Meeting Santa Claus

Riley was actually excited to visit Santa this year. And it is the first time ever that he didn't cry. Of course he was still kinda scared of him, but he was old enough understand who Santa was, and he wanted to make sure to tell him what he wanted for Christmas (a Lady train- which is of course, discontinued, so it's expensive, but I was able to find one on ebay for $19.99, yay!!!)

So he walked up to him, but he wouldn't let go of my hand. Somehow I managed to get him to sit next to Santa, and when he gave him a sucker, he finally let go. Mitch told me to get out of the way, and they managed to snap a picture, before Riley jumped down and dragged me back over. Then while I was holding his hand again, and helping interpret, he told Santa that he wanted a train, that he wanted Lady. This was the first time he had ever talked to Santa, and it was very cute to watch. :)

After our visit, we went to the play area, and rode all the coin operated toys (a quad, airplane, hot dog van, train, there were a bunch). He liked that! Then we stopped at the gum ball machines, and I let Riley put a quarter in, and get some candy out. I loved gum ball machines as a kid, so it was kinda cool to see Riley experience it for the first time. :):)

♥ Kim

Diamonds Beanie & Button Loafers

Riley is gone again. It's Grandma's last vacation of the year, and he has been with her since Monday. He comes back home in the morning. I totally had all these house projects lined up, that I was gonna get done, and share with you guys. Haha, that didn't happen.

I did get one of those projects done, but then Mitch was off, and we went out for some grown up fun one night, then we went boating at the lake with some friends the next day. I got pulled on a giant tube, OMG, scary, and ouch!! I think Mitch gave me whiplash when he drove to boat, cause I was sore for days, but it was fun, and he really, reeeeeaaallly wanted me to do it, so I gave it a try just for him.

The next few days me and Mitch hung out at home, we watched The Hunger Games, and went to bed super early, we were both worn out from the lake and lack of sleep. The next day I worked on Riley's nesting bowls, so they would be finished when he got back. I still need to make the red one, I went to do it, and realized my red yarn is attached to a hat I need to finish. I also got out my party stuff, and played around with different arrangements for the dessert table I'm planning for my friend Olga's baby shower next month.

Yesterday I planned meals for the next 2 weeks and went grocery shopping extremely late. When you go that late around here, you have to ring up and bag all of your own stuff. I worked at Safeway for 7 years, so you wouldn't think that would be a problem, but it is so not the same, you have to go so slow, and you have to listen to things like "place the item back in the bagging area" and "the attendant has been notified to assist you" over and over again. Oh, well, I got it done, and everything was bagged the way I like too, so that's a plus!!

So now we are to today!! And my plans to revamp the remaining items on my bookshelf did not go as planned. Maybe I will get it done, and share it next week instead.

And since it has been a week since I posted, where does the time go, you are going to have to settle for me sharing another crochet project I did manage to finish last week before Riley left.

It was a gift for my friend Olga. She is expecting her first baby this November. A little boy. I made the cutest hat and smallest little pair of booties for him to wear.

The colors are so soft, so much different than what I used when Riley was a baby. They are also the colors I am planning to use at the baby shower!!

This was my first time making the hat. I love it!! The texture is awesome, and it was so easy to make. You can buy the pattern here. I have several patterns from Crochet My Love Designs, and although I've only made a few of them, they are fabulous and so cute!!

The shoes are tiny little things. They are the smallest shoes I have ever made. The pattern is from here. Love it!!! Plan to make bunches more of these little loafers, you can also make them with one button, I wanna try them that way too. :)

They are actually made using the same pattern as the pair I bought for Riley when he was a newborn. Here is a picture of him wearing his.

He is 10 days old in this picture!! The shoes were a little big on him here, cause I ordered the 3-6 month size. The ones I made for Olga are Newborn size, so they are even smaller.

I can't even remember Riley being that tiny. I still have the shoes to remind me though. I got them out while I was making these ones to show Riley "his pair". He was so cute when he tried to put them on his feet, thinking that since they were his shoes, they should fit him.

Well, it's time to go get dinner started, Mitch leaves for work in a few hours, and I don't want to be rushing. Plus I want to finish up that red hat, so I can finish up Riley's bowls before he gets home tomorrow. Hope you all are having a great weekend!!!

♥ Kim

Laundry Basket Train

I made Riley a cardboard train for his 2nd birthday party! That thing took so long to make and then forever to paint, but it was so worth it, because the kids loved it, plus it made for some really cute pictures.

