Back up and running... Riann's 2nd Birthday!!

So it's been FOREVER since I've posted. I was having trouble getting pictures to load onto Facebook (so I could work on posts while I was working) a while back so I gave up on that for a little while, and then we took down the computer with all of the photos on it when we started working on the house again and so I couldn't access any photos so I've been out of commission for a while. I feel really bad because I've just looked through some of our photos and I realize how that I've missed a few big events that I should have posted about for family.

We'll start with Riann's birthday... This past March Riann turned 2. We debated throwing her a big party because she was so sick last year we couldn't do anything and we wanted to make up for it this year but she's still at that age where it doesn't matter to her so we weren't sure what to do.

On her actual birthday, the 10th, we went out and got some pizza, a cake mix and a Texas muffin tin and came home and played for a little bit. Once Paul and his sister Amie were out of classes and everyone was "home", we played at our house. I had borrowed some Disney movies from a friend and one of the movies I thought I had gotten wasn't what was actually in the box so that night we ended up watching Cinderella. After eating pizza we pulled out the cupcakes and everyone got to decorate their own. I didn't realize it until after we had started decorating but between the sprinkles I had purchased for the cupcakes, the cake being pink with pink and white frosting, and the movie... Riann had just had her first princess party!!! We all kind of laughed at that because I am SO not a princess person but over all it worked out okay.

The cupcakes before decorating.

Riann decorating her own... Yes, she was being heavily supervised with the knife.

Riann's work of art.

Her special #2 candle that she loving broke hours later.

Later that week, we decided to get a few friends together and go to breakfast and then the new bounce/play zone at The Rex (one of our local theaters/bowling/entertainment centers). It was a lot of fun. When we got there they were still setting up from a party the night before and so we got a free game of bowling while we waited for everything to be complete. I didn't know they had little stands for the smaller kids and so Riann and all of her friends got their own lane with bumpers and the stand and with the help of parents everyone got to bowl for about 20 mins before we started to play.

The rest of our time was spent in the bounce area, until the kiddos got too tired to keep going and we all left for some much needed naps.

At breakfast. She's now in love with ice. She picked that up from Paul's mom when we were home for Christmas.

Getting ready to bowl.

Coming down a slide at the bounce house... She's not as scared as she looks.

Rolling to the bottom.

Finally at the bottom.

Loving every moment of it.

Bouncing around.

Taking a break before the other kids, bigger kids, get back in and trample her.

Just having fun!!!

Naps

Well ever since we've taken away the paci naps have been a little difficult. It took about two weeks to get her back into a napping pattern and we're finally back on track, for the most part. Over the last two weeks we've been struggling with little things here and there like colds, how tired she really is, scheduling conflicts, replacement soothers, keeping her clothes on, and keeping her toys and other objects out of her bed. Yes, the last two issues have been the biggest problems. She's been going through a new naked stage, this hasn't been the first. I've found that if she doesn't have on pants with a belt sinched before her nap, than it's not worth putting her down because if doesn't go to sleep right away, her clothes are the first thing to come off. Sometimes we catch her before she gets to her diaper but unfortunately there were a few occasions where we didn't make it in time. We've only had one major accident in the bed, this time around, and by the time we realized her clothes were off she was already asleep so we couldn't get in to inspect the possible damage. I should have known better because she had been yelling "yucky" at me for a few minutes before she got quite, but she had thrown up a little bit in her bed the night before (due to coughing hard from the cold she was getting over) and she noticed that in the morning when she woke up. I had already changed the sheets because of that whole ordeal but she gets things stuck in her head and keeps repeating them so I figured she was just remembering the spot from this morning and wanted me to come in and give her a little more attention, delaying her nap a little longer. Little did I know she had pooped and was trying to tell me about it. Well during this particular nap she was good and slept on the opposite side of the bed and stayed 100% away from it.

As for the particular nap I wanted to share with you today it involves objects in her bed. I don't know how she gets them in because I make sure there is nothing around the edges of the bed so I don't trip on them when I maneuver her into the bed or when we come in to get her out. On this particular day she was able to get her laundry basket into her bed. I'm not sure how she did it because the basket was about 2-3 feet away from her bed but somehow she was able to do it.

She had actually "quitely" gone to sleep this day so I never suspected something was up. When she woke up I can't remember what she was yelling at me, normally is "open door please!!!", but I'm sure it was something different because I remember thinking it sounded strange and I should probably go get her before anything "bigger" happened, like the normal removal of clothing. When I get the door open this is the first thing I see...


