Happy Easter!

After a few days of Easter celebration, Kylah is completely wiped out! She went down for a nap at 10:30am today...it's now 1:30pm and she's still sleeping. Although we've been very busy, we've had a lot of fun with all sides of our family the past few days.

Easter started with Kylah's day care party. Eating cookies, decorating hard boiled eggs, and then the ultimate easter egg hunt with all her friends!


She found the first egg, but didn't understand to put it in the basket. We switched her basket for a zip lock bag and she started to get the idea. She found about 3 eggs by herself, and the rest of the kids filled her bag for her.

On Easter Sunday, we got up early and went to Church. Afterwards we met my mom's side of the family for brunch, and then spent the rest of the day with Craig's family in Lansing. The Easter bunny visited Kylah twice yesterday! She's one lucky little girl...

All ready for church!

Kylah and Caleb after breakfast...he was fixing her hair (or petting her?)!

Kylah got a camera and a phone in her Easter basket, along with a whole bunch of other things she loved!

Fortunately, the weather was beautiful so we were able to take a family walk in the afternoon too. It was so nice to enjoy the fresh air and sunshine again!

Hopefully you all had a great Easter holiday too!

Update

Craig and I want to say thank you to everyone who's been here for us the past week. Your phone calls, emails, messages, visits, and edible arrangements have meant a lot to us, and really re-emphasize how wonderful our friends and family truly are. Your encouraging words and advice are greatly appreciated.

It's still very quiet at our house. It's hard to come home from work and not be greeted at the door, and it's hard to fall asleep at night without the sound of Riley breathing beside our bed. We are constantly reminded of him all throughout our house, but are in no rush to put any of his toys or blankets away.

We are hanging in here though...and are enjoying the time we're spending with Kylah. She never ceases to amaze us with her fun loving personality and innocence to life in general. She recently started singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, her ABC's (although she skips quite a few letters), and can count to 4 by herself. At only 18 months, I think that's pretty good!!

Anyway - thanks again to everyone for your support. We love you all. (And we love you too Riley!)

Saturday, March 28th

On Saturday Craig, Kylah and I said good bye to our best friend, our first baby, and our family pet, Riley. Saying good bye to him has been nothing short of the most difficult and painful event we've ever been through. Although we are completely heart broken with his absense, we know that he is enjoying heaven, free of pain, discomfort, and infection.

As those of you who met him know, Riley was one of the most well behaved, emotional, loving, and happy dogs around. He certainly kept our life interesting, and from day one we made memories with him that will last a lifetime. We can look back and smile at all the fun times we had together, and fortunately we have a lot of pictures to show for it. He made us better people, brought us closer together, and taught us that the simplest things in life can make you happy.

It's been a very difficult past few days for us as we learn how to get through the sadness we're constantly feeling and adjust to our quiet home. I heard a song today on the radio that helped me feel a little better, and now has new meaning for me: Sarah Mclachlan's Arms of the Angel. "You're in the arms of an angel, may you find some comfort here." We know Riley is in God's hands, running in the grass, eating food that contains corn, and looks fantastic. Even still, we miss him, love him, and will always wish something could've cured him.

Please pray for Riley and for us as we get through this.

In loving memory of our best friend, and first baby - Riley Taetsch. We will always love you buddy.

18 Months Old

Here is our collection of "18 month pictures" that truly represent just how fast Kylah is growing up!

Spending Time with Grandpa T.

Kylah loves her Grandpa! They read books and played all morning on Sunday, and Kylah enjoyed every minute of it.

Happy Birthday Craig!

A day late, but definitely not a dollar short...Happy 29th Birthday Craig!

We love you :)

Daddy's Shoes

Kylah is 17 months old, and just keeps getting cuter by the day. She constantly makes us laugh, so we're trying to capture as many of these moments on tape as possible...

Lovin' the Outdoors

Since day 1 Kylah has loved the outdoors. The first couple of months after she was born, we knew that taking her outside would immediately make her stop crying. Now that she's old enough to really understand, she constantly wants to put her coat and shoes on and go outside - whether at home, at day care, or anywhere else. My mom bundled her up so she could play with the daycare kids and said that Kylah cried when it was time to come in. She'd stay out there all day if we let her!

Snip Its

After weeks of debating, I finally caved in and took Kylah to get her hair "trimmed". I emphasize the word "trimmed" for all of you who keep telling me to just stick it out and let it grow, because that's really all we had done today! We went to Snip Its on the East Beltline where all the stylists are trained to work with young kids. When we walked in, there was a little boy squirming like crazy during his first hair cut experience, so I didn't feel so badly when Kylah cried when it was her turn! The place is super cute inside, the stylists are very friendly, and the hair cuts are a little overpriced, but I got cute pictures for her scrapbook out of the deal at least :)

They gave her a sucker to calm her down - and although she was in no mood to eat it, it did help her to stop crying!

When she was all done, she got to turn in her "passport" where it says card on the machine behind her, and out popped a toy (a sticker inside a plastic container). She held onto it tightly all the way home, and was very excited to show daddy what she got!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Grandma & Grandpa T. came over Saturday to spend Valentine's day with us. They brought Kylah a gift...she loves her new clothes!

Her face is healing very quickly - you can hardly see the scratch now!

Uh oh...

It was bound to happen eventually! This is the first significant boo-boo, but I'm sure it's not the last. Kylah is one tough cookie, after 5 minutes of crying she's been fine the rest of the day! She is going to have one big fun colored eyelid for the next few days though...

Poor Kiddo!!

Winter Fun

A few weeks ago, before most of the snow melted, we bundled Kylah up in her snow gear and played outside. We tried to take her sledding, but her sled isn't ideal in deep snow, so we spent most of the time rolling around on the hill and letting Riley chase us. Kylah LOVED her boots so much that she wanted to wear them around the house for a while before putting the rest of her snow gear on :)

After the weather we just had though, we're entirely ready to bag winter and have spring now!

Can't forget this one!

I know, I know... It's February. I should've posted these pictures back in January, but I honestly lost track of time. Just after New Years our family from Texas came to visit. We had another Christmas celebration, went out to dinner, saw movies, played pool/rock band/bowling/catch phrase for hours, and just had a really good time together. Kylah loved spending time with her cousins Caleb and Brent again!