Christmas Fun

Long post about our fun Christmas break. We had a week of just hanging out before we left. BJ worked a few hours every day then found some car projects to keep him busy. Me, I laid on the couch while Rylee played. We left a day earlier then planned because I was not excited about all the driving. I also wanted to get my hair cut by BJ's cousin and still make it to BJ's grandma's party. We took the trip home in three days. First day to Pocatello and stayed the night. Then to Salt lake and stayed the night in Spanish Fork. Then to Las Vegas and stayed the night. Then we made it to Phoenix for Christmas Eve. We loved stopping and seeing family all along the way. Thankfully BJ has lots of family and they are all spread out and let us stay the night with them.

Rylee did great on the trip. Here she is with her pizza, watching Fox and the Hound (which we watched over and over and over countless times), and her caterpillar. 

When uploading pictures I realized I wasn't the best at taking pictures so many events are missing. Grandma's party and hanging out with cousins is missing mostly because I'm pretty sure I got food poisoning again and had it coming out all ends and extreme pain. I didn't eat for 2 days either so on top of being pregnant I just didn't have energy. 

We stayed with Liz and Jon and they showed us where some cool Christmas lights were. It was around this lake and they had floating Christmas trees. Rylee loved it! She was screaming CHRISTMAS TREES!!! LIGHTS! PREEETTTYY!!! She had a blast and I let her sit on my lap while we looked at them so it made them that much cooler. 

Then we made it home for my grandma's Christmas eve party. Rylee wasn't the best but as soon as I let her open presents she was a happy camper. She insisted on wearing her pj's she got over her clothes. She loved every gift she got. She got more then I thought she would. We didn't really tell anyone we were coming but she still plenty. I think the winner was the baby doll from grandma though. We lost her baby a few months ago and that has been the most played with toy that she got. She loved opening presents and even helped Jess and Brooke out with theirs too.

Wrapping the baby in the blanket is a must. Thankfully Granny let us use one of her dish towels so baby could be warm.

We spent the night at BJ's parents house. They have a rule that everyone has to stay downstairs until an appointed time and then everyone goes up youngest to oldest to see what Santa brought. In Krystal Christmas tradition I woke up at 2:30 am wide awake. I have no idea what the deal was.  I am Santa now and I didn't even do a stocking for Rylee and the gifts were already under the tree so there was nothing to see but I still was wide awake. Of course I got hungry so I went up and ate breakfast, Dad's poop on the platter. He put crack in it this year because that was all I had to eat in 2 days and I could not stop eating it! 

I waited until 3:30 to wake up my husband. He had gone to bed around 1:30 so he wasn't a fan but was still a great sport and got up. He had rented the dark knight rises so he turned it on for me and fell asleep on the couch. I watched the whole thing and around 6:30 Rylee woke up. She wanted to go upstairs sooo bad. Since I told everyone she doesn't get up until 8:30 that was the time we choose to go upstairs. It was torture for me! 

We finally made it upstairs and got to watch Sam, BJ's nephew, see his stocking. Michele was nice and put goldfish and a toothbrush out for Rylee. Both were a huge hit.

Rylee sat and looked at all the cool Pokemon Sam got in his stocking. She thought it was pretty cool.

Their tradition is to open one gift per person starting with youngest. I must say that was super hard keeping Rylee from opening all her gifts at once. She only had a few melt downs and she just didn't understand why there were gifts she couldn't open. BJ and I didn't open one gift this year but it was so worth it to watch her ripping into each one and it helped because she really got three turns instead of just one. 

We kept opening non toy presents and finally hit the jackpot but then she had to wait for Dad to put it together,

 I love watching my husband be a dad. He loves doing daddy duties.

Uncle Dan gave us a blanket and that is what saved the day. She played the rest of the time with that blanket. 

She wasn't too sure of the giraffe but still had fun pushing it. I'm sure she will ride it soon.

Christmas was great. I ate a ton of Honey baked ham. Rylee had fun running around. BJ worked on Dan's car. It was a fun relaxing day.

I told Rylee we would go to the park every day and play on the swings. This girl loves swings and slides. We only made it to the park once but it was the warmest day and she had a blast. 

I don't know if I have been away from Phoenix to long or if there are just more creepy people that live there but I was so paranoid the whole time I was there. I wouldn't let Rylee go more then 2 feet from me and anytime someone walked by I would tense up. Granted there were a lot of old men at the park and no one else so that could have been a big factor too. 

