Riley's first Christmas Eve

What a sweet celebration Christmas was this year! Riley makes everything more joyful, special, and fun!!

We spent Christmas Eve with my family. We started off the evening by attending our church's candlelight service. There were so many people there this year that we had to sit at the very top and on the last row. But I was glad, I wanted a quick exit in case Riley got a little crazy. The seats also made for an awesome view of the hundreds and hundreds of lit candles. What a beautiful worship! Oh and Riley did amazing. Not one peep, she just stared and stared at all the people.

After the service, we checked out some fun Christmas lights (a tradition). Then we headed back to the house to fill our bellies then we opened presents.

Riley was very observant when it came to opening the presents and even helped pull the paper off. Here we are with one really fun toy (a rocking caterpillar) It was one of the few toys that didn't make some crazy sound. Yikes, I better enjoy the quiet now! :)

Even Scout got in on the action.

Santa came and brought Riley a fun new swing, some new shoes, and the remaining presents were from the night before (She had to go to bed before she was finished opening all of her presents.)

Here Riley is posing in some super cute outfits Mom and Dad got Riley.

Impressive

I love Christmas lights!

First trip to see Santa

Early Friday morning, Clay met Riley and I at the mall for Santa pictures. How fun! We got lucky and there was a very short line and a very kind, quiet, and patient Santa. Riley did so good, I don't think she even realized what was going on. All she saw/heard was mommy and daddy making silly faces/sounds...it worked. We got a huge sweet smile!!

Laid back

Riley can be quick to get worked up, but she can also be quick to lay back and relax. She loves this position!!

Riley 1 vs Sleep 5

Clay helping put Riley to sleep at night. What a great daddy!!

Exciting news: Friday evening Clay and I decided no matter how much crying craziness we had to deal with, we were going to try to get Riley to sleep in her own crib. (Riley is still spitting up, but the reflux doesn't seem near as bad now. Now if she cries I can tell it isn't because of her sensitive little tummy.) Low and behold, praise God, Riley slept the whole night. Like 10:00-6:30 am!! I woke up so confused and slightly terrified because she never made a peep. Oh what a blessing! I'm not sure I have ever slept better. In the morning I was a new person, no back ache, no head ache, no grouchiness, just pure joy to be waking up to a happy baby in her own bed!

Well, I knew that this was likely a fluke and it was. Granted, she has been sleeping in the crib each night since, but some nights she is waking up every hour or so. I have now armed myself with pretty much every sleeping book available and hopefully soon we can get this thing figured out. I can't wait 'til this sweet baby conquers sleep!!!

(On a side note, she is now a really good napper. I was reading one of my books and it mentioned to try white noise. So I instantly downloaded some from itunes and tried it out for her nap. She is now taking 3-4 naps a day anywhere from 40 mins - 3 hours. This is huge!! Now I know that the white noise is something we will have to wean from eventually...but I'll worry about that when the time comes. For now, I will enjoy peace and quiet and a little time to myself during the day. )
Also, we just tried a sleep sack last night. It was awesome, Riley did sleep better. Perhaps some of the wakefulness was due to being slightly cold.

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! :)