Riley Makes Me Laugh - A LOT!

Mommy I can't wait to go to school because someone's going to ask me out. They are going to say 'ohhhh look at that pretty girl'

I think we should get some spoiled eggs at the grocery store
(I think and hope she meant boiled eggs)

Mama, are you going to take Taylor with you to work.
No sweetie I would really like to take both of you, but Tom says I can't because then I wouldn't get any work done.
Well Mom, I can be boring with you.

"Mama when I grow up I want to work with you - I can be the mailroom girl"
(and we have no mailroom girl - it's just a room with a copy machine, file cabinets, postage meter, and some hole punches - which happen to be her favorite, she could 2 hole and 3 hole punch for a good 30 minutes probably and not get bored).

I hear her fussing around so I tip toe into her room and see she's uncovered and wearing a nightgown and must surely be cold. I cover her up and she says "I don't want covers" and not in a nice tone of voice by any means. She then wakes up, rolls over and sweet as can be says "Mama, I'm cold"

"Mama, want to play tug of roll"

"Ummm, Mama, this, is the best, chocolate pudding ever, it's just delicious"
please insert small bites at every comma followed by lots of lip licking

Riley got to drive a helicopter

Ok - so maybe she wasn't really flying the thing, but she did get to see an Army helicopter, and she did get to sit in the pilot's seat, and she did get to move the joystick looking thing that they use to drive/fly it - so that really is the same thing.........right?

When this thing landed - it was loud and windy!

The kids were so excited (ha) that this is what they thought of it while it was landing

Cousin Cayman opted for covering his ears

Riley just wanted to go inside - look at the look she is giving the helicopter - whew

Then Riley and Cayman decided if the hugged maybe it would make it better - ha

And Carter was just chillin' thru all this - what a big boy

Now...here come the honorary pilots..........

Riley the ever watchful

Evan the cool dude!

Cayman the big silly guy

And last but not least........Colter the almost birthday boy
(now he really did sit in the pilot's seat, but he wasn't happy about it!)

This was a super fun - but incredibly hot and humid time......but I do have to share one more photo (sorry Gina) because it is just too funny. When the helicopter landed, it was loud and windy and Gina had a panic moment looking for Evan - see if you can find him in this picture..........

Yep, right there in her arms..........and she was really concerned I'm telling you :)

FFF - Bloopers

The theme this week is bloopers for FFF - and I like the creator Sarah kinda had trouble with this one because I'm notorious for deleting the blooper-ish pictures (but I save the other 10 of the very same pose- hahaha). So here goes with what I can dig up ;)

One of my favorites "bloopers" of myself - I had just won 50 tickets with one token at Chuck E Cheese - woohoo

Joey will love me for this one, but I think he was talking at the time

And this one is super fuzzy, but Riley was being Super R (have you seen the show on PBS called Super Y, well we adapted for her since it's one of her favorites) and it's kinda hard to catch a moving target when she's zooming thru the halls at my office

Wordless Wednesday

I had three birthday parties in 18 hours and I'm excited!
Too bad none of the presents were mine.

Check out more Wordless Wednesday posts here or here

You and me going fishing in the dark

Wait - it wasn't really dark, it was getting dark though, and it was really windy.......and I mean REALLY windy!!! I'm telling you Missouri weather is something else this spring we've had more rain, tornado warnings, incredibly rainy days, did I mention rain than I ever remember before!

Enough about that though, let's talk about what my girl got to do this weekend - she finally got to put this to good use and she loved it! My girl could wind the reel and bring her weighted/attached fish in all by herself and even tried her hand at casting - it was adorable! I love that she caught a fish every single time (so did she) and I also love that we didn't have to worry about her hooking herself or one of us, oh and did I mention that this pole even floats just in case we might have a mishap and it gets thrown in the water (which didn't happen this time, but I'm sure it will at some point!).

Getting a lesson from daddy

How did she know fishing is all about relaxing already?

This girl LOVES worms - unlike her mommy who thinks there just a little ooey - oh and I love the snot she has going too, that's great!

I love how she's squatting down like she might be too tall for Joey - such a sweet girl always thinking!

I wish I would have had a video from when Riley tried to cast, but I just wasn't ready when it happened. The first time she reared back and then forward, her line didn't go out and she looked at me like what in the world happened here, didn't I do it just like daddy. I showed her that you had to push the little button so she pushed it, reared back and of course the fish hit the ground the second she let go of the button so she developed a casting style all her own.

1. Push button and then let go back so the line comes out
2. When the fish hits the ground pick it up and throw it in the water - whever you want it to go really
3. Repeat over and over again and smile like you are having the best time ever (which she was)

Edited on Wednesday - silly me, I do have a video, I just didn't get the whole process very well.....so for your enjoyment, Riley casting - notice she couldn't get it to go quite where she wanted so she kept throwing the fish, she's such a silly girl!

