Happy Birthday, Riley!

Today my baby turned 2. I can hardly believe it's been two years since she came into this world, forever turning our lives upside down and right side out :)

She is undoubtedly the best thing I have ever done and is just the funniest little person.

• Today, Jody was on the phone with a guy he works with...Riley said "talk on phone!" Jody ignored her...so she said it louder and grabbed the phone...so Jody told Jeff "someone" wanted to talk to him...so RP takes the phone and and says "Hewwo?" and talks some gibberish for a minute...Jody asked her who it was and she said "some man." I don't even know where she comes up with some of this stuff.
• I don't even know where to start with all the words she says...there are too many too count. Some of my favorite are: hewwo, sowwy, bye (it's all in the way she says it, she has a pretty deep little voice), let's go, love you...
• Some of my least favorite are shut up (not sure where she picked that one up, but thankfully I haven't heard it a few days from her) and no like it, which actually means she is full. Also "no touch it" when she does not want my help.
  
• She has recently discovered baby dolls and loves them. She has a baby from Target that take a bottle and then falls asleep. As soon as it falls asleep, she tells it "wake up!"
  
• She is scared of thunder, but loves to tell you it's raining.
  
• Crayons are her favorite and she will color on anything. Thus our rule of only coloring when she's in the high chair. But you have to make sure the high chair is away from things she can color on - like countertops, my iphone, the oven, etc.
• Swimming is a favorite pastime. And she's getting pretty brave. She does really good with her floaties.
  
• She has discovered the Imagination Movers and his quit requesting Blues Clues all the time (thank goodness). I can only take so much of Steve.
• We're in a picky phase. What works one day may not work the next. I figure she'll eat when she's hungry.
  
• She'll almost always eat Gogurt. I buy two big boxes at a time at Sam's.
  
• Money is the key to her heart. But only paper "moneys". And she'll fold it and stick it in the waist band of whatever she has on.
• I taught her to somersault last weekend.

Happy birthday, my sweet Riley....

Memorial Day Weekend

Wow...Memorial Day came and went in a hurry!

Friday...no getting off early for me. Jody and I decided instead of going out to dinner, we would divide and conquer everything we needed to do to get ready for the weekend...he took RP and went one way and I went to Target and to pick up dinner and our spare pack 'n' play....

Saturday, I ran around like crazy trying to get everything together so that I could leave to go to my dad's straight from the gym. While I went to HHC and did BodyVive, Jody and RP headed on to my dad's house. The rest can probably mostly be best expressed in pictures:

Pop's caught an unsuspecting baby goat for Riley to (torture) play with...I bet that goat doesn't make the same mistake twice :)

Then we took the mule out and fed the goats. They really look like they're starving, don't they?

Soon after feeding the goats, I loaded my 23 month old that hadn't had a nap all day in the car and drove an hour to the ranch at Shep...we spent the night there and the next morning, we set out early to do some exploring.

We found a great spot on the creek that was very clear and not muddy...it was perfect for doing some walking/playing in the water:


Then we went to the tank and RP chased the cows around...the calves were actually pretty interested in her.


I turned around to take a picture of the rest of the cows and when I turned around, I found this:


All of these activities resulted in this:

It was a good weekend...the pictures that you don't see are of me, mom, and Ashley sitting in beach chairs, with our legs in the kiddie pool, drinking beer...and floating in the tank with our rafts...Riley did try her floaties - she was not thrilled about them.

The other exciting thing for Riley this weekend was the baby birds on the porch...she was enthralled with "mama birds" and "baby birds." We even climbed a ladder and peeked in at them.

We stayed Sunday night, too...but came home pretty early on Monday. Someone woke up on the wrong side of the pack n play, so we just headed home. I had to do a 24 hour pee test for my urologist (man, that was fun), so hopefully we'll find out what's causing my stupid kidney stones and figure out if there is something that can be done to discourage them from returning.

Baby Carter

I was asked by a co-worker to take their newborn baby boy's pictures and do their birth announcements...I'm definitely in need of newborn practice and I was very excited...I think they turned out really good for my first attempt at a newborn...I will definitely say, it is a huge learning experience - if I get the opportunity to do pictures of any more newborns, I definitely will be a little better prepared.

Also, I have the utmost respect for the newborn photographers that can get those perfect sleeping newborn poses with the hands under the chin. Wow. I don't know how you do it. :)

Here's a few pictures of Carter: