Memorial Day

Memorial Day weekend is Trey's favorite holiday.  Oh yes, not just Memorial Day, but rather the whole weekend is his favorite.  I'm pretty sure this is because when he was yound and single he use to party it up.  Now that he is married with children his favorite holiday weekend has slightly changed!  I thought we'd end up at the beach at least one day, but we didn't.  Instead we got Riley's haircut, transformed her crib to a big girl bed, Trey worked out in the garage, cleaned off the back porch, and a bunch of other odds and ends.  We did manage to get a trip to the pool in though, which was fun.  On Memorial Day while Trey was working in the garage, Riley played outside all day.  We set up her sprinkler, thanks to Aunt Sara & Uncle Justin, and she had a field day.  Riley isn't in her bathing suit because she needed a diaper change and didn't want to put her suit back on.  So I just let her run around outside in her pull-up!  Notice Riley's new fashion trend of one shoe purple and one shoe pink!  If I want her to wear the same color crocs then I have to make sure only one color is in her sight.  If Riley sees her other pair of crocs she switches one of her shoes.  I don't know!  I guess it's a 2 year old thing.  I grilled up some burgers on the grill for us.  I'm not sure how I got stuck with the grilling job, but the burgers turned out good. 

After Riley's sprinkler fun she wanted to ride on the four wheeler with her daddy.  Riley prefers Trey to drive her around because he goes much faster than I do.  I think I go at snail speed and little miss fearless likes to go fast.  I know Trey is safe with her and she's wearing her helmet, so I'm not too worried!  We had dinner at our favorite pizza joint, Boston's Pizza.  It's so yummy we just can't get enough.  Even though we didn't do anything super special to kick off the summer we had a good weekend.  It's summer for us all the time anyway, so we'll hit the beach up this weekend!

Pictures With Daddy

It must be nice to be the parent that is always having their picture taken with their children.  I only dream to be that parent one day.  As it turns out I'm the photographer!  Trey is lucky that I like to capture sweet and adorable moments of him with the girls.  The girls just so happened to be in picture taking moods so I got some pretty cute pictures. After Trey's photo shoot he offered to take pictures of the girls with me.  Well they didn't want anything to do with pictures anymore.  So needless to say, there aren't any!  (This was after Riley's haircut so you may be able to notice a slightly fresher look, but not really!

First Time

For the past month Riley has been climbing out of her crib every night.  This results in her banging on her door and screaming "Mama" at the top of her lungs.  It literally sounds like someone is attacking her.  I am not a fan of being woken up to that type of scream from my daughter.  It scares me to death as I go running in only to find that Riley wanted a drink of water.  Trey and I decided it was time for the "big girl bed."  When we picked out Riley's crib I wanted the 4-in-1 type so that her crib would convert all the way to a full bed.  We haven't bought the conversion parts to make the bed a full size but Trey could still make it into the toddler bed.  As Trey was taking the front of Riley's crib off she looked very confused.  Riley was telling me that daddy broke her bed.  It was really funny to listen to her and watch her reaction as Trey was working on the bed.  Riley's confused face soon turned to a face of excitement when she realized what daddy had just done to her crib.  Riley was more than thrilled to have her big girl bed.  She climbed right into her bed with the biggest smile on her face.  It was as if she knew she had reached another level of independence.  She started jumping up and down in excitement.  It was bitter sweet to watch her in her new big girl bed.  In the blink of an eye she went from a baby girl to a big girl.  Just another acknowledgement that Riley is growing up.  I guess because she is my first born it's hard to see her grow up so fast.  I think I could have kept her in a crib for much longer!  I was keeping my fingers crossed that Riley would do well sleeping at night in the new bed.  Since she was already climbing out of her crib, this bed made it much easier for her to get out at night.  Trey and I ran out to Target yesterday evening to grab a bed rail so that there wouldn't be any falling out of bed.  We made sure to get one that had a little cup holder so that if Riley got thirsty she could just grab a sip of her water and go back to sleep.  I'm happy to announce that Riley did awesome in her new bed.  She slept through the night and didn't get out of her bed until she woke up bright and early at 6am! 

