Christmas

I finally have a moment to post the highlights from christmas. both marc and i had to work on christmas this year so we had to split up family stuff. we had his family over on christmas eve for dinner and presents. his brother is on a mission and was able to call that night so everyone was there to talk to him.after dinner riley had to show off his wheelchair skills for the fam and we couldn't press the stop button fast enough and he ran into grandma twice! later that night marc and i opened our presents and riley's presents too. Riley got a little piano that he loves to play along with a movie and some more clothes but his favorite present was the chapstick that came in his stocking. the best present of the night was mine from marc. he got me a guitar! i started to tear up when he brought it in the room. i've always wanted to learn how to play and it caught me by surprise that he would even think to get me one. way to go marc!

taking elmo for a ride






we always have breakfast at my mom's house on christmas morning so we headed over there for the traditional jenny mcmuffin breakfast. all the grand kids tore through all their presents and were so excited to play with what they got. the favorites of the day were the batman action figures and laurne's barbie doll to which she proceeded to sing the barbie girl song to. my mom went to africa in october and brought the kids back some neat gifts. these are the africa beads she brought riley.

Riley Turned Two!

Riley turned two years old on Saturday December 19. I don't even know how to describe the excitement I have been feeling these last few days about being able to see my little boy turn 2. With everything that was happening with in that first year of his life our thoughts of him being here as healthy as he is for his second birthday were far from our minds. He has grown into such an amazing little boy with a personality all his own. I try to imagine what he would be like if he were able to be up and about as a regular 2 year old. I see him following daddy around wanting to do everything that he is doing. I see him climbing up on my lap with one of his favorite books. I see him talking with his papa and cuddling with grama. I see him shooting some hoops with cousin Nick. I see him getting into things he knows he's not suppose to. The funny thing about all this is though is that riley does all of these things with out having to walk. He always wants what daddy has and he wants to be doing what daddy is doing. He loves to sit on my lap with a good story to read. He loves to talk to his papa and watch sports with him. Although he can't physically shoot the hoops with nick he is there to cheer him on. And for a kid who can't get up and move around he always finds a way to get a hold of something he's not suppose to have. These are fun reminders for me that I do have a regular 2 year old boy! Now enough of the sentimental side note let's get down to why we are all here...pictures of the party! First off the best part of Riley's birthday was that santa clause came to the house to see him. I was a little worried that Riley would be scared of santa but he just cuddled right up to him and told him all about what he wanted for christmas.





later that afternoon we had lots of friends and family come over to celebrate. Thanks to everyone for all the great gifts.
This is the dinosaur cake I made. I think it turned out pretty cute.

Riley had fun opening his presents. He seemed to know what the present thing was all about and was excited to see what was inside








Carly, Kyle and Juliet came too. I don't know what I would do with out these people in my life. I don't know what Riley would do either. He thinks they are just the greatest. Especially kyle, Riley thinks he is just so funny!

four peas in a pod

 
These four kids definatly came from the same gene pool!