Halloween Party!

We were all so excited for Gavin's Halloween party at school last week.  Gavin talked about it for days, and I was thrilled that Jarrod had the day off and could go, too.  Attending school events like this is one of the best parts of being able to stay home with my kiddos.  I am so looking forward to many more!  

 

Riley, as usual, looked adorable for the party, but I'm going to save those pics for another day.  Let's just focus on Gavin today.  

His teacher was a giant baby, and the kids loved it! 

 It was super cute to see him get in front of the class and tell about his costume.  Watching all the kids do this was super cute, in fact.

 The preschool doesn't have a huge religious tone to it, but they do say prayer before snack.  How adorable does he look here?  And he's sitting next to his 'other Rylee.' 

 After eating that yummy cookie, it was time to play some games!  So, we went upstairs to a bigger room and Miss Linda gave all the kids a big pumpkin bag for them to put their treats in.  The first game was a bean bag toss.  Gavin loved it!

 Just as I suspected, he wouldn't even try the second game...the kids 'bobbed' for marshmallows that were hanging from a dowel rod.  He hates marshmallows.  He did, however, really enjoy trying to spray the candle out of the jack-o-lantern!

 And I have no clue what he's doing here, but we thought the pic was pretty funny. 

 

It was a great party day!  Gavin still talks about it and it was four days ago.  :)  More pics of the other pumpkin tomorrow!

Thankful Thursday

Lots to be thankful for!

I'm thankful that Jarrod has today and tomorrow off.  I love having long weekends together, and it's especially nice since that means he's able to go to Gavin's Halloween party at preschool with me.  I'm thankful for Jackie, for surprising me with some spending money that I was instructed to spend only on me.  Those that know me know that I very rarely spend money on myself.  So, being able to do a little shopping without the guilt was very nice.  I'm thankful for my nighttime ritual with Gavin...rocking in the rocking chair!  It all started when I was nearing the end of my pregnancy, and we blamed it on all the changes that were about to come.  Now, I'm so glad that we still spend our nights in the rocking chair.  It's five minutes or so of just me and him...and it's so special.  I cherish it!  

What are you thankful for???

3 Months Old!

It is still so hard to believe that Riley is already 3 months old!

She has been keeping us busy!  Just in the past week or so, Riley has started 'talking' to Jarrod a ton - only Jarrod, just like when she started smiling.  On Sunday, she rolled for the first time, from back to belly!  She still gets stuck sometimes and needs us to help her get her arm out, but she does try to roll just about every time we lay her down now.  This morning, I got some little laughs out of her, too.  So stinkin' cute!

The last time I weighed her here at home earlier this week, Riley was 11lbs 12oz.  She's still wearing mostly 0-3 clothes, and is still in size 1 diapers, though I don't think we'll be in size 1s for much longer.  She nurses on demand, and still will not take a bottle!  It's been the most stressful part of having Riley so far.  But, I know, just like with Gavin, that it won't last forever, and soon enough we'll be starting cereal, solids, and sippy cups.  So, for now, I think we'll have to deal with the bottle situation.  We are very lucky with her sleep, however.  She's NOTHING like her brother was in the sleep department and {sorry, Amy!} is sleeping through the night most of the time.  We just started transitioning her to her crib for naps this week, and surprisingly she's done well.  Right now, her crib mattress is elevated, and I'm hoping to slowly lower it so she's used to sleeping flat by the time we go to Ohio for Thanksgiving.

Riley is quite the drooler!  She constantly has her tongue out is blowing bubbles.  Her taggie blanket is one of her favorite things, and I'm constantly having to move it from her face while she's sleeping.  She loves to have it touch her chin.  Though she definitely looks like me, I think she's going to have her Daddy's skin.  We're starting to notice more and more dry patches on her so we've laid off the soaps and lotions and are treating it with some ointment right now.  

