Santa and Gingerbread Houses

!!!!BREAKING NEWS!!!!

We went to see Santa today and Riley DID NOT CRY!!! Shocking! I was so proud of her. They both did great, although I knew Lincoln would. Riley, that's a different story. She even cracked a smile...once. Many of you may recall last year's Santa disaster.

When asked what she wants for Christmas this year she sweetly replies "Milk". Ahhh...to be young again. If all we got her was milk, we'd have a lot more $$ in our bank account. Although, she probably would be happy with a big sippy of milk in her stocking. I'm so excited for this Christmas and for Riley to open all her gifts that we got her (which, is probably way too many). But, we love spoiling the kids as much as possible :). Although we love spoiling them, we also want to teach them the true meaning of Christmas...Christ's birth. Riley sings "Happy Birthday Day, Baby Jesus" all day long. I hope and pray that we don't let the festivities and presents get in the way of teaching our children about the real meaning of the celebration.

We've also continued the tradition that my mom started when we were little, making homemade gingerbread houses. Ty and I have done it since we've been married and have also done it since Riley was born. This year was Lincoln's first time, but he slept through most of it. Riley had a blast making the gingerbread houses, although I'm pretty sure that she enjoyed eating the candy more than anything. We use graham crackers and homemade frosting (a recipe given to me by my mom, who was given the same recipe from her great-grandmother) We also had licorice, m and m's, candy corn, etc. The only time she normally gets candy is when she goes potty on her potty seat, so tonight was a treat!!

Here I am, making the homemade frosting.

Riley and Daddy working on the sides of the house.

Helping her frost the house...

Stop for a family picture...


I love this picture of Lincoln, none of us were paying attention, except for him :).


Riley was concentrating so hard!!


She didn't like it when the frosting got on her hands, so she kept telling me to lick it off. She's quite the neat freak and perfectionist (I wonder who she gets that from...)???!!

The final product! (Front)


The final product (Back)!

The funny things they do and say...

I started this blog in order to capture what goes on in our everyday lives, to keep friends and family updated and so I'd never forget the precious moments as our children grow up. For this reason, I have attempted to write some things down that Riley says and does, so here are just a few of the MANY:



Everytime you ask Riley if she wants something, or likes something that requires her to saying "yes", she, instead of just plainly saying yes, says "Yeah, I do" in the cutest little voice.



She takes her clothes/diaper off (as you all know) every nap and bed time and lately I've been threatening spankings if she continues because I'm so sick of cleaning up poop off of the walls and changing sheets...so like the sneakly little thing she is, she takes her pants off, diaper off, and then puts her pants BACK ON so I dont notice that she took her diaper off until it's too late.



She hates going potty in the "big girl potty" and will scream her little head off, then when she actually goes she stops crying and starts clapping and asking for candy!



If I tell her no to something, she says back to me "No, no, no, Shelby"...



...speaking of my name, she hasn't called me "Mommy" or "Mom" or "Momma" in 2 days...it's ALWAYS Shelby. How do I get her to stop, I hate that :)??!!



When I try to get her to say her ABC's, she'll start saying "A, B, C, D...all done". Then I say keep going Ri and she says back to me "No, Shelby, I'm all done". haha



To Riley, it's Grandma's birthday EVERYDAY. It's actually a lot of people's birthday everyday because she loves singing that song.

What do you think??

Here's another one for those of you who don't think Ri and Lincoln look a-like :)...

Lincoln's 1st time sitting up...

Riley's first time sitting up...

...I think they're starting to look more and more alike everyday!

ABC's and sitting up

Riley officially knows her ABC's...well she has for a while, but will never sit long enough for me to get video of it...until last week:

We've been working on them for a little while now and she normally says them a little more clearly than she does in the video, but you get the point. Such a smart little thing! I had to cut the video off before she started "now I know my ABC's, next time won't you sing with me..." because she started coloring on the wall...YIKES!! We're working on counting to 20 now--she's got 1-10 down, now it's 11-20. :)

Another milestone we've reached is Lincoln sitting all by himself (well with the boppy, just in case he takes a spill.) I didn't know when he officially started sitting by himself, but lately he's sitting for long periods of time. He's also still army crawling ALL the time and can get everywhere...he's even starting to get on his hands and knees and rock back and forth.

