Baby Riley on the Disney Carousel

I am having WAY too much fun going through all the videos we've taken since Riley was born. I cannot WAIT to post them all! I seriously wanted to post them all tonight but then that would ruin the fun so I'll do one at a time :-) In this one, she was trying to EAT the bar in front of her. I think she was thinking, "YUM. This looks REALLY good." Bob and I got a kick out of that! Enjoy!

Easter Package from Mimi and Aunt Emily!

So I went to the mailbox yesterday and came back with a box full of goodies from Mimi and Aunt Emily for Riley for Easter! Yay! The outfits are sooooo super cute. Mimi and Aunt Emily definitely are stylin and these outfits reflect that! Thank you both! They are all so cute and I can't wait to put them on her!

Gotta love Target! They have the CUTEST CLOTHES!

Lil pool outfit with skirt and top :-) Mimi sent orange flipflops from Old Navy not too long ago that Riley can throw on with this!
Okay so Bob saw these and I THOUGHT he said, "mattress pants" and I was like, "Oh, interesting name." And then when I called Mimi to thank her she said, "Um, those are called "maddress pants" Erica, not "mattress pants." Woops! I had no idea! And how on earth did my hubby know that? He must be up on his fashion :-) Or maybe he owned a pair growing up? Who knows! But these are so adorable and I learned something new!

Target once again! This is definitely my FAVORITE outfit. The lil blue jean skirt is absolutely the CUTEST THING! I have a feeling Riley will look the same way I did when I used to wear skirts...be ALL LEG. Skirts were never long enough so that was a problem for me. Riley is still little though so all legs is still cute and not showy just yet :-)

A little beach hoodie or something for casual wear. This is from Guess and it's ADORABLE! I think it will look cute with her yellow/white hair!

Woops! This posted upside down. Oh well :-) You can still see the cute bunny straws and Easter bunny that Aunt Emily slipped in with all the cute clothes she got at Target. Riley will have some serious fun with those straws! :-) I may even throw them in the diaper bag and use as something to play with at restaurants. Always a good idea to have backup fun things to entertain your child :-)

Playdress that is so comfy and soft! I'm going to start putting Riley in dresses all the time because they look SO super cute on her and they are actually easier to deal with than pants/shorts and finding a top to go with!

Okay have no idea why this one posted upside down also! Argh. Anyways, another cute dress that we decided would look really cute with some pink leggings or pink capris underneath.

And here is my baby girl this morning still sick with her cold. She had just woken up and looked so cute staring at Mickey Mouse so I snapped this before I posted the blog. She still has a bad sounding cough but the snot seems to have gone down somewhat. Yesterday I couldn't get a tissue there fast enough! Every 5 seconds she was saying, "Mommy...tissue!" And I was running for another tissue. This morning she's only said it twice though so yay! Still don't like her cough though. Sounds almost croupy or something. Anyways, she still has that sweepy look and it's so cute :-)

Thank you Mimi and Aunt Emily for the wonderful Easter package with adorable outfits! We love-love-love them and LOVE and MISS you both so much! Hope we are able to see at the end of this month. Would be SO MUCH FUN!

A Woman's Daybook-3/29

So my stepmom does this daybook thing once a week and I think it's really cute. She actually has a theme for each day of the week. For example, Wednesday is "wordless Wednesday" and Friday is "Photo Friday" (I think). Anyways, Monday is the woman's daybook theme and I thought I'd give it a try this morning! I've never done it before so we'll see how it goes!



Outside my window...It's dark, disgusting and rainy. It's actually darker outside than inside the house so I've kept the blinds closed. I'm sure all the public school kids are happy that today is the first day of their Spring Break and they don't have to go outside and deal with this!



I am thinking...of how long Riley's cold will last and if the doctor was correct when she said Riley was at the END of her cold. It seems to be getting worse and her head is completely blocked up. The cough sounds croupy almost so I guess I'm thinking, "Um, how long is this going to last and will she be sick at Easter?"



I am thankful for...the screen guy who came recently to put in and fix our top screen on the back porch. No more wasps and weird bugs flying in while Riley and I are playing! The major problem now are the squirrels! They climb ALL OVER that thing now and put huge holes in the screen. The guy told me to buy a plastic owl and super glue him to the top corner of the screen. Apparently this scares squirrels. Okay so buying the owl...no problem. Super gluing him to the top of the screen? Heh-heh....don't think I'll be doing acrobats out there to get an owl glued down! :-)



I am wearing...okay so this is a weird one to incorporate but I know my stepmom thought so too and she still answers it so I guess I will too :-) I am wearing an old Avalon tshirt from when I used to teach and some sweatpant capris. It's too hot for straight sweatpants anymore!



