The Nahas Family

mini-steam train

2012-01-24T12:37:00.000-08:00

Last weekend Garret spent the entire time working on remodeling our house, so I decided to take Riley on some adventures around the area. We headed out on Saturday morning for Tilden Park in Berkeley. Our original destination was the Little Farm where we could feed cows, goats, sheep, pigs, chickens, ducks, etc.... the lettuce we brought from home. It was fun but Riley became uninterested pretty soon as finishing feeding all our lettuce to the cow and goats.

When I was young I remember having ridden on a mini train in Tilden park, so Riley and I set off to find this train... and we were successful! We got to sit on and ride the train through the hills and back (we even when through a tunnel- TWICE!). It was so exhilarating for Riley and yet he just sat there looking around with wide eyes and a huge grin on his face!

When our ride ended and everyone got off to make room for the next crew of riders, Riley ran towards the engine and watched as the conductor poured water and oil into the engine and wheels to keep everything working correctly. I was able to snap a picture of Riley with the engine behind him right before it took off for another ride through the hills.

This was a very exciting day!

Except for the fact that although giraffe is pictured in the photo above, somehow he got lost between this picture and our house.

BIG bummer. Luckily we have 2 giraffes.

my garden actually produces!

2012-01-23T12:32:00.000-08:00

Garrett built me a beautiful garden in the backyard this past spring and instead of planting yummy stuff right away I postponed until the only things really to plant were winter veggies. So I planted sugar snap peas (one of my favs!) and cauliflower. The sugar snap peas produced sweet pea pods a few months ago, which Riley and Cole thoroughly enjoyed snacking on while playing in the yard. My cauliflower plants however have been a bit more iffy.... and by that I mean I didn't even know if any would survive my lack of remembering to water them and the cats continually digging them up. BUT, at least one has prevailed! When we were playing outside the other day I came over to "tend" my garden and found the beginning of a cauliflower actually visible! I was so excited and showed Riley, who was excited because I was excited. Now, I'm showing all of you so you can be excited with me!

Bowling

2012-01-23T11:47:00.000-08:00

Our weather here in California has finally decided that it is winter, so instead of sunny days we now have rainy gloomy days. So, we have taken advantage of that and gone bowling with Riley on rainy nights. It has proved to be SO much fun. Not only is it a pretty inexpensive way to tire out a 2.5 year old but he gets his own bowling shoes and ball at the alley! Below is a picture of Riley smiling the first time we went bowling as a family (we have been 2 times total now).

One of the most exciting things about going bowling to Riley is the "magic" part of when the ball is returned. You'll have to see for yourself what I am talking about in this video below!

our little pizza chef

2012-01-20T14:20:00.000-08:00

Last week I decided to make pizza at home for dinner. Garrett had been working on our remodel (more on that later) all day and Riley and I needed something fun to do inside once it got dark outside. So, we made pizza! I rolled the dough out and then told Riley that he could help put all the fixin's on. I didn't know how he would like doing it but let me tell you... he got SO into it! He put on pepperoni (an entire package because he liked doing it so much), some bell peppers, and some mushrooms. Then we added the cheese and I was thinking that we were done. BUT NO! He started to put more fixin's on top of the cheese. It was so fun to see him have so much fun making pizza with me.

A a HUGE benefit, the pizza was remarkably good! Garrett and I told Riley he was our new pizza chef and he got a good giggle about the phrase pizza chef.

Christmas in Tahoe

2012-01-06T15:24:00.000-08:00

We were in Tahoe City from December 26-January 2 and truly enjoyed the relaxation of the week. We celebrated Christmas with Garrett's whole family (uncles, aunts included), played disc golf, visited Squaw while taking the tram all the way to the top to have lunch at the top of the mountain, played games, ate alot of good food, and completely relaxed.

Our friends Mike, Apryl, and their daughter Cienna came up to visit for the weekend of New Years. Cienna is 1 week older than Riley so it is really fun to see Riley playing with someone his own age. It was funny to all of us because when they came to the door Cienna had 2 Barbie Dolls in her hands and Riley had an arm full of trucks/cars. They are truly 100% girl and 100% boy and yet still were curious about and wanted to play with each other's toys. It was fascinating to watch their interactions over the course of the weekend.

The pictures below are of Riley and Cienna saying "Hi Mom" into the karaoke microphone. It was funny because without being prompted that was all they said into the mic for probably 20 minutes!

Mike and Apryl, we are SO glad that you guys were able to make it up for New Years!

Christmas Morning Brunch

2012-01-06T15:18:00.000-08:00

We hosted our 3rd annual Christmas morning brunch this year. I had grand ideas of a coordinated theme that I would have labels for all the food and cute invitations, etc. Then reality hit that I work full time, have a 2 1/2 year old, and it is Christmas time (which just seems to amplify my to-do lists not getting done).

So, on Christmas Eve after the festivities, Garrett helped me put together some of the food for the next morning. This prep really helped make Christmas morning easier in the kitchen.

The menu included:

egg and bacon cups

fresh corn quiche

cheese quiche

french toast casserole (courtesy of Jan)

fresh fruit salad (courtesy of Sally)

cranberry bliss bars that my mom homemade

chocolate covered peppermint pretzels

hot chocolate

hot apple cider

coffee

It was very relaxing and we all just sat around eating and chatting.

We (Garrett and Kelli) had opened presents with Riley earlier that morning so everyone also got private play time with Riley and the new toys as he came up to each person and asked if they wanted to play with him in his room. It was very cute!

my mom turned 60 in December!!

2012-01-06T14:28:00.000-08:00

My mom is a wonderful outstanding spectacular mom so we couldn't just let her 60th birthday go by without doing something for her.

So, I got on Pinterest then chatted with a friend about doing a special gift for my mom. We ended up with "60 years of memories". I emailed, called, facebooked, and wrote to any and all of my mom's friends that I could and asked them to send their favorite memory of my mom. The response was amazing (thank you to all of you who added your memories to this)! We got letters, postcards, memories, Sally quotes, and poems. I put them all in airmail envelopes individually so that we had 60 envelopes for her to open. Jan (my MIL) had this cool vintagey box that we were able to use and the envelopes fit perfectly!

As my dad and I talked about this gift in the days leading up to the big day, he mentioned "she's definately going to need kleenex for this gift". So, the yellow gift bag contained a brand new box of tissue. She opened that first and the look she gave me said that it crossed her mind that I had completely lost it and was wrapping up kleenex as a birthday gift!!!

Here is the decorated dining room. She wasn't allowed out of her room until we were done decorating. Riley was hanging out with her for a bit but once he found out that Grandpa and I were playing with balloons, Grammy was forgotten in favor of kicking balloons all around the house. It actually helped us decorate in a "random" pattern!

So we had this fantastic meal that was all of my mom's favorite foods (and she wasn't allowed to help prepare any of them), then we settled in for the real deal.... the lemon meringue pie. Anyone who knows my mom well knows that she always gets lemon meringue pie on her birthday and it is her absolute favorite! My dad usually buys an extra pie or 2 just for her to eat the next week or so!

(In this picture it looks as though Casey is trying to help blow the candles out!)

Then it was GIFT TIME!!

She had more gifts than just the box but I only got pictures of the box.

To say it lightly- she was SO surprised and overwhelmed by the gift of 60 memories from family and friends.

The memories made her laugh....

... and tear up (cue tissue box)

We all had a great time listening to some of the memories as she delved into the first few. Brad had been able to fly in that evening for her birthday (and Christmas) which was an extra bonus for the night. Also in attendance were Casey, Greg, Jan & Randy, Garrett, Riley, my dad, and myself .

She told me the next day that she was up very late that night reading each memory, remembering that time, praying for the person, and cherishing dear friends near and far.

a HUGE thank you to all of you who participated in making this gift happen. Thank you for loving my mom and for telling her while you can.

Happy Birthday to the best mom on the planet!

Master bath is finished!

2012-01-04T18:53:00.000-08:00

So we have been busy with remodeling our master bathroom for the last few months. Remodeling isn't even the right word since it didn't even exist before this construction. Basically we have converted an old yucky storage room into a brand new bathroom. We did some (in our heads) pretty cool stuff since this will be OUR bathroom!

The picture below is the "before/in the middle of construction" phase.

Here is the finished product!

We decided to have the shower ceiling extend all the way to the roof so that it gave a bigger-than-life look/feel to the shower. The floor is a dark pebble so that there is no chance of slipping. We also wanted a BIG shower with 2 shower heads so that everyone could shower in peace.... and at times there will be room for the whole family!

The ceiling is one large piece of glass that reflects light from a skylight above it. We also have some LED lights above so that we can turn on lights even when the sun is down. There is then sky blue tiles that seperate the glass ceiling from the actual tile of the shower.

Advent Calendar- December 8th

2011-12-09T14:05:00.000-08:00

Last night our Advent Calendar gift was a picture that Riley could color with markers provided. (very cool for the $1 bin at Target!). He thought it was so cool and wanted to color with Garrett. As you can see, coloring in the lines isn't a mastered skill yet.... but having fun certainly is!

Advent Calendar

2011-12-08T16:23:00.001-08:00

The tradition of the Advent Calendar has been a long standing one in both Garrett's and my families. A few years ago Garrett's mom gave us a handmade beautiful Advent Calendar for Christmas. Instead of just moving something from one day to the next, our Advent Calendar is full of activities and fun. This year I mixed up holiday activities (ie: stringing popcorn for the tree, attending the christmas tree lighting, making holiday treats for neighbors, looking at christmas lights around the area..... ) and Riley getting to "pick a present". The presents he gets to pick from are all new books for us to read at night. Below are pictures from 2 different nights when Riley picked a present. One was the collection of Richard Scary's best stories and one was the Jesus Storybook Bible.

So far this year, it has been so fun. One the night that the activity was stringing popcorn, we popped popcorn then sat around drinking apple cider while stringing the popcorn. Riley kept saying " this is so fun!" while eating handfuls of popcorn and getting to pick where the strung popcorn was placed on the tree.

More Advent Calendar adventures to be blogged about soon!