Yes that would be my baby hiding in her laundry basket. And the colorful item in the very bottom left of the picture... That would be her shirt.

At first I panicked because I didn't know what I was looking at. All I saw was the basket and I couldn't see anything inside because I was a little groggy myself. I came in thinking "oh no, she's finally figured how to get out... it's all over!!" After my momentary panic I realized that the basket was happily saying "HI MOMMY!!" and starting to rock as she was trying to sit up. When I finally realized what I was looking at I sprinted out of the room for the camera.

When I got back she was VERY happy to show off her accomplishment. Here are a few pictures of I got of her while she was still in the basket...




I must admit she is one cute kid. I'm just glad we're getting back to a normal nap schedule because she's hitting the terrible twos hard and I think my life would be over if nap time was gone!!

A step up to becoming a BIG girl...

Photo From: http://www.babiesadvantage.com

So I've been trying really hard to decide what Riann's first "big girl" step would be (potty training, giving up the paci, or moving into a big girl bed) and well...
in an upset tirant, both on Riann and my part, it was decided that the first thing to go would be her paci. I was little upset at her today because she woke up cranky and threw a couple of fits right when she woke up. By the time she was throwing her last one she had gone back into her bedroom and pulled her paci out of her bed and walked into the hall with it in her mouth while she was crying as loud as she could. When I saw her I gave her 3 warnings, saying "You need to go put that back in your bed", and then on her last warning I counted to 3 because she's normally good at responding at that point, at least by 2 she's moving because she knows that it's not worth the fight. Well with this particular fight she didn't put it back and she didn't move like she was going to put it back, so I decided it was time. Well... fast foward through some MAJOR frustration and her paci is now in pieces in the garbage. I knew I wanted to cut her off soon but I didn't plan on it being today. I just feel really bad because her paci was her favorite thing about bed time. She'd get giddy when it was time to wrap up in her blanket, hold her night-night doll and have her paci.

After we finally calmed down (you'd think she had just found out her favorite pet had just died) we talked it over and she seemed okay. She did alright with her nap but it took about an hour, and a few visits into her room, for her to get down.

A friend said to substitute a glass of warm milk or something like that, something that signals it's bed time and something that's soothing, so we're going to give that a shot for the next couple of nights and see how it goes.

I feel really bad about it because I can look at her and tell she's been crying all day over it. I don't know if that is just because I've been here all day with her as she's moaped about it or if she really is depressed about it but she just hasn't been herself. She's also been good at taking it out when we get her up and leaving it in her bed and so it's never really been that big of a deal to me but she likes to sneak in and go grab it and that's where the frustration was starting to kick in. I think we were in the habit of allowing her to go and grab it once or twice a day not realizing that she had it right away and then getting in tiny arguments as we tried to get her to put it back.

I hope I wasn't too hard on her but I wanted her to see that it was gone and that it wasn't coming back. I wish it had been more of a celebration of her growing up and moving onto the next step but I don't know if that would have worked. I hope that she does well over the next couple of nights and that she understands that it will really be okay.

A little update...

Hey there!! Things have been REALLY busy the last little bit. Paul is back in school and seems to really be enjoying it and Riann and I get to play all day until 7pm when I have to start work. I'm blessed at the moment because work has offered to let me work from home instead of having to quit. It's been hard but it truly has been helpful and we can't complain about the much needed money even if it isn't much. Because I now have more time at home I'm really going to try hard to make sure I update on here at least once a week. Not only is it nice to keep in touch with everyone but I need to make more of an effort to journal what's going on with us for our future. I've been looking into those blog books and keep thinking about how I want to do them SO bad but then think "what good is a book like that if I don't write down anything to put into it!!" Well it's time to start and what better time than at the beginning of the year. I REALLY wish I would have had at least one post last month but it's okay. It'll all workout...

So we haven't been up to much lately. With school starting Paul's been pretty busy getting home work in on time and maintaining good grades. We decided that before we buckled down for the next 2-3 years we needed to take a little mini vacation with some friends. While we wish the trip was to somewhere more exotic and WARM we can't complain about what we were given and we had a blast.

A good friend of ours owns a cabin up in Island Park, about 1.5 hrs north of where we live. In checking on her rates she offered us a REALLY good deal and we snatched it up as quickly as we could. She and her family own a beautiful cabin there that sleeps about 20-30 people comfortably. We went up with a few of our neighbors/good friends and spent a semi-relaxing (see the last picture below) weekend playing games and hanging out.

