The Toone Family

Our cute little Tagen

2011-08-25T17:29:00.000-07:00

Just in case people don't know...I had my third beautiful baby girl on July 26th. She shares her birthday with her uncle Brad so I know she will be his favorite niece. She was 7lb 8oz and 21 inches long. The funny thing is she has a lot of dark hair! Don't know how that happened. The week before I had her I went to my doctor appointment and my doctor thought that I would go into labor any minute, but as the fates would have it I never did and it was the longest week of my life! My doctor was leaving on a trip so she asked if she could induce me. For some reason I was really hesitant on being induced. Don't ask me why but I liked the idea of having my water break like with my other two. Eventually Ryan and I decided that having my doctor deliver me was more important than going naturally so in we went two hours later. They started me and about a half hour later she broke my water and they gave me my epidural which didn't work...I know lame. You pay all this money and don't even get the relief you want. Eventually he got it to work and 5 minutes later I pushed 1 1/2 times and out she came! My doctor said it was a good thing I was induced or else Ryan would have been delivering me with no epidural. I guess I will be getting induced in the future. She is precious and the girls love her! Rylin's first comments were "oh my she is beautiful! I love her so much! What are those sparkles all over her face? "(the little white speckles all babies have) . I told her that's what Heavenly Father does to little princess babies. She liked that. Kennedy patted her, smiled, and went on her way. Now we will see if three is as hard as everyone says it is!

Birthday Time Again!

2011-08-18T08:36:00.001-07:00

Well summer for our family is Birthday Party Time! We started out with Kennedy in May. It was a beautiful day and I made her birthday cake and then my mom and I decided to take the girls to lunch at Paradise Cafe then look for a gift for Kennedy. It's hard to figure out what to give your kids when the first child has gotten everything for them. I got her a cute finger puppet book though. Then we got home and decorated for the big hot dog roast we planned for both Ryan and my family to come to. It was really fun. Of course Rylin, Drew, Owen, Caroline, and Rex were more excited to open Kennedy's presents than she was. She got crayons, a camp chair, clothes, and more. She was very dainty when it came to digging into her cake. She just pinched little parts of it to eat. It made clean up easy that's for sure. I made flower cup cakes for all the other kids to have and blow out a candle. They seemed to like that. It was a success in my eyes. Happy birthday little one!

Next came Rylin's birthday party in June. It was also a beautiful day which was surprising seeing that the weather this summer has been all rain. I woke up early and started on the cake. Once it was done my mom and I wanted to take Rylin and her cousins to go bowling and eat lunch. This is when everything crashed. An hour before we were supposed to leave, I got a call from both Heidi and Carrie saying that their kids weren't feeling good so they would have to pass. I broke down and cried since I had hyped Rylin up telling her how much fun she was going to have with her cousins bowling. I also never heard back from Angie so they were out too. Eventually I pulled myself together and Ryan being a sweet husband told me that if he needed to he would take a long lunch if he needed to and we could go bowling as a family. Eventually I pulled myself together and told Rylin all her cousins were sick but that Miranda, Grammy and I were going to go to take her to Boondocks and make it a very special day. We went and ate lunch there and started bowling when Carrie called and said Caroline was feeling better and they were on their way. She had a fun day bowling and playing the games up front. They each got some dinky toys with their tickets. We came home and Rylin went to target with my mom and picked out all her presents and helped her wrap them. We had the grandparents and great grandparents with a few aunts and uncles over for cake. She loved her barbies, yard tools, and princess phone that she got. Then Ryan and I had her open our gift which was a big barbie house. She was ecstatic! It was worth every penny we spent through KSL to get it. She also loved her princess cake. She helped make it and picked all the colors. It was fun. Well until next year!

Just In Case You Didn't Know

2011-01-13T19:42:00.000-08:00

Well for those in another galaxy not near mine I thought that I would inform of what has been happening in our not little family since my last post. We traveled to California for a week. Spent a couple days visiting Ryan's good friend Manny whom he baptized. Rylin loved it especially his dog Guero. We went to dinner together, spent some time at the beach, and caught up. It was fun. On our way out Ryan showed me all of his mission which was really fun to see especially since I have heard so many stories and putting a picture to it all really made it that much better. The reason we were in California is my parents took the whole family there for our family vacation where we stayed in a big beach house all together. Yes there was some drama, but isn't that expected on family vacations? Well at least on Rigby family vacations there always is drama because we all like to do different things and we all try and make it happen. We had a blast though. I mean how could you not when there is sun, sand, water, food, and a magical fairytale land involved? My dad also took us to an Angels game which was awesome seening that I have never been to a professional baseball game before. (professioinal meaning not the bees games) We flippin sat right next to the dug out in these plush seats where we had to constantly keep our eyes out for ball which obviously didn't work seeing that my dad and Carrie got hit by a foul ball and yes the french fries flew everywhere. It was classic. We spent most of our days at the beach playing beach sports and building castles. Then of course we hit up Disney Land during the halloween fest. It looked awesome. We stood in line all morning to see the princesses and sadly enough Belle wasn't even one of them (Rylin's favorite). She still loved seeing them though. She felt like they were her best friends. Kennedy was a trooper all day seeing that she didn't know what was going on but constantly had a smile on her face. I only wish that we had spent more time in Toon Town since Rylin was in her happy place there. I love Disney Land especially when you get to see your kids come to life. Long day though. I can't really think of any details since it feels like an eternity ago.

