3 months.

at three months Rylee...

-lives for mornings and nighttime!  Her primetime is on the changing table right after she's got a clean diaper on.  Then our concerned faced little girl bursts into smiles and becomes little miss chatterbox.

-loves raspberries!  Not of the food variety.  This girl is a raspberry blowing queen. Blowing a raspberry in her face when she's in a laughing mood gets her every time.

-has an extreme addiction to bubbles.  Her own spit blowing bubbles to be exact.  She churns bubbles like no one's business until they form a small waterfall and dribble down her chin and end in a petite little puddle on her chest.  It's the one stage of life when drool is acceptable and cute!

-randomly cries in the middle of her naps.  Perhaps night terrors are starting early on- The milk is all gone!

-is still developing the talent of stuffing her fist in her mouth.  Once she gets it in, she extends her little fingers and proceeds to make herself gag.  Apparently it's the new thing in the baby world.  As long as she's not a thumb-sucker, we're good.  One of these days I'll win the pacifier vs. fist battle.  

-sleeps for 8 hours or more these days.  We just need to work on getting her to go to bed a little earlier than 11:30.  

-has already rolled over from her stomach to her back!

-loves standing while we hold her hands.  If we aren't careful, this girl is going to be walking before she's crawling!

-loves her daddy.  The moment he walks in the door and starts talking, she's looking for him and where his voice is coming from.

-loves looking up at trees and the light coming in through the leaves.  Pretty sure she'd lay on a blanket underneath a grove of trees all day long and be a happy camper.  

-cuddles every chance she gets.  There's many a day where the most productive thing I get done is holding my Baby Girl and getting a good snuggle in.  Perhaps she'll stay this way for a real long time?  I'd be down.

-has finally started LAUGHING!  After weeks of mama's hard work, Aunt Toady got Rylee's first laugh out.  I almost died at how cute that little laugh was!  Now the girl will laugh almost as often as she smiles.

-is her daddy's little girl.  From her wavy hair and long legs to her critical analytical skills.  Rylee only laughs at things that she actually thinks are funny.  Otherwise, she's too busy figuring out the rest of her world.

-has started grabbing onto fingers and her blankets.  Mainly her blankets.  Which she has discovered are quite the delicacy.

-has fallen in love for the first time.  With her toes.  She refuses to go to sleep if there are blankets covering them.  She kicks and squirms until the blanket only covers her legs and torso.  Her hands must also be available at any time in case she needs them to snack on at night.

-has developed her first baby rolls!  Itty bitty rolls high up on her thighs.  They make me want to love on those little rolls all day long.

-nicknames: Baby Girl, Ry-Ry, Bubbles, Smiley, Thumper, Peanut

2 month update

at two months Rylee...

-stretches for MILES! From day one she has had the biggest yawns and longest stretches.

-lives for the mornings! She is the most smiley after she wakes up in the morning and loves cooing and talking after her diaper is changed.

-loves her play yard jungle animals (her new found friends) and has taken a huge interest in them.  The conversations they have between each other are quite extensive.

-has found her voice!  She's cooing and baby talking to us like a pro.  It melts my heart everytime she opens that mouth of hers and out comes the cutest noises!

-is sleeping through the night every other night!  On the off nights, she only wakes up once and goes right back to sleep.  Two thumbs up from Mom and Dad!

-is a pro snuggler.  Seriously.  We melt everytime she snuggles close on our chests and falls asleep.  Is there any better feeling than a sleeping baby on your chest?!

-is working on tummytime (she does awesome for about 10 minutes and then falls asleep...) and loves to stand up on your lap.  She's this close to rolling over.

-loves to touch her hair. Sometimes even pulling it which results in screaming at her parents and wondering who is pulling her hair. Silly girl.

-gets the hiccups at least twice a day.

-prefers sucking her fisted hands over her pacifier. Yeah...

-has started talking to herself when she wakes up in the morning, rather than screaming with impatience and hunger.  She first wakes up with her coos, then moves to sucking her fists, and then starts screaming with impatience and hunger!

-loves to blow bubbles with her saliva.  Yet another adorable trait.

-goes to sleep listening to her water sounds at night.