Riley and I spent the afternoon doing this

2011-12-08T15:40:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-28T11:21:00.000-08:00

My mom's side of the family all gathered for Thanksgiving this year at my Uncle and Aunt's house in Salinas. We arrived on Thursday early afternoon to a house void of the smell of cooking turkey. There were no dishes in the sink nor anything cooking on the stove. Everyone was asking "what are we doing for food?". While waiting around, we started to entertain ourselves with hitting golf balls over my uncle's back fence into the open space. Riley truly enjoyed this!

We also took a family picture for my parent's Christmas Card (see below). It was SO fun to have Brad (far left) back with us from Seattle!

About an hour after everyone arrived, a party/limo bus pulls up in front of the house and my Uncle tells everyone to get on. The bus nearly hummed with excitement as we all climbed aboard and the bus took off... for where? Noone knew.

The bus took us into Monterey and to a restuarant called Jack's, inside the Portola Hotel. We had a private room with a full meal prepared just for our family (almost everything was gluten free). My Aunt is a nutritionist and the Executive Chef at Jack's has been a client of hers for 20+ years. It was a such a treat to have such delicious food and fun environment! After dinner, we retired to a portion of the hotel bar (which was reserved for us) and had dessert while watching the 1st half of the football game. The bus then took us home at halftime so that we could catch the end of the game from the comfort of my Uncle and Aunt's home.

The entire evening was truly delightful!!
Thank you Uncle Bill and Aunt Dana for such a fun and surprising Thanksgiving!!

Christmas Tree and Stockings

2011-11-28T10:23:00.000-08:00

Three years ago, we started our family tradition of cutting down our own Christmas Tree. There is a great tree lot about 20 minutes from our house which allows us to pick our own and cut it down. On Saturday after Thanksgiving, we went to the tree lot and searched for our tree. This year Riley was really able to get into it and helped pick out our tree. Below shows Garrett (with Riley's supervision!) securing the tree to the top of our truck.

Here are 2 pics of Riley in front of the tree lot.

My grandma has hand knit stockings for all my family members- including Garrett when we got married. At Thanksgiving she gave me the finished stocking for Riley. We opened it and hung it on the mantle next to Garrett's and mine. Riley was thrilled that he had a stocking, although I'm pretty sure he has no memory of what they are for!

All three stockings hanging together

Happy Christmas Tree Hunting to everyone!

Laundry room and powder bath are done!

2011-11-21T13:00:00.000-08:00

Here is the building of our laundry room and powder bathroom. The first pictures are of us building the raised floor (we raised the 2 rooms to be the same level as the kitchen), then framing in of the walls and electrical/plumbing, then the drywall.

and the finished product!

And now the powder bath....

drywall phase

finished product!

Halloween in Tahoe- #2

2011-11-04T12:03:00.000-07:00

Lake Tahoe

Beautiful Lake Tahoe..... we love coming up to see you in the fall. With the sun shining down and the chilly mountain air, it is perfect for everyone.

As I mentioned in a previous post, we made our 3rd annual trip to Tahoe on Halloween weekend this year. We had a great group of people come with us- my parents, Garrett's parents and grandma (mimi), Mike & Sarah Stone (with their 2 sons Max and Austin) and Peter & Julie Avery (with their daughter Gracie).

Max and Riley are the same age and got to playing the moment their pulled into the driveway... and didn't stop the entire time we were there. They played outside, rode their bikes, kicked a ball, hiked up and down the stairs to the lake, threw rocks and pinecones into the lake, hit golf balls into the lake, built things with Legos, played with trucks & cars, watched the movie "Cars", . got dirty, and ran around with Saity. What more could two 2 year old boys ask for????

The Hug...

The Tackle...

The Ground....

After seeing these boys play together it was clear that they may be future football teammates. Max will be the lineman and Riley will be the running back!

Below are Riley's 2 grandpas watching them play

Saity was not far behind Riley and Max whenever they were outside. I can already tell that Riley and Saity will have many adventures together!

Just an adorable picture of Riley

One night, we all walked into downtown Tahoe City and enjoyed some drinks around the outdoor firepit at a local restaurant. My mom and Jan were silly during the following photoshoot!

Here is a picture of the whole group!!

Baby Gracie

Riley in his bear costume

Max and Riley in their costumes exploring the outdoors

We love Tahoe in the fall. Here's to next year's Halloween trip!

Trick or Treat

2011-11-04T12:00:00.000-07:00

This year we realized that our neighborhood (well, one street over from us) is the IT place to trick-or-treat. So, Riley, Garrett, Saity, and I set out to trick or treat to a few houses but ended up doing an entire street (along with what felt like half of Pleasant Hill's residents)

Here is Riley checking out all his loot after returning home. Whenever he wants some of his candy he asks "candy please" then immediately follows his question with the comment "of course I can" . It cracks us up everytime!

Lake Tahoe- #1

2011-11-02T14:12:00.000-07:00

I'm going to have to do mulitple posts about our trip to Tahoe last weekend. We had SO much fun and really did not do much at all besides relax but still have tons of photos to sift through.

For the past 3 years, we have made a tradition out of spending Halloween weekend in Tahoe City. It is relaxing for many reasons including the fact that not many people go to Tahoe on Halloween. This year we invited a group of friends up that all had young kids too. It was nice to have everyone in the same boat of nap times and bed times.

The pictures below are from our "hitting golf balls off the dock" adventure. It started off with Garrett hitting from balls and then everyone wanted to hit balls.... even Riley and Max (our friend's son the same age as Riley).

Below is Riley and Max in Lake Tahoe (after taking off their costumes.) Riley was a bear(more pics of that to come) and Max was a fireman.
Here is the view of the dock from the beach where my mom was playing in the water with Riley and Max.

Garrett mid-swing hitting the first ball off the dock.

Garrett helping Riley get all set up to hit....

then actually hitting the ball.

It was a very fun adventure in the middle of the day.

As I said before, many more pictures and posts to come about the weekend.

chocolate cake

2011-10-21T14:16:00.000-07:00

Riley mentioned chocolate cake randomly the other day.... so of course I wanted some too! We made chocolate cake from scratch along with my FAVORITE chocolate frosting (it has coffee in it too!). Riley loved helping along the whole process and of course being the official taste-tester!

Riley and monkey in a box

2011-10-06T12:29:00.000-07:00

this is the adorable scene I walked around the corner to find this morning.

I love this little boy so much

the making of potstickers

2011-09-25T17:00:00.000-07:00

Last week we made potstickers from a recipe we got from a friend and realized that homemade potstickers aren't that difficult to make.

Below is the mixture that goes inside the doup wrap (gyoza). It is a combination of chicken, water chestnuts, celery, garlic, and spices. The top picture is the uncooked yet wrapped potstickers.

Riley wanted to be involved so he "helped" Garrett put the inner mixture into the wraps. And by help, I mean drink his juice and tear about as many wraps as he could reach!

Dinner is served!! We ate our potstickers with some chicken fried rice. YUMMY!

grilled cheese and tomato soup

2011-09-25T12:49:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was 100 degrees. Today it rained. I don't understand the weather.

BUT.... I do know that on rainy days nothing tastes better than grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup! So, I introduced Riley to this important American staple of a meal. And he LOVED it!

mmm mmmm.... tomato soup!!

As Riley would say, " delicious and nutritious!"

Jesus Loves Me

2011-09-25T11:00:00.000-07:00

1 outfit, 2 generations

2011-09-24T13:30:00.000-07:00

This outfit was handmade by Garrett's grandma- Mimi- for Garrett when he was about 2 years old. In Garrett's parent's house there is a big picture of little Garrett wearing this same outfit.

Now, 28 years later. here is a picture of Riley wearing the outfit. "Who wears short shorts"! Thank goodness we tried this outfit on now because I don't think it will fit much longer.

An afternoon at Lake Merritt

2011-09-24T10:00:00.000-07:00

Last weekend a group of us met for an afternoon at Lake Merritt ( a lake in the middle of Oakland). We had picnic blankets, brought food, a soccer ball and frisbee, Saity, and even a ukalale (not sure on spelling for that). We had a great time with family and friends!
Above is the group, trying to stay in the shade.

Below, Riley got to taste his first corndog!! Perfect for a picnic

Below is Garrett and Riley playing with the soccer ball and frisbee

And.... the two cousins taking a nap on the blanket. So much fun for these 2 sweet little boys!

Riley jumping off the diving board!

2011-09-23T15:00:00.000-07:00

the day after the birthday party

2011-09-23T12:56:00.000-07:00

Riley really enjoyed playing with the balloons left over from Aunt Lauren's birthday party the day before. Gotta love the bed head on this little blondie! Since then I have cut his hair back a bit.
Saity-B enjoying watching Riley enjoy the balloons

On the boat

2011-09-12T13:03:00.000-07:00

One of the really fun things we did over Labor Day weekend was to go out on my parent's boat in the Delta. My Uncle Dick, Aunt Ginny, Greg, my parents, Riley, and I cruised around the Delta for a few hours enjoying good music, good weather, good food, and good friends/family. We stopped at a floating bar to grab a beer and listen to some karaoke. Below is a picture of Aunt Ginny and Uncle Dick dancing on the dock!! They were so cute and funny!

Since there was so much excitement going on right around Riley's normal naptime, it didn't happen. But later in the afternoon he just crashed out on my shoulder. Not even the music, talking, waves, or engine bothered this sleepy snoring little boy.

I haven't been out on the boat in a few years and this adventure reminded me how much I like being out on boats on a lake. It was a very fun day!

GRN Enterprises

2011-09-09T12:02:00.000-07:00

September has marked the official 2 year anniversary of the start of G.R.N. Enterprises and we are still going strong and , as you can see from the picture, looking good too! Thanks to my friend Rachael we have a new logo (well, since winter/spring) that looks so good and is well integrated into stationary, apparel, documents, and forms. Thanks Rach for making us look so good!!

I am daily reminded of and in awe of how smart Garrett is and what a good job he is doing building a construction company in the worst economic downtown since the Great Depression. Not to say that things have been easy or peachy all the time, but we have both grown as individuals and as a couple with the building of GRN Enterprises. We have been blessed with consistent work and have even just hired on 2 more guys so that we can get more jobs done at once and still have Garrett be able to prospect for new jobs continually. It has worked out very well so far. It is my prayer that we continue to provide excellent construction and excellent customer service so that all our clients may see our faith by our actions. For those of you who pray, we would appreciate you joining us in that prayer. Thank you to all of you who have been supportive of our family as we continue along this road and as we figure out the road step-by-step.

