4 months

Our little Rylee Ann is 4 months old today.  How is that even possible?!

at 4 months Rylee...

- still loves loves loves snuggling.  Seeing her snuggled up on Daddy's chest during church is one of my favorite sights.  She nuzzles right up to him and falls straight to sleep for her afternoon nap.  

- has started playing with toys!  She loves her key rings and whips those keys around like nobody's business.  She also loves her Sophie Giraffe, her taggie owl, her taggie socks, and her Sqwish toy.  Lucky for us, she learned how to "play" with toys right before our San Diego trip and entertained herself during the long drive.

- is still sleeping 9+ hours straight at night.  Now if we could just get her bedtime to before midnight.

- loves to stand!  She loves grabbing onto someone's hands while standing and wiggling her little hips back and forth.

- still loves blowing bubbles.  Except they have gone from a little stream to a full on river down her chin landing in a puddle on the front of whatever she's wearing.  

- laughs and SQUEALS.  She can now be found randomly squealing and screaming with pleasure during the day.  

- enjoys sucking not on just two or even three, but four fingers these days.  Which she quite regularly shoves down her throat.

- loves it when Daddy comes home.  She searches for his voice and gives him a full on smile when she sees him home.

- enjoys gnawing on a slice of a peach or watermelon here and there.  And maybe a taste of ice cream that Daddy sneaks in when Mama isn't watching.  

- might be starting the road to teething.  She sucks on her fist, hands, toes, and frozen binkies whenever she's cranky (which isn't all that often).

- has finally warmed up to the idea of taking a bath.  She squeals and kicks at the water and her rubber duck every time now.  She's a big fan of the water and loves watching it come out of the faucet.

- is still a looooong, petite little girl.  She's finally developed a roll or two on each of her thighs, but that's it.  I'm not sure this little gal will ever be a chunk.  

- has obtained the nickname "Drooly" due to the amounts of drool that dribble down her mouth all day long.

- is an old pro at holding her head up and rolling over.  Seriously.  She's had both tricks down for months (most likely due to the small amounts of chunk she has).

- loves it when her Grandpa growls at her.  She laughs rather than cries unlike most kids he does it to.

- loves tangling her hands in hair.  Especially in Aunt Talya and Morgan's long hair.  

- thinks that both sets of grandparents are pretty funny people.  They could quite possibly be her favorite people.

- has discovered mirrors and loves looking in them.

- still loves looking up at trees when we go on walks.  Her entire body gets into the excitement of seeing the light through the leaves.

- has hair that is slowly becoming lighter.  With tints of strawberry blonde coming through.

- keeps her parents guessing on the color of her eyes.  Perhaps she'll have color-changing eyes like Aunt Toadie?

-nicknames: Smiley Rylee, Ry-Ry, Drooly, Peanut, Little Britches

 [^ ^Ry Ry has also taken a liking to the crocheted blanket Aunt Misty made her.  She loves sticking her fingers through the holes.  I love that Aunt Misty even embroidered Ry-Ry's name into her blanket. ^ ^]

 [^ ^ That smile kills me. ^ ^ ]

[^ ^ little miss did this pose all on her own.  I turned around to grab the camera and she'd fallen into this position. ^ ^] 

[ ^ ^ our precious little girl ^ ^ ]

I don't think we could have gotten any more lucky with such a perfect little baby.  She has her learning moments, but is overall such a delightful little one.  I think often of how the phrase "our pride and joy" doesn't come close to how we feel about Rylee Girl.  

Happy 4 months Ry-Ry.

a welcome home.

Jonathan isn't just my cousin.  He's more of the little brother my parents would never give me for Christmas.  You see, while my aunt and uncle were at work during the day, Jonathan was the little brother I got to tease and play with.  We made snowmen together, using my mini teacher easel I "taught" him math and how to write his name, and we watched every Disney movie together.  You could say we had a pretty posh childhood.  As we got older our families still went camping together (where Jonathan learned to become a pyromaniac), we saw each other every Sunday at Grandma's house, and we planned lots of cousin get togethers.  After I married T, Jonathan and Tyler got into guitar-playing together and Jonathan taught Tyler some tips and tricks about wood-working.  

When Jonathan left on his mission we were so proud, but we missed him and his hilarious personality terribly.  Over the past two years, we'd refer to many of Jonathan "isms" and laugh over some of the emails he sent home.  The day Jonathan got back from his mission a couple of weeks ago was a happy one.  T and I were so excited for Rylee to meet her "Uncle" Jonathan for the first time at the airport.

We all made signs the Sunday before he came home and waited with anticipation to see him come down the escalator at the airport.  We were the crazy family at the airport screaming and yelling when  he finally came in sight.  After many hugs, we handed Rylee over to Jonathan (who ended up holding her until we all loaded into our cars.  She was happy has a clam being in his arms).  

 ^ ^ Rylee and Grandpa waiting for Jonathan ^ ^

^ ^ Rylee's sign for Jonathan ^ ^

 ^ ^ Karen was so excited and moved too fast for us to get a good picture! ^ ^

^ ^ Uncle Mike and Elder Hoffman ^ ^

 

^ ^ So excited he's home! ^ ^

 ^ ^ Such a good-looking missionary ^ ^

^ ^ That half grin just kills us.  It's like she knows how much we're wrapped around her little finger. ^ ^

Welcome home, Jonathan!

san diego 2014.