Riley is most definitely one of the smiliest (is that a word???) babies I've ever seen.  Sure...she has her meltdowns and cranky periods, but she's so easy to make smile.  We love it!  She especially loves to watch her brother.  They're going to be so close...I can already tell!

We love you, Riley girl!  You make us all so happy!

Growing so fast!

Boy, Riley sure is growing fast!  She's 3 months old today!  I need to do her 3 month pictures and update, and I will soon.  For now, I just wanted to share this picture.  Remember those adorable shots of me wearing her in the Moby when she was just an itty bitty baby?  She's not so itty bitty anymore!

Weekend Recap

We had another great weekend as a family.  I seriously love Jarrod's job here and how we get to spend every weekend together.  Of course, the weekends go way too fast...so I'm really looking forward to this weekend, when Jarrod has four days off.  

Friday night, I worked an event at a country club, and Jarrod came with me to help me get set up.  Once everything was under control, he brought Gavin home, and Riley stayed with me at the event.  Rebecca, a consultant on my team, brought us home at the end of the night.  

Saturday morning we got up and looked at a few houses with our realtor.  The whole process just confuses me more every time we look because I like so many things about so many different houses.  Who knows what we'll do?  Once the kids were asleep for a nap, Jarrod headed out for a few hours of hunting and I got time to veg on the couch and relax.  

Sunday morning was our usual Sunday...breakfast together, chores around the house, read the paper, etc.  While I was getting ready for the day, I told Gavin to let me know if Riley started crying (she was playing on her playmat in the living room).  He came running in while I was blow drying my hair and said, "Riley just rolled off the mat!"  I came in to find her almost completely on her belly!  Her little arm was stuck under her, but apparently, we have a roller!  

We went to Walmart, then had a 'picnic in the car' (as Gavin called it) and ran a few more errands.  One stop was Kohl's, where I got to spend some money on me, thanks to my mother-in-law, Jackie.  :)  We stopped and talked to the realtor again, and then came home for dinner together.  Of course, the night ended like it has been ending every night for the last several weeks...me rocking Gavin in the rocking chair.  I love that part of our bedtime routine now.  

It may not seem like a special weekend, but it was...I cherish every minute that the four of us get to spend together.  I love these guys!

Pics to come later...I have a lot on my camera I have to upload.  :) 

Thankful Thursday

What I'm thankful for at this very moment...

For friends, like Emily and Amy, for offering suggestions of what else we can try with Riley and her bottle situation.

For my mom, for ordering us yet another bottle to try.

For Annisa, a member of my Tastefully Simple family, for sending us a bottle to try that worked for her little ones.

For my husband, for going with me tomorrow to set up for and work an event for Tastefully Simple.

For Rebecca, a wonderful member of my Tastefully Simple team, for coming to work the event with me tomorrow, too.  

Wordless Wednesday

A Baby and her Bottle

{Or lack thereof, I suppose...}  Most of you know that Riley hasn't successfully taken a bottle for us on a regular basis since birth.  There are days that after a looong struggle we can get her to take it, but it's more likely that she will not take it than she will.  So, of course...trying to get her to eat while I'm at a party has been a struggle.  We've tried four different bottles, different nipples, different temperatures of the milk, holding her in different positions, walking while feeding her, rocking while feeding her, sound machine on, in complete silence...  Nothing is a foolproof way to get her to take a bottle.  

So, my super sweet and resourceful friend, Amy, stepped in.  As a pediatric nurse practitioner, she offered to come over and try some tricks with Riley.  The one I was most hopeful about was 'finger feeding' her, using a feeding tube that she'd suck on while sucking on our finger.  But, what Amy found (and Amy, I know you're reading this, so feel free to correct me if I explain this wrong...) is that Riley doesn't have some of the typical reflexes that babies have.  She doesn't have that strong sucking reflex anymore, and instead of meeting whatever is touching her lip with her tongue like most babies, she retracts her tongue.  So, when something does enter her mouth, be it a pacifier, a finger, a nipple from a bottle, she doesn't like it and cries and sometimes gags.  It seems that she's taught herself how to nurse like this (rather effectively considering how she's gaining weight).  

