FFF - ME

Sarah picked a tough theme for this week - ME - and yes that means I'm supposed to post a pic of me, and there aren't always a lot of those and I'm usually not a big fan of them even if they are taken..............so be sure and check out the other lovely bloggers over at Sarah's blog today!!

As a side note - YES = this would be a great time to post a pic of my growing belly - since you know I haven't posted ANY and I'm 24 weeks along at this point - but I haven't taken one of those............so you get a pic that is of me at Disney World while I'm riding the carousel - yes I'm hot (in the temperature sense) and probably sweaty so don't look too close - but it's me - and ironically I'm wearing the very same shirt today - although it fits much different than it did then!!

FFF - Work it Girl

Riley got an Easter basket filled with fun hair stuff from Baby Sis last night and had a ball modeling and playing dress-up, which is of course a daily activity. Can't wait to celebrate the true meaning of the season this weekend though, man this is a great time of year!!!

Check out more FFF posts over on Sarah's blog.

FFF - Beach

Today's theme for FFF is beach - but in honor of April Fool's a little earlier this week I'm going to post an opposite pic, I just love this one of Riley all bundled up to play in the snow (hard to believe this really wasn't that long ago!)

FFF - My Swimming Girl

Happy Friday everyone, I'm not sure if there is a FFF theme this week or not, but I decided I'm making up my own. I have a lot of Disney pics to get posted so I thought today I'd get a little more of that done. Be sure and check out the other FFF posts over at Sarah's blog!

One of the things Riley was really looking forward to (well besides the Princesses, the Dumbo ride and the Teacups) was the pool - my girl LOVES to swim - I bet there wasn't a day that went by that she didn't spend at least 2 hours in the water and I'm really not exaggerating at all. Oh yeah and the pool at our hotel was AMAZING!!! It had a huge waterfall thing coming in to it - the mask totem pole looking guys spitting water into the pool, a water slide, a kiddie pool that squirted water up, a playground........we could have spent the entire day here and been fine because yeah there was even a little place to get food too. My very favorite thing though - they provided life jackets so we didn't have to haul ours from MO to FL, they think of everything!

She made a great swimming buddy while we were there - her name was Tiffany and she was 5 and they were great playmates. My favorite was just after we had met her (seriously like 3 minutes into their first playtime) as we were walking to the bathroom Riley says "I really like her, I'm going to invite her to my next birthday......when we get back, I'll ask her her name" I love it - kids are so eager and willing to make friends and it really helps us parents out when we are the playmates for 7 days. There's something about another person their size that satisfies when mommy and daddy become boring. We were thankful that Tiffany was there most of our stay because after she left, the pool just wasn't quite as fun. Riley couldn't find another playmate quite like Tiffany, but she tried, once even saying "Momma, I wanna go over there and pick out a kid."
Me. Riley, Joey, Tiffany and her Mom - thanks lifeguard guy for taking our picture!

FFF - Cheese

Sarah picked a great FFF theme this week - I think (at least in our case) Riley learned "cheese" way too early. There was a time when I thought we'd never get a real smile again because anytime she saw the camera she would instantly say "cheese" and give me her best, although usually quite cheesy (no pun intended as I laugh at how funny I am hehe), smile.

Here are just a few for your viewing pleasure - most of them oldies, but still cute of course :)

18 months old - and already has "Cheese" down pat
Sea World - Jun 2007
18 months or so - first day with all of her hair in pig tails and she was proud!!!

Cascade Locks, OR
Sep 2007 (almost 2yrs)

Love the outfit - and that you can really tell she's saying cheese while I'm taking the picture
Not quite 2 yrs - fall of 2007

March 08 - Cheesing it up for the camera while playing in the "warm pool" aka the bath tub at the hotel who accidentally forgot to turn on the heater for the indoor heated pool wink wink

Favorite Foto Friday - Melting fun :)

A little ice cream melting fun from last summer with Cousin Cayman - man it doesn't seem like she's changed that much until I see the proof in pictures!!!

Check out more melting FFF pics on Sarah's blog here.

FFF - Christmas Memories

Man I just can't get back into the blogging thing - it seems like I haven't posted in ages (partly because I haven't had time to download pics which is very unlike me). Maybe things will slow down a bit and I'll get back into the groove.

