Bless the Baby

Riley was baptized in front of all the family and a few close friends at the church Ryan and I were married at 3 years ago.

Ryan's Aunt Renee lead the ceremony to honor Riley's Christening. She did an amazing job at sharing our love for Riley to be raised with a strong faith. Renee has been a true blessing on our family the past few years. She has in her own special way played a strong supportive role in our lives as we grow as a family. We wanted to honor Renee by having her play a unique role in Riley's baptism. Thank you Renee! (and Rick too... we can't forget about him because he is an architect and not anyone can be an architect)

Can you believe Riley's Godfather has never seen the movie The Godfather!?! I know! That is ridiculous! We should have had a prerequisite to being the Godfather. I only can hope that Uncle Seany can live up to his role. Will he help guide her in her faith? Will he be sitting in the living room with Ryan scaring Riley's boyfriend on her first date? I think he will live up to his new role. :)

My cousin Marci was asked to be her Godmother. She truly is like a "fairy Godmother" like in the movies. Whenever she comes over she sprinkles Riley with love and little special treats. Her son David and Riley are having so much fun always playing together as cousins. Marci is the best... we always said we were going to have kids together and keep the family traditions as fun as it was for us. I know Riley's "fairy Godmother" will do everything in her powers to keep the Casagrande spirit alive!


Thank you to everyone who helped celebrate this special day with our family. We want to thanks everyone for taking time out of the busy lives to show Riley how important family is.

p.s. We also want to ask you to take a moment to pray for Riley's Nauni. She made all the food for the Christening...and the night before she suffered from a heart attack. Pray for a fast recovery. We hope that she is back to her healthy, loud Italian self soon!

Check out Riley's Godmother's site for more photos...

Happy Birthday Ryan

Happy Birthday Ryan! You are now officially on your way to 30!

We celebrated with Ryan by bringing him out to a 50 something on Bank in New Milford. We had a great dinner being "that table." Our waitress loved us... I am not too sure about the tables around us. But hey it was all good!
We found our way up for drinks afterwards... this photo... I was finished with Ryan's birthday shot and put it down while these 2 were still drinking. Lightweights!




Ryan had a great time! He was able to enjoy the night but ready for the Christening the next day with no headaches from the night before. Now that is a great birthday, now that you are old!

WW

Riley has been to a plastic surgeon and Weight Watchers all before her 6 month birthday... we hope this doesn't come back to haunt us when she is a teenager.
p.s. I did not bring her to the WW meeting. Marina proudly took her little good luck charm!

Sharing

Riley is the first on in the play group to crawl. She is going to need to be the first one to learn to share too!! Riley (we were joking) was the bully today because she took everyone's toys to play with. None of the other babies could move to get them back so Riley had her choice of toys to play with. Lucky her!! haha! But now with her new discovery she is going to have to learn to share and not to take everyone else's toys in order to keep her friends. Oh Riley! :)

She is not just into toys... she is into EVERYTHING! You can't turn your back on this little one. She decided to take a little stroll away from the group to see what else she could fund. Keep your eyes on Speedy!

free fall

Start singing Tom Petty's song... "And I am FREE... Free falling..." Grampy decided to take the jump today. He jumped out of a perfectly good airplane today. My dad, Danny, Jim and Mario fell to the ground and landed safely. Here are some photos from the day... there will be more to come soon. Check back here for an update.
The guy who jumped with my dad never had such a calm and relaxed guy strapped to him. He was a little nervous that my dad wasn't. The same guy jumped with Jim later that day. On his way out of the plane he hit is head. All Jim heard was "OH NO!" and then they started tumbling... luckily he was quickly able to get a grip on himself and straighten out. Can you imagine being up there?!!?! AHH!! I think I will stick to Ryan landing the plan with me strapped in the seat. Just a thought. haha! 

Grampy will do anything to surprise you!

Eat your peas

We really like the color GREEN! Riley loves her peas!!! We got the peas all over EVERYTHING!!! I mean EVERYTHING! I don't know how much actually went down into her belly. But at least she was smiling through it all! :)
GO GREEN BABY!!

Randie's "last" playgroup

Over the past 6 months we have become great friends with a bunch of moms and babies. We have gotten together every week... usually more then once a week for some type of fun on top of our weekly play group. Our husbands are even getting together now for golf (if that is what they call it... all the power to them for learning... but I can't wait to get on the course to play too!) This group of mommies and babies are the best! We have had so much fun watching each other's families grow and have had a blast playing all summer together. Unfortunately our summer is coming to an end. Randy is getting ready to go back to work but not after one last play group...
We are getting ready for baby swim lessons. I hope the pool is as warm as Maddy's 85 degree pool!


Happy Babies... Happy Mommies!

ready set GO!

Do you see this kid? She is crawling everywhere now! AHHH!!

Lets not get ahead of ourselves now... you are NOT ready to walk yet kid! Let us first get used to the crawling thing. :)
I went to the kitchen to get a drink of water and left her in the living room. I was not in the kitchen (which is next to the living room) for more then a minute.  When I returned she was not anywhere in the living room. I started to panic... what would I tell Ryan? I lost our baby in our house... and we have a tiny house! I started to look around (under pillows, in her room...) and then I heard her giggle. She crawled into the dinning room! AHH!! Needless to say baby gates and a play yard is now set up for Speedy Riley!

Famous on Facebook

We love the concerts in Ridgefield. This we realized that all of our kids have now become FAMOUS because of Facebook. lol We will probably see these photos on each others Facebook accounts real soon. Yeah we know we are such dorks but we are all ok with that. :) Smile for your new Facebook profile photo!!






The dads wanted a photo of all the daddies and babies since usually we take a photo of the mommies and babies... now it is their turn.

This was the first time that it was chilly at the concert AND we also noticed that it is starting to get dark earlier. I am not ready to say goodbye to summer. :(

Bathroom Eating

Yesterday we tried a new way to feed little Riley because she was not taking to the oatmeal. 
We decided to feed her in the bathroom... WAIT hear me out... she LOVES to look at herself in the mirror in the bathroom (ok start singing the song "your so vein...). So we put her in front of the mirror and made her laugh at herself while she ate her oatmeal and apple sauce AND this time she loved it, well lets not say loved it... more like she ate an equivalent amount to the amount of food that made it on her face (and thats an improvement!).



A lot of things surprise me as a parent... like I really never imagined feeding my child in the bathroom before I had a baby. Expect the unexpected. 

Restraining Order Lindz

My friend from Siena College... Dr. Flax came to meet Riley today!
There are lots of stories about crazy times at Siena with Dr. Flax... look at this face can you believe someone lied and claimed to have a restraining order on her? lol Oh Siena!