It's been a long time!

I miss my blog. I miss the process of writing and sharing our family moments. I miss reading back on family times, Riley's firsts, and so much more. I've got to find a way to incorporate blogging back into my routine because this is the only avenue where I've captured Riley's events as she grows. Here's to me being a better blogger in 2010!

Last night we went to dinner for my bestest friends, Amy's, birthday. Happy Birthday Amy!!!

Riley totally warmed up to Aunt Trishy. She thought she was pretty dang funny.

Riley enjoyed a lemon (as seen below) and a few fries with LOTS of ranch dressing. Our food wasn't great but the company was nice and it was great to visit with friends.

No big plans for the weekend. I was supposed to go to St. George with a couple of good gal pals for two kid/spouse free days of scrapbooking. BUT I couldn't get away from work tomorrow to go. We've just got to much going on right now. So gal pals Kira and Shelly, HAVE FUN!

I failed...

my 30 posts in 30 days challenge.

LOSER!

BUT I do have an excuse. I got a new computer yesterday and am having problems connecting to my wireless network at home. I finally gave up, watched Top Chef and went to bed.

I'll post for real (with pictures) tonight.

Teaching the Dog to Color

First, let me start out by saying that IT IS STILL SNOWING!!!!! It won't stop. I think we live in a giant snow globe. I'm tired of double/triple the commute time. QUIT SHAKING THE GLOBE!

Riley LOVES to color! So far she's been really good about only coloring in her coloring book at the table Grandma Shanni gave her for Christmas.

But the past two days she's gotten in trouble for coloring on the walls. Prior to now she was okay to have unsupervised coloring. Not anymore. Back to supervised coloring again.

Roxi also loves to color with Riley. Roxi loves to do anything Riley does. She loves, loves, loves her and follows her around all day.

Riley has learned to put crayons in Roxi's mouth. Attempting to get her to actually color. It's pretty cute how well they play together. Pictured below, Riley, but mostly Roxi, coloring.

Big Blue...the weather outside is frightful!

Snow, snow, snow, snow, snow, snow.

That is what it does EVERY FREAKING day anymore. Today it started at noon and it hasn't stopped yet. When I left work I had six inches on my car. SIX INCHES! At work today we had 4 slip and falls because of snow, ice, and yuck. One guy broke his shoulder. I know everyone wished for a white Christmas but when will the madness end. Is God making sure we get our moneys worth out of Big Blue this winter. He was only $16.00 for hells sake. We don't need this much snow to get full use out of Big Blue.

Oh, by the way, Big Blue is the sled Riley got from Santa for Christmas. Unfortunately Christmas Day at our house looked like this.

Plus Riley had a cold. So for the first few days Big Blue was only allowed to play inside. I can't count how many trips each of us made up and down,

and up and down,

and up and down, the hallway each of us made.

Finally, the sun broke through long enough for Big Blue to make his outside debut! And Riley loved Big Blue even more.

Plus she looked smashing in her new snow suit. Nothing like showing off your snow gear to the neighborhood.

And playing with your best pal Roxi in the snow.

And running away from Mom in two feet of snow.



And now Big Blue sleeps in the garage. :) No more trips up and down the hallway. But, with the recent snow, that keeps falling, and falling, and falling, I'm sure Blue will make another grand appearance this week.

9 kids + One Small Playroom, LOTS OF FUN!!

Today was my family get together. We celebrated Christmas late and Preston's 2nd birthday. Today's festivities included 12 adults and 9 kids. That's a lot of people and I LOVED IT!

Riley wasn't so sure about having so many people here at first. She was pretty grumpy when everyone first got here. She then demanded she eat. She wasn't about to wait for the "Cheesy Potatoes" to finish cooking. After we got some food in her she was MUCH better. I think she actually had fun running around with the kids. BUT, she did not like seeing Mommy pushing Preston on her bike. We almost had a melt down over that.

I loved having my family here today. We ate, visited, the kids demolished the playroom and played WII. Thank you family for coming to play today!!!

Meal time - the kids bellied up to the bar:

Preston blowing out his birthday candles:

Miss Riley wanting cake NOW:

Preson unwrapping his presents:

Ashlynn and Parker fighting to get in on the present action:

Dee and Adam playing WII baseball:

Riley's playroom after 9 kids have had their way with it:

Miss Riley, with piggies (not a great pic but the best of the bunch), and crazy hair after piggies:

Lunch with Grandma Connie

Today has been a Saturday full of chores. My Mom's side of the family is coming to our house tomorrow for a late Christmas get together. That means lots of chores and lots of wash today. The house has to be clean for the family. We also hung the drapes we got for Christmas today. They look great! Love them!!!

Little by little I'm going to do updates of events that have taken place for the past few months. I'm actually starting with some of the most recent and working backwards.

On Wednesday Riley and I had lunch with Grandma Connie. Riley got her Christmas present from Grandma, an Elmo "live". Which she loves. We on the other hand might find him to be a little bit annoying.

Here's Miss Riley, drowning herself in ranch dressing, hey, sometimes it's the only way to get her to kind of eat something, sitting next to her new Elmo.



Here Miss Riley on the way home. Watching Backyardigans as usual. And, I broke in and let her have "Binky and Bunny" on the ride home since she was late for her nap. Typically she only gets them in her crib for naps and bedtime.