Nay Kids

Birthday Girl

2012-01-25T09:21:00.000-08:00

Our sweet little princess turned 1 on Sunday. Wow, where did the time go? We feel so blessed to have this sweet girl in our family. She makes us smile constantly. And of course, we couldn't let the day pass without celebrating with friends and a party!

On Saturday afternoon, we had a bunch of friends over to help us celebrate Chloe's special day. It's a tradition in our family to let the birthday child go to town on their own little cake or cupcake, and Chloe was no exception. The minute I pulled the candle out of that cupcake, she dove right in. The girl loves her chocolate!
It's safe to say that Chloe got very spoiled! Not only did Chloe's Nana fly clear across the country to be here for her birthday, but she also brought lots of presents! Along with the clothes, toys, and books from her other grandparents in the mail and friends at her party. Thanks everyone for spoiling my baby rotten!

I got super excited about Chloe's birthday party and went a little crazy. The theme for the party was The Very Hungry Caterpillar. I made circle fold out invitations that looked like the caterpillar from the book. They said, "We can hardly believe a year has passed. Our little caterpillar has grown so fast. Come join us for some food and fun. Little Chloe Nay is turning 1!" They turned out really cute, but of course I handed them all out before taking a picture. At the party, all of the kids that wanted to made their own butterfly party hat. Chloe wore hers for about 30 seconds before pulling it off and ripping it.

We also played pin the party hat on the caterpillar. Thank you Avery Dennison for the paper.

Instead of a cake, I made green cupcakes and set them out to look like a caterpillar's body.

What's a birthday without a banner? Like I said, I got excited and went a little nuts! For the food, we had apples, grapes, cheese, crackers, pineapple, yogurt, and mac n cheese. All of Chloe's favorites. Next to the food I made little tags that said "On Monday she ate through one apple, but she was still hungry" etc. I was really happy with how the party and decorations turned out. We had about 15 adults and 13 little kids crammed into our little apartment for an hour and a half. It was pure madness, but we loved it. Chloe loved watching the other kids and eating all of the yummy food. She was such a happy girl through the whole party.

I still can't believe that my baby is 1. She even looks bigger and has been acting older lately. We love this little sweetheart so much and can't wait to see what kind of adventures and discoveries will happen this next year.

Happy 2012!

2012-01-05T08:45:00.001-08:00

HAPPY 2012!

We hope that all of you are enjoying the New Year so far.

I know that we sure had fun ringing it in.

Of course we started out our evening by getting all dressed up.

We couldn't go out without our tutu, beads, and tiara.

Then off to dinner with Mommy and Daddy. Boy, was I a sight to see.

Everyone in my path had to stop and smile.

After dinner, I started getting tired and grumpy, so it was off to bed for me.

As for Mommy and Daddy, they stayed up and watched the ball drop in Time Square on TV.

I think their heads hit the pillow at exactly 12:01 AM.

Hooray for a New Year and new adventures!

Christmas.....Georgia Style

2011-12-27T12:55:00.000-08:00

Christmas this year was unlike any other. Mainly thanks to this sweet little cutie! Here she is in her new Christmas dress.

This year, we stayed here in Georgia and celebrated Christmas as our own little family. Even though Chloe had no idea what was going on, I think she could feel the excitement bursting out of me and Riley. We decided to open presents on Christmas Eve morning, mainly because we couldn't wait any longer, but also because we had 9AM church and 2 dinner arrangements on Christmas day.
After opening presents, Chloe was on stimulation overload! She was definitely ready for her blankey and bed. Riley and I went a little overboard on buying her presents, as well as the generosity of our family members. Point blank, Chloe is SPOILED!

Chloe was more excited about the contents of her stocking (yogurt bites and puffs) than she was with most of her presents. Every time we'd put a new present in front of her, she'd look at it, and then grab for her stocking. Silly girl!
We got a real tree this year, about 4 feet tall, and set it up on an end table. We thought that for sure Chloe would love the tree. Well, she didn't. She was actually kind of scared of it. When she first saw it at the lot, we let her touch it and ever since than, she did not like it. But the lights, that's another story. She loved looking at them.
Santa (AKA Riley) was very good to me this year. I guess he thinks I've been pretty nice, because he got me an IPad!!!!! We've been talking about getting one for a while, but decided that it was too expensive, so instead, we'd start an IPad fund and save up a little each week. Little did I know, Riley had already bought one and had it secretly hidden away in the closet. What a sneaky hubby! I was ecstatic when I opened it! Now, I gotta figure out how to use it.

Our ward had a really fun Christmas party, with a special guest appearance from Santa. I thought that Chloe would freak out being set on some strange dude's lap. But no, instead she just gave him here classic Chloe blank stare and tried to steal his jingle bells.
Our little family was invited over to Christmas dinner by 2 different friends. First he had dinner with our friends the Frei family at her aunts home in Atlanta. We ate a lot of yummy food and enjoyed every one's company. Chloe especially loved the company of Bella, the dog. She'd clap and giggle when it came close, and sat there and took it while the dog licked her face.
Next, we went to Riley's co-worker's home for our second dinner.They are such a fun couple, and just adore Chloe. They too have dogs that Chloe loved to play with. We are so grateful for both of these families, making us feel so loved and welcome on Christmas.

We hope that all of you had a wonderful Christmas and enjoyed your time with family and friends as much as we did. I'm so grateful for the true meaning of Christmas, for my Savior who gave us the greatest gift of all. Happy Holidays Ya'll!

Our Little Doodle-Bug

2011-12-16T10:01:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile since I've posted updates on our little monkey. So here I go, with pictures of course. Chloe loves to eat! Her favorites right now are yogurt bites, yogurt, toast, and anything I happen to be eating. She gets so excited whenever she sees her high-chair. She's also awesome with her pincer grasp; maybe a little too awesome. She's gotten really good at picking up one little bit of food after the other without any regards to chewing and swallowing. Riley often refers to her as our "human garbage disposal."

Chloe loves her blankey. She has to have this blankey to sleep. Whenever we wrap her up in it, she'll rub her face against it and then look up with a huge smile. I never would have picked this blanket as her comfort object, but she did and she loves it! Yes, she's sleeping with her butt in the air.

So, our little monkey is still not crawling; well not forwards anyway. She's really good at getting up on her hands and knees and rocking, but then she ends up pushing herself backwards with her hands. She's pretty much mastered crawling backwards and pivoting, but as for going forward, no such luck. Only being able to crawl backwards has been really frustrating for Chloe and for us. She's always getting stuck in the corners or under her crib and isn't able to get out. She'll just cry and cry until we come and move her; and then it usually starts all over again. I keep hoping that she'll get stuck against the wall one day and then magically push off and start crawling forward. Hasn't happened yet, but my fingers are still crossed. Learning to crawl has been further halted with Chloe's new learned ability to go from her stomach to sitting. I'll put her on her stomach and within a minute she'll be sitting up, content to play with whatever is in reach. She sure has a mind of her own. I know that I shouldn't compare, but I'm guilty of looking at the younger, crawling babies in our ward and wondering what's wrong with mine. Then, I have to remind myself that all babies develop at their own rate, and she will when she's ready. In the mean time, I'm kind of grateful that she's not getting in to everything yet.

Chloe is such a little goof. Her personality seems to have exploded the past month. She is always jabbering a string of random consonants and then giggling to herself. She thinks that grabbing mommy's nose and pulling off daddy's glasses is the best thing ever. I sure love this funny little monkey!

Utah in November

2011-12-09T05:35:00.000-08:00

The week before Thanksgiving Chloe and I flew out to Utah, with Riley following a few days later, to visit with family and take a much needed break. Before Riley showed up, I was able to spend some time with my mom, step-dad, sisters, and crazy little nephews. Chloe warmed up to everyone pretty fast, for Chloe. It was so nice to visit with everyone and just relax.
Once Riley got there we spent time with his family. His sister and new husband came down from Boise and his brother and his family came form Colorado. It was so much fun getting to spend time with so many people that we love. One of the highlights of our trip, aside from Riley whipping all of our booties at Hearts, was going to a BYU basketball game. And, because we're crazy BYU fans we couldn't help but dress our baby as the cutest little cougarette cheerleader ever! Eventhough it was well past her bedtime, Chloe loved the game. She was smiling, laughing, and dancing the whole time.
All good things must come to an end, and sadly, ours ended in the stomach flu. First Riley got it the night before he left to go home, then his little sister Chelsea, and then me. It was NO fun.
Luckily for me, I had my amazing in-laws there to watch Chloe, even taking her to church with them, while I tried to sleep and get better. Then, I went back to my mom's house and the pampering continue. By Monday morning I was feeling pretty good, which worked out perfectly because I still hadn't seen my dad and step-mom. After a fun lunch with them and my sisters, we headed back to mom's to back up for the long plane ride home. We loved getting to visit with so much of our family and share our little monkey with them. We love you all like crazy and already miss you lots and lots. Sorry I don't have more pictures, I was too busy enjoying myself to remember to pull out the camera.

Happy Cowoween

2011-11-29T10:16:00.001-08:00

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Now that it's almost Christmas, I think I'll finally post some Halloween pictures. As you can see, our sweet little Chloe dressed as a cow. The cutest cow ever, I must say!

Her favorite part of the costume was the cow-bell. She loved shaking it and listening to the ding-ding sound. Riley and I were both pretty happy when Halloween was over so that we could put that thing away. It got to be a little annoying, but Chloe loved it for the time being.

Our little family enjoyed a fun ward party/trunk or treat, where we ate yummy food and passed out candy. Chloe had no idea what was going on, so she was pretty content sitting in the trunk passing out candy with us.
On Halloween night we were invited over to the home of a family in our ward for a massive Halloween party. This family invited the whole ward to their home to celebrate. There was so much yummy/creepy food and lots of good company. The part that I enjoyed the most was the 30 foot long fire pit in the backyard. That thing was pretty awesome. Believe it or not, it was actually pretty cold that night. We had a great Halloween. It's been really fun experiencing all of these firsts with our sweet little cow.

Birthday Man

2011-10-13T08:30:00.000-07:00

My old man celebrated his 26th birthday on the 4th. Hooray for Riley!

We had a quiet little party at home with cake and presents. Chloe loved helping Riley open his presents. I think she's ready for Christmas and her birthday.

For our anniversary last year, we got a blu-ray player. Now, for birthday's and holidays we've been collecting the Disney classics. Lion King came out just in time for Riley's birthday.

Sad story; a few days before Riley's birthday, some idiot broke into our apartment mailbox kiosk and stole all of the outgoing mail and the packages. That just so happened to be the day that Riley would have recieved a birthday package from his parents. Why are people so stupid?
In better news, Riley's big present, an I Phone 4S should be coming in the mail soon, UPS. My man loves his electronics! Happy Birthday Riley! We love you!

September

2011-09-26T09:35:00.000-07:00

September has been a pretty eventful month in the lives of us Nays. We decided to start out the month with a BYU football road trip. We drove the 5 hours from Georgia down to Mississippi for the BYU vs Ole' Miss game. We had a blast! The only downside was that Chloe had an awful cold. She had a nasty booger nose and a hard time breathing at night, so she was really out of it the whole trip. It's sad what teething will do to a baby.

