Bon Voyage!

I'm going to miss this little stinker!!!  With this look I think she might give the grandparents a run for their money!!

Thankfully, we're only gone for a couple days and we'll have the beach calling our names!

Finished Product

So the patio is (almost) finished.  Brett finished putting down the pavers and we have just a few things left to completely finish the project.  We still need to grow grass up to the edge of the patio and cut a few pavers for the row next to the deck.  But, we are very happy with what we have now!

Busy Bees

The past couple of weeks have been soooo busy at the Murphy house. 

Last Monday we helped Great Grandpa Melvin celebrate his 77th birthday.  We all had a great time together!

We put in our garden, which Riley loves to help with.  Most recently, she helped me pull weeds by pulling out our onion bulbs.  She was very proud!

In the past couple weeks we've had radishes come up as well as our greenbeans sprout.  This year we decided to purchase some of our vegetables from The Homestead - a local organization the supports people with Autism.  It also is the place that I worked for in college.  I was happy to be able to support an agency that is doing great things.  So far, all of our plants are doing great!

We also decided that we needed another DIY project on our plate.  We decided that we should install a simple patio off of our back deck.  It hasn't proven to be simple at all!  Especially with the hot and muggy weather we've had the past several days.  Here's what the project looked like as of Saturday night.

(Don't mind the terrible siding.  That's a project that we know we can't DIY.  Soon enough we'll have all new windows and siding at the Murphy house! I'm waiting patiently.)  Sunday, we poured all of the sand down and then Brett got started on laying the pavers.  Not an easy task.  Each paver weighed in at 40 pounds!  So, we still have several rows of pavers to lay.  We're hoping to get it finished tonight.  I'll be sure to post pictures of our finished project.

Riley has been up to her same old stuff.  She has loved being able to play outside!  She cries anytime someone is outside and she's stuck indoors.  She also picked up a bad habbit and I am to blame.  She now says "oh, shoot" all the time.  Usually she points to her skinned knee (or any owie) and says "oh, shoot" and "hurt."  She also heard me say "oh, shit" yesterday as I dropped something.  Immediately she said "oh, SHIP" and laughed.  I guess we've officially hit the "repeat" stage!  Here's a picture of the stinker with her knew favorite food!

 

Now, my mind is focused on this:

Brett and I leave for Newport Beach on Friday night.  We're so excited to have a little getaway!  And so excited to spend a few days with the Mercers!

Visions Of The Future...

Riley's new favorite pastime!  This weekend Riley loved riding in the neighbor's jeep.  She would hop in the passenger seat and stay there until Gavin drove her around the yard.  So cute!

Riley Nicole At 1 Year, 9 Months

Riley turned another month older on Saturday.  Here's a glimpse into her life as an almost-two-year-old:

• She's still wearing her 18 month jeans.  Everything else she wears is 2T.  She's wearing size 5 sandals, but still fits into her size 4 tennis shoes.  She hasn't been to the doctor recently (whoohoo!) so I'm not sure what her weight is.
• She's learned to blow her nose.  However, she seems to forget that she needs a kleenex while blowing. 
• She loves "hoe-ses," or horses.  She talks about them all the time.  The neighbors have a horse toy in their garage.  She always points and says horse.  If you ask her if she wants to ride it she shakes her head no and responds with a very clear "nope!"
• She's grown out of most of her toys.  Thankfully it's been nice out and we've be spending a lot of our time outside in the yard.  Riley loves to play with the neighbor boys, Gavin and Landon.
• She can go down the slide all by herself now.


• She likes to listen to "songs" in the car.  They are children's songs and she's very particular about which song she wants played.  She usually screams no and shakes her head until she finally finds one she likes.  She seems to like the fast, jazzy songs best.  You know she likes them when she begins swaying her head left to right.
• We've adjusted her bedtime.  We are now putting her to bed at 8:30 pm instead of 7:45 pm.  We just started last night and it's working out perfectly! She was getting into a habit of waking every night and then getting up at 6:30.  Now she's sleeping through the night until 7am.
• She played her very first game of flashlight tag this weekend.  It was more of just running around witht the neighbor kids in the dark with a flashlight than actually "tag." She loved it!
• She also rode her very first power toy! She did great, except had no clue how to steer!
• We can finally get her hair into one teeny tiny pony on the top of her head!  She hates me putting it in, but it's too cute not to do it once in a while. She also has little clippies that are super cute.

• She has absolutely no sweet-tooth, unless she's offered ice cream.  This just blows my mind since I would choose to eat dessert every meal if I could!
• She adores her cousins, Kennedy and Addie.
• She's finally interested in some animated movies.  Her favorite to watch is Tinkerbell.  But, she still prefers to watch "Back"(Backyardigans), "hot dog" (Mickey) and "Oso."

If Riley Were a Boy...

...This is what she may look like!

 Riley came home from Hedy's house in this outfit (plus a shirt!) one day last week.  I think she had gotten food all over her pants at lunch time.  So, I imiganed if our next child is a boy he may look like this - minus the pink sandles!

Oh, and today my husband and I celebrate our three year wedding anniversary!  Happy Anniversary, Brett!!

Mother's Day

Mother's Day was a bit different this year.  I was lucky enough to spend the weekend away in Arizona for Aunt Libby's bachelorette party.  It was a blast!  She has a great group of friends and I had so much fun getting to know them and laughing at all of their great memories together. 

So, early Sunday Grandma Kathy and I boarded a plane to head back to Iowa.  We landed in Des Moines around 1:30 to learn that Brett was waiting with a pantless child who had just blown out her diaper and clothes.  Brett had the joy of cleaning Riley up without the use of wipes - which he forgot at home!  We ran home quick to change Riley and then headed back out to go to cousin, Kennedy's, 6th birthday party.  Her birthday is actually today! Happy Birthday, Kennedy!  Even though I was exhausted we had so much fun skating at Skate West.  It brought back some old memories of elementary school.  My brother and I each had at least one birthday party at Skate West. 

After the party, I crashed on the couch for a much needed nap while Daddy and Riley ordered some Chinese from my favorite Chinese place, China Star!  All in all, it was a nice Mother's Day!

My gift from Riley and Daddy!