Super Duper Weekend...

Well I got all caught up only to get behind again...we've been super busy and this is our first down weekend so time to catch up again!

A few weekends ago I think we had the busiest weekend in a long time...all fun stuff but non stop!

Friday night was spent getting my house ready for a tea party baby shower for my friend Jennie the next morning. Hannah, Becky, and Patti came over and we got the house all set up!

Riley and Braden enjoyed the ottoman being gone and decided to have wrestling matches on the living room floor!

Becky ironed tablecloths...
We all moved furniture around and got the tables all set up!

A fun night!

The shower turned out great and I'm waiting on more pictures to update on that...we had delicious food, a great turnout, and some super fun hats since we asked everyone to wear a tea party hat!

Riley even wore her Aggie hat and was such a cutie!

The shower started at 10:30 and Jason was supposed to watch Riley and Braden...well...a work thing came up and we lost our babysitter! Thankfully some older kids came as well and it was not too stressful having the kiddos around! At one point Riley came out of the playroom and yelled "it's cupcake time"...she's so funny!

Here's me and my sweet girl in our hats...not sure why she's pretending to sleep!

As soon as the shower was over my great friends helped clean up and get my house back in order and then I was off to get my hair did for a special event that night!

Jason and I attended the Air Force Ball that night and had such a blast! Riley went to spend the night at Braden's house and she had a blast too!

So...about three weeks before the ball we were in Napa with friends and they were beginning to "convince" us to attend the ball when I turned to Jason to ask him and his response was "yeah...we have to go" Hello? When was he going to tell me?

So thankfully I already had a dress to wear. A dress I bought 5 years ago. A dress I bought for the last Air Force Ball. The ball we never actually attended although we were all dressed and in the parking lot of the Little Rock Convention Center. The ball we never attended because the dry cleaners had lost a very small part of Jason's uniform which he discovered in the parking lot so we couldn't go into the ball because he was out of uniform. Crazy.

So I had the dress (and it still fit), I had the shoes, it was all set!

And this time we made it and had so much fun!

Here's me and my handsome date!

The ball was held in the newest hangar at Travis AFB and it was such a great night...there were several static displays of planes, a huge American flag, and lots of people!

We sat with Jason's squadron and enjoyed a great dinner!

After dinner and all the formalities were out of the way...then the fun began!

Jill, Me, and Ashley!

Jason, Ashley, and Me

A bunch of us girls!

Being silly with our sexy pose!

Let the dancing begin!

We danced the night away and shut the party down...it was such a blast!

Last pic of the night!

Since we didn't have a curfew we went to Katie's house afterwards for some more fun...but basically we just realized how tired we were! We got home about 1:00 and were so sad that Riley wasn't in her room...that was her first night away from us since we've moved here...I was tempted to go get her..but we didn't!

Sunday morning Patti texted me when Riley woke up and I went and got her...then we went to eat at Bab's with Katie and Ashley! As soon as we were done with breakfast I went to pick up Ollie to babysit him for the afternoon. As soon as Hannah picked Ollie up we went over to the Welch's to help them move some stuff and then went to grab some Mexican food for dinner...one busy weekend!

All about Riley!

So it's about time for a post all about Riley!

Where to start?

She is SO much fun, talks a million miles a minute, and has lots of spunk!

She is over the 2 1/2 mark and well on her way to 3...and she's excited about it! A lot of her friends have transitioned up to pre-school and she can't wait to turn three so she can go to pre-school! We are using this excitement to also get prepared for the fact that the binky will no longer be a part of her life when she is three. Wow...I actually think we might need more preparation! She just uses it when she sleeps at home...she doesn't even use it to nap with at school..but she has us trained and she's dependent on it for sleeping...for now! So when she turns 3 none of us may ever sleep again...let's hope not!

She has never battled shyness and we have had so many fun/awkard moments due to her outgoing personality! She walks up to strangers, introduces herself, introduces us and anyone else who might be with us, and then will shake their hand and say "nice to meet you"...I sure hope she doesn't have a future in politics because this girl knows how to schmooze! :) She is everyone's best friend at school and part of the "copycat gang" and she is the one all of her friends copy...they are so cute together!

