Can I just say that I have the cutest, best kids in the world.  I don't know where kids pick some things up.  Some of Riley's new ones are...I really, really, really, really, really want it, please, please, please, please, hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry.  I'm sure it will get annoying, but for now it's pretty cute.  He stayed the night at Nana's, and when he got back I told him I missed him, and he said "I missed you too mom, I missed you sooo much."  Talk about melt your heart.  I guess it's in his blood, but I also don't know where he has picked up this southern accent.  He has a southern drawl with all his vowels.  His words end up having more constenants (sorry don't know how to spell) then they are suppose to, but it's pretty cute.  Riley loves, loves nursery now, and I love, love that he loves it.  Today they were singing the itsy bitsy spider song, (Stephen was peeking in), and Riley was pretending his hand was a spider and he was making it crawl up his teachers arm.  He is obsessed with cars, that's pretty much all he is playing with these days.  He knows santa is going to bring him presents, and he wants a fire truck, and that santa is going to leave him candy in his stocking, and he loves to sing "santa clause is coming to town."  Riley keeps biting and pulling on his binkies, and they keep breaking. When they break he throws them away, and we are down to like one binkie, so hopefully we will be bink free here soon. 

So on Tuesday I was walking down the stairs with Bailey, and I slipped with like four stairs left.  Bailey obviously cried, but we thought she was just scared.  However, the rest of the day she was really fussy which is not like her, but I just thought she was teething.  She just wanted me to hold her and snuggle.  So when Stephen came home from his meeting at work he asked if she was able to put any weight on her leg and she wasn't, so he decided to take her to the doctor, and yes they took an x-ray, and yes it was broken.  Well, a hair line fracture, but we took her into the doctor the next day, and now she has a pretty pink cast on her entire leg, because it would fall off if it wasn't on her whole leg.  She is doing soooo good though.  It doesn't even phase her.  That just tells you how happy of a baby she is when she is smiling and laughing with a broken leg when she is getting a cast put on her.  She really likes vanilla wafers, but she only eats like half of the cookie because when it gets too small she can't make it in her mouth, and she also had fries for the first time.  Can I just tell you, don't try to take one away from her, and you better have another one ready for when she finishes one because boy does she let you know she is not happy.  So I'm sure I've mentioned that Bailey kicks A LOT in her bouncy chair, and now with a cast on it's pretty funny cuz it's now bang, bang, bang.   I'm so sorry sweet girl, love you!

Stephen finished his last final on Friday.  YEAH!  Only three more semesters left. (hopefully) He wanted to celebrate by going to chick-fil-a, and he wanted me to make him key lime cheesecake pie, which is soooo yummmy.  So for his birthday present I bought him new video game, but I just bought it for him cuz he wasn't going to be able to play until now anyway, but when I got home with it, they hadn't taken out the security device, so went to the walmart in Idaho Falls after chick-fil-a and it was a huge ordeal.  They thought we had stolen it even though we had the reciept, so they were going to check the security camera to make sure we came in with it, and didn't bring the reciept and go get one off the shelf and try to get it.  But it took them like 45 min., and Stephen had the girl almost in tears, because the manager watched the tape but never let anyone know we were ok, and just moved on to something else.  So when Stephen heard this he flipped out because we had been waiting forever.  Anyway, Christmas is getting so close, and I have so much to do still, and I decided that while Stephen was out of school and still working midnights I would pick up some extra shifts, so I work almost every day this week, not looking forward to it. 

