Yes, its a rat!

Do you see that???? Yes that is a RAT!!!!! Last night we were at Nate's work christmas party and we played white elephant!! Well guess what we opened up when it was our turn??? Yes thats right, a RAT!!! in a cage!!!!! I was pretty much freaking out, but Nate was so excited and praying no one would steal it! and they didnt! so we went home with it! When Riley woke up I showed her the rat, I thought she was gonna freak out!!! Did she?? NO!!! She is IN LOVE with it!!!! She has been playing with it all morning!! She sticks her fingers in the cage & it will nibble on her fingers and she just giggles!!! And she pushes the cage around the living room like a baby in a stroller!! She has the time of her life with that rat!!! I hope she wont be too heart broken when we get rid of it :(

One down..... many more to come!

Riley had her first birthday party this past Saturday! It was a lot of fun! And so much fun to see Riley having fun! Here are some pics! Enjoy!!!



First I do have to post what her birthday attire was! B/C I worked hard on it (not really) but she was so stinkin cute!!!






The Guests....










The Cake eating.... (and the many kisses I got!!!)








And the presents....







The end!

Why why why????

Why does my baby have to be a girl now? Why did the time have to go by SOOO Fast! Why didn't I take more time to slow down and eat up all the precious moments of my baby just being a baby??

I miss my baby!!!

Im not ready for her to be a little girl.....

I feel like it was just yesterday that I first saw her looking up at me for the first time......






Now, she is turning ONE years old on wednesday!! and I am so not ready for it!!!!

Its FINALLY Finished!!!

So I have been working on my bed for a couple weeks now! And I am so relieved to say it is finally finished!! Of course I couldn't have done it with out my mom who has taught me everything I know about sewing and helped me with this project! And of course my little sewing adventure with Beth! Ha we tried having a sewing (craft) day like back in the old days! But quickly realized that when you each have a baby, things don't go as planned! I think we got the material for one pillow cut out in about three hours!!!! Yes! I could have had this done in about two or three days before I had Riley but it has taken me about two weeks with her!!! Not that I mind, I just have tot take lots of breaks from sewing when she is crying at my feet, or pulling the material away from the sewing machine that I am trying to push into the sewing machine to sew, or spreading the pillow stuffing all through my apartment, or trying to grap scissors and needles from me, etc. (You get the point) But I am so so excited it is finished! I keep going in my bedroom to look at it! I really do appreciate and like things more when I know that I put my sweat and hard work into it! And I think it turned out great! What do you think??? (I did not, however, make the small pillow in the middle, that I bought from Target b/c it went perfectly with everything!!!!)







Now all I need to do is decorate!! Me and Nate are going to make a headboard for the bed, but need to save up a little extra for that, and then do some decorating!!!!

Family Photo's

The real meaning

I went to visit one of my best friends Beth today who just had a baby. He is absolutely adorable. I brought back all these feelings of right after I had Riley. All those pure love and innocent feelings you have when you have a baby.
After I had Riley I had never felt so close to the spirit before, or felt the spirit so strong in my life. She brings so much pure joy into my heart every second of every day. As I was driving home, she kept blabbing on and on, so I looked over at her and she just kept giving me these huge smiles. So I started singing to her a little bit cause I could tell she was tired, and her eyes kept getting heavier and heavier until she fell asleep. So since I was driving a single cab truck and she was sitting right next to me I was rubbing her soft cheeks as she layed there asleep and content. I had this just overwhelming feeling of so much love, and the pure love of Christ. So once i got home i pulled her out of the car seat and carried into her bed.

Ive been sitting here on the computer since she has been asleep and I stumbled across THIS post that just broke my heart, but made me feel that same feeling again.

After I cried for a while I just sat here thinking. And thinking about this mom who had lost her husband in a tragic accident. And how strong and happy she still looked. It made me feel so grateful to know that if anything happened to my family, I know that I am going to be with them again. And that they are in a happy place. That Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ know all things, and that I am never going to be handed something in life that I cannot bear. Because with their help and my faith I can endure anything. I am so grateful for the wonderful man that I am married to. He is such a strong person, who works hard and who is so loving to me and our daughter. I am so lucky to have my beautiful Riley, and for the way she can look at me and just melt my heart, and how just one happy face, or one beatiful sleeping girl can put my life back into perspective. I feel like I get so distracted by life and stress and money and cleaning and cooking, that sometimes I forget the real meaning of life. We are all here for a certain reason, to get a body, to live Christ like, and to share the gospel (and then all the things that fall in between) So that we can return to Christ one day! And I cannot wait for that day! To be with all of my family for the rest of eternity!

I have to come clean

I have to come clean that I honestly do not like bloggging. Its so hard to find the time to sit down and write about whats going on in our lives, cause its pretty much the same old story everytime! So sorry family! I will honestly try harder to blog for those who are in different states so that they can see whats going on and how Riley is growing!

