No Monee

On May 22 my Dad turned 50 years YOUNG! In honor of his big day, I made chocolate cupcakes from scratch to bring to his birthday dinner. I made them on Wednesday night, but I only made 1 dozen and so I didn't get to taste any that night. Instead I took this photo (even the icing is from scratch):

On Thursday night we went to dinner for my Dad's birthday and we finally got to try out the cupcakes. Riley REALLY liked the ones with chocolate icing. Here is him with icing ALL over his face (I think he even ended up with some on his shoes!):

The cupcakes were really rich, but I liked them. I think everyone else liked them as well. I was especially excited about giving my dad his birthday present. Chad, Riley & I got him tickets to the first Cowboys pre-season game in the new Cowboys stadium in Arlington. Chad & I are going to go with my parents, so it should be a lot of fun!

Here are some more pics from my Dad's birthday dinner night:

(Happy Birthday Dad!...obviously Riley could only focus on the cupcake!)

(Awww! So sweet!)

On Friday night we went to Hoffbrau for Chad's brother Blake's wedding rehearsal dinner. We sat at a table with Chad's cousins, Bryan and Natalie and it was really nice to visit with them, since they live in California and we hadn't seen them since last November. I kept telling them that one of them needed to get married soon to give us a reason to vacation to California! :)

Saturday was a busy day for Chad's family getting ready for Blake's wedding that night. Chad's mom bought Riley the cutest outfit for the wedding and we got some of the following pics of him before the ceremony:

This is the most dressed up I have ever seen Riley and he looked very handsome. Our friend Christina also took these pictures of her husband Mike, Chad & Blake. In the second one, Mike & Blake are smiling funny because I told them to show us some teeth! (Actually, I was talking to Chad, but these guys took me literally!)

I, however, had a very tough time, emotionally, at the wedding. The plan was to try and have Riley sit on the front row of the groom's side with the family, but I should have known he was too young for that. About 10 minutes before the ceremony started he got very out of control and I had to leave the room with him. As we were leaving, the wedding party was starting to get into their places and I knew that we were not going to be able to make it back to our seats, which meant we were going to miss the wedding. All of the sudden I realized that Blake and Rebecca were the only siblings I had left and I was missing their wedding and then that made me realize that I would never see Jake get married and I just lost it. I started crying and I could not stop. I cried until the wedding was over and then I was still crying. I called my mom and cried some more. She reminded me that it had only been six months since Jake's death and it was okay to have moments like this still. We try so hard to be so strong all the time that when moments like this happen they are so unexpected and so hard to control. Then the wedding party was taking photos and wanted me to be in them. I was so embarrassed that I was crying that I tried not to be in the photos at all, but I was convinced to be in them and then tried my best to dry my tears. The rest of the night I vacillated between being embarrassed, trying not to cry more and doing my best to visit with other wedding attendees. Needless to say, I was relieved when the night was over and I hope I didn't cause too much trouble for my brother-in law, Blake and my brand new sister-in-law, Rebecca. More than anything, I am so thrilled to finally have a sister and I hope they can forgive me for my meltdown. And thanks Mom for being there for me. I love you so much!

I would also like to say a quick thank you to Brittany and Rachel (and Jacob) who were our babysitters this weekend! We couldn't have gotten through the weekend without you guys and we are thrilled to have such capable people watching Riley for us when we need it!

On Sunday Chad & I were so TIRED! We tried to sleep in, but Riley woke up at 7:30am. I got up with him and let Chad sleep til 9, but all I really wanted was to be back in bed. Later in the morning Chad's parents invited us over for breakfast and we were able to have one last chance to visit with Chad's Uncle Bob, Aunt Janeece and cousins, Bryan and Natalie. Breakfast was wonderful and after that Riley went down for a nap at Chad's parents and they offered to bring him home when he woke up. Chad went to the office to work on a light plot and I went home to do laundry. It was nice to be home by myself for a bit doing things around the house. Chad and I met up to do our weekly grocery shopping and then Chad's mom brought Riley up there to meet us and we went home and made burgers for dinner. After we put Riley to bed we had a movie night and watched Marley & Me. It was REALLY GOOD and we enjoyed watching it with our puppies and petting them and loving on them. They were a little confused about all the extra attention, but we just kept on loving on them!

In puppy news, Riley is starting to get a lot better around Princess. At first, he only wanted to be held if she was inside, but the other night she was playing with him while he was on the couch and then he actually got down on the floor and played with her!

(oooo! Puppy kisses!)

(Playing cars with Princess!)

(Puppy kisses again!)

Yesterday we got up semi-early to meet our dear friends, Jarrett, Hillary and Aidan at the zoo. We had such a good time exploring the zoo with them. And Riley took his very first carousel ride and loved it! Here are some pics of our zoo adventure (Thanks Hill-for some of these pics!):

(The Daddies and the Boys: Just walking in to the zoo)

(Looking at the gorillas...for such a cool building, Riley always wants to rush through. I don't the he likes the noise of the waterfalls inside!)

(The Mommies and the Boys!)

(Playing on the termite mounds!)

(Riley just fed a bird and was REALLY excited about it!)

(I'm trying to get a bird on my seed stick for Ry, while he patiently watched)

(There we go! Riley feeding a bird! This is by far my favorite part of the zoo!)

(The boys thought this kangaroo statue was really cool!

(Riley's FIRST carousel ride!

We decided that this would be our last zoo trip until the Fall when the weather starts cooling off again. It was not as hot as it could have been, but it was pretty humid and there was not a lot of wind.

Riley was dozing off before we even got out of the zoo parking lot, so we took him home for a nap and when he woke up we went swimming at Mike & Christina's house. The pool was a little chilly, but as long as the sun was out it wasn't too bad. We were excited to get Riley in the pool for the first time this summer and he enjoyed it, as long as we didn't get his hair wet. I'm not sure when he started having such an aversion to water on his head, but he cries every night when we wash his hair. I got a couple of pics of Riley in the pool:

We enticed him to get out by telling him we were going to see Nana & Papa! (Not sure how much longer that trick will work!) and we got dressed and went to the airport to pick up Nana & Papa who then took us to dinner to end our weekend.

On a final note, Riley has a new saying that he has been repeating lately and we cannot translate. It is "No Monee" “Mon” sounds like “on”. First I thought it was "Don't Make Me" but I am still not sure. We have asked his teacher and everyone we can think of and the suggestions have ranged from "No Mommy" which we don't think it is because he can say Mommy very clearly, or "No Honey" (that is a possibility). Any ideas anyone? In the meantime, we have just taken to responding "Yes Monee"