Smiley Riley

What a dreary day outside! Even though I do love the rain, I was hoping it would be nice out so I could take my energetic toddler to the park. Some days, like today, are park days...days where I don't feel like entertaining Cannon and would much rather take a walk down to the park, where I can just sit and watch him play to his heart's content. Unfortunately, the rainy weather didn't allow for a park day today. Instead, I decided to be brave and take both kids to the mall for a couple of hours. I must admit, I felt pretty silly carrying one kid in a front carrier pack and pushing another in a stroller, but we made it! I enjoyed some retail therapy, Cannon enjoyed some candy and playing at the dino playground inside the mall, and Riley enjoyed a nice little nap on her mommy. It was the perfect day for a mall trip, soup for lunch, and baking cookies. We enjoyed all of these things this afternoon except for the cookies, because we are currently out of eggs and a trip to the grocery store in the rain did not, and still does not, seem worth it.

Along with our trip to the mall, I took some cute pictures of Riley. This post is pretty much just an excuse to show some pictures of her smiling today. Riley's smiles are getting bigger, cuter, and more frequent now. I love it! She is getting so big these days.





When I finally got Cannon to sit on the couch to take some pictures with Riley, she was done smiling, of course! Oh well, I still got a few pictures of Cannon giving loves to his little sister...he sure does love giving her kisses and hugs!

Cannon is Two!

We celebrated Cannon's 2nd birthday last night, on his birthday. Even though Cannon is probably still a little too young for a birthday party, I decided to have a small one anyway. A few of Cannon's cute little church friends came over to celebrate his birthday, as well as a few uncles and aunts and friends of ours. We had a dinosaur themed party, where the kids wore dinosaur party hats and went on a dinosaur egg hunt in our backyard. The weather was perfect and the kids played outside until it was dark and time to come inside for presents. All in all I think the party went well and Cannon had a lot of fun playing with his friends! Happy Birthday to my big two year old boy!

Because my mom was not able to celebrate Cannon's birthday, she asked me to post lots of pictures so she could feel a part of it too. That is the reason for the many pictures below.

Opening his dinosaur presents from mom and dad in the morning:




Party Decorations:







Party Time!:



















Blaine's brother, Phil, was also able to come to Cannon's birthday because he leaves for the MTC today, to prepare himself to serve a LDS mission to Brazil. We will miss you uncle Phil! See you in two years!

She Smiles!

Riley started smiling two weeks ago, just before she turned 6 weeks old. I wasn't expecting her to smile so soon, especially since Cannon didn't really smile until about 8 weeks. I really need to stop comparing Riley to Cannon when he was at her age, because they are both very different! Anyway, Blaine is the one who really gets her going with the silly sounds and faces he makes at her...he has always been better at that than me. Here are some of her recent cute little smiles that we have been able to capture on camera...







And what type of mom would I be if I didn't add a picture of my other child, Cannon? Here he is hammering away at the couch. He loves to "fix" stuff around the house...

Riley's Baby Blessing

Our little Riley girl was blessed this last Sunday at church. We decided to bless her over labor day weekend so that our parents could attend without missing too much work. The blessing was very sweet and we enjoyed visiting with family and friends at our home for brunch afterward. Much thanks to our family and friends who were a part of Riley's special day! Unfortunately I only took four or five pictures with my own camera before I let Blaine's Aunt Mo take a bunch with her fancy camera. This is what I got...

Kids do/say the darndest things!

Just over the last few days Cannon has said a few funny things that I wanted to share. Don't get me wrong, he definitely keeps Blaine and I entertained on a daily basis. However, I am not very good at remembering the things he says/does unless I write them down. So, here goes...

1) One day last week, out of the blue, Cannon kept repeating the following phrase over and over again until I finally figured out what he was saying and what he wanted me to do: "Mama take picture me baby Riley". Apparently I wasn't taking enough pictures of the little guy and his baby sister. When I got the camera out to take his picture, he immediately got up onto the couch, held out his arms to hold his sister, and gave me this little smirk...


2) My mom stayed with us over the weekend for Riley's baby blessing (more pictures to come) and brought him three toy dinosaurs. There was one large, medium, and small dinosaur in the mix. When Cannon played with the dinosaurs, he referred to each one as either "dada, mama, or baby dinosaur". Even though we thought we knew which one was which, Cannon surprised us. The largest dinosaur was the "mama" and the medium size one was the "dada". When my mom tried to correct him and say the daddy dinosaur was the biggest one, he kept holding up the biggest dinosaur in the air and saying, "no, this is the mama", in a funny deep voice. Blaine's response: "Well, that sounds about right"! :)


3) Today Cannon found a little baby doll that his great grandma Riley had given him shortly after he was born and played with it while I was busy dressing, feeding, and changing Riley. When I started to nurse Riley around lunch time, Cannon pulled up his shirt and brought the doll to his chest saying, "Cannon feed baby. Yum, yum".