The Inevitable 3-0

Yep, I turned 30 on March 15th.  God blessed us with an abnormally gorgeous day of 80 degrees.  He must have been getting us warmed up for vacation.  I am truly blessed with amazing family & friends and I'm not just saying that to make you all feel good. ;)

What is a birthday without La Fiesta's involvement?  We had the party room and had the best time possible.

They got me good with the whipped cream.  Riley did not like that in the least and I'm one proud mama that my little girl is looking out for me!

Apparently when you are regulars not only do you get a complimentary dessert, but also a complimentary tequila shot.  Bleh.
 



It was the perfect send-off for a few days of sun & sand!

February eNews

Not that there's really much news. :)  I just haven't posted anything on here for a month!  Here's a little update on how our February went.  Normal January's and February's are pretty non-eventful and this year's was for the most part that.  Minus sickness that plagued us during both months.

February started out with an emergency visit to urgent care which resulted in R testing positive for RSV which resulted with us in the ER (the urgent care doc thought she may have had a febrile seizure while we were there, her fever spiked, she was non-attentive and started sucking her lips in and out).  That situation is any parents worst nightmare, not knowing how bad off your child really is.  I don't see how parents of children with terminal illnesses do it.  Luckily her chest x-ray came back fine as well as her blood test, so we didn't have to spend the night in that awful place.  I hate hospitals, I couldn't imagine how scared Riley was!  She settled down tremendously once we got home.  It's amazing how zombie-like she was.  Scary stuff.  On another note, remember that last post I had regarding getting rid of the paci?  Well she got it back during this time.  I hadn't realized we had thrown them all away except for one, lucky girl (and lucky us!).  It's gone again now, though.

Luckily Chad's folks had already planned on visiting that weekend and boy did they help us out.  The experience brought back flashbacks of when she was a newborn needing constant attention.  We had to do breathing treatments every four hours and R did wonderfully with them for the most part.

This was a Thursday when all this happened.  By Sunday we were doing much better and completely better by Monday.  But guess what?  I got a call the following Thursday that she puked at daycare.  So off I went to pick her up.  She proceeded to regurgitate exorcist-style on the way home.  Fantastic!  I've always loved cleaning puke out of carseats, it must be my lucky day!!!!  Not.  She must have picked up that norovirus going around.  To make a long story short, after being sick since pretty much Christmas, we are 100% better.  For now, anyway. ;)

February is Valentine's Day month and I love all holidays that call for doing/getting things for others.  This includes R's most favorite thing right now....nail polish!

Here's some randomness from the month.  She's talking more and more each day and also with each day comes our ability to actually understand her.  Every night before she goes to bed we have to say goodnight to everyone and this includes Holly and Toro.  She actually enjoys telling them goodnight more than telling us, but that's besides the point. :)  This video us looking for Toro so we can complete our bedtime ritual.  The funny thing is we looked for him for a good three minutes or so and all along he was sitting on a chair under the table in the dining area.  Jokes on us, I guess!





 

Multi-tasker.

 

 

With all this crazy snow we've received we neglected to actually get out in it ourselves (at first) but rather enjoyed watching Holly frolick in it.

 

 

But finally last weekend we decided to go for it and see how R liked sledding.  Major bust as you can see from the photo and video below.  We almost waited too long, the snow was getting pretty scarce.  *Video note:  we decided to find a "Riley-friendly" hill at Cico Park after me biffing it on "the hill".

 

 

 

 

On that note, here's to a very exciting "March" ahead!!! :)

 

 

Milestones

So the past few days have marked a couple of milestones for us.  Minor ones, albeit, but they are still milestones.

The first was the pacifier breakthrough.  R truly only used it when it was time to sleep, so we knew it wouldn't be as hard as if she used it all the time, but it was still a change not only for her, but for us too!  Her Parents as Teachers lady has stressed to us for the past six months that the longer we let it go on, the harder it will be for her to break.  We had no trips planned for awhile, so figured this was prime time.  We first debated how to go about it...do we have "the talk" with her on how she's a big girl now and pacifiers (paci's) are for babies?  Or do we snip the tip and call it "broken"?  After realizing plan A probably wouldn't work very well for our Roo, we opted for plan B.  See Exhibit Q.

Exhibit Q-

So here we go, it's Friday night.  It's time to go to bed, and R inevitably asks for her paci.  I go to give it to her and she promptly puts it in her mouth and promptly removes it.  Looks at it.  Puts it back in.  Takes it back out.  I ask her if it's broken and if she wants to throw it away and she says yes (all while having an absolute disgusted look on her face).  She then asks for another one.  DOH!  We have multiple and she remembers this.  So Chad quickly prepares another one.  This one we have now kept as a gentle reminder in case she asks for it again.  To sum up a story that I've somehow been able to draw out, she's been a trooper.  Nap times have been rougher than night time for some reason, but all in all she's performed beautifully.  Our baby is growing up. :(

On another note, as of today R's hospital bill is officially paid off!  We will baske in the awesomeness for the time-being, anyway. ;)

2013

Here it is, a new year!  We rang it in at home this year.  I am still amazed at how your priorities change once you have children.  But that doesn't mean we didn't have fun.

We ordered pizza, Chad had his boyfriends over for poker and Riley had her neighbor friends over for fun and dancing.

R's hair pretty much went with the music we were listening to.  80's all the way, baby.

We got to hold baby Amaia again as well.  R gets pretty excited when she gets to hold her as evidenced below.

 



We also had some sparkler fun!

 

 

Here's to 2013!

