Where did I leave off?

Oh yea... the rest of October.  The rest of the month was pretty much madness.  With Garrison and Riley-Anne both having birthdays in the month of October and football season in full swing I guess it will always be like that!  Speaking of football season, we are in the playoffs!  YAY!  But pics from recent games will have to wait, as usual, I have helpers at my feet doing what they do best... make NOISE! 

Back on subject, since Garrison and Riley-Anne's birthdays are in the same month we decided to have their parties together. Ryan gave me a lot of grief about this, but in the end I think we would both agree the party turned out great!  Garrison actually was very excited about having his party with Riley-Anne.  From the very beginning him and Ri have had a special bond, so I hope when Riley-Anne is old enough to realize she shared her first birthday party with her brother she wont mind either!

For obvious reasons the party was Halloween themed.  Well, a "not so scary" Halloween themed party!  I will let the pics from the party do most the talking...

The party table.  All of the food had themed "names".  The menu included:  Costume cupcakes, Creepy crawly cheese and crackers,  Halloween Chili, with and without bones (beans),  Frightful French onion dip, Frankenstein fruit kabobs and Cackling corn bread.

Trying to sneak some treats!

Note to self: Never plan a birthday party during nap time :)

I wish I had a close up of the table.  The "pooky" (spooky) trees as Garrison called them were branches from our back yard that I spray painted black. We hung pics of the babies from the year on the "branches" of the trees.  I always love looking back at how much they have grown- even though it hurts a little bit!  We also had a smaller "tree" on the other side of the room for guest to write Riley-Anne a birthday wish.  They were all so sweet and I'm sure they will be very special to her.

More party pics...

Garrison has been wanting a "Beard and Mustache" party all year... so this was the best idea Pinterest I could come up with ;)

Next big party in the house will be Crystal's shower!  Maybe we should sport our 'staches?!?!

Cake time!  Well cupcake time!  

Riley-Anne was not at all impressed by her cup cake.  Pretty sure its because she has had icing before.  Thats what happens when you have a third, you give in to things that were once BIG No Nos!

The birthday girl!

Thanks to everyone who came to the "not so scary" Halloween birthday party!  We had a blast and I think the babies did too ;)

Yack attack

You think its time to change Riley-Anne's formula?

Wash clothes much?

It might be time to start up the washing machine when your children are celebrating Christmas in May ;)

My Day

• Make three breakfasts (one being a bottle)
• beg Allie-Parker to eat
• make coffee
• realize there is no hazelnut creamer, cry for a minute
• clean up breakfast
• dress three wiggle worms
• Find tennis shoes... later they were found under the couch cushions (is your house crazy too? please humor me and say yes)
• get everyone in the car
• walk Garrison into school (with my girl wiggle worms)
• take girls to library time
• come home
• Mrs. Polly comes over for a minute
• make screaming, hungry girls lunch
• beg Allie-Parker to eat
• clean up lunch
• short naps
• wake girls up to get Garrison from school, cry for a minute again
• pick Garrison up
• Get spit up on by Riley-Anne while we are there
• drive home while listening to Elmo talk about amphibians
• get everyone out of the car
• change two diapers
• lay everyone down for a nap
• watch Riley-Anne put herself to sleep, possibly the sweetest thing I have ever seen, cry for a minute again :)
• SWEET SILENCE!!!

Procrastinating Momma

Hi, my name is Riley-Anne. You have no idea how much I weighed or how long I was when I was born because my mom has taken almost 3 months to decide on a birth announcement for me. Well, check your mail boxes people! She ordered them today so you will all be "in the know" soon.

Today

Today was a great Friday. Me and Audrey kept up with our Friday football season tradition and took our kiddos to the park this morning. I brought my camera, but did not bring the battery with me... can we say pregnancy brain?!?! The kids were great. They played and played and we thought for sure we would have a successful nap time all around, but it was a failure :( Nonetheless, it was still great to get out of the house and hang out with Audrey and her sweet babies.

Another great thing that happened today was... drumroll.... we bought a vacuum! I know, crazy Friday right?!?! I am pretty excited about it though, because our carpet is looking more than just a little shabby :( Also, my mom came over today to visit while Ryan was coaching. We ate a great dinner with two recipes that are supposed to induce labor. I can't really say that I believe that anything like that really works, but it is something to pass the time! This is the day that for some reason throughout Riley-Anne's entire pregnancy I thought she would be born, so since nothing has happened I think I will treat myself to some Oreos and milk before bed :)

Well that is all for now. I have pictures to load of the girls nursery that I will try to get up tomorrow.

