Tutus and Tap

Riley started going to a tap and ballet class in March and has had such a fun time!

She goes to dance class with her sweet friend Vanessa and it's just as fun for us Mom's to watch!

She was all dressed in her Aggie tutu for her first dance class!

She is doing great...she listens to her teacher Miss Brie and all of the girls just laugh and giggle the entire time!
Some days Vanessa comes over to play before dance class...and the princesses come out!
Then it's time to get ready for dance class!

These girls have so much fun and I just love that!


Here's some cute video of my litlle ballerina!

Our little chef!

Riley...or Snow White...loves to help in the kitchen and she is a good helper!

Of course she has a TON of independence in her so she is confident she can do anything that we are doing! Here she is cutting up some onions under the close supervision of her Daddy!
Jason's been doing a lot of the cooking around here...and I'm not complaining!!! We've been eating low carb meals and he is great at just making up recipes and they all taste great!

I'm a recipe girl and my passion is baking...so I love when Riley is my little helper when I'm baking!

I am always asked to make sweets whenever the Bible study girls do a potluck so Riley and I made some cookie bites...got the recipe from none other than Pioneer Woman but really there's not much to it. Cookie dough in a flavor of your choice with candy of your choice dropped in just as they come out of the oven...oh my goodness these are dangerous!

I used chocolate chip cookie dough and put in dark chocolate kisses and reese's...yummo!

Riley also like to do dishes...boy am I lucky...with Jason cooking if I can get Riley on board to clean up the kitchen every night I should be set!

Time to rinse...she could do this for hours!

Love this little girl...and the chocolate on her face...I'm sure I had some on mine too!

Girls Day!

Since Jason was pretty sick when I got home from my work trip Riley and I took off Saturday for pretty much the entire day to avoid his germs and let him get some rest!

My friend Jennie had planned a girls pedicure and lunch for her birthday so Riley and I got to join her to celebrate!

Riley got her nails done like a big girl and I got a pedicure...she did great in the salon and was so excited about her "sparkle" polish...we both got a cool turquoise color and then she got sparkles on top of hers!

After our pedicures we went back to my friend Ashley's house for a great lunch...we put all the kiddos down for naps and had a great time!

Happy Birthday Jennie!

Working girl...

The company I work for has been through a lot of transition over the last several months as we were bought out by a very large company based in France...it has had its ups and downs but things have somewhat settled down and I got the opportunity to travel to Austin for a week to meet all of the new management. Jenn was in Austin with me so it was great to spend time with her too! We worked A LOT but had fun doing it...most of the time :)

I flew in Sunday and got to meet up with my family for dinner as soon as I got in!

My mom made us reservations at Bess Bistro...Sandra Bullock's restaurant on 6th street!

My cousin Kassie who lives in Austin was able to join us and we all got to meet her precious little girl Quincy June for the first time!
Quincy was a doll...the greatest thing was after I took this picture of her I would show it to her and she would literally crack up at the sight of herself...of course I kept doing it over and over because it was just so cute!

She was such a good little girl and we all took turns holding her during dinner!


The food was great and we had a blast!

I sure did miss Jason and Riley but got to video chat with them every day. It was sort of a rough week for me to be gone because Jason's commander was on leave and he had to fill in as the squadron commander all week...so he had his hands full to say the least! I was happy to meet all of the new leadership at my company and it was good for me to spend some time "in the office"!

He handled it great but I think the exhaustion caught up with him because by the time I got home Friday night he had no voice and was pretty darn sick...Riley was tickled to see me and lucky for Jason she did all of the talking on the way home!!!

A Princess "Pack Pack" from Tinkerbell

Riley has been waiting for preschool ever since she turned 3 but all of the preschool classes in the CDC were full. I was getting ancy...or shall I say impatient waiting to see when a spot would open up for Riley and the week after our trip to Tahoe she started acting out for her favorite teacher which was very abnormal...I knew it was just time for her to move into a new classroom. Just about that time the CDC made a modified room for 2.5 - 3.5 year olds and had one of the preschool teachers come and lead the room. It was a baby step transition to preschool and I knew it would be great for Riley.

We told her about her new room and decided to go ahead and tell her it was preschool...it kind of worked. Deep down she knew it wasn't preschool but she was excited about the change. She had been asking for a "pack pack" when she went to preschool so it was time to get the girl a backpack. She had specific requests... "pink with wheels and all the princesses on it!" I had looked around a few places including the Disney store but we were out of luck...apparently they only keep a lot of backpacks on hand during Back to School season...so Amazon was where we searched.

We found the PERFECT "pack pack" and I showed Riley a picture of it...that was Saturday morning. We ordered with one day shipping but knew it wouldn't come until Monday or Tuesday and Riley didn't quite understand why she couldn't have it right then. So I did what I always do and conjured up a story to make it understandable in her world...or as my friend Nicki says I just make up lies...you can believe what you like. :)

Nonetheless, I told Riley that her backpack was being made by the one and only Tinkerbell and that when Tinkerbell was done making it special just for Riley the mail man would come and deliver it. Wouldn't you know that afternoon she was outside in the driveway yelling "mail man....mail man!"

That Sunday I had to head to Austin for the week for work...so it was a Daddy Daughter week!

On Monday I was sitting in a slew of meetings and got a text from Jason "the pack pack is here!!!!!"

So he got to unwrap it and set it out for her and to say she was tickled is an understatement!

Ready for her pre-Preschool class!!!

Sending the Welch's to Arkansas...

Being a part of the military means always having to say "see you later" to some great people...unfortunately it will continue to happen and it doesn't get easier.

Luckily we just got to say "see you soon" to the Welch family as they PCS'd to Arkansas...we know we'll always be visiting Arkansas so we will get to see them when we do. We sure do miss them though...what a great family!

We had them over for dinner and the kids had a blast playing and running around like crazy!

Riley, Ellie, and Easton

Easton and Riley secured this "secret" corner and they all kept standing up here and scaring each other!
It was hilarious to watch!

The best was when Jason got them all to go in Riley's room and then when they came out he scared the bejeebers out of all of them...there were all kind of screams going through the house...but the good kind!

We were able to get them connected with some of our good friends in Arkansas and we made sure they were prepared for tornados...yikes! Unfortunately Arkansas has broken them in quite a bit with the recent storms that keep coming through...I don't miss that...but we do miss the Welch's!

We can't wait to go visit!!!

Meet Dolly Doll!

After dropping of Jason's family at the airport we headed home to get unpacked and get our house put together from the party...I'm so glad we had most of the day to do this because it was a daunting task!

Riley spent much of her day playing with her Baby Alive....whom she named Dolly Doll!

It was time to feed her baby and see what happened!
Dolly Doll talks to her Mommy and tells her that she wants to eat and play!

Riley fed her some peas...and then Dolly Doll said "I make a stinkie" and that pretty much sums up our day!

Feed the baby, give the baby a bottle, and then clean up the baby's diaper! I think we changed over 10 diapers...or shall I say I changed over 10 diapers!

It was so fun to watch Riley interact with her and talk back to her like they were having a conversation! She loves her Dolly Doll and she's such a good Mommy!

Since this day Dolly Doll has only gotten pretend food and bottles...Riley is just as happy and I am not cleaning up diapers all day!