Meet Bunny

Riley has a new best friend, Bunny. I know, not a very creative name, but Riley doesn't care if Bunny has a name or not. Bunny has been chewed on, thrown up on (and washed, of course), stepped on, slept on, you name it Bunny's been through it. When Riley was younger I always thought it was weird that she didn't have a favorite blanket or animal. She must be normal, because just in the last few months Riley has decided that she LOVES Bunny. Here are a few more pictures:

Home Improvement Pictures

So, here they are.  I finally remembered to take pictures of all of the improvements we've done since summer.  I wrote this post on Home Improvements back in September. Now in November, here are the pictures to prove it!

First, the outside.
We moved these spiral trees from the front of the house to the back around our deck.  We also moved all of the 5 tons of rock from the front yard to the back!  We planted some spireas, but as you can see they aren't growing.  Hopefully next year they will be full and beautiful!

Then, we planted in front of the house.  These plants are in fall mode.  Hopefully they survive the winter and this spring they will be full of color again!

We finally removed the pea pod from the front of our yard.  When we moved in this area was a "planter" full of weeds!  Now we have beautiful green grass and a clear view of the house.  Now all we need to do is make the rest of the yard match!

Then we planted aournd our dying tree.

We replaced all of our lights.  The old ones were rusted shut so we went without house lights for a year.

Now inside.  Here is our freshly painted black door with a new knocker.  This door used to be purple! 

We hung these pictures in the front room:

And hung this mirror in the dining room:

We finally (just yesterday) replaced our sprayer at the sink.  Our last one leaked and we weren't able to use it.  I didn't know how much I missed it until we had a working one!

And lastly, we replaced the flooring in our bathrooms and painted our shelving unit in the master.  Yes, I know.  I need to put pircures in those frames!!

So, there you have it.  We've been busy at the Murphy house.  Next on the list:  finishing the basement, new windows, and new siding!  Sounds like a lot of work.

Happy Halloween

Friday night was Begger's Night and we had planned to take Riley to the neighbors' and then come home and hand out candy.  I even went to Target and bought the cutest black pea coat to match her black kitty costume.  Because it was raining, freezing, and huge wind gusts we decided to just stay home and hand out candy.  Riley was not feeling her costume.  She wouldn't let me draw her whiskers or nose.  I was a bit bummed, but we still managed to get a couple cute pictures of her next to the pumpkins. 

Riley loved watching all of the kids come up to the house in their costumes.  After a while she began whining to go outside.  So, we bundled her up and let her walk around the driveway.  After a couple minutes and a few trick-or-treaters we headed back inside with a bawling baby.  Riley wasn't too fond of the monsters and all of the scary masks.

After handing out candy we headed to Great Grandpa Melvin and Lois' house.  Riley was their only trick-or-treater.  We then headed over to Grandma and Grandpa Burch's house to show off our little kitty.  Riley loved carrying her pumpkin bucket and throwing candy into it!  We missed Grandma and Grandpa Murphy's because Grandma Kathy had a class until 10! :(

Here's our kitty in action:

Riley sitting with her pumkins.  Ready to GO!!

Watching for the Trick-Or-Treaters.

This is what happens when Mommy and Daddy don't have any extra clothes that fit me in my bag! 

Yes, unfortunately Ri's diaper leaked and we had to change her out of her clothes as soon as we got to Grandma and Grandpa's house and this is all we had with us!  After a bath and some quick laundry she was back in black in no time!

A Sneak Peek

Here's our little kitty in action at the Link Costume Party.  She had a blast and loved her very first sucker!!  I'm not good at editing pictures...really I have no idea how...so sorry for my lame effort to protect the identities of the other little kiddos!

Riley Carves Her Jack -O-Lantern

We decided that we were close enough to Halloween to go ahead and carve our pumpkin.  We decided that we would do a cat since Riley will be dressing up as a (super cute) cat this year.  Everything went great until the glowing reveal.  Let me show you in pictures...

First we drew the face on the pumpkin.  Everything a-okay.

We took out the guts...ate a few guts...still a-okay.

The finished project..."oooohhhh"

Reaction to the glowing Jack-O-Lantern.  Everything Not A-Okay!!!

