FINALLY!

So...I've been meaning to get a blog up and going for about a year now and am just now actually getting around to it! Our family has had a very busy year with lots of trials (the biggest one was last May when Quinn's dad was on a jet ski and got hit by a boat and almost died), but many more blessings (Quinn's dad made a miraculous recovery, we've had great work opportunities, bought our first home in September, and welcomed our second beautiful daughter into our family in December.)

One of the things we've enjoyed most about our new home is our yard!!!

Having two children certainly has been an adjustment, but it's starting to feel normal now. Rylee is 23 months older than Cailyn, and I was a little worried at first that she would be jealous of the baby...she was a little jealous for maybe a week or so, but she quickly got over that and loves her sister very much. When Rylee first came to the hospital to meet Cailyn, she was most fascinated by the bows that the nurses had put on Cailyn's head; after that, she was more interested in the buttons that made my bed move up and down than she was in her new sister. That is until she saw me nurse Cailyn! She started yelling "OH NO BOOB!" over and over and was crying...her aunt Katie had to take her on a walk through the hallways to calm her down. A few short weeks later, I was feeding Cailyn, and when I got her to latch on I said "There you go," and Rylee echoed "There you go baby! Boob!"

These days my main concern is not whether Rylee is jealous, but whether she is smothering her baby sister! She is always trying to kiss her or snuggle with her or hold her. Not too long ago, Rylee kept trying to sit on Cailyn and I kept telling her that she couldn't do that because she was too big. That didn't really register with her, and finally I said "Rylee, does mommy sit on you?" When she said no, I explained "No, because mommy is too big and it will hurt if I sit on you." Then, to demonstrate, I had Rylee lay down on the floor and I sat on her! She started laughing, which quickly turned into sputtering. When I got up I asked "Did that hurt?" She said "Ya!" I explained that it was because I was too big for Rylee and Rylee was too big for Cailyn. She didn't sit on Cailyn after that.

Rylee is also very protective of Cailyn. A few weeks ago I was cleaning our Cailyn's nose with a booger ball - which she HATES! She was screaming bloody murder, and when Rylee saw what was going on she started crying and yelling "Cailyn! Cailyn!" and then she ran over to me and started hitting me. I guess I'm already playing the role of the mean mom!

Christmas was a lot of fun this year since Rylee and Ava (our niece) were old enough to get excited about their presents. Some of the big hits were Rylee's rocking horse, a little panda and gorilla with bottles, Rylee's Sesame Street dolls, and the pillow cases that Grandma Mac made for everyone.

Then shortly after Christmas, we had our "Birthday Week" (Rylee on January 12th, Quinn on the 18th, and mine on the 21st); by the end of that, Rylee was a pro candle-blower-outer!

Rylee had an Elmo Birthday Party; she is an Elmo fanatic and, until very recently, she would ONLY watch Sesame Street, no matter what else I would try to get her to watch. As a result, both Quinn and I can quote just about every episode of Sesame Street, not to mention sing every song...I've seriously woken up in the middle of the night with a Sesame Street song stuck in my head and not been able to fall asleep! Talk about obnoxious! Anyway, the party was a great success with everything from an Elmo cake to Pin-the-Nose-on-Elmo to a 4 foot tall Elmo Balloon that the kids played ring-around-the-rosies with. Oh, and of course the most important part - lots of family and friends!

Thankfully, Rylee has broadened her horizons and is beginning to enjoy Disney movies as well...so far her favorites are Finding Nemo (Memo Fishy) and Beauty and the Beast (B-B-Bees.)
She has also started to potty train. Kind of. Most of the time she would just rather wear a diaper, but every now and then she goes "potty-pee" and gets a treat and wears panties. I'm not really pushing the issue at this point. But as you can see in this picture, wedgies don't bother her in the slightest. There was actually one time where I pulled her undies out of her bum and she yelled "NO!" and pulled them right back up! If one thing is for certain, it's that Rylee has a will of her own!

This last weekend was eventful and lots of fun. Friday the 13th was Quinn's and my 5th anniversary - where did the time go? Quinn's family came into town that day for the long weekend, which was wonderful! We had a very festive Valentine's Day with lots of yummy (red) food.

Then on Sunday we blessed Cailyn in our home with lots of family and friends. She wore the dress that her Grandma Heiner made for my blessing and that all of my sisters and Rylee wore for their blessings.

So I guess that about brings us up to now. Wow, that was a really long blog! But I guess I'm caught up now, so they should be shorter from here on out. As I'm looking back I realized that I have way more pictures of Rylee than Cailyn, so here are a few cute ones of Cailyn that I took last night.