Check Up

Riley had his two-month check up today. I thought I'd just let everyone in on how he's doing. He now weighs 12 lbs 6 oz and he's 24 inches long. He's in the 50th percentile for his weight and head circumference, but he's in the 85% percentile for his height. In other words, he's growing like a weed. It's weird because I took him to a WIC appointment two and a half weeks ago. They weighed and measured him there too, and he was only in the 25th percentile for all three categories. I'm wondering if the WIC people measured wrong or if he just hit a huge growth spurt.
It was really hard to see him get his shots. He had to get poked four times, and man did he cry (i must confess that I cried a tiny little bit too). After crying hysterically for about three minutes, he fell asleep.

It's Autumn Time

Sam and I went hiking up Provo Canyon last weekend. The leaves were all turning colors, so it was beautiful. We took Riley along in a little backpack/babycarrier thingie that we bought for him. He seemed to like it a lot. He was looking around at everything and smiling. Hooray for autumn!!

The Mommy Syndrome

Okay, so I have this great memory from my childhood. All four of us Morrill kids are lined up by the door with freshly scrubbed faces. My mom is trying to get us out the door before some sort of disaster occurs and we’re late AGAIN. She’s running around the house frantically, looking for her keys. Her teeth are clinched and she’s asking, “Where in the world are my keys?” Why are her teeth clinched? Because her keys are dangling from her mouth.
At the time, we all thought that was pretty funny. But now I understand something that I never knew before. I’ve always been absent minded, but now it’s worse than ever. I’ve decided that once you become a mom, you lose your mind.
Let me present some evidence. A couple of weeks ago, I was getting gas. As I got in my car and started to pull away, I happened to look out the car window. I had left the gas nozzle in my car pump, and as I pulled away, it jerked it out and went flying. My fellow gas pumpers all thougt that was pretty funny.
Later, Sam and I locked our keys in the car. The bad part was Riley was still in it. Luckily, the car was running so he didn’t get too hot. We stood there for about 10 minutes while Sam tried to break in. It was unsuccessful, so we decided to call the police. It was at that point that my mom noticed my purse dangling from my shoulder and asked, “Are your keys in there by any chance?” The answer to that was yes, of course they were. In the ten minutes of frantic deliberation, the fact that I had my keys right there beside me didn’t even cross my mind.
After that, Sam and I decided to go to Barnes and Noble. After taking Riley out of the car, I looked down and noticed I had forgotten to buckle him into his car seat.
All of this happened in a 24 hour period. For those of you who are thinking of reporting me to child services, please don’t! I promise that I won’t do stupid things that endanger Riley’s life anymore. However, I’m sure I’ll keep doing plenty of stupid things that don’t endanger his life.
Anyway, I want to hear all of you mothers out there fess up. Has anyone else noticed that a vicious cycle of stupidity began with the birth of your first child? Or is it just me?

Say Cheese

Riley now smiles!!! It's a lot of fun. It was hard to capture a good smile on camera; these were the best shots I got. He smiles every time I sing "The Eensy Weensie Spider." Sometimes it's confusing though, because he'll smile and two second later he'll start crying. Maybe my singing is bad.

Our Place

Here's the living room. There's not much to say about it. It's where we do all of our TV watching.
Here's the kitchen. It's nice to have a little more room to move around. And.....get this.....it even has a dishwasher. It's like Christmas, birthdays, and Canadian boxing day all wrapped into one.

Thanks to Becca and Tyler for supplying the letters for Riley's name. I'm pretty sure he knows how to spell it already. If you think the letters look a little crooked, please keep it to yourself. It took me a stinking long time to get those things as straight as they are now.

So we really love our new place. It's nice and new and doesn't smell like mildew. The previous tenant was evicted, and the landlord had to move all of the stuff out for her because no one knows where she went. He told us one of these days she'll probably show up and be like, "Hey, who are you and where is all of my stuff?" As more and more time passes, I've stopped worrying. I think she's gone for good. It still beats the homeless man living under the tree outside the bedroom window of our old apartment.

More Pictures (Again)

Fire!

There was a huge fire today at my parents' house. It was started by someone throwing a cigarette out their car window. The flames got pretty close to the house, and for awhile we thought we were going to have to be evacuated. Then the wind shifted and the fire headed the other direction. There were all kinds of fire trucks and helicopters flying around trying to put out the flames. It was about as exciting as things get here in Neola Utah.

Growing, Growing

We took Riley down to my dad's office yesterday to weigh and measure him. He weighed 8 lbs 4 oz and was 21 and 3/4 inches long. That's not really very big, but he had to play a lot of catch up from the pound he lost in the hospital. He still looks really small to me, and his clothes still don't fit him, but I can definitely tell that he's growing. I know it's a good thing, but at the same time I get sad and think to myself, "Please, just stay tiny!" Babies grow so fast. I guess that's why you have to keep having more.
He sure does hate being naked, and he screams his head off every time we give him a bath. He also makes little machine gun noises when he sleeps. It's pretty cute, although slightly less cute at 2 a.m. He's the only person I know who makes more noise when sleeping than he does when he's awake.