We went down to Tucson to see Rachel and her family. She has 2 little girls and Rylee is right in the middle of them. They did good playing together but the sharing of the babies was really hard. 

Rylee has lots of cousins her age. Livvy is only a month older. I love watching the two of them. Rylee shared one of her yogurts with her. They don't really play together yet but it will be fun for them to have someone their age every time we do family things.

Notice Rylee is naked yet again?! She didn't have clothes on most of the time we were in Phoenix. Everyone would comment that she was most likely cold and should put something on. I would try and and keep her dressed but she would just take everything off. If she can be naked in Rexburg then being naked in Phoenix was no big deal to her.

Bruce Senior turned 60 this year and Helen threw a surprise party for him. The whole family was there and some close friends. The boys took him shooting then got him home in time for the BBQ. 

I think he really was surprised. It was a great time with some great food!

We got to play outside a lot. Rylee loved it. We played in the sandbox and Rylee would pick oranges from the tree and peel them. She learned how to do it herself and refuses to let me peel them for her now.  The cuties are easy for her but she tried to do regular oranges too. We had fun with cousins playing ball and relaxing in the sunshine.

From left to Right we have Matt, Camille and their daughter Lilly, then Salo, Marie and their twins Jacob and Sophia, Jack and Rachel with their girls Audrey and Amelia, Helen and Bruce with Livvy who belongs to Jon and Liz with Caleb and Neeve, Dan and Michele and Sam, BJ, Me, Rylee, and Tom. We took one with his girlfriend Sarah but for some reason I can't download it from my phone. This next year we are adding 2 more babies, Liz is due in January and I'm due in August. 

Thats a total of 25 + 2! When I joined the family 2 1/2 years ago there was only 17!

We then headed up to Prescott Valley and play with Grandma Mia, GG, and Uncle Bubba. We walked in the door and saw a lady bug tent. It was a huge hit. Rylee loved it and still does!

I had my dad buy a rice krispy train set for us to decorate. I thought Rylee would love it. I opened the candy and all she did was eat the candy while BJ and I decorated. She had fun so I guess it was still a hit.

BJ got Monopoly at the white elephant game so we challenged Dad to a game. I don't know how he does it but I don't ever recall him ever losing a game that I have played with him. I thought for sure he was done for because he only had one Monopoly but he still won. I don't get it. Of course I got out first. 

One day we spent out shopping. Rylee was introduced to the merry go rounds at the mall.

She thought it was so cool that she was driving AND it was moving. She is really into "driving" right now. We let her have a turn in the drivers seat every time we have to drive a long distance so driving is really cool right now. 

Grandma Mia was nice enough to let Rylee make her hair pretty. Rylee was a big stink towards grandma this trip. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that she got 2 teeth while we were there. She nows asks "where grandma go" several times a day. She asks for GG too but not as much as grandma.

Misty met us at Papa's our last day. Rylee isn't too social but little Maddie is. They played babies together. They played with the cat toys. Looked for the cat together. Then they found the pantry and went shopping together. 

It was fun to see them actually playing together. Maddie is older then Rylee but I think they will have fun together at family events.

Of course on our way home we stopped in Vegas to see BJ's friend Brad. We went to his wedding reception in Utah before Christmas and stopped to have lunch to get to know his wife a little better. They are heading back out to BYU Hawaii for another year so we enjoyed getting to know his wife. Rylee had fun with the stickers too. 

The curse of living in a small town is you forget things like dealing with traffic. We met up with Brad right when rush hour was starting. I wasn't a fan of sitting in the car an extra 2 hours in traffic and still have 2-3 hours drive. So I sucked it up and we went to the strip. I truly hate Vegas but it helped up kill some time. Rylee only cared about seeing the people dressed up as Elmo and Mario. 

We made it as far as St. George that night and got a hotel room. It turned out to be really nice and had an amazing breakfast. I'm glad we stopped. We then drove all the way home and got to sleep in our own beds that following night. 

It is nice to be back home but I miss someone cooking and cleaning up after us! 

I had a blast this trip. Rylee got a molar and 2 K9's while down in AZ so she was a huge grump and not really herself. Plus we moved her around a lot and she had to be around lots of people. There were small points in time when she was herself and fun. It was a great time and we all enjoyed ourselves.