She is learning how to obey and we are learning to parent when she doesn't obey...fun for all! One book I read said the expectation at her age should be that she obey 60% of the time...well let me tell you that the other 40% can make for some challenging moments! We are working on it and trying to encourage her to be an example to her friends as well by obeying her teachers. I love the fact that she's socialized at school but learning bad habits from her friends can be tough...yet part of life.

Her imagination is always blowing us away. We have bears in our front yard (as you can see from the video below), snakes in our living room, and we are always living in a make believe world and how fun that is! She mothers her babies and her stuffed animals, disciplines them, and takes them to the potty. She has turned her tool set into surgeons gear and loves to play doctor! She loves learning about the planes her Daddy works on and since he's on the C-5 or "Freddy" as it's commonly known, every plane she sees is "Freddy" and she screams at the top of her lungs and says "Yayyyyyy it's Freddy". So cute! She has also enjoyed going up to Jason's squadron every now and then in the afternoon and seeing his "friends" to which she explains that "Freddy is broken and I need to get my tools to fix him"...you know all the maintainers love that!

She is completely potty trained and I'm so glad that in between stage is over. She still sleeps with a diaper and probably will for awhile but she's all good during the day. She's had a few accidents here and there but mostly when she's intensely playing. She screams "I need to go potty...you stay here mommy" and she's off! She still calls number 2 "doodooballs" and she is famous for that!

She still sleeps great and takes a 2-3 hour nap during the day. We are close to transitioning her into a big girl bed but just haven't gotten around to it yet. I'm sure it will go well and she will be excited about the next big adventure that makes her a big girl!

She is like a roller coaster when it comes to eating...one day she loves it and the next day she hates it. I can't keep up and there are many nights she doesn't eat much for dinner. She does eat a good lunch at school...peer pressure I suppose...so I try not to worry too much. I'm always looking for a creative way to sneak in vegetables and then the next day she will eat asparagus off her Daddy's plate...ya just never know with this girl! If it's a treat...she's all over it and eats it like a champ...anything else and you're guess is as good as mine! She's growing like a weed and is super tall so that's great...I think this is all part of being 2!

She communicates great and we have gotten a kick lately out of her accent when "o" is involved...we joke that she's our little British child! In the video below you will see she makes up a song at some point and is singing something along the lines of "I want you not"...pay attention to how she says "not"...it's the cutest thing! She has also learned her name and it's so cute..."Riley Kaferine Purself"...love it!

Jason and I often joke that Riley gives us cool points and it's so true! We have several friends with no kids that invite us over and ask "is Riley coming?" as if' that's the only way we would get invited..haha!!! She's the life of the party and we wouldn't have it any other way. I often wonder where she got all this personality!

She's the love of our live, our little buddy, and so much fun to be around.

Here's a little video I shot of her a few weeks ago...some singing, a rolly polly, and you will get to meet the bears!

Pizza and wine...

Well it is great to finally be caught up with the bloggity blog!!!

After church today we headed up to Napa for our first members event and to get our first wine shipment at St Supery and it was so much fun!

We went with this fun family...the Cramers!

The weather was great and they served fabulous pizza, salad, and of course wine!

Riley wanted to be a big girl and carry her own plate...right after taking this pic I ran over to keep her gourmet pizza from plunging to the ground!

They had a toss game and if you tossed a ring on a bottle it was yours.

I don't think any rings made it around a bottle of wine but somehow we ended up winning one!

I think Riley actually won it...here she is showing her Daddy how to play the game!

Riley and Oliver were so good and had a lot of fun playing together.

After lunch we headed inside to pick up our wine shipments...Todd and Hannah entertained the kiddos while we got our wine!

And here we are after getting all our wine...you thought we brought the stroller for the kids?

HaHa..it's to hold the wine!

Actually it's not as bad as it looks...we picked up a wine shipment for some other friends, Hannah and Todd had two wine shipments to pick up, and then we split a case with the Cramers...I think we are stocked for awhile!

We headed out to the vines before we left to show Riley the grapes...it's almost harvest time and she wanted to give them a taste test!

We also picked a few figs from the fig tree and Riley ate one...only because Hannah was feeding it to her!

Here's Riley and Todd coming back from picking figs!

A great day!

Riley had a short nap on the way to Napa and was such a good girl the whole time..she also had a lot of fun herself!

