Christmas

Rylee's Christmas dress was from her cousin Lili. We went through her old clothes and found this. I'm glad Lili was the first grandbaby and that Kim kept all her clothes so Rylee can have cute stuff.

She is such a ham these days. Sticking her tongue is normal around here.

BJ had Rylee help him decorate the tree. She loved it! 

She played with  tree almost everyday. She broke one of the ornaments by accident but that was my fault since I have her a wooden one to play with and it flew out of her hand on accident.

Christmas Eve we went sledding. She didn't mind as long as someone was pulling her while the other sled down the hill. We had a lot of fun. There was hardly any snow but it was perfect for sledding. We then rented Cars 2 and Super 8 to watch that night.

Christmas morning was fun. Rylee loves grabbing everything so we just put her gift in front of her and she grabbed it and once we got it open she played with each thing before she opened the next gift. She loved the boxes too. I love how she learns so quickly. Kerri sent her a train that you push a button and balls go around inside. It took her less than a day to figure out how to push the button to make the balls go around. At first they went to fast for her to grab but she figured out all she had to do was push it over and they would roll out. I love watching her play with it. 

We had fun opening presents from our family. BJ got his gift early which was shot gun and .22 bullets. I got my steam mop and have been loving it! Aunt Marsha gave us money for an exersaucer and with some money we got from my parents we went for the jumping one. She loves to jump and she figured out how to turn around and play with each toy. Whenever she jumps it plays music. She loves it! 

For Christmas Eve we wanted hamburgers so we went and got a camping grill. We made Cheeseburgers on  ciabatta bread with Henry Whinehart Rootbeer. I'm pretty sure we will do this every year!!! 

Christmas day we went to Church which was amazing! We had our own concert with french horns, violins, cello, oboes, piano, with amazing singers. I was so impressed! We came home and had lasagna with Matt and Camelle (who by the way are having a girl!!!!! and Marie is having a boy and and girl!). We had a lot of fun and enjoyed our time as a family. We hope we can make it down to Phoenix next year since we wont get to be there this summer. 

I wanted to take pictures out in the snow but there wasn't really very much. It hasn't snowed in awhile and right now there is non to be found at all. 

Biggest Winner

Chase (Trainer), Natalia, Mary, Me, Elizabeth, Angela (Trainer) not pictured Hannah

The Biggest Winner team that WON! 

After a semester of working out and having many ups and downs I lost 10 pounds. Everyone asked me if I felt stronger and better during my work outs and all I could say was no. I guess the program was different for me. Most of the people have taken a life time of not working out and being unhealthy that this program changed their life. Me, I just had 9 months of growing a baby and am not close to being back to my active healthy lifestyle. This program was a great jump start but it didn't change my life. I wish I would have realized this half way through. I had many many many complaints about the program and ways it wasn't working for me. After the closing ceremony and listening to a girl go on and on about finally getting healthy and feeling good about herself for the first time, I realized oh that was the point of this. For example, she was over the moon excited that she could run a mile in 11 minutes and I was super depressed that I ran my 5k with 10 minute miles. The point of this program wasn't shed as many pounds as you can and work out as hard as you can. It was learning to be happy with your body and to see that you can do hard things. Even though I was far above everyone in the workout sense and wished for better work outs and more weight lose, I had a good time. 

Our team some how won the whole thing. Mary, my teammate, also lost 22 pounds and 3% body fat! We got a backpack, a single serve blender, and a water bottle. I gave mine to Chase my trainer since they were one short. But I did get a shirt and that is by far better than anything. I love getting shirts!!

Overall I made great friends and I'm working on getting back to pre pregnant Krystal. I'm getting there and it is fun to see results! 

Thanksgiving

Rylee loved her uncle "cookie" (garrett tried to get me to name her cookie and when i didn't he became her uncle cookie. My sister kim has her kids call him bubba and kerri has her kids call him nacho. It confusing but he loves it) 

Jessica's boyfriend justin joined us this year. 

My favorite part is when we go around and say what we are thankful for. It always starts out funny then gets cheesy then really touching. I love it! I look forward to it every year. This year we did it a day late so BJ and I could join them and it wasn't our normal game filled pool diving day. I liked it though. We all were together and enjoying our time but didn't have the pressure to make it THANKGIVING cuz it wasn't but was for us.

Of course we sang happy birthday to Garrett and ate chocolate cake.

This year we went Black Friday shopping. BJ got money to buy new jeans and he had some left over money so of course the princess got a toy with it. Grandma had some blocks and Rylee loved pushing them over so we got her some blocks to play with. 

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday with family. Well other than the 4th of July. I'm thankful I have amazing family who love us and we always have fun. 

