This post is for my brother...

When my brother and I were little, we had a wooden toy box that was made by a family friend. Technically, I think it was my brother's because it was always in his room and all of his toys were in it, but, I considered it mine as well! Anyway, we would always throw all of the toys (Star Wars, GI Joe etc.) out of the toy box and get in and play inside. We would hide in it or pretend it was our coffin (I know a little morbid) but a simple wooden toy box seemed to entertain us for hours. Well, yesterday, Avery and I went up to her room and threw all of her stuffed animals and baby dolls out of her toy box. First of all, let me say 2 things. 1. I had no idea that she had so many stuffed animals and dolls! I mean seriously, the size of that toy box is deceiving! 2. Her toy box is much safer than mine and my brother's was. Grandad installed a "non slamming lid hinge thingy" - not sure what it's technical name is, but it keeps the top from closing on it's own. I wish we had one of those on ours when we were little because that would have saved a lot of hurt fingers over the years! Avery had a grand time playing in the toy box and Riley was so content to watch and try to crawl over the mountain of stuffed toys! And of course, I ran and got my camera to document this momentous occasion! haha So, I thought I would share a few of the pictures from the afternoon of playing in the toy box. So, Matt, if you are reading, thanks for the childhood memories and for sharing your toy box with me! Love ya bro!

Put this on the list...

of things I'll miss one day. Cleaning up and seeing the imaginitive play that my 3 year old had today

Sweet Baby Girl

Happy 9 month birthday Miss Riley Kate! Mommy can hardly believe it's been that long that you have been with us, yet it seems like you've been a part of our lives forever. I am so thankful for the joy you've brought to our family. Here are a few of the fun things you are doing.

• Sleeping all night long. I thought this day would never come! You are sleeping a good 12 hours at night and sometimes more!
• Crawling around on your hands and knees. You are doing the "classic" baby crawl and it's just the cutest thing! You are getting where you want to go and FAST!
• You just started clapping your hands and when you do, your face lights up!
• Pulling up on everything and standing. Your favorite place to stand is in the tub...which is not very safe!
• Climbing the stairs. Uh oh! Luckily you haven't found the stairs on your own but when Mommy takes you there, you are climbing very slowly! I've already got the gate out and it's in place!
• Dropping things over the side of your chair or car seat. You giggle every time you hear mommy say "Uh, oh"
• You are quickly learning the sippy cup - how to hold it and drink from it. (This is one of those things that you like to drop over the side of your chair!)
• Feeding yourself little bites of food like puffs, yogurt melts etc.
• Playing with your sister's dollhouse - haha! You stand there and open the doors and windows and lovingly chew on all of the dolls heads! Avery just loves playing with wet dolls...No, not really, but she is being very patient with your baby slobber!

I am so proud of you and how easy you've become! Thank you for filling our lives and hearts with love every day! Only 3 more months until you are 1!!! WOW!

Memorial Day

We had a great Memorial Day spending time with our little family of four. Ryan had to work this morning but he was able to come home by lunch time and we packed up the girls and headed out for a picnic by the river. We stopped by Subway and picked up some sandwiches. We had fun eating and playing and we even sat under our blanket for a few minutes waiting for a little shower to pass. The girls had these adorable red and white dresses that I got last fall, on sale, at Gymboree. They were very festive with their patriotic colors. We tried to take a few pics of them together but Avery doesn't seem to like the camera much these days, so it is always a struggle to get her to cooperate. Here is a little collage of some shots we got.

