Preparing for the Strongest Baby Competition

Ryland has been preparing for the Strongest Baby Competition. Here is part of his daily workout regiment. : )

Preparing for Christmas

We are all very excited for Christmas this year and Kylee is really excited at the idea of Santa Claus coming! We have been getting ready here at home and "counting down" the days until Christmas.

Kylee helped me decorate the tree and added the angel on top when we were all done.

She loves to have the tree turned on and look at all the ornaments. Ryland enjoys the tree too but for a different reason -- he likes to see how close he can come to ripping the ornaments off before he is stopped!? : )

This is Kylee showing the ornaments to Ryland . . . she was obviously surprised to see one of them pass by. Ha!

Every morning, Kylee moves the tree on Santa Claus count down. Nana and Grandad brought this countdown back from Ireland and Kylee has been very excited to move the tree each day. We just moved it to the first column so that was exciting. Whenever you ask her what happens when the tree gets to the top she jumps up and down and says, "Santa Claus coming!"

Kylee picked out this Rudolph windown cling the other day and we put it up in her reading corner. Ryland was asleep when we put it up but he noticed it right away when he got downstairs. He crawled right over to the corner and climbed up to see what it was.

We have another Christmas countdown upstairs that Kylee gets to do after dinner (thanks Aunt May-Me!) Every night she opens a door. This year we let her open whatever door she wants (as long as it wasn't the top star). Next year we will work on starting at the bottom and working her way up. Behind each door is a surprise. This time it was ...

... Twix!

Ryland has been getting into the holiday spirit too. He enjoys "playing" with the Little People Nativity.

A Message From Santa

Kylee got a message from Santa the other day! She loves watching it over and over again and seeing her picture in Santa's "official" book. Just thought we would share his message and a little Christmas spirit with everyone.

Enjoy!

http://www.portablenorthpole.tv/watch/y46WMsw26ls1WlRScSh5HQ

Thanksgiving

This year we were able to spend some time in MA with the Cookson side of the family. We really enjoyed our time with Grammie, Pop Pop, Aunt Laurie, Aunt Susie, Uncle Shaun, Buddy, and Ziggy.

While dinner was being prepared the kids (and Daddy) made good use of the large tables set up in the family room . . . they became a nice little obstacle course and hide-n-seek area. : )

Kylee tried avoiding the camera but finally smiled for me when she thought she was hidden behind Daddy!

Ryland continued to find things that he wasn't supposed to be playing with. : )

Ryland enjoyed his Turkey and Sweet Potato meal and some of the Mashed Potatoes from the table.

Before Mommy and Grammie head out to stand in the crazy shopping lines, we made some cupcakes. Kylee is definitely my daughter because her favorite part was licking the spoon and she made sure she got EVERY last lick. : )

I have so much to be thankful for!!!!

Halloween!

What a day we had! Since this is the first time we are living in a "real" neighborhood, it was the first time we were able to actually go trick-or-treating. Turns out that Kylee got the hang of it pretty quickly and kept wanting to "go that house" while we were walking. Although Ryland didn't quite get his bag filled, he just liked the fact that we were walking around outside.

This year we were the kids from Kylee's favorite show Sid the Science Kid. Since most people aren't familiar with the show (it is a bit newer) here is a picture of the four kids on the show. They are May (Kylee), Gerald (Pete), Gabriela (Me), and Sid (Ryland.)
It took a few trys to get a family shot. Neither one is perfect but they work. Here we are as Sid and his friends!

We started the day off by heading to the Kaisers for a Halloween Costume Party. (We even won for "Most Original" Costumes!)

Ryland enjoyed playing in the grass with his Sid microphone.

"I'm Sid the Science Kid!"

"Now that's funny!"

Kylee had fun jumping in the bounce house!

Gabriela and Sid get a picture ... they are best friends on the show so this picture only makes sense. : )

The boys!

The girls! (with our May and Gabriela dolls)

All the "big kids" at the party headed off to bob for apples which left the bounce house empty. We let Ryland have a turn at it. He and Kylee had a lot of fun inside together.

We made a few stops on the way home to visit the Lyles and the Tisos (and to give Kylee some practice at "trick-or-treating." Then we headed home to get ready to hit up our street.

A quick picture on the porch before heading out.

They are empty bags now . . . but just wait!

And off she goes ....

Kylee had a VERY successful night and all the neighbors loved her outfit (especially the glasses) even though most of them didn't quite know who she was dressed as.

We hope everyone had a great Halloween!

As always, thanks for reading. : )

Sesame Place

With the nice weather we have been having, Pete and I decided to take advantage of our season passes to Sesame Place and head up there for a little day trip. Kylee was super excited since she remembered the rides from being there over the summer. This time she kept talking about giving the different characters "high-five." (She wasn't too fond of getting very close to them over the summer.) While, we don't have it on camera we did get a chance to get close to Rosita this time and . . . Kylee followed through and gave her a high five! She even played peek-a-boo with her for a bit.