-wants to lick everything within reach at random times during the day. Am I raising a baby or a puppy?!

-has started smiling the BIGGEST smiles when we give her kisses.  Kisses on her cheeks.  Kisses on her mouth.  Kisses on her feet.  I seriously can't handle it!

-has retained the nicknames: Smiley Rylee, Peanut, Ry-Ry, Rylee Girl, Thumper, Half-Pint

We're still bursting with pride and love over this precious little gal of ours!  We thank Heavenly Father for her on a daily, hourly basis.  I still find myself just staring at her while she sleeps and wondering how on earth we created and were blessed with such a perfect little girl.  The love we have for Rylee Girl is beyond anything I've felt before.  She's our tiny little gift from God and I can't believe He trusts us with such a sweet baby girl.  Rylee completes us.  She's made us the 2 luckiest people on earth!  She's the best part of our lives.

The best.

rylee's blessing day.

July 6th, 2014 was a special and important day for our family.  Especially for our Rylee Girl.  

Rylee was blessed by her Daddy during Sacrament meeting and was surrounded by incredible men who worthily hold the Melchizedek Priesthood and love her so much.  Included in the circle were: Daddy, Grandpa Kussee, Great Grandpa Kussee, Grandpa Madsen, Great Grandpa Billings, Uncle Kole, Uncle Stuart, Uncle Brian, and Great Uncle Mike.

T gave Rylee a beautiful blessing from her Heavenly Father.  He said he didn't get nervous until he started the blessing.  He wanted to make sure he remembered all of the things he wanted to say.  If there's one thing about Tyler I know, it's that he rarely gets nervous!

It was a great image to see Rylee surrounded by the men who love her.  We could feel the spirit and I know that Heavenly Father is pleased by Rylee didn't hold back any blessings at all for her.  

Thanks to a few of us writing her blessing down (especially to Miss. Julie Potter!), Rylee will get to read it in the years to come and remember what words were said!

After sacrament meeting, we headed over to Grandma Billings house for a luncheon with family and friends.  Among those family and friends were:

Great Grandma and Grandpa Kussee

Grandma and Grandpa Kussee

Aunt Talya, Uncle Stuart, Aunt Morgan, Uncle Tanner, Aunt Airyn, Uncle Kole, and cousin Dylin

Great Grandma and Grandpa Billings

Great Grandma Madsen

Grandma and Grandpa Madsen

Aunt Codi, Uncle Brian, Aunt Misty, Aunt Melanie, and Uncle Damon

...and lots of 2nd cousins, great aunts and uncles, and some of Mommy and Daddy's friends

We ate yummy sandwich wraps from Costco, sides and salads made by family and friends, and apple pie and cookies made by Rylee's Grandmas!

After eating some yummy food, we took some pictures of Rylee with family members.

 [Great Grandpa Kussee, Daddy, Rylee, Grandpa Kussee]

 [Great Grandma Kussee, Mommy, Rylee, Grandma Kussee]

 [Daddy, Mommy, Rylee, Great Grandma and Grandpa Billings]

 [Great Grandma and Grandpa Kussee, Daddy, Mommy, Rylee, and Grandma and Grandpa Kussee]

 [Grandpa Kussee, Daddy, Rylee, Mommy, Grandma Kussee]

 Grandma Madsen, Mommy, Rylee, Daddy, Grandpa Madsen]

[Mommy and Rylee]

[Daddy, Rylee, and Mommy]

Daddy grabbed a couple pictures of the decorations before they were all taken down...

Then Rylee got a little photoshoot in the blessing gown that her mama wore on her blessing day too.  Though our petite little girl didn't quite fill out her dress, she still looked beautiful and so precious!

Even Rylee Girl loved her dress and gave us a nice little smile!

Such a beautiful day for our beautiful girl.  

We love our Rylee girl!

it's independence day.

Our Independence Day brought started out with sleeping in (even though we'd planned to run to the balloon festival... obviously that didn't happen!) and getting out of bed later in the morning.  After a quick breakfast for the three of us, we headed to the Freedom Festival for our annual sunglasses run.  We ended up not finding any sunglasses that caught our fancy this year, but we did find the Tornado Fries that T LOVES.  So of course we bought some and ate them to our stomachs content!

