Such a Merry Christmas!

We had such a wonderful Christmas this year! I still can't believe how great it was! Rya deserved an amazing Christmas more than anyone! We've struggled for awhile so we're very thankful that we were able to give our kids the Christmas they deserved!

Christmas Eve was very nice! We were invited to Kim's house. It was a nice afternoon of just hanging out with Garyn's family & Rya playing with her cousins. After lunch & some play time outside, it was present time! Hayden passed out in his high chair right after eating though. Rya was so precious! We asked her if she wanted to open presents & she kept saying 'Opey, opey!' She would sit down & wait patiently for someone to hand her a gift.

Hayden finally woke up & was very interested in everything being opened & all the excitment! He was so cute, kept grabbing things & laughing! Both Rya & Hayden got alot of great stuff from Grandma & Grandpa Holmes! Hayden needed clothes & he got a few great outfits. Rya loved her new baby dolls & giant coloring book. Rya had such a blast opening all her gifts! Time to open the biggest gift! Rya tore right into it with the help of Daddy. It was the Disney Princess quad. When she saw it, she jumped back & yelled "Bikey!!" It was so funny & precious! Hayden was very interested in his big gift. He got an amazing Baby Einstein saucer. Grandpa Greg put it together right away & Hayden loved it!

As soon as we got home, Rya wanted all her new toys opened so we set to work on that. Cleaning the house that evening was a chore! We let Rya open 1 gift before bed (another family tradition). Her gift that night was a new pair of PJ's we've been wanting to get her ever since she was born. They're adorable Alpinestars Ashley Fiolek PJ's. They looked so cute on Rya! As soon as Rya & Hayden were asleep, we set to work finishing wrapping gifts & putting everything under the tree. It looked great! Our babies are so spoiled!

We did our tradition of watching a Christmas movie with 3-way popcorn. We always watch 'White Christmas' which we own but it is in storage in WA. I went to Blockbuster to rent it, but they didn't have it so we got 'Nativity Story' instead. We didn't even make it through the entire movie. It's really tiring playing Santa. :)

We were so beyond excited for Christmas morning this year. Since Rya's 2 years old this year, she now knows what a present is & can open them herself & gets excited when she sees the gift. We didn't put any gifts under the tree before Christmas Eve night because we knew Rya wouldn't leave them alone & we didn't want her to open anything early. Garyn & I actually woke up before the kids. We waited about 45min but they were still sleeping! I went in & woke up Rya. She came out & as soon as she saw all the gifts, she got the biggest smile on her face! I remember my Dad once telling me that one of the best things about being a parent, is seeing your child's expression when they come out Christmas morning & see that Santa came. He was so right!

I wanted to change Rya's diaper & put her PJ pants back on then have her go through her stocking 1st & then open gifts. She had a different plan. She came out & right away opened the biggest gift! It was the Tinkerbell table & chair set from Mommy & Daddy. She had such a great time opening her gifts! By the time she was done, Hayden woke up. We helped him open his. While he couldn't open his gifts on his own, he was very interested in what he got! Our favorite gift for him this morning was the Lil Zoomers Spinning Sounds Speedway from my Dad.

Christmas afternoon was then filled with opening all their new toys again & cleaning up the house. Rya got 2 teasets for Christmas, 1 from Garyn's mom & stepdad & 1 from my Dad. So we got her table & chairs set up with the teasets so she could have a little tea party. I was busy with Hayden when I heard Garyn & Rya in her play room & I peak in & Garyn's having a tea party with Rya. It was so adorable! I've been waiting to see that ever since we found out we were having a baby girl back in June 2008!

Around 8pm we left to go do our newest family Christmas tradition. We started it last year & it's defintely going to stick! We go bowling on Christmas night! It's alot of fun! Rya was so good & had such a great time watching everyone & helping Mommy & Daddy for a few frames. Hayden was a perfect angel! He just chilled in his carseat the entire time, watching the lights & laughing at Mommy & Daddy.

