Richard & Michelle: August and a little more catch up...

Alrighty folks, August 2014. Life is still good. Richard went back to school on the 25^th, so it’s been me and Riley against the world again. She drives me nuts (let us be honest and open here). She has this terrible two thing down to a science. She’s good with tantrums, acting stubborn, acting out in public, she even gets that defiant look in her eyes when she knows she’s making some sort of stand. Like when we went to the dollar store and I needed to check out. She stood by the glow sticks with that special glimmer in her eye and her mouth set in a sneer. Until she saw some creeper dressed in a Manning shirt coming at her from down the aisle. Then she moved quickly. But there are days that I don’t think she’ll make it through. I don’t know how she always lives to see another day but she does.

· She likes to wake up at a wonderful time of anywhere from 4-8 and join me in bed. I’m not really enjoying this like she does. If Richard has already left for school she stays in the bed and pretty much kicks me out. It’s a queen bed but she likes to lay on it horizontal instead of vertical. So she kicks me in the ribs until I get up. Fantastic. If Richard is still home then she’ll fall asleep and I’ll have him take her back to her bed where she will stay and come back when Richard leaves.

· She’s obsessed with root beer. I had a Pepsi last night and I had set it by my feet against the couch. She accidentally knocked it over so I went to get paper towels (which we didn’t have) and then Richard thought to get an old raggedy towel and by the time we got back she was laying on her stomach licking the carpet where it had spilled.

· She’s also in love with My Little Pony. She even knows all their names. I love listening to her identify each pony in her little voice. It’s seriously the most adorable thing ever.

· She’s moved from her little rubber band pony tail holders to mine. It wraps around her pony 4 times. It holds a billion times better than the little rubber band ones. I can’t believe she’s big enough to use a real pony tail holder.

· She’s still excellent at identifying her alphabet. Like she’s seriously amazing at it. She also knows her numbers for the most part through ten. And she also knows the number 18 of all the random things. The number 18 appears in her Team Umizoomi Look and Find book. I’m pretty sure she knows it because Peyton Manning is her favorite.

· She loves the Broncos. I don’t know if she really knows who or what they are but whenever she sees the Bronco logo she gets excited and yells “Broncos!!” Taught her well.

· Riley loves to sing. A lot. All day long. She has a Little People Princess Castle and a few princesses to go with it. She’ll push them until they come to the short snippet of a song they sing and sing every last word in each sentence. She tries to get them all but she just can’t get it yet. She loves watching movies that have songs so she can sing with them.

· She still won’t ditch the pacifier. I need to crack down on it but just can’t bring myself to do it yet.

· She calls her cousins Abbie, Paige and Bailey and her Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Kirby her friends. Whenever I ask if she wants to see her friends she thinks that is who I am referring to. Last night Richard went out with the Elder’s quorum to visit a few people and she was upset so I told her daddy was spending time with his friends. So she looked at me for a second then said “Paige?”

· We went to the zoo with Taelor and Lenay last week and had a blast. They had the new safari thing out. Riley loved the train and the carrousel. She also loved the giraffes and the ostrich.

So Richard is back in school and doing all sorts of fun stuff there. He also started his new job in Salt Lake yesterday. He’s staying busy. I’ve been trying all sorts of stuff on my new sewing machine my parents got me for my birthday. I even made Riley a big pony that she loves. And NFL starts TOMORROW!!! My life is complete once again. It doesn’t get any better than fantasy football, reading books, doing crafts and my defiant 2 year old.

We love when Lenay comes to play. We're going to miss them when they move!

I straightened her hair a little. It didn't stay straight all day.

We went bowling on my birthday. My parent's were in town so my mom came too!

Riley with her Grandma's on the 4th of July

She loves her Monsters University backpack

Abbie reading to Riley

Riley playing with sweet little Bailey

Just cute

This picture cracks me up. Riley looks evil. And those are their matching swimsuits!

Riley adores her cousins Kami and Abbie. She wanted to play with them the whole time

Her fantastic boots we got for $15. We went to City Creek with my mother-in-law Marie one day and did some shopping.

We also found this Buzz Lightyear at the Disney store. Riley walked around after we got home and took him out the box, just looking at him and saying "I lobb it. I lobb it"

Swimming

This is the changing table I had to use at Joann's one day. I have no idea why it was so close to the ground. I seriously had to kneel to change her diaper.