mERRY cHRISTMAS

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. It was so much fun cause Riley actually understood the whole Santa Claus thing this year. He was so excited and he wanted a baby drum (a small drum) and a trampobean(trampoline). Santa came thru and got him what he wanted! Aiden was just like eh'whatever! He does have fun with his toys. They both have fun with each others toys too. Steven got me a wheat grinder I have been wanting along with some bread pans. Hint, Hint for what's to come! Joyce got all of her children's families a BOSCH! I love it. I haven't bought bread from the store since then. Steven absolutely loves that part. He has been begging since we have been married to bake him bread. My excuse was it took to long and was too hard. Now it is so simple. Thanks Katie for your awesome recipe.

hAPPY bIRTHDAY aIDEN!!

Aiden turned one year old on December 4th! I can't believe it has already been a year since the little stinker was born. Just like last December, this one didn't go real great either. Aiden and I were both sick on his birthday. I got over my sickness in a couple of days. Aiden, however, wasn't as lucky. His lasted 2 weeks. Let me tell you, 2 weeks of vomiting and diarrhea are NOT fun! We finally got to have a party for Aiden. He was so fun! He would open a present then we would all clap cause Aiden would get super excited and start clapping also. He is such a cutie even though he can be a handful! Love you so much sweetie!

hAPPY hALLOWEEN!

The boys were so dang cute! I decided we were going to have a more traditional Halloween this year and not buy costumes. I was going to do with what we already had laying around and be creative! Riley was going to be a pirate and Aiden was a scarecrow! Aiden's was way easy. I just got overalls and a flannel shirt. He was suppose to have straw coming out of his hands and feet but of course good ol' Wal-Mart was out of rafia. So he went without. Riley, I just cut some sweat pants and got him white shirt. We had some old pj's that had a hole in them so I made a belt and head-band out of them. I did buy him a sword to complete the costume though. Riley had so much fun! That's what counts right!

pEACOCKS

So Steven and Riley were driving down the road where we lived in the trailor, heading to the arena. The Cluff's who live down the way have A LOT of peacocks. They are always in and around the road. We even have to sometimes wait for them to move out of the way before we can keep driving. This particular day one was out by the road and had his feathers all spread out. It obviously was the first time Riley had seen, or noticed, them. He got all excited and was like, "Look daddy look!" Steven asked "what is that Riley?" Riley responded, "It's a FLOWER CHICKEN!!" Steven loved it. He had to call me and tell me what he'd just said. This is too dang adorable!

tIGHT sPACES

Britt came to play last week and the boys were having so much fun playing in the back yard. I had Riley's little pool out there with just a little water in it but it was starting to get really nasty and the toys were a bit slimmy. I asked them not to get in it yet, that I would clean it out and refill it with clean water. I got them all squared away and then remembered I bought Aiden a tiny pool too. I blew it up and put the water in it and he LOVED it! The bigger boys thought that maybe it would be fun to get in with Aiden. They all barely fit! It was too dang cute!

aIDEN LOVES TO SPLASH

CHEESE:)

nOT mUCH rOOM tO sWIM

wHO kNOWS?

bYE, bYE! i'M oUTTA hERE bOYS!

bIRTHDAY pICTURES!!

hERE ARE A FEW PICS FROM rILEY'S SPECIAL DAY!!

Getting ready to blow out the candles

Good job Riley!!

I like this cupcake!

Here's my new belt

Look at my new, cool chaps!