So today Enid had to go back to work for just the day, so I got to watch cute little Lindsey for half the day.  It was fun, and it worked out great. 
For thanksgiving we went down to Aaron and Jill's.  It was a great Thanksgiving!  There were probably about 40 of us all in one house, but that's what I love about Thanksgiving is the being squished between the people I love.  Jill used a family recipe for a marinade for the turkey which made the turkey so moist.  Everyone said it was the best turkey they had ever had.  We were gone for five days, and it's always great to get away, but it's always great to come home and sleep in your own bed, and get back to your own routine.  Bailey did not get put down for the whole week, and Riley loved playing with cousins.  Of course since Logan has a chic-fil-a we had to go there to eat.  We were able to go black friday shopping.  We were able to get everything that we planned on getting.  We just went to wal*mart on Friday, but it was pretty crazy.  Most of the things we wanted weren't being watched, so while Stephen guarded the ottoman that we wanted I was able to go around and pretty much everything else.  Everything was already broken into so I didn't feel too bad.  Except that I did get the portable DVD player for the kids in the car, and later Stephen had it in the cart and someone was like "where did you get that, those aren't suppose to be open til 12, where did you get that" and then he went and got two wal*mart associates who questioned Stephen, and he told them that other people were taking them and that he was either gonna have to grab one then or he wasn't going to get one.  The workers were like well we are going to check the security tapes and if your story doesn't match up we are going to cancel the sale.  Stephen was like you have thousands of people in your store right now and you are going to go look at video footage, right.  Funny, because they would never even see Stephen on there, because it was me.  But really, what adult tells, and then what walmart worker has the authority to stop the sale.  Then Alyssa was wanting to get sheets, but there was a lady who was blocking them with her cart so no one else could get any.  She asked her to move her cart and the lady said no, I've been here since 6, and I'm not moving my cart.  She had told the other lady's that were there that if they let her block it she would fill up her cart and then give them what they wanted, which is totally ridiculous, which appearantly Alyssa thought so too, because she tried taking them out of the lady's cart, and the other women grabbed them of Alyssa's hands, but luckily my sneaky niece Nicole was there to grab some while all that commotion was going on.  But people get crazy during black friday.  We were going to try and get some cheap movies, but that was way too caotic... there was screaming and swearing, and pushing, and it just was not worth it.  So in a nut shell thanksgiving consisted of a lot of eating, talking, shopping, not a lot of sleeping, and we were able to play basketball, and a few other board games.  
Stephen only has two weeks of school left, which I am so grateful for, then he will have a break until April.
My back has been giving me issues for about a month now, and it was terrible during thanksgiving.  It's weird though because some days it feels ok, and then others I can't even move.  I've gone to chiropractor a couple of times, but it only is a temporary relief.  It makes it really hard to carry around two kids, but that's probably why it hurts in the first place. 
Bailey is sitting by herself without wobbling.  She loves to bounce.  She is getting better with tummy time.  She is always squinting in pictures because of the flash, then she laughs right after the picture.  We have started giving her graham crackers, and vanilla wafers and things.  She makes a huge mess, but she has fun feeding herself.  She is already in #4 diapers...Riley can still fit in #4 diapers.  Everyone at thanksgiving couldn't get over what a good baby she was, and how happy she was.  They all said that she is exactly like me when I was a baby.  She is definately spoiled and we have some sleeping habits that we need to break. 
Riley is such a sweet boy.  He loves his sister so much.  Whenever she cries he brings her a toy or does something to try and cheer her up.  He has started liking to take baths again.  He wants to help me with everything I do.  He even had his hand on mine while I was typing this for a while, and he said I"m helping you mom.  He wanted to help me pump the other day, which I drew the line at.  Riley is excited for Christmas, and he knows that Santa Claus is going to bring him toys.  He knows all the words to Santa Claus is coming to town, and he even does little actions to it, it's really cute.  Riley loves plugging in the tree in the mornings.  He has done really good with the tree this year.  The second day it was up he chucked one of the plain ornaments against the wall, and it shattered, but after that he has done really good.  I guess he had to get it out of his system.  We made a chain countdown to Christmas last night, and loved that he got to use the scissors. 

