Curious George

Going Fishin'

Edward

Christmas!!!

Riley first thing in the morning. At this point he still doesn't get the whole "presents thing".

Sara with the complete works of Jane Austin.

Lovin' those trains.

Get a load of those fleece pants!

Riley woke up at a leisurely 8:00am this morning which was nice, since he usually wakes up at 7:00. (We hear however, that this will probably be our last Christmas to sleep in). We both remember waking up at the crack of dawn, literally, to wake our parents up to open gifts. Oh, good times!!! :) Anyway, we got out of bed and had a nice Christmas breakfast and then it was on to presents. Riley had no idea what was going on, but let us tell you, he was in heaven. He had so much fun opening his presents and loved all of his trains and books and games!!! Thank you so much everybody for making this Christmas so fun for Riley and hence fun for us. Merry Christmas!!!

Happy Christmas Eve!!!

Happy Christmas Eve!!! We just got back from our friend's house, The Alders, from up the street for a Christmas Eve get-together and we had a lot of fun...and a lot of really yummy food too. This photo was one of many attempts at a Christmas Eve 2006 family picture...Riley?!?!

Well, we thought we would tell you all about our day here...very interesting. So, I wrote the program this year for our Sacrament Meeting and was pretty nervous about it. I woke up absolutely exhausted and was worried that I was going to make some stupid mistake that would ruin the program.

The first number was sung by our ward choir. I had a friend make a copy of the music for me this morning so that I could put it in my binder for easier page turns. All seemed to be going well when all of a sudden I was on my last page of music, but the choir still had one page left to sing?!?! I panicked and started feeling around with my left hand for the music while my right hand continued on, hoping beyond all hope that I had it on the piano and that I could get it open with one hand and up on the stand before the choir got to that point in the song. All of you pianists out there are feeling my stress right now I know! :) Well, I managed to get the music up in just the nick of time with hardly anyone noticing what was going on. There was definitely divine intervention on that one. So, there is one crisis averted.

Now, on to crisis number 2. The grand piano in our chapel stopped working on me. Don't ask me how but all the notes from middle C down to an F in the bass clef just stopped working and all I got was this sound like there was a wrapper somewhere in the strings. I found out later that this particular piano needs water in a reservoir to work properly. WATER?!?! What the heck kind of piano needs water to work? That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard of.


We of course will blog more tomorrow on Riley's first Christmas where he might actually get it. Love to all!!!

Thomas, Percy, where are you?

That is what we heard most of the time at the Train Museum, along with Mavis, Gordon, Edward and others. We went to a little trolley museum that Riley could have cared less about. The only redeeming factor was that there was a huuuuge train table that Riley had a lot of fun with. As with every other place that we take him, we had to drag him out screaming bloody murder, him not us...although the thought did cross our minds.

Visit to the Train Museum

Riley had a great time running laps around the trains. It was freezing but he didn't care. He just wasn't so happy when it was time to go.

p.s. don't mind the waddling cow in the background...(i.e. ME). I must have been really hurting that day to be walking so crazy-like?!? All I can say is that I can't wait to get rid of this 35-lbs and counting that I've so recently packed on!! :)

Can you say Quasi Moto? :)

"Prosty the Deadman"

Here is Riley...the soon-to-be famous singer. This is his rendition of the ever popular Christmas song "Frosty the Snowman." Being the musical genius that he is however, her has very tastefully changed the words to "Prosty the Deadman". Some of you may be thinking of a snowman dead on the ground with a prosthetic limb, but we think it is quite catchy and will be the next big hit. :)

Bottle Update

Well...the bottle is officially gone. We didn't think we could do it...we thought it would be WWIII at our house, but it was surprisingly easy. (Who would have thunk?!?!) We gathered up all of Riley's bottles, with his help, and put them in a garbage bag and put them under the tree. We told him that the elves were taking the bottles to the babies...and then we realized that we are having a baby in a couple of weeks and didn't want him to associate his bottles going bye-bye with the new baby, that could be bad, so from then on we just told him that they went bye-bye. Anyway, he went down for a nap...very reluctantly...and when he woke up there was a garbage bag under the Christmas tree with a Percy train in it (from the Thomas the Tank Engine series). For days he held onto that Percy like his life depended on it. :)

He has done amazingly well!!! He doesn't even cry at night when he has to go to bed. We give him a train, his blanket (my old "Blue Blankie"), and a sippie cup with water and he is great. He sleeps through most nights and if he does wake up we just go lay him back down and say "night-night" and he falls right back asleep. It is GREAT!!!

