Lots of Snow

Over the weekend, we got a pretty big snowstorm here in Kansas. We ended up with about 10 inches. So I decided to reintroduce Eve to the snow and see if it goes better. Well first off, she hates hats, so was already a little perturbed about that, but did tough it out for a while. Here are some pics I took of her on a pile of snow Tyler made from shoveling the driveway. I have to say that I barely helped shoveling. Tyler took the good shovel to the farm and left me with the most annoying shovel. It is so heavy and the snow sticks to it. I have to spray it with something every once in a while to get the snow off for a few scoops. Tyler uses some farm stuff, but I tried to be good to the enviroment and use Pam. At least it won't hurt any animal who may eat the snow.

6 Months Old

Eve is now 6 months old. How half a year flew by. She is now talking up a storm and starting to really like eating. Today she tried squash and LOVED it. She is not to into the bananas, but does love her rice cereal and I have tried it and it is good. We are hoping her teeth come soon because she is drooling up a storm. She is just such a fun and lighthearted little girl and can't believe we are blessed with her.

Snow!

Natalie told me that they had about 2 inches on snow in PA and we may gt some this weekend here too. We got some a few weeks ago, but it didn;t last very long. It did last enough for me to put Eve's coveralls on her and take her out to see what she thought. Let's just say that she was not impressed. She sat in it for about 2 minutes and then threw herself back and I helped her to make a snowangel. It made her so mad. Hopefully she will like the next snowfall better.

Water Lover

I saw my friend Cristen's baby Katherine in her bathtub and how cute she was and thought you all might like to see Eve in hers. She LOVES the water in the tub and just splashes and splashes. I hope she loves the water and we can spend many long days at the pool together.

I didn't realize that I had gotten so backed up on my blogging. For the past few weeks I had been working feverishly in my free time on my items for two upcoming craft shows I participated in. I made what I call ribbon blankets (aka taggie blankets). I got the idea to make them when I saw a friend recieve one as a gift and I looked up how much they cost and thought I could make ones cuter, custom, and for a lot less. I followed some simple directions from the internet and voila, I had made a pink K-State one for Eve. I enjoyed doing it, so I bought tons of fleece and ribbon and went to work. I've probably made about 40 or more in two different sizes. It was more work than I thought, but I did sell about 20 of them. If you have never heard of these, they are soft fleece with ribbons that come from all sides. They act like tags and babies love the different feelings and softness of them. I made a small size, about 12 in by 12 in and a larger one about 18 in by 18in. Some people are using those as a car seat blanket too because it is big enough to keep them warm but not hang over the edges. Eve uses her to lay her head down when cold or plays with it when we are out. She really loves it.

Yesturday was my baby sisters birthday. Yup Natalie turned the big 15. Its funny now that I have Eve everyone says she looks so much like Tyler. Well growing up some people would think that Nat was my daughter and comment on how alike we looked. Now I have my own daughter, but she looks less like me than Natalie. It was always hard for me to see how much alike we looked, but the other day I was looking in the mirror and made a face and went, "Oh my goodness, that is what Natalie does and I looked just like that." It was one of the first moments I saw how much we might look similar. I ran out and told Tyler and he was just like, Yup, I know. I just wish I was as super skinny as she has always been.

And we did have a nice time Thanksgiving at the Rider's (Tyler's Mom and Dad's house). Eve loved to stare at the Chirstmas tree they already had up. They had just got a new smoker grill, so we had smoked turkey and it was great. It went great with the pumpkin cheesecake I made and am proud of because it was so good. Here's Eve with the tree.

5 Months Already

Eve has already turned 5 months old. Wow that was fast. Eve finally rolled from her back to her belly the other day. However she only stayed that way for about 1o seconds, just enough to grab her duck and go back. Like a previous post said she has been sitting for almost 2 weeks now and she loves it. She has found so many new things to play with. She loves tearing paper and tissues and her squeeky toys. She is getting ready to get some teeth. The past few days have been quite a challenge. She is getting up 3 or more times a night because of her teeth and they make her grumpy during the day. I wish I could just pull up those teeth for her. I have been taking her outside and she loves looking at the leaves, unfortunitly she has started eating them. We will have to stick to rice and oatmeal for now. The picture above is of her standing in front of our couch. With it at her back, she just stands there and smiles at everything.

