Bad words...

Evansville Zoo

Monkey at the Grand Ole Opry

Nashville Zoo

These are some pictures from our last couple of family outings. We love to go to the Evansville Zoo and the Friday before my birthday we took Riley to the Nashville zoo and the Rainforest Cafe. This weekend we took her to the County Fair. She got to see lots of farm animals and tractors up close and is now the proud owner of three gold fish. She's learning so much every day! Riley can now point out the parts of the face when asked and, thanks to my bad day, say 'shit'. You work for weeks on words like 'grandpa' and 'puff' without it sticking. One spilled soda and one slip up later she repeats perfectly a word I didn't want her to learn. Go figure.

Riley as a One Year Old

We went to Riley's one year appointment yesterday. She is growing and thinning out all at the same time, but completely healthy. 20+ pounds and 30 inches! Today she learned how to work the child latches on her dresser drawer. From there she figured out how to open all the drawers in the house. I've re-arranged all my drawers and cabinets. The lower shelves are nearly empty and the top ones are full! I'll be going out to find another solution to the latch problem next week. We've decided to take a family day trip on Friday to the Nashville Zoo and dinner at the Rainforest Cafe. I'm so excited! Thanks to everyone who helped make Riley's first birthday special! We have more stuff than that girl will ever need, but we were so glad to share that day with so many friends and family. Now we just have to decide which new outfit to wear to the zoo on Friday.

Pictures

During story time Riley stole the book and ran off on her own. Instead of me reading to her she decided to read to Monkey. It was very cute!

What a month!

A lot has happened since the last post. The biggest news was my beautiful sister getting married! Right now she's sitting on a beach in Mexico with a fruity drink in one hand. She's found a great guy in Jeremy. He will be a wonderful addition to the family. Riley behaved pretty well on our trip to St. Louis. We were away from home for almost two weeks so she was a bit thrown off, but we pulled through. Even though she was teething she made it down the aisle with me at the wedding. No socks, no shoes, no flower in her hair, but my girl looked perfect when she walked down aisle. I'll tell you all a secret. I pulled the pacifier out of her mouth just before we came into view of the crowd. There are no pockets in bridesmaid dresses so down the front of the dress it went! I even managed to pull it out and toss it to her dad while everyone was turned around waiting for the bride. The things moms do... Even with all the wedding prep we managed to squeeze in a play day with Riley's friends Jackson and Aubrey. Having the three babies together gets more and more interesting with every month! Riley also got to go to her first Cardinals baseball game. I sure wish the could have played better for her first game, but she found plenty of interesting things to look at in the crowd.
Next weekend that very same Riley Brooke will be turning ONE! We are having a party in Edwardsville on the 11th. If you haven't gotten an Ivette it's because they were sent out via email. I hoped for everyone to forward them to the people we left off the list (only because we don't have everyone's contact information). Everyone we know is invited to help us celebrate! Please come out for some grilled food and birthday cake! I can't believe almost a year has gone by. I'll be posting pictures of all these firsts very soon. Hope to see everyone at the party!