Then we headed home, fed Rylee, and headed up to Aspen Hills to visit the family at their cabins.  We caught most of them at their naptime, so we handed Rylee off to Grandma and Grandpa to finish her nap, and played a game of Scrabble and Skip-Bo with Myst.

I spy with my little eye a sleeping grandpa and baby in the background...

Bonding time with Grandma (who happens to actually be sitting down for once!).

Lady took over Rylee's new blanket from Katie.  It's becoming one of our favorite blankets too- a muslin blanket that's not white?!  We love it.

And then it was a quick transfer over to grandpa...

After games and naps, we ate our 4th of July dinner of bacon hot dogs (compliments of Misty!), chips, salads, sides, brownie cupcakes, and delicious cherries.  Yum!

Then we headed out to take a couple of pictures before the sun went down...

[bonding with Aunt Misty]

We convinced everyone to take a group picture (amazing how once you mention that the baby needs a picture with everyone, they're in a little bit of a better mood to take a picture with everyone!).  Hello explosion of red, white, and blue.

We headed home right after we saw some of Moroni's fireworks and Mt. Pleasant's fireworks.  We hit some clogged up traffic on the way home and were stopped for a good half hour due to a terrible accident that killed three people and left three others that had to be life-flighted out.  Such a sad story for Independence Day.  We said a prayer for those involved in the accident and slowly headed toward Provo once more.

We finally got home after midnight and hit the sack!

All in all, it was a fantastic, lazy, low-key 4th of July spent with each other and family.  It was exactly what we needed and wanted!

 Happy first 4th of July, Rylee girl!

...AND this weekend meant we got to get together with JaeKaeNae for a visit while Kate and Dave were down from Idaho for a visit!  Kate got to meet Rylee and Kole for the first time and brought us freezer meals, toys, and homemade blankets for our kiddos!  It was exceptionally wonderful to be together with besties and see Kate in her 2nd pregnancy glory.  Can't wait to meet her 2nd Baby Girl in September!

 

Rylee's first trip to lodgepole.

We went to Lodgepole Campground a couple of weeks ago with Rylee and met up with the Toad, Brain, Tiffany, Danny, and my parents!  We debated long and hard if we wanted to stay overnight and decided not to before we headed up.  We were glad we didn't stay overnight because it was getting chilly by the time we left at 10:30 that night- Baby Girl would've been unhappy and cold!

Before heading up to the campground, we stopped at the Dairy Keen in Heber and grabbed some burgers, fries, and a shake.  Rylee was not impressed... I think she wanted to eat some of that yummy goodness she kept smelling.  I'd be mad too if I couldn't eat the Dairy Keen's perfectly crisp fries!

Then we headed up to Lodgepole and met up with the rest of the group.  We went for a little walk on the Foreman Trail and bundled Rylee up in her little pink jacket her grandma bought her and a couple of blankets.  And then Daddy decided she was still cold, so we zipped her up in T's jacket too.

She was decidedly warmer than any of us!  

Even Lady came along with us sans a piece of rope since her lease was left at home.  The group gathered some firewood for the bonfire Danny and Brain wanted to build for Smore's and then we headed back to the campsite.

 

Rylee also got to hang out with Grandpa for a little while and we snapped a couple of adorable pictures of them together.

 Grandpa was definitely a happy camper!

 

Then it was onto some Daddy time...

Rylee is a big fan of the feeling of T's scruff.  She still can't quite make out what she feels about it, but she's definitely intrigued by it.

We stayed long enough to snarf down some Smore's and watch the sun go down.  It was a nice little trip up to some cooler weather and enjoying family and friends.  There's nothing quite like being in the mountains and showing Rylee some of God's beautiful surroundings.

Perfect six hour mini vacation!

meeting grandpa great and getting spoiled

We were finally given the okay from the doc to take Rylee to meet her Great Grandpa Madsen this past week.  

