Briley's Farm

Our playgroup headed out to Briley's Farm on Wednesday afternoon for a hayride, pumpkin picking, animal petting and cow milking good time. Ha ha! Yeah, that's Avery milking a pretend cow! She really liked it, which is not what I expected of her. But we did have a good time. It was a little "brisk" but the kids seemed to enjoy themselves - which always makes for a good time. Here's some pictures.

On the hayride at Briley's

Talking with the boys

Picking her pumpkin

Trying to get their pumpkins in the bag

The girls figured out how to "carry" the bag

Riley in the sling

Avery milking the pretend cow!

Avery's first expierence with a....

Trying to catch a smile....

...is a hard thing to do with a 9 week old but I think I might have caught the beginning or the end of the smile on camera - check it out below. Riley started smiling back at us at 7 weeks but it took me about 2 weeks to capture it. It's still not the real thing but you can get the picture! It's such a wonderful feeling seeing that smile! She is really starting to make more noises in response to mine, which is so fun! We will go back to the doctor on Tuesday for another check-up. Can't wait to see how much she has grown!

I wanted to post a little info about Riley's birthmark on the side of her face. A few of you had asked what it was and were curious about our trip to the dermatologist this past Monday. She has what's called a Nevous Sebaceous. It's basically an area where her oil glands are overgrown. It's pretty rare and generally only occurs on the face, scalp and neck area. Her's is about 3 cm in size on the left side of her face. The doctor said that this area is more than likely to develop Basal Cell Carcinoma later on in life, so they recommend having the area removed usually sometime before puperty to hopefully prevent it. (Basal Cell is the "curable" type of skin cancer) Since it is a bunch of oil glands, the area tends to "flare" up more when she would be going through all the hormonal changes that come along with puperty. So, she would need plastic surgery to remove it sometime around 8 or 10 unless it starts to bother her sooner from a social standpoint. We are glad that Riley's area is on the side of her face and is pretty much skin color so it isn't as obvious as some Nevous Sebaceous' tend to be. I think that's it. The doctor had a wealth of knowledge about this and I wasn't sure if I would remember any of it while I was sitting there listening. You know how you can sit there in the office and just nod and think you are completely getting every word out of his mouth but then you get up to leave the room and it's like "What was that again? Can I have one more explanation?" Well, luckily I got it all, I think? If any of you know my mom, she's the one to ask a million questions and I needed to be ready for all of them! (love you mom!) Anyway, I know this seems silly but I would just ask that you would pray for us as a family to handle her "beauty mark", as Avery calls it, with gentleness. One of my biggest priorities in raising my girls is to help them develop a healthy sense of self esteem. I want them to know they are beautiful in God's eyes (and Mommy's) and to care more about what He thinks of them, than the world! I want Riley (and Avery) to grow up feeling very comfortable in their own skin - if you know what I mean. :-)

Oh No the Big 3 0!!!

Ryan has hit another decade and is now officially 30 years old. I threw him a surprise party last weekend (a whole week before his birthday) so he wouldn't suspect anything! It went over really well. We had a nice group of friends at the house to surprise him when he came home! It was my first time throwing a surprise party and it was fun...but all that planning for a few seconds of "Surprise" was a lot of work. It's kind of like preparing a Thanksgiving meal and then you sit down to eat and it takes less than a fraction of the time to eat it as it did to prepare! But it was worth it. I have to say thank you to all my friends that helped out at the last minute - Shelley, Amanda, Jennifer and all the managers at Zaxby's! You all saved the day, I definetely couldn't have pulled it off without your help! Ryan's actual birthday was this past Saturday. We spent the day lounging around the house because it was cold and wet outside and that's what he wanted to do. We went to Outback for dinner and then came home and had some cake that Avery and I had made earlier in the day. It was a great day and a great time to be thankful for such a wonderful husband and loving dad!

A late night

Tonight was a late night, after going to church, I didn't get the girls in bed until almost 10:00 (Daddy was still at work). I had recently bought some matching pajamas at Sam's (best deal on Carter's pj's -$6.98) and I put them on them tonight. They looked so cute, so I had to stop and take a picture! It's so funny to see Avery next to Riley because I realize how big she is! Avery and I read some stories out of her Children's Bible while I nursed Riley. After such a long day and fighting a headache all day it was such a precious few minutes with both of them. It's times like this that I hope I won't forget as they grow up.

4 Generations

Here are some pictures that the girls and I had taken with my mom and Grandmother during our trip to Georgia. We also went so we could take pictures of Riley at 6 weeks. We had her picture taken in her Dedication dress...the same picture we took of Avery. I'll have to post those side by side and let you see the differences again.

Riley's Dedication

When we were in Georgia we had Riley dedicated at our home church in Athens. We are so blessed to still have a lot of great friends there and it is so wonderful to see them when we are in town. Pastor Scott was nice enough to agree to do Riley's dedication even though we don't attend Cornerstone anymore. We still feel like that is our home and we know we will always call it that! So, we had friends and family there to celebrate Riley's life and to show their dedication to helping us raise her to know the Lord and to hopefully one day serve Him! I don't have any pictures on my camera from the service but my best friend Jaime sent me a few from her camera. Here are a few shots. One of my friends said that during the dedication all you could see of Riley were her cheeks and the bow on her head! haha

Riley's First Trip

Ryan had his annual fall business conference with Zaxby's this past week in Georgia, so we took the girls down for a visit. Some of our family hadn't met Riley yet so it was a great opportunity for us to show her off! :-) We left Greenville around 9:30 on Friday morning and pulled into Ryan's parents driveway around 6:00 pm. It took us a good 9 hours to make the trip but it went really smoothly. Riley was a champ. She slept the majority of the trip and we had to wake her up to feed her. Hopefully she will be a great traveler like her sister. We'll find out in December when we make the drive again for Christmas. Here are 2 pictures of the girls asleep in their seats.