8 Months Old

Wow it has been FOREVER since I have written it seems like. I have tons of updates on Riley and believe it or not I have a couple of projects to post as well. But first lets update you on Riley, because she is the cutest baby in the world!!!

Riley is officially 8 months old now and I feel like I am going to miss telling you about something because it has been almost a month since I have told any stories not to mention she is changing every day lately.

- About a week ago we started the crying it out method of going to sleep...I'm not a bad mom but it was taking anyone who wanted to put her to sleep at least an hour to do so and that was a crying, wiggling baby. It was so hard. So Pat and I decided to try this and see how it worked, I am upset that we waiting this long to do it because it is working WONDERFULLY!!! The first night she cried for 45 minutes, Patrick and I sat there upset and then finally broke out the wine so that we could get through it without going in and trying to snuggle her. After the wine was gone she finally fell asleep and we lived too! Needless to say she slept all night which I basically thought was just because of the crying. However the next night she only cried 15 minutes, we didn't need wine and she slept all night again! The next night she cried 8 minutes and ever since she has only cried 1 or 2 minutes a night. It is wonderful, she gets better sleep, she sleeps all night and we aren't so frustrated with her or each other trying to get her to sleep every night.

- Riley got a rash a couple of weeks ago. It was bad. It started out right on the edge of her diaper which I noticed when she went to bed. When she woke up in the middle of the night it was covering her body. She didn't seem to be too bothered by it but of course it worried me because it was all over her face and I wanted to make sure that she was having an allergic reaction. Turns out it was an allergic reaction and the only thing we can think is it was some sort of food allergy. So we gave her some Benadryl and took her off food for 3 days and it cleared up. So now we have to be especially careful of what we feed her. I don't know it did happen the day after I stopped breast feeding so maybe it was lack of my immunity that caused it but nonetheless we are being very careful now.

- A couple of nights ago I came home from work and she was eating with daddy in the rocking chair but she heard me so she sat straight up and reached her arms out to me with the biggest smile in the world. It warmed my heart so much. I ended up feeding her and she fell asleep in my arms, just so content.

- 2 days ago she learned how to wave. Patrick put her in bed with me and said "Bye girls" and she waved to him, without any prompting. It was adorable and now that is the new thing she has been doing, she thinks it is so funny.

- Riley has been doing this adorable thing where she comes up to me when I am sitting in front of the mirror doing my makeup and she pulls herself up and rests her head on my shoulder and watches me put on makeup. Of course she wants her own makeup so I pretend put some blush on her and she just giggles. I just love that she is a girlie girl and that is starting to become very snuggly!

- She has discovered how to climb into things. Usually it is her carseat but she just discovered her swing. She proceeded to crawl into the swing, stand up and try to rock back in forth. She thought this was hillarious, I thought it was dangerous so the swing got lifted so that she can't crawl into it by herself now. She does love to sit in the swing and try to swing it herself now though.











- We had our first play date at the park a couple of weeks ago with McKenna, Lucas, Q and Ashton. Riley did really well, it was perfect weather and it was fun to catch up with my friends, if feels like I never get to see them anymore. The babies are growing up so fast it is sad, soon they will all be running around together and hopefully they will be friends!

Patrick's best friend Jeff came for a visit from Brazil which was very fun and very short lived. He brought his wonderful girlfriend Juliana. The are such a cute couple and we were able to have a short visit with them at our house where they got to meet Riley for the first time. We also got to go to Public Houe 124 and eat with them and catch up one night. We totally wouldn't mind traveling to Brazil to visit unfortanately I don't see that happening anytime too soon but we will keep dreaming.

We went out with the Underhill's last weekend on their boat. It was a wonderful and beautiful day and so much fun. Their family is so fun to hang out with because everyone is relaxed and just trying to have fun. Riley got to stay with Nana the whole day! Patrick and I both got to surf for the first time and caught on pretty quick, it was fun. Patrick tubed and wakeboarded for the first time and did so well, he got up on the first time! Unfortnuately we both got super sun burnt but it was worth it, we would go out anytime!

Helping daddy with the broken vacumme

Baby Leg Warmers

 Isn't she the cutest baby you have ever seen, or I am just a little biased because she is my wonderful baby! I made these leg warmers for my cousins baby Callie on her one year birthday, that is why these leg warmers are a little big on Riley, she is only 2 months old in these pictures! Despite them being rather large on her she loved being the model and is ready for some of her own.

These leg warmers are great for when baby's start rolling around and crawling, especially if you have carpets so that they don't get rug burn on their little knees. My daughter is now trying to crawl so I am just about to make some more of these cute leg warmers and since a lot of her clothes are cute little dresses they work really well for our cooler walks and it makes it really easy to change her diaper! So here is a short and easy tutorial of how I made them with my inspiration coming from Our Little Beehive.

