Christmas time.

Oh Christmas Tree!
Abby at her worst! (yes, that's really her...)

Sorry in advance for the long post...This post is pretty much just recapping what has been going on in the Rylander home for the past couple of weeks. And boy, has it been a lot. On the 1st, we had our ward Christmas party. I sent Richie out with Isaac beforehand to get a haircut. For some reason, our son has an absurd amount of hair and the 'fro just had to go. Since I planned on having a perfect picture with Santa at the party, I thought he needed the cut. Well you can see the picture...That is the closest Isaac got to Santa, Abby sat on his lap for 1.5 seconds and started screaming. Plus our lovely camera decided that it didn't want to use the flash for the picture. So oh well, no Santa picture this year, maybe next...The party was wonderful by the way.

The next day Abby woke up sick, probably as a result of our outing the morning before to cut our Christmas tree. I did not document that experience on purpose because I still get a headache just thinking about it (I'm sure all you moms out there can just imagine, but you can see the picture above...and I do have to admit I love our tree!)

So both her and I stayed home from church. The next day Abby was doing better but Isaac started running a high fever. He told us his "stomach hurt." I asked him to point to his stomach and he pointed to his throat. I then pointed to his stomach (the real one) and asked him what that was. He proceeded to tell me that was his "tummy." So I figured he was getting a cold or something. I then started to have the worst sore throat of my life, and Isaac's fever kept getting higher. After a doctor's visit it was concluded that it was not strep (luckily) but probably just a bad cold. After a few days Isaac was back to normal which wasn't so fun because I was still sick and still had to chase him around all day.

I FINALLY started to feel better that Thursday. On Friday morning we were all healthy. Hallelujah! I started to get excited for Christmas and could not wait to start our shopping the next day. But fate did not want me to shop...Abby woke up from her nap with a yellow gooey eye. So to the doctor it was. She was diagnosed with conjunctivitis (sp?) and the doc said that sometimes that was a telltale sign that a cold was on its way.

My poor Abby got the nastiest cold ever, which she then proceeded to oh so kindly pass on to me. Luckily mine only lasted a couple of days but Abby is still coughing up a lung today. She has been waking up at all times of the night and has just been miserable. Today is actually the first day that she seems a little more happy, maybe finally on her way to recovery.

On top of our nasty colds, Richie hurt his right shoulder somehow last weekend so for a couple of days he could only use his left arm. That meant no holding kids or changing diapers (oh so fun for me!). He is finally starting to feel better also, but we still have no idea what brought it on!

Well my friends, please don't expect a Christmas card from us this year. I apologize ahead of time. We cancelled 2 appointments to get our family picture taken. I'll see if I can manage to have someone take our pic this weekend and we'll post it at a later time. But anyway, no Christmas cards, I will try harder next year!

My mom is boarding a plane tomorrow morning to Portland to pick up the pieces (for all those worrying about my sanity). It had been planned for a while so she's not really coming just to fix everything, but it's a very nice coincidence.

I just wanted to add that while I was feeling sorry for myself this week I happened to turn on the TV and caught the end of Dateline or one of those news shows. This one was about a set of septuplets (yes that's 7 kids!) that had recently turned 10 years old. They were showing how far they have come since they were born. They had shown 5 of them so far and I was thinking to myself "How do those parents do it??" I mean I only have 2 kids, which feels like 4, but still, they are tons of work. So while I'm wondering how those parents are still alive and happy they show the last 2 kids. Both of which have cerebral palsy. One of them (a boy) had undergone several surgeries and was able to walk with some help. The other one (a girl) could not really walk. Her muscles were too weak to hold her body up, and although she could walk with a walker for a little while at a time, most of the time she was just so tired that she would just crawl to get to her destination. I then realized how blessed I really am. I have nothing to complain about. My life is so easy...Those parents have been given so many trials to overcome in their life and they are still so happy to watch their children trying to lead normal lives. They are an inspiration to me.

At the end they showed the older sister, who is 1 year older than all the kids. They were talking to her about her siblings and were saying how she had developed a great amount of empathy for her sister who could not walk. This 11 year old girl then went on to say that she wished she could take her little sister's place.

I'm glad I was able to stop for a minute and remember what Christmas is really about. It's about being selfless, just like this 11 year old girl, and being grateful for our Savior, who selflessly gave his life for all of us. I still have a lot to learn about the true spirit of Christmas, and I'm glad that this year, this young girl reminded me of how I ought to be.

Just for giggles.

I know this one is getting old by now, but just check out Abby's face...I had to share...

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1250294137

Thanksgiving

Peruvian restaurant in Portland
Cute couple :) JK!


Another cute couple!
I know it's already December but I needed to post this. We had a fun Thanksgiving and it was my first time making Thanksgiving dinner by myself! I survived and no one got food posoning! I have to admit I did a good job but I sure am glad it's behind me. My cousins Mario, John Paul, and his girlfriend Erin visited us from Utah as well as Pete, our friend who lives in San Diego. We had a blast staying up late, playing games, and talking. We got to show them around Portland a little bit which was a great time. Here are a few pictures from that weekend. We are so grateful to have a wonderful family and wonderful friends who are always trying to stay in close contact with us (and who drive 12 long hours to see us!) We love you guys!