I can't forget to write about winter time! We had an awesome winter this year. I say this because it was the first Christmas since I have been married that everyone in my family was healthy and we could open presents with smiles on our faces! Of course we all got spoiled and Rylin absolutely love all the princess things she got from her grandparents. Kennedy didn't really understand what was happening and only cared to open a couple presents. We had some good snow days this year too. Rylin's favorite thing to do was go outside and fill up her little watering can with the dripping rain gutter water and pour it all over the yard. This would last an hour then she woud want to go inside and have hot chocolate with toast. She takes after her mother in that reguard. I didn't get to do much skiing this year seeing I was prego and had a 6 month old to take care of. Ryan took Rylin a handful of times and she is getting pretty good now. Ryan's got her learning her pizza and how toturn. Left foot is beast and right foot is beauty. We had to do yhat since she struggled with left and right.Kennedy got good at crawling this winter. Unlike Rylin she was moving all over the place. Luckly she never fell down the stairs though we had some close calls.

These were just some adorable pictures I took of the girls one fall day. I think they are getting pretty good at posing seeing that I do it quite often. Can you blame me?

Rylin is TWO!!

2010-06-22T20:57:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Rylin!! I honestly can't believe that another year has gone by and that Rylin is now two. It has been so fun to have her in our lives and we are the luckiest parents alive...sorry everyone else but I think you got jipped. She has been so funny lately because she is talking like crazy and we wanted to see if she really understood the concept of having a birthday, so two weeks before we told her that she was going to have a birthday in two weeks and that everyone was going to come over to eat cake and ice cream and that she was going to get some presents. So every time you asked her when her birthday was OR how old she was she would respond two weeks. We love it. She also would tell everyone she was going to get surprises in two weeks. She is doing a awesome job at holding those two little fingers up to show how old she is and for anyone who has had a kid they know that two is a hard number to do that with. A few of my favorite things that she has been doing is singing songs. She knows the whole "temple" song along with most of "Child of God" song. My favorite phrase she says is "mom it's so heavy". The way she says "so" makes me laugh EVERY time. She is also the best big sister to Kennedy. She gives her kisses about 50 times a day since that is the only thing she is allowed to do to Kennedy. She also helps me feed her bottles and gets me burp cloths and diapers anytime I ask. Lately she has been loving to hide everything. I open my pan cupboard or washing machine and find sippy cups, blankets, and toys so it is a daily scavenger hunt to find things that she wants that she has hidden. Let's see other things she does is takes all our shoes off the shelves and ends up putting daddy's shoes on and walking around the house. We have a no shoe policy in our house but for this I make exceptions because she is too cute to tell her to take them off.

As for her birthday party we were just going to do cake and ice cream but her grandmas, grandpas, aunts, and uncles were too generous and gave her all sorts of gifts. She loved them all and we wanted to say thanks to drew and Owen for helping her open her gifts. Seriously thanks to everyone who came we love you all. She decided she wanted a mermaid cake so just threw one together...ha ha ha. Not really I spent hours with the help of my sister Michelle getting to look like little mermaid, but I think it turned out nice. Once it was done my father-in-law noticed that it looked like her chubby Ariel doll and as you can see he was right.

We ate delicious cake and ice cream while we talked and played pool. We then took the kids out to drive Rylin's birthday present which was a revamped jeep that her dad pimped up with new wheels and cool stickers. She doesn't like to drive it yet but loves sitting in the passengers seat while Drew flies around. It was a lot of fun. Too bad we had crappy weather or they would have been out there all night. Well happy birthday princess! We love you!!

She is HERE!!

2010-05-19T16:03:00.000-07:00

Okay so everyone wants pictures, but I don't have time to write about how everything went and the cute little things that she is doing right now cuz i am packing for Lake Mead, so all you get is pictures. Our precious little Kennedy is doing well. She sleeps and eats all the time and rarely wakes up to see if she is still alive. Rylin is awesome with her, but is addicted to her binky even more now that she has competition so I am not treading through that water right now. I will post more pictures as soon as I get them. Isn't she beautiful!!

We don't want to forget how adorable our little Rylin is, so soak it in folks!

What is Cutier than this?

2010-04-14T21:21:00.000-07:00

So I am still on my sewing kick and I decided to make Rylin a skirt. I think it turned out quite cute.

I decided that I needed to try it on her and get some shots with her in it so I put it on her and took her outside. When we got out there she just stood there and looked at me, so I told her to model for me and put her hands on her hips for me. This is the shot!

Isn't she adorable!!! I couldn't stop laughing. So all of you that are looking for a little model here she is and her starting pay should at least be 500 dollars an hour cuz you will get what you want and more with this one!

Then she decided to do this squatting thing. Don't ask me why or where she picked it up cuz I can't explain that one to you. Any ways... If this is what I get for making her clothes, I am definitely going to keep doing it!

EASTER is HERE!

2010-04-05T12:50:00.000-07:00

What an Easter huh! I really liked the fact that we had conference on Easter this year. We got to get up and have a great breakfast while watching the first half of conference then Rylin got to go look for her Easter Basket. She is at a really cute stage where she is just talking all the time and she understands a lot and is very observant on what is happening around her. This morning we woke up and I asked her if today was Easter and she lite up and said "Yes! Easter Bunny!" I then decided that I needed to teach her that the real reason for Easter was for Jesus. I told her is was also a Jesus Easter Day and we said resurrection a few times and I was surprised how well she said it. She then watched her Jesus Show for the day which was "He is Risen", so I felt she got the idea. Here is her first Easter Basket. Last year she didn't understand anything so we thought we'd save ourselves the money but this year she got a baseball bat and ball, sidewalk chalk, pretend makeup (which I had to make myself), and candy. She loved it all.

My mom bought her the cutest Easter outfit and even though we didn't have to dress up since it was conference I wanted her to look cute for the day. Too bad it was awful weather and there were no flowers around for me to take pictures by, but oh well.

