Official farewell

Well the time has come. Riley as officially outgrown her newborn clothes.

To commemorate this event Maryanne took some pictures of her clothes. I know it is kind of silly, but I didn't realize just how quickly she would grow. Although I didn't post a picture of her, she is SO long. When we weighed her the other day she is now 11lbs and just 1/4 in shy of 23 inches. Although I will miss some of her little outfits, it sure is amazing to watch my little girl grow so fast. Not to mention I just love these pictures of her clothes.

Beautiful Baby

Riley is growing so fast and doing new things each day. We both thought it was so cute how she would pick her head up and look around while Ryne was holding her. She is so strong! The night she was born she would hold her head up and flop it back down, but now she holds it for a few seconds and makes the cutest faces. Ryne and I both thought that she just looked so cute in her little outfit too. Although you can't really tell in these pictures, she is so long and active. We can't get her to sit still long enough to get a good picture of her all stretched out. We will keep working on it though. :)

Wonderful Weekend

Mr Lee with Riley. I think she looked so cute in her bunny hat.
Riley just looks so comfy. She sure did like all the attention she got.
It was so wonderful for all of us to be home this weekend. -I love you all so much and miss you greatly!-
G-ma next door even got to come. It was so good to see her.
It was so sweet, Rynes parents got down a wooden cradle that had been made for Ryne when he was small. It wont be long before she wont fit in it any more.

This weekend was so good for Ryne and I. I know its a little late on the post but...

We had Monday off from school and it is amazing what a difference it made to get to stay one extra night. The weekend was full of good conversations and good visits. Saturday night we got to have some one-on-one time with caitlin while everyone else (my family included) were at the Jazz Jubilee. It was good for all of us. -Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Bergren for letting us stay with you guys this weekend, we had such a good time and miss you all. - It was also neat that Sarah and my Grandmother Anne came down for the Jazz Jubilee. All four of the sisters were together and we all got to visit and see grandma next door. All in all, we had a wonderful time. We love and miss you all and cant wait to see you again. Hopefully it wont be too long.

1 Month Appointment

Today we took Riley to her first doctors appointment. Her doctor is Kae McCrory and we absolutely love her (she is the one in the pink) She said that Riley is doing very well and looks great. She is now 22.25 inches long which is in the 85%; she weighs 9lbs 60z which is in the 50%. Once again she didnt like getting down to her birthday suit, but other than that she did very good.

Riley Pictures!

Ryne and I have been blessed with great friends here at LeTourneau. We have become good friends with a couple of our neighbors: Tommy and Desnekka (we call her Desi for obvious reasons) and Maryanne and Josh and their sons Corbin and Vincent. Maryanne has a talent for taking pictures. She is the one who took our TeamRB photos last semester. We were just piddle fartin around the other day and she took a few pictures of Riley for me. She will be taking some new TeamRB pictures soon but for now here are a few of Miss Riley.

Riley Anne, 1 month old!

Miss Riley has been such a joy for Ryne and I. She is such a good baby and today she was 1 month old. It is so impressive to see how much she has changed in these few short weeks. Her face has filled out a little more and I would be willing to bet that she has gotten even longer. I just put up a few pictures to show you some various sides to Riley's wonderful personality. I love that picture of her with the duck. We know that she is my child because she was trying to have a conversation with the duck and she has already made Ryne and I laugh at all the different sounds and noises that she has started to make. She is also very cool and knows it. She liked to wear Ryne's hat to show off her cool personality. These last two pictures show off Riley's favorite past time, sleeping. She has been such a good sleeper. Yesterday she went to the hospital for a blood test. The nurse said that she was the best baby she had ever seen. She wiggled and squirmed a bit when I woke her up to put her on the table. Then she went right back to sleep. The nurse pricked and squeezed her foot for a good little bit and Riley pretty much stayed just like that, sound asleep. At first she had her nights and days very mixed up; however, she has slowly started to turn it around and be much better through the night. Ryne and I are doing well too. We both started school back up this past week. Ryne has started some of his flight training this semester :) so that has been exciting. Well, now that we are back home and starting to get back into the groove of things I will keep things more updated of how life is going here in longview. So far, we have been so blessed. Riley has been wonderful and we couldn't be happier.