Returned With Honor

Last month, I took a trip (all by myself!) to Utah to welcome home my cousin, Mario, from a 2 year LDS mission he served in Tucson, AZ. We are really close, and if it wasn't for him, I wouldn't have met Richie (thanks cousin!) It was so wonderful to be there to welcome him home, and even more wonderful to not have to chase around 2 little kids at the airport while we waited for him to arrive (although I missed them sooo much!) It was great to hear lots of mission stories and to listen to his testimony of the gospel and see how much it has grown in 2 short years. We are so grateful to Elder Uceda for his sacrifice and effort he has made to serve an honorable 2 year mission for our wonderful church. We love you Mario and welcome home!

Birthday Girl.

Abby's birthday turned out to be a great one. Mom made it home just in time from her trip to Utah (this trip deserves a post all by itself...Later!) to hug the cute girl and get everything ready for her party. This is her opening her presents from family (this actually didn't happen until this morning because Abby was wiped out last night from all the partying!)

I think Isaac might like this gift more than Abby. But they love to play with it together! And oh yeah, Isaac got a huge bruise under his eye yesterday morning. He ran into our window sill (his eyes were closed...crazy boy) so the tattoo band-aid it was!

The cutest birthday girl ever!

She wasn't sure what to think of this "ladybug" cake. For those of you questioning my cake decorating skills, you are right! I'm not good at this...but let's just give me the benefit of the doubt, I did only get home that morning and was working on maybe 6 hours of sleep in a 48 hour time period. AND I had never made a two layer cake before. This was the best I could do, I don't think Abby really noticed though :)

"The Meltdown" (no explanation needed)

The balloons were Abby's favorite part. She didn't eat the cake, only some icing. She was not a very good napper that day so when it was finally time for cake, she was thinking it should really be bedtime. But she made it through her first birthday party! Hurray! Thank you everyone who joined us to make Abby's day extra special!

Happy Birthday Abby!

Our little girl turned 1 today! It's so hard to believe that one year ago today we were holding her for the very first time. It was definitely a bittersweet day today. She is at such a fun age, but then again, she is not a baby anymore! We had a fun filled day which included her party. I promise to post pictures tomorrow, tonight we are just too tired and still trying to clean up! We love you Abigail Mia and Happy Birthday!!

Halloween Part 2.

So I'm kind of dumb and I still don't know why Blogger will not let me post more than 4 pictures per post. I've tried it many ways and nothing, Blogger still wins the fight. I have given up and have resorted to doing multiple posts to describe just one event. So here it goes...PS-if any of you would be so kind to explain to me how to fix this problem, please comment! Thanks!

Abby liked being "part" of the trunk-or-treat!

Dad and Isaac getting our trunk all set up.

The adorable kiddos at the Mason's house! Unfortunately, Clark didn't get the memo that this year the costumes had to be red :)

Halloween.

We had a really fun Halloween this year! The youth in our ward (led by our good friend Amy, thanks again!) put on a really cute carnival and trunk-or-treat the night before Halloween. All the kids really enjoyed it. This year Abby was dressed as a ladybug and Isaac was "Lightning Mcqueen's Crew Chief" (from the movie Cars). We went to a little Halloween party at our friends the Mason's house on Halloween night. The dads took the kids trick-or-treating while the moms waited for our Jack-o-Lantern pizza from Papa Murphy's to cook in the oven. It was Isaac's first trick-or-treating experience (we only did the trunk-or-treat last year.) He loved it and still asks me if we can go trick-or-treating later. It turned out pretty good for me too because I get to "sort" his candy and I don't have to feel guilty for buying candy at the store! Halloween was good to all of us this year!

Pumpkin Pickin', Take 2

I decided to give this whole pumpkin patch thing another whirl today. Call me crazy but I guess I needed to prove something to myself, like I was a good mom in control of her kids. Funny enough, this time around we went sans Richie. That's right, I took my 2 kids, no stroller, no Baby Bjorn, no leash. Last time I checked that made it a 2:1 ratio, all the while I had to carry Abby on one side, my 10 lb. bag on the other, and keep an eye out for Isaac (make sure he was within a 1 mile radius). Luckily, I went with a group of my friends so they had my back. And this time I decided to push the limits and get 2 pumpkins, although they were small ones, and carry them alone (ok they were in a bag!). It was nice though that Isaac had his friends to play with. They held hands and walked through the patch. Together they stood, together they fell (pictured below). They were really cute! It was quite a workout for mom, I was sure I lost at least 5 pounds by the time we were done (I weighed myself when I got home...still weigh the same!) Isaac and Abby had a blast, it was a beautiful sunny day, and once we got home, we all took naps. I couldn't ask for a better day.

