Random Moments I Still Want to Remember

 Here is our little man all dressed up for church on a recent Sunday morning.  (He doesn't pause very much anymore for a picture, so this was a walking action shot in the kitchen.) Riley really enjoys going to the nursery there and playing with some of the other boys and girls.  The nursery workers always say he is well-behaved and just last week the one lady who works for a preschool full-time was really impressed with his ball-throwing skills.  Maybe we'll have an athlete on our hands! You never know!

 Here's my little Tiger all-dressed up with me in our Clemson gear for the USC/Clemson game! We are a house-divided when it comes to college football and Riley is actually wearing a USC t-shirt underneath this beautiful Clemson jersey (just to please Daddy).  We all went to David and Brandy's house to watch the game and Riley had a blast playing with Callie and his football helmet.  Speaking of football, Riley has a little red and yellow Nerf football that he absolutely adores playing with right now.  It's one of his favorite things to get out of his toy box and toss around.  He hikes it back to about his ear and says something like "Three, Go" before he releases it to the nearest person or target. 

 Another one of Riley's recent games includes going to his toy box or basket of books and collecting a handful of objects to go and give to one of us.  He'll want you to hold the wide array of objects before he ultimately decides he has given you enough items and is ready to escort them all the way across the room and put them on top of his toy box.  Then the little game begins all over again and continues for usually 2 or 3 more rounds before he decides to go on to something else.  Here's a picture taken just yesterday of Riley loading up Daddy with his latest precious cargo!

So, just to keep you posted, we still do have contact with Riley's birthparents.  Kristin e-mails me about once every few months.  Her last e-mail on Nov. 28th said she just wanted to say hey and let us know that they had moved to a small town outside of Olympia, WA and that she also had a new e-mail address because her other one had a virus and was full of Spam.  I replied back with a few pictures of Riley attached from Thanksgiving and let her know that I was thankful for the new address and wanted to send them a Christmas card and some pictures we had taken at Portrait Innovations (see pic to the left).  She just wrote me this week in an e-mail to say they got our card and his picture and love it.  They can't believe how much Riley has grown. Lily and Lex are excited for Santa and keep asking "How many more sleeps until he comes?".  Kristin said they are finished unpacking and like the new town and all it's history, but she hasn't even had a chance to thinking about Christmas shopping yet. It's nice to know that she still cares and wants to stay in touch.  I know that will be important for Riley to know as well!

We are enjoying our first full week of Christmas vacation.  Riley had his Christmas party at his daycare today and Chris and I were busy finishing shopping, wrapping gifts, and catching up on household chores.  But we did manage to get in a nice lunch at Rusan's suishi buffet and hope to take Riley to our favorite Ethiopian restaurant tonight if he's in a good mood (it's been a little hit or miss with eating out lately).  We're planning on taking him back to the Children's Museum and for a haircut on Friday before we start all the Christmas festivities (church service, gifts, seeing my family on Christmas and the day after, traveling to Indiana Tues. night and then going to Ohio for the Fisher Christmas/New Year's gathering).  Should be a busy, yet delightful next few weeks!