My First Mother's Day

My first Mother's Day was wonderful! It was so fun to have a new holiday to celebrate my favorite thing, being a mom! Ryan and Riley spoiled me good!

I wanted to include this picture because it shows the flower arrangement better. Ryan couldn't decide which to get me so this is the pic he sent his mom to ask which one he should get. haha :) He got the one on the right which I looooove. It comes in the CUTEST mug ever. I love mugs, and tea, and drinking tea out of mugs ;) so I was pretty happy. 

Riley gave me an outfit for herself :) It was darling. Little green khaki shorts and everything. she looks adorable in it!

Ry let me choose any breakfast I wanted for Mother's Day. I think he was a little disappointed I didn't choose a more elaborate breakfast. But my favorite granola and fresh fruit just sounded perfect. I knew we would eat a looooot of junk later so I didn't want to start the day off too crazy.  Don't worry though, Ryan surprised me with Amish crack donuts too. I didn't get a picture of those but we sure love um! SO delicious.

Oh dear. This was my real present from Riley. She wanted to be sure that this Mother's Day was memorable and one I would never forget. She pooped ALLLLLLL over me at church. It was her worst blow out ever. It was all over my skirt, seeped through my skirt, got on my shirt, undershirt, skin, etc. Neon, liquid, poop. Happy Mother's Day :) hahaha so glad I got a picture. It was hilarious.

Another present from Riley girl. Sleeping soundly in Mama's arms and letting me cuddle her for a long time. 

Look at that chubby little angel face. 

I'm crazy about her. I could cuddle her allllllll day. And sometimes I do. 

Family pic on my first Mother's Day

Riley has started holding hands really well. She alllllways wants to hold hands while she's eating. It helps her fall asleep. I think it is the sweetest thing ever. 

My little girl. I love you forever. 

The best feeling in the world. 

Daddy kinda photo bombed us. If you didn't notice I took a bajillion pictures in this spot. Sometimes my heart is melting so fast that I take a ton of pictures to try and capture it. These are the moments I never want to forget! 

Ryan made this scrumptious dinner I picked! Black bean and sweet potato tacos with avocado and lime. One of our faves!
Also, I got a bread maker! Super stoked about making my own homemade bread. Mmmmmm :) 

And one more present from Riley to end my day :) 

The perfect day. I love being a mom! The greatest gift I have been given. 

Springtime in Indiana

Riley and I go on walks every day! She LOVES being outside and looking around and seeing all the trees!

So Proud of Ryan! He is graduating so soon! He got into Beta Gamma Sigma which is basically MBA honors. He's a smarty.

Those who know Ryan know there is nothing he loves more than to tour a brewery ;) JK This is just a dinner thing Notre Dame put on with his scholarship group. 

"Moooooom cut it with the kisses already." 

Post bath time snuggles.

This one. Always spitting up :) A LOT. Dr. says she thinks Riley is just over eating and spitting up the excess. MY teeny tiny skinny baby over eating? Really? ;) 

My friend Mary-Elizabeth gave us these little shorts and I just thought Riley was soooo cute in them!

Our little family

A few years ago, Ryan and I got the salted caramel chocolate cake at P.F. Changs and we fell in love with it. Best dessert ever! They have since taken it off the menu :( This was my first attempt at trying to recreate it. It was yummy, but definitely needs some major tweaking to add up to Changs.

Riley is loving her bumbo. Sitting up like a big kid :)

I know this is a funny thing to blog, but i don't want to forget it! It may be hard to believe...but Ryan made this scrumptious looking chicken pot pie! We were bringing dinner to a friend who had just had a baby, and I had a photo shoot to get to so Ryan had to make the dinner.  He did an awesome job and it turned out perfectly! Maybe he oughta try making dinner a little more often ;) 

My happy girl. Always waking up on the right side of the bed. 

I threw my friend Anna a baby shower! It was really fun. I also threw my friend Jessica a baby shower. I'm mad at myself for not taking pictures of Jessica's but at least I got a few of Anna's! Both were very fun! 

Anna is having a boy and is due in August. So excited for her and Wes!

Just had to capture how sweet she looks in this dress! This was a gift from Aunt Tamy.
I love it! She looks so beautiful and angelic. 

When Ry pulled Riley out of her swing the head support pillow thing came out with her. It was so funny and she looked so happy and cute like she was laughing about it too! :)

One of our new fave meals to make.  Zucchini Pizza. SO easy and yummy!

Having friends over for dinner. This is our ward MBA group. (The guys in Ryan's year of the program who are in our ward) We got together pretty often. 

She likes her Bumbo!

Ryan studied like this as often as he possibly could. He can never get enough of his baby girl. 

At the beach at Lake Michigan.

We love Silver Beach!

Fun with friends at Silver Beach, Lake Michigan

Sweet thing. Love how her hands are clasped.

OK the BEST pizza and breadsticks of all time. Marco's Pizza. Mmmmmm 

Look at that sweet little face.

Sometimes we'll be driving and Riley will be totally quiet and so I figure she must be asleep. Well then we got this nifty mirror from my friend Amy and it was so fun to be able to see Riley while we were driving! A lot of the time when I would have thought she was sleeping she was wide awake just looking around at the world as we drove by. What a sweetheart!
**Disclaimer** Now Riley HATES the carseat/riding in the car and she screams a lot. Then the second we sit back there next to her or go to get her out she is all happy again. haha she's becoming social and doesn't like being stuck in the carseat alone back there.

Spring Time

Catching up still...here's a bit about our spring time in Utah. This was all from our trip out to Grandma Van's funeral. Grandma Van's actual funeral is in the post previous to this one.

Riley is the world's best baby traveler. She has been soooo good on planes!

Hanging out at the Van Wagoner's on the porch swing.

All our nieces and nephews always wanted to hold Riley. So cute!

Ryan got to do some cool bike rides of course!

I love when she falls asleep on me. THE sweetest thing in the world!

We got to go to Thanksgiving Point for the Tulip Festival. I stopped by Trellis where I used to work and got to see some of my friends who still work there and have them meet Riley. It was fun! 

The gardens are soooo pretty. 

We went back to this special place where Ryan proposed to me three years ago! :) 

This spot! We came back here for our bridal/groomal photos too.

It was special going back here three years later with our sweet baby girl. 

It started to rain a bit at the end but we still had a great time seeing all the pretty tulips.
I love this picture of Karli and Mom Van.

We got to go to Addie's fourth birthday party. She is crazy about Elsa right now as you can see :) She is such a doll!

These are the little things that Ryan and I always miss while living out of state.
It's fun when we get to be at these little parties when we come to visit. 

At Sammie Hansen's bridal shower.

Just hanging out with the family. Lou Lou can be so cute when she's not acting like Satan. 

Riley was cold so I put socks on her hands for gloves :) It's not the first time I've done this... my passport/wallet/money was stolen when I first got on my mission to Ukraine so I lived with only my MSF for a few months while I had to order a new card from the U.S. Well, during that time, I lost my gloves and it got EXTREMELY cold. So I used this ol' trick and put black socks on my hands. Yeah, I walked around like that for a couple of weeks. It got the job done though! :)

In the airport with my babe. Flying back to Indiana.

When we flew into Chicago it was like 2 in the morning so we found a cheap hotel and stayed there for the night.

Someone was a little tired from traveling all day :)

Ready to head back home to South Bend! Riley is always so happy when we walk back in our front door and she sees her familiar surroundings. She may be a home-body.