Panes of Glass

Merry Texas Christmas, Y’all! (Part 2)

Julie — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 05:00:58 +0000

After spending a week in Bridge City, we switched to my side of them family on Christmas Eve. Mom, Dad, and we celebrated with Traci & Rich at their house, since all of their babies were still in the NICU at Texas Children’s Hospital. We were able to go to church on Christmas morning. We held off on opening gifts until my older sister, Amber, and her sweet girls, Kendall and Lainey joined on the 26th. Next year, the Dvorak Crew will add a bit more chaos to the mix, I am sure!

New toys are serious business!

Relaxing with Dad after opening gifts…

My older sister had the brilliant idea to give her girls old iPhone 3s (now iPod Touches), available after she and my mom upgraded to iPhone 4s. They LOVED them and didn’t ask to play with our phones! Aren’t they adorable?!?

My Dad (Papaw) came up with a wonderful idea to create mini versions of his plane, WindRunner, for each of his grandkids (all seven of them!). They turned out absolutely amazing! It was supposed to be a surprise for all of us, but he needed my help with the paint scheme and personalization of each plane. Each plane has the grandkid’s name under the pilot, the last name initial insignia on the tail and their birth dates as the ‘N Number’. He created all the pilots on his own, though… scarves included!

Our family of three!

The rest of the week was filled with spending time in the NICU with the Dvorak Crew, shopping, ice skating, coloring pictures for the Dvorak Crew, and chasing Katelyn around the house.

While in Texas, she has mastered several new skills! First, she officially started walking! She has also picked up a few new signs (‘help’ being the most common), she recognizes people, waves at anything (living or not), gives big hugs, blows kisses, and mimics animal sounds. Needless to say, she has enjoyed practicing these new-found skills, while her grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins have enjoyed seeing them!

All in all, we are so blessed and thankful to celebrate our Savior’s birth and be with our families this year!

Merry Texas Christmas, Y’all! (Part 1)

Julie — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 05:00:30 +0000

We started our Christmas celebration with Ryan’s family in Bridge City. Katelyn was adorable opening gifts, tackling her cousin, Cole, and just being adorable. She was so excited, she decided to bag a good portion of her naps, but at least she was able to enjoy her second Christmas in style!

Here are a few photos of the unwrapping mayham that ensued…

*Yawn* Tough work, opening gifts…

Our cute cousin, Cole, was Katelyn’s favorite!

One of Katelyn’s adorable new ‘things’ is giving BIG hugs… whether or not they are well-received. Here is Cole being *quite* the good sport!

Our family of three!

A blank canvas of a cast is waaayyyyyy to tempting! Ryan requested ‘Wolverine’, so here is the artwork he adorned for the remaining weeks of having his cast!

The cast was removed replaced with a walking boot on January 2nd. He will keep that until early February… halfway healed!

A Bellingham Christmas!

Julie — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 05:00:51 +0000

Since our Christmas season will be spent traveling back to TX to visit both of our families, we wanted to celebrate our Christmas with Katelyn a little early. She had a great time unwrapping the gifts, although seemed a bit confused as to why we were letting her create a mess… her dream come true!

These are for me!!! (In case mom and dad were confused…)

Wrapping paper is the best gift, really…

She now will bring us books and settle into our laps so we can ‘read’ together. It is so much fun!

She loved the Christmas tree… we forewent our own tree this year, due to her curious nature, but she had plenty of Christmas tree admiration time in TX!

Speaking of curiousity… the perfect gift for our little munchkin!

We had a great time! Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

p.s. Ryan’s Achilles Tendon surgery went well and he is on the way to recovering. Crutches are a daily companion, but he is getting better and better at navigating with them!

Walking… On Her Knees?!?

Julie — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 01:43:41 +0000

Katelyn has taken a literal step up from crawling. Her new, favorite mode of transportation is her knees. It is one of the funniest things to see! She can go this way across the entire room. Although she has taken, what we consider, her first real step, apparently this is way more fun in her world!