We'd gotten used to visiting him on Sundays when we were pregnant so it was nice to see him after a few weeks of us being MIA!  Rylee was so intrigued with her Grandpa Great.  The moment we gave her to him to hold, she was entranced.  She stared at him the entire time he talked to her and gave him a big smile at first glance up at his face.   

Which meant she got a big smile from Grandpa too!  

It was a tender moment seeing my daughter with the man who I fished with, talked with, sat on his lap, and rubbed his soft fuzzy hair when I was growing up.  He's always been close to my heart so to see Rylee take to him so quickly put a smile on my face too!

Then we had to take a 4 generation picture with my Grandpa, Rylee's Grandpa, and me and Rylee.  It's one of my new favorite pictures!  Tyler did a fabulous job taking pictures of our visit and capturing some memories.  I know I'll treasure them and I'm glad we have them for Rylee down the road too!

Then Uncle Stuart and Aunt Talya came for a visit and spoiled Rylee with some lovin' and gifting her with the cutest seal from their Cali trip.  Rylee was ever so kind to give them a gift back and left a little treasure on Stuart's pants by soiling them for him.  The first time she's ever had a blowout that's actually leaked out and it just had to be on Uncle Stuart...

Good thing she's cute and Stuart has a good attitude!

Then she played with Aunt Talya's hair for a good 10 minutes.  She was cooing and talking while she tangled her hand in it.  She already knows good hair when she sees it!

Tyler grabbed a cute picture of Rylee in her carseat that day too.  Ry-Ry loves her little wubbanub giraffe.  She doesn't necessarily love putting it in her mouth, but she likes holding it and it does help her keep her pacifier in when she wants it in.  Which is pretty much never...

You could say it was a fantastic day enjoying our little Rylee Girl and sharing her with family and friends!

T's first father's day.

 Father's Day was far different for us this year than our previous years together.  T and I always do something special for each other on Mother's/Father's Day, but this year was a special year.

This year, T was actually a father.  A father of a gorgeous little girl that we created together.  

T's special day started with balloons, presents, and an omelet breakfast.  His presents consisted of the obligatory Father's Day ties, a brand spankin' new baseball cap, and a matching daddy/daughter outfit set (pictures pending).  

After a nice morning going to sacrament meeting with my parents and listening to our new bishop and his wife speak, we headed up to Mama and Papa Kussee's house to celebrate with them!  We ate a tasty dinner of ribs, bratwursts, and yummy sides and give Papa Kris his VW cufflinks for his gift and a can of peanuts from his little "Peanut".  Then we got to sit around and listen to Grandpa Kussee's stories and have fun talking with each other.  Probably one of my favorite parts of the day!

Then it was onto pictures of the fathers and grandfathers (Poor Rylee was not enjoying the direct sunlight in her eyes)...

[T and the girl who made him a Daddy!]

[Grandpa Kris with Rylee and Dylin] 

 

[3 Generations of Kussee's!]

And we had to include this picture of Great Grandma Kussee and Rylee.  Grandma had the magic touch with keeping Baby Girl asleep.  

And a picture of the cousins!  Dylin is Rylee's only cousin as of yet.  Just a month and a half apart, these two could potentially be besties.  Potentially.  Right now, it looks like they're both a little unsure of each other!

[We call this look Rylee's "concerned" face.  It happens a lot.  She seems to always be worried about something... silly girl.]

After a great time up at the Kussee's, we headed back to Provo to spend a little bit of time with the Madsen side of the family.  It was also my Dad's first Grandfather's Day so we got him a special gift from his little Sunshine girl- an engraved metal spatula for when he barbecues.  It was the first time I'd ever given my Dad a gift and he got a little choked up.  The man melts every time his little granddaughter is around.  It's adorable.

Though I loved the entire day, the best part was spending it with T and Rylee.  From the day we found out we were pregnant, T has been the perfect Daddy for Rylee.  He's attentive, worried, fun, compassionate, loving, and the perfect example of how a dad should be.  Rylee has got him wrapped around her little finger already!  The two of them have the greatest conversations between each other- Rylee coos and squeals more for T than anyone else.  You could say that she's definitely happy when Daddy comes home.  

Happy Father's Day to the greatest husband and father two girls could ask for!  We love you, T-Bear!