Happy 5th Birthday Rylee

I am sure I say this every year, but really is she already 5, I cannot believe it. This year has been an amazing year for our sweet girl, and it has been so fun, stressful, exciting, and several other emotions all thrown in there. To review the year I'm just going to start right after her birthday.

Shortly after Rylee's 4th birthday we discovered Rylee had a 65% hearing loss, VPI of her soft palate, and an astigmatism in both eyes. It was like one thing after another, and it was very troublesome for us as parents. You always want a perfect and healthy child, and while she was healthy and perfect to us, there were things that needed to be fixed. After a few tests and surgery in June, October and December she is doing amazing.

She was fitted for hearing aids in November, and absolutely loves them. They are seriously the most amazing technology for our family. One of the most memorable experiences in the last year was watching Rylee's doctor put her hearing aids in her ear and turn them on for the very first time. She was crying and scared as the doctor put her hearing aids in, but as soon as they clicked on her face lit up and she was amazed. It was so fun to see the expression on her face every time she heard a new sound. From the train going by, to the garbage disposal, car horns, airplanes and helicopters passing over, the blinker in the car ticking, and hundreds of other daily sounds that we take for granted every day but she had never heard in her lifetime. She has adjusted so well to having them, and loves them so much it is often a struggle to get her to even take them out to go to bed. While the surgeries did not fix her hearing they are hopeful another surgery a few years from now, will fix the hearing loss.

Her soft palate was fixed in December and it dramatically improved her ability to say words and sounds. She worked so hard the last year with her two speech therapists, Miss Courtney and Miss Rikell, and she is now speaking as well and even better than a lot of kids her age. She is very comfortable with speaking to other people, and her therapists are so surprised and proud of how well she did. She reached a point a month ago where her therapists told us she is so good there is nothing else for them to work on at this point, we were so proud of her!

She kept us busy in other ways this year too, playing her first season of soccer and going to another year of preschool. Soccer was quite entertaining to watch, but about mid season she finally started trying to kick the ball instead of just play with her friends! She absolutely loved her preschool teacher, Miss Bessy, this year and asks about her all the time. She has started to read sight words and knows all her sounds and can count to 40 by herself and 100 with some help.

She is one of the best big sisters a parent could ask for. While we are home she tends to pester Nolan a bit, but when they are at a sitters or playing at the park she is extremely protective of him and makes sure he has everything he needs.

Her personality develops more and more every day, and more and more she is becoming silly, sassy, independent, playful, and a little bossy! She has a nickname around here of Napoleon sometimes, but really she is a great little girls. She loves to tease Daddy and I, loves to be tickled, and ask questions!

Right now she loves Selena Gomez (we have tickets to her concert in September), playing outside and riding her bike, going to soccer practice, playing baby dolls, watching Good Luck Charlie, getting tickled by her Daddy, taking baths in the big tub, jumping off of things to show how big she is, wearing tutu skirts and dresses, flip flops, chocolate milk, playing with friends, and the list could go on and on, but those are the top things I can think of right now.

Rylee you mean the world to us. We are so proud of you over this last year. It has been amazing to watch you transform into a little girl and become so independent and strong. You are truly an amazing little girl and we love you so much! I cannot even remember what life was like without my silly little girl, I am so happy that she is a part of our family, and cannot wait to see what this year has in store for her and us!

Baby Rylee

1st Birthday

2 Years Old

3 Years Old

4 Years Old

Proofs of the pics we just did

Looking so grown up

A little bit of sass!

Sick Boy

This morning when Nolan woke up he was not quite his happy self, and I figured it was because he hadn't gotten enough sleep. After snuggling with him for a bit I noticed he was really warm and checked his temperature. His fever was at 101.2 this morning and went up all day from their. I tried advil to help lower it, but his fever was back to a 102.8 after nap time. I did more advil and in about 45 minutes it seemed to be working. The babysitter showed up and I told her he would probably just want to rest and hang out, so she was fine with that. When I got home she informed me he had thrown up all over the couch and himself, and I felt so bad for both Nolan and my teenage babysitter! Needless to say he is back in bed and his fever is back up, so hopefully he will be better in the morning, I hate seeing him so lethargic.