People that I LOVE

2011-09-09T11:45:00.000-07:00

My Aunt Ginny and Uncle Dick came to visit in California for the past week or so. They are founders of Zoe Ministries, which my mom is really involved in, so they usually come once a year to meet with people in CA and hang out for a bit. As is usual, I tend to get a little time with them too! On Labor Day, my parents, Greg, Uncle Dick, Aunt Ginny, Riley and I went out on our boat. We had such a blast listening to loud music, floating in the water, racing through the Delta, and catching up. On Wednesday Chanda's also came to have dinner at our house one night so they could see Garrett too. Then finally I got time just with Aunt Ginny (who baptized me almost exactly a year ago). These two people are SO special to me and I love them more than I can explain.

They are the people that I would fly from college to go visit for the weekend in Colorado. They are the ones who I flew from Germany to Spain to see. They are the people that married Garrett and I. They are the only people that I have asked some hard questions to, come to when my life is falling apart, learned from just by watching how they live, and sat at the feet of to learn more about Christ and the Holy Spirit. I cannot say enough wonderful things about my Uncle Dick and Aunt Ginny. It was SO wonderful to see them!

making reading fun!

2011-09-07T15:10:00.000-07:00

I found this website today and was so inspired to create fun traditions and memories with Riley involving reading/books. Hopes this helps to inspire new memories in your own families!
http://www.babycenter.com/0_fun-activities-for-pre-readers_64472.bc?scid=mbtw_post26m_3w:1224&pe=MlV3ZEVScXwyMDExMDkwNg..

Saity- B

2011-09-06T13:22:00.000-07:00

Our puppy Saity- B (pronounced Sadie) has been with us for 7 weeks now and my how she has grown! She came home with us when she was 23 lbs and as of today she is 50 lbs. She eats ALOT and... well lets just say that I spend a good part of the day picking up after her! But we love her and she has also come so far in training. She is a great learner and wants to be with us wherever we are. She does still think of herself as a lap dog, which is quite humorous and so sweet. I realized how big she was getting today when I was helping her into the back of the car to go to the vet and her head hit mine and almost knocked me out (she of course wasn't phased in the least!).

She is such a great dog and we are so blessed to have her as part of our family.

Riley takes on the pool

2011-09-06T13:02:00.000-07:00

Riley started swim lessons this summer and has had such a great time. He truly loves the water and has grown much more comfortable and much more skilled in the water through his lessons- due in big part to his great teacher Desiree. We are going to continue swim lessons for a while until he can at least swim to the side in case he falls in (or jumps in without anyone around). Here are some pictures of the fun he has had this summer!

He even went off the diving board multiple times with Desiree!

Practicing his "scoopers" (paddling with his hands)

and his "kickers" ( kicking with his legs)

4 years later....

2011-09-02T15:00:00.000-07:00

we have built a backhouse, started a company, firmly established a life in Pleasant Hill, weathered some horrendously difficult struggles, got pregnant, Riley McDaniel Nahas came onto the scene, dealt with career choices/difficulties, had people living on our property the whole time we have been married (except for 1 month), moved to the front house, starting remodeling rooms in the front house, Bula went missing, celebrated birthdays , Bryce/Lauren/Cole moved into the backhouse, got a St Bernard puppy,

and are still in love!

Happy Anniversary sweet Garrett!

4 years ago.....

2011-09-02T09:00:00.000-07:00

....we had pre-wedding jitters, were dealing with last minute issues, were surrounded by LOTS (350-ish) of family and friends, were in Salinas, and felt like our lives had been taken over by the wedding.

... we were pouring salt, promising alot of things to each other, and giving rings.

...we were dancing, toasting, laughing, talking, smiling until it hurt, and enjoying every moment.

... we were newlyweds with our whole marriage ahead of us and absolutely no real life experience in that area. We were excited about our honeymoon but also about getting back to our daily lives but as husband & wife instead of just boyfriend & girlfriend.

... we were exiting our reception by running away into the night holding hands.

.... for the first time, we were Mr & Mrs Garrett and Kelli Nahas

Garrett, I have been in love with you since I was in 6th grade and I am still madly in love with you today. My respect for you as grown deeper and deeper as time has marched on. I watch you handle life, I watch you be a dad, I watch you start,build, and grow your own business, I watch you interact with your friends, I watch you care for me even when I am not being the sweet doe-eyed girl you married.... and I can't imagine life without you. We make a great team- one is the calm one when the other is, well lets just say, not as calm. Thank you for being you.

Riley McDaniel Nahas at breakfast

2011-08-31T11:37:00.000-07:00

Oh, the funny things Riley does

2011-08-28T14:12:00.000-07:00

My little boy isn't all grown up yet but it definately feels like he is getting older and older so much faster than when we counted his age in months. He is learning and changing right before my eyes. So, before that goes any more and I turn around from doing the dishes and he is a teenager or getting married or something, I want to record some of the funny and adorable things he has been doing lately.

1- His molars are coming in and he loves to show his teeth off. Below are 2 funny face pictures where you can actually see his bottom molars.

2- Riley has become a huge fan of hats. Jammy (Garrett's mom) gave this doggie hat to Riley last year and he could have cared less about it at the time. Recently he re-discovered it in a basket of toys (that he dumped out all over the place) and LOVES it! He will come around the corner wearing the hat or he will come to me and say "mama, I need my hat" (more on the "I need...." later). This is not the only hat he is enthralled with but the only one I have a picture of. He also loves his swim hat which covers his neck and his fashionable cap from Old Navy.

3- He has started to say "I need __" whenever he wants something. For example, "I need a hug", " I need water", "I need a cookie", " I need sleep", " I need a popsicle" etc

4- I love when Riley wakes up these days. Not because I am thrilled to jump out of bed and stop sleeping myself but because of what I hear coming out of his room. Lately this is what we have heard- " Mama, Dada, where are you? I'm in here " or "I'm awake" or "Hello out there"

5- Recently a whole new set of noises have come out of his mouth. He has started to make this growl as a funny sound. He doesn't growl as an upset noise but more as his effort of trying to make us laugh. He also has been making baby noises- Gaga, Gaga- being his more common. And when Cole is around he will just yell "Da" because that is the main noise/sound that Cole makes.

6- Car rides with Cole are always so much more fun. They can see each other in their carseats and usually spend the whole car ride smiling and giggling at each other. Riley will look at Cole and say "Da" which Cole will reply to with "Da". I asked him what Cole was saying once and Riley pauses then says (as if it is totally obvious) "he's saying Cole". It was so funny.

7-Yesterday Riley and I spent alot of time in the front yard. I was pulling weeds and trimming our flower bushes while Riley was helping water our pots or just running around. All of a sudden our neighbors' sprinklers come on and Riley takes of running through the sprinklers. He ran back and forth through them until he was utterly soaked then just stood under them dancing around and hilariously laughing while saying "I'm dancing in the rain Mama"

8- Riley and I have a secret hideout ( under the kitchen table). We hang out in there after meals or when Riley specifically invites me (which I LOVE!).

9- Riley is a dancing pheen. He will dance to any music, anywhere, any time. He danced for over 30 minutes by himself right in front of the band at a Hootenanny party that we went to a few months ago. He will come into a room a say "Mama, put on music please?" Then we dance to music in living room for as long as possible.

10- the other day Riley and I were in the car driving home and I was singing (without music- stupid stupid me) and suddenly he yells "Mama no! Be nice" it was so funny that I had to stop and laugh out loud! Noone has ever been so brutally honest about my singing!

11- We have been dog sitting 2 different dogs for the past 2 weeks (1 each week) so we have a plethora of dog poop scattered around the yard on a daily basis. Because we have 2 little boys wandering around the yard also, I have been doing at least a once a day poop cleanup. Riley has become my poop spotter. He walks around with me and points out poop I don't see or if he is playing and sees some, he stops everything and points at it while saying " Mama!! Poop Right Here!"

12- Riley is taking swim lessons!! We are just finishing up our 1st session (3 weeks) of swim lessons for Riley. The first lesson he cried the entire time but since then he has loved the lessons. He already loved water which was one of the biggest reasons we put him into lessons because on a few occasions he jumped in without alerting anyone that he was getting into the water. Thankfully both times one of us was right there already in the pool but it still scared up WAY more than it scared him. Now he is learning how to use his "scoopers-hands paddleing", "kickers- feet kicking", "balloon cheeks- mouth closed whole holding his breath", and the safe spot- holding on to the edge of a pool". Plus he LOVES Desiree, his swim teacher.

13- I looked at Riley the other day and , like so many millions of times before, I said " I love you Riley". He immediately said back " I love you mama" (which was the first time he has said that without being prompted.) It warmed my heart!

14- A few weeks ago, I felt a bit sick after work on day so Garrett and Riley got their own dinner and I laid on the couch. Riley continued to come over and check on me. I asked him to "eat more rice for Mama"- meaning that I wanted him to eat more rice- but instead he went over to the table, got a big spoonful of rice and brought it to me with a huge smile. "Rice for mama!". Then a bit later he wanders into the kitchen (I'm still on the couch) and comes back with a cup with some water in it. He has a HUGE grin as he hands me the cup and says "water for mama". He had gone into the kitchen, found a cup that he could reach, then tried to fill it with water from the dispenser on our fridge (although more water ended up on the floor than in the cup). The sweetest thing about it was that it was all HIS idea. He has become so thoughtful!

the adventures of Riley and Cole

2011-08-28T13:42:00.000-07:00

Cole is Riley's cousin. He lives in our backhouse with his parents (Garrett's brother Bryce and his wife Lauren). He is almost exactly 1 year younger than Riley. They have SO much fun together!

On a normal day in the Nahas compound, you'll find Riley and Cole tromping around the yard, playing with toys, spraying Saity with the hose, or digging with sticks... while Lauren and Kelli enjoy a cup of coffee (hot or cold) and chat.

