Highlights of Christmas in 2009

Oh how sad I am to be headed back to school tomorrow. This winter break has been so much fun and relaxing as well as productive and special. We were able to visit with many people, share a 1st Christmas, and squeeze my post pregnancy bod into a swimsuit (ugghh)! I'll explain with pictures what we loved about the break.

We started out by visiting one of my favorite people and families of all time: The Hostetters. We enjoyed a tasty lasagna lunch and Christmas gifts with the kids. It was so good to see my best friend of all time, whom I miss terribly every day. I can't get enough of that great gal and we have way too much fun talking and hanging out.

The Tan Man (Anner's Sweet Eyeore:)

Tyce (Love his glasses and all of his energy)

Tate (oldest and such a great brother) and Trin (sweet and absolutely adorable)

On Christmas Eve, I always give my kids a new pair of pajamas to wear and it is the only gift they get to open before Christmas morning. This is a tradition that my mom always did when we were growing up and I always loved wearing new jammies on Christmas Eve.

Rylan's Polar Bear Jammies

Payton's Sweet Dreams Jammies (She is trying not to smile or laugh)

First Cabin Christmas at the Kuhrt Cabin: We finally got to enjoy a Christmas at my parents Cabin in the Black Hills. Cabin Christmas is by far the best way to celebrate the holidays and carry on the traditions that my family has instilled in me, including stringing popcorn and cranberries for garland, hanging gingerbread boys for ornaments, drying apple rings for ornaments and other great activities that are homemade and great bird food. I am always the one that wants to string popcorn and cranberries for the tree and I have to work hard to recruit helpers. When we are done with the tree, we typically put the tree in a snow drift and let all of the little critters enjoy our Christmas Decorations, but my parents weren't real keen on the invite for varmints so we weren't able to do that this year.

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

. . . and the stockings were hung by the chimney with care. So this is where our stockings will hang in the future and not by stick pins. I failed to mention that our cabin isn't completely finished and the chimney is still under construction. There are still some things that need to be finished but we didn't let that hinder our celebration.

The Grandkids decked out in their Christmas PJs camping chair and all. Kale is holding on for dear life because he knows from the pumpkin patch what his cousin Payton is capable of. SCARY!!

TO BE CONTINUED!!!!

Pre-Christmas Pictures

I had a hard time choosing which shots to put on our LATE Christmas Card. I wish I had my life together enough to get my card out in a timely manner, but this year I managed to volunteer my time away. I realized that on Monday, if I didn't get my act together, they would be New Year's cards rather than Christmas. Thanks to Walgreens on-line, I pulled it off and hopefully everyone will get their card before the actual holiday. My apologies, (Brent could seriously care less).It's a girl thing I guess. I included the pictures on our card and the others that proved my decision to be very difficult.

Paytor's following my directions to pretend :)

Payton being naturally sweet when I actually needed her to be (surprising with a two year old) and Rylan totally showing his true colors (excessively happy)

Rylan clapping and giggling as I did what I could to look like a doofus and feel like one too. I guess it works, he was applauding my abilities.

The ornament prop didn't work out like I had hoped it would

Smilin' Rylan

This always gives me a warm feeling when I see my babies grinning from ear to ear

Payton actually started kissing Rylan without my prompting and bribing and I couldn't decide which picture to go with, so this is my way of feeling better about the decision I made

Smoochy smoochy!

The unnatural smile from my two year old but still absolutely priceless.

This was Brent's idea of my christmas gift. (Doesn't it look like we placed the tree directly on top of Rylan. Poor little guy. Thank goodness he was sound asleep.)

Our little turkeys!

I'd like to report that the Uhrich's had a great Thanksgiving Break. It included everything from laughter with family, loving on my kiddos, to being thankful for such a great life. Brent and I bundled up the kiddos and headed for Wyoming to see my family at my Grandparent's Cabin in the Snow Range Mountains. Unfortunately it wasn't very snowy until Thanksgiving day and then we only got a little bit of snow, but that turned out to be a blessing because we had to travel back to the big CO that night. Little Rylers managed to pick up the army crawl like a champ this weekend and is moving along at a much quicker speed than I would prefer. Paytors can't get enough of Finding Nemo these days and thinks her day isn't complete until she has watched it. Grandma cooked an enormous dinner for us which included the traditional fixings and the ever disappearing carmel rolls that she is known for. We enjoyed our feast with the family: Grandma and Grandpa Mann, my Aunt Jane and her girls Kim and Krista, my sister Shauna and her family, Shawn and Baby Kale, and then the Uhrich Crew. We had a full table and lots of yummy food. On Friday, to my surprise and the best part of our whole break, my Mom and sister Heather came down to visit and see the kidlings. We shopped, shopped, talked, and talked some more. We also completed our Christmas purchase for ourselves and got it all put together. Wait till you see the pictures below. It is beautiful and enormous, but if you're gonna go big you might as well go huge. So we did! Well, here are some pictures below that explain it all.

