The last Riley-ism of 2007

We were all out shopping the other day.

The stores were busy, mom was hungry (watch out!) and the kids had had enough ... everyone was at the end of their rope.

Ryan and I were gently disagreeing about something in the front seat of the car as we were driving through the parking lot.

Riley from the back peeps up, "Are you guys having issues up there?"

Nope ...no attitude in this family at all ...

Miss Paige ... this morning as I was setting up for a shoot today ...

Looking at the second picture I can see what my aunts have been saying ... that she looks a lot like me.

Just a bit cold this morning ...

We had a really cool frost come in overnight with some fog. I snuck outside this morning for just a few minutes (until I couldn't feel the tips of my fingers) and snapped a few pictures of the branches and bushes. The first three are my favorite.

Merry Christmas!!!

Ho ho ho .... MERRY CHRISTMAS! Hope Santa found everyone this year. He found us in a big way!

Backing up a few days ... we had a blast with the Zahradnik clan on Sunday. The presents that Aunts and Uncles had taken days to pick out were opened within 20 minutes or so. It was a frenzy of wrapping paper with a few shouts of excitement thrown in. Instead of spending the whole day in the kitchen for a big meal, we all brought appetizers. Let’s just say there was no shortage of food. Thankfully, great auntie Gayle and cousin Jesse came over to help us out. :)

Monday I had to work a half day so I left dad and the kids in bed. Riley and dad made Santa chocolate chip cookies and daddy was extra thoughtful and picked up the house. Mom got home and after lunch we ALL took a nap. I think we all needed it. Here's Mr. Riley as he was sleeping ... we'll just call him Al Bundy with his hand down his pants ...

We joined some family at Kristin’s aunt and uncle’s house for dinner and good conversation. Riley, Paige and Jack provided the comedy for the night. :)

After we got home, we got our Christmas jammies on and dad read The Night Before Christmas. As you can see, Riley was good at listening ... Paige on the other hand ... um, not so much. :)

After stories Riley worked on setting out chocolate chip cookies and milk for Santa ... as well as carrots and celery sticks for the reindeer.
Then it was off to bed ... where Paige took off her pants twice and screamed (happily) for close to 30 minutes.

Mom and dad weren't sure that Santa would come ... but sometime throughout the night ... HE DID!

Riley and Paige woke up around 7 this morning. Riley ran out to see if Santa had enjoyed the cookies and milk. He had ... but he'd certainly left a mess of cookie crumbs. Not only that, but he must have fed his reindeer on the front walk ... because there were carrot and celery pieces ALL OVER! I told him that if Santa was going to leave messes at our house he wouldn't be welcomed back. :)

Riley tore into the presents while Paige ... well, Paige was more interested in the milk and cereal we'd brought downstairs for her ....

Riley was SUPER excited that Santa had listened to his requests ...

... and Paige .... was still enjoying breakfast.

Riley jumped for joy when he opened the camera Santa had brought him ....

... and Paige wondered what could be more interesting than her Kix.

Finally she decided she was sick of us yelling her name ... so she decided to join the party ...
... and discovered that this opening presents thing was a lot of fun.

The rest of the morning was spent in our jammies. Grandma Karen came over around 2:00 to check out everything the kids had gotten and stayed for a yummy (if I do say so myself) dinner.

So it's 6:00 and we have one Miss Paige who's not far from bed, a Peanut who probably won't be far behind her and a mom and dad who are looking forward to a quiet house. :) Merry Christmas to all .... and to all, a good night.

What do you have in YOUR pockets?

Yesterday as we picked Riley up from daycare, we were told that he had some issues with listening most of the day. He'd been doing SO well ... having so many good days in a row. I think part of it is the excitement of Christmas coming up.

So this morning as we were getting our coats, hats and mittens on, Ryan asked Riley if he "had his listening ears on" for Shelley's house. Serious as all get out, Riley takes off his glove, reaches in his pocket, digs in his pockets for a while, comes out with his imaginary set of ears .... and puts them on. LOL One of the funniest things I've seen in a while.