We ate dinner at my in-laws, which was delicious as usual and my dad came too since everyone in my family was out of town. It was fun to have everyone around. Then Rylin, Drew, and Owen did their Easter egg hunt. This was Rylin's 4th time doing one so she rocked the house down. She was looking under stuff, moving quick and you knew she was on a mission. It was hilarious. There were a million eggs so she got some help from grandpa, aunts/uncles, and of course her dad. Then it was time to open them. Yes they were all loaded with candy and in Rylin's mind it was all hers and she was going to eat it all! She had it dripping down her shirt and everything. Cute little Easter group huh! I love that she has cousins around to entertain her. She learn so much from Drew and the three of them are so fun together.

They then opened their Easter presents and they all got a cute outfit and little jumping bean shoes. Rylin loved hers and she looks adorable it the whole thing. It was a great day. I loved conference and I swear that every conference there is two or three talks that are directed just to me. Now if we could just get some good weather I would be set!

A couple days before Easter Rylin was playing around while I was cleaning and she came into me and asked me to help her put my earrings on. I just died laughing on how cute she looked wearing all my jewelry and then knowing that the earring had to go on her ears, so I just hung them on top of her ears and took some pictures. What a model huh!

The Info.

2010-03-21T13:54:00.000-07:00

I apologize to everyone for not posting the site that I got the car seat cover tutorial. Now I do have to say that you do not need to buy 1 1/3 yard of fabirc like she suggests. I got mine at Brooks Fabrics and I only needed 1 1/6 yard of two fabrics and it was plenty. She never tells you how much fabric she did at the bottom for the top of the cover so I just did 7 inches so that I could sew in a 1/2 to a 1/4 inch, but do what you want. No I did not have a pattern for this I just followed the instrustions and it really was easy. My only other suggestion is to make sure that the straps are only 5 inches apart because I had to redo mine since I only followed the instructions on how far in to put them from the edge and it looked aweful. Hope it works for you! The site is http://makeitdo.wordpress.com/2010/01/11/baby-car-seat-cover-tutorial/ . If this doesn't work just go to google and type in car seat cover tutorial and it is under baby car seat cover tutorial: Make it do.

I know! Can you believe it!

2010-03-19T12:01:00.000-07:00

Let me take you back to your junior high days...Do you remember a class called TLC? Well I do, and one of the classes of TLC was none other than sewing. Well I made some pajama pants and a pillow I think and I was proud of myself, but that is where it stopped. Then I took on a huge project when I came home from Ecuador where I made a patch quilt out of my favorite old jeans for the man I was going to marry. Little did I know that I would never give it to him because he supposedly hated "homemade gifts," so I gave him a sweatshirt and we broke up. I have to say that I had a lot of help from my friends mom with that one. Then 5 years later something came over me and I decided to make my sister her baby gift so I made a hooter hider and a blanket. Yeah, talk about shooting for the stars, but I did it! I realized I wasn't too bad at this sewing stuff once you have a decent sewing machine and know how to use it (thank you to my mother-in-law for lending me her Bernina!) So then I decided that I shouldn't stop there so I made my baby a blanket

Not bad huh! I started thinking of other things I could make for the baby and found a tutorial on car seat covers so I made one of those too...

So there you have it. Now I am going to ask my good friend Angie to come a teach me how to make cute baby booties and then I will retire for a couple of months or until I can afford my own sewing machine.

Disney On Ice

2010-03-13T15:02:00.001-08:00

Well we decided to take Rylin to Disney on Ice today. I was way excited because I just knew she would love seeing princesses on ice and the whole atmosphere is just magical. The only problem I ran into was that she decided to wake up at 6:00 this morning, so when she started yawning at 10:00 and the show was at 11:00 I began to worry that she was going to hate the whole show cuz she was so tired. We went any ways and of course Grammy took good care of her and bought her a Tinkerbell which she loved. It was way fun to see her cute face light up as soon as she saw Minnie and Mickey on the ice. She was up clapping and just glued to the first half of the show when it was Cars, Lion King, and Little Mermaid.

Then the second half came which was Tinkerbells Story and she just got so tired she couldn't enjoy it unfortunatley. The funny part of the event was that Grammy bought her a big spinning light up toy for the show and she wanted nothing to do with it and it kept wacking her in the face. So we traded it in for a smaller spinning light up toy thinking it wouldn't be so hard to control, but she didn't like that either. Next we tried the princess spinning light up ball so it wouldn't wack her in the face and she pushed it a couple times but just wanted her Tinkerbell toy back. As we were leaving my mom bought some light up swords for the grandkids to play at her house and Rylin was in love. So for the final trade we traded the princess light up toy for none other than a dragon sword and she was as happy as a clam! It is fun getting to take your kids to fun events like Disney on Ice. Thanks Dad for the tickets! It will be even more fun when Rylin has syblings to go and enjoy it with. As soon as we put her in her carseat she was out. What a doll!

Back in the Saddle

2010-02-25T07:17:00.000-08:00

Well I have made a lot of excuses to why I haven't been blogging, but I decided that I needed to get back on the saddle again and let people know what has been going on here in F-Town. So here are a few new facts from the Toone Home. First, Ryan and I are having another baby girl on May 13th and we are estatic! Second, we are finished with the remodel that Ryan did and the house looks amazing. In fact we have been done with it for quite a few months and today we are finally getting a couch to sit on. I would like to thank all who have come over and had to sit on our hard bar stools for longer than 5 minutes. Just goes to show you are true friends. Third, Rylin is in Nursery and she is talking up a storm. She repeats anything you say and loves to say prayers for all occasions. Some of my favoirte little sentences she says is "Change a bum," "I soakin wet," "It so bright," and "Oh a big semee truck!" She is adorable. Fourth, I am attempting to become a seamstress. My sister is also due in the middle of May and I have made her two baby gifts that personally I think turned out quite well. I am not going to say what just in case she decides to read this. Sadly my mom's old machine isn't working well and so my projects have had to take a break. Well those are just a few of the facts that are going on right now. I have posted some pictures that review the last year of our lives, so I hope you all enjoy!

