Hoppy Easter!

I've made it no secret that Easter is not one of my favorite holidays - one of the major reasons being that it's on a Sunday, so I always have to travel!  This year my family did me the honor of letting me hostess Easter at my own house, so it made it just a little bit sweeter.

We spent Saturday at Alli's first ever softball practice where she demonstrated her mad (inherited) softball skills.  Seriously, this kid is a natural.  After practice, we went to Academy Sports where the men determined she needed a pitch back and some practice balls to work on hitting.  We spent the entire beautiful afternoon on the patio playing ball.  Alli couldn't get enough.

That evening we grilled burgers and dyed Easter eggs.  Riley observed and Ryan did most of the work. And I made sure Alli didn't color every single egg like a Ninja Turtle.

Alli left carrots and Reese's eggs for the Easter Bunny.  I have it on good authority that he enjoyed the eggs more than the carrots.  And he wishes she'd leave wine instead of water, but it's totally fine either way.

The next morning, Alli awoke to 23 eggs hidden around the house and a basket full of goodies.

Because she wasn't familiar with all of the good hiding spots in this house, she needed all of the egg hunting help she could get.

I know you're not going to believe me, but after egg hunting and breakfast, we got this house full of people up and to church at 9:45AM!  We even got there early, so we got good parking and good seats.  The service was beautiful and we sang some of my favorite hymns.  Riley made it to the sermon when Ryan took her in the narthex with the other daddy-baby combos to play until it was time to sing again.  We had beautiful weather to come home and take pictures as well to document that we all got prettied up and went to church together.

After lunch of fried chicken and chocolate layer dessert, we kept softballin'.  It was really a fantastic Easter.  Maybe I'm starting to come around on this holiday...

Riley {Ten Month Update}

Boy, do I feel sheepish.  It's been over a month since I last posted!  Spring has been a flurry of activity for our family, and I've been collapsing into bed at night without the energy to blog.  Now I'm posting Riley's ten month update when she's almost eleven months old!  Please forgive me.  I'll do better, I promise!

Here are key words to describe Riley this month:

• Waving.  Out of the blue one day, Riley started waving bye bye, and she just can't get enough of it.  Sometimes she gives even gives the two handed wave.  She's gotten so good at it that all you have to say is "Bye bye!" and she immediately starts waving.  It's adorbs.
• Wary.  Riley is pretty cautious of people who aren't in her immediate family or friends.  She's stopped willingly going to whoever wants to hold her and has started hesitating, turning away, or crying.  Her "Strangers Danger" complex is pretty acute right now.
• Crawling.  Riley isn't doing the traditional crawl on her knees - she does the belly to the ground Army crawl.  But she's speedy, determined, and able to get across the room quickly.  Cue babyproofing.

Riley still loves every food we put in front of her.  She never turns down grub, and she's enjoyed every solid she's tried.  She's even learned to enjoy chicken!  We added beets, broccoli & cauliflower this month without any complaints.

Sleep with Riley is touch and go - most nights she goes down between 8-9PM and gets up between 7-8AM.  But as soon as you think you've got her figured out, she changes her mind!  She had been laying down by herself when she was sleepy and going to bed on her own, but then for a week she decided she needed to nurse or rock to sleep.  And then we were back to laying her down again.  She always keeps us on our toes!

Riley still loves to give headbutt kisses, dance to music, and throw her toys on the ground for you to pick up.  When she tosses a toy overboard, she proclaims "Uh!"  We're still working on the "Oh!"  Happy ten months, sweet smiley Riley!