Our future Cougarette with her Daddy!

So, we've come to the conclusion that Chloe is never gonna crawl because she hates tummy time. If she's on her tummy, and can't reach a toy, then she'll put her head down and start to cry. The only time that she seems to be somewhat ok with tummy time is right after her bath, when all she has on is a diaper. That kid sure has a mind of her own!

Chloe LOVES finger foods! She's got the pincer grasp down really well. She would probably eat those Gerber fruit puffs all day if I'd let her.

This little monkey is already 8 months old, and a hefty 18.5 pounds. We love her little marshmallow body. Chloe also has her two bottom teeth. It took several sleepless nights to get those suckers to pop through.

Saturdays are our family days. We like to try to do something fun and exciting when Riley doesn't have to work. A few weeks ago we bought a year long zoo pass. The Atlanta zoo is really nice and something fun that Riley and I enjoy. Chloe's still oblivious to the awesome animals. This zoo has the cutest little baby gorilla. We probably watched it for a good 20 minutes. It was about the same size as Chloe and really adorable.
What a sweet little lion!

Georgia is slowly starting to grow on us. Our ward is really amazing, and the bishop didn't waste any time putting us to work. Riley was recently called as the Young Men's President and I was called to be an Activity Days leader. Wednesday nights have already been a little bit of a struggle with the baby, but Riley and I are both enjoying getting to know the youth. Also, Chloe and I go to a music/playgroup every Tuesday with several cute moms and their little ones. Chloe and I have both enjoyed making new friends. Maybe Georgia might not be so bad after all.

Utah Get-Away

2011-09-10T16:12:00.000-07:00

In the middle of August, Riley said goodbye to his girls for two weeks, as Chloe and I headed off to Utah. Frontier Airlines was having AMAZING deals, so we had to take advantage. The best part was that we got to fly directly in to Provo. I made sure that we had no real agenda while on our trip, because I wanted us to be able to relax and go at our own pace; and that's exactly what we did. Some of our highlights included:

Taking a bath in Grandma Nancy's kitchen sink. Our trip was wonderful, in that we got to spend a lot of time with Riley's family as well as mine.

My mom, sister Tiffany, and I went and saw the movie The Help, and left the little ones with Grandpa Kent. This is where we found Chloe when we got home. She fell asleep in the kangaroo jumper thing with the lights and music still going. That can't be comfortable!

Helping Aunt Chelsea play the piano. Chloe loves music and gets so excited when she hears it; especially primary songs.

We met up with our good friends Ben and Camille one night so that the future bride and groom could get to know each other a little better. Aren't they adorable? At one point baby Mattix was sucking on Chloe's toes. It was hilarious!

We spent a lot of time with my mom, sisters, and all the little boy cousins.

After finding out the the pool was closed on weekdays and the splash pad was contaminated with bacteria, we decided to have a water party in my mom's front yard. We all had a great time.

It took her a little while, but Chloe finally warmed up to both of my beautiful sisters. Maybe someday she'll get a girl cousin out of one of them! :)

We were lucky enough to fly into Provo the night before Katie and Dave (the newlyweds) moved to Boise. We had a great time catching up, and Chloe loved showing off for them.

Also while in Utah, Chloe's first tooth broke through. She was super ornery the days leading up to this breakthrough, but once it came in, she was happy as can be. Thank goodness!

We loved every minute of our visit, but after two weeks we were very happy to see Riley again. Thanks everyone for letting us visit! We love and miss you!

Girly Girl

2011-08-20T18:50:00.000-07:00

7 Months old and already a super girly girl! Chloe is fascinated by beaded necklaces, boas, dolls, fairies, and anything else that's fluffy or shiny.Who knew that Barbies could taste so good?

Can you say FASHIONISTA?

I love this picture of Chloe. She's such a little monkey; using her hands and feet for everything.

When all else fails....

2011-08-12T12:52:00.001-07:00

When all else fails.... swim in the bathtub!

This afternoon, I thought that it'd be a genius idea to take the little munchkin out for a dip in our apt complex pool. But, after getting me ready, the baby ready, and hauling the stroller, floaty, pool bag, and baby down 2 flights of stairs (not my favorite thing to do), it started to rain. Stupid rain! Back up stairs we went. I really didn't want all of my efforts to be in vain, and Chloe knows what her floaty means so she was pretty excited.
So, into the bathtub we went.

Our apartment has insanely huge tubs. We were able to fit me, Chloe, and her big yellow floaty quite comfortably.

Swimming in the tub was great! The water was the perfect temperature and we didn't have to worry about sunscreen. We stayed in until we were nice and pruney. HaHa! Phooey on you rain!

Hangin Out

2011-08-02T17:56:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, we decided to take a little drive and go visit the Atlanta temple. For some crazy reason we thought that it'd be fun to stroll the baby around and take some pictures. I think we lasted a total of 3 minutes before we were drenched from head to toe in sweat, and ready to go home.

The temple is really beautiful! We're excited to have one only 45 minutes away. Hooray!

Melting in the Georgia heat.

Chloe was such a good and happy baby!

Living here in Georgia, Chloe and I spend a lot of time just hangin out. We do a lot of this.....

and this......

and eating, we love eating!

Much of our day is filled with moments like these, where we just feel like stickin our tongue out at each other....

and giggling like crazy!

There's nothing quit like hangin out and being lazy with my sweet little munchkin!

Snip Snip

2011-07-24T18:08:00.000-07:00

We did it, we gave our baby girl her first hair cut. As you all know, Chloe was born with beautiful brown locks. I couldn't have been more excited to have a baby with hair, especially because I was a bald baby until about 2. However, in only six short months her hair went from being soft and even...

to looking like a horrible mix between a mohawk, mullet, and long side strands like a chinese man (no offense).

No matter what I tried, it just looked crazy and out of control.

So, we decided to save a few bucks and have Riley cut our little sweet peas hair. He's been cutting his own hair for years, so I was ok with letting him do it. I just wanted him to even things out the best he could. I must trust my husband a lot to put our daughter's hair in his hands! :)

All was well until Daddy turned on the buzzer.

Hey! I was rocking that look!

I hope we didn't traumatize our poor little baby for life.

After many tears, our sweet baby girl now looks like a sweet baby boy. It is really short, but I'm hopeful that it will now grow in nice and even and she'll have lush beautiful hair one day; in the mean time, thank goodness for cute little hair bows.

Riley did a great job, it's just gonna take a little getting used to.

Georgia

2011-07-21T18:04:00.000-07:00

As most of you know, we moved our little family to Georgia a few weeks ago. Avery Dennison transferred Riley to a plant down here. Riley keeps saying that his new position is the most stressful job ever born. Poor Riley! He's a trooper. Chloe and I sure love him.

So moving wasn't too bad because the company paid to have movers come and pack and load all of our stuff and then unload it at our new apartment. All I had to worry about has cleaning the old apartment, which isn't the easiest thing to do with a clingy baby, but we managed. The time between moving out of our apartment in Ohio and into our apartment in Georgia was 2 weeks. We were about ready to go crazy in the hotel rooms.

We chose to fly to Georgia and have the movers take our car. Chloe was a good baby and slept most of the airport wait and flight.

We had to get pretty creative for entertainment in the hotel room. Chloe discovered the wonders of her own toes. They haven't left her mouth ever since.

My mom and step-dad, Kent, drove across the country and spent a week with us in Georgia. They were a great help with getting things unpacked and keeping the baby entertained. I
think it's safe to say that we are getting pretty well settled in. Our apartment is on the third floor, which really stinks and it's insanely hot and humid, but I think we'll survive.

While mom and Kent were here, we went into Atlanta and visited the Georgia Aquarium. It was incredible looking at all the different fish and animal life under the sea. We got to pet sting rays and go through a tunnel with fish swimming over our heads. It was Awesome!

Chloe was in AWW the entire time. It was really fun to see the excitement on her face.

Chloe loved having her Nana and grandpa around. She was such a happy smiley baby the whole time they were here. Thanks Mom and Kent for making the long trip out here to see us. We love you!

A few quick Chloe updates:

-Chloe is again sleeping through the nights 8:30-7

-Chloe loves sucking on her toes.

-Chloe loves her baby food. She goes nuts whenever she sees those little plastic containers.

-Chloe loves putting her hands in Mommy and Daddy's mouths. It's fine until she decides to claw your gums.

-Chloe can sit up on her own for a few minutes at a time (See Video); at least until she gets excited and throws herself back. She looks like such a big girl.

Well folks, that's all for now!

Chloe's Happy Corner

2011-06-28T12:03:00.000-07:00

Only 5 months old and already she's being put in the corner....and she likes it!

Our little munchkin loves sitting in the corner of her crib.

This corner has officially been named "Chloe's Happy Corner." When she's sitting in it, she's nothing but smiles.

It shouldn't be too much longer before she's really sitting up on her own. For now, she's too interested in her toes to stay vertical for long.

A Weekend to Celebrate!

2011-06-20T06:36:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was full of celebrations. I celebrated the big 25 and Riley celebrated his first real Father's Day. Presents and treats all around!
Saturday morning I woke up to yummy cinnamon rolls and presents, along with a happy smiley baby. After beating Riley at Scrabble, we decided to go for a little swim and then shopping for birthday clothes, my favorite! Later in the evening we had a bunch of friends come over and eat cake and ice cream with us. It was a little crazy and loud, but lots of fun. Hurray for being 25! All day long, Riley was my little slave. If I didn't want to do something, I just pulled the "but it's my birthday" card and my wish was his command. It was awesome! Too bad I was the slave the next day with the "but it's Father's Day" card.

Sunday was Riley's first real Father's Day. I was pregnant last year, so that doesn't totally count. We had a pretty chill day. We had church, presents, and a long afternoon nap- thanks Chloe.

I feel so blessed to have this amazing man in my life. He's the greatest husband for me and the cutest little daddy for Chloe. I appreciate that he's willing to work so hard everyday to provide for our little family, and allow me to stay home with our little monkey girl. We love you Riley!

And of course, a blog post wouldn't be complete without lots of pictures of Chloe.

She sure loves her little feet!

Sleep...What's That?

2011-06-14T08:32:00.000-07:00

The past several nights, Chloe has been having a really hard time sleeping. Which means, that we've all had a really hard time sleeping. If the baby don't sleep, ain't nobody gonna sleep. The part that I don't get is that Riley and I wake up feeling like Zombies and Chloe wakes up all smiles. How does that work?

She's lucky that she's so dang cute and it's impossible to get mad at her when she flashes that slobbery smile.
Oh the joys of parenthood!

A First Time For Everything

2011-06-06T10:56:00.000-07:00

The past few days have been full of firsts for our Chloe girl. At her four month check-up, the pediatrician gave us the go ahead for rice cereal. It has taken awhile, but Chloe is finally figuring out the cereal belongs in her mouth, not her hands, hair, belly, or feet. She really seems to like it; well, what she's able to actually swallow of it. Already, she loves grabbing the spoon and trying to feed herself. She definitely lets me know when it's empty and she's ready for more.

