Happy Birthday TJ!

We hope you have a wonderful birthday and a really fun party this weekend! Wish we could be there to celebrate with you, but at least we were able to have an early birthday celebration last weekend!

Mommy's Little Helper

I like to get my daily chores done first thing in the morning (after I feed Rian breakfast of course). Therefore I don't have to worry about them the rest of the day. Rian has been such a little helper these days...

Today's chores were dusting and vacuuming. Here she is dusting the TV stand the humidifier! I didn't even ask her to help, she just grabbed her own paper towel and went at it!

My mom gave her a little vacuum for Christmas and when she saw me get mine out, she went and got hers too. I just thought is was the cutest thing ever.

Hey, Hey, Hey, Goodbye....

Look at this face, how can you deny it! We'll we just had to, Rian is about to turn 18 months, and the time has definitely come. Although we were only giving her her binkie at nap and nighttime, we have finally completely winged Rian off her binkie, or as I like to call it binkster (I know I'm weird, and Matt really dislikes that word for it). We just put her down one night last week without it and although she did cry a little bit, it really didn't seem to bother her all that much. So from then on, it's been MIA. She hasn't even noticed really :) I know we are extremely lucky that Rian wasn't that addicted to it.

Sliding

Rian absolutely LOVED this slide at my sister's house. We were all sitting on the couch talking when all the sudden we hear Rian talking incredibly loud, like she was trying to get our attention or something. We look around the corner, into the playroom, and there she is standing on top of the slide. My heard dropped thinking that she could fall any minute, so we brought the slide out to the family room, where we could all watch closely. And from then on it was non-stop sliding!!!

I know it might look as though she is hurting herself while sliding down, but I swear she had so much fun. Every time she landed I would cringe, but she would stand up right away smiling and clapping and want to go again!

Winter Wonderland

We took advantage of the long weekend and went to visit my sister and her family in a little town nestled in the middle of the beautiful mountains of Idaho called Cascade. Nancee and Tyler (my sister and brother-in-law) have made their own little winter wonderland right outside their front door.

Cascade already has tons and tons of snow and tons of winter toys to play with. We all had our own snowmobiles to ride...including our nephew TJ; who is only 4. And we had their ENTIRE snow covered neighborhood all to OURSELVES. Not to mention a pretty good size hill to sled and snowboard down. Can you imagine endless terrain to snowmobile, snowboard, and sled on and NOBODY to share it with? Heaven!!! We had such a fun time....Thanks Nanc and Tyler!

Just to explain some of the pics from left to right, top to bottom....

1. What a view, we wouldn't mind waking up to it every morning

2. Brea on the sledding hill

3. Rian wasn't very happy the first time we dressed her up in her snow gear

4. Our family taking a snowmobile ride....and yes Matt did drive Rian safely around like that

5. TJ on his snowmobile and Nancee pulling Brea and Rian on a sled

6. Rian fell asleep on the snowmobile ride to the sledding hill, so this is where she napped

7. TJ on his snowmobile....that kid is amazing on it, we were totally impressed!

8. This is how we got back up the snowboarding hill after we boarded down. This is my sister on the back with her board still strapped to her feet. I loved that we didn't even have to unstrap to get up the hill.

9. Brea and Rian on the snowmobile (only for posing purposes of course!)

10. Another beautiful view

11. Rian all bundled up in her adorable snow outfit

12. Brea and Rian being pulled on a sled

13. Rian...not very happy

14. Rian....very happy, playing in the snow

15. Our family on the sledding/boarding hill. Don't mind the squinting...it was so bright

16. Close up of Rian napping

Another Accomplishment

Rian did the sit-n-spin all by herself! I love how she watches her older cousins play and then tries to copy them. She was so proud of herself....as were we!

Cousins

Do you know how hard it is to take a picture of three little ones together?! They ended up doing pretty well though!

Chillin' In Her Ride

Rian loves her little pooh car, but lately has decided that she would much rather chill in it that take it for a ride. She leans back, puts her feet up, and just relaxes..or sometimes she'll read a book! So cute!

For All You San Diegans...

I think that we have more snow already this year than we had the entire winter last year? What do you think? Here is our front walkway and our garden area. Piled high with snow!

Our backyard is completely buried too. I mostly put this up for my mom who is coming to visit in Feb. There is a reason why she moved to San Diego from New Jersey :)

I Sure Learned My Lesson...

I can't believe I am actually going to post this, but I guess my hope is to warn all parents out there who will read this, so it doesn't happen to their little one.

Last Sunday started out as any normal Sunday. We woke up early, ate breakfast, showered, and headed off to church at 9. When we got home we decided to eat some lunch, relax a bit, and then head outside to enjoy some of the snow we've been blasted with.

So I am sitting on the couch talking on my cell phone when Rian comes up to me and wants to sit next to me. I lift her up by her right arm (around her bicep) using only my right hand because remember I am on the phone and my left hand is occupied. So I'm not really paying much attention and.....

CRACK. CRACK. We head off to the ER with a screaming baby. Actually she handled it pretty well, much better than me. The dr said I had given her what they call 'nursemaids elbow' which basically means that her forearm bones are not fused together to her elbow and when I lifted her up by her arm I twisted them out of place. I felt so guilty and awful and horrible and every word you could possibly imagine. I did this to her. The dr said that it is actually quite common especially with 18 month olds. Rian is doing perfectly fine now. It took her a few days to start using her right arm again, but I am so thankful that she finally is. Thanks for all the prayers! Can you imagine the guilt I have been feeling this past week???

So the moral of the story is....Be careful when picking up your child, especially if you only have one hand available to lift them up.

This is a picture of her swollen right wrist and fingers taken on Monday. It's hard to compare them to her left hand, but seriously, you try having a 17 month old sit still with her hands like that. Not easy. Then I had to take a picture of her puppy dog eyes. I am so sorry Ri.

So this is why I haven't posted. Number 1, we didn't have any pictures and I was planning on taking some while we played in the snow. And Number 2, I really didn't want to admit that I did this.