I am posting some pics of her playing outside with our neighbor Caitlin. I watch Caitlin in the afternoons after she goes to preschool. The two of them have become friends and enjoy playing with each other. Caitlin is my powder girl and helps with all the diaper changing, but can't wait until Eve can crawl and she can give her juice.

Just one other thing, Yeah EAGLES!!!!!!

We have a sitter

A few days ago, Eve became an official sitter. I say that because she has learned to sit alone without falling over for over 5 minutes. She had been teatering with sitting for a while (like in the halloween pics), but has finally seemed to find the perfect balance. She stills gets distracted and falls over, but she just always wants to sit. Its a whole new world for her and she seems to be interested in everything. Here are some pics, and we still keep the boppy behind her so if she does fall over she doesn't bonk her head. Like when the doorbell rings, she looks all around and then bonk. I also put some pics in her favorite new toy, the laudry basket.

What's up with Tyler

As most of you could guess, I (Becky) am the main poster. Tyler will help me, or proofread what I wrote, but I do most of it. He had fallen behind and was catching up looking at some of my recent posts. He asked me why we call it "the rider roundup" when maybe we should just call it "All about Eve" because she is the star of the blog. We both know that her life is more exciting and new than ours, but its could to let everyone know what we are doing too. So this blog is for me to catch you up on Tyler's life.

Tyler is still enjoying his work on the farm. The wheat crop was good this year and the price per bushel almost doubled, helping to make it a profitable year. It has allowed Tyler to update his equipment, or as I say to buy more toys for the farm (and yes I know they are necessities to him). He recently upgraded to a new to us John Deere tractor. We went out and saw it today and it has a little ride along seat in the cab next to the drivers seat. I hope he will let Eve go and ride with him as she gets older. He was also able to get a new used John Deer swather. You may ask yourself, what is a swather? I knew it had to do with feed bails, but he had to explain it to me. It takes your plants that you want to use for bails and cuts it down and into smaller pieces that let it dry faster. Later he can take the bailer and make it into round bails to feed our cattle. Tyler is also President of our county farm bureau and we are going to a big conference in Manhattan KS this weekend.

It has been fun for me to see Tyler and Eve interact more and more. She loves to grab his goatee when he gets his face real close to her. She also spends some time almost every Sunday napping on the couch with him. Last Saturday, Tyler went to a Toby Mac concert and Eve would not go to sleep until he came home, she must have missed him. I would put pics, but Tyler hates to have his picture taken. Hope you feel updated on him now.

Happy Halloween

Although this is my least favorite holiday, I have enjoyed trying to decide what to dress Eve up as. It started as a carebear which I would make out of her winter coveralls since they had bear ears. However the coveralls are still too big. Then someone gave us a duck costume and it isvery cute. I dressed her up in it on Saturday and took pictures, but she hated the head part. It also would have been a big pain to get in and out of her car seat. So we ended up dressing her up as a cheerleader since before she was even born someone gave her a cheerleader outfit. It is not for the Eagles, but for team elmo. Just as long as it was not the Dallas Cowboys, (or the Giants or Redskins for that matter). Tyler was taking her to friends and family and secretly hoping they all give him candy. We'll see. Enjoy the Pics!

This is the happiest she got in this outfit.

First Friends

Here are some of Eve's first friends. Unfortunitly most of my college friends live far far away (so sad) with their babies. Above is a picture of Eve and the babies from church. Yes there is only 4 put one more on the way and some more trying. Elijah is the one on the left. If you read some of my first posts, you will have some knowledge of the struggles that little boyhas been through. To make it short, Elijah has hemophilia, the most severe case, and has almost died a few times. There were some when the drs gave up on him, but with lots of prayer from people all over the world, he survived. He is doing well and still has some issues and will have the hemophilia his whole life, but his life is still a miracle and he's doing better than they had hoped. The next are the Gross girls. Kacee was born in Sept and Taylor 2 years ago. Taylor was born at 24 weeks and weighed 2 lbs. She has been through a lot and her mom Jaime went through alot to let Kacee be born at 39 weeks. It makes Eve the most uneventful of the bunch and we are so thankful.

This week, I am helping my former boss by babysitting her granddaughter while her daughter goes on job interviews. Her name is Aiyanna. I know I spelled that wrong but I tried. She is 2 months younger than Eve but weighs the same. They are having fun, but struggle when they both want to be held. It has been long days.

Some Fall Pictures

Some Unique Firsts

Here are some of Eve's more obscure and less signifigant firsts. Here she is sporting her first pair of blue jeans. We couldn't help but think about how much she just looked like little adult. And her shirt even had the layered white shirt look. The other picture is Eve playing her first instrument, the keyboard. Tyler tried to teach her how to make sounds and now she does enjoy banging on the keys. We hope she will love music, but have more talent at it than we do.

First Feedings

When Eve went to her doctor's appointment last week, the Dr gave us the go ahead to start giving her food. It is a good thing because everything is goign that direction anyway. So we gave her her first meal of rice cereal on Sunday night. She took a few bites and seemed to like it. Since then she has been eating a little over a Tablespoon every night and just gobbles it down. Her are some pics.Getting Ready for the First Meal

Four M onths Old

On Friday, Eve turned 4 months old, how time flies. She seems to be doing more and more each day. She rolls over and now eats cereal, what next? Sometimes I am afraid to blink and she will be running away. Tyler talks about saving for her wedding. I was working on accepting her going to college and saving for that, now her being married. If he mentions being a grandparent I might go off. Anyway, I love the expessions that she makes and making her giggle is such a highlight. I'm glad that most of the time it takes little effort, she can just be so happy. Above is a picture of her wearing her newest trendy baby item, the baby legs. They are girls or ladies knee high socks that are adapted to cover her legs. I just cut off the feet part and made a cuff and there you go. You may ask what the benefit it,well they keep her warm and I don't have to take them off when I change her diaper unlike most pants. I love them and by the way I did not come up with the idea. I just learned how to make my own at around $3 a pair instead of $12.

Getting Ready to Roll

Sleeping with my Dad

Mover and Shaker

Eve has officially joined the world of the movers and shakers as she rolled from her belly to her back for the first times. Today she even did it at the doctors office while holding onto the paper from the table. She ended up looking like a giant soft taco and was all upset but would not let go of the paper. She has even been trying to crawl out of her bumbo. I came in the other day and she wiggled and was half way out. I had a good picture but it was accidently deleted but maybe I will capture it soon because its hard to keep a good girl down.

Where have we been?

I'm sorry for the lack of posts, but me and Eve have been off for the past week in Pennsylvania. It was a great trip and Eve was quite a trooper which was good because Tyler was too busy to come with us. Eve was able to meet her two great-grandmas and some of her other extended family as well as spend time with her Grammy and Poppop and Aunts and Uncles. We took lots of pictures and I will share some today and in the next few days.

Picture taking

Our local 5 and dime type store is having a cutest baby contest where the money raised goes to charity and the winner gets a gift certificate. Well I have been trying to take picture of Eve with her huge smile and deep dimples but its hard to work the camera and make her laugh. Anyway here are some of the pictures I have take.

Haircuts and a Highchair

Today I had to go and get my official mom cut. I was growing it out, but Eve decided that her new favorite thing to do was grab it. I also had to get some of her hair cut. She was starting to have a mullet because it was so long in the back, so she got that trimmed and some of her bangs. The other day we decided to buy Eve a highchair so she could join us at the table. It is one of the space saver ones which is seeming to work well. She did not like it at first, but today she really warmed up to it. Here are some pics in the highchair with its five point harness. When she's bigger she can eat in it or drive a stockcar.