oct/nov

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my cute baby girl all in purple

my sisters came to see baby Lindsey

Riley playing with Bailey...so fun

She fell asleep in her bumbo

that later became smashed into my carpet

dressed her princess costume

being patient while we carve pumpkins

carving pumpkins

my cute skeleton and super man

trunk or treat with cousins

trick or treating with Tre

he did so good, even though it was soooo cold

Baby blessing

cheesin it with Grandpa

she got passed around all day

     Well of course I'm playing catch up again.  Lets see...Halloween was really fun this year.  Bailey was given several costumes...she was a princess, a skeleton, and a pumpkin.  We bought Riley a super man costume, but he lost his cape at a trunk or treat several days before Halloween.  I was going to make him a new one, but the thought kept coming to my head to call Shelly, so I did, and not only did she have one, she had three.  She also said she had a buzz costume for Riley that her boy had grown out of, so he was also buzz.  We went to a trunk or treat with all the cousins at in Ucon, then we went to further down the road to Shelly's to trick or treat in their neighborhood.  But the whole drive Riley didn't stop saying trick or treat, trick or treat.  I've got to say it's a lot easier to go to trunk or treats, you get more, and quicker.  Actually, it's better if we just buy the candy.  We always buy the good candy bars to give out and Riley gets the dumb candy in return, oh well, it's the experience.  My dad and his wife Lynda had just gotten into town, so they were there to see the kids in their costumes as well.
      So a long time ago Enid had asked me to reserve our club house for Lindsey's baby blessing, but it was too far in advance, and then I forgot about it, so when I went to do it it was already taken.  I didn't know what we were going to do.  I told Stephen it was too bad we hadn't made friends with people while we lived in Stonebrook, and he reminded me that our neighbors good friend lives there, so we asked her to reserve it for us, and luckily that worked out.  So we had lots of family come into town that weekend.  It worked out great, and Brian gave a great blessing earlier in church that day.  It was funny, he blessed her to have patience with her new parents... it was cute.
     There are lots of birthdays in November...mine, Stephen's, Brandon(stephen's nephew), my sister in law Jill, and my dad's. It was my "special" birthday this year...11-11-11, and I made a wish at 11:11. Stephen cleaned the house for me, and when he is out of school this January I get a week off... no diapers, laundry, dishes, cooking.  That is going to be a great week.  We went bowling with the kids and out to dinner on Stephen's birthday.  It was nice to have a day with just us together.  Then later in the week we went out with Stephen's family to celebrate Brandon's, Stephen's, and my birthday.  We went to chilis.  It was the second time I had ever been there, and I remembered why, I wasn't really a big fan, but that's ok cuz I enjoyed the company. Oh yeah I went and got a massage, and when she got to my legs I warned her that I do have pseryisis on my feet, and she said that's ok, I'm actually not going to do your feet today because you are getting a pedicure after this.  I was surprised cuz Stephen didn't say anything, but I guess that's the point of a surprise huh?  I told her didn't realize I was getting a pedicure too.  So after my pedicure which was great!  I went to pay and she said it was $120 and I had a gift card for $60, but I didn't bring my debit card or anything with me cuz I didn't know about the pedicure.  but in the past when Stephen has gotten me a massage he pays for it in advance so I don't have to worry about anything, so I asked if she was sure he hadn't paid, and she said she would check with the other receptionist cuz she wasn't the one who made the apt.  I in the mean time called Stephen to tell him to bring the debit card and was like what you did both, and I was like yeah they told me I got to do both that you had scheduled it, he was like well happy birthday.  He had actually told them he wasn't sure if I would want the body massage or the pedicure or split up the time and do both, and the other receptionist I guess just scheduled both.  So they told me not to worry about paying for the pedicure since it was a misunderstanding.  WOOHOO, free hour long pedicure.  And of course Stephen is trying to take credit for it.  It's ok i'll give it to him. 
     We had our ward Thanksgiving dinner the other day.  The food was really good, and they had probably double what they needed, so everyone took some home.  The entertainment however, not so good.  One of the singers was so bad I looked over at another table and there was a one year old standing on the table with his hands covering his ears.  Kids tell it how it is.
     Over the last few weeks there has been so many things Riley has said that I wanted to put it in the blog, but do I remember it all now, of course not, but here's what I do remember.  The other day Riley was really quiet, so I went to check on him, and found him using his little potty.  So I made a huge deal about it, and got him excited, and told him what a big boy he was, and he chose which underwear he wanted to put on.  About 45 minutes later I hear water trinkling, and he comes up to me and says, "mommy, I'm not a big boy, I need a diaper".  He broke a jar of speghetti sauce in broulims.  My mother in law got in trouble because Riley picked up one of her phrases she says a lot..."holy crap".  He was in the back of the car the other day, and said holy crap baby, holy crap baby, and he said it over and over again.  When the baby cries, he tries to comfort her.  He tries to figure out what's wrong, some of the things he has told her is it's ok, daddy/mommy will be right back, or it's ok baby, we'll be home in a minute.  We made cupcakes for the baby blessing, and Riley "helped me".  each cupcake tin I filled Riley said I try it, and he stuck his finger in and licked it, and said I like it mom.  He seriously tried all 24 cupcakes.  I made new ones for any of you who are reading this that ate one of the cupcakes.  :).  Riley had been kind of a home body.  He hasn't even wanted to go to nana's house which is weird, but it makes me feel good that he know where home is, and likes to be there.  He has been going to nursery by him self and liking it.  I've peaked through the little windows a few times to check on him and it's so fun to see him participate and do the actions to the songs.  One of the head nursery leaders told us the other day that he is the best behaved, and most polite kid in nursery.  That's right, that's my kid.  Riley loves to play hide and go seek, and we play all day long.  The other day I went to take a shower while Riley was watching a cartoon, and Bailey was happy in her bouncy chair, and I came back down to all of Riley's halloween candy all over the living room.  He had 5 suckers opened that he had taken one lick of then dropped on the carpet, taffy stuck to the carpet and chocolate running down his chin.  I guess that's what I get for wanting to take a shower, the nerve huh.  Riley had his two year baby check up (a little late) but he got shots and did so good, he only cried for like a second. When ever he sees the temple he always says that's Jesus's house, but the other day he said it's Jesus's castle, and that he wants to live there with him, and that we can come too.  :)
     Bailey can sit by herself for a while, until she goes to reach for something.  She definately knows what she wants and lets us know.  She babbles and babbles which she says dada dada a lot, and I told Stephen that it doesn't count as her first word until she knows what she is actually saying.  Bailey also got her shots, and she on the other hand did cry.  She doesn't do well with shots, she was fussy for a couple of days, and you could still see her marks on her legs two days later.  My poor little girl.  She weighed in at 18 1/2 lbs. and was in the 96 % for height and 94% for weight so she's doing good.  She loves peek a boo.  She loves to play with her toes.  We have given her some mash potatoes.  She loves to watch cartoons already.  When she is nursing she is constantly pulling away to look at the T.V.  She is so good to sit in her bumbo while I cook dinner or need to get something done.  Riley would scream and scream if he wasn't being held, but I just take her bumbo in what ever room I'm working in, and she just plays.  Except to get her out of her bumbo is a little difficult.  Her legs are so chubby the whole seat comes up with her then you have to pry it off her.