Ryan and I celebrated our anniversary on Wednesday night by eating at what has become our annual tradition...Longhorn Steakhouse. Now, we are simple people and it doesn't take much to please us, so just a good 'ole steakhouse is always right up our ally. We have never been to Longhorn's and had bad service or bad food so that keeps us coming back for more! And since we are in the food business we know how important it is to keep your customers satisfied with a great visit, so we ourselves are loyal patrons of this fine establishment. We ate a lot! We had the Wild West Shrimp which was a generous portion of fried shrimp with peppers and ranch sauce. (On a side note: Longhorn's has some of the best ranch sauce. They should bottle it up and sell it like Olive Garden sells their dressing) Then we each had a Cesar salad and some bread. I ordered the Shrimp and Crab Gratin with a Sirloin steak and a baked potato...oh, my mouth is watering! Ryan ordered the Rib eye with shrimp scampi and a baked potato. Then to top it all of we got the Chocolate stampede - which is a desert big enough to share with several people but we managed to do just fine with the two of us! I told you we ate A LOT! I did take half of my dinner and desert home and I think Ryan had some steak left over. So, we didn't eat it all at one setting but nonetheless it was worth the bloated belly the next morning! Our waitress was super sweet and after we sat down she asked us if we had ever ate at Longhorn before. Ryan and I looked at each other and said "Oh yeah!". We told her that we were celebrating our 7 year anniversary and we have ate at Longhorn each year. She thought that was really cool and congratulated us. Later on during our meal the manager came out to personally congratulate us too and told us that dessert would be on them. How sweet! That my friends, is what keeps us coming back for more...great service! So here's to another year being married and another wonderful meal at our favorite restaurant Longhorn Steakhouse (is this free advertisement, or what!!)

No Mr. President

I'm not itching are you?

Strange title I know. But I've always heard of the "7 year itch" - referring to being married for 7 years and then feeling like you need to look somewhere else for satisfaction. I can honestly say that I love my husband more today than I did the day we got married. He's a wonderful man and I am so blessed to share my life with him.

Hunny, I thought I would share a few of the things I love so much about you...

- I love that you fall asleep on the couch and start snoring during any movie we try to watch. Then when I wake you up, you adamantly deny that you were asleep but that you were just "breathing loudly"!

- I love that you take such good care of the outside of our house! You do an excellent job maintaing our yard and I appreciate it!

-I love that you can always make me laugh even when I don't want to!

- I love that you are forgiving and you are almost always the first one to "make things right" after we argue!

-I love that you are a great business man and a diligent worker!

- I love your generous spirit and I truly believe it is one of your best quailties!

-I love the way you make up songs about our girls and sing them very loudly to them even in public.

- I love the way you read Dr. Seuss books.

-I love how concerned you are about me. You always make me feel cared for and that means more to me than you realize.

(Here are some pics from our wedding day. I opened up our wedding album and took some pictures of the pictures..not the best quality but you get the point. Enjoy)

Ryan, I am so happy to have spent the last 7 years married to you.

Here's to many, many more! XOXO

Love these

I recently switched car seats for the girls and in the process of cleaning one and installing a new one I lost one of the car seat strap covers for our Britax car seat. They are really nice to have because they keep the straps from digging into the side of your child's neck. Well, I found this super cute Etsy store that sells them. Check them out here. I am totally impressed by the great quality and all the fun, hip fabrics that Maria at Mom N Mia Quilts had to choose from. Check out her store for other cute baby items. Here is a pic of Riley with her new straps...they are reversible too!

Don't blink, you might miss it....

Here is a short video of Riley trying to clap. She has just started to get her hands together and has been practicing a lot! It's funny because she usually looks like she is concentrating so hard to do it (but not in this video)! Won't be long and she'll have it down. I have to pretend I'm not even looking at her or she'll stop...so, I tried to point the camera at her and look away. Enjoy.

On pause...

until I find my battery chargers. I have misplaced my camera battery chargers - I have a seperate one for each camera. And my cameras are now dead! I cannot remember seeing them since we left Bermuda. So, until I find them I cannot upload any pictures to my computer! I also can't take any more pictures. So, if you think about it, please say a little prayer that I find them and I can go about recording my life!

*****UPDATE ****** I found my battery chargers and I am back in business of taking pictures and video! I don't think I missed anything major!

Daddy Daughter Date Night

(Ryan will be updating this entry soon...stay tuned)

New video

Here is a new video of Riley Kate crawling. Enjoy!