Motherboy I

Gabe is such a scaredy cat! I have never seen a child so afraid of everything. He hates the slides unless I go with him. Ben refuses to "torment" the kids by making them do things that scare them, but not me! I am always trying to make them do things that look like they would be so much fun. I am determined they will like it! So far, not so much, but that won't stop me from trying! I am sure the kids must have inherited at least a small portion of their Mother's sense of adventure, we just have to develop it further...

Motherboy at Herriman Park, August 20, 2007

Gabe's first haircut

! So cute! My little boy looks like a little man now with his cute new cut. Though I think next time I won't cut it in his high chair. The food I was feeding to pacify him got hair all in it, poor guy! He was really so good though! I'll post some better before and after pics, he was getting pretty shaggy, but now looks like a baby Brad Pitt (the clean cut Brad that is).

...a little nervous about it

lovin' it, thanks Mom!

Saturday is a special day...

Sorry, I know I have already posted today, but I thought that some of you might find this strange, peculiar, hilarious, ingenious, even pathetic. I do! In an attempt to improve our Sunday 9:00Am church record, I have concluded that drastic measures need to be taken to get there on time. It is late Saturday night (for the kiddies, not for me haha!) and Laine just got out of the shower. I had a brilliant stroke genius and decided to dress her in her Sunday dress for church tomorrow.

night night...

Gabe getting the hosedown (CA trip con't)

Pop Pop was generous enough to offer to babysit so the girls could have an outing. We should have realized he would do it Kevin Style! We arrived home from a lovely day of shopping, to find Hayden's diaper duct taped on, and Gabe drying off from his hosedown.

My Dad's version of the story goes that he went to change Gabe's poopy diaper and the kid was wiggling all over the place. Then he reached into the wipes to find someone had used the last one without refilling. Shame Shame. So what is a Grampa to do but take the kid outside and hose him down! According to Pop Pop, Gabe "loved it" We thought if he loved it so much, we should recreate it to capture pics for posterity's sake.

Trip to Gaengy and Pop Pop's!

Katie and I took a road trip to sunny CA to visit our parents! (Sorry, wish I had pics and stories of Ben and his swass on his "business" trip to Puerto Rico...)

Two of Nicole's girls, Avery and Hayden, were there, and Laine loved spending time with her cousins.

Some highlights of the trip were eating lot's of Mexican food, swimming, enjoying a nice evening with the family watching the lovely movie Elizabethtown (Not! -do not be tempted to EVER see this movie), and Hayden's 2nd birthday party at the Adventure Fun Park. There was pizza, games, slick-track rides, my Dad and I getting puked on...

So there I was, innocently playing the children's arcade game to win the kids a lot of tickets, when I feel wetness, wetness, wetness, all over the back of my legs. Sick. Somebody (Hayden) had too much fruit punch or rootbeer and threw up all over my dad and I, though as you can see, my Dad caught the brunt of it. It was a total freakshow, and I still haven't been able to get it all out of my beautiful "Chanel" purse! Nasty. By the way, notice I look like the world's tallest midget next to my Dad.


The kids and I are ready to hit the pool - love it....


Gabe is not so sure about the Mexican food he just ate

Gaengy attempting to get all of the kids to settle down and smile for a nice photo at Hay's party: Avery, Laine, Gabe, Hayden


Laine and I are ready for our ride, at least I am, Laine is looking not so sure... (though she should be, I broke her in at Lagoon this summer. Much to Ben's chagrin I took her on every ride she was tall enough for, even the Tidal Wave! She was shaking!)


Laine still looking not sure about the ride, Hayden doesn't look that pumped either,
are these kids crazy or what?!



Katie and I hitting the pool again, looking good!

Laine

Does anyone out there feel like their 3 year old is not only smarter, but more responsible than them? Ben and I just don't know where this girl came from. We are both yellow's to the core, which is a lot of fun, but it is sad that you practically have to have the locksmith on speed dial, etc...

Anyway, she is so, so smart. And clean, and efficient, and organized. She CAN'T go to bed without her room being immaculately clean. What is that about? (No complaints!, just didn't expect that from my progeny!) The other night we went to the grocery store as a family and she got to use one of the small kiddie carts. So she shopped for the groceries, loaded them up to be paid for, carted them to the car, unpacked them out of the car with Dad, then opened the fridge and started putting them away!

We were driving in the car with my sis Katie on the way home from Gaengy and Pop Pop's (my parents, the Gildea's). Gabe had been asleep but woke up and Katie said "Wakie, Wakie" and I said "Eggs and Bacie" and then Laine pipped in: "Baby's nakie!" as, Gabe was only in his diaper by that point. Anyway, it was hilarious!

She is also so helpful! The other day Gabe climbed up me and scratched me all over. Laine disappeared for a minute and then came back with nail clippers! The things she thinks of on her own! Sometimes I seriously feel like I am the child and she is the mother (like when she locked me in my room yesterday and then came back and asked if I was ready to be nice perhaps?) We love our little Laine!

Don't forget to notice Dad did her hair that day!

Duke Gardens and on to Myrtle Beach!

