Watering the Plants

The other day I was watering the plants when Riley realized that if she got close enough to the water hose she could feel the water...well, then she realized she could get underneath the spray and really get wet. It was a nice warm day, what was the harm? She had lots of fun and I got the plants watered!!

A New Baby Is On the Way

Well, as you can see we are expecting, Riley is going to be a big sister!! We are due on October 2nd. So far this pregnancy has been the complete opposite of Riley's and I am feeling much worse than the first go around. I am really hoping in the next couple of weeks I will begin to feel better since we are now through the first trimester. We had our first ultrasound yesterday and so far everything looks really good. As you can see from the picture it looks like he is a thumb sucker already -- for those of you wondering where to look, the head is on the left, profile shot, you can see a little hand by the mouth, and on the right are the little legs. Now to explain...I stated "he" because the lady doing the ultrasound says she thinks about 70% chance that it is a boy, but there are no guarantees. We will know for sure at our next ultrasound at 18 weeks. But knowing that information makes it really hard not to say "he".

Playing with My Water Table

Saturday was such a beautiful day that we put water in Riley's water table and let her have fun and boy did she. She had a blast!! She likes to put rocks in her water table and as you can see from the pictures she got soaking wet.

Such a Cutie

Our Visit to the Zoo

Riley and I met some friends at the zoo last week! Riley enjoyed seeing the animals, although I think she was more interested in the mud puddles we found in the petting zoo area. She was definitely more interested in them than in petting the goats...silly girl!

WOW...What a Saturday

Today Riley had so much fun! We went to our cousin Ashley's 8th birthday party at a place called "Pump It Up". For those of you wondering what it is...it is a wonderful place to have a birthday party. It has two different rooms that you play in with really, really BIG bouncy things. At first Riley played with the little car they had there, but then I took her into one of the bouncy things (there were only a couple of kids in it at that time) and it was all over from there. Matt and I spent the next hour taking turns going in and out of the bouncy things, sliding, climbing, jumping...man it was exhausting. Riley had so much fun!! After that we went into a separate room for pizza and cake; once Riley had those she was ready for a nap. Needless to say we left the party a little early before she had a melt down.

Watch out, it's a new driver!!


Mom and Riley going down the slide (if you look at our hair you can tell you move rather quick on the slide). Riley wanted to keep doing it, she thought it was wonderful!!


Riley and dad about to go down (I tried to get an action shot, but the camera did not take the picture - I am sure it was user error).


After a few minutes in the car.

After her much needed nap we went over to Ashley's house for more birthday fun! Riley just wanted to play with the big kids. Once we returned home Riley found a new way to play with her shopping cart toy...she just wanted to sit in it.

Listen to Me

Here it is...Riley saying Haleigh - the first time around not so good so keep listening for the second one.

Sunday Chores

Sunday we stayed in most of the day and got some chores done. Riley always wants to help do everything, or she mimics what you are doing. Here is what Sunday was like...

Dad changing out the fan in the living room.

Riley working on the fan dad had taken down already.

Saturday at the Ballpark

Saturday we went to a Spring Training game with some friends and we had lots of fun. It was a beautiful day!! We had lawn seats in the shade which was wonderful. Then down side was how steep the hill was we were sitting on was, so it was a little challenging for the kids. Riley enjoyed picking the grass.

She also enjoyed hugging Ella!! She just kept giving her hugs and kisses, it was so sweet.

Amazing...

Just a little update...Riley is doing wonderful! She is now drinking her milk out of a cup without any issues so the night time bottle is gone ~ no more bottles. She did not really seem to care so that was nice. She is so much fun to play with these days. Yesterday we tired out "My Gym" which Riley loved, she had so much fun playing and running around; now we just have to decide if we are going to join. It made me realize how independent she is becoming. She had no problem just exploring everything, she did not seem to care where I was. We spent the weekend hanging out with Christy (our friend from Georgia), she was out here for a few days and we had lots of fun!!

Now for the amazing part...as of now Riley does not have too big of a vocabulary, but today her new word was "Haleigh" (for those of you that don't know that is Matt's sister). Haleigh is not the easiest name to say, but apparently that did not stop Riley. I will try my best to get it on video, because it is really cute!!