When we got home she and I headed out to run some errands and the effects of a short nap were starting to set in. When we got home it went downhill. She yelled at me...and I mean yelled at me...when I asked her to do something and her Daddy put her in timeout. The rule in this house is that you have to apologize before you get out of timeout and for some reason tonight that was especially hard for her. We both went in, talked with her, got her calmed down, and when we told her she needed to say sorry she just went ballistic. Tonight's timeout ended up lasting around 20 minutes...it was rough. She explained that "it's hard to say sorry" and we talked about how it is. She finally gave in and apologized to both of us and then it was a quick dinner and bedtime for her. Sometimes being a parent is just so hard...you want to be best friends with your kiddo but you also have to teach them fundamental life lessons. I tell ya...it's moments like this that have turned me into a wine drinker...haha! :)

9-11

I don't think anyone will ever forget where they were on 9-11-2001...such a tragic day.

I vividly remember sitting in an auditorium waiting for Jason to arrive and take his seat next to me for our history class that we had together my freshman year at Texas A&M. I remember him coming into class talking about a plane crashing into the World Trade Center and I didn't quite wrap my head around what he was talking about. Minutes later our professor came in and announced that school was dismissed for the day and we all hurried back to our dorm rooms to spend the day watch the tragedy unfold on our TVs.

Just a few days later I was here...dressed in blue...at one of the most amazing days at Kyle field. I don't think the goosebumps ever left my skin as I looked around to see the entire stadium in red, white, and blue...something that 5 students had arranged and pulled off in just a few short days...amazing.

It was that day that really pushed Jason to commit to serving in the military...and we wouldn't have it any other way.

We will always remember that day...and pray for those who were lost.

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This 9-11 we headed to Sacramento for an air show...it was a great family day!

Here's Jason and Riley in front of the C-5...the plane Jason is tasked on now...and the biggest plane the Air Force has in it's fleet...it's ginormous!

There were a lot of planes to look at!

Here we are in front of the C-17

Unfortunately the C-5 had some maintenance issues while we were there and Jason spent part of our time at the air show dealing with that...but that also got us up in the cockpit quickly and Riley settled right in and was ready to fly!

While Jason took care of his work stuff Riley and I headed to the bouncy castles...unfortunately she tried many of them and usually ended up screaming and I had to go fetch her! She made it to the last step of this slide and then started crying...so close! She's usually not timid but I think there were so many kids and many of them were extra rambunctious so she was a little out of her comfort zone!

Jason made it in time to show her how to swing the bat and she did a great job hitting the ball!

This girl loves her Daddy...and vice versa!

Riley's funny face made a debut again!

My precious cargo sat in the C-5 while she had a little snack!

We spotted a C-130 and Jason had to check it out for 'ol times sake!

To his surprise he ran into a load master that he was deployed with in Iraq in 2008...such a small world!

He and Riley jumped in the cockpit and played!

We then spent some time on the C-17 and we stayed after the air show had ended so we got to watch them close up the back of the plane!

And she got to do some more flying!

In the back of the C-17

Here's Riley being tough with the guys!

We had such a fun time at the air show and Riley loved all the airplanes!

We were starving when we left so we headed to downtown Sacramento to grab dinner...we spotted a California Pizza Kitchen and decided that was it!

On our walk to the restaurant we spotted a great view of the capital!

And it was even prettier on our walk back after dinner!

There was this cool park we walked through on our way back to the car...Riley had fun seeing all the lights and being able to run free!

I love our days as a family...so treasured!

The park...

After the craziest work week of my life I wanted to end the week with something mellow...so I took Riley to an awesome park by our house!

This park actually sits in the middle of Paul and Jen's neighborhood when they still lived in Cali and it finally was completed...it has huge green open space, lots of play places, and a splash pad...what more could a kid want?

As soon as we drove in the neighborhood Riley squealed with excitement as she thought we were going to see Cooper...mind you we haven't driven in their neighborhood since May when they moved...her memory is CRAZY! I had to let her down and tell her we wouldn't see Cooper...but we did meet up with Patti and Braden so she was excited to see them!

Both kiddos wanted to swing for a while!

Sweet Braden!

I think he just might like her...LOVE this picture!

They also spent a lot of time riding this bumblebee...when Riley was in front it was a wild ride!

Riley had so much fun at the park and it was a great start to our weekend! Unfortunately when good things come to an end most of the time a meltdown ensues and this afternoon was no different! I am sure we will be back at this park to play very soon!