5 Days of Christmas

Our Christmas started on Thursday evening and lasted until Monday. Rilee made it all the way through the 5 days of our Christmas. She must have been a very good girl this year because she got a lot of gifts! Mom and Dad really enjoyed watching Rilee open all of her gifts and interacting and playing with her family. It was a great 5 days and now that Christmas is over we are all having a lot of fun playing with all of Rilee's new toys!

Thursday Evening at Aunt Wanda's (actually Great Great Aunt Wanda's)
Rilee is putting on her chap stick or lip lip as she calls it.



Friday Afternoon at Great Uncle Kevin's and Great Aunt Judy's

Rilee and Lilliann reading with Aunt Ashlee



Talking with a Rilee sized Santa, or Ho Ho in Rilee language.



Opening presents



Playing with Lilliann's band




Everyone was surprised when Mom and Shannon brought the girls out in their MATCHING pajamas, and no that was not planned!



Busy playing with all of her new presents



Saturday Afternoon at Home
Rilee refused to take a nap without her new elephant that she got from Hollie and Dave Friday night. The elephant is a stuffed animal/pillow and when you unfold the pillow an extremely soft blanket unrolls as well. Rilee demanded to have the stuffed elephant by her as well as having to be covered up by the blanket. (Great gift Hollie and Dave)



Saturday Evening at Great Great Aunt Bonnie's (Christmas Eve)
Story time with Poppy



Christmas Morning at Home
Santa brought Rilee a new kitchen, a set of blocks, a giraffe, a dinosaur, several new books, a puzzle that makes animal sounds, and several sets of new sippy cups.



The first thing Rilee played with was her phone on her new kitchen. She immediately called Bo Bo to tell her about her new gift.




Christmas Morning at Grambo and Big Poppy's



One of Rilee's favorite gifts was her Talking Zoo from Aunt Ashlee and Uncle Bill. All of the animals make sounds, there is a slide they can all go down, and even a tree swing. Rilee was an especially good girl in Grambo, Poppy, Aunt Ashlee, and Uncle Bill's eyes because she got a TON of presents from them. She is one spoiled little girl! Mom is rather stressed trying to find places for all of her new toys!



Christmas Afternoon at Grandpa Pops'
Rilee loved the kitty cat and had to follow her all over the house.



Mom and Dad bought the kids a Guitar Hero Band for the XBox. Of course everyone had to try it out, even Rilee helping Dad on the drums!



Monday afternoon at Great Grandma's
We spent most of day at Great Grandma's where Rilee opened even more presents! Here she is playing with her hammer and nails.



How many adults does it take to put together a nursery set?



Rilee loves playing with her babies, so the nursery was a great idea!



Rilee got a puzzle holder equipped with 4 new puzzles from Great Aunt Karen and Great Uncle Don. She's showing Grambo all of them!



Story time with Uncle Bill

Christmas Cookies

We went to Great Grandma's yesterday to make Christmas cookies. Rilee could help this year! She was definitely more interested in eating the dough and the finished cookies then actually helping Mom or Grambo. Daddy had to work so he came over late. When he walked in he had a surprise for Rilee, a fish! She was really excited and has enjoyed looking at it and feeding it all day today. Way to go Daddy!

Getting Ready for Christmas

We have been very busy preparing for Christmas. Last Friday we went and picked out our Christmas tree. Rilee was much more interested in looking at the statues of pigs and other animals. Here she is petting one of those pig statures.



Then on Saturday when Daddy got home from work we put the Christmas tree up. Rilee liked helping with the lights and attempting to put ornaments on the tree. By the end of the night she figured out that the best way for her to help would be to take the ornament from Dad and pass it to Mom who then put it on the tree.






On Sunday we went to see Santa. Rilee loves to look at pictures of Santa and read about him in her books. She can even tell you that Santa says "Ho Ho Ho." But, when she went to sit on his lap she was not a fan! She HATED Santa. After she stopped crying we went around and looked at all the other things at Bass Pro Shop. She eventually calmed down and even enjoyed breakfast at Cracker Barrel.





Sunday evening we went over to Grambo and Poppy's to decorate their tree. It was a weekend full of Christmas preparation!

Busy Saturday

Saturday was a very busy day! We started the day off with watching the Ohio State vs. Michigan game. Even though Rilee was a great cheerleader for the Buckeyes, they were defeated.



Rilee only watched a very little bit of the game because she was too busy "working out." She discovered the weights and work out equipment when Grambo took her to get a snack and then it was very hard to get her to stop long enough to watch the game.






It was a beautiful November day and reached 60 degrees, so after the game we went home and waited for Daddy to get off work. When he got home Grambo and Poppy came over and we all went to the zoo to see the Lights Before Christmas. We had a great time! Rilee was overwhelmed with all that there was to look at. She was ooohing and aaahing the whole time. Her favorite light display was the "dancing" lights that moved and blinked to Christmas music. She even danced a little!




Rilee had the best seat in the house!



This is the tree where Daddy proposed to Mommy six years ago! Or like Mommy likes to say "where it all began!"



It was a really great night! Mommy and Daddy were so glad Grambo and Poppy could join us! Rilee loved it! Her eyes never stopped moving from light display to light display. She also added sound effects to the animal light displays. Rilee does great animal sounds!




At the end of the night we let Rilee walk on her own. She was so excited that she didn't walk, but ran through the rest of the lights. It was so crowded Mommy and Daddy made sure we had a good grip on her little hands and ran right with her!



It was a great night and one that Mommy and Daddy will never forget!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving! On Wednesday we went to Great Aunt Karen's for dinner and then on Thursday we went to Grandpa Pop's for dinner, Grandma Cathy's, and finally to Great Aunt Karla's. Of course Rilee, being the diva that she is, had more than one Thanksgiving outfit so we had to do several changes throughout the holiday. It was a great two days of food and family!