What to Buy:

1 pair of women's socks

Matching thread

14" total of elastic, for the bottom of the leg warmers, I used 1/2" wide and make sure that it is fairly flexible to work with rather than stiff.

Step 1: Cut your elastic into 7" strips and sew together with a 1/4"-1/2" overlap so you are left with two elastic circles. Throughout this project use a zig zag stitch so that it can stretch. Depending on how big you need the leg openings, if they are a chunk a munk you may want to make them slightly bigger.

Step 2: Cut your socks as shown in the picture.

Step 3: Fold your cuff inside out and place the elastic over the top and then fold over to make a cuff.

Step 4: Place the cuff over the bottom of the leg warmer so that you see 3 raw edges that you need to sew. Sew around the edge. I choose not to pin because it is hard to sew this to begin with that I usually end up poking myself. Just make sure if you do it this way that you make sure you have all three layers under your stitch when you sew.

Step 5: You are done. Just smooth it out. I made 3 of these during Riley's nap today which was only about 30 minutes so these are very easy to make!

This is Riley today wearing her leggings. Although the color white matches almost anything I do have one warning, they will get extremely dirty, especially with all the dog hair that she happened to pick up so a darker color may last longer!

4th of July Weekend

Happy 4th of July Weekend everyone. Our little family didn't do a lot to celebrate because we had to work but I did get a nice surprise visit from my family at work. Patrick and Riley also went out to Grandpa Mike's house to visit also. Then the 3 of us went to Nana and Papa's house and BBQ'd and they watched her for a couple of hours while we went to Rocky and Ryan's land to watch fireworks. This was kind of amazing because they have a view of the entire valley so we got to see all of the fireworks and the moon came up over the mountains and it was so pretty. Unfortunately we didn't take the camera out to get any pictures of the view but I'm sure we will be there again soon!

4th of July with Aunt Ashley

So we had a great weekend. Riley hit a couple more milestones this week. For the first time we walked in to get her from sleeping and she was standing up in her crib...guess it was about time to lower the mattress anyhow. She is also cutting her second bottom tooth so she is a bit more cranky than normal but hopefully we will get over that soon. And we decided this weekend to paint her toenails, actually mama decided to do it while she was asleep!

Just got her toenails painted, ignore the evil look on her face!

Riley also got to go swimming for the first time yesterday. We went to Mia and Cooper's house and Hadley was there too and she did wonderfully. She loved it, she went straight into splashing which I'm not so sure Hadley was all that thrilled about and she was in the pool for the better part of an hour. She also went down the little slide, so officially we are going to buy her a little kiddie pool today so that she can have her own!

Riley Update

My little snuggle monster

So I have kind of been slacking on the updates or Riley lately but I will tell you what has happened in the last 2 weeks and it will basically sum it all up. Last week Riley turned 7 months old! Before she did this however she decided to have some pretty big milestones. She learned to crawl, go from crawling to sitting, pulled herself to the standing position and she finally cut a tooth. Oh man has it been a fun and very eventful two weeks for her. She has become such a fun little girl to play with, she is so curious about everything around her and I love watching and helping her explore. It is so much fun I can't wait for more adventures to come!

Standing up looking at daddy in the mirror

Initially she fiqured out how to crawl but it was only about a foot at a time. The next day I was taking a shower and she was talking to me playing on the carpet just like we always do. I had just enough time to put shampoo in my hair and when I looked out to talk to her some more she was gone...uhhh so what do I do I yell for her to come back...and she did. Apparently she decided this was the time that she was really going to crawl so she crawled to her bedroom and when I called for her she came back to talk some more. Thank goodness because we had continued procrastinating about the baby proofing up until this very point. Well then while I was getting ready that same day she backed her little butt up against the couch and she stood up...all by herself. It is just all going too fast. She now can pull herself up to the standing position about anytime she wants which is totally scary for me.


Helping with the laundry

She also has this very sharp bottom tooth now that she still continues to want to chew on my fingers with so we are trying to break that habit but I can say it is better my finger than other parts I guess!

We have had some pretty wonderful and eventful days off of work just taking walks and playing. We went and visited our friend Megan and got to go get ice cream at Blue Palm. Then the next day we got to go visit our friend Lori who just had surgery and visit with her and Summer which was fun.

This weekend may be the first weekend that I decide to go out with my husband and let Riley stay at Nana's house, it is still up in the air depending on how much anxiety I get but Patrick's friend Jeff is in town from Brazil so that is pretty good incentive to go out for the night. At least I know she will be safe and sound at Nana's.

Playing with the largest cat every, at Megan's house!