Growing Pains

The past few weeks I have suddenly realized that time goes by way too fast! First of all, where did summer go? Second, I have had to buy my kids tons of new clothes because they grow like bean stalks! Isaac is wearing size 4T shirts (he's not even 3 yet!) and Abby's waist line has suddenly expanded (don't tell her I told you). I can't complain about the latter since she was only 10th percentile in weight at her 9 month checkup. But 4 lbs. later, I'm sure the doctors won't be giving me a hard time at her one-year! Our friend Jack came over a couple of weeks ago and Isaac quickly realized that he was wearing the same pajamas as him! I forget how much older Isaac is than Jack but seeing them dressed the same brought it out even more. Abby wore a dress to church a couple of weeks ago that I bought for her when she was still in my tummy. I swore when I bought it that she would never fit into it because it just looked so big! Well as you can see from the picture, it fits her perfectly now! Where does the time go? My little baby will be 1 next month...Unfortunately, mom isn't ready for another baby (and she won't be anytime soon) so we'll have to enjoy every minute of every day!

The Great Pumpkin

Pumpkin Pickin'

(check out our pics on our web album!)

On Saturday we took the kids to a pumpkin patch in Sauvie Island. We had heard from tons of people that it was the best one around where we live. There were lots of fun things to do there. We got on a hayride which took us to go pick our pumpkin. I had never been to a place like this, there were vines all over the ground and some of the pumpkins were still attached to the vines! How cool is that! Well once we got off the hayride at our destination we told Isaac he could pick ANY pumpkin he wanted. We walked around and around and then there it was...It glistened when the sun hit it and was the most perfect shape we could ever imagine! It had no dents and was absolutely beautiful. Richie grabbed the pumpkin as we stood around admiring it once more. Then we took the hayride back to the entrance, paid for it, and had a wonderful drive home! It was perfect!
Well, now I'll tell you the real story...We arrived at the pumpkin patch at 11am and it was freezing outside. The weather had called for a beautiful sunny day, but once again, it seemed like they were wrong. It finally did start clearing up by the time we got on the hayride. Abby squirmed the whole time on it and I'm still surprised she didn't fall off the ride. When we got to the patch, we walked around looking for Isaac's perfect pumpkin. Isaac kept tripping all over the vines and would whine every time he would fall. His hands were all dirty and he kept asking for a wet wipe so he could clean them off. He walked around and around, then we all started to get hot because we were dressed in layers. So we took off our sweatshirts (which I had to carry!) and kept looking...By this time Richie was saying we should just get a pumpkin at the grocery store! Finally Isaac picked his pumpkin, he pointed it out to me, and I couldn't believe it. It had a big white mold spot which pretty much took up one whole side of it. I quickly said no to him trying to explain why. He didn't get it so I saw another one close by which looked pretty good. I showed it to him and told him we were taking that one. By this time I'm dripping with sweat carrying a ton of sweatshirts in one hand, pulling Isaac along with the other, and trying not to trip on the vines and land on my face. I showed the pumpkin to Richie and he put it over his shoulder and handed me Abby. Finally we took the hayride back to the entrance, paid for our pumpkin, and got in the car for the ride home. AND then we were stuck in traffic for and hour and a half trying to get off the island (it only took us 15 minutes to get there in the morning!) That's the real story, but I have to admit, it really was a lot of fun. We will never forget our first pumpkin picking adventure. Plus, I didn't mind driving home in traffic because at least the sun was shining on my face which it hasn't done in about a month or so (we do live in Portland!) We can't wait to go pick our Christmas Tree next month!!

Isaac

Isaac is the craziest 2 year-old I have ever met! And I mean that in a good way. He is such a blast to have in our home, always making us laugh! A couple of weeks ago we had some hot weather and a few of my friends and I took the kids to some fountains close to where we live. Isaac had so much fun. Water in one of his favorite things! And the biggest change in our home lately is...DUN DUN DUN...Isaac is potty trained! This is so exciting so I'm sorry ahead of time for the long post. I had been feeling some pressure from some people (I won't mention any names--my mom and Richie) to potty train Isaac but I wasn't so sure I was ready for this yet. I have heard plenty of stories on how you have to stay at home without going anywhere for a whole week, you have to bribe them with goodies, and so on. So I knew what was coming...Anyway, finally I decided the time had come. Last week I saw that the weather for this coming week looked pretty bleak...rain all week, so I realized it was the perfect time, we would probably be home anyway. I was in the process of mentally preparing myself for a hard week, but yesterday we decided that we should just put underwear on him. And the craziest thing happened, Isaac would know when he had to go "potty" and just run over and do his thing on the toilet!! It was amazing! He does both poop and pee (too much info, sorry) and we haven't had any accidents thus far! I do have to add that he has been using the toilet every now and then for a while but I had no idea he was this ready! I know this isn't the end of it because we still have to do a diaper overnight but we are thrilled for his accomplishment. I guess it is true that when they're ready, they'll just do it! Congratulations to Isaac and goodbye to diapers! (Well at least 50% of them!!)