In other Katelyn news, she is learning to drink milk from a straw cup. This is one step away from torture in her world at this time, but we are getting there. I, personally, LOVE the look of this cup, and that it rarely leaks. Hopefully, in a few more weeks the drama will be over. At least as it pertains to milk and a straw…

Our favorite little Santa’s Helper!

And, in other Riley news, Ryan ‘ruptured’ his Achilles Tendon playing soccer this weekend. He will hopefully have surgery this week and start to be on the mend. Then, its 8 weeks of crutches as he recovers. He has handled it all like a champ, but a late night trip to the ER is never fun. Thankfully, we had some amazing friends offer to stay at our house so Katelyn stayed obliviously asleep through the whole ordeal!

Family of Three: One Year Later

Julie — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 04:19:59 +0000

We recently had our good friend, Dede O’Brien (with the help of her daughter, also Caitlin), take photos of our Katelyn at one year, as well as family photos. She is such a talented photographer and we had a great time! Here are some of our favorites!

Leaves, leaves & more leaves!

We brought our cute, engraved steel bucket our friends! the Keiths, gave us for being a part of their wedding. We love it!

Peek-a-boo!

We get this wrinkle-nose expression ALL the time…

Comin’ to get us!

Ryan’s Granny made this beautiful white blanket just for Katelyn. It is quite special!

Katelyn & her daddy…

Katelyn Sandwich! She LOVES this. Always, as you can tell…

Oblivious…

I love my family!

First Birthday: Sequins, Cake, & Ruffles

Julie — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 22:31:27 +0000

After 2 1/2 days with my family, we switched to Ryan’s family. Ryan went with his dad to go hunting, while Katelyn & I met Cathy at the Bridge City High School football game. My mother-in-law, Cathy, is the director of the drill team, the Bridge City Strutters. One of her ‘Strutter moms’ made Katelyn a mini-Strutter outfit to wear last Christmas. Top it off with a red hat, tights, and white boots, and needless to say, she was a hit at the game! All of the Strutters loved seeing her and she loved watching them. So many sequins & fringe to look at!

Saturday, we joined up with the men at the Deer Camp. Katelyn’s birthday weekend will almost always fall on Opening Weekend of Deer Season (a very big weekend on the Riley side). The influx of pink, balloons, and butterflies amongst camouflage was a sight! We had quite a celebration with a cake for Katelyn and a cake (my favorite!) for everyone else.

Again, you can tell she is not afraid of sugar!

On Sunday, Cathy & I went to Shangri La Botanical Gardens in Orange, TX (nearby their house). What a beautiful retreat! Katelyn had a great time looking at all the flowers and scarecrows…

… and being one!

Cathy got her this adorable First Birthday Outfit. Cupcakes are quite the theme in our house!

What a great trip, albeit short. Katelyn was, yet again, a super-star traveler. We are already looking forward to Christmas!

First Birthday: Our Little Cupcake

Julie — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 05:00:35 +0000

Katelyn’s First Birthday will be celebrated in parts this year. In Texas with my family and Ryan’s family, then maybe a third party back in Bellingham. She normally does not like having food on her hands, so we were very surprised with how she handled her cupcake! Apparently, she has inherited her parents’ love of sweets!

We celebrated in the hospital with my sister, Traci, which made it even more special! Nonna & Papaw gave her some adorable clothes and books. Our nieces and my older sister & brother-in-law, Amber & Zane, gave her some more books… her favorite!

Quad Crew Has Arrived!

Julie — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 19:16:07 +0000

Unbelievable that God would plan these babies’ birth during one of the 2 1/2 days I was in Houston!!!!! And, on Katelyn’s original due date, which is awesome! Needless to say, I am THRILLED to be a part of this special time. I have included the birth story from Traci’s blog below (quadcrew.wordpress.com), along with pictures. I happened to have my nice camera due to Katelyn’s first birthday party that was happening this week. More photos on that to come, as we were able to celebrate at the hospital with Traci, Nonna & Papaw (my parents), and Ryan.