When Danie and Dustin moved away to San Diego this past Spring, my heart broke a little.  Call it raging pregnancy hormones or lack of sleep, but I would randomly shed some tears over it for a week straight.  I was convinced we wouldn't see them until they moved back to Utah.  It was a painful thing to say goodbye.  And although Danie and Dustin assured us that there was a queen-sized bed waiting for us to come visit them, I was convinced we wouldn't actually be able to survive a road trip with a 3-month-old baby.

Thank goodness I was wrong!

Despite my apprehensions about making the 11 hour car ride to San Diego, we couldn't turn down a trip to San Diego when Danie reminded us we were supposed to come visit.  I also enjoyed my new found freedom of not having to write sub plans in order to take a vacation day!  

Running on a little faith and prayer that Rylee Girl would enjoy spending so much time in her carseat, we planned a trip to sunny California for the end of August.  After an early departure at 4 o'clock in the morning, we made our way to our first stop to St. George and then onto Vegas to visit with some Kussee family members and let Rylee Girl out to stretch and eat after sleeping for 6 hours in the car- score one for leaving early!

^ ^ ^ mornings are so not my thing ^ ^ ^

^ ^ ^ sleeping baby ^ ^ ^

After calculating that we'd be a tidbit early to San Diego before the Romrell's were off work, we decided to see some of the tourist stops on our way.  One of them was a national cemetery where we walked around and saw numerous gravesides of WWI, WWII, and other war veterans.  Then it was back in the car and onto our last stop!

 ^ ^ ^ first family road trip picture! ^ ^ ^

^ ^ ^ what a grump ^ ^ ^

After just one baby meltdown, a half-eaten bag of licorice, and 12 chapters into listening to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, we heard the faithful GPS on Tyler's phone announce that we had "arrived at our destination."

Suffice it to say, I was quite happy to see Danie and Dustin.  Rylee was pretty stoked to finally meet Aunt "Nanie" and Uncle Dustin while we chowed down on pizza.  Then Dustin surprised us with the offer to go flying with him- an offer we just couldn't turn down.  We kissed Rylee Girl goodbye, left her in Danie's good care, and headed to the airport to ride in a little four-seater plane.  

Before takeoff, Dustin showed us all of the pre-flight checks and quizzed us on the airplane body and parts.  Then we hopped in and got ready for takeoff!  No matter what plane we go on, I always detest take-off.  I'd much rather feel like I weigh more than that I weigh less.  Once we were in the air, we flew up the coast over the San Diego temple and looked down across the bright city lights.  A pretty dang cool way to check out San Diego.  

 ^ ^ attractive man alert ^ ^ 

 ^ ^ ^ first timer excited for her first small plan ride ^ ^ ^ 

 ^ ^ view over San Diego ^ ^

After a safe landing we went home and hit the sack.

We spent the next morning at Coronado beach and introducing Rylee to the beach for the first time!  The seagulls also attacked our unopened bag of Bugels.  Word to the wise- don't trust those darn birds around any food.  Opened or otherwise.

Rylee Girl had the time of her L-I-F-E at the beach!  She loved the feel of the sand and kept getting her father's analytical face on trying to figure out what it was!  Surprisingly enough, she loved the cold Pacific ocean on her feet and would dig her toes into the cold sand when the water rushed up over her toes.  She looked legit in her little sun hat, onesie tank, and flip flops.  She just about killed us with how cute she looked.

Dustin took the pair of us out boogie boarding where I finally tried my hand at it and we got pretty good riding the waves up onto the beach.  It makes me wish we lived a little closer...

 ^ ^ figuring out the sand on her toes ^ ^

^ ^ Mama and Ry-Ry ^ ^

 ^ ^ Danie and Ry-Ry ^ ^

 ^ ^ Aunt Nanie!! ^ ^

 ^ ^ pure joy ^ ^

 ^ ^ family beach picture ^ ^

 ^ ^ first feel of the ocean surf and wet sand! ^ ^

 ^ ^ burying feet in the sand ^ ^

 ^ ^ baby toes ^ ^

^ ^ squishy kisses ^ ^

 ^ ^ baby flip flops ^ ^

^ ^ Mama and Ry-Ry ^ ^

After a full morning at the beach, we grabbed some quick showers and headed to see a lighthouse and grab some burgers in the city and watch the sunset over the ocean.

 ^ ^ looking up into the lighthouse ^ ^

^ ^ baby snuggles ^ ^

^ ^ some statue of a spanish guy who opened up the trade something-or-other and helped establish San Diego ^ ^

 ^ ^ poking at things with straws in the tide pools and trying to catch a crab ^ ^

^ ^ the crab we never caught... ^ ^

Then it was back to the house for Danie's traveling baby shower!  Since she couldn't come to a baby shower in Utah, we brought the baby shower to her!  Thanks to a lot of friends that made it successful and got them off to a small start on getting some of the fun things for a baby!

Sunday was spent eating good food, catching up and talking, and trying to pay attention during church while their body-building-organ-playing-bishop talked.  After a movie, we said our goodbyes and snoozed until leaving the next morning to head back to Utah...

 

^ ^ Daddy dressed little Batgirl for bed after we said goodbye ^ ^