Five

Today, my Rylee turned five years old. I don't know if it is the pregnancy hormones, or if I am always like this on every birthday for my kids', but I struggled a little. I teared up a lot throughout the day. How is she getting so big? I love the age she is at right now! I would love to keep her there forever!!!

Rylee will always be my baby girl, even if she is already mentioning things like makeup and boys and trying to grow up so fast! She is such a sweetheart and even though she does have quite a temper, she would do anything to make others happy. She is a total daddy's girl and has promised him for quite awhile that she was NOT going to turn five, but stay four forever. If only we could be so lucky... Five came and she changed her mind. She really wants to get bigger and go to school.

I just finished frosting her cake for her party tomorrow and don't have the time or energy to upload pictures of her and her special day right now, so I will save that for later. I just wanted to jot down a few moments from her day! And something about Rylee that I love - She sat down and drew a design of her cake with just the colors and the way she wanted it. She knows what she wants and she is very particular about things like that.

Last night, Logan came home kind of late from the Aggie game. When Darren went up to make sure he was getting into bed, he was in Rylee's room. When Darren asked what he was doing, Logan explained that he wanted to give Rylee one last 4 year old hug. Is that not the sweetest thing you have ever heard? I love that boy and I love how much they love each other. Luckily, Rylee was up early enough this morning that she wasn't officially five yet, (she was born at 7:39 am and they were up a little before that....) so Logan was able to give her that hug when he woke up. When Darren told Rylee and me that story later in the day, we were just leaving to get our nails done. On the way, Rylee was pretty quiet in the backseat and then all of a sudden, she said, "I'm just thinking about Logan. He is just so sweet!"

Rylee came into our room at 3 am and asked me why there were balloons in her room. I told her it was for her birthday. She said, "Oh" and then went right back to bed. She also scared me pretty bad this morning! I was up alone making breakfast and went to the garage fridge for something and when I came back, she just popped around the corner and announced, "I'm Five!" She had the biggest grin!

Rylee was sick yesterday with a fever, but woke up all sweaty this morning and feeling much better. I told her that being all sweaty was good because her fever probably broke. Later, my sister called on the phone and asked about her birthday. She asked if she was feeling better and Rylee said, "Yeah, I broke my fever last night."

This morning, we had breakfast just as Rylee requested - Popeye Pancakes and fruit and apple juice. Rylee had very specific requests and knew just what she wanted! That is something I love about her. She is a girl who knows what she wants!

This morning, Rylee wanted to watch her new favorite show, Doc McStuffins, on the Disney channel and then we did a little craft to get ready for her party. She loves to make things and paint and had a great time helping me. Then, it was time to decide what to do for the day. She had a hard time deciding. She really wanted to go to the fun park, but couldn't think of a friend to go with because a lot were at preschool. She decided to go to McDonald's instead and play in the play place and she got a Little Pony in her Happy Meal, which she loved. She loved picking out her outfit, which was her birthday shirt, a pink tutu and some purple leggings and sparkly pink flip flops and she had to pick her rhinestone purple headband and a bracelet, too. She also was so excited to carry her sparkly pink purse. She is usually a great eater, but she only ate about 2 bites of hamburger. She told me it was "gross! It's all cold!" Can't blame her! She also had a special shirt to wear that said, "Happy Birthday to me!" and she loved when people asked her if it was her birthday. She seemed so surprised that they knew and then she liked to read her shirt to them. She is getting to be quite a good little reader and loves to show people how good she can read.

After lunch, Rylee and I went to get her nails painted with her cute friend, Madi, who she shares a birthday with. They were so cute at the salon. Rylee picked blue nail polish. She was a little shy. She was going to get her toes done, but I think it made her too nervous for some reason. She also did a little shopping with me. I love going shopping with Ry! She shops just like me. She has to look at EVERYTHING before she can decide! She picked several different things - a hat, a nightgown, some jewelry, but she ended up with some funky slippers that look like flip flops and she LOVES them! She was very proud of her purchase!

I ran a quick errand and Rylee stayed home with just dad. She later said the best part of her day was playing Daddy's ipad. I guess I didn't need to try so hard! She was also thrilled today when Daddy brought her flowers and balloons.

After my errands, we opened presents. Rylee loved all her gifts! For dinner, we went to Texas Roadhouse. They made a big fuss over it being her birthday and she loved every minute of it! The whole reason she wanted to go there was so that she could sit in the saddle. She got her own little ice cream and she made sure to share at least one bite with everyone.

We came home and had cake and ice cream. Rylee barely touched hers because she was full. She is good about that kind of thing and is probably one of the most sensible 5 year old eaters. She usually picks fruit over dessert. After cake, she opened a couple of toys and her and Logan played so cute together. They were playing with some Strawberry Shortcake dolls and going camping and surfing and there was some dating involved... (She also got a Flynn Rider doll...) I just love listening to them and their funny imaginations and watching them play. It made my night!

The best part of my whole day was when I was tucking Rylee into bed. She was so cute! I told her how happy I was that she was born 5 years ago and how special she was to our family and how happy we are to have her. She said, "I know why you love me so much, Mom. Because I think that everything is beautiful!" How cute! It is so true, too. Rylee will forever be my little Princess because she LOVES to be fancy and sees beauty everywhere. She is always picking up rocks or finding funny little treasures. She is kind and sweet and a little bit of a diva. We love her so much and are so glad that she is OURS! Even if she did have to go and turn FIVE!!!

