Our Little Fish

Oooh, we are having so much fun...just look at that smile!

Santa Baby

Just had to share this picture of our little Santa Baby!

Riley is 4 Months Old!

Again, we can't believe sweet baby Riley is 4 months old! She is in her PJs for her picture because we had a busy day today. We went to her first birthday party...Cousin Drew turned 2 today! Happy Birthday, Drew! This picture was taken after she went swimming in the tub with Daddy, and just before bedtime. Sweet smelling baby! :)

This month she has taken a liking to her fingers and has started to occasionally suck her thumb. Gary and Kim were both avid thumb suckers, so we can hardly deprive her of the pleasure! Besides, it is just too cute! She is also reaching more for her toys and turning on her side to really reach. Overall she is a pretty calm baby and has earned herself the name "Super Chill". We love it!

Breakfast with Santa

It wouldn't be Christmas without a visit with Santa! Our neighborhood was lucky enough to have Santa visit for Saturday morning breakfast at the clubhouse. He is awefully busy these days, so we got lucky! Riley did well with her first visit with Santa, and was mostly interested in how his beard TASTED...not something we had ever thought about! :)

November 19th...Riley is 3 months Old!

We can't believe it...Riley is 3 months old! She is changing so fast. Her favorite things right now are being talked and sang to (and talking back!), watching Daddy play guitar (actually, just plain watching Daddy), taking a bath, and going for a ride in the stroller. She is getting so strong and has really good head control now, and we know it will be just a short time before she is rolling over and sitting up!

Riley is adjusting well to school, and making straight A's! :) She is doing better with taking naps and getting used to the noise and lights, etc. Her teachers really seem to love her. Kim continues to try to think of anyway to make it rich so she can stay home with her, but no luck yet!

We hope you enjoy the pictures!

Wow...11 years!

We celebrated our 11th anniversary on Saturday November 14th! Laurie and family came over to watch Riley and we went out on the town! We decided to stick close to home at The Grotto in Highland Village and met up with Darcie and Dave Boughton to celebrate Darcie's birthday, our anniversary, and watch TCU play another game of their undeated season. We had a great time, and then enjoyed a delicious dinner! Happy 11th Anniversary to us!

Riley's First Day at School 11/12/2009

Well the bliss finally ended and Kim had to go back to work. Riley is going to Primrose for now. She is in a classroom with about 7 other babies, and course she is the cutest! Her teachers comment on how good she is and of course how precious. They seem to really like her and she is doing well with the transition...better than Mom! Gary and Kim went together to drop her off her first day, and she will go Monday through Thursday since Kim is only working 4 days a week now.

Finally, Riley takes a bottle...for real this time!

How does the saying go... the 6th time's the charm? After trying 6 different bottles, Riley has finally gotten into the regular habit of taking a bottle. She is still somewhat selective on when she decides to give in and eat from a bottle, but she won't starve anyway! She starts school on Thursday, so this is a load off of our minds!

We have a busy few weeks coming up with Riley starting school, Kim going back to work, our 11th wedding anniversary, Thanksgiving, and Gary's 40th Birthday. We will keep everyone posted!

This weekend, Riley's Aunt Laurie was out to play with her and give Kim and Gary a meal out without the threat of a mad dash out of the restaurant with a crying baby! Thanks Laurie! We have been so thankful to have such supportive family and friends. You never really appreciate what people go through in such a big life change until you experience it yourself, and we have come to appreciate what our family and friends have gone through in having a baby. I am sure we have MANY more lessons to come!

We have included a few recent pictures of what we have been up to!

Uncle Julios...

We love Uncle Julios, so we were eager to have an outing to our favorite restaurant! This was a true event! Riley was an angel and stayed awake during the entire trip without a single complaint. She got lots of compliments...which she loved...ok so did we! :)

Riley's First Halloween!

We had great plans for our first family Halloween, but Riley had other plans. She was so worn out, she didn't make it to the neighborhood pre- trick or treat pizza party at the clubhouse...she took a nap instead. We sat out front of the house with our video monitor and passed out candy (we had about 150 kids!), and it was a beautiful night! Riley did make it outside for about an hour with her flower costume from the Schroeders...too cute!
Gary found several cute costumes and couldn't decide which one would look best on Riley, so he got all of them...hence the multiple Halloween costume pictures! It is a good thing she doesn't mind changing her clothes, although you can tell in the pic in the monkey costume- she had had it by then!

Riley and the Mobile

Riley has a new past time...staring at her mobile! Gary put up a mobile in her room, now that she is regularly taking naps in her big baby bed, and she is mesmerized! She is still sleeping in the bassinet at night...8-10 hours the past 3 nights! Whoo hoo!

We are still having trouble getting her to take a bottle, but we have been assured that she will eventually do it. I hope so!

Riley has been a little social butterfly this week, but of course Mom forgot to take pictures! She got to play with Auntie Meghan and cousin Drew, Aunt Laurie, Darcie and Mrs. Jordening, and Laura and Everett's for a party. Wow, quite a packed social calendar for a 9 week old...she loved it!

2 Months Old!

We can't believe that Riley is 2 months old already! Hope everyone enjoys the pictures of Riley on her 2month birthday! She is more smiley that ever and is now batting at her toys in her overhead activity mat. She even has conversations with the stuffed octopus hanging from her playmat and then gives him hit with her hand...so funny! I wonder what they are talking about? :)

We have been working on a couple of things this week in preparation for Kim going back to work in the next 3 weeks or so. We are trying to get her used to taking a bottle and also transitioning her to her crib. Both have been hard sells to Riley and we have had slow progress. We have always said that Riley has very strong opinions on what she wants!

Other big news is Riley got her immunizations and we are now cleared to go out in public for short trips at non busy times... whoo ooh! Our first outing was to Patrizio's for lunch on Saturday, and it was moderately successful and we will call it a learning experience. We ended up eating in shifts! The second outing was to the shops by our house for a walk and Blue Goose for a late lunch / early dinner which went very well, even with the loudish music at the resturaunt. Yeah!

Smiley Riley Captured!

Riley is smiling more than ever, and we are loving it! We can't wait for everyone to see it in person. It is only a matter of days before we get that squeal of delight we have been eagerly anticipating! Good times!

Riley goes swimming and takes a bottle!

Riley likes the water, so why not take her in the big tub, right? Gary put his swim trunks on and they went swimming...she loved it and can even float with a little help!

We also decided to start giving her a bottle once a day. So, Gary fed her at the last feeding before bed last night. She ate it in a few minutes and wanted more, typical! :)

Welcome to our family blog!

We have realized that things with Riley will change fast and don't want to miss a thing, so we decided to create our own family blog to keep everyone up to date on our excitement!

The exciting news this past week is Riley learned how to smile! Either that, or she knew all this time and we just weren't that entertaining! :) We haven't captured a really good smiley picture yet, but you can catch a glimpse in the one of Gary giving her a bath. I have also posted some of her favorite things to do, bath time with Daddy and going to a walk in the stroller. She also loves her activity mat, but pictures do not do it justice... her arms and legs get going and she makes little noises of excitement, I am trying to get some video for that...so stay posted!