Little Glen

Glen's dad has been scanning all the family photos to save on the computer and on CDs. He's been sending some of them to us. It's been fun to look back and see Glen and his siblings when they were little. He sent pictures of our wedding day as well, which was exciting because up until now we haven't had any of our wedding photos on the computer.

Ok, now I have to brag about my cute husband!

With what else but a soccer ball!!!

Glen and his sister Kristina with their grandparents


A close up... Look at those eyes!

Him with Kristina again.... too cute!

Flash Back!

Our absolute FAVORITE!

The Best start to a great life together!

It's fun to look back and remember the "kid-less" days and all the fun memories we had together just the two of us...our little one bedroom apartment (it was tiny), going to the movies almost every weekend, going out to eat, staying up until 2 am watching late night talk shows or just talking...oh, it was so fun! Don't get me wrong it's very fun now, just a different kind of fun! :D

Oh so CUTE!

Sorry.... but I have to brag about how stinkin' cute our daughter is!!!!

We went to Kiddie Kandids for a FREE 8x10 birthday photo (the only way I get professional pictures is if they're FREE or a REALLY good steal of a deal!) I do love Kiddie Kandids though, that's the only place we've gone because they have had such cool deals and they take great photos! Anyway, I think that outfit is the cutest outfit I've EVER bought....EVER, and that was also a steal... at Ross for 13 bucks! Awesome huh?!!! I love deals and free stuff!

We're looking forward to taking Riley's 1st Birthday photo in August!

Maddie is 3!!!

This picture says it ALL!

Auntie Jeka!



I made this sailboat cake for my dad! (he loves to sail, and I was so proud)



Love my girls!

Maddie wanted gramma Denise to make her a Bee cake this year (for her 1st birthday she made her a ladybug cake!) The wings were made of sugar! It turned out sooo stinkin' cute. (Thank you grandma and Laurel)

Maddie and my dad are 50 years apart, my dad's birthday is March 1st and Maddie's is the 3rd so we've always combined the party. We had pizza and cake (a birthday staple).

Maddie has been so helpful lately, whether it's putting her toys away when asked or helping clean the house, to helping with her little sister. It's been really great, not perfect, she has her days (don't we all), but pretty pleasant.

She loves to make Riley laugh and is the only one who can really make her do that deep belly laugh. Anytime Riley sees Maddie her face just lights up and she waits for Maddie to do something funny, it's pretty hilarious. She sometimes starts to laugh if Maddie just comes near her, it's so cute.

Maddie speaks very well and says some pretty funny things, for example, we were driving up the mountain a few weeks back and Maddie said excitedly, "Mommy! My ears aren't "plugged in" anymore!"

Maddie is very smart and NEVER forgets a thing! She always holds us to our word, so we know never to say anything unless we're able to follow through. I mean this girl remembers things from waaaay back, things that I've almost forgotten about. She'll be telling a story and saying something that happened a long time ago and I'll just be nodding and saying "Oh really?" and then when I repeat back to her what she had been saying to make sense of it all, I'll say, "Oh yeah, we did do that!" or "yeah, that person did say that!" It's pretty amazing!

I'm happy-sad that our little Maddie is growing up. We've really been enjoying her and the sweet sassyness she brings. It's hard to see her getting older, as a part of us just wants to hang on to her babyhood and keep her little forever, but it's fun to live vicariously through your children and find all the joy that the little things in life have to offer... and we've definitely been able to do that with both of our lively little girls!

Disneyland!!!

Holy Cow... Can we say, the best day EVER!!! We had so much fun at Disneyland for Maddie and my Dad's birthday. My whole family and Glen's sisters Laurel and Heather spent the entire day at Disneyland last weekend and just had a blast! I think what made it so fun was all of us being together! Maddie's favorite ride was the TEA CUPS! I didn't want to ride them (in fear of losing my lunch) so Auntie Angie took Maddie by herself and didn't spin the cup and said it was not bad at all. So Jess, Maddie, Alexus and myself decided to go (Maddie was so excited that she got to go again, but this time with Mommy!). Jess told me, "we have to spin a couple times..." so we did, and we could not stop laughing!!! Maddie's eyes were so big and her smile was the biggest I've EVER seen! Then.... all of the sudden the smile disappeared and her head started to droop and I was still busting up telling her to look down and not to throw up and telling Alexus, "Stop spinning the wheel, stop spinning!!!" I'm still cracking up and wish I would have had my camera so I could have it on video! Glen , Jason and Dave all went together trying to spin it as fast as they could, I thought Glen was going to faint! It was just a ton of fun!