She also is a BIG planner! We have quite the butterfly party planned for tomorrow. I hope it meets her expectations! I think she is already working on ideas for her party next year....

December

I think this is my last post to finish 2011!!! It took me about a month longer than I hoped, but it is done. I actually still have Disneyland, but that is going to be some serious work, so I am going to move ahead for now. It feels good to be ready to blog the current year.... 1/4 of the way through it....

December was a busy month with all of our Christmas festivities and family stuff going on. I just love it! I think most of the stuff I posted in seperate entries, so there isn't a whole lot left over....

Dec 4 - As soon as it is December, it is time to break out the Christmas outfits. And take some pictures. Ry loves posing!
Looking so sweet!
Cheese!!!
Avery's turn - This was just one of her Christmas outfits. That skirt was actually Rylee's. It was fun to get it out again.
Avery and her many faces...
She is into posing lately too. That is without any coaching. Wonder where she learned that from???
Silly face!
Logan HATES his picture taken so there aren't as many of him.
He is getting so handsome though! All 3 of my cuties!!!


Dec 14 - Uncle Jeff came up for an Aggie game and to hang out for a little while. The kids love playing with him and he is so good to play Princesses or Star Wars or whatever they are playing. We tried to get as much "Uncle Jeff time" as we could in December because we knew he was leaving on his mission soon.
Dec 17 - We went down to Salt Lake for our family Christmas party and it happened to fall on the same weekend as the Real Salt Lake open house. Darren decided to get season tickets this year, so he wanted to go find out some more information and thought it would be neat to tour the stadium. We got to see Leo the lion and drink LOTS of free hot chocolate and daddy found out lots and bought some tickets!
Avery watching "Santa Leo" She was fascinated by him, but a little nervous, too...Waving at Santa Leo

We also took the tour. We got to go right down on the field. Daddy was so happy!
We also got to go to the Locker room. Here is Logan by his favorite player's locker - Kyle Beckerman! Dec 21 - Logan's class Christmas party. I was in charge of the game or activity. We played the Driedel game with Hershey kisses. The kids seemed to have a great time! It is fun to go into his class and see how he interacts with all the other kids.
Dec 22 - We got a fun surprise this year! We always mail our letters to the North Pole, but we have never gotten a letter back. This year, Rylee did! It caused a little bit of sibling jealousy since no one else did, but it was pretty neat to hear back from the big man himself. Rylee was So thrilled! And...Logan was a little better for the rest of the month just in case he didn't get a letter because he was on the naughty list... It's really from the North Pole!!! Ry's letter
Dec 22- To celebrate a day off of school, we headed to Daddy's office for some cleanings. Logan did great and is STILL in the NO Cavities club! He got a cool soccer toothbrush, too.
This was Avery's very first visit. She really liked the waiting room...
She did pretty good for her cleaning. I think if we would have let her go first, she would have done better. Sadly, she did have a cavity, so I guess we will be making a return trip soon. All that candy and her sweet tooth do not help with the cavities! Mommy had her first cavity, too, so I guess we will have to suffer together!
Rylee did great and had no cavities! She picked a butterfly toothbrush. She also picked out her entire outfit for the day. She loves her accessories!
Dec 23 - On the way down for our sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa Boman's the night before Christmas Eve, we made a stop at the Willard Bay lights. It is so fun to drive through! It was really late and the line was SOOOO long, so we didn't do the wagon ride or Santa or anything. Just drove through. The kids loved finding some of their favorite characters and seeing SO many lights!
I think Avery enjoyed it the most! She was really into it!
Dec 30 - Logan thought Rylee's lip gloss was chapstick... Oops! Logan loves to have basketball games up in our toy room. On this day, it was the Miami Heat vs the Lakers. He has to set up the scoreboard, do player introductions and the Star Spangled banner and he does commentary on the whole game. It is hilarious! He can keep going for hours.
The girls decided to be his cheerleaders. It was too cute!
I love that she crosses her legs!
Dec 31 - Bath Buddies!!! When my 2 oldest were little, I always took tub pictures of them. Now, bathtime is more of another chore or item to mark off my list, so I don't take many pics. My girls LOVE the bath though and have so much fun together. Poor Logan is too big now and has to take his own baths, but these girls have a great time "swimming" and playing mermaids and singing in the tub together! I love it!

New Year's Eve

Dec 31 - We had a pretty low key New Year's Eve this year. We drove down to Uncle Brian's house in the afternoon and spent the day there. I think there was a game on that the guys wanted to watch and the kids spent the day playing with their cousins, which they loved! They were running around like crazy and had so much fun. Curt and Carla were able to be there, too, so Rylee was especially happy to play with Raegan and it was fun to see them one more time before they went back to Texas. We also ate LOTS of yummy food! We headed home around 9:30 or so and put the kids in bed and then Darren and I watched the ball drop on TV. Pretty exciting, right? I didn't do a great job of picture taking. The kids were all over the place! But, I did get a few pictures of the tea party they had. Lauren is so cute with the younger kids and was so nice to play with them and helped them set this all up. They loved it! Cute cousins (Avery, Raegan, Rylee and Lauren) They loved that they put REAL food and water in the tea party stuff and they liked Lauren's dressups. Logan spent most of his time playing with Spencer. They were having so much fun! But, he decided to check out the tea party for a little bit, too.