I didn't know such interesting things could be in the pockets of your jeans. :)

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We're mostly prepped for Christmas!! I have a wedding rehearsal to coordinate tonight and the wedding tomorrow. Sunday is Christmas with the Zahradnik's. Monday I volunteered to work since we weren't leaving town and then we have church and dinner at my aunt and uncles house. Christmas Day we're staying home and my mom (and possibly my aunt) is coming over. It's a jam packed weekend but it should be a lot of fun!

If I don't get back before Christmas, I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday!

Murphy's Law ...

It's the holidays ... and what does holiday time mean? Well, a sick kiddo of course!

Miss Paige has been dealing with something for the past week or so. She's just been cranky beyond all get-out since last weekend, which is so NOT our Paigie. Saturday morning she had a temp of 102.5 and now today she's had a rash come and go on her face, neck ... and now belly.

So send healthy baby vibes our way please. Actually, send healthy vibes to everyone ... Shelley (daycare) found out at 3:00 today that the throat culture she took on Friday came back with strep throat. I'm sure there was only minor exposure. :)

Quick vocab update on the little Princess ... she's been saying "puppy" for a while now but this weekend I realized she was also saying "Pumba" ... and she also barks at Pumba too. Still no sounds for "Riley" at all though.

Pictures, pictures ... we want pictures!

Some pictures from the past few weeks ...

Mr. Weston in Warroad ... such a cutie!


Riley and Ryan went skating once while we were at Grandma and Grandpas. Riley can stand on the ice without falling down and once we got him something to hold on to, could move around a little. Ryan is going to try to get him out more this year. Riley loves it.

Family picture after we'd celebrated Christmas in Warroad.

Four generations ...

My daughter after she'd had sloppy joes and cake with chocolate frosting ... see how clean Weston, who had eaten the exact same food, is?We had an ice, then snow, then ice storm a couple of weeks ago. Here's Riley out in the middle of our yard ... walking on top of about 6 inches of snow without breaking through the ice at all ...
And the side of our truck that sat outside during it all ... it was covered with over a quarter inch of ice ...

Our dishwasher helper ...

Somebody partied like a rock star in her crib ... this is how we found Paige one morning. I had a flashback to my junior high days ...

Houston ... we have walking!

She's not walking miles or anything yet, but I think it's close enough to consider true walking. Last night, after weeks of dropping to her knees when more than a foot away from anything she could hold on to, she walked about 10 feet between Ryan and I. I think she shocked herself more than anything ... and then it was the slow realization that "Hey, this is pretty cool!" She spent the rest of the night walking around the living and family rooms ... with a few trips DOWN the stairs mixed in too (going down was new as of last night as well ... she's been going UP them since Grandma Knudson taught her when we were at their house over Labor Day weekend).

We also did a little dancing last night, which both Riley and her enjoy quite a bit. Daddy brought his iPod player up and I danced with the kiddos to some swinging Brian Setzer Orchestra Christmas music while daddy did the dishes. Riley was "twisting" his little butt off and Paige was bouncing up and down. It was just the cutest thing to watch the two of them. A few times Paige had her head swaying and arm going wild ... ha ha ... I'm laughing now just thinking about it.

Say no to carrots ... say YES to diamonds!

The Mrs. Clause gift conversation is still happening in our house. Ha ha ...

Last night Ryan tried to convince Riley that Mrs. Clause would be happy with cookies ... but I informed them that I thought I'd heard that Mrs. Clause was on a diet this year and probably wouldn't enjoy the cookies ... at which point Ryan said (a bit snarky, I may say) that maybe Mrs. Clause would enjoy the carrots and celery we're leaving for the reindeer then.

*sigh*

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas ...

