Santa was here!

 

It's hard to believe Christmas has come and gone already. I love Christmas season. The red Starbucks cups, the 24 hour Christmas music stations, shopping, you name it. Although, we had a rough month with Honey passing away, it was still a nice holiday. 

I was so excited for Riley to open all of her toys this year! She had a lot of fun ripping open the presents. She loved riding on the turtle racer my sister, Mom, & Mike got her. She rode around on it with her presents. She also got some play food, Fisher Price farm, Aqua Doodle mat, a latch board, and a few others. Her big present this year came from my dad & Kathy. They got her the cutest wooden play kitchen. I found it online a while ago, but it far surpassed my expectations when they brought it over. I think all the adults were excited to open the kitchen. She will be cooking up some good meals for years to come!

O Christmas Tree

Here is a picture of our Christmas tree this year. I loved how the lights look like stars in the picture! Merry Christmas :)

We miss you Honey :**(

I am writing this with a very heavy & sad heart. We had to put our beloved dog, Honey, down last night. She started getting sick in the house overnight a few days before Thanksgiving. It progressed to vomiting anything she took in, although she still was eating. I brought her in to the vet last Tuesday when I noticed her abdomen started swelling pretty significantly. The drew some fluid out of it & spun it down to take a look. She found what looked to be rapidly dividing cancer cells. With Honey being 11 1/2 we decided to keep her comfortable for the remainder of her life. She stopped eating by Friday. I called the vet Monday because she was so weak, she couldn't walk. We were going to wait until our regular vet was in on Tuesday to take her in. Yesterday afternoon I noticed her gums were extremely pale which can indicate internal bleeding. I called the vet & Eddie came home right away. They were nice enough to come to the house & Honey passed while I kissed her head. It was & is absolutely devastating. She was not just a dog, but part of our family. It feels very empty around here. She is greatly missed. What a horrible way to start the Christmas season. 

We love you Honey!

Christmas is coming!

  

Sorry for the long gap in posting. There has been a lot going on lately. A good friend of ours spread the word around her neighborhood about my photography & I booked 4 sessions in one week! I was pretty busy shooting & editing the last few weeks! It was a lot of fun though. Good practice too. I finally got around to getting some Christmas pictures of Riley. What a cutie. We still have to make it out to see Santa. Hopefully that one will go well ;)
It is hard to believe Christmas is right around the corner. I still have a lot of shopping to get done! I better get cracking!! So much to do, so little time.

Happy Birthday AyYa!

 
 

Last weekend Riley, Eddie, & I made the trek up to Maryland to celebrate my sister Ali's birthday. The weather was great the entire trip! Riley had a blast chasing the "Meows" and doggies around the house. We had fun shopping & getting pedicures while the men played golf. Riley's grandma spoiled her with some new clothes from Baby Gap. We also took Riley to the zoo & Baltimore aquarium. It was a good weekend & we were glad to celebrated Ali's or "AyYa's" birthday as Riley would say. Next time, make sure you have some lemon lime soda for Eddie Ali!

2 new dresses!

 

I finally decided to try & tackle making a few dresses for Riley. I have only attempted skirts, so this was a little intimidating. Luckily, it way a lot easier than I anticipated. I will do a few things different next time, but all in all I think it was a success! The knot dress might need to be taken in a little, but that is an easy fix. I better get cracking on her Christmas dress!

Busch Gardens

 
 

Eddie, my dad, Kathy, & I took Riley to Busch Gardens yesterday. We all had a lot of fun! She loved the kids area & even got to go on a few rides by herself. Eddie & I got to go on the roller coasters & everyone except Riley got to enjoy the free beer at the hospitality house! She had fun looking at the animals & loved when she got to pet Bud, the clydesdale. He was featured in 2 of the Budweiser commercials! Luckily, I got a year pass so we can start to go more often!

Happy Halloween!