I am remembering...Easter growing up and how much fun it was. There was ALWAYS an Easter egg hunt to go to, ALWAYS a frilly outfit to wear WITH the amazing lacy hat (ha-ha) and ALWAYS the best Easter gift. The one I treasure the most is the gold cross necklace that my mom wore for many, many years. When my grandma died, she had one of grandma's diamonds inserted into the center of the cross and then she continued wearing it. When I was...around 15 and had just moved back from Virginia my mom gave this to me as an Easter present. My grandma had just died and I was sorely missing her. So I wore that necklace for the next 10 years until the chain broke. Now it's sitting in my jewelry box waiting to be fixed!



I am going...to buy more fish for my fish tank. They have ALL died but 1 neon tetra and that guy has got to be super lonely. I feed him every morning thinking he's going to croke too but nope! He's hung in there so I figure I need to buy a few more neon tetra so he's got some company. Our huge silver shark died and we miss him too so we'll have to replace him with something really neat eventually. Gotta think about it though. Bob wants a fish that eats other fish for food (he had one all growing up...an Oscar to be exact) but I think I just want one that eats only fish food :-) We'll see. I even thought maybe a standard goldfish but Bob says they poop a WHOLE lot! Yuck!



I am reading...the book of James for my new Bible study I started :-)



I am hoping...that we get a handle on this budget thing and start to make some headway. Paying off credit cards is soooooo UN-FUN.



On my mind...my Easter menu and plans for Sunday. I am even thinking of inviting over a few playgroup friends or neighborhood friends for a late afternoon mini Easter egg hunt. We'll see though. I've got to first get my items from the grocery store!



From the kitchen...geez what am I supposed to put here? It's dirty and my kitchen says hi? The floors are begging me to be mopped but since it's raining today and Elmo will more than likely track in gobs of grass and dirt, I think I'll wait. I was even entertaining the idea of vacuming out underneath the fridge and possibly behind it but hey, just entertaining the idea. Most likely no action will take place. Maybe I was supposed to talk about food here? Well I got amazing pictures of Bob and Riley eating the spaghetti I made last night so here are a few of those :-)

She had 2 bowls cause one had meatballs and the other had pasta. I wasn't sure if she would touch her meatballs and she didn't. She devoured the spaghetti though! I was suprised cause she's not a huge red sauce fan. She mostly loves fettucine and white sauces.

Cut my hubby in an unsuspecting move :-) After this picture he grabbed his phone and took like 10 of me eating spaghetti. But since I don't have his phone, oh darn. Guess I can't post any of me here! :-) Hee-hee

Around the house...I have been thinking about all of our junk piles and where on earth all of this stuff would go if we had another child. Another child you say? Hee-hee....we're just talking about that right now :-) But yeah, have lots of idea for where this stuff is going to go and think I need to start tackling the band room at some point. There is stuff EVERYWHERE in the band room. That's our collection pile room for all kinds of random stuff! It's the room where you slam the door the second company walks in. So after Easter I may start tackling little tiny piles in there. The key word is "may." :-)


Plans for the week...well it's spring break here so everywhere is going to be super crowded and packed! I am going to avoid the popular places and focus on parks and stuff more. I really want to take Riley to a splash pad around here so if the weather is as warm as it has been, I may do that. I also am doing at least 3 days of running in preparation for a new 5k my friend and I have signed up for. It's in Winter Park and called, "Run for the Trees." You get a tree when you're done! Cool, huh? I'm also going to enjoy my last week of no teaching because next week starts my computer class again! Wednesday nights this time :-)


One of my favorite things...cuddle time with my baby girl in the morning, especially when she is sick. This morning we snuggled next to Elmo and watched Mickey Mouse Club. She is so super sweet in the morning, especially when she's sick. Love these mornings and hope to have a million more of them!

Riley Dancin with Her Arms :-)

Okay so now that I was successfully able to upload the last video, I am totally going to start uploading videos now! Yay! Bob was able to capture Riley dancing with her arms but it's mainly in the first 2 seconds of the video. So when you watch, pay close attention to the beginning because she stops dancing with her arms pretty quickly. She used her arms all throughout the parade but it was hard to capture a long period of time where she was doing it. Enjoy! :-)

Seeing if this Works...

Not sure if this will post or not. This is a video of Riley dancing on the streets at Hollywood Studios. If it doesn't work, then I'll know not to do videos again! If it does, then yay! I'll post lots more of them!

Part 2 Hollywood Studios Pics-21 months

Okay last pics from Hollywood Studios :-) Here is Riley all decked out in a Goofy hat!