As you can see, right after eating rice cereal is bath time!

Another first for Chloe is swimming in the pool. Our complex was finally able to open the pool, so on Memorial Day we decided to go for a little dip. Riley and I were really excited to see how Chloe would respond to the pool, because he loves bath time so much.
Here she is all decked out and ready to go.

Chloe loved the pool! She was kicking her little legs and having a grand ol' time.

I'm so glad that she loves the pool, because we'll be spending a lot of time there once we move to the sweltering heat of Georgia next month.

4 Months

2011-05-27T09:48:00.001-07:00

Our sweet little Chloe girl is 4 months old! She had her check up a few days ago, and here's how she's measuring up:
Weight: 14 lbs 1 oz (59th percentile)
Length: 25 inches (75th percentile)
Cuteness: 100% and off the charts!
Little Chloe is growing and developing so fast. She's so much fun. She has been getting really good at tummy time, and is able to hold her weight pretty well with her arms. She's also been rolling a lot; from back to belly and belly to back. She's a little stinker though, and only does it when Daddy's not around.

Chloe continues to LOVE bath time. The minute we get her naked and go into the bathroom, she's kicking up a storm. She knows what's coming.
As you can see, my sweet baby's hair is thinning. She has got some crazy bald spots and super attractive shag in the back. Thank goodness for headbands and bows! It also looks like she's going to have pretty light colored hair. I think if it's not blond, it will for sure be light brown.

We recently bought Chloe a Bumbo chair. I think she really likes being able to sit up and see what's going on around her. Without the Bumbo, she doesn't sit very well, but she sure tries. She loves to watch people. Her favorite way to be held is facing out so that she can see. She sure doesn't want to miss a thing. Sometimes it's kind of embarrassing how she will just stare at people. If she wasn't a baby, people might think she was a little bit of a freak, a really super sweet freak.

Check out those rubber-band rolls!

A few of Chloe's favorite things lately include:

-eating her hands or anything that she can get near her mouth

-blowing raspberries- especially when she's mad

-singing songs with mommy (she's doesn't seem to mind my bullfrog voice)

-babbling

-being naked

The other day, while singing Old McDonald, I was running out of animals, so I started singing Old McDonald had a bumble bee. With a Buzzzzz BuZZZZZ here and a BuZZZ BuZZZ there. Chloe Loved it so much that she started to giggle. It was adorable! Luckily Riley was home to witness Chloe's first giggle.

Chloe's sleep patterns have been really crazy lately. Her morning and early afternoon naps are really predictable, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours but the rest of the day is very hit and miss. I'm sad to say that she's no longer sleeping through the night. Each night is different, but more often than not she wakes up screaming because she's hungry. What happened to my baby that used to sleep 9-7 without any interruptions? Hopefully it's just a growth spurt.

Our little monkey continues to melt our hearts with her big slobbery grins. Man, we love her like crazy!

May Happenings

2011-05-16T07:33:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's already the middle of May. I have so much catching up to do so bare with me. On the 8th of May I celebrated my first Mother's Day thanks to this little cutie!

Riley and I went out to dinner the night before at a really yummy Italian restaurant, leaving Chloe with her very first non-family member babysitter. The report was that she did really well, and Riley and I were able to enjoy a little Chloe free time. Of course I missed her the whole time, but that's normal right? On Sunday morning, Riley made me an awesome breakfast with pancakes, eggs, bacon, and orange juice. It was delicious! At church, all of the husbands took over their wives callings for the day so that all of the women could go to Relief Society and have an awesome little brunch. Riley got to go into Primary and play secretary, that's what I do. It was really nice to mingle with the sisters in the ward. The rest of the day we spent being very lazy. Chloe gave me her Mother's Day present in the form of a long afternoon nap. It was a great day! Go Mothers!

On the 11th of May, Riley and I had our 4th wedding anniversary. Yay for us! To celebrate, I got up and made cinnamon rolls while Riley was on his morning run, but he surprised me and brought home Dunkin Donuts. My favorite! It was probably one of the best breakfasts ever. When Riley got home from work, we had a nice fondue dinner, that Chloe slept right through (thank you baby). We also surprised each other with presents. I got Riley a blue ray player that we've been talking about wanting for a long time and Riley got us some really great camping chairs to use out on our deck...if it ever warms up. I feel so blessed to be married to my best friend for all of eternity. He's such a great husband and daddy.

A few days ago our family went to a Cleveland Indians baseball game. Riley got free tickets from work, so we had to take advantage and get out of the house. The game was a lot of fun, and Chloe was good the whole time. The Indians won the game with a home run. I don't know baseball very well, so if you want the details you'll have to ask Riley, but I did have fun watching. After the game there was a huge firework show. It was really fun to watch, but Chloe wasn't the biggest fan. I think the noise was getting to her. Needles to say, it was a fun family outing.

GO INDIANS!

Here are a few little updates about our baby girl:

Chloe has learned to lock her legs, so now she loves to stand up.

She also has started babbling like crazy. It's a lot of fun to babble at her and have her babble back.

Blowing raspberries is also one of her newest tricks. She constantly has spit all over her face or drool running down her chin. It's pretty attractive.

Chloe is getting really good at grabbing; too bad it's usually her binky leash that she's grabbing.

Chloe loves her hands. She's always sucking on them or staring at them. She is fascinated by those things.

Chloe's always trying to help hold her bottle. She usually wraps her little hands around the bottle and ends up pulling it out and getting mad, but she sure has good intentions.

One of Chloe's greatest joys is bath time. She is a water fanatic. We usually end up needing to mop the bathroom when she's done. I can't wait to take her to the pool and let her splash around. I think she'll really like it. Here's a video of bath time. Enjoy!

Babies All Around

2011-05-09T09:59:00.000-07:00

It's raining babies and ...babies! It seems like us, as well as several of our friends decided to jump on the baby making bandwagon and expand our families of two to families of three. While in Utah, we meet up with some of our friends and their beautiful little babies.

Proud Mommies: Chelsea and Chloe, Camille and Mattix, Cherie and Caroline

Adoring Daddies: Riley and Chloe, Ben and Mattix, Eli and Caroline

These sweet little babies are all just a month or two apart. Caroline and Mattix make Chloe look like a beast! I sure do love my little chunk!

If, hypothetically speaking, we were to raise our babies in the same town, they would all be in the same grade and could be best buds just like their daddies. Probably not gonna happen, but it would be fun!

Garrett and Bella- Riley and Chloe

Utah Visit

2011-04-26T13:20:00.000-07:00

The month of April has been full of major ups and downs. I'm ready to get off of this emotional roller coaster. If you can bare with me, I'll share with you all of the joys and heartache that took place this past month.
On the evening of April 6, I got a phone call from my dad, telling me that my little brother, Adam had passed away. My heart has never hurt so bad. He was my dear sweet little brother that I love so much. The next afternoon, Chloe and I jumped on a plane and headed to Utah to be with my family. Riley followed a few days later. I never ever thought that I would be involved in helping to plan my little brother's funeral and pick out his casket and head stone. Needless to say, the funeral service was really beautiful. My mom and dad each spoke, as well as myself and all of my siblings. We all shared sweet memories and stories as we celebrated my brother's life. My little brother was laid to rest in Payson, Utah cemetery. I love and miss my little brother so much, but I know that he is finally able to be at rest and have peace. He is in the arms of our Heavenly Father and Savior, Jesus Christ. I'm so grateful for the knowledge that I have that I will see my sweet brother again. The following is my brother's obituary:

Adam Richard Jenkins
Born: May 2, 1989
Died: April 6, 2011

Adam was born on a beautiful spring morning to Linda Ann Gerdau (Jenkins) Gilbert and Wesley Delbert Jenkins on May 2, 1989 in Orem, Utah. He came home to Provo and was welcomed with a great deal of excitement from his five older siblings.
Adam was a sweet young man who was loved by all who knew him. His laugh was contagious. He had a quick sense of wit and a very bright mind. Adam loved and was loved by his family. Family gatherings were important to him and he loved to play games late into the night. He loved playing outside with his nephews and teaching them new things. He enjoyed cooking, computer games, and working outdoors with his father. Adam attended Wasatch Elementary, Farrer Jr. High, and he graduated from Provo High School in May 2007. He was a Junior at UVU in Orem, UT.
Adam is survived by his mother Linda Ann (Kent) Gilbert of Payson, UT, his father Wesley Delbert (Alyson) Jenkins of Salem, UT, his 3 sisters and 2 brothers; Tiffany (Mark) Anderson, Nathan (Ellie) Jenkins, Hillary (Peter) Van Akin, all of Salem, UT, J. Sean (Carma) Jenkins of Orem, UT, Chelsea (Riley) Nay of Painesville, OH, 2 nieces and 9 nephews, and grandparents Jan (Jim) Gerdau Nicholson, Richard (Lorraine) Jenkins, and Ruthele Edwards.
Funeral services will be held Tues, April 12, 2011. The viewing will begin at 10 am and services will start at 11 am at the Salem West Stake Center, 695 South 300 West, Salem, Utah. Interment will be at the Payson City Cemetery.

This was the first time that both my family and Riley's family got to meet Chloe. We loved showing her off. She was definitely a trooper as she was passed from one set of arms to another.
Visiting with family and friends was definitely one of the joys of our trip. Chloe has been blessed with several people that love and adore her, including 9 boy cousins and 1 girl cousin on my side and 4 boy cousins on Riley's side. Hello Testosterone!

L to R: Peter, Henry, Chloe, Garrett, and Caleb

Top L to R: Malachi, Benjamin

Bottom L to R: Caleb, Atticus, Beaumont, Gideon, Micah, Boston, Canyon, Millie, and Chloe

While in Utah, we had a movie night with most of the cousins at my mom's house and watched Tangled, went to the Carl Bloch exhibit at BYU; which was absolutely incredible, played outside with the fam, went and fed the ducks, and ate lots of yummy food. Riley and I had a long list of places that we had to be sure to eat at while in Utah, including: Pizza Pie Cafe, JDawgs, Jamba Juice, Cafe Rio, and Panda Express. They were all as good as we remembered.

Our cute little family out feeding the ducks.

Riley's cousin put together an Easter egg hunt at the park for all of the little kids. Chloe could have cared less about the egg hunt, but she did look like a rock star in her Hello Kitty sunglasses!

Riley and I took advantage of being in Utah with both of our families, and blessed Chloe. The blessing was done right after the wedding dinner on Friday night. We had lots of dear friends and family gather around as Riley gave Chloe a beautiful blessing. She's a pretty special girl. She slept right through the blessing, waking up at the very end to smile and co at all of her guests. She was blessed on her 3 month birthday.

Our pretty little babe in her blessing dress.

The night before Chloe's blessing, we tried the dress on her to make sure that it would fit. After admiring herself in the mirror for a few minutes, she spit up all down the front of it. I was in panic mode, but my mom helped get it all clean and beautiful again.