So, the big question is...Why didn't we do this sooner?!?! :)

Riley's 2-year stats

Riley and I went to his 2-year doctor appt. today and here are his stats...cause I know some of you will find this interesting :)

Height: 36 inches-87th percentile
Weight: 33 lbs-93rd percentile
Head: 20.1 inches-100th percentile

So, we have a big kid!!! Riley did great today and only cried for a second when he got his two shots. He was flirting with the nurse, playing peek-a-boo with the PA, and closing his eyes with the doctor...hey, can you blame him?!?! Doctors are a bit scary.

Riley's doctor got mad at me that Riley still takes a bottle before bed and told me in no uncertain terms that TONIGHT has to be the night that he stops taking a bottle. Well...I'm not so sure about that. I just don't think Riley is ready for that yet and I want him to keep sleeping. So, I told the doctor I would definitely take the bottle away...I just didn't say it would be tonight. I just don't think I can handle taking the poor kid's bottle away from him when he wouldn't understand why. He also got a little perturbed that the only meat Riley eats is chicken nuggets. Well, all I can say is that I try!!! :)

Thanksgiving Day at the Register House

Happy Thanksgiving!!! Well, this will be a pretty boring blog since we didn't take many pictures. Now, it would have been a SUPER-interesting blog if we had had the camera ready for action when the oven burst into flames while Todd was trying to save our poor turkey, nearly singing his eyebrows off in the process. But alas, these were the only two pictures we ended up with. And in case you were wondering, Todd is burn-free and his bushy eyebrows remain in tact, and, more importantly, the turkey turned out really great. We had an enjoyable Thanksgiving despite the near turkey disaster. :)

Space Shuttle Enterprise

It was pretty impressive to walk underneath this thing.

Riley tries to escape

DC Trip

Well we just got back from our trip to DC. We went down on Monday morning and stayed with Robyn and Peter. All of us went to the Air and Space Museum out by Dulles Airport, complete with SR-71, Space Shuttle, Concorde, and just about every other type of plane. The next day Mom, Dad, Sara and I (Robyn graciously offered to watch Riley) drove into Arlington National cemetery to catch the tourmobile! I was a little skeptical at first but it turned out to be really great. It stops at all the major destinations and you can hop on and off all day with narrated tours in between the stops.



The group in front of a Huey Chopper at the Air and Space Museum


Sara and I at Arlington National Cemetery. 680,000 buried; 25 more buried every day; There's enough room at that rate to keep going till 2060


Outside the Museum of Natural History. Mom's leg was killing her!


Disaster struck at the Lincoln Memorial. After making the switch from film to digital, Dad went to take a picture and poof; "memory card error" was all he got. All his pictures were hosed. I said, "Gee Dad, that doesn't happen very often." We're hoping he's not scarred for life.


Riley absolutely loved this train table!! He would disappear for hours down in the basement just playing with the trains. I thought about just shutting him inside the drawer before we headed home but Sara said no. Oh well.

Traintastic!!

Riley had a great 2nd Birthday last night. This kid definitely has trains on the brain. We had train books, sweaters, tracks, legos, ectc. all out in force at the Register household. It was great having Mom and Dad out for the event. They loved seeing Riley in all his trainage.

Riley's 2nd Birthday!!

He was a little timid at first but got the idea of opening presents soon enough.

No thank you

Riley was not impressed with the microphone.

Sharing the Dirt

So Dirty...Again!!!