My grandma gave it to a local preschool after the party, so it didn't come back home with us.

Today me and Riley were looking at pictures from his party, and when he seen this one, he got so excited, he wanted to play in the train. He asked me to "make it again mommy". Haha, umm, no.

He was pretty persistent, so I thought I'd make a plain pretend train out of things I had around the house. Two laundry baskets, an empty box and his bilibo. I didn't know if he'd go for it, but he loved it!

I added some stuffed animals as friends in the other train cars. He played in it all afternoon, and he is actually relaxing, watching some cartoons in it right now. Look how happy he is. :)

♥ Kim

He's Home :)

When Riley got home Saturday morning, he ran upstairs and woke me up, giving me hugs and kisses. That is the best way ever to be woken up. He sat on top on me, and smiled at me, and then hugged me, and then smiled at me and then hugged me over and over again. And every now and then he'd throw in a kiss, and once he kissed me bunches, all over my face.

We had lotsa fun that day after Mitch went to bed. He begged me to play with dot markers. He calls them dot dots. He loves loves loves them!! So I decided to print out a bunch of shapes for him, that I found after doing a quick Pinterest search, and he got to use all 6 colors, for the 6 shapes we did.

After that he still wanted to color with them, so I gave him a coloring book, and let him dot away! 

We also got our art caddy out and used crayons, colored pencils and markers to make some new art for his art wall. I have a lot of filler tot school activities up there, but we are slowly replacing it with "Riley's Art" and then we can go back to using our giant magnet board to display the tot school stuff.

Here you can see his art wall in the playroom. He loves having somewhere to hang his masterpieces after he finishes them. I have a project planned to cover up the nails holding up the yarn. Give the art display more of a finished look!! I'll share it whenever I get around to doing it. :)

To end the day, we went outside and played for a while. Trying to get Riley to hold still for pictures is nearly impossible. I did finally get him to give me his big fake cheesy smile. Cracks me up every time!! He is such a goofball.

He has such a great imagination. He is always coming up with new games. In the picture below, he is throwing rocks up in the air, then watching them fall back down. He entertained himself for quite a while doing this. It is such a simple thing, but it is so amazing to watch him explore the world around him, all on his own. :)

We also had some fun getting Chumba all riled up!! Riley loves his doggy bunches. Sometimes I think he misses Chumba more than he misses mommy and daddy, haha. The two of them fight like brothers, and even though Chumba is a dog, they "tell" on each other too. Cracks me up, and drives me nuts!!!

Mitch has had the last couple of days off, so we have been having fun with him. Yesterday we went to the lake, and went out on a friends boat all day. It was Riley's first time on a boat, and he was scared, I had to hold him the whole time. But we still managed to have fun, and he loosened up a bit by the end of the day.

We also played baseball in our front yard, Riley does pretty good at hitting the ball, although I felt bad for him, when I was pitching, I got him in the face a few times, ha!! Luckily they are wiffle balls, so it doesn't hurt. We ended the day with some music and frisbee golf on the PS3, where I totally beat Mitch, and Riley laughed at us while we danced around and sang along with Garth Brooks at the top of  our lungs. We were pretty hilarious!!

♥ Kim

Missing Riley

I miss Riley. He's been in California for the past week with his grandparents (Mitch's parents). I've gotten lots done while he's been gone, computer wise anyways. I cleaned out my inbox, it was super super SUPER full. And now it's nice and empty. It's amazing how much calmer I feel now that I did that.

I also gave my blog a makeover! New header, new background, new labels on my sidebar, new domain (no more blogspot.com) new favicon, and even a new about me picture!! I still want to add a menu bar up top, but that will have to wait for now.

The house is picked up, and I went grocery shopping. Meals are planned for the next 2 weeks. I'm not a huge fan of cooking, so having everything bought and planned out really makes the whole dinnertime process go much more smoothly. I don't have to stress about trying to find a recipe that I have all the ingredients for everyday. So nice.

Riley comes home tomorrow morning!! I can't wait to see my little guy, and give him a great big hug. Did I mention I've missed him?

And since I can't post without sharing a picture, here is one of my favorites of Riley.

Jumping on his mini trampoline in his playroom. He's such a happy little boy. :)

♥ Kim

Best Friends

I caught Riley and Chumba snuggling outside today.

