Grammy and Gpas "farm"

Here are a few pictures from our Utah trip. These are from my mom and dad's wannabe "farm" in Neola, Utah. Riley thought it was the greatest place in the world. There are cats to chase, horses to pet, and motorcycles and snowmobiles to ride.
The good news is that I dropped our camera in a giant snow drift and most likely ruined it. I'm sure what will happen is that i'll take it to a camera place, they'll look at it for a few seconds and say, "It will be cheaper to just buy a new one." How, you ask, do I know this? Well my camera kill count is up to three now. It's not a number I'm proud of. Somehow, I just have a knack for dropping those things in water puddles, out of moving vehicles, or off balcony's the very second before I'm about to snap a great picture. I'm actually pretty darn upset about it. Our camera wasn't top of the line, but it was nice, and we really don't want to buy a new one. Keep your fingers crossed (for our sake) that someone will be able to resurrect it.
Anyway, the point of telling what happened to our camera is to say it may be awhile before we get the rest of our pics posted. The memory card should still work, even though the camera doesn't, but we won't have a card reader handy for a few days.

So many pictures!

Hi Friends,
Sam, Riley, and I are all heading off to Utah tomorrow for a couple of weeks. We thought we'd go visit my family and do as much snowboarding as possible. Sam is also going to work a little bit while we're down there at a trade show in Salt Lake to help fund our vacation spree.
It may be awhile before I have a chance to post again, so I thought I'd share some misc. past photos that i've been meaning to load but haven't gotten around to actually loading.



Riley's usual preferred method of going down slides is head-first, so
the feet-first routine is a nice (and much safer) changeup.

So cute!!

I'm not sure how daddy feels about this picture.

Riley and daddy playing the piano

Mommy, look! I'm a duck!!!

Treadmill Bike

Maybe I'm lame, but I'm a sucker for mock infomercials and I thought this was hilarious.

Take your favourite gym workout outside with the amazing Treadmill Bicycle.

Merry Christmas

We hope all of you had a great Christmas! Ours was wonderful. I considered this year Riley's first "real" Christmas experience, since he was only six-months old last year and celebrated the day by keeping us up all night on Christmas Eve and then sleeping through the entire Christmas celebration.
This year, he was much more excited about the whole present thing. In fact, you'll notice that he couldn't even be bothered to look up at the camera in 99 percent of the pics I posted. He loved unwrapping the presents and spent a good five minutes after he tore the paper off trying to figure out how to "rearrange" it back on the box the way it was originally.
We spent Christmas this year in Oklahoma with my Grandma, Aunts and Uncles, and Cousins. My mom and dad and brother and sisters also drove down from Utah. It worked out great for us, since it's just a four hour drive to Grandma's from Dallas. Not that driving in a car for 18 hours with a screaming baby isn't a treat.

Riley driving his new dump truck under the stool. He also drove it (or tried to drive it) on the cat and dog's back, but unfortunately I was too slow to snap any pics of that.
My dad with his awesome bomber jacket that my mom bought for him.
Riley (he's the one refusing to look at the camera) with his Aunt Audra and Uncle Dustin)
My sister Kaitlyn and her cute little baby Graycie
Opening presents with Grammy




Sam thought it would be fun to celebrate Christmas by catching a nasty case of the flu. He spent the entire day in bed except for the ten minutes that he emerged to try and enjoy present-opening. The good news is that Riley and I also had really gross colds, and seeing as how Christmas is all aboug giving, we were kind enough to share our germs with everyone.

'Nothin But Blue Skies

I've got to admit that it didn't take me very long to fall in love with Texas weather. There are a few cloudy and cool days every now and again, but there are also so many warm days...even in the middle of winter! Unfortunately, being from Utah I wasn't expecting to need t-shirts and shorts occasionally so most of them are packed away in storage.
I'm so glad I'm not stuck in a small Utah apartment everyday because it's too cold to take Riley out to play. I think we'd drive each other crazy! Riley's favorite outdoor activity is playing in a small patch of dirt just outside the door at his Grandpa and Grandma's house. The dirt patch is directly below a gutter, so when it rains the whole thing becomes a nice, choclatey, gooey mess. It actually looks rather delicious, and Riley finds it irresistible. He sticks his fingers in the dirt and licks them. He looks so disappointed and disgusted that the dirt tastes like....well dirt....but yet five minutes later he's trying to eat the stuff all over again.It's really pretty darn funny.
Here are some pics we took on one of those days when the weather was so nice.

"Don't bother me mom, I have a very delicate operation to perform! I have to move these leaves from one side of this bench to the other."


"Success is mine!!!"


"Now I"m going to look at this stick for awhile."

Thanksgiving

Here are some random pics that we took at Thanksgiving--which was great by the way. Any holiday where you can eat everything you want is fine by me. We tried to get a really cute picture with all three babies and grandma and grandpa, but as you can imagine that's pretty much an impossible task. Of all the pictures, this one turned out the best.

Hooray for Sam!!!!

I'm going to take a minute to brag in Sam's behalf, since he's far too modest to do it himself. We found out last week he's been accepted into a few different medical schools, whose names I will omit for security purposes. One of the schools where he was admitted only accepts about 12 out-of-state applicants each year, so Sam must have really impressed the admissions committee. It'll be fun to see where we end up!