Grandmother at the Lake

Ryne and I were very busy this past weekend. On Saturday we had our Lamaz class (which went very well) and that evening we headed out to the lake to see my Grandma and Grandpa. Ryne was super excited because Grandaddy made us some of his famous ribs. He hadn't made them in a while, so we felt really special that he made some for us. Grandmother made us some baked beans and potato salad. I dont know how she knew, but I had been craving some baked beans for a while, so I really enjoyed dinner on Saturday night. We had a great time visiting and we even watched a movie. Oh, and Grandma made us two whole blueberry bananna pies!!! We had no problem helping her clean those dishes! This is a picture of us at their church Sunday morning. Ryne and I had a great time at the special Veterans Day service. We spent the rest of the afternoon looking around the lake, it sure was beautiful, and visiting some more. All in all, it was a great break from our busy lives here at school. Thank you both so much, we loved it and can't wait to see you again!

*TeamRB Pictures*

Last Friday our good friend and neighbor Maryanne, took some pictures of me and Ryne. We had a really good time and Maryanne enjoyed the break from her sons Corbin (4) and Vincent (6 months). There were so many pictures, I tried to pick out some just to show you. We went to some old run down buildings by the railroad tracks. Some trains actually started to leave and some enter, while we were trying to take pictures, so we had so hurry up and get off the tracks. For those of you who don't know, the picture of us with the bunny, is my childhood toy, "susie." I just love her to death, and Maryanne thought she was to precious not to have atleast one picture with susie. All in all we had fun taking some pictures and spending the time with Maryanne.

*TeamRB Pictures*

Our new church!

Ryne and I have finally found our new place to worship. This is a small church in Chalkhill. It is about 20 minutes from our apartment. The church is a historical marker so as you can see, the church still has the original wooden pews and the church cant change anything because it is a historical marker. Brent Ellis is the Pastor and he also works at LeTourneau University. The music leader, Corey Ross, is my mentor here on campus and a has become a good friend of mine and Ryne's here at LeTourneau. The church is very well rounded with some small children, (about 4yrs old and up to about 10) some "people of a different vintage" and then many in between, including about 12-15 LeTourneau students. Right now there is only one sunday school class that consist of Ryne and myself, the teacher (a older man probably in his 70's) and his wife, and a couple of other ladies on occasion. Although its small, Ryne and I have really enjoyed the class. There is so much potential in the Sunday School department though. I am hoping that in the next year we will have a class for young adults. (we have plenty at the church) So, for now, we are very excited that we have settled down to this small, quiet church tucked back in the East Texas pines.

Birthday's at Grandma's...

A couple of weekends ago (yes I'm still backtracking) Grandmother Anne invited Ryne and I to come to Detroit to celebrate Aunt B and Uncle Jeff's Birthdays. We couldn't wait to go. This was Ryne's first trip to Detroit and it was the first time that Uncle Jeff's family got to meet him. I had a lot of fun showing Ryne around where I used to live and of course, we ate really well. We went to see one of Jacob's football games. Even though they didnt win, Jacob did a really good job and it was alot of fun. Thank you for inviting us to celebrate with everyone for the birthday's, we both had a great time.