Father's Day

So this year was Patrick's 1st fathers day. Riley and I did these pictures with DAD above and framed it so that Patrick had some pictures to put on his new desk at work! We had a very good morning but unfortunately I had to work at 1 PM so I couldn't hang out all day. I did take him to Mr. Eds in the morning for breakfast because that is his favorite place to eat in the mornings. We then went home and his mom came over and we took a walk down the street to see Grandpa Bill, this was very bitter sweet because he just moved to a nursing home but we ended up having a nice visit. I then had to go to work but Patrick ended up going over to my parents house and they BBQ'd burgers and sounds like Riley had a wonderful time playing and being silly all day.

Visiting Grandpa Bill

Work ended up being slammed. We had two patients that got shipped out by helicopter which is basically unheard of in our small ER. We had very interesting patients and it was busy all day long so I was very happy to get a hamburger delivered to me later in the night. This week in general was very busy, I also had 3 codes which is unheard of as well. Lets just put it this way when I first started working there I didn't get my first code until almost 6 months in and then all of a sudden I got 3 in one week! Yikes, I was very thankful for my 2 days off of work!

The day before Father's day was when Patrick and I went to the Sweets game but earlier that day our little family took a walk to the park and played on the swings and watched the water and even went down the slide! It was so much fun and we took so many photos that we kept saying the paparazzi was following Riley because she was so darn cute! Also this week Riley officially crawled and is getting much better at that and she is basically an expert overnight on going from laying to pushing herself to the sitting position. It is so scary for us because now we can't procrastinate on baby proofing the house, we just need to get a day off together and buckle down and do it!

2 Year Anniversary

I can not believe I have been married to the love of my life for 2 years now. June 12 was our anniversary and I look back at these last two years and can't believe all the changes in our lives. Last year on our 1 year anniversary we were in Seattle at a Mariners game and I was pregnant and just barely showing. This year we have a beautiful little girl and we stayed in Walla Walla to go to a Walla Walla Sweets game, not to mention the actual day of our anniversary we both had to work long shifts. Needless to say we are celebrating this weekend on the one day we both have off together! I couldn't be happier with my choice in a husband, he is the best father to our daughter and he is so loyal and caring towards me, not to mention he gets along with my family so well. We have had our share of ups and downs but the downs never keep us down and the ups only reassure me that we will last several more years to come!

So we ended up going to the Sweets baseball game and sitting in the sunshine while drinking a beer. It was pretty fun, I guess baseball is kind of our anniversary thing! It was pretty fun and we were so relaxed that we decided to stay out a little bit longer and go out to the Green, which just happened to be one of the places that Patrick and I first went out when we started dating. Needless to say we felt super old, we knew absolutely no one there so we headed home after a couple of drinks! Thankfully, since we didn't get to bed until 11:30 (instead of our usual 8 PM) Riley slept and let us sleep in until 6:30, it was a wonderful surprise.

Vegas Baby

So last weekend I ended up going to Vegas. It was kind of bittersweet in that it was the first time I left my baby and it was pretty stressful. I also had to miss one of my friends funeral which I really had to come to terms with before I left. However I ended up having a BLAST! There were just 3 of us that went but we had tons of fun and there was no drama, just drinking and shopping!

Andrea and I took off that afternoon and landed in Vegas around 3. We just headed straight to the Venetian where we stayed and got ready for the night. That night we went out to the Blue Martini and had so much fun, despite the numerous calls from my husband (Riley was having a hard night without her mama and I'm not so sure my husband was all that thrilled that I was in Vegas without him, oops!). We had fun dancing but the most fun we had was when we basically did Ellen's dance dares all night long. That is where you go up behind people without them knowing and dance

behind them. I know it sounds stupid but it was seriously hilarious. People's friends would just look at us and laugh and barely anyone told there friend what was going on behind them. Oh man that seriously made the night. We tried recording the dance dares but it was too dark in the bar.

The next day we got up and went shopping at the outlet mall, basically all I bought was clothes for Riley...wow how the times have changed. Last time all I bought was clothes for myself and I only got 2 pairs of shorts this time. We got ready that night to go out to Absinthe, the show that was at Cesar's Palace. It was a cute little circus like tent in the middle of the court yard and it was pretty small so it was really cool. The tricks in the show were so cool and the humor was pretty dirty but it was definitely worth the money, I would love to go see another show in Vegas

sometime. We then went out to the Cesar's Palace to Gilley's Country Bar. This is a favorite of Andrea and I's. We had so much fun dancing although the next time we go to that bar I'm thinking more comfortable shoes and not a dress, kind of uncomfortable to swing dance in! By the end of the night our feet were bruised and battered and Andrea (the bachelorette) got Abby and I back to the hotel safely! The next morning came all too early, I went to Vegas with the intention of being able to sleep in although I think I got less sleep in Vegas than I ever get at home. The plane ride back was long and the drive home was even longer. I couldn't wait to see my family and I think that they were pretty excited to see me as well.

We did decide that the next trip we take we definitely need to make it a couples trip or we were thinking even a cruise!!!