2011 was good to us

I decided to join in with everyone else in blog land and do a little 12 month recap of the Rytting family. I just love the idea of looking back at what we were up to the past year, (through whatever pictures I have, since I cant remember a full year month by month). so:

january

we celebrated Mckay turning 25 and participated in what was easily the most insane sporting event we’d ever been to. jimmer and his fellow team mates beat nationally ranked SDSU. I think they were ranked 3rd at the time? it was madness I tell you.

february

what could be even wilder than that basketball game but baby boy coming a full month early!? Henry Ray graced us with his presence on February 11th, almost exactly one month before his due date. those days he was in the hospital were probably the hardest of our lives but they strengthened us as a couple. I got to spend my birthday driving to and from the hospital to cuddle with our baby and cheer him on as he made progress. what a joy it was to finally take him home 5 days later.

march

we spent our second months as parents trying to figure out what in the world we were doing, enjoying our sweet boy and trying to sneak in an afternoon nap when we could. we spent lots of time cuddling, taking baths and just taking in all the joy of our little boy. we also had henry’s first baby shower. mckay was nearing the end of his last semester at school and driving an hour to and from byu made for a lot of really long busy days.

 

April

with April came Mckay’s much anticipated graduation from BYU. the morning after graduation we loaded up the car and made our way to southern California for some quality family/beach time.

 

may

may we enjoyed the beautiful Utah weather. Henry turned 3 months and got cuter and chubbier by the day (and balder). and I celebrated my first mothers day (which is quite close to becoming my favorite holiday. and I clearly was still too busy to get my hair done…

june

we spent nearly 2 weeks of the month on one of the funnest most memorable vacations ever. Henry met Pickles the talking Parrot in Vegas, hiked amid the Giant Sequoias in Yosemite, relaxed in Lake Tahoe and caught a Major League baseball game in San Francisco. it was a once in a lifetime kind of trip and our little 4 month old handled the hours upon hours of driving like a champ.

phew

july

we celebrated the fourth all weekend long this year. just how I like it. we took a trip to the cabin, had a beautiful view of fireworks all over the valley from Alpine and got a close up view of the Stadium of Fire fireworks. we skyped with adam in Jerusalem and got in some quality pool. Henry had his first bite of rice cereal, not too much of a success. later in the month we took a trip with my family to Idaho and visited Yellowstone for a day.

august

mckay finally cut his hair…almost all of it. the babe was finally blessed and we enjoyed another wonderful weekend at the cabin. the following week we sent mckay and that hairdo off on a boys kayaking trip down the green river. and brother chris entered the MTC.

september

we enjoyed the fall weather by going on a few lovely hikes as a family. we also managed a third trip to the Rytting cabin

october

we picked pumpkins, eventually carved pumpkins and dressed the babe up as Mr. Pan himself.

november

brought “mustache movember”. it also brought back two missionaries, chris (for surgery) and Marty after a long 2 years in Australia. henry finally figured out crawling (hasn’t stopped since) and we were lucky enough to enjoy to wonderful thanksgiving dinners.

december

oh christmas-time how we love it so. we managed to sneak in a performance of the nutcracker. delighted in getting gifts for family members. had an incredibly fun family weekend in SLC and enjoyed our first christmas as a family of 3.

amidst all the fun and adventures 2011 had to offer we also had our share of tough times and lessons that had to be learned. sometimes its hard to know what to do, what is best for your family. being an adult can be stressful. at times we’ve had to completely rely on our faith that the Lord has a plan for our little family and we’re where we are supposed to be. we’ve grown stronger of a family because of that. we’re grateful for those opportunities to grow. we loved this past year with all its ups and downs and are looking forward to another great year together.