The other day Nolan was sleeping in the guest room, and when I went to check on him he was sound asleep with his fingers in his ears. He has become very sensitive to loud noises lately, and quite frequently tells me and Rylee things are too loud. So, I guess Rylee and I may have been being too loud while he was sleeping the other day, silly boy.
Rylee started her new preschool today and we are all in love with it. This is the first year she has attended a school not in someone's home and it is an amazing environment. They even have their own gym for cardio class in the winter, and their own goats that they have to feed every morning. This morning when I picked her up, I asked her if she liked her school, and she informed me it was "AMAZING!" She is doing so well with her speech and her hearing, this is going to be an absolutely amazing year for her I think, and I am so excited to watch her grow and learn even more. Her teacher is Miss Kristi, and she is fabulous. She has already asked me if she can go every day of the week, instead of 3 days a week! Hopefully, she will always like school this much :)!
She picked out her outfit all by herself the other day at the mall, and it could not be any cuter. This girl really is awesome I love her!!!
We had such a great afternoon up in Park City. The kids took naps on the way up, and Nolan woke up so excited to go slide and Rylee was a little hesitant as she woke up. The chair lift ride up was fun. The kids had fun watching the other people go down the slide below us and watching the zip line go past us, and the longer we were on the lift the more excited both of them got. Rylee wanted to go slow first to see if she liked it and all Nolan wanted was to go super fast. Rylee and I went together and Nolan and Daddy rode together, and we all had a blast. Nolan yelled "Whoa, Whoa" all the way down the slide and Rylee informed me that the slide tickled her tummy. We did the slide two times and the second time Rylee decided she wanted to race Daddy and Nolan down. Well, after about 5 really fast turns she decided we needed to slow down and Daddy could win. We had such a fun afternoon together!
Last Summer we took Rylee to the eye doctor after our pediatrician recommended it, and we came to find that she had an astigmatism in both eyes and she was farsighted. The Opthamologist recommended one more year until she gets glasses We took her in last week to have her eyes examined and pick out a pair of glasses. She was so good and she was so amazingly cute trying to decided on her glasses. To start she told the lady helping us that she wanted pink glasses, so the nice lady picked out all the pink glasses they had and set them in front of her. We tried on about 25 pairs of glasses and on and we made a yes pile and a no pile. After she had separated the two piles we had about 10 glasses in the yes pile, so we then made a love it and like it pile. Once we were down to 3 pairs, Rylee looked at me and said "Mommy, can we just get all 3, I love them all!" Well, since these aren't $5 princess glasses at the Disney Store, I had to explain to her that we could only get one, so we finally picked one. After she picked them out she was very upset that she did not get to take her glasses home that day. She even told the lady, "You go get them ready, and I'll just wait right here until you're done please!"
We spent at least 2 hours a day in the swimming pool every day we were at Grandma's house. The kids absolutely loved the water. At first both of them were a little timid, but within one day Rylee went from playing on the step, to wearing floaties, and then to jumping in. She would even try swimming without her floaties with Grandma's help and did well with that. Nolan was a different story. He was so timid the first day he wouldn't get off the first step in the pool, and then for the next 2 weeks he would not let us put floaties on him. Grandma finally got him to wear floaties and that was the end of his timidness. He was jumping, splashing, going under, and swimming with the big kids! They had the cutest tans when we got home, and we have already gone swimming at some friends pools since we have been home. We sure do miss Grandma and Papa's Pool.
One afternoon we spent the day at the Zoo with our cousins. The kids have so much fun together, and it was nice to give Grandma some alone time! The Zoo is the perfect size. We spent about 45 minutes looking at animals, and then they got to ride the train two times. We had so much fun playing with our cousins, and we miss them every day. Just today Rylee asked me when it was going to snow because she and Bryson were planning some kind of a get together in the snow!
The kids loved that whenever they were in the pool the ended up with some sort of a treat, normally popsicles, but one night Grandma had Drumstick Ice Creams for all the kids. The kids made a humungous mess, but it didn't even matter because they just rinsed off in the pool. Rylee at the ice cream on her cone and then decided it was time to get back in the pool and had no interest in eating the cone, but Nolan ate every single bit of his treat and then helped finish some of the other cousins too!
There is a little train out at an outdoor mall by Uncle Jason and Aunt Heather's house, so we took the kids to ride it together one day. They had so much fun hanging out and playing while we waited in line, and then they got to go on the train by themselves and that made them feel so big!!
Nolan's first finger nail fell off after a minor incident that involved the same fingers being slammed in a dresser drawer by an unnamed sister. These poor fingers don't look good, but are doing much better now.
While we were in California Nolan decided his tricycle was no longer adequate for him, and he needed a big boy bike. I thought at first he was a bit too young and maybe wouldn't be able to ride it, but he proved me wrong. We went to three different stores to find him a bike and he was very patient while we looked, but once we found his bike all he wanted to do was get back and ride it. He also got a new helmet and he loves it, and it also fits his daring personality so well. I cannot believe how well he rides his bike. He gets on it and off of it by himself, and only every now and then does he need a little push to get started, but besides that he has it mastered.
Grandma and Grandpa have a fire pit, and Grandma taught the kids how to roast hot dogs on a stick for dinner one night. Nolan had way more fun waving his around and taking it in and out of the fire to see how it was cooking. Rylee was a good little cook with some help from Grandma, but she really did a good job by herself too. Eventually Nolan allowed Grandma to help him cook his dinner, and his hot dog turned out great. Every time we would have hot dogs Nolan insisted on cooking them on the fire, he didn't always win but it was a fun treat for them.
Grandma wanted to have a birthday part for all of the June Birthdays at her house, so Sunday after we got there all the cousins came over and we had a great time. The kids swam and swam and swam, and took a small break for dinner, presents and cake. However, on that small break Rylee fell asleep on Daddy's lap and we had to wake her up for presents. She was so sweet trying to be excited and not grumpy, but really wanting to be back asleep. She got some cute stuff from her cousins and most of all had a great time playing with them.
We left for California and had high hopes of making great time and getting in at a normal time, well that all changed at our first stop. We stopped exactly half way to Grandma's and Grandpa's house in a teeny tiny town called Battle Mountain, and ended up meeting the town doctor and spending an hour and a half in the ER. While we were making a potty stop Nolan's fingers got shut in a huge wooden door, in the hinge part of the door, and they were instantly swollen and purple. We tried to ice the fingers, bribe him with treats and nuggets, and distract him in any way but nothing stopped in from shaking and screaming. We figured we better get his fingers X-rayed so we found the town ER and took him in. This place was straight out of Doc Hollywood and we were even worned the doctor can't hear well and is a little crotchety, but has a heart of gold. Well after X-rays, it was determined he had a Tuft Fracture. They splinted his two fingers, gave him some Tylenol, a sucker and stickers, and we were back on our way. The poor guys fingers were so sore, but what 2 year old is really going to keep a splint on, so we made it 2 of the 10 days with the splint until he was over it. Both finger nails have fallen off and are trying to grow back, but they do not look so good yet. He is doing great and you would have never known his fingers were hurt until you looked at them, he is such a tough kid.
Before we left for California we got to go to Jungle Jim's with the entire Cutrer family, we are sort of the adopted family members! Rylee and Nolan were so excited because they love all the kids and of course Grammy and Cass. Rylee and Hallie had so much fun playing with each other more before we had to leave to California, and Nolan had a blast on all the rides. We tried the roller coaster, but neither of the kids liked it very much, in fact Rylee screamed to get off so much they stopped the ride and let her off. We are so lucky to have friends that make us feel like family since we don't have any of our family close by!
