Spreading Christmas Cheer

 We got involved with a fun playgroup through our church and the focus is doing service type projects!

For Christmas we got the kids together and made Christmas cards for the residents of a local nursing home.

The kids had lots of fun making the cards and since we had to make so many the moms ended up finishing them off!

Here's all the kiddos!

 Here's my little card making girl...

 After all the card making they were off to play...it's fun because a few of the kiddos go to Riley's preschool so she already had some friends in this "new" group.

The day before Christmas Eve we went to the nursing home and delivered all the cards...it was such a neat experience and I'm glad to get Riley involved in something like this.  She had lots of questions and she had fun handing out stickers and cards to everyone!

Riley's School Christmas Program

 I love that Riley's school has a Christmas program...this was her first year to have anything like this and we were looking forward to it!  She and her friends had been practicing songs and she couldn't wait for us to watch them!

Our morning started out a bit crazy...Riley was taking a shower in our bathroom and I usually help her wash.  I had the shower door open and I was standing there when all of a sudden I heard a noise and felt something on my feet.  I looked down and saw glass everywhere and quickly realized the shower door had cracked.  It was then cracking like crazy all over and glass was falling and I freaked out.  Riley had a head full of shampoo so I shoved her under the water to get her rinsed off and then grabbed her out of the shower as quickly as I could.  By this time she was screaming because I was screaming...it was just crazy.  I put her in our closet and then stepped back to try and figure out what happened.  I couldn't figure out what caused the glass to break...we didn't even touch the shower door.  The glass was continuing to crack and fall and I just had to get us out of there.  Thankfully I had already gotten myself ready before this happened so I got Riley ready in another bathroom and we were off for the day.  I have no idea how but neither of us even had a scratch or anything...total miracle!

We found someone to not only replace the glass but to clean up the huge mess it had left and by the afternoon the shower door was completely gone and there was not one piece of glass left behind.  The glass guys said this is a one in a million type thing...the glass just holds pressure and it just gave way.  So according to them this will never happen again to us..haha!  Riley was scared for quite some time after this to take showers...I don't blame the girl!

 So off we were to school...I dropped Riley off in her class and then went in the chapel to find a good seat!

Jason was having an insane week at work but he got away to make it for her program..he was literally only there for 15 minutes tops but it was so worth it!

We spotted our little reindeer right away and she gave us a wave!

 We got to listen to them sing lots of fun songs!

 She was so happy to see her Daddy!

 After the program Santa was there and all the kiddos got to see him...she was beyond excited again and told him about the "real fishtail!"

 Here's Riley and her bestie Maddy...these girls are so cute together!

 And of course there were cookies to eat after the program...I didn't monitor her cookie intake too much because I was leaving her there for the after school program because I had my doctor's appointment!

We loved the first of many Christmas programs for Miss Riley!

A gift for Jesus...

 With all the hoopla about presents and Santa and all that good stuff we make a very conscious effort to make sure Riley understands the true meaning of Christmas.  It was two years ago that she recited the Christmas story while taking a bath and I caught it on video...it was priceless!

This year while we were painting Christmas ornaments she decided all of a sudden that she wanted one of them to be for Jesus.  We had some ornaments that had room for a picture and she wanted one of those to be for him and she wanted to paint it green!

 We put one of her school pictures in it and wrote on the back of it.  She said "Jesus will love this ornament and he will know what I look like and he will yell down 'Riley, I got your ornament and I love it. Thank You'"

 We had painted the ornament a few weeks before we finally got it mailed off to Heaven.  She kept reminding me that we needed to send her ornament to Jesus so we did.  

She wrote on the envelope...

 Then she put our return address stamp on it.

 We put a stamp on it, sealed it up, and I made sure it was clear where this needed to go and we dropped it in the mailbox.

I love her heart for Jesus and I just love thinking of whose hands this ended up in!

Jesus is the Reason for the Season!

Princess Party Time

Riley wanted to have a princess party this year...more specifically an Ariel party!  

We decided to have a small party and have a few of Riley's friends come dressed as their favorite princess!

Guess who Riley wanted to dress up as?  You guessed it...Ariel!

My mom bought some cute princess party decor from Williams and Sonoma and we turned our living room into a pink princess room!

Here's the table...

The food table...

I found most of the food ideas on pinterest and had fun making everything!

Fruit in waffle cones...

Cupcakes of course...I made the same Martha Stewart strawberry ones I made last year because they are just too good...and they are pink which was the birthday girl's request!

Chocolate covered pretzels and homemade pink marshmallows!

Pizza bites...a big hit with the girls!

All the decor!

The fun castle!

We started out letting the girls decorate their crowns with markers and fun jewel stickers!

Crafting away!

They did some jump roping!

We played a princess game with the concept of Pin the Tail on the Donkey but it was place the princess in her window...let's just say the blindfold was not effective because all of the princesses were perfectly placed in the correct spots!  I let them lose and they just played and played and played!

All the princesses!

The dads...they tried to stay away from the pink princess room!

Family pic!

Singing to the birthday girl!

Opening presents!

Pinata time!

Getting all the candy!

Jason had made some BBQ pork for everyone to eat and it was delicious...it was such a fun party and I was exhausted when it was all said and done!