What made it even more fun was the fact that my brother had injured his knee a couple weeks back and had a wheelchair so we were able to have wheelchair access the whole time and got to the front of every line!

The whole fam with Mickey!

The Birthday kids!

Uncle Jay and Riley

I think Riley has been hangin' around my brother a little too long! (if you know my brother, you know what I mean!) ;)

Alexus and Maddie in Mickey's house

Mom and dad on Space Mountain

Jess and Dave

The Finding Nemo Ride (submarines). That was seriously a cool ride!

I found a new way to wear my wrap so I can have her on my hip! Cool, huh!? (It has nothing to do with Disneyland but that was just before we got into the park) Oh and Riley was soooo stinkin' happy the whole day, not a fuss out of her other than a "mmmmm" when she wanted to eat or sleep. then... she'd eat and sleep and that was that!

Fun, Fun, FUN!!!

Half a year old!

Riley: 6 months old

This is what I get (or anyone else who glances her way) every time I look at this girl! She's so HAPPY!

Love those baby blues! (still haven't figured out where she gets those ears! :D)

This little girl LOVES her big sister! Maddie is the only one who can really make Riley do that deep belly laugh! We've got to catch it on video, it's so funny! (Sorry, Maddie's head got cut off in this one, but it's still cute!)

What's sister doing?

Sittin' pretty!



I can't believe half a year has gone by! Riley is so sweet and easy going! She makes life very pleasant. She helps all of us to smile more and to be more positive.

As far as eating solid foods goes... she still gags (no joke) if I give her ANY kind of food from a jar...she's got gourmet taste buds! She'll eat anything of ours that we mash up and water down. She LOVES potatoes and bananas. Tonight we're gonna try avocado! It's been exciting to see her actually want to eat after trying and trying with jarred baby foods. I even thought, after she was eating the potatoes and bananas that maybe she's just more ready to eat, so I gave her some rice cereal and carrots from a jar last night and she gagged after the first bite and wouldn't take anymore! I guess I have to start making my own, which is fine, it's way cheaper!

In the last couple weeks she's mastered rolling from back to front and vice versa as well as sitting for a good period of time. Like I said, she LOVES her older sister and is always interested in whatever it is she's doing. She only wakes once or twice a night and no longer sleeps swaddled. She's a little chatter bug (takes after daddy) and talks herself to sleep and keeps herself entertained on car rides!

We just love our little Riley girl!

New Mexico Trip

At the beginning of February we took a short trip out to New Mexico to visit with and help my best friend of 25 years, Shannon, who recently had a major surgery. We planned to stay for 4 days but ended up leaving early because Riley got really sick and wasn't sleeping well. So we arrived on Wednesday, stayed all day Thursday, then came home on Friday. It's kind of a long drive to go there and then turn around and come home, but you gotta do what you gotta do, when it comes to your babies.

On Thursday Shannon and I took the kids to a nearby lake so she could get out a bit and so the kids could run around. It was a beautiful day. Maddie and Thomas, Shannon's son had a BLAST playing together!

We plan to take another trip out this summer. Hopefully we can stay for longer than a day!

Love this one!

Crafts and Forts

Winter has been rather boring. It's too cold to go to the park, and even if we were to go it'd be covered in snow! So we've been doing a lot of baking, fort building, and some little crafts here and there.

This little sun catcher craft was on sale at Target (where else would I shop?) and I thought it'd be nice to do with Maddie. Here she is proudly showing off her Bee!

What an artisit. That's the prettiest bee I've ever seen! So colorful.

The Fort

Big sister showing her little sis around the place.

It had an "upstairs" and a "downstairs"