Well, we've settled in for the winter storm today. Daddy's off at school and Riley, Paige and I are staying in our jammies for most of the day and I think making up a pot of soup is on the agenda. Oh yeah, and I get to go out in the middle of it tonight to work something for a wedding. *ugg*

Anyway, I had to drop off a funny conversation that's been going around our house since we got home from "too far away grandma and grandpa's". As we were going through our mail that had collected since we'd been gone, I came across an advertisement for the local jeweler that Ryan gets most of my jewelry through. Trying to take advantage of the marketing already being done, I told Riley that we should really remember Mrs. Clause this Christmas too ... because she really does a lot of work for Mr. Clause and everyone at the North Pole. I'm sure it's not easy taking care of all the misfits (I'm meaning toys here obviously ... *wink*) and that we should reward HER with a present.

"What do you think we should get her, Riley?"

*pause*

"I think we should get her jewels, mom ... maybe diamonds!"

I like how this boy thinks! :)

It's a cute little voice ...

Just wanted to document for my own purposes ... Miss Paige has a few select words she's been saying. Her understandable ones are:

• Mama
• Dada
• Hi
• Puppy (She ADORES Pumba)
• Hot
• Uh-oh ... probably the cutest of them all to hear her say

Cele-brate good times ... come on!

It was a good turkey day for most all in Warroad. (Miss Paige is getting all four one year molars in at once and Thanksgiving wasn't a good day for her ... poor little girl.)

We celebrated everything we were thankful for on Thursday with turkey and all the fixings. Ryan's aunt, uncle and cousin were able to join us. It was fun spending time with them. The highlight of Riley's Thanksgiving was when Brad (Ryan's cousin) took Riley home with him and took him for a ride on the 4 wheeler.

Friday we hung around the house in the morning and then headed into great grandmas for some visiting and some ... wait ... yep, angel food cake. No, we couldn't go to great grandmas without some kind of pie or cake. (Not that I'm complaining by ANY means.) That night we celebrated the "babies" first birthdays with dinner and a fancy reindeer cake that grandma Fern had made. We had them sitting next to one another while they ate their cake ...and at first Paige was stealing food off of Weston's plate, but by the end she was giving hers to him. Weston was clean enough that a washcloth did the clean-up trick ... but Paige, not so much. (I have a ton of pictures I'll post once I get the chance to process them.) Into the bath she went.

Saturday we celebrated Christmas. Riley tore through his presents and was ready to help others as needed. Paige started opening but lost interest a little bit ... she was more interested with was was inside them once it was opened. Weston ... well, Weston was most interested in why one of his gift bags was loudly squeeling like a pig (this all thanks to a toy Uncle Ryan picked out). Needless to say there were many laughs. We rounded out the day with another big dinner and a "Final World Championship Cribbage tourney" between Clint and Tammy and Ryan and I (WE are the CHAMPIONS ... ha ha).

It was a fun time ... but it was also good to get home. Poor Miss Paige is still dealing with her molars. Her and I have cuddled the past few nights in the rocker in the living room because the pain wakes her up. While I LOVE that she lets me cuddle with her, I hate that she's hurting.

So there you have it ... it was a great weekend of celebrations. :)

We're off ...

Hope everyone has a grand Thanksgiving with lots of turkey, stuffing, mashed taters-n-gravy .. and most of all ... lots of time with the people you're thankful for!

We're soon headed off to Warroad to spend the weekend with Great Grandma, Grandma and Grandpa K, and Tammy, Clint and Weston. I got into work extra early this morning so I could get a half day in before we hit the road for the 8 hour drive. We bought Riley Shrek 3 as a surprise to watch in the car on the way up. That $18 is well worth an extra two hours of sanity. :)

We're doing an awful lot of celebrating while we're up north ... Thanksgiving, 1st Birthdays for Paige and Weston and Christmas. We may need to roll home after all that eating! :) I'll have lots of pictures to share when we return I'm sure. (And if Uncle Jim B. is reading this ... YES, we will forward you all of our calendar pictures after this weekend ... your daughter already warned me about the "reminder e-mail" ... ha ha)

Well, I better finish up my newsletter here at work. Have a great weekend everyone!!

