Daddy's Little Girl

Lately Raylee has been a real daddy's girl. She hates it when he leaves for work, and gets so excited when I tell her that daddy's home. She follows him everywhere and does everything that he does. Today as he was getting ready for work he was putting on his shirt and so Raylee pretended to put on a shirt. He did up the buttons so she buttoned up her pretend buttons. He wiped off a spot on his shirt, so she did the same. It was so cute!

Needless to say, she was sad when he left, but then she saw his shoes sitting on the floor and decided to go put them on. She thought she was pretty funny!

I've created a MONSTER!

It all started about a month ago.....

I was desperately trying to get some work in since I had been really behind on my hours, but unfortunatey Raylee had figured out that she could pop the keys off the computer and I couldn't distract her with any toys, so I put on a cartoon on for her hoping that I would be able to work for a few minutes in peace. She loved the cartoon and watched a lot more of it then I thought she would, so since then I have been guilty of putting on some Mickey Mouse Clubhouse or The Backyardigans for her so that I could get a little more work in. I try hard to not let her watch too much TV, but lately it is getting harder and harder. She has figured out that I use the remote to put a show on for her, so she likes to find the remote and bring it to me with her big puppy dog eyes, and when I won't put one on for her she throws a huge tantrum (yep, she's gotten to the stage of the throwing herself on the floor while crying and screaming tantrums. So fun.). When I do put a show on for her she makes me scoot her chair over by the coffee table so she can sit in to watch her show.

I still put on a show for her while I work to help entertain her, but now I just get a good dose of tantrums and tears to go along with it and have also resorted to hiding the remote. The good news is that Corey has discovered that he also loves The Backyardigans and he and Raylee often watch it together.

Bringing in the New Year

This year for New Years Eve we had a little party at our house with some friends. We were going to go out to dinner at Chilis but when we found out the wait was 2 hours we decided to just get take out and eat it at our house. We had lots of fun playing games. The boys played Fifa on the playstation most of the night but the girls were able to convince them to spend a little while with us playing games.

Raylee had lots of fun with Bregenz. She followed him around everywhere and copied everything he did. It was super cute!!

Holiday Fun

After Christmas we hadn't had our fill family so we spent the next few days partying some more. We went up to Corey's parents house the next two nights to play games some more and had lots of fun minus two Raylee incidents where she bumped her mouth on a table and came upstairs with a mouth full of blood and the other was just a choking incident.

On Sunday after Corey got to speak in Sacrament Meeting we headed down to my familys for our annual Sleep Around the Christmas Tree. This is one of my favorite Christmas traditions that we have been doing for as long as I can remember where we have tons of yummy food and play games and then we always watch a movie and everyone sleeps around the Christmas tree. We are getting to big to all fit around the tree, but we still have an awesome party and spend the night and this year was no different!

On Monday we were also able to go sledding with my cousins. Every year in the week between Christmas and New Years we always do lots of activities with my moms family, but this year I was only able to make it to sledding. Raylee ended up being super ornery because she was in need of a nap, so we didn't stay very long but I still had lots of fun. After sledding we went back to my Grandmas for dinner.

I love the holidays and I had tons of fun this year, although it went by way to quickly!!

An Incredible Christmas!

We had a great Christmas this year filled with lots of family and fun! On Christmas Eve we went down to my aunts house to spend the night with my family. We had a yummy dinner and read the Christmas story, sang some Christmas songs, and then all the kids opened a gift from my Grandma Bird. Raylee did pretty good opening the present and had tons of fun playing with her farm puzzle.

After we left my Aunts we went to my parents house where we were spending the night and my dad surprised with an early present of getting the Guitar Hero World Tour for the Wii and we all had a blast playing that the rest of the night.

On Christmas morning we went out to the family room and discovered that Raylee must have been a good girl this last year because Santa left her some presents. She got a Cabbage Patch Doll and a Little People Noahs Arke set, and a whole bunch of goodies in her stocking. We gave her some clothes and an animal sounds book, and my parents gave her a Little People Car a little magna doodle, and a couple of Little People Books. Corey and I got a bunch of good stuff from each other, and my parents gave us a card table and lots of much needed food storage. Al and Baylens family gave our family some tonka toasters to use while camping.

Raylee had lots of fun rocking her baby on this little rocking chair my mom has.

A little later in the morning my sister Alison and her family came down from their house and all of the grandkids opened their presents from my parents.

At about 2:00 we left my parents and went up to Coreys family. We stopped at his grandparents house and visited for awhile, and then went his parents house where we got tons more gifts. Raylee got a Tinkerbell Barbie and some clothes from them. Corey got some shoes and a shirt, and some treats, and I got a breadmaker and some smelly bricks for my candle warmer thing (hope you know what I'm talking about because that sure didn't make any sense!). Jaime and Daniel gave us a new game, and Bella gave Raylee a set of Pooh Bear Books which Morgan helped her open.

Then we spent the rest of the night playing games, and had lots of good food.

It was a great day! We ended up staying the night in Tremonton because we didn't dare drive home because of the terrible road conditions. All in all it was an incredible Christmas, and I can't believe how blessed we are!!