Riley Got a New (BoUncY) Present

Riley got something new last week - after a lot of sweating (could it have been more humid the day we were working......no I think not) and a little fussing from daddy after we put the the top part on upside down the first time and had to not just redo it but remove the bazillion metal clip thingys in order to put it on that second time.........Riley was happy as can be!!!

Don't mind that these are fuzzy - I still love the expressions!

Splashing the water off the side - the humidity when we were putting it together was not just because we live in Missouri it turns out, but because we were only minutes from a torrential downpour which Riley was very sad to have to wait thru before getting to jump (don't tell but we let her jump in the sprinkles for a little while)

Riley's jumping mate - Cousin Cayman - was also excited to share in the first jump, they didn't mind at all that they were getting soaking wet at the time!

The sign of a good time in the slightly rainy day is an extremely wet bum - check out these two!

Of course with our luck, we were missing 6 of the lovely little clip things so we can't put the safety net/fence thing on it yet, but I promise we bought it so there's no need to worry about her safety..........I will tell you a secret though, her mama doesn't want to put it on, it just seems silly, but at some point some random child may sneak into our yard and jump and I would hate for them to break their arm or worse. Riley, now I just want her to learn the safe way to jump and not depend on the net. Oh well, daddy has to win sometimes........and safety is a good time for him to win!

Daddy is that rain?

Joey and Riley kind of had their plans messed up by the Crazy Missouri Weather - really can we please have one day without a tornado siren going off, is that too much to ask? - but that aside while I was slaving away at work today, they did find time to go down and feed the ducks at our local Marina. This is one of Riley's FAVORITE things!!! She is quite sure that these fish will starve is she doesn't come feed them, and for $0.50 a bag, or leftover bread crumbs, or bagel crumbs, or old crackers, really its a cost effective way to do something fun (especially when I have old bread because it's free).

So while they were walking back up to the car I guess it started to sprinkle and this is where the fun starts.

Riley: "Daddy what's that hitting us in the face, is it rain?"
Joey: "No, it's birds"
Riley: "What are the birds doing?"
*in her 2 1/2 years of wisdom, I think she already knew where this was going
Joey: "Their pee-pee'ing on us"
Riley: "Daddy tell those birds to quit pee-pee'ing on us"
Joey: "I was just kidding Riley, it's rain"
Riley: "My daddy get them, daddy get those birds"

Riley still insists that the birds were pee-pee'ing on them and gave me a few funny shots at lunch today

I love that she's flapping her arms like she's flying while she's showing me how they were pee-peeing on her - And she's kinda got the poop face down in this one too, does she know that birds don't really pee they kinda poop all the time?

Here's a video of her explaining it all - not sure where she got the fact that daddy's was gonna "Smack 'em" but that's my girl for you, a little rough-houser :)

FFF - Disaster Areas

I like Sarah over at Kiss the Frog am kind of a type A personality. I really do like things in their place, most of the time - although my own personal clutter doesn't always count, just ask my hubby who is driven crazy by my junk basket in the kitchen but that's another post - so finding pictures of messes I thought might be a little difficult. Ha - then I remembered what my sweet girl had done on Christmas morning 07

And maybe this is a good time to mention that she did this in like well 2 seconds flat or so

You can check out more entries here and have an awesome day!

Locked in the Bathroom

While I was at work this morning I got a phone call from the babysitter, this always makes me a bit nervous because I wonder right off what has happened to Riley - is she sick, have a fever, do I need to make a dr's appt? Thankfully I don't think, what did she do - she really is a pretty good kid (thank you Lord!). Back to my story - Vickie starts, I've got a bit of a situation and we've never really had one like this before.....pause........why is there always a pause.......Riley's locked in the bathroom. I had to chuckle because I was really expecting something much more, well serious in nature - like a catastrophe or an injury or something.

The problem was at 2 1/2 (and don't forget the 1/2 because she sure doesn't, she's not just 2 but 2 1/2) she couldn't quite get the little locked button turned so the door could be open and from the outside Vickie couldn't get the door open either. What a sigh of relief, literally, but I did hop in the car to go and try and help "teach" her how to unlock the door (although it wasn't really a lesson I wanted her to learn just yet. I'm pretty comfortable with the fact that she can't get out of the house at this point all on her own - well unless you count the sliding door and I don't because I could hear that one, I think).

I called Joey on the way and he panicked just a bit - I really called him so he could share in my chuckle, but I had to remind him that it was ok, she would be fine, and that I really called him so he could laugh with me not get worried........so laugh buddy (although it was cute that he was a tad stressed for our princess).

