Rileyisms

Hey All!
Sorry it's been so long since i've posted. I'll try and get some new pics up here in a day or two. Life has been pretty crazy lately, what with moving out of our apartment, going on vacation and trying to figure out our new life plan. We've got the life plan thing narrowed down to opening a sunscreen stand on a beach somewhere or selling t-shirts on a street corner.
Riley has grown so much. He is now a pro walker with no more intentions of crawling ever again. Unless he's pretending to be a dog or other type of animal. His forehead seems to be a magnet for furniture and sharp corners. Now that he's walking, it's been pretty hazardous having almost everything that he could possibly hit his head into right at eye level. I think i'm going to buy that little guy a helmet and make him wear it 24-7.
I'd thought i'd take a minute or two to write about some of the cute things Riley's been doing. First of all, he definitely knows what no means. Anytime he is thinking about doing something he knows he's not supposed to, he starts shaking his head and saying, "Uh uh, uh uh." About 99 percent of the time he ends up doing whatever it is he wasn't supposed to be doing anyway, but the whole time he's doing it, he's shaking his head No.
His vocabularly has doubled--from three whole words to six. He now says Mama, Dada, Duda (Uncle Dustin), Odda (Aunt Audra), Hot, and Dis (This). While saying Dis, he also points frantically at whatever it is he wants at the moment.
He loves animals, and moos anytime someone says cow. Dogs are his favorite, and he sticks his tongue out and starts panting anytime he sees a dog. It's pretty darn cute.
Every day he's less and less like a baby and more and more like a little boy. It sure did happen fast.

I have tri-athlete's feet

Last weekend I ran my first triathlon in Roosevelt, Utah. I wish I could tell you something cool like I won first place and ran 30 miles without stopping. But neither of those are true, and as we've all heard over and over in church, lying is bad. The triathlon is a Sprint Triathlon, which actually means it's the smallest and wimpiest of all triathlons. It was a 1/3 mile swim, a 13 mile bike, and a 3.2 mile jog. I finished 12 minutes behind the women's leader. My dad ran it with me. That guy is in amazing shape.
Mostly, I decided to do this as an incentive to get fit. It kind of worked. I sure jogged and swam a lot more than I would have if I hadn't known I was about to embarrass myself in front of lots of people. I wasn't as ready as I should have been, but it was really fun, and best of all this race got me really excited about working out and trying to get in better shape.

Happy birthday to baby Riley!

Our big baby boy celebrated his first birthday on July 21st! I absolutely cannot believe he's already one. It's gone by so fast. I know everyone says this, but it really does seem like it was only yesterday that we got to see and hold him for the first time. Don't tell, but I actually woke up the morning of his birthday with some stray tears in my eyes. It's sad how fast babies grow and change, but at the same time, each new stage and period in Riley's life has been so fun for us to experience. He makes us smile and laugh each day, and we're so greatful to have him in our home.

Daddy setting up Riley's new toy.
Riley's first unlimited access to unrestricted sugar. As can be expected, he loved it (except for the few minutes when he got a huge ice cream headache from eating a bite the size of texas)
Riley and his baby friends at seven peaks water park. We went there for a couple of hours in the evening before his party to take advantage of the discount rates.
Presents, Presents everywhere
Riley with Aunt Alison and Uncle Ben

Heat Wave

Here's some funny cartoons I found online for all of you who are suffering in this mega-ginormic summer of hotness that never ends. Seriously, it's been sooo hot in Provo for the past few months. They think it will probably end up being the hottest summer on record for Utah County. I'm just glad we have air conditioning and the ability to keep it cranked up 24-7.


All of you McMurrys will relate to this one. For all of you non-McMurrys, I guess I should explain. That whole family is addicted to box fans. They sleep with them at night and lug them around the country when they go on vacation. At night, Sam sleeps with his nose about an inch away from a fan that's on full blast. And Sam,don't be mad, but I have to tell this story. It's just too funny. We had just moved to our apartment in Provo, and Sam's fan stopped working in the middle of the night. He rummaged around the room in a pacnic for a little bit, trying different plugs to see if that was the problem. Then, when that failed, he got up and drove to Wal-mart at 3 in the morning to buy a new one. Now that's dedication.

One-year photos

Hey guys! Here are some photos of Riley we had made at the mall. Just so you know, I was too cheap to buy any to send to friends and relatives, so don't be surprised when you don't get any. We had a coupon for one free 8 by 10 photo, and we picked the one of Riley standing against the ladder. Of course, they probably expected us to buy at least one lousy picture, but they didn't count on the power of an empty wallet to resist even the pushiest of salesmen.
Never fear though. We're going to have Amanda Dyer (Sam's cousin) take some more pictures of Riley. She's a great photographer! We'll send out copies of those pictures once they are made.
I will try to post some photos of Riley's birthday and video of him walking within the next couple of days.

Worst Music Video Ever!

