new thoughts.

Thanksgiving was great. We went to Rick's and had a great lunch. Uncle Alex is into rave/techno music and continued to play it.. surprisingly Hayden LOVED It, asking him for "more and more" after each song would end.. she LOVES to dance and showed off her special moves. It is so stinkin cute. We later went to John's family and had MORE food. It was great to be with family. We are very blessed in this life.

ON a different note, it might sound bah humbug , but i have really begun to have a different outlook on Christmas. Of course we know that "Jesus is the reason for the Season." But let's be honest, Christmas,for most, has turned into a time of giving presents out. I LOVE presents, and I LOVE giving them, but I really love giving and getting them when it is not a "forced" occasion. We all know there are people that you know you have to buy a present for and vice versus, because it would just look thoughtless if you didn't. But when ends up happening is you end up broke, all for the sake of having to give gifts. Is that making sense? I guess I'm just saying, i feel like gifts should come from the heart at a time that one feels compelled to go and get something for someone; not because they have 1 day left until they family gathers and they have to buy something for "aunt Jo" or whomever, to complete the family with presents.

John and I decided this year we really didn't need anything. There is an organization called World Vision (http://www.worldvision.org/). This organization goes into countries who have little resources to food, education and most importantly Jesus. They use this ministrty to teach the communites how to dig for clean water, and how to create crops and food that will last them for long periods. They are creating a new way of life that is helpful and healthy to families. They also help with children's education. All the while this ministry allows Wolrd Visiont to share the Grace Jesus with families and communites. You can actually go online and donate money (in ANY amount, $10 to $5000 if you wanted). the best part is you can actually donate (through a monetary donation) chickens or a child's education. The chickens grow and lay more eggs giving families a long term supply of food. You can donate this stuff in "honor of a family" , i.e. Riley Family. isn't that wonderful! We are truly blessed. Our God has supplied our every need, love, his grace, family, a home, food, and much more.. SHould we not supply that to others instead of spending money on gifts for some people who probably don't need what we gave them? I just picture Hayden as one of these children having no education, only the outfit on her back and looking for food anywhere and everywhere...BREAKS my heart. Anyways, its just my thoughts.

here are some recent pictures.

Halloween

We spent our Halloween in San Diego visiting some friends (Ryan and Rachelle). We had a blast and it was great seeing them. I will post pictures of Hayden's Adorable monster costume soon! We went to the zoo for a few hours.. Hayden was surprisingly un-amazed by the animals. However, when the bears started to play fight she livened up a bit. Maybe next year she will like it better.. Thanks Joann for the tickets (she is a major donor the the Panda exhibit and always hooks us up with zoo tickets!) we really appreciate it!

Can't think of a title

I haven't blogged in a WHILE.....life has been busy. I've been doing A LOT of photography (portraits and such). This has been great! Not only do I get to induldge in my hobby, but I'm making money as well! Hayden got the flu for the first time, throwing up and everything... NOT fun.. Poor child, and then I left her to go on a women's retreat. I felt SO bad, but John took care of her. SHe has had HUGE seperation anxiety since I got home.

Retreat was great though. A huge break through for me in my relationship with God. I was able to finally embrace His grace in areas of my life, areas that I wasn't really aware that I had yet to embrace. It is SO freeing! Also, had a Rockin time with the girls! We did the zipline (in Forest Home). I will for sure make this an every year trip!

Hayden is growing up so fast. She has pigtails now, she looks so much like a toddler-which is adorable and yet sad for me at the same time. She is Miss Independent. She does not like to be confined to anything or anyone for too long a period. She likes to roam and explore.

I LOVE LOVE going into her room in the morning (despite the sometimes 6am wakeup) and see her grinning face, just standing there in her crib waiting to be picked up! Melts my heart! here are some pics from the past month!

septembre...

