Christmas At Our House

It starts with the most perfect Christmas Eve. We finished wrapping presents with Riley and made our cookies for Santa. Riley decorated 4 cookies to leave for Santa, milk and some carrots for the reindeer. We wrote a note to the Jolly Fat Man and set it out. It was time to brush teeth and get in bed. I read "Night Before Christmas" to Riley and he wanted to hear it again, this time from dad. When the story was finished I let Riley know that it was time for lights out. "One more minute mom" was his response. "Ok." But before that minute was up he was fast asleep, with the lights still on... This couldn't have gone any better than this. Until... 4am... Riley pops up in the bed and says, "I am going to check on the cookies." He did everything he could to stay awake until he finally passed back out at 6.

Fast forward to 9ish when I hear stirrings in the bedroom so I went and crawled in bed with the boys. It took Riley a minute before he even asked about Santa. When he did we ran out to the living room to see what he left. Immediately Riley found his gift from Santa-his new tool bench-and started playing with it. We really figured he'd go for all the wrapped presents, but he ignored them as he was into his tools. When we fianlly could pull him away from it, he went and woke my niece Megan and her boyfriend Seth to come down for presents.

We opened all our presents which Riley had an absolute ball and played most of the day. Did I mention that when Riley got up at 4, I never went back to sleep... I made the pies, started the stuffing and got the turkey prepared before everyone woke up. We ended up eating dinner around 2 (I got an hour nap in there thank goodness) and enjoyed some good company with Meg and Seth. It was such a joy having them here to share this holiday with us.

Seth and Megan played with Riley all day long. When they had to leave he was devestated. He waved bye reluctantly and we came back in the house...

Christmas this year was everything I hoped. It wasn't just hype. It was pure joy with Riley as he was so incredibly excited about everything. I can't wait til next year, though this 4 am thing is way to early, even for this night shifter!!!!

Farewell to a great friend...

I didn't want to jinx it by saying anything too soon, but on December 6th, Riley lost his beloved Binky. The Binky Fairy came to our house that day(without us knowing) and retrieved all of his Binky's to distribute to all the babies that didn't have any. Since Riley was such a big boy (and wow, 3 years old now) he no longer needed it.

The first night was pitiful. The little man whined, "Binky, Binky, I need my blue Binky, ahhhhhh", and "where are you blue Binky? which almost made the Binky Fairy give in and bring it back!!!
Nap time day 2. MUCH worse as he threw a 1 1/2 hour tantrum screaming for his Binky.
The subsequent days following got much better. He would ask about it or mention it and dad and I have learned to laugh with him about it "what Binky? You are a big boy and don't have a Binky anymore!"

He has pretty much given up on his beloved at this point in time, but I am sure that Blue Binky will never be forgotten!!

The Christmas Parade

We happened upon the Murfreesboro Christmas Parade completely by accident yesterday. Justin was fussing at me for taking him the long way around on our way to Walmart. We were in the left turn lane at MTSU when a police car pulled right in front of our lane and he hopped out of his car. That's when we noticed all of the people lining the street ahead of us and all the commotion in the parking lot. So that is the beginning our parade adventure.

We found a great spot where there were only a few people at the very beginning of the parade route. I can't explain the tears I had running down my face as I watched Riley, seeing a parade for the first time. Justin looked at me strangely and asked "what's wrong with you?" I had to laugh because I didn't know where the tears came from. But it was an amazing site watching my sweet boy waving and yelling "Merry Christmas" to everyone that went by in the parade.

Our first parade experience with Riley will not soon leave my mind. It was pure joy seeing him dance along with the dance troops, waving at the beauty queens and grinning from ear to ear. As if I wasn't already in the Christmas spirit...

Riley does CPR

I am a CPR instructor and sometimes teach at our house. This summer I taught a small class in my living room and I had a little visitor. Riley crept in and sat in the corner of the couch and every so often he would put his hands together and press on the couch (in compression style).

For a while, he "saved" all his babies on a daily basis. Here is an example of "Anyone can learn CPR" (at least to an extent--he was 2 1/2 here).

Family Pictures

We did a mini photo shoot today-looking to get some decent family pictures. Not real thrilled with them but here is one I kind of like....

Little Drummer Boy

My sweet Little Drummer Boy with his Craigslist Drums... (There is my shameless plug for Craigslist!!). Riley loves his new drums that we got up in Nashville this week. We need to get some video of him to share..

Visit with Santa

Riley got to see Santa today at the mall. He actually enjoyed it, wasn't scared, didn't cry and actually LAUGHED! It was sweet. Santa was asking him real quietly what he wanted for Christmas "can you remember one thing you wanted?" as Riley just sat there, being uncharacteristicly quiet.

This was quite the change from the last 2 years of tears with Santa. Justin had been prepping him, talking about Santa and we've been watching all the Christmas Movies we can. The Peanuts, Rudolph the Rednose Raindeer, Felix Saves Christmas- over and over and over again.

I am so incredibly excited about the holiday this year. We have our tree up for the first time in a few years, a few misc. decorations scattered about and a whole lot of Christmas Cheer coming from our way.

Trimming of the Tree

The music from our Favorite Christmas CD (Martina McBride "White Christmas") plays in the background as we start to decorate for the holidays. This is a holiday season we won't soon forget. This year was a first for Riley as he is finally big enough to help with the decorating. Help might be an exaggeration (just kidding). He was in a rush to get as many ornaments on the same branch as possible. He really did enjoy decorating the tree and kept looking for more things to add.


Riley's first decoration added to our tree.


We really wanted to go the real tree route this year, but Riley's crankiness won out and we didn't stay long at the Christmas Tree Farm. Oh well, at least we looked. Maybe next year.
The decorating is not complete yet, as we want to put lights on our deck but not overkill. Simple. Pretty.






Daddy helping Riley get an ornament high up on the tree.
















"Come on dad, let's put that on top."

Fall Fun and Being Thankful

The Thanksgiving Holiday has come and gone, with our family having travelled to North Carolina. The trip there seemed to take forever. We got there late Tuesday night. We were able to visit with the family. Wednesday served up a cranky Riley who hadn't been getting enough sleep and a bit of grocery shopping for the big day.

Thanksgiving day started out normal. We did some cooking, (well my MIL and SIL)--I didn't get to cook much-part of the stuffing. Cooked for hours-ate for minutes... LOL isn't that how it goes.

We had an amazing time hanging out with my husbands family (his mom and step dad, sister and BIL, nephews and niece in law to be) as we always do. They are wonderful people and so much fun to be around.

I love that first pic of Riley, he and I were on a walk, he was walking ahead of me. Kind of makes me sad... The second pic he was picking up leaves as they were blowing all over on this windy, rainy day.

Friday afternoon we did some post Thanksgiving shopping, while Riley hung out with Granny for a couple of hours. Found a few great things from Santa for my little guy (and a couple of things for mommies and daddies).

The trip home on Saturday was nice. We had to start the trip by going to Best Buy and getting Riley a new DVD player-(8 hours in the car and no DVD player with a 3 year old....UGH). The mountains are so beautiful and the scenery through NC and TN is amazing. Can't wait to go again to visit.

I truly am blessed and Thankful everyday for my wonderful family and life...

Birthdays, Monkeys and Riley... Oh MY!

Ok first off I have blogged once (a year ago) so please bear with me...

Yesterday we celebrated my sweet sons 3rd birthday. We had a nice party here at the house with many of our friends in attendance. This is our first year not having the big bash in Michigan.

Riley had so much fun. He got many fun gifts that are driving dad and I crazy already. Paybacks, I know. I must say I'm glad I never bought anyone's kids drums...