Fun at GG and GGP's

As you can see we all had a great time this weekend at Great-Grandma's and Great Grandpa's house. It was so much fun to watch Riley explore a new place. Fritz (GG and GGP's dog) just went crazy when he met Riley. It was so much fun to watch them play together. Fritz would chase Riley and she would run off, then they would switch and Riley would chase Fritz. Any chance he got, he would give Riley a good licking from head to toe. At Grandma's Riley got to play with some toys that mommy remembers having to play with when she would go to Grandma's and Grandpa's. Riley even got to sit at the table with all the grown-ups! She really liked that. Ryne and I had a nice time visiting and getting away from work and school. One thing is for sure, we sure did eat good this weekend. -Thanks for making us pie GG! (I will try to make one soon and let you know how it turns out) Grandma even made one of my favorites: Lasagne! Sunday morning the guys stayed at home while me, GG and Riley went to church. Riley sure does love that music! She loves to bounce her head up and down to the music. 

-GG and GGP thank you both so much for letting us come and see you this weekend! We had a really good time and loved the special attention. We love you both VERY much!

9 Months!!

Ok, so now that we're mobile, this picture was SO much harder to take :)

Thanks for the new jammies Grandma and Grandpa!

Riley took a pretty hard fall on her poor little nose...

Riley LOVES the water. Bath time is always fun.

Wow, it is hard to believe that our baby girl is 9 months old!

Riley loves to crawl around. She especially enjoys holding on to something and walking along the edge. She is not a picky eater. As a matter of fact, she is starting to eat small pieces of fruit, bread, and crackers. Right now her favorite snack is the Gerber Fruit Puffs. She LOVES the mango-peach "a"s. She is so fun to listen to. She will sing at church, laugh when you laugh, and make growling noises back at Ryne. She loves to play with other kids. She doesn't seem to mind sharing her toys and just watching everyone else play. Lately her favorite toys are her play phones and definatly her "Riley" blocks. She loves to pick them up, knock them over, and chew on them. 

Riley felt a little under the weather the past few days. I think she may have caught a bit of my cold; however, we are both doing much better and looking forward to the weekend at GG and GGP's. 

Back to Blogging...

It has been so long I don't even know where to begin. So much has happened since the last time that I blogged. Ryne had a birthday, we had friends and family come and visit, Sarah got engaged, Riley learned to crawl, pick up small pieces of food, and hold her own bottle. Ryne and I are both working and have started back up at school and list could just go on. I haven't taken as many pictures as I should have so these few snapshots that Maryanne took a few weeks ago will just have to do. She has grown so much and has so much personality. She already knows what we mean when we say "no" and has been pretty good about obeying us. She loves to crawl around the house watching our every move and I have to admit, I kind of like it too. There is nothing better than to watch Riley with her daddy. He can make her laugh and giggle like no one else. Her sweet giggles and grins are so precious. 

We have many things on our agenda for the next few weeks so hopefully, I can keep things more up to date. But for now, Ryne, Riley, and I are doing great and looking forward to this next semester. 

Trip to South Dakota

Wow! What a great trip.

Wednesday morning, we headed up to South Dakota for a 16 hour trip. Ryne has fond memories of spending 4th of July up in South Dakota with family, so it was so special to us that our first 4th of July, we could make some memories of our own with our family. All of these pictures are not in any particular order but it does catch a glimpse of our trip. It doesn't show, however some things, like grandpa playing with Riley in the mornings. As most of you know, Riley loves everyone, but she sure did enjoy her one-on-one time with Grandpa in the morning before everyone else got up. Another favorite part of the trip was cooking with grandma. On Saturday, everyone went into Sioux Falls to do some shopping while Riley and I stayed home with grandma and grandpa to learn to make some Norwegian cookies. I can't wait to get my own iron to make some for us here at home. We all had such a blast over at Uncle Guy and Aunt Fran's too. I love having a full house. There is something about lots of people, lots of food, and lots of noise, that says family to me. I loved being out in the open air enjoying one another. While we were at their house I even got to play a Wii for the first time! It was a blast, especially how all the little kids could beat me with ease. Mark and Liz even came down for a bit. (Last August the whole Bergren family headed up to South Dakota for their wedding) It was so nice to see you guys. Thanks for entertaining us all with Marcus's cool wave board. All in all it was a wonderful trip. At one point in time Ryne and I were standing outside, we looked up at the stars, and took a nice, long, deep breath of air, he looked at me as a slight breeze brushed by and said: "now this is a vacation", and he couldn't have been more right. 