So it's been a couple of weeks since wrote on here.  We were gone one week, one week our internet was down...anyway, here's a little bit of catch up.  A couple of weeks ago, we went to Utah for my nephew Carson's baptism.  We were able to go down a night early and we went out to dinner with Kara and Mark. We don't spend a lot of one on one time with them so it was a fun night.  As I was getting ready I realized I didn't pack my skirt.  I asked Jill if she had a stretchy skirt, and no her size 4 skirt definately did not fit.  I told Stephen I was just going to sit out in the hall.  Jill said every baptism she goes to there is someone wearing pants, and I said I did not want to be THAT person, but Stephen convinced me to still go. Oh well, I was the investigator for the day.  It was fun to spend the day with family.  After the baptism Stephen, Aaron, and my cousin Chad all went to the Aggie football game.  Enid was in labor, so as soon as we got the word we were going to leave, but it was until way late she had her, so we decided to leave in the morning.  While Stephen was at the game,  we stayed at Aaron's house.  Landon used the potty, so Riley thought it was cool, and he wanted to use the potty too, but he wanted to use it like every 2 seconds for like an hour.  (Unfortunately the coolness factor wore off, and he still wants his diaper)  We came home Sunday morning and went straight to the hospital to see sweet Lindsey.  Both mommy and baby were doing good.  What a miracle!

