My Little Man Turns 6

Most of you know the story of Riley's birth, but those of you who don't, here's the short version:
Riley was due June 15th but instead was born April 29th at 7:36pm.  After listening to so many people tell me how small I was during most of my pregnancy, it all became very clear as to why I hadn't gained too much weight...Riley hadn't been growing properly.  Poor little guy wasn't getting all the nutrients he needed. We discovered while pregnant with Kendall that I have a mutated gene that increases the risk of miscarriage as well as IUGR.  Riley was at the 0% for size at 32 weeks.  It was as if he was an entire month behind in size.  I was put on bed rest for a week to see if the condition would improve and give him the best chance of survival.  After a week and seeing the specialist every other day, they decided it would be best if Riley was brought into the world early and be given the nutrients he needed in the NICU.

So Riley was born weighing in at a whopping 2 lbs. 10 oz. and spent the first 4 weeks of his life in the NICU.  Thank goodness for Women and Babies Hospital and their fantastic NICU staff!  I was not prepared to have a preemie.  The staff was so helpful and caring.  The nurses taught me all I needed to know about taking care of my little man.  Through the entire process, I spent a lot of time in prayer, knowing that Riley was in God's hands and He would protect him.  Sure enough, God did take care of him.  Riley's only concern was his size.  We were spared issues with his heart, lungs, liver, etc.  All he needed was to grow and maintain his body temperature on his own.  What a blessing that was - especially after seeing all those other babies on vents and mom's who couldn't hold their babies due to the risk of infection.  I got to hold Riley every day and snuggle him and tell him how much he was loved.

Now, 6 years later, I've fallen more in love with him every day.  He brings so much joy to my life.  He's one of the sweetest boys I've ever met.  When I'm sick, he helps take care of me and wants to buy me gifts to make me feel better.  For my birthday he (not Andy) buys me bouquets of flowers.  He's a sensitive soul.  His feelings get hurt and he gets upset as well as getting upset when someone he loves gets hurt.  He has such a compassionate heart.  He always wants to give to others.  He got upset with me one day because I didn't want him to give a friend the money in his bank.  He started to cry and said "But Mom, God likes it when we share our blessings!"  What do I say to that?  He's right.  Now he gives that money in the offering at church on Sundays.  The best part is HE reminds US that he needs to take his money to church!  He also likes to help us do our everyday chores...He'll help wash the car, make the bed, fold laundry, cook dinner, etc.  All without being begged or bribed!  On the flip side, he's all boy in that he loves motorcycles, trucks, trains, and tractors.  He has a great relationship with his dad and his Pappy.  Both of whom take him to do lots of "guy" things and help develop into the man he will one day become.

I am so blessed to be his momma.  I thank God for Riley every night when I pray over him.  I pray that God will continue to bring him supportive friends as well as caring adults into his life.  I often wonder why my little man will become when he grows up.  One thing is for sure, he will be a caring, loving man with a heart for service.

Momma's Little Miracle

Happy Birthday Riley!

A Work In Progress

Last weekend was busy...We walked in the MS Walk with Team Boies in the morning and then grabbed some lunch and came home to start on the swing set.  Thankfully Kevin offered his services to Andy and came over to assist him.  What a blessing that was - two drills, two strong men working in the hot sun with the admiration of two little rugrats who were anxiously awaiting it's completion.

You can see Riley's disappointment in the fact that he wasn't able to be as helpful as he'd hoped.

Day two:  Thankfully Kevin was available to help Andy out again.  Andy was so appreciative of Kevin's help.  These things are such a pain to build and this was Andy's second one - he built our first one by himself in Millersville for Riley's 2nd birthday present.

And this is as far as we've come.  Andy did complete the ladder which now is in the place where he's standing in the bottom picture.  There is also a section for swings and monkey bars that will attach to the left hand side.  A wooden kid-sized picnic table also came in the kit and will be put together at some point.  