Well, he's at it again!!! What can we say, our son LOVES dirt...and really, can you blame him? Yesterday was such a beautiful day that Riley and I spent most of it outside. We went to the park for 1 1/2 hours so Riley could "run, run, run" as he so eloquently puts it. Then Todd took 1/2 day at work and spent the afternoon clearing rocks in our backyard with a neighbor boy up the street. Of course Riley wanted to be outside with his daddy, so I told him he could go and get as dirty as he wanted and play to his little heart's content. Needless to say, he took me at my word. He got VERY dirty. I had to wash his hair twice to get all the dirt out. But, it was worth it to see him playing outside. How sad that there will probably not be anymore days like that left this year!!!

Thanks to Riley, and Todd of course, our backyard is looking much better...now we are only semi-white trash instead of full blown. One more trip to the dump, a little weed-wacking, and planting the maple tree we bought last night should do the trick until spring comes along. I can't wait!

Get me out of this THING!

 

Halloween...fun?!?!

"Duck, bye-bye, okay"
-Riley Register


Tonight was our ward trunk-or-treat party...it was quite the fiasco. All the kids were dressed so cute in their costumes. And the cutest kids were the ones Riley's age. So, we attempted to get Riley into his duck costume...he loves ducks...but it was a no-go. First of all, he was in a bad mood. Second of all, the costume was too small, as you can see. So, we wrestled it on him because hey, we had to get our token Halloween picture right?

It was raining here in PA tonight, so instead of trunk-or-treating, we just trick-or-treated to the different Primary classrooms that people decorated. Riley was very unsure about the dark smoke-filled hallway and the costumed children. It was no longer the church that he knows and (sometimes) loves. He could have cared less about the darling cat trick-or-treat bag that I so lovingly bought him. No, he just wanted his trains...trains will be the death of us!!! :)

So, here's the re-cap...Riley hates Halloween!!! Well, maybe next year. :)

Holy Huge Baby!?!?

Well, I just had an ultrasound today and found out that this kid is already 2-lbs and is 13-inches from "head to rump"....their term, not mine. This baby is not due until February and is going to be HUGE!!! The doctor was pretty amazed that the baby is as big as he is and said that it was probably a good thing that I was scheduled for a C-section...cause he sure ain't comin out the "normal" way!!!!

Getting dirty is so much FUN!

At least it kept him busy while we were working.

15 Tons of Dirt

That is a 15 ton pile of topsoil on our front lawn. We would have had them back the truck out over the driveway to dump it but we didn't want to risk cracking it since it's so new. We wheel barrowed all day and maybe moved 1/3 of it to fill in around the driveway and mound up the garden area in front of the house. We still have a lot of work to do before it all freezes!

 

Watch out girls!!!

This is possibly my favorite picture ever taken...EVER!!! Now, maybe I'm just biased because this is the father of my children, but I think you all will agree that it is pretty darn cute! We have been going through all our old pictures tonight, trying to sort them and scan them in so they will last forever. This one better last forever. :) 

It's Family Photo Time!!!

We went to get our family portraits done tonight. It was quite the adventure. Riley actually did pretty well...except for the fact that he REALLY wanted the duck the photographer was using to get him to smile. Anyway, the next family portrait will have the new little baby in it, so that's exciting...(terrifying, but exciting.)
 

Driveway is finally DONE.

It's been a long process but we finally got the driveway taken care of before winter hit. It was stressing us out sooo badly. I pick axed the asphalt driveway by hand which took quite a while. One of my neighbors said, "Dude, ever heard of power tools?" So I'm cheap. After digging it out, compacting and leveling new gravel, we set up the forms to pour the concrete into. We ended up doing the driveway in two pours since it was too big to do easily in one shot. A double wide driveway is pretty scarce in these parts due to a severe lack of space, so this should increase the curb appeal and value of the house.

Oops!

It looks a little like an institutional haircut but my friend always says that the difference between a good haircut and a bad one is about 2 weeks!

Haircut Video

Not quite how we pictured it.

Riley Falling

He got so involved with watching himself in the TV that he forgot where he was going.

Riley's 2 Year Portrait

He's almost 2 if you can believe it. We sure can't. 

Joining the blogoshpere!

Well we thought we should get up with the times and post some
info on current events in our lives (since we are such interesting
people!)  that family and friends can check out every now and again.
Enjoy!