Santa Claus is coming ... to town!!

Well, we did a "first" this weekend .. we went to the mall to see Santa Claus! Usually, our friend, Kiki (Charina), has a close connection to Santa and he comes to OUR house to see us ... but she seems to have lost his number when they moved this year so we had to go see him this time. (Do you like the story we came up with for Riley? ha ha)

We anxiously stood in line waiting. I'm assuming the people taking the pictures didn't have kids of their own for two reasons ... 1) They kept shooting and shooting to get that "perfect" picture of the kids with Santa. While I have to applaud them on the effort, most kids aren't going to give you that picture perfect grin when they're sitting on a strangers lap, Santa or not ... and 2) I don't think they had any idea how hard it was for the kids in line to stand still for that long. :)

Finally it was our turn. Riley marched right up there and sat on Santa's lap and we waited for the "picture people" to get everything ready before we did a dump and run with Paige. To my suprise though, Paige didn't cry at all. She sat there looking at Riley for a while ... then the strange man in the white beard ... and then the crazy people behind the camera who were trying trying all kinds of things to get her to smile. I finally had to just tell the "picture people" that it was okay if they weren't smiling .. just take the darn picture. (See, I think this is where I differ from the "mall studios" ... some of my favorite pictures of the kids are when they're not smiling. Kids don't smile 100% of the time ... and *geez* do we ALL know this ... so why have all the pictures of them smiling? End rant)

Riley told Santa that he wanted a camera (check), some Transformers (need), something with Spiderman (or was it Superman ... need to ask daddy and then find something) and something with Star Wars (check). Santa told Riley that he had to make sure to leave out two chocolate chip cookies and a glass of 2% milk for him (we have a picky Santa here I guess) and some carrots and celery for the reindeer. Oh, and we're supposed to go outside on Christmas morning to make sure the reindeer didn't make a mess while they were eating. Riley's made a mental note of all of this and told Santa he'd be sure to do all of that!!

So after all of that, we get to the point of buying this wonderful photograph. For $16 we get a 5 x 7 photo that was taken with a $5k camera (I looked) and printed on a desktop inkjet printer. I wasn't impressed to say the least. Whatever ... Riley got to see Santa. I got my 20% off coupon for Gymboree (Black Friday here I come). Paige got to be confused for a bit. And Ryan got a lighter checkbook. :)

It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's ... Riley Arthur!

Riley was Superman for Halloween this year ... it was either that or Darth Vader. I thought the Darth Vader costume was a bit too dark for a 3 year old so we settled with Superman. Here he is showing off his muscles. :)

I was able to go to a Halloween Party at his pre-school class. We had a good time ... played with all different crafts and games that they had set up ... including the sand box where they'd taken out all the normal toys and replaced them with spiders and snakes. Needless to say it wasn't mom's favorite thing to play with and Riley thought that was hilarious so he kept going back to it.

We also enjoyed an interesting snack while there. Everyone in the class was to bring a cup of their favorite snack ... and they mixed it all together. We had M & M's, fruit snacks, crackers, etc ... mom decided she didn't need any snack and let Riley eat it all. :) Here Riley is with the much talked about Isaac. He's the little boy that Riley goes to daycare with (they're three weeks apart and have been together since they were 3 months old) and we share rides to pre-school with his parents.

That night Ryan and I picked the kids up from daycare and headed into Grandma Karen's so she could see them dressed up. Paige was a Lady Bug.

After Grandma's we stopped by Auntie Deb's and Uncle Stacy's because we missed them at Grandma's ... Jack was also Superman and Katelyn was Dorothy.

