Changes!

We are getting ready for some fun changes here in the Long household! The obvious is a new baby, but I haven't done NEAR what I need to do in order to prepare for her arrival!!! That is coming soon...I promise!

First of all, even though we haven't officially started potty training, I did buy a little potty for Riley to start exploring the idea. This was suggested by our pediatrician and even though we are no where close to really potty training, I thought it wouldn't hurt to have one around. As you can see below...it's just a toy right now!!

Riley is also getting ready to have some summer fun time at home with mom. One of his favorite things to do is to play in the water outside (well being outside in general is wonderful to him, but being outside AND in the water is even better). I am so thankful to have a job where I have the summer off!! Today was my last day! In the picture below, you can see that his shirt is wet because he played in the sprinkler. He also love wearing daddy's boots when he gets home from work.

(I have no idea why it is underlining my text, but I don't have time to fix it) And then last, but not least, like I mentioned in an earlier post....we are moving!!! Yipee!! We couldn't be happier. When I get back from Louisiana, I will have another week in this house and then we'll be in the new one. I have some pictures of the current one and the new one, but let me just say first that 1- we were very thankful to have this home while we did, 2- this new home is nothing fancy, I know, but it is new and bigger and that is all that matters to us right now, 3- there are some downfalls to the new home, but I won't even mention them because I want to stay positive!!

Here is our current home. I do love the tree right in front and the privacy that the "wall" gave us while on the patio...but, I won't miss the lovely window units!!!

And here is the new one. It is a duplex, but still very nice. We haven't been in yet, but have peeked through our windows. There are 4 bedrooms upstairs (all pretty good sized) and the living room, dining room, kitchen, laundry room and half bath downstairs. There is a little fenced in yard off to the side with a nice little patio. We are very anxious to get in and get settled. Trying to decide what colors to paint!!! I can't decide whether to play it safe or try something fun!!!

Have a great weekend everyone!!

My Boys!

Today has been such a wonderful Mother's Day! I've been thinking alot today about several things. First of all, about the wonderful mother, grandmothers and mother-in-law I've had in my life. They've all had such an influence on my spiritual life and I'm so thankful for that. I've also been thinking about the days when I wondered if I would ever be a mother (and a wife). Those were some difficult times. I never heard the Lord say one way or another if I would get married or have children, but I just decided to trust that He would make my heart ok with whatever He decided to do with my life. I'm not saying it was always easy to trust Him....sometimes it was a daily decision! Anyway, I just want to encourage any of you who are also waiting to see what He has in store for your life. Hang in there and keep close to Him.

In addition to being thankful for the women in my life, I am also so very thankful for these two boys! They made today so very special! We spent several hours at the beach and it was so relaxing. Sometimes it is not, but today was different.

Here is Riley pulling his puppy in a wagon! He is just too funny. This little boy makes me smile so much. I just can't get enough of him. And soon his little sister will be making things very interesting around here. I will let you know the name we've decided on in the next post!

And for a bit of exciting news....we are MOVING!!! Woo hoo!! Not away from the island, but to a new home. We are beyond excited. It will all be happening mid-June. We are still going to be living next to our current neighbors (they are awesome and we couldn't be happier about this). The best part is that our house will have 4 bedrooms!!! So....bring on the guests! We will have plenty of room for visitors. Love you and miss you all!

Happy 18 Months Riley!

Riley is 18 months old today! I can't believe he is already a year and a half. He is growing up too fast.

At 18 months of age, this is what he is up to:

- Loving to be outside (and now saying "outside")

- Still getting some teeth (we are up to 10, maybe 11 as of today)

- Saying all kinds of words like airplane, bug, up, book, ball, dog, hi, bye, cheese, banana, more, please, hot, eye, nose, mama, daddy...I know there are more, but I can't think of them right now. The only 2-word phrase he has said is "bye da" when we were leaving Edmond one morning.

-Understanding almost everything we say...not always doing it, but seems to understand

-Playing with everything in the kitchen that is not a toy and making a MESS

- Loving animals of all kinds (except bugs...I think he has seen me freak out one too many times and now he is starting to do the same)

-Not eating as much of a variety as I would like. We are still doing some baby food vegetables because he won't have much to do with real veggies. He usually likes mac and cheese, grilled cheese, cheese quesadillas (think he likes cheese?), scrambled eggs, chicken nuggets, french fries, all kinds of fruit, all kinds of sweets.

-Enjoys reading his books and watching his shows on TV

He has been so much fun! He keeps me moving, that's for sure!

To celebrate, we took him to Sea Life Park today (we had been planning to do this for weeks really..it just so happened to end up on his 18 month birthday)! He is way too fast for me to get a good picture of these days so these will have to do.

Riley's new thing..running right up to the camera and saying "cheese" while squatting!

I think we said look at the camera and he is pointing to and saying "eye".

All he wanted all day was to be down and free!

I thought I would get a good shot of him smelling or looking at the flower...of course it went into his mouth!

Looking at the dolphins with Daddy!

Showing us and saying "bug"...one of his new words.

Here are a few pics of the animals we saw. It was fun, but we quickly realized that Riley is not at the best age to do something like this. He wanted to get in the water with all of the animals and threw a fit when he couldn't. We still had a fun morning!

What a view!!!! This park (which is very similar to Sea World) is located right off of the coast. This mountain/island was behind the dolphin area. Just beautiful!

That's all for now! We should hear pretty soon about our move and about Edmond's schedule of trainings for which he will be gone. We will keep you posted!