When I got to Vickie's my precious baby girl had unlocked the door and been set free, just as she started to get a little worried which was perfect timing (thank you Lord!) and no tears had been shed just yet. I was thankful to be able to give her a hug before her naptime and a BIG high five for being such a big girl.

My favorite part was when Olivia chimed in and told me that Riley had locked herself in the bathroom and Riley looked at her, hands on hips and a bit of an attitude, and said "No, Livie, YOU locked me in the bathroom."

Ooohhhh the cat was out of the bag, my sweet baby girl had been setup. Well not really setup, but she didn't actually lock herself in, she just shut a door that was already locked by a handy-helper.

I wish I have a video or a picture of this little event, but I do not - so here's to a boring, well not boring, but pictureless post, enjoy!

I'm Measuring Things!

Sometimes I like to just sit back and let Riley do things that never-in-a-million-years would I really want her doing. Not like dangerous things that could seriously hurt her, more like when I want to take a peek at how that little brain of hers works and just what exactly she's going to do.

Welcome exhibit A - note not really my house, an image I borrowed from Google

So we got a pack of toilet paper the other day (along with about 8 other bags of groceries it seems) and while I was putting things away I notice Riley pulls it off the counter and on to the floor. Which I was really pretty proud of since she's just over three feet tall and managed not to bash herself in the head in the process.

She goes on playing. After awhile I see her tear into the package and take out one roll. Hmm.....this is where I start watching because I know she's up to something, just not sure what.

Enter Exhibit B - and yep that's my toe that I didn't take the time to edit out of the bottom - sorry, at least its almost freshly painted :)

So at this point I'm intrigued and I ask "Whatcha doing" which is a line she loves from some show on the Disney Channel or Nick (I think it's called Phineas and Pherb if I remember right) adn she says she's "Measuring things" which she really loves to do - mini measuring tapes are a favorite toy of hers!!!

And I watch a little closer and sure enough she is measuring things, I'm just not sure what these things are because I think she's imagining them. You can see where she has the one side all straight and the mess on the side is where she's already used it to measure stuff.

Priceless fun (well really cheap fun) that kept Riley entertained for like 30 minutes - oh I love the sneak peaks we get into how are kids brains work!

PB Bird Feeders

Riley loves to make stuff - anything really. I remember a book we had when I was little that was called something like "Recyled Treasures" or "Treasures from Trash" or something like one of those and it gave you ideas for egg cartons and old milk jugs and all these "great" things you could make. Now they weren't really treasures to any adult, but I do remember them being really fun to make............and that's what Riley thinks about pinecones, pb, and birdseed.

I was SOOO excited to catch some great pics of the process so here goes..............sidenote...........as a mom you don't think about things like what is in this birdseed and will it hurt my 2 1/2 year old if she eats it..........because if you did you would never make any crafts.

First - smear some PB on the pinecones, but be careful because they are "kinda pokey"

Next, you take a spoonful of PB for yourself, because pb is pretty good stuff!

Your mouth will be pretty full for a minute, because PB is kinda sticky stuff, especially if you didn't bring a drink outside.

Then you sprinkle on some birdseed, because that is really what the birds are after - not the pinecones or the PB.

Then you say "CHEESE" for your mama who tries really hard not to look at the birdseed mixed in with the peanut butter that is stuck on your face..........cause well I'm not sure what in birdseed, but when doing crafts you don't look at things like this as a mom.

Then you pose for a pic with your grandma - Grandma 'Lene (Arlene) was nice enough to let us invade her home without calling first and stopped working on her walkway just to help us out with these lovely birdfeeders...........and we made like 15 so we had lots of them to go around!!!

Daddy's Coming Home Today!

Joey had to go to training this week and left Wednesday morning (which I know was only two days ago), but Riley and I are excited because he's coming home TODAY!!! Like driving back right now and will be home in only 1 hour (or so). We have had a couple of pretty busy days so thankfully we haven't been sitting at home crying for hours on end, but it will definitely be nice to have him back and we've missed him!!!

Riley was pretty cute as he packed on Tuesday night, I'm not sure if she was trying to sneak away with him or if she was just hiding really good - either way it made for some cute pics!

Can you tell Daddy had some sun? Silly boy forget to where sunscreen.

While daddy was gone though, Riley did get to hold her first baby completely unassisted (well in human form, the pillow was of course very strategically placed). Baby Elijah sure is a sweetie and Riley was cute with him. Every time he fussed or made a noise, even if she was in another room you heard "It's ok baby Lijah (not sure where the E goes), I'm coming" and in she would come ready to help with his binkie or rubbing his foot. What a good mama she'll be someday!

Elijah's daddy did help get him settled, but I LOVED her expression here - she was so excited!