First snow

Among the many firsts for Riley was her first snow. Last Friday, Houston received an awesome blanket snow that stayed on the ground for about a day. We loved it, well I know I loved it, I'm not sure Riley even realized anything was different. Anyhow, we bundled her up in her new full-body bear suit and ventured out. These pictures were taken the day after and the snow was quickly melting but we got a few good pics anyway. I love a sweet bundled baby, she kept reminding me of the poor youngest child Randy that can't move in the movie A Christmas Story.

5 months already?

Clay and I have been having so much fun with Riley lately. Her personality is starting to show more and more. She is very quick to smile but is a hard one to make laugh. She can go from extremely happy to extremely upset in 1 second flat. She is so curious and easily excited by noises, changing environments, colors, and Scout.

Not sure why she is doing the Baylor bear paw thing. Apperantly we need to really work on getting our guns up!!

Here are some things she has been up to:

-Riley grabs her feet now

-She puts any and every thing in her mouth

-She rolls from her back to tummy

-Riley now makes many sounds and blows bubbles all the time

-During tummy time she will lift her head off the ground as high as it will go and look from side to side

-She can laugh and squeal (at times she will play with her voice for up to 10 minutes but this is not too often.)

-She is starting to nap better!!

She is such a blessing and we so are greatful that colic has passed!

Grabbing those feet

Time to relax

Riley we love you and thank God for you everyday!

Rolls on Thanksgiving day

Recipe for some excellent rolls.

2-lifting and kicking legs
1-shift to the right
a couple of stretchs and groans
and 1 twist


Riley rolled over for the first time on Thanksgiving day! It was so fun to have some many people watching and cheering her on! I thought maybe she would forget how to roll by the next day, but nope she is a rolling queen now and tries to roll all the time now. This makes putting on clothes very interesting! :) Milestones are so exciting!!

So thankful

After a wonderful day spent with friends, it was time to be with family. My aunt Mary and uncle Sam, my cousin Misty and her three daughters Meagan, Aryn, and Nicki drove to my parents home from southern Louisiana to be with us for the Thanksgiving holiday. Kristi had also driven up with her 2 dogs on Tuesday night. We all had so much fun, laughing, chatting, and mostly eating...a lot! Mom cooked so much food and I would love to brag and say that I helped but I didn't. :( I am not quite the chef...yet. I am trying to work on that though.

Clay and I have so much to be thankful for this year! I am so blessed with an amazing husband, a healthy, beautiful daughter, a wonderful family, great friends, Clay's new business, a wonderful church home and sunday school class, and my merciful loving God!

Warning: A ridiculous amount of photos follow!

Turkey induced nap. Notice they don't just look alike but also nap they same too...scary :)

Clay, Meagan, and Aryn playing Wii. One of my favorite things we did was create a Wii tennis tournament, complete with a bracket and everything. We all tried hard but Clay and Kristi really dominated, with Kristi winning the championship. (Notice a soaking wet Scout wanting someone to throw his ball in the pool.)
Bath time!
Mom making her delicious chocolate cream and coconut cream pies!

Nicki did such a good job holding Riley!

Aunt Mary, Misty and Kristi taking turns loving on Riley.

3 amigos and 4 ninas

Clay and I started our Thanksgiving holiday weekend early. We arrived at my parents house near Granbury on Tuesday afternoon. Riley did such a good job on the drive there (I no longer have to ride in the back with her. Yea!)

Blake and Caroline loving each other! Cute!

Wednesday afternoon, Riley and I ventured into Ft. Worth to visit with my good friends from college, Paige and Allison. It was sooo good to see them and to catch up with them. I had not seen their babies in quite some time and they had never met Riley before.

Kylie

Blake napped most of the time, but once she woke up she instantly charmed me with her adorable voice. Every word she says sounds almost like a song, her voice and pitch go up and down and the word is drawn out...the cutest toddler voice ever. And Caroline was totally helpful in bringing me all of Riley's things. Caroline is beautiful and has an incredibly cute personality, she was constantly on the go! And Kylie was so fun to hold and watch her laid back personality. She is only about a month and a half older than Riley so it was fun to see them next to each other. It amazes me how different each baby truly is. Kylie was too cute grabbing at Rileys feet. Here are some pics stolen from Alli's blog. Allison takes great photos, thanks Allison!

Caroline

It is amazing to think that we met in the dorms about 9 years ago. We are all so blessed with amazing husbands and beautiful healthy children! God is so good!

Great Grannie came to town

Riley loves great Grannie!

Clay's Mom's Mom aka Grannie (now a great-grannie) came to Houston the week before Thanksgiving. It was great to see Grannie and to see her love on Riley!! We got to spend all day Saturday and most of the day Sunday (2 weeks ago) with Clays family. It was nice to just hang out and spend time with them. I did not have my camera around so these are a few pics from Clays phone.

Clays mom cuddling with Riley.

Note: Blanket placement due to excessive spit up! :)

Sleep fighter

Riley is doing so so much better as far as crying and colic goes. Praise God!! She is still not the best napper. I think I am just going to have to accept the fact that she is just not a napper. She does take two 30-45 minutes naps in her crib but it stops there. We started swaddling Riley very early-on due to colic, etc. (Thank you very much Happpiest Baby on the Block book, you helped save my sanity.) Now she really relies on the swaddle to signal her its nap time. She struggles to fall asleep without being swaddled. I know we will have to faze this out soon but sometimes she still slaps herself in the face and wakes herself up...so I think we will continue for a week or two more until she stops this.

(I have noticed that being a new mom means that anyone and everyone thinks they need to share their opinion about the things you are doing. Most of the time I am greatful for the advice and help, truly I am. However if I hear the term "straight-jacket," in reference to Riley's swaddle, one more time, I might lose it.)

Sorry, I stepping off my box now. Anyway, Riley fights falling asleep so hard and will fuss and squirm around until finally like a switch she passes out. Well, one of my favorite parts of the day come when Riley wakes up from her nap. The instant I start unwrapping her from her blanket, her arms shoot up like switch blades and she makes the cutest face and stretches for several minutes. Check out the video. Cute!!

First laughs

Riley let out her first laughs tonight! Luckily, Clay was home and was able to catch her on video. This is the sweetest thing I have seen and heard!!