Last week we took the boys to Lake Temescal- a regional park in Berkeley that has a lake at it too. The boys got to swing on swings, look at the lake, and have a picnic on the grass. The picture above is Riley holding Cole's hand and helping him walk through the grass back to our picnic. Below are the boys swinging. We had so much fun and definately plan to return and actually swim in the lake next time.

Then there are the wagon adventures.

We got this wagon from some friends of ours when they moved and since that day these two boys have been enthralled with it. It has taken the boys to the farmer's market, provided hours of fun climbing in and out of it in the yard, gone to Safeway, and been towed around the yard when all else fails.

Looking forward to many more adventures as these cousins grow up sharing a yard and becoming great friends!

Riley likes honey!

2011-07-20T09:42:00.000-07:00

new addition to the family

2011-07-19T11:33:00.000-07:00

Please welcome our new puppy!

Her name is Saity-B (pronouced Sadie).

The strange spelling is due to her name coming from her breed- Saint Bernard

(just without the "n" in Saint, or the rest of the word Bernard)

She is 10 weeks old and weighs in at 23.9 lbs. She is a big puppy and will be a BIG dog.

Flowers

2011-07-12T15:46:00.000-07:00

I love fresh flowers. When I was younger I always said that I would ALWAYS have fresh flowers in my house. I have tried to keep that true because fresh flowers have a way of brightening even the worst day and making a great day even sweeter.

Here are the flowers that currently are in my house. Above and Below are from my mom's garden. I adore Gardenia because of the wonderful smell they give off. These were actually my choice flowers for my bridal bouquet. Below are Hydrangia's which I have recently begun to truly view as beautiful.
The flowers below are from my garden- a little splash of wildflower colors (including rose, dahlia, and white and yellow daisy)

Now go get some fresh flowers in your house and see the house brighten!

R I L E Y

2011-07-08T12:30:00.000-07:00

Garrett spelled Riley's name with the hose yesterday. Riley thought it was awesome! Here is Riley dotting the i

haircut

2011-07-06T17:44:00.000-07:00

I decided it was time to get a big-girl's haircut instead of the dull hanging hairdo I've been sporting recently. So.... here you go.

Cachagua

2011-07-06T17:05:00.000-07:00

This past weekend for the 4th of July, we went to Cachagua- my family's cabin in Carmel Valley. It was absolutely wonderful! It truly is my favorite place in the ENTIRE world and I'm thrilled to death that Riley enjoys it immensely too!

Here are a few pictures from the weekend..... with more to follow as soon as I get them from the respective photographers.

Above: Riley's yellow bucket bath

Below: Riley and Grammy cooling off after their long hot drive home from Cachagua

Riley batting at the county fair

2011-07-01T13:42:00.000-07:00

We went to the county fair last week and had a great time. Riley wanted to play this game so he took his turn up at bat. He was so funny and actually pretty good!

Iced Mochas

2011-07-01T13:31:00.000-07:00

This morning Garrett's brother Bryce (who nows lives in our backhouse with his wife Lauren and son Cole!) made us Iced Mochas as we sat in the backyard. Riley thought it was so cool and wanted one too to Bryce made Riley one too (basically iced chocolate milk for Ri Ri). Riley was so cute carrying it around saying "iced mocha" with a BIG grin on his face.

Here are the iced mocha boys!

Train Track

2011-06-27T13:40:00.000-07:00

Riley and I spent some time on Sunday at my parent's house just the 2 of us. We enjoyed popsicles together outside and then built an AWESOME train track inside. Riley truly loved helping build the track and then pushing his trains along it. It was such a fun thing to have Mama/Riley time.

This week in Riley's world

2011-06-24T09:20:00.000-07:00

this morning I came around the corner to see Riley on the couch reading to George the monkey. It was so darn cute!

Last night I had dinner with some girl friends so Garrett took Riley to the county faire. Riley had a blast and has been talking all morning about the cars that went "round and round" (it was a kiddy ride that Riley went on and only liked AFTER he got off!)
Garrett did send me this picture of Riley super excited about getting to have a doughnut at the faire. I agree that they truly taste better at the faire!

PS: Thanks Jess for the great jacket that kept Riley warm at the faire!

Riley's birthday party- 2 years old!

2011-06-22T09:00:00.000-07:00

We held Riley's 2nd birthday party on father's day (the weekend after his actual birthday). It was a great excuse to have all our family together plus it worked with our schedules (and the U2 concert)!

We had such a great time. Along with our local family, we also had some great friends who came by to wish the birthday boy "Happy Birthday". Riley loved having so many people over and getting to open presents throughout the day. He was able to open a gift then play with it right away instead of having to open them all at once. It helped to spread out all the fun for him!

Below is a gift he got from our friends the Hadnots. It is a big beach ball that becomes a sprinkler. Not only did we have a blast with that all day at the party but Riley now wants to run through it whenever he goes outside! Can you see the pure glee on his face when Garrett turned the water on!

Riley's BIG present from Garrett and I was a bike!! We got him a Strider bike which is a balance bike. There are no pedals or anything and it is super low to the ground. The point being that he learns to balance without having to use training wheels. Once he learns to balance he will be able to transition to a "real" bike much easier. He was SO excited when he opened the gift. So far he has been loving just walking the bike around!!
"Happy Birthday to you.... Happy Birthday to you.... Happy Birthday to Riley..... Happy Birthday to you!"

Riley got to choose what kind of cake he wanted. He picked an ice cream cake with chocolate cake and chocolate chip ice cream (I'm not joking!) I asked him questions and he decided everything -even the menu for the party (kinda). Here he is with his ice cream birthday cake, plus double fisting it with a popsicle in the other hand. My boy loves his frozen treats!!

His first bite of cake didn't quite fit in his mouth!

I made a birthday boy crown for Riley that had his name on it. I thought it was really cool but he wasn't such a fan of wearing it. Luckily he was patient enough to let me get a picture of him with it on.

By now, you are probably tired of reading my thoughts, so I'll just let you see pictures that visually show you how the afternoon was spent.

What a fun way to spend a hot Sunday.... surrounded by family and friends eating food, drinking cold beer and soda (apple juice for birthday boy), devouring popsicles, and celebrating a wonderful little boy!

Riley's 2nd birthday

2011-06-21T10:30:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that 2 years have flown by so quickly. Now I get it when mom's can literally re-play in their heads what happened on the day their children were born. All day on Riley's birthday I was thinking about what I was doing at that time 2 years earlier. Before I had been given the blessing of having this little boy in my life. Before I had ever heard the sweetest little voice say "mama". Before I had ever been able to soothe an infant, change so many diapers, or even knew how to buckle a carseat. Before the living room dance parties, the plethora of truck books, the house strewn with cheerios and raisins, the giraffe lovey that goes everywhere, the "melt your heart" hugs and kisses that come from a little boy to his mama. Before bathtimes and naptimes and bedtimes. Before I knew what "WordWorld" and "Dirt Monsters" and "Thomas the Train" were. Before I knew what it felt like to literally love someone so much that you would die in their place and not even think twice.

Now I get to live in the "after". Now I get to have sweet moments of hugs accompanied by tough moments of training up a little boy to become a gentlman. And I love every second of it.

Here is how our little birthday boy spent his actual birthday

With California weather finally catching on that it is June, we have been hit with some pretty hot weather lately. So status quo around our house is a naked boy running around playing in and out of his pool filled with ice cold hose water (sometimes there is a popsicle in the chubby little hand too!) . In his mind, life doesn't get any better!

Here is our family dinner to celebrate. Riley got to pick out which vegetable he wanted to eat on his birthday (and it actually worked in the fact that he ate it!)

Below he is telling you how old he is. Totally on his own, he started to hold up 1 finger on each hand when asked how old he was going to be. I find it uncontrollably adorable!

The birthday cake on his real birthday was a large Sally Cookie with a brownie on top (his choice).

Below is Riley again showing you his new age with his presents spread out around him. He got some books, a wooden train, and 3 new "Dirt Monsters" movies (garrett and i were getting really old of the one we have- we needed a new one more than Riley did!)

Riley,

it has been an absolute honor to spend almost every day with you over the course of the last 2 years. I remember the day I went into labor, the day we brought you home, the wonderful smell of a newborn, the day I had to go back to work, the first night you spent away from us, the first time you came running at me squeling with delight when I picked you up after work, the first time you said mama, your 1st birthday party, the first time I took you on an airplane flight by ourselves, and the look on your face when you took your first steps. Each of these moments (along with a billion other ones) are my treasured memories.

Happy 2nd Birthday little man!

Garrett's 30th birthday- part 2

2011-06-20T12:49:00.000-07:00

Here is a visual representation of how the weekend was spent. Enjoy!

Happy 30th Birthday my sweet Garrett!

Garrett's 30th birthday- part 1

2011-06-20T12:22:00.000-07:00

On June 3, my husband officially crossed the line into his 30’s… a new era of age. I wanted to be sure that he knew this was a HUGE deal and not one that I was taking lightly.
So, we rounded up a group of family and friends and headed up to Tahoe for a weekend. All 30 of us stayed at the Nahas family house in Tahoe City relaxing, catching up, playing, and eating really good food. The weather was quite strange and it felt like the beginning of winter. It rained at the house most of the weekend and there was snow on all the mountains around. Actually, when Garrett, Brad, Colby, and Riley drove up the day before me, they literally drove through a snowstorm getting up the mountain! Crazy times!

There were too many good pictures that I wanted to share with the blogworld, so I had to split up the pictures into 2 different posts.

In this post- #1- I'm showing you some of the funny adventures that happened while up in Tahoe.

The first was the Polar Bear Club outing that took place one of the first mornings (actually the morning after the night everyone stayed up the latest hanging out). It consisted of a few of the guys- who had the night before in the middle of beers decided to "one up" each other by saying that they would jump into Lake Tahoe the next morning. Well... come the next morning, the boys (followed by a few of us ladies that just wanted to witness this "manlyness"(!)) walked down to the lake. The following pictures tell the rest of the story.

Boys will be boys.... and it sure is funny to watch sometimes!