September was nothing out of the ordinary... spent lots of evenings at the park with Hayden...she's a hoot...here are some pics!

crusin along

so.. i haven't written in a while.. haven't really seem to found any time to do so. The beginning of this month we went on a week long cruise with John his family. WE had an ok time but it wasn't that easy with a baby on board with us. They did not have a lot of "kid friendly" activities. Thus we spent much of our day walking up and down the hallways of the ship. It was, however, nice to just get away! Hayden took her first REAL fall off the bed. She was like an olympic gymnast with the flips she did on her way off the bed :-( Poor baby. First time for eveything right?

I"m missing my family a lot. It is really hard being married with a kid and your family not being able to share in on that daily/weekly. I try to send youtube videos to keep them updated with Hayden, but in the end its just not the same. We're trying to pick some dates to go back and visit. here are some pics from the cruise!

Can't pick a title

Sunset kisses!
Daddy and Hayden watching TV
When she was little!

I feel the need to write, but not sure exactly what about. One thing, I'm learning to trust God on a new situation. It is easy to want to take things into our own hands, but the peace and confidence I find myself having by turning a certain issue over to Him is really wonderful. I am blessed to have a relationship with God where I can turn issues over to Him and know they are in good hands. Makes me remember what it was like when I was not walking with Him and took things into my own hands, not so fun. Sometimes I sit and think what it really means about Jesus dying on the cross for ME... it's crazy and sometimes I think can be SO hard to really grasp the depth of it.. and yet, its so simple? Anyone else ever think that. Its like WOW, you REALLY died for MY, ME, KATHRYN RILEY, my sin.. and then I have to go into thinking about sin and what that is, and then focus on MY sin.. and then it all falls into specific place. It is helpful for me to do this little "process" in my mind, because then I am in awe of what He did. so those are those thoughts. Side note: John is speaking in "BIG church" ( I know, I still call it that-like a 'lil kid) this weekend on Blessings. God ALWAYS speaks amazing things through him. You should all come and hear him. You can go to our church website at http://www.wacc.net/

I took Hayden to concert in the park tonight with John's parents and his Aunt Phyllis. LOTS of fun. They played a lot of classic rock... which APPARENTLY I love. hayden loves to dance. Smiles ear to ear! She is saying uh-oh, all done, mom, dad, hi, bye, sign-language for all done and more, says ball, and nigh-nigh. SO cute. She's got a little eye-infection/eye-allergy, and I'm hoping it goes away before we go on the cruise this week. We're excited about the cruise, however, my tooth has been hurting, so I need to go to the dentist before then :-( I HATE packing for trips.

I have a new photo website.. http://www.kathrynrileyphotography.blogspot.com/ check it out

Warm Fuzzy's

Hayden has been So cuddly! i love it. She makes my heart just completely melt. She'll just walk up to you and start holding you. She's also started saying "nigh nigh" for her (what I call her) Night Night blanket. SO cute! She's getting another top tooth in, except, it's not her front two teeth, it's one one the side of her two front teeth. My child is going to look like a hill billy! Nice. We say our prayers with her every night as a part of our nightly routine with her. One prayer every night we say is that we pray she would be a woman who follows God and who is used greatly by Him. That is my BIGGEST prayer for her (along with her well-being). As a parent, for myself, I can't describe how deep that desire is for her. Yet, I know all i can do is pray for that and practice out in my life who Christ desires me to be to her. For in the end, following God is her decision. I just pray that my life emulates that of Christ enough that she desires that relationship for herself. I prayed to God before I had Hayden that I would rather not have a child than to have one that would not know Him. I know to some people that seems CRAZY- after all, children are amazing. And to be truthfully honest I would have been devastated without kids, however, my line of thinking was that I would rather not have a child, than to have one and know that they would not know salvation in Christ. Ultimately, I know it is still her choice to make (that's why we are given free will-otherwise we would be like puppets/robots that are forced to love God). Anyways, those are my thoughts like em or not)

