Merry Christmas!

Today has been such a wonderful Christmas Day! Ryan did not sleep much at all last night, making today quite the exhausting day, but he did relatively well considering the fact that he didn't sleep last night. He must have been excited for Santa Claus to come. His favorite toy, the baseball bat. It came in a little set, but he really likes the bat. I did not have high expectations of him today, since I knew it would be overwhelming and I'm glad that I didn't, because the toys I thought he would really like, he doesn't really play with yet. We went to my parents house this morning and had breakfast. They are so generous and I am so grateful that they take care of us the way they do. We had a great breakfast there...sausage souffle. Yum!! Ryan couldn't have that, but he loved the muffins.

I just thought this picture was hysterical. So I added it.

Eric with his power tools and Andrew with his leaf blower. What men! More fun pics of Mom & Ryan, Grandpa with his new coat (I love this picture), My gift to Mom & Dad (and Haley's) and then Nicole. She is just always a hoot!

Ryan Crawling

We also took this footage of Ryan this evening. He is now crawling...watch out. It's so cute to watch.

Christmas Eve

I love Christmas Time!!! We are getting ready for Christmas tomorrow. I am making some muffins for breakfast and I think Santa is ready to come! We spent some time this morning cleaning our place, so it is spotless for Santa Claus:)

We also went to my parents house today, and then spent some time at Erics parents this afternoon. But this afternoon, there was a freak snow storm that just slammed us. It took us an hour and a half to drive home from Bountiful. I wanted to cry, it was so scary. The roads were not plowed and they were so icy. I was so grateful to get home. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.

Ryan opened a present this evening. He got some cute little Christmas Pajamas. I love them! We got some fun photos of him.

Ryan with my Dad.

Christmas Parties

I love the holiday season. I have so much fun getting together with friends and family and celebrating. Last Friday night was my (Ali's) work party. We went to Lugano and had a very nice dinner and then enjoyed fun conversations with those I work with. We played a gift exchange game. The first gift I opened up was a Green Bay Packers Christmas stocking. I was thrilled when I got doubles with the dice and was able to steal a duffle bag full of balls. I was lucky enough to end up with the gift and Ryan just loves it. I open it up, lay all of the balls on the ground and just let Ryan go to town. I took a couple of them to church yesterday and all of the kids loved playing with them. Eric got a marble play device thing. Yeah, I don't know what it's called, you basically create a little obstacle course type thing for a marble and then drop it into the first hole and it eventually finds its way to the bottom. He did a great job setting it up. Nikki likes it too. She loved to put the marble in it and could have done it all day long. It did well until I tried to move it and it fell over, sorry Eric. You are going to have to set it up again one day. We also went to my aunt Joy's house yesterday for the Black family Christmas Party. I love that party. It is one of the only times I get to see my Mom's side of the family. Plus, we always play Bingo. I don't know why, but I love playing Bingo at this party. There are so many people that it was madness for a little bit, but I loved every minute of it.

Christmas Lights

Today was our first big snowstorm of the season. It started snowing early early this morning and continued on through the early afternoon. I was grateful that it is a Saturday and we were able to stay at home and watch it, instead of having to be out in it. Its much prettier from a home than in a car. Since it let up early enough we decided to take the train downtown and see the Christmas lights. Ryan was so good on the train. Especially the train ride home. It was so much fun to see him surrounded by Christmas lights all bundled up in his stroller and just stare at the lights. Of course he had his binki in, I swear he looks like Maggie Simpson, just sucking on the binki. We had a great time. The lights were especially pretty because of the fresh snow on all of them. For the Rytting family...it looks like the Pine tree off of the Christmas Joy record that dad used to play growing up except underneath it was covered in lights.

Catching up

It has been a long time since I last posted. For some reason, it has taken me forever to upload some new pictures. Here are some fun ones from New York.

