Christmas 2014

We opted for a quiet Christmas vacation at home in Redwood City, with a couple of trips across the Bay to Danville to spend time with my family :) Daisy had a lot of fun with the Christmas tree and re-arranging all of the (gratefully shatterproof) ornaments, and she got SOOOO excited each time we saw Christmas lights on houses. Holidays truly are more magical with kids, especially once they start to understand what's going on!

"helping" set up the Christmas tree

The Menlo Park stake does this AMAZING creche exhibit each December, with nativities from all over the world. I took Daisy, and we spent most of the time in the kids' room playing with the baby Jesus dolls in the dress-up nativity area. All five of them. She was obsessed with babies and was not good at sharing them. Haha.

This is also the month that Daisy became obsessed with her "by-oooh
 shirt. She loves BYU and the cougars! Chris is so proud.

It rained a TON in December too. Our front sidewalk had the most glorious puddle.

Daisy and "The Ben", her favorite baby friend. Our friend Steve and Stacey's 3mo son!

I lost my wallet in December, too :( and on one of our trips to search for it, Daisy befriended this random waitress at a restaurant we walked past, all for the purpose of seeing this Olaf statue.

Christmas Eve with friends! The power went out, but that didn't stop us from sourcing candles and flashlights and still having a great dinner :)

How The Grinch Stole Christmas. Shari is a captivating storyteller!

We acted out the Christmas story from Luke 2 with all of the kids....Daisy was a wise man, With a stogie and one shoe missing. Of course.

cutest little nativity kiddos! I didn't get great pictures, as I was elected to play Mary. Probably had something to do with me being "great with child", haha. My friend's 5yo son was Joseph and he was adorable. 

We didn't put presents out until after bed on Christmas Eve. It's my favorite part.

And I also love seeing all of the Christmas Cards from friends and family!

Christmas morning! We were FaceTiming with Grandma and Grandpa Rydalch while we opened presents :)

New dolly from Grandma Great!

The glorious unwrapping aftermath.

We also celebrated our 3rd anniversary right after Christmas! It was a Sunday, so we just went to church, Daisy looked too dang cute, and we enjoyed some nice snuggle time on the couch afterward. We introduced Daisy to The Incredibles! The night before Chris and I went out to Danville so my parents could watch Daisy and we could go see The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies. Each installation has come out right around our anniversary, so the past 3 years that's been our anniversary date :) hashtag nerds. hashtag we're in love. hashtag mushy.

The BEST part of the Christmas season, though, was the birth of our niece!!! Sarah and Adam's baby girl was born on December 30th. Lily Marie is the cutest and we LOVE HER. It's so much fun being an Aunt and Uncle!

Thanksgiving 2014

We chanced our first big car trip with Daisy and the CRV, and it did not disappoint! It's a 10-12 hour drive from the Bay up to Corvallis, OR where my Grandparents live. Daisy was a champ at entertaining herself! My brother, Jacob, rode with us on the way there and that was super helpful too.

Daisy had so much fun playing with all of Grandma Adams' toys (especially her pop beads!). I kept myself busy baking with my cousin Alina (6 pies!). Chris entertained himself by teasing Grandpa Adams and taking Daisy back to our hotel for daily naps. Every day it took her less and less time to fall asleep on the car ride to the hotel. Alina and Auntie Bekah were fabulous Daisy entertainers.

Pop beads with Great!

Alina was Daisy's favorite :)

Gettin' comfy watching Signing Time in the morning. Hahaha.

Apple pie in progress!

ALL THE PIES! Pumpkin^2, cherry, salted caramel apple, pecan cobbler, Dutch apple, and blackberry!

Taking Bekah to Ulta for a makeover and makeup buying fun!

So many car naps.

Again, I completely missed all of the important photos like, say, ones of my whole family. Haha. It was really great to be with everyone - we don't all get together often and it's always a blast when we do! I love my cousins, aunts, and uncles. My Dad's family is the best. We're having a full family reunion next month and I can't wait!

Halloween 2014

Daisy is a big fan of Pooh Bear, so we dressed up as characters from the Hundred Acre Wood for Halloween! Chris was Christopher Robin, Daisy was Pooh Bear, and I was Kanga (plus Roo).

I made our costumes for the most part - with the exception of Chris' (thank you, Kohl's clearance!) and the ears for Daisy and I. It was so much fun. I am a big fan of Halloween costumes. Daisy's Pooh Bear is essentially a fuzzy bubble skirt with a modified Wal-Mart t-shirt attached. It was comfy and she loved wearing her "Pooh dress". Mine I made from a vintage maternity dress pattern and a vintage stuffed animal pattern for the Roo head (which is slightly creepy when not attached...but it's Halloween right? haha). It bugs me now that I chose the "wrong" brown for the Kanga costume, and I wish I had gone with something lighter, but hey! It's just a costume. I only wore it once. Haha. 

We didn't take Daisy trick-or-treating this year, but we did go to a couple of fun parties with our little friends :)

Rydalch Family Campout 2014

We flew in to SLC late Wednesday night, drove up to Roy, and then went up to Malad, ID the next day! We spent 3 full days soaking in the sun (and a surprising amount of rain), eating delicious food (seriously, my in-laws know how to cook in the wild), and laughing with family. Daisy was about 16mos and was in heaven. She loved having so much open space to explore, we worried we'd never be able to reign her in again. Our yard-less California home seemed a bit cruel after seeing how much this kid loves the outdoors.

getting ready to drive up to Idaho!

There was some ultra-manly reason for taking this picture, that neither Chris or myself can remember now. I know he whittled the stick himself and then something happened with it burning???

SERIOUSLY. This place is so beautiful! Idaho, you surprised me!

This is kind of a funky picture, it's taken through a window. But Daisy and Papa Rydalch (Matt) both fell asleep in the same position during naptime.

My first time on an ATV!

family ATV selfie!

Daisy and the dogs became BFFs

Daisy learned how to kick, thanks to Uncle Brett!