December 4, 2010

In Germany on December 4th the children put out there shoes for Saint Nick to come and fill them with candy if they have been good. But if the children have been bad he fills their shoes with rocks, sticks, and coal to warn them they need to start acting good before Christmas. St Nick comes to the Riches house, so this year Marley got to put her boots out with the girls, to see how she was acting. Well good news her boots were filled with candy and nuts when she woke up the next morning. she was very excited to dig into her boots. Very cute tradition, and i think we will be carrying it into our family too.

Marley the Monkey

so this is the kind of stuff that Uncle Trey does with his free time. He could of least put it on a cute baby monkey, but know he had to go and put it on a big huge gorilla.

Box Girl

One of Marley's Birthday presents came in a very big box. Later in the evening she decided she wanted to play in it, well because she could not see anything Nana took it upon herself to make er eye and arm holes. This made it much more fun for Marley, i think a little more fun then what actually came in the box. She is a silly girl.

Birthday Party #3

Marley's 3rd and finally party of the year was yesterday, it was so much fun. Sesame decorations everywhere and she had a Elmo rice crispy cake made by Peg Beria and a Cookie Monster cake made by me. She loved both of them. she could not wait to eat them , she kept trying to sneak bites when i was not looking. Because it was a birthday party for me and Marley i got to pick what was for dinner, and we had Twice baked potatoes, steak and fresh green beans, everything was delicious. Marley had tons of fun opening presents too. She got 2 Tea sets, which she loves to play with. A, new Dora movie and Veggie tale movie, Ruby red slippers, A cute outfit, A baby set that comes with a stroller, bed, and a swing that can be changed into a high chair and a carrier. A xylophone, tall stacker, chocolate winter coat, peek-a-boo baby, gift card to McDonald's, and $30. She did really good this year and presents. She is a lucky girl, and thank you to all who helped with the party's and for the great gifts. I cant believe my baby girl is 2. And i know the next year is going to go by so fast and we will be right here again. But i can wait.

Cookie Monster cake made by me, and Elmo rice crispy cake made by Peg Beria.

Meygen was there via Skype, which i thought was really nice. Even when no one was paying attention to her. She stayed on skype through out the whole party. Lots of brownie points to Auntie Meygen.

Trey had fun playing with all the girls giving them horse rides.

And then they crashed.

Birthday Party #2

We had a birthday party for Marley and her Grandmas house, it was tons of fun, she had a blast with all her cousins. We had yummy steak, chicken, beans and rice. Of course Marley ate nothing. (Big surprises there) She did however eat her cake and ice cream, which she loved. She is becoming a pro at blowing out her candles too. We are trying to practice saying "I'm 2" but Marley's struggling a little. I'm sure she can say it, she is just stubborn and wont. She received cute Dora outfits and Dora pajamas, a mini laptop, which she loves. A go to sleep Dora doll, a bath time baby, and from mommy and daddy a toilet seat and big girl panties. She defiantly loves opening presents and seeing what great stuff is inside. Shes a lucky girl she gets to have one more party.

Daddy's wonderful decorating

Cute Cousins

Uncle Jose opening Marley's toys for her.

Airplane

This was the second time Marley has flown on a airplane. But the first time for her to really know what was going on. It all went very well to and from Sacramento. Marley did so good on the plane she actually loved flying a lot. while waiting to take off she started saying 1..2...3..BLAST OFF, 1..2..3..BLAST OFF. She said this about 5 times till we finally took off. and as soon as the plane started to move she looked up at me and said, "we are flying, we are flying". It was really cute. During the flights she slept most of the way which was nice for me, especially on the way up to Sacramento because she had to sit on my lap the whole time. But on the way back home she got to sit in her own seat which she loved. I think her favorite part about flying was the landing though, because as we landed and hit the road, she got this big surprise happy look on her face because of the big bump it was very funny. I'm glad she loves to fly it takes stress off me, because i did not want to have the crying baby on the airplane, so all went well.

Bird Feeding

While in Napa went to Cody's mom Kim's work to visit for lunch. On campus about 2 minutes away there is a huge pound with millions of birds. Kim had a ton of bread for Marley and Brayden to feed the ducks, geese, and sea gulls. As far as i know this is Marley's first time feeding ducks, and I think i scared her a little because I'm deathly afraid of geese, the noise they make scared the crap out of me, so of course when i screamed at the gooses walking are way, i freaked out my own daughter. So unfortunately it took a while for Marley to warm up to feeding the ducks but she did eventually kind of get into it. In the end i know she had a ton of fun. she would not get close but she did throw the bread as far as she could to the ducks without getting too close. It was tons of fun and we will have to do it again.

Reading Books

Cody called me into the back room the other night, to come check out Marley. As i walk in she is sitting on Brandon's lap while he is reading a book. It was sooo cute. Then Brayden wanted to join to, so now Brandon had two cutie patooties on his lap, it was adorable.

Marley i think has been having some with drawls not seeing all the men in her life like she is use to. IE, her daddy and uncles and papas. she has been needing some male bonding and Brandon is doing a great job with that. Marley wants to follow him every were it is very cute.

Marley's 2nd Birthday

November 19, 2010. Marley is 2 years old. Armando and I feel like she just came out my belly, she is growing so fast. We remember the days when Marley was so helpless and you had to do everything for her, and now she is a big girl and wants to do everything by herself. Mando and I will always remember the day we were blessed to have a beautiful healthy little girl enter our life., as I'm sure any parent would. she has made us laugh, smile, cry, angry, frustrated, but most of all loved. She loves to give hugs and kisses and tell us she loves us and i think that those are the moments Mando and i look forward to everyday. She has grown into quite the little toddler no longer a baby. and We cant wait to see what she does next. Marley we love you sooooo much.

Anyway getting back to her birthday. Because Marley and I are in Sacramento visiting Cody, brnadon, and Brayden. We did not have a big celebration for her, those will be coming when we get back to San Diego. Marley woke up to the tradition of Birthday Cereal and balloons. For those who don't know, in my family as a child my mom did not buy a lot of sugar cereal so on our birthdays we would always get to wake up to our favorite sugar cereal which we called our Birthday Cereal. My family has been doing as far back as i can remember so of course I'm doing for Marley. She got Lucky charms as her birthday cereal, because she LOVES the marshmallows. When Marley was eating her cereal i noticed she was only eating the marshmallows, she did not eat the other pieces of cereal i found this quite funny. But i allowed it because it was her birthday, can tell her no or make her eat stuff she does not want on her birthday. hehe.

Birthday Cereal

For dinner decided to go to McDonald's because Marley loves It there and her favorite food is hamburgers and french fries. It was still lots of fun we sang a quiet Happy Birthday and she even got to blow a candle out on her hamburger.

Birthday Dinner

Cody and Brandon

Little Brayden

After dinner we came home to presents and cake. Now Cody and I just threw together a cake, so its not the best looking one, but it did taste good, Marley loved it and that's all that matters. She opened her presents and received two Christmas/Winter feet PJ's and 4 Dr. Seuss books. she loved opening the presents, but wanted to eat cake more. So we pushed the presents aside and Marley went straight for the cake, and as usual no spoon needed over all it was a fun good day, and i hope the year goes by slow cause Mando and I are not ready for her to be 3.

Marley's Cake

Blowing out the candles

Opening presents

Eating cake

She decided to take a bite out of the candle, she did not care for it.

Her Birthday Present