Look at Me Now

This weekend we turned Riley's seat around in the car and boy does that make her happy. The first time Matt sat her in her seat like this she had the biggest smile on her face. It is also nice for us, because now it is much easier to see her when driving.

Our Little Cutie

Well, I have a very cute video of Riley that I have now tried to post 3 different times without success. I don't know why it is not uploading, but I will keep trying, but for now I will just add a cute little picture. Not much new here...Riley is doing great! She LOVES being outside, I think she could spend all day out there. We have stopped all bottles except the one right before bed, I don't think she really cared about the others. We were having a little bit of an issue getting her to drink milk out of a cup, but now she is doing much better so I think the night time bottle will go away soon too. (She is growing up so fast.) She is a good little eater and really LOVES fruit, any kind will do: strawberries, blackberries, bananas, pears, peaches, apples; I think you get the point. She is so much fun and we just love her so much!

Our Weekend Away

The weekend of Jan 30th to Feb 1st Matt and I went to San Diego for a work function and left Riley with MiMi and Grandpa (Matt's parents). I was a little nervous about leaving her, but it went just fine (although, by Saturday night I REALLY missed her). The weather in San Diego was beautiful! Friday Matt had a few meetings so I took advantage of my free time; I got a manicure and a pedicure, read a little, and took a nice long nap before our dinner. It felt really nice to relax all day. Then Saturday we had lunch at a place on the beach, it was wonderful! We had a dinner party that night and Sunday enjoyed breakfast at the beach and then came home just in time for the Super Bowl.


The view from our patio, it was awesome!

A nice walk along the beach!

Saturday's dinner party - it was a costume party - the theme was "Pirates"!

Our Baby Girl is ONE!!

It is so hard to believe that Riley has turned the big ONE. She has gone through so many changes in just a year, it is so amazing. We are truly blessed to have her in our lives and she is making everyday more and more exciting. She is learning so many new things by the day it is hard to keep up with her. Here's to the next year (leading up to the terrible two's)!!

Riley's birthday cake (yes, I made it).


Riley's own cake to dig into.

Birthday morning...Riley seeing her presents from us. We got her a little table and chairs.

A cake made just for the birthday girl...


I was hoping that Riley would just dig in and have cake everywhere, but the opposite took place. We could barely get her to take some and she just took little pieces. It's okay, it was a lot less messy that way.

Playing on her new slide.




Opening her computer toy.


Kissing the kitten.


A fun new toy to ride on.


Riley had a lot of fun at her party. She REALLY enjoyed all her new presents and had fun playing with everyone. Thanks to everyone who was able to share in this special day!!

Miss Independent

One evening last week Matt had taken Riley's clothes and shoes off because it was bath time...well, she was not too happy that her shoes where off. She was determined to get them back on. I tried to help her, but she got mad at me. She tried for at least 15 minutes to get the shoes on. It was too funny to watch:

How do these things work?

I can get this on my foot.

Ooops!! I tipped right over.

Moving and Unpacking

Well, we finally got into our new house and are about 98% settled...we still have a few boxes to go through and some organizing to do. It is a lot of work to unpack and organize a house. Riley has been such a big help through the process. We are very happy with our new house and the space it provides us!!

Riley has really enjoyed playing with Matt's watch over the past months and now she enjoys chewing on it. I think the cold metal feels good on her gums since she is trying to get more teeth.

Quick Update

This picture shows the response Riley gives when you ask her most questions, "I don't know!?!"

I wanted to write a quick update this morning...We have been really, really busy lately. We finally got the keys to our house Dec. 29th so we have been trying to get it ready for move in (which is tomorrow). We have painted almost the entire house, just the bathrooms are left, and yes, we did have help. The new flooring has been put in so now we are ready. Riley is doing great! She is starting to get a tooth on the top now, that will make 3! She is always busy, busy, busy...it is amazing the amount of energy these little people have. She is starting to use some of the sign language we have taught her and she follows simple directions. It is so hard to believe that she will be 1 in just a little over a week, time sure flies.