Also a funny video of Jacob making him laugh.
Eric & I took Ryan to Gateway so we could see the Christmas lights turn on. It was cold and late and Ryan just wanted to sleep, but I couldn't leave before they lighted the big Christmas Tree. Right after they lit it, we had our picture taken and left. I couldn't leave early...come on, its Christmas.

Eric & Ali Dancing

Star in Your Own JibJab! It's Free!

Nemo

I tried to post the Palmyra post yesterday, but it wouldn't upload. So here it is. I will try to load Ryan laughing with Jacob and see if it works today. I did get Ryans Halloween costume for next year, however. He is going to be Nemo. They are clearing out their Halloween costumes at the Disney store out here and so I got him this costume for $5. Not Bad!!!

Palmyra

Ryan and I are continuing to have an enjoyable trip here in New York. Today we drove to Palmyra and were able to see some of the church history sites. What an amazing thing. I wish that we could have spent more time outside looking at things, but it was cold and windy and Ryan wasn't liking the cold air too much. Good luck this winter Haley! Well, The picture above this is Ryan and I at the Hill Cumorah. It is amazing that we were in the vicinity where Joseph Smith found the plates. It is such a wooded area, I couldn't belive that Joseph Smith was able to transfer the plates safely in that area.
Here is a picture of the Palmyra temple (in the background). What a beautiful temple. I wish that I could do a session there.
Here is Haley and cute little Alexis. She had the messiest diaper. Ryan hasn't had one that bad. It was all over the place. Haley basically had to bathe her to clean her up.
So we went to the mall the other day. All of the stores had their Halloween costumes on clearance. Well, we went to the disney store and they had all of their stuff on sale. Well this is Trevors costume for next year. It was on sale for I think about $12. It retails for $40, he has been wanting to wear it a lot. So funny. Jacob wanted to be Buzz Lightyear also, so they will both be Buzz for Halloween in '08.
Jacob and Trevor are hysterical. They are so loud and noisy and love every minute of it.



Here is a super funny video of Jacob making Ryan laugh.

New York

Ryan and I are currently in New York visiting my sister Haley, who just had a baby. Yesterday was quite the experience being in airports all day long with Ryan, all by myself. He did much better than I expected. I was lucky to be able to bring his carrier on the plane. He was so much better because he could be in that. I was almost embarrassed with all of the stuff that I took. But, I didn't know what he was going to need and so I feel like I brought his entire bedroom. He drank so much applejuice, I think it did him in. He also is having a hard time napping here, but he'll adjust. I'm big into letting him adjust to new things. Hopefully he'll want to experience lots in his life! He loves his cousins, especially Trevor. He and Trevor have been playing together today. It's so great to be here and visit Haley. I hope Eric doesn't miss me too much :) I certainly miss him lots and I just left yesterday. Here are some fun pics with Ryan and the kids. Here is little Lexi.

Happy Halloween

Today is a wonderful day! Ryan has had fun in his costume, for the most part. We have been all over the place and I think that he is so happy to finally be in bed sleeping. The trunk or treat was a ball. We ran out of candy in 25 minutes and I bought over 100 pieces. Crazy!!!

Kiddie Kandids Pictures

Yesterday we had Ryan & Nikki's pictures taken at Kiddie Kandids in their Halloween costumes. Check out the link. They turned out pretty good.
http://mystudio.kiddiekandids.com/viewshare.asp?c=016030964EUS2BJEK

Family Pictures

We had our family picture taken today. Andrew took them for us up at the Temple Quarry. Hopefully they turned out good. We took some snapshots with our camera. Poor Ryan was so tired and cold. He just screamed for a good chunk of our outing as well as the drive home. Not much more news. I got some good footage of him laughing. I love to hear him laugh. Eric doesn't like it too much because you can see how bald he is getting :)

Baby Alexis

My sister Haley had her baby yesterday. Her name is Alexis Meg, and she is just so cute. I know that Haley is going to post pictures, but I am almost beating her to the punch because I have to show you all how cute! I am so excited, because I will be going to New York in 2 weeks to visit. I can't wait to hold her. Congrats Haley & Wayne!