2 1/2 Years All Ready?

It's hard to believe that our little baby is 2 1/2. Riley is such a sweet little kid. She has always been my little helper. If I'm unloading the dishwasher, she's right there helping. If I'm putting clothes away, she wants to help. If Mia asks for milk, she'll bring her the sippy cup. She's always grabbing Ethan's blanket for him. She's very much a people pleaser.

Though, she has started acting like a 3-year old. I was just thinking that the twins have finally gotten easier and now I have another 3-year old. Riley reminds me a lot of Ethan. I think she may have inherited some of his quirkiness. I made the mistake of tucking her baby in with an old baby blanket. Since then, she has me tuck her babies in multiple times a day. She'll bring me 7-8 baby outfits and expects me to put them all on. She'll then bring me washcloths and towels and I'm supposed to tuck those around the baby. Then she'll bring me a couple of baby blankets and I'm supposed to wrap those around the baby. She watches me like a hawk and if she doesn't like how I do it, she screams. After 20 minutes of this, I finally get the baby tucked in how she likes it. She'll hold it for 10 minutes and strip everything off the baby and wants me to start over. :)

She loves putting "ake-up" on and putting it on her babies. She watches how I do it and then copies me. She's getting a little better about getting into my mascara. She'll still get into my powders and foundation though. Riley also loves having her fingernails and toenails painted. I try to do it when the kids are sleeping because otherwise, I'll have 60 extra digits to do.

Riley insists on picking out all of her own clothes and pajamas. She is pretty decent at matching. She's been wearing underwear for a month now. Everytime I put underwear on her, I tell her not to pee in her underwear because the underwear will get mad. Haha. She now says it every time I put underwear on her.

She has accidents sometimes but is really good about telling me she has to go to the bathroom. Riley still copies Ethan and pees outside. She is very proud when she does it. She still needs a diaper at nap and bedtime. Speaking of nap time, she still usually needs an afternoon nap. She'll sleep 1 1/2 hour and she usually goes to bed around 10:30pm and wakes up around 9am.

Riley is still a huge mama's girl. She is getting better with the clinginess. She'll run off and play babies with Mia, so that gives me a much needed break. Riley likes to rough-house with Ethan but he tends to be a little too rough, so it doesn't last long.

She has just started watching tv. She really likes the, "Bubble Guppies", "Umi-Zoomie", and the movie, "Tangled." Riley loves to color and paint and read books. Her favorite thing is to play with her babies. She pretends to feed them, change their diapers, and rocks them.

She really likes going to daycare. The last time I dropped her off, she kept saying, "bye mommy"--like she wanted me to leave. She didn't get sad or cry. There are a couple of little girls there and they play really well together. I'm so glad she likes it there!

Riley is a pretty good eater. She tries almost anything. One of the weird things she likes is coleslaw. I had never given it to her because I figured she wouldn't like it. Over the 4th of July, she had some off of Grandma's plate. She wolfed it down. I received a text from Elizabeth (their daycare) a few weeks ago, and it said, "I served coleslaw for lunch and Riley inhaled it." :)

Riley has been talking a lot. She likes to tell me that I'm "ucky" and "gross" (she gets that from Ethan.) She copies everything the twins say. She also tells me to "go away" a lot. She's now very private when she uses the bathroom, so after I help her up on the toilet, she points her finger at me and says, "go away, Mommy." Ummm...okay. If I do something that upsets her, she tells me that I'm in "big trouble" and tells me to go to my room. It's so funny what they pick up.

It hasn't always been easy having 3 little kids, but I couldn't imagine what our life would be like without them! They're growing up way too fast, and I constantly have to remind myself to enjoy every little moment. Before too long, they're going to be in school and I'll be wishing that they were little once again.

Concord Grapes

We have some grape vines on our acreage. The first year we lived there, they didn't produce much at all. We had a little more last year, but we've had the most this year. Mike and I tried some last year. I thought they were the grossest tasting grapes ever. It turns out that you're not supposed to eat the skins. :) The skins taste gross, but the inside of the grape is really sweet. Good to know.

Mike's mom wanted to take the grapes and make concord grape jelly. We had a little picking party. Ethan really got into it. He was all about picking the grapes. Mia and Riley weren't too interested, so they sat and watched.

Instead of picking the cluster of grapes, Ethan picked them one by one. It kept him busy for a very long time.

He actually calls the grape vine his house. He climbs all over it. I've caught him standing on the very top of it.

The end result--two full coolers of concord grapes. I'm looking forward to trying the jelly!

Favorite Things

I always like seeing what people's favorite things are. I thought I'd post some of mine!


My Canon Rebel EOS T2i camera. It takes such nice pictures. I highly recommend one! I started taking a camera class so I can learn how to use it better. There's so much you can do with this camera, and I know I've hardly scratched the surface.

