Grammy & Granda Visit!

Memorial Day weekend came and went like a whirlwind... we had a wonderful weekend with friends and family! We were thrilled to have Alli's parents (now known as Grammy & Granda) arrive on Saturday morning and stay through Wednesday morning, and also to have Ryan's "Cousin Susan" arrive for a long layover here on her way home to the Rochester area (NY) from an Alaskan adventure! She arrived Sunday night at around 9:45pm and went home the next morning at around 11:45am. Whewee!

So we'll start at the beginning! Grammy & Granda arrived at around 10:30am on Saturday and had their own errands to run while Alli was finishing up the mini red velvet cakes for our friend Alicia's birthday party that night, so we didn't rendezvous until lunchtime at Granda's favorite... Gunther Toody's (mmm, vanilla malts...)

Here are Alli's red velvet mini cakes (talk about labor intensive... oy!)


And here Riley is being spoiled by Grammy and is sitting on the table at Gunther Toody's!


After lunch at GT's, we went back to Grammy & Granda's condo to get Riley settled and comfortable, and then at 3:30pm Alli left without her little man and didn't see him again until mass at 11:15 the next morning!!! OMG! Riley's first OVERNIGHT!!! I was SO terrified/anxious... I was a wreck leading up to this adventure (did he have everything he needed? Did I forget anything? Will he cry the whole time? Will he be "good" for my parents?). However, once I left, I felt confident it'd go well, and I had a wonderful night, especially after hearing he was sleeping for them. :) Good boy, Riley! Here are some pictures my parents took while hanging with their FAVORITE grandson (heh heh)...

Here's Riley in his pack'n'play, getting the lay of the land...


Here he is playing games with Grammy...


Here's Riley telling stories while chewing on a toe in bed Sunday morning with Granda (I guess when he woke he was telling stories in his pack'n'play and so they brought him to bed to hear them better):


Then we met up at church and he was so good! We didn't do much on Sunday, just relaxed. Susan came and went Sunday to Monday, it was nice for her to get to meet Riley despite the super-quick visit :) And it sounded like she had an AMAZING trip to Alaska, I was jealous! It was a Smithsonian orchestrated Educational Trip to the southeast coast of Alaska on a National Geographic boat. Looked FAB.

Monday we went for a walk with Susan and then took her to the airport. Then we had some time to kill till our BBQ over at Red Stone Park with our softball/football friends... So Alli, Grammy & Granda headed over to Red Stone at 4:00 or so for a nice walk on the Highline Canal Trail, and then met up with the rest of everyone else (including Ryan) at the park for the BBQ at about 5:00. It was a nice time, lots of running around, good food, good peeps. Then we called it a day and headed home. A great weekend!

Here we are on our walk (love the views from the Highline Canal Trail, gorgeous):


And here we are toasting at the BBQ!


Tuesday I took some time off work to spend with the fam, we met with Ryan for lunch out at Roxborough, and bought my parents some new patio furniture for the condo, and then tried a new French cafe right here in Highlands Ranch for take-out for dinner and it was FAB. Definitely will do THAT again.

Wednesday morning my parents swung by on their way to the airport to say good-bye to all of us (yeah right, we all know they came to say bye to big man Riley :) tee hee)


Anyways, it was a fun-filled weekend that FLEW by way too quickly and we cannot wait to see Grammy & Granda again in August! Hooray!

Love to all,
The Willies

The Difference a Month Makes...

Wow! Just a month makes SUCH a HUGE difference when your life is only a measly 5 months along! Not only is Riley much chattier and gigglier than he was a mere month ago, but check out the evidence of how much a little fella can GROW in a month!

End of April... my feet can't touch! I'm suspended!


End of May... oh there's the ground...!!! :)

My First Mother's Day!

First of all, a HUGE shout-out and Congratulations to my cousin Dave and his fabuloso wife, Kris, who had a beautiful baby girl, Cathleen Maebh Edwards, yesterday, 5/12/2010... a collossal 8 pounds 11 oz and 20.5" long! PERFECT and GORGEOUS. Kris, you are AMAZING! No drugs, fast L&D, and a beautiful healthy little baby-girl! The first GIRL great-grandbaby for Nana! :) CONGRATS AGAIN to Dave, Kris and Liam!
Welcome, Catie... She's gorgeous, no?


Okay, now, back to Mother's Day... my first. HOW WONDERFUL. What an honor. It was so amazing to be on the Mom side of things for the first time! What a wonderful feeling!

I actually forgot to have Ryan take pictures of us on our first Mom's day, wahh, but I did manage to remember to take one with my cell phone, so it's not very good, but it's us! :)


So, for my First Mother's day, my WONDERFUL and uber thoughtful husband bought me a GORGEOUS ring with a blue topaz centered in diamond chips in Sterling Silver... Blue Topaz is Riley's birthstone!!! How thoughtful is that?! Anyways, I know it's lame to brag and post, but here it is... fabness?!?!!? :) I Love Yous, Ryan AND Riley!!!! MUUAH! I assured Ryan that though it was super wonderful to get such a gift this year, he is in no way expected to go so far above and beyond next year, a simple bouquet of flowers and breakfast in bed, would suffice :)

Here's my new bling...