Couldn't remember if I put this one in already so did it again cause it's cute :-)The Honey I Shrunk the Kids Playground was probably Bob and I's favorite thing of the day. I think we are like big kids on the inside, hee-hee :-) We ran around that thing and had so much fun! I think Riley wasn't sure what to make of it so she was VERY cautious. She kept looking to see that either Bob or I were with her, following her. She tends to not do well in large, overwhelming crowds either and parts of this playground were VERY crowded! We did end up finding a few places that were quiet so we opted to stay in those places and Riley then started to have fun and feel more confident.

These things make music and diffferent sounds when you step on them.

Daddy was on the other side of the hole looking in :-)

She was TERRIFIED of that ant! That's about as close as Bob could get. She didn't peel her eyes from this ant for a second and was almost crying.

My heart actually almost stopped here because she went slow at first and then zipped so fast that she was like a little bullet at the end! I caught her thank goodness. Otherwise a face plant might have been in store!

Daddy is a kid at heart too :-)

Awe, such a cutie :-)

Time for lunch! We packed this perfect little lunch in our cooler and it was yummy! Daddy did a great job of getting the stuff at Publix that morning.

Onto the "Street Party Parade!"

Okay so I have to tell you that I have never seen my daughter act so darn cute. She was actually drawing the attention of people all around us! It was hillarious! What was she doing? DANCING! I mean to tell you, this child can DANCE. In the picture below there is a couple that were so fascinated by her. The lady actually captured video of Riley at one point. And this guy that was an employee from one of the stores actually came out and started dancing with Riley too! The people from the dance party on the street kept asking if she wanted to come with them and dance on the street but she would always back away. Okay so if you have never seen Riley dance, it's really a fun thing to watch :-) And on this particular day, not only was she hopping and kicking her legs and bouncing but this time she learned something new from the street dance people....waving her arms! Once she started doing the arm motion too, that was it. Bob and I were laughing and just thinking she was the cutest thing ever! We captured video which I don't know how to add on here, but I think I might try. We'll see if it works. Anyways, here are some of the dance pictures!

I think if I had smiled any wider, my face would crack!

The theme was from the movie, "Monsters, Inc." If you haven't seen it, definitely a MUST see. I think it's probably still a little too old for Riley but Bob and I love it.

What I didn't realize was that it wasn't a moving parade. What they did was roll all of the huge contraptions in and then completely stop and park them. Then all of these people that were hiding inside came bounding out dressed in crazy costumes, colors, etc. and they started dancing!!

The music was so loud that it was almost deafening. Riley and I were sweating buckets by the end from all the dancing we did. However it was NOTHING in comparison to how much the people on the street were sweating! They had buckets dripping off of them! I could NEVER do that job on a daily basis. What on earth do they do in the summertime??

Some sort of huge tree guy was dancing near us and I think something else because Riley was kind of cowering a bit here.

They played straight 80's music so I LOVED IT! If you don't know that about me, well, I am a HUGE FAN of 80's party music. Let's see...they had, "Celebrate Good Times, Come On!" Also, they had "The YMCA" and a whole bunch of other stuff that I can't think of at the moment. LOVED the music though.

Here are one of the creatures from Monsters, Inc. And I'm telling you, almost every single person that passed us stopped to wave at Riley, give her a high five or ask her to dance on the street...including this guy! I'm SO GLAD we stayed for the parade. It was sooooo awesome :-)

What a hugely insane fun day! Time to go now though. Here are daddy and Riley walking out together.

What a nice treat! When we were leaving, Riley got to see some "duckies" as she calls them, right up close! And they didn't run so she was lovin it.

She's peeking and trying to get closer and closer. She was saying something like, "Bye-bye duckies....bye-bye duckies." Except that she wasn't going anywhere and just kept staring at them :-)On our walk back! I couldn't believe this child still had energy to expend! You can probably guess what's coming though :-)
Slowing down...

And crash! I had a feeling she was going to fall asleep and poor thing, as soon as we got in the car, she was out like a light! I guess this is a good sign though...a time well spent and a fun-filled day :-)

Close up :-) Riley doesn't usually sleep in the car so this is a rarety.

Thanks again Grandma for the Disney passes! Had to give a shout out to you here because without those passes, none of these fun and fantastic times would be had at Disney! :-)

Hollywood Studios-21 months

Bob and I recently have been REALLY wanting to take Riley to Hollywood Studios because they have a new show called, "The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" and Riley is addicted to that show on the Disney channel. So Friday evening of last week we decided that Saturday would be the day! It was supposed to be absolutely gorgeous so we got up early, Bob hit Publix to get subs and we were off!

The day started out rather cool so I initially had a sweatshirt on and Bob had jeans on. However after going to Publix he decided that it was probably going to get warmer so he switched to shorts and I threw a tank top on under my sweatshirt. And it definitely did get MUCH warmer! But it wasn't unbearable so that was good. I actually don't even mind that our seasonal passes are blocked out for the summer because I couldn't imagine waiting in long lines and trying to do Disney in the summer!