Here are a few pictures from the adventure...

The cabin from the front. No one really wanted to go into the deep snow so this is the closest we got to the front of the house.

The dad's and their burried children. We'd worry about charges here but the kids seemed to enjoy it more than their fathers did so it was all okay.

Riann and Taylor playing in the snow. Riann couldn't get enough of it and they all sat eating it most of the time we were outside.

Riann showing how much she loves the snow by blowing it a kiss...

Riann was playing on the sled we had out there with us and toppled off. She was kind enough to let me force a picture out of her before I jumped down to comfort her. She's a GREAT sport!!

The three of us before we were about to head inside to get warm.

This is where the semi-relaxing part comes in... We had the 4 toddlers shown below and 2 infants who all had to get along. They did a GREAT job though. I don't think we could ask for a better group of kids!!! From left to right: Taylor (18months), Claire (22 months), Riann (22 months), David (22 months). Not pictured: Nathan (8 months) and Kamdyn (4 months)

All-in-all it was a great time to get away and have fun. We're so grateful to have such wonderful friends and to be so close to all of our neighbors. We're excited for more adventures with all of these guys... I'm just hoping we choose a warmer month so we can get out a little more!!!

Until later... Goodnight!!!

My baby!!

I have just a little bit of time right now before Riann and Paul get home and I have some photos set a side for a project I'm eventually going to try to get together. A friend, Cassie H., did something like this for her daughter. Her's is MUCH cuter because I think she took pictures with this project in mind but after seeing hers I wanted something like it too. I don't know how I'm going to put it all together but I filtered through our eleven THOUSAND pictures to find some of Riann's cutest pictures and crop them into to a time line with one photo for each month of her first year. I couldn't stop myself so I think I really have a ton from her first year until now but we'll see what I have together when I post them.

Here are a few of the photos I've found so far:

March 2008

April 2008

May 2008

June 2008

July 2008

August 2008

September 2008

October 2008

November 2008

December 2008

January 2009

February 2009

March 2009

Her on her first birthday after digging into her cake!!

What a mess!!!

This is a quick post (just for Kimberly ;-)...) but our neighbors, the Smaellies,
and us wanted to get out of the house last weekend or the weekend before, so we went to "Christmas in Smith Park" out here in town. It was a blast!! I don't know why a place like Rexburg (aka Ice-Burg) would plan an outdoor party where kids could get pictures with Santa at night in late November but they did and it was fun.

We spent most of our time listening to the great band that came to play (didn't catch a name) and ate a great chili diner (which says a lot coming from a non-chili fan). We didn't get any Santa pictures because the line was too long and moving too slow but we did get to see some awesome fireworks set to some great Christmas music. Riann seemed to have a good time in the snow. We kept promising her a chance to get out of the house and this was out first real chance. Her and Taylor had a good time as long as we were all close enough to catch them if they fell. They're having a hard time adjusting to boots from the sandals/shoes they've been wearing all summer...

I'm not one to get in the Christmas spirit at any point during the Holiday season, as it's not one of my favorite times of the year, but it was great!! I wanted to immediately come home and set up Christmas decoration. Having a child really changes your perspective and makes everything a little more fun.


I hope to get another post up soon!!! Later!

Cheris

Happy Halloween!!!

So most of you have already seen my pictures on Facebook but I wanted to get an update in before it was too late. I REALLY need to work on posting up here more and if I'm going to make a book of each year I better get somethings up here so I actually have something to print out!!!

Halloween this year was SO much fun!!! I can't wait for next year already because I know that Riann will understand it that much more. Out of all of the holidays I think Halloween is in my top 3 because you get to just be goofy.

We got around to looking at Halloween costumes early because we knew money would be tight about this time and we really wanted her to look cute!! I thought it would be pretty easy but every time we'd go to the store Paul would just shake his head at every costume I'd pull out. While we were looking one day my mom called and we talked for a little bit and I told her what we were doing. She got really excited and wanted to help because she wanted so bad to be here and pick one out with us in person. She asked us if she could buy Riann a costume and that way she could "shop" with us. We said sure but we had to "approve" it because our weather out here is SO different than Washington and we had to make sure she would either be warm or we could add warmth to it. From that day through the following 2 or 3 weeks we'd get about 5-10 photo's a day from her while she was out shopping. Finally there was a REALLY cute dress that she absolutely loved and she got it without talking to us. She called me up later that day and told me she was sending it with the receipt so if we didn't like it we could take it back. She sent me a few pictures and I thought it was pretty cute so we decided to give it a try. Once we got it Riann tried it on and we started thinking about what we could do with it. Paul got to it first and stripped Riann down and put it on her. After he saw how "cold" it was he was really concerned about keeping it. Not knowing that he had already put it on her I came home from work and checked it out and had her try it on over her clothes. She just happened to be wearing a sleeper at the time so I thought I'd give it a shot and see how well it fit with the sleeper on underneath. I thought it would look okay so I ran in and told Paul we were keeping it. He eyed me funny and asked how I would keep her from freezing and when I told him my idea he seemed okay with the idea.