From Traci’s Blog:

Richard & I welcomed our little ones into the world last night, November 2nd! We made it to 30 weeks and 3 days, and the doctor is very pleased with their development at this gestation. Up until yesterday, I had experienced no pain with the contractions that I was monitoring daily. My twin sister, Julie, her daughter, Katelyn, and Mom came over yesterday morning as the Rileys had just come in from Bellingham for a few days to visit! This day is very special to my side of the family, as it is the birthday of my grandfather, Papa, and the original due date of my niece, Katelyn, just a year ago.

Around 11am the contractions started hurting and coming every 2 – 5 minutes, and the doctor had me come onto the hospital. Richard came to get me and on the way to the hospital back labor set in, in addition to the existing contractions. We arrived to St. Luke’s around 4pm. The contractions continued to get worse. The doctor ordered medicine to stop them, but it only slowed them down and left back labor untouched. Upon the medicine wearing off, all of it returned with vengeance. Because the contractions were not stopping, the doctor recommended we deliver the babies that evening.

Immediately, they prepped me for the operating room and Richard changed and moved our stuff to the Recovery Room. Around 7:30pm, the doctor began performing a C-Section to deliver Eenie, Meenie, Minie, & Mo!

Here are the stats – we will finalize names soon, but in the meantime, we will stick to Eenie, Meenie, Minie, and Mo:

Eenie (Girl):
7:40pm, 2 lbs 8.9 oz, 14 3/4″

Meenie (Girl):
7:42pm, 3 lbs, 16″

Minie (Girl):
7:42pm, 2 lbs 5 oz, 15 1/2″

Mo (Boy):
7:43pm, 2 lbs 9.8 oz, 14 3/4″

Here are a few in the Recovery Room… Look at all of those bracelets! One for each baby and one for me…

My sweet mama-of-four sister!

I am expecting to be discharged on Saturday, but the babies will remain at Texas Children’s until they are healthy enough to come home. We appreciate all of your prayers and look forward to keeping everyone updated as life continues!

Little Bug All Dressed Up!

Julie — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 03:24:42 +0000

Katelyn was fortunate enough to have TWO costumes to wear for Halloween this year – a Ladybug from my older sister and nieces and a glittery bumblebee from my mother-in-law. It is getting harder and harder to get a good picture of our very mobile child, but here are a few to make you laugh…

Then, we got together with the other three babes we blog often about… Katelyn’s friend, Analynne, was also a bumblebee this year. Clearly, Analynne is a bit more thrilled about her buzzy-ness in this photo than Katelyn.

We had a pirate (Calvin) and scarecrow (Will) as well. Pardon the blurry group pic… it was talent to get all four in there at once without one of them falling off the couch!

And, for the little ladybug. She was a bit more interested in eating the gingham bow, but still cute, none-the-less!

It was a great first Halloween!

Almost a Yearling!

Julie — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 21:20:30 +0000

I figured I should post about Katelyn’s very active 11th month, as we will celebrate her first birthday on November 4th! She has been ‘cruising’ more and more and just this weekend showed she could stand on her own for a few seconds! She will be walking before we know it! She has started signing (baby-style, that is), expressing her opinions, exercising her vocal chords, and enjoying her newfound freedoms. Its been a fun month!

She has learned to climb stairs (with supervision, of course)…

Officially mastered the straw, which makes her mama proud, as that is all I ever drink from. Plus, its cute to watch her imitate me! Notice the green block… she goes nowhere without it these days!

And, for a few cute videos! Every time Katelyn hears music she sways. It. Is. Awesome. Although, as soon as the video goes on (or she realizes its on), she always stops. I was a bit sneaky here, though…

Got Rhythm from Julie Riley on Vimeo.

We also have endless fun with this game. Anything on our heads is hilarious and MUST be taken off immediately. Especially when it is ‘Sir Turtle’!

And, for the funniest new trick…