Yesterday was not only the first time that Riley slept in a big girl bed, but she also got her first haircut.  Riley has some wild, untamely hair.  I can't stand it!  So I was thinking that if we took her to get a haircut it would start to grow better and have a little bit of style.  Trey & I took Riley to a place called Pigtails & Crewcuts.  They specialize in cutting childrens hair.  I figured this would be the best place to go because I knew Riley wasn't going to like getting her hair cut.  You'd think that since Riley got a cup of animal crackers, sat in an airplane with a steering wheel, and had a movie playing infront of her she'd be relaxed.  Well think again.  She was screaming with buckets of tears pouring down her face.  I had to hold her down and try to keep her still so that the lady could cut her hair.  Thankfully the hairstylist is use to children like Riley!  Her hair definitely feels healthier and she doesn't have the two random long strands of hair on the back of her head anymore, but that's all that looks different.  Her hair is still crazy wild.  Trey wants to know what he paid $25 for!  I don't know what I'm going to do with her hair.  Hopefully it will grow longer soon so I can pull it back.  And that's if Riley will let me!  Sorry...no photos of the haircut.  I didn't have any hands available!

Just A Part of Military Life

I had to say goodbye to a very dear friend of mine last night.  I think other than having your husband go out on deployments the worst part about being in the military community is having good friends move away.  Erika was a complete blessing to me and our family.  I don't even know where to begin to explain what a wonderful woman she is.  Riley completely adores Erika and her 2 kids Elyse and Connor.  We've loved having them as our neighbors and friends for the past year and only wish they could have stayed here with us longer.  Riley would seriously be at their front door everyday wanting to see them and play.  Riley especially liked their dog, Leilani.  Riley would go with Erika to take the dog on walks and help give her a bath.  Erika and I became really close when Trey went into the hospital when his lung collapsed.  She helped me so much with taking care of Riley.  And then when I was in labor with Hadley, Erika kept Riley overnight.  She is the first and only person that Riley has stayed overnight with.  I wasn't even worried about Riley at all when I was away from her that night.  I knew how much Erika loved Riley and how much Riley loved Erika.  I knew everything would be fine.  That made it much easier on me being in labor and knowing that my first baby girl was alright and taken care of.  Even the next day when Riley was home with Trey and my mom and apparently wanted me and wouldn't stop crying, Trey took her over to Erika to get her calmed down.  She helped me again when Trey had his jaw surgery.  Of course that time she was taking care of both of my baby girls.  But it wasn't a burden to her at all because she loved them!  Erika was seriously like family.  I can't even tell you how much I already miss her.  It's hard to open up my garage and see her house and know that it's empty and I can't just walk over and say hello.  It doesn't make it any easier that Riley keeps asking for her and her son Connor, and their dog!  I was the one to drive them to the airport.  How did I get so lucky as to have to see them off??  It wasn't easy for me.  We got the Tahoe unloaded and then it was time to say goodbye.  Let me tell you, the waterworks were on full blast.  I think we hugged and cried for a good 10 minutes.  Poor Elyse and Connor must have thought we were nutty!  I just try and remember that Erika will always be in our life.  And it's not like we've lost her forever, she just moved to California.  So if we get stationed there next we'll be able to visit.  It's just hard losing someone you are so close to and someone that your children love.  I wish her all the best in California and can't wait to see her again! 

When Mommy's Not Looking

Sometimes it's necessary for me to walk away from both of my children and leave them unattended for a few moments.  I honestly really don't worry that anything will happen to my girls either.  If Hadley is sitting on the floor I just make sure she had her boppy pillow behind her just in case she topples over.  And Riley is a great entertainer for Hadley; she's like a mini-mommy!  I normally only leave them to play amongst themselves if I'm unloading the dishwasher or folding laundry, or trying to use the bathroom by myself without my normal audience.  The past 3 weeks I have started to try and get back into shape and lose the rest of my awful baby weight.  Yes, I still have baby weight from my dear sweet Hadley.  So in the morning after I get both the girls fed, I get dressed and head out to the back porch to run on my treadmill.  I don't run for long because the girls just don't allow it.  But I normally manage to sneak in about 15 or 20 minutes of running.  So far, so good!  Riley is a big helper to me while I try to get my workout in.  If Hadley starts crying Riley comes outside to get me, but that only happens once in awhile.  Yesterday after I ran I walked inside to find Riley trying to keep Hadley entertained.  I had put Hadley in her jumperoo and told Riley to give Hadley a toy if she started to cry.  I guess instead of a toy Riley decided to give Hadley some attention!  When I opened to sliding glass door and heard giggling I wondered what was going on.  It was just my funny girl Riley swinging away and making Hadley laugh. Now Riley knows she's too big for the swing and isn't supposed to be in there, but Riley was just trying to keep Hadley occupied for me.  So I couldn't be mad!  I love how much Riley likes to be a big sister.  It definitely makes my life a little more easy! 

