Good grass

My cousin Misty recently sent Riley the cutest little tutu onesie. I love it and so I decided it would be perfect for Riley to wear for some pictures. (I am using every opportunity I can to practice taking pictures.) Of course though Riley is never still long and she stayed on the blanket for about, oh 1 second. Grass was way more interesting than the toys I had for her. And anything she gets in her hands goes directly to her mouth. Yumm! Thanks Misty for the cute outfit!!

Sunday school buggy

Sunday Clay and I were dropping Riley off for her Sunday school class and we witnessed this precious sight! It is sooo cute to see the sweet babies being pushed around our church. Riley seemed to be holding on for dear life, but I know she loved seeing all the people during their little mini-fieldtrips up and down the halls of First Baptist.

Beautiful spring!

It has been absolutely gorgeous the last two weeks. We have been spending a ton of time outside just enjoying the perfect sunny, warm days.


On Saturday, we worked a ton in the backyard cleaning up our flowerbeds. Clay also worked really hard hanging up Riley's Christmas present from us (her swing.) This was no small task, Clay measured and the swing is hanging from a branch that is 30 feet high. Riley LOVES her swing and will squeal with delight every time she's in it. Thanks so much Clay!!

Mum mums and lots of photos

Lots of pictures today and I'll (mostly) let them speak for themselves! :)

I have heard good things about these Baby Mum Mums (teething biscuits) and as you can tell Riley loved them!

Love her eyebrows...always so expressive. :)

This is how she gets stuck, she is really trying to crawl but that one leg stuck out semi-straight is holding her up.

8 months old

Riley has grown so much! I cannot even really believe she is already 8 months old. We are having so much fun lately! Riley is still incredibly active and squiggily. Lately, she is making diaper changes SOOOO difficult, but it always makes me laugh. (She will twist and turn and sit up and her little bare heiny is just all over the place.)

She also did not want to stay in her chair for her pictures again, thats why in most of the pics she is sitting on the floor. She can't quite get down on her own and she was so close to taking a head dive forward. We may have to settle for beside the chair pics until she can get off safely on her own.

Here are some things she is up to:

-She now has two teeth. The bottom, middle ones. They cut within a day or two of each other.

-She is making more and more sounds. Including ba, da, va, mmm, and many more strange combos of sounds mostly with a zppfhh in there somewhere.

-She push herself from her belly to a sit. (This is funny because now in the mornings and for each nap when I go into her room I see her tiny head just barely peeking over the top of the crib.

-She is rocking back and forth on her hands and knees (she is really thinking hard about crawling.)

-She can stand on her own, holding onto something, for longer periods of time. (about a minute or two)

-She can pull herself to a stand using her fun play/activity table or the side of her crib. (See pic below)

Riley we love you so much! What an amazing blessing you are!

I found Clay and Riley having a crib party with lots of stuffed animals the other day. Too cute! See her little cute head? This is what I see each morning and nap time, it makes me smile SO big!

Side note: I am learning to edit my photos, so the colors and such may be a little off until I can figure out what I'm doing.

Side note 2: I cannot seem to get Riley's eyes in focus on my new camera. All my pics are a little "soft." Hopefully, I can learn more and work on that too. I hope to take a class really soon!

Amazing

Check out this blog. http://kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com/

It is not updated too often, but it is one amazing testimony of faith. I randomly came across her blog the same day that Kate, Clay's sister, left for Uganda (Kate is doing mission work there for about 2 months.)

This young woman felt called by God to go on a mission trip to Uganda during her senior year of high school, then she felt called to delay going to college to stay in Uganda for a year. One year turned into several and she now lives there. Not only that but she is now a single mother to 14 young Ugandan girls and she established a ministry that now sends about 250 students to school! Amazing.

--

Another blog I have been drawn to but find very very difficult to read is http://www.laylagrace.org/. Warning: Tear JERKER! I have known about this young girl for awhile now but never allowed myself to read her blog, until a few days ago. It is a difficult read but her parents are amazingly faithful and trusting of God's will. (Basically Layla is a sweet two year old girl in Houston, who seemed perfectly healthy until last May when she was diagnosed with Advanced Stage 5 cancer. She is holding on, but there is nothing other than praying that anyone can do for her. God will be calling her home very soon.) Her battle has helped put such prospective in my life and I am reminded to cherish and celebrate every second of Riley!

--

After those two blogs if you are in need of a few laughs, check out http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/. The writer of the blog makes me laugh out loud hard often!

This blog is full of silly mistakes made by bakeries.

--

Oh and I know Kate would love and appreciate your prayers as she is being trained, training others, and sharing the gospel!

Day at the park

A few weekends back the weather was beautiful and we decided to take Riley to the park for the first time! She loved to swing and her daddy even took her down the slide a few times!

Photos from our weekend in FW

These pics are straight from the new camera, I have not had a chance to edit (play!) with these yet. Some of the colors are off, it was overcast many of the days and I think one of my settings was off. I am having a ton of fun playing around with some of the different settings. There is SO much for me to learn, but I am excited about it.

We had a great time, as usual, seeing my parents. They love love spending time with Riley and they cannot believe how much she changes each time they see her.

We mostly hung out all that weekend, except for an incredibly fun night celebrating Zach's 30th birthday. Paige posted lots of pictures and details. See here and here.

Clay did decide to build a fire pit one night. I still do not understand why though (my parents have a nice outdoor fireplace right by the pool.) Here he is beside his pit, playing with the dogs.

The sweet black and white dog to the right is Chloe, she is my parent's neighbors dog and she loves Scout. She always comes over to play everytime we come visit.

In fact, see the orange frisbee they are tugging on in the pic below. Well, Scout lost that the last time we were visiting and low and behold Chloe brought it back to him the night we arrived. How cute!! :) (Oh and this is probably one of my fav pics I took all weekend, simply due to the fact that I could have never gotten this shot with my old little camera.)

One thing I am loving most about my camera right now is the ability to change how much of the picture is in focus. I love when the backgrounds are blurry! I think it makes the subject stand out so much more!