The kids stayed out on it until we dragged them inside kicking and screaming to put them in the tub.  The next morning, Riley begged to play on it before school!  Both kids LOVE it and I love my husband and Kevin for building it for them!  Hopefully we'll get the swings and table built before too long!  We're hoping for more beautiful weather soon - snowed this morning and 55 mph winds yesterday!  Spring in Utah is WEIRD to say the least!

Love My Utah Friends

I feel so blessed to have met some incredible and beautiful women that I'm honored to call my friends.  We went out to celebrate two birthdays last night at The Melting Pot and then hit up a martini bar next door.  What a wonderful break it was for me after 5/6 weeks of being a single mom!  I am so thankful that I have been able to feel comfortable here in such a short period of time...I guess after 7 addresses in 14 years, you learn a thing or two about being the new kid (ha!  I wish I felt like a kid!) on the block.

Thank God for girlfriends!

Spring in Utah

We had some beautiful weather earlier this week so a friend and I headed down to Thanksgiving Point to check out their Tulip Festival.  They have a huge garden that I had never been to and 65% of their tulips were in bloom.  We had some bad storms yesterday so I'm glad we went before the front came through and destroyed them.

Aren't these beautiful?  We didn't see too many tulips in Jax!

Kendall and her friend hanging out after our picnic lunch

Kendall wanted to hop in and splash around here...Heck, they were a bunch of bath tubs and it was a hot sunny day!

Check out this explosion of color!

Little Miss Independent

There were a number of waterfalls to check out

This was up at the top of the waterfall structure...just across from where Kendall's friend found a snake!

One last shot before we left

The gardens are beautiful and a wonderful backdrop for portraits...wish my little girl would sit still long enough to snap a few!  Oh well.  Maybe by the summertime?  Yeah, right!  I was thrilled to see French Hybrid Lilacs at the gardens.  They were just starting to bud...these are my all-time favorites!  I'm now on the hunt to find some at a nursery and plant them in our back yard!  I love the smell and look of lilacs.  They are so beautiful, especially in an old mason jar on my kitchen table!

Happy Spring!

We're Getting Closer

To having the dust and dirt stop flying around our house.  This is progress they've made on the front of our house so far:

They also need to plant two trees in the park strip as required by the city & HOA.  That should happen next week...had to order the trees.

We need to do a little bit more on the west side...by the fence in the front we need to plant a shrub or two.

You can see here that they haven't put any mulch down yet...Supposed to happen on Monday.

The fire pit was built on Saturday and we broke it in that night with the Wiegands.  Tried out our new grill as well by making beer can chicken (with Kevin's coaching).  Oh my goodness is that ever good!  I got the chicken stand for $5 at Homer's and we had some left over cans of Girlie Light so we put it to good use.  Tried it with some Malibu rub and it was juicy and delicious.  I highly recommend it!  Easy and yummy!  We completed the evening with a campfire and smores for dessert!  What a great night.

The landscapers need to put the sand in the cracks of the pavers on Monday and Jim and I are headed to the nursery to pick out some more plants for the back...We originally cut out our plant budget in the back because it was getting too expensive, but since we were able to maintain our budget, Andy's letting me splurge and spend a little more for a few trees and shrubs for the back.  I'll fill in the rest on my own.  I found a great deal online for a local nursery here.  Buy a $35 gift certificate for only $15!  I ended up getting three so I have $105 to spend but it only cost me $45!  If nothing else, I need to get some veggies to plant in my new vegetable garden!

I'll post more pics next week...once we get the mess cleaned up...there is dirt EVERYWHERE!

A Place To Learn

Riley received this desk from his Pappy Chooch a few years back and we're finally putting it to good use.  I moved it into the family room - right across from my computer table.  Now he has a place to sit and do his homework where his sister can't get to him.  She use to climb up on a chair at the table with him and color all over his work.  Now he sits at his own desk and chair and does his work in peace.

Look at my little man hard at work learning his spelling words!

Another Craft Project On The "To Do" List

I was doing my daily "blog stalking" and came across this idea on my friend Becca's craft blog and she posted about a dry erase activity book that was created by Somewhat Simple.