We has such a wonderful Christmas! I still can't believe how great it was! I'm so beyond happy that Hayden's 1st Christmas went so well & even happier that Rya had such a spectacular Christmas. This holiday was very hard for us last year so it was extra important that we make it up this year. Hopefully Christmas 2009 will be the last tough Christmas we ever have to go through! We got to spend some time with Garyn's family. Rya always loves seeing them & playing with her cousins. She even says 'Mason' now! Hayden was showered with love. They got some awesome gifts - lots of new toys & clothes! While Garyn & I didn't get much for each other alot this year (it was all about Rya & Hayden) we did get a few small gifts for each other & adore them! We were very happy that we were finally able to afford gifts for everyone else as well! While we both dislike the 70 degree weather on Christmas & I really miss having a cold & rainy Christmas, nothing could have ruined Christmas this year! I really wish my family could have come down for the holiday for a few reasons 1) Hayden's 1st Christmas & 2) I haven't spent a Christmas with my family since 2007. There's always next year! We are so very thankful for such a wonderful Christmas & hope this is the start to things going right for us!

Hayden's 1st Christmas Tree

We went out on Sunday & got our Christmas tree. It's our tradition to get it on the 15th or close to it but had some issues because of our stupid car! Can't wait to get a new one! We went down to this tree lot & found a nice 6' tree for a great price. The tree is even from Oregon! As if we didn't miss home enough, now we have a tree from the PNW sitting in our family room.

We had to run to Target & get lights & ornaments. We have all we need to decorate a tree but it's all in storage in WA. We got the tree home & in the stand. I started putting lights on & realized I didn't have enough! I really didn't feel like going back to Target again. Thankfully, our neighbor buys lights the day after Christmas so he had ALOT & just gave me some extra. We always make decorating the tree a family event. Hayden was watching in his swing, Rya was just underfoot & laughing but we were able to get most of it done that night.

We change the color scheme of the ornaments every year. It was something my Mom started doing & we prefer it over a bunch of ornaments that don't match. This year, we chose silver, gold & blue. The blue is in honor of Hayden's 1st Christmas. (Christmas of 2008, we did silver & purple. The purple was in honor of Rya's 1st Christmas). I can never have just ornaments on the tree so I bought some silver tinsel too. I love the extra glitter that it adds. It actually took 2 days to complete the entire tree because Rya was so curious.

I love the tree topper! I have a gorgeous angel tree topper that my grandmother gave me years ago. The angel has been the top since our 1st Christmas in 2007, but she is in storage. We found this star topper at Big Lots for $5! The center blinks & it's so pretty!

I'm so excited for Christmas this year! We've had such a tough year & I'm so happy the kids are going to have an amazing Christmas! I love this entire month! The Christmas music, decorations, baking & so many more things. My favorite thing is all our family traditions. Almost all of them I got from my Mom & carried on into my family. We've also added some new ones of our own over the 3 1/2 years we've been married. We have cinnamon rolls for breakfast on Christmas morning & bowling on Christmas night. I'm excited for Christmas Eve so we can do my favorite tradition - watch White Christmas with a tin of 3 way popcorn. I'm also excited because we started something new & it's really starting this year. Ever since Rya was born, we've bought her a new ornament each Christmas, now her new ornament will be in her stocking. I love this & hope Rya will cherish all these ornaments. We'll do the same thing for Hayden starting next year. This year we buy him a Baby's 1st Christmas ornament. I'm really upset because I can't really find any. We've got more Christmas shopping to do so hopefully I'll find his ornament then!

4 DAYS TILL CHRISTMAS!!

Thanksgiving & Black Friday

Hayden's 1st Thanksgiving was very nice & quiet. It was just our little family so we just enjoyed a quiet day & had dinner. We were invited to have dinner with some friends which wasn't until later in the evening so we did go join them for awhile. Rya wanted to go home shortly after we arrived so I took the kids home. Garyn came home & enjoyed dessert with me. My peanut butter chocolate pies were amazing!! I'm so proud of myself! We also took one to our friend's place. They also said it was delicious! We finished the day with family time at home, watching movies & munching on leftovers. Hayden's 1st Thanksgiving was also his 6month mark. Our little man is now 6months old!