Shoe Fettish

For about the past year the only type of shoe that Riley would wear was Crocs.  I guess I can't really blame her because she could put them on and take them off herself and they are super comfy.  I tried numerous times to get her into other types of shoes but Riley wanted nothing to do with them.  For about the past 4 months everytime we go to a store and Riley spots shoes she starts yelling "shoes, shoes, shoes."  So of course I have to get her a new pair.  However those new pairs of shoes are either crocs or a look a like croc from Target.  Riley still likes the knock offs just as much and they are about $20 cheaper!  That makes mommy like them too, especially since Riley trashes her shoes from playing outside.  Today marked a new day of shoe shopping with Riley.  We were at Target and of course she spotted the shoes.  So I stopped by the shoes to see if I could get her to try on something other than crocs.  Much to my surprise Riley picked out flip flops.  Maybe she never liked flip flops because she still had baby pudge on the top of her foot and so flip flops never fit her.  I grabbed Riley's size(which I can't believe she's in a 9 already) and slipped some flip flops onto her feet.  Riley was in love!  She kept saying "new shoes, new shoes mamma!"  Of course I had to buy them because I was so excited that Riley actually liked them.  I'm glad Riley is expanding her herizons with a different style of shoe!  I may just have an Imelda Marcos on my hands!

Better Late Than Never!

Today in the mail Riley received a couple of late birthday presents.  I never expect anyone to send anything, so when we receive gifts it's a great surprise and very much appreciated.  Kiki and Po sent Riley's gift which was super duper special.  On top of the money that they deposit into her bank account my mom made Riley a quilt that she's been working on since Riley was in my womb.  Well she may have not been working on the whole time but it was a twinkle in her eye!  At my baby shower for Riley my mom asked everyone to bring like four squares of fabric and then she was going to put them all together to make Riley a baby quilt.  Finally, after much anticipation Riley got her baby quilt.  It brought back loads of memories from my baby shower and how exciting it was to be expecting my first angel.  On top of the beautiful quilt my mom made she also sent one of her homemade birthday cards.  It had a Riley's hospital picture on the front which literally brought me to tears.  Even though I have the picture myself, it was just very emotional to see it on her birthday card.  Thank you mom!  Thank you from the bottom of my heart for putting so much thought, love, and effort into your gift.  I am forever grateful to you for all that you've done and continue to do!!

Riley LOVED her quilt.  She immediately spread it out on the floor and started rolling around on it!  You did a great job Kiki!!

The other package that Riley received was from Aunt Leslie!  This was totally unexpected.  Riley got the adorable dvd's "Veggie Tales" and a beginners bible.  Thank you so much for thinking of Riley.  We had never seen the movies before but Riley watched one this evening and likes it a lot!  I also enjoyed reading your letter updating me on three of my wonderful cousins!  We love you all and are so grateful that you are thinking of us!!

Injured Girl

I don't know if you can tell in these pictures that I'm posting, but Riley has a scraped right nostril, bruised nose, and a bruised right eye.  The picture here on the right shows the scraped nose and you can notice her right eye is swollen.  I guess you are wondering what happened.  Honestly, I am too!  We were all outside playing yesterday evening after dinner.  Trey was riding Riley around on the quad and she was happy as could be.  Our neighbors kids were out riding on their dirt bikes too.  I walked to the mailbox to check the mail and then walked into the garage to put the mail down.  All of the sudden I hear an awful scream that I recognize to be Riley's.  Literally a second later Trey comes rushing in with Riley and goes directly into the house.  Riley is screaming and I have no idea whats going on.  I was thinking Trey flipped the four wheeler or something.  I followed them inside to find out what was going on.  But before Trey could tell me I saw blood coming from Riley's nose and my heart was just racing.  Trey told me that Corben, our 4 yr. old neighbor, had knocked Riley over and drove over her on his dirt bike.  This was not on purpose, he is a sweet little boy.  Apparently Riley got off of the quad with Trey and wanted to just run around.  She does know not to run infront of the bikes when the boys are riding them.  Corben tends to ride and turn his head to look anywhere but infront of him.  I'm guessing that's what happened and this time he ran into and over my daughter.  I thought her foot might have been broken because she couldn't stand on it.  But Trey checked it out and turned her ankle around and pushed on her foot and it didn't bother her.  Riley finally started walking a little while later but she was limping really badly.  We decided to wait until the morning to see how she was walking.  If she was still limping I was going to take her to the doctor. 