The actual wedding day was both insane and wonderful. Early in the morning, on his way to pick up the flowers, Riley's dad, Dave, suffered from a minor heart attack. Our little family rushed to be with him at the hospital, while everyone else was up in Salt Lake at the temple waiting for the ceremony. Riley kept communicating back and forth with the doctors and his brother and uncle at the temple, and was able to get the temple presidency to push back the time of the ceremony (it was the busiest wedding day of the year in SLC- 60 weddings). The cardiologist let Dave go to the ceremony, against his better judgement, making Dave promise that he'd come back to the hospital afterwards. They even left the IV in his arm. So, Kate and David were sealed about 2 hours after their original time. It was a very beautiful and emotional ceremony.

After the sealing and pictures, Riley took his dad back to the hospital, where he stayed until Monday. He is doing well now, thank goodness! Riley and his brother Tyler stepped up to the plate, and took turns standing in line at the reception in place of their dad. The reception was fun and beautiful, with yummy desserts and fruit.

Chloe was definitely the Belle of the Ball. She had a camera in her face all day!

Don't mind the spit bubbles on Chloe's lip. It's her latest trick!

There's nothing quit as fun as dancing with Daddy.

After our emotional Utah trip filled with ups and downs, we are happy to say that we are settling back down into our simple day to day life back here in Ohio. We loved getting to see so many friends and family. We love and miss you guys already!

Chloe and the Ottoman

2011-03-31T13:35:00.000-07:00

Every once in a while, Chloe likes to scream to no avail. We'll try everything to get her to calm down, and nothing will work, except for this.... Yes, that my friends is our baby sleeping on the gliding ottoman. We don't know why, but she loves it. All we have to do is lay her on it and gently pull her legs back and forth, and she calms right down. It's pretty amazing.

Also, Riley has a weird obsession with placing Chloe in random places around the house. Take for example the BOOKSHELF

and the FIREPLACE MANTLE (pretty cute decor- don't ya think?)

OK, we're weird parents, we know. We really do just love our litte munchkin so much. She's such a little sweetheart for putting up with her crazy parents!

2 MONTHS

2011-03-25T10:50:00.000-07:00

My little Monkey-Monkey is two months old! Wow, where does time go? It's amazing just how much she grows and changes from day to day. Here are her two month stats:
Weight: 11 pounds 2 ounces
Length: 22 1/2 inches

Updates:
Each day Chloe's smiles seem to get bigger and bigger, and her giggles and coo's more frequent. She loves to be talked to and tickled or rubbed. Her favorite place to hang out is on the changing table. I'm not sure if it's because that's where she gets a clean bum or what, but she's always happiest there.
Little Chloe continues to be a great eater. The combination of acid reflux drops and Dr. Brown bottles have my baby eating like a champ. She is still eating about 4 ounces every 3-3 1/2 hours throughout the day. The past week or so, Chloe has been sleeping really well at night; averaging anywhere from 6 to 10 hours at a time. Sure, she'll start to whimper about every 2 hours, but if I rub her belly and give her the binky, she's good for another few hours, which is awesome! If only she was as good at taking naps as she is at sleeping through the night. She continues to be very unpredictable with her napping. Instead of sleeping long stretches a few times a day, she'll take little cat naps here and there. We're working on it, and knock on wood, today she's napping like a pro!
Chloe continues to love being the center of Mommy and Daddy's attention. She also loves her binky, and Jimmer the Jittery Bird (yes, we named Chloe's toy after the BYU player, don't judge us). Her favorite song is The Wheels on the Bus with accompanying hand actions and pretty much anything Riley sings and inputs her name into.
As of right now, Chloe is not a very big fan of shopping or going for walks. It's like she knows the minute we enter a store, she always starts screaming- even if she did just eat. It's pretty embarrassing, people always stare. We have only had a couple of nice sunny days over the past little while, so I decided to take advantage and go for a walk. I was really excited to get out and enjoy the fresh air. Chloe on the other hand was not. It's not much fun going on a walk having to push a stroller and carry a screaming baby in your arms. Hopefully Chloe's attitude toward shopping and walks changes quickly, because these are two of my favorite things, and with the weather clearing up, I hope to be doing a lot more of them.
Riley and I continue to enjoy are sweet little bundle of joy and can't wait to share her with so many of our family and friends in April!

Daddy's Girl

2011-03-21T14:26:00.000-07:00

Chloe is such a daddy's girl. She is absolutely fascinated by him. When Riley's around, she tends to smile bigger and coo louder. It's the sweetest thing. These two are the best of buddies. I love watching them play and interact together. Riley is the best daddy for this little girl. I'm so grateful that he is always so willing to help out with feeding her,changing her diaper, holding her, and everything else that comes with having a new baby.

A little daddy-daughter time.

I think I'm the luckiest momma alive to have these two in my life!

Future Cougarette

2011-03-17T09:45:00.000-07:00

Rise and Shout, Chloe is out! On her way to Fame and Glory!

Riley bought Chloe this adorable little BYU outfit a few weeks ago during his Utah recruiting trip for work. She may have been born in Ohio, but she bleeds BLUE.
Go Cougars!

Smiley Girl

2011-03-08T09:03:00.000-08:00

My little Chloe girl smiles! It's the sweetest thing I've ever seen. I do have to admit that I cried a little while she was smiling at me. I'm gonna blame it on post-pregnancy hormones. Man, a smiling baby sure makes all of the late night feedings and screaming worth it. Enjoy the pics!

Mirror-Mirror On The Wall

2011-03-04T12:42:00.001-08:00

Chloe has made a new friend.....herself in the mirror. Ever since bringing her home from the hospital, Chloe has hated taking a bath; until recently. Riley and I found that if we turn her baby bath so that she can look at her "friend" in the mirror, she's happy. A little vain? Probably, but it works and she loves it. Who wouldn't want to look at that cute "friend" in the mirror?

Look mom, my friend's taking a bath too!

Drying off after a bath is NOT her favorite thing.

Clean, dressed, and looking adorable!

Grandmas

2011-02-27T17:47:00.000-08:00

There's nothing like spending quality time with grandma! We were so blessed to have my mom come and visit for a week right after Chloe was born. It was so nice being able to focus on the baby, while my mom kept the cooking, laundry, and house work done. Because Chloe was so brand new, we stayed in the house and enjoyed one another's company. I think it's safe to say that Chloe is a big fan of her Nana. It definitely wasn't easy saying good-bye to my mom, she's been missed. Lucky for us, Riley's mom came last week for a week visit. She was my saving grace. I kept telling myself that if I could make it to Thursday, when Nancy came, than I could do anything. She was such a great help with Chloe, and my sanity. She taught us several tricks that have helped to sooth our fussy baby. I'm eternally grateful to her. Because Chloe was 4 weeks when Grandma Nancy was here, we felt good about taking her out a little bit. We took Grandma around to see the Kirtand Historical sites, and Lake Erie. I guess all good things must come to an end, because just like Nana, Grandma Nancy had to leave us too. Thank goodness we get to see them both in April. Thank you guys for coming! We love and miss you!

1 MONTH

2011-02-25T13:40:00.001-08:00

On Tuesday, February 22 we took Chloe in for her one month check-up. It's hard to believe how fast she is growing. Here are her stats:

Weight: 9 pounds 5 ounces, 53rd percentile
Length: 22 1/4 inches, 80th percentile (She's probably gonna be tall like her daddy.)

A few of Chloe's favorite things include: her swaddle blankets, binky, swing, getting her hair brushed after a bath, watching and listening to her mobile, and being bounced after eating.

Updates: Chloe is a great eater, hence the 2 pounds she's gained since birth. She eats about 3 1/2 to 4 ounces every 3 hours- give or take. Feeding has not been the easiest thing for either of us, so I have been pumping breast milk for her and then feeding her through a bottle. It's kind of a long process, but it's working for us. The best part about it is that both Riley and I can feed her, which is great on Saturday mornings when Riley lets me sleep in! Chloe has got the sleeping thing down pretty well at night. She will take a bath that she screams through, eat, and then go down for about 4-4 1/2 hours. During the day, she's a little less predictable. She eats every 3 hours, but her sleep is very sporadic. It makes it hard to plan ahead or get much done, but she's the boss. Each day she is getting better and better. As much as Chloe loves eating, it's not the easiest thing for her. We think that she has acid reflux because she cries a lot during and after she eats. We got her on some medicated drops which seem to be working wonders. She still screams a lot, but she can be soothed easier, which is a huge relief for all of us.

Our little sweet pea.

The doctor said her lungs sound great. As if we didn't already know!

We love our little muffin so much! She has definitely changed our lives for the better.
We love our baby so much, we could just eat her up!

Chloe Goes to Church

2011-02-14T13:46:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday, Riley and I decided that it was time to take that leap of faith, and take Chloe to church. I had two major feelings running through my mind: nervous, because she's so little and church can be a breading ground for germs, and excited, because I was dying to show her off and also have a good excuse to put her in this cute red dress. I thought she looked like the cutest little valentine and Riley said she looked like a monk. Either way, she was adorable.

I found it really hard to enjoy sacrament meeting. Any time someone coughed or sneezed, I took a metal note to make sure that they didn't come near my baby. Psycho? Maybe just a little bit.
Chloe did pretty well at church. She only screamed for a few minutes during the opening hymn before Riley took her out. We had several ward members come up to us afterwards and say that they knew the Nays were back at church when they heard that tiny baby screaming. I know I shouldn't be, but I was a little embarrassed. Sunday school was awesome, Chloe slept right through the hour block and on through most of Relief Society. She made it all the way until 15 minutes before church was out before she started screaming because she was hungry. I was really hoping and praying that she would hold out, but no- she was hungry and wanted to eat NOW! To make matters worse, the relief society room and the mother's lounge are on opposite sides of the church. So, I had to haul my screaming baby down the hall, letting the whole ward know that my baby was hungry. I was very grateful when church was finally over and we could head home. All in all, she did a great job, and was a good sport at getting so much attention from all of our friends in the ward.

Her cheeks are getting so chubby!

This was the best part of my Sunday.

This is what Chloe's doing right now while I blog. What a sweet little angel face!

Parenthood

2011-02-11T18:24:00.000-08:00

The past three weeks have been the craziest weeks of my life. Being a parent is hard work! But definitely worth it. I've been around babies a lot, and thought I had a pretty good idea what I was getting myself into. But no, it's totally different when it's your own.

I love my little sweetheart, but I had no clue that one little person could go through so many clothes, burp cloths, and blankets in one day. She is single handedly keeping our washing machine in business. Also, I thought that peeing once the diaper came off was a little boy trait, man was I wrong, my little rug rat has peed on me and Riley countless times. Oh the joys of parenthood!

Chloe is a big fan of tummy time... for about 5 minutes. Luckily I got pictures before the screaming started.

Who can resist that sweet little baby face?

Chloe is starting to become more alert and responsive. It's so fun to watch her eyes move to follow our faces. And today, she realized that her bouncer has toys.

I love this picture because it doesn't happen very often. Chloe does not take naps during the day. What ever happened to the "newborns sleep 20 hours a day" phase? Not my baby. But isn't she a little sleeping beauty? Man, I love that face!

