Lilypie Third Birthday tickers

Friday, January 2, 2009

Family Pictures

We decided to give Shelly's Mom and Dad pictures of their three Grandkids for Christmas. We arranged for a professional photographer to take pictures of the three kids, as well as a few family pictures.

We ended up with beautiful pictures of the three kids but we also got wonderful pictures of our family, us with Riley individually, and adorable pictures off little Miss.

Here are a few of our favorites. Enjoy!

The three Grandkids:


Our family pictures:


Shelly and Riley:


Dee and Riley:


Riley signing "I Love You":


Riley trying to figure out how to get off the bridge and into the river:
Riley being bribed to smile and hold still with bubbles:

Misc. pics of little Miss:
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Thursday, January 1, 2009

Happy New Year!

It's 2009. A new year. 2008 was a great year. I hope, and plan to make, 2009 even better.

To kick off the New Year I'm taking the lead of a fellow blogger, 2 Moms, and choosing "One Little Word" for the year instead of a long list of New Years resolutions. I've searched and searched for my word for 2008 and keep coming back to the word she is using. This single word embodies everything I want to achieve and build my life around in 2009. That word is "Choose".

In 2009 I will continue to live life with choices.

  • I choose to be present when I'm with Riley.
  • I choose to continue to teach Riley about choices and consequences.
  • I choose to be nurture a strong work ethic in an effort to be a positive role model for my daughter.
  • I choose to focus on my health.
  • I choose to incorporate exercise and activity into my families life.
  • I choose to focus on our families finances and financial future.
  • I choose to be a more caring and thoughtful wife.
  • I choose to keep a journal of our lives "Raising Riley" (aka as blogging).

To kick this off, me the person who hasn't blogged for three months (which I'll write about why later) is vowing to blog every day in January to get me back in the swing of things. I may not have enough time to post comments on my blog friends blogs, which I still read every day, but I will blog about our life, even if it's brief. Here's to a wonderful 2009!

I didn't want to leave without posting pictures BUT for some reason I can't get anything to upload. I'll try again tomorrow.

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Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Naked ET

Riley has added a new element to her bedtime bath routine. When we get her out of the tub she likes to strut around the house in nothing but her hooded towel. The first time she did this we were laughing hysterically because she reminded us of ET running around with a sheet on. Here's a few pics and a video of our little ET.







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My First Hut!

Aunt Sarah came out to play with me on Saturday, 8/16, and she built me my first hut! And, it was in my crib, which is my favorite place in the world! Thanks Aunt Sarah! I love it when you come to play with me.


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Tate's Birthday Party

On August 12 Tate turned 4! I can't even believe she is 4! It seems just yesterday we were babysitting this tiny little being and falling in love with her more and more every day. And because of our love for her we realized we needed to start a family ourselves. So thanks to Tate, and of course her Mommies, we're blessed with our miracle baby Riley.

We had Tate's birthday bash at our clubhouse so the kids could swim, play games, watch movies, and play on the playground. Of course the big day was a hit. Here's a few pics commemorating her big day.
The Birthday Girl

The Birthday Girl's Little Sis, Talor
Friends...
We can't forget party crasher Sawyer who had SO much fun!

Finally, Miss Riley enjoying the day and doing what she loves MOST...SWIMMING!

Little Miss LOVES her Sunglasses!

Playing with ribbon is so fun Mom!
Mmmmm....sucker


Crete paper banners are so much fun!

Mmmmm...ice cream and cake!

All smiles on a very fun day!

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Finally...Updates & 15 Month Pics

I'm totally a blog slacker. The worst part about me being a slacker is not that I'm not updating our friends and family enough, or keeping up to date on my blog friends and family, it's that I'm not keeping a good record of Riley as she grows up. I've got to do better. This is important for her.

I'm getting ready to start a new job next week, same company, new exciting opportunity, that is sure to make my work life even busier. Which is good. I love a good challenge. But I've got to figure out a better way of keeping Riley's blog updated.