#2 adventure was Riley learning how to pitch a baseball from Garrett. For those of you whom don't know, Garrett was quite the pitcher in Little League baseball. Total sidenote, I met a guy in downtown Danville one night who, when I mentioned that I had arrived with Garrett, proceeded to tell me that he hated Garrett because when they were younger this guy could never hit any of Garrett's pitches and always struck out. He put his foot in his mouth when I mentioned that I was also married to Garrett. It was truly funny!

On the back porch, during a non-sprinkling moment of the day, Garrett and Brian Abbott taught Riley how to pitch.

Adventure #3... feeding 30 people!

Here are just a few pictures to show the amount of food we had up there for one weekend to feed the entire group.

Crepes for breakfast- we filled up the oven

Bacon- we used every pan we could find

popsicles- they are just yummy!

Ribs-the famous "Bryce Nahas Ribs"

They marinated over night, cooked in the oven for 4 hours, then BBQ'd. Bryce was outside BBQing for 6 hours!! So worth it!

For more Tahoe pics and stories, check out part 2 of our weekend!

U2 concert.... patience

2011-06-18T16:23:00.000-07:00

For Garrett's 29th birthday (last year) I got us tickets to the U2 360 North America Tour. When Bono had emergency back surgery last year they had to postpone the tour. So last year, instead of the concert we went to Disneyland since we already had our flights and everything. This year, we actually got to go to the concert!! U2 is an amazing band and they put on an amazing concert! This picture below doesn't even do justice to how cool of a stage/light show went on during the songs. We had such a great time!!

Riley in roses at Grammy's house

2011-05-24T17:28:00.000-07:00

Springtime at 403 Roberta

2011-05-19T07:30:00.000-07:00

i LOVE the colors of spring

Mother's Day 2011

2011-05-19T07:15:00.000-07:00

Mother's Day this year was spent relaxing with people I love. Garrett, Riley, and I had breakfast together then hung out at the house enjoying a slow morning. Garrett and Riley also began to build my beautiful vegetable garden outside our back door. Early afternoon we went to my parent's house for food and fun. The whole family gathered -minus Brad who is living in Seattle and my cousin Lindsay who had a class that day ( My mom's side of the family usually gather together for Mother's Day because we also celebrate my cousin's bday on May 11, my dad's bday on May 12, and my grandma's bday on May 13.)

My Uncle Bill has a great professional camera and always takes fantastic pictures at family gatherings. Here are some pictures from Mother's Day.

Riley thoroughly enjoyed one of the desserts- long stemmed strawberries dipped in chocolate (which is seen all over his face in this picture and he is featured eating the strawberry at the bottom of this post)

Happy Mother's Day to all you moms and soon-to-be moms who read this!!!

Multi-tasking

2011-05-19T07:13:00.000-07:00

Groupon

2011-05-19T06:56:00.000-07:00

I have recently discovered Groupon. There are actually many websites similiar to this, at least around where we live (Bay Area Perks. Yelp, etc.). Groupon is a free website that you sign up for and then they send you coupons and deals that have to be bought by a certain amount of people before they are "on". For example, the one I got today was I pay $12 for $25 worth of food at a local sushi/hibachi bar. Not bad, right!

Well, the reason I am blogging about this is that I have found this to be a great way to try new things but also gives Garrett and I a good excuse to have a date night. We know that we are saving money while at the same time not just doing the same old thing every time and we get time just the two of us. We have done a Groupon date once before and have a second one in the near future at that local Japanese restaurant which is literally in walking distance from our house.

If you want to check Groupon out and see if it works for you, you can use this referral code (not sure if it will get you a discount of anything): http://www.groupon.com/r/uu22023

Please let me know of any great websites that you adore or have discovered and enjoy.

Have fun and happy lifelong dating!

Easter Giraffe

2011-05-14T18:24:00.000-07:00

For Easter my grandma- who Riley calls Great Jackie- gave Riley a giraffe stuffed animal. At first we thought he may not be totally into it because he already has his 2 lovey giraffes. But when he saw this stuffed animal the morning after Easter he was so thrilled and carried it with him all day. It was so sweet and made me smile to think of him being so attached to something that his Great Jackie gave him!

towel dress

2011-04-24T19:02:00.000-07:00

This is how Riley walked out of the bathroom after his bath with Dada the other night

I HAD to take pictures of Riley literally following Garrett from the bathroom into the bedroom and then watching everything that Garrett did as if memorizing it. So sweet to see my little baby boy turn into a toddler and big boy before my very eyes.

I'm so proud of the boy that Riley is and the sweet, gentle nature he already has about him. My prayer is that he learns to love God with all his heart, mind, soul, and strength every day of his life.

Mexico trip teaser

2011-04-15T11:31:00.000-07:00

More to come!

Miss Bula

2011-04-11T16:58:00.000-07:00

For the last few days, each time Riley sees a picture of Bula or even just thinks of him, he says "miss Bula"

It is SO sad. I miss him too. Garrett misses him terribly.

COME HOME BULA!

Bumps and Bruises photoshoot

2011-04-11T16:50:00.000-07:00

You would never know this was anything other than a normal Riley photoshoot....

except for the large bruise (on forehead) and scrape (by eye) on the right side of Riley's face from an earlier "face meets concrete" incident today.

Still happy enough to show off his teeth and smile away!

Pony Ride

2011-04-11T13:22:00.000-07:00

Our dear friends Mike and Sarah Stone have a sweet little boy named Max who is 2 months older than Riley. On Sunday we attended Max's 2nd birthday party. Part way into the party, the absolute glee of all the little ones (except maybe my little one) , a trailer pulled up with a pony. All the little kids got to ride the pony up and down the street. Once the initial excitement of the pony wore off, Riley was more interested in being in the back yard with all the wagons and cars. We can to make him take a pony ride. Once he was on and going he enjoyed it! We had a great time and also had a good walk to and from the party.

March

2011-04-08T11:55:00.000-07:00

March was an interesting month.

The first half was cold and rainy... very winter-esque. We celebrated the birth of one of my college friends' 2nd child- a baby girl named Anna Kate, we said farewell to my brother Brad who moved up to Seattle for a new job,we headed to a family reunion in Mexico ( more on that trip later), and our beloved dog Bula broke out of the yard during a lighting/thunder storm and has been missing for 3 weeks now. We have tried everything under the sun that we can think of to do in order to find Bula and... nothing yet.

The second half of the month has been warm and very spring/summer-esque. We have thoroughly enjoyed spending days outside and using our deck for dinner or just a beer after work. We celebrated both Garrett's college friend's wedding as well as my birthday in San Luis Obispo, and Riley entered his 21st month of life. Below are some pictures of Riley enjoying the sunshine in the backyard.

These pictures were more from the beginning of the month but I still thought they were cute. The first two are just to show what a fashion model Riley already is. He LOVES his rain boots! He also enjoyed many PJ days when the weather was cold and mama was wishing she could stay in PJ's all day so she lived vicariously through him.

FORT TIME

I came home from work one weekend to find this fort in the living room.

Riley had SO much fun building this fort with his dada and then showing me how to enter and exit. You can see him crawling out of the fort and if you look closely you can see Garrett peeking through between the stroller and the chair.

That was our March in a nutshell!

Kelli's 28th Birthday

2011-04-01T12:49:00.000-07:00

The weekend of my birthday Garrett's friend from college, Jesse, got married in San Luis Obispo. So we decided that we would spend the weekend down there and do some fun things to celebrate my birthday too. On Sunday Garrett and I braved the rain and hit a few wineries for tasting. Below is a picture of the first one we tried. It was a random little spot but we like this type more than the huge stoic buildings for wineries. Also, they had good wine and we got to keep our wine glasses!

Along with wineries we checked out a local pet shop and I fell in love with this 14 week old Great Dane girl. I didn't get her... but I really liked her! We hung out with Jesse and Amy (the bride and groom) a bit, then went to a nice Italian place for dinner before soaking in the Mineral Hot Springs. It was a really nice day.

One my actual birthday we drove home but stopped to see things along the way. One of these things was Hearst Castle. I had never been but heard alot about it. This picture below was a joke but right when we got on the bus our camera died (from batteries) and this ended up being our only picture from the side trip. So, there you have it!

After our stop at Hearst Castle we realized that Highway 1 was closed (because it fell into the ocean with all the rain we had) so we had to backtrack and cross over to another main highway to head north. Along the backtracking we stopped to see this beautiful vista point.... and of course, I wanted a picture! Once we got back into town, we swung by my parent's house to pick up Riley and ended up having bean tacos with my mom for dinner. Riley (with Grammy's help) made this card for me. It is still hanging up in our house for everyone to see

A very good birthday for sure.

Sharing

2011-03-11T09:31:00.000-08:00

Garrett and Riley sharing a smoothie at breakfast... I thought this was so sweet

Lime Ridge Open Space

2011-03-11T09:16:00.000-08:00

Garrett, Riley, Bula, and I went on a hike a few weekends ago because the sun was shining the a new hiking place beckoned us. Riley was in the backpack at first but quickly got tired of that and proceeded to hike the whole way with us. We were very impressed.

As you can see from above, Riley had fun!

As we were walking back to the car, Garrett and I were laughing that it would be funny it Riley tripped into a fresh cow pie. 2 seconds later he did just that. Garrett, being the wonderful dad, rushed to him, picked him up, and started to wipe off the cow poop. Me, being me, rushed to get the camera in order to document this. I wish I was more like Garrett in some ways.
To the right of Riley you can see his skid mark into the cow patty.

A boy + his dog (and other friends) = BUDDIES

2011-03-11T09:03:00.000-08:00

Riley has grown very attached to Bula. One example, every morning he asks for Bula as he is waking up. It is really sweet. Anyway, this was how Riley wanted to play the other night. You could tell he wanted Bula to be involved but since Bula has no thumbs this was the best "playing with Bula" that Riley could do. Bula didn't seem to mind the attention at all!

I love seeing Bula hang out with the kittens. Teets is always trying to curl up with Bula but this is the first picture I was able to take of them cuddling.

