Aunt Amy, JT and Gramma Margie

We recently had a visit from my very best friend, Amy, along with her 4 month old son, JT and Amy's mom, Margie. What a great blessing it was to have them here! Riley and JT got along great. She tried to use him as a standing post and he didn't care for it to much, but really, other than that, they had fun.
I suppose mostly Amy and I had fun. We went to Simply Dinners the first day she was here to make all our dinners for the week. We went to Gadabout one day and got spectacular massages. We spent a day in Bisbee. And we shopped for Riley's baptism dress. Most of all, we just hung out and had a FABULOUS time! I miss that girl so much and now I've totally fallen for her little boy. He's a doll! We had his and Riley's pictures made together too, but we're still waiting on the CD of those from the photographer. (I'll post those as soon as I get them.)
The pictures I'm posting now are from Amy. Ty took our camera to work and has been forgetting to bring it home so that I can pull the pics off it. He assures me it's not lost. (Cross your fingers!) So, as soon as I get that, I'll add the pictures I took while they were here (including the ones of Amy and I in the mine, next to the cave miners toilet...) and pictures from Riley's baptism.

Big words

Sorry for the delay in posting, but we've been kind of busy around here lately. OG moved out, Amy, Margie and JT came to visit and our air conditioner, as of yesterday, is not working. On an up note, OG bought us a new computer. I haven't figured all the bells and whistles out quite yet, so I don't have any recent pics loaded on it. Plus, I'm fairly certain my brain is a puddle of goo due to the extreme heat in our house. Which leads me to my next random thought... I am quite certain it must be the heat, because I consider myself relatively intelligent. I have a college degree, I hold down a job where I train others, I'm taking new classes. So, why is it that when I looked on an old friend's blog, I needed a dictionary for practically every other word? Is he really that verbose? Or, am I just that hot and tired? (Please note the use of the word "verbose" as it makes me feel better to use such a fancy word in light of my current situation of feeling rather stupid.) This friend and I knew each other throughout jr high, high school and college and I don't remember having that much trouble understanding him. Maybe it's due to his most recent reading of Tolstoy and my most reading of Sheep in a Jeep. Anyway, I'll write more when I have pics of Amy and JT's visit and when it's cool in here again.

Big Girl!

Riley has been very busy lately crawling around and pulling her self up on anything and everything she can use! She's a little wobbly, but she's "cruising" furniture too. It's crazy how fast she's growing. She's also whispering a lot. I'm not sure what she's saying, but it's like she's practicing talking. It's very cute.
I bought a fence type thing today for our living room so that I can keep her in one space. It's like "baby jail." She's wasn't very impressed with it at first, but then OG and I got in with her and she started to think maybe it was okay. Then OG and I stayed in, and put Riley outside of the fence and she thought that was very funny.
Enjoy the pics!

Super Mom

I have a friend from high school whose blog I recently ran across. She is a stay at home mom with 3 kids ages four and under, and baby #4 is on the way. She has a thriving garden that she actually uses the food from. (it's not just flowers to look pretty, although she has one of those, too) She's recently gotten into canning. She even canned her own salsa not long ago, rather than freezing it. I thought canning was something people did in factories or before tupperware. She's also an avid scrapbooker and baker. I just read on her blog that she's gotten into making her own cleaning products. She also makes her own body washes. Did I mention she finds time to workout? And she's positively positive. She writes the most lovely blogs full of fun stories about her children (and some that scare me- babies can take off their diapers and spread poop everywhere? when does this start happening? I need to invent something to prevent that and I think I still have time) She manages to find the bright side of everything even though I can't imagine she sleeps much.
My child is just fortunate that Costco makes industrial tubs of laundry detergent, that Gerber has come out with packaged food all the way from birth through toddler and that I take her picture, even if they don't get put in a scrapbook.
Yes, my friend is amazing. She's like supermom- on prozac- at disneyland- with her best friend Martha Stewart. But, I'm happy just being me, crawling on the floor with Riley hoping that what she just put in her mouth was a Cheerio.

teeth

I don't have any pictures of Riley's adorable little teeth because she sticks her tongue out and it's hard to capture a glimpse of them, but they're there. Two little teeth on the bottom. And- they're sharp!
She's also crawling up on all fours now. Before, she kinda looked like a soldier trudging through the mud on her belly, using her elbows to pull her along. But now, she's figured out she's much fast up on her hands and knees.
She's also trying to pull herself up on everything she can find. And I swear yesterday she waved "bye-bye." This is a fun age!

Trip to Minnesota

Last week we made a trip to Minnesota to see Riley's great Aunt Leslie. Great Grandpa and Great Grandma also made the trip. We were there for the Fourth of July. We saw a parade and a big fireworks show. We went to the Mall of America, Minnehaha Falls, Centinniel Lakes and a little town on the St. Croix River. It was a very fun, busy trip and we can't wait to go back!
While we were there, Riley started crawling and cut her first tooth! She had a very productive week. Plus, everywhere we went people oohed and awed over her. She literally held up the security line at the airport because people in line were all turned around looking at her and talking to her. Riley, of course, was eating it up and putting on quite the show talking and laughing with them. What a doll!
Thanks so much to Aunt Leslie for having us. Again, we can't wait to come back!

Father's Day

Ty's first Father's Day was great. We hung out with the clan up at his parents' house. Ty and Riley even found time to take a dip in the pool. Ty got a Wii for Father's Day, but Riley was actually too excited to wait for Father's Day to give it to him, so he's had it since April. So, for he day she got him a hat and t-shirt that say "Rookie Dad." For a rookie, though, he's an awesome dad!