When she first woke up this morning she was still limping pretty good.  So I was monitoring her all morning.  Riley began to walk normal and then started to run around.  Her ankle and foot weren't swollen so I'm thinking she was just bruised and sore.  I am so thankful that she wasn't seriously injured.  She still has a black eyelid today but her nose isn't quite as black and blue.  Riley is definitely a trooper.  Trey and I have definitely implemented the rule that Riley will no longer be playing outside if the boys are riding their dirtbikes.  I don't need anything worse to happen to either of my girls.

A Little Bit of Family Fun

The Honolulu zoo was hosting a military appreciation day today.  I planned for us to go since Trey had never been and it was free for us military folk!  I figured Trey wouldn't mind going to this zoo because it was free to get in.  I warned him it was not even close to the St. Louis zoo, which is awesome and huge!  The zoo here in Honolulu is rather small, but also perfect to take the kids to.  You don't have to worry about walking too far and then having to walk a zillion miles to get to the exit.  There is also a petting zoo area for the kids.  However, we didn't enter the petting zoo because my germaphobe husband didn't want us getting dirty!  I let it slide this time because of how piping hot outside it was and I knew how far we had to walk to get back to the car. 

It was nice having Trey escort his girls to the zoo!  Riley got to ride on daddy's shoulders so she could get a good view of the animals.  The most entertaining animal for Riley were the monkeys.  Thank goodness they have a bunch of different species of them.  Riley is a fan of "Go, Diego, Go" which is a cartoon on Nickelodeon.  There are two monkeys on the show called the Bo Bo brothers and they are always causing trouble.  On the show the Bo Bo brothers are always told to stop what they are doing.  So at the zoo everytime Riley saw a monkey she'd yell "no Bo Bo's, no!"  It was the cutest thing ever!  After seeing the first set of monkeys at the zoo, Riley kept asking for more Bo Bo's the entire time. 

Above is a shot of Riley and Hadley checking out some of the Bo Bo's!!  Well, Hadley wasn't doing too much looking.  She was just chilling out in the stroller chewing on her seatbelt straps. 

After the zoo we headed home and ate some lunch and the girls took their afternoon naps.  Trey and I enjoyed some peace and quiet together which doesn't happen often.  We watched a car auction that his mom's boyfriend was attending and bidding at.  It might not sound like the most entertaining thing to watch, but Mr. Clayton won the car he bid on which really excited Trey because he got to see it happen.  I couldn't tell you what the car is, I'm not a fan of it, but Trey loves the classic cars.  Anywho, after the naps daddy was playing with his baby girls on the floor and it was adorable to watch.  Hadley is obsessed with Trey.  She seriously can't take her eyes off of him when he's in the room.  It makes me kind of sick, but it's super sweet!

Here is a shot of the googly eyes Hadley gives her daddy! 

Momma's Helper

Riley amazes me with how much she likes to be my helper.  It all started when she started unloading the dishwasher with me.  That chore definitely made me a little nervous because she seriously will unload everything, including the glasses.  In the three months she's been doing it only one glass has been broken.  And it partially my fault because I didn't grab it from her quick enough.  She thought I had it and let go.  Oh well, it's only a glass. Riley also loads the dishwasher too.  Whenever she's finished with her plate or bowl she walks over to the dishwasher, opens it, and puts her dirty dish inside.  I love it!  Now Riley has come to enjoy helping me scrub toilets and bathtubs.  I don't really want her helping with the bathtub cleaning because of the chemicals in the cleaners.  I don't mind her scrubbing the toilet though!  She likes to take the toilet wand and scrub, scrub, scrub!  Riley does a pretty good job too!  The fact that she likes to clean the toilets makes me laugh because I remember when I was a little girl I use to like to clean the toilets for my mom.  I'm not really sure what was wrong with me, but I found it entertaining.  Another chore Riley helps me with is the laundry.  She likes to take the clothes out of the basket and throw them into the washer.  I'm not allowed to help at all!  Then she unloads the dryer for me.  If only she could fold!  I guess it's good that she likes to help clean at a young age.  I'm hoping this means when she gets older she'll be willing to help me clean and do chores.  It's good now though because she doesn't expect an allowance!!