We decided to go shopping on Black Friday this year. We really enjoy doing it but we've only been able to go once back in 2007. We were supposed to have someone come over on Thursday evening & spend the night so Garyn & I could get up at 4am & go shopping & not have to worry about waking up the kids. That person cancelled on us. We still decided we'd go so we woke up at 3:45am but changed our minds because it was really cold outside & the kids were sleeping so good. Rya woke up on her own at 4:00am & Hayden shortly after so we decided to go anyway. I got both kids bundled up very warm & Garyn went out to start the car. We went to Target 1st. It wasn't as crowded as I thought it'd be. We got a great parking spot & both kids were in a great mood! At Target we found a hair dryer for me, a shave set for Garyn, an awesome picture frame set & an adorable beanie for Rya! The sales were pretty good! Walmart was next on our stop list. There we got Mermaid Barbie Doll & Tinkerbell table & chairs set for Rya for Christmas & a few other little things. Time to run home & change the kids & drop off a few things. We headed back out & got Dunkin Donuts. Then we went out to Toys R Us. Their sales were terrible! We did find some great outfits for Hayden on clearance. We went to get in line but when we got up to the front, there was an employee directing people who wanted to check, we'd have to go all the way around the store (which wouldn't have been easy) so we decided that it wasn't worth it, put everything back & left. We heard that 2 of the bike shops in town were going to have some good sales so we went to both of those but they weren't having any sales. We decided that our Black Friday shopping trip was a huge success & time to go home. Rya & Hayden did great on their 1st Black Friday! They'll have to keep up with Mommy & Daddy! We knew Rya & Hayden would sleep well tonight & they did!

God's Blessing of Baptism

Today was a special day as Hayden was baptized into the Lord. I've been wanting to do this since he was born but have been having a hard time finding a church that I like. I'm really spoiled since I loved Christ the King & have gone there for about 12years. I finally found a great church & today was the day that Hayden was baptized.

It was even more special that my Dad was here. That meant alot to Garyn & I. We usually go to the 11am service but I wanted to make sure that there was plenty of time for my Dad to come so we scheduled Hayden's baptism for the 8:30am service. I had to wake the kids up at 7:30am which is about 2hours earlier than they usually get up. Hayden was actually really happy but Rya was very cranky. I got them both dressed - Rya in an adorable purple outfit my Dad got her for Christmas last year & Hayden in his special baptism outfit that my wonderful Dad, Stepmom & Grandma bought for him. On our way to church now & Rya's so very tired.

Rya wasn't sitting still when the service started but all we wanted was for her to stay there until the baptism was over. Luckily the Pastor did the baptism early in the service. We were all invited to the front for this special event! I was very happy that the Pastor allowed my Dad to take a picture of Hayden being baptized. We have a great picture of Rya being baptized & I like Rya & Hayden having alot of the same things & what a fantastic way to really remember the day with the pefect picture!

Unfortunatly, after his baptism, Garyn had to take Rya out of church since she was so tired & cranky. I followed shortly after with Hayden. We were able to watch the rest of the service in the narthex though. I was very please with how many people congratulated us on our son's baptism. That was very special for many reasons but especially because we haven't been going to that church very long & no one at the 8:30am service knows us. We were able to get some pictures afterwards as well. I love to scrapbook so I need pictures of anything & everything!!

This was such a special day & I'm so happy my Dad got to share it with me!

*A child is a precious gift from God & baptism is God's gift wrapping*

 

2nd Celebration

We got another day to celebrate the birth of our beautiful little girl! I think everyday on how blessed we are to have not 1 but 2 amazing little miracles! It still seems like just yesterday we were bringing Rya home for the 1st time & now here we are - at a party to celebrate her 2nd birthday!

I've been planning this party for at least a month. We had alot of last minute errands to run & my wonderful Dad helped us out with that. My Dad brought Rya, Hayden & I to the park to start setting up. The theme was Tinkerbell so I found a great Happy Birthday banner & tablecloth along with some purple & green streamers & we had some really cute decorations!


