Pure and Simple

I love how pure and simple these photos are. I really have a hard time with the fact that my little man will be one in a few days. My neighbor Maryanne has such a talent with capturing sweet moments. These are some of my VERY favorite pictures. I love the one's of Riley about this stage. I think they look SO much alike. Some of the one's of Riley I could have sworn were Sam. Samuel was over at Maryanne's house for less than five minutes when she quickly snapped some shots -amazing- I love how different my children are, yet how alike they are too. These were taken first thing in the morning and Sam wasn't quite awake yet. Where Riley would laugh at people jumping around to make her smile, Sam stares unsurely :)

I love his soft skin. I love those beautiful long eyelashes. His beautiful blue eyes are priceless. I love those two little teeth and will miss the gummy smiles. I love the rolls that are all over his body. I love his thinking face, his I am about to cry face, his happy face. I love them all.

I can not imagine my life without this little guy.

I love you Samuel Lee Bergren! Pure and Simple

This Past Week We Have...

This past week has been SO busy. Ryne and I are both back full time at school and we are just trying to get back into the swing of things. I don't want this semester to breeze by with no blogging though, so here are some snap shots of our week from furthest to most recent...

Early last week we FINALLY were able to make it outside. It has been so cold it is hard to get outside to play. Riley was really excited to get to ride her bike some.
Same was excited to be outside too. He loves to be outside.

I was super excited because Sam Man and I were able to go out just the two of us. Usually when we have appointments of some sort both kids go, but Ryne was home from class so Riley stayed home with Daddy.

When we weighed Sam at the Dr.s office he weighed 26lbs 13 ounces!! He is a very big boy. Of course he was off the charts for his weight but.... He was in the 10th percentile for his heigth! Oh Sam, how I love you and all your little rolls....It was nice to have some time just the two of us. He is really growing up.

Riley had fun going through my closet. Well they actually had fun going through every closet. They pulled all the clothes out of every drawer and/or shelf in their room last week...

We took lots of baths last week. They either LOVE to play in the bath or they HATE it. Just hit or miss.

We went to church on Sunday. We had missed all of our church family at ChalkHill Community Church Last week Riley was sick and we had been out of town the previous weeks so it was nice to see them again.

Also since Sam's birthday is right around the corner, I have been working really hard on something else... You might remember seeing Riley's Here

We also had some friends over to play. We just love Joseph and Adalee. It was their daddy's birthday so they came over to play. Riley loved to boss them around with the rules of her room :)

They are so precious

They had lots of fun playing together in the bed. Oh to be a toddler again...

Riley helped me make some homemade bread. Ryne isn't home for dinner most nights, so I try to make a "nice" lunch atleast once during the week to make up for the dinners we miss during the week. So, we were making some homemade bread to go with our lunch! I know it makes a big mess, but I just love how much fun she has "helping" me. It is worth the extra clean up time.

But don't worry. Riley like to "help" me clean up too!

There are so many other things that happend this week. We are planning Samuels 1st birthday party. Also this past week Riley finally started to call "bubba", "Sammy". It is SO cute.

Yesterday and today have been rough around here though. Sam is Super Teething. For the past 4 months he has had 2 teeth but that is it. Then all of a sudden he is breaking through 3! (maybe more) He is very uncomfortable and extra whiny. We all can't wait to head back home this weekend though!

Hope your past week was as wonderful as ours.

Just One on One

Thats my Handsome Man

He even had them put rose petals everywhere :) So Sweet

Ryne was making his funny face. I love that humor in his personality though. He always makes me laugh

At Papacitas. Where else?

We thought it was funny that the water fall was frozen

Ryne and I are so loved. We can't even begin to express how wonderful people have been to us. We are always being prayed for and loved on. For Christmas, one of Ryne's manager gave us a coupon for a free night at a local Hotel. It was SO thoughtful. (Not to mention wonderful) We have no way of knowing how the semester will pan out so we decided to take some one on one time before the semester started to help us start of nice and fresh.

It was GREAT! My wonderful friend Angie watched Riley and Sam for us so we could really enjoy the night. We got to see a movie. (Sherlock Holmes SO GOOD) We went to dinner, got some coffee and even got to sleep in the next morning!!!

It was just what we needed. School started last week and we are already very busy. I am glad we took some time for just the two of us before the craziness began again.

Because their cool like that...

Over the break Ryne and the kids got to play together a whole lot. It was so wonderful to just have daddy around to simply play. Riley sure was excited when Ryne bought her and him new swords. They have sword fought constantly. It is so much fun to watch. Even Sam likes to participate. The will run all over the entire apartment "fighting" each other. Here lately it is Riley's favorite subject to "talk" about. And since not every word is completly clear usually what others hear is:

"Daddy hit me. I said NO NO. Stop Daddy. Yah! Yah! Boom Boom! (giggle) It hurt.)