A friend showed me this music video and I thought it was absolutely hilarous. Some Sweedish band made it in the '70s. What's really funny to me is that these people were absolutely serious. This wasn't a spoof--it actually played on MTV!



And here's a version that some BYU students made. You can tell it's a group of BYU students because there's a hymn book on the piano in the background.

Joke's on you, Chuckee

A few weeks ago, me and my friend Marie took our kids to Chuckee Cheese's. They have free rides every weekday for a few hours. Technically, you're probably supposed to buy their overpriced pizza while you're taking advantage of their free rides, but who cares about technicalities. Take that, Chuckee! That'll teach you to be generous and let kids use your toys for free.
Riley loved it! He absolutely loves anything with wheels, so a bunch of toy cars with at least one wheel apiece was his idea of heaven. He was a little scared of the electronic puppets that dance around stiffly and sing outdated songs, but who can blame him there?
On a side note, I'm glad my friend Marie and her little boy Hayden moved to Provo. The only kids Riley has to play with from our church are all girls. And he's a little...umm....rough with them. More like heathenistic. I was at a baby shower a while back, and there was a little girl a couple of months younger than him sitting on the floor. I sat him down and he crawled right over to the little girl I thought maybe they would play together quietly for awhile. But instead, he pushed her over.
>

Hooray for teething!

Yep, I'm serious. I'm greatful for teething. You want to know why? Because without it, i'd just have to admit that I have a fussy baby who still sometimes wakes up in the middle of the night and likes to throw major tantrums.
As it is, at least I have a scapegoat to blame everything on. What's that? Riley took one bite of his food and then spit it out all over the place? He must be teething. Riley woke up two times last night? Surely he's teething. Riley is rolling around on the floor, screaming at the top of his lungs because I got tired of carrying him around and put him down. Teething, teething, teething.
Seriously though...Riley has been sooooo soooo fussy these last couple of weeks. He was sick for a few days and had a high fever of 103 off and on. The doctor said it was just a virus. It was weird though, because he didn't have any other symptoms other than being really hot.
And I think teething is at least a small part of the problem. He has three teeth completely in now, and two more trying to pop their way through. I feel bad for the little guy. It must hurt. I'll be honest though---I mostly feel bad for myself! No one warned me that tantrums started at age 1. I thought that didn't happen until the terrible twos.
Good thing Riley is so cute. It makes it all worth it.

guys + hair fixin' = trouble

So awhile ago, Riley's uncle Dustin decided to fix his hair for him.
   After about a pound of hair gell, this lovely mohawk was the end result. Of course, this was done on purpose. But I still can't help but conclude that men don't usually have what it takes in the fixing-other-people's-hair department.
Which leads me to some painful memories from my childhood. My mom taught early morning seminary for years and years, so my dad had to get us ready for school. My sister and I would roll out of bed with unruly hair and dad would just stick a bow in it somewhere and send us off to the bus. We were so ashamed that we always wore a hood on the bus, even if it was burning hot outside.
As you might guess, this didn't do much for our reputation as one of only a few Latter-day Saint families in town. Everyone else on the bus thought we were in some weird kind of cult or something.
Luckily, my mom would always meet us in the school bathroom to fix our hair before sending us off to class. That helped kids like us even more--we not only wore hoods all the time, but we must have had some sort of weird disease because we spent half an hour in the bathroom every morning.

Kissin' Cousins

Last week, Riley's newest cousin was born. Her name is Graycie Lynne Leasy, and she sure is a cutie! It will be fun to have a new little baby around.
The new mom
She's a grandma...again.
"Hooray for babies!"

It's just not the same

So now that Riley is older an an extremely active little boy, I've noticed that I have a brand-new dilemma in my life. When in the world do mothers of almost-one-year-old boys use the bathroom?
Every time I look like I'm thinking about heading in the direction of our porcelin throne, Riley seems to know about it. I think he's a mindreader. It's a race to see who can get to the bathroom first, and Riley usually wins. Then, the next ten minutes consist of me trying to pry his strong little fingers off the door frame (or if I'm lucky off the toilet seat--thus lengthening the process because I have to disinfect his hands), picking him up and plucking him down at a safe distance from the bathroom. I run back as fast as I can so I can close the door without worrying about slamming his fingers.
From there, you would think that the process would be over and a person could use the bathroom in peace. But Riley has figured out that the latch on our bathroom door doesn't close tight, and if he pushes just right, he can get the door open. If that fails, he stands outside the door and yells and pounds on it at five-second intervals. Either that or lays down on the carpet and peers through the crack between the door and the floor.
It's quite a process, and I'm about to decide that it might be easier to just buy some giant diapers for myself and join Riley in his carefree attitude about the necessity of toilets. Then again, this whole process results in the only exercise I ever get, so maybe I should keep things as they are.