ZZZZZ's

I'm So tired! i had a girls night last night. Two of my good friends stayed with me last night while John was gone. Super fun, but we stayed up until nearly 3:30am. Um, lets not forget that I have a kid that typically wakes up around 6:30am. Luckily, she lasted until 7:30am! I prayed all night before I went to bed that she would sleep longer, God is good..ha!
Recently I've really, I feel, been experiencing some spiritual war-fare. not fun. I just keep hearing lies from Satan , and through prayer and friends I have been able to slowly counter those with truth from scripture. Its as though sometimes right when I feel like I'm making headway in discovering a bit more about God, Satan is right there waiting to pounce. I have to remind myself that he has no hold over me because I have covered in the protection of Christ. Christ CREATED him. Thus, it's a great reminded that Christ has the ultimate authority.

On a different note, I've had some great opportunities recently to take some pics of some friends' kids. SO much fun! I'm really learning a lot about photography! It's such a passion of mine!

Tattoo session

NO.. I did not get a tattoo, but I did a photo session of John's and my good friend Jason who just recently got a tattoo. (His tattoo is partially done, but we did a session anyways). It was really great, because he let me take a few extra shots to just experiment with portrait taking.. I think I got some cool shots!

SPIT HAPPENS

I went to CHOC LA with Hayden today. My appointment was at 1:40. I did not truly get seen until close to 3:40. Why do doctors have you come if they KNOW you will not truly be seen at your appointed time? SOOOO frustrating. Anyways, Hayden had started spitting up again around 9 months. So the doc today wants stool cultures (hayden used to have blood in it...nice.) In september Hayden has to drink some chalky stuff and have an x-ray taken just to make sure everything inside is working great -no kinks-literally- or nothing. Until then she has to take a anti-acid medicine to keep erosion of her esophagus at a minimum. It's one thing after the next with this girl. If her recent stool samples come back with microscopic traces of blood in them then she has to go in for an edoscopy. Great. I HATE thinking something could be more seriously wrong. I would just ask for people, as they remember her, just to pray for healing for her, and God's hand to protect her and her well-being.

Also, does anyone know anyone who is pregnant or just had a baby? I'm REALLy into photography and have taken some prego photos before and would love to do it for free for anyone local who would want some free photos.. I'll post a couple of ones I've taken.

A Day at the Beach.. Kinda

So, my mom is here and wanted to go to the beach yesterday. I was excited, so we loaded up myself, mom, hayden and John to go. I made the mistake of suggesting that Hayden's nap time could be on the ride down to the beach instead of her taking a nap at home and then driving down to the beach. BAD MISTAKE. She cried the whole way to the beach, and while taking pictures she did not want to be put down for a while.. or smile. We also had planned to eat at Ruby's on the pier, we ended up eating at jack n the box. nice. We got some cute photos though.

The Party

.......................................So... Hayden is Officially 1 as of Saturday. It went by SOOOOO fast! (her 1st year that is). However, there were days I thought were NEVER going to end. Her party was a lot of fun. We really enjoyed sitting/eating and talking with family and friends. Hayden was adorable-she decided to stick her finger up her nose while we all sang happy birthday to her....classic. The kids enjoyed playing in the pool. Hayden did NOT want to get out! Life is good.

Hayden has decided to continue to get up at 5:30 am -ish every day since last Friday. what the heck! I can't figure it out! the only difference is that we put a black out shade in her room to help her sleep longer? I don't know if when it wasn't there the light in her room helped her know when morning time is and now she just doensn't know when that is because its so dark in her rom? Any suggestions? I'm not sure how much more longer I can take of this.

On a side note, I've started weaning her of nursing. Weird how there was a part of me excited to be done because that meant I wasn't "tied" down at times. However, as I gave her her first bottle of milk last night (she wouldn't take it from a cup :0( I was a bit saddened. Nursing is such a bonding element in a relationship between mother and child and as it starts to leave I feel as though I'm depriving her or something.. nurtrients? I don't know. I'm sure deep down its more of just an emotional loss for me, because she had the bottle and went to bed JUST FINE. (maybe now John will get up with her early in the morning to give her a bottle instead of me having to be the first one up every day to nurse!)