Fall Break

Yes, I know all of these updates are VERY late, but better late than never. Ryne and I had an extended weekend for our fall break that was the same weekend our parents were going to be in Dallas for the Cowboy weekend. So, we had an opportunity to spend some time with our sisters and friends. On Saturday we went to Frisco for a very good friend of our's baby shower. We had a great time and enjoyed the time we had to visit with her. That night we took Caitlin and Hannah out to the Drive in Movie in Gatesville, TX. We did the same thing on Sunday night with my Hannah and Leah. We had such a good time with all of them. It was nice to have some one on one time with each of our siblings. We ordered pizza in Gatesville, and then watched "The Game Plan." It was a good movie and it was really neat to go to the drive-in. None of the girls had ever been before. We had to come home to Longview on Tuesday but we got to have a meal out with both our parents before leaving town. It was really nice for us to have that one-on-one time with just our parents as well. All in all, it was a great break and we can't wait to head back home for Thanksgiving.

More Zoo Pictures

Sorry, I couldn't get blogger to work properly so it took a while for me to get some more zoo pictures up.

Rainy day...

Yesterday, Monday, was the first day that it has really rained since we have been here. It was actually kindof fun to get out our new umbrellas and put them to use. What was even better was, when it wasn't raining, it was really cold ourside. Ryne and I both got to get out some longsleeve shirts. We both even got out our jackets at one point in time. We both said that we were so excited that it had cooled down, it just makes it feel like Winter is right around the corner. Of course we can't wait til' Christmas... only 9 weeks til' we will welcome our Miss Riley. Today was nice as well. After the cooler weather yesterday, today was pretty nice. The sun came out, it didn't rain, and we had a nice little breeze. We both can't wait until we get to really get out some of our "Winter" clothes.

Zoo Day!

This past Saturday Ryne's Cornerstone class went on a trip to Dallas. I was so excited that they invited me to come along. We left around 9:00 Saturday morning and headed to the Dallas Zoo. It had been a while since either one of us had been to a zoo, so we were so excited. As soon as we stepped off the van we started to have a good time. The man who drives around the parking lot picking up people, was apparently very bored. He had his music jammin really loud and drove like a maniac. We finally arrived to the front entrance safely, and all began to laugh. We were all hungry so we got something to eat as soon as we got there. Then we began to look around. As you can see Ryne really liked the penguins. I liked all the animals, especially the camel. We had a really good time and were glad we could go. I was pretty tired after all the walking that we had done, so Saturday night, we both slept nice and hard. We had both forgotten how much fun the zoo could be.

Norweigan Golf

Ryne and I had some friends over the other night. I made dinner and then we had a very intense match of Norweigan Golf. For those of you who don't know, it is a game where there is a ladder type thing made of pvc pipe. It makes an open rectangle at the bottom and has three bars. You play with 2 golfballs that are connected by a string. Each team gets three sets. You toss the balls and try to wrap it around one of the bars. You get 4 points for the top bar then 3 then 2 and 1 point if it lands on the ground in the rectangle. You win by getting 21 points exactly. So, our friend Natalie was my partner, and our new friend Brandon was Ryne's partner. The first picture is of all four of us and the second picture is of the winners: So of course it's the girls! All in all, we had a great time. We enjoyed our dinner, the game, and of course the time of fellowship with some new friends. We will definately have them over again.

Company!!!

I can't believe they got away without us taking a picture, but they did. Greg and Dara Beard were down in Longview for a seminar so they dropped by to see Ryne and me this weekend. We were so excited and couldn't wait to see them. On saturday night we all went to Papacita's, a Mexican joint here in Longview. It was the first time that any of us had been there and it was really good. Especially the tortillas, I think that I ate the most tortillas. We had a really good time visiting and talking about all sorts of stuff. Sunday they went to church with us. We are still searching for a church home, so we went to visit a smaller country church about 15 minutes from here. We all enjoyed ourselves and afterwards went to Tyler for lunch. Mrs Beard's brother owns a resteraunt there so we went to visit him. Man was it good, we all ate way more than we should have and again, really enjoyed our visit time. All in all, their visit really made our weekend. It was nice to have a break from our usually Saturday routine of clean-up and homework to visit with some loved ones. - Thank yall so much for coming - we love you both so much! (and next time, I'll be sure to get a picture)