One reason to not live in an apartment

Riker took an early nap this morning, so I decided to lay down too. Well, I was woken up by a man coming into my room. Talk about being freaked out. Both of our eyes must have been HUGE. I had forgotten that the pest control people were coming today. It was a little awkward as he baited up our bathroom, but he tried to make conversation so it was less awkward. Still it was awkward. I hate that people can come in or out of my house if they need to, and wake me up from my naps.

on a better note---HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Playgroup Halloween Party

Our ward has a playgroup every week on Wednesdays, and this week it was a Halloween party. It was lots of fun! There was one kid dressed up as Spiderman and he had a mask on. Once Riker saw him he screamed so loud and ran to me. He was so scared, but once the kid took his mask off Riker went back to playing. Here's some pictures.

The kids painted cute cats, ghosts, witches, and pumpkins.

These are the cookies Riker decorated.

Our shirtless pirate eating his cookie.

Halloween is tomorrow! I'm so excited!

Shots...

Today was Riker's 18 months checkup, I know we were a little late on making the appointment. Mitchell had to work and he has come to every other appointment with me, so I was nervous especially about the shot part. Once we got into a room Riker knew exactly where we were and he started pulling my hand to try to get me to leave. While the nurse was measuring his head he was screaming at the top of his lungs. It was sad but I couldn't help but laugh a little to myself, she was barely touching him! He was also a little skeptical when the doctor came in and started touching him and putting weird things on his chest and back. But especially when she stuck a black thing in his ear. The worst part was yet to come though. When the "shots nurse" came, I had to told his hands and upper body down, and she held his legs. He got 3 shots, 2 in one leg and 1 in the other. And boy did he scream. After the nurse was done, she said he is really strong for his age. So obviously she had as much trouble holding him down as I did, if not more. But if any of you are interested he weighs 24 lbs. and is 33 in. tall. He's getting so big! After the appointment we went out to lunch with my friend, and we had to get on I-10 to get there, and there is tons of construction on the interstate right now too. Riker cried from the doctor's office until we got on the interstate. Even a call to Daddy didn't calm him down. Once we were on the interstate every time he saw a "tractor" which is any type of construction equipment to him. He would stop crying and say "Tractor, Tractor." Then once we passed it, he would start crying and pointing to his legs, until another "tractor" came into view. What a sad muffin, as my Dad would say.

Trunk or Treat

Today was our 2nd Trunk or Treat (not being the kids that is). It was definitely better than last year considering Riker fell asleep through half it last time! He is a pirate this year, and he looked super cute in his costume. He got into the groove of things fast, once he realized he wasn't just getting one piece of candy, like when we practiced, but that he was getting a bucket full. Mitchell was all about decorating the truck, and he did a really good job. It was also cooler this year than last year, which was nice. It's no fun to feel hot and sticky when you're Trunk or Treating, it's a fall holiday for goodness sake! Here's some pictures our fun day!

Arggghhh!

A Skunk and A Pirate

There we are!

Playing games with Daddy's help.

After Trunk or Treat, we went to a family in our wards annual Pumpkin Carving Party. They have really good food and lots of fun! Riker loved being in a big house with lots of room to run around, and he was content with sweeping their floor for about 30 minutes, until it was time to go home. It was a very eventful and fun day, and thanks to everyone who made it possible!

An Oldie but a Goodie

Today I was looking at my friend's old pictures on her facebook. And I found a really cute one of Riker. He's probably about 11 months old or so, because his hair is long and I wouldn't let Mitchell cut it until he turned one. I just had to put it up here because I think it's so adorable, and definitely shows his personality.

I know it's like one of the pictures from one of my last posts, food with him in the background. But I love it. Subway should definitely use it as an ad for their cookies, at least I think so.

The World Series Made My Night

Mitchell, Riker, Keri and I ate my favorite restaurant, Red Elephant, last night. It's a pizza and grill, but they have TVs all over kind of like a sports bar. While we were waiting for our food we realized the Backstreet Boys were singing on one of the TVs! I almost peed my pants! They were singing to National Anthem at the World Series because it was in Tampa and that's Nick Carter's hometown. I know that they need to stop trying to make it big again, but I love them, and I was so excited to see them on TV.


Here's the video of them singing last night for any of you that would like to watch it:

http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=sW8WB5gtTIY

Continued...

I just couldn't resist stealing this picture from Freya's blog. As I mentioned in an earlier entry, Freya takes a lot of pictures just like me. But she always ends up getting really creative shots..like this one. We made some amazing pumpkin bread the night we went over to carve pumpkins with Brett and Freya. Riker was loving the bread, to say the least.

Practice Makes Perfect

When we first got Riker's costume he hated it. Whenever he had it on all he did was whine to have it off. So I decided we would practice Trick or Treating, hoping he would start to like his costume because he knows he gets candy when he wears it. We've been practicing for a few weeks now and my plan has worked out great! It's so cute how excited he gets. Now he loves his costume, and doesn't even want to take it off after we practice. I took a video of tonight's Trick or Treating and I thought I'd share it!

He's a pretty good Trick or Treater, huh?

The Pumpkins Are Coming!

We went to the pumpkin patch today! There's a church that puts on a pumpkin patch every year, and they decorate it really cute. They have all different kinds of scarecrows like Shrek and Donkey, Batman, Smurfs, and Mr. Peanut. We went to the same one last year but we went closer to Halloween so there were few pumpkins to choose from. But this time when we walked in, there were tons of them. Mitchell immediately chose an "albino pumpkin" in his words. Then we chose another one for the whole family. Afterwards we went to my friends, Freya and Brett, house to carve them. It was really fun to do it with a small group of people, and with someone who is as obsessed with pictures as me, like Freya. I had a million pictures to chose from by the end of the night! Thanks freyfrey! Riker wasn't to sure what he was suppose to be doing while we were carving the pumpkins. He kept putting the seeds back into the pumpkins, but every now and then the got the concept down for about 5 minutes before getting distracted again. When we finished the carving part, we made pumpkin bread and roasted pumpkin seeds. I had never had pumpkin bread before but it was really good and we even got to take a loaf home!

There they go!

This is the one.

BATMAN!

Mitchell starting on his ghost pumpkin

Helping Mommy cut out the face

Our Pumpkins!

The finished products

Update on Purple Marker

When we got home last night and started getting Riker ready for bed I notice about 5 or 6 of his toys had purple marker all over them! I'm amazed and happy it was only that. Mitchell and I figured he was probably coloring on himself and his toys and every now and then making sure I wasn't coming to catch him. Because when he was done he came out and handed the marker to me. What a little stinker!

Purple Permanent Marker

I know that when I look at my sister-in-law, Lenette's, blog and there is a funny entry about her kids doing something kids do, I always think I wonder when Riker will do those types of
things--if ever. Well, today was the day! This morning I was in Riker's room organizing all his old clothes into separate space bags (by the way these things are amazing!) and I had a permanent marker to label the bags with. When I got done it was lunchtime then right after lunchtime it was nap time. So I completely forgot about the marker laying on the floor in his room. A few hours after he woke up and as I was watching Dr. Phil, he came out of his room holding the marker and with purple all over his leg, finger, and a little bit on his head. I, of course, explained to him it was a "no no"and that he shouldn't do it again, but then from Lenette's example, I took a picture of him.




So there it is evidence that Riker is now a toddler. Here comes trouble!

Halloween Get-Up

About a year ago one of my friends gave me a good idea. It was buy clothes for Riker when they are on sale when the season has changed, but buy them in the size he'll be wearing next year. It has worked out great because about every 6 to 9 months Riker gets a growth spurt and seems grow out of his clothes left and right. So now all I do is pull out my bin of "future clothes" as I call it, and pick out the ones that will fit him at the time. I've been slacking on this for a while just because we've had to buy him clothes for the winter this year. But about a month ago I pulled out the bin, and it's like shopping all over again without having to pay! I forget how much stuff I buy little by little over the year until I see it all. Anyway, I found a super cute Halloween shirt I got last year at Baby Gap when all the Halloween stuff went on sale. It's really cute, but it's long sleeved, and it still gets somewhat hot down here in the middle of the day. But I put it on him today because my friend bought him some cute glow in the dark Halloween Crocs, and surprise! The shirt glows in the dark too! Riker looked so cute in his festive outfit I just had to take a some pictures.

the back of the shirt says--because I can see right through you!

Thanks Nicole! You're Awesome!

HAPPY EARLY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!

Alone At Last!

This weekend Mitchell and I went down to Daytona Beach all by ourselves!! Riker stayed with some good friends of ours. He had lots of fun too. We got down there Friday evening and went to Olive Garden for dinner, it was amazing! My friend, Riker, and I try to go every week for the soup, salad and bread sticks, but I never realized how good the actual food was! Then we walked on the beach looking at all the huge hotels we weren't staying in. The next day, we went to the beach again and then to this lighthouse. It's called the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse. It was really interesting to find out about it's history. Then we climbed up to the top...it was really scary. I never knew I was afraid of heights until we were walking up those stairs. Then we went to this cool little mall on the beach. We saw the movie Eagle Eye, it's really good if any of you are wondering. Shia Lebouf is really good in it. We had some gift certificates for a restaurant called, Pirate's Cove. It was horrible. They didn't have ANYTHING in stock, and we were there for an hour and a half just waiting and our food, and check. The people next to us got up and left before they got their food. On a better note, after went to Coldstone and walked along the beach. It was a great vacation, but of course we missed Riker by the second day! It was nice to come back home and see him.

Walking on the beach.

The Lighthouse.

After climbing all the way up!

The view from the top of the lighthouse.

Usher

Riker has always liked music, and when we're driving around town he loves to listen to "jams" as we call them. His favorite one is "In This Club" by Usher. He has liked this one since he was tiny. It has a really good beat which Mitchell and I figure is why he likes it so much, because it's easy to "jam" to. "Jammin" entails Riker bobbing his head up and down, and pumping his fists. It is so funny! So I thought I'd video it and share it will all of you guys.

I love my "jammin" boy!

"Baby" Riker

These are some cute moments of Riker I captured throughout the last couple of weeks.

Whenever we go to the mall Riker always wants to ride on these rides. I gave in this time , and he looked so cute riding along in this old school car.

There is contest for Baby Gap and Kids Gap every year and if your child gets into the top 20 you and your child get to go out to California and he or she is in a photo shoot. Then if they are selected for the top 4 they get a $1,000 gift card for Gap and they're pictures from the photo shoot are used as advertisements in Gap stores all over the country. The deadline is October 22 so I've been trying to get a good close up picture of Riker. This is one I got, but I'm not to sure about it, I know I can get better. You guys let me know what you think too please!

One of Riker's favorite things is bath time. He loves to catch the water coming out of the faucet in cups or anything that can hold it. Once we turn that water off he's ready to get out. No complaining here, at least it's not a fight!

Big and Blue, but Cool!

I have my own car!! Woo Hoo! We ended up buying our friends old truck for Mitchell to use for work, and I'm going to use the Subaru, we're just going to have to fix it up a bit. I went and got a brand new windshield after exercise group today, and it's basically amazing! It only took the people about 30 minutes to put it in. When I went out to sign the paperwork and leave I noticed they had cleaned all of the windows AND had vacuumed the car! I was so shocked. Since the car had mostly been used as Mitchell's work car it was trashed, in my words. But as Mitchell would say, "At least I'm not throwing the trash out the window!" No more of that, that's for dang sure! Anyway, my windshield is beautiful, when I was driving home it didn't even feel like there was a windshield there, it was like I was just looking through a hole in the car minus the wind if it really was just a hole. It was so amazing, and now I don't feel trashy driving it around. Mitchell really loves the truck, it's a 1989 Ford F150, so it's a big truck. Which means a big bed for all Mitchell's supplies, it also has a cab on it which he really likes too, since you can never tell when it's going to rain here. So thanks Kim and Scott, you guys are awesome!

There she is!

Ocala

After we went to Hosford we drove down to Ocala, Florida to visit Mitchell's best friend, Jeff, who is visiting from Vermont. As we were driving down we were discussing what to do about a new car (as I wrote about in the previous entry), but right as we decided to keep the Subaru (literally at the exact same moment) a popped tire from a tracker-trailer flew out of nowhere and hit our car! Mitchell felt it hit his leg through the passenger side door! I hadn't even seen it coming. When we got out to look at the damage, we found it had completely torn out our front headlight, broken out front blinker, scrapped and dented the passenger door. Bad enough that you can't open it from the outside. We were so mad, I tried to call our insurance but of course they're not open on weekends, so I'm going to have to call tomorrow. At least we hadn't bought the Taurus and it had happened to that car.

Once we got into Ocala/Silver Springs we picked up Jeff from his mom's house then we went to a place called Easy Street Family Fun Center, it's kind of like FunStation for those of you who live in Tally except it a lot cheaper and ghettoier (that's probably not a word but oh well). We won 600 something tickets and got Riker a snake stuffed animal and a barrel of monkeys. Then Mitchell and Jeff did rockclimbing, they both made it to the top on the easier side. They finally convinced me to do it, but I didn't have "shoes" on as Mitchell would say (I was wearing flip-flops). So I had to go barefoot, it was so painful! The step things dug into my feet so I made it halfway up 3 times, then I gave up. We did the batting cages too, I hit the more balls than Jeff and Mitchell put together! Haha..GIRLS RULE!! After that we met Jeff's mom at Applebee's, she paid for our dinner which was so nice, and she just loved Riker. We spent the night at her house then headed back home this morning. It was a fun trip, and it was nice to catch up with Mitchell's friend.

Stylin' in Jeff's hat

He didn't even have to work for them

Riker just sat down right next to Jeff on the curb while we were waiting on his Mom at Applebee's. It was so cute.

Car Quest Part 5

We went out to Hosford Saturday morning to take a look at the Ford Taurus. It wasn't quite what we were looking for and what we were planning on getting for he wanted for it. We decided that we are just going to fix up the Subaru with the money, and buy our friend's truck for Mitchell. I'm pretty excited to have my own and we feel that as long as we get eveything taken care of with thr Subaru it will all work out. So....the quest is offically OVER! I hope.

New Favorite Song

You know when you hear a song for the first time and it gives you the chills? That's how I know that song is my new favorite. I love that feeling, and I love music! Well my favorite song now is Fall For You by-Secondhand Serenade. I actually saw them in concert in March. The band Yellowcard came to Tally and Secondhand Serenade was one of there openers. I didn't really like their music then, I mean it wasn't horrible like some of the other bands that night, but I didn't fall in love with it. When I heard this song on the radio about a month or so ago I definitely fell in love with it. So check it out, I have it on my playlist at the bottom of my blog.

They are a band, but I couldn't find a picture of all of them. Not like it matters because the lead singer is quite good-looking :) but I got a picture with one of the other band member at the show.

Video-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKi125iqnFg

I'll try to put my new favorite songs as they come up on my playlist. My 3 latest are already on there. I know, know..I have a Miley Cyrus song on there...but I like it.