I actually made it to the top of the Middle Teton! I am not going to lie it was hard, but SOO worth it!

My mom took Rylin, Elle, Angie, and me to Lagoon for Rylin's first birthday. She loved the rides and even got free dip and dots because she was so cute and it was her birthday. Thanks mom, I'll always remember it!

This is Rylin's birthday party. I called her my little bug her first year of life so I decided to make a theme of it and for Halloween she was a bee, so her first cake was a beehive and bee cupcakes. I thought it turned out quite cute seeing I spent all day making it! I love you Rylin and you were adorable picking at your cake.

We took a trip to the Sawtooth's with Dave and Heidi's family and rafted the river. It was a blast! The first time we thought we might die and the second time we just laughed at ourselves because it wasn't even scary at all! We need to do things like that more often.

Just an adorable picture of Rylin that I thought eveyone should enjoy.

Rylin was Tinkerbell for Halloween of 2009. She didn't love the costume, but loved getting candy. Owen is a cute lion that while crawling had his tail straight up in the air. Finally there is Drew who played the part of Spanky perfectly for the night. Cute kids!

Rylin loves helping her dad out in the yard. She seems to get more dirt on her face and in her mouth than on her clothes. That's my girl!!

We're Off To See The Wizard!

2009-04-29T11:00:00.001-07:00

Ok not really, we already did see the wizard, but what a performance! The truth be told I have see Wicked twice and Ryan has seen it 5 times, so there were no surprises for us. Last Friday we were privileged to enjoy seeing it for our 3 and 6th time with Ryan's family and they had never seen it, so it was fun enjoy it with first timers. We had been invited to go with my family the night before, but with a baby, the Jazz, and our on going house we decided that one time a week was good enough for us, but thank mom and dad, we still love you!

As you can tell we love Wicked and who wouldn't? I basically sang all the song with them...in my head that is because they have MUCH better voices than I do, but you just can help yourself when you know the words. I loved Glenda and how she kept doing these little corky jumps aNd I thought this cast did a great job on their acting rolls along with the singing. In casts past I think they didn't get into their roles as much, but they had fabulous voices so it really didn't matter. I'm sad that it is over, so until next time!

1 down 3 to go

2009-04-24T10:26:00.000-07:00

Yes I am talking about the Jazz. Last night Ryan and I were privileged enough to get to go to the game and fortunately see Kobe walk off with his hung head down from a devastating loss. The whole game was a freakin nail biter though! And hello, what came over Boozer last night? Did he finally realize how to play the game of basketball because he was a power man last night! Hope he show up again on Saturday.

Also at the game there is this group of guys that dress up like old school players and one of them dresses up like Jerry Sloan and it is hilarious to watch them throughout the night because they make plays and do dances. They are great, so if you haven't gone to a game you need to go to see them along with the Jazz. Though it may be our last game of the season to go to it was a great one to get to see. We truly were the X Factor last night! Go Jazz!!

I also wanted to give a shout out to P90X. Holy Cow it kicks your butt! I have been doing it for about a month and every time I do it I wake up sore the next day. I now need to focus on my eating habits and the Ab Ripper X so that I can lose the excess baby weight. Any ways, I suggest everyone jump on this train because it will definitely take you somewhere. If you want you can come and work out with me because I am getting a beach body baby!

First Steps!!

2009-04-22T21:21:00.000-07:00

It's official, Rylin has just taken her first steps! What a smarty pants. No need to worry she has yet to crawl because that stuff is for beginners and she is advanced. I can't believe it, my little baby is growing up so fast! I am so proud of her. She is very stubborn like her dad and will only do things when she wants to. There is NO forcing this little one, but I tell you when she wants to do something she is as happy as a lark doing it! That one goes out to you Heather! Now I am going to have to find some gates at some garage sales these next couple weeks. For all I know next week she will be driving! AHHHH!

Self Sufficient

2009-04-21T08:50:00.000-07:00

Well last night for family night my dad and I decided that with the economy going to pot that we needed to heed the counsel of the brethren and become more self-sufficient so...we planted our garden! Actually we had already planted the beets, carrots, beans, and spinach, but we had our own little green house going in Heather's bedroom with our tomatoes, cucumbers, and squash so that is what we planted. It was a good time, Rylin even came out and helped us. This is what our produce is going to look like once summer comes along. We are going to be eating good this year!

After we were done we were so pumped up that we didn't stop there. My dad earlier that day found strawberries at the special store for a buck! So he picked up 12 packs of them and you know what that meant...Jam time! So we stayed up until 12 o'clock making the prettiest looking bottles of strawberry jam.

(This is actually not our jam, my camera is dead so I found a picture on the internet that best fit. Ours looks soooooooooo much better. There is no separation of the jelly and strawberries like in this photo.)

We actually spent another half hour calculating our labors, the costs, and compared it to how much a bottle of frozen jam at the store costs. We decided that for 4 pints of jam ours cost us about $4.00 and you buy 1 pint at the store for $4-$5! We made 20 bottles meaning that if we were to sell them for 5 bucks we would be making $100. I should start a business baby. Miranda just sat on the couch laughing at us that we actually were spending the time figuring out how much we saved and what not, but she just better watch it when my jam making business starts making me millions! Any who, if any one wants to buy jam off me for 5 bucks a jar let me know and you could be my first customer and maybe I will give you a discount! he he This could be you or your kids reaction to my delicious jam.

