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!