Author Archives: katherine

About katherine

This is where the bio info goes

In one more day these would be SO last year.

Our Christmas? Was awesome. Christmas in my family is always longer than one.single.day. This year, it went on for 4 days. Rylee didn’t get a nap any of the 4 days but you know what? She rocked it. She was so awesome. She was so polite, saying multiple thank you’s to everyone who gave her a gift. The time with the family was so, so fantastic.

Quick and Dirty Recap:

Thursday: Three Sisters Baking Party! which entailed my sisters coming over and baking for 4 or 5 hours, drinking wine and eating pizza. Yumm.

Friday: Me hiking Spencer’s Butte with my sisters and cousin. Enjoying Mimosas at the top. Heading to my dad’s for the afternoon for Christmas dinner and gifts with that side of the fam and wrapping it all up with Christmas Eve mass.

Saturday: Enjoyed opening gifts just the three of us. Andy’s parents came over mid-morning, we exchanged gifts with them then they hung out for the rest of the day. My dad and sisters joined us. Where we enjoyed appetizers and BINGO! while dinner cooked. My mom, Marvin, Jonny and Keri showed up around 3:30 PM. We ate right around 4 PM. After dinner and dessert my dad and Andy’s parents took off and then we spent the rest of the evening exchanging gifts and just hanging out with Mom and the rest of the fam.

Sunday: Slept in! Headed to the Clark’s (our third family!), exchanged gifts with them and hung out for a while. Then, headed over to my Aunt’s house for afternoon appetizers, gifts and games. Andy, Rylee and I got home around 5 PM and pretty much well collapsed.

As it turns out, even with my new camera, I seriously failed at taking photos this Christmas. Not a single.family.photo. I suppose I was just swept up in the moment, busy, oh I don’t know, enjoying it!

So what you see is basically what you get when it comes to the extent of our Christmas photos. Enjoy!

Our hand-carved nativity set.

Stockings hung by our chimney errr, stovepipe with care.

Had to throw this one in…because I’m classy like that.

I wrapped all the gifts this year in brown postal wrap and decorated them with different red ribbons and bows. To designate who each gift was for, I printed out a photo and taped it to the package. This way, Rylee was easily able to recognize the fact that all the presents were not for her. Worked like a champ!

Couldn’t resist a shot of the pretty wolf-dog in front of the tree.

One of my favorite decorations I have. I love handmade gifts.

Andy taught Rylee how to use stencils. She watched carefully.

Future Picasso? Possibly.

AKA: Ry’s snowman she glued at school.

We did a lot of baking on Thursday night.

Rylee was quite the helper!

So much baking was done, we had TWO Kitchen Aid mixers going.

Apparently dirty looks run in my side of the family. Oh wait, that’s not a surprise to anyone!

This was only a quarter of the baking.

Stockings at my dad’s house.

Rylee using Auntie Kelli’s camera to take pictures of everything. She was STOKED when she got her own the next day!

All sorts of excited about her new sleeping bag courtesy of Grandad.

Our tree with all of Ry’s gifts under it. Overboard is an understatement here people. Woah.

Merry Christmas!

2 Replies

For those of you who did not receive our “holiday” card…

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

We are thankful, now and always, to have you in our lives.

Love,

Andy, Katherine and Rylee

Let’s Talk About That Magical Switch

1 Reply

True Story: When I met Rylee and Andy at the mall on Monday for her first-ever Santa meeting, she had the charm turned on. She was a perfect angel. After the Santa meet-up, we wanted to grab some lunch. As we headed to the mall food court, Ry politely asked for a grilled cheese sandwich: “Rylee want a grilled cheese sanich…heeese?”. Well, in our mall food court, there are seriously NO kid-friendly eateries. So we decided we’d spend the extra time an the extra money and go to the Chili’s in the mall…you know, so Ry could have her grilled cheese.

Chili’s was busy. Really busy.

My child? Was a perfect angel.

I’m not even kidding. She ordered her own lunch. Opting for the “tay-sa-dee-a” instead of the grilled cheese. She ordered her own beverage “Rylee need milk, heeese?”Upon arrival of both the milk and quesadilla she loudly proclaimed “Hank You”.

While we waited, we colored her menu, we wrote names of our family and spelled them out, we quietly sang the ABC’s, we played I Spy.

I heard our waiter, on more than one occasion, say things under his breath like “That’s so cute”. He even commented to another waiter how awesome Rylee was. As we were leaving? He made a point to stop Andy and tell him how adorable Rylee was.

You guys? I’m not going to lie to you…I was completely shocked. Now, before you try to tell me that of course Rylee was great, she’s a great little kid, she’s an angel, blah, blah, blah…let me paint a picture of the night before…

My child was a monster. Not the cute little monster for which she got her nickname. There was nothing cute about Sunday night. She all out grew horns and was letting Andy and me know it. She wouldn’t listen. She was throwing fits. She was kicking. She was screaming. She was throwing things. It was ugly.

It got so bad at one point, that Andy could clearly see the frustration and outright anger in my face and decided it was time to step in. I seriously, seriously contemplated whether or not my child was “ready” to be spanked. And not because I thought it would be the right way to discipline her, but because I was angry. When Andy stepped in, I gladly walked away. I walked into my dark, quiet bedroom and sat down on the end of my bed. And just sat there.

The rest of the evening was pretty uneventful. Andy helped Ry get her jammies on and she came out of her bedroom looking for me. She snuggled up to me and we read books. I took her to bed. And that was that.

Now, I ask you…where is that magical switch? It’s gotta be somewhere…Rylee clearly knows where it is on her and me.

I’ll Consider it a WIN!

1 Reply

For the first ever visit with Santa, I’ll consider this a win. She was a little apprehensive at first, sitting on my knee instead of the big-guy’s. She said she didn’t want her picture taken with him. I was fully prepared to walk away with nothing. Then, Santa asked her for a hug. And she complied. Then when she turned around? Click.

She did make sure to ask Santa for…wait for it…candy.

Candy? Candy. Where the heck did she get that from?! That’s it. I’m taking back everything else we got for her…like the toddler-tough digital camera, the play-doh and the puzzles and I’m getting her a bag of M&M’s.

Done.

How Lovely are Thy Branches

1 Reply

It only took until a week before Christmas Eve, but we finally decorated our Christmas tree last night! If this is any indication of how Rylee will be on Christmas, I cannot wait! She was totally into it!

I think the photos will speak for themselves…and if not, no worries, I included captions.

Placing the ornament “just so”. {I love how she is holding her fingers}