Outside!

Riley discovered the fun outdoors.  We don't have a backyard and while he was at Dave and Sarah's he was able to play outside.  Since then we can't keep him in!  He goes to our gate that leads outside and tries to get out.  We can't even say "outside" unless we actually mean it.  I know this is a huge photo dump, but what can I say...only/first child!

We have a little basketball court just a few houses down.  He loves playing with daddy!

Learning how to go down the slide.  He loves when he gets to go to the park when Daddy is home.

Getting ready to try the BIG slide!

This is one of my favorite pictures!  Just holding daddy's hand!

 We went for a weekend visit to Moab...even better outside environment!

His cousin, Tori, and probably his favorite person.  I think she trumps me even!  He holds her hand always!

Sliding to Grandma!

He loves the swings.  All the parks around us don't have swings so this was a real treat!

He loved the dirt pile outside Grandma and Grandpa's house.  We took him home right after this picture was taken and he cried for a good solid 15 minutes.  He was so sad to leave.  

 There are 3 parks within walking distance of our house that we rotate between.

This park has rocks!

I don't know if he's trying to get a suntan, but he does this lately.  I'm also grateful and spoiled that he doesn't really ever try and put rocks or stick in his mouth.  

One cold day we were inside and he brought his hat over to me and then pointed to the gate!  So we went out for a quick walk around the block in his favorite wagon.  It started snowing a couple hours after our walk.  He did not care!

Next day after the snow had melted he loved the puddles at the park!  Still not caring about temperature outside.

Daddy is a softy and decided he needed a bucket and shovel.  So we got one at the dollar store and he loves it.  (Notice the hat?!)

 Bi-Centennial Park:

Throwing the sticks over the bridge in the water. 

Little boy and his puddle!

Loves his cats.  This one came to visit us at the basketball court.  

Going out to play in the wagon and the park with his buddy, Charlotte.

Going down the slide all by himself!

 We were able to go play with Dave and Sarah's family at a park in Pleasant Grove (yesterday!).  OOh, swings!

He found this dirt patch and was circling around in it and dancing in it.  It was so cute.  I tried to get a video, but couldn't quite catch it.

Kind of a photo overload, but it's so fun watching him play!

February!

Once again we had a great month during February.  Many great things happened.  Here's the low down:

Riley loves dumping things in the tub...this day he decided his dirty laundry would be fun!

He also loves chasing the cat around the house.  He loves his Shadow (see below).

Is there anything better than snuggling with a sleeping baby?  He normally doesn't really snuggle to sleep anymore so this was a rare occasion.

He loves sharing his binkie with daddy.  Can you see that he has given Bry not just one binkie?!

 So during February I was able to have the opportunity to direct Springville Jr. High's production of "Guys and Dolls".  I had known that the old teacher who used to the the musical had moved to the high school.  So I contacted her to see if she knew what was going to happen with the show.  She gave me the contact info for the new choir teacher.  I called her up to offer my services and she was more than happy to accept the help!  I was pretty excited about the prospect of helping out and being able to use my talents. I can't exactly just put on a production with just a cast of Riley!  So every day in February from 3-4:30 I went to the school for rehearsals.  I had a cast of 58! Whoa, that's a lot of jr. high kids.  It was definitely different working with 12-14 year olds.  For one, I'm taller than most of them!!  I was able to have Bryan's sister, Kelsey, babysit on Tuesday's and Thursday's and Bryan would try and take him one day.  The other days he came along with me.  The kids LOVED him!  They'd be so disappointed if I didn't have him.  It was more difficult to have him, but super cute to see him playing with the "kids".  At the end of the show, the cast even bought him a football!  I will post production photos soon!

 More Riley? Oh, ok!

Trying on Daddy's shoes!  So cute!

He's already starting to be an organizer.  He had a whole bunch of his toys on the cookie sheets and then took all of them off and only put his balls on the sheet.  Balls are his favorite toys!  He can spot one in a book or in a park really quickly!

Riley's first haircut from Aunt Amy!!  He did so good!  Bryan had his phone in front of him playing "Curious George", his favorite show, but he was pretty interested in what was happening.  No tears at all!  And check out those eye brows!

Riley loves to stack things.  While I get ready in the morning, this ritual is very common!  He's pretty good.  I think his record is 10 bars of soap.

 The end of February was a big event.  Bryan and I went to St. George for a weekend away (well Wed-Sat) WITHOUT RILEY!  It was my first time away from Riley ever!  I have to admit I was really nervous. I cried several times before we left just worried that he'd have a hard time or that it would be a burden on Sarah (my sister-in-law, who OFFERED to watch him while we went away).  Well we dropped him off and I didn't even shed a tear!  He did amazing!  In fact, he now sleeps through the night.  I don't know exactly what they did other than put him in a dark, cold room with white noise, had him on a flat pillow, but he slept for 12 hours while he was there.  He NEVER does that with us.  Oh my gosh we should have left him with them 6 months ago!!  He's even kept it up!  12 hours a night is pretty usual now and he can fall asleep on him own now too which means I don't spend a couple hours a day sitting on his floor caressing his face until he falls asleep.  Just a quick snuggle and rock (maybe 2 minutes) and I can put him in his crib and leave.  Oh my goodness!  My life has been transformed!

On our end, we LOVED our St. George trip.  It was so much fun being able to not share my food at every meal or worry about my schedule revolving around nap times. I wish I could have slept better since it was my first chance to ever, but I was recovering from a cold and still had some congestion issues.  But it was fun to just laugh and enjoy car rides that didn't require me to keep a little guy happy.  It was so relaxing and the homes at the Parade of Homes (the main reason we went down) were amazing!!  We hit 25 out of the 28 homes in 2 days.  We got to eat out and go swimming at our hotel and enjoy warmer weather.  It was an amazing trip.  Riley doing well with his cousins just made it that much better!

Enjoying the outdoor setting at one of the homes.  I would post more pictures of the homes we went through, but we aren't in the pictures.

Riley and cousin Scarlett in the tub together (a text picture that Sarah sent us!).  The binkie he has is mostly a toy for Scarlett, but Riley saw it and instantly put it in his mouth!  These two are 5 months apart.

We passed the Biggest Loser St. George resort.  For those of you who don't know, I've had a small obsession with Biggest Loser in the past and couldn't pass up the opportunity to get a picture here!

A picture of one of our rehearsals.

Riley can see the kitty paw trying to reach under the door.  Love the bed head!

20 weeks!  We found out the next day that it's a BOY!  Riley gets a little buddy!

He doesn't always love when Shadow climbs on my lap.  He tries to shove her off.  But it's good training for when "brother" comes.  Once I tell him she can stay he can often snuggles on her.  Can you tell how Shadow feels about it?  Ha ha!

Well, that's kind of a sum up of the highlights of February!  (Are you so impressed that I'm almost caught up?!)