Since I hadn't downloaded any pictures recently, and Sarah did post a specific theme, I decided to do Christmas memories. Check out more FFF here.

Riley's FIRST Christmas - she was a whole month and a half old and slept thru the whole thing, seriously. At least I got her "Baby's First Christmas" jammies on her, but other than that, she wasn't very festive!!

Riley's SECOND Christmas, she was about 13 months old and boy did she have fun!! I had had sinus surgery on the 23rd, so I wasn't super with it, but it was fun to see how much more she enjoyed everything and to watch her play with all of her new goodies!!

First sled ride - that was actually in a laundry basket - it just seemed safer at the time :)

Boy did she love her kitchen, even at 1, she would play with it for a long time!! I'm glad we didn't wait until she was older to get this!!

Riley opening her stocking with "loopy" mommy.

Riley's THIRD Christmas, she was 2, and she opened everyone's presents, really, I don't think there was a present at our house that wasn't opened by this little sweetie!!

She also loved her "puter" also known as a portable DVD player - Daddy did too that was he could watch something besides Dora on tv :)

This was also the day she decided to empty out EVERYTHING from her drawers, ornery little thing!

FFF - Battle of the Christmas Tree

So a few years ago, the day after Christmas, I fought the crowds and got a really nice Christmas tree for a really nice price. It was big and full and exactly what I wanted, and much closer to the price I thought I should be paying. It was prelit - which my lovely friend Jenelle warned me about, but I had never had a string of lights go bad so I had to think that it would last many years.

Fast forward 2 years, seriously, to Christmas 2007. I'm excited, my baby is now two and totally loving the Christmas lights and ornaments, etc., and I plug my tree together and bam - 1/3 of it lights up. I do everything I can, I change every fuse, I try every set of lights plugged into an extension cord as opposed to each other thinking maybe that will help and nothing does and I come away with scratched arms. I sigh knowing Christmas trees are at their peak demand (and price) and go to the Dollar store and buy some strands of lights to "light" my pre-lit tree.

Now it is Christmas 2008, I still can't justify spending the moolah on a tree, ours isn't that old, it's pretty, I like it, I know what I'll have to pay to replace it, oh yeah and only one of the strands of lights worked when I plugged it together this year. I get the bright idea, to take all those strands of lights off of my prelit tree and make my own prelit tree.

Don't mind the fact that the tree is sitting on my sewing machine box, I'll never understand why they make the branches go all the way to the ground. Also keep in mind that I haven't fluffed any branches yet so this tree really is very full and beautiful - well except for the lights not working thing.

This was my tool for this endeavor - which I'm thinking will be a piece of cake - hahaha, if only I would have known.

I begin with the little tip top section thinking I'll get it all figured out on this section that way the bigger, harder to work with sections will be a little easier. I'm thinking it won't take long to get them off, but that since the lights are all clipped on I will have to snip some here and there.

See all those little pieces, see the fact that it probably took close to an hour, this is why people buy prelit trees and don't make them. Every single tip has a light, every single tip has a clip that the strand of lights is attached to, I think I might be perfectly fine, at least for another year, ghetto non-working lights on my tree and the strands of working lights strung right on top of them!!

Anyone want to come help?

I'm not sure if this post really qualifies for FFF, but since there's no theme I guess it can, since it's friday. Check out more FFF posts here.

FFF - Kisses

Sarah's theme for FFF this week was blowing kisses.......hmmm........why can't I find any pictures of that? I know Riley does blow kisses - like every single day. Here are the closest pics that I could find :)

Get ready - here it comes

(I must confess that she's actually telling me a "snecret" in this pic, but it looks like she's getting ready to blow me a kiss doesn't it?)

And the send off - that was one big kiss!

July 2007 - Fish Kisses are the BEST!

FFF - Family Shots

Man oh man, how can it be Friday already.....this is one of those weeks where it has been SOO busy that the days have just flown by, I'm glad it's friday and that the weekend is almost here so maybe I can catch up on some rest!! For FFF our mission this week was to find our favorite family picture. I realize that we don't have tons of family picturess, usually one of us is behind the camera, but I did find a couple that worked though - if you want to see more FFF posts check out Sarah's blog.

Family Pic - Aug 08
Yeah it's fuzzy, I had to scan it and that didn't work out so great.

December 07 - actually our Christmas Card Pic