Another year has gone by.....

I was totally singing Celine Dion as I wrote the title to this blog... hope you are too! :)

Here's Riley's 12 month photo!

It's not my favorite monthly photo, but it will have to do. It's getting more and more difficult to get her to sit still for these photo sessions. Ignore the bruise on her forehead... it was a P.F. Chang's incident. In an attempt to get rice out of her lap Friday night, she banged her head on the edge of the table. It left a nice red mark and was a bruise the next morning. :)

She isn't walking and really shows no interest in it what-so-ever. She only says a few words, "Uh Oh", "Bah" (ball), and "Fffff" (Woof). We have heard her say, "MaMa" but only in a state of complete desperation. :)

Favorites:
BOOKS! She LOVES books.
FOOD! Anytime, Anywhere, Any kind!
Dogs. She will open her Where's My Nose book and point out the "puppy dog" on the page.
Balls. She squeals with excitement anytime we roll a ball to her.
The swing. The enjoys sitting outside in her swing... it doesn't even have to be moving. She just likes to sit in it.

Things she likes, NOT SO MUCH:
Leaving Mom and Dad. She doesn't like for us to leave her in the nursery anymore. That's difficult since I don't have the option of bringing her to choir with me on Sunday mornings!! :) I thought I could trick her one Wednesday night by having Melanie drop her off in the nursery, but she cried as soon as Melanie turned for the door.
Riding in the Cart. Wal-mart, Target, TJ Maxx... it doesn't matter. She just doesn't like it.

Girl's Day Out!

Today started out with a trip to the doctor for Riley's 12 month well baby check up.

She was 19 lbs 2 oz and 29" long. That puts her in the 25th percentile for weight and 50th percentile for height.

She had to have 3 vaccines today: Hepatitis A, Chickenpox, and MMR.

When the doctor named the vaccines, Chandler said, "NOT CHICKENPOX! We don't want her to get the chickenpox!" The doctor laughed and explained that she wasn't giving Riley chickenpox just the vaccine. :)

After the doctor's appointment we met up with Ms. Amy for a little shopping and some lunch.

Cleveland FINALLY has a Target and it opened last week so that's where we were headed.
After Target we hit good ole' Chick-fil-A for a little lunch.

Here are a few photos of Riley waiting for Chandler to come down the slide:



After lunch we headed back over to the new shopping center to browse Kohl's. Yes, Cleveland is finally moving up in the world! Wal-mart isn't the only place to shop anymore!

In Kohl's, Chandler had a great time playing, "You can't see me." You know the game... you can see her, but you have to act like you don't and whatever you do, DON'T talk to her or call her by name!!!
At one point Amy, Riley and I were walking out of the girl's department only to notice an AMAZING mannequin display in the boy's department...

She even put on a pair of glasses that she found in the girl's department... complete with tag hanging on her nose!
My favorite part... she's even standing like the mannequins... feet, arms the whole thing.
Next time I'm sure she'll try to figure out a way to "lose her head". :)

Striking a pose!

These weren't the only displays that she violated! Sometimes she appeared with a big red floppy hat, sometimes it was a scarf. Sometimes it was the hat, scarf AND glasses!

Lee University Flames win SSAC Championship!

Saturday night we took the girls to their first Lee University Men's Basketball Game. Man, did we pick a good one to start them out on!!!

I didn't realize it until we were almost to campus that this was the Southern States Athletic Conference (SSAC) Championship game... Brandon says he told me, but I must have been too busy changing Riley's diaper, washing Chandler's hair and/or making dinner to hear him. :)

Anyway, the Flames beat Emmanuel College 92-79 to claim the SSAC Championship.

Chandler's favorite part of the game? The concession stand of course!
2nd favorite? When the guys cut the net down after the game. She got right up front (with the other kids). A second later she came back to me and asked for my camera... I guess she felt like if everyone else was snapping photos she probably needed to as well. :)

Riley enjoyed the game. Actually I think she enjoyed the pizza crust Brandon gave her and all of the extra attention that she got from our "group" of fans.

Enjoy the photos...

Inside the Paul Dana Walker Arena

Riley checking out the action on the floor.

A goofy little smile for the camera

Dad, Mom and Riley... Photo by Chandler

Mom and Riley... Photo by Chandler

Chandler and Riley "socializing" with their friend

Chandler's ticket. She was very excited about it. Kids are strange!

One last time out before the big win!

Let It Snow...

SOMEWHERE ELSE!!!

I'm not a big fan of the snow. Put me in a cabin somewhere with lots of food, hot chocolate, a fireplace and a big picture window and I'll watch the snow all day and enjoy it's beauty, but DON'T MAKE ME GO OUT IN IT!!!

The snow itself is fine. I just don't like the mess that goes along with it. Snowy, dripping shoes, wet shoe prints across my floors, gloves and hats drying all over the place. YUCK!

Here's a photo Brandon snapped at 8:00 this morning:

You can still see the grass pretty well in some spots and it isn't very deep on the porch.