I'm really happy with the turn out. We had about 15 people there including my Dad, Garyn's mom, stepdad, 2 nephews & niece. We had a great BBQ, the weather was perfect & all the kids were really good!

 

Rya started getting fussy after the BBQ was over so we quickly moved on to cake. Her cake was beyond amazing! I still can't believe how beautiful it turned out. I think it's so funny how all out we (as parents) go for a 2 year olds birthday. The cake was delicious but everyone there would have liked to have had some cake with their frosting. Rya was so adorable when everyone sang 'Happy Birthday' to her. She had the cutest smile on her face! It was so precious. I still can't believe how gorgeous she is!



Even though we just ate cake, Rya was ready to go still so we wasted no time & it was present time! She got some great gifts! Mommy & Daddy got her an adorable Disney Princess chair & Tinkerbell coloring book. She got a great baby doll set (high chair, swing, car seat & stroller all in 1) from Garyn's Mom & Stepdad. Garyn's sister gave Rya a great dress up set. My Dad & Stepmom got her a great book, an awesome Hurley sweatsuit & a Cabbage Patch Kid (I was really excited about that since I had 1 when I was little). She along got the pink Mega Block set from some friends & a stuffed animal. All that along with everything she got on her actual birthday, she made out this year!



Time to go home. Rya had a great time! She was so cute & knew that this party was especially for her! This day was so special to Garyn & I as well. We've been through alot since March 2009. Sadly her 1st birthday is actually something that I wish I could forget only because we weren't able to do much for her. Her 2nd birthday was everything I'd hoped it would be! She had an amazing time, we had a great turn out (thank you so much to everyone who came!) & everytime I think about her little face & her laughing & smiling at the party, I cry. It was truly exactly what I wanted! I cried even more when we got home. I cleaned up everything & put away all her new toys & put together her baby doll set. She put her baby in her new stroller & was running around the house, laughing while pushing the stroller. Then she decided she wanted to play with her dress up set so I put everything on her. She's such a little girl! She was having so much fun with her dress up jewelry on! It's just what I wanted! My baby girl to have a great party & great day!

Celebrating our Daughter's Birth

Yesterday our sweet baby girl turned 2 years old. I couldn't help but remember back to the day she was born. After 2 false trips to the hospital, 28hours of labor & 45min of pushing, our miracle little girl arrived. She was so gorgeous! I can't believe she's 2 years old now! It seems like just yesterday we were taking her home for the 1st time!

Garyn had to work yesterday but Rya did wake up as he was getting dressed so he was able to wish her a Happy Birthday. When we got up at 9am I made Rya some biscuits with peanut butter for breakfast & let her play outside all morning. She came in for some lunch & we played till naptime. She fell asleep about 15min before Garyn got home & slept until almost 6pm. Time to get ready for some fun! We let her open a few gifts before we left.

We took her to Amazing Jake's for some pizza & games. She was so good during dinner. After dinner it was present time! I love it that she actually opened her gifts! Mommy & Daddy got her a new baby doll, a Disney Princess indoor tent & PJ's. She got some adorable clothes & 1st Bible Stories book from my Grandma. That's just what she opened at the restaurant.

Cake time! I baked a red velvet cake for her & frosted it with vanilla frosting. Garyn decorated it. We had to improvise since we didn't have the right tools to do a great job. But it still turned out cute & was delicious! We did sing Happy Birthday to Rya at the restaurant. She tried to blow out her candle.

After all that, Rya was so anxious to go look at all the awesome games & lights! We thought she'd enjoy going on a few of the rides. I took her on the Merry-go-Round 1st. She really liked just sitting on the horse but once it started going she had the scared look on her face. That then turned into crying & calling for Daddy. We thought we'd try one more ride so I took her on the teacups. The ride didn't even start before she started crying. No more rides after that. Guess it'll be awhile before we take her to Disneyland.

She didn't like the rides but loved the games! Basketball with Mommy & Daddy & a car ride with Daddy. We played some games to get her some tickets. Since it was her birthday, she got 200 tickets for free then we added a few to it also. She got a few little prizes but we saved most of her tickets because we know we'll go back again someday.

