Christmas Morning!!!

We woke up Christmas morning to find that Santa had found our house and left presents for everyone! I guess we were all good boys and girls this year!

Rylee Morgan, the best present EVER!

Lance helping Rylee open her presents.

Rylee helping me clean out my stocking, which happened to be filled with . . . more “stockings”!

The “busy ball popper”.

Rylee’s not so sure about this thing!

Books, books, and more books!

This girl’s gonna be one fantastic reader.

OK mom, enough with the camera already.

If I look very sweet can we be done?

Christmas Eve Pictures

Rylee in her party clothes (which didn’t last very long. she soon changed into her party P.J.’s).

Playing with the wrapping paper, every 1 year-old’s favorite toy!

Uncle Austin doing his “sexy” pose for the camera (: Work it baby!!!

Our first attempt at a family photo (we’d only been there for a little while and Rylee was already sick of her dress and soooo over having her picture taken!)

Our best family photo. Rylee wouldn’t smile, but at least she wasn’t throwing a fit in this one! You’ve just gotta love her spunk!

Our 1st Christmas

(FYI: This post does not have any photos, I had to wrap it up early so I could feed the little munchkin, but I promise the next one will have plenty!)

Technically it was Rylee’s 2nd Christmas, but since none of us got to enjoy much of Christmas last year, it was really our FIRST Christmas together as a family. This Christmas was special for us for a lot of reasons, and we really enjoyed being HOME for the holidays!

We actually put up our tree this year, and even had presents underneath. Rylee spent most of the month of December stubbornly attempting to get at the gifts and tear off the tags and bows (once she figured out the crawling thing it was game-over).

Christmas Eve was spent with the “Jones” side of the family. We had our traditional Christmas Eve dinner, and then the “boys” watched The Polar Express while the “girls” discussed amongst themselves. It was a nice relaxing evening. It wasn’t quite the same though, without my sister and her family, who spent their holidays this year in North Carolina. We can’t wait until Dave is done with school so they can move closer to home.

Christmas morning Lance, Rylee, and I opened our presents. Rylee had a hard time at first with the idea that it was now acceptable to tear open the presents and play with the bows, but she got over it and had more fun with the wrapping paper and bows than she did with the toys!

And finally, Christmas Day was spent with the “Barnes” side of the family. We at a delicious meal and opened a ridiculous amount of presents (kids and adults alike)! We always have a fun time with everyone on Christmas, but yet again, this party was missing Lance’s brother and his family, so things were again much quieter than usual. All in all though, 2010 ended much more happily than 2009, and we are expecting an even better 2011!

You’ve Had A Birthday, Shout Hooray!!!

Rylee Celebrated her 1st Birthday on Thanksgiving this year, and boy did we have reason to be thankful! She has been such a wonderful blessing in our home, and this last year, while it’s definitely had its low points, has been the BEST year ever! Rylee literally makes us smile from the moment she wakes up in the morning, until she reluctantly closes those beautiful blue eyes at night.

Since her birthday was on Thanksgiving and my whole family would already be together, we decided to open presents at grandma’s house ON her birthday, but to save the birthday cake and singing for another day later the next week. Rylee got lots of nice presents from both sets of grandparents, her Aunts Brittney and Cindy (and her cousins Marley, Bentley, and Jaycie), and of course from dear old mom and dad. Her favorite gifts were her farm set and her little stuffed puppy that sings and talks to her.

As for the cake party later the next week, she wasn’t too sure what she was supposed to do! Things started out pretty serious, until Lance showed her how to dig in and make a mess, and she checked with mommy that it was OK!

                  

Our Little Honeybee!!!

Rylee was the cutest little bee for her first Halloween, and although these pictures show a pretty happy girl, our trial run with the costume didn’t go over so smoothly. The Friday before Halloween, Lance and I planned on taking her to “Boo at the Zoo” at Tautphaus Park. We stopped at my mom’s for the wardrobe change, and were met by the BIGGEST hissy fit we’ve ever seen from our sweet little angel!! Lots of driving and a missed nap= grumpy Rylee. Needless to say, we skipped the zoo that night (or it might have been renamed boo-hoo at the zoo!) The next evening we braved the costume again and were met with success. Very little fuss, and a few smiles for the camera!! Yeah!!

