Counting the Days

Oma gave Rylee and Ashlyn these advent calendars with a chocolate for each day. They both love to eat their chocolate for the day- Ashlyn gets mad if Rylee has one and not her.

Writing Her Name

Rylee wrote her name- she said the letters as she wrote it. I watched her do the E's and was very surprised she could do that! It looks pretty good for the first time!

Ho! Ho! Ho!

So I got this wonderful idea to go see Santa because next Saturday would probably be busy because it was the last Saturday. But so did a lot of other people. We waited in line for about an hour- but Rylee got to play in the play area and Ashlyn took a little nap, so it all worked out. Ashlyn was so good right up until she was put on Santa's lap. But that's to be expected at this age, I think! But Rylee loved it- she couldn't wait for her turn. She had already seen him yesterday in Layton, but she was excited to see him again. She remembered to tell him that she wanted to ride in his sleigh. He asked what else she wanted and she just told him to bring presents. She doesn't care, I guess, as long as she gets something!

Eye Surgery

No pictures for this one- good for everybody- trust me! Long story short- my retina detached out of the blue while at school on Thursday, December 3. I went in for emergency surgery in Salt Lake on Friday, December 4. I had to lay on my side for a week as the gas bubble they put in my eye reattached my retina. I went for a post-op appointment in Salt Lake this morning and everything looks great. I can be normal again. I still can't see out of it because of the gas bubble, but that should go away in a few weeks. It wasn't as bad as the last two times my retina detached. I was face-down for two weeks each time. That was 5 years ago. I guess it wasn't out of the blue. I have pars planitis in my left eye which is inflammation and it can cause the retina to detach. It wasn't trauma or anything. Thanks to everyone who prayed for me and helped me through last week with everything.

Rylee thought she had to go to Salt Lake with me because it was fun when we went with Daddy last time to the doctor. But she didn't like the hospital Salt Lake- she wanted the "other Salt Lake"- the one with the hotel and swimming pool. Despite being disappointed, she was a very good girl as my dad drove Rylee and I to the doctor. She even got to see Santa at the Layton mall. On the way out of the mall, she said she forgot to tell Santa something. She wanted to ask if she could ride on his sleigh! She loved him- it was so cute!

Ashlyn is 11 months old!

She is 11 months old today. It's hard to believe she'll be one next month! She doesn't sit still for two seconds, so it's getting harder to take pictures of her. Pretty soon I won't have any pictures to put on my blog because my kids won't cooperate! I tried to pose her in places where she might sit still for a few shots, but I didn't get many good ones!

Crawling Downstairs

Ashlyn has been trying to crawl down the stairs for the past few days. She gets down a couple and then crawls back up. So yesterday (on Thanksgiving) she wanted to go down, so I thought I'd take a few pictures. And she ended up going down the whole way all by herself! Then Matt said I should have videotaped it, so I got the video camera and she went down again all by herself! It's funny because she goes down two ways- one is on her tummy and the other is hard to explain, but she somehow uses her arm first. It looks like she's going to fall, but she has very good balance- and she's very flexible! Way to go, Ashlyn!

Ashlyn's First Thanksgiving

She spent it talking to all of her friends and family on the phone and pushing Rylee's scooter. She ate a lot at dinner- more than Rylee, that's for sure! Grandpa couldn't feed her fast enough! She's such a good little eater.