We have pretty much got the parking thing down so we don't have to pay the 10 bucks every time we go, thank goodness. To go to Hollywood Studios, you have to park at the Boardwalk and either walk the 5 minute walk to Hollywood Studios or take the boat. We decided to walk since it was so pretty out and Riley loved it! She even kept her shades on for a while! :-) I just worry about her pale blue eyes hurting so much in that bright sunlight because I know my eyes hurt and I've got much darker eyes than she does. Here she is running on our little walk.

Awe :-)

Just inside the park

Walking the main street entrance

Riley is starting to realize that we're actually not at like, the mall or something. She's sitting up and really looking around like, "Where on earth am I?"

I have a picture almost identical of my brother, sister and I with one of these green army men. I have no idea where it is though :-) You can see that Riley is totally unsure of this dude.

They had a new backdrop this time that someone obviously VERY talented designed. It's behind us in the picture below and it basically is one big piece of cardboard but it's painted with a street going straight up and houses lined on either side. It really made the street we were standing on look like it went MUCH further than it really did.

I absolutely LOVED this hat and we almost got it but it was a bit too big. There was only one size and it was designed for more of like a 5 year old or something. Riley had fun with it though. She is turning into a poser!

Looking in the mirror
She was in LOVE with Goofy on this trip. When she watches, "The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse," she is obsessed with Goofy and shouts out his name. She really likes his character right now...well and of course, Minnie :-)

Here she was hugging Mickey and Goofy and it was so cute :-) I don't know if you can see the pink headband she is wearing but she was hillarious with it on! She was running around shaking her head and the pink Minnie Mouse pom pom things were on a bungie and just bouncing all over the place!

After the store Riley headed directly for the fountain. If Bob had not been holding her, she would have gone RIGHT in. This child LOVES water.
There were tons of pennies in the water so I gave one to Riley and I guess I thought she would hold onto it for a minute but within like the moment the penny touched her hand, she reached around and flung it right into the pond. And then she was shouting, "Penny! Penny!" We gave her one more and she was in 7th heaven doing that. What was really funny was this kid nearby trying to collect all the coins. The mom ran up and was like, "Oh sweetheart, those are people's wishes and we have to leave them there." He looked at her like she had 3 heads. I seriously don't think he understood a word she said.
Okay so now for the REAL reason we came...The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse show. So we got to the outside and Riley heard the music and immediately started dancing. She tilted her head to the side and it was so cute! Here she was next to the showtimes. We went to the 12:10 show.

Since we were the 2nd people in line (we were hardcore serious about seeing this), when we entered, we got to go sit right up front! I was excited because there was a big stage and I thought, "Wow, we'll be right up front when all the characters come out and start dancing!" We were sitting right in front of the stage but there was a very clear thick yellow line that you weren't allowed to cross over. This picture was taken right when we sat down.
Okay so there wasn't any photography allowed during the actual show and we had to wait 10 minutes when we got there so Bob decided to take some pictures while we were waiting. Well I only included one because this will pretty much give you an idea of how it went. A few lessons were learned this day. First, we need to sit more in the back for this show so Riley can SEE. The show was puppets only (no dancers or people in costumes like we thought) and they were so low that it was hard for her to see! She kept trying to stand up to either a) see the show or b) dance to the music and since we were RIGHT up front, she couldn't cross the yellow line. So she was absolutely MISERABLE not being allowed to stand and ONLY allowed to sit in my lap or Bob's lap. Oh MAN did that NOT go over well! ALL of the kids had to sit (and were it seemed...except Riley) but my friend told me that if you sit in the back, a lot more of those kids will stand and dance OR their parents will hold them so they can see. Oh yes...second lesson learned? Teach Riley to obey more :-) Here is how Riley's expression was MOST of the show. I couldn't WAIT to get out of there! Sheer screaming and crying and YES, we were that couple that you look at and think, "Um, why can't you get your child to be quiet?"
Okay so now saving my two favorite pictures (for today) last. I'll have more pictures tomorrow as well :-) We got to see Mickey AND get a picture with him! And would you believe that the very first thing Riley did when we walked up was march right up there and plant a big ole kiss right on his huge black nose (where I'm sure dozens of other kids have kissed, heh-heh). It was so cute! Bob grabbed the camera and snapped right after Riley kissed Mickey's nose and I am below saying, "Awe...so sweet Riley."
Then this guy took our camera and snapped a picture with the 3 of us together. You could buy the professional but we didn't. We'll wait until #2 kid comes along and then maybe ;-)
I'll upload the last pictures from our trip tomorrow!