Rylee and cousin Jaycie . . .

“Flight of the Bumblebee” . . .

 

 

 

Having fun with Grandma and Grandpa Barnes . . .

 

 

 

Just Chillin’ With Daddy                                                        (and gnawing on her fingers, yep more teeth on the way!)

Blessing Dress

It’s been a little over 2 months since Rylee was blessed, and I’ve finally gotten around to posting her sweet little pictures!!!

Rylee’s cousins Addi and Liv wore the same dress when they were blessed and when they went to the temple. They all looked like little angels in this dress! Thanks to Auntie Erika for letting us borrow it.

Lance and I tried really hard to get her to smile like she did the day she was blessed, without much luck!

Rylee made a big impression on everyone in the blessing circle that day. Most tiny babies do pretty good, some fuss or cry a little. Lance and I were both a little nervous that because Rylee was 8 months old she might get scared and cry, or try and grab the microphone. We were way off! Instead, so I’m told, she looked up at everyone with a big grin and smiled through the whole thing! Her Grandpa Barnes and Great-Grandpa Cammack still talk about it, and rank it as the best baby blessing of all time! Rylee really set the bar high that day!

Also, a little update on what “stinker 1” has been up to(as Lance affectionately calls her):

Rylee has begun the super-fun teething process, and now boasts one and a half teeth! She’s been a real trooper, a little more cranky than normal, but still sleeping through the night! (Bless her heart)

Rylee has been getting better and better at sitting up with less and less help. She now enjoys spending time in her big girl chair, watching mommy do dishes, cook dinner, and Rylee even eats her baby food in her big girl chair!

She has gotten very good at rolling over, and seems to make her way around pretty well. She occasionally finds herself in a tight spot requiring rescue from mom or dad (usually crammed sideways up against the couch).

Rylee has also shown great interest in learning to crawl, and we know it won’t be long! For now she just rocks back and forth on her tummy, and occasionally pulls her knees up under her. No hurry Rylee, take your time, REALLY!

Barnes Family Reunion

Over Labor Day weekend, Lance’s aunt and uncle planned a really nice family get-together at their home in Idaho Falls. Everyone had so much fun! They had all kinds of activities planned for everyone: an inflatable jump house, home-made “train-ride”, and bracelet-making for the little girls and for the ladies, some wonderful game involving lots of candy and chocolate, delicious home-cooked food and desserts, and a nice little family roundtable where the all the aunts took turns sharing what their children and grandchildren had been up to over the last year. Lance and I truly enjoyed spending time laughing and catching up with everyone, hopefully it will become a Barnes Family Tradition!!! THANKS AGAIN TO THE COLLINGS!!

This awesome train-ride kept all the kiddos entertained all day long, courtesy of Uncle Brad!

He made it himself, just one of his many projects.

 

   

As you may have noticed, many of the little girls also played dress up, aren’t they adorable?

Family Roundtable

Deanne tells her family story, including how Uncle Brad is still “feeding the sheep”.

(We found out later that he actually has a contract to provide feed for the elk in Jackson, among other things. Brad was glad to know his wife took such a great interest in what he does for a living!!)

Uncle Jeff pays close attention as his wife, Marilee, tells all about events for their family over the last year, broken bones, weddings, expecting mama’s and all.(:

 

Sherry busted out a list for her “sharing time”!

It was such a busy year (thanks in large part to Lance, Rylee, and me), that she didn’t want to leave anything out!

It really was big year:

I started a new job, got pregnant, Lance and I got the Swine Flu, built our first home, had our beautiful miracle baby 3 months early (recovered from a C-section), Lance graduated, and I had my appendix out! Whew!

Amidst all of that chaos, Brett broke his hand showing his son’s baseball team how to hustle, Brady and Cindy had their first baby girl, and Angie and John baptized their little boy!!!

And Allison told everyone all about their trip to Cooperstown, Paige surviving her first week at BYU,

and Bowen needing a little help with the ladies! Yeah right!! Poor Bowen):

  

 

All in all, it was a wonderful day!