V.I.C. in my Family!

2011-01-30T15:09:00.000-08:00

Chloe has a new favorite song!

(I still need to learn all the words...Chelsea has it down though!)

Baby Face

2011-01-28T06:57:00.000-08:00

So, it's official, Riley and I are obsessed with our baby. We could stare at her all day. Who knew that you could love someone so much?

I love this picture because she looks like she's giggling. Really, we caught her mid-scream.

Even when she's screaming she's adorable.

Chloe has quite the set of lungs, and isn't afraid to use them.

She may or may not be pooping in this picture, but her opened eyes are so sweet.

Chloe Ellen Nay

2011-01-25T10:51:00.000-08:00

Chloe Ellen Nay joined the world on January 22, 2011 at 9:43AM. She weighs 7 lbs 4 oz and is 20 inches long. She is healthy and beautiful! After 25 hours of long, intense labor, we are soooo happy that she's here.

We checked into the hospital Thursday night around 8PM to get things rolling. My body wasn't dilating so I got induced Friday morning at9AM.

All hooked up and nowhere to go!

Where in the world did all that dark hair come from? She doesn't look anything like either of us imagined. She looks 1000X cuter!

Sleepy little baby

Our first family photo. Aren't we the cutest family of 3 you've ever seen?

There's nothing as sweet as watching Riley be a daddy. She's already got Daddy wrapped around her tiny little fingers.

Mommy and Chloe

All dressed up and ready to go home.

Chillin like a villain

Chloe's first bath at home. She wasn't the biggest fan.

We love our sweet little baby soooo much and couldn't be happier that she is finally here.

Date Night

2011-01-18T14:34:00.000-08:00

On Friday night, Riley and I went out for our last date night before having to get a babysitter. I told Riley that we had to take pictures to document this festive occasion. He thought I was crazy, but then willingly obliged.

We went out to eat at a little italian eatery. From the outside, I thought it looked like a fun little family restaurant. Once we got inside, we realized that it was pretty ghetto, but we were hungry so we stayed. It ended up being pretty good food, although I had heartburn the whole rest of the night (thank you baby). We had planned on going to a movie that night as well, but once 9 o'clock hits, I'm exhausted. So, Saturday morning we went and saw the new Disney movie, Tangled. It was really cute. I highly recommend it.

Well, we've done it. Now we just gotta get this baby out. Friday is the day, unless this little one decides to kick things in gear and come out on her own.
Oh yes, and here's a 39 week belly shot.

Baby, Baby, and More Baby

2011-01-10T14:37:00.000-08:00

I have the best friends and ward members out here in Ohio! On Saturday, three of my good friends threw me a baby shower and invited all of the sisters in our ward. The shower was so much fun and well put together. The girls knew that Riley served his mission in France and that our nursery has a french alphabet in it, so they made a "Welcome Baby Nay" sign in french. We also had yummy brunch foods, including crepes. Delicious!

This is the cute sign and food table.

I don't know if it's just me, but I love baby shower games. We played a matching game with pregnancy/baby related words, and whenever you got a match there was a candy bar that corresponded to the word. It was pretty creative. We played the game where you have to guess the type of baby food in the jar. Man, some of that baby food is nasty! Do I really want my baby eating that? We also played a guessing game for how many candies in the baby bottles. I stink at those games, but it was still tons of fun.

These are the beautiful girls that put the baby shower together; Lindsay, Courtney, and Kristen.
I absolutely love these girls! I remember way back in August when we were all playing outside at the pool and these girls asked if they could throw me a shower. I remember thinking that January would never come, but here it is. Time flies when you're having fun!

This is the coolest cake I've ever seen. It's all made out of diapers. Courtney made this for me, with her mad creative skills. She did such a good job at incorporating the colors and bird/flower theme that we have in the nursery. I think it's too cute to actually use, but I'm sure I'll need to before too long.

This is my 38 week big Buddah belly. Riley calls it the "All Knowing ORB." It's pretty huge and uncomfortable, so whenever this little one decides to come out is A-OK with me.

The Baby's Suite:

This is the comforter that came with the baby's bedding set, but we decided to use it as a wall decoration instead.

Our little one's crib.

We had these plastic drawers taking up space in our bathroom, so I decided to clean them out and fill them with baby stuff.

A couple of years ago, my mother-in-law gave me these french alphabet letters for my birthday. She said that they'd make really cute nursery decorations one day. Boy was she right!

I wish that I had a closet this full of new clothes. Riley swears that she has an outfit for everyday of her first year of life. He might be right.

Well, that's it. Now all we can do is wait.

Happy New Year!

2011-01-09T13:52:00.000-08:00

There's nothing like ringing in the new year with good friends and good food, which is exactly what we did. Our awesome neighbors hosted a New Year's Eve Party at their apartment. Several of the young couples in the ward came and celebrated together. Our evenings festivities included: saying Happy New Year in several different languages, making a time capsule that included where we are in our life right now and where we think we'll be in 5 years, answering questions about our 2010 year, and a 2 truths and a lie game that helped us really get to know each other better. And then there was the food, oh the food. It was delicious! I don't know about the others, but I sure pigged out. Thank goodness I could blame it on the baby! Only three of the couples made it clear until midnight. Surprisingly enough, we were one of those couples. However, when midnight hit we all looked like exhausted zombies and were anxious to get to bed.

All the dudes: Jerry, Jacob, Jeremy, Hyrum, and Riley

All the ladies: Chelsea, Heather, Kayla, Courtney, and Kristen

2010 was such a crazy year for us. I just wanted to list some of the life changing events that took place.

Remembering 2010:

We moved in with my in-laws, something we both said that we would never do.
Riley took a job with Avery Dennison.
Riley graduated from BYU in April with his degree in Business Management, Supply Chain.
Riley moved to Ohio in May while I stayed in Utah until August. Our second married summer apart; something else we both promised we'd never do again.
I student taught in first grade and at the BYU preschool.
We found out that we're expecting a sweet baby girl in January. We were apart when this news came, not the most ideal situation.
I graduated from BYU in August with my degree in Early Childhood Education.
I quit working for Albertsons/Fresh Market after being there for 7 1/2 years, the only job I've ever had.
Riley quit working for Wells Fargo after 3 1/2 years.
I moved to Ohio, being the first in my family to move outside of Utah.
My mom got married, YAHOO!
We visited Niagara Falls and Palmyra, NY.

I'm sure this list could go on forever, but I think I hit the big stuff. It will be interesting to see what 2011 holds for us. Happy New Year everyone!

HO! HO! HO! From OHIO

2011-01-06T14:46:00.000-08:00

Our 2010 Christmas holiday was very different than any Christmas that either of us have ever had. We spent Christmas here in Ohio with just the 2 of us. The days leading up to Christmas were very enjoyable. Riley used his mad PhotoShop skills and put together a fun Christmas card (it's posted below), he's pretty proud of it. I kept busy making pumpkin chocolate chip bread and chocolate dipped Oreo suckers that turned out really cute, for our neighbors and Riley's co-workers. Riley and I also got to go and see 100's of amazing nativities from all over the world that were set up at the Kirtland Historical Sites. It was a really nice reminder of what Christmas is really about.

On Christmas Eve we had the pleasure of eating dinner with some of the families in our ward and enjoying their great company. On Christmas morning Riley woke me up at 6:30 and said that he couldn't sleep anymore and wanted to open presents. As for me, I could have slept until noon, but Riley wouldn't have that.

This is our cute little tree. The first time in our married life that we actually had a real tree. I loved it.

Santa brought Riley the new generation IPOD Touch for Christmas. I guess Santa thinks he's been a good boy. Riley has loved playing with it. He even found a skype app. that we're excited to use in the hospital after the baby comes.

All I wanted for Christmas was stuff for the baby. So, Riley being the awesome Santa that he is got me a giftcard to Babies-R-Us, so that I could pick out what I still wanted for the baby. Oh, and slippers, which I've been hinting at wanting for a long time. What a good husband I have. The only not fun part was having to wait until Monday to go shopping and use the giftcard.

We had a very non-traditional Christmas dinner. I pretty much made everything that I've been craving: funeral potatoes, chicken, stuffing, rolls, and salad. It was a delicious feast for 2, well 2 1/2.

One of my favorite parts of Christmas was getting to talk to family. Riley's brother Scott, who is on his mission in Iowa got to call home, so the family set up a group video skype for the occasion. It was really awesome to see and hear everybody, even if it was only for a few minutes before all of the technical difficulties set in. It was a little hard being so far away from all of our family members and loved ones, but we enjoyed our lazy Christmas. It's weird to think how different our next Christmas will be with a little person in tow. We love you all and hope your holidays were great too!

November

2010-12-30T08:59:00.001-08:00

I know that November has long since passed, but it was too great of a month not to blog about it. So, here it is. Better late than never, right? In the middle of November I got to fly home to Utah to spend a week with my family and friends. Riley promised me that I'd be able to go home before the baby arrives and going for the holidays was out of the question because of my big belly and the insane ticket prices. So, I flew out the week before Thanksgiving.

My Utah visit was filled with game nights with the siblings, late night chats with my momma, lots of yummy food, shopping (because Ohio doesn't believe in maternity clothes), lots of hugs and kisses from my adorable nephews, a big birthday party for my momma, and a baby shower put on by my mom and sisters that was held at my in-law's house.

This is one of the baby shower games that my sister came up with. The guests had to guess which body part belonged to which relative. Can I send my baby back if she comes out looking like either of these pictures? They're a little freaky!

Match Makers- my friend Camille is due in March with a little boy.
We're already planning the wedding!

I got a bunch of adorable outfits, blankets, toys, and baby necessities.

Thanks to all of my awesome family and friends who made my visit home so much fun.

I love you guys!

Right after I got home from my Utah trip, Riley's sister, Lindsay and her family came from Brooklyn to spend Thanksgiving with us. We had so much fun taking them around to see all of the Kirtland Historical sites, playing Wii, relaxing, and eating lots of food.

Riley and I had never made our own Thanksgiving meal before, so it was kind of an adventure. I had fun watching Riley and Blake set to work on the turkey, it turned out pretty incredible actually.
We loved having family here to visit and were sad to see them go. We love visitors!
There you have it, our November.

Happy Holidays!!

2010-12-24T13:41:00.001-08:00

Gearing-Up for Baby

2010-11-15T11:56:00.000-08:00

Over the past few weeks, my sweet husband has really gone to town getting things ready for the baby. We recently purchased a crib and changing table/dresser online and a stroller/carseat combo from Babies-R-Us, all of which have required assembling.

Riley hard at work figuring out the stroller.

The crib and changing table/dresser all came together in one huge box. Thank goodness for our awesome neighbor who helped Riley haul it up the stairs.

Sunday morning, Riley woke up really early. I just kept sleeping, assuming that maybe he had an early meeting that he had failed to mention. After several minutes of banging and scrapping, I thought I better go and see what he was really up to. This is what I found.

After busting out the power-tools, Riley was able to finish the crib and dresser in about 3 hours. Go, Riley, Go!

We are really happy with our purchases and can't wait to put them to full use!

