Getting ready for Christmas

I can't believe Christmas is already here. We went to Lubbock last weekend for my cousin Tori's nursing school graduation and for Christmas with the Bartons' in Earth. Riley enjoyed going to Papa's house. She was the center of attention. Her hair is finally long enough for pigtails. She has gotten good at "reading" books. She points out things she knows- like a car, shoes, night-night, and EVERYTHING else is "what's that?" (Which sounds like wuz-at)I don't even know if I can list off all the words she can say and I know she understands even more.

Cousin Leslie made Riley a new pretty skirt that she loves to wear- thanks!

We asked Riley who is going to come see her on Christmas and she replies, "Ho, ho". Everytime she sees a picture of Santa she says ho ho. Pretty cute. We left cookies out tonight so Hoho can come tomorrow!

Leave us a comment so we know you were here. I feel like no one reads this.

Santa

Riley went to see Santa today. From the pictures, you can tell she did not like him. I was afraid of that. We went with our friends Jenelle and her little girl Kamryn.

Gobble, Gobble, Gobble!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Counting to 6

Riley surprises us everyday. Yesterday we were counting the this is what she did. Where does she learn this stuff? You will probably have to turn the music off to hear her.

Tech beats Texas!!!!!!!

Saturday was a very long day. It started before 7:00am when we went to the ESPN college gameday set on the Tech campus. The line to get in right behind the stage wrapped all the way down Broadway back to University. We met up with our friends Carl and Jenelle and his sister Kimbie. We found a place on the right side of the stage. The sunrise was really pretty that morning. There were sooo many signs! And they were all really creative. The show started at 9am. Bobby Knight appeared on the show and of course picked Tech in his own unique fashion- I think his exact words were "I hope we kick their ass". Then Corso picked Tech and put on the Red Raider head. The crowd went wild. I have no way of telling how many people were there, but it was too bad most of the students were lined up to get into the game back at the stadium. We TIVO'd Gameday and watched it last night- we saw our signs several times and saw ourselves twice. The students started camping out for the game I think last Monday. They named their "city" Raiderville and had a mayor, city council and a population sign that was changed as more students came. By the time we left Gameday, the students were wrapped around the stadium. I think only 12,000 were let into the game. So we left gameday, went home, showered, changed clothes, ate lunch and then went back up to the tailgate. Dad had gone Friday afternoon to put up the tents. We had a lot of fun seeing friends that we had not seen in a long time. There were sooo many people there. Someone said there were more people outside the stadium tailgating and watching the game on tv than there were inside for the game. The game of course was fantastic! The energy was something I had never seen before. And that's saying something since I have been going with my parents ever since I was very little. And bless their hearts- they have been going since before I was born. We have sat through many losing seasons, games we should have won and didn't and of course snow and rain. I think they deserved this win more than anyone. Unfortuantly we still have 2 very difficult games coming up. But even if they don't turn out the way we want, this win was worth everything. The slide show has pictures from all day long, sorry it's kinda long.

Halloween

Riley was a monkey for Halloween this year. I thought that was fitting...haha! She loved the monkey feet shoes that came with her costume. She would wear them around the house with just her regular clothes. The only part she wasn't thrilled about was her hat. We went to a pumpkin patch a week or so ago. Riley tried to go around and pick up all the pumkpins, and the bigger the better. We had a lot of fun. Then on the actual night of Halloween, we were in Lubbock before the Texas game (more to come on that). So we took Riley with Grandpa and GiGi to a carnival at the civic center put on by First Baptist Church in Lubbock. It was crazy! There were way more people there than I ever expected. So we really only stayed for a few minutes. But Riley did get her picture taken with Raider Red. We also had our annual Halloween party. Rhett and I dressed up like Sarah and Todd Palin. Our friends Lindsay and Robert dressed up like Jehovah's witnesses and rode their bikes to our house- too funny! Papa's birthday is on Halloween so we all went last weekend to his house to celebrate his birthday. Riley has started trying to jump up and down. The only problem is that she puts all of her effort into it but only gets maybe an inch off the ground. Most of the time her feet don't leave the ground. She also loves to dance. She dances along to songs in the car.

Big Girl

I just can't believe how big Riley is getting. Her new thing is to open and close doors over and over. She likes to color pictures with crayons. She thinks it is funny when we ask her where her belly is and she lifts her shirt up and giggles. When she sees her picture up on the blog, she leans over and kisses herself on the computer screen. It has started to get cool in the mornings so I had to box up her summer clothes and buy some new winter clothes. I can't believe fall is here. We are so busy. I think we are going somewhere or doing something every weekend until Thanksgiving.

Haircut

I trimmed the back of Riley's hair the other day. It just needed to be evened up.

The President

Rhett and I saw the President yesterday. No joking... We went to a Republican fundraiser at our Congressman Mike Conaway's home. Also Congressman Randy Neugebauer, Senator John Cornyn and State Rep. Tom Craddick were there.

All traffic had to enter from one way to his house. People came to the car and checked to see if our names were on the list and checked our IDs. Once we parked we had to go through security and show our ID again. We got inside the tent about 10:00am and the doors closed at 10:15am. We then waited until about 1:00 for Bush to get there. He came from Crawford with Laura and Laura's mom, who still lives in Midland, came. He spoke for about 30 minutes. He mostly talked about life in the White House, funny stories, traveling and a lot about his faith and remaining strong in his walk with God. He also talked about John McCain and how he is the right man for the job. He told the story about Jenna's wedding and that he didn't take 3 steps before he started crying. He said that when he went to Laura's parents to ask if he could marry her that his in-laws probably were not thinking that boy is going to be President some day. He talked about throwing the first pitch out at Yankee Stadium for the World Series right after 9-11. He had on bullet proof clothes and Derick Jeter was giving him a hard time about throwing a strike. He also talked about how he was sent to Washington with a set of values and how he always tried to stick to them. He said that he did not make decisions based off a Gallop poll, but what he thought was best. He also told a story that he has a picture of Abe Lincoln up in the Oval office. He said when Lincoln was President he was terribly unpopular. When he gave the Gettysburg Address it only took 3 minutes and people got so mad at him because they thought that was so disrespectful to only talk for 3 minutes when the scholar before him talked for an hour.