Backpack, Backpack!

Riley's latest obsession is with wearing a backpack.  I'm pretty sure she wants to be like Dora the Explorer who always wears her backpack.  It's the cutest thing in the morning to watch Dora with Riley.  Riley runs and gets her backpack and has me put it on for her.  Then she watches Dora and waits for the backpack song to come one.  Backpack is also one of Riley's new words.  I could just listen to her say it all day long.  Of course I'm like that with everything she says because I think it sounds absolutely adorable.  Riley looks like such a big girl when she wears her backpack.  There are days that she wears her backpack all day long.  It's so cute to watch her just run around the house playing with all her toys with her backpack on.  Riley tries to have Hadley wear one to, but Hadley's not ready for that yet!

After the Tea Party

After the tea party I brought the girls home and they both took their naps.  Then Trey and I decided that we'd head out to Ko'Olina with Erika and her kids for some fun in the sun.  We packed everyone up in our Tahoe and off we went.  It's always so relaxing to be at the lagoons.  With it being early evening the lagoons weren't too crowded.  We got to enjoy one anothers company without having to worry about keeping track of the kids in the crowded water.  Hadley once again passed out for most of the time we were there.  And Riley was her typical self, being a fish in the water!  This time she had daddy their to play with.  I don't know who is the bigger kid, Riley or Trey?  Riley was also having fun playing with Erika's kids Elyse and Connor.  Riley is a huge fan of Connor who is 10.  He let Riley play with his boogie board and took her around the lagoon.  That is until she realized if she kicked her feet she could make the boogie board move by herself.  Then she didn't want anyone to help her.  I swear sometimes she thinks she's 5!  It's probably because she is always playing with kids who are older than her.  Riley is fearless.  I think I fear enough for the both of us!  After a few hours of enjoying the lagoon we were all ready to go grab some dinner.  We headed towards home and stopped to eat at Chili's.  Too bad we weren't thinking about it being a Saturday night and everyone was out to eat.  We didn't want to wait 45 minutes, especially with our 2 girls.  So we just crossed the street and grabbed some McDonald's.  Not the best way to get my beach body, but we had fun and that's all that matters.

I figured I grab a shot of myself...yes another self portrait!

 

I forgot to mention that Trey did some snorkeling and spotted two sea turtles!  The lagoons are a nice place to snorkel.

Riley kept saying, "kick, kick, kick!"

Tea Party

Saturday morning the girls and I attended a Disney Princess Tea Party.  We were helping to celebrate our neighbor Emily's 3rd birthday.  The girls all dressed up in a princess dress and cha-cha's.  Well almost all the girls dressed up.  Riley only wore the cha-cha's.  She still refuses to put on the poofy gowns!  Emily's brother Corben was dressed as a knight and served all the princesses their tea.  Instead of tea the girls were served lemonade, but pretended they were drinking tea!  After they were done with their "tea", the princesses got to eat a special star cookie on a wand.  Then to add a little more sugar into their mouths they got to have yummy cupcakes and chocolate covered strawberries.  I must say the chocolate covered strawberries were my favorite!!  It was really cute to watch the girls sit nicely and enjoy their tea time.  I forgot to mention that during the tea party Abbey was playing music from a Disney Princess Tea Party cd.  It was a super cute idea for a birthday party. 

After all the yummy treats all the princesses were getting their fingers and toes painted.  All the princesses except for Riley that is.  It was funny to watch Abbey try to paint Riley's toes.  Riley wasn't letting her anywhere near her feet.  Riley isn't one for all the glitz and glamour! 

All of the girls had a blast at the tea party.  They did some dancing after their nails were dry!  Hadley got to pose with the birthday princess too!  Emily is a huge fan of baby Hadley.  That's what Emily calls Hadley.  It was a super fun morning for all.