Swimming Lessons

Riley is taking swimming lessons again this summer. It has been a rough start with the cold temperatures and freezing water! Each week she asks if she "has" to and we tell her yes. She is by no means a future olympic swimmer, but most times shedoes try and do the things they ask of her. Here are a few pictures of her "play time" at the end of the lesson. I don't take many pictures because they would ALL look the same:)

Would you like fries with that?

For her birthday, we got Riley the McDonald's drive-thru. She has been loving taking our orders and serving our food. Sometimes we are the worker and she "drives" through. Today Payton was on her car and did the driving up. It was SO cute to see them playing together and I just couldn't resist taking a few pictures of them playing.

Happy Father's Day!!

Happy Father's Day to all the dad's out there! I feel so blessed that the girls have such an awesome day and that I have an amazing dad too! We hope that everyone had a great day surrounded by the ones you love. We had a low key day but we were all together and that is what made the day special. Here is a picture of Mike and Payton from his friend's pool party yesterday. Which by the way the kids had a blast at! Payton enjoyed her first treat from the ice cream man, a tweety bird, and Riley was brave and tried the "euro bounce". Which she LOVED!! It took us until they were almost leaving to want to try it and then she went twice. She also said that "next" time she is going to go on it right away. I was brave and did it too. I even managed to accomplish two back sommersaults and a front one too. I was proud of myself and boy is it exhausting!

Happy 11 Months Payton!

Wow...11 months already! Time is just flying. Before we know it she will be 1!! At 11 months, Payton has 2 bottom teeth and the 3rd has started popping through on the top. (The 4th is not far behind) She loves to stand against furniture (or anything really) and has even begun trying to change direction on furniture and scoot down it...which scares the heck out of us because she is still kind of shaky. She has yet to figure out how to pull herself up, even though all he wants to do is stand and take steps holding fingers. Payton can only crawl backwards and gets rather mad when she does because she is not going the direction that she wants to. She also continues to love all food and would prefer the "big people" food. Only having 2 teeth does not get in her way of eating anything and everything we give her. Just a little more time and she will be on whole milk. She continues to light up our lives and we all love her so much!!

Father's Day Pictures

Here are the pictures that the girls and I took for Mike for Father's Day!

Sprinkler Fun

Riley got a new sprinkler for her birthday and today she got to try it out. Not before she got a big surprise by the hose...the large toad that you can see in the slideshow! She had a lot of fun, even though she said she was getting wet. She even got her umbrella to run through with, as she does so often. Thanks Granny and Papa Dan for the fun new toy....I know that it will bring much more enjoyment throughout the summer.

Happy Birthday Riley!!

Wow...it is amazing how much Riley has grown and changed since she came into our lives 5 years ago! She entered the world at just 5 pounds, 9 ounces and now is around 35 pounds. She has really changed in how much she has matured and turned into a "kid". Riley is such a little person now. She says that craziest things, is so tuned into everything going on, and is learning so much! We cannot believe that when the summer is over, she will be entering kindergarten. Makes mommy (and maybe daddy) sad for the baby that is no more, but so excited to see the young lady that she will continue to grow into!

Here is how she has grown over the years....
Here is Riley the day after she came home from the hospital.
At her first birthday.
Her 2 year pictures.
On her 3rd birthday.
Her 4 year pictures.
And here she is yesterday, ok technically still 4, super excited to be bringing her birthday treats to school!

I think that she has had a great 5th birthday! She started out the morning bright and early coming downstairs and finding her presents. Then she got to the cupcakes, balloons, and candles that daddy went out last night to get for her and rounded out the morning with a cupcake (complete with 2 candles) for breakfast! For lunch, Granny and Farrah came over and then we went to lunch at McDonald's where we met up with one of her friends from school and they played like crazy! Payton by the way had her first taste of McDonald's and LOVED it! No surprise there:) She had chicken nuggets, french fries, and apples....she is SO done with baby food! Currently Riley is napping now (which is why I can create this detailed post...obviously Payton too) to rest up for a big night of playing with daddy. She is all ready for him to make her a birthday fort and he is cooking her her favorite dinner....steak and cheesy potatoes. YUM!! A great birthday for a great little lady. We love you Riley!!
As you can see, Payton did NOT want a hug from the birthday girl! She wanted OUT!!!

Here are a few pictures from the evening of her birthday and from her making one of her birthday crafts from Grammy and Papa....