If you want the tutorial, you can click HERE and she gives you all the info AND the printables to create your own book!  I'm thinking that I may laminate the pages instead of putting them into a photo album (although I have a bunch of left over albums since I haven't scrapbooked since before K was born).  I'm afraid that K would take the pages out of the protectors...She's THAT type of kid!  Laminated pages would mean that she would be less likely to destroy them...maybe print them on cardstock?  Anyway, the wheels are now turning!

What a great idea for summer road trips and flights across the country...Guess what I'll be making before I head to NC with two rug rats solo!

Going On A Treasure Hunt...

Yesterday Riley was at his little girlfriend's house ALL day.  What a wonderful break for me since Andy was out of town and I had to run Kendall to a follow up appt. for her ears (which are healing nicely by the way).  In Riley's absence and taking full advantage of Kendall's nap, I decided to get started on making Riley's birthday party invitations.

Have I mentioned before how much I love my cricut?  I keep finding more and more uses for it!  I used it to create the birthday invites and it made life so much easier!

The first thing I had to do was to figure out the wording for his invites.  This is what I came up with:

I printed it out on cardstock and then cut the edges to look torn.  I used some distressing ink to give them an aged look.  This looked much better than trying to burn the edges...I was so afraid I was going to set off the smoke detector and wake Kendall!  I also have a Xyron sticker maker and have found that tool incredibly useful with projects.  I ran the cardstock through the sticker maker and then adhered them to the black cardstock.  I used my trimmer to cut the small openings for the red ribbon.

Then I decided that the invites needed an envelope.  One of my cartridges has this feature so I decided to try it out.  It took me awhile to figure out exactly size I needed - that's what all my scrap paper is for, right?

I finally got a chance to use my trimmer to score paper instead of just cutting.  I scored the folds so that they would be straight lines and then used scrapbook adhesive to seal them up!  

I thought a skull and crossbones would dress up the outside of the envelopes - again using the sticker maker and Viola!  

Now on to decorations and game planning!  I have created a banner of skull and crossbones to hang already - putting that cricut to good use again!  I also plan to make a Jolly Roger flag to hang from the swing set aka pirate ship.  I found some fish netting that might be fun to decorate the table with - after I make Riley his pirate ship cake to go on it!  

I've got to come up with some good clues for our treasure hunt.  I'm thinking that a treasure chest pinata might be a good treasure for them to seek out and then make loot bags for them to collect their "treasure" once it gets broken open.  I also plan to create a "plank" for the kids to walk and have a sword fight using pool noodles.  We are also going make our own individual pirate hats - I think it will be cool for the kids to decorate their own to match their personalities.  Do you think the girls would want pink pirate hats or black like the boys?  We're also going to wear eye patches to look more like real pirates.  Riley's going to get more mileage out of his halloween costume!  

I would love to hear any ideas or suggestions that you have to share!  Thanks!

K LOVES Horses

Or "moo moos" as she calls them.  Poor girl gets cows and horses confused...well, I think she knows they are different, but calls them the same name!  There are horses next to the park we were playing at today and she went NUTS when we walked over to see them.

Check out her feet!  She was so excited she started jumping up and down!

The kids fed the horses some grass and the horses seemed rather appreciative for the treat!  K got to pet the horses and was beside herself with pure joy!

We're Making Progress!

Today the landscaper started laying out the pavers for our back patio!  They are going to look so wonderful!  We are also getting a fire pit w/ a seat wall!  I'm so thrilled to see the progress they've made today!  It's making me excited to have the whole thing completed!

This is the patio looking out from the back doors.  This will be cut into an hourglass shape with a gray colored square trim paver around the outside.  

The post in the back of this photo is where the center of the fire pit will be.  A seat wall will be built between the fire pit and our neighbor's fence.  We will be fencing in our yard too!  Freedom for our dog and kids!  You can see Penton looking out the back door inspecting the work!  

I can't wait to see how much progress they make this week.  We're supposed to have sun and temps in the 60's for the remainder of the week...and they are going to work on Saturday too!  Woo Hoo!

I'll keep you updated!