bLOGGING sLACKER

OKay Okay I have been such a slacker. Everytime I would even think about getting on the computer something would happen or Steven would be in here working. So that's my excuse for being a slacker. It's all Steven's fault. A lot has happened in the last month. Aiden now has two cute little teeth and his grouchily working on two more. (is grouchily a word?) He crawls like a little super hero and is starting to cruise around the furniture. He has let go a couple of times and has stood on his own for a couple of seconds. He is Mr. independent when it comes to feeding himself. He will no longer let me feed him. AT ALL! HE has to do it all himself, so I have been trying to find things that are ok for him to eat. He is still a little mama's boy, but is now starting to cling to daddy also. It is hard to be a good housewife and keep the place clean you know, he is always wanting me. But I do try!! Aiden is such a sweet little thing. When he is not mad he is always smiling and is very ticklish! Riley has now turned "3" he is such a big boy!! We had cake and ice cream with the family and he loved it. Riley is such a little character. He is my little mr. personality! He says the cutest things and I know I should be writing them all down. I tell myself I'll remember and write it down later but then I seem to forget. I am trying to be better at that. It seems like yesterday when I was in the hospital having him. He gave us all a little scare. Well Steven and the rest of the family anyway. I was the only one staying calm and collective. I knew it would all be ok. I was right! We were all ok and I had the most perfect little boy in the world! Now I have two of the most perfect little boys! I am not biased at all! Since I missed posting the day of his Birthday I'd like to tell him now HAPPY BIRTHDAY RILEY! I love you so much! You bring such happiness in my life, I wouldn't know what I would do without you. You are such a contagious little boy!

rOAD tRIP

We decided it would be best if we headed up to Showlow and pick up Riley after he asked to call us and tell us that he still wanted to come home. Soooo we left Wednesday morning about 7 am. Stopped in at my moms to use her car and hit the road about 8:15am. We got to Showlow and Shar said start heading to Sunrise Ski Resort. We finally made it and I was surprised to see how Riley's eyes looked. Not just the eye part but actually around them. He had these red bumps and some looked liked they had some pus in them. Well I really did not like the way they looked so I called my doctor's office and scheduled him an apointment for that afternoon at 4:30pm. Steven wanted to visit a few places for insurance and then we were off. We mad it back by about 4:35pm and got to see Dr. Kartchner. He looked at his eyes and asked if he had any of the bumps anywhere else on his body. I wasn't sure cause we hadn't looked. He left the room awhile and we didn't find anymore on his body. Dr. came back in and as we were talking his pager went off. He said he needed to answer it cause it was about Riley. He came back in again and said he wanted him t0 see Dr. Walker at Southwest Eye and that he was on his way back from Wilcox. He'd be at his office in about 30 min. Dr. Kartchner gave us a prescription for antibiotics cause he thought on his forehead was impetigo. We dropped that off at Wal-Mart and then went and waited outside Dr. Walker's office cause it was 5:30pm. Dr. Walker finally got there and Riley sat on my lap in the eye exam chair. He asked Riley to put his chin in the chin strap and his forehead up on the band. I thought we were going to have a fight. To my surprise Riley did totally awesome. I was so proud of him!! It finally all came down to Riley having basically fever blisters coming out around his eyes. How stinkin' crazy! We had to go back to MGFP and find Dr. Kartchner's window and knock so he could give us another RX. We finally got home after picking up Aiden at about 7pm. It was one crazy long day and was so glad for it to be over!!

uPDATE

wE CALLED sHAR THIS MORNING AND rILEY HAS NO MORE FEVER AND IS PLAYING AND HAVING FUN. hE SAYS HIS EYE HURTS BUT i SENT UP SOME EYE DROPS i HAD FROM THE DOCTOR SO THAT SHOULD HOPEFULLY START GETTING BETTER. i AM JUST GREATFUL HIS FEVER IS GONE AND HE IS PLAYING. hOPEFULLY IT STAYS THAT WAY AND DOESN'T GET ANY WORSE!

sO sAD

Well I posted this morning about my little Riley being so excited to go camping with Roni (Seth), and now I am so sad for him. Shar called and asked if I knew his eye was red, I said "yeah, but I figured he had gotten dirt in it and it was just irritated." Today I guess it has gotten quite worse and now he is complaining about it. She called again this evening and now he is runnin a fever. Poor little guy, I am so sad for him. We may be taking a trip up North to pick him up in the morning. I already have asked my mom if we can borrow her Beetle(great on the fuel dept) and have gotten Aiden a great babysitter.

hAPPY bIRTHDAY gRANDMA

I just wanted to tell my Grandma Aileen Happy 80th Birthday. She probably would not be happy if she new I was posting this. All the family got together to celebrate at Bush and Shurtz. Here are some pics of the great day.