Rylan's New Monkey Hat (super cute and cuddly)

Grayson and Payton when he come to visit (Yet again, super cute and cuddly)

Smilin' Rylan

Shawn and Krista

Shauna and Baby Kale (look at those baby blues)

My Marie (love her)

Finding Nemo Coma

Turkey Naps

Nap Time (my favorite picture)

The Grand Daddy of them All (We bought a Sony 52 in. LCD TV with a Blue Ray player and of course an entertainment center to go along with it) It is all about accessories isn't it?

Happy Halloween!

So here are more pics from Halloween. My sweet Paytor Pie was a ladybug ballerina and old McRylan was a chicken. Cutest darn ladybug and chicken I ever did see. Then there were the cool parents dressed as a Prehistoric Caveman and 80s Diva (Debbie Gibson). We were hot, we know! The scary part is I got more compliments on my crimped fro than on the new haircut from three or four weeks ago. We did some hard core trick or treating from about 5:30 to 9:45 pm. You would think my kids would have been crabby and tired but really they were serious troopers. Not that we are an early to bed type family anyway, but I was surprised at how tolerant they were of getting in and out of their car seats. Uugghh! We got to visit some great friends and family in Fort Collins and Windsor. I had to include some drunkin pics of my family to embarass them a bit, and show off how classy we are when we are having a good time. Love it!

Chicken Dumpling

Amma lovin' on Rylan
Paytor Bug

My Sexy Hubby (love that costume or his legs, minus the farmer's tan)

Sexy Lexi struttin' her stuff (She sang like a rockstar! Way to go Janet!)

My niece Jadon (I mean nephew, he sure makes a little hottie of a girl)

The Brother-in-law that had a little too much to drink and decided he was Rod Stewart beltin it out with his background singers

And then there was this cute couple who have way too much fun together (Fred Flinstone meets Debbie Gibson)

The 80's Crew! We are soooo rockin with our leg warmers!

Had to include this pic. This is the last time Ryler's will get to wear my favorite gator jammies that my sweet and missed friend Michele got him. I don't think you are supposed to be able to see the characters on his diaper through the alligator material. He is such a chunker monker! Love every single ounce!

Halloween Fun

Make a Smilebox postcard

I wanted to share some great pictures from our Halloween fun at school. Couldn't resist posting some great 80s candids and my cute kids.

Pickin out Punkins in the Patch

We took our first trip to the pumpkin patch today to choose the lucky pumpkin to go home with us. Of course, we had many other exciting activities to experience on our visit to the farm. We started out with Brent choosing some HoneyCrisp apples to take home which are soooooo yummy. Then we put OUR punkins in a wagon to go punkin huntin. We found a lot of good ol' punkins, but landed on one to bring home for carving. Lucky little Kale came along with us and that was a lot of fun too. We paid for our pumpkins, took some pics, and then went on a hayride. Here are some of our candids:

Radio Flyer Passengers

Like Sister like brother!

". . . and this is how they make popcorn."

Cousin Kale enjoying the farm to the fullest

How do I get this thing to go???

The lucky little punkin' we brought home (in March)

My sweet Paytor Pie on the hay ride

Sisters enjoying the hay ride, beautiful weather, and well-behaved babies

The farmer and his wifey!

Sibling Rivalry!

Rylan is 6 months old

A happy little 6 month old!
Little Miss Payton helps feed her favorite brother
Rylan sits in the bath tub now like a big boy
What Rylan looks like when you don't give him his food on time (The look of death)

So Rylan is 6 months old now. He is 20.6 pounds and 27 inches long. Payton only has 6 pounds on him, and only 1.4 pounds before we are done hauling him around in the infant car seat. I hope that doesn't mean he isn't an infant anymore. He enjoys rolling around on the floor, but gravitates toward the coffee table for some reason. He sits up on his own considering he has plenty of square inches to be fairly stable:) He is eating cereal in his high chair, and we hope to start some fruit this week and another feeding of cereal in the morning. He is a chatter box with baby talk and likes to yell to make sure we know where he is at all times. He doesn't like to be left for a second by himself and cries immediately if he can't see somebody. He is working on holding his own bottle, but is a little lazy and wants his mommy or daddy to do it for him most of the time. He is such a sweet little boy and is learning so much. He continues to adore his sister despite the torture she puts him through with her terrible twos. We have had a few incidents to say the least, but he is a trooper and I think retaliation isn't too far off in the future. Watch out Paytor Pie!