Spring is in the Air!

2009-04-13T09:27:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter everyone! Hasn't it been an awesome weekend! Ryan and I have been working our butts off up at our house doing some painting so that we can hopefully start living there again. It is fun to do the cosmetic stuff because it makes such a difference. Though I have hated picking out paint colors I think that it is looking pretty darn good. We only have one more coat of paint to go and then we can get our carpet installed and wala we are in!

Yesterday was an awesome Easter! We had to get up extra early because we went to my cousin Katie's church to see her beautiful baby Elsie blessed, it was great. Then after we went to their house for a fun spring breakfast. It was wonderful weather so we enjoyed the out doors as much as possible. Once that was over we jetted off to Ryan's parents. The whole way over we had the windows down and Lilly had her head hanging out as far as I would allow her. At that moment I thought, this is the life...Relaxing on a beautiful spring Sunday with the windows down, all the trees beginning to bloom and there is a invigorating smell that spring brings and I love it! When we arrived we had to take pictures of the kids because they all looked adorable. I went a little Easter picture happy and started walking Rylin to the neighbors houses so that I could get some of her with some flowers behind her. I mean really what is Spring without flowers. I had fun doing it, but since I didn't have my own camera I have to go and retrieve them.

Later that evening my cute nephew Owen was blessed. Dave did a very nice job and Owen slept the whole way through it. Good boy Owen! Then we had a delicious ham and cheesy potato dinner and afterward we watched my nephew Drew get high on chocolate from his Easter egg hunt. It was hilarious. My mother-in-law got each of the kids a beautiful picture of the Salt Lake Temple framed. It is AWESOME and I know just where I'm putting it. We then had to rush over to my parents for the big treasure hunt! We usually do an Easter egg hunt, but seeing that there were only 4 of us this year, my mom changed it up a bit. We went all over little Farmington finding clues, which lead to my dog Jake's grave which had rock band and golf lessons with a pro for each of us. Watch out Tiger! It was a good day. It always amazes me how beautiful a day Easter is, but I guess we can always expect that because it is the day Christ was resurrected and I'm sure he always wants that day to be spectacular. And it was!

Coolest Ghosttown Ever!--Iowa

2009-04-02T15:46:00.000-07:00

Well Rylin and I just got back a week ago from Iowa. We, along with my sister Heather, ventured to the land of rolling hills to see our sister Michelle. It was Rylin's first airplane ride so that was a big deal! She did great though...slept on all the take offs and landings. I do have to give a shout out to the Minneapolis Airport for being the nicest and most observant airport I've ever been to. They had a flippin quiet lounge with soft seats and tables to relax in...talk about treating people good! Any who, Heather, Rylin, and I finally arrived to Iowa and the party began. It was sooo much fun seeing my sister and her cute house that she has remodeled. The day we got there we did a little grocery shopping at Hi-vee where we found the best apple cinnamon cheereos made which were supposed to be for Rylin, but by the third day of being there they were gone and I think that Rylin may have had a couple hand fulls of them. Michelle took us to a delicious Thai Restaurant where we treated ourselves good. We asked the cook to make our food a hot level 2 on a 1-5 scale, but I think they wanted to have some fun with us and made it a level 5 because it was HOT! It was hilarious in the middle of dinner I looked over the table and Michelle had taken Rylins apple cinnamon Cheerios and was shoving them in her mouth by the hand fulls to cool her mouth down and all Heather and I could do was laugh. Oh by the way Rylin just got her first tooth!

The next day was considered our Very Funny, but Very Bad Day. It started out when Heather and I took a 3 hour tour of Iowa trying to follow Michelle's directions to Costco. When we arrived home Michelle was supposed to have the homemade bread done, but in fact she was just starting it. We had already gotten ready for the day, but we had decided that we wanted to go shopping, to dinner, and then to a local hair show so we wanted to get dressed up a bit. Let's just say a bit went a little over board and at one point Michelle looked like a drag queen, Heather was trying to look like Melissa off the Bachelor and was having no such luck, and I looked like plain Jane. We then left to go shopping, but as the day was treating us, all the shops had closed at 5 and it was 6, so there was no luck there and we only had an hour before the hair show started so we didn't have time to go sit down for dinner so we had Ted Coney's Island gyros for dinner. We scarfed them down and got to our seats to find that no one else was dressed up like us. Now for the hair show...let's just say that we WAY over paid for a production that 3/4's of it was the staff strutting down the run way in awful black outfit and their hair looked like any Joe off the street. Fortunately the money went to charity or else we may have picketed for our money back. Afterwards we wanted to drown our failures with a treat and Michelle had been ranting and raving about the best raspberry-peach milkshakes she had ever had, so we went to the shake stop and ordered these MARVELOUS shakes that really ended up being nothing but raspberry-peach syrup in milk. To Michelle's defense she did say that the one she had before was a 10 and these were like a 1, so it must have been who was making it that day. That was our day! We ended it in the hot tub where we reminisced about the day and just laughed!

Sunday was fun because we went to church and got to listen to Michelle teach her YW girls a great lesson and afterward we came home relaxed and made ourselves a FABULOUS meal and finished it off with games and dessert crepes that were to die for!

On Monday Heather, Rylin, and I slept in and packed a picnic. When Michelle got home from work that afternoon we went to the lake and ate our picnic. There we soaked in some sun and ended up meeting a random mentally ill man that began talking about things that strangers or anyone for that matter should never discuss. He talked to us for like 20 minutes and we decided that the only way to end the discussion was to leave. We decided that since we didn't get any shopping in on Saturday that we would go during the afternoon to some different shops. This is when Heather and I realized that Iowa at this time of the year is officially a ghost town because the shops were once again closed! There were like 2 stores open. One was a costume type store and we did get some sweet pictures there. That night we went to Centro's and there we ate and talked Heather into missing her flight and going the next day. Good times.