So tired he just wanted to lay anywhere all day long, and he was so hot

he liked laying on the cool floor, poor guy.

Showing me his sad Nolan face :(

A Hike With Daddy

One afternoon while I had soccer games, Daddy took the kids on a hike to a waterfall. They had to walk about a mile each way and they both did great. The water was obviously freezing, so they spent their time throwing rocks in the water and building castles out of the rocks!! It looks like they had a great time, I will have to get an invite on the next hike!

Caity's Birthday

We celebrated Caity's birthday a few weeks ago, and the kids had so much fun because they love Caity. I have no idea what I am going to do for Christmas for Caity, so far I think we have spoiled her pretty good, but I am running out of ideas, good thing I have 6 months to plan. For her birthday I made her this quilt. Caity loves bright and fun colors, so I tried really hard to make it really fun, but still a "grown up" quilt as she and I called it. She seemed to really like it, so that is good. We are so lucky to have Caity living in Utah with us and be a part of our extended family in here in Utah. The kids adore her and she is a great friend to me as well. We love Aunt Caity!!!

Preschool Graduation

Preschool Graduation was about a month ago, and Rylee has been so sad ever since it got over. She absolutely loved preschool and it was fun to see her really start to learn. She can read a lot of sight words and is learning to sound out words, and really liking it. She did such a great job at the graduation performance, she knew all the songs and sang along. She has one more year of preschool before kindergarten, and she is already excited for her new school. This year I let her pick out her own outfit for the graduation, and she picked out this tutu, she loves tutus. Every time I turn around she is trying to get me to buy her another one, and I am a real sucker b/c they are so cheap at Costco! I am so proud of her and well she did in preschool this year.

Rylee all ready to go

Don't forget a picture of Nolan :)

Rylee and Miss Bessy

(Rylee absolutely loved her teacher this year and it was really hard

to know that she was not going to have her again and see her as much)

Practicing Some Putts

The kids love our new backyard and so do we. I love that it is completely fenced and completely safe for them to just play and play all day long in it. Last night after dinner they wanted to play a little bit more, so they headed out to putt and play together!!

Does This Look Comfortable??

I was telling the kids it was time to get ready for their naps, and Rylee found her blanket and headed to bed, and this is what Nolan did. He got a couch pillow laid on the floor and pulled our rug over the top of him, and asked, "Can I sleep here Mommy??" I sadly had to inform him he was napping in his bed, but look at that smirk on his face he is so proud of himself!

The Zoo

Okay, so I need to find Summer school or something, because this little girl always wants to be doing something. A great back yard, a bedroom full of toys, and a toy room are just not enough it seems like, this girl wants to be on the go at all times. Every night before she goes to sleep she asks me where are we going tomorrow, and if I tell her we are just hanging out, she will tell me of somewhere we can go instead of just staying home. So, last week she suggested we go to the zoo because it was sunny, so we did. The two of them walked the entire time and I didn't even take a stroller, it was such a nice change. We had a great time exploring, except Nolan was scared most of the time of the new exhibit. Throughout the park they have robotic dinosaurs and Nolan was terrified of them, and would not walk past them. He would see one and make me carry him, and then as soon as it was out of his sight he would walk and act as though nothing had happened. We are loving the warm weather finally and hoping to do lots more fun things this Summer.

Learning To Scoot

Nolan got a scooter from Caity for Christmas, and since we have had some great weather as of late he has really been trying to figure out how to make it work. He does really well with the scooting part, but not so great at the steering part. His favorite thing to do is just stand on it with both feet and have some body pull the scooter along! He and Rylee have had so much fun the last few days riding their bikes and scooters in the cul-de-sac out front, and we love that they have that space to play in now.

Best Friends

I know I have blogged about how much these two like each other, but truly they are best buddies. They have such a great time together, 95% of the time. The other 5% they are typical big sister/little brother relationship, but it really is so rare. If one of them is not around the other constantly asks where they are. In the mornings Rylee goes into Nolan's room and snuggles with him until he wakes up, she really doesn't wake him she lays there and rubs his back, it is so sweet. I hope as they grow older they can continue to be so close and such good friends.