WoodWick Candles smell so good! They make a cracking sound like a fire is burning. They also last a long time.

I love perfume. It was hard for me to choose my top five, but here they are! Romance by Ralph Lauren, Clinique Happy, Light Blue by Dolce and Gabanna, Miss Dior Cherie, and Chance by Chanel.

I love Dior Show mascara. I have sensitive eyes and this stuff doesn't bother them. It's a total splurge at almost $30 a tube. I've tried a couple different kinds of Dior Show mascara and have loved them both!

My CeraVe face wash and lotion. I have very sensitive skin and this is gentle. It's very similar to Cetaphil, but I think this does a better job. It's slightly more expensive, but it's very good for a drug store brand.

My IPad. I can't tell you how much I love this thing. I'd be absolutely devastated if something happened to it. It's so fast compared to my laptop. I love how light weight and portable it is. You can buy all sorts of apps for it and the kids love playing games on it.

My Dyson vacuum cleaner. This thing picks up so much stuff from my carpet. It's kind of gross and fascinating at the same time. My mom lent me her Big Power vacuum which is like the Rainbow. It looks like R2D2 from Star Wars. You add water to the base and all the dirt and gunk goes into the water. I've noticed I have less dust in my house since I've started using it. The issue with it is it's SO big and clunky.

The Scrubbing Bubbles wash cloth. It has microfiber on one side and a coarser side for stuck on stuff. The microfiber side picks up coffee grounds and other fine crumbs and they cling to it. It's awesome!

Coffee is one of my guilty pleasures. I like to buy whole bean coffee and grind it myself. Some of my favorite brands are: Seattle's Best, Caribou, and Starbucks. My mom buys some whole bean coffee off of the internet from monks. That stuff is really good too!

The Capresso coffee bean grinder. You can set how fine or coarse you want the beans ground.

Ahhh! My Technivorm Moccamaster Coffee Maker. It is hand-made in the Netherlands. I did a lot of research before picking this coffee maker. It makes great coffee! I also like how simple it is. There is an on/off switch and a switch to turn the hot plate on/off.

End of Summer

Wow! It's the end of summer. I love fall. I'm so excited for the hot weather to be over. It's supposed to be in the 70's here the rest of the week and the low 80's this weekend. Perfect!

I finally unloaded my cheap-o camera. I take that camera on road trips and other places my nice camera could be ruined. I didn't realize that I hadn't unloaded it in months. I had pictures on their from May. :) I thought I'd include some of my favorites.


There are 6 horses that live a couple of blocks from us. The kids and I like to walk over there to see them. One of the horses almost always comes up to the fence for some carrots or grass. Sure enough, the one time I bring my camera, he doesn't come. The kids were pretty disappointed!

We had a summer barbeque at our friends' house, Nate and Mandy. It was a lot of fun. The mom's ended up taking the kids to the zoo and the dad's all golfed. Who got the short end of the stick on that one? :) We had a great time at the zoo. We didn't lose anyone, which was what we were fearing. There were 6 kids and 3 adults. We were a tad outnumbered, but the kids behaved really well.

The girls on the camel at the zoo. Rhea is a month younger than the twins (in the front), next is Lillian who will be 3 soon, and Finn is 1 1/2. The kids had fun playing with each other!

These next pictures are from the 4th of July. I can't believe it was all ready 2 months ago.

Mia wouldn't get on the tube. She's my little chicken. I guess I can count on her hardly getting hurt!

Do you see how cautious they are going across the bridge? You should see Ethan going across it. It'd make you laugh. He runs as fast and as hard as he can and tries to bounce the girls. Maybe that's why they are holding on for dear life.

I hope everyone had a good Labor Day weekend. Mike was in Phoenix for a business trip. Our kids went to Chamberlain to spend it with Mike's parents. They were well-behaved with Grandma and Grandpa. It sounds like they played a lot outside. They were going to go boating, but it didn't quite work out. The kids were playing in the boat and turned the key on. They went down to the water and put the boat in and it wouldn't start. :) Only my kids. I'm sure his parents just laughed about it.

One of my good friends came and stayed the weekend with me along with her hubby and little girl. We did a ton of shopping. (Gotta love the labor day sales!) Her husband is leaving for Afghanistan in a few weeks. He'll be gone a year. If you could please say some prayers for them. His job will be finding and dismanteling IED's.

I also started the brick-staining project on the front of our house. It took me 10 hours to do the front. We still have the chimney and a half-wall to do. Ugh. I'll post some pictures when it's done!

Funny Faces

The kids were hamming it up for the camera the other day. They were making silly faces and wanted me to take their picture. Riley made the same face over and over. :)