randomness

Some of the photos taken late Oct and throughout Nov.





Getting crafty with a pumpkin.






Our first attempts at watercolor.
Riley loved this!! And we have since had many painting sessions. :)


We celebrated Mimi's bday and had an early Thanksgiving with Clays family.
His sweet Granny was in town from Mississippi. We love seeing her!




I am trying to work on taking more photos. I was in kindof a rutt (spelling?) for several months and was hardly taking any photos. I love having the photos and want to document these fun, special times for our family.

19 weeks (only 7 weeks later)

Found this and remembered I never blogged about it.
I have been slacking on taking belly photos with this pregnancy and haven't taken another photo since I shot this, but I have plans to do some soon! Maybe this post will spur me on.

Fun with nana and papa

Early November Clay was out of town, so Riley and I headed to my parents house for some fun. I think I've said this before, but my parents now live in a small town somewhat near Ft. Worth. We always love going to visit because 1: it is beautiful country 2: it is super quiet and relaxing 3: having two sets of enthusiastic and willing hands to help is so great. This time Riley and I enjoyed just hanging out, visiting two local parks and I was even able to meet with two of my best college girlfriends for dinner out one night. Fun!


We helped Papa water his garden.
We enjoyed evening walks pretty much each day.
We posed for pictures, messy nap hair and all.



We slid with our friend and even convinced mommy to slide too.

Big Rock Park was fun.






Their cute small town reminds me some of good old Denver City, and so it feels good to get back to my small town roots every now and then.

Sweet strawberry

Halloween was filled with fun activities for Riley this year. It started with a costume parade at her sweet school. It was so cute, they marched out to the circle drive of the school and waved at the honking cars that passed by. That was it, so simple but fun. I love this about her school.

Here she is with some of her "friends".



Next Aunt Kristi was so awesome to take Riley to our neighborhoods fall festival, while I hosted a baby shower at our home and CLay was out of town. Kristi and Riley had a blast!! They bounced in bounce houses, rode the train, hit up the candy booth, got Ry's face painted and ate some yummy food. Unfortunately I did not get a pic of the duo, but Kristi got a good pic from her phone.


The next day (the Sunday before Halloween) Clay got home and we all headed out to Joe and Melissa's church festival. Riley had a great time, especially riding the miniature pony. She was a natural in the saddle :)


Lastly, was our neighborhoods get together on Halloween. Every year our neighborhood comes together in a cul de sac for a pot luck dinner and some fun games for the kids and then we all set off at once to trick or treat. Riley had a blast running around playing with her friends and being social!

Dinner with friends.




Stomping on some terrible ants. Riley really likes to "squash dem."


Not really feelin the no hands eat a donut game.


Swinging with friends, too much fun!


Most of the kids. I didn't have a wide enough lens to get everyone and could not back up because of the massive pack of mommarazzi surrounding me :)


Riley's first trick or treat of this year. (Happy to have several new younger (our age) couples moving into the neighborhood!)

And she's off.




After Riley and Clay trick or treated several neighbors. Riley kicked back and enjoyed eating her candy and passing out candy to the other kids. She loved every moment!

cool new macros

Several weeks ago my dad and I noticed Monarch caterpillars on some butterfly weed in our front yard. I happened to check on them a few days later and found this beautiful chrysalis. (I taught a unit on butterflies when I taught 2nd grade and I just loved it, the kids did too.) So I couldn't help but take some macro shots.



And cropped to see the cool details...

so helpful

Riley officially has her first chore (and has been doing it for about 8 months) she helps feed Scout. In fact she insists on doing it and doing it all by herself. She will even get upset if mommy or daddy tries to help. She is so very good at measuring out two cups of food for him for breakfast and again for dinner. She even manages to sneak some extra food nuggets in pretty much daily. :)



*I guess the novelty of this has finally worn off, currently Riley just assists in getting the lid on and off the dog food. LOVE her helpful heart!!

Scout reciprocates Rileys helpfulness by being useful himself.

Sweet puppy!