Then, we spent the day just relaxing here at the house... we did some yard-work while Riley napped, and we got breakfast at Einstien Bagels (lox, mm)... really not too much, just a wonderful family day! And luckily it was our first truly beautiful spring day on a weekend... mind you, that quickly changed with the snow and rain we've gotten this week! HA!

Anyways, it was a wonderful day to enjoy one another and our little man. I can't wait to celebrate Ryan's first Father's Day while we're in Florida!!!
Best to all, especially the newest Edwards... ;)
xo

Catching up... Uncle Tim, Rockies Game and Rice Cereal, OH MY!!!

Okay! Well I'm a little behind for such a busy couple of weeks, so I will slam you with a longer post here and multiple pictures and then will be caught up. Phew!

While Emilia & Lucy were visiting, so were my brother Tim and his girlfriend, Kelly! They were staying at our parents' condo, and they stayed until last Wednesday, the 28th. Such fun for Riley. A couple times Tim got Riley laughing harder than Ryan and I have ever seen, it was adorably cute and we want to know Uncle Tim's secret!! ;)

Here are Tim & Kelly lovin' on Rilers


And then after we dropped Tim at the airport (Kelly was heading straight there from work), Ryan and I took Riley to his FIRST Rockies Game!!!!! WOO HOOO!!!! So fun! It was a GORGEOUS day for it... in the 70s, and in the sun, probably 80 degrees. We had our usual 2nd row seats between 3rd base and left field, and were in the blazing sun... so we all coated up with SPF 55 for babes, and then put on hats and the like to ward off sunburn. But MAN it was hot.

Thankfully since it was a 1pm game on a Wednesday in April, there were plenty of empty seats, so the gentleman checking tickets at the top of our section suggested we move into the shaded area if we wanted... so at about the 5th inning, we did just that, and we were ALL happier!!!

Riley was more interested in the banner lights blinking around Coors Field than the game itself, but he and his daddy had a great time.


Lastly, Riley hit the 4 month mark this past week, and thus had his 4 month check-up... we'll move past the icky vaccinations and post-vaccination fussiness that ensued this past weekend due to said doctor visit, and right into the good news that he is more than double his weight when we brought him home from the hospital... he weighed in at 12 lbs 14.5 ounces (12th percentile) and was 24 1/2 inches long (32nd percentile). We were therefore given the go-ahead to start him on Rice Cereal in addition to nursing. So we've done that twice so far... Saturday and Sunday nights... he gets more of it on his face and bib than in his mouth, but it's fun all the same. :)


The only other news fit to print is that on Saturday we went up to Loveland and had lunch with Riley's Aunt Megan, Grandpa Williams, and GREAT Grandma and Grandpa Williams! What fun! We didn't get any pictures, but they sure did love on him quite a bit. :) Next time we'll have to take some pictures... too bad he was still pretty fussy from the vaccinations so not really agreeable to sitting still for pictures.

Okay, so I think that catches us up...

Kristin, we're thinking of you and hoping you have good news on El Cinco de Mayo!!! I put my "money" on a little girl, right on time... hopefully the Thelen genes kick in and boot those always-running-late-male-Edwards-genes to the curb this time around. HAHAHA! XOXOX!!!

Love,
The Williams

Some things will never change... in a good way!

This past weekend Emilia & Lucy flew out from Delaware to spend the weekend with us! FABULOUS. We had SUCH a nice time. Lots of relaxing at the house and just enjoying one another and our little babes. Lots and LOTS of laughs, the best of medicine. My side hurt when they left from all the giggles we shared. Whew. We really bring out the hilarity in one another. It's so funny how much we have changed in the almost 14 years we've known one another (OMG, 14 years since freshman year?), but yet, at the same time, how much has remained the same. We are still the same silly girls, just now, we're silly mommas. I hope that Lucy & Riley grow up feeling the love of their moms' relationship, and that they can strive for such a friendship. What a HOOT we had! I think this was even Ryan's first time experiencing the Emilia-Allison craziness... usually it's Dan who has to put up with us. HAHAHA! :)

The babies did great! Lucy slept like a champ in the pack'n'play, which we will attribute to the altitude and sheer exhaustion, and even Riley had 2 nights of AMAZING sleep... they never got in sync with naps, so we didn't get to get out and do as much as we had thought/hoped, but who needs to go out when you can just enjoy one another at home. Perhaps next year we'll actually get to do the Cherry Creek Sneak, which was the reason Emilia flew out this particular weekend... but Riley was sleeping and I was NOT about to wake his little bum up!!! Heck no! Rule Number One... NEVER WAKE A SLEEPING BABY... HAHAHA! :)

Here are some pictures from our weekend... Hopefully Emilia will share a couple more with me from her stash, and I will add them in the next post... (she has an adorable set of the 2 babes bathing together... we'll keep that one for blackmail later in life... heh heh).

