We have a tooth!!!!

After 11 months, Denton finally has his first official tooth! I can't believe how long it took him. His sister had a mouth full of teeth at 8 months and here he is just getting his first one. It has officially poked thru the gums and is on its way up! It felt like it was just a bump under the gums for months!! Looks like the one next to it will be next...but knowing Denton probably not for another 6 months! HA.

I will try to get pics soon, but I wanted to immortalize the date. It was actually Tuesday of last week (4/13, his sisters bday) that it made its debut but we have been a tad bit busy lately with all of the sickness and birthday party stuff.

It's Party Time

The morning of Riley's Birthday party, she and her friend Daisy went to get their hair and nails done for the party. They got the works! Nails painted, glitter stars on their faces and hair done up with glitter and a little tiara! They were in heaven and both were so adorable getting all beautified.

Riley and her friend/neighbor Gabe are just one day apart in age so for the second year in a row, we did a joint party for them. Seeing as how most of their friends are kids from the neighborhood it makes sense. For this year's party we headed over to Champion Gymnastics and Cheer down the street from our house. We didn't really know what to expect other than the fact that the kids would get to play in the gym and bounce house. Man was I impressed with the party they put on. They had a group of instructors with the kids and took them thru obstacle courses and played games and helped them swing on a rope and jump on trampolines and the bounce house etc. They really know how to tire those kids out, ha! Riley and Gabe had a great time as did the other kids. I know us parents had a blast watching the kids as well. Even Denton and his baby friends got into the action a bit. Nothing like being at a place where you can just set the babies down and let them do their thing!

Kids getting instruction on how to run the course

Listening intently to the rope instructions

Denton getting his gym on

Riley on the obstacle course

She was trying so hard not to show her fear!
Game Time!

HAPPY 4th BIRTHDAY RILEY!!!

Yesterday was Riley's 4th birthday. Instead of the usual cupcakes or cake to bring to school to celebrate with her friends, she wanted to bring donut holes to share with her class. So her Dad took her to the donut shop on the way to school and Riley picked out a special donut for herself and then some donut holes for her friends.

After school we let Riley pick where she wanted to eat dinner and she chose Chili's. The waitstaff brought her over a chocolate milkshake and sang Happy Birthday to her. She got very shy and hid her face in her Dad's shoulder. So cute!! She is looking forward to her party this Saturday and is already asking when she turns 5. Slow your roll girl!!

I am just so proud of my little girl. She has turned into the most amazing, funny, smart, talented, caring, sweet, ball of sunshine I could have ever dreamed of. She is equal parts girly-froofie-girl and get-down-and dirty-tomboy. She alternates "ballerina" dancing in the living room with showing off some serious karate moves (that she made up). Everyday that I look into those beautiful blue eyes of hers, I am more and more grateful that we have been blessed with such a precious little girl.

Ah but she is not so little anymore. She has now decided that she wants to take showers by herself. No more sharing the bathtub with little brother. Did I mention that she is TALL? She is all legs and in the 90th percentile for height. Which is truly amazing because she started out in the 5th percentile for height and weight. She can spell and write her first and last name. She knows more spanish than I do (thank you SDSU spanish classes) and can count to 100 and add and subtract basic numbers. She loves to color (within the lines, amazing) and paint and draw and she loves sing along to the music. She also loves to just sing on her own without any music playing. One of her most favorite things to do is to slow dance with her Daddy. What a heart melting scene that is!!

She constantly delights me with the things she says and she is the BEST big sister ever. Her brother lights up the minute he sees her. She can get him to stop crying on the spot with just a song and is Mommy's best little helper. She has even started cleaning around the house! She loves to vacuum with our little handheld attachment and she also loves to sweep.

I can go on and on about all of the wonderful things I love about Riley. But the one thing that I love most is that she is OURS!!

Happy Birthday to my Princess Riley!!!

Easter Weekend

We started Easter weekend by heading over to Sea World for a few hours. We like to go right when it opens and leave around lunch time when it starts to get really crowded. This time we checked out a few things that we had never seen before. And as usual, Riley had a blast playing in the Bay of Play. And from the looks of the pic below, Dan had fun as well ;)

Easter morning the kids woke up and went to check out the baskets that the Easter Bunny left. Riley was so impressed that the Easter Bunny knew that her brother was too young for candy which is why the Easter Bunny left him empty eggs in his basket, ha! *excuse Riley’s horrible case of bed head!

After checking out the goods we decided to go out for Easter Brunch, yum.

After brunch it was time for Riley to go hunt for Easter Eggs at our park. Her buddy Gabe was out there so he helped her to find her eggs!

Once Riley had all of her loot we headed back inside for a little R&R. Little did we know that we would be interrupted by the biggest earthquake to hit the area in 100 years!! That’s right, a magnitude 7.2 struck just below the Mexico/US border. Due to our close proximity to Mexico we felt it pretty dang good! In fact, they felt it all the way up to LA.

As soon as it hit, I yelled for my Mom to grab Denton and come under the doorway I was standing in. Dan and Riley were napping upstairs so I bolted up the stairs (hurdling the baby gate in the process, ha) to go grab Riley in case Dan was sleeping thru it. But of course, in Super Dad fashion he already had her and was standing under the doorway. I stayed with them until it ended (man it went on FOREVER) and then we all headed back downstairs to get info on it from the TV.

I must say in my 32 years as a Californian, that was by far the biggest one I have ever felt. Poor Riley was a little shook up (no pun intended). Probably because she saw the genuine fear in our faces, wondering if this was “the big one”. We calmed her down a little bit and then I suggested that she eat some of her Easter candy and suddenly she was all better - Smart girl, chocolate cures everything! All in all a pretty exciting few minutes, but we are eternally thankful that our house was built so well to withstand earthquakes!