After that stop we quick went home so we could meet up with Micah (neighbor friend) and head out to a few houses. Ryan and Paige came along with for about 5 houses and then went back home to pass out candy at our house. I think Riley hit about 19 or 20 houses and came home with a bag full of candy. We're trying to ration it out but it seems to be disappearing ... especially those darn Peanut Butter Cups ... those are all gone for some reason. :)

One last picture ... this is from the night that we carved pumpkins ...

Back from the Dead ... Part II

Since NUMEROUS people have commented on how I haven't been posting lately, I figured it was fine time for another "rambles ala Kristin". And what better excuse than ....

Miss Paige's 1st Birthday.

Yes, it's true. my little princess has turned one. It's so hard to believe. As I made food last night for the party today, I kept glancing at the clock and trying to remember where we were just a year ago ... Calling my mom after dinner at 6:30 to come be with Riley because this may just be it, being told at 9:00 that I had 45 minutes to walk the halls because I wasn't contracting enough (at which point I made Ryan climb like 15 flights of steps), and strangly enough, I woke up at about 3:00 in the morning last night and remembered how a year before I was SO relieved that labor had been so short. I'd been so unbelievably afraid that it'd all happen like Riley's birth did.

I find it amazing that a baby can change so much in one year. At one year, Paige is a joyful little girl who melts my heart in the mornings when she wraps her chubby little arms around my neck and snuggles in tight. I always said I wanted a boy and a girl ... "the best of both worlds" ... only, I never knew just how true that phrase was. I have such different, but equally important, bonds with each of them. I can't even fully put it into words how they're different ... but they are. I had the typical, "how will I ever love another child as much as I love Riley" thoughts that I think every mother has as she is pregnant with baby #2. Everyone told me, "you will" but I didn't know how that was possible. Now I feel like I can join that "club" ... and want to tell all those mothers who are pregnant with their second (boy there are a lot of you too!), you will.

With all the happiness that happened in our house today, I couldn't help but be a bit saddened by the thought that my dad never got to meet Paige. I hope that she'll somehow be able to know what an important part of our family he is. He loved his grandchildren so much, and at all these milestones his absence is especially missed!

We had a great party today. Grandma Karen, Auntie Krys, Uncle Jim, Auntie Deb, Great-Auntie Gayle, and Cousins Nate, Ben and Jack were all here. Tammy and Clint surprised us by coming down too! (We're celebrating both Weston's AND Paige's first birthdays in Warroad over Thanksgiving weekend!)

Well, on to the part most of you are probably waiting for ... PICTURES!

(As I'm typing this my daughter has tried to climb up the steps right next to my desk ... and when I tell her no she smiles at me and crawls even faster. Now she's mad at me because I've blocked her way with the rocking horse.)

Okay ... on with the pictures ...

I made cupcakes instead of having a cake. My mother, sister in law (Krys) and my sister were all suprised that I decorated these myself ... evidently they don't think I have any creative abilities :)

So of course Paige had her own cupcake ... she was much cleaner than Riley was when he did this on his first birthday ... but he also had a whole little cake.

Clint decided to put our wood floors to good use and was sliding the kids down the hall and across the living room on their butts. They thought it was hilarious! Then the kids (Riley and Cousin Jack) doubled up on Clint ... and pretty soon he had all four of the younger ones.

I LOVE Weston's face in this one ...

Mr. Weston ...

The Zahradnik Cousins minus Katelyn (poor Katelyn, she missed the party today because she was sick. Paige missed her only girl cousin!)

Tammy, Clint and Weston ...

OUR family picture ... Riley needs a family picture for school on Monday ... and sadly, we have VERY few family pictures ... I'm actually pretty happy with this ...

So there you have it ... Paige's first birthday. Unfortunally, I was so focused on getting pictures of the kids when something was happening ... I missed most of the adults. :( If I get any pictures sent to me I'll be sure to post them too!

Next time I'll do a long post about Riley since he's had a few things happening lately too. But for now, I think I'm going to relax a little bit! :)