Baking in NJ

The day after Thanksgiving we traveled down to NJ to visit Riley's Great Aunt and Cousins. The kids took turns "babysitting" Riley and chasing her all around the house. We had a great time hanging out with everyone. Riley couldn't leave with out baking her Aunt Rene's famous cookies. Luckily the girls were there to help!

Santa is coming to town

Santa!! The Friday after Thanksgiving Santa arrives on a Fire truck downtown Bethel. I used to go to this when I was a little kid. Now it is Riley's turn. We meet up with the Fusaros and saw many other friends waiting out in the cold to see Santa! What list will Miss Riley be on this year? Naughty or Nice? :)

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

Riley had a great day with her Naunis and Grandparents. We ate plenty of food! Riley loved it all! Yum!

Riley was helping GG and Grampy in the kitchen! She is such a good distraction.

Our first Thanksgiving! Gobble Gobble! The Holidays are so much better with you! They are more entertaining too! 


Riley and GG taking a time out from the food to build a new house to hold us and our Thanksgiving Day bellies in! SOOO MUCH FOOD!
Riley and Uncle Pete! Riley is ready for her VT maple syrup!!
I LOVE MY GRAMPY!!
Both Naunis love Riley even though she took a little while to warm up to them. We don't know why she cries for the both of them. But she slowly warmed up to them by the late afternoon. Poor Naunis... they still love you!

Happy 1st Thanksgiving!

Tomorrow... the Ragan Family!

Ice Hockey

Good Bye Danbury Trashers... Hello Mad Hatters!



We joined Pike and his family at our 1st Mad Hatters game of the season. We had a great time watching the fights and eating warm pretzels. Oh we also got kicked out of the luxury box... we ended up watching half the game from the bleachers. (this wont be Riley's only time getting in-trouble I am sure...lol) Hey it was all good clean fun! Riley and Pike had a great time trying to follow the hockey players and the puck up and down the ice. Go Mad Hatters!

8 month olds at a Hockey Game... fun times! The best part is Riley took a nap during the game for a little while. She is such a great kid who has learned to enjoy so many new experiences.

Mikey!!

Finally we get a playdate with little Mikey!! He is so cute! Riley is adding another cutie to her list of boyfriends. She is one smart little girl. She isn't ready to commit to her boys yet... she is waiting until they become men to choose. Until then she has lots of love to go around. :) haha! Now some love for Mikey! 

Last time we saw Mikey's parents was the day before he was born a few weeks ago. He came early to surprise his parents! They were so happy to see him... but now they are even more happy to have him home with them. Mikey is doing great! He is growing bigger and stronger everyday. We are so happy for Mikey to be home and sleeping in his own crib.

Splish Splash

Bath time is getting so much more fun now that Riley really enjoys playing with all of her toys. She has her favorites... her duck book is by far her favorite bath toy... can you tell her parents and grandparents are teachers? She still likes her little tub. We have tried the big tub but the little tub still fits her and keeps her in a contained area. When she is in the big tub she tries to stand and crawl around after her toys. The little tub she just sits and sings while playing with her toys. What am I going to do when she is too big for this little tub? I guess being only 14 pounds does have it's benefits... I hopefully won't have to worry about the big tub for a while.

I love Fall

I can just imagine what my little scientist was thinking when outside walking through, eating and touching all the fall leaves...

It was so much fun to walk on the crunchy leaves outside! I tried to eat them too! I don't get why my mom always took the leaves out of my mouth, I wanted to experience everything about the fall. The crunchy colorful leaves would crumble in my fingers when I would close my hands. I had to do it over and over again to try to understand what was happening. Fall is such a great time to explore outside!

Officially Walking

It is hard to know when you can "officially" say she is walking. I mean I know she is taking a few steps... but can you classify that as walking?


But now I think we can "officially" say she is a walker! 8 months old... go RILEY go!

The Feliciano Family

The Feliciano Family was up visiting from Washington DC and they took a few moments to stop by so I could capture their time together. We had a great time playing around Newtown all morning. Natalia was full of stories! She is Miss Personality!

Click here to see more of their photos together...

Who's the President?

My dad tried to teach her to say Dennis Kucinich but her boyfriend Pike taught her this.

Go Obama! Yes We Can!

Rylee

"The Other Rylee" from Riley's play group and I had our own play date without Riley! lol

Check out this slide show and see how cute Rylee and her family are. This was an extra special photo shoot because it was her home for her 1st year of life. I know they have had many great memories here and will be back to visit all their new friends after they move to Cincinnati this spring.

I know I can say I have enjoyed watching Rylee grow so much since we meet them when the girls were only 2 weeks old at Mommy group. The 2 Riley/Rylee have had so many fun adventures together and they are only 8 months old. Check out "the other Rylee's" blog and continue to watch her grow.

The Cooke Family

When photographing an 18month old... you don't run the shoot... you run after the 18month old who runs the shoot!

Check out the slide show of the Cooke family!

Casagrande Halloween is BACK!

Remember back when we would have the yearly Casagrande Halloween Party??? Well (in a creepy voice) It's Back!!

Riley ate Grammy's Maccaroni for the 1st time and LOVED IT!!!!
Mummy Wrap time!! Ha! Our parents made us play these games... now its our turn to share the laughs with our kids.

Poor Riley has no idea what is going on.

We decided that it was time to turn it back onto our parents who started these traditions. The son in laws did a blind taste test to the GRANDMOTHERS with the different baby foods that their grandkids eat. (well maybe not Riley because she doesn't like baby food)  But the best part during this game Aunt Ruth fed Paula peaches mixed with Tabasco and she had no idea! Oh if you could have seen her reaction!!!

The Casagrande Cousins...pretty scary! haha!

Learning to walk

We are in BIG trouble! She just turned 8 months old and is already taking steps and throwing herself at the toy she wants. When do we consider it "walking" as apposed to taking a few steps. Oh boy! I thought I had a few more months! Yeah Right!

Baby Halloween

The baby group all got together for a little (15 families... that is 30 adults and 16 kids... little is a relative word) Halloween Party. Jodi (super mom... she is the one with the twins... and was able to manage throwing this party, so next time you feel overwhelmed think of her) threw this fun party. All of the kids and families had a great excuse to use the Halloween costumes one more time. We had a great time with the entire crew. 

Its funny that Riley is only 8 months old but because of her we have made some great new friends. :)