The Birthday cake

Steven and Aiden

Great Grandma Aileen and Raeleigh Aileen

Katie and Karlee

Grandma and my mom

Riley-Parker-Kayla

Parker-Riley-Britt

bATHTIME

Aiden is growing so big now. He has been sitting up now for well over a month. It is crazy how time is just flying right on by. It makes me think of how I need to enjoy every minute while my kids are still little. I finally got the two little munchkins in the tub together the other day. Well actually I was giving Aiden his bath and Riley wanted to know if he could get in with him. So of course I had to take a few snap shots taking their first bath together!

"i aM a bIG bOY"

Sharleen was heading out to her family reunion up north and was going to borrow our camping trailer. The boys needed to fix a couple things on it first so they were out in our garage doing so. Seth told Riley they were going camping so naturally Riley wanted to go. Shar asked if that would be ok. Steven and I didn't mind since Riley was sooo excited about it. I think dad was trying to talk him out of it cause he kept telling him that he wouln't see mommy and daddy for a long time. He would also tell him he would miss him so much and Riley would just reply "ok". After packing they were headed out Sunday afternoon. Riley still was so excited. I could tell daddy still wasn't too excited. He waved good bye and they were off. Shar called to tell us they had made it. Riley was doing great. Shar asked him if he was going to cry and he said, "NO I'm a BIG boy and I'm Strong"! What a little character we have. Last night was a little odd not having him here. Mommy and daddy miss him already!

Riley waving bye!

hAPPY tHIRD bIRTHDAY sETH

Better late than never right? Just wanted to send a Happy Birthday to Seth-a-roni!! Hope your day was awesome!

hAPPY 40TH mOM & dAD!

July 18th was my parents 40th Wedding Anniversary! I just wanted to let them know how much I love them and wish them a happy anniversary!

eAR iNFECTIONS

Ok so last Friday I took Aiden in for his shots. He did really well and I knew he would be cranky for a day or two. Well lets make that SEVEN!! That Sunday he started hanging his head down to the left. That's when I suspected he had an ear infection. He also had a runny nose. He didn't have a fever so I didn't want to take him in. I have taken him twice now when he has had a fever and there was nothing they could find wrong or anything they could give him. So he has been the crankiest ever! Wednesday evening he started running a slight fever. The next morning I was going to call and make an appointment for the little guy. We got in at 3:10pm with Carolyn McCormmies. I was right. He not only had an ear infection but he had TWO, and an upper respiratory infection. So needless to say he got some meds and now we are on our way to healing! Yippie! He is already acting a little better!!

hAPPY iNDEPENDENCE dAY

We went to Alpine for the big Fourth of July weekend with my family and had a lot of fun. We left Wednesday night and didn't get there until 9:30 am. The plan was to leave Thursday morning but Steven got an itch and decided at 3:15pm that we should leave Wednesday. Grandma Joyce had just picked up Riley to go watch Wall-e. So we packed the Trailor in a mad dash. I thought I had all afternoon and evening to pack before leaving the next morning so I wasn't in a hury. Well we finally made it out of town about 6:30pm. My parents, Travis and Wendi and their boys and Kolby, Sas and their kids all stayed in the cabin. The first day of fishin' was not successful. We went to Big Lake and Travis is the only one who caught a dang thing. Steven was not happy about that. Saturday was the best day for fishing waswhen they went to Nelson's Lake. They all caught the fish and the boys were so excited to eat them that night. That afternoon driving from the lake to the cabin Steven saw a herd of elk so after we ate Steve and I took the boys for a ride to see if we could find the elk again. Well we did and Steven was so excited. It was about 15 bull elk that were huge!! We didn't have the camera so we went back to get the camera and everyone else. We were talking about getting a picture and Riley blurted out that he didn't want to stand by the "milk" for the picture! It was so cute he kept calling them milks then he finally caught on saying elk. After watching them for quite a while we decided to leave and Riley was mad. He said he wanted to take them to the arena and rope' em. The parade in Springerville on Friday morning was good. Riley was really excited that the were throwing candy at him to have. He thought that was a pretty cool thing! We made it home Sunday afternoon just in time for the big rain storm! We got about 2 inches down here at our house. We thought we were going to float away. So now today is the joy of unpacking! Yippie!