So, what do we do?  Well, we have one more type of bottle we're going to try.  It's called an Adiri bottle, and it's meant to mimic the breast more.  Because of the shape of it, the actual nipple part is much shorter than most of the bottles, so we're hoping that might mean she's more likely to drink from it.  If that doesn't work, Amy showed us how we can cup feed Riley using a medicine cup or shot glass.  It's a tedious process, but she did drink some milk that way, so at least Jarrod would be able to get some milk in her belly if she's absolutely starving.  

I'm hoping to have some good updates over the next couple of weeks.  Fingers crossed for us, please! :) 

Someone is 30....

 Last weekend, we celebrated Jarrod's 30th birthday...something he was most definitely NOT looking forward to.  To make the weekend a little more traumatic, he also sold him truck that weekend.  But, we were still able to have a fun weekend with some visitors, Mitch and Becky, and some good family fun.  We went to dinner at Red Lobster (just for Gavin because he wanted crab legs!) and then came home to have graham cupcakes and key lime frosting.  Yum!

As part of his present, I filled a jar with 30 things I love about him...  Here are just a few.

*I love the way he kisses Riley goodbye even if she's still asleep before he goes to work.

*I love listening to him and Gavin talk to each other over the monitor.

*I love how we spend our Sunday mornings together, drinking coffee and making breakfast, watching the Today show and going through the paper.

*I love how much he loves cooking and the nights when we get to cook dinner together. 

The list goes on...

We love you, Daddy!

Operation Baby Weight - Update

....And the update is that it's not working.  Granted, I haven't been as good as I thought I would be, but I haven't been any worse.  Nonetheless, I'm pretty sure I've gained weight, not lost it.  SO, I haven't stepped on the scale and have no desire to.  I need to get with it soon!

 

Thankful Thursday

It's time for Thankful Thursday...

I'm thankful the garage sale and prep work for Rhea Lana are over and I can finally get caught up on the house.  I'm thankful for coffee and yummy creamers, in particular Cinnabon and Peppermint Mocha.  I'm thankful for the forecast...patchy frost expected next week which means allergy season is almost over!  I'm thankful I found my wedding rings this week.  Spending much of Monday in tears looking for them was quite scary and I never want to have that panic feeling again.  I'm thankful for this blog, because if I don't record things here, I know I'll forget them. 

  

Pumpkin Patch

Last year, we hit up the local pumpkin patch and corn maze with our new friends, Amy, Chris, and Lucas.  We've since decided that it's going to be a yearly thing as long as we're all still living here! :)  So, before you look at the pics from this year, take a peek back at what the kiddos looked like last year.  

2010 Pumpkin Patch Visit

Some of my favorites from 2010...

So, a couple weekends ago, we headed there again, this time with our new 'pumpkins' in tow.  It was a beautiful day, but it felt a bit more like summer than fall!  Quite warm...  We let the boys ride the 'Cow Train' while us mamas and babies stayed back, and then did the petting zoo, the corn maze, and the pumpkin patch.  It was a great fall day, and I look forward to doing it again next year! 

 Their new addition, Caleb, all ready for the season!

 The perfect pumpkins!

Babies!!!

It's kinda hard to see, but in the picture below, there's a goat all the way at the top.  Everyone started cheering loudly when he started his way up the ramp to the top!  It was kind of funny to watch him come back down. 

Wordless Wednesday

After-Shot Lovin'

Remember those pics from the day of Riley's shots that I promised you?  Well, I'm finally getting to them.  Life has been so hectic the past week or so!  So, the day she got her shots she was very sleepy, as was to be expected, and she did end up with a fever, but it wasn't anything that some lovin' from her mama and big brother couldn't fix!