Here we are... college roommates turned mommas:

A cute shot of Lucy:

And one of Riley:

And here's one of Riley in his new bug outfit with Daddy, watchin' the Rockies game... :)

More to come! Hope all is well out there ya'all!
love,
the williams

Baby Einstein, er, I mean Riley

This past weekend was pretty uneventful for us, Riley went to Mahin's on Friday night, very unprecedented, so that Ryan and I could play softball without dragging him to the 2+ hour double-header up in Westminster. It worked out smashingly! And of course Mahin and her family were thrilled to dote over Riley for a few hours (note: Mahin, said "Ma-heen", is Riley's childcare provider, she lives across the street and runs an in-home daycare, and Riley is her only charge so far!). Anyways, we made it worth our while to pay for childcare, and went ahead and won our softball league... totally scored league champion hoodies. Most excellent.

Then Saturday we just were hangin out at home when Ryan got a call to fill in on a 6 on 6 flag football team, so we gallivanted up to Rocky Mountain Lake Park (I-70 & Federal in North Denver) so Ryan could play and Riley and I could hang out and watch... it started out rainy, but ended up sunny enough for Riley to sport his Rockies Sun Hat...


Sunday we did some more chillin' around the house, and we thought maybe it was time to put together Riley's Baby Einstein activity seat! It says 4+ months, but he's holding his head up pretty well and really seems to like it!


As always, these are just a couple shots but we have a bunch more posted to shutterfly.

Hope all is well by ya'all!
love,
The Willies

Belated... Riley at 3 months! (And other stuff, too!)

I cannot believe it! Riley is through is 4th Trimester already and is on his way to being a little boy. He is such fun. He is smiling and giggling, he's squirming and rolling over (front to back). He's going to be a handful! We love it! When he's not congested or having acid reflux (talk about issues!) he's such a good little sleeper, and has SUCH a fun disposition.

We took him for pictures at Portrait Innovations last Saturday (4/3) to mark him at his 3 months milestone. He is such a ham. He thought the photographer was totally crazy because of how he was buzzing around making noises, and he was intrigued by the camera and lights... but we did get some good expressions out of him! Here are a few samples of the pictures, and you can see the lot of them on our Shutterfly page.





This weekend we also had some fun drama with Ryan... whewee... on Friday night we made our coed softball debut, and Ryan was playing 2nd base when the 3rd batter (a male) in the 1st inning, hit a hard grounder right up the middle at Ryan... it was staying down, but it was skimming the ground like a rock on a pond, so Ryan got down on one knee and had his glove in perfect position to make a great play on the ball, when it hit something or something happened and it took a WICKED hop right up at Ryan's face and SMACK! right in the left eye socket. He had an immediate goose-egg that was HUGE right under his eye, and then a laceration just above his eye and below his eyebrow so he was bleeding and swollen and disgusting looking. Luckily, a Combat Medic was in the stands watching his mother play (she was on the opposing team), so he came over and helped us... he said we had to go to the hospital and would probably need stitches, and he might even have a concussion, so I wasn't supposed to let him fall asleep on the drive to the hospital. Oye. So anyways, that was at around 8:30pm... we got to the hospital (we chose to drive to Sky Ridge which is only 10 mins from our house) at around 9:15 and then were there until almost midnight. We had accidentally left Ryan's wallet (and therefore insurance information) on the kitchen table, so our friends Alicia & Dave were kind enough to stop at our house and grab it and meet us at the ER, and they THEN went even further above and beyond the call of duty and minded Riley in the waiting room (and he was SUCH a good boy!) while I tended to Ryan and stayed with him through all the ER fun... he had a multitude of x-rays but thankfully no broken bones in his face (phew) and then they super-glued his face (instead of stitches!?!) and released him saying he didn't have a concussion, but with any head-injury, I was supposed to wake him up and check on him every couple hours... luckily we have a baby so middle of the night wakings are common. HA! Anyways, here's a picture of Ryan the next morning... when he woke up his eye was completely swollen shut, so this was after icing it and sitting up for a while to let gravity help drop the swelling a bit... he actually was able to get his contact in there! :)



Now it's looking even better... it's yellow and magenta... mmm... fabulous.

Our last bit of "news" that's fit to print, is that Ryan said his good-byes to his trusty old '91 Acura Integra, Dirty Harry, and we took advantage of the Toyota lease deals and got ourselves a 2010 Rav4!! It's SUPER cute and has 4WD which makes ME happy. :) Here's a pic.




Wow, that was a long-overdue and LONG post! I should do this once a week... :)
I hope those of you cyber-stalking my blog haven't given up hope on an update!
Best to all,
Love,
The Williams