And once again, I have not taken a single picture in the last couple months so I have no evidence to prove of Riley's growth! But I will try and take some pictures! Maybe even today! But then again that probably means that by the time i post them it will be a couple months too late!

But lets see, Riley is starting to walk! She will now pretty much walk across the entire room without falling, I say give it another four days and she will be full on walking! Everyday its like she walks a million times better, I mean just like three days ago she could only take about three steps then stumble a litle, now she can take about 20 steps and then stumble! But most times she doesn't even stumble! Its kinda freaking me out. I mean I thought when she started crawling I was like Oh GREAT she is going to get into EVERYTHING! And she did! But now that she is walking Im realizing, there is more than everything! Haha i know that doesnt make sense, but seriously, there is not a thing in our house that she does not try to pull out of cupboards, off of tables, out of her diaper bag, you cant leave anything down or close to the edge of surfaces! And our apartment is CONSTANTLY messy! And im the type of person that cannot stand messes! Like i will deep clean our house a couple times a week! but now, im lucky if i just get the house straightened when Riley goes down for a nap! And then when she wakes up, after about five min it looks exactly how it looked when i started cleaning it! Messy!!! (and nate doesnt help either, but shhhhh don't tell him that!!!)

Nate starts school next week! He is so ready and excited to move on and get things going! He has been gaining residency here this whole year we have been here and he finally is a resident! Yay!!!! He also got a new job that he is enjoying so far and I am enjoying, because he comes home for lunch and gets off at a decent time, where we can all spend time together!

Well my sister just got into town, so I am very very excited to hang out with her and brock and their kids! I just wish Brock was done with school so they could come back to Arizona already! I miss them!

I promise I will try to take some pictures this week and post them! You might even see that riley is actually starting to grow hair!!! yay! i mean its probably only and inch long and very very very very thin, but at least its something:)

Stinky Face

So Riley does this new "stinky face"... and she does it all the time! Its so funny! Here is a video of her doing it when i was feeding her. (It looks like im shoving the food in her mouth but im not, she likes to close her mouth before the spoon goes in so i have to hurry and get it in there!)

There's a first time for everything...

1st time for ACTUALLY bringing the camera... MiRAcLe!
1st time for Riley's first train ride...
1st time for her first carousel ride... she didnt know quite what to do... I think it was overstimulation for her with the lights, the spinning, and the horse moving up and down hahah













All tuckered out from all the fun... snuggled up on grandpa's tummy! She sure loved that! She wasn't to thrilled when we pulled her from grandpa's arms...

Oh my goodness......

Im sorry... I know everyone has probably heard this from every new mom! But I have THE Cutest stinkin baby in the WHOLE UniVeRSe!!!!! I can't get enough of her! I got bored the today so I took some pictures so that the family could see how cute she is growing up to be!











Riley is growing so fast! she can sit up on her own but only for like 30 seconds max! She likes to "talk" all the time! And when I say talk I really mean scream! she is trying really hard to crawl... so not too much longer we are going to have to baby proof our house from a little girl on the move!

I know I say it all the time! But I love being a mom! I honestly don't think that there is any greater joy than that that comes from being a mom! I was cleaning my moms house yesterday and I was washing down the bathroom counter when I started thinking I should go check on Riley who was sleeping at the time! And then I thought, wait... do I really have a baby??? that is mine all mine!!??? I like had this flash back of being in Junior high and high school and all the saturdays I would spend cleaning my (parents) house and I would just think about being married and being a mom and having my own baby, and how I couldn't wait for it all to happen. All I have EVER wanted and dreamed of is marrying the perfect guy and especially being a mom!! I would always day dream about what it would be like! And how much fun I was going to have!! And then as I thought about checking on Riley I just got this huge smile from inside that I had a better life than I used to day dream about. I love my husband more than I could have dreamed about and I love being a mom to the most adorable little girl... I couldn't even make up in my mind when I was a teenager a baby that is as cute and wonderful as Riley!

Its a funny thing they say about Love.... And they all say, I'm sure you have all heard it... They say when your engaged.... "You are going to love your spouse more than life itself, more than anything!" and you always are like Ya i know!! And you think you know the kind of love they are talking about.... and then you get married, and you go through situations and disagreements and fun memories and EVERYTHING that goes along with marriage... and I think... MAN!! I really had no clue what people were talking about when they said that because I love Nate more than I could ever expain to him or myself! Its like the most perfect love you can imagine!! And then........ you find out your pregnant! AND EVERYONE tells you... "You think you know what love is now, but wait till you see that baby for the first time, your heart is going to grow a million times bigger, and you are going to love that baby SOOOOO much" And yet again, I would say " I totally know what you mean and I can't wait!!!" And then the day comes, after 9 months of discomfort, and you see that baby! and automatically your heart aches of love, becuase its almost so much love that its emotional, and spiritual, and pure. Its the greatest Love of all. Its so pure and so real. Ha im making myself cry here just thinking about all the love I have in my heart!! I love my little family with my whole being. And I can't wait till it gets bigger and bigger, so my love can just get that much bigger!!!