I may or may not have finished off the last bit of red wine that the dad's left...Tessa sure made a great resting place for my glass as I propped my feet up to relax!

Riley Turns 4

 Well I'll say it every year but I can't believe Riley is 4...how time flies and how she is becoming such a big girl!

She got to celebrate her birthday with her friends at school on Thursday!  I had planned to make funfetti cupcakes because that's what she picked out but when we went to bake them I realized I had bought funfetti cookies...soooo we improvised and made cookie sandwiches!  They turned out so cute and she was so excited!

Jason has unfortunately missed all of Riley's birthdays...her first birthday he was deployed to Iraq, her 2nd birthday he was attending a course in New Mexico, and her third birthday he was deployed to the UAE.  This year was time for a change and time for him to be home on her birthday.  He cut it close though.  He graduated from AMMOS on Dec 16 and his parents helped him pack his room up until very late that night so he could be on the road first thing in the morning to make it home to celebrate with Riley.  She knew he was coming home on her birthday and she told EVERYONE "my daddy's coming home on my biiirrrtttthhhhdddaaaaaayyyy!" for weeks.  I knew that he wouldn't be home until late afternoon or early evening and in the mind of a 4 year old that would be forever so I planned a fun day for her and tried to keep her as busy as can be.  I made sure all my "chores" were done so I could just devote all my attention to her that day.  It was a GREAT day and here's what we did!

The morning started off with a yummy breakfast of her favorite..french toast!  I made it with angel food cake so it was extra sweet and extra special!  Of course we put a candle in the french toast and I sang to the birthday girl!

 I  had planned to let her open one present after breakfast and she opened her Princess Memory game!

 Of course she convinced me to let her open one more..how can you say no to the birthday girl?  She opened some special books from Nani...they are books personalized with her name and birthday in them...so fun!

 I let her pick out what she wanted to wear which was her easter dress and she wanted me to blow dry her hair straight so of course I obliged.  It worked out well too because I had a special surprise for her.  Ever since we had gone to Arkansas in August and she saw Ellie's feather in her hair she had been wanting a feather in her hair.  The girl who cut my hair didn't put them in and I hadn't found a place that did...until one of the mom's at her preschool was telling me about a salon that did them.  So I made her an appointment and that was our first stop of the day.

She was so excited and picked out two feathers for her hair...a purple and a pink!

She was so cute as she sat and got the feather put in..it took all of 5 minutes!

 And she has feathers!!!

 Our next stop was to get our nails done!  She loves getting her nails painted and she's always so cute as she sits patiently to let them dry.  Today was no different except she got to tell everyone it was her birthday!

 Pretty nails!

 Me and the birthday girl!

 After our mani / pedi trip we went to see the new Chipmunk movie!  I even let her get a blue icee along with her popcorn and candy!

We still had a little time to kill before Jason got home and since we had a pretty full morning I convinced her to take a little nap.  She fell fast asleep and about 30 minutes into her nap Jason called and said he was only 15 minutes away...let's just say he made great time and got in much earlier than I expected.  

So..when he got home he jumped in her bed and waited for her to wake up...actually he woke her up!  She was a little out of it at first but then she got so excited...it was so cute!

 Since it was still a little early for dinner we decided to go ahead and let her open all of her presents!  Let's just say our living room looked like the Disney Store when she was done!

 

 Rippen' them open!

 So..remember how she had been asking for a "real fishtail?"  Well when she opened her Ariel outfit she exlaimed "it's a real fishtail" so I think we did good!

She is such a hoot in her Ariel get up!

 After all the present opening we headed to Texas Roadhouse for her birthday dinner!  This place is always packed like a madhouse so we rarely go but I know they make a big deal out of birthdays and that's what we were looking for!

She took a ride on the saddle while they announced her birthday and she loved all the attention!  I think she loved more than anything having her Daddy home to share her special day with her!

 

 Happy Birthday to our sweet girl...you are something special!  We love you to the moon and back and can't imagine life without you!  You have such a ginormous personality; you are inquisitive, genuine, thoughtful, spunky, and hilarious!  It has been an awesome 4 years with you as the center of our world and we can't wait to see what the next year holds as you become a big sister and open your heart to having someone else in our house!

I decided to ask Riley a few questions on her fourth birthday and here are her answers:

My Favorite Food: Macaroni and Cheese; Cheetos; Fritos; Chips; Everything I want (haha)
My Favorite Sport: Throwing it in the basket (aka Basketball)
My Favorite Thing to Do Outside: Play Soccer
The best show on tv is: Cupcake Wars
Favorite Snack: Chocolate Coffee Bar (granola bar)
The coolest person on earth is: Daddy
My Favorite Thing to Learn About in School is: Jesus
The thing I do most awesomely is: Play Guitar
My Favorite Book: Rapunzel
If I could go anywhere in the world I would go to: Disneyland
My favorite color is: Pink
When I grow up I want to become: a Princess
My Favorite Cereal: The Bally Ones (Kix)
My favorite song is :"Baby" by Justin Bieber
My Favorite Thing to Eat for Lunch: Strawberries with Whip ("whoop") Cream
Best Friend: Maddy
What do you like to take to bed with you at night: Seraphina, Buddy, and Shouka

My Favorite Outfit: Sparkly Sweater and Sparkly Tom's
My Favorite Drink: Milkshake