Another reason I don't like the snow... the wet snow makes Chandler grumpy. We don't have "snow clothes" so we have to make due with what we have... little cotton gloves that adsorb all the moisture and hiking boots that adsorb all the moisture.
And today she couldn't even find her gloves so her hands were bright red and ice cold and she was even MORE grumpy than she normally would be.

Here's Riley's 1st time out in the snow.
You can tell in this picture that it snowed more between 8:00 and 9:00. You can't see as much of the grass and we were actually leaving pretty decent shoe prints on the deck.

Riley wasn't crazy about the snow, but she did want to touch it a little.

She likes to jump... the smile was about jumping NOT the cold snow. She actually started crying right after this picture and didn't stop until I got her inside and warmed up.
This picture shows the depth of the snow on the deck at about 9:15.

Great News!! (drenched in sarcasm!) I just looked outside and it's snowing EVEN HARDER! All of the show prints from this morning are disappearing.
It's curently 10:30 and here's proof of the new snow fall:

Little People Chick sitting in the snow on the table on our deck. He's about a 1/4 inch deep in snow.

Give Me A "C"....

In high school I was in the BAND. I know, I know... you're thinking, "But Jennifer! You are SO COOL! I can't believe you were in the band!" Not only was I a band geek... I was the ultimate band geek. No really, I even won an award one year for being the BIGGEST band geek. I'm embarrassed that I just posted that!

That being said I, of all people, was the most surprised when I actually suggested to Chandler that she join a cheer leading program being hosted by the children's department at our church.

I have nothing against cheer leaders, but I was a band geek... if you consider all of the stereotypes, there's a huge social gap between those two groups. :)

We went to the parent meeting a few weeks ago. We had her fitted for a uniform. We bought expensive "Cheer Shoes". We went to the first practice.

The result??? Anytime you are around Chandler you may hear things like, "ready position", "daggers", "low V", "high V", "punch", "clasp", "diagonals". It's cute really and I'm glad she's excited about it.

Here are a few pictures from the first practice. They are kind of dark... Sorry! :)

Here are the girls starting practice with a devotion.
Coach Jessica is a student a Lee so Ms. Jennifer stepped in to help out while Jessica was on spring break this week.

Daggers

Low "V"

"L"

For this next week we are working on the stretches that the girls will have to do each week (in addition to running 2 laps) and having sharp, crisp movements.
Yeah, I may have been a band geek, but I know something about cheer leading! :)

Fellowship of Christian Cheerleaders (FCC) is the parent company for Impact Cheerleading.

"We all wanna be big rock stars..."

Real life conversation with Chandler... I couldn't make this stuff up!

Riding to Wal-mart last night in Brandon's truck...

C: "Mom? Can you turn on the radio?"
J: "Sure"
C: "Mom? Can you open that? (pointing to the sunroof) We need to be rock stars!"
J: Smiles and laughs
C: "When rock stars listen to music they do like this." (bobs her head to the music)
J: "Oh. Ok" (bobs her head to the music)
C: "Tomorrow we need to do this with our sunglasses. Rock stars always wear sunglasses."
J: "Silly me. How could I have forgotten our sunglasses at 7:00 at night!"
C: "Mom! We can just pretend we have our glasses!"
J: "Of course!"

You to can be a rock star. Apparently all you need is a sunroof, a little classic rock on the radio, a head bob and some sunglasses (real or pretend!).

Happy 1st Birthday to Riley!!

Yes, Riley's birthday was on March 2nd so I'm a few days late posting, but such is the life of a mom!

We kicked off the birthday weekend last Friday by picking up my mom at the Chattanooga Airport.Chandler was equally excited by two things:
1. Seeing my mom who she hasn't seen since Christmas.
2. The escalators. :)

Saturday was PARTY DAY!

Our guests included Jaclyn and Katelyn, Joe, Tammy, CJ, Jaden and Rylee, & my mom.

Katelyn

Rylee

After all the boring stuff (like the "real food"... Chick-fil-A nuggets, veggies, fruit, chips & dip) we opened presents.

The pink ball was a gift from big sister Chandler

Clothes from Grammy & Squire

A Little People Farm from Gran & Chief

Clothes from Aunt Erin

Cool packaging on Riley's gift from the McCullough's

Inside the cool packaging.... BOOKS!!

From Brian, Jaclyn, Katelyn and Sean

Bath time Pooh and Piglet!

A Little People Doll House from Mom and Dad.

Presents were followed by cupcakes.

Baby Einstein Cupcakes

Happy Birthday to You!

She actually tried to pick up the entire cake, but it slipped through her hands.

Mmmmmmmmmmm!


"Yes! I'll take a drink... I need something to wash down this cake!"

"She needs one too!"

"Cake makes me happy!"

"I LOVE birthdays! I can't wait till next year!!!"

Cupcakes were followed by playtime.

The boys enjoying the Doll House :)

Rylee playing with the Doll House

Riley and Rylee playing together

Katelyn and her "swim suit model" pose.

Thanks to everyone who helped make Riley's 1st birthday so special!

**Apologizes to Aunt Amanda. We didn't get a picture of Riley opening her present. The bunny was a hit and the dress was SO cute... you may just be seeing it in Easter pictures in a few weeks!