 
 

Guess who went trick-or-treating this year?!? There was a crazy bunny loose in our neighborhood! We all had a great time. Our neighbors had all of us over for pizza & halloween themed treats. My dad & Kathy came over to go trick-or-treating with us all too. Riley was hilarious. She ran up to the doors with the boys & when the people would open up the door she would run into the house. She would come running down the driveway & jump right into her wagon like "Come on Daddy! Step on it! Next house please!" It was so funny. Cutest bunny ever :)

Halloween preview

  

Keeping up with Riley's social calender is pretty tough. She got invited to the cutest Halloween party this week. Talk about a party.....3 clowns, games, food, you name it. How come we never had Halloween parties like that when we were kids? Anyways, she was the cutest little bunny rabbit I have ever seen!

Recent pictures

  

It has been a few weeks since I updated the blog. We have all been pretty busy. Now that the weather is nicer we are always outside or meeting friends at the park. Riley keeps me busier than ever...chasing her around, picking up the aftermath of what we call a "Ri-nado", and trying to keep her from swinging from the fan!

Productive weekend!

 

I guess this weekend has been fairly productive! This morning I made brownies, tomato caprice salad, got the pork in the crockpot, and did the dishes all by 9:30am! Then I managed to shave both dogs while Riley "helped". Next on the list was swimming & vacuuming....check! Lunch..check! Get Riley down for a nap & mop...check! List our mower on Craigslist..check! Clean the rest of the house...ugh. Eddie got the grass cut & is camped out watching football. Our neighbors are coming over to swim & to eat some of that yummy roast I have cooking. All in all it was a good weekend....could be cooler, but oh well. 

**The pics above were taken this weekend. The first one was Riley right after she woke up. She had some killer spike hair going on, so I had to get a pic!!

Say cheese!

 
 

Here are a few more pictures I took of Riley recently. Don't you just want to squeeze her? She is a cutie that's for sure. She is getting bigger by the second too. She was about 33" tall at her 18 month appointment a few weeks ago. She still only weighs about 20lb though! Long & lean. I just had to buy her a whole new set of jammies. It was like she woke up one morning & her pants were up to her knees...like she grew overnight! She loves chasing the dogs around & running her doll stroller into them. She squeals & thinks it is hilarious when Stormy tries to jump out of the way. One of her favorite things to say is "Hey baby!" It is loud & crazy here, but we are loving it.

Things are going good for the rest of us as well. Work is going well for Eddie. I stay busy with Riley of course & in any spare time I have I love working on my photography & finding yummy recipes to cook every week. Luckily, we have started to get a break in the weather too. It has been really nice this past week. You could actually go to the park & not sweat! Bring on fall!

So cute I could cry!

 

I took these pics the other day while I was just messing around with my camera. These 2 in particular turned out extra good, so I thought I would share. They make me want to pick her up & squeeze her every time I look at them!

Riley & her BFF Marley

 
 

My best friend, Nicki, finally moved back to FL last week! I am so excited to have her back here. Her daughter, Marley, is 5 weeks younger than Riley & they are already going to be best friends whether they like it or not! They came over last week & we had the greatest time watching them play together. Riley loved showing Marley how to ride her bouncy zebra. She seemed to enjoy pushing Marley into the wall while she was on the school bus...Marley, however, didn't seem to enjoy it. We can't wait to see them again!

First time finger painting

 
 

Riley gave finger painting a shot for the first time the other day. She loved swirling the paint around. A good amount of paint actually made it on to the paper which was surprising! Along with the paper, she also enjoyed painting her leg, the rocks, and the neighbor's dog ;) The next van Gogh??

You know I'm cool!

  

Eddie's Aunt Cathy gave Riley a pair of sunglasses while we were visiting in CA. She will only wear them for short periods of time, but she looks so cute when she does! She likes to put them on, lift them up a bit & say "Hi!" & does that over & over. I also added a pic of Honey & Riley hanging out by the pool.