I am also thankful for my little family. I am super blessed to have my husband and daughter and couldn't ask for a better family!

Balls family reunion day 1

We had a family birthday party for BJ, Rachel, and Caleb. Rylee got her first taste of cousin time! She got pushed over for the first time and cried. I thought it was awesome! It is baby boom time in the Balls family. I love it! 

The Balls family reunion started today. A couple of families made it and we were getting the rules told to us. As i looked around the room and told BJ that this wasn't even close to the number that was going to be there ( close to 70) and it probably was more then my entire family including both sides. This is just one side and not everyone (even close) is going to make it. I love that I married into a large family. I had no idea what it was like. My family is super tiny compared to his. I got to experience the Quigely side last summer now the Balls. I only know about .25% of their names but it is so much fun!

Cousin time

Livvy is 1 month older than rylee. She crawls Rylee sits.

Rylee tried getting on her terms. She wasn't impressed

They love looking at each other and talking. It makes me so happy that she has a cousin her age! Plus many more close to her

We had Josh ( a second cousin) get his mission call so we all gathered to open it.

He just read Pennsylvania. He wasn't very excited until he read he was leaving Jan 18 then they all broke and looked up everything about PA! It was so fun to be apart of this! My favorite quote from the newest missionary, " I was starving but now I can't eat!!!!"

Day 1 down 2 more to go!

Prescott

First time in a high chair and she loved it!!

I love you from my head to the tips of my toes!

She loved playing with Grandma and Grandpa. 

When I went to get a picture with grandma Rylee threw up on grandma's face. i was laughing to hard to get the picture. We love you grandma!

We met up with the Listers at the mall and Rylee snuggled up to uncle kevin. She was in heaven while in his arms. Too cute!!

6 month birthday

Today Rylee is 6 months old.

I love this face!

I let her have the time of her life with her banana. She pretty much ate the entire thing and sat in her high chair for a good hour. I love watching her do new things!!

Happy Birthday

Happy 25th Birthday to the greatest Daddy a girl could ever ask for!

6 months

Next week my not so little baby turns 6 months old! I for one love watching her grow up and seeing all the new stuff she can do each day.

I wish I had a recent picture to post but my camera is dead and has been dead for awhile now.

We are coming down to AZ next week for thanksgiving so my camera will be up and running again so I can take lots of pictures.

Rylee is so much fun! She has mastered sitting up by herself which makes my life so much easier! I don't want this phase to end!! Sacrament is now super easy! First time I have taken it without having a very sad baby and wishing it would go faster. She just sits on the floors and plays. SO NICE! I also get to sleep longer in the mornings. I bring her to our bed and sit her with a toy between me and BJ and she will play for a good 30 minutes while we sleep. I also can do both my hair and make-up while she plays with a toy!!

She has developed a whinny noise now. I try not to tend to her when she makes it so I'm hoping it passes real soon. It drives me nuts! She also has a little cough but she like the sound so she fake coughs 3-5 times after a real cough. I never know which one is real or fake unless I see her smiling while she coughs.

She is now getting clingy to me. (its a secret but I really do love it!!!) She spends a hour or so with her daddy every night so I can go work out and is always super happy when I come home. If she could have it her way both of us would be home all day with her. She is way happier when we are both home.

Rylee now loves the mirror. At first the mirror scared her and she would always cry when we put her in front of it. Now I have brought my mirror downstairs and she makes it goobery every day.

This week Rylee learned how to give kisses! It melts my heart!!! She now gives herself kisses and daddy. I'm not so much a fan of how wet they are so I just stick to kissing her.

She has mastered the Johnny Jumper. She gets some good air in it too. She loves it but not for very long.

She now hates her car seat. I use food and her juice cup to get her into the car without too much crying.

She still loves food. Bananas are great. She loves butternut squish. I made a ton and froze it and she is already two bags into my stash. She likes applesauce so her and daddy eat it together (YUCK!). Yum-Yum rice rusks are still a  big hit. She will grab anything off my place and eat it if I let her. She sucked on broccoli today and loved it. She likes baby oatmeal I'm just not great at always making it. Apple juice in her training sippy cup is always a hit as well as prune juice. Ritz crackers are favs but we are thinking those cause constipation so we are stopping them. She like the rod pretzels and bread. She hates when she gets a big chunk and I have to fish it out of her mouth.

She still isn't interested in being on her tummy but she doesn't mind being on her back if she has a toy.