So from one in-law to the other.  Last week I went to Kara's parents-in-law to pick apples.  We got two huge storage boxes full, and then I took them to Enid's in-laws and made cider with their cider press.  It was fun to learn how to do it.  Riley loved throwing the apples in to get mashed.  There were bee's around all day, and at the very end I got stung in the back of my neck.  When I was a kid I would swell up really bad, but It wasn't that bad this time.  The cider tasted really good though.  We picked more apples yesterday, and we'll make more cider to bring to Thanksgiving. 

Riley makes me laugh everyday, but here some highlights from the last couple of weeks.  He wanted to take his blanket with us to town the other day, and he said mommy carry it, and he handed it to me, and said, don't drop it.  I laughed and said ok, i'll try not to, he said no, don't drop it.  Since we took him off the bottle, he seriously eats so much.  In church yesterday he had a cold, so I didn't have him go to nursery, he just went to class with me.  We were sitting in the front row, and he was on my lap playing with a truck, and then all of a sudden he put his hand down my shirt and says pretty loudly "mommy's boobies", but he's in the phase of repeating things over and over, so that got shouted out several times.  The people beside me laughed, but I didn't dare turn around.  Riley loves to play hide and go seek.  He only has one hiding spot though, under the table.  He loves for us to hide with him.  Riley loves to drive our car...we let him drive with us on our driveway, he thinks it great. 

Bailey is holding herself up so good.  She has started tilting her head back to laugh.  She loves bananas.  She is babbling so much, and doing spit bubbles.  Yesterday she was in her bouncy chair and we were in the kitchen, and we heard her babbling to herself, and Stephen says she gets that from your side of the family, and I said What?  He said talking, even when no one is listening.  Oh, he thinks he thinks he is so funny.  She has been able to roll over for a long time now, but yesterday she rolled back over.  In church yesterday I thought she was going to develop a complex...I don't know how many times she got called chunky, one old lady called her fat like 3 times.  She just kept saying, she is just so fat.  But I also had several people come up and say how cute she is, so I guess it evened out.  She is one chunky, cute little girl.  I just love how much Riley and Bailey already love each other, it just melt my heart to see them play together.  When you hand her a toy, she doesn't just try and grab it, she like literally attacks it.  She is just so much fun.
Here's a few pics to catch up

Riley was waiting for his turn to sit in the bumbo

I love this pic

Riley and his new trike, and helmet that he had to have.

New baby Lindsey.  Cousins only five months apart.  They are going to be great friends.

Riley loves to "HELP"

My sweet baby girl

Riley in the chairs he never wanted to sit in when he was a baby, and now i can't get him out

