Can't watch without a smile

Update in pictures.

 Riley baking (aka eating the batter)

 BYU vs. TCU

 Night before Halloween, they found the candy stash. These are Riley's cousins/besties Mason and Gavin

 Riley is obsessed with all things Cars, so this was the only costume I had a chance of getting on him.

 Pondering the weather.

 Zac Brown Band concert. BLAST!

I'm trying to decide if he should get a hair cut...

 Sometime summer 2011

 Turner Falls in Oklahoma. Summer 2011.

 Packing. August 2011.

 The new house.

 Riley hiding from a diaper change in my closet.

 Utah trip in August 2011. We wore him out.

 My bff from college, Annie, had just had her first baby! His name is Dallas and he is adorable!Unfortunately, we didn't get a pic with him :(

 Riley was excited about the airplane.

 Cameron finally got our TV hung! It only took Cameron (mostly), Craig and Shaun a week to get it up.

 Watching his new TV.

 BYU vs. Texas

 Me and Anne, my sis in law here in Dallas.

 Napping in the shopping cart. I couldn't get him to wake up, which never happens so I just went with it.

 Lazy morning in bed with Dada

 This kid LOVES apples.

 My good friend growing up, Heather, and her family came to visit from Houston when her hubby had a conference here. She has a 3 year old and 1 year old twins who were sooo good the whole time. Every time Alexis got out of her princess stroller Riley climbed in. Again no pictures of all the kids together.

 Mason and Riley love to plain trains at Barnes and Noble.

 Riley and Gavins relationship has had it's ups and downs. They are 4 months apart. This happened to be a good day for them!

 Costoc samples.

 Our little climber.

Loves his Mia cat.

I'm pretty sure there is a gap in Riley's childhood on my blog and our lives in general, but at least this is something!

Update on life

To say I have been a blog slacker would be an understatement. I created a blog because I wanted to document our lives and hopefully someday print it off into actual books or albums. I've recently remembered how much I wanted to do this and am sad I haven't kept up. The only post I've made in the past 1-2 years have been random and tell very little about what's going on in our lives! So let me summarize the past 1 1/2 years or so and then I'll dump a load of pictures to try and catch up :)
I'll pick up with moving to Texas (since I'm not sure where I left off with life and I don't have time to go back and read)....we moved to Frisco, Texas June 2010. We rented a home, Craig started work as a dentist and I started real life as a stay at home mom. Craig started with All Smiles as an associate. He enjoyed it, but soon after starting he was recruited my another company Smile Magic. He went to meet with them as a courtesy, not intending to actually change jobs. However, he knew pretty quickly Smile Magic was where he needed to be working. So, after being at his job only 2 months he made the switch. Now this was not an easy decision (for me) because it meant "just starting out" again. Without going into all the boring details it meant losing quite a large sum of money for initially less pay. We were just out of school and loans were due soon! Eeeek!
Craig says to this day it was one of the best decisions of his life. He LOVES his job and isn't doing too shabby "providing" for the family. He currently is partnering with Smile Magic to open an office in El Paso, Texas, which will open the first week of December. He's already working on the next "opportunity" and feels this job has opened so many windows for him. He works a TON of hours, which is hard for me, but I'm glad that he has a job he enjoys. I know many can't say the same thing, so I try and keep my complaining to a minimum. :)
Spring 2011 we bought a spec home that was just being started and had a fun time building a house. Craig continued to work a ton so I had a fun hobby of picking everything out and making sure all the details were done. We moved in late August and love it. It's so nice to finally OWN a home and feel like we are settling down somewhere. My hobby will now be getting it decorated!
Craig turned 30 in May and although all the deals weren't technically closed at the time, I was very proud of all that he had accomplished in his 3o years. Husband, father, dentist, homeowner, and business owner. I'm afraid he's going to run out of goals if he doesn't slow down soon! :) I always told Craig from the beginning that one of my favorite things about him was his ambition. (Isn't it funny how the things we love the most about people can sometimes be the things that also drive us nuts?!) I'm so proud of him and grateful for all that he does for our little family.

On a separate note, I've lost my camera charger back when we moved so all pictures are on my iPhone. I'll try to upload the update of our life via the iPhone next. Be prepared it will mostly be Riley.

Are Mormons Christian?

http://josephantley.com/2011/10/11/are-mormons-christians/

Airplane

Riley boy has been a little obsessed with airplanes lately and boy was he excited to be on one!

Joey trying to speak French

No need to watch the whole thing...you'll get the idea.
My life has been reminding me of this episode lately LOL. I ask Riley to repeat something I say and he does.

18 Months

18 Month Stats:
weight: 26 lbs 3 oz..............50th percentile
height: 33.5 inches..............90th percentile
head: 19.5cm.......................95th percentile!

July 29th Riley turned 18 months! A couple of days later I helped my sister-in-law do some pictures of a 4 week old, it's really made me realize just how grown up my little baby is. He is such a boy now.

Riley is a talker. He gets on the phone with Memaw and chats away. He's getting to the age where he really is talking to you, but you can't always figure out what he's saying so everyone can become very frustrated. He's pretty good at showing you what he wants and I can usually catch a word or two. It's exciting to watch him learn and figure things out. He seems smarter every day.

We finally have the sleep thing under control (although he did throw up last night for the first time in a couple of months). He usually sleeps 10-12 hours at night and has one 1 1/2 hour nap during the day. We've maintained this schedule for a few months now and it's the best we've ever had!
He's a pretty good eater, but still has a bottle before nap and bedtime. I've put off taking it from him while we focused on actually getting him to go to sleep so now I've gotta work on that.

He loves to run and climb and jump and dance- and does ALL day. There is never a dull moment and he never stops moving. He runs up and down the couch, he climbs on top of the kitchen table, he climbs into the bathtubs and turns the water on (and throws anything and everything in), he runs into the streets, he runs down slides...you get the idea. It's a nothing short of a miracle that we haven't had an emergency room trip. Sometimes when I go to bed at night and reflect of the day I almost have an anxiety attack.

He's learned to give KISSES! Riley was very developmentally delayed in this department, but boy was it worth the wait! Just ask him for one sometime...

He loves his Mia cat and often wants to lay his head on her belly and give her kisses. He is very concerned about her and if she gets out will stand at the door calling for her.

He's developed a bit of separation anxiety from his Momma. He often throws a tantrum if I walk into another room. He won't stay in the Kids Club at the gym anymore (he used to be like "see ya mom" and go play), which means since my hubby often works 10-12 hour days I don't go to the gym! If I touch another kid it's guaranteed meltdown. Some say he just needs a sibling...

He's caught on to the "Amen" at the end of prayers. Only problem is he usually thinks the prayer should end before it does and shouts Amen a little too early.

Now that he is a such a big boy, he gets to attend nursery at church and we are pretty excited to hear a Sunday school lesson for the first time in 18 months!

We have had lots of visits with family over the summer and I'll probably never catch up on all that blogging, so here's to a clean start! I'll try to do better with all our upcoming trips and
visitors!
Here are a few pics from our trip to the Dallas World Aquarium last weekend... it was pretty impressive!