Party time!!

I am finally getting around to posting pictures of Riley's 1st birthday party. We had a small get together, with friends and family, at our home the Saturday following Riley's actual birth date. It was a day full of pink, orange, and elephants! :)
We had a great time and Riley really loved seeing everyone all at once.

My wonderful sister Kristi was so generous and made Riley's cake and smash cake. They turned out sooo cute and totally professional!! Kristi really did a great job on them!

My mom got her sew on and made Riley's two cute #1 onesies (a pink one and a white one)and mom found her pink and orange tutu. I think they look great together and Riley was too cute!

Riley with her friends. All boys! Riley has almost no girlfriends right now. I know that will change but it seems as though everyone around us has boys or is having boys!

Riley and Kaiden playing in the balls.

Riley was just relaxing and taking it all in, while we sang Happy Birthday and she was served her cake.

Cake time!!!

Clay's business partner Kyle's 2 sweet girls helped Riley open all her gifts. They were so great with Riley and so helpful!!

Riley's new wagon (a sweet gift from my parents.) She rode around throughout the house, like a little princess, at the end of the party.

Riley pushing her new stroller and doll around. :)

What a fun party!!

1 year old!!

Riley is one year old!!! I cannot believe how much this sweet baby has grown and changed in a year. And I really cannot believe how quickly this year has flown by (I know I say this each month, but it is so true!)

Riley is starting to look more and more like a toddler, her features are still so small and sweet but she no longer has the young baby look. Her hair is getting a little longer, her face a little fuller, and she seems so tall. Her personality continues to come out each day! Riley laughs and giggles more, she is very silly and will "play" to the crowd if she is comfortable, and she is into everything!

We went to see Dr. Shuman the day after her birthday. She thought Riley looked great and she could tell Riley has ummm personality. She thought it was great but said our challenge as parents will be to teach Riley to be a sweet, respectful little girl without losing any of that personality! haha. She hit that right on the head. She also thought Riley looked great and said we could go ahead with whole milk (we are to add some formula still because Riley needs all the calories she can get.)

Here's how she measured:

Head: don't remember. it is written down somewhere. but it was in the 25%

Height: 30 inches (75%)

Weight: 17 lbs 7 oz (5%)

She is still tall and lean, nothing new there.

Here are some things she is up to:

-She is pointing at everything and will "tell" you where she wants to go or what she wants with her points.
-She is standing on her own

-Riley cruises around furniture and likes to try to climb onto everything
-Riley has taken up to 5 steps alone and does this several times a day
-She will give kisses when asked (if she wants, she is not always in the mood)
-She will love on her baby doll and give her kisses too

-She LOVES to dance and will bounce around to music
-Riley also loves to take things out of containers, baskets, bags.

-She loves to open cabinets and close doors.

blurry but I caught her standing on her own. :)

Riley, you are an amazing blessing from God. We are so blessed by you and your sweet spirit and personality. We love you precious girl!!!

Independence Day

Clay, Riley and I were at my parents home again this year for 4th of July. Well, actually Riley and I spent the full week there. Just after the beach vacation, we thought we would move back into our house. But we failed to realize the fumes would be so terrible. I refused to let Riley be in the scary toxic polyurethene-drying smells. So we stayed packed and headed north.

My uncle Sam, aunt Mary, cousin Misty and her 3 kids (Meagan, Aaryn, and Nicki) drove in from Louisiana for the holiday. And Clay and Kristi came as well.

It was a fun, relaxing holiday. Basically, we played some more golf, ate lots of good food, and swam a lot.

I brought out my camera while we were shooting fireworks and we all so much fun playing with sparklers!

Ok so Clay was standing behind Dad drawing with the sparkler. Clay claimed to be drawing Dad with a gun in his hand. Ha, it totally looks like Dad is flipping off the camera.

Clay was really good at this (such an artist!)

Aquarium

While in Port A, we visited the Texas State Aquarium (well Clay stayed at the beach for some quiet solo time). I wasn't sure just how much Riley would enjoy this (partly because she really didn't pay attention to the animals at the zoo.) However she loved the fish! She pointed at pretty much each and every fish that swam by her. I think she was fascinated. I know I was. I love aquariums!!

Whats old is new again

So we have been wanting to replace our family room carpet for awhile. It had gotten so yucky, the carpet was put down by the previous owners and let's just say that after their 2 dogs, our sweet Scout dog, and a strong bout with Riley's reflux, the carpet HAD to go.

We decided the most economical and long term investment would actually be to replace the carpet with hardwood. And being gone to the beach for a week was the perfect time to have this work done. Here is the not so fun part though, we had to have everything out of our home because, not only did the carpet get replaced, but we also had all the other hardwood in our home (original to the house...50 yrs old) sanded and stained to match. So we rented a pod and filled it up, filled up our garage and then even filled up our kitchen with furniture (the kitchen is tiled and was not being affected.) We chose the darkest stain they had (black.) And the floor men were able to match up the new wood and old wood perfectly and I am sooo impressed with how they turned out!!

(before, notice lots of scrateches)

(a sample of the stain, the middle left is what we chose)

before dining room

after dining room

hall before (notice the large water stain)

(hall after, water stain gone!)

the new hardwoods in the family room!!! YEA!!
(master floor)