Thanks for letting us come and see you guys up in South Dakota. Hope we can see you all again soon; And major thanks to Dan and Lori for letting us break up the trip home. Instead of making the entire trip in one day on the way home, we stopped in Kansas at Uncle Dan's and Aunt Lori's. I know it was short but we sure did enjoy visiting with you guys. 

Thanks for comming with us Austin and Nathan. Hope you enjoyed it as much as we did

Happy Belated 4th of July from the Bergren's

Riley Updates

The first picture is the very first time that Riley has ever been on her hands and knees. (and stayed) Her face is priceless. I am not sure if she thinks it is fun or is a little scared. I was happy our camera was their to catch the action. 

The second picture is of Riley and her piano. She loves her piano. Often times in the morning we will eat breakfast and then have piano time.

The third picture is Riley's 6 month photo. So much has happened with her lately. She has started to eat some veggies. She does NOT like green beans but she LOVES carrots. She loves applesauce, bannana's, apricots, and our new favorite pearberry. As you can see she is a good eater and still a great sleeper. Sometimes she even sleeps til 9:00! She loves to talk and always has something in her mouth. It won't be long before were crawling and have some teeth...

The last picture is of Riley and Me. Someone once said that there are never any pictures of me and Riley so I decided to put one up. 

-Riley, you are the happiest and most precious gift that I have ever recieved. I can't tell  you how much I love you. Thank you for waking up each day with those giggles and grins. I love you.

Wonderful Weekend

Ryne and I were so excited because his parents decided to come down for a visit this weekend. We had a great time visiting and working. Thats right, working. They offered to help us with some things around the apartment and we took them up on it. On Saturday we all worked outside (I must admit, I did more watching and thanking than doing but...) and fixed up the flower beds. For those of you who didn't get the opportunity to see the before, it is hard to imagine what a transformation this really was. I can not tell you both thank you enough. It makes me smile everytime I see the apartment. It just makes it look more like home, not our temporary living space. I was really excited too because we planted some Zanias which are the main flower that we used in our wedding. They bring back good memories and put a smile on  my face. Thanks for spending time with us and with Riley. We always enjoy your company.

Memories by Picture

Making Memories...

I know it has been a really long time since we have written, but we have been making many memories. I wish that I had more pictures to show for them, but I thought I would start but just filling in the gaps. Here are some of the things that have been going on in our lives...

• Our good friends James Thompson and Tamera Bible were married on May 17th!
• Caitlin asked Ryne to robe her at the robing ceremony at First Baptist Clifton.
• That weekend we also got to see Uncle Dan and Aunt Lori's family. That was the first time that Riley had met them. - I'm so glad we got to see you, it was a great weekend.
• Then of course, our Caitlin became a part of the Graduating class of 2008. Congratulations Cait, we love you!
• We got to see a lot of family that weekend too. Scott and Kathy's family was there (minus Robby and Matt. We missed you guys.) We also got to see Grandma and Grandpa Bergren and Grandma and Grandpa Scott. Joan's Sister Jill and brother-in-law Mark were there with their two daughters as well. Some of Ryne's buddies from Midlothian were there as well.  As i'm sure you can imagine, we had a full, busy, and memerable weekend.
• Riley turned 6 months old on the 12th!
• Because we were going to be gone, we celebrated Fathers day early. - We love you Ryne, you are my best friend, an amazing husband and we think that you're the worlds greatest dad!  -Riley and Rebekah
• Riley and I made our first road trip together. We took the two day drive, there and back, with Aunt B and her 3 kids and Grandma Anne. This was the first time that Riley met Aunt Joy and Uncle Danny's family. She loved everyone and did such a great job on the drive. Thank you all so much for letting us tag along. We had such a wonderful time. We took home some great memories and stories from that week.

So that was just a glimpse of some of the memories were making. I will try to post some pictures.