Halloween

Happy Halloween from the cutest Duck you ever did see. I know its a little late, but better late than never. Riley's first animal sound was "aack aack" so I thought it only appropriate for him to be a duck.

Some of the pictures are out of order, but here is the little man with Nana and Poppy!
Riley and Norah got to spend their second halloweens together, both sticking their fingers in their mouth.

Here are just a few pictures we tried to get of our little ducky and his sweet flower cousin.

I just wanted to get these posted before Thanksgiving happens. Have a good week!

These Days

Things around here have been busy. Riley takes up more and more time and I am loving every minute of it. He is 16 months old and so much fun. I can't believe our little mister is getting bigger every day. Here are just a few things he is loving these days.

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We are trying to soak in as much of the outdoors as we can before it gets to cold. We try to take walks on the days that it is really nice. Here are a few pictures from a walk earlier this week. He loves having the freedom and so much room to roam around. Don't worry i am usually right beside him and make him hold my hand when there are cars around.

"Come on Mom."

Look at my big boy.
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This is a huge shout out to Aunt Rachel. Thanks for the coolest birthday present ever. You didn't know it was going to be a 2 in 1 gift. I had seen this idea somewhere and decided to clean up the summer pool and move it into Riley's room to be his very own ball-pit. I will let the pictures speak for themselves, but I am pretty sure he loves it.

Even Daddy loves it

If you made it this far then you deserve to have an update about Mary Poppins. I absolutely without a doubt loved every minute of the show. I even cried when it was over because I loved it that much. I mean really have you seen Mary Poppins, because there is nothing about it that should make a normal person cry. If you have never seen Mary Poppins, you should. Enough said! I had a "practically perfect" day!

My Childhood Hero

That's right. Mary Poppins is my childhood hero. When I was little I am sure I watched this movie atleast once a week. I wanted so much to be able to snap my fingers to clean my room. Somehow that never worked. I still try it today and it still doesn't work. I know every song in the movie and I say things from the movie all the time that no one really gets except for my mom and dad since they usually had to watch it with me.

Well, a few years ago Broadway took the movie and decided to make it into a live musical. Ever since then I have been obsessed again. As soon as I heard that Mary Poppins was going to be the State Fair musical I knew I had to see it. I knew Russell wouldn't go with me, one because musicals aren't his thing and two, he just doesn't understand my love for Mary Poppins, her carpet bag, and talking bird umbrella. So, I immediately called my mom and said will you and Daddy please go with me. She said of course. So on Sunday at 2 pm. I will get to meet the Broadway version of my childhood hero. I C.A.N.N.O.T. wait. I have been listening to the soundtrack this week and I am interested to see what things are different. I will let you know how it goes. Only 5 days!!!

Cutie

We had to get some new diapers the other day and Riley finally got his hands on them this morning. He was enjoying himself so much. They needed to be taken out anyways and it just motivated me to stick them in their cubby. (BTW: these are the up and up diapers from Target and I just love them. I haven't been brave enough to use them at night, but they work wonderfully during the day.)

Well, Aunt Katie, turns out I was wrong. Apparently Riley does like to accessorize. (Don't tell daddy!) He would put them on, take them off, and repeat. This is the first time I have witnessed this. He just gets more and more entertaining every day. I just love him.

We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo...

On Labor Day we decided to use our zoo passes. It turned out to be a great day and we went early enough that their weren't that many people there yet. The picture are in the wrong order so we will start with the end of the day and go to the beginning of the day.

We took Riley to the petting zoo last and really thought he would love it, but he was soooo not interested. He didn't touch a single animal. He wasn't scared of them or anything he just didn't really care that there were goats.

They have a bird place where you can get a bird seed stick and feed the birds and he really did like that part. He wold get so excited whenever the birds would all of sudden fly from one side to the other. These are the best pictures I got.

Daddy and Riley sitting and watching the elephants and giraffes.

We had a great day and Riley loves getting to see all of the animals. We can't wait to go back!

What's been going on

It's been a busy last few weeks around here. Riley and I both started pre-school last week and this is how I found him during a nap last week. He just looked so cute.

On Friday I decided it was time to give Riley a try feeding himself. He didn't do that bad. We just had some oatmeal and he seemed to enjoy himself. I would say he got the spoon in his mouth 60% of the time.

A few weeks ago Riley was being so funny. He had found his shoe and wanted to wear it so I put it on him. He walked around wearing one shoe for about an hour. He has also started finding Russell's hats and trying to put them on.

Well, that about does it for us right now. Riley keeps us entertained and I am just loving this age. He is so much fun and he is such a sweet baby. I haven't forgotten about menu planning. It is still going a weekly basis and going pretty good. I have a few menus to catch up on and some recipes to put up. I promise to get on those soon. Hope everyone has a great week!

P.S. Aunt Rachel I am sorry for the delay in pictures. Riley has been asking about you, so you might need to come down soon! Love ya

Brown Sugar Chicken (crockpot)

I got pizza for dinner tonight. This is what we are having tomorrow night. I am going to try and half it. I will let you know what happens.

2 pounds boneless, chicken pieces

1 C packed brown sugar

2/3 C vinegar

1/4 C lemon lime soda (sprite)

2-3 T minced garlic

2 T soy sauce

1 t black pepper





Place chicken in crockpot. Combine remaining ingrediants; pour over chicken. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours. Serve over rice or noodles. If you need to thicken the sauce add 1.5 T cornstarch with 2 T water and add to crockpot.



Serves 8-10