Here is Samson chilling by himself by Riley's toys

Mackenzie's Bridal Shower

2011-02-16T07:13:00.000-08:00

Last week I spent the whole week in Dallas Texas preparing for the wedding of my last college roommate- Mackenzie. Pictured above is the Fab 4 (as dubbed by my brother and friends in college since we lived together and were together most of the time). Next to myself is Rachael, then Mackenzie- the bride, then Johanna. Rach, Jo, and I threw a bridal shower for Kenze the Sunday before the wedding. Here is a brief glimpse of the shower...
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above: a pennant banner that read " Mackenzie & Brian"
below: candles and flowers for the decor

above: our drinks
below: the guests favors
** side note: my friend Abby helped me make all of this chocolate the night before I left for Texas. We made mint dark chocolate oreo bark and white chocolate hearts. The bags turned out great and everyone liked the chocolate! Thanks Abby!

below: the candy bar

Happy Bridal Shower Kenze! It was so fun to throw a good party to celebrate you!
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Throughout the process of planning and throwing this bridal shower, we laughed about the different between the first shower we ever threw (which was for Rachael) right out of college. For decorations, we taped pictures of her to the walls. I don't think we had food, a theme, nor anything besides the pictures taped to the wall. What a ways we have come since then!!

Samson and Teets

2011-02-16T06:46:00.000-08:00

We have kitties!!
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When I was gone last week in Texas, Riley and Garrett adopted 2 kittens. I got to see some pictures and a video of them but didn't formerly meet them until Sunday night when I returned home. What sweet kitties they are!! Now, for their formal intro to the blog world:
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Samson is a 5 month old male kitten who has white/grey fur and dark grey feet and tail. His eyes are a crystal blue color and he has tiger stripes on his face. He looks like a snow tiger. He is a very playful kitten and is always messing around with anything he can find. Some favorite toys so far: window blinds cords, extra length of belt from Riley's high chair, a rubberband, and a plastic bag. Meet Samson!

Teets is a 4 month old little lady. She is black all over and has sweet green eyes. She is a very calm kitten and loves to lay on the sheepskin we have on the back of our couch. She is quick to pur and slow to leave your lap. When Samson attacks she holds her own but other than that, she is a very gentle kitten who is totally fine sleeping and laying around. She is named in honor of my grandma whose maiden name was Teets. Meet Teets!

Riley is really excited about the kitties and laughs so hard when they wrestle or when Samson is batting something around.

Garrett with Samson

Riley and Teets

We love our kittens but I can't wait for them to get big enough to hunt rats and mice!

Lucky Girl

2011-02-16T06:42:00.000-08:00

Valentine's Day has never been a huge day in our family. I would prefer dinner out with Garrett or to be shown affection other days of the year than the one that "someone" says we have to get each other red items. This year on Valentine's day we both worked the whole day and then babysat a 1 week old baby girl so that her parents could get a small break by themselves. We then proceeded to Garrett's parent's house where we had a wonderful dinner with my in-laws and my parents. I was so tired from traveling and all of the wedding stuff last week (I'll post about that at another time) that towards the end of the evening all I wanted to do was be home and in my comfy bed. That was a great end to a very nice Valentine's Day.
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As you can see, I did get roses though. I was sweeping the floor in our office and I hear Riley coming in so I looked up. He had this huge smile on his face and was holding a dozen pink roses. He looked so proud of himself as he held them out to me, received a good kiss, and then trotted back to Dada and got a high-five. It was so sweet!! I am a lucky girl with two sweet guys that I live with.
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Happy belated Valentine's Day to you all!

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

2011-01-23T12:27:00.000-08:00

San Francisco Zoo!!

Garrett and I decided that it was time to take Riley to the zoo. He likes to look at pictures of wild animals in books, so why not in real person??? Saturday was our day. We got up early, ate a yummy breakfast at Ann's Sunshine Cafe in Pleasant Hill and headed to SF. It was a delightfully beautiful day and perfect for walking around a zoo.

It was also perfect that the first animal you can see when you get inside the zoo is the giraffes. Riley's lovey is a giraffe so we tried to show him how his lovey was similiar to the animal in front of us. He didn't quite get it- that's ok, here is still time.

This hippo is asleep but right next to the fence so we got to go really close. 3700 pounds!! That is a BIG boy!

Riley really liked the bronze hippo slide next to the actual hippo enclosure

Yes- you are right! This is a bald eagle! I know right? I was totally pshyc'd too!

Here is Riley (in the blue hat) across the glass from a grizzly bear eating.

Pretty freaking awesome, I'll say!

We took a break at the playground so that Riley could run around and be crazy. He and Dada went on the slide and the swings

Lately, Riley has been saying "peacock" when we see on in his book. Well, there happened to be a real one walking about the children's eating area and Riley points and says "peacock". It was so cute

At the end of our day, we went to the family farm petting area of the zoo. We got to pet goats, sheep, donkeys, and see pigs, llamas, alpacas, ducks, and chickens. Riley, of course, was most interested in the tiny tractor and wheelbarrow that were also at the farm. All boy!

Early training for riding real horses!

We also got to see lions, tigers, polar bears, monkeys (including a newborn gorilla), zebras, prairie dogs, brids, kangaroos, a rhino, penguins, an ostrich and many more animals. It was a good day!

backyard fire pit

2011-01-20T14:36:00.000-08:00

Here is what we did last weekend!

We also organized our "storage room" which was so cluttered that you could not even see the floor. Now everything has a bin and is labeled so we actually know what we have. Imagine that!

Bueller? Bueller?

2011-01-11T17:29:00.000-08:00

Does anyone even read my blog? I don't think I've had a single comment in over a year (at least it feels that long... and if anyone takes the time to research and prove me wrong, JUST MAKE A SILLY COMMENT!)

.
By the way, Happy 1-11-11!

Almost 19 months

2011-01-10T23:51:00.000-08:00

Riley's new list

words: bumpy, barn, Riley, dump truck, tractor, garbage truck, fire truck

signs: all done, get down, cooking

misc: he said Mama and knows who Mama is!, he is telling the difference between similiar things (ie: different trucks, different colors, etc), 4 teeth!

Loves of Riley's life

Dada, Mama, Bula, trucks (particularly garbage and fire), giraffe lovey, pushing his dump truck around outside, his red push car, baths (or any sort of water really), Riley's chair , snack bowls, cottage cheese

New Years Eve

2011-01-04T10:35:00.000-08:00

"What are you doing for New Years ?"

I don't know about the rest of you but I had no answer to this question each of the hundreds of times I heard it this year. So, Garrett and I decided to have some people over and at least get to celebrate with people that we liked!

So... out went the evite, texts, and phone calls. In came the RSVP's and it seemed that alot of people didn't have an answer to the above question! The party became bigger than we thought which just made it all the more fun. We had good food, good drinks, good music, and good weather..WAIT- just kidding since it started RAINING!! We packed up the outdoors hangout area, moved the cars into the rain, and moved our table into the carport. Not a bad place to hangout if it hadn't also been ridiculously cold. We had a great time dispite the weather and rang in the New Year with fireworks, noisemakers (amazingly no babies were awoken by these), toasts, and of course KISSES! Here are a few shots from the evening.

Happy New Year's everyone!

Here's to 2011 being even better than 2010.

Tahoe after Christmas

2011-01-04T10:10:00.000-08:00

Garrett, Riley, and I arrived in Tahoe City very early on December 26. Garrett's brother Bryce, his wife Lauren, and their son Cole arrived with Garrett's other brother Trent in the early afternoon. Garrett's parents, grandma, Uncle Steve, and Garrett's 3rd brother Colby all arrived later that evening. We all spent 4 days together at the Nahas family house in Tahoe City. In an effort to not make everyone in Blogland jealous of our time, I won't tell you all about how much we lounged around the house, relaxed, ate, laughed, shopped, played games, built snow caves, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves (oops, the cat is out of the bag now!) , I'll just show you pictures from the trip.

Below you'll see Riley and his cousin Cole hanging out together

Riley was born June 15, 2009 and Cole was born May 28, 2010 , so they are almost exactly a year apart.

Aunt Lauren is more enthralled in the game than Riley or Cole are

Jammy reading to her 2 grandsons

our family inside the snow cave we built/dug out on the back deck of the house. (that is Lake Tahoe in the right of the picture)

The last few years for their gift, Garrett's Uncle Gary and Aunt Jo have taken the whole family out for a nice dinner. Here is our attempt at a group shot during dinner. There wasn't a single picture where you could see everyone! It was such great food and fun to sit around chatting while someone else cooks and cleans up

Here is a taste of the snow we saw one morning. It snowed a foot and a half the night before I took this picture!

Garrett and Riley in the snow cave which now had a completed arch for the doorway

Riley hanging out with his Uncle Colby. Colby attends college in Idaho so we don't get to see him much but Riley loves when he is home!

We had a very relaxing time in Tahoe literally doing nothing!!

Christmas Day!

2011-01-04T09:50:00.000-08:00

Christmas Morning

I got up early to finish last minute things and to get coffee going. I was too excited to wait anymore so around 8am I got Garrett and we woke up Riley (probably the last year that I will wake him up on Christmas morning!) It was so fun to see his sleepy face as we walked out into the living room. He was rubbing his eyes with one fist while dragging his giraffe around with the other hand. His hair was full swing bed head but when he saw the Riley-sized chair in front of the tree (that appeared there over night!) he came to life with a HUGE smile and loud giggle!

Below you can see him playing with all his presents.... a Riley size chair, a bucket of little cars, and a Lego garbage truck. All of them were big hits!

Bula watching all of us act strange on a normal morning in his world.
Riley loves trucks Garrett showed Riley how to use the triangular shaped crayons (supposed to be easier for little hands to grip) that he got in his stocking, by drawing a characature of Riley.
On Christmas Eve, my mom always gives us funny shirts to wear for the next morning (I opted for new PJ pants this year). Below, Garrett and Riley are modeling their funny shirts.

Christmas Brunch

We hosted our 2nd annual Christmas morning brunch at our house for all the McDaniel and Nahas family. It is really fun because there isn't alot of hype to the morning but I love the fact that I get to bake yummy goodies and they don't just sit around my house. Plus, as I told my brothers that morning, I get someone to drink coffee with!! It takes me back to coffee drinking mornings with my roommates.... all we are missing is the real life reality show next door!