Farmer Sam

Sam has been busy working for my parents at our wanna-be farm in Roosevelt. Here's a picture of him brush-hogging. He drives the tractor up and down the field pulling the mower and chopping down giant weeds. Basically, it's an on-steriods version of mowing the lawn. He keeps insisting that it's a lot of fun. I'm not sure I buy it......it must be a guy thing.

The many faces of Riley

So things in the baby world have been going great. Riley's sleeping habits are changing already. He will want to eat every hour for about three hours, then he'll stay awake for a bit, and then he'll sleep for five or sometimes even six hours at a time. I know every mom says this about their kids....but I think he really is a good baby. He hardly ever cries. At night when he wants to be fed he just kind of whimpers until I hear him and pick him up. It takes quite a lot to get him worked up to a full-blown cry. Me being the new mom that I am I have to find every possible excuse to worry. Riley has me worried that he doesn't cry enough. I know, I know. This will probably change all too soon.
He sure does make a lot of funny faces. Sometimes I just like to sit and watch his face while he sleeps (I know, you're thinking "Man, her life must be boring'"or possibly "that's slightly creepy"). Really though, it is quite entertaining. For those of you who aren't able to see Riley's many faces in person, I'm posting a few for your benefit.

This is his "I'm a sleeping angel" face. Isn't he cute?

This is his "I hate baths" face. Guess when he makes it? Yep, that's right...bath time. Maybe he'll like baths more after his umbilical cord falls off and we can let him get all the way wet.

This is the "What are you looking at/Please leave me alone" face. He usually makes it after we've taken one too many pictures or woken him up from a nap.

Riley always puckers his little lips. We're not sure why. I like to think he wants me to give him a kiss. (The real reason is probably that he wants to eat).

This is Riley's happy face. I know there are those of you who will try to tell me that when babies smile, it just means they have gas. But I know better!

The new guy

Sam and I are now parents!!! Scary, isn't it? Riley Jacob McMurry was born on July 21 at 7:45 a.m. He weighed 7 lbs and 2 oz. It's crazy how much our lives have changed, and how much we love the little guy already. Sam just keeps staring at him and saying over and over again (with deep insight) "Man, he's cool!."
There are so many things that have happened that I never could have prepared for. For example, how far unmentioned things can fly and how much wall coverage they get when you're changing a diaper. Also, it's a completely new concept that not everyone loves to eat as much as me. The first few days getting Riley to eat were a real struggle. He lost almost a pound, and that was pretty dang scary. After a few really stressful days, he's starting to take after his mom and wants to eat every few hours. I think the non-eating phase is all in the past now!


The 0 to 3 month clothes that we bought for Riley looked really small until we put them on him. Nothing fits him yet, but he'll grow all too fast.

Riley and his uncle Dustin

More Pictures!

Bad Habits

For those of you who want to see how I look pregnant, here I am!!
Being pregnant has been fun, but I've picked up some bad habits that I hope I'll be able to get rid of once the baby comes. For example, you know how you always see those pregnant women in grocery stores rubbing their belly and you wish they'd stop? Well, I rub my belly in stores now. I've also gotten in the habit of grunting every time I bend over to tie my shoe or get out of the car. It doesn't really make things any easier, but I do it anyway.
Like I said, I really hope I'll be able to get rid of these habits after the baby comes. They're less forgivable in non-pregnant women.

Welcome to the Uintah Basin

Utah Governor Jon Huntsman visited the
Uintah Basin last week. He was greeted by this sign
at a gas station in Duchesne, Utah. On the plus
side, maybe he'll decide to give more money
to our school district, seeing as how we aren't
the best spellers.

Sam showing of his wakeboarding skills at Red Fleet
reservoir. We spent the 4th of July at the lake with
family and friends.

Visiting the Mission

Since we had some time to kill before Sam starts another new job on July 5th, we decided to drive down to Phoenix and visit Sam's mission. I saw my first giant cactus thingie (who knows what they're really called). It probably wasn't the best idea for me to drive so far (since I'm 8 months pregnant) but we just had to do one last irresponsible thing before the baby comes. Maybe the irresponsibility is out of our system now.
It was a great experience. Most of the people that Sam taught have moved on, but he was able to visit a few investigators. One thing that I learned from all this. . . . . I NEVER want to live in Phoenix. It was 110 degrees the whole time we were down there.

It's all over!!

I done graduated myself up from college!


Well, after 18 years of attending some sort of school, I'm now done. It's a really weird feeling. I'm probably going to assign myself weekly homework just to keep the memories alive.