First Sledding Experience and Cousins

Ian watched from the window

having sooo much fun

" let's see if we can get a picture of the cousins together..."

OK, we got 2 out of 4 looking...

Ian can't keep his eyes open for a picture!

we're losing their attention now...

and everyone is looking different ways...

??

and I give up.

 Izzie jumped on for a ride

 The "guys"

The guys plus Izzie

Christmas with the Allreds - picture overload

Now here's the point in our vacation when I realized I DID have my camera charger - got the battery powered up, and took a TON of pictures to make up for the lack earlier in the week.  So, grandma and grandpa Allred, I have a lot of great pics of Christmas I'll be sending your way soon!

Enjoy these for now:

 special slippers hiding in the tree for Ryland (I love his face here!)

 cute little feet!

 not sure what you all are doing... but I think everyone made it in this shot!

 Ian got a piggy bank!

 Ryland got a dump truck!

 Isaac got a bow!

 Ian got a "fissing poh!"

 Hope you like your Ry-Ry photo block :)

 Izzie LOVES holding the baby

 Shelby LOVES opening everyone else's presents

 Ryland LOVES being with his cousins

 he got a lot of good crawling practice at g-ma and g-pa's house, chasing cousins all over the place.  Weird technique he has, but he's a FAST little guy!

 Maybe Shelby will share her toys with me...

Peekaboo!

Christmas Morning

For the first couple of days of our Ephrata trip, I thought my dslr battery was dead and didn't realize I had the charger with me.  I'm kicking myself for not getting better pictures of Ry's first Christmas morning.  My phone takes decent-enough pictures thankfully....

Christmas morning with my mom is really something you look forward to all year - she works HARD to put it together and really loves to shop for everyone.  Spoiling us doesn't even cover it.  

Ryland woke up to a nice big pile of presents from Santa, Mimi, and his adoring aunts

Riding his cute new rocking horse was the highlight of his morning!

Sooo many new toys to play with.  He is loving all the selection he has now!

Thank you, Mimi, for making Ry-Ry's first Christmas morning so special!

Christmas Eve

We spent the actual holiday back in Ephrata.  It's always a little tricky to work out holidays with our families since they live in the same town.  This year we did Christmas Eve at my dad's, Christmas morning at my mom's, and the rest of Christmas day at Brent's parent's house.  

Early in the day Ry got to meet some of our high school friends' little boy - they are about the same age and were so cute together!

I did a terrible job of taking photos of our Christmas eve get-together, sorry family!

my mom joined us :)

My dad made some amazing fettucini and our favorite, armadillo rolls!  Thanks for hosting and totally spoiling us, dad.  We had a great time! 

Christmas in seattle

The official portrait from meeting Santa... maybe next year we'll get a smile.

Dad and Ry-Ry getting off the carousel downtown

We wanted to do a small Christmas with just our little family before heading over the mountain to see the rest of our families.  

We let him open some presents Wednesday evening (Shelby helped)

Thanks, Mamaw and PaRay! He loves his book, piggy bank, and 2010 mint coin set :)

Santa came early to Seattle and Ry woke up to gifts on Thursday morning.  His favorite gift was wrapping paper, thanks Santa!

(I uploaded this from my phone... don't mind the wonky formatting please)

Merry Christmas

If you didn't get one of these guys in the mail, I apologize.  Next year we'll have to make a Christmas card (and stamps!) budget so all of our friends and family get one.  

Merry (late) Christmas from all of us!

First mastered sign = "all done!"

We've been signing with Ry-ry for about 2 months now.  He will sometimes imitate them but hasn't really gotten the idea of doing them on his own yet - except for "all done!"  He's been doing it independently for about a week.  Now, after every meal - he waves his hands up in the air when he's ready to get out of his high chair.  I had to prompt him a little in the video - but he can normally do it without me saying anything.  I'm such a proud mama!

He's on the verge of signing eat, drink, dog, and milk independently as well.

Santa's video to Ry-Ry

Santa sent this Video to Ryland.  Ry-guy laughs and squeals while he watches it.  Too cute!

My Christmas-y babies

8-months old and the BLUEST eyes

can't believe she tolerated this!

My child's idea of crawling...

He's really trying... but gets so frustrated.  I think his slinky little crawl is pretty funny.

Dowtown Christmas Adventure

 Downtown Seattle is gorgeous this time of year.  It's also a madhouse!  We had a little break this afternoon when Brent and I were both off work (never happens!) - so we went downtown for Ryland to meet Santa at the original Nordstrom in his cute workshop.

 Perfect timing on our part - only a 10 minute wait.  People are usually waiting for about 2 hours, so if you're thinking of going, try mid-day Thursday!  And Brent's looking good, right (I gave him that haircut!!)

 Ryland loved Santa (HUGE smiles when he saw him), but was a little overwhelmed by the decor and the photographer.  No amount of jumping, blowing raspberries, or clapping would make him smile.  Brent even thought banging me over the head with a stuffed animal several times would do the trick (embrarrassing!) We ordered a professional photo anyway which should arrive next week - pretty sure my cute little guy is going to have a big, blank stare in it! *sigh* at least he's well dressed.

Thai food for lunch!  Ry-guy loves him some rice.