 

 

Three Christmases

We started our Christmas vacation with the 3 1/2 hour drive to good ol' Dodge City.  You can't really say Dodge City without adding "good ol'".  First we celebrated Christmas with my Mom's family and Riley grasped the whole unwrapping present concept very quickly.  And of course loved helping everybody else as well.  Here's just a few photos.

A bed for her babies....!!!!

 

And a Macy's bear that Uncle Doug got in New York City that recites "The Night Before Christmas".

 

 

Trying on "Bay-bay"'s purple boots.

 

 

Her elephant popper from the Smith's was a big hit. 



 

 

Next stop was Christmas at the Riley's.  Nikki & Eric were there too!!!  R loved helping Papa get the fire started.

 

And more presents!!!

We even made Papa & Grandma their very own garden stepping stone, complete with R's handprints.  Nonny (Mom's mom) got one too.

Christmas Eve morning brought the 4 hour drive to Nana & Papa's in Oklahoma.  We were ready to see "Mimmy" (Emmy) and "Al" (Alex)!

Growing up, my Dad's parents always had the tradition of us singing Happy Birthday to Jesus on Christmas Eve and the kids getting to blow out the candles.  We decided to start this tradition as well!  It's a great way to reinforce the reason for the season with the munckins.



Christmas morning, R was oblivious to the stockings and presents, but as soon as Alex got up the cat was out of the bag!

Christmas morning wouldn't have be complete without Papa handing out pre-breakfast snacks...cheese puffs.

Nana & Papa got Alex a wagon.  Needless to say, this is probably all they would have ever needed.  They LOVED being pushed around the house in this thing.

Riley's big present unveiling.....she would probably admit that this was most possibly the BEST. PRESENT. EVER!!!



Lot's of cookin' went on, and is still going on.

 We got to spend an extra day with the kids when Zac & Chelsi had to go back to Amarillo and Emmy & Alex got to stay with Nana & Papa.  These kids had an absolute GREAT time.

We even made Nana her very own garden stepping stone!

However Alex better step it up next time.  I have no clue what was going through R's mind when she decided to maul him, but it does look like Alex tackled her first. ;)



We hope everybody had a very Merry CHRISTmas!  We sure did!

 

The big 2-0 months

Whew!  What a past few weeks it's been.  Snow days, traveling, gifts, coughing & ear drainage, more traveling, more gifts, and more kleenex, we've been busy!!!!

First things first, and that was R turning 20 months old on December 18.  To sum her up in one word, "entertaining" would most definitely be it.  Wow, she's a character.

Like when she decides to empty all her books onto the floor (which is an ordinary occurence). 

 

She got an early Christmas present from Grammy & Guy (mainly so we wouldn't have to lug it all over God's green earth during the Christmas week), and that was her very own table & chairs.  No more high chair!  Unfortunately it is the perfect height for "Haw-wah" but R doesn't hold back with her "No, no Haw-wah"s.

 

We enjoyed our one snow day before break with pancakes followed by watching Daddy shovel the driveway....and four of our other neighbors'!

 

 

She's become quite the jabberbox, doesn't eat as much as she use to and is waaay more picky (aka your typical toddler), is now scared of the vacuum, loves her baby dolls, Has to tell EVERYbody "night-night" and blow kisses before she goes to bed, has mastered the Tupperware shape toy as well as her wooden "Riley" puzzle, and loves to "GO".  I still have trouble understanding her at times, sometimes it takes both Chad and I to figure out what she's saying but we are getting better at it.  Her favorite sayings are "All gone?", "Where Karo?" (Where's Toro), and lastly, and this is a little foreshadowing for my next post..."I cookin'!"





It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

So unless you live with the Aborigines, you probably already know that Christmastime is here, in full swing at that.  But you probably wouldn't have internet, or even a computer, so I suppose that point is moot.  Anyhow, Chad worked hard on the Christmas light display (but so do washing machines, right?).  I wanted more, but I probably I should be thankful for what I got.  Unfortunately we can't really line the driveway anymore because of the silly phantom rabbits that nibble through the cords, so here we are.

I'm more proud of my contribution to the outdoor festiveness, this Pinterest Christmas tree.  You'll have to click through for instructions, it's waaaaay too time consuming for me here, now. ;)

The first weekend of December we spent attending the Annual Mayor's Lighted Holiday Parade.  Besides for the scary K-State Marching Band drumline (per Riley) it was a fun time.

Terence, Lachelle, & Logan got to join us, too!  Note R's blue raspberry Dum-Dum lips.

This last weekend brought the St. Thomas More Cookie Carousel (!!!!).  Probably one of the most looked-forwarded to events of the Christmas season for me.  What a novel fundraiser idea, to have your church ladies bake gobs and gobs of cookies and then sell it all by the pound?  Brilliant!

It also brought Salvation Army bell ringing.  Kiley, Jenny, and I bundled up and set foot to Hobby Lobby for 2 hours of "Good mornings", "Have a nice days", and "Merry Christmases!"  Unfortunately there are no photos to prove that we did this. :)

Lastly, it brought our sort of annual Christmas Party.  It is very funny how our parties have changed, and for the better of course!

Last year, Riley and her bff, Noah....

And this year!

Now Riley's room is the hot hang out spot.

 

 

We had all sorts of goodies...and the main event was Chad's smoked ham.  Mmmmmm.

 

 

R enjoyed getting help from Lacy on her new Pinterest Christmas tree Grammy & Guy made her.  I showed this to Mom awhile back knowing that I would probably never sit down and atctually make  it, but that it was simply a neat idea.  Grammy & Guy just need a couple hours on a Sunday afternoon to hammer it out.

 

 

Onto next weekend, have I mentioned that I LOOOOVE this time of year?