Just another week

So reading back on my last post, I remember that when we were getting the bike for Riley he rode it through the store up to the checkout line, and to everyone that was passing us in the opposite direction he would say "look out guys" or just "look out!".  It was kind of embarassing, but funny.  And I know I've said that Riley likes to try and tell us to go to time out, but now he says, "oooone,  twooooooo, three, time out mom",  and grabs my hand and tries to take me to time out.  Riley is way into climbing on us right now, and piggy back rides.  Today was general conference, and we told him this was our church for this week, and he said, "no church, cartoons!"  Whenever Stephen gives me a hug, Riley always comes over and gives me a big a hug, sooo cute.  About a year ago, Stephen wasn't "allowed" to give me a hug, or put his arm around me, Riley would freak out and say "NO, NO, NO".  He didn't like to share, now he likes to be apart of it.  So the other day I was holding Bailey, and Riley was sitting next to me, and I said, "ok Riley, I"m going to go take a shower, and I"m going to put Bailey in her seat", he said, "no, I hold her."  So I let him hold her for a minute, and then he moves my hands away, and says mommy shower, I hold her.  So cute, he's already wanting to take care of his little sister.  We bought him some underwear, and thinking maybe if he got wet, he wouldn't like it, and then ask to use the bathroom.  I think that was the most traumatized he's ever been.  Oh man was there a lot of screaming going on in my house.  I guess we will wait a little longer.  We've been trying to give Bailey more tummy time, but she absolutely hates it, she just screams, and grunts and groans.  It's funny though because she rolls over onto her tummy, and can't roll back so she gives herself tummy time like 100 times a day, but keeps doing it over and over again.  It's sad though cuz she gets tired and then just face plants, then she lifts her head again, and then face plants.  She is supporting herself sitting up so good though.  I just can't get over how good of a baby she is.  She's always just so happy, and has the biggest smiles ever.  If she opened her mouth any wider when she smiles I think her face would crack.  We went to one of Stephen's co-workers house for dinner tonight.  They have two kids as well, and Riley had fun playing there, but his co-worker asked me if Stephen is as forgetful at home as he is at work.  I just rolled my eyes, and said you have no idea.  So it's not just me, and his family that has noticed this, but we love him anyway.   I really need to get a new camera chord, cuz I've got some good ones I need to post. 

So we went to walmart today to develop some pics, while we were doing that Riley ran away and found a tricycle and a helmet (bikes are right by the photo center, so he didn't go far) so we both went and got him, and we ended up getting him the bike and he insisted on getting a helmet.  He even ate dinner with his helmet cuz he wouldn't take it off, and I had to bribe him to get him  to come inside to eat dinner by telling him that he could eat dinner in the living room and watch Dora.  But because we were so involved in getting him his bike we forgot to finish ordering our pics.  We remembered when we got out to the car, and Stephen had to go back in.  Good thing we live in Rexburg and our memory card was still there.

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new family pics

Last night was Bailey's first night her crib and she slept for 8 hours.  I don't know if it's because she wasn't right by my bed, and I just did,'t hear her, but either way I was glad she did such a good job.  Since we've moved we can't find our chord to put our pics on the computer, so pics will have to be caught up later of his bike.

So this was a pretty good week.  Nothing too exciting, but good.  There were several little things Riley did that were cute.  He likes to tell us to go to time out, and today he said "daddy time out, one, two, three, time out dad.  Everything is my do it, or my did it my, my, my, instead of me or I.  Someone tried to correct him, and I said not to cuz I think it is cute.  I got my package from dali decals.  Allysa got me a groupon coupon from there for my baby shower, and I finally got around to ordering, so I'm excited to put that up.  We also bought a dresser for Bailey's room...the baskets just weren't working out.  The kids had stuffy noses all week, and Stephen had a full blown head cold, not fun. We looked around for a van this week, but I really don't want one yet.  I know I"ll eventually get one, but I just not yet.  One of my co-workers/friends has a girl about 8 months older than Bailey, and said he oven needs to be closed, so she gave me a bunch of cute clothes for Bailey.  Can't beat free.  Tonight I put Bailey to bed in her crib instead of he basinette...I'm a little nervous about it, although I don't know why.  She's just down the hall, but we'll see how it goes.  We got knew family pics back from Stephen's side of the family.  They turned out really good.  Eventhough Stephen stayed in nursery the whole time with Riley, he cried pretty much the whole time.  How are we going to get him to like it?  Any suggestions?  Bailey is growing so fast.  She loves to "will" herself places.  She rocks back and forth trying to get to where she's looking at.  She's rolling over a lot more, and laughing, and loves to watch Riley.  Work has been pretty slow lately, I think I'm going to try and change the days that I work cuz the ones I'm working just aren't cutting it.  Riley is not a big fan of sharing his toys, and lets it be known.  He just has a problem with it with kids his own age, but with us he doesn't mind.  He also is on a streak of not eating.  That whole cutting him of his bottle is obviously not working.