Sunday night . . .

Just won the bedtime battle . . .

No he is not in his p.j.'s, and no he isn't even in his own bed, but he is asleep, and what more could you ask for??

Oh, no! I spoke too soon. He is awake again!

Gloria . . .

Gloria left today after spending two fun weeks with us. She will be missed! She was a great help with many things while she was here. I love that she had a chance to get to know Riley and spend some quality time with him. She also spent some quality time with Jack; she was nice enough to walk him everyday. Sometimes she felt like she was the one being taken on the walk! He was in puppy heaven! Thanks Gloria!

It has been so nice to have so much company come in to town and help us with the baby. My mom was here for three weeks, then Sunnie came for a week, followed by Ivy, Anya, and Cozy for a week, and finally Gloria was here for two weeks. It's been a great way to ease ourselves into parenthood. The only bad thing is that it has made us miss home all the more. Luckily we are going to see everyone again soon; we are going to be in Salt Lake the last weekend in September for Riley's blessing! More info to follow . . .

New Look . . .

So you probably noticed that I changed the look of our blog. I was looking for a template that gave me three columns instead of the 2 columns, which is the Blogger standard. I found TONS on http://btemplates.com/blogger-templates/3-columns/ . I kind of like how it turned out, but I might continue to play around with it. My only complaint so far is that it doesn't have a lot of color. I tried to mess with it, but it didn't seem to want to let me. We shall see. There are lots and lots of templates out there!

Another Riley Post . . .

Since becoming a mom I am now obsessed with my cute baby, so I post about him a lot. I think this is to be expected, so just know that I am going to keep doing posts like this all the time!

That said, here are some pictures I took of my cutie boy hanging out in his diaper. I love his chunky thighs and the baby rolls on his arms! Needless to say he is a super good eater and is now pleasantly plump.

Here he is hanging out in the boppie and gazing out of the window and the beautiful day. He looks so mellow and peaceful . . .

I also included a picture of me pinching his cheek because they are so sweet and fat that I know some of you wish you could do it too, so I did it for you. I hope that will help satisfy you until you can do it yourself!

Love you all!

SeaWorld . . .

We ventured out to SeaWorld on Saturday night with Riley. He was very good and slept most of the time. We got there around 4:00, just in time to see the Sea Lion show. Last time Gloria and Steve came to visit we went to SeaWorld and the Sea Lion show had been cancelled. Gloria and I were very disappointed, the Sea Lion show is one of our favorites, so we had to try again during her current visit.

I was a bad mommy and forgot to put sunscreen on him (this is why he is wearing Gary's hat in this picture), but we got there around 4:00 and luckily it was only sunny for a little bit before some clouds rolled in. Don't worry though, I stocked the diaper bag with sunscreen when I got home so it wouldn't happen again.

The Sea Lion show is a spoof of popular TV shows. It is pretty funny! In this picture they are doing "Sea Lion S.I." (a spoof of C.S.I.). Do you see the outline of the dead fish in the middle of the stage?

Here is a cute shot of Gary, Riley, and Grandma Allen after we saw the Pet's Rule show. I love that show! They have all kinds of pets (dogs, cats, ducks, pigs, etc.) doing tricks and running through obstacle courses, it is really cute! It makes me want to go home and teach Jack a few more tricks.

At the end of the night we went to see the Sea Lions again. This time they did a show spoofing all of the other acts at SeaWorld. Their version of the Dolphin show was probably my favorite.

We had a great time up until we lost the car in the HUGE parking lot. I guess we were in too big of a hurry to get in to take note of exactly which signpost we had parked by. We did eventually make it to the car and home in one piece. Just another lesson learned, I guess!

Shelob Lives . . .

We were eating dinner outside on the porch the other night and I happened to noticed this ENORMOUS spider near my neighbors porch! It is at least 10x's bigger than the one I posted about earlier. I have named it Shelob, after the grotesquely huge man-eating spider from Lord of the Rings that it is most likely related to.

Can you see it?

It totally gives me the creeps! And I have to walk past it whenever I leave my apartment, blah!

Here it is close up. Does anyone know what kind of spider this is?

Baby Push-ups . . .

Riley was relaxing with Gary the other night and I took this cute picture of them . . .

and then Riley got this burst of energy and started wiggling and squirming around and then he pushed himself with his hands. I was pretty impressed!

Not bad for a 7 week old baby! He is so strong!

Healthy, Happy Baby . . .

Our last appointment with the midwife was on Monday. (We will miss you Karly!) Riley weighed 10 1/2 lbs, and measured 21 1/2 inches. He is growing so fast!

Here is a video that I took of him chatting it up this morning. He loves to talk and I think it is so cute! I was trying to get him to talk and working the camera at the same time so his face is kind of cut off. (There was a better one, but it was 104 MB and Blogger only lets you download videos that are 100 MB, so I posted that one on Facebook.)

Check out this huge spider that I found outside of our apartment! He is huge! Right after I took this picture a little bug landed on his web and he pounced on it! It was pretty cool, but totally gave me the creeps!

First Movie . . .

Even though it was over a week ago I wanted to post this cute picture that Sunnie took after Riley's first trip to the movies. . .

We went to see the new Harry Potter movie and he was an angel, slept through the entire thing!

Also, I was just made Beehive Advisor in Young Women's and will soon be released as Young Women's Secretary. I love working with the young women and am excited to have a chance to teach more often. I find that I get so much from the lessons, probably more than the girls do!

Baby Boot Camp . . .

As of today Riley is 6 weeks old. We have officially made it through baby boot camp! Hooray!

Boot camp definitely had it's moments, most memorable for me was the day I dropped my mom off at the airport. She had been visiting us for three weeks and the day I dropped her off was going to be my first day alone with the baby. I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to do it on my own. Riley and I would have a week alone together (during the days, at least) before Sunnie would be coming to visit, and up until that point I had never had to soothe his crying without someone there to help me out and give me pointers. Mom would reassure me that the crying wouldn't last forever, a mantra that I repeat for myself almost daily. She would take the baby while I took a nap or a shower, and help me put the grocery cart away at the store, and just be someone to help me sort through this life change. These things might not seem like a big deal, but they helped everday and I wasn't sure I could manage without her. Happily though we made it, and I really enjoyed it too. Riley is such a good baby! He has his moments battling tiredness and gas pains, but he sleeps great at night (usually only waking up twice, and easily going back down to sleep) and in between his long daytime naps he will sit and look around and make those cute baby cooing sounds! I am falling more in love with him each day!

Gary is an excellent dad! He always helps out where he can and he loves to hang out with his little guy. He gives Riley his baths and he also insists on taking him for an hour during church! What a guy!

Jack is sweet with the baby too. Whenever we get home Jack has to peek into the baby carrier to see Riley. I love it!

Well here are a bunch of pictures from the last six weeks. It is amazing to see how much bigger he gets in just a few short weeks. Enjoy!

Taking our first look at our little boy

First baby cry

It was all worth it!

Baby foot prints

First bath




Everyone was worn out from the labor!

New little family

First trip out in the carrier to the doctor

I love this picture!

Checking out dad

At the library with a bunch of baby name books

Cute baby toes!

Little baby smiles! Don't they just melt your heart?

Bath time!

Kisses from cousin Anya

Tiny baby asleep on a big bed