She was so good when it was time to go home. Just followed Garyn out the door. Hayden was great the entire time! Just chilled in his stroller & even fell asleep. Once home, she had a few more gifts to open including an adorable pair of DC shoes Garyn picked out for her. They fit great & are so cute!

Rya had such a great birthday! She gave me a hug & said thank you at the restaurant & it made me cry! I wanted her special day to be great & it was everything I was hoping it would be! She's such an incredible little girl & we are truly blessed to have her in our lives! We love her so much & can't wait to celebrate even more birthdays. My little girl is growing up so fast!

I miss her being a baby! At least we have baby Hayden! Rya's such an amazing toddler! I love you so much, Rya Michele!

Halloween was so Fun!

I said I was going to start blogging & this is only the 2nd one I've done. Still just trying to get the hang of it. As a stay at home, I actually have alot of time on my hands so why not do a blog?

Yesterday was Rya's 2nd Halloween & Hayden's 1st. I'm so happy we were able to do something. Thinking about last year & comparing it to last night, we are doing so much better now than we were in 2009.

I couldn't decide what costume to get Rya. I went to several different Targets & Walmarts looking for a costume. Every Walmart I went to didn't have ANY 24month costumes. Target's selection was very small. We went to Party City & found her this adorable Fairy costume. It was the last one left & an 18month size but fit great! I wanted to get her a warm costume but none of them were very cute so I gave in & bought the fairy costume. It was actually pretty warm last night. I was so happy she was able to wear her costume & show it off & not be cold! Getting her dressed wasn't very easy. The white tights were a pain to get on her. Then the slippers weren't really going over her shoes & the headband (my favorite part of the costume) kept slipping off. We made everything work & she looked so adorable!!

Hayden was such a good boy for his 1st Halloween. I bought him a long sleeved onesie to wear while we were out but then I thought he'd be too cold so I bought him some PJ's which I didn't put on him until we got home since it really wasn't that cold outside. He was so good!

We ended up leaving the house to go take Rya to this Trunk or Treat event at the church we've been going to. She had so much fun! She kept grabbing more than 1 candy at every station. It was really funny! Everyone kept saying how adorable she was! Hayden was so good. He just relaxed in his stroller. After that we met Garyn's mom at her house & headed over to this Harvest Festival. Rya played a few games & got some more candy. She was having so much fun!We didn't stay long since it was really crowded. It was a blast & we all had so much fun! Already looking forward to next year!

Rya's 2nd Birthday

I'm so beyond excited for Rya's 2nd birthday. So excited that it made me start a blog (I'll blog about other things too). I think I'm so excited because we weren't able to do anything for her 1st birthday. I just started a new job & we were staying with friends. So we're making sure to go over the top this year! I started planning it about 2 weeks ago. Her party will be the theme of Tinkerbell. I've already bought all the plates, napkins, cups, goody bags & streamers! I decided to get the cups, big plates, tablecloth & goody bags in the Tinkerbell design. The small plates, napkins & utensils are just a plain green. I'm also doing streamers & balloons in purple & green! Too cute!

We were at Walmart yesterday & I found the cake! I was originally going to make cupcakes myself but after seeing this cake - my daughter had to have it for her birthday party! I haven't ordered it yet since her party isn't until November 20th but I am planning on calling the bakery tomorrow to find out how early I can place the order!

As I'm typing this blog, I'm realizing that I'm almost done with planning her party. We've already gone shopping for her but there are a few more things we want to get for her including her big gift. All I have left is to make the goody bags, buy more utensils & order the cake. Everything else will be done the morning of the party (decorate, get balloons, pick up food & set up). The next thing I have to do is send out the invitations which I'm doing on Thursday!

I'm not sure yet how many people will be there since I haven't sent out the invitations yet but I did send out a Facebook event invitation. As of right now, I'm guessing around 15 people. I think that'll probably be about it. That's a good sized party though!

I'm so excited for my little girl's 2nd birthday! 36 days until she's 2 years old & 46 days until her party!!