Makes this momma smile every time. Here are some photos from their swashbuckling adventures.

Riley and Sam have also discovered their musical talents :) Riley LOVES to play the recorder. Any time Ryne plays his guitar or drums (Rock band) Riley and Sam join in to play. It was so much fun to watch them all rock back and forth while "playing". Even Sam was rocking back and forth while beating the drum stick.

Family Band some day?... Just Maybe.

Congratulations!

Our good friends Joseph and Kayla welcomed their son Lucas On January 6th! We are so happy for them and their sweet family. Lucas is precious and I was so glad to finally get to meet him.

Some friends of mine got married over the Christmas break too. Kirby looked so beautiful and I was so glad that I could be a part of their special day. Ryne and Riley even danced a little :) We also were excited because we got to visit with the Wilcoxson family at the wedding too.

So Congratulations for you both.

Christmas on New Years

4 Generations. (of course Riley isn't smiling though)


Sam Man's first Santa cookie. Those are a Christmas tradition at GG and GGP's. He had a death grip on that cookie. He held it in his mouth just like that for almost 5 minutes. It was SO funny.

Some of the Family.

Riley loved "helping"

Gotta love that face.

After we left our friends house at New Years we headed to Atlanta to celebrate Christmas. It was a short but WONERFUL time. Nothing is more fun that lots of friends and family spending time together. Thanks GG and GGP for such a wonderful time. We love you all!

New Years

Ryne, Jorge, Stephen, Trent. These guys have been friends for a long time.

These were our homemade shoe covers. Ha. It was very muddy that night.

This is Ryne and I showing off our bags :)

I am still trying to play catch up from all the events that I have missed! Geesh.

Our New Years was wonderful! We got to travel to Midlothian to visit with some great friends.

I love reading everyone's New Year's goal and Resolutions. I understand when others get frustrated for making goals that never seem to get met therefore they don't make them at all, but... I am a very goal orriented person and I think just taking the time to think about what personal goals are is a great thing.

I have been thinking a great deal about what areas in my life that I want to be better at. Becoming healthier ( and losing weight as a result) is always on my list. Striving to be a better Christian, wife, mother, and friend is always on my "goal" list as well. But those are really just daily/life goals, not just 2010 goals.

There are some specifics I have been thinking about though.... I have started assigning different prayers to different tasks during my day. I pray for Ryne while I make up our bed. I like to pray for my children when I am putting away their toys or laundry. I pray for health and rest when I make me a cup of tea. There are a lot more but I hope that I continue to be a woman of prayer.

There are a lot of "fun" things on my goal list. I want to learn to sew more. I am becoming addicted and haven't even done that much! I see other people's projects and get excited. I read about differnt things to try out and I want to SO bad. I just love looking at fabrics and wish I were a master seamstress. So maybe this year I will get around to sewing a little more.

There are so many more things that could go on my "goal" list but those are just a few of my thougts. I love the start of a New Year. I love new beginnings and the feeling of "fresh". I hope I always appreciate those things....

So, happy belated (really belated :) New Year. I hope you all become successful in all of lifes goals.

Christmas 2009

This past Christmas was wonderful! I know I have some pictures somewhere on my computer but I can't find them! I will just have to add some when I locate them...
Anyways: We had such a blast over the Christmas break. We even had some snow! On Christmas Eve we had a WONDERFUL church service. -The service was wonderful Dad. I think it was the best Christmas service I have ever attended.
Our time back home was full of food, presents, laughter, games, and quality time with the ones we love. It was perfect.
Thank you all for the gifts, the food, but especially the love.

Girls Night Out

While I was home over the Christmas break Ryne treated me, my mom, Hannah, and Leah to a girls night out. (Thanks Dad for watching the kids for me!) I had SO much fun. The trip home was a much needed one for me and that night is one I will never forget.

It was a night full of surprises. It started off with an Olive Garden gift card. We all went to dinner and had LOTS of fun. Next we each got a GC to Target. (one of my favs) We each had cute notes on them. (mine was the two penguins in love :) After we each finally picked out what we wanted with our GC's we got another surprise! Last but not least, we got Starbucks gift cards to finish off the night. (and yes Mom, Hannah, and Leah, now we all know how much coffee is in a Chai tea latte)

Thanks Ryne for treating us and thanks girls for such a fun night. I love and miss you all SO much. Lets do it again soon.