Riley's Christmas program

On the last day of school for 2011, Riley had her Christmas program. Clay and I loved every minute of it. It was sweet and simple just like her school is. I love that! For the program each class was a different thing. Riley's class were the sheep. She was the most adorable sheep ever! And her face lit up when she saw Clay and I in the pew as she walked into the worship center.
She really did get excited to see us...I just wasn't able to capture that with my camera :)
 The sheep did such a good job and didn't give the shepards too much trouble. Riley even managed to sing a few words to some of the songs. She had been singing pieces of a few songs for several weeks ("Mary rode the donkey to Bethlehem"), so it was fun for me and Clay to hear all of the words of the songs.
The whole crew. They did a great job re-creating Jesus birth!
After the program, all the children celebrated with a birthday party for Jesus. Riley loves cake!
Then they sang a few more songs and played the jingle bells.

 I am so thankful that Riley can go to a school that celebrates Jesus and his birth!

Twinkle

I wanted to get some photos of Riley for our families for Christmas and I had seen these fun setups all over the internet so I decided to give it a go. Although I ended up with a few pics that turned out super cute, for the most part Riley wanted nothing to do with sitting somewhat still for me. (even with Clay behind me holding marshmallows as a bribe) :)







"Enough mom"

No really enough.


Scout listened really well though and was a tropper through all of this.

Merry Christmas Eve!!

26 weeks (only 2 weeks late this time)

And here I was at 25 weeks with Riley.

I have been feeling really great! What a blessing! But this pregnancy is going by sooo fast. I cannot believe that I am now 28 weeks and in the 3rd trimester. Eek. Lots to get done before this sweet girl arrives. We will be moving Riley into our guest bedroom and leaving the nursery pretty much as is for baby 2.

Also, I don't think I blogged about this before but because I had gestational diabetes with Riley I had to test for it at 13 weeks with this pregnancy. Well at that time I failed the 1 hour but passed the 3 hour test. Woohoo! I was good to go for another 13 weeks. My doctor had me test again last week (27 weeks) and this time I had to skip the 1 hour and go straight to the 3 hour test. Yuck. But so worth it to make sure this baby (and I) are healthy and developing normally.

Well, another huge blessing...I passed!! All numbers were in the normal range! I totally ate ice cream that night to celebrate (and maybe a cookie too!) It has been a major relief not to have to worry about every single thing I eat, every carb or sugar being counted, etc. Diabetes is a hard disease to control and I am so thankful that my experience with diabetes was for just a few short months. I know many people young and old who are battling this disease for the rest of their lives; I have such compassion for them.

So many people ask me how Riley is doing and how she feels about the baby. To be honest she hasn't been saying much lately. At first she would comment on my growing belly. Saying cute things like "mommy belly getting bigger!" But lately she will answer if we ask her questions.
I do think she understands that a baby is in my belly but I don't think she has any ANY idea of what that will mean in just a few short months. We would appreciate prayer for her (and Clay and I) now and over the next few months as this will rock her (our) world. It could be a hard adjustment for her (sharing time with mommy/daddy, transitioning to a new room/bed, etc.) but I do think she will be so helpful, loving and an amazing big sister!

Oh and she was helping me with names the other day. her suggestions: Riley, Baby, Bella, and Dora. ha!

Riley's tree

Last year I found a tiny 12 inch tree for Riley's room. It was perfect for a 1 year old but this year we decided Riley would love a little bit bigger tree for her room.
I may have gone a little glitter and pink crazy at the Nutcracker market this year with Riley's tree in mind. But Riley loved it and loved puting all the ornaments and things on her tree.

(Excuse our lack of pants, we are working on being fully potty trained. More on that later.)



Riley discovered bubble wrap for the first time. so fun!


We finished up the next morning. Riley loves her pink tree!



And a few Christmas crafts...

Thanksgiving

This year we were with my family for Thanksgiving. We spent almost a full week with my parents (Clay had some business meetings, etc in DFW so we extended our stay some.) We had a great time. We made bonfires (Clay was so thankful for the rain DFW had the day before we came), ate wonderful food, went to a Christmas parade, meet up with some of Clays friends, went to Fossil Rim, Riley had glow stick bath times, we hung out, and had so much to be thankful for!

While we were all there, I was able to get some great family photos for my mom.








The day after Thanksgiving, we took Riley to Fossil Rim. Fossil Rim is a wildlife center that you can drive through; they have tons of different exotic (and even some endangered) animals. You can see and feed the animals from your car and there is a small petting area as well. We all LOVED this.




Because the cars go so slowly, we allowed Riley to sit in Clay's lap and help feed the animals. She had a blast!






Many of the animals were not shy when it came to getting some snacks.

Some got a little to close for my comfort. Eek!


And some could have cared less.


Riley enjoyed brushing and petting the goats.



Beautiful view.


One of the highlights of this adventure was the giraffe eating through the sunroof!



The giraffe was right outside my window. I was able to reach out and pet him a little. :)


The rhinocerous was Riley's favorite animal of all!