Finger Sucker

2010-11-10T17:02:00.001-08:00

This morning I had another doctors appointment and ultra sound. I have come to the conclusion that I LOVE ULTRA SOUNDS! It is so amazing to see the little person that is growing inside of me. Today, we caught the baby in the act of sucking her fingers. It was so amazing to watch as her little fist went in her mouth, out of her mouth, and then she just chilled for a minute with her mouth wide open. Below are the pictures. They are all close ups of her face. Oh ya, and she's still definitely a little girl.

Fist in mouth.

Nibbling on fingers.

Mouth wide open.

Humpty Dumpty Chelsea Nay

2010-11-04T14:34:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween!

BABY UPDATE

2010-11-04T08:49:00.000-07:00

29 Weeks

So, my sister has been on my case saying that I am the world's worse blogger, so this one's for you Hillary. As you can see, baby and I are growing nicely. I feel like I'm finally to the point where it's obviously a baby bump and people don't think that I'm just getting chubby.

This baby girl is very active. A few of her favorite things to do include playing on mommy's ribs like they're a jungle gym, kicking mommy like crazy until daddy puts his hands on her belly(no kicking for daddy), and somersaults. I swear she's having a party in there.

This little baby does not like to kick for Riley. I think he has only felt her 2 or 3 times. For a while there, Riley was beginning to think that I was making the whole pregnancy thing up and just gaining weight for the fun of it. Then, last night she decided to give daddy a show. Right before falling asleep Riley and I were laying in bed, I had my belly bared and was just looking at it and thinking about the occupant. That is when she started kicking and rolling around like crazy. My belly was twitching right and left. Riley saw this and thought it was pretty awesome ands a little weird. I think he believes me now that there really is a baby in there.

Aside from the heartburn, frequent bathroom trips, and uncomfortable kicks and jabs, I have loved being pregnant. It's so amazing to me that my body knows what to do to make this perfect little person. We are so excited to hold and snuggle this sweet little person and welcome her into our lives-in a few months.

The next best thing to having a girl.......

2010-09-27T14:41:00.000-07:00

Accio NOVEMBER 19! (why oh why did they push it out a week!?!)

WE'RE HAVING A .......

2010-09-24T11:55:00.000-07:00

We're Having a Girl!

The boy streak stops here. Not that we don't love boys, but with 13 nephews and only 1 niece, we are ecstatic about having a little girl. We had an appointment last week, and the baby was too curled up for us to get a peek. Today, despite our little sweetheart sitting breach and hiding her bum, the ultrasound tech. was able to get her to move around enough to show us what she's got (or not got). At 23 weeks the baby is growing and developing perfectly. She is in the 53rd percentile for everything and appears to weigh about 1 pound 4oz. No extra limbs or Cyclops eye, so we couldn't be happier!

Full Body Shot

Girlhood

Spooky Face Shot

Look at them legs!

Labor Day Weekend Road Trip

2010-09-08T14:03:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, Riley and I decided to pack our bags and go on a little road trip. First we drove up to Canada to visit Niagara Falls. Wow! That place is amazing. Here are a few pictures from this part of our trip.

I know it looks like we're wearing trash bags, which would have been cheaper, but we like our Canadian ponchos.

Niagara Falls was really incredible. However, we didn't stay very long because watching all of the rushing water plays tricks on a pregnant body. (tinkle, tinkle) After spending the night in a ghetto hotel, which Riley is a pro at finding in case anyone is interested, we headed to Palmyra, NY to visit all of the church history sites. I had never been before, so I was really excited to visit such a sacred place. Our first stop was the Hill Cumorah. There's a really amazing monument at the top with a beautiful view.

The wind was blowing so hard that day. I thought I was gonna fly right off the hill.

Riley's certain he found the spot where the plates were buried.

Aren't we cute?

After the Hill Cumorah, Riley and I went and did a session at the Palmyra temple. It's really beautiful. There's a window in the temple that looks out over the Sacred Grove. Pres. Hinckley wanted to be able to stand in one sacred place and be able to look out over another.

After the temple we went to the Smith farm. It was really incredible to be in the home where the angel Moroni appeared the young boy. We also walked through the Sacred Grove. It was an incredible experience because Riley and I were the only one's in the whole grove and it was so calm and peaceful in there. Outside the wind was blowing like crazy, but in the grove we didn't feel a thing.

This is us just outside the Sacred Grove.

Who needs Avery Dennison when you can model this well?

The next day we paid a visit to the E.B. Grandin print shop where the first 5,000 copies of the Book of Mormon were printed.

Our trip was so fun and uplifting. I'm so grateful that I now live so close to so many amazing places.

Legomation!

2010-09-05T15:55:00.001-07:00

I made this amature lego video back in 12th grade. I think it took me 15 minutes....I'm sure you'll see why! Enjoy!

20 Week Belly

2010-09-02T17:16:00.000-07:00

Here they are folks, the long awaited belly shots.

This is me at 20 weeks-half way there! I look like I swallowed a balloon. My belly just popped out over night. I've been feeling the baby kick for about a week now, and must say, we've got an active little one in there. I have a doctor's appointment in 2 weeks and hopefully at that time we'll be able to find out the baby's gender. (Although Riley's sure it's a girl). We're going crazy not knowing. I've been feeling great with the exception of being tired all the time. Luckily I can pretty much sleep whenever I want-lucky me! We'll keep y'all posted on how things go.

Hello BABY!!

So, Riley and I are planning a trip to Niagara Falls and Palmyra this weekend. I am so excited. Riley went several years ago with his scouting jamboree, but I've never been. We figured that we better take advantage of the long weekend, good weather, and bun still in the oven. I'm definitely ready for a break from my bed, TLC tv shows, and books-which I've become so accustomed to. We'll post pictures when we get back. Hope everyone has a great long weekend!

Haterade

2010-08-28T11:24:00.000-07:00

I made this video with my buddy Jordan back in 11th grade. Enjoy!!

Awesomeness From the Early 2000's!!

2010-08-26T20:31:00.000-07:00

So I was cleaning out an old computer before retirement when I came across all my old home movies I made while I was in high school. I have decided to post a new one every week! That'll give me some blogging material for awhile. Tell your friends to watch out...believe me if you knew me in high school you'll know that these HAVE to be 100% pure awesome (and very very amature, though at the time I thought I was the editing king!) With such critically acclaimed titles as-"Haterade", "PHS State Championships", a little bit of legomation and much much more, how can you resist? Now I just have to figure out how to upload them....

Home Sick

2010-08-25T14:29:00.000-07:00

Today I stayed home from work sick. For fear of getting my co-workers sick, I was told to stay home! Instead of getting them all sick (if I haven't already) I get to stay home and get Chelsea sick! jk....I hope. After spending 2 hours this morning "working from home" I was finally told by my manager (by phone) to rest. After that I pretty much did just that. I slept till like 2pm! After that I got really bored....After reading every article on ESPN and watching Sportcenter replay itself a few times I asked Chelsea if she wanted to play a board game. We decided to play monopoly.

We haven't played monopoly for quite some time. A few years back, right after we got married, we pulled the board game out. 15 minutes later I had all my properties mortgaged and Chelsea grinning ear to ear. She destroyed me. It was by far the fastest slaughter in history! For fear that this game could destroy the fragile roots of early newly wed life, we put the game aside. 3 years later I dared pull it out. Man I am glad I did! I think this photo sums it all up:

Chelsea got the dreaded "take a stroll on the boardwalk"

As you can see from the picture, there's a beautifully looking, very well constructed, hotel built by yours truly. What did it cost her? $2000.00 (the game). Redemption! We'll have to pull this game out more often!

God Bless America

2010-07-25T17:45:00.000-07:00

Boston, MA: the land where tea was dumped into the harbor in protests of unfair acts passed by the British Parliment. These acts along with other injustices sparked the fire of the early revolutionists. We recently visited Boston and I only wanted to see and do 2 things: Fenway park (aweeesommme) and throw tea in the harbor. Mission accomplished! Please enjoy a few photos of this most patriotic visit to Boston.

Preparing to dump!

AMERICA!!!

The Giant Macaroni

Fenway Park-The Green Monster

Fenway

BYU how I miss you already.....

2010-07-17T06:09:00.000-07:00

ACCIO NOVEMBER!!

2010-07-05T17:28:00.000-07:00

Nay KID!!!

2010-06-28T16:47:00.001-07:00

Big news....drum roll.....

One word 2 syllabuls-Aflac!

I know it's been a long time coming but it's official, Riley jr. (or Chelsea jr.) is on the way! Chelsea is 12 weeks along and today we got to hear the heartbeat! It sounds like a fast moving steam engine train. I of course was 2000 miles away in Ohio so they put the phone to the ultrasound machine. Almost as cool as being there!

We wanted to wait a few weeks before we let the cat all the way out of the bag. Everything's been going well and Chelsea hasn't been sick at all! Knock on wood.

Cleveland Rocks!

2010-06-13T13:02:00.000-07:00

I been living the the Ohio life for 5 weeks now. Up until last week I was a swinging bachelor, but a couple days ago Chelsea flew into town for a week-long visit! When she returns she will be on the second of two terms student teaching in Provo. In early August she'll be done and will fly out here PERMANTLEY! That will be a great day! Until that day I'll get in a lot of fishing and maybe get through 6 seasons of Lost...

Things here in Ohio are going great. I have been at my new job for a month now and am starting to understand the label business. Avery Dennison is a great place to work and the people there are very welcoming and very willing to help.

I mainly wanted to post some pictures of our new place. I also posted some pictures from a Cleveland Indians baseball game we got to go to (thank you Avery!).

Like my sock?

We are the four top windows

Good daily exercise

Front room

Front room again

Master bedroom (the closet sold Chelsea!)

We were right next to the action!

With our new friends the Miller's (just started at Avery about the same time as me)

It was 1920's throwback day so they were wearing old school uniforms

Progressive Field

GO TRIBE! (They hammered the Washington Nationals)

Class of 2010!!

2010-04-24T11:52:00.001-07:00

GRADUATION! We did it! Chelsea and I both graduated this last Thursday! It was awesome to be able to "walk" with my wife. I graduated with my Bachelor's of Science in Business Management with an emphasis in Global Supply Chain Management. Chelsea is graduating with a Bachelor's of Science in Early Childhood Education and will be licensed to teach pre-school-3rd grade. Who knows what the future holds! I would like to in a few years pursue a masters (MBA). For now, we are going to OHIO!! When the Jazz meet the Cavs in the finals we will be there to cheer them on! Enjoy some pictures!

Our graduation announcement. I made it in photoshop so I didn't have to pay the big bucks for "professional" ones. It think they turned out great!

Right before Procession

Our commencement was held in the Marriott Center

My high school buddy Eric and me.

Eric (BA Spanish) and his wife Cindy (BS Business Management) and us.

I am strong...

Dad and Mom (notice my glasses are off...thanks mom!)

My cool cousin Garrett (Cum Laude, BA English Literature=smart kid)

My cousin Zac (BA Political Science) and his wife Jessica (MA English) and baby James

No More Homework!!

