Friday, December 31, 2010

Baby, it's cold outside!

As soon as we got home from California, we repacked and headed up to Pinetop, AZ to spend the week and New Year's at my parents cabin. When we got up there, there was very little snow on the ground (like a few patches here and there). That soon changed as a huge storm headed out way. I absolutely love winter and snow and would live in the snow in a heartbeat, so we were all very excited when the snow started to come down. And come down it did! For about 36 hours straight it snowned and snowed! (We are at about 18 inches and counting) I love this! :)


On a walk before it started snowing (with my cousin Bre).




Watching Daddy shovel the driveway




Our little pink marshmellow! :)



Thursday, December 30, 2010

Rylie's First Christmas



Rylie had a great first Christmas! Christmas Eve started with us going to church in Mission Viejo. Some really good family friends, the Blocks, moved there earlier this year to take a pastor position at a church there, so we went to visit friends and go to their Christmas Eve service. Rylie looked pretty cute in her Christmas dress! :) She liked all of the music and spent the sermon part outside with Gammie.









After the service, we went to Brandon's Dad's house for Christmas Eve. He had a great dinner of honey baked ham, green beans, stuffing and of course, tamales. :) Rylie loved her fun present from her Grandpa and we enjoyed watching the 2 of them together.







Christmas morning we woke up to our stockings full and a ton of presents under the Christmas tree (90% of which were for Rylie :) ). Rylie loved digging into all of the packages and playing with all of her new toys. I think that Gammie had just as much fun as Rylie did! :) Christmas morning was a blast with a little one!











After our morning, we headed over to Brandon's Grandma's house for Christmas dinner. Family stopped by all afternoon (and again, Rylie was spoiled) and we just relaxed and ate more great food. When we were all finished there, we actually decided to head to Disneyland for the Christmas night fireworks. We bundled Rylie up in her pjs and winter hat and found our spot on Main Street USA. Of course, right before the fireworks started, it began to rain (kind of the theme for the trip). They did the fireworks anyways and it was amazing like always! We kept Rylie dry under an umbrella and she was pretty facsinated by the firework show. After the show, we jumped on the Disneyland Railroad train to wait for some of the crowds leaving to die down. Rylie promptly fell asleep and stayed that way through the remainder of the night. She was so good in the rain! It was a very fun ending to our Christmas day and a very memorable first Christmas for Rylie! :)









Tuesday, December 28, 2010

The Merriest Place on Earth!

We headed to California for Christmas this year, and that meant a visit to Disneyland! We were very excited to take Rylie to the Happiest (or this time of year, the Merriest) Place on Earth. If you saw any of the news this past week, you know that it rained a little (ok, a lot) throughout Southern California the week of Christmas. We decided to bite the bullet and go anyways (you might call us a bit obsessed :) ), so we bundled up Rylie, grabbed our umbrellas and pochos and headed to the park.

(Sorry, but there is a ton of photos in this post...we did go a few different times and I just couldn't pick only a few!)



We're here! Our happy girl inspite of the crazy weather :)



We really had no idea how Rylie would react at Disneyland or if she would even care...but again, we were very wrong. She loved it! She was very alert and looked at everything and even went on a few rides. She was such a trooper in the rain and just sat contently in her stroller with a poncho covering her. Thanks to our newly purchased annual passes, we got to go a few times so we did get one morning with no rain. We are looking forward to many more trips to Disneyland throughout the year! :)


Rylie's first ride at Disneyland-"It's a Small World"




So interested in everything around her :)


Yes, it really was raining this hard.




Staying dry :)




First ride on the carousel


So we decided to try to take Rylie to see Santa again. This time we went during the day right after a nap and food so I knew she would be in a good mood...though I still thought she would cry when she saw him since she was so hysterical last time...


...but no, she loved him this time! The staff working said it is because this Santa is the "real" Santa...apparently he was no where near as scarey as the other Santa. :)




She even sat on his lap by herself with not one tear. :)




We have this same picture last year when I was pregnant with Ry...possibly our yearly Disnyland photo tradition! :)




Brandon thought of using the "R" in front of California Adventure for some Rylie pics...




Rylie also loved meeting Minnie Mouse! She kept trying to give her kisses...I have to say that Minnie was pretty partial to Rylie as well. She gave her so much attention and kept playing games with her...it was so cute!


Cuddling with her Christmas Mickey.


Our little Minnie Mouse! :)

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Larson Christmas

Since we are headed to California for Christmas this year, we celebrated with my side of the family a little early. My mom made dinner and we opened gifts, pretty much just like we do on Christmas day!



We had no idea if Rylie would care at all about gifts or Christmas in general...boy were we wrong! She loved it! She was super into opening the gifts-she loved the paper and the bows-but she also loved everything that was in the packages! :) What a fun first Christmas this is going to be!


Rylie checking out all of her presents!






She loved the little airplane that her pilot Uncle Jeff got her :)


My mom took Rylie to As You Wish and got her hands and footprint to make us this adorable plate. :)


Riding in her new wagon!