Getting ready for Riley-Anne

We started switching out Allie-Parker and Garrison's rooms this week. Allie-P and Riley Anne will share a room (Garrison's old room) and Garrison will move into Allie-Parker's room. Try explaining that to a 2 1/2 year old and a 15 month old! They just still do not really get it! I have gotten the closets switched out and I think that is all I can handle for this week. For some reason I became very sentimental while organizing their closets. It made me think about bringing them home to their nurseries for the first time and how small they looked in their cribs, and how quiet everything was ;) There are so many sweet memories that took place in each of the nurseries, it is going to be so hard to change them up! But Miss Riley-Anne needs a place to make her memories too... so we will be adding a few new things for her!

P.s. I know there are a ton of pictures... I just could not narrow them down!

Garrison pulling up in his crib for the first time! I walked in, and there he was standing up! We found out days later Allie-Parker was on her way!

So, so tiny on her first day home!

Garrison checking on his new baby sister

Peek a boo!

All grown up sitting in her "rock rock"

Morning after sleeping in his big boy bed for the first time!

What happens if you turn your back! They got into that green bucket in the back of the picture and into the closet! I was only gone for like 5 seconds and they completely destroyed the room!

Week wrap up

So far our summer has not been very "summer like". It is 100 degrees outside, but things never seem to slow down! This week was no different!

We started the week with a visit to Dr. Dobak (Riley- Anne's specialist). First of all let me just say he is a wonderful doctor and has such a wonderful staff. We had an ultrasound that checked from the top of her head all the way to her little toes! It was nice to her again, but we couldn't help but be worried the entire hour and a half. Well, we received some very promising news- the cyst in her bladder is GONE, isn't our God so good?!? She still has some swelling in her right kidney that we will continue to watch, but her other kidney and every other part of her is developing beautifully! I haven't been able to scan in her ultrasound, but it is crazy how much it looks just like Garrison's! What a sweet girl she is, I can't wait to hold this sweet baby.

Also this week, Garrison had his first Library Time. It was really nice! To be honest I wasn't expecting all that much... but he seemed to have a great time and was really even a little shy, which was very odd to me.

Also this week Ryan sold the Corolla! Woo hoo! He is so excited to be getting a truck that he can do landscaping and irrigation out of and not have to haul all of his equipment sticking out of the back of a miniature car :)

Last but not least, I skipped Publix this week and made a trip to Target. I spent right under 35 bucks for $90 worth of stuff! I was super pumped. I wont bore you with the list of what all I got, but it was around 30 items... a lot of which I scored for FREE! YES!

*Ignore that the tp is turned the wrong way in the picture... stuff like that bothers me to no end...*

It's a GIRL!

We went for our big ultrasound last Friday. We decided that we would ask the ultrasound tech to put the picture showing the baby's gender in an envelope and we would decide later if we would open it or not! Well after the events of the day (more on that later) we decided to go ahead and open it... much to our surprise we are having another GIRL! I still can't believe it. I had been thinking all week long if we didn't find out I would go ahead and just buy a few boy things for when "he" got here! So much for mother's intuition!!! Here are the pictures of us opening up our big news!

I am only posting the rest of this so you will join me and Ryan in prayer for our sweet baby. After the ultrasound we were told we would need to wait to see the Dr. because there were a few things he wanted to "go over" with us. Well that def threw up a big red flag, because we were only going for an ultrasound that day. So after nervously waiting for 3 hours... we were called back to see Dr. Max. He told us that the ultrasound showed a cyst in they baby's bladder and that the tube connecting the bladder and kidneys was swollen because things were starting to get "backed up". This could mean that she would have to have surgery to place a stint to redirect fluid right after she is born and will have to be closely monitored throughout the pregnancy. BUT he also told us there is around a 50% chance that she could just grow out of this. We are holding onto that 50% chance! We will go sometime in the upcoming week to see a specialist and have another ultrasound to hopefully give us more details on what is going on. As of now though, she has plenty of fluid around her and is growing right on schedule.

We are confident that God was not shocked by this. We are also confident in God's ability to heal. Wont you join us in prayer for our sweet Riley Anne? It is much appreciated.

This is still such a happy time for us! We feel very blessed to be able to have another sweet baby girl!