It's Funny Because It's true

My mom e-mailed me this video that I think is absolutely hilarious. For any of you who want to see it, click on the "It's Funny Because It's True" title and it will take you there.
I think all of us moms will relate to this. Guys have a tendency to freak out over dirty diapers. Maybe they just have a stronger gag reflex than women. Or maybe it's because they aren't around dirty diapers all day long like we are. Or maybe they're just wimps... I think I'm getting close to the real cause with that third guess.
Oh, and P.S. How do you load video from google or other places off the internet directly to your blog?

Baby Messes

Caught in the act!
Riley's favorite hiding place--Under the bar stool.

Above all else, Riley loves to make messes! He spent two hours today crawling from bookshelf to bookshelf and throwing all the books on the floor. I would have stopped him, but truthfully, it was really nice to have something capture his undivided attention for two hours. Luckily for him (and me), his baby mess-making is still cute at this point. It's kind of like when you hear a tone-deaf three-year-old singing in church. It sounds horrible, but it's adorable just the same. The other day, I was making dinner and I could hear that Riley had managed to open the cupboard underneath the entertainment center. I had raw chicken juice all over my hands, and figured he couldn't do too much damage in a couple of minutes. I was wrong. Before I knew what had happened, he had managed to dump out four boxes worth of game pieces and thrown our CD stack all over the place. It took me almost half an hour to clean up.

Powell Cont.

It took some getting used to for Riley to get used to his life jacket...As you can probably tell by the look on his face.

Riley and his great-grandma Morrill.. and their almost-matching hats.

Here's even more Powell picks for ya'll to peruse. Someone out there who knows what they're talking about, is there anyway to post more than five pics on the same entry? I can't figure it out...but that's really no surprise.

Lake Powell

Grandpa and Riley, the awesome fishermen. You can tell what Riley's thinking. "What the heck is this thing and can I eat it?"


We had the chance to go to Lake Powell with my family last week. We've been going there once a year since I was 12, and I have some great family vacation memories from that place. It was a fun trip...there isn't really any other place like Lake Powell. It's so beautiful.
Riley loved it...I don't think he'll ever be able to readjust to life in our boring old apartment again. There was just too much excitement! He's a smart little guy. He would pretend to drive the boat and make little motor boat sounds. He also learned how to quack when we were feeding the ducks. Any time after that when we saw ducks again, he'd start quacking.
If you ask me, he says three words already. "Mama, Dada, and Bye Bye." Sam disagrees with me. It's true Riley doesn't always use those words in the right context. He calls ducks "Mama" and boats "Dada" I know, I know. All of you critics are thinking this kid doesn't know what the heck he's saying. But he has also used those words enough in the right situations that it makes me wonder. One definite..He knows "Uhoh." He says it anytime he drops something. He's growing so fast! I can hardly believe how much he's changing.

Pics

More Pics

Joseph Smith

As promised, up above I posted some more photos of Riley that we took while Grandma and Grandpa were down from Texas. On Monday, we went to Temple Square in Salt Lake City before we dropped them off at the airport. It was a perfect day (aside from a few very tense moments when we couldn't figure out how to get on crazy old I-15 and thought Grandpa and Grandma were going to miss their plane.)
The flowers on Temple Square were beautiful, and we had the chance to see a new movie about Joseph Smith, the first Prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I think the Church always does an amazing job with the movies they make, and this was no exception.
It was amazing to have the opportunity to look more closely into Joseph Smith's life. Even though I was distracted and had to take Riley out into the lobby a time or two, my testimony that Joseph Smith was a prophet grew from this movie. It was a very emotional, personal look at Joseph Smith's life and all of the trials he went through to restore the gospel. So many people persecuted Joseph and the early Saints because they believed the heavens were closed and that there was no such thing as revelation. But why should this be? If God had a prophet and he spoke to him in ancient times, why would he not do the same thing today?
In that one brief instant when Joseph Smith saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, so much truth was restored. Because of Joseph, we know we have a loving Heavenly Father who is interested and wants to be involved in the details of our lives. And because of Joseph, the true Church as it existed during Christ's ministry exists again on the earth today.

Smert Sam Fineeshed Kolluge!

Hi Everyone! Well, Sam finally did it. He graduated from BYU with a degree in Biology...pretty impressive considering how difficult some of the classes were that he had to take. Sam, we're proud of you!
We had a barbeque after graduation with my family and Sam's family. We also had a really fun visit with Sam's parents (they came down from Texas for graduation.) Riley sure did love them! He still hasn't really hit the stranger anxiety phase, which was good because he warmed up to them in no time. I'll post some more photos from our visit in the next day or two.

Easter

Riley's first Easter was great, but uneventful. My mom bought Riley a cute little outfit (Is it okay to call what boys wear "outfits"?) Maybe I should say my mom bought Riley a very manly collection of clothing. It was really windy and kind of cold, so it was kind of hard to get good photos. We didn't do much of note, but we did buy Riley a little Easter basket with some toys and books. They were all from the trusy old dollar store. You've got to love that place!