It's time for a massive update. There's so much I haven't posted about his summer and I'm ready to let loose. Be prepared. They're just going to keep coming.

Let's start with Riley's 15 Months pictures.

We decided she was long over due for pictures. We honestly thought we'd leave KK without any pictures because Riley wouldn't sit still long enough, or give a big enough smile. But to our pleasant surprise we left there with a few great shots of our beautiful 15 months old. Enjoy!

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Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Happy 15 Months Baby Girl!

At 15 months you:

  • Are walking like a pro! It's so cute to see this little person walking around the house.

  • Are still a picky eater but are willing to try some new things. You still LOVE fruit. Doesn't matter what kind, you'll eat it!

  • Love when your Momma comes home from work. It's like a drug, you go crazy with energy for the next hour and won't let me out of your sight.

  • Have called for your Mommy when you're having a bad night's sleep.

  • Show your stubborn side more and more frequently.

  • Are incredibly smart and are already showing your critical thinking skills. You like to figure things out. And if we show you how to do something once then you've got it, like putting toy coins in the toy piggy bank this weekend.

  • LOVE TO READ!!! Books, books, and more books. You bring books to us constantly to read to you. You can't get enough. And that makes your Momma's very happy.

  • LOVE TO SWIM! Anything with the water you love.

  • Get frustrated sometimes and through tantrums. We're not quite sure how to handle this yet but we've got to help you manage that temper.

  • LOVE everyone to sing Itsy Bitsy Spider ALL THE TIME!

  • Have several words you use consistently: hi, bye, bye bye, hat, Morgie, Mommy, Momma, doggie, read, bath, eat. There are also a long list of words that you've used a couple of times but not daily.

  • Understand when we tell you to do things such as, go get in your high chair, fold your arms, go to your room so we can change your bum, go get in the bath.

  • Have another new top tooth. Making a total of 7 that have broken through. But you've been pretty grumpy the past few days so we think you might be getting a molar or two.

  • Go nuts for Uncle Steve. You'll even stand at the top of the stairs and yell for him.

  • Whine back at the dogs. When they're being whiny you chime right in trying to whine back at them.

  • Know who Elmo is and point to him on your bath mat every time you bath.

  • Won't give us kisses but will give Eskimo kisses.

You are the sunshine in your lives. You're our miracle. We love you more and more every day.

Happy day baby girl!



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Our Conception Story

After eight years together we were pretty sure we'd spend our life with our four legged kids, doing lots of camping, and traveling the world. On August 12, 2004 that all changed with the birth of our God Daughter Tate. We immediately fell completely in love with her and soon began to re-think our decision of not having kids.

In October 2005 we began the process of trying to conceive. As soon as we started trying Shelly began having very erratic cycles which made the process that more complicated. After four tries over six months we decided to schedule a consultation with the a Reproductive Specialist. We were desperate to conceive and on a limited time frame since Shelly had just turned 41. Dee was 35 at the time but not able to conceive due to a medical procedure.

Our first appointment with the Repro Man was May 2006. He suggested we try IVF using Dee's eggs and Shelly as the gestational mother. He felt this scenario would give us the highest chance for success of a healthy pregnancy. We spent a short amount of time weighing our options and decided this was the best choice. We began our first IVF cycle in August. They did the Egg Retrieval and Fertilization on 8/31. Three days later, 9/3, they transferred three embryos into Shelly. Then the wait began.

Shelly promised not to begin the home pregnancy test too soon. Dee had to travel out of state for business a week after the transfer and asked Shelly to please wait to test. BUT, the wait was too much for her and she started testing after a week. At first there was no line. But after a couple of days testing a faint line started to appear. When Dee came home from her trip Shelly told her, "I know I'm pregnant." Dee didn't believe her and insisted the line wasn't dark enough so she tested herself to compare. There was absolutely no line. She began to believe Shelly was pregnant but still had doubt. Dee went to the store and bought another brand of testing strips. After five home tests, we were convinced we we're pregnant due to all positive results. A blood test at two weeks confirmed it; we were going to have a baby!