She is still my happy lovable baby! We are super blessed to have her in our family. Even with the once a week where she wont sleep for more then 2 hours at a time is worth it because she sleeps 9-10 hours the rest of the week. She always has us laughing at her many facial expression, babbling noises, and getting into everything even if she isn't mobile.

bath time

Rylee was never a fan of taking baths. She loved showers though. If she was upset a shower always calmed her down. She is getting super wiggly and wanting to grab everything. Showers with the husband and baby have just gotten too hard. I finally filled the tub and grabbed the toy off the swing we no longer use and put her in the tub. At first she wasn't sure but the toy was too cool to pass up. She stayed in there until the water got cold. I was very surprised. She is getting so big. She only fell over once too. I love my baby girl!

Videos

We take lots of video of our Little Miss Rylee and I never post them so here are a bunch.

ENJOY!

BJ loves making her chops move. Now she knows to start making noise when he does it and it makes us giggle!

She loves sitting up. Notice she even can catch herself when she starts to fall. As long as she doesn't have a toy she is pro and staying up right now.

Just Dance 3. Enough said!

I love that she copies everything BJ does. He taught her to scrunch her nose. She is such a ham!

Some pictures I never posted

She thought snow was pretty cool

She isn't a fan of stuffed animals that don't make noise but I try.

BJ put his sweat band on her and man she is cute!

The listers sent her this cute outfit! I loooove it!

Hallowwen

We started off our celebrations by carving pumpkins. Rylee wasn't sure about that but once she got her hands on the guts she was happy. We now try to do fun things but they are a lot harder to do. Keeping knifes away from a grabby baby who has to be right in the middle of things was tough. I think I yelled at everyone to be careful at least 3 times.

Cody carved a goat. He was super proud of himself. He loves goats. They want to own a goat farm someday. I also am looking for a stuffed goat toy for their baby Crue when he is born. If you see any let me know!!

NaElle did Jack from a Nightmare before Christmas (I still have yet to see that movie).

Rylee like hanging with NaElle and sitting in her camping chair.

I was excited to take a picture of her in my pumpkin. The bush behind her is my favorite. It is super bright red for about a month. I love coming home and seeing how pretty it is. Fall up here is so pretty with so many different colors that changing every 2 weeks. I love it!

BJ is the far left. He was so proud that he did a real pumpkin for the first time.

I threw this is to show that Rylee really does love our green cups. She knows what they are and how to drink out of it. BJ gives her a small sip every dinner and now we hand one to her and she tries to drink from it. It's amazing how fast she catches on to things.

The Stinnetts invited us to a party and said to bring a treat. Pinterest is killing with all the great ideas on there. I have always wanted to make a trifle and NaElle had this big trifle bowl so I borrowed it and made a Peanut Butter cup Brownie Trifle. SO YUM! I had a total of 4 bites (I lost 4 pound that week and wasn't about to waste it on one thing!) I just had fun making it!

Rylee was a ball this year. My mom is amazing and makes all her grandkids' costumes. Notice her socks?! They have monster toes on them and they were a huge hit! BJ said if he had a pair he would wear them every single day. Everyone made a comment about them. They don't really have anything to do with being a ball but we had to put them on her. Friday- Monday she had some type of Halloween attire on. I love having a baby to dress up!

We played JUST DANCE 3 and it is my new favorite game. Get ready to dance family because Thanksgiving we are playing this game! It was made for the Lister, Nys, Hebner, Balls clan!!!

The basketball team with their ball!

Cutest ball I've ever seen! I even did my own corn rows since I was a baller!

Daddy pretending to shoot hoops

She loved it!

Our complex did their own Trunk and treat with chilli and hot coco. It was in the low 40's out so my mom's smart costume with pants, long sleeves, and a head cover made Rylee nice and toasty and she enjoyed watching all the kids the whole time.

I am trying very hard to work out and lose all that baby weight and am down 5 pounds. Halloween always gets me off my goal so this year I said no candy! Where we live all the kids are between the ages of in the belly to 8 being the oldest. Average is 2-4. At that age they don't need a ton of candy and the parents get most of it anyways. So we went to the store and got party favors instead. We had a bowl of let the kids pick what toy they wanted. There were glasses with the big nose to whistles, rings, tops, jumping frogs and lots more. The parents all were amazed and were so excited they weren't getting more candy. The kids loved it! I was a little worried but it was all worth it when one kid said, " I get a toy?!! I LOVE toys!!! A top!?! YES!!!" They kids loved it and the parents were grateful. It kept candy out of my house too. I only had 3 pieces of candy this whole Halloween weekend, 1 cup of coco, 1 cupcake, and a few bites of my trifle. With working out each day! Most successfull Halloween I've ever had!

Rylee got to keep one of they toys and that was the highlight of her night!