Not a fan.

So we wait in the freezing cold for 20 minutes to see Santa and Riley decides she does not love the jolly old fella.  But he was a good sport and leaned in for a pic.

Riley the Songwriter

Riley is always singing her own songs.  Songs where she makes up the tune and the words.  Sometimes it's two or three songs mashed together and sometimes we just have no idea.  In this episode, she is playing the mandolin and singing.  The first song is "Jesus was a Weather Man" to the tune of "Mary Had a Little Lamb". 

The words are hard to hear but it is something like:
"Jesus was a weather man, weather man, weather man,
Jesus was a weather man...today."

And her second song she calls the "Number Song".  It goes:
"1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10...It will never end, it will never end, it will never end
You keep on doing your numbers, it will help you do it today."

Guess "today" rhymes with a lot of things.  Or not in this case.

Well Hello Kitty!

 Riley and Tim surprised me this weekend with a Christmas Hello Kitty in our yard. 

Waiting...

To get a flu shot.  I won't post the after pic.

My little trash buddy

About once a month, Riley and I head out to the local transfer station for a visit.  She likes to get the number from the attendant, complain about the smell, honk from the cab of the truck when it takes too long and pay the man after we weigh back in.  It's a ritual.

How did she get so big?

And the roses too.  We planted these roses in April.  They are taking over.  I can highly recommend knock out roses from Rolling Hills.  They are no maintenance.  I took this picture two days ago!  And she took the picture of me.

Happy Halloween

What little Hello Kitty couldn't use matching shoes and a purse?  Thanks to Grammy and Donna, she has all the accessories she needs!

Hello Kitty Dress

 Last month, Riley picked out some fabric to make her first dress.  She choose Hello Kitty of course!  We bought it at Walmart and she helped me a little with the sewing.  It was pretty simple so she's now picked out a Christmas Hello Kitty print.  Thankfully we have a few weeks left to get that one done.

For Paw Paw

Riley helping me make chicken salad for the worship team.

First Purchase!

Riley has been doing chores at home for the last few weeks and finally saved up enough to buy something she's been wanting for several months.  A mermaid doll from Dollar General.  We bought one as a birthday gift a few months ago and she hadn't forgot how much she wanted one too.

She has three chores she has to do each week - take her dirty clothes to the laundry and sort them, pick up her room and gather the trash from all the small cans in the house.  For this she gets $1.  She saved up for 4 weeks so she would have enough for the $4 mermaid.  (we haven't started talking about tax yet - so that was on me.)

So we get to the store and finally locate the ONLY mermaid left.  It is indeed marked $4 so we head to the checkout.  The girl behind the counter rings it up and it is on sale for $1.  Can you believe it - $1?  Lucky little girl.  So now she has $3 to spare but so far I haven't heard talk of what is next.

First woodworking project

As I was building some bookcases in the shop this summer, miss Riley decided she would build her own shelf.  She picked out her pieces from the scraps and quickly decided one would need to be cut because the two "up" pieces needed to be the same, so I trimmed it for her.  Otherwise, she got out the glue and glues it up herself.  Then a few days later she painted it with her paints.  I'm so proud.

Ready to Ride

Riley and I took a Sunday afternoon ride.  She led the way.  The girl loves to ride.

Baby Kinze

Found this adorable picture of Grandma Storey (Grandma-great to the next generation) hold my niece, Kinze after she was born at my brother's house.  Grandpa Storey is also in the picture.  Grandma has been sick and in the hospital lately.  Any prayers for her would be appreciated.

Back-to-School

Riley started her second year of preschool this week.  It is funny to see her still in preschool because she is a head taller than a lot of the kids in her class.  She had a growth spirt over the summer.  Her teacher was even surprised.  The bottom picture was last year's first day of school picture. 

Chalk and Bubbles

 All of my family came down for the weekend to visit.  We had a great time and the kids got to enjoy some play time together.  They enjoyed drawing with chalk and playing in the bubbles on the back porch.

Vacation Trip to Nashville

 We decided at 8:30 on a Thursday morning to make a trip to Nashville during our vacation week and we were in the car by 9:30 headed out.  We took Riley to the Adventure Science Museum and it was definitely worth the visit.  She is sitting in an ambulance that was in their health section.  She had a great time.

We ended up going to see Brave, swimming at the hotel, swimming at Wave Country, going to Opry Mills, staying the night with Tim's cousin and visiting with his family including their little boy, Beckett. 

And last but not least, my baby go her ears pierced!  We went into a jewelry story and she kept wanting to but earrings.  I explained that she didn't have holes in her ears and she said she wanted some.  I explained the process and she wanted to do it.  By the time I got all the papers filled out she was starting to squirm a bit but the girls did it quick and she only cried for about a minute.  She has the cutest Hello Kitty earrings.  I think it was almost a right of passage.  She has had a much more grown-up attitude since. In the picture she is calling the grandparents to tell them.

Welcome, Kinze!

We went to IL early last week to visit my new niece, Kinze.  She is absolutely perfect in every way and so adorable.  We took the cousins - now 4 - to McLeansboro to a park donated by former Utah Jazz coach, Jerry Sloan.  He was originally from McLeansboro.  It is really cool for a small town to have a great playground.  The kids loved it and had a sweaty, wonderful time.  I wish the pics did the playground justice.

Too cool @ the ENT

Umm...Riley had to have a small rubber toy extracted from her nose last week by the ear, nose and throat doctor.  She wasn't too distraught to be her usual goofy self in daddy's sunglasses.  At least until the dr. Got started and then we had to hold her down.  He thanked us afterwards.  He said most parents won't help restrain their own children.  We consider it a right of passage!

Playing Pretend

 The village princess has her town all setup.

Crop touring with Grammy and Paw Paw

Must take more pictures

June has been a drought at our house for both rain and pictures.  Too hot to even think about grabbing a camera and no one looks cute when it's 106 outside.