Richard & Michelle: This is embarassing...

Well it’s been ages since I’ve updated this thing. Looking at the last post and pictures makes me realize how long it's actually been. Riley looks like a baby compared to now! Riley is still alive and well. She’s 2 ½ and such a pain in the butt. She’s done lots of things since I’ve last written. I’ll try to hit the major stuff.

· She speaks a lot now. Still not sure if she’s up to speed with other kids her age but she’ll figure it out.

· Favorite foods include cheese, fruit snacks, squeezies (the fruit and vegetable purees), French fries, raisins, candy, ice cream (which she asks for every morning for breakfast despite the reoccurring answer of no), yogurt, and grapes. She hates almost all meat and refuses to even try it. But she will eat broccoli, corn and carrots.

· We visited Colorado back in March. Riley had a blast playing with her cousin Caleb, even if he did bite her finger and take her pacifier making her cry. He made up for it by having a really awesome play tunnel for her to crawl through. She was pretty good in the car but she insisted on watching the movie Curious George over and over. I’m pretty sure we watched it at least 7 or eight times to and from Colorado.

· Uncle Jason was a good buddy while he was here for the semester. She loved having him read to her every week. She even gave hugs and kisses.

· She’s super clingly in nursery still. Not sure why. Not like I’ve ever left her there to fend for herself.

· She has overcome her fear of slides. We got a small slide that folds up for our living room and after she figured out that it’s actually quite fun to do a slide all by yourself she loves them. Even when we go to McDonald’s play place she will spend the entire time going down the small blue slide. She hardly ever ventures all the way to the big yellow one.

· She’s starting to potty train a little. We haven’t really been focusing on it but her cousin Paige was in town and she was potty training so it was good for Riley to see how it works. She’ll sometimes tell us she has to poop or pee and we’ll go sit on the potty. I think she really goes so that she can play with the toilet paper.

· We got her a giant Buzz Lightyear doll, the hard plastic one, yesterday and she walked around last night with him saying “I lobb it! I lobb it!” She’s truly in love with Buzz. She might be him for Halloween this year.

· Bragging moment: She’s been able to recognize the alphabet since about February. You can point to a letter and ask her which one it is and she can tell you. Just want everyone to know she’s brilliant. Seriously. This girl is smart. She’s getting better with her numbers too.

· She seems to have a very logical and methodical mind. When she plays with toys she doesn’t do a make believe sort of thing, she likes to line her toys up and then knock them down and do it all over again.

· Richard’s sister Bonnie and her family came to visit the last couple weeks. Riley had a blast playing with her cousins Abbie, Paige and Bailey. Paige is about 8 months older than Riley so they had a good time together. They even had the same swimsuit. It was the most adorable thing ever.

· Speaking of swimsuits Riley is obsessed with swimming. She doesn’t care if it’s the tiny kiddie pool we have on our little deck or the actual swimming pool we get to visit with Taelor and Lenay. She loves the water. She’s also pretty skilled with the soccer ball. She uses both feet to kick it in front of her. Athletic little child.

Riley has obviously stayed busy the last several months. She’s super tall. Like off the charts tall for a 2 year old. Last time I weighed her she was 34 pounds. Way too heavy for me to carry but she loves pretending to be a baby. She loves playing with her little friends. Lenay is still her favorite. She also loves helping with chores like laundry and vacuuming. She does multiple timeouts during the day because she lacks the ability to listen. And she likes to hit and kick. We’re working on that. She still takes one nap a day as long as we’re home. If we are out and about she’ll usually skip the nap and then she’s super grumpy that evening. But she’s getting super big so fast. I miss my baby! But I love my little toddler.

Richard is still in school. Hopefully one more year and he’ll be done! He’s staying busy with work, and school in a couple weeks. He was also just called to be the 2^nd councilor in the Elder’s quorum at church. I think he’s excited to work with the guys that were called with him. He still loves working on his truck and seeing his buddies from when he worked at Codale in Ogden. He also loves going to the pool and playing with Riley and Lenay. He also loves looking on KSL at cars for sale. We can’t buy them but he wants to look.

I’m busy with Riley at home. Fantasy football starts soon. I’ve got three drafts coming up this week. I’m so excited!! I’ve also got about 5 or 6 craft and sewing projects going. I need to get them done. I’m about halfway through all of them. I’ve also been reading lots of book still. Try to find time to get it all done. I’m still in nursery at church. I’ve been in there for about 2 years.

We’re excited for Richard to be finishing school and excited for Riley to be learning so much so fast. It’s been a fast summer and we look forward to the fall and winter coming fast!

These are pictures from January 2014-April 2014. I'll try to catch up more later!