Here we are ready to go into the park. We had one very excited Kylee! Ryland, on the other hand was still trying to figure out what was going on with his seat since this is the first time he rode in the stroller without his carseat. (He loved it by the way . . . it was great for him to be able to see everything that was going on AND he even sat still ... sort of!) : )


Sesame Place sets up some new things for the fall to celebrate Halloween. They have new shows to see, some "un-haunted" mazes, the characters are dressed in costumes, and there is a hayride. We took the hayride with Telly ... who was dressed as cheese. : )



Kylee loved going on all the rides. She remembered them all from our summer visit and couldn't wait to do them again. This time she added the rope course to the list of things she did. She did a GREAT job in it and was able to climb up pretty high. If you look at the picture in the middle of the last column, Kylee and Pete are the two people in the tunnel climbing to the next section!

While Kylee and I rode the rides, Ryland enjoyed in the scenery. : )

Ryland did get a chance to get in on the fun of the rides though. Before we left Kylee, Ryland, and I went on the merry-go-round. Yes, Ryland has been on a merry-go-round before but this was the first time he rode on a horse! Of course, the only two horses next to each other were on the inside of the ride, so the pictures aren't perfect but they are good enough.

Our two "stars" on the Sesame Walk of Fame. : )

All in all we had a great day . . . it was the perfect little road trip and one that we can't wait to do again!

Burke Nursery Pumpkin Playground

The Burke Nursery has their Pumpkin Playground up and running for the month of October. Since we live so close to it, we decided to buy a season pass. We have definitely gotten good use out of the pass. Here are just a few pictures from one of our after dinner trips there to play.

Thank you Aunt Susie!

Thanks for the great Halloween gifts Aunt Susie! The kids love them. : )

(Sorry the video is so dark. I decided to post it anyway since Kylee says "Thank You Susie" a billion times!) : )

A Couple of (not-so-scary) Skeletons

As Halloween gets closer and closer, we are getting into the spirit here at the Cookson house. Here are Kylee and Ryland sporting their matching skeleton pajamas! They even glow in the dark! Happy Halloween (a little early.)

Ryland is 6 months old!

Ryland just turned 6 months old and he has already accomplished A LOT! He has made it through all of the fruits, veggies, and meats without any signs of allergies ... yet. He can sit on his own and feed himself his own bottle (when he is really hungry). He is crawling around and getting into everything!!! His latest accomplishment . . . pulling himself up onto the furniture (or anything else he can reach.)

We just went for his 6 month check-up and everything looked great! He is in the 50th percentile for weight and length and ... in the 95th for his head! Yep, just like his sister! (Thanks Bubba!) : )

Here are just a few of Ryland's latest pictures.


Here are some pictures of Ryland in his "birthday shirt." This is the shirt that he will wear on every birthday (until it fits.) I try to take one at 6 months to help compare the 1 year picture with too. Since he is always trying to crawl and move around it was hard to get a picture of him just sitting in the chair. Here is the best I was able to do.

He was perfectly happy to stand and let me take his picture though. This one really shows just how big the shirt is! : )

Our Little Gymnast

Kylee started taking gymnastics 4 weeks ago. She has become more familiar with the gym and more comfortable doing the different activities. She has come A LONG way since the first class when she spent most of it screaming and crying!?!? But as you can see, she is doing a great job! (Sorry for the shaky camera -- Ryland was trying to grab it.) : )


The first video is of the trampoline that we do each week. Each session a new jump or skill is added. This video is just the first jumping that we did -- hands in the air and jump to the other end!

The second video is from something Kylee had trouble with the first few times. Today, she did great though! She has to jump up on the pad from the ground. Today was the first day she got both feet under her when she landed on top!!

Swinging Siblings

During one of our park trips at the beginning of the month, I decided to give Ryland a turn at swinging. I didn't have any extra "support" to put in the swing with him so I used Kylee. At first she was excited at the idea of riding with her brother. Ryland was all smiles when the swing started to move ...

Kylee, on the other hand, was disgusted with how slow and "not high" the swing was moving. Needless to say, they didn't last too long in the swing together. : )

The next time we headed off to the park, I was sure to pack some extra blankets to help Ryland swing. Again, he was thrilled when the swing started moving (although this picture doesn't really show it) and now that Kylee had her own swing to go "very fast" and "very high" she was happy too. : )

Kylee working on getting up to "touch the trees."

And Ryland excited to be swinging. : )

Ryland has since graduated to swinging with no blankets needed. Yay! Now, Kylee has moved onto wanting to push him. VERY close supervision is needed for this one. : )