Well fast forward to getting ready for the big day, we had spend the next week or two thinking of what we could put under it to keep her warm. My neighbor reminded us that Wal-Mart was having some decent sales on their winter clothes so we checked it out got some pretty warm stuff. My neighbor was also wonderful and let us borrow a shirt her daughter had that was PERFECT for what we needed. As we started piecing everything together we felt like the outfit wasn't complete. We kept wondering what it was until I caught a post on another friends blog about what she was doing for her daughter's costume. She had made a wig out some of yarn she had found for a great price. Her pictures were adorable and I figured I could do that too!!! We started looking around but nothing was as cheap as I wanted it to be. I started to think about all of the scarfs I had tried making and realized I probably had something I could work with at home. As soon as we came back from the store I dropped everything and pulled out my craft box and started asking Paul his opinion on colors. The only one he would agree on was a roll of black and white yarn so I pulled it out and started thinking about how hard it would be to put together. We played for about a night and finally decided how we were going to attach it to her hat. The next day as soon as I got home from work I started getting stuff together. I had asked my neighbor if I could borrow her sewing machine and she said yes so Riann and I immediately went and picked it up. After dinner I got to work. Unfortunately I don't know how to work a sewing machine and gave up after about an hour of struggling with the bobbin thread. After getting Riann down for he night I sat in our bedroom and threaded the yarn through a needle and once that was complete I put it on the hat. It was a lot of hard work but totally worth it.

At that point I had wished I had waited until we were closer to Saturday because I really wanted to put her in her costume a few times. I knew if I did she'd probably not let me put it on her by Saturday so I tried to just let it be. Saturday was a pretty long day because Paul was busy getting other things done around the house I had to wait for Riann to wake up from her nap before I could get her dressed. Once they were both done we pulled everything together and got going. It took me about an hour to patiently get Riann ready and to a point where she would be warm enough to be out for a while at night. If you check out the Facebook album I linked in above you can see how many layers she was actually wearing as we got ready. She was great!!! I didn't have to do much to get her help with getting dressed and she was happy to let me take her picture.

Once Paul was home he and I got ready in our last minute costumes and we were out the door. We headed off to the church for the truck-er-treat. We were about 5 minutes early which still made it feel like an hour late. We just barely found and squeezed into a parking stall. By the time we were out of the car and to the trunk to hang out and pass out candy we had already had about 10 kids stop by. Paul took Riann around the first part of the parking lot and then brought her back for me to take her around the rest. She was so cute!!! Any time someone would let her pick a candy from a bowl or a basket she would shuffle the candy around looking for a sucker. Then as we would walk away she would pull it back out of her bucket and start gnawing on it with the wrapper and all!!! After the trunk-er-treat was over we jumped back in the card and headed to a neighborhood close by. We only got to about 5 houses there before Riann decided she was too tired to keep going. We finally caught one or two houses on the way back to the car and then headed home.

All-in-all it was a great night!! There were a few moments where I wasn't sure everyone was going to make it but it all worked out really well. I think we had the cutest kid of the night but I'm a little partial to my little one so I don't know how much others would agree. Below are a few pictures of my little girl!!! I love her SO much!!!

Thanks for listening to my rant!!! Sorry it was a long one but I had fun and enjoyed myself so I thought I'd share... I hope my next couple of posts are a lot shorter!!!

Getting the "hair" sewn in...

The finished product!!

Almost done!!

I like this one because you can kind of tell how different it is for her to actually have hair.

Getting into the car to get over to the church...

Hanging out with her friend Claire and their suckers...

Hooray for candy!!! Let's go get more!!

The cutest Witch of Halloween!!!

Checking out the block!!!

All bundled up now that it's dark...

Climbing up to the last house...

How about I just come in to play!!!

ALL DONE!!!!