New Friend

On 9/6/09 my coworker and friend Stephanie and her husband Adam welcomed Carter William Gibas. He was 7 pounds 7 ounces and 19 inches long. (Check out the United Heartland Babies post). Rylie and I stopped at the hospital for a visit so she could meet her new friend. Rylie still seems pretty small to me, but next to Carter she looks like a giant!

Rylie and Carter

One Year Anniversary/Two Months Old

Dan and I celebrated our 1 year wedding anniversary over Labor Day weekend in La Crosse. I also got to hang out with my best friend (and Maid of Honor) Elaine. She flew into Milwaukee on Thursday night. I picked her up from the airport and on Friday morning, Elaine, Rylie and I headed to La Crosse. Dan joined us later that night. Elaine and I had a great trip and I don't think there was a minute of silence the entire 3 hours. It was so great to catch up with her! We even got to meet her out at the Eagles Nest for 1 drink on Friday night.

Dan and I celebrated our anniversary weekend with a 9 holes of golf on Saturday. It was my first time out in a year. The scorecard wasn't pretty, but it was great just to be out playing. I'd been waiting all summer for this! Grandma and Rylie had a fun afternoon together.

On Sunday night we went out to dinner for steak and crab legs at the Freight House. Rylie stayed with grandpa and grandma. She slept most of the time, but grandma was able to give her a bath just as we were getting home. We enjoyed some of our year old wedding cake, champagne and several games of euchre. A fun weekend!

September 6 was also Rylie's 2 month birthday. We just took her in for her 2 month check up earlier this week and she weighed in at 9 pounds 10 ounces and is now 22 inches long. She is doing great and is very healthy!

Naked baby

Hoping her eyes stay this blue!

Her typical position when napping on her boppy lounger

Tummy Time

Rylie has had a pretty strong neck ever since she was a week old. She enjoys pushing off of whoever is holding her and then slamming her head back into your shoulder, face, etc. She holds herself up pretty good, but doesn't enjoy tummy time all that much. Here is a rare shot of her not crying during tummy time.



Rylie and mommy's new favorite thing...her swing. We didn't register for a swing because we had heard that not all babies like swings. We figured we would manage just fine with the bouncer. Well this little girl wants to be in motion constantly...whether she's riding in the car, in her stroller or being held and walked around the house. So we decided we would buy her a swing. It has been my savior on her fussy days when I had been doing laps around my house all day. Those days are few and far between, but it's been nice to be able to set her down. It's also quite convenient for showering in the morning and at dinner time.

Lets Salsa

Last summer was the first summer in our house, so we had a small experimental garden. We weren't sure how everything would grow and had only 3 tomato plants and a few pepper plants. This year we moved our shed over and expanded our garden. We planted 12 tomato plants, 4 green pepper, 4 jalapeno, 1 banana pepper, snap peas, green beans, basil, cilantro and parsley. Last year was also our first year canning salsa. We only got 8 jars of salsa out of our plants, but so far this year we have made 2 batches (24 jars). We've made some fresh salsa as well. We're hoping to can one more batch of salsa and also some tomatoes for chili this winter. Dan did the chopping of everything last year, but this year he was on daddy duty while Patrick did all of the chopping and I blanched the tomatoes.

Patrick, Rylie and Dan (who apparently just got out of surgery)

United Heartland Babies!

After 7 weeks off work, I decided it was time to take Rylie in to my office. Jackie, my coworker also on maternity leave, wanted to stop in to see Stephanie before she left for maternity leave. So we decided it was going to be baby day in our department and had Julie (another on maternity leave) come in and meet us there too. The ladies in our department held the babies...the guys stood back and watched. We all headed out to lunch after our visit.

Oldest baby to youngest: Julie (Devan), Jackie (Braeden), and Erin (Rylie)


With Stephanie (and Carter) who is due 9/9/09

Rylie also attended her first Wille family reunion. She made the rounds to several family members throughout the day and had her picture taken with Aunt Ruth...the oldest Wille holding the youngest Wille.

The whole family

Wisconsin State Fair

Dan got a couple of tickets to the fair from work, so we decided that we would head down there for as long as Rylie would let us. We went after Dan got home from work on a Friday night. To be honest, I think this was only my second time at the fair and my first must have been quite a few years ago because I didn't see anything that looked familiar.

Our first two stops were the swine barn and cattle barn.

Rylie with the pigs

Next we walked through the WI exposition center and finally through the WI products pavilion. We did walk into the cream puff pavilion, but took a look at the line and decided to pass.

I don't think either one of us actually ate any food on a stick. At about 9:00 Rylie started getting restless and the crowd was getting thicker. It wasn't easy maneuvering the stroller and I'm pretty sure I ran into a couple people, so we decided to head home. I was happy to get out of the house for a few hours and Dan was happy to drink a few beers. A good night.

Road Trip

Rylie took her first trip to La Crosse when she was 3 1/2 weeks old...and we went just the two of us! I decided that while I was on maternity leave, it would be nice to stay a little longer than a weekend out in La Crosse, so we headed there on a Wednesday morning. The plan was to have the car packed and ready so that once I fed her we could just hit the road. Dan was joining us on Friday for the weekend. It was a great trip. I learned that she does great in the car. She slept almost the entire way and has done the same the two trips we have made there since.

Rylie checked out her crib right away at grandpa and grandma's. It's the same crib and bedding that her mommy slept in. Grandma has since bought her new bedding...baby snoopy (what else!)

I think she likes it

Rylie met her great-grandparents on both sides.


Great Grandpa and Grandma Jenks


Great Grandma Kearns

She attended her first "fest", which was Irishfest. She wore the appropriate attire. She will attend her second "fest", Oktoberfest later this month.



She also made her first trip to a bar- Sloopy's. I worked there for about 4 years while I was still at the bank in Onalaska and going to grad school. They made Rylie feel very welcome, both on her birthday and her first trip to La Crosse.





However, she spent the majority of her time there snuggling with grandpa and grandma.


Lounging with grandma


Snoozin' on grandpa...this was a popular spot when we were babies too!