Am I putting on too many pictures? Sorry for those of you who may think this is a bit much, I just want to be able to have them all here for when I print this off as our family journal.

Anyway, after graduation we took a short jaunt in the Duke Gardens, so gorgeous! They were just lovely, and as beautiful as these pics are, they just don't come close to comparing to being there in person. Unfortunately we didn't even capture any pics of the beautiful flowers from around the world that are planted there. Those of us from Utah would not be able to imagine gardens like these were possible in the world, it was just breathtaking. I wish I could go bring a book and sit in the shade for hours and take it all in every day.

We took a short detour, en route to Myrtle Beach, to Fort Bragg. We just had to see our good friends from Korea, Tana and Sam. Their little boy Maxx is just a week or two older than Gabe and is so cute! Somehow he is the only one that takes a good picture, sorry Tana, it's not the best pic of me either, you look a lot cuter in person!

I must say sorry to Ben for posting this pic too, you don't really look like you are 8 months pregnant in real life! It was the only one we had from the pier at the Boardwalk though, so what was I to do?

Dinner at Amici's at the Boardwalk

Us in the world's largest beach chair

Laine loving her ride on T-Rex

The kids and I ready to hit the beach

Ben and the kids at the hotel pool at the Breakers Resort, Myrtle Beach

Congratulations Ben! Our Duke Graduation Trip

We are soooo glad to have our Husband / Father back after a 21 month hiatus while doing his MBA through the Duke Cross Continent Program! It was such a long 2 years, looking back I still don't know he we even made it!

We took the fam on a trip to Durham for Graduation in May. Graduation was on the 12th for the Fuqua School of Buisness. It was a very proud and exciting day to see him walk at his graduation ceremony. The next day was Commencement, which was another exciting event. We were glad that Mom and Dad Riley could join us for such a memorable trip.

Ben and Laine relish the day at Commencement

Taking some time to see the beautiful campus

Ben took this pic while standing for the MBA Fuqua School of Buisness Class of 2007

Ben and classmates (top left):
Steven Rodriguez, John Holtz, Mike Wendt, Lex Anniston, Natalie Ngyuen, Jacus DeBeer
Ferdinand Halim, Jenny Mclean, Kristine Singley, Ben Howard Riley III, Patrick Painter

Ben and Laine with Gramps and Gabe walking through campus



The fam in front of the Duke Chapel

Gabe seems to be enjoying himself... and yes he has no pants on, with the heat as intense as it was Gabe was drinking a lot and soaked through his diaper

The fam outside Cameron Indoor Stadium, where Ben's graduation was held

All tuckered out...

Ben

I was feeling like Ben has been left out of the family blog since his reign over the blog has come to an end. It didn't help that he was in charge of the camera at Chuck E. Cheese, so my last blog entry only has him in the background in one of the pictures. Anyway, I wanted to put a picture of him up, but who has pics of just themselves alone? Not us so much, but I will try to locate some if they exist so Ben can share equal viewage (is that a word?). For now, here is the last pic of us taken together.

Happy Birthday Laine!

Okay, so Laine turned 3 in June but I wasn't "updating" the blog then. Here are some fun pics of yet another year of her lame birthday party with her parents. Even though we now live locally, somehow we still managed to celebrate her birthday alone with just our little family. (We actually had another party with the Riley's at the Mayan the night before). We celebrated at Chuck E. Cheese. Here are some pics:



Gabe was not too excited about the carousel

Here I am loading the kids into the monster truck, once again, Gabe did not last long

Laine riding the teeter totter, she loves the rides!

Here is Gabe with his "stogie" (it's a pizza crust)
I have no idea why this is writing as if this is a link to something

Electronik Supersonic

I am sorry, still no pics. However, here is a video from youtube for your viewing pleasure. It was sent to me by my Dad, which means it is going to be the most randomly hilarious thing you can find out there. I highly recommend it: http://youtube.com/watch?v=1_U05Dgp4q8

Saying tomorrow is always wishful thinking...

So I really am going to post more posts. I took the camera to Laine's dance class and took a bunch of pics, but then my laptop did something way funny to it's self and I have this peewee screen. The screen seriously is tiny, I don't know how to get it back! It made it difficult to post pics and text when you are 26 and would need reading glasses to see the screen.

Anyway, after that I only had a day to pack before heading out to CA to see my family. Katie and I took a road trip with the kids, 12 hours in the car... yikes. Actually, Laine was an absolute angel and has been sooo pleasant and happy to this day, very surprising. Gabe has not felt good and been cranky off and on. They are both having so much fun with their cousins though. Nicole's two younger girls, Avery and Hayden, are here at my parent's because her son Jax is in the hospital.

Anyway, I brought my camera with every intention of posting some pics, however not only did I forget to bring the memory card, but it also ran out of battery after about 2 seconds. Katie has a camera but no cord, and my parent's camera is out of battery for the moment. What a bunch of kordos. We will charge up that battery and get some swimming and other fun pics up tomorrow! (Yes, I know I said that last post, and you will probably hear it a lot, despite it being untrue most of the time...)