffy, but Dan and Rylie still got a short swim in.

My little snorkeler (if that's a word)

Besties- Soph and Ry

Wonder if these will fit me...

New man cave material

The two loves of my life

My Little Copycat

A couple recent videos...

We have been doing a lot of drawing with sidewalk chalk since the weather has been warm and each time I write Rylie's name and spell it aloud. She seems to have caught on.

Rylie saw me looking in the mirror one day and ever since has been "checking herself out". I suppose I should probably teach her a more proper word than "butt".

New Stuff!

The project phase at our house has begun. We have quite a few plans for this house and are trying to take things one step at a time. We're starting with our kitchen. We have been discussing new countertops for a while and our little climber expedited the project. Rylie can climb in a matter of seconds and climbs on everything!! In the time it takes me to grab something out of the fridge and turn back around, she'd be on the top counter opening her cupboard (see below).


Last look at the old...

New countertops...hello undermount sink...I love you. Little did we know that the higher countertop would not stop our little monkey girl. Dan was eating breakfast one morning and walked to the bathroom and came back to Rylie sitting up on his stool.

Yet to be done...backsplash, paint, mounting the new microwave, lighting, stools, cabinet hardware, did I miss anything? There will be a post dedicated to this whole project once it's complete. As with any big project, unexpected discoveries are made (as seen on HGTV). As we have discovered with this house, several short cuts were taken...the kitchen wasn't an exception. We found several "patched" holes in the drywall behind the backsplash and an old microwave vent hole that was covered with a piece of cardboard. Nice.

Last weekend's project was putting together Rylie's new playset. We didn't think there was any way the two small boxes it came in actually contained all of the pieces and there seemed to be enough screws, nuts and bolts to build 10 of these things. There were two of the biggest bags of hardware I have ever seen. Wish I had a picture of that. In terms of weather, Dan and Jerry couldn't have picked a worse day to start this...last Saturday was about 50 degrees raining and windy, but they were able to do most of it in the garage. It took a total of 10 hours! Rylie absolutely loved it. Sunday afternoon she was finally able to check out every area of it!

Rylie says, "I wing"

On Mother's Day (see previous post) we drove to the park to swing and slide. While we were there another couple rode up on their bikes with their toddler in a bike trailer. I looked at Dan and thought, why the heck are we driving to the park that is less than a mile from our house? I had a nice bike that I had ridden a total of 10 times or so, but I've never really liked it. It's a hybrid and I wanted something that I felt more comfortable on and one that I could take on the trails in the area. I have an awesome benefit at work- we receive a good chunk of money every year to spend on a fitness membership or equipment. So I decided that I wanted to get a new bike. I sold my old bike in one day (thank you Craig's list) and was able to buy a trailer for Rylie with that money. Dan already had a nice bike that I'd seen him ride maybe twice in the last 5 years.

Can't wait for the first family bike ride

Rylie loves her new ride as well- and in fact has been watching morning cartoons in it the past couple of days since it's still in our living room.

How is he going to ride it up there?

So we are looking forward to a summer of being active and checking projects off our wish list!

Mother's Day 2011

I had a great Mother's Day weekend. My parents came for the weekend, so I got to spend time with my mom. They left early on Sunday and we had brunch with Dan's family that morning and then went to the park and for a walk later that day. It was the perfect mix of family time and then time with my best girl. We had a nice and relaxing day!

I fell asleep on this tummy a lot when I was little :-)

Friday night bonfire...yes, that is our Christmas tree

Three generations

At brunch...this girl likes to dip

Smelling my flowers from Sophie

Trying to help 'Sopie' jump...kept saying "you can do it Sopie"

Grr Mom and all the kids

Me and my little sweetheart

Running!

Fun at the park with mommy and daddy