Riley did recover.  She eventually went back to liking her other pumpkins.  As far as I know we didn't have any scary jack-o-lantern dreams.  So that is good. She was back to normal by morning...

"No Mom, I won't smile for you. Are you nuts, it's 7:20am!?!"

Riley Picks A Pumpkin

We took Riley to the pumpkin patch on Sunday.  It was a beautiful, sunny, and WINDY day to pick pumpkins.  As you all have heard Riley loves animals and pumpkins so this was the perfect place for Riley.  Riley loved watching the goats, touching every pumpkin in site, riding on the hay ride, running through the corn maze, and picking her very own pumpkin out of the patch.  We heard many "OOOOHHH"s throughout the day!  We were only able to get a few good pictures because of the wind, but Brett did get a lot of good video of the day.  Here are a few pictures from the patch. 

Riley Nicole at 14 months

Riley turns 14 months old today.  Another month past and tons of new tricks for Miss Riley.  Here is a glimpse into her little budding personality:

• She still loves to hug.  Hugging in Riley's head means leaning her head against you.
• Giving slobbery open mouthed kisses.  I always ask for kisses and she comes running over.  It's so cute.
• Throwing "temper tantrums."  They are hardly a tantrum, but if she doesn't get something she wants she will scrunch up her face (which is the cutest thing ever!) and start to fake cry.  It is so funny that I laugh every time.  I feel a little bad for laughing at her, but she doesn't seem to mind and usually starts smiling back and laughing.
• She can't help but touch every outlet in site - which drives Daddy and me nuts!  Every time we say "no, no" or "no touch, Riley" she stops and walks over to you and hugs your leg.  Not sure if she's apologizing or trying to "get out of trouble."  Haven't quite figured that one out yet.
• A new found obsession with PUMPKINS!  She loves pumpkins.  She carries her pumpkin bucket all around the house.  Some things you might find inside her bucket: shoes, socks, toys, milk, pacis.  She throws everything in to the bucket!
• She understands almost everything you say to her.  This amazes Brett and I so we are constantly asking her to do things just to see if she understands.  A few examples: Riley, go put mommy's shoe in the closet...Riley, go jump on your bug (her ladybug beanbag)...Riley, kick your ball...Riley, take Daddy his phone. 
• She knows most of the motions to Itsy Bitsy Spider.
• She loves to play ring around the rosy...by herself as we sing the song.  She spins and spins and spins until we make her fall down.  It's so cute.  She laughs the whole way through it.  She always starts by turning her head first...like this makes the rest of her body turn too.
• She loves to be upside down.  Help her do a somersault once and you will be somersaulting for the next 10 minutes.  She can put her head down to the ground and then needs help to flip over.
• She has 8 teeth.  Four top front, three bottom front and one molar.  She has a second molar coming in which has NOT been fun!
• She is still in size 12 month clothing.  I think she'll be in it for a while unless she surprises us with a growth spurt.
• She has decided that she doesn't like to eat as much as she used to.  She still likes the same food.  We have the best luck with green veggies.  I know, it's weird but she loves them all.  Put something green on her plate and it's the first thing to go.  She has to have a fork.  She'll point it at you until you help her get food on it.  She mostly uses it as a toy, but she's starting to get the idea!
• She shakes her head yes and no in one fast jerk.  She usually answers no to everything.
• Some words that she says....hi, bye, dada, mama, SSS (snack), cat, juice (anything liquid). There are more, but my mind is drawing a blank. She hasn't really started talking much more than last month, just seems to understand everything that is being said.
• She loves anything "pretty."  She started leaving her headbands on because I started saying "oh, you look so PRETTY!"  She loves looking pretty.  She also loves to wear bracelets...which are just all of her linking rings.
• Her hair is finally starting to grow.  She has some really long pieces in the back and it is starting to curl a little around her ears.  Yay!  It's still pretty short in the front and almost never shows up in pictures.  I keep looking at her and trying to picture what she will look like when she finally has hair.

So, as you can see she is full of personality.  She is so much fun and we love every minute with her.  Daddy is home with her today because our poor daycare provider is sick.  I don't think Daddy is complaining too much about a day home with his little girl!