Below is the spread of food. We had crepes that morning along with homemade chai tea, cookies, and peppermint and hazelnut chocolate bark
Just a fun picture of Riley with his Umpa and Grandpa
Here is all of my family with our funny shirts on.

Christmas Dinner

After the brunch, we had some down time while Riley took a nap and then we all got dressed up and went to San Mateo to have Christmas dinner with my mom's side of the family. My aunt is Italian so we can always bank on AWESOME food at her house!

my little dude all decked out in his suit for Christmas dinner.
After I got Riley dressed I still had to get dressed. Riley went out into the living room and when I came out to join him this was what I found. Precious!

To end the day, we decided to drive to Tahoe that night. We hurriedly packed and left around 11:30pm. We definately had no traffic but there was tons of snow! More on the Tahoe trip later.

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope your day was as filled with family and love as ours.

Christmas Eve

2011-01-04T09:45:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve was a wonderful and relaxing day.

It started off with me getting some very much need quality(kid-free) time with Jess. We met at her parent's house and took a nice walk in the very chilly morning to Starbucks.What a great time of laughing and talking. I miss having you close by Jess!

Then I met up with Garrett and Riley and we hung out at our house eating some food but not really doing anything but lounge.

As you can see from the picture below, Riley was really in a snuggly mood.... which Garrett and I ALWAYS love!

We went to the 4pm Christmas Eve service at CPC followed by a yummy dinner at my parents house. It was really nice because both our families were there!
Here are some pictures from the evening at my parents.

When we got home, Garrett and I spent time cleaning the house and getting food ready for the brunch we were hosting at our house on Christmas morning.

Such a great Christmas Eve!

Christmas so far this year

2010-12-25T07:21:00.000-08:00

First off... MERRY CHRISTMAS morning!!

As I sit here I am getting more and more excited to see Riley enjoy this Christmas (is it bad to want to wake up your 18 month old on Christmas morning because YOU are too excited?

Here are some pictures thus far in the Christmas season. Hopefully you can tell that the first two pictures are from an Ugly Christmas Sweater Party in downtown Danville. ( If you just thought that Garrett and I would wear these sweaters normally, we may have to rethink being friends with you.) We had such a fun night hanging out and seeing old friends and the sweaters they came up with.

This picture was taken last night at our Christmas Eve party. My brothers were all gathered around Riley and when Brad come over to me this was the picture he had taken. Apparently they were all gathered around giggling because of Riley's bow.... and the fact that this kid is an eating machine! This cracker is after 3 full courses of fondu!!

Merry Christmas to all!!

the slow but steady progression of our backyard

2010-12-21T12:37:00.000-08:00

Above: October 2010

Below: December 2010

Red PJ's and Rain Boots

2010-12-21T12:15:00.000-08:00

This past weekend Garrett, Riley, and I worked in the backyard getting most of the gravel moved into the future paver patio. The yard is looking SO much better... but more on that later.
Riley was wearing red PJ's and his new rain boots and I just thought he looked like a cowboy walking around..... so I had to take tons of pictures!

Dada is helping Riley walk up the muddy incline in order to get to the gravel pile, which Riley sat and stood on top of as Garrett was shoveling it into the wheelbarrow. Then they would stomp back down the decline to dump the gravel in the right spot... where I then spread it around and tried to compact it down as much as I could (lets just say Garrett spent another few hours re-compacting the gravel after Riley and I went inside. I tried!!)

Riley floated around like a social butterfly.... following Garrett, then hanging with me, then pushing his truck off by himself.

Somewhere along the line he managed to run into a bush which gave him this awesome slicked back hairdo. It made Garrett and I laugh so hard to see him come across the grass with his serious face and slicked back hair!

Riley LOVES the wheelbarrow and he tried to push it whenever Garrett put it down. He is getting bigger and stronger but not quite ready to push wheelbarrows around (although, side note. we found a Riley size wheelbarrow at Lowe's the other night and he spent the whole time pushing it around. It was awesome!)

As you can gather from his smile, we had quite a fun morning in the mud, rain, gravel, red PJ's, and rain boots!

Christmas brunch at Roundhill

2010-12-19T15:40:00.000-08:00

Round Hill Country Club has a wonderful Christmas brunch every year complete with elves that tell stories, magic fairies, tap dancing Christmas trees, elves making balloon animals, Santa, and WAY too much food. Last year we attended the brunch for the first time and had a great time. This year Riley was able to understand a bit more about what was going on. He was entertained just by watching all the people with costumes walking around. He was able to sit on Santa's lap (although I think he was thinking "why did my mom put me on this strange man's lap" instead of telling Santa what he wanted for Christmas).
Below is a picture of Riley who was mesmerized by the tap dancing Christmas trees. Riley is the little man in the back standing up in the sweater vest ( He looked ADORABLE!)

Thanks Mom and Dad for taking us again this year!

Grammy and Riley baking gingerbread cookies

2010-12-15T12:26:00.000-08:00

Mirroring Moment

2010-12-03T12:42:00.000-08:00

Does this mean that I am on the phone too much?!!?!?!?

Fall leaves are FUN!

2010-12-03T12:12:00.000-08:00

We have two big trees in our backyard (along with other little ones that we hope to one day grow into BIG trees) which love on us all summer by keeping the yard well shaded.... then continue pouring out the love (ie: leaves) in the fall. This year I decided that I wanted to rake so one afternoon while Riley was playing with his trucks I pulled out the rakes and went at it. Well.... what I was doing seemed like SO much more fun, so Riley joined me. At first his "joining" was in the form of pushing his truck through the piles thus creating this awesome lines of leaves connecting all my clean piles- similar to a network or spiderweb. I thought it was great because, didn't I have a wonderful time playing in piles of leaves when I was little bitty???? Of course!!!

We had a great time raking, playing in, and re-raking the leaves, before I finally put them all into the yard waste garbage can. As I was doing this, Riley watched me for a bit then started to pick up small piles of leaves and put them in the back of his dump truck. It is so cute to see him try to emulate what we do!

For those of you who are more visual, here are some pictures from our afternoon with the leaves.

(if you can't tell by Bula's face, Riley is throwing leaves at him in the picture below)

The next three are in a series. Riley had a great time hitting the leaves and making them fly.

Thanks for all the fun BIG trees!! I know we'll have more fun because you give us tons of leaves EVERY WEEK!

Thanksgiving 2010

2010-11-29T13:07:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving was a week/ weekend full of fun, food, and friends. My grandparents and our good friends from Colorado (Patty and Marissa Ranberger) all joined us for the week and weekend. What a good time we had! Above you see Patty and Marissa with Riley on wednesday night before Thanksgiving. They made a wonderful white wine sangria that tasted SO good!!

Below are some pictures from actual Thanksgiving day. First are the 4 chefs of the night- Patty, Marissa, my mom, and my grandma

4 generations-Riley, Mama Kelli, Great Grandma Jackie, Grammy Sally

Uncle Greg and Riley playing with egg cartons which Riley LOVED... as you can tell by the expression on his face!

We all wrote things that we were thankful for on this big whiteboard. Please pay extra attention to the comment in the middle on the far right handside of the board!!

Here is the original McDaniel family plus the Nahas additions

The following pictures are of Riley playing with LEGOS. Garrett and he would stack them up and then right before Garrett put the last one on the stack, Riley would hit them over! It was really funny and Riley laughed histerically each time

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

The wall comes down

2010-11-29T13:01:00.000-08:00

We took down our kitchen wall the weekend before Thanksgiving!! You can see where the wall used to be by looking at the flooring- there is only sub-flooring left where the wall previously stood. It already has opened up the whole house more and leaves us craving to see the whole house redone. Soon Kelli... soon.

Garrett and Riley are showing off the new openness!

17 month stats

2010-11-17T20:30:00.000-08:00

Our little man is growing out of his baby fat and taller each day

As of November 15, 2011

weight: 23 lbs 6.8 oz

height: 2 ft 8.7 in

Likes: Dada, trucks, pushing things around (whether it be laundry baskets or cars), putting special items in the things he pushes around (like a certain twig or toy), wheelbarrows, garbage cans, tractors, being naked, bananas, bathtime, reading books, watching the garbage trucks on garbage day, playing hide and seek, his giraffe lovey

Dislikes: diaper changes (in certain moods), being cooped up too long in his car seat or just indoors, lettuce,

New Things:

~words- get down, tractor, wheelbarrow

~ understands what we say and follows simple commands (ie: bring me your shoes, or go get a book, or take this to mama)

~ can use a spoon to eat applesauce

~ Most Exciting- 3 new teeth!! Finally!!

Halloween 2010-Part 2: Pumpkin Carving and Trick or Treating

2010-11-12T12:47:00.000-08:00

So, here is the 2nd part of our weekend in pictures. Starting with Pumpkin Carving!!

Babies with Daddy's lined up and ready to dig in

Our Nahas clan.... Riley very intrigued and weirded out by the pumpkin inerts.

The O'Hare family

All 6 of us!

So, now onto the funny part of the weekend- the costumes!!

Being the awesome mom that I am, I forgot Riley's bear costume at home. Bummer when it is the first Halloween where he can walk around and participate. Luckily we were able to find the thrift store in Tahoe City open on Halloween and they had a costume just his size. So, Riley ended up being......

A SOCK MONKEY!!!

It is such a cute costume and also kept him warm.

Here are the kids with their costumes ( or part of their costumes) on before we headed out for trick-or-treating.

now, for the sock money...

and the pink leopard....

Sock monkey meets Pink leopard

Being of course that everyone looked normal except the kids, we thought " Hey, what a great time for family photos and potential christmas card shots!"

Here is the Nahas clan (with Garrett's parents too)

Just our immediate family (doesn't Riley look SO interested!)

Then a fully dressed picture of the 6 of us... wondering how we got both kids to smile????

Answer: Randy jumping around making truly funny sounds behind Jan with the camera. Thus why not only the babies but all the adults are really smiling too

Then.... off for our first trick-or-treating adventure

mama and her sock monkey

The fire station was open for trick-or-treating too and as soon as Riley saw the fire truck he wasn't interested in any of the other stores but just kept yelling "DUCK (truck)". When we finally crossed the street to the fire truck he was so interested in the truck and the guy with the funny hat.

Dada carrying the tired little sock monkey as we headed back to the restaurant for some food and drinks.

Here was the end result of the pumpkin carving. We lit the candles inside the pumpkins right before the kids went to bed. They weren't that interested because they were so tired!
Garrett's pumpkin is on the left, Mike's is on the right.

What a great Halloween. Happy Halloween (belated) to all of you out there in blogword!

Halloween 2010- Part 1: Tahoe and fun

2010-11-12T12:12:00.000-08:00

Last year we went to Tahoe for Halloween and found out that it is SUCH a fun place to spend that holiday. Neither Garrett nor I particularly love all the traditions associated with Halloween so we have had a fun time starting our own traditions... including spending the weekend in Tahoe. We have been lucky enough to have our friends- Mike, Apryl, and Cienna (2 weeks older than Riley) O'Hare join us both years!

Tahoe City in particular is fun for Halloween because the entire downtown gets involved in trick or treating. All the businesses hand out candy and most of the adults also wear full on costumes. The trick-or-treating is for 2 hours in the afternoon so we have time to get the kids into bed and still have a fun evening for the adults.

Here are some pics to explain our weekend without me just typing away.

Riley and I had a little photo shoot in the yard of the house.... what better way to start a blog post than with pictures of Riley!

Below are some pictures of Riley and Cienna in their PJ's. Riley has his bib on backwards as a superhero cape ( his PJ's say- "saving the world before bedtime")

Riley and Garrett hanging out in the kitchen.

Warning: there are alot of pictures from this weekend of Riley in just a diaper.

Below is what Bula does when Garrett goes out the front door. How cute and sad!

Can't forget to show that Bula was there and looking awfully handsome

So, we were hanging out in the family room and Riley was playing when he started to sit in these funny poses. Well, a few of them could be baby modeling poses. We definately see a future in underwear modeling for this little boy!

Here are a few of Riley and Garrett playing. Riley ADORES playing with his dada (as you can tell by the look on his face).

Such a sweet moment to capture

My cute naked baby boy

We brought our 3 pumpkins from home to carve at the house. Riley is sitting on them at the front door before we brought them in for carving

It wouldn't be a night with the Nahas' without Randy's signature cocktails. He is making yummy lemon drops in this picture

Of course, Riley wanted to help!

Cocktails are always helpful in getting people to sing karaoke!! Here are Mike and Apryl belting it out!

Many more photos to come.... too much for one blog post.

pumpkin patch time!

2010-11-12T11:43:00.000-08:00

We had a great time at the pumpkin patch with Riley this year! It was a pretty cold day but Riley still had a fun time after he got used to what was going on. At first he just stood next to us and just watched everyone else. Then he saw Garrett bringing over the wheelbarrow for carrying the pumpkins and he was all about it. Update: Riley is in love with wheelbarrows! He even says "wowbow" for wheelbarrow, which sounds remarkably similar to the real word. As you can see in the photo above, he was more into pushing the wheelbarrow around than looking at the pumpkins!

Classic photos of baby with pumpkins. Big pumpkins and little pumpkins- we liked them all.

Below is Garrett and Riley checking out pumpkins and finding the perfect ones.

Look!! I actually was there to! I'm usually the one behind the camera and we may some day look back and wonder if I even attended alot of these fun outings. Well, here is proof that I indeed was there!

Below is Riley checking his height. As Garret pointed out, this isn't accurate because the whole thing is on a slight hill and the place where you stand is lower than the ruler part.... but Riley thought it was pretty cool

All in all we had a great first true pumpkin patch experience! I was shocked, dismayed, astonished etc. at the prices of the 3 (not so perfect) pumpkins that we drove away with. I have decided that Riley can pick out a pumpkin at the pumpkin patch next year but Garrett and I will be going to Safeway or someplace cheap to get ours!!!

What to be for Halloween

2010-10-10T11:52:00.000-07:00

A bear?

Or a Lion?

Final Choice.... Bear!!
Everytime Riley sees a bear he makes this growling sound. So cute!

our family in shoes

2010-10-10T11:51:00.000-07:00

"yuck"

2010-10-08T13:30:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I wasn't feeling well so Riley and I went to the chiropractor. As we were leaving, Riley starts to say "dada" over and over again. Here is the following conversation..
Riley: Dada, Dada
Kelli: Do you miss your Dada?
Riley: Dada, Dada
Kelli: Dada is at work
Riley: yuck (with hard concentration on repeating the word I have just said)
Kelli: (just laughing)

Who would think that at 15 months old, Riley would be able to vocalize what so many adults think. Work=Yuck. So, now we know that Garrett is at work and Riley doesn't like it!

Colors of our yard

2010-10-08T13:16:00.000-07:00

Throughout the spring, Garrett and I planted (well, if that is what you call throwing seeds all over the hillside, then yes, planted) tons of packets of wildflower seeds in the backyard. Things are finally taking off and color is coming up everywhere! I love going into the backyard to play with Riley and seeing a new flower has bloomed! Here is a quick walk through some of the colors currently in our yard.

(Anyone know what the plant above is called?)

September 19, 2010

2010-09-26T20:07:00.000-07:00

I was sitting on my parent's couch talking to my Aunt Ginny and we were catching up about life since we had last seen each other and having a great talk. You know those kind of talks where there is laughter and tears and you just loose track of time. Well, it was one of those talks. We had talked a few times over the last few years about me wanting to get baptized by her and my Uncle Dick but we were never in the same country (they live in Spain) or other things got in the way. As we were sitting there chatting about what baptism means, she said that baptism- as described by my dad- was putting a stake in the ground and drawing a line in the sand. A declaration that Jesus is Lord of my life and that I will follow Him stubbornly, not looking back over that line in the sand at the past but pushing forward, straining for more of Him and less of me. I want that. I need that. I startled her when I asked if she would baptize me right then and there. Of course she said yes but I definately caught her off guard! So, right then- with my mom and Riley watching- I was baptized in my parents hottub!! It was amazing and surreal all at the same time.... plus it happened so fast.

I put this pledge out there to all of you in blogland (if there are any of you who read this blog) as an act of accountability. I am a new creation. I will spend time daily in the Bible so that I can learn to know God intimately. I will find my self-worth, confidence, joy, and renewed trust by learning to see myself through His eyes and by becoming the woman He truly made me to be, not the shell of a woman that I am when I try to do things on my own. I will raise my son up to follow Jesus passionately and with abandon. I will stop looking back but instead press forward, straining for the finish line when I will at last be home.

"Fab 4"

2010-09-26T19:54:00.000-07:00

This is a picture (of a picture on a mug) of the "Fab 4". We were very close friends from move-in day at the dorms freshman year. We lived literally with each other or very close to each other all 4 years of college- thus why we remained such close friends and why my brother's friends nicknamed us the "Fab 4".... and it just kinda stuck.

ANYWAYS... I was drinking coffee out of this mug this morning as I fed Riley his cereal. He has been pointing to everything in books and around the house and wanting to have us say the names. Well, as we are having breakfast, he starts pointing to each of us on the mug. So I started telling him the names of each person. Then we moved on to the part where I ask him to point to _____ and he usually gets it right on. This morning he kept pointing to Rachael (I think standing out in white kept drawing his eye). It was really sweet and I got to also tell him all about our upcoming trip and how he'll get to see these ladies in real life soon. I CAN'T WAIT!!

Favorite books

2010-09-23T17:11:00.000-07:00

I know that I have written about these books but I wanted to show them to you all as well. You can see the wear and tear on "Trucks" as Riley likes to carry that book around. The 3rd favorite book was sadly left behind at Tahoe after the family reunion but Jammy and Umpa found it when they were still at the house and will be returning it to us when they come back from a 2 week vacation to Idaho. Soon we will once again ask the question "where's spot?"

Nahas Family Reunion

2010-09-16T12:01:00.000-07:00

The Nahas family has an annual family reunion at their house in Tahoe each July/August (this year happened to be in Sept). It is so strange to think about but this was my 6th Nahas family reunion to attend!! The first one I only went up for the day with Garrett because non-spouses aren't allowed to attend (or at least spend the night) plus I was leaving for Germany 2 days later.

What do you get when you put 29 family members in one house for a weekend?

A Family reunion.

What do you get when you put 29 NAHAS family members in one house for a weekend?

Wild and crazy fun!

Randy ( my father in law) and his 4 siblings and all their spouses, kids and grandkids make for a full, loud, and funny weekend.

To start us off, I thought I'd give you a few pics of how darn cute my baby boy is

By the way, I didn't abuse my child. He was reaching for a rock and his feet slipped out from under him and he faceplanted on the front driveway. At first I thought he had just hit his forehead but then his nose had a scratch and his lip started to swell into a duck's lip. The lip healed within a week but it was so sad to see

Riley has been obsessed with pushing things around. It started off with a yellow mop bucket at Cachagua. This blue bucket was a hit in Tahoe. And at home it is a laundry basket.

He pickes up stuff as he goes and puts it inside the bucket

Here are some of his treasures

COUSINS!

Blogging world... meet Cole Nahas. Riley's 1st cousin. He lives in Austin with his parents so this was the first time we got to meet him. What a sweet little guy he is. Being that Cole and Riley are less than a year apart, I think there are lots of fun times and years ahead for these boys.

Here is a picture of the brothers with their sons.

Cole Kahlil Nahas

Cole with his daddy Bryce

Cole with him mommy Lauren

The Beach

Riley has a grand ole' time at the beach playing in the water, throwing rocks, and throwing sand. Here is an action photo of the sand throwing

Garrett and Riley testing out the water before they REALLY got in

My handsome fellows

Here's the Nahas group (or part of them) at the beach

No Nahas gathering would be complete without some random/strange/weird faces.

Garrett and his 3 brothers

Trent and Bryce (the twins), Colby, and Garrett

Emily Reichstetter (Garrett's cousin) and myself plus Riley

Oh!! Riley's other new favorite thing is recycling!! He LOVES to carry around tin cans and put them in things. Usually they are soda cans.. unlike this picture

What a wonderful time we had seeing Nahas' from all over the world (well, really just Idaho, Nevada, and California- but sometimes that seems like different cultures!)