Moments like these just make me smile.

♥ Kim

Snacktime

Today for snack time, I thought I'd make a yummy colorful treat for my little guy. I pinned these BaNilla Sandwich Cookies (originally from here) and decided I'd whip them up!

They were super easy and fast!

I only had regular size vanilla wafers (versus the mini ones she used) but they still turned out pretty dang cute.

The moisture from the banana made the top and bottom slide around a bit, so after the first few I decided to absorb some of the moisture on the top and bottom of the banana slices with a paper towel. It really helped! Just make sure to leave the moisture on the sides of the banana slices for the sprinkles to stick to.

They are so cheerful and colorful, and yummy! I had a couple myself. And Riley really liked them, which makes them a keeper in my book!!

Silly boy!

Before I go, I just wanted to say, I know I haven't finished the baby shower pictures. My laptop died on me. We bought a new 27" IMac, and I am in love with it. I am working on getting my pictures and music and files and stuff transferred over. But I haven't forgotten. Life has just decided to make things more complicated. Hope everyone has a happy Easter tomorrow. :)

♥ Kim

Take Me Out To The Ballgame

A couple weeks ago, we took Riley to his VERY FIRST baseball game.

The Reno Aces were playing the Fresno Grizzlies.

We won!

We sat in the Coors Light Party Zone. It was awesome because there were lots of picnic tables, which made it easy to bring the stroller down with us. A couple other people agreed they were great seats, especially with kids, because you can spread out, walk around, and it kinda helps prevent restlessness.

Big plus, now that we have the kiddo.

A lot of people from Mitch’s work were there too. I knew a few of them, and met a few others for the first time.

Mitch drank a couple beers. Texted his buddies a bunch. And had fun socializing.

I kept saying I wanted a hot dog, but, for some reason, I never got one.

??????????

Riley was tired. The little booger didn’t take a nap that morning (of course). At least he wasn’t cranky. But he didn’t have as much fun as I had hoped, because he was kinda spaced out.

He had this look on his face a lot of the day.

And although he was pretty oblivious to the game, I think he enjoyed the change in scenery.

I made me and Riley some neck coolers, thanks to this fabulous tutorial over at Little Birdie Secrets.

Don’t we look nice and COOL?

They worked pretty good, it rained that whole week, so it was a little humid. So they didn’t work quite as well as if there had been less humidity. But they still kept us much cooler than if we hadn’t had them.

One of the security guards in our section was wearing one. She thought it was cool that me and Riley had them too.

Riley got to drink from a drinking fountain. 

 

 He did great, and LOVED it.

His work gave us a $20 gift card for every ticket we bought. So we had $40 to spend in the gift shop.

We bought Riley a baseball cap and this little guy.

Riley smiled the biggest, happiest smile when Mitch gave it to him.

Archie’s (the mascots name) giant smile must me contagious.

We had fun!

In September we plan on taking a trip to San Francisco to take Riley to his first football game. To see the 49ers play.

He’s been a HUGE fan since the day he was born, remember?

Hahaha.

It will be my first game too.

I can’t wait.

It was a good day. ♥

Good Morning Kisses

Riley learned how to give kisses.

His version involves him opening his mouth real wide, then pressing it against whatever he is kissing.

It is adorable.

It melts my heart every time I am the lucky recipient of his sweet kisses. Which isn't too often, because he is very stingy with them.

This morning (and a couple other mornings over the past week or two) Riley has given me kisses when he wakes up from his morning nap.

It has been on days that Mitch lets me sleep in. So I don't get to see Riley before he goes down for his nap.

When I walk into the room, he smiles real big. I pick him up, and he wraps his little arms around me and snuggles against my chest. Then he pulls away, looks at me, opens his mouth, and plants a big kiss right on my lips.

Moments like these make sleepless nights like last night so worth it. ♥

All Packed Mom

Riley had fun playing in the suitcase while I got his clothes out for our trip.

Tomorrow morning we are leaving for California, to spend the week with my sister Danetta & her two little boys.

I'm all ready to go, almost everything is packed, and what isn't, will be, after momkermoo goes to bed. This is so unlike me. No rushing at the last minute. 

It feels good.

Two Months Old {12-Month Onesie Series}

I just finished page two! (Whoo hoo, making lots of progress here, hehee.) So I thought I'd post it real quick, before I go fold and put away the piles of laundry.