Ride 'Em Cowboy

I guess we know now why little boys shouldn't play with dollhouses. For some reason, while we were visiting Sarah and Shane a few weeks ago, Riley kept trying to sit on his cousin Kathryn's dollhouse and ride it. Poor Kathryn was a little confused as to what in the world he was doing, but she was sweet enough to share all the same.


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Birthdays = ICE CREAM!!!

Andrew had his 18th birthday last week, and Riley quickly learned that birthdays mean the once-in-a-rare while opportunity when we actually let him have some ice cream. He loved it. I think he enjoyed making a huge mess and finger-painting himself in chocolate almsot as much as actually eating the ice cream.

A Second Fall

One of the great things about Allen is the city has tons of really pretty, wooded hiking trails. Some are paved and some aren't. We've been trying to take advantage of them as much as possible while the weather is still so nice.
Here, the leaves don't change colors and fall until much later in the year than they do in Utah. So really, we've had two falls this year, which is fine with me because I absolutely love the season. It's so pretty! We were in Utah until mid-October; plenty late enough in the year to see all the colors change. Down here, the trees are just barely starting to lose their leaves.


Riley is starting to get less stingy with his hugs and kisses for us now. It's been pretty nice! Every now and then you really like to have your favorite little boy love on you.
Riley's favorite activity...pushing his own stroller around. The only problem is that he's not very good at steering yet but gets offended big-time when anyone tries to help.

Who Says White Babies Can't Jump?

For some reason, the other day, sam and I decided it'd be funny to teach Riley how to jump. Riley thought it was hilarious, and now he practices all the time. As you can see, he's totally got it down (except for the teensy tiny detail that his feet never actually leave the ground).

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Dragon tales

Once he figured out that dressing up in a silly little costume meant lots and lots of free candy, Riley decided Halloween was his new favorite holiday. Of course, since he pretty much slept through both Christmas and Halloween last year, I guess this Halloween was the first real holiday he has been old enough to enjoy.
Riley was a little dragon this Halloween. Sam was pretty unexcited that I was making his very masculine son dress up in a purple costume that slightly resembled Barney the Dinosaur. The costume was so cute though that I couldn't resist getting it (and besides that it was on sale).
I was pretty worried that Riley would end up refusing to wear the dragon suit, since he hates hoods or hats of any kind. So I decided to have a few "dress rehearsals" for the big occasion. I put Riley's costume on him a few times before trick-or-treating so he could get used to it. I know, it sounds kind of dumb, but I figured if we had bought a costume, he darn well better wear it.
At first, he hated it. But then I put the hood on my head and growled at him and chased him around for a little bit. He thought that was pretty funny. Then, whenever he saw his costume, he'd point at it and say "Vaca." That's Spanish for cow. Sam taught it to Riley, and it quickly became his favorite word. But since he can't say any other animal name except dog, "Vaca" quickly became a generic word for animals of any kind.
Anyway, once he figured out that costume made him look like a little animal, he decided wearing it wasn't so bad after all. Halloween turned out to be a lot of fun--Plus, since Sam and I are the responsible parents that we obviously are---we couldn't possibly let Riley eat all of that Halloween booty by Himself. I

Happy Halloween!

Last weekend, we had the first annual McMurry family pumpkin carving contest. It was fun, and we all managed to escape the night without serious injury. Riley didn't care too much for the actual pumpkin carving, but he was simultaneously fascinated and freaked out by the gooey pumpkin gut stuff.
To see pictures of our finished masterpieces, go to www.mcmurryfamily.blogspot.com

Pumpkins, Pumpkins Everywhere

First of all, can I just say I'm so glad that Halloween is just around the corner because that means all the restaurants are rolling out their pumpkin options...Pumpkin milkshakes, pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin drinks. I think it's a crying shame all that great stuff is only offered this time of year. Does anyone else out there feel the same?
Now that the important stuff has been said, we recently had a chance to enjoy some pumpkins of the inedible variety at a couple of pumpkin patches. One was in Utah with our friends the Ishiis before we rolled out of town for Texas and the other was with family in Oklahoma.
Riley didn't care too much for the pumpkins, but he did seem to enjoy the fact that both places had a petting zoo of sorts. The first place in Utah had a huge obese pig. I'm not exactly sure how much he weighed (and believe me, it was extremely evident this pig was a he) but it had to have been A LOT. The poor pig was so fat all it could do was lie there and wallow, surrounded on all sides by pumpkins. The other petting zoo in Oklahoma was great too because you could buy little grain packets (at 500 times the actual retail price) and feed all the little goats. Riley loved it. He would laugh and laugh as the dirty little things slimed him with their runny noses and discolored tounges. I had to cringe a little, but as a mother of an extremely active little boy, there must come a time when you have to trust that hand sanitizers really kill all the things they say they do.

Riley loved the wheelbarrow ride, as long as we didn't stop moving.
Same thing with the ponies. Once they started trotting around in their little circle, he was as happy as can be. When they stopped and he had to get off, it was another thing. My mom had to pry his strong little fingers off the saddle.

He's got the cowboy stuff down. What a natural.


I love the look on Riley's face. "What the heck is that thing my mommy is holding?"