A New Nanny!!

Starting at the beginning of November, Cody and I pulled Riley out of the childcare that she was attending and started taking her to “Miss. Amy’s” House. Amy is a wife of an old co-worker and has previously been a nanny and pre-school teacher. Amy has two kids of her own…Anna age 4 and Jude age 9 months. Both of her kids are super cute and very well behaved, something that was very important to us as Riley enters her two’s and is highly influenced by her surroundings.

While we loved the childcare Riley was previously at, with the upcoming flu season and arrival of a new baby, we decided that we didn’t want to deal with the illnesses that would come from keeping her and the new baby at Lincoln Learning Center. In addition, Riley was reaching an age where the adult to child ratio was climbing and climbing…if you know Riley, you know that she is such a busy body needing the stimulation and challenge that comes with one on one attention, which she wasn’t receiving at Lincoln Learning Center. It was a tough choice but we haven’t looked back since!

Riley immediately took to Amy’s family and has thoroughly enjoyed everyday that she has been there. Riley gets so excited to go to Miss. Amy’s in the morning and never wants to leave when I pick her up...I think this is a good sign as Riley would dread going to “school” before. Amy is simply amazing with her…they do tons of fun/educational/seasonal activities, have great meals and even take field trips! Some of the activities that she has enjoyed over the last two months include: field trips to the zoo, picnics at the park, field trips to the railroad park, playing princess dress-up with Anna, baking holiday snacks, arts and crafts of every sort, playing in Amy’s wonderful play room (which has tons of imagination and make-believe toys), jumping on Amy’s outdoor trampoline, taking walks in the neighborhood with the wagon, reading new books that she doesn’t have at home….and much, much more!

Here are some pictures that Amy sends me every week…I just love receiving them while I am at work, they always put a smile on my face! We hope this arrangement with Miss Amy never ends!

Flagstaff Trip With Gracie!

A few weekends ago we drove up to Flagstaff to enjoy the changing leaves and cooler weather...it ended up raining the entire time except for the 10 minutes we were able to capture these pictures. Riley and Gracie enjoyed hanging out with each other! Because of the weather, we spent most of the time in the car, which wasn't enjoyable for anyone...next time we will check the weather before heading north!

A "Lady Bug With Wings"

For Halloween, Riley was a ladybug (she says a "ladybug with wings"). Riley loved to twirl in her big tutu and wear her head piece.

We had been practicing how to trick-or-treat and Riley did great when the night arrived! We went trick-or-treating with Cousin Siena and Arianna (grandparents, aunts and uncles included). Siena was a princess and Ari was Alice from Alice in Wonderland...all were adorable! We started the night out on foot but quickly ended up in the red wagon; Riley's red sparkly shoes were hurting her feet but too cute to take off :). Riley only ate one piece of candy the entire night...a blue sucker (all other candy was donated to the kids trick-or-treating at our door).

Unfortunately, Riley has been under the weather (croup cough since Thursday)...she was a trooper through the night but after bath time all she wanted to do was go to sleep...no book, no milk, no rocking....straight to sleep.

Here are some picture of our little ladybug...

Smiley Riley

As you can tell, Riley is way too used to me taking pictures. In our most recent photo shoot, Riley had to wear her new pink bathing suit...it took quite a compromise to remove the bright yellow Crocks and black tutu to get these pictures.

Besides the yellow Crocks, the most current obsession is having a "pony"...that is a pony tail. While there isn't much hair to pull up, we are finding a way. As expected, Riley always has to choose the color of the pony tail holder along with every other article of clothing. We are quite noticeable when we appear in public, bright yellow shoes, blue socks, purple shorts, green shirt and a red pony...

Last weekend, we drove up to Big Lake (just outside of Greer in the White Mountains) and spent two nights (well, technically one) camping. Riley was amazing during the 5 hour car drive...Uncle Pat sitting next to her probably helped! We arrived late in the evening to find Charles, Amy and Siena already set-up and sitting down for a hot dog dinner. Riley and Siena ran around in the dark for hours before they went to sleep. Riley slept in a little bed next to our air mattress inside a tent. She sleep the entire night and woke up in such a great mood...she loved being outside. On Saturday, we made breakfast burritos, took a few walks and said bye to dad as he ventured off on his day long bike ride up and down the Sunrise ski mountain. While he was biking, we drove to a creek, took a nap and walked down to the lake. It was raining off and on all day but on our way back from the lake, it started pouring rain...we got soaked! It rained the rest of the day and so we hung out inside the tent and the car...by the time the guys got back from biking, we were so wet, cold and tired (with no dry clothes and leaking tents), we decided to abandon the campsite and find a hotel for the night. As Charles' said, "We started our first family camping trip with 4 tents and ended with 3 hotel rooms". We returned to the campsite on Sunday to collect our gear, played for a while and then drove back home.

Here are some pictures from Riley's first camping trip...