Riley has been pretty clingy lately, he got his first tooth last week. And he has starting crying almost everytime me or Mitch leaves the room lately. He loves us so much! And we love him too! ♥

Anyways, laundry is calling...

One Month Old {12-Month Onesie Series}

One of the blogs I read does a picture every month of her baby boys in a 12 month sized onesie. I love the idea, and am so glad I came across it in time to do it with Riley.

You can see all the pictures over there ----->

on the sidebar. We are up to month 6 right now.

I am slowly making his scrapbook (OK I just started) and decided to do a mixture of digital and paper pages, because I love both, but sometimes digital pages are just easier to squeeze in while taking care of my little man.

So here is his very first page.

Feels good to have started.

Looking Back.... The First Three Months

I have been a busy new mommy. And unfortunately my poor little blog has been neglected. I wanted to blog, but every time I started a post, I felt so overwhelmed. There was no time to share everything, but how on earth was I supposed to pick what to share, when I think every single thing my little man does is amazing.

So month after month passed. And now it feels like a lifetime has gone by. I'm not gonna share every detail, instead, I am gonna do a quick 3 month recap of the past three months. Then I can start blogging "without pressure" again!

So lets see....

His first month was a blur, full of love, amazement, sleeping for very small periods of time, being awake at all hours of the night, lots of crying (by both me and Ry), struggles with breastfeeding, close monitoring of weight gain, his first bath (which he hated, he screamed bloody murder the entire time, me and Mitch laughed our heads off, yeah we are mean) and lots and lots and LOTS of pictures!!!

I already miss him being so tiny. That first month is something that was so indescribable. Mitch went back to work only days after Ry was born, so it was just me. In Nevada, far far away from any friends and family. At times I remember thinking that taking care of a newborn was harder than labor (and we all remember my last post, and know how that went.)

But even though it had to be the hardest, most unbelievably exhausting month of my life. It was also the most amazing!! Looking back, I treasure every single moment.







Next we have month two!! We took our first trip to California the week before Thanksgiving. That was hard!! I was anxious to get back home to our normal routine. But it was great to see everyone. Ry got to meet lots of family and friends! Shortly after we got back home, Riley smiled for the first time!! I even caught it on camera! See?!


Then me and Ry both got sick with the cold. It was awful! I hated seeing my baby so sick. I knew he was miserable, because I was too!!

He also got to meet Santa! And watch me decorate (very little) for Christmas. He loved staring at the lights on the Christmas tree!

We spent most of the month on vacation or sick. Me and Mitch were starting to adjust to the new normal. There were less tears (from me) and lots of smiles! It was awesome watching Riley slowly become aware of the world around him.






And finally month three. I turned twenty seven. I had to throw that in there! It was quite uneventful. I got some flowers from Mitch, and spent the day with Ry.


We went back to California for Christmas. Riley laughed for the first time while we were there. It was adorable!! He got lots of presents.

He got to meet more family and friends that we didn't get to see during our November trip.

Once we got back home, he opened his presents from me and Mitch... OK, Mich opened them while holding Riley. Halfway through the month, he started really enjoying his toys. Kicking the little kicker piano to make it play music, and reaching for toys on his activity play center.

By mid January I stopped breatfeeding. I tried so hard, and wasn't producing enough milk, and Riley refused to latch on anymore. I pumped for a few weeks after that, but it was too much work for hardly any milk. So me and Mitch decided it was best if I stopped altogether. I still miss it, (or miss what it should have been) but we are way less stressed out now. So it was the right choice, as heartbreaking as it was for me at first.

Around that same time Ry slept through the night for the first time!!! And by three months old he was sleeping through the night every night. Lets hope he keeps it up!

This month also included Riley learning to turn on one of his toys! He got sick with a cold again, that lasted forever (he still has a mild cough, poor baby). We struggled with leaky cloth diapers for my skinny little guy, but after trying 4 different kinds, love the Flip diapers!! They are awesome, and I am no longer stressing out over every single diaper change.

In January I seen the biggest changes so far in my little boy! He became so aware of everything. He also developed his own little routine, and he laughs all the time! Plus, I became a morning person (CRAZY!!!) Here's some pictures of month three.







Anyways now I'm as caught up as I'm gonna get. We're working on month four, and I'll really try to make an effort to share more, so I don't get behind again. Plus I finally have time to do projects again! So of course I can't wait to share those as well.

Yay, I'm happy to be back... I've missed this!