46 weeks

Its Christmas Eve and I'm 46 weeks old!

New Daddy Ray, Jonathan, and Erika

Mommy and baby

The kids are stuck inside while Daddy grills outside

Great Aunt Anita is here!

At the Monterey Bay Aquarium

She was not afraid to stick her hands in the water and touch the sea creatures

Playing with sea kelp. Yes, she tried to eat it.

Watching the big wave crash over us - glad we are protected by the glass!

Riley wanted to get a close look at the huge deep sea fish

Go Illini! Sadly the Missouri Tigers beat us in basketball for the first time this decade.

Great Aunt Anita, Riley and Mommy

Daddy washed the car on Christmas Eve

and Mommy started the Monkey Bread for our Christmas breakfast

Happy baby and puppy

Crawling

YAY! Christmas pajamas!

We set out Christmas cookies and milk for Santa Claus

Hey, those cookies are for Santa!

Just when I cleared all the beads and ornaments off the lower branches of the tree Riley realized she could use the presents to pull up and reach higher ornaments.

Chewing on Mom's new measuring spoons while sitting next to her combine book.

Mountain biking gloves!

Christmas Eve bedtime story "How The Grinch Stole Christmas"

We are loving the holidays! Saturday we made the quick trip to San Jose to see Big Ray's new baby, Jonathan Lucas who was born on Dec. 10. The family is so happy and doing wonderfully.

Then we had a visit from Great Aunt Anita. She is my dad's sister, one of 8 kids, and she hasn't lost her touch. She and Riley played all kinds of crazy games and had a blast. Anita took us to the Monterey Bay Aquarium which was awesome because 1. it is an amazing aquarium and 2. she is a professor of marine biology and made a VERY knowledgeable tour guide. Even though she's young Riley had a fantastic time! We were there for 4 hours and she was happy the entire time. She really studied the fish; when a large fish swam by she would track it as long as possible. Riley thoroughly enjoyed the hands-on part of the aquarium and had fun touching star fish, crabs, abalone and sea kelp. However, she might have liked watching the other kids more than the fish! Chad and I absolutely love this aquarium and this trip was even more special. Seeing it through Riley's fresh eyes coupled with Anita's expertise made it very memorable.

And now her first Christmas is here! She has been playing with the presents under the tree for weeks and finally we've slowly started opening gifts. So far Riley's favorite present is...tissue paper! She is happiest when she has a sheet in each hand. We baked, decorated and set out gingerbread men and milk for Santa. Riley grabbed one faster than we could take the picture and so had her first taste of a cookie. She seemed to like it.

This is truly a joyous time for our family and we are so happy to share Christmas with our baby. However, we miss our families in IL so much right now and are thinking of you. Hope you all have a wonderful, Merry Christmas!