2010-04-08T06:14:00.001-07:00

Well that's it! I finished my last homework assignment. It is only fitting that it doesn't have anything to do with business; rather it's a History of Creativity assignment. For our final project we are suppose to do this "creative project" where we think outside of the box and make something cool. I think I win. Below are pictures of my LAST SCHOOL HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT! The thematic is piece is entitled "Free Lunch." Feel free to interpret the art for yourselves.

Booya!! No more homework!

Goodbye Elder Nay

2010-04-04T07:34:00.001-07:00

It's crazy to think how old one is getting. Chelsea and I are graduating...College, moving to a different state, gonna have a real job, have to be grown up...These realizations only magnify when your little brother isn't so little any more! Scott, er Elder Nay went into the MTC this last week. He gave a great farewell talk two weeks ago, and was pretty confident he could give up guitar, xbox, cellphone, etc. for two years! He will be serving in the Illinois, Peoria Mission. THE MID-WEST!!

Scott and I had our not so great moments growing up, mostly because of MY teasing personality and MY jerkish nature (just ask my little sisters). But these last couple of months I have really got to see this guy grow spiritually. He gave some great family home evening lessons from Preach my Gospel, and he read his scriptures daily. We know he'll be a great missionary and he will be missed! Maybe one weekend Chelsea and I will drive the short distance across the mid-west and "accidentally" show up in his ward in Illinois! haha, jk....maybe.

Here are some pictures of our last moments (literally) at the infamous missionary farewell centre-IHOP.

The book is blue, the Church is true, and Jesus was a Mormon!
GOOD LUCK ELDER NAY!!!!

Kirtland Visit

2010-03-27T14:21:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of our house-hunting trip to Kirtland, Ohio. We stopped by to see some sites, including the Kirtland Temple, Historic Kirtland, and The Morley Farm. Enjoy! Note-today is the 174th anniversary of the dedication of the Kirtland Temple! Made the day that much more cool!

The Morley Farm

Newel K. Whitney Store

PS, we found a place to live!

New Post!

2010-02-28T11:02:00.000-08:00

It seems like most blog post these days start with regrets...regrets of not posting for long periods of time. To solve this problem, I took off the year from the date so none of you will know what year I actually published a post! It only says the day and month. Clever eh? With that said, man it's been forever since I posted!

To catch up, Chelsea and I are graduating this April from BYU! I feel like I am going to walk, even though this video, published by BYU, almost prevented me:

Yeah, scary! Please don't go jump off the SWKT (I myself contemplated this after I watched it) But Chelsea and I have convinced ourselves that we need closure from our long years at the Y. Chelsea has spent the last six years at three different schools, and I think she is more determined than me to BE DONE!

Last semester was pretty stressful because I was trying to find a job. Lucky for me I did! I got a job with a company called Avery Dennison. You probably recognize them best as makers of Avery labels (I prefer the term pressure sensitive adhesives...) but they do a lot more such as manufacture and produce RFID tags and office supplies. We're moving out to Kirtland, Ohio in May and we'll be there for at least a year. I got hired into a Leadership rotational development program, so in a year I could be somewhere else. We are excited!

Chelsea is busy in the schools teaching little first graders. I love hearing her stories she brings home. Little kids crack me up! She'll be doing her student teaching this Spring/Summer in Provo....which, if you get your facts right, means I will be alone in Ohio for a few months...ugh! But we won't get into that!

I will continue to try and be diligent in posting, though no promises! I even updated my blogger list (if you aren't on the list please comment and I'll add you, I may not write a lot, but I love to follow!) Also, here's an updated family photo. We were fortunate enough to get my whole family here for Christmas, which doesn't happen that often. Until next time!

Chelsea and Riley

2009-09-12T14:59:00.001-07:00

4th of July!

2009-07-04T05:36:00.001-07:00

The 4th of July has always been my favorite holiday. Something about the parades and fireworks (and hot dogs) make this day rock the house! All around the world, and even here in the good ol' USA, negative things are being said about America (some justifiable some erroneous), but on this day we set aside those negative feelings and celebrate a nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all! I love AMERICA!

This year I unfortunately am celebrating America's birthday alone.....but am trying to make the best of it. To make myself feel a little better I decided to list a few of my favorite past 4th of July memories (and no- going to the Miley Sirus concert is not one of them!). The list is in no particular order-seeing that I am thinking of them as I go!

4 July 2005-Soissons, France

-What an awesome experience to celebrate the 4th of July in France! We decided to do a zone activity, seeing that most of us missionaries were American. The one advantage of having a BBQ in France is the meat. Merguez, brawts, etc.=real hot dogs! One thing I remember distinctly about this day is the trouble we had lighting the grill. Elder Garfield and I decided to go buy some lighter fluid....let's just say we used the whole bottle! Without fireworks, it was the best we had.

4th of July 2008-Provo, UT
-Last year was an awesome 4th of July. Chelsea and I lived right by the parade route, so we didn't have to go far. Also my dad volunteers during the parade to help with regulating bleachers. Because he is in charge of bleachers, we get free seats-in the shade!! The only thing we had to do was "regulate" these bleachers meaning we got to wear sweet orange vests. Back in the day we would sleep out on the parade route, but this year we got to wake up right before the parade and walk about 100 meters to our bleachers. Pretty awesome!

4th of July 2003- Provo, UT
-This year I was going into my senior year in high school. I also had a sweet awesome scooter. A bunch of my friends decided to camp out on the parade route. One of the untold traditions of the Freedom Festival is the midnight parade of scooters. I was dating Chelsea at the time so we jumped on the scooter and flew up and down University Ave. honking and waving at the die hard Freedom Festival goers. It was a great moment of glory for me! And a foreshadow of all the fun scooter adventures Chelsea and I would have in the future!

There are other 4th of July memories I have that date in the 90's, but I can't think of their exact dates. Here's a list of a few of them.

We always used to get together with our cousins in Orem (the Orem Nays) for BBQ and fireworks.
Going to various spots in Provo to watch the stadium of fire fireworks.
Throwing poppers at the parade and making those next to us mad.
Drinking so much soda and eating so much junk that I would get sick (but if I could do it all over again I would!)
Going to the see the balloons early in the morning at Fox Field. I didn't understand it was an actual competition till I was like 18...
Pre and Post 4th of July being delinquent with fireworks...

Let freedom ring!

A VERY welcoming visit

2009-06-21T13:34:00.001-07:00

So my faithful followers, as many of you know, I am in Green Bay, WI right now interning at Schneider National. It's great! I have come to really appreciate the transportation business. I work in operations at the corporate building center located in Ashwaubenon (just south of Green Bay) . It's a lot of work-14000 drivers to operate! With the economy receding like it is, budgets are tightening up. Most of my projects deal with how many pennies can I pinch out of unnecessary purchases and developing better practices processes to save the company money. Trucking is dependent on the business's for whom it hauls freight, and with many of these companies experiencing financial woes of their own, Schneider needs to be (and in my opinion is) on top of their game. Great company!

Enough about me! Unfortunately I have been alone out here-sans Chelsea. But this week she came to pay me a visit! We had a fantastic weekend. She flew in on Thursday and left Sunday. It was a short visit, but we had a blast!

On Thursday we got settled in our hotel-The Kress Inn. It's located right across the street from my dorm (yes I am staying in a dorm room! St. Norbert College). Thursday was her birthday, so we went out to a nice restaurant. Friday I had to work, but dropped Chelsea off at the local shopping mall. I got off work early so we could have more time to hangout. We went to go see the movie UP in 3D. It was a good movie, though wasn't as exciting as the last movie I saw-STAR TREK!

Saturday was our big adventure day. We drove all the way to the top of Door County, which is the peninsula that separates the Green Bay and lake Michigan. We stopped of to see the sights. It was very pretty and sooooooo hot and humid! We found a nice little town-Sister Bay-and went swimming. It was cold, but felt so good. Now I can say I took a dip in the Green Bay! We drove up the Green Bay side and then back down the lake Michigan side. We also stopped to have a picnic and found a minature golf course to play on! It was a close game, but I won!

Door County, WI

Our picnic in Sister Bay

Miniature Golf-hole in one! (maybe 3)

Riley doing a triple axel into Green Bay

We went to Church on Sunday and then I took Chelsea to the airport to send her off. It was sad to see her go, but it just makes me appreciate her even more! I'll just have to keep myself busy so that the time will fly and I can get back to good ol' P-town and be with family and friends. The ward here is great and I have been able to go out with the missionaries to help teach. We also all play ball at the chapel on Saturday mornings-so I am keeping myself occupied. Until next time!

France Trip 2009!

2009-05-27T09:50:00.000-07:00

To make up for my lack to blogging, here are some sweet pics from our France Trip 2009!

Eiffel Tour

Climbing the tour! So many stairs!

Chelsea reading the Metro map

Chelsea's first REAL pastry!

Walking through the catacombs-spooky!

The most famous rue in the world

Arc de Triomphe

The Tomb of the unknown soldier under the Arc de Triomphe

The Louvre

Climbing MORE stairs toward Sacré Coeur

Our hostess Noelle! A member of the Paris Lilas ward. She was kind enough to let us stay chez-elle

Our French/American (it was a Ford) rental car

Chateau Pierrefonds near Compiègne

Exploring inside Chateau Pierrefonds

The Joly family

A great family in Compiègne-Alexandra, Alexandre, and Samuel

Centreville Compiègne

Chateau Chantilly

Chelsea really wanted a picture with her finger in the deer's nose

Doing Laundry after a long drive south into the Loire Valley

Chateau Chambord

Chateau Cheverny

Chateau Chenonceau

Chateau Chaumont

Chateau Amboise

Hanging out with the Haakes in St. Malo near Rennes-Esther, Beau, and Lidie

On the surrounding fortress walls of St. Malo

Utah Beach in Normandy

An awesome little village in Normandy- 73 inhabitants

Le Mont Saint-Michel-the pride of France

Old WWII German bunkers

The American Cemetery on Omaha Beach

On William the Conquerors castle in Caen

My old missionary apartment in Caen

Chelsea and our good friend Thierry eating lunch before our trip home

On our way back to Paris, and eventually home, on an overcrowded train-we didn't have seats so we sat in the baggage hold!

Summer Plans

2009-03-15T19:53:00.001-07:00

Bonjour! As most of you know, I have been trying very hard to get myself an internship for this Summer. What you might not know is the economy is kind of rough right now-I don't know if ya heard. Fortunately a great company has decided to take a chance on me. Schneider National is a transportation/Logistics firm based out in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and they have recruited me as an operations intern for this Summer. For those unfamiliar with Schneider, you might recognize them by their bright orange trucks driving down the highway. The internship is at their corporate headquarters in Wisconsin, so I'll be headed out east at the beginning of June. Unfortunately, Chelsea has work and school commitments so she will not be able to come out for the entire 10 weeks I am there, but we've planned multiple trips for her to come out. It'll be rough but worth the great experience. We are hoping that Wells Fargo will hire me back when I return in August, but no guarantee. So even with all these plans, there is still some uncertainty, but we are pumped!