Lincoln sitting at 7 months!

When the kids go to bed...

....we play Rockband :)...Like I don't have more to do with my precious time when the kids are sleeping, right?? :)

This was my first time playing and I suck, we didn't even get through half of the song because it was too hard for me (and that was on easy mode:)).

We're dorks, we are well aware of that :).

A GREAT deal...

So my favorite store the past few weeks/months has been Walgreens. I get CRAZY deals there!! I mean crazy...

This is what I got tonight, in one shopping trip:

1 pack of schick disposable razors
5 cartons of Orange juice
11 rolls of aluminium foil
21 boxes of Robitussin (medicine)
2 boxes of Ziplock bags
4 large bags of Reese's (for cookies--not all for me to eat :))
1 Kit-Kat (for me to eat :))
4 Arm and Hammer laundry detergents (I've never used it...we'll see??)
2 All laundry detergents
1 Cascade dishwasher soap
14 packages of bandaids
1 box of Fruitloops
24 Christmas gift bags
2-3 packs of Scotch tape

I "spent" $42.00-ish that I paid with a gift card, got $48.00 back in Register Rewards and will be getting back $25.00 in mail-in-rabates. That means I got all of this stuff for FREE, plus I actually made $30.00!!! Crazy, huh??!?

No, I'm not planning on keeping all of it. I'll either donate it to a homeless shelter or to Jennie's food pantry :).

Lincoln's Army Crawl

Lincoln has become increasingly more mobile over the past couple of weeks. His new trick..."army crawling". First he started getting everywhere by rolling and now he's figured out how to use his chubby legs to "propel" himself forward. Now, at 6 1/2 months, he's getting all over the house. Yesterday morning I was giving Riley a bath and Lincoln was playing in the living room; in the matter of 5-6 minutes he ended up at the bathroom door grinning at me! I'm not sure if I'm ready for two babies who can get into EVERYTHING!

Poor little guy is SO fussy lately, he and Riley are sick again. I took them in yesterday and he's got his very first ear infection and Riley has a double ear infection. This is also the first time Riley has ever had an ear infection--hard to believe she's gone more than two years without one! Enjoy the video.

Thanksgiving

I realize that I'm a little bit late on this post...but better late than never right? We had a wonderful Thanksgiving, spent with lots of family. We went to my dad's side of the family--to my Aunt and Uncle's house. Dinner and desert was delicious, as always and time spent with family is never long enough. Riley loves Nani and Papa and calls them constantly--I think that's why I went over on my phone minutes last month (seriously). She also got to see my cousins who she's always been fond of (especially Britton--not to be confused with my sister-in-law, yes they have the exact same name now). When she was a baby he was the only one who was able to hold her without her screaming. This time she branched out and spent most of her time with Whitney, reading books and eating raisins :).

Riley and Lincoln in their Thanksgiving outfits.

My little old man.

Riley and Whitney reading a book.

Britton and Riley

Papa and Nani with Riley and Lincoln.

I can't say enough about how thankful I am for my family--for Ty, Riley and Lincoln. They mean the world to me and mean more to me than life itself! No matter how long of a day I have with the kids they always bring a smile to my face and make all the scarifies we've made worth it. I am also thankful that Ty has a job--yes, it's not the greatest and it's not very predictable, but he has a job and I know that in these difficult economic times many people don't have a job at all. I am also SO thankful that I am able to stay home with the kids.--watching them grow, interacting with each other, and taking care of their every need. I can't imagine having to go to work everyday and leave my babies with someone other than myself. I am also thankful for my God and his faithfulness--he has provided and has given us two beautiful children that I couldn't imagine my life without. God is good!