I was so impressed by how strong and forceful he spoke, even in a pretty casual environment. He stood just how you see him on tv- with one arm resting on the podium. Once he was done he walked along the front row and shook hands with people. We were in the 5th row and when he got in front of us, he looked straight at us and said, "hi ya'll, thanks for coming." Then when he left we all had to stay in the tent for about 15 minutes until he was gone. There were Secret Service everywhere. They had snipers set up on top of the house and the barn. There were probably 400 people there and we read in the paper this morning that they raised a million dollars. This was truely an unique experience. We were not allowed to take cameras inside so these are some pictures from the paper. He visited his childhood home after the fundraiser.

new pictures

18 month checkup

Riley went for her 18 month check up this past week. After waiting for 2 1/2 hours he said everything looked great. She weighs 21 lb and 11 oz and is 31 inches. That is about the 10% for weight and 15% for length. Thankfully she didn't have to get any shots this time. One of the questions Dr. Watson asked was how many words she can say- so that got me to thinking and here is the list- mommy, daddy, Ra-Ra (Raider), puppy, out, milk, ball, wubbie, baby, car, more, bye-bye, hi, help, thank you, please, done, night-night, shoe, and poopy.
Riley is everywhere, into everything! She has started to climb up on everything. If you turn around for 2 seconds she has climbed up on the couch or kitchen chairs. And as soon as she has gotten up then she wants down. She is also very insistant on feeding herself. Overall she does a pretty good job. The biggest problem is getting the food on the spoon. Sometimes she will let me put the food on the spoon and then let her take it and put it in her mouth. She opens up all the drawers and cabinets and want to take everything out. She knows which cabinets have child proof and she knows how to open it. So much for that... She takes our clothes off the hangers in the closet. She thinks it is funny when we honk the horn on the car. She makes this face like "ooooh" and says car (which sounds like caa)

Wubbie has a baa-boo

Last week Riley fell and scraped her knee. I told her she had a boo-boo, but she is calling it her baa-boo. You can ask her where her baa-boo is and she will point to her knee.
Well, over the Labor Day weekend, she literally chewed up the end of both of her wubbanubs. So we decided instead of buying another one that she would probably chew up again, that we will wean her off of the wubbie. So now wubbie has its own baa-boo. She has done a lot better than we expected her to do without it. She is going to sleep and night and for her naps with no problems. But during the day she has had a rough couple of days without it. She has started to do a lot better yesterday and today.

Here are some recent pictures. Riley is not going to go to the Tech football games this year :( She is just too all over the place and it really wouldn't be fair to her. But she is dressed in style anyways! We bought her some croc shoes and she loves them. She can say "shoo". She tries to put them on herself and gets so frustrated when they don't go on. The funniest is when she puts them on the wrong feet.

NYC

Rhett and I went to New York City this past weekend to celebrate our 5 year anniversary. We went to as many places as we could in the short span of time we were there- Empire State Building, Central Park, WTC, Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Stock Exchange, Rockefeller Center, Times Square, Broadway, Yankee Stadium, Macy's, UN, Chelsea Piers, Madison Square Garden, Chinatown, and Harlem. We went to 2 Broadway plays- The Lion King and Phantom of the Opera. They were both amazing! We also went on a sunset harbor cruise. It's a totally different perspective from the water. We went to the Yankee's game Friday night. There was a 2 hour rain delay, but they finally got started around 9. There are only a few more games in that stadium. The new Yankee stadium is right across the street and we got to see that as well. We went to Chinatown and bought some purses. The first time we went to Chinatown we knew something was weird- none of the sellers would talk to us and it felt funny. We found out later the police had come through. We went back the next day. As soon as we got off the double decker bus, a little Chinese lady was standing there and took us around the corner. They had the walkie talkie cell phones and we got into the back of a minivan with her. All of the windows were covered and the purses were stacked up on shelves. When we were done, she called out on the walkie talkie and another lady came to open the door when it was safe. Definately an interesting experience. We could see Times Square from our hotel room. We saw the naked cowboy on Sunday. Apparently there is now a naked cowgirl- we saw her several times and I would not say she was the best looking person I've ever seen..a little rough.

Spinning

Riley has started this new thing- she twirls around over and over and over until she gets so dizzy she falls over. It's pretty funny.

Clic

We have had a small group Bible study at our house over the last year and a half. Thursday was our last night all together because we have gotten so big we need to split. We had a great time cooking out hot dogs and hamburgers. We will miss those who are going to be in the new group, but are excited to get back to the original group.

Old Friends

This past weekend we went to Arlington and stayed with our friends Jason and Carrie Irons. Nathan and Lindsay Adair met us there with their sweet little girl, Emerson. Friday we hung out at the Irons' house. Saturday morning the guys went and played golf and the girls went to Grapevine's historic downtown. We ate lunch in a cute little restaurant and shopped in the stores. Then Saturday afternoon, we all (and I mean all) went and got pedicures. Rhett's toes are still nice and shiny. The guys were hilarious sitting up in the chairs, soaking their feet, and reading gossip magazines. Then Saturday night we went and ate at Joe T Garcias in Ft. Worth. I had never been there before- it was great. We sat out on a huge patio and had some great Mexican food. Then Sunday Jason cooked breakfast and we came home. Thanks to Nana and Grandpa Mike for watching Riley.