Because the internship starts in June, Chelsea and I have decided to take a trip in May! We are going to FRANCE! I served my LDS mission there from 2004 to 2006 and am anxious to go back and visit some of my friends. Chelsea is beyond stoked because it has always been a dream to visit Paris. Airfares are sooooooo cheap right now, especially to France. Delta has a direct connect from Salt Lake to Paris, but our flight has an eight hour layover in NYC. This will give us enough time to go into the city, see one thing, then come back! We are going to meet up with my sister Lindsay when we get there. In France I have already set up a few accomodations for us to stay with people I know. We will spend two weeks there running around! It'll be a blast!!

Those are our upcoming plans. Now I just have to finish this semester out! School seems a whole lot longer now that we have such great things to look forward to!

Bittersweet

2009-03-11T19:23:00.000-07:00

My city league basketball team took first in the regular season with a record of 7-1. We lost first round in the tournament! Bittersweet but cool trophy!

Ice Fishing

2009-02-16T22:29:00.001-08:00

It was a wonderful President's day weekend. Wonderful because we didn't have school! That's always nice-although this next week is going to be rough, I wanted to put it off as long a possible! My home teacher yesterday asked if I wanted to go ice fishing today. I was excited because I had never been ice fishing before, so I was definitely in! So me and a few other guys from the ward woke up early this morning (and by early I mean 5:00am!) and went down to Lake Yuba, just south of Nephi. Just a side note-Lake Yuba gets its name from the settlers who dammed the reservoir to create it. They didn't get any help from the government, and they really needed the dam, so they had a saying, "yube dammed if you do, yube dammed if you don't!" Thus the name Lake Yuba!

Anywho, we drove down there and went out on the ice. Now, we were a little skeptical at first, seeing how the ice was pretty thin near the shore, but as soon as we saw four wheelers doing donuts on the lake, we knew we would be okay. There were already cut out holes in the ice from previous fishers, so we took advantage of those. They were frozen over, but easier to break through than the thick ice. We tried a few spots, but the bites weren't coming! At one point I thought I had a bite, but it turns out I hooked the ice and was pulling reletlessly at it! It was pretty funny and the most excitement we had up to that point!

We moved around the lake a bit, "cutting" out holes, but with no luck. There were two older gentlemen fishing like 70 feet from us and they were catching everything! They did have a fish detecting device, so of course they had the upper hand. If we had one of those, we would have been eating fish for months!

Just as we were about to leave and find a new spot, Jeff had bite! He reeled it in easily (so he claims). It was a nice big perch! Biggest fish we caught all day! (the only one we caught)

So the trip wasn't a total waste. In fact it was a lot of fun. The only scary thing was that as the sun started coming out, we could all hear the ice cracking. My home teacher, Sage, said it was normal, but it made me jump every time! Although we only caught one fish all day, it was a great experience. Next time I will catch one!

New Computer!

2009-02-04T15:41:00.000-08:00

So I got this sweet new laptop (the one on the right), and by sweet I mean tiny and small. It's made by acer, an euro brand. I have been debating buying a new laptop for some time (3 days). I found myself drooling over this one at Costco on Monday. I kept telling myself, "no Riley, why do you need a new computer?" But then reality struck me light a bullet from a gun! "Of course you need this! It's so small and savvy! BUY IT!" So I did, and I like it! Okay okay, I wouldn't of bought it unless Chelsea gave the approval, which, to my suprise, she did. We are selling one of our laptops, so this seemed like the logical thing to do!

The Acer One has only 1 gig of memory (it runs Windows XP, so it is the equivilent of running Windows Vista with 6 gigs of ram...), but what it lacks in size, it makes up for in convienence! This slim smooth 2lbs portable treasure fits so easily into my strap bag, and feels as if I am not even carrying it! It has a 140 gig hardrive, but no CD player. The screen is 8.9 inches of pure awesomeness! It also has a built in webcam. Check out this sweet shot I took of Chelsea and me.

And also this sweet one I took of myself at work! (Not suppose to have cameras in the bank, let's keep this one on the DL)

So, as you can see, we, and by we I mean I, am very pleased with my recent purchase. I encourage all to consider what it would be like to own such an awesome, and very economical, machine.

The Duel

2009-01-27T21:08:00.001-08:00

The blog has a new face and new attitude! Determination is the keyword. It may sound like a new years resolution (Dan!), but it has been something I have been wanting to do for awhile. Determination!

The Duel is going on right now, BYU vs. Utah, and it looks like Utah is going to pull this one out in overtime. If Chris Miles could make his free throws, then we would have sealed this game right up. The Duel (sponsored by Deseret First Credit Union-the Mormon credit union) awards points to the winners of all the BYU/Utah games throughout the year. This goes for all sports. Last year BYU won, but it looks like this year Utah is going to take home the bacon. Rats.

We're back!

2009-01-24T23:20:00.000-08:00

So it's been awhile since our last post! Chels and I would love to start blogging again, and we hope to keep it up going on a more consistent basis. We are both staying really busy with school and work. I am still at Wells Fargo bank, though I have transferred to the branch located on BYU campus. This makes it a lot more convenient, though I am at school ALL DAY! :)

Chels got into her program recently and is pumped to be focusing on her interests. She's studying Early Childhood Education and will graduate with a teaching certificate to be able to teach pre-school through 3rd grade. All she's been doing lately is reading little kids books! It's great that she has come down to my level of reading, and now we can have in depth discussions about chika chika boom boom!

I'm currently studying in BYU's undergraduate business program with an emphasis in Global Supply Chain Management. It's great and I really enjoy my classes. I would love to do something in logistics. My main focus as of late is to find an internship for this summer in this field, though I can't lie, it's been tough due to recent economic conditions. So if any of you hear of anything, let me know! :)

Well, as I said we are stoked to be back on the blogging market, and look forward to future posts!

Rebonjour!

2007-08-25T16:54:00.000-07:00

Bonjour everybody! It is time for another blog! (rebonjour means bonjour again!)
So this week has been great! We just finished up finals with a bang! Chelsea and I both got 4.0's! Surprised? I sure am! Riley, A in calculus? Miracles do exist! We are less surprised about Chelsea's because she is naturally smart. We also finished registering for classes, payed tuition (which is an interesting story for later), went to the doctor, and have been enjoying the summer life of no school! This all ends of course the day after Labor day!
Chelsea and I went to our family doctor this past week so she could get a check up. She has been having trouble hearing, so our doctor referred us to a specialist. This specialist name is Kipp, which kind of tells it all! Mom says that he is a big jerk because of some experience, probably a bad one, she had. Nonetheless she did say he was the best!
We went in and after filling out all the paperwork, they put her hearing to the test. She had to go into this crazy little sound proof room. The guy did many speech and hearing tests. When finished he said that Chelsea had the hearing of a 60 year old woman!! He said that hearing aids were necessary, and the sooner the better. He mentioned that he couldn't understand how she could have gone this far in school and gotten the grades which she had with this bad of hearing. She sure is intelligent!
He sat us down to talk about options (pretty much the only option is to buy hearing aids). He actually let me hear how Chelsea hears by his crazy computer program. Wow, it was pretty hard to understand! So our next move: buy hearing aids.....................easier said than done, but we'll find a way! We are not bummed at all because its no one's fault, except genetics. Got to deal with it. One good thing: I found out Chelsea's super intelligent! I already knew that! I have a smart wife!! Lucky me!!
With tuition, we scored big time! We got grants to cover a little over half, depending on how many credits we take. I ended up only paying about $840.00. Chelsea's dad works at BYU so she gets half tuition anyways. She doesn't have to pay a dime, or so we thought. Well she was only taking 9 credits, and we found out that she would actually have to end up paying $115.00 (with how the pell grant worked out). Then we figured out that if she took only 3 more credits, she would get more pell grant money. Also, she would get some of that pell grant back (because the half she gets from her dad's employment goes in first, and the excess pell grant gets cashed out). About $120.00 worth! So she signed up for another class, that she would have taken anyways. Education rocks!

English

2007-08-12T22:09:00.000-07:00

It has come to my attention that I have horrible English. My mom has been telling me for years, but it didn't fully dawn on me until I was reading through my posts. This is a formal apology to all who have suffered through my horribly structured blogs (all two of them). Its a good thing I caught it early.
I also have been pressured by many to write another blog. I guess I just have way to many things to do! (or I don't have the internet at my house) (or both, take you pick) Anyways, this is for all you Riley Nay fans out there!
Finals week is coming up and I am a little nervous. I feel like I know the calculus pretty well, but there is still that anxiety that always comes (I don't care how smart you are) when you walk through those BYU testing center doors. The worst is when you walk down the stairs and see your score......as the French would say "me no like!" I am nervous but at the same time confident that I will pull off a good grade in this class.
Chelsea is working hard as well. Her finals consist of sissy papers to write! Okay, not sissy, but I would take papers over the center! She is doing great in her classes and expects good grades. We are excited about our little vacation of 2 weeks before fall semester starts. We are going to go camping!! Not up American Fork canyon though!
This post is short, but a post non the less. I will put a picture up, though it has nothing to do with anything. It's a picture of Chelsea on my old scooter that I sold. I just bought a new one (100 cc's faster!) and it rocks the house. We save on gas too, cruisin' around. I like this picture because it portrays the real important things in my life: My wife and my scooter! BONNE SOIREE!!

Let's get it started!

2007-07-18T15:43:00.000-07:00

I am jumping on the bandwagon of "blogging." I figure this is a great way to not just keep others informed about "The Life of Riley," but to keep myself informed as well. Maybe it will help my lucid dreaming! We shall see. I am sitting in my calculus class, though it hasn't started yet. I have found myself with a little down time, which doesn't happen very often, so I thought I would write. I took my super wife Chelsea (in the picture to my right) to her class on my scooter, and was able to park right next to the building! I love my moped, best investment ever! She is taking a class from my old first grade teacher, Ms. Haws, who now teaches early childhood ed. at the JFSB at BYU. She just can't get rid of me!
A funny thing happened to Chelsea today. She goes to work, then leaves to go to school, then back to work, the back to school! Kind of crazy, but that is not the crazy thing that happened. So on her way back to her car from her first trip to school she found a note on her car. She opened it, thinking "oh great, a parking ticket!" But to her amazement it said, "Hey, are you a parking ticket, because you lookin' FINE FINE FINE!! -Chris 208-***-****" She was very much speechless, and very surprised! She was so excited to show me! She knew I would fall on the ground laughing, which is only the half true! When she showed it to me, I immediately asked if she had responded by text. She hadn't, which was expected. It was all up to me. I wrote back a text to the number that "Chris" (if that was even his real name) had left saying, "Hey, did you leave a note on my car?" I have yet to receive a response, but Chelsea and I have been thinking of some sweet things we could write back. For example, when he responds, I could just leave the scripture reference to when Christ says that "he who lust after another man's woman, has already commit adultery in his heart." Would that be enough to get the picture across? I hope so! We think this is way funny, and we'll keep you posted if he ever writes back.
My class is going to start soon, so I will be back later! This blog stuff should be fun!