What's Up????

Here's what's up with us:

1) Me, mom, and Ash took Riley to Sea World the weekend after Mother's Day...we stayed in a suite at the Hyatt Hill Country Resort and had a wonderful time. Riley LOVED Sea World, but I think we wore her out...we were there from 10 am til 6 pm when the park closed. We spent Saturday floating in the lazy river and hanging by the pool. Man, that place had some good hummus!

2) Jody and I have been married 11 years...it sure has gone by in the blink of an eye. I probably don't tell him enough, but he's a great husband and a wonderful father. We celebrated our anniversary by ordering take out after Riley went to bed and then drinking entirely too much wine.

3) The day after our anniversary, we decided to take Riley to the lake. We just went to Phantom and messed around for a bit. I laid out face down on the deck and caught myself dozing off several times (little did I know I was actually "planking", how hip and cool am I?) Jody taught her how to start the boat and make it go. That was interesting.

4) While at the lake, Jody had left a banana in the seat of the boat and I sat down on just a bit of it. So now Riley is running around telling people "mommy squooshed daddy's banana!!" which sounds far dirtier from the mouth of a nearly 3 year old than you can imagine.

5) Riley has developed several "scary voices". The most popular one I have named the devil baby voice...it really is pretty freaky. I'll have to catch her on video at some point.

6) Going to my dad's this weekend to see the baby goats. We were supposed to go last weekend, but all the rain brought out mass hordes of mosquitoes, so we decided to try for this weekend instead. Of course, it looked like they got quite a bit of rain yesterday, so there may be a fresh batch of bloodsuckers out there by then.

7) Riley and I are flying out to Pensacola in less than a month and I can't wait. I haven't had more than a day or two off this year and I'm ready for a break. I'm definitely earning my keep at work.

8) Been hitting the gym on a regular basis again and it feels good. Of course, the first couple of weeks were a little rough, but now I'm looking forward to my gym time. I actually did 5 classes last week (Jody and RP took a nap Saturday after the lake and I sneaked over for a yoga class). Of course, tomorrow night is step class, so I might not be so cheery about the gym after that...I just have to keep remembering it burns about 500 calories per my Exerspy, so it's totally worth it :)

9) I swear there was something else I was going to write here. Hmmm. I don't know. Oh,maybe about the books I've been reading? Anyway, I'm reading the Songs of Fire and Ice series by George RR Martin and thoroughly enjoying them. Mom has since passed me and is already on book 3! I noticed she downloaded it last night, she must have stayed up late reading!

10) Funny things RP has said this week:
She's on my pink list! (She was mad at someone)
The banana squooshing incident, see above
I'm just a little bit tired (when in fact she's like the walking dead)
She is all about telling people her daddy is big and doesn't need a ladder.
Her name is "mama" and my name is Riley Paige. Daddy's name is Jody Mac and he is her favorite. So it begins ;)

Riley....

Man, my kid is funny. She says some of the cutest, quirkiest things and I'm scared to death I'm going to forget them. So I'm going to attempt to put them all here...maybe someday I'll get around to scrapbooking all this ;)

Bambooms = band-aids

Skebby- Spaghetti

Hunky - not exactly sure the exact meaning, but it's an adjective. She used a port-a-potty at March for Babies this weekend (first time ever) and described it has "hunky" so I'm thinking it's nothing good. :)

The backyard is "Zoe's backyard" and the front yard is the "other backyard."

Rollers = Rollos

I'm super duper tired, so that will do for the first entry in Encyclopedia Riley.

To be continued....

Just a Few Funny Things

Riley has started to really say some funny things....

Sunday, we were out at Carla's house since Ashley is housesitting for her...Riley, Mom, and Ashley were sitting on the stairs. When I came around the corner, Riley patted the step next to her and said "come here baby." It was so stinking cute.

Then later that day, Trish brought Sarah out for Riley's birthday party...Riley really wanted Sarah to swim with her...when Trish was stripping Sarah, Riley decided to help out and told Sarah "I help you baby." It was so cute....

Then, the other night, Jody was on the phone and Riley kept saying "I talk, I talk" and "phone, phone." I figured Jody was talking to his brother or his dad, because he said "Riley wants to talk you." So Riley gets on the phone "Hewwo?" And proceeds to chatter away. Jody asked her who she was talking to and she says "some man." Turns out it was some man...Jeff that Jody works with - it was really funny.

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:

Relay For Life / March For Babies / Ally Zabba

You might be wondering how those three things go together...if so, read on :)

This year, I have decided to not only participate in March for Babies, as I have for several years, but also Relay for Life. Both are great events and I hold both near and dear to my heart. Both events occur on the same weekend, Friday, April 23 and Saturday, April 24. Needless to say, that will be a busy weekend!

I am also excited to say that my good friend Kirsten Burton of DarlingDandeDesigns has agreed to sponsor a raffle for two large Ally Zabba blankets from her store, one for each event. These blankets retail for $59.95 and they are gorgeous. Riley absolutely LOVES hers. If you don’t have a little one that needs an Ally Zabba blanket, they make great shower/birthday gifts or you can get store credit for $59.95 to be spent any way you choose in Kirsten’s store. You can check out her store here: http://www.darlingdandedesigns.com/

To enter the raffle, the minimum donation is $5. For $5, you will get one entry into the raffle (please note, Relay for Life has a minimum donation level of $10). For $10, you will get 3 entries into the raffle. For each $5 increment you donate above $10, you will get an additional entry. Plus you can have two chances to win by donating to both March for Babies and Relay for Life!

The cut off for donating for the raffles is April 19, 2010. The drawing will take place April 20, 2010 and the winners will be contacted. Please enter all your contact information when you donate, so that I can contact the winners :)

To donate, click on the following links:

March for Babies

Relay for Life

Thank you so much!

I had a shower to attend for a co-worker this past week and I had done the shower invites...the hosts (it was a co-ed group) asked me to match their bedding:

So I thought what better way to do their shower gift than to make it match the baby's bedding and room...so my friend Kirsten of Dandedarlingdesigns mentioned she had a basket AND an Ally Zabba blanket that would go perfectly (it was also helpful that Kirsten's baby boy Declan has the exact same bedding :)...she also did some burp rags to coordinate...I added a monkey, crib sheet, and some tulle ribbon and VOILE!




It made a super cute gift...I love the embroidered name on the Ally Zabba blanket...just super cute! I will definitely be doing more shower gifts like this in the future :)