The Life of Riley

We did it again!  Baby #2 is on its way to us and is due sometime in July.  We couldn't be more excited and surprised at the same time!  We always wanted to have our children close together but boy we didn't think it would happen THIS fast.  The age difference between Kai and his little bro/sis will be 21 months.  Two babies under the age of 2- at 25 years old! (Chad will be 27). Wow. Breath, Rach, just Breath! That's what I've been telling myself a lot lately! Time is going so incredibly fast.  My baby is 14.5 months! Yikes! He is such a bundle of joy, and so energetic.  Literally, the kid runs all day long! Even the ladies at the nursery at church tell us out of all the kids he is the most active.  As I type, he is running around behind me trying to get to the keyboard to bang on it while attempting to pull everything off the desk.  Gotta love it! Really, we do love it.  Chad and I tell each other every night how blessed we are to...

11 months have gone by since the day we held baby Malakai in our arms for the first time! I will never forget looking in his eyes and thinking that at that exact moment my world was changed.  Nothing prepares you for having a child, I do not care who you are, you can read all the books you want, listen to all the advice you can handle, and play with as many babies as you can get your hands on... but when it comes down to it, it's a whole new world! And a good world at that- but challenging at times.  We have been nothing but blessed with this angel of God.  Watching him grow is so fun! Like all parents tell you, "The time really flies".  I just started a class at my church this week called "Navigating Motherhood".  It focuses on young mother's with newborns-kindergarten.  Today the speaker talked about using each day as an opportunity to teach our children.  This really spoke to me because there are days that I am tired, worn out and just unen...

Exciting news in the Riley world... we bought our first home!! After a year and some months of searching, researching, praying and waiting (as patiently as we could) we found the perfect home for our trio! We originally went into this process thinking we really wanted to live in Ladera Ranch, which is a great neighborhood with a lot of young children and families etc. But the Mellaroo's and the outrageous HOA's turned our eyes a little north to the wonderful city of Mission Viejo. We found a great house! Here are the stats: *3 beds, 2 baths *1600 square feet *Master bedroom bonus retreat (we LOVE this!) *Big backyard- with concrete and grass, leaves us lots of room for a garden or a play set or a pool! *Awesome park at one end of street with a sports field, playground and half basketball court and at the other end of the street a huge green belt! Kai will be in his glory here! We have big plans for our home... *Chad's plans: -Backyard- he wants a garden and he wants to buil...

I am feeling inspired today! I love making homemade baby food for my beautiful boy! I really can't say enough about the huge advantage making your own baby food is. The price alone is an immediate seller. I buy organic, locally grown produce and spend about 15-25 dollars which lasts me at least a month. If we were buying the same amount of jarred organic baby food we would be spending about 100 dollars a month. Big difference! I also love knowing exactly what goes in my son's (cute) little tummy. No preservatives, no food dye, and no processed food for him. Another big plus is that I can introduce him to flavors and foods that are unique and typically not found in your average baby food. Currently, I am steaming some yams, zucchini, chicken, green beans and rosemary-all certified organic and yummy of course. I call it "R oast Chicken Dinner" - fancy huh? I will then dish them into my BPA free ice cube holders and freeze. After that, I'll make yams, peaches, pears ...

Well, it has been a few months since the last time I've updated our measly family blog. I have thought about our little virtual newsletter a few times in the past couple months, but each time I go to update, life gets in the way. Oh, you know, the normal things, work, family, friends, raising a SEVEN-AND-A-HALF-MONTH-OLD!! That's right, Malakai is 7.5 months old now! Wow! Time fliiieeeeeessssss by! He is growing so fast and does something new and exciting each day. I don't often get "sad" about him growing up so fast until I look back on pictures or previous posts and think to myself, was he really THAT small?!?! He is an absolute love, the most thoughtful, sweet, happy boy I have ever seen (I'm biased, so what?! :) ) Here is our little family on Easter, where we spent the week at the beach house... Kai experienced his first "sand-between-the-toes" moment and really couldn't get enough. He kept trying to sit down and, shockingly, eat the sand. E...

It is so fun watching Kai discover our world. As we speak we are all watching Baby Einstein's Noah's Ark movie. Kai is seeming to really enjoy watching all the animals! He's bouncing around like crazy in his chair, talking to the animals and smiling, laughing and shouting- it's precious! He turned 3 months yesterday and I can hardly even believe he is out of his "fourth trimester" and into a more alert and playful stage of life. He loves exploring his world and taking in things around him and what a joy it is for Chad and I to be able to help him explore. It really makes me feel like a kid again myself! We are currently at the stage of getting ready for solid foods. He is showing a HUGE interest in what we eat and he seems to be hungry more often then usual and went from sleeping 10-11 hours a night back to 7-8 hours which is apparently a sign it's time to start supplementing with cereal. I can't believe it is almost time! We are going to the doctor th...