Tuesday was St. Patrick's Day. Michelle, Heather, and Rylin all had green to wear, so I was the odd man out that kept getting pinched. We went to breakfast where we all enjoyed green pancakes, green french toast, eggs, and bacon. It was fun because we sat with some random strangers and had a great time. Heather then had to catch her flight, but Michelle, Rylin, and I got to enjoy the St. Patrick's Day parade. Now that was quite an experience. It was a bunch of Irish Descendant Families that were drinking and throwing out beads like Marty Graw. My favorite float was the one that threw out real potatoes and cabbage at people. Hilarious! I loved people watching there. We were going to leave about half way through it so we could enjoy lunch before I left, but some Handicapped van blocked us in and we began panicking because we didn't know if the parade would end by the time I had to leave for my flight. I did catch my flight in time, but I don't think we will be cutting it close like that ever again.

Thanks Michelle for showing as a great time! We miss you and had a lot of fun. Glad you are home Nick and now we want to come back when we can see you both and it isn't a ghost town! ha ha.

We're Back!

2009-02-13T16:37:00.000-08:00

Sorry everyone for the long absence. I wish that I could say that we have been traveling around the world so I haven't had time to update our blog, but the truth is that we don't have the internet at our house so I decided blogging would have to be postponed for a while.

Life is good though. Ryan is still dedicated on working on the house, which looks great and hopefully will be finished in the next month or so (cross my fingers). Rylin is getting so big. She loves to take your fingers and walk around for hours. Yesterday she began saying Ba Ba Ba and I think Dad Dad too, which to the average Joe wouldn't mean squat since she is a baby, but to us means the world because we are use to only aaah's. Oh the joys of being first time parents. Also right now we are in the WONDERFUL stage of letting Rylin cry for endless hours in the night to try and break her habits of waking up for feedings. The doc says it usually only last for a few days...with our luck it will be a few weeks. She is worth every bit of it though.

Let's see...latest for me is that I am faithfully watching The Bachelor and Lost every week. Ryan is in on Lost with me but he thinks that The Bachelor is the biggest waste of time on the face of the earth. I honestly think that he makes up things that he demands that I do just so that I won't be able to watch it. Little does he know that my mom has DVR and I can watch it whenever I want. Um can I say that Naomi's family was PSYCHO! Thank goodness that he got rid of her. Anyone that puts on a funeral for a dead bird needs psychic treatment. On the other hand if Jason kicks off Melissa then he is an idiot and I won't watch the finale. On to Lost...I don't know if I am liking this constant time travel bit. I feel cheated at the end of the hour that I only got 15 minutes worth of important info. I hope it picks up soon. I have also been watching Studio 5 which give me creative ideas on projects that I want to start. I have officially made myself a family planner and now I am going to start crocheting headbands. Unfortunatley I never finish my projects as soon as I would like because Rylin is a huge momma's girl and likes to be held and to tell the truth she has me wrapped around her finger. I also want to make Rylin a quiet book, some headbands, and start sewing dresses.

So the topic of the week is Valentines Day. I'm sure you are all wondering what Ryan and I did, so I will inform you. Valentines Day is my sister-in-law Heidi's B-day...Happy Birthday Heidi! So she decided that it would be the perfect day for all the adults in the fam to go skiing together. Ryan's wonderful aunt and uncle took on the saintly duty of babysitting and off we went. What a day! From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. we were non stop shredding it through knee to waist deep powder. It was like we were floating down the mountain. It was awesome. Today on the other hand wasn't so awsome. I have muscles that I never even knew existed that are so tight and sore it feels like I was hit by a semi and lived through it. Worth it though. Next year we are going to do something a little more romantic though because Ryan needs to reconnect with his inner feelings.

Well I am now going to cuddle up next to Ryan and watch Dejavu and enjoy every minute of it until he realizes that tomorrow is Monday and he has to go back to work. Here are pictures of the last 3 months that you all missed out on.

Crazy Carvin'

2008-11-03T09:30:00.000-08:00

It's Halloween!!! I love this time of year because the leaves are gorgeous and falling, everyone is decorating all spooky like, and we get to carve pumpkins and dress up all crazy! Who wouldn't love all of that? Well Monday the 27th my family decided it was time to get out the knives and carve pumpkins. Everyone (My dad, mom, Miranda, Kenzie, and I) choose their pumpkins and we went to town, even little Rylin got into it! While we were scraping out the inside goo my mom decided to make it interesting and said that since Ryan couldn't be here to participate that we would make it a contest and whomevers pumpkin Ryan choose as the best would get 10 bucks! Game On! Miranda and Kenzie decided that getting into a pumpkin goo war sounded more fun, so though theirs were still in the running they didn't spend as much time on theirs.

Even Rylin wanted to carve a pumpkin. She seems to be really good at it. She may even enter contests in a few years, but for now we just want to give her a normal childhood.

After we were done we sat them on the porch and lit them up. I was quite impressed with our work. My dad got a little "help" online, but everyonelses were original ideas. Don't they look good?

Here is my pumpkin that I carved! Isn't she cute?! You have to special order these kinds of pumpkins, but they are soooo worth it.

Left to Right: Rylin, Mom, Kenzie (on pot holder)

Left to Right: Dad, Kenzie #2, Miranda

When Ryan and special guest judge Dave Toone got home the pumpkins were presented and the winner was.......RYLIN! Honestly it was not rigged.

Witches Night Out

2008-10-30T10:35:00.000-07:00

I don't know what is is about me but I never know about the fun events that are constantly going on around me. This year I was privileged enough to be invited with the Tadje girls to go to Witches Night Out at Gardner's Village. I guess that this little tradition has been going on for years unbenounced to me. The dealeo is that everyone dresses up as witches and walks around the little shops getting all sorts of Halloween discounts while a witch band and performance is going on in the main hub. It is awesome because there are seriously thousands of witches with the most bizarre and creative outfits/hats dancing, shopping, and eating. Some men were brave or stupid enough to accompany their wives which was funny to watch them try and stay out of any sort of spotlight.

Jennifer, Angie, and I all got into the spirit and dressed up as witches and little Rylin was my black cat. Note to anyone who wants to go...Don't bring a baby with a stroller! You won't get to shop. There were a lot of really cute crafty items that we liked, but we all came out empty handed. Afterward Jennifer had to go home and Angie and I decided to take advantage of the girls night out and treated ourselves to Olive Garden. It was delicious. We talked about all sorts of random things and plans on working out, shopping, and craft days; now it is a matter of actually doing it and not just talking about it. All together I thought it was a great night and hope to do it again next year.

Party with the Jazz

2008-10-29T11:00:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday night I finally got a break from my regular little routine and took all my girls out to the Jazz game. It was so much fun!!! Though a few of our crew couldn't make it we still had a great turn out. The Jazz played the Portland Trail Blazers, but to tell you the truth I didn't watch more than 5 minutes of it. Jess brought her little girl Kenzi and I brought Rylin and instantly they were the best of friends. It was fun to have other kids around Rylin. We fortunately got to sit by some real cookoo drunk guys that kept talking about Kensi and Rylin, which was weird but the even weirder thing was that the next day one of those drunk guys was at my parents house fixing their gate. I totally called him out and I think he felt a little stupid. Serves him right for getting drunk and not remember what happens with his life. I think that all the girls had a fun time giggling and snapping shots and I hope that we can do something fun like this again. I have to apologize to everyone though for not being as "thoughtful" about getting pictures with the players. We had an opportunity to take a picture with AK47 and because it is so routine to see the players to me I didn't even think about my friends thinking that would be fun. Maybe next time girls and it will be worth the wait because it will be D-Will instead of AK.

Rylin loved the game and the noise didn't bother her like I thought it would. I knew she was born to be a jazz fan!

Oh by the way...the Jazz won!

Remodel Gone Wild

2008-10-29T08:36:00.000-07:00

As everyone knows we are remodeling our house and it is quite the process. In most of the rooms there was nasty wall paper that we had to tear down and now I can officially curse ANYONE who puts wallpaper up in their house. My grandparents didn't just place wallpaper on primed and painted walls, they slapped it on sheet rock, on top of other wallpaper, on painted walls, primed wall, you name it they put it on. So long story short we spent an eternity aka 2 months or more trying to get wall paper down and eventually knocking down walls and tearing up sheet rock to make things look decent. Ryan with mucho help from the whole Toone fam especially Dave and Dave and some help from the Rigby clan too are doing all the remodeling themselves. This includes relocating cabinets, wiring, destroying walls and rebuilding them, plumbing, and soon to come spackling and painting. They seem to be working 24/7 which I am SOO appreciative of because as of right now we are living with my parents (thanks forever mom and dad) while the heat is turned off. Ryan comes home most nights at around 10 or 11 covered in dust or insulation to finally get to sit down for 5 minutes and eat dinner then shower and before I can say "I love you" for the night he is out cold. It will be really nice when it is all done so I just want to say thanks for everyone who has helped make this possible!

Here is my adorable nephew Drew helping us take down the wall paper and wash the walls. He loves water and bubbles, but what kids doesn't?

This is the hall way upstairs after Ryan ripped out the carpet. DANGER ZONE!

One Saturday morning the Toone family came over to help with the house and this is what the kitchen looked like before and while I was downstairs doing who knows what, all the boys decided (without asking me) that it would be fun to tear down the wall between the kitchen and the dinning room. So to my surprise when I walked upstairs to see what the noise was all about I had no wall and loose wires everywhere. Boys will be boys.

My kitchen with no wall, loose wires and a fridge that didn't work. Don't mind my huge prego belly on the right.

Den with partial wall. As you can see we are tearing out this wall to make two rooms our master bedroom. below is another look.

First Solid Food

2008-10-21T11:30:00.000-07:00

Another milestone for my baby girl! Rylin ate her first solid food which was rice cereal on October 17th. My baby is growing up!!! I was expecting her to spit it out every where, but like always she surprised me and was smiling the whole time. I'm not saying that it wasn't messy at all, but I think she quite liked it.

As you can see she was very excited to try it out and even wanted to feed it to herself.

I actually found myself telling her to open up wide but she always listens to her mom which made it a bit nicer. Ryan, my mom, and my dad were standing around trying to convince her that rice cereal is yummy and to keep it in her mouth. It was a lot of fun. She didn't eat very much and whoever said that babies sleep better after they eat solids needs to speak to me. I was hoping to get a good nights rest, but she woke up 4 times that night. Hopefully that part will come later.

The next step will be to get Ryan to feed her! Then I just might have time to cook meals for ourselves and actually get to eat them while they are still warm.

A Day At The Zoo

2008-10-10T14:04:00.000-07:00

Trivia Question: How long is the largest Alligator in the world?

Last week we had the ultimate privilege of having Nathan and Carrie's cute little family come into town! Boy has Caroline and Rexy grown. On Thursday Carrie invite Rylin, Grammy, and I to join her mom, Jill and her kids, and her little family to Utah's Hogle Zoo. What a day. We got to see the elephants and rhinos first. Rylin of course couldn't stop talking to all the animals, she is such a jabber mouth these days. Rexy was content as can be smiling at everything or anybody that would look at him. But Caroline and her cousins were the most enthralled with the animals. They were making animal sounds and giggling the whole time.

Next we ventured over to the carousel. Everyone but Grammy Rigby and Rexy joined us. Rylin and I sat with Lila in the Peacock while the others jumped on lions, giraffes, and who knows what else. The kids sure loved it which meant that the adults loved it even more because we got to see the kids excitement.

After the carousel Rylin got to get a snapshot with the penguins because she loves to see them waddle and slide on their bellies. Who doesn't like penguins? They really are cool looking birds plus I watched an episode on the history channel and found out the the male penguins are the ones that keep the eggs warm until they hatch and they all gather around one another to keep themselves warm during the coldest part of winter. Now that is what I'm talking about!! Why can't human men have the chance of warming our baby eggs since we are the ones that have to go though delivery? Probably because it makes us love our kids more! he he he

I really wanted picture with the giraffes, lions, tigers, zebras and monkeys but unfortunately the kids got hungry and tired so our day at the zoo had to terminate a bit earlier than I was hoping. We did get to enjoy the ducks and playground for a while while Rylin and Rex took their little cat naps. Caroline needed to exert so serious energy.

I guess that the next time I go to the zoo will probably be in a couple years when Rylin can really understand and enjoy the animals, but it was a fun first time experience anywhoo. Thanks Carrie for putting it all together!

Trivia Answer: 19 feet 2 inches

Blessing Day

2008-09-22T13:45:00.000-07:00

It is official, on August 3rd 2008 we were proud to give Rylin Toone her name and a blessing. She was blessed in her Aunt Heather's baby blessing dress which is long a beautiful and it only took us half a bottle of Biz to make it white again! Ryan gave her a perfect blessing and Rylin did great until the very end when her binky fell out and she started crying, but it was still a perfect experience. I want to thank all of our families for coming a supporting us. It was a wonderful day and though I was not able to bare my testimony I want everyone to know that I am thankful for Rylin and what a blessing she is in my life. I can't believe that I am a mom, especially to such a beautiful baby! We had a great time eating sandwiches, fruit, salads, and drinking lemonade out in the courtyard. Everyone that helped with the food...THANKS it was delicious as you can see in one of the pictures I am shoving my face full of cake! I especially want Michelle and Nick to know how much it meant to me that they took time to come out and see Rylin. I was so anxious for them to come and when they finally got here I blinked my eyes and they were having to leave again. It was a lot of fun spending time with them at the condo and having a pool party with them. Thanks you guys! Come again soon. It was a long but wonderful day as you can see once everyone left we all took a long nap which was very much needed!

Anne Geddes Take 2

2008-09-22T13:33:00.000-07:00

Call us crazy but my mom and I didn't have enough fun taking pictures of Rylin in one sitting, so a few weeks later we had the real professional come in (Angie Tadje) and take some more Anne Geddes inspired pictures. This time we scored huge because every picture that Angie took was adorable!!! Angie you really should start your own business and yes you can use these pictures to advertise. I would have put all the pictures on if I could but there were like 400 of them so to save you all I chose my favorites and as you can see there are still a lot of them.

Anne Geddes Take 1

2008-09-22T13:10:00.000-07:00

So my mom and I were feeling creative a few weeks after Rylin was born and we decided to create our own Anne Geddes studio! We did a lot of research and perfectly enough we had a beautiful young model named Rylin as our Ginny Pig. Some may have thought this was abuse AKA Ryan, but we had quite a fun time with it. Rylin was good most of the time and when she grows up I hope she appreciates everything that both her, her mother, and her grammy went though to create these beautiful photos. If anyone wants to get a hold of us to take pictures of their children our number is in the phonebook and we only charge $500 for a sitting fee and a few hundred more for the pictures after that!!! he he he

Rylin's Birth

2008-09-22T11:31:00.000-07:00

Here she is in all her glory! We think that she is the most beautiful thing brought to this earth. Though the delivery was more than painful, I managed to deliver Rylin in 14 minutes. The hospital stay was nice and we are very thankful for everyone who showed up for support. For anyone who has been questioning how Ryan would handle being a father...Rylin has him wrapped around her finger! He has been awesome.

HOMECOMING!!

We brought Rylin Home around 1:00 in the afternoon. She was greeted by her Grammy, Papa, and Aunt Miranda since we were spending the next two week at my Mom's house. Ryan took off a whole freakin' week to pamper me and Rylin which was sweet! We hope that he gets to do that for every baby. I have to say thanks to my mom for helping me out so much those first two weeks because I had some pretty tramatic experiences and she was right there helping me through each of them. Rylin can't wait to see her Aunts, Uncles, and Cousins so hurry up and visit!!

2008-08-26T14:57:00.000-07:00

I Know Can You Believe It!

2008-08-26T13:21:00.000-07:00

Today is the first day of my blogging career and I already want to quit! This is the third time that I have tried to post is and it refuses to allow me to do it. I now know why my mom hates technology because it isn't her it is her STUPID COMPUTER! ARRR Plus I have tried to add gadgets and it boots me back to my dashboard so I called Heather today and asked her what to do and of course it works perfect for her! Any who...I decided that I needed to add something so here we are.

For anyone who does not know Ryan and I had our first baby on June 12th. She is drop dead gorgeous and her name is Rylin. Delivery was well...unforgettable. We finally made it through and she weighed 7 Lbs 14 Oz and was 21 1/2 inches tall. I love taking pictures of her as you can tell. That is if my pictures will actually add.

I better stop before I really test my luck! I am excited to finally be in the loop though!