Party Girl!!!

Today was Riley's 1st birthday party with our family and friends.

and for her 2nd day of celebrating she got to wear her festive birthday tutu.

In keeping with one of her favorite books we chose the 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' as the theme for her 1st party.

Cake time!!!! She absolutely loved when everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to her.

She started off with one finger-full of frosting at a time

....then dove right in

The lucky little birthday girl was spoiled by her friends and family with lots of really great toys.

Riley had such fun at her party!

We are so very lucky to have such a wonderful family and great friends!!!!

Happy Birthday Riley!!!

For Riley's special day, her daddy took a day off from work so that we could spend the day celebrating our little miss. The weather was gorgeous so we decided that the zoo would be the perfect place to take our 1 year old for some birthday fun,!

But first, she got to have some fun and get a little wet with her new water table from mommy and daddy.

It has been a while since we have been to the zoo but the animals were a big hit with Riley. Her favorites were the brown bears, giraffes, lions, otters and of course the elephants. She could hardly even take her eyes off of them long enough to look at the camera.

Another of her faves were the peacocks and she even immitates the word when we say it. When we ask her if she saw peacocks she will now say "cock cock".

In continuing our day that was all about Riley we had Gigi & Popdaddy, Grandma & Grandpa, Uncle Ryan & Aunt Kelly and Uncle Nick over for a family dinner.

On the menu was one of Riley's favorite foods...pizza!

And even though we are planning to have her cake at the party tomorrow, we couldn't let her real birthday pass without a little something sweet.

mmm....strawberry shortcake!

As it turned out, the whipped cream was a bigger hit than the strawberries and angelfood cake....
"Hey uncle Ry, can I have a bite?"

To top off our day of celebration, Riley got to open lots and lots of great presents from her grandmas, grandpas, aunt and uncles. She will be having lots of fun with all of her new toys!

We had such a fun day with our little one!

1 Year Old!

Happy 1st Birthday to Riley!!!!

It is so amazing how quickly the past 12 months have gone by. We have so loved being a family of three over the past year and watching our tiny baby grow into a little girl.

Riley likes to talk to us a lot and although it is mostly her own little baby babble still she keeps adding new words to her vocabulary. Her favorite words are still "dada" and "dog dog" but she can also say hi, mama, ball and hot. She really studies our mouth when we talk and now that pretty soon she is going to have a lot to say. For now she has employed pointing and also her signs to communicate with us when her need falls outside of her current vocabulary. She loves to sign for dog whenever she sees, hears or is asked about one and as of this month she has also started regularly signing for milk when she wants to nurse.

She definitely has started to show that she understands words that we use and will also respond to things that we say like waving when we say bye-bye and throwing a ball when asked to. She also understands the word "no"...but has already shown us that she can be selective in when she wants to hear it. Riley will also now give kisses when we ask for them. This just absolutely melts my heart every time she does it.

Constantly on the move Riley has added a new skill this month to help her get around....going down stairs. This has been a great relief to Kris and I as we watch her turn around backwards to go down a step or some stairs instead of her previous head first approach. She is still not walking on her own yet but she does still love to practice by holding on to our hands or her walker and she has recently started trying to stand up without help so I have a feeling it won't be long.

Our little Miss loves her books and is very, very good at turning all of the pages for us as we read to her. Among her favorite books is "Five Little Monkeys" and each time we get to the verse "the mama called the doctor and the doctor said....no more monkeys jumping on the bed!" she shakes her pointer finger in reprimand. Cutest thing ever!

There is nothing better than getting to spend each day with our smiley little Riley and we are so thankful for the blessing that she is in our lives. I cannot wait for the 2nd year of her life and all of the exciting changes that will surely bring, we love her so much. Happy 1st Birthday Riley!!!!!!

Happy Easter!

Riley had a fabulous first Easter! The Easter bunny treated her very well as did her grandparents, uncles, aunt, great aunts and uncles and her cousins. She was well spoiled with lots of treats throughout the day and loved every minute of it.

We started off our morning with church and then came home to check out the goodies that the Easter bunny left at our house....

She's a little young to hunt eggs, but she did get some eggs that each had a little toy in it. Each time we open one for her she would look surprised and say "ohhhh".

And I had to pose her for a picture on the same bunny that I had my picture with on my first Easter....a very, very long time ago.

Then it was off to Gigi and Popdaddy's for Easter lunch.

She loved getting to pull all of her treasures of each of her baskets. This was her reading a new book after checking out her basket from Gigi and Popdaddy.

And even more Easter treats...she also got a basket of goodies from Grandma and Grandpa Nelson.

She had so much fun playing with her cousins. Madeline showed Riley all about confetti eggs, how fun!

Riley and Isabella mostly enjoyed trying to take whatever toy the other was playing with. At least this time they were actually awake at the same time so that they could acknowledge the others presence. I know that they will have have fun together as they get older.

What fun we had seeing Easter through our baby's